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diff --git a/23114.txt b/23114.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfb2972 --- /dev/null +++ b/23114.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3696 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Frank, by Amy Walton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Frank + and other stories + +Author: Amy Walton + +Illustrator: RP + +Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23114] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR FRANK *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Our Frank, and other stories, by Amy Walton. + +________________________________________________________________________ +Here we have half-a-dozen short stories, in that wonderful Amy Walton +style, so very evocative of dear England as it used to be. + +Frank thinks life at home is a bit hard, as his father expects so much +of him, so he runs away. After several adventures he finds himself in +a very awkward situation, as the young companion he had fallen in with +turns out to be a thief. Luckily the thief's victim realises that +Frank is not a bad lad after all, makes no charge against him, and even +takes him home. So all is well that ends well. + +For the most part the other stories have a moral to tell, but they are +all charming, and you will enjoy reading to them or listening to them. + +________________________________________________________________________ +OUR FRANK, AND OTHER STORIES, BY AMY WALTON. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 1. + +OUR FRANK--A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE STORY. + + "_From east to west, + At home is best_." + _German proverb_. + +It was a mild spring evening, and Mrs Frank Darvell was toiling slowly +up Whiteleaf Hill on her way back from market. She had walked every +step of the way there to sell her ducklings, and now the basket on her +arm was heavy with the weight of various small grocery packets. Up till +now she had not felt so tired, partly because she had been walking along +the level high-road, and partly because the way had been beguiled by the +chat of a friend; but after she had said good-night to her crony at the +beginning of the village, and turned up the steep chalky road which led +to the hills, her fatigue increased with every step, and the basket +seemed heavier than ever. It was a very lonely mile she had to go +before reaching home; up and up wound the rough white road, and then +gave a sudden turn and ran along level a little while with dark woods on +either side. Then up again, steeper than ever, till you reached the top +of the hill, and on one side saw the plain beneath, dotted over with +villages and church spires, and on the other hand wide sloping beech +woods, which were just now delicately green with their young spring +leaves. + +Mrs Darvell set her basket down on the ground when she reached this +point, and drew a long breath; the worst of the walk was over now, and +she thought with relief how good it would be to pull off her boots, and +hoped that Frank had not forgotten to have the kettle on for tea. She +presently trudged on again with renewed spirits, and in ten minutes more +the faint blue smoke from a chimney caught her eye; that was neighbour +Gunn's cottage, and their own was close by. "And right thankful I be," +said Mrs Darvell to herself as she unlatched the little garden gate. + +The cottage was one of a small lonely cluster standing on the edge of an +enormous beech wood. Not so very long ago the wood had covered the +whole place; but gradually a clearing had been made, the ground +cultivated, and a little settlement had sprung up, which was known as +"Green Highlands." It belonged to the parish of Danecross, a village in +the plain below, three good miles away; so that for church, school, and +public-house the people had to descend the long hill up which Mrs +Darvell had just struggled. Shops there were none, even in Danecross, +and for these they had to go a mile further, to the market-town of +Daylesbury. But all this was not such a hardship to the people of Green +Highlands as might be supposed, and many of them would not have changed +their cottage on the hill for one in the village on the plain; for the +air of Green Highlands was good, the children "fierce," which in those +parts means healthy and strong, and everyone possessed a piece of garden +big enough to grow vegetables and accommodate a family pig. + +So the people, though poor, were contented, and had a more prosperous +well-to-do air than some of the Danecross folk, who received higher +wages and lived in the valley. + +The room Mrs Frank Darvell entered with a heavy, tired tread was a +good-sized kitchen, one end of which was entirely occupied by a huge +open fireplace without any grate; on the hearth burned and crackled a +bright little wood-fire, the flames of which played merrily round a big +black kettle hung on a chain. A little checked curtain hung from the +mantel-shelf to keep away the draught which rushed down the wide open +chimney, on each side of which was a straight-backed wooden settle. The +dark smoke-dried rafters were evidently used as larder and storehouse, +for all manner of things hung from them, such as a side of bacon, tallow +dips, and a pair of clogs. Two or three pieces of oak furniture, +brought to a high state of polish by Mrs Darvell's industrious hands, +gave an air of comfort to the room, though the floor was red-brick and +bare of carpet; a tall brazen-faced clock ticked deliberately behind the +door. On one of the settles in the chimney-corner sat Mrs Darvell's +"man," as she called her husband, smoking a short pipe, with his feet +stretched out on the hearth; his great boots, caked with mud, stood +beside him. He was a big broad-shouldered fellow, about forty, with a +fair smooth face, which generally looked good-tempered enough, and +somewhat foolish, but which just now had a sullen expression on it, +which Mrs Darvell's quick eye noted immediately. He looked up and +nodded when his wife came in, without taking the pipe out of his mouth. + +"Well, I'm proper tired," she said, bumping her basket down with a sigh +of relief. "That Whiteleaf Hill do spend one so after a day's +marketing." Then glancing at the muddy boots on the hearth: "Bin +ploughin'?" + +Mr Darvell nodded again, and looked inquiringly at his wife's basket. +Answering this silent question she said: + +"I sold 'em fairly well. Mrs Reuben got more; but hers was fatter." + +Mr Darvell smoked on in silence, and his wife busied herself in +preparing supper, consisting of cold bacon, bread, and tea without milk; +it was not until they had both been seated at the meal for a little +while that she set down her cup suddenly and exclaimed: + +"Why, whatever's got our Frank? Isn't he home yet?" + +Mr Darvell's mouth was still occupied, not with his pipe, but with a +thick hunk of bread, on which was laid an almost equally thick piece of +fat bacon. Gazing at his wife across this barrier he nodded again, and +presently murmured somewhat indistinctly: + +"Ah, he came home with me." + +"Then," repeated Mrs Darvell, fixing her eyes sharply on him, "where +_is_ the lad?" + +Mr Darvell avoided his wife's gaze. + +"How should I know where he is?" he answered sullenly. "I haven't seen +him, not for these two hours. He's foolin' round somewheres with the +other lads." + +"That's not like our Frank," said Mrs Darvell, giving an anxious look +round at the tall clock. "Why, it's gone eight," she went on. "What +_can_ have got him?" + +Her eyes rested suspiciously on her husband, who shifted about uneasily. + +"Can't you let the lad bide?" he said; "ye'll not rest till ye make him +a greater ninny nor he is by natur. He might as well ha' bin a gell, an +better, for all the good he'll ever be." + +"How did he tackle the ploughin'?" asked Mrs Darvell, pausing in the +act of setting aside Frank's supper on the dresser. + +"Worser nor ever," replied her husband contemptuously. "He'll never be +good for nowt, but to bide at home an' keep's hands clean. Why, look at +Eli Redrup, not older nor our Frank, an' can do a man's work already." + +"Eli Redrup!" exclaimed Mrs Darvell in a shrill tone of disgust; "you'd +never even our lad to a great fullish lout like Eli Redrup, with a head +like a turmut! If Frank isn't just so fierce as some lads of his age, +he's got more sense than most." + +"I tell 'ee, he'll never be good for nowt," replied her husband +doggedly, as he resumed his seat in the chimney-corner and lighted his +pipe. + +"Onless," he added after a moment's pause, "he comes to be a +schoolmaster; and it haggles me to think that a boy of mine should take +up a line like that." + +Mrs Darvell made no answer; but as she washed up the cups and plates +she cast a curious glance every now and then at her husband's silent +figure, for she had a strong feeling that he knew more than he chose to +tell about "our" Frank's absence. + +"Our Frank" had more than once been the innocent cause of a serious +difference of opinion between Mr and Mrs Darvell. He was their only +child, and had inherited his father's fair skin and blue eyes, and his +mother's quickness of apprehension; but here the likeness to his parents +ended, for he had a sensitive nature and a delicate frame--things +hitherto unknown in Green Highlands. This did not matter so much during +his childhood, when he earned golden opinions from rector and +schoolmaster in Danecross, as a fine scholar, and one of the best boys +in the choir; but the time came when Frank was thirteen, when he had +gone through all the "Standards," when he must leave school, and begin +to work for his living. It was a hard apprenticeship, for something +quite different from brain-work was needed now, and the boy struggled +vainly against his physical weakness. It was a state of things so +entirely incomprehensible to Mr Darvell, that, as he expressed it, "it +fairly haggled him." Weakness and delicacy were conditions entirely +unknown to him and all his other relations, and might, he thought, be +avoided by everyone except very old people and women; so Frank must be +hardened, and taught not to shirk his work. + +The hardening process went on for some time, but not with a very +satisfactory result, for added to his weakness the boy now showed an +increasing terror of his father. He shrank from the hard words or the +uplifted hand with an evident fear, which only strengthened Mr +Darvell's anger, for it mortified him still more to find his lad a +coward as well as a bungler over his work. + +Frank, on his side, found his life almost intolerable just now, and all +his trembling efforts "to work like a man" seemed utterly useless, for +he was crippled by fear as well as weakness. He could not take things +like the other Green Highland lads of his age, who were tough of nerve +and sinew, and thought nothing of cuffs on the head and abuse. It was +all dreadful to him, and he suffered as much in apprehension as in the +actual punishment when it came. Mingled with it all was a hot sense of +injustice, for he tried to do his best, and yet was always in disgrace +and despair. Where was the use of having been such a good "scholard?" +That seemed wasted now, for Frank's poor little brain felt so muddled +after a day's field-work, and he was altogether so spent with utter +weariness, that the only thing to do was to tumble into bed, and books +were out of the question. He was being "hardened," as his father called +it, but not in a desirable way; for while his body remained slender and +weak as ever, his mind became daily more stupid and unintelligent. + +Frank's only refuge in these hard times was his mother's love. That +never failed him, for the very incapacity that so excited the wrath of +his father only drew him more closely to Mrs Darvell, and made her +watchful to shield him, if possible, from harsh treatment. She was +always ready to do battle for him, and her strong big husband quailed +before the small determined mother when she had her boy's cause in hand. +For Mrs Darvell was gifted with a range of expression and a freedom of +speech which had been denied to her "man," and he had learned to dread +the times when the missus was put out, as occasions when he stood +defenceless before that deadly weapon--the tongue. He was dreading it +now, although he sat so quietly smoking in the chimney-corner. The air +had that vaguely uneasy feeling in it that precedes a storm. Presently +there would be the first clap of thunder. The clock struck nine. No +Frank. An unheard-of hour for any of the Green Highland folk to be out +of their beds and awake. Mr Darvell rose, stretched himself, glanced +nervously at his wife, and suggested humbly: + +"Shall us go to bed?" + +"_You_ may," she replied, "but I don't stir till I see the lad. If so +be," she added, "you _can_ go to sleep with an easy mind while the lad's +still out, you'd better do it." + +Her husband scratched his head thoughtfully, but made no answer; then +Mrs Darvell rose and stood in front of him, shaking a menacing finger. + +"Frank Darvell," she said slowly and solemnly, "you've bin leatherin' +that lad. Don't deny it, for I know it." + +Mr Darvell did not attempt to deny it. He only shuffled his feet a +little. + +"An now," continued his wife with increasing vehemence, "you've druv him +at last to run away; don't deny it." + +"He ain't run away," muttered Mr Darvell. "He ain't got pluck enough +to do that. He's a coward, that's what he is." + +"Coward!" cried his wife, now fairly roused, and standing in an +aggressive attitude. "It's you that are the coward, you great, hulking, +stupid lout, to strike a weak boy half yer size. An' to talk of goin' +to bed, an' him wandering out there in the woods. My poor little gentle +lad!" + +She sank down on the settle and wrung her hands helplessly, but started +up again the next minute with a sudden energy which seemed to petrify +her husband. + +"Put on your boots," she said, pointing to them; and as Mr Darvell +meekly obeyed she went on speaking quietly and rapidly. "Wake up Jack +Gunn and send him down to Danecross. Tell him to ask at the rectory and +at schoolmaster's if they've seen the lad. Take your lantern and go +into the woods. There's gypsies camping out Hampden way; go there, and +tell 'em to look out for him. Don't you dare to come back without the +lad. I'll stop here, and burn a light and keep his supper ready. Poor +little lad, he'll be starved with hunger!" + +But the night waned, and no tidings came of Frank. Jack Gunn came back +from Danecross having learned nothing, and the poor mother's fears +increased. The boy must be wandering in those weary woods, afraid to +come home--or perhaps lost. Such a thing had been known before now; and +as the first streaks of light appeared in the sky, and she saw the dim +figure of her husband returning alone, Mrs Darvell's courage quite +forsook her. + +"I shall never see him no more," she said to herself, and cried +bitterly. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +And where was "our Frank" meanwhile? + +At the moment when Mrs Darvell began to climb Whiteleaf Hill with her +heavy basket, Frank was lying at the foot of a big beech-tree in the +wood near his home; his face was buried in his hands, and every now and +then sobs shook his little thin frame. For it had been a most +unfortunate day for him; everything had gone wrong, and by the time the +evening came and work was over his father's wrath was high. Frank knew +what to expect, and he also remembered that there would be no mother at +home to shield him from punishment, so waiting a favourable moment he +slipped off into the wood before he was missed. Then he flung himself +on the ground and cried, because he felt so tired, and weak, and +hopeless; and as he thought of his father's angry face and heavy +uplifted hand he shivered with terror. How he longed for someone to +comfort and speak kindly to him. Soon, he knew, his mother would be in +from market; there would be a blazing fire at home, and supper, and a +warm corner. Should he venture back? But then, morning would come +again, and the hard work, and he would have to stumble along the sticky +furrows all day, and there would be blows and threatenings to end with. +No, he could not go back; it would be better even, he said to himself, +to beg for his bread like the tramps he had seen sometimes in Danecross. + +As he came to this conclusion he sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked +round him. It was about six o'clock, and already very dusk in the wood, +though the little dancing leaves of the Leeches could not make much +shadow yet, for it was only April; all round the boy rose the grey +straight stems of the trees, and tufts of primroses shone out whitely +here and there on the ground. It was perfectly still and silent, except +that a cold little wind rustled the branches, and the birds were making +a few last twittering notes before they went to sleep--"a harmony," as +the country folks called it. Frank got up and hurried on, for he knew +that directly mother returned search would be made for him. He must get +a long way on before that, and hide somewhere for the night. That side +of the wood near Green Highlands was quite familiar to him, and though +there were no paths, and it all looked very much alike, he knew what +direction to take for the hiding-place he had in view. A town boy would +soon have become confused, and perhaps have ended in finding himself at +Green Highlands again, but Frank knew better than that, and he stumbled +steadily along in his heavy boots, getting gradually and surely further +away from home and deeper in the wood. + +How quiet it was, and how fast the darkness seemed to close round him! +All the birds were silent soon, except that a jay sometimes startled him +with its harsh sudden cry; once a rabbit rushed so quickly across his +path that he almost fell on it. On and on he went at a steady jog-trot +pace, looking neither to right nor left. Now, if you have ever been in +a beech wood, you must remember that winter and summer the ground is +covered with the old dead brown leaves that have fallen from the trees. +So thick they lie, that in some places you can stand knee-deep in them, +especially if there are any hollows into which they have been drifted by +the wind; this particular wood was full of such hollows, some of them +wide and long enough for a tall man to lie down in, and Frank knew +exactly where to find them. Turning aside, therefore, at a certain +clump of bushes there was the very thing he wanted--bed and hiding-place +at once. It was a broad shallow pit or hollow filled quite up to the +top with the red-brown beech leaves. He scooped out a place just large +enough for himself, lay down in it, and carefully replaced the leaves up +to his very chin. He even put a few lightly over his face, and when +that was done no one would have imagined that a boy or any other living +thing was hidden there. + +Then the solemn hours of darkness came silently on; all the creatures in +the great wood slept, and even Frank in his strange leafy bed slept +also, worn out with weariness. + +About the middle of the night the breeze freshened a little, and the dry +leaves stirred and rustled. The sounds mingled with the boy's dreams, +and he thought he was lying in his attic at home, and that a mouse was +running over his face; he felt its little tickling feet and its long +tail quite plainly, and put up his hand to brush it away. Then he woke +with a start. The chill wind blew in his face and sighed among the +trees, and instead of the low attic beams there were waving branches +over his head. He was not at home, but alone, quite alone in Whiteleaf +Wood, with thick darkness all round him. Frank was frightened without +knowing why; it was all so "unked," as he would have expressed it, and +as he stared about with terrified eyes he seemed to see mysterious forms +moving near. Then he looked up towards the sky; and there, through a +space between the tops of the trees, was one solitary beautiful star +shining down upon him like a kind bright eye. It was a comfort to see +it there, and by degrees, as he lay with his eyes fixed upon it, he +forgot his fears a little, and began to think of other things. First +there came into his head one line of a hymn which he had often sung in +the choir at Danecross church: + +"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning," it began. From that he +went on to consider what a long time it was since he had said his +prayers, because he was always so sleepy and tired at night, and he +thought he would say them now. But before he had finished them he fell +into a quiet slumber, which lasted till morning, when the sun, peering +through the trees, pointed suddenly down at his face with a fiery finger +and woke him up. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +The first thought that came into Frank's head was that he should not +have to go to plough that day. The second was, that it was +breakfast-time, that he was very hungry, and that he had nothing to eat. +This was not so pleasant; but proceeding to "farm" his pockets, which +in Buckinghamshire dialect means to rummage, he discovered a small piece +of very hard bread. With this scanty meal he was obliged to be +satisfied, and presently continued his journey in a tolerably cheerful +frame of mind. Where he was going and how he was to earn his living he +did not know; but on one subject he was quite resolved, he would not go +back till he was too big and strong for father to "whop" him. It was +hard to leave mother, and she would be sorry; but he thought he would +manage somehow to write her a letter, and put a stamp upon it with the +first penny he earned. + +So reflecting, and varying the gravity of such thoughts by chasing the +squirrels and the grey rabbits that scudded across his path, he +journeyed on, and by degrees reached a part of the wood quite unknown to +him. He began to wonder now what he should do if he did not soon come +to a cottage or some place where he could ask for food, for it was many +hours since he had eaten, and he was faint with exhaustion. Never in +his life had he felt so dreadfully hungry, and there were not even +berries for him to eat at this time of the year. At last the craving +became so hard to bear, and his head was so queer and giddy that he +thought he must rest a little while. As far as he could judge by the +sun it was about four o'clock, and he must be a long way from Green +Highlands. He dropped down in a little crumpled heap at the foot of a +tree, and shut his eyes--nothing seemed to matter much, not even his +father's anger; nothing but this dreadful gnawing pain. The only other +thing he was conscious of was a distant continuous sound like the sawing +of wood. He did not take much notice of this at first, but by and by as +it went on and on monotonously the idea shaped itself in his mind that +where that noise was there must be people, whom he could ask for food, +and he got up and staggered on again. As he went the sound got louder +and louder, and he could also hear a voice singing. This encouraged him +so much that he quickened his pace to a run, and soon came to a great +clearing in the wood. And then he saw what had caused the noise. + +Felled trees were lying about in the round open space, and there were +great heaps of curly yellow shavings, and strange-looking smooth pieces +of wood carefully arranged in piles. Two little sheds stood at some +distance from each other, and in one of these sat a man turning a piece +of wood in a rudely fashioned lathe; as he finished it he handed it to a +boy kneeling at his feet, who supplied him with more wood, and sang at +his work in a loud, clear voice. And then a still more interesting +object caught Frank's eye, for in the middle of the clearing there +burned and crackled a lively little wood-fire, and over it, hanging from +a triangle of three sticks, was a smoky black kettle. It held tea, he +felt sure, and near it were some tin mugs and some nice little bundles +of something tied up in spotted handkerchiefs. It all suggested +agreeable preparations for a meal, and he felt he must join it at any +risk. + +He stood timidly at the edge of the wood observing all this for a +minute, and then, as no one noticed him, he slowly advanced till he was +close to the man and boy; then they looked up and saw him. + +A wayworn, weary little figure he was, with a white face and mournful +blue eyes; he had a shrinking, frightened air, like some hunted creature +of the woods; and here and there the dry brown leaves had stuck to his +clothes. Holding out his hand, and speaking in a low voice, for he felt +ashamed of begging when it came to the point, he said: + +"Please can yer give me a morsel of bread?" + +The man, who had kind slow brown eyes and a very placid face, looked at +him without speaking, and shook his head at the outstretched hand. But +the boy answered with a wide-mouthed grin: + +"He's hard o' hearin', my pardner is. He don't know what yer say." + +He then rose, and going close to the man shouted shrilly in his ear: + +"Little chap wants summat t'eat." + +The man nodded. + +"He's welcome to jine at tea," he said, "and he can work it out +arterwards. Where dost come from?" to Frank. + +Frank hesitated; then he thought of a village several miles beyond +Danecross, and answered boldly, "Dinton." + +"And where art goin'?" + +"I'm seekin' work," said Frank. + +These answers having been yelled into his ear by the boy, the man asked +no further questions, though he gravely considered the stranger with his +large quiet eyes. Shortly afterwards, having been joined by the mate +who was sawing in the other shed, the company disposed themselves round +the fire, and to Frank's great joy the meal began. And what a meal it +was! Roasted potatoes, tea, thick hunches of bread, small fragments of +fat bacon, all pervaded with a slight flavour of smoke--could anything +be more delicious to a famished boy? Frank abandoned himself silently +to the enjoyment of it; and though his companions cast interested +glances at him from time to time, no one spoke. It was a very quiet +assembly. All round and above them the new little green leaves danced +and twinkled, and on the ground the old ones made a rich brown carpet; +the blue smoke of the fire rose thinly up in the midst. + +At last Frank gave a deep sigh of contentment as he put down his tin +mug, and the deaf man clapped him kindly on the shoulder. + +"Hast taken the edge off, little chap?" he said. + +Then the two men, stretched luxuriously on the ground, filled their +pipes and smoked in silence. The boy, who was about Frank's own age, +but brown-faced and stoutly built, busied himself in clearing away the +remains of the meal, and in carefully making up the fire with dry chips +and shavings; he seemed to have caught the infection of silence from his +companions, and eyed the stranger guest without speaking a word. But +Frank, who was revived and cheered by his food, felt inclined for a +little conversation; he was always of an inquisitive turn of mind, and +he was longing to ask some questions; so as the boy passed near him he +ventured to say, pointing to the neat piles of wood: + +"What be yon?" + +The boy stared. + +"Yon?" he repeated; "why, yon be legs and rungs of cheers--that's what +we make 'em fur." + +"Where be the cheers?" pursued Frank. + +"We send all yon down to Wickham, to the cheer factory," answered the +boy; "we don't fit 'em together here." + +He seated himself at Frank's side as he spoke, and poked at the fire +with a long pointed stick. + +"How do they get 'em down to Wickham?" asked Frank, bent on getting as +much information as possible. + +The boy pointed to a broad cart-track, which descended abruptly from one +side of the clearing. + +"They fetch a cart up yonder, and take 'em down into the high-road." + +"And how fur is it?" + +"A matter of two miles, and then three miles further to the factory, and +there they make 'em up into cheers, and then they send 'em up to Lunnon +Town by the rail." + +Frank remembered the great cart-loads of chairs that he had seen passing +through Danecross, but what chiefly struck him in his companion's answer +were the two words "Lunnon Town." They fell on his ear with a new +meaning. He had read of Lunnon Town, and heard schoolmaster talk of it, +but had never imagined it as a place he could see, any more than +America. Now, suddenly, an idea of such vast enterprise seized on his +mind, that it stunned him into silence. He would go to Lunnon Town! +Everyone became rich there. He would become rich too; then he would go +back to Green Highlands, and give all his money to mother; there would +be no need for any more field-work, and they would all be happy. At the +thought of mother his eyes filled with tears, for he knew how unhappy +she would be when he did not come back, and how she would stand at the +door and look out for him. He longed to set about making this great +fortune at once, it seemed a waste of time to sit idle; but he knew he +must rest that night, for his legs felt stiff and aching; besides he had +to work out his meal. + +In half an hour the deaf man's lathe was hard at work again, and the two +boys busily employed near. Frank's new friend showed him how to arrange +the pieces of wood neatly in piles when they were turned and smoothed. +He hummed a tune in the intervals of conversation and presently asked: + +"Can yer sing?" + +Frank _could_ sing--very well. He was one of the best singers in +Danecross choir, and Mrs Darvell held her head very high when she heard +her boy's voice in church; so he answered with a certain pride: + +"Ah, I can sing proper well." + +"Sing summat," said the boy. + +Frank waited a minute to choose a tune, and then sang "Ring the Bell, +Watchman," straight through. The boy listened attentively, and joined, +after the second verse, in the chorus, which was also taken up in a +gruff and uncertain manner by the mate in the other shed. The deaf man +looked on approvingly, and the lathe kept up a grinding accompaniment. + +"That's fine, that is," said the boy when the last notes of Frank's +clear voice died away. "Do yer know any more?" + +"I know a side more," said Frank, "and hymns too." + +"Can yer sing `Home Sweet Home?'" asked the boy. + +"Ah." + +But this song was not so successful, for after the chorus had been sung +with great animation, and the second verse eagerly expected, something +choked and gurgled in Frank's throat so that he could not sing any more. +All that night, as he lay on the bed of shavings, which he shared with +his new companion, he waked at intervals to hear those words echoing +through the woods: "Home Sweet Home--There's no place like Home." But +with the morning sun these sounds vanished, and he began his onward +journey cheerily, refreshed by his rest and food. As he went down the +cart-track the boy had pointed out to him he sang scraps of songs to +himself, the birds twittered busily above his head, and the distant +sound of the deaf man's lathe came more and more faintly to his ears. +He felt sure now that he was on his way to make his fortune, and the +wood seemed full of voices which said, "Lunnon Town, Lunnon Town," over +and over again. The thought of his mother's sad face was, it is true, a +little depressing. "But," he said to himself, "how pleased she'll be +when I come back rich!" Then he considered what sort of shawl he would +buy for her with the first money he earned--whether it should be a +scarlet one, or mixed colours with an apple-green border, like one he +had seen once in a shop at Daylesbury. + +These fancies beguiled the way, and he was surprised when, after what +seemed a short time, he found himself at the edge of the wood, and in a +broad high-road; that must be the Wickham Road, and he had still three +miles to walk before reaching the town and the chair factories, where he +meant to ask for work as a first step on his way to London. + +It was not a busy-looking road, and the carts and people who passed now +and then seemed to have plenty of time and no wish to hurry; still, to +Frank, who was used to the solitude of Green Highlands and the deeper +quiet of the woods, it felt like getting into the world, and he looked +down at his clothes, and wondered how they would suit a large town. He +wore a smock, high brown leather gaiters reaching almost to his thighs, +and very thick hobnailed boots. He wished he had his Sunday coat on +instead of the smock, but the rest of the things would do very well, and +they were so strong and good that they would last a long time. So this +point settled he trudged on again, till, by twelve o'clock, he saw +Wickham in the distance with its gabled red houses and tall factory +buildings. And now that he was so near, his courage forsook him a +little, and he felt that he was a very small weak boy, and that the +factories were full of bustling work-people who would take no notice of +him. He stood irresolute in the street, wondering to whom he ought to +apply, and presently his eye was attracted to the window of a small +baker's shop near. Through this he saw a kind-looking round-faced +woman, who stood behind the counter knitting. Just in front of her +there was, curled round, a sleek black cat, and she stopped in her work +now and then to scratch its head gently with her knitting-pin. Somehow +this encouraged Frank, and entering he put his question timidly, in his +broad Buckinghamshire accent. + +The woman smiled at him good-naturedly. + +"From the country, I reckon?" she said, not answering his question. + +"Ah," replied Frank, "I be." + +"You're a dillicate little feller to be trampin' about alone seekin' +work," she said, considering him thoughtfully. "Is yer mother livin'?" + +"Ah," said Frank again, casting longing eyes at a crisp roll on the +counter. + +"Then why don't yer bide at home," asked the woman, "and work there?" + +"I want to get more wage," said Frank, who was feeling hungrier every +minute with the smell of the bread. "I'll be obliged to yer if ye'll +tell me how I could git taken on at the factory." + +"You must go and ask at the overseer's office up next street, where you +see a brass plate on the door--name of Green. But bless yer 'art, we've +lads enough and to spare in Wickham; I doubt they won't want a country +boy who knows nought of the trade." + +"I can try," said Frank; "and I learn things quick. Schoolmaster said +so." + +The woman shook her head. + +"You'd be better at home, my little lad," she said, "till you're a bit +older. There's no place like home." + +Those same words had been sounding in Frank's ears all night. They +seemed to meet him everywhere, he thought, like a sort of warning. +Nevertheless he was not going to give up his plan, and having learned +the direction of the overseer's office he turned to leave the shop. + +"And here's summat to set yer teeth in as you go along," said the woman, +holding out a long roll of bread. "Growing lads should allus be +eatin'." + +"Thank you, ma'am," said Frank, and he took off his cap politely, as he +had been taught at school, and went his way. + +"As pretty behaved as possible," murmured the woman as she looked after +him, "and off with his hat like a prince. What sort o' folks does he +belong to, I wonder!" + +The overseer's office was a small dark room with a high desk in it, at +which sat a sandy-haired red-faced man, with his hat very much on the +back of his head. He was talking in a loud blustering voice to several +workmen, and as Frank entered he heard the last part of the speech. + +"So you can tell Smorthwaite and the rest of 'em that they can come on +again on the old terms, but they'll not get a farthing more. Well, +boy," as he noticed Frank standing humbly in the background, "what do +_you_ want?" + +Mr Green's manner was that of an incensed and much-tried man, and Frank +felt quite afraid to speak. + +"Please, sir," he said, "do you want a boy in the factory?" + +"Do I want a boy!" repeated the overseer, addressing the ceiling in a +voice of despair. "No, of course I don't want a boy. If I had my will +I'd have no boys in the place--I'm sick of the sight of boys." + +He bent his eyes on a newspaper before him, and seemed to consider the +matter disposed of; but Frank made one more timid venture. + +"Please, sir," he said, going close up to the desk, "I'd work very +stiddy." + +Mr Green peered over his high desk at the sound of the small persistent +voice, and frowned darkly. + +"Clear out!" he said with a nod of his head towards the door; "don't +stop here talking nonsense. Out you go!" + +Frank dared not stay; he slunk out into the street crushed and +disappointed, for he felt he had not even had a chance. "He might a +listened to a chap," he said to himself. + +Just then the church clock struck one, dinner time, and a convenient +doorstep near, so he took the roll out of the breast of his smock-frock +and sat down to eat it. As he had never been used to very luxurious +meals it satisfied him pretty well; and then he watched the people +passing to and fro, and wondered what he could do to earn some money. +The chair-factory was hopeless certainly, but there must surely be some +one in Wickham who wanted a boy to run errands, or dig gardens, or help +in stables. What should he do? Without money he must starve; he could +neither go on to London or back to Green Highlands. + +The street was almost deserted now, for all the people who had dinners +waiting for them had hurried home to eat them, and no one had noticed +the rustic little figure in the grey gaberdine crouched on the doorstep. +Suddenly a dreadful feeling of loneliness seized on Frank, such as he +had not felt since leaving home. Even the great solitary wood had not +seemed so cold and unfriendly as this town, full of human faces, where +the very houses seemed to stare blankly upon him. He thought of the +kind baker woman, and immediately her words sounded in his ear: "There's +no place like home." If he went to her she would try to persuade him to +go back, and that he was still determined not to do; but his golden +pictures of the future had faded a good deal since that morning, and as +he sat and looked wistfully at the hard red houses opposite he could not +help his eyes filling with tears. Fortunately, he thought, there was no +one to see them; but still he felt ashamed of crying, and bent his head +on his folded arms. Sitting thus for some minutes, he was presently +startled by a voice close by. + +"What's up, little un?" it said. + +Frank looked up quickly, and saw that the question came from a boy +standing in front of him. He was a very tall, thin boy, about fifteen +years old, with a dark face and narrow twinkling black eyes. All his +clothes were ragged, and none of them seemed to fit him properly, for +his coat-sleeves were inconveniently long, and his trousers so short +that they showed several inches of brown bony ankles. On his head he +wore a rusty black felt hat with half a brim, which was turned down over +his eyes; his feet were bare; and he carried under his arm a cage full +of nimble crawling white mice. + +After a minute's observation Frank decided in his mind that this must be +a "tramp." Now and then these wandering folks passed through Danecross +and the neighbourhood on their way to large towns; and, as a rule, +people looked askance at them. It was awkward to have them about when +ducklings and chickens were being reared, and Frank had always heard +them spoken of with contempt and suspicion. Just now, however, any +sympathy appeared valuable, and he smiled back at the twinkling black +eyes, and answered: + +"There's nowt the matter with me. I'm wantin' work." + +The boy seemed to think this an amusing idea, for he grinned widely, +showing an even row of very white teeth. Then he sat down on the +doorstep, put his cage of mice on the ground, and began to whistle; his +bright eyes keenly observing Frank from top to toe meanwhile, and +finally resting on his thick hobnailed boots. Then he asked briefly: + +"Farm-work?" + +"I'd ratherly get any other," answered Frank. And feeling it his turn +to make some inquiries, he said: + +"What do yer carry them mice fur?" + +The boy looked at him for a minute in silence; then he chuckled, and +gave a long low whistle. + +"I say, little chap," he said confidentially, "_ain't_ you a flat! Just +rather." + +Seeing on Frank's face no sign of comprehension he continued: + +"Without them little mice I should be what they calls a wagrant. Many a +time they've saved me from the beak, and from being run in. Them's my +business; and a nice easy trade it is. Lots of change and wariety. No +one to wallop yer. Live like a jintleman." + +He waved his hand at his last words with a gesture expressive of large +and easy circumstances. Frank glanced at his bare feet and generally +dishevelled appearance. + +"I don't want to live like a jintleman," he said; "I want to work +honest, and git wage." + +"Why did yer cut and run then?" said his companion suddenly and sharply. +"Did they wallop yer?" + +Frank started. How could this strange boy possibly know that he had run +away? His alarmed face seemed to afford the tramp the keenest +amusement; he laughed long and loud, leaning back on the steps in an +ecstasy, and said at breathless intervals: + +"You're just the innocentest, greenest little chap. How old are yer?" + +Frank did not answer; he was considering the best means of getting away +from this undesirable acquaintance, who presently, wiping his eyes with +the cuff of his jacket, remarked with recovered gravity: + +"In course, yer know, no one 'ull take a boy what's run away." + +This was a new and alarming idea to Frank. + +"_Won't_ they?" he said earnestly. + +"Certingly not," continued the tramp. "Where's yer carikter? You +'ain't got none." + +Frank hung his head. He wondered he had not thought of this before. + +"This is where it lies," pursued his companion, holding out a very dirty +hand dramatically in front of him. "You comes, as it might be, to me +and you says, `I want a sitivation.' Then I says, `Where's yer +carikter?' Then you says, `I 'ain't got one.' Then I says, `Out yer +go.'" + +Having thus placed the situation in a nutshell, as it were, he put his +hands in his pockets and observed Frank covertly out of the corners of +his eyes. Seeing how crestfallen he looked, the tramp presently spoke +again. + +"Now, in my line of bizness it's not so important a carikter isn't. I +might very likely look over it in takin' a pal if he asked me. In +course it would be a favour; but still I might look over it." + +"Do you want a pal?" asked Frank, pushed to extremity. + +"Well, I don't, not to say _want_ a pal," replied the tramp, "but I +don't mind stretching a pint in your case if you like to jine." + +The blue eyes and the glittering black ones met for an instant. + +"I'll jine yer," said Frank with a sigh. + +The tramp held out his long-fingered brown hand. + +"Shake hands," he said. "The terms is, halves all we git." + +The bargain concluded, he informed Frank that his name was Barney, and +further introduced him to the mice, called respectively Jumbo, Alice, +and Lord Beaconsfield. + +This last, a mouse of weak-eyed and feeble appearance, he took out of +the cage and allowed to crawl over him, stroking it tenderly now and +then with the tip of his finger. + +"He's an artful one, he is," he murmured admiringly. "I calls him Dizzy +for short. What's your name, little un?" + +"Frank." + +"That sounds a good sort o' name too," said Barney; "sort o' name you +see in gowld letters on a chany mug in the shop winders, don't it? I +don't fancy, though, I could bring my tongue to it, not as a _jineral_ +thing. I shall call yer `Nipper,' if you don't mind. After a friend o' +mine." + +The new name appearing rather an advantage than otherwise under his +present circumstances Frank agreed to drop his own, and to be henceforth +known only as the "Nipper." This change seemed to have broken the last +link which bound him to Green Highlands and his own people. He was +Frank Darvell no longer; he belonged to no one; the wide world was his +home; Barney and the white mice his only friends and companions. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +In the wandering life that followed, Frank had excellent opportunities +for studying the character of his new comrade, and it did not take long +to discover two prominent points in it. Barney was a liar and a thief. +These accomplishments, indeed, had formed the principal features in poor +Barney's education from his tenderest childhood. He had always been +taught that it was desirable and proper to lie and steal; the only wrong +and undesirable thing was--to be found out. To do Barney justice he +very seldom _was_ found out; nimble of finger and quick of wit he had +profited well by his lessons, and by the time Frank met him had long +been a finished scholar, and able to "do" for himself. In spite of +these failings he was a kind-hearted boy; he would not have hurt any +living thing weaker than himself, and Frank's pale face and slender form +soon appealed to his protective instincts in much the same way that his +white mice did, for which he cherished a fond affection. + +If the night were cold he always managed that the Nipper had the warmest +shelter, and when provisions were scarce the least tasty morsels were +always reserved for himself, as a matter of course. Then what an +amusing companion he was! How his ingenious stories, mostly a tissue of +falsehood, beguiled the weary way, and made Frank forget his aching +feet! He believed them all at first, and his innocent credulousness +acted as a spur to Barney's fertile invention and excited him to fresh +and wilder efforts. On one occasion, however, his imagination carried +him beyond the limits of even Frank's capacity of belief, and from that +moment suspicion began. He had been romancing about the riches and +wealth of people who lived in London (where he had never been), and +after describing at great length that the houses were none of them +smaller than the whole town of Wickham put together, he added: + +"An the folks niver uses ought but gowld to eat an drink off." + +Frank looked up quickly. + +"You're wrong there," he said. "My mother's got a chany jug what used +to belong to her grandfather, and _he_ lived in Lunnon." Observing a +twinkle in the corner of Barney's eye he continued in an injured tone: + +"You've bin lyin'. Lies is wicked, and stealin's wicked too." + +There was a sound of conscious superiority in his tone, which was +naturally irritating to his companion, who laughed hoarsely. + +"Jest listen to him," he said, addressing Lord Beaconsfield for want of +a more intelligent audience, "listen to him! Don't he preach fine? An' +him a boy without a carikter too! Lies is wicked, eh? And stealin's +wicked. Who told him that, I wonder?" + +"It's in the catekizum," continued Frank. "Parson allers said so, and +Schoolmaster too." + +Barney made a gesture expressive of much contempt at the mention of +these two dignitaries. + +"Parson and Schoolmaster!" he said derisively. "Why, in course they +said so; they're paid to do it. That's how they earns their money. But +jest you please to remember, that yer not Parson, not yit Schoolmaster, +but a boy without a carikter, so shut up with yer preachin'." + +Without a character! It was hard, Frank thought, that he, a respectable +Danecross boy, who had been to school, and sung in the choir, and whose +folks had always worked honest and got good wages, should have come to +this! That a vagrant tramp, who could neither read nor write, and who +got his living anyhow, should be able to call him "a boy without a +carikter!" + +And the worst of it was, that it was true, he sadly thought, as he +plodded along in the dust by Barney's side. He had thrown away his +right to be considered respectable--no one would employ him if they knew +he had run away, and still less if they knew he had been "on the tramp" +with a boy like Barney. + +However, as time went on, such serious thoughts troubled him less +frequently; as long as the sun shone, it was easy to avoid dwelling on +them amidst the change and uncertainty of his vagrant life. + +But there were not two days alike in it. Sometimes luck, plenty to eat, +and a bed of dry straw in a barn--that was luxury. Sometimes a weary +tramp in the pouring rain, no coppers and no supper. Under these last +circumstances the "Nipper" was sharply reminded of the time when he was +Frank Darvell, and lived at Green Highlands; shivering and hungry, his +thoughts would dwell regretfully on the comfort and security he had +left. Mother's face would come before him sad and reproachful. Poor +mother! She would never have that shawl with the apple-green border +now. Her Frank, instead of making a great fortune in London town, had +become a wanderer and a tramp; and indeed after a month's companionship +with Barney he was so altered that she would hardly have known him. +Sleeping under hedges or in outhouses had not improved his clothes, +which were now stained and torn. His pale face was changed by wind and +weather, and also by a plentiful supply of dust, seldom washed off, into +a dirty brown one, and his hair, once kept so neatly cropped, now hung +about in bushy tangles like Barney's. Only his bright blue eyes, with +their innocent childishness of expression, were recognisable, and these +gained him many a copper when he carried round his cap after Barney's +feeble performances with the white mice. + +But though changed outwardly, there was one good habit which Frank had +brought away from Green Highlands, and to which he clung with a +persistency which surprised and irritated his partner. This was +honesty. Nothing would induce him to steal, or even to share stolen +booty; hunger, threats, bitterly sarcastic speeches were alike in vain, +and at last Barney's scornful amusement at the "boy without a carikter" +began to be mingled with a certain respect; not that he was the least +inclined to follow his example and give up pilfering himself, but he +thought it was "game" of the little 'un to hold his own, and that was a +quality he could understand and admire. After all, a chap that had been +brought up by parsons and schoolmasters must have allowances made for +him, he supposed, and he soon gave up all idea of inducing Frank to +thieve, and even kept his own exploits in the background, because the +"Nipper" took it to heart. + +So, sharing sometimes hardships, and sometimes pleasures, the +oddly-matched partners journeyed on, with an increasing attachment to +each other, and Frank's thoughts travelled back less and less often to +Green Highlands. + +For now the bright warm weather had set fairly in, and all the different +flowers came marching on in sweet procession, and filled the woods and +fields. After the primroses, and while some still remained sprinkled +about in the sunny places, came the deep blue hyacinths, and then the +golden kingcups, and the downy yellow cowslips: last of all, a tall +triumphant host of foxgloves spread themselves over forest and common. +The wind, blowing softly from the west, brought with it little gentle +showers, just enough to freshen the leaves and wash the upturned faces +of the blossoms; tramping was a luxury in such weather, and those people +much to be pitied who had to work in close dark rooms, hidden away from +the glorious sunshine. + +Certainly it was rather _too_ hot sometimes, and the roads were dusty +and gritty, and the boys' throats got parched with thirst after a very +few miles; but there was always the hope of coming to some delicious, +cool green bit by the way, or to a stream of water, or to some +comfortable village seat under the shadow of a great tree. And this +kept up their spirits. One day they had walked far in a blazing July +sun along an unshaded high-road; it was evening now, and they were +wondering where they should sleep, and how they should get some supper, +when they came to a narrow lane turning off to the right, with steep +banks on each side of it. There was a sign-post, which, interpreted by +Frank, said, To Crowhurst--one mile. + +The boys consulted a little, and soon determined to leave the high-road, +which seemed endless, as far as they could see, and try their fortune in +Crowhurst for the night. It was not long before they came to it, lying +in a hollow, and snugly sheltered by gently rising wooded ground. It +was a very little village indeed. There was a small grey church with a +stumpy square tower, and a cheerful red-brick inn called the Holly Bush, +with a swinging sign in front of it; there were half a dozen little +cottages with gay gardens, and, standing close to the road, there was a +long, low, many-gabled house which was evidently the vicarage. It was +such a snug, smiling little settlement altogether that Barney and Frank, +slouching along dusty and tired, felt quite out of place and uneasy at +the glances cast at them by the people standing at their open doors or +in their trim gardens. However, there was a bench outside the inn, and +there they presently sat down to rest and look about them. The vicarage +was just opposite; and one of its wide lattice-windows being open, the +boys could see plainly into the room, where the most prominent object +was the figure of an old gentleman, with grey hair and a velvet +skull-cap; he sat at a table writing busily, and everything was so quiet +and still that they could even hear the scratch of his quill pen, and +the rustle of the sheets of manuscript which he threw from time to time +on the floor. Sometimes he looked vaguely out of the window, and +sometimes he took off his skull-cap and rubbed his bald head with his +pocket handkerchief--then he bent busily over his writing again. Frank, +watching him lazily, wondered what he could have to write so much about, +and then it occurred to him that perhaps he might be the schoolmaster +correcting the boys' exercises; from that, his mind wandered back to +Danecross and the school-room there, where it used to be so hot in +summer, and the bees buzzed and murmured so in the garden outside, and +the boys within. And gradually, his ideas becoming confused between +bees and boys, and being very tired, he forgot the old gentleman and +fell asleep. + +But, meanwhile, the acute Barney, sitting by his side and apparently +engrossed with his white mice, had been attentively observing the same +scene. Unfortunately, whenever the old gentleman dipped his pen +absently in the ink Barney's quick eye was attracted to a small object +which glittered brightly, and presently he made out that this was a +silver inkstand. The more he looked, the more his fingers longed to +close round that shining object and make sure if it really could be +silver, and I grieve to say that it was not from pressing necessity that +he coveted it, but simply from a strong desire to exercise an inborn +talent. It was as natural to him to steal, particularly if it required +cleverness and ingenuity, as it is for an artist or a poet to paint or +write poetry, so all the while he looked, his mind was busy with a plan +to rob the old gentleman of his silver inkstand. + +Presently he glanced round at Frank, whose head was nodding forward in +an uncomfortable attitude, and whose deep breathing showed him to be +asleep. "If only he warn't sich a duffer," said Barney to himself, "we +might do it easy," then seeing that his partner was in danger of +falling, he moved nearer to him, and placed the boy's head gently +against his own shoulder so that he might rest easily. Meanwhile the +old gentleman's pen went scribbling on at quite a furious pace, and the +black skull-cap seemed to nod complacently, as though its owner were +pleased with what he wrote. + +Barney sat and waited with the sleeping boy's head on his shoulder-- +waited patiently, without stirring a muscle, though after a time the +stiff position became painful. Shadows were lengthening--the cows +sauntered through the village to be milked--it began to get a little +dusk, but still the old gentleman went on writing and Frank went on +sleeping, and Barney's bright glance was fixed on the shining object +opposite, much as a raven or a jackdaw will eye the silver spoon he +means to steal by and by. "Everything comes to him who knows how to +wait," and though Barney had never heard the proverb it was now verified +in his case; the old gentleman paused in his writing, stuck his pen +absently behind his ear, and proceeded to read over his manuscript. It +pleased him evidently, for he smiled several times, and shook his head +waggishly. Then he got up, yawned, stretched himself, and finally left +the room, but only to reappear a moment later in the porch: thence he +strolled down the narrow brick path to the gate, with his hands in the +pockets of his flowered dressing-gown, and looked up and down the road, +and up at the sky, and finally at the two dusty figures opposite on the +bench. It was on Frank that his gaze rested, and just then, aided by a +quiet poke from Barney's elbow, the boy roused himself, sat up, and +rubbed his eyes. + +"Jintleman wants yer," said Barney, whispering hoarsely in his ear. + +Hardly awake, Frank stumbled across the road, and mechanically touched +his cap. The old gentleman stood beaming benignly at him through his +spectacles. + +"What do you want, my lad?" he said in a kind voice. + +Directly Frank heard him speak he knew he could not be the schoolmaster, +but the parson of the village. Parson at Danecross used to speak in the +same sort of way. He felt ashamed to beg, and looked back at Barney for +support, who immediately came slouching up with his white mice, and +began to speak in his usual professional whine. + +The old gentleman waved his hand impatiently. + +"Stop," he said; "I don't want to hear any of those stories. You can't +impose upon me, so you needn't try." Then he turned to Frank. "Are you +willing to work for your supper and a bed in the hay-loft to-night?" + +"Oh yes, sir," said Frank eagerly; "and so's Barney too." + +The rector, for such he was, glanced somewhat doubtfully at Barney. + +"Well," he said, "there's an hour's weeding in my kitchen-garden that +you can easily do before dark, and then you shall have bread and cheese, +and may sleep in the loft. Where have you come from?" + +He spoke to Frank, but the boy did not answer; and Barney, coming glibly +to the rescue, had in a few moments woven an ingenious fable, in which +he frequently referred to his companion as "his little brother." + +The rector listened without further question, but his shrewd grey eyes +rested suspiciously on Barney when he had finished his story. + +"Come this way," he said, and led them round to the back of the house, +where there was a neatly kept kitchen-garden, with borders of homely +flowers, and a small orchard at the end of it. Here he paused, and +showed the boys that one of the gravel walks was thickly covered with +grass weeds. A man leant on the orchard gate smoking a pipe. + +"Andrew," said the rector, "when those two boys have weeded that path +they are to have supper and a bed in the loft." + +The man touched his cap with a very ill-pleased expression, and the old +gentleman strolled back into the house and left the boys to their work, +which they undertook with very different feelings. On Barney's side +there was a distinct sense of injury, and he performed his task with +great bitterness of soul; for to work for anything was contrary to his +inmost nature, and to every principle of his life hitherto. So he +sighed and groaned and held on to his long back with both hands at +intervals, and managed to do as small a share of the weeding as +possible. Frank, on the contrary, went to work with a will, with a +pleasant sense that he was earning something, and he was careful to get +the weeds up by the roots, instead of slicing them off neatly at the +top, which was Barney's unprincipled method of gardening. Meanwhile +Andrew's watchful eye never left the boys; and in answer to his master's +inquiries that night his opinion of them was thus delivered: + +"Long un's no good, but t'other's bin taught to use his hands. He's no +tramp." + +Frank lay awake long that night in the fragrant hay-loft thinking. The +kind old rector, the work, the supper, had roused old memories in his +mind, and his tramping life of late seemed suddenly distasteful. He +longed to "work honest and get wage," and feel a respectable boy again. +If only this nice old gentleman would let him stay and work in his +garden; but that, Frank remembered with a sigh, was hopeless, because he +had "no carikter." And then, there was Barney--Barney, who had always +been good to him, and who had helped him when he most wanted it, he +could not desert him now; and as for trying to turn him from his present +course of life, that was just the most hopeless thing of all. So, +rather sorrowfully, he turned over on the other side, and very shortly +fell fast asleep. + +Barney slept too with the profound peacefulness of a mind at rest, as, +indeed, it was; for with the morning's light he had firmly resolved to +steal the old gentleman's silver inkstand, and he was troubled with no +doubts either as to the propriety or success of the undertaking. The +fastening of that lattice-window would be easily managed by a dexterous +hand, and before any of the folks were about he and Frank would be +beyond pursuit; only he must be careful not to wake the Nipper before he +had secured his booty, as he might make foolish and troublesome +objections. + +So it came to pass that it was only just daylight next morning when +Frank was waked from a deep sleep by some one shaking his arm, and by +the dim grey light he saw Barney kneeling by him with an eager look in +his dark face. + +"Get up!" he whispered. + +"'Tain't time," murmured Frank, rolling over sleepily. + +But Barney renewed his shaking, and at last succeeded in thoroughly +rousing his comrade, who sat up and stared at him with surprised blue +eyes. + +"Why, Barney," he said, "it's night still. What do yer want to go on +fur? The old gentleman ull want to see us afore we start; we mustn't go +yet." + +Barney frowned darkly. + +"I niver want to see that old cove, niver no more," he said; and this +was truer than Frank thought. "I calls it a mean act to make a poor +chap work for a bit o' supper. He's no jintleman, he isn't." + +"Well," said Frank, "I should like to a said `Thank yer;' it seems +ongrateful." + +"Then you'd better stop and do it," said Barney impatiently. "I'm off. +I'm not goin' to stay an work in that blessed old garding any more. You +can come arter me." + +He was already half-way down the loft steps as he spoke, with his mice's +cage under his arm, when he looked back over his shoulder at his +partner's slight figure standing at the top in the dim light watching +him. Turning suddenly, he was by Frank's side again in two long-legged +strides. + +"Good-bye, Nipper," he whispered, "good-bye, old pal!" + +He patted the boy on the shoulder gently, and soon with stealthy +swiftness passed from sight, and seemed to vanish in the grey morning +mist. + +Then Frank, wondering a little, but more sleepy than curious, crept back +to his still warm nest in the hay, and fell asleep again without loss of +time. + +He dreamt that Barney had come back to fetch him, and opened his eyes +some hours later expecting to see him; but he was not there. Instead of +him there was Andrew the gardener just coming up the steps in a great +hurry. + +He seized Frank roughly by the arm. + +"Oh, you're here, are you, young scamp?" he said. Then looking round +the loft. + +"Where's t'other?" + +"He's gone on before," answered Frank, surprised and confused at this +treatment. + +"Oh, I daresay," said Andrew, giving him a shake. "And I suppose you +don't even know what he's got in his pocket. You're a nice young +innercent. You jest come along with me." + +He hurried the boy along, holding him tight by the collar of his smock, +and thrust him into the room with the lattice-window, where the rector +had been writing the night before. He was there now, walking feverishly +backwards and forwards, and looking thoroughly ill at ease. + +"Here's one on 'em, sir," said Andrew triumphantly introducing the small +trembling form of Frank, "an' t'other's not far off, I reckon." + +The rector looked more than ever perturbed. + +"Where was the boy, Andrew?" he asked. "Does he know anything of the +matter?" + +"He was in the loft, and he's just the most owdacious young rascal; says +t'other one's gone on before. He'll know more about it, I fancy, after +a day or two in the lock-up." + +Andrew administered a rousing shake to his captive as he spoke. He was +not ill-pleased that the rector should at last see the result of +encouraging tramps. + +Hitherto Frank had been in a state of puzzled misery, and had scarcely +understood what was going on; but when Andrew mentioned the word +lock-up, the whole matter was clear to him. Barney had stolen +something; that was the meaning of his abrupt departure before daylight. + +The rector looked at him pityingly. + +"Where is your companion, my boy?" he said. + +Frank did not answer; he stood perfectly passive in Andrew's hands, and +cast his eyes on the ground. + +"Don't yer hear his reverence?" shouted the latter in the boy's ear. + +"I dunno," said Frank faintly. + +"You'd better let me run him over to Aylesford and have him locked up, +sir," said Andrew. "He'd find a tongue then." + +Frank raised his frightened blue eyes entreatingly to the rector's face +without speaking; he saw something in the kind rugged features which +encouraged him, for with sudden energy he wriggled himself loose from +Andrew and threw himself on his knees. + +"Don't let them lock me up, sir," he sobbed. "I've allers bin a honest +lad." + +"Was it your companion who broke into this room this morning and stole +my inkstand?" pursued the rector. + +"I dunno," repeated Frank. "I didn't see him steal nuthin', I was +asleep." + +"Would he be likely to do it?" + +"I dunno," said Frank under his breath, deeply conscious that he _did_ +know very well. + +"Is he your brother?" + +"No," cried Frank with a sudden burst of eloquence, "he's no kin to me. +I'm Frank Darvell's lad, what lives at Green Highlands. And Parson +knows me--and Schoolmaster. And I've niver stolen nowt in my life. +Don't ye let 'em lock me up!" + +"A likely story!" growled Andrew. "Honest lads don't go trampin' round +with thieves." + +The rector, whose face had softened at the boy's appeal, seemed to pull +himself together sternly at this remark; he frowned, and said, turning +away a little from Frank's tear-stained face: "I would gladly believe +you, my boy, but it is too improbable. As Andrew says, honest boys do +not associate with thieves." + +"Ask any of 'em at Danecross, sir," pleaded poor Frank in despair; +"anyone ull tell ye I belong to honest folk." + +"That's no proof you're not a thief," put in the persistent Andrew; +"there's many a rotten apple hangs on a sound tree." + +The rector looked up impatiently. + +"Leave the boy alone with me, Andrew," he said, "I wish to ask him some +questions;" and as the man left the room he seated himself in his big +leather chair and beckoned Frank to him. "Come here," he said, "and +answer me truthfully." + +Frank stood at his elbow, trembling still in fear of being sent to +prison, and yet with a faint hope stealing into his heart. + +Bit by bit he sobbed forth his story in answer to the rector's +questions, and finally raising his swollen eyelids to the kind face he +said: + +"If so be as mother was to know I wur sent to prison it 'ud break her +'art." + +"Tell me," said the rector, "have your parents lived long at Green +Highlands? Are they well-known there?" + +"Father, he's lived there all his life," said Frank; "and granther, he +used to live there too. Father can do a better day's work nor any man +in Danecross," he added with conscious pride. + +"Ah!" said the rector, "it's a fine thing to be a good workman, and to +have earned a good name, isn't it?" + +Frank hung his head. + +"But it isn't done by tramping about the country with bad companions. A +good name's a precious thing, and like all precious things it's got by +trouble and labour. It's the best thing a father can hand down to his +son. When he begins life, men say, `He's Frank Darvell's son, he comes +of a good stock;' and so the `good name' his father earned is of great +use to him. But he can't live on that; he has to make one of his own +too, so that he can hand it on to _his_ sons and daughters and say, +`There's my father's name, I've never disgraced it; now it's your turn +to use it well.' But suppose that the son doesn't value his father's +good name. Suppose that he chooses an idle good-for-nothing life and +his own pleasure, rather than to work hard and live honestly; what +happens then? Why, then, men soon leave off trusting him, and say, +`He's not the man his father was;' and so the name of Darvell, which +used to be so honoured and respected, comes to be connected with evil +things. Then, perhaps too late, the son finds that `a good name is more +to be desired than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver +and gold.' But he has thrown away the good name and the loving favour +too, for he has drifted away from his old friends and companions. He +can _never_ get back to where he started from." + +The solemn monotonous voice--for the rector had dropped unconsciously +into his sermon tones--and the emphasis on the last words completed +Frank's misery of spirit. + +Clasping his hands, he fell on his knees and said imploringly: + +"Let me go home, sir. Let me go back. I'd be proper glad to see 'em +all again." + +"Whom would you like to see again?" asked the rector kindly. + +"There's mother first," said Frank, "and father on Sundays, and then +Schoolmaster, and Jack Gunn, and little Phoebe Redrup." + +"My little lad," said the rector, laying his hand on the boy's shoulder, +"you see there's no place like home. Home, where people know us and +love us in spite of our faults. I think you won't want to run away +again?" + +"Niver no more," sobbed Frank. + +"And now," said the rector rising, and reassuming the air of severity +which he had quite laid aside during the last part of the interview. "I +am going to write to the vicar of Danecross, who is a friend of mine. +If I find that what you have told me is true we will say no more about +the inkstand, and I will believe that you had no knowledge of the theft. +Until then you must be treated as under suspicion, though we will not +send you to prison." + +He summoned Andrew, and delivered Frank over to his charge. Disgusted +to find that he was not to be "run in" as an example to tramps, from +whom his master's orchard and garden had suffered so frequently, Andrew +was determined that his captive should have no chance of escape, and as +rigorous a confinement as possible. Frank was therefore locked up in a +small harness-room, as the place of greatest security and discomfort; +and here he passed the lonely day in much distress of mind, troubled +with many fears concerning his late friend and companion Barney. + +The rector himself was hardly more at his ease, however, for he would +willingly have dispensed with the zeal of his parishioners, who had been +scouring the country since daybreak in search of the thief, and kept him +in a constant tremor. The good people of Crowhurst seldom had the +chance of such an excitement as this unexpected robbery, and though few +things would have embarrassed the rector more than a successful end to +the chase, he did not dare to check their ardour. + +His peaceful solitude was therefore perpetually disturbed throughout the +day by the arrival of breathless parties of scouts. He would sally out +to the gate to meet them, and ask nervously: "Well, my lads, seen +anything of him, eh?" Deep was his inward relief when the day closed in +with no news of the thief, for he would have cheerfully sacrificed many +silver inkstands rather than have been obliged to deliver the +unfortunate Barney into the hands of justice. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Two evenings later than this, the vicar of Danecross stood at the open +door of the Darvells' cottage at Green Highlands, and looked into the +room. Mrs Darvell was alone, scrubbing away at her brick floor on her +knees, and surrounded by a formidable array of pails, and brushes, and +mops. The place had a comfortless air, and there was no fire on the +hearth. + +"Late at work, Mrs Darvell, eh?" was the vicar's greeting as he stood +on the threshold. + +Mrs Darvell got up quickly, and dropped her usual brisk courtesy, but +her face looked dull and spiritless. + +"I'm in too much of a muss to ask you in, sir," she said, glancing +round. + +"Oh, never mind," said the clergyman; "where's Darvell? Isn't he back +from work yet?" + +Mrs Darvell shrugged her shoulders, and made an expressive movement +with her head in the direction of Danecross. + +"I reckon he's where he generally is now," she answered moodily, "at the +`Nag's Head.'" + +"Why, that's something new, isn't it? I always consider Darvell one of +the steadiest men in my parish." + +Mrs Darvell looked up defiantly. + +"Maybe it's partly my fault," she said; "but we've never had a minute's +comfort since the little lad went. And things get worse and worse. I +don't care no more to keep the place nice, and I ups and speaks sharp to +Darvell, and he goes off to the `Nag's Head.'" + +The vicar nodded his head slowly, as though Darvell's conduct was not +quite incomprehensible under such circumstances, and Mrs Darvell +continued in a lower tone: + +"You know, sir, it wur because my man lifted his hand to Frank that the +lad went off; and I don't seem as how I can forget it. When I look at +Darvell I keep on rememberin' as how, if he'd bin more patient with the +boy we should ha' had him with us still. Darvell's been a good man to +me, but I can't help speaking sharp to him; though maybe I'm sorry after +I done it, for there's only the two on us now, and we'll have to worry +along together." + +The vicar shook his head. + +"Hard blows are bad things, Mrs Darvell, but hard words do quite as +much mischief in their way. If your husband has driven Frank from home, +does it mend matters for you to drive your husband to the public-house?" + +"There's truth in what you say, sir," said Mrs Darvell, rubbing her +arms with her apron; "but I don't seem as if I cared to do any different +now the boy's gone. I've allers had a quick tongue from a gall, and +Darvell, he must just take the consequences." + +"But suppose," said the vicar, looking earnestly at her, "suppose that +Frank were to come back to you safe and well, and Darvell were to +promise never to be so harsh to him again, wouldn't you try then to keep +from saying sharp things?" + +Mrs Darvell's black eyes fixed themselves keenly on the vicar's face. + +"You've heard summat, sir?" she said, laying one damp red hand on his +coat-sleeve. "Is the lad livin'? Just tell me that. Is he livin'?" + +"Look there," said the vicar. + +He turned and pointed down the road, where, at the top of the hill +leading up from Danecross, two figures were just visible. They came +nearer and nearer. One was that of Darvell, broad-shouldered and +heavily built, but the other one was small and slender, and had rough +yellow hair. + +Mrs Darvell was a woman of decisive action as well as of a quick +tongue. One look was enough for her. She immediately took off her +pattens, which had iron rings to them, and were not adapted for rapid +movement, and placed them quickly and quite unconsciously in the vicar's +arms as he stood beside her. + +"Bless you, sir!" she said. + +Before he had realised his situation she had flown down the road, +reached the two figures, and enveloped Frank in her embrace, Darvell +standing by meanwhile with a broad smile on his fair and foolish +countenance. + +The neighbours gathered round the group, and all the dogs, and pigs, and +chickens belonging to the settlement also drew near. Jack Gunn's donkey +looked over the hedge, his furry ears showing a pointed interest in the +affair, and in the distance the vicar surveyed the scene from the +cottage door, still holding Mrs Darvell's pattens. + +So Frank had got home again; and after all his wanderings he found that: + + "From east to west + At home is best." + + + +STORY TWO, CHAPTER 1. + +FAITHFUL MOSES--A SHORT STORY. + +Those of you who live near any of the great high-roads that lead to +London may remember to have been awake sometimes in the middle of the +night, and to have heard the sound of horses' feet, and of cart wheels +rumbling slowly and heavily along. + +If it be winter, frosty and dry, you hear them very sharply and +distinctly; and perhaps you wonder, drowsily, who it is that has +business so late, and whither they are bound. "How cold it must be +outside!" you think, and it is quite a pleasure to snuggle cosily down +in your comfortable bed and feel how warm you are. + +Gradually, as the sounds grow less and less, and die away mysteriously +in the distance, your eyes close; soon you are fast asleep again, and +that is all you know about the cold, dark night outside. + +But Tim, the van-boy, knew a great deal more about it than this, for he +had now been "on the road" between Roydon and London for more than a +year. The carrier's cart started at eleven o'clock in the morning, and +having distributed and received parcels on the way the driver put up his +horses at an inn called "The Magpie and Stump," in a part of London +named the Borough. So far it was all very well, and not at all hard +work; but then came the return journey at night, which began just at the +moment when a boy, after a good warm supper, naturally thinks of going +to bed. This was trying, and at first Tim felt it a good deal, for he +never got home until three o'clock in the morning; he was so anxious, +too, to do his duty and fill his post well, that he would not have +closed his eyes for the world, though he might well have taken a nap +without anyone's knowledge. His "mate" as he called him, whose name was +Joshua, sat in front driving his two strong black horses, and Tim's +place was at the other open end of the van, so that he might keep his +eye on the parcels and prevent their being stolen or lost. + +It was a responsible situation he felt for a boy of thirteen, and he +meant to do his very best to keep it now that he had been lucky enough +to get it; in the far-off future, too, he saw himself no longer the +van-boy, but in the proud position now occupied by Joshua as driver, and +this he considered, though a lofty, was by no means an unreasonable +ambition. + +When Tim first began his work it was summertime, and the nights were so +balmy, and soft, and light that it was not so very difficult to keep +awake--there seemed so many other thing's awake too. After they were +well out of London, and the horses no longer clattered noisily over the +stones, it was like getting into another world. The stars looked +brightly down from the clear smokeless sky. Soft little winds blew a +thousand flowery scents from over the fields, and sometimes, singing +quite close to the road, Tim heard the nightingale. Even Joshua, a +gruff man, was affected by the sweet influence of the season, for Tim +noticed that he always sang one particular song on fine nights in +summer. Joshua's voice was hoarse from much exposure to weather, but +Tim thought he sang with great expression. The words were not easy to +follow, because the middle of the verse always became inaudible; but by +degrees the boy made out that it was the description of a letter +received by a rustic from his sweetheart. It began: + + "All _on_ a summer's day + As _I_ pursued my way." + +Then came some lines impossible to hear, and then each verse ended with: + + "Com--_men_cing with `my dearest,' + And con--_clu_ding with her name--" + +Joshua's song and the steady tramp, tramp of the horses were sometimes +the only sounds disturbing the still night, and Tim, a small erect +figure with widely opened eyes, would sit perched on a convenient +packing-case at the back of the cart, and listen admiringly. + +But the winter! That was another matter. Joshua did not sing then, but +kept his teeth clenched, and his head bent, before the sleet, or wind, +or driving rain. Then the brightly lighted London streets seemed +cheerful, and much to be preferred to the lonely open country, where the +bitter wind swept across the wide fields, and, gathering strength as it +came, rushed in among Tim and the parcels. That was hard to bear, but +of all kinds of weather, and he knew them all pretty well now, he +thought the very worst was a fog. It was not only that it penetrated +everywhere, and laid its cold damp finger on everything; but it spread +such a thick veil of dreadful mystery over well-known objects. Nothing +looked the same. The houses in the streets towered up like giant +castles, and if Tim had read fairy tales he might well have fancied them +inhabited by ogres. But he had not. He only felt a dim sense of +discomfort and fear, as though he were lost in a strange place. Then it +was a comfort to know that Joshua was there, almost invisible indeed, +but making himself evident by hoarse shouts, now of encouragement to his +horses, and now of derision at some luckless driver. Out in the +country, when the heavily laden market carts loomed slowly out of the +fog as they passed, they had the appearance of being miles up in the +air, and as if they must inevitably topple over. Joshua knew all the +carters, not by sight, for he could not see them, but by the time and +place he met them on his nightly journey. Tim could reckon pretty well +that after he had heard his gruff salutation of "a dark night, mate," +repeated a certain number of times, that they must be nearing home, for +they always met about the same number of Joshua's friends; as he had no +watch this was a comfort to him on the dark nights. Taught by +experience, he learned to contrive for himself a sort of Robinson Crusoe +but with the various hampers and boxes, and in this he lay curled round +in tolerable comfort, covered with an old horse-cloth; nevertheless, it +was often very cold, and then the only consolation was in thinking that +Joshua must be cold also. It is always easier to bear things if there +is some one to bear them with you--unless you are a hero. + +One December evening the carrier's cart was just starting homewards from +the door of the Magpie and Stump. Joshua, reins in hand, and closely +buttoned up to the chin, stood ready to mount to his perch, saying a few +last words to the landlord, who was a crony of his; Tim was already in +his place. From where he sat he could see something which interested +and excited him a good deal, and this was an old woman close by who was +selling roasted chestnuts. They did look good! So beautifully done, +with nice cracks in their brown skins showing just a little bit of the +soft yellow nut inside. Tim looked and longed, and fingered a penny in +his pocket. How jolly it would be to have a penn'orth of hot chestnuts +to eat on his way home! They would keep his hands warm too. Joshua +still talked, there was yet time, he would give himself a treat. He +scrambled down from the cart and went up to the old woman, who sat +crouched on a stool warming her hands over her little charcoal brazier. +She looked a cross old thing, he thought, but she was not, for when he +had paid for his chestnuts she picked out an extra fine one and gave it +him "for luck," with a kind grin on her wrinkled face. He was turning +away with a warm pocketful, when he saw, sitting on the edge of the +pavement near, a very poor thin dog, who trembled with cold or fear, and +blinked his eyes sorrowfully at the glowing coals. He was not at all a +pretty dog, and probably never had been, even in the days of his +prosperity, and these were evidently gone by. He was long-legged and +rough-coated, with coarse black hair mingled with yellowish brown, and +his large bright eyes had a timid look in them as though he feared +ill-treatment; he sat with his thin body drawn together as closely as +possible, as if anxious to escape observation. + +Tim stood and looked at him, and felt sorry. He was such a very +miserable dog, and yet so patient. + +"Is he your dog?" he asked the old woman. + +"Bless yer 'art, no," she answered. "He's a stray, he is; he'll come +and sit there often at nights, and I sometimes give him a mouthful o' +supper." + +"I suppose he's rare and 'ungry?" pursued Tim. + +"He's starving, that's what he is," said the woman, "and he's hurt his +leg badly besides. The boys are allers ready to chuck stones at him +when they see him prowlin' round. He don't belong to no one." + +Tim felt still more sorry; if he had seen the dog before, he thought, he +would have bought a "penn'orth" of liver for him instead of the +chestnuts. Now he could do nothing for him. He looked round at the old +woman, who was rocking herself to and fro with crossed arms, and said: + +"Shall you give him any supper to-night?" + +"Nay," she said with a sort of chuckle; "he's come too late to-night. +I've had my supper. There's many a one besides him as has to go +supperless." + +The dog during this conversation was evidently conscious that he was +being noticed, for he trembled more than ever, and gazed up at Tim with +his pleading eyes. + +"Pore feller, then," said the boy. + +The kind voice woke some bygone memory in the animal; it reminded him +perhaps of the days when he belonged to somebody, and was treated +gently. He got up, slowly reared his poor stiff limbs into a begging +attitude, and wagged his short tail. He soon dropped down again, for he +was evidently weak, but he looked apologetically from the old woman to +Tim, as much as to say: + +"I know it was a poor performance, but it was the best I could do. In +old days it used to please." + +"See there now," said the woman, "someone must a taught him that. Maybe +he's bin a Punch's dog." + +Tim stood absorbed in thought. He had forgotten Joshua, and the cart, +and his own important position as van-boy; one idea filled his mind. +Could he, ought he, might he take the dog home with him and have him for +his own? + +He was a prudent boy, and he considered that he would have to pay a tax +for him and feed him out of his wages. "But he could have 'arf my +dinner," he reflected; "and how useful he'd be to look after the +parcels. And he do look so thin and poor. I'll ask Joshua." + +He looked round. Fortunately for him, Joshua and the landlord had +entered into a discussion as to the respective merits of warm mashes, +and were still engaged upon it, so Tim had not been missed. He went up +to the two men, and standing a little in front of them waited for a +convenient moment to make his request. He was glad to see that Joshua +looked good-tempered just now; he had evidently had the best of the +argument which had been going on, for there was a gleam of triumph in +his eye, and he repeating some assertion in a loud voice, while the +landlord stood in a dejected attitude with his thumbs in his waistcoat +pockets. + +"_That's_ where it is," said Joshua as he concluded, and then his eye +fell on Tim's eager upturned face. + +"Dorg, eh?" he said, when the boy had made him understand what he +wanted. "Where is he?" + +"There," said Tim, pointing to where the dog still sat shivering near +the old chestnut woman. + +Joshua gazed at the animal in silence, and sucked a straw which he had +in his mouth reflectively. Tim looked anxiously up into his face. +Would he take a fancy to him? The landlord had now drawn near, and also +an inquisitive ostler. The old chestnut-seller ceased to rock herself +to and fro, and turned her head towards the group, so that the dog, so +lonely a few minutes ago, had suddenly become a centre of interest. He +seemed to wonder at this, but he scarcely moved his eyes, with a mute +appeal in them, from his first friend, Tim. At last, after what seemed +an immense silence, Joshua spoke. + +"He ain't a beauty--not to look at," he said. + +This might have sounded discouraging to anyone who did not know Joshua, +but it was rather the reverse to Tim. + +"He'd be werry useful in the cart," he suggested, taking care not to +appear too anxious. + +But now the landlord, feeling it time to offer his opinion, broke into +the discussion. + +"There's no doubt, as the boy says, that you'd find a dog useful, but I +wouldn't have a brute of a cur like that, if I was you. Now I could +give you as pretty a pup to bring up to the business as you could wish +to see. A real game un. Death to anything reasonable he'd be in a +year's time. Them nasty mongrels is never no good." + +Now this adverse opinion was, strange to say, sufficient to make up +Joshua's mind in the dog's favour; he always took a contrary view of +things to the landlord on principle, because it encouraged conversation, +and this habit was so strong that he at once began to see the special +advantages of a mongrel. + +"He's a werry faithful creetur, is a mongrel, if he's properly trained," +he said slowly and solemnly; "and as to _game_, where's the game he'd +find in a carrier's cart? You can bring him along, mate." + +Leaving the landlord in a temporarily crushed condition, he walked off +to his horses, which stamped impatiently at all this delay. The dog +suffered Tim to take him in his arms without any resistance, though he +winced a little as if in pain, and the cart presently drove away from +the small knot of interested spectators gathered round the inn door. +Then, gently examining his new comrade, the boy found that one of his +hind-legs was injured, so that he could not put it to the ground, and +moaned when it was touched, though he licked Tim's hand immediately +afterwards in apology. + +"But I don't think it's broke," said the boy encouragingly; "and when we +get home I'll bathe it and tie it up, and I dessay I can find yer a bit +o' supper." + +Soothed perhaps by this prospect, and evidently feeling a sense of +comfort and protection, the dog stretched out his thin, weary limbs, and +soon, sharing the warm shelter of Tim's horse-cloth, slept profoundly. + +And thus the new friends made their first journey together. + + + +STORY TWO, CHAPTER 2. + +FAITHFUL MOSES--A SHORT STORY--(CONTD). + +So from this time there was a van-dog as well as a van-boy; three +"mates" travelling in the cart between Roydon and London--Joshua, Tim, +and Moses, for after much consideration that was the name given to the +dog. + +It was wonderful to see how, after a few weeks of food and kindness, he +"plucked up a spirit," as Joshua said. His whole aspect altered, for he +now held his ears and tail valiantly erect, and quite a martial gleam +appeared in his eye. He still, it is true, limped about on three legs, +which is never a dignified attitude for a dog, but he already began to +acquire distinct views concerning the parcels and the cart, and was +ready to defend them, with hair bristling, and lips fiercely drawn back +from glistening white teeth. + +"Not a beauty," Joshua had said, and decidedly a mongrel according to +the landlord. Nobody could doubt that; but to Tim's eyes Moses wanted +no attractions, he was perfect. Many and many a confidence was poured +into his small, upright, attentive ear, as the two sat so close together +at the back of the cart; Tim never considered whether he understood or +not, but it was such a comfort to tell him about things. The cold +nights were comparatively easy to bear, now that he could put his arm +round Moses' hairy form and feel that he was warm and comfortable; meals +became more interesting though slighter than they used to be, now that +they must be shared by Moses, who watched every morsel with bright +expectant eyes. Then he must be taught, and this was not difficult, for +ready intelligence and eager affection made him a good scholar; all he +wanted was to know what was really required of him. This once +understood and successfully performed, what an ecstasy of delight +followed on the part of both master and pupil, shown by the former in +caresses, and by the latter in excited barks, and short quick rushes +among the parcels. + +As his education proceeded he learnt to distinguish all the different +sounds of Tim's voice, and would sit on guard for any length of time if +once told to do so. When on duty in this way, a more conscientious dog +could not have been found, for not even the urgent temptation of a +cat-chase could lure him from his post--although, sometimes, a short cry +of anguish would be wrung from him at being obliged to forego such a +pleasure. + +Joshua he regarded with a distant respect, Tim with intense affection, +and the landlord of the Magpie and Stump with ill-concealed growls of +aversion, though the latter tried to ingratiate himself by savoury +offerings of food. Moses would walk stiffly away from him with his tail +held very high, and the landlord would laugh sarcastically. "You're a +nice sample, you are," he would say, "and as ugly a mongrel as ever I +see--" + +As time went on, Tim began to place great reliance on the dog's +trustworthiness, and to look upon him as quite equal to another boy. He +knew that he had only to hold up his ringer and say, "Watch, Moses!" and +the dog's vigilant attention was secure; trusting in this, therefore, he +felt it by no means so necessary as formerly to be very watchful +himself, and began to take life much more easily. In the evening, when +Joshua stopped to deliver a parcel, Tim would rouse himself from a +comfortable nap, and just murmur, "Watch, Moses!" then woe to anyone who +ventured too near Moses and his property. + +Now this division of labour, or rather this shifting of responsibility +on to another's shoulders, had its bad results, for while the dog +improved every day in sharpness and conscientious performance of duty, +the boy did the opposite. Tim became somewhat careless and lazy, and +though Joshua knew nothing of it, he did not really fill his post half +so well as before the dog came; he allowed things to get slack. Now, +whether one is a van-boy or a lord-chancellor this is bad, for slackness +leads to neglect, and neglect to worse things. You shall hear what +happened in Tim's case. + +One evening the carrier's cart was standing in a little back street in +the Borough waiting for Joshua; he had matters to settle, he told Tim, +which might take him an hour or more, and he added: + +"Look alive, now, for it's a nasty neighbourhood to be standing about +in, and there's some smallish parcels in the cart easy made off with. +Don't you let your eye off 'em." + +Tim promised, and, taking his seat on the edge of the cart with his legs +swinging, whistled to Moses, who was examining the neighbourhood in an +interested manner; he at once jumped up beside his master and assumed a +gravely watchful and responsible air. + +It was not an amusing street, but poor and squalid, full of small +lodging-houses, and little dingy shops; very few people were about, and +in spite of Joshua's warning no one seemed even to notice the carrier's +cart. + +Presently there walked slowly by, whistling carelessly, a boy about +Tim's own age; he was quite respectably, though poorly dressed, and wore +his cap very much on one side with an air of smartness which Tim thought +becoming. He stopped and looked at the boy and the dog, and they looked +at him, Moses ready to be suspicious, and Tim to be conversational if +required. + +For some minutes the group remained in silent contemplation, then the +new-comer said inquiringly: + +"Fer dog?" + +"Ah," said Tim, nodding his head. + +"Up to snuff, ain't he?" said the other boy. + +Tim nodded again, this time in a more friendly manner. + +"Wot's his name?" + +"Moses." + +"Yer give it him?" + +"Ah." + +"Where's yer boss?" (meaning master). + +"Yonder," with a backward movement of the head. + +The boy leant his back against a lamp-post near, and seemed in no hurry +to pursue his journey; Tim was not sorry, for a little conversation +beguiled the time, and his remark about Moses showed this to be an +intelligent and discerning youth. + +"Wot can he do?" he asked presently, still with his eye on the dog. + +Tim ran through a list of Moses' acquirements eagerly, and finished up +with: "And he can watch the parcels as well as a Christian--he wouldn't +let no one but me or Joshua come nigh 'em, not for anything." + +"Wouldn't he now?" said the boy admiringly. + +"You try," suggested Tim, anxious to show off Moses' talents. + +The stranger came a little nearer, and stretched out his hand as if to +touch one of the parcels; he quickly withdrew it, however, for Moses' +bristling mane and angry growl were sufficient warnings of his further +intentions. Both boys laughed, Tim triumphantly, and he patted the dog +with an air of proud proprietorship. + +"There's a Punch and Judy playin' in the next street," remarked the +stranger, "and they've got a dorg some'at like yours, he's a clever un +he is--wouldn't you like to see him?" + +"I've seen 'em--scores o' times," said Tim loftily. + +"Not such a good un as this, I lay. You come and see. It wouldn't take +you not two minutes, and your dog'll watch the things." + +"No," said Tim very quickly and decidedly, "I can't leave the cart." + +"You don't trust the dog much, then. You've bin humbuggin' about him, I +bet." + +"That I haven't," said Tim angrily, "I could trust him not to stir for +hours." + +"I should just like to see yer," sneered the boy--"I don't b'lieve yer +dare leave 'im a minute. Well, I wouldn't keep a stupid cur like that!" + +The taunt was more than Tim could bear. He knew that Moses would come +triumphantly out of the ordeal, and besides, he would really like to go +and see the clever Punch's dog in the next street; Joshua was safe for +another half-hour, and the place looked so quiet and deserted. It must +be safe. He would go. + +He jumped down from the cart, and spoke to Moses in a certain voice: + +"Watch, Moses!" he said, pointing to the parcels. + +The dog looked wistfully at his master, as though suspecting something +wrong or unusual, but he did not attempt to follow him; he lay down with +his nose between his paws, his short ears pricked, and his bright eyes +keenly observant. Then the two boys set off running down the street +together, and were soon out of his sight. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Half an hour later, Joshua, his business over, turned into the street +where he had left his cart. There it stood still, with the horses' +heads turned towards him; but what was that choking savage growl which +met his ear? Surely that was Moses' voice, though strangely stifled. + +With a hoarsely muttered oath Joshua quickened his pace to a run, +stretched out his powerful arm, and seized hold of a boy about Tim's +size, who, with several parcels in his arms, was trying in vain to +escape. In vain--because, hanging fast on to one leg, with resolute +grip and starting fiery eyes, was the faithful Moses. Every separate +hair of his rough coat bristled with excitement and rage, his head was +bleeding from a wound made by a kick or a blow, and he uttered all the +time the half-strangled growls which Joshua had heard. + +And where was Tim? Oh, sad falling off! Tim had deserted his post; he +had proved less faithful than the dog Moses. + +When a few minutes later he came hurrying back breathless, there were no +traces of what had happened, except on Joshua's enraged red countenance +and Moses' bleeding head. The strange boy, who had so easily beguiled +him, had been quickly handed over to a policeman. And there were no +parcels missing--thanks to Moses, but not, alas, to Tim. + +Disgraced and miserable, he stood before the angry Joshua, silent in the +midst of a torrent of wrathful words. He deserved every one of them. +Instant dismissal without a character was all he had to expect, and he +waited trembling for his fate. But, behold, an unlooked-for +intercessor! Moses, seeing Joshua's threatening attitude and his dear +master's downcast face, drew near to help him, and, as was his custom, +stood up and put his paw on the boy's arm. Joshua looked at the dog; +his silent presence pleaded eloquently in Tim's favour, and the angry +tone was involuntarily softened. + +"If ever a boy deserved the sack, it's you," he said; "and, as sure as +my name's Joshua, you should have it if it wasn't for that dog o' yourn. +He's worth a score o' boys, that dog is, for he does his dooty, as well +as knows what it is." + +Tim breathed again; he flung his arms round Moses' neck, who licked his +face eagerly. + +"Give us another chance," he cried imploringly, "we'll both work so +hard, Moses and me, and I'll never leave the cart again. If you only +won't turn us off I'll work without wage ever so long, that I will." + +"That, in course, you will," said Joshua grimly, yet relenting, "and +you'll get a jolly good thrashing besides. And if you're not turned off +you've got the dog to thank." + +He got up into his seat as he spoke, and Tim crept thankfully in at the +back of the cart with Moses. He had, indeed, "got the dog to thank." +Moses had paid his debt of gratitude now; he and Tim were equal. + +You will be glad to hear that Tim was not dismissed, and that he used +his other "chance" well, for no amount of sharp London boys could have +tempted him from his duty again. As for Moses, he was respected and +trusted by everyone on the road after this, and Joshua presented him +with a collar, whereon were inscribed his name and the date of the +memorable fray in which he acquitted himself so well. In spite of these +honours, however, all the love of his faithful heart continued to be +given to Tim; who, on his part, never forgot how it was and why it was +that he had "got the dog to thank." + + + +STORY THREE, CHAPTER 1. + +LIKE A BEAN-STALK--A SHORT STORY. + +It had always been an uncontested fact in the Watson family that Bridget +was plain. Even when she was a round toddling thing of five years old, +with bright eyes and thick brown curls, aunts and other relations had +often said in her presence: + +"Bridget is a dear little girl, but she will grow up plain." + +Plain! Bridget was quite used to the sound of the word, and did not +mind it at all, though she was conscious that it meant something to be +regretted, because people always said "but" before it. "A good child, +but plain." + +"A sweet-tempered little thing, but plain." + +However, it did not interfere with any pleasure or advantage that +Bridget could see. She could run faster than most of her brothers and +sisters, who were _not_ plain but pretty; she could climb a tree very +well indeed, with her stout little legs, and she could say a great many +verses of poetry by heart. Besides, she felt sure that Toto the black +poodle, and Samson the great cat, and all the other pets, loved her as +well as the rest, and perhaps even better. So she did not mind being +plain at all, until she was about thirteen years old and the new +governess came. + +Now about this time Bridget, who had hitherto been a compact sturdy +child, short for her age, began to grow in the most alarming manner; the +"Bean-stalk," her brothers called her, and one really could almost +believe she had shot up in a night, the growth was so sudden. Her arms +and legs seemed to be everywhere, always sprawling about in a +spider-like manner in unexpected places, so that she very often either +swept things off the table or tripped somebody up. Her mother looking +round on the children at their dinner hour would say: + +"My _dear_ Bridget, I believe you have grown an inch since yesterday! +How very short those sleeves are for you!" and then there was a general +chuckle at the poor "Bean-stalk." + +Then visitors would come, and Bridget with the others would be sent for +to the drawing-room; entering in gawky misery she well knew what +sentence would first strike her ear, and would try furtively to shelter +herself in the background. No use! + +"My dear Mrs Watson," the lady would cry, with an expression of amused +pity on her face, "how your daughter Bridget has grown! Why, she is as +tall as my girl of eighteen;" etcetera, etcetera. + +Bridget got tired of it at last, and she very much dreaded the arrival +of the new governess, because she felt sure that she should be so +"bullied," as the boys said, about her height and awkwardness. She +would cheerfully have sacrificed several inches of her arms and legs to +be comfortably short, but this could not be managed, so she must make +the best of it. + +Miss Tasker arrived. Bobbie saw her first, from an advantageous post he +had taken up for the purpose amongst the boughs of a large beech-tree in +front of the house. + +He saw her cab drive up with boxes on the top, and Toto dancing round +and round it on the tips of his toes barking loudly, which I am sorry to +say was his reprehensible manner of receiving strangers. Bobbie parted +the boughs a little more. It was a situation full of interest. Would +she be frightened of Toto? He felt a good deal depended on this as a +sign of her future behaviour. + +It appeared, however, that Miss Tasker was not afraid of dogs, for a +tall thin figure presently descended from the cab in the midst of Toto's +wildest demonstrations. Bobbie felt an increased respect for the new +governess, but meanwhile the "others" must at once be told the result of +his observations, and as she entered the house he slipped down from his +perch and scudded quickly away to find them. + +From this time Bridget's troubles increased tenfold; Miss Tasker had +severe views about deportment, and besides this her attention was +specially directed by Mrs Watson to Bridget's awkwardness. + +"I am particularly anxious," she said, "about my daughter Bridget, and +other lessons are really not of so much importance just now as that she +should learn to hold herself properly. As it is, she is so clumsy in +her movements that I almost tremble to see her enter the room." + +Poor Bridget! Her usual manner of entering a room was with her head +eagerly thrust forward, and her long arms swinging; that was when she +was quite comfortable and unselfconscious, but all this must be changed +now, and to achieve this Miss Tasker devised an ingenious method of +torture, which was practised every morning. It was this. Lessons began +at ten o'clock, at which time the children were expected to assemble in +the school-room, but now, instead of running in any how, they had to go +through the following scene. + +Miss Tasker sat at her desk ready to receive each pupil with a gracious +smile and bow; then one by one they entered with a solemn bow or curtsy +and said, "Good morning, Miss Tasker." + +"I call it humbug," remarked the outspoken Bobbie, "as if we hadn't seen +her once already at breakfast-time." + +How Bridget hated this ordeal! + +To know that Miss Tasker was waiting there ready to fix a keen grey eye +on her deficiencies, and that she would probably say when the curtsy was +done: + +"Once again, Bridget, and remember to _round_ the elbows." + +How to round your elbows when they naturally stuck out like +knitting-pins, Bridget could not conceive, and I am afraid that, pushed +to desperation, she soon left off even trying, and so became more +awkward than ever. + +But the ceremony once over, and lessons begun, Miss Tasker had no cause +for complaint, for Bridget was a ready and ambitious pupil. She had a +good memory, and being an imaginative child, it was a special pleasure +to her to learn poetry, in repeating which she would quite forget +herself and her awkwardness and pour forth page after page without a +single mistake. + +At such times, Miss Tasker's chill remarks of "Your shoulders, +Bridget"--"Don't poke, Bridget," generally fell on unheeding ears, but +there was one occasion on which Bridget did feel them to be especially +trying and out of place. + +She had been learning one of the "Lays of Ancient Rome," and was now +repeating it all through. In proud consciousness of not having missed +one word, and in full enjoyment of the swing of the poetry, she stood +with her head thrust forward and her chin in the air: + + "So he spake, and speaking sheathed + His good sword by his side, + And with his armour on his back + Plunged headlong in the tide! + No sound of--" + +"My _dear_ Bridget, draw in your chin," said the cold voice, and poor +Bridget, dropping suddenly down from the heights of heroic deeds to +dreary commonplace, felt that this was hard indeed. + +She had said it all without a mistake, and the only thing that seemed to +matter was how her chin, or her shoulders, or her arms looked. It was +unkind. It was unfair. It was too bad. She could not help being +awkward, and as they worried her so about it, she should not try to be +any different. + +From this time forward she would be just herself--plain, awkward +Bridget. So she resolved as she took the book back from Miss Tasker, +and sat down sullenly in her place, and so she continued to resolve as +several days went on. You know how, when one has once begun to be a +little naughty, everything that happens seems to increase the feeling, +and so it was with Bridget; everything Miss Tasker said, or did, or even +looked after this, made her feel more and more ill-used and injured, +till one unfortunate day brought matters to a climax. + +If there was one day in the week that Bridget disliked more than another +at this time it was Thursday, for Thursday was "dancing-day." It would +be hard to give you an idea of how much misery that meant to her, or how +fervently she used to pray for something to happen to prevent her going +to the class, which was held at a friend's house some miles away. A +sprained ankle, or a slight earthquake, not bad enough to hurt anyone, +were among her usual aspirations, but nothing of the kind ever occurred, +and she was borne away with her brothers and sisters by the relentless +Miss Tasker to the scene of torture; the suffering of martyrs, whom she +had read about, were, in Bridget's opinion, not worthy of mention beside +those to be endured at a dancing-class. + +Everything seemed to go wrong on this particular day, perhaps because +she did not try to make them go right, and at last, after the whole +class had been practising a step together, the dancing-mistress said +rather severely: + +"I wish Miss Bridget Watson to do the minuet steps alone: all the others +may sit down." + +With downcast eyes, and one shoulder pushed nervously up, Bridget stood +alone in the middle of the room. She felt that thousands of eyes, like +the little sharp pricks of so many needles, were transfixing her +luckless figure, for there were a good many lady visitors present +besides the children. + +"Now, if you please, Miss Watson. Straighten the shoulders. Take the +dress gracefully between fingers and thumb. Raise the head. One--two-- +three--begin!" + +The music played. Bridget was intensely nervous, but through it all she +felt a perverse pleasure in irritating Miss Tasker, so she performed +some grotesquely uncouth steps which raised a smile on almost every +face. + +"Again, if you please." + +It was done again, and if possible worse than before. + +"You may return to your seat." + +Which Bridget did with swift ungainly strides, feeling covered with +disgrace, and as she passed, an unfortunate whisper from one of the +visitors reached her ear: + +"What a windmill of a child to be sure!" + +She plunged into her seat, her eyes wet with tears of mortification, but +no one saw them except Bobbie, who sat next her. He did not understand +the full extent of her distress, but he looked up in her face and put +his small hand in hers. It was a sympathetic but sticky clasp, for +Bobbie always carried sweets in his pockets for solace at odd moments, +yet it comforted Bridget a little, and she gave it a silent squeeze in +return. + +But, hurt and sore and angry as she felt, the cup was not quite full +until that evening, when Mrs Watson came into the school-room while the +children were having tea. After her usual little chat with them she +said just before going away: + +"I am sorry to hear from Miss Tasker that Bridget does not seem to think +it worth while to take pains with her dancing, though she knows how +anxious I am about it." + +She looked at Bridget, who blushed hotly, but made no answer; and, +indeed, she could not, for she felt as though Bobbie's largest ball were +sticking in her throat. + +"I know," continued her mother, "that you cannot all do the same things +equally well, but you can at least try to do your best, however much you +may dislike any particular lesson. I should be more pleased to know +that Bridget tried to hold herself upright and took pains with her +dancing, than to hear that she had said all her lessons quite perfectly, +because I know one is a difficulty to her and the other none." + +Mother looked very grave, and she so seldom reproved any of the +children, that they felt this to be a solemn occasion, and their little +serious faces were all turned upon Bridget. + +She could not bear it. As her mother left the room she started up +abruptly, upsetting her cup and saucer, and, heedless of Miss Tasker's +warning voice, rushed out into the garden blinded with her tears. + +She must go somewhere and cry alone, and her steps turned instinctively +to the well-known refuge of "the barn," an old out-building which the +children had turned into a playground of their own; it was otherwise +disused, excepting that now and then some trusses of hay or straw were +put there, and it was a most splendid place to keep pets in. + +A numerous and motley family lived here in cages and hutches of all +kinds, generally made out of old packing-cases. There was a large +colony of white rats, two dormice named Paul and Silas, a jackdaw, +rabbits, and a little yellow owl, not to mention the pigeons who +fluttered in and out through the open door at will. They came whirling +round Bridget now as she entered and settled on her shoulders and head, +and pecked boldly at her shoes expecting to be fed. All the different +little creatures in cages roused themselves too, and gave signs that +they knew her in their various ways--by small scratching noises, by +ruffling of feathers, and tiny squeaks. The jackdaw, who was free, at +once came down from the rafters, and, standing before her in slim +elegance, raised his blue-grey crest and said "Jark," the only word he +knew. They all gave their little welcome. + +But Bridget could not take any notice of them to-day, her heart was too +full, though she felt with a dim sense of comfort that these were people +to whom her awkwardness made no difference. Otherwise the world was all +against her--Miss Tasker, the dancing-mistress, and now, to crown all, +mother! She threw herself down on some trusses of straw at the end of +the barn, and the tears which had made her eyes smart so all day flowed +freely. It was so unjust! That was what hurt her so. If she had been +naughty she would be sorry, that would be different. But she could not +feel that she was in fault at all. It was just because she was plain +and awkward that they were all unkind to her, so she whispered to +herself, and cried on. + +The barn was very quiet, only Bridget's sobs mingled with the cooing of +the pigeons and the rustling noises in the cages round. One slanting +ray from the setting sun lay on the floor, but the corner where Bridget +had thrown herself was in dusky shadow. + +And presently a strange thing happened. + +"Bridget! Bridget!" said a little husky voice. + +Bridget raised herself on her elbow, and looked round astonished. She +did not know the voice at all; and it sounded muffled, as though coming +through a heap of feathers. + +"Bridget! Bridget!" it said again. + +This time it plainly came from the rafters over Bridget's head. She +looked up, but there was nothing there except the little yellow owl, who +was sitting in his cage, with his eyes very round and bright. + +"How wise you look!" said Bridget aloud; "I wish you could help me." + +What was her astonishment when the owl at once replied, in the same +stifled voice: + +"What do you want?" + +Bridget paused. What _did_ she want? Then she remembered that as the +owl could talk, it must certainly be a fairy, and could do anything, so +she said: + +"I want to be very graceful." + +The owl did not answer immediately, and Bridget kept a watchful eye on +her arms and legs, almost expecting them to be changed into models of +grace at once. Nothing of the sort happened, however; and the owl sat +as though in deep thought. At last it said: + +"I can tell you a way, but it is difficult." + +"I don't care how difficult it is," cried Bridget, now very much +excited, "if you will only tell me what it is I will do it." + +"Try," said the owl solemnly. + +"Try what?" asked Bridget anxiously. + +"Try," repeated the owl, "nothing more; try." + +Bridget's face fell; she was very much disappointed. Every one had told +her that till she was sick of the word. The owl could not be a fairy +after all. + +"Is that all?" she said. "I always do that." + +"Always?" asked the owl. + +Bridget was silent a moment as she thought of the past week. + +"Why, not _quite_ always." + +"But it must be always," said the owl, "that's the secret of it. If at +_first_ you don't succeed, try, try, try again. You've heard that?" + +"Of course I have," said Bridget sorrowfully; "I've heard it much too +often." + +The owl did not answer, perhaps it was offended. + +"Can it be possible," thought Bridget, "that I really haven't tried +enough?" + +Just then something cold and moist was thrust into her hand, and she +started up bewildered, hardly able for the moment to make out where she +was. It was almost dark in the barn now, but presently she made out the +form of Toto the poodle, who had come to look for his mistress, and now +stood with his eager affectionate eyes fixed on her from under his +frizzled black hair. + +Bridget stretched out her arms to him, and leaning forward, kissed his +shaven nose; she felt wonderfully better, and looked up at the owl to +thank it for its advice. It sat there blinking as though it had never +spoken in its life. + +"But you did, you know," she said nodding at it, and she got up and ran +out of the barn with Toto springing round her. + +She thought a good deal afterwards of what the owl had said, and came to +the conclusion that perhaps she had been a good deal in fault. At any +rate she would "try again" and see how it answered. Bridget was a +resolute little character, and she took the matter in hand at once; but +I can best tell you how it "answered" by describing a scene which took +place a month later, on the last dancing-day before the holidays. + +The lesson was over, and the mistress was taking leave of her pupils; +the usual visitors sat round the room looking on. + +"And now," she said, "before we part, I must say a few special words +about one of my pupils, and that is, Miss Bridget Watson, whose marked +improvement during the past month I have been pleased to notice. I have +always felt that she had great difficulties to contend with, for when +young people are growing fast, it is not easy to manage the limbs +gracefully. I have to congratulate her upon her efforts, and to hope +that you will all follow her example in trying to do your best." + +There was a murmur of satisfaction, for Bridget was a general favourite +among her companions and they were all pleased to hear her praised. +Every one was pleased; Miss Tasker, who was fond of Bridget, beamed +behind her spectacles, and carried home the good news to Mrs Watson, +whose pleasure put a finishing touch to Bridget's exultation. Indeed, +for some minutes she was more like a windmill than ever, through excess +of joy, but it was holiday time, and even Miss Tasker said nothing. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +You all know the story of the "Ugly Duckling," and how, after all, it +became a beautiful white swan. I cannot say whether, in like manner, +Bridget grew up to be graceful and pretty, but one thing I am certain +of, and that is, that she never regretted following the owl's advice to +"try again." + + + +STORY FOUR, CHAPTER 1. + +ALL ALONE--A SHORT STORY. + +Nan was the youngest but one of the little Beresfords, and she was six +years old when the baby came, so she was quite a responsible person and +ready to be a great help to nurse. Her round face and form assumed airs +of dignity, and she strove valiantly to put away all babyish weaknesses +as things of the past. + +But some of them were too strong for Nan, struggle as she would, and she +found to her dismay that though she was six years old, and "baby" no +longer, she was still afraid of the dark. + +It had always been a dreadful moment to her when, leaving the cheerful +nursery, she must be tucked up in her little bed and see nurse take away +the candle. She would lie and stare with her bright round eyes into the +thick blackness, and feel grateful if she could fix them on any little +faint thread of light coming through chink or crevice. She could not +have told you what it was she feared, and perhaps this was the reason +why she never spoke of it to anyone--not even to mother. Besides, in +the bright morning light she forgot her fears, and being naturally a +cheerful and courageous child would have been ashamed to mention them. +In a large family children are not encouraged to make too much of their +troubles, for there is not time to attend to them; so no one knew that +merry little Nan, who was afraid of nothing by daylight or candle-light, +often lay awake at night long after she should have been asleep, and +felt very much afraid indeed. + +And now I am going to tell you how on one occasion Nan conquered her +fears all by herself, with no help from anyone on earth; and you must +remember that it is a far braver thing to do what one is told in spite +of being afraid, than not to be afraid at all. + +At Ripley, which was the next village to that in which Mr Beresford, +Nan's father, was rector, lived Squire Chorley, who had a large family +of boys and girls. They were fond of getting up concerts, and +theatricals, and readings for the poor people, and in all these things +the Beresfords were always asked over to help. And one Christmas +holidays there was to be an unusually grand entertainment given by the +children, which included a display of "Mrs Jarley's Wax-works." + +Nan would listen with absorbing interest to the discussion about who +should represent the different characters in wax-work, and she was +allowed to be present at the rehearsals, but there was no question of +such a little thing taking a part. She thought all the figures very +beautiful, especially Joan of Arc, who was dressed in splendid tinsel +armour and a crimson skirt, and was seated on a spotted rocking-horse. +When she gracefully waved her sword Nan could hardly believe that it +really was her own sister Sophy, and afterwards when she read about Joan +of Arc in the history of England she always fancied her looking just +like that, with long fair hair streaming down her back. + +There were a great many figures, as many as the stage would hold. And, +as it was the first time the wax-works had been attempted, the children +were particularly anxious that it should go off well, and that the +dresses should be especially brilliant. So everyone worked hard, and +Nan did her utmost to help, and was as excited about it as anyone. + +The evening before the performance there was to be a dress-rehearsal on +the stage which the carpenter had put up in the school-room, and six +excited little Beresfords were packed into the wagonette with the German +governess, and driven over to Ripley. Fraulein was rather excited too, +for she was to sing a song in an interval of the performance, and also +to represent the Chinese giant in the wax-works. + +But when they reached the village school-room they found the other +members of the company in low spirits, for they had received a blow. +Johnnie Chorley, who was to have been "Jack-in-the-box," had so bad a +cold that he was not to play. + +"I knew how it would be," said Agatha, the eldest girl, despondingly, +"when Johnnie wouldn't change his boots yesterday. And now there will +be no Jack-in-the-box; and it was one of the best." + +"Can't someone else take it?" said Tom Beresford, looking round. + +"No one small enough for the tub," was the answer; "Johnnie is such a +mite, and made such good faces." + +Nan's heart beat fast. It was on her lips to say, "I am small enough," +but she did not dare. She only pushed herself a little in front, and +stared up at Tom and Agatha with solemn, longing eyes. + +The former, a tall boy of fifteen, who was stage-manager on these +occasions, stood whistling in a perplexed manner, and his eyes fell on +the compact little figure in front of him. + +"Hallo!" he said suddenly, "I have it. Here's your Jack!" + +He took Nan up and stood her on a form near. + +"What, Nan?" said all the voices in different tones, and everyone looked +at her critically. + +Nan stood quite quietly, with her cheeks very red, and her eyes +glistening, and her hands tucked into her little muff. She was so +afraid that they would say she could not do it, and she felt so sure +that she could. But it was settled that she might at least try; and, oh +delightful moment! She was lifted into the barrel, which was very cold +and smelt of beer, and told what was expected of her. + +"You know, Nan," said Tom, "that you are not to show the least little +bit of your head until you hear Mrs Jarley winding you up, and then you +must pop up suddenly, and make a nice little funny face as you have seen +Johnnie do." + +Now, Nan was a most observant child, and had taken careful notes of +Johnnie's performance, which she very much admired; so, although her +heart beat very quickly, she bobbed up just at the right minute with +such a comical expression that there was a burst of applause, and "Well +done, Nan!" from the company. + +Happy Nan! They put a scarlet cloak on her, very full in the neck, and +a queer little tow wig with a top-knot, and painted a red patch on each +cheek; and there she was, a member of the wax-works, and the happiest +little soul in the county. + +She was to be a wax-work! The honour was almost too much, and the only +drawback was poor Johnnie's disappointment. She thought of that, +driving home that evening, and was so quiet that Fraulein thought she +was asleep, but she was only resolving that she would offer Johnnie her +spotted guinea-pig to make up. + +So the eventful evening came, and everything was wonderfully successful; +Mrs Jarley's wax-works was considered the best thing that had been seen +in the village for years, and everyone laughed very much. Nan did her +very best to make a good Jack, and though she got very cramped in the +tub, before her turn came to be exhibited, she made some most agile +springs, and was heartily applauded. Then the Vicar of Ripley made a +speech and thanked the performers, and all the people cheered, and then +everyone, including the wax-works, sang "God save the Queen," and the +entertainment was over. + +There was a great bustling and chattering afterwards in the green-room, +where the actors were trying to find cloaks and shawls and hats, for +they were all to go to Mr Chorley's to supper, and no one seemed able +to get hold of the right things. + +Fraulein was fussing about her overshoes which she had lost, and there +was a general struggle and confusion. Nan stood in a corner in her +quaint little dress, waiting for someone to wrap her up, and at last her +sister Sophy saw her. + +"Why! There you are, you quiet little Nan," she said, "I will find your +hood if I can. Here it is, and here is a shawl." She bundled the child +up warmly, and kissed her. "You were a jolly little Jack," she went on, +"and now you are to go home with cousin Annie and sleep at her house +to-night. Run into the school-room and find her." + +Cousin Annie was the Vicar of Ripley's wife, and had a little girl of +Nan's own age, so it was a great treat to stay with her. Nan poked her +way among the people who were still standing about in the school-room +chatting together before they dispersed, but she could not see anyone +she knew. Then she waited a long while at the door, but there was no +cousin Annie, she had evidently gone home. Nan peeped out. Down the +road which led to Mr Chorley's she heard distant voices and laughter, +and saw the twinkling light of lanterns, but in the opposite direction +it was all quite dark and silent, and that was the way to cousin +Annie's. She knew it as well as possible, and it was not very far, +quite a short distance, in the _daylight_--you had only to go down the +lane, and turn a little to the right, and go in at the white gate near +the pond. A very simple matter in the daytime; but now! Nan stepped +back into the room; she would go and tell them that cousin Annie had +gone, and then someone would go with her. But to her dismay she found +the green-room dark and silent; they had all gone out by the other door +without coming through the school-room, and Nan was alone. She stood +irresolute, clutching the heavy shawl which Sophy had wrapped round her, +and feeling half inclined to cry. There was only one thing to do now, +and that was to go down the dark lane all by herself. Nan had been +brought up in habits of the most simple obedience, and it never occurred +to her to question any order. "You are to go to cousin Annie's," Sophy +had said, so of course she must go. + +She choked down a little sob, and pulled open the door again, and +trotted out into the darkness. Her heavy shawl rather impeded her, so +she could not go very fast, and the road was rough and uneven for her +small feet. She looked up to see if she could find any comfortable +twinkling star for a companion, but the sky was all black and overcast, +and there was no moon. Then she said her evening prayer to herself, but +it was very short and did not last long, and then all the hymns she +knew, and then all the texts, and by that time she was nearly at the +bottom of the lane, when, oh misfortune! She caught her foot in the +dangling end of the big shawl and fell flat in the mud. It was very +hard to keep back the tears after that; but she gathered herself up as +well as she could and stumbled on, until at last she passed through the +white gate, which stood open, and reached the front door of the +Vicarage. But her troubles were not over yet, for she found that, even +by standing on the very tips of her toes, she could reach neither bell +nor knocker. She rapped as hard as she could with her soft little +knuckles, but they made no more noise on the great door than a bird's +beak would have done; and then she tried some little kicks, but no one +came. + +She felt very lonely and miserable with the black night all round her, +and it seemed to make it worse to think of her brothers and sisters +enjoying themselves so much at Mr Chorley's. How sorry they would be +for Nan if they knew! And then she felt so sorry for herself, that she +was obliged to sit down on the stone steps and cry. She was hungry, as +well as frightened and cold, for she had been much too excited to eat +anything at tea-time, and now it was past ten o'clock. Oh to be in her +little white bed at home! She cuddled herself up as close to the door +as she could, and laid her cheek against it, shrinking back from the +darkness which seemed to press against her, and presently, how it came +to pass she never know, her head began to nod and she went fast to +sleep. + +The next thing she remembered was hearing a voice say, quite close to +her: "Why, it's little Nan! How did the child get here?" And then +someone took her up, and carried her with strong arms into a warm room +with bright lights. And then she found herself on cousin Annie's knee, +and saw people standing round asking eager questions and looking very +much amused. And no wonder, for Nan was a very funny-looking little +bundle indeed, in spite of her woe-begone appearance; her round face was +streaked with mud, and tears, and scarlet paint, and the odd little wig +had fallen over one eye in a waggish manner. When the hood and shawl +were taken off, a more disconsolate little Jack-in-the-box could hardly +be imagined, for what with hunger, fatigue, and the comfort of feeling +cousin Annie's kind arms round her, Nan's tears fell fast and she could +not stop them. + +They could just make out between her sobs something about "Sophy" and +"sleeping," but that was all; and at last cousin Annie said, "Never +mind, darling, you shall tell me all about it by and by." And then poor +little weary Nan was carried upstairs, and washed, and put to bed, and +cousin Annie brought her some supper, and sat by her until she dropped +gently off to sleep. + +It turned out afterwards that Fraulein in the excitement of the moment +had forgotten to deliver the message about Nan, so that none expected +her at the Vicarage. When she went home the next day Tom said she was +quite a "little heroine." Nan did not know what that meant, but she was +sure it was something pleasant. + +And the best of it all was, that after this adventure Nan never felt so +frightened of the dark again. But that she kept to herself. + + + +STORY FIVE, CHAPTER 1. + +PENELOPE'S NEEDLEWORK--A SHORT STORY. + +One of the greatest trials of Penelope's life when she was ten years old +was music, and the other, needlework; she could not see any possible use +in learning either of them, and none of the arguments put forward by +nurse, governess, or mother, made the least impression on her mind. It +was especially hard, she thought, that she had to go on with music, +because Ralph, her younger brother, had been allowed to leave off. +"Won't you have pity on me, and let me leave off too?" she asked her +mother one day imploringly. But mother, though she was touched by the +pleading face, and though Penelope's music lessons were household +afflictions, thought it better to be firm. + +"You see, darling," she said, "that now you have got on so much further +than Ralph it would be a pity to leave off. You have broken the back of +it." + +"Ah, no," sighed poor Penelope, "it's broken the back of me." + +And then the needlework! Could there be a duller, more unsatisfactory +occupation? Particularly if your stitches _would_ always look crooked +and straggling, and when the thimble hurt your finger, and the needle +got sticky, and the thread broke when you least expected it. It was +quite as bad as music in its way. Penelope would sigh wearily over her +task, and envy the people in the Waverley novels, who, she felt sure, +never sewed seams or had music lessons. + +For the Waverley novels were Penelope's favourite books, and she asked +nothing better than to curl herself up in some corner with one of the +volumes, and to be left alone. + +Then, once plunged into the adventures of "Ivanhoe," or "Quentin +Durward," or the hero of "The Talisman," her troubles vanished. + +She followed her hero in all his varying fortunes, and was present at +his side in battle; she saw him struggling against many foes, fighting +for the poor and weak, meeting treachery with truth, and falsehood with +faithfulness; she heard the clash of his armour, and watched his good +sword flash in the air at the tournament; she trembled for him when he +was sore wounded, and rejoiced with him when, after many a hard-won +fray, he was rewarded by the hand of his lady love. Those were days +indeed! There was something quite remarkably flat and stupid in sitting +down to hem a pocket-handkerchief when you had just come from the +tourney at Ashby de la Zouche, or in playing exercises and scales while +you were still wondering whether King Louis the Eleventh _would_ hang +the astrologer or not. + +Penelope loved all her books. She had a shelf of her own in the +play-room quite full of them, but the joy and pride of her heart were +the Waverley novels, which her father had given her on her last +birthday. + +It was a great temptation to her to spend all her pocket-money in buying +new books, but she knew this would have been selfish, so she had made +the following arrangement. She kept two boxes, one of which she called +her "charity-box," and into this was put the half of any money she had +given to her; this her mother helped her to spend in assisting any poor +people who specially needed it. The money in the other box was saved up +until there was enough to buy a new book, but this did not occur very +often. Penelope liked it all the better when it did, for, though she +could read some stories over and over again with pleasure, they did not +all bear constant study equally well, in some cases, she told her +mother, "it was like trying to dry your face on a wet towel." + +One morning Penelope, or "Penny," as she was generally called, was +sitting in the nursery window-seat with a piece of sewing in her hands, +it seemed more tiresome even than usual, for there was no one in the +room but nurse, and she appeared too busy for any conversation. Penny +had tried several subjects, but had received such short absent answers +that she did not feel encouraged to proceed, so there was nothing to +beguile the time, and she frowned a good deal and sighed heavily at +intervals. At last she looked up in despair. + +"What _can_ you be doing, nurse?" she said, "and why are you looking at +all those old things of mine and Nancy's?" + +Nurse did not answer. She held out a little shrunken flannel dress at +arm's-length between herself and the light and scanned it critically, +then she put it on one side with some other clothes and took up another +garment to examine with equal care. Penny repeated her question, and +this time nurse heard it. + +"I'm just looking out some old clothes for poor Mrs Dicks," she said. + +"Do you mean _our_ Mrs Dicks?" asked Penny. "What does she want +clothes for?" + +"Well, Miss Penny," said nurse, proceeding to look through a pile of +little stockings, "when a poor woman's lost her husband, and is left +with six children to bring up on nothing, she's glad of something to +clothe them with." + +Penny felt interested. "Our Mrs Dicks" had been her mother's maid, and +after she married the children had often been to visit her, and +considered her a great friend. Sometimes they went to tea with her, and +once she had given Nancy, Penny's second sister, a lovely fluffy kitten. + +Penny was fond of Mrs Dicks, and it seemed dreadful to think that she +must now bring up six children on nothing. She felt, however, that she +must inquire into the thing a little more. + +"Why must she bring up her six children on nothing?" she asked, letting +her work fall into her lap. + +"Because," said nurse shortly, "she hasn't got any money or anyone to +work for her. But if I were you, Miss Penny, I'd get on with my +needlework, and not waste time asking so many questions." + +"Well," said Penny, making fruitless attempts to thread her needle, "I +suppose mother will help her to get some money. I shall ask her to let +me give her some out of the charity-box--only I'm afraid there isn't +much in it now." + +"If you really wanted to help her," said nurse, who saw an excellent +opportunity for making a useful suggestion, "you might make some things +for her baby; she hasn't much time for sewing, poor soul." + +"Oh, I couldn't possibly do that," said Penny decidedly, "because, you +know, I hate needlework so. I couldn't do any extra, it would take all +my time." + +Nurse rolled up a tight bundle of clothes and left the room without +answering, and Penny, with her frowning little face bent over her work, +went on thinking about Mrs Dicks and her six children. She wondered +whether they had enough to eat now; if they were to be brought up on +nothing, they probably had not, she thought, and she felt anxious to +finish her task that she might run and ask mother about it, and how she +could best help with the money out of the charity-box. So she cobbled +over the last stitches rather hastily, and put the work away; but she +found after all that her mother was too busy to attend to her just then. +The next step, therefore, was to ascertain the state of the +charity-box, and she took it down from the mantel-piece in the play-room +and gave it a little shake. It made quite a rich sound; but Penny knew +by experience what a noise coppers can make, so she was not very hopeful +as she unscrewed the top and looked in. And matters were even worse +than she feared, for all the box contained was this: two pennies, one +halfpenny, and one stupid little farthing. Penny felt quite angry with +the farthing, for it was bright and new, and looked at the first glance +almost like gold. + +"If you were a fairy farthing," she said, "you'd get yourself changed +into gold on purpose to help Mrs Dicks; but it's no use waiting for +that." + +That afternoon Penny was to go out with her mother, instead of walking +with the other school-room children and the governess. It was a great +honour and delight, and she had saved up so many questions to ask about +various subjects that she had scarcely time to tell her about Mrs Dicks +and the state of the charity-box. + +They had just begun to talk about it, when Mrs Hawthorne stopped at a +house near their own home. + +"Oh, mother!" cried Penny in some dismay, "are we going to see Mrs +Hathaway?" + +"Yes," answered her mother, "she has promised to show me her +embroideries, and I think you will like to see them too." + +Penny did not feel at all sure about that, she was rather afraid of Mrs +Hathaway, who was a severe old lady, noted for her exquisite needlework; +however, it was a treat to go anywhere with mother, even to see Mrs +Hathaway. + +The embroideries were, indeed, very beautiful, and exhibited with a good +deal of pride, while Penny sat in modest silence listening to the +conversation. She privately regarded Mrs Hathaway's handiwork with a +shudder, and thought to herself, "How very little time she must have for +reading!" + +Scarcely any notice had been taken of her yet; but presently, when +everything had been shown and admired, Mrs Hathaway turned her keen +black eyes upon her, and said: + +"And this little lady, now, is she fond of her needle?" + +A sympathetic glance passed between Mrs Hawthorne and Penny, but she +knew she must answer for herself, and she murmured shyly though +emphatically: + +"Oh, _no_." + +"No! Indeed," said Mrs Hathaway, "and why not?" + +She was a very upright old lady, and when she said this she sat more +upright than ever, and fixed her eyes on Penny's face. + +Penny felt very uncomfortable under this gaze, and wriggled nervously, +but she could find nothing better to say than: + +"Because I _hate_ it so." + +"I am afraid," put in Mrs Hawthorne, "that Penny doesn't quite +understand the importance of being able to sew neatly; just now she +thinks of nothing but her books, but she will grow wiser in time, and +become a clever needlewoman, I hope." + +Mrs Hathaway had not taken her eyes off Penny with a strong expression +of disapproval; she evidently thought her a very ill brought-up little +girl indeed. Now she turned to Mrs Hawthorne and said: + +"I question whether all this reading and study is an advantage to the +young folks of the present day. I do not observe that they are more +attractive in manner than in the time I remember, when a young lady was +thought sufficiently instructed if she could sew her seam and read her +Bible." + +She turned to Penny again and continued: "Now, the other day I heard of +a society which I think you would do well to join. It is a working +society, and the members, who are some of them as young as you are, +pledge themselves to work for half an hour every day. At the end of the +year their work is sent to the infant Africans, and thus they benefit +both themselves and others. Would you like to join it?" + +"Oh, _no_, thank you," said Penny in a hasty but heartfelt manner. + +"Why not?" + +"Because I never could fulfil that promise. I shouldn't like to belong +to that society at all. I don't know the Africans, and if I work, I'd +rather work for Mrs Dicks." Penny spoke so quickly that she was quite +out of breath. + +"And who, my dear child," said Mrs Hathaway, surprised at Penny's +vehemence, "is Mrs Dicks?" + +She spoke quite kindly, and her face looked softer, so Penny was +emboldened to tell her about the whole affair, and how Mrs Dicks was a +very nice woman, and had six children to bring up on nothing. + +"I wanted to help her out of the charity-box," concluded Penny, "but +there's scarcely anything in it." + +Mrs Hathaway looked really interested, and Penny began to think her +rather a nice old lady after all. After she and her mother left the +house she walked along for some time in deep thought. + +"What are you considering, Penny?" asked Mrs Hawthorne at last. + +"I think," said Penny very deliberately, "that as there's so little in +the charity-box I should like to work for Mrs Dicks' children." + +Mrs Hawthorne knew what an effort this resolve had cost her little +daughter. + +"Well, dear Penny," she answered, "if you do that I think you will be +giving her a more valuable gift than the charity-box full of money." + +"Why?" said Penny. + +"Because you will give her what costs you most. It is quite easy to put +your hand in your box and take out some money; but now, besides the +things you make for her, you will have to give her your patience and +your perseverance, and also part of the time you generally spend on your +beloved books." + +"So I shall!" sighed Penny. + +But she kept her resolve and did work for Mrs Dicks. Very unpleasant +she found it at first, particularly when there was some interesting new +story waiting to be read. + +Gradually, however, there came a time when it did not seem quite so +disagreeable and difficult, and she even began to feel a little pride in +a neat row of stitches. + +The day on which she finished a set of tiny shirts for the baby Dicks +was one of triumph to herself, and of congratulation from the whole +household; Mrs Dicks herself was almost speechless with admiration at +Miss Penny's needlework; indeed the finest embroideries, produced by the +most skilful hand, could not have been more praised and appreciated. + +"Penny," said Mrs Hawthorne, "have you looked in the charity-box +lately?" + +"Why, no, mother," answered she, "because I know there's only twopence +three farthings in it." + +"Go and look," said her mother. + +And what do you think Penny found? The bright farthing was gone, and in +its place there was a shining little half-sovereign. How did it come +there? + +That I will leave you to guess. + + + +STORY SIX, CHAPTER 1. + +THE BLACK PIGS--A TRUE STORY. + +"I know what we must do--we must sell them at the market!" + +"Where?" + +"At Donnington." + +"We shall want the cart and horse." + +"Ask father." + +"No. _You_ ask him--you know I always stammer so when I ask." + +The speakers were two dark, straight-featured little boys of ten and +twelve, and the above conversation was carried on in eager whispers, for +they were not alone in the room. + +It was rather dark, for the lamp had not been lighted yet, but they +could see the back of the vicar's head as he sat in his arm-chair by the +fire, and they knew from the look of it that he was absorbed in thought; +he had been reading earnestly as long as it was light enough, and +scarcely knew that the boys were in the room. + +"_You_ ask," repeated Roger, the elder boy, "I always stammer so." + +Little Gabriel clasped his hands nervously, and his deep-set eyes gazed +apprehensively at the back of his father's head. + +"I don't like to," he murmured. + +"But you must," urged Roger eagerly; "think of the pigs." + +Thus encouraged, Gabriel got up and walked across the room. He thought +he could ask better if he did not face his father, so he stopped just at +the back of the chair and said timidly: + +"Father." + +The vicar looked round in a sort of dream and saw the little +knickerbockered figure standing there, with a wide-mouthed, nervous +smile on its face. + +"Well," he said in an absent way. + +"O please, father," said Gabriel, "may Roger and I have the cart and +horse to-morrow?" + +"Eh, my boy? Cart and horse--what for?" + +"Why," continued Gabriel hurriedly, "to-morrow's Donnington market, and +we can't sell our pigs here, and he thought--I thought--we thought, that +we might sell them there." + +He gazed breathless at his father's face, and knew by its abstracted +expression that the vicar's thoughts were very far away from any +question of pigs--as indeed they were, for they were busy with the +subject of the pamphlet he had been reading. + +"Foolish boys, foolish boys," he said, "do as you like." + +"Then we may have it, father?" + +"Do as you like, do as you like. Don't trouble, there's a good boy;" +and he turned round to the fire again without having half realised the +situation. + +But Roger and Gabriel realised it fully, and the next morning between +five and six o'clock, while it was still all grey, and cold, and misty, +they set forth triumphantly on their way to market with the pigs +carefully netted over in the cart. Through the lanes, strewn thickly +with the brown and yellow leaves of late autumn, up the steep chalk hill +and over the bare bleak downs, the old horse pounded steadily along with +the two grave little boys and their squeaking black companions. + +There was not much conversation on the road, for, although Gabriel was +an excitable and talkative boy, he was now so fully impressed by the +importance of the undertaking that he was unusually silent, and Roger +was naturally rather quiet and deliberate. + +They had to drive between five and six miles to Donnington, and at last, +as they wound slowly down a long hill, they saw the town and the +cathedral towers lying at their feet. + +They were a good deal too early, for in their excitement they had +started much too soon. + +"But that is all the better," said Roger, "because we shall get a good +place." + +Presently the pen, made of four hurdles, was ready, the pigs safely in +it, and the boys took their station in front of it and waited events. + +Donnington market was a large one, well attended by all the fanners for +miles round; gradually they came rattling up in their carts and gigs, or +jogging along on horseback, casting shrewd glances at the various beasts +which had already been driven in. Some of the men knew the boys quite +well, and greeted them with, "Fine day, sir," and a broad stare of +surprise. + +By the time the cathedral clock had sounded nine the market was in full +swing. + +A medley of noises. The lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the +squeak of some outraged pig, mixed with the shouts of the drovers and +the loud excited voices of buyers and sellers. In the midst of all this +turmoil the little boys stood steadily at their post, looking up +anxiously as some possible buyer elbowed his way past and stopped a +minute to notice the black pigs; but none got further than "Good-day, +sir," and a grin of amusement. + +So the day wore on. They had brought their dinner tied up in Roger's +handkerchief, and some acorns for the pigs, so at one o'clock they all +had a little meal together. There was a lull just then, for most of the +farmers had poured into the "Blue Boar" to dinner, and the people who +were left were engaged in steadily munching the contents of the baskets +they had brought with them. + +Roger and Gabriel had not lost heart yet, and still hoped to sell the +pigs, but they certainly began to feel very tired, especially Gabriel, +who, having remained manfully upright all the morning, now felt such an +aching in the legs that he was obliged to take a seat on a basket turned +upside down. + +The afternoon waned, it grew a little dusk, still no buyer. Soon the +boys knew that they must begin their long drive home. But, to take the +pigs back again; it was too heartrending to think of. + +Then there was suddenly a little bustle in the market, and people moved +aside to let a new-comer pass down the narrow space between the pens +opposite to where the boys had placed themselves. It was a broad comely +gentleman of middle age, dressed in riding-boots, and cords, and a faded +green coat. He had a riding-whip in his hand, with which he touched the +brim of his hat in acknowledgment of the greetings round him; his dog +followed close on his heels. There was a pleased recognition on all the +faces, for everyone liked Squire Dale; he was a bold rider, and a good +shot, and a kind landlord. + +"Hullo, boys," he said cheerily, for he knew Roger and Gabriel well, +"what are you doing here? Is your father in the town?" + +"N-n-no," replied Roger, stammering very much; "we c-came to sell our +p-p-p-pigs." + +"And we can't," put in Gabriel rather mournfully from his basket. + +The squire's eyes twinkled, though his face was perfectly grave. + +"Pigs, eh?" he said. "Whose pigs are they?" + +"Our pigs," said Gabriel; "and if we sell them, we've got a plan." + +The squire stood planted squarely in front of them with his hands in his +pockets, looking down at the serious little figures without speaking. + +"Tiring work marketing, eh?" he said at last. + +"G-Gabriel _is_ a little tired," replied Roger glancing at his younger +brother, whose face was white with fatigue. + +"Well, now," continued Squire Dale, "it's an odd thing, but I just +happened to be walking through the market to see if I could find some +likely pigs for myself. But," with a glance at the dusky occupants of +the pen, "they _must_ be black." + +Gabriel forgot that he was tired. + +"They're beautiful black pigs," he cried, jumping up eagerly, "as black +as they can be. Berkshire pigs. Look at them." + +So the squire looked at them; and not only looked at them, but asked the +price and bought them, putting the money into a very large +weather-beaten purse of Roger's; and presently the two happy boys were +seated opposite to him in the parlour of the "Blue Boar" enjoying a +substantial tea. + +With renewed spirits they chatted away to their kind host, whose jolly +brown face beamed with interest and good-humour as he listened. At last +Gabriel put down his tea-cup with a deep-drawn sigh of contentment, and +said to his brother mysteriously: + +"Shall we tell about the plan?" + +Roger nodded. He could not speak just then, for he was in the act of +taking a large mouthful of bread and jam. + +"Shall I tell it," said Gabriel, "or you?" + +"You," said Roger huskily. + +"You see," began Gabriel, turning to the squire confidentially, "it is a +coperative plan." + +"A what?" interrupted the squire. + +"That's not the right word," said Roger; "he means co-co-co--" + +"Oh yes, I know, co-operative. Isn't that it?" + +"Yes, that's it, of course," continued Gabriel, speaking very quickly +for fear that Roger should take the matter out of his hands. "We're +going to put our money together, and Ben is going to put some money in +too, and then we shall buy a pig; and when it has a litter we shall sell +them, and perhaps buy a calf, and so we shall get some live stock, and +have a farm, and share the profits." + +Gabriel sat very upright while he spoke, with a deepening flush on his +cheeks. The squire leaned forward with a hand on each knee, and +listened attentively. + +"Well," he said, "that seems a good plan. Where's the farm to be? In +the vicarage garden?" + +"Father wouldn't like that," said Roger. + +"Why, possibly not," said the squire; "you see it's not always nice to +have cattle and pigs too close to a house. But I tell you what; you +know that little field of mine near the church, I'm wanting to let that +off, how would that do?" + +"It would be just the very thing," said Roger, "but," he added +reflectively, "we couldn't afford to give you much for it." + +"You must talk it over with Ben," said the squire rising, "it's not an +expensive little bit of land, and I should say about ten shillings a +year would be about the right price. And now, boys, you must start for +home--as it is you won't be there much before dark." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The co-operative plan began very well indeed. Roger and Gabriel, with a +little assistance and advice from their eldest brother Ben, built a +capital sty on Squire Dale's little bit of land, which was conveniently +near the vicarage, and soon, behold them the proud possessors of a sow +and nine black pigs! The boys' pride and pleasure were immense, and +nothing could exceed their care and attention to the mother and her +children; perhaps these were overdone, which may account for the tragic +event which shortly took place. + +The little pigs were about two weeks old, very "peart" and lively, and +everything was proceeding in a satisfactory manner, when one morning +Gabriel went to visit them as usual with a pail of food. As he neared +the sty, he heard, instead of the low "choug, choug, choug," to which he +was accustomed, nothing but a chorus of distressed little squeaks. He +quickened his steps; his heart beat very fast; he looked over the edge +of the sty, and, oh horror! The sow was stretched flat on her side +quite dead, while her black family squeaked and struggled and poked at +each other with their little pointed snouts. + +Quick as lightning he grasped the situation, and throwing down the pail +which he held rushed back to the house, almost stunning Roger, whom he +met on the way, with the dreadful news. There was no time to be lost-- +if the pigs were to be saved they must be fed at once. In hot haste the +boys returned with a wheel-barrow, put the seven little creatures into +it, for two out of the nine were dead, and took them into the vicarage +kitchen. Then each boy, with a pig held tenderly in his arms like a +baby, crouched in front of the broad hearth and tried to induce them to +swallow some warm milk. + +"Choug, choug, choug," grunted Gabriel in fond imitation of the mother +pig. + +"Ch-ch-choug," repeated Roger, dandling his his charge on the other +side. + +Presently all the seven pigs were warmed and fed, and put into a large +rabbit-hutch just outside the kitchen door; they were quiet now, and lay +in a black contented heap, with their little eyes blinking lazily. The +boys stood and looked at them gravely. + +"We shall have to feed them every hour," said Roger, "Zillah says so." + +"Oh! Roger," cried Gabriel doubtfully, "do you think we shall ever +bring them up?" + +"We _will_ bring them up," replied Roger, clenching his fist with quiet +determination. + +But it really was not such an easy matter as some people might suppose, +and especially was it difficult to manage at night. The boys divided +the work in a business-like manner, and took turns to go down every +alternate hour to feed their troublesome foster-children. Zillah, the +cook, allowed the hutch to be brought into the kitchen at night, and +undertook to feed the pigs at six o'clock in the morning, but until then +the boys were responsible and never once flinched from what they had +undertaken. It was getting cold weather now, and bed was delightfully +cosy and warm, but nevertheless little Gabriel would tumble out with his +eyes half shut, at Roger's first whisper of "Your turn now," and creep +through the lonely house and down the kitchen stairs. They had arranged +an ingenious feeding apparatus with a quill inserted through the cork of +a medicine bottle, and the pigs took to it quite kindly, sucked away +vigorously, and throve apace. + +But it was hard work, when the first excitement of it was over, and +Gabriel felt it particularly; he was a delicate boy, and after one or +two of these night excursions he would lie shivering in his little bed, +and find it impossible to go to sleep again, while Roger snored +peacefully at his side. + +It need hardly be said that the vicar knew nothing of these proceedings, +and Ben was at college, so matters were allowed to go on in this way for +nearly a month, by which time Gabriel had managed to get a very bad cold +on his chest, and a cough. As the pigs got fatter, and rounder, and +more lively, he became thinner, and whiter, and weaker--a perfect shadow +of a little boy; but still he would not give up his share of the work, +until one day he woke up from what seemed to him to have been a long +sleep, and found that he was lying in bed, in a room which was still +called the "nursery," and that he felt very tired and weak. He pulled +aside the curtain with a feeble little hand, and saw Roger sitting there +quite quietly, with his head bent over a book. How strange everything +was! What did it all mean? Then Roger raised his head. + +"Oh, you're awake!" he said looking very pleased, "I will go and call +nurse." + +He was going away on tip-toe, but Gabriel beckoned to him and he came +near. + +"Roger," he said in a small whispering voice, "why am I in this room?" + +"You're not to talk," said Roger. "You've been ill for a long time--a +fever--and oh," clasping his hands, "how you have been going on about +the pigs! You tried to get out of bed no end of times to go and feed +them; and I heard the doctor say to father, `We must manage to subdue +this restlessness--he _must_ have some quiet sleep.' And oh, we were +all so glad when you went to sleep, and now you will get quite well +soon." + +Gabriel tried to say, "How are the pigs?" but he was really too weak, so +he only smiled, and Roger hurried out of the room to call the nurse. + +Later on, when he was getting quite strong again, he heard all about it, +and how, by his father's advice, the pigs had been sold to a +neighbouring farmer. + +"And they _are_ such jolly pigs," said Roger; "he says he never saw such +likely ones. And they knew me when I went to see them, and rubbed +against my legs. You see," he added, "it was really best to sell them, +because father says we are to go to school at Brighton soon, and then we +couldn't see after the farm." + +So this was the end of the co-operative plan. Not carried out after +all, in spite of the patience and care bestowed upon it; but I feel sure +that in after years Roger and Gabriel were not unsuccessful men, if they +learnt their lessons at school and in life with half the determination +they used in rearing the black pigs. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Frank, by Amy Walton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR FRANK *** + +***** This file should be named 23114.txt or 23114.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/1/23114/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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