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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/25959-h.zip b/25959-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bc6e41 --- /dev/null +++ b/25959-h.zip diff --git a/25959-h/25959-h.htm b/25959-h/25959-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48880aa --- /dev/null +++ b/25959-h/25959-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4854 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Littlebourne Lock, by F. Bayford Harrison + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; background-color:#FFFFFF; } + +p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em; } + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 +{ + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +hr +{ + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +a[name] { position: static; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none; } + a:visited {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none; } + a:hover { color:#ff0000; } + +table { width: 60%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.tocch { text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} +.tocpg {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + +.pagenum +{ /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; +} /* page numbers */ + +.f1 { font-size:smaller; } + +.center {text-align: center;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + +.figleft +{ + float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0.5em; padding: 0; text-align: center; +} + +// --> +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Littlebourne Lock, by F. Bayford Harrison + +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: Littlebourne Lock + +Author: F. Bayford Harrison + +Release Date: July 3, 2008 [EBook #25959] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLEBOURNE LOCK *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" height="606" alt="Cover" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_01.jpg" width="400" height="601" alt=""I'VE SPILT THE SOUP, AND BROKE THE JUG."" /> +<span class="caption">"I'VE SPILT THE SOUP, AND BROKE THE JUG."</span> +</div> +<p> </p> + + +<h1>LITTLEBOURNE LOCK.</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>F. BAYFORD HARRISON,</h2> + +<h4>Author of "Brothers in Arms;" "Battlefield Treasure;"<br /> +"Missy;" &c. +</h4> +<p> </p> +<h3><i>ILLUSTRATED.</i></h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image_06.jpg" width="300" height="122" alt="Seal" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>LONDON:</h3> + +<h3>BLACKIE & SON, <span class="smcap">Limited</span>, 49 OLD BAILEY, E.C.</h3> + +<h4>GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN. +</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tocch f1">CHAP.</td> + <td></td> + <td></td><td class="tocpg f1">Page</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">I.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">The Lock-house</span>,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">II.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">No</span>. 103,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">III.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">Juliet Mitchell</span>,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">IV.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">The "Pretty Churchyard,"</span></a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">V.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">On the River</span>,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">Missing</span>!</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">Found</span>!</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">VIII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Bettering Herself</span>,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">IX.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">Back in London</span>,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">X.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">The Adventure of the "Turkeys Pin,"</span></a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">A Thorough Change</span>,</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch">XII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">A Wonderful Discovery</span>.</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_10.jpg" width="600" height="142" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2>LITTLEBOURNE LOCK.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h2>THE LOCK-HOUSE.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 75px;"> +<img src="images/image_10a.jpg" width="75" height="77" alt="T" /> +</div> + +<p>he mist of a July morning shrouded the river and its banks. It was a +soft thin mist, not at all like a winter fog, and through it, and high +above it, the sun was shining, and the larks singing; and Edward +Rowles, the lock-keeper, knew well that within an hour or two the +brightest sunshine would gladden England's river Thames.</p> + +<p>He came out from his house, which was overgrown with honeysuckle and +clematis, and he looked up the stream and down the stream, and then at +the weir over which the water tumbled and roared; he saw that +everything was all right after its night's rest. So he put his hands +in his pockets, and went round to the back of the house to see how his +peas and beans were conducting themselves. They were flourishing. Next +he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> looked at some poultry in a wired-off space; they seemed very glad +to see him, even the little chickens having good appetites, and being +ready for their breakfasts.</p> + +<p>After this inspection Edward Rowles went indoors again, and looked at +his son Philip, who was still asleep in his little camp-bed in the +corner of the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>"Get up, lad, get up," said the father; "don't be the last."</p> + +<p>Philip opened his eyes and rubbed them, and within a few minutes was +washing and dressing.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Mrs. Rowles was lighting the fire in the kitchen, +filling the kettle with water from the well, getting down bread and +butter from a shelf, and preparing everything for the morning meal.</p> + +<p>Presently there appeared a little girl, Emily by name, who slept in a +tiny attic all by herself, and who was very slow in dressing, and +generally late in coming down.</p> + +<p>"Come, bustle about, Emily," said her mother. "Here, this slice of +bread is very dry, so toast it, and then it will be extra nice."</p> + +<p>Emily obeyed. Philip got a broom and swept out the kitchen; Mr. Rowles +brought in a handful of mustard-and-cress as a relish for +bread-and-butter. And soon they were all seated at the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not a boat in sight," said Mr. Rowles; "nor yet a punt."</p> + +<p>"It is early yet," replied his wife; "wait until the first train from +London comes in."</p> + +<p>"Like enough there will be folks come by it," rejoined Rowles; "they +must be precious glad to get out of London this hot day."</p> + +<p>"Why must they be glad, father?" asked Philip.</p> + +<p>"Because London is awful hot in hot weather; it seems as if it had not +got enough air for all the folks to breathe that live in it. Millions +of people, Philip. Write down a million on your slate, boy."</p> + +<p>Philip brought his slate and pencil and wrote 1,000,000.</p> + +<p>"Write it over again, and twice more. Now that seems a good many, eh? +Well, there are more people in London than all those millions on your +slate. What do you think of that?"</p> + +<p>The boy had no idea at all of what a million of people would look +like, nor a million of lemon drops, nor a million of anything. He did +not even try to gain an idea on the subject.</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Emily, "does Aunt Mary live in London? And Albert and +Juliet and Florry and Neddy—and—and all the others."</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor things! they live in London."</p> + +<p>"And they don't like hot days in London?"</p> + +<p>"Hot days must be better than cold ones. I say, Rowles," and his wife +turned to him and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> spoke in a gentler tone, "do you know I have been +thinking so much lately about Mary and all of them. It is a long time +since we had a letter. I wonder if it is all right with them."</p> + +<p>"As right as usual, I'll be bound," said Rowles gruffly.</p> + +<p>"I've a sort of feeling on me," Mrs. Rowles pursued, "that they are +not doing well. The saying is, that no news is good news; but I'm not +so sure of that—not always."</p> + +<p>"Mary went her own way," said the lock-keeper, "and if it turns out +the wrong way it is no business of mine. When a woman marries a fine, +stuck-up London printer, who works all night on a morning paper and +sleeps half the day, what can you expect? Can you expect good health, +or good temper, or good looks from a man who turns night into day and +day into night?"</p> + +<p>"Children, run and give these crumbs and some barley to the chickens. +Now, Rowles, you know very well that I never did join you in your +dislike to Thomas Mitchell. Printing was his trade, and there must be +morning papers I suppose, and I daresay he'd like to work by day and +sleep by night if he could. I think your sister Mary made a mistake +when she married a Londoner, after being used to the country where you +<i>can</i> draw a breath of fresh air. And I'm afraid that Tom's money +can't be any too much for eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> children living, and two put away in +the cemetery, pretty dears! And I was just thinking to myself that it +would seem friendly-like if I was to journey up to London and see how +they are getting on. It is less trouble than writing a letter."</p> + +<p>"It costs more," said Rowles.</p> + +<p>A long, distant whistle was heard.</p> + +<p>"There they come!" and Rowles rose from his chair, and took his burly +figure out into the garden-plot which lay between the cottage and the +lock.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles followed him, saying, "There is a train at 10.22; and if I +leave the dinner all ready you can boil the potatoes for yourself."</p> + +<p>"What do you want to go for, at all? Women are always gadding about, +just to show off their bonnets, or to look at other people's. Here +they come—two of them!" he added.</p> + +<p>For two steam launches, whistling horribly, were coming up, and +required that the lock should be opened for them.</p> + +<p>Nothing gave Philip and Emily more pleasure than to help their father +open the lock-gates. They liked going to school, and they liked +playing with their friends, but opening the lock-gates, and then +watching them as they closed, was more delightful than any other kind +of work or play.</p> + +<p>Philip knew that a river on which large boats<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> and barges went to and +fro must be kept up by locks, or it would run away so fast that it +would become too shallow for any but small boats. Littlebourne lock is +built from one bank of the river to an island in it. There are great +wooden gates, opened by great wooden handles; but to explain how a +lock is made and worked would be difficult, though it is easily +understood when examined. Philip and Emily had lived nearly all their +lives in Littlebourne lock-house, and they knew more about boating and +such matters than old men and women who live all their lives in +London.</p> + +<p>The two little steamers came into the lock as soon as Rowles, assisted +by his children, opened the lower gate. The men on them talked to +Rowles while the lock was being filled by the water, which came +through the sluices in the upper gate.</p> + +<p>Philip listened to this talk; but Emily went up to the other gate. Her +father and brother did not notice what she was doing. They came +presently and opened the upper gates, talking all the time to the men +on the launches. Then they heard cries.</p> + +<p>"Look out! take care! keep in!"</p> + +<p>Emily's voice sounded shrill and terrified.</p> + +<p>"This side! this side!" she was crying wildly; and she jumped about on +the bank of the island as if frightened at something in the water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Rowles ran to the place. The first launch was just coming out of the +lock, closely followed by the other. Across the narrow piece of water +just outside the lock was a rowing boat. In it was one man. He looked +scared, for the nose of his boat was stuck in the bank of the island, +and the stern had swung round almost to the opposite bank. The man was +standing up with a scull in his hands, poking at the bank near the +bows; and at every poke his boat went further across the narrow +stream, and was in imminent danger of being cut in two or swamped, or +in some way destroyed by the foremost launch.</p> + +<p>"Ah, they are at it again!" cried Rowles; "these cockney boatmen, how +they do try to drown themselves! Hold hard!" he shouted to the +engineer of the launch.</p> + +<p>And the engineer of that steamer did try to hold hard, but the man +behind him did not see what was the matter, or that anything was the +matter, and therefore he kept his engines going, and pressed close +behind on the foremost launch.</p> + +<p>Fortunately Rowles had in his hand a long pole with which to push +small boats in and out of the lock. With this he caught the side of +the endangered craft, and would have drawn it into safety, but the +occupant of it flourished his scull about in so foolish a manner that +he hindered what Rowles was trying to do, and all the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>—which was +but a couple of minutes—the launches were slowly bearing down upon +him.</p> + +<p>Philip had seized an oar which was lying by, Emily had caught up a +clothes-line; Philip pushed his oar at the man in the boat, Emily +threw him the end of her rope. Rowles had at length caught the side of +the boat with the hook at the end of his pole, and brought it close to +the bank.</p> + +<p>The man gave a spring to get out on dry land. Of course his boat went +away from him, nearly jerking Rowles into the water. As for the +awkward creature himself, he fell on his knees on the plank edging of +the bank, and his feet dangled in the stream. The launch went on +again, crushing the rudder of the small boat.</p> + +<p>It required the help of Rowles and Philip to pull the man up on his +feet, and get him to believe that he was safe. He staggered up the +bank to the pathway on the top of it, and gasped for breath.</p> + +<p>"That—that—was a narrow shave!" said he.</p> + +<p>"Ay, for them that goes out fooling in a white shirt," said Mr. +Rowles.</p> + +<p>"It is only my feet that are wet," remarked the stranger, beginning to +recover his colour; "and I did not know there was any harm in a white +shirt."</p> + +<p>"No harm in the shirt if the man who wore it knew what he was about. +Why, I've seen them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> go out in frock-coats and tall hats and kid +gloves. I've seen them that did not know bow from stern; and then, +when they are drowned, they are quite surprised."</p> + +<p>"I don't know much about boating," returned the man; "but my gentleman +said he thought I had better practise a bit, because he will want me +to row him about of an evening. Well, another time I will keep out of +the way of the steam-launches."</p> + +<p>"You had better, sir. And put off your coat, and your waistcoat, and +your watch and chain, and rig yourself out in a flannel shirt and a +straw hat. And, pray, how are you going to get home?"</p> + +<p>At this moment Mrs. Rowles came to the door, shading her eyes with her +hand, for the sun was now bright and hot, and calling out "Phil—lip! +Em—ily! time to be off."</p> + +<p>The girl threw down her rope and obeyed her mother's call, but Philip +lingered. He could not make out who and what the stranger might be.</p> + +<p>That person said, "Perhaps, Mr. Rowles, you would let your boy come +with me just to put me in the right way."</p> + +<p>"No, no; he is going to school. You be off, Phil, before I look at you +again."</p> + +<p>So, rather unwillingly, Philip also retreated into the house, from +whence he and Emily presently emerged with their books, and +disappeared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> across the fields in the direction of the village, where +their company was requested by the schoolmaster and the schoolmistress +until four o'clock, with a long interval for dinner and play.</p> + +<p>"I would let him go with you if it was not for his schooling," +remarked Mr. Rowles; "but he must waste no time if he wants to get the +prize. You won't get a prize for rowing. Why, some of them that comes +here don't know what you mean by feathering!"</p> + +<p>The stranger looked very humble. He was a middle-aged man of ordinary +appearance, but extremely neat in his dress. His cloth clothes were +all of spotless black, his necktie was black with a small white spot; +he showed a good deal of fine shirt-front, and a pair of clean cuffs. +Then his hair was carefully cut, and he had trimmed whiskers, but no +beard or moustache. His hands were not those of a working-man, nor had +they the look of those of a gentleman. Edward Rowles could not make +him out.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you are not a boating man," said he.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! oh, dear no! I never rowed a boat before. Though I have been +at sea: I have crossed the Channel with Mr. Burnet. But not rowing +myself, of course."</p> + +<p>"Who's Mr. Burnet?" asked Rowles.</p> + +<p>"We are staying at the hotel," replied the stranger; "and what's more, +I must be getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> back, for he likes his breakfast at a quarter-past +ten sharp. Can I get back another way? Can't I go down that river?"</p> + +<p>He pointed up the stream which came swirling from the weir.</p> + +<p>"No," said Rowles, "you can't go up the weir-stream, any more than you +could leap a donkey over a turnpike-gate. Get into your boat, and pull +yourself quietly up under the left-hand bank."</p> + +<p>"I have no rope to pull it by," said the stranger meekly.</p> + +<p>"They come down here," remarked Rowles with infinite contempt, and +speaking to the river, "and don't know what you mean by pulling. They +think it is the same as towing. If you'd rather tow your boat I will +lend you a line, provided that you promise faithfully to return it. It +is the missus's clothes-line. And you will keep her close under the +bank of the towing-path, and you will pass under all the other lines +which you meet. Do you see?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, thank you," said the stranger, anxious to be off. "My name +is Roberts, with Mr. Burnet at the hotel; and you shall have the rope +back again."</p> + +<p>"Tie it round the bow thwart, as you have no mast," said Rowles.</p> + +<p>Mr. Roberts stared.</p> + +<p>"There, stand aside, I'll do it for you. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> sit on a thwart and +don't know what it is, half of them."</p> + +<p>Grumbling and fumbling, Rowles at length got Roberts across the +lock-gates and put the line into his hands, telling him to look out +for barges and rapids; and then the stranger set off on his return +journey, and Rowles went into his house to tell his wife that he +thought they were a stupider lot this summer than ever they had been +before.</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image_21.jpg" width="200" height="70" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_22.jpg" width="600" height="136" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<h2>No. 103.</h2> +<p>When Mrs. Rowles had put on her best gown and her Sunday bonnet she +was as pleasant-looking a woman as one was likely to meet between +Littlebourne and London. "Going to town" was rather an event in her +life, and one that called for the best gown and bonnet as well as for +three-and-fourpence to pay the fare.</p> + +<p>"Ned never will go to see his sister," said Mrs. Rowles to herself. "I +might as well try to move the lock as try to move him. And now that I +have made up my mind to go I had better go, and get it over. Ned +thinks that Londoners are too grand to care for their country +relations. But I don't think Mary is too grand to give me a welcome. I +don't want a fuss made over me, I am sure; and if I run up unexpected +she won't be able to make a fuss with the dinner. And when it is six +months since you heard from them it is about time for you to go and +see them. I am not comfortable in my mind; six months is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> a long time. +Suppose they had gone off to Australia! I really should not wonder!"</p> + +<p>It was nearly time to start on her walk to the station.</p> + +<p>Rowles looked into the cottage, and his wife explained to him how he +was to manage his dinner.</p> + +<p>"Ah, peas now!" he said, looking at the green pearls lying in water in +a pudding basin. "They don't see such peas as those in London, I can +tell you; and you'd be a deal welcomer, Emma, if you were to take them +a basketful of green stuff. I suppose Thomas Mitchell has his supper +for breakfast when he gets up at night, and begins his day's work at +bed-time. He might like peas for breakfast at ten o'clock <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>; +likewise broad beans. Just you wait three minutes. I bear them no +ill-will, though I never could approve of a man being an owl."</p> + +<p>Within five minutes Rowles came back from his garden with a basket of +fresh-smelling vegetables. He gave it to his wife, saying, "You be +off, or you'll miss your train. Give them my love when they get up +this evening. There's a call for the 'Lock a-hoy!' And here they come, +girls in flannels and sailor hats, rowing for their lives, and men +lolling on the cushions with fans and parasols."</p> + +<p>The husband went to open the gates for one of those water-parties +which are to be seen n but on the Thames, and Mrs. Rowles set +off to walk to Littlebourne station.</p> + +<p>She met with no adventures on her journey; reached Paddington safely, +took an omnibus into the city, and then walked to one of the smaller +streets on the eastern side of London.</p> + +<p>This street was one which began with good, well-kept houses, and +dwindled away into small ones out of repair. About the middle of the +street Mrs. Rowles stopped, and went up on the door-step of a +neat-looking house, every window of which had white curtains and +flower-pots. She pulled the bell-handle which was second from the top +in a row of handles at the side of the door, and put her basket down +to rest herself, summoning up a kindly smile with which to greet her +sister-in-law, Mary Mitchell. The air of London was heavy and the +sunshine pale to Mrs. Rowles's thinking, and the sky overhead was a +very pale blue. There were odd smells about; stale fish and +brick-fields seemed to combine, and that strange fusty odour which +infects very old clothes. Mrs. Rowles preferred the scent of broad +beans and pinks.</p> + +<p>It was some time before the door was opened, and then a young woman +appeared, holding it just ajar.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mary, my dear—oh, I declare, it is not Mary!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Would you please to say who you want?" The young woman was not over +polite.</p> + +<p>"I have come up from the country to see my sister-in-law, Mary +Mitchell. I beg your pardon, my dear, if I rang the wrong bell."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Mitchell don't live here," was the short reply.</p> + +<p>"Not live here! Whatever do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean what I say; are you deaf? Mrs. Mitchell left here near upon +six months ago."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Mrs. Rowles, much astonished; "I never thought of such a +thing. Whatever shall I do? And all this green stuff to carry back +again."</p> + +<p>"Can't you take it to her?" asked the young woman more gently.</p> + +<p>"I don't know where she has gone to. Australia most likely."</p> + +<p>"Australia, indeed! She has only gone to the other end of the street, +No. 103. And when you can't pay your rent, and three weeks running on +to four, what can you expect from your landlord?"</p> + +<p>The door was closed, and Mrs. Rowles left standing on the step, +greatly shocked and agitated. Had the Mitchells been turned out by +their landlord for not paying their rent? Had they grown dishonest? +Had Mitchell taken to drink? What could it mean?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No. 103. And this is only 42; the odd numbers are on the other side. +I must cross. What a lot of rubbish on the road; and do you think I +would let my girl stand out bareheaded like that, gossiping with a lot +of idle young chaps?" Thus thinking and moralizing Mrs. Rowles went +down the street towards the eastern end of it.</p> + +<p>She noticed the change in the houses. Their fronts grew narrower; +there was a storey less; the door-steps were not hearth-stoned; the +area railings were broken. No white curtains, or but few and soiled +ones; hardly a flower; windowpanes filled with brown paper instead of +glass; doors standing half open; heaps of cinders and refuse lying at +the edge of the pavement; girls almost without frocks nursing dirty, +white-faced babies. It seemed a long way to No. 103. No. 99 stood out +from its fellows, and marked the point at which the street became +narrower, dirtier, noisier than before. Was it possible that Edward +Rowles's sister could be living here?</p> + +<p>The comely, well-clad woman from Littlebourne looked into the entry of +No. 103. She saw a narrow passage, without floorcloth or carpet; a +narrow, dirty staircase led up to the rooms above. From the front room +on the ground floor came the whirring sound of a sewing-machine; it +might perhaps be Mary Mitchell at work.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles knocked on the door of the room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who's there?"</p> + +<p>"Please, does Mrs. Mitchell live here?"</p> + +<p>"Top floor, back," replied the voice, and the whirr was resumed.</p> + +<p>Picking her way, for the stairs were thick with mud from dirty boots +and with droppings from pails, beer-cans, and milk-jugs, Mrs. Rowles +went up the first flight. In the front room a woman's voice was +scolding in strong language; in the back room a baby was wailing +piteously. On the next floor one door stood open, revealing a bare +room, with filthy and torn wall-paper, with paint brown from +finger-marks, with cupboard-doors off their hinges, and the grate +thick with rust. The visitor shuddered. Through the next half-open +door she saw linen, more brown than white, hanging from lines +stretched across, and steaming as it dried in the room, which was that +of five persons, eating, living, and sleeping in it.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles felt a little faint; she thought that so many stairs were +very trying. From this point there was nothing in the way of +hand-rail; so she kept close to the wall as she carried her basket up +still higher.</p> + +<p>At the door of the back room she knocked.</p> + +<p>There was a sort of scuffling noise inside, and a few moments passed +before it was opened.</p> + +<p>The sisters-in-law looked at each other in amazement. Rosy Emma +Rowles, in her blue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> gown and straw bonnet with red roses, with her +stout alpaca umbrella and her strong basket packed tight with +vegetables, was an unaccustomed vision at No. 103; while the pale, +thin, ragged, miserable Mary Mitchell was an appalling representative +of her former self.</p> + +<p>"Mary!"</p> + +<p>"Is it you, Emma Rowles? However did you get here?"</p> + +<p>"I came by the train from Littlebourne," said Mrs. Rowles simply. "May +I come in?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you may come in if you care to," was the bitter reply.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles looked round her as she entered, and was so much shocked +at what she saw that for a few moments she could not speak.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the room was a square table, on which lay a mass of +thick black silk and rich trimmings, which even Emma Rowles's country +eyes could see were being put together to form a very handsome mantle +suitable for some rich lady. A steel thimble, a pair of large +scissors, a reel of cotton and another of silk lay beside the +materials. In strong contrast to this beautiful and expensive stuff +was the sight which saddened the further corner of the small room. +Close under the sloping, blackened ceiling was a mattress laid on the +floor, and on it a wan, haggard man, whom Mrs. Rowles supposed to be +Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> Mitchell, though she hardly recognized him. There was also +another mattress on the floor. The blankets were few, but well-worn +counterpanes covered the beds. A little washstand with broken +crockery, a kettle, some jam-pots, and some medicine bottles were +about all the rest of the furniture. All that she saw told Mrs. Rowles +very plainly that her relations had fallen into deep poverty.</p> + +<p>"Why, Tom," she began, "I'm afraid you are ill."</p> + +<p>"Been ill these two months," he replied in a weak voice.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," said Mrs. Mitchell, pushing the best chair to her +sister-in-law, and standing by the table to resume her work.</p> + +<p>"We did not know Tom was ill," said Mrs. Rowles.</p> + +<p>"I daresay not," answered Mrs. Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"I would have come sooner to see him if I had known."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is no use to bother one's relations when one falls into +misfortunes. It is the rich folks who are welcome, not the poor ones."</p> + +<p>"I hope you will make <i>me</i> welcome," said Mrs. Rowles, "though I am +not rich."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are richer than we are," remarked Mrs. Mitchell, softening +a little, "and you are welcome; I can't say more. But I daresay if +you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> had known what a place you were coming to you would have thought +twice about it. Six months we have had of it. First there were the +changes made at the printing-office, and then the men struck work, and +there was soon very little to live on; for it's when the strike +allowance doesn't come in so fast that the pinch comes."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles looked round to see where the children could be hiding. +Not a child's garment was to be seen, nor a toy.</p> + +<p>"Where are the children?" she asked, half fearing to hear that they +were all dead.</p> + +<p>"Albert has got a little place in the printing-office. He was took on +when Tom was laid up with rheumatic fever. Juliet is gone to the +kitchen to try if she can get a drop of soup or something. They only +make it for sick people now the hot weather has set in. Florry and +Tommy and Willie and Neddy are all at school, because the school-board +officer came round about them the other day. But it is the church +school as they go to, where they ain't kept up to it quite so sharp. +They will be in presently."</p> + +<p>"And the baby?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the baby is out with Amy. He's that fractious with his teeth that +Thomas can hardly put up with him in the house."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles was now taking out the good things from her basket. She +produced a piece of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> bacon, some beans, about a peck of peas, a +home-made dripping cake, and some new-laid eggs.</p> + +<p>"Edward packed it with his own hands," she explained. "He hoped you +would not be too proud to accept a few bits of things from the +country."</p> + +<p>"Proud? Me proud?" and Mrs. Mitchell burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"We are too hungry to be proud," said the sick man, with more interest +in his tone. "They do smell good. They remind me of the country."</p> + +<p>After rubbing her eyes Mrs. Rowles looked about for a saucepan, and, +having found an old one in the cupboard, began to fill it with the +bacon and the broad beans. "We killed a pig in the spring," she said; +"and Rowles is a rare one to keep his garden stuff going."</p> + +<p>Little was said while Mrs. Rowles cooked, and Mrs. Mitchell sewed, and +Thomas sniffed the reviving green odour of the fresh vegetables. This +quiet was presently interrupted by the sound of someone coming up the +stairs.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mitchell listened. "That is Juliet. There! I expected it!"</p> + +<p>And a crash was heard, and a cry, and they knew that something +unpleasant had happened.</p> + +<p>"There never was such a child!" said the mother; while the father +moaned out, "Oh, dear!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles went out on the landing at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> top of the stairs, and saw +a girl of about thirteen sitting crouched on the lower half of the +double flight, beside her the broken remains of a jug, and some soup +lying in a pool, which she was trying to scrape up with her fingers, +sucking them after each attempt.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Juliet?" said her aunt.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I've spilt the soup and broke the jug."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Juliet, how could you?"</p> + +<p>"The jug had got no handle; that's why I came to drop it. And the soup +was only a teeny drop, so it's no great loss. And the bannisters was +all broke away for lighting the fires, and that's how I came to fall +over; and I might have broke my leg and been took to the hospital, and +I should have had plenty of grub there."</p> + +<p>The child said this in a surly tone, as if all that had happened had +been an injury to her—even her escape from breaking her leg—and to +no one else.</p> + +<p>"Well, come up," said Mrs. Rowles, who would hardly have been so calm +had the soup and the jug been her own; "come up and see what there is +for dinner here."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> don't care," said Juliet, as she left the remains of the spoilt +articles where they lay, and came up to the room. She was a +strange-looking child, with brows knitted above her deep-set eyes, +with a dark, pale skin, and dark untidy hair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah, you've been at it again!" cried Mrs. Mitchell. "Well, it was my +own fault to send you for it. You are the stupidest and awkwardest +girl I ever come across."</p> + +<p>"Then, why <i>did</i> you send me?" retorted Juliet. "I didn't want to go, +I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"Hush, Juliet," interposed her father; "you must not speak so to your +mother. Here is your aunt come from Littlebourne, and brought in the +most splendid dinner."</p> + +<p>"I don't want no dinner," said Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Mrs. Rowles very gently, "I thought you would help me dish +it up."</p> + +<p>"I'm that stupid and awkward," said the girl, "that I should spill it +and spoil it for you. If they'd let me go to a place I might learn to +do better."</p> + +<p>"Who would take her?" Mrs. Mitchell appealed to her sister; "and she +ought to help her own people before wanting to go out among +strangers."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," replied Mrs. Rowles. "Everything is like charity, +and begins at home."</p> + +<p>By this time the unwonted prospect of a really hearty dinner began to +soften the stern Juliet, and her brows unknitted themselves, showing +that her eyes would be pretty if they wore a pleasant expression. It +seemed to Mrs. Rowles that life had latterly been too hard and sad for +this girl, just beginning to grow out of the easy ignorance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> of +childhood which takes everything as it comes; and a little plan began +to form itself in the good woman's mind for improving Juliet's +disposition and habits.</p> + +<p>Before the dinner was ready there was a loud noise of feet tramping +upstairs. They were the feet of five more young Mitchells; and Amy's +footsteps were very heavy, for she carried the baby. Albert, who was +in the printing-office, did not come home to dinner.</p> + +<p>Though the plates and knives and forks were all out of order, and +though an old newspaper acted as tablecloth, yet the meal was +thoroughly enjoyed; even Mitchell ate some of the beans, with a boiled +egg, and said that they put new life into him. Mrs. Rowles's own +appetite was satisfied with a slice of cake and the brightening faces +around her.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mitchell gave a contemptuous glance at the mantle hanging on a +nail in the wall, and took the baby on her knee and danced him about; +and the little fellow burst into a chuckling laugh, and Thomas echoed +it with a fainter and feebler one.</p> + +<p>At that precise moment there was a knock on the door. A voice said +"May I come in?" and a little elderly lady put her head into the +room.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_35.jpg" width="600" height="138" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h2>JULIET MITCHELL.</h2> + + +<p>"It is Miss Sutton. Come in, miss," said Mary Mitchell.</p> + +<p>The lady who came in was, in Mrs. Rowles's eyes, exactly like a mouse. +Her eyes were bright, her nose was sharp, and her clothing was all of +a soft grayish-brown. And she was as quick and brisk as one of those +pretty little animals, at which silly people often think they are +frightened.</p> + +<p>"Nearly two o'clock, Mrs. Mitchell. Now, if you can get the children +off to school, I have something important to say to you, and only ten +minutes to say it in. Bustle away, my dears," she said to the +children.</p> + +<p>After a little clamouring they all went off except Juliet and the +baby.</p> + +<p>"Don't you go, Juliet," said Mrs. Rowles; "I want to speak to you +presently, before I go home."</p> + +<p>"Then, Juliet," said her mother, "do you think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> you could carry baby +safely downstairs, and sit on the door-step with him until Miss Sutton +goes away?"</p> + +<p>"I shall be sure to bump his head against the wall; I always do," was +Juliet's sulky reply.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you must try not to do so," put in Miss Sutton.</p> + +<p>"And you might put his head on the side away from the wall," said Mrs. +Rowles cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"I might," returned Juliet in a doubtful voice; "but that would be on +the wrong arm."</p> + +<p>"The wrong arm will be the right arm this time;" and Mrs. Rowles laid +the baby on Juliet's bony right arm, and both children arrived safely +on the door-step within three minutes.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Miss Sutton, "who may this good woman be?"</p> + +<p>"My brother's wife from Littlebourne, miss; and she brought us a real +good dinner, and we are all truly thankful. Amen."</p> + +<p>"You come to a poor part of London," said Miss Sutton; "and I am not +going to say but that the poverty is deserved, part of it, at all +events. There was Thomas Mitchell, aged twenty-three, getting good +wages as a journeyman printer. There was Mary Rowles, parlour-maid at +the West-end, costing her mistress at the rate of fifty pounds a year, +aged twenty-one. Because they could keep themselves comfortably they +thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> they could keep ten children on Thomas's wages. So they got +married, and found they could not do it, not even when the ten was +reduced to eight. Because a gentleman can keep himself comfortably on +a hundred and fifty pounds a year, does he try to keep a wife and ten +children on it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, ma'am," said Mrs. Rowles, thinking that she ought to say +something, and yet not knowing what to say.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no," murmured Mary Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"Of course not," pursued Miss Sutton. "He says, 'What I have is only +enough to keep myself, so I had better not marry.' Do you know why I +have not married?"</p> + +<p>"No, miss," replied Mrs. Mitchell, getting to work again on the +mantle.</p> + +<p>"Because the man I liked had not enough to keep a wife and family; he +looked before he leaped. He never leaped at all; he never even +proposed to me point-blank, but it came round to me through a friend. +But you working-people, you never look, and you always leap, and when +you have got your ten children and nothing to feed them on, then you +think that the gentlefolks who would not marry because they had not +enough to keep families on, are to stint and starve themselves to keep +<i>your</i> families. Does that seem fair?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Mitchell stitched away; the others did not reply.</p> + +<p>Miss Sutton went on: "If I had ten children, or even two children, I +could not afford to give you what I do." Here she put down a +half-crown on the table. "Now, listen to a plan I have in my head. You +know, Mrs. Mitchell, what we West-end ladies have to pay for our +mantles, even the plainest and simplest we can get; two guineas and a +half, and upwards to any price you like to name. You also know what +you receive for making them."</p> + +<p>"Yes, miss, I do;" and Mrs. Mitchell shook her head.</p> + +<p>"How much is it?"</p> + +<p>"I get ninepence; some of the women only get sevenpence halfpenny."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles could not believe her ears.</p> + +<p>"Well, say ninepence. Now, I and some of my friends are going to buy +the materials, and pay you for the work just the difference between +the cost of materials and the price we should pay in a shop. Do you +see?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, miss, I see; but it won't do," and Mrs. Mitchell shook her head +again.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because ladies like to go to a shop and see hundreds of different +mantles, and choose the one they like best."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We shall have dozens of paper patterns to choose from, and the +cutting-out will be done by a friend of mine who is very clever at it. +I shall begin by ordering my winter mantle at once. I shall give about +eight shillings a yard for the stuff; three yards makes twenty-four +shillings; then some braid or something of the sort, say six yards at +two shillings; that is twelve; twenty-four and twelve are thirty-six; +a few buttons and sundries, say five shillings; thirty-six and five +are forty-one. I shall give you seven shillings for the work, and I +shall have a handsome mantle for two pounds eight shillings. Better +than ninepence, and finding your own cotton and sewing-silk. Eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Sutton; it is very kind of you. But it won't do. There are +too many of us women; and you ladies, you all like to go shopping."</p> + +<p>"You see," said Miss Sutton, turning to Mrs. Rowles, "what we want to +do is to get rid of the <i>middleman</i>. We are going to try if we can +persuade the great shop-keepers to come face to face with the people +who actually do the work. I don't know how we shall succeed, but we +will make an effort, and we will keep 'pegging away' until we get +something done. And, one word more, Mrs. Mitchell; do not bring Juliet +up to the slop-work trade. Get her a situation. When your husband is +strong again and goes to work,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> then set the girl up with some decent +clothes, and we will find her a little place."</p> + +<p>"She wants a little place," said Mrs. Mitchell; "but there's no place +hereabouts. Our clergyman says he has nine thousand people in his +parish, all so poor that his own house is the only one where there is +a servant kept."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so!" cried Mrs. Rowles, unable to keep longer silence. +"Why, with us there are laundresses that keep servants! and many +little places for girls—minding babies and such like."</p> + +<p>"Ah, in the country," said Miss Sutton; "I daresay. Oh, this dreadful, +ravenous London; it eats up men, women, and children! Well, I must go +on to another house. Good-bye, good-bye."</p> + +<p>As the lady went away Mrs. Rowles asked, "Where does she come from?"</p> + +<p>"She lives in a street near Hyde Park. She and many other ladies, and +gentlemen too, have districts in the East-end, because there are no +ladies and gentlemen here who could be district visitors; there are +only poor people here."</p> + +<p>Emma Rowles thought deeply for a few minutes, while Mary Mitchell +stitched away.</p> + +<p>Thomas Mitchell had raised himself up, and was saying, "I shall soon +be much better. I feel I am going to be strong again. Emma Rowles has +given me quite a turn."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't say that, Tom; it is rude," whispered his wife.</p> + +<p>"I mean a turn for the better, a turn for the better."</p> + +<p>"I wish, oh, I wish," Mrs. Rowles burst out, "how I wish I could turn +you all out into the country! Fresh air, fresh water, room to move +about! Where the rain makes the trees clean, instead of making the +streets dirty, like it does here. Though we have mud up to your eyes +in the country too; but then it is sweet, wholesome mud. Ah! what is +that?"</p> + +<p>A noise of confused voices rose from the street, and Mrs. Mitchell ran +to the window. But these attics were not the whole size of the house, +and the window was set so far back that she could not see the pavement +on her own side of the street.</p> + +<p>"It is that Juliet again, I'll be bound! There never was such a girl +for getting into scrapes! She seems to have no heart, no spirit, for +doing better."</p> + +<p>With a hopeless sigh Mrs. Mitchell went back to the mantle.</p> + +<p>Her sister could not take things so easily. She was not used to the +incessant cries and outcries, quarrels, accidents, and miseries of a +great city. Mrs. Rowles ran swiftly down the sloppy stairs to the open +door, there she found Juliet leaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> against the railings, while the +baby lay sprawling on the step.</p> + +<p>"Whatever is the matter?" asked Mrs. Rowles, breathless with fear.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," was Juliet's reply.</p> + +<p>"But I heard loud voices."</p> + +<p>"That was only when Miss Sutton walked on baby."</p> + +<p>"Poor little fellow! How did that happen?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know; he just slipped off my lap at the very moment that +she was coming out. He's not hurt."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles picked up the baby to make sure that he was not injured, +and found no mark or bruise.</p> + +<p>"But his spine might be hurt, or his brain, without there being any +outside mark. I am afraid you are very careless."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am. I don't care about nothing."</p> + +<p>"Now, that's not at all pretty of you, Juliet."</p> + +<p>"Don't want it to be pretty."</p> + +<p>"And it's not kind and nice."</p> + +<p>"Don't want to be kind and nice."</p> + +<p>"And I am afraid people will not love you if you go on like this."</p> + +<p>"Don't want people to love me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles knew not how to soften this hard heart. "Juliet, don't you +want to help your sick father and your hard-working mother, and all +your hungry little brothers and sisters?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, I don't. I want to go away from them. I want to have mutton-chops +and rice puddings like we used to have when there was not so many of +us; and merino frocks, and new boots with elastic sides; and the +Crystal Palace."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you would like to leave home?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would. They worrit me, and I worrit them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor child, poor child!"</p> + +<p>The kind-hearted Emma Rowles made curious little noises with her +tongue and her teeth, and toiled again up the staircase with baby in +her arms, and Juliet silently following as she went. Mrs. Rowles +framed short, unworded prayers for guidance at this present crisis; +and when she stood again in her sister-in-law's room her resolve was +taken.</p> + +<p>She put the baby into his father's arms.</p> + +<p>"There, Thomas, I do hope you will get about soon. Do you think your +trade is a healthy one? My Ned, he always says that it is bad to work +by night, and bad to sleep by day, says he."</p> + +<p>"Emma Rowles," was Mitchell's sharp rejoinder, "does your Ned ever +read a newspaper?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, most every day. Them passing through the lock often give him a +<i>Standard</i> or a <i>Telegraph</i>."</p> + +<p>"Then he'd better not find fault with the printers. If the public +would be content with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> evening papers, we printers might keep better +hours."</p> + +<p>"There now!" said Mrs. Rowles, venturing on a short laugh "Do you +know, I never thought of when the morning papers get printed."</p> + +<p>"There's a many as thoughtless as you, and more so."</p> + +<p>Mitchell laughed scornfully. His wife also laughed a very little, and +baby chuckled as if he too thought his aunt's ignorance of the world +very amusing; but none of these laughs moved Juliet even to smile.</p> + +<p>Then Emma Rowles began to tie her bonnet-strings, and to pull her +mantle on her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I will take back the empty basket, please," she said. "And, +Thomas,—Mary,—I want you to let me take something else."</p> + +<p>"There's not much you can take," said Thomas.</p> + +<p>"Will you lend me one of your children?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not my precious, precious baby-boy!" cried Mary, throwing aside +the mantle. "He's the only baby we've got now!"</p> + +<p>"No, not baby; I should be rather afraid of him. But one of the +others."</p> + +<p>"Well—" and Mrs. Mitchell hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Take me," said Juliet, in a low, hard voice. "I'm that stupid and +awkward and careless that I'm no good to anybody. And I don't want to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +learn, and I don't want to be good. All I want is mutton-chops and +puddings, and new boots."</p> + +<p>Her sullen little face stared at her aunt with a look of stolid +indifference on it. Was it possible that poverty had pinched her +child's heart so hard as to have pinched all softness and sweetness +out of it?</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles's heart was full of softness and sweetness.</p> + +<p>"May I take Juliet home with me? I can't promise mutton-chops, but +there will be beans and bacon. And boots perhaps we can manage."</p> + +<p>"I don't like parting with any of them. Though, to be sure, Florry can +mind baby; or even little Amy can. Juliet, my child, shall I let you +go?" and Mrs. Mitchell clasped the girl in her arms, and tears +streamed down the mother's face, while Juliet stood as stony and +unmoved as ever.</p> + +<p>"She's got no clothes for going on a visit," said Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"She can have some of my girl's; they are just of a size."</p> + +<p>"All right, then, Emma. You're a good sister, you are. Not one of my +people has come forward like this. They are all so high and mighty and +so well-to-do in the world, they can't turn their eyes down so low as +me and mine. But you've give me a turn for the better, Emma Rowles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +You'll see I'll be at work on Monday night, if not sooner."</p> + +<p>Juliet being lent to her, Mrs. Rowles felt that she might now proceed +on her homeward journey, which would occupy some three hours. So, +after affectionate farewells she set off, her basket hanging on one +arm and her niece hanging on the other; and they clambered into +omnibuses, rushed over crossings and under horses' heads, ran full +tilt against old gentlemen, and caught themselves on the hooks and +buttons of old ladies, in a way which Juliet alone would never have +done. But Mrs. Rowles, being unused to London, was more fussy and +hurried than any Londoner could ever find time to be.</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image_46.jpg" width="200" height="93" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_47.jpg" width="600" height="136" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h2>THE "PRETTY CHURCHYARD."</h2> + + +<p>IT was late in the day when the aunt and niece seated themselves in +the train for Littlebourne. Mrs. Rowles counted up her money, and then +counted up the time.</p> + +<p>"It will be eight o'clock before we get home," she remarked; "it will +be getting dark and near your bed-time."</p> + +<p>"I don't care," said Juliet; "I don't want to go to bed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; but I shall be tired and sleepy. Juliet, have you ever been +in the country?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"But you said you liked the Crystal Palace."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," was Juliet's polite reply.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, my dear, I thought you did."</p> + +<p>"I said," explained Juliet, slightly abashed by her aunt's courteous +manner—"I said I wanted to go to the Crystal Palace. Father said once +that he would take us on a bank holiday, but then we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> got poor, and so +he never kept his word. We always have been poor, we never had +mutton-chops but only three times; and now we are poorer than we used +to be, and we don't even get rice puddings."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll try and give you rice puddings, and suet ones too."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't care," said the child relapsing into her usual manner; "I +don't want your puddings."</p> + +<p>The carriage soon filled with other passengers, and there came over +Mrs. Rowles a slight sensation of shame when she saw how they glanced +at Juliet in her patched frock and untidy hat. And the neat +country-woman felt that to walk with this London child through the +village of Littlebourne, where every creature, down to the cows and +cats and dogs, all knew the lock-keeper's wife, would be a great trial +of courage.</p> + +<p>It was only now that Mrs. Rowles realized the condition of many of the +working-class (<i>so called</i>, for harder work is done by heads than by +hands) in the great city, who yet are not what is known as "poor." The +Mitchell family had drifted away from the Rowles family. A letter now +and then passed between them, but Rowles had held such a prejudice +against Mitchell's employment that really no intercourse had taken +place between the two families. Mrs. Rowles had been drawn, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> knew +not how, but by some sort of instinct, to visit her brother-in-law +this day; and she had further been impelled to offer Juliet a trip to +the country. But now she almost regretted it.</p> + +<p>Juliet sat opposite her aunt, looking out blankly at the houses as the +train passed through the western suburbs. After a while she stood up +at the window. Fields and trees were beginning to be more frequent +than at first. Soon the houses became rare, and the fields continuous.</p> + +<p>Juliet's lips were muttering something which Mrs. Rowles could not +hear in the noise made by the train.</p> + +<p>She leaned forward to the child. "What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty churchyard!" said Juliet.</p> + +<p>"<i>What</i> do you say?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty churchyard' pretty churchyard!"</p> + +<p>"Whatever do you mean, my child!"</p> + +<p>"I mean, this churchyard is bigger and prettier than the churchyards +in London, where I used to play when I was little."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles's eyes filled with tears. She understood now that Juliet +had only known trees and flowers by seeing them in the churchyards of +London, disused for the dead, and turned into gardens—grim +enough—for the living. And so to the child's mind green grass and +waving boughs seemed to be always disused churchyards. Such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> sad +ignorance would seem impossible, if we did not know it to be a <i>fact</i>.</p> + +<p>"But, Juliet, these are fields. Grass grows in them for the cows and +sheep to eat, and corn to make us bread, and flowers to make us happy +and to make us good."</p> + +<p>Juliet did not reply. She gazed out at the landscape through which +they were passing, and which was growing every moment more soft and +lovely as the sky grew mellower and the shadows longer. She almost +doubted her aunt's words. And yet this would be a very big churchyard; +and certainly there were cows and sheep in sight, and there were red +and white and yellow flowers growing beside the line. So she said +nothing, but thought that she would wait and find out things for +herself.</p> + +<p>At Littlebourne station Mrs. Rowles and Juliet alighted. The +ticket-collector looked hard at Juliet, and the cabman outside the +gate said, "Got a little un boarded out, Mrs. Rowles?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles shook her head and walked on. She bethought herself of a +means by which to avoid most of her neighbours' eyes. She would go +round the field way, and not through the village. It was a much +prettier walk, but rather longer.</p> + +<p>"Are you tired, Juliet?" she asked kindly.</p> + +<p>"Of course I am."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, we shall soon be home now."</p> + +<p>"It don't matter," said the child; "I'm 'most always tired."</p> + +<p>They went through some pasture-fields where cows lay about quiet and +happy, and through corn-fields where green wheat and barley rustled in +the evening breeze.</p> + +<p>"You're right," muttered Juliet; "it ain't all churchyard, 'cause they +don't have cows and green flowers in churchyards."</p> + +<p>"Do you like the country, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know yet. I ain't seen any shops, nor any mutton-chops."</p> + +<p>"Well, you shall see them all by and by. Now we are going through a +farmyard, where you will see cocks and hens, and perhaps some little +pigs."</p> + +<p>But before they had time to look for either pigs or poultry they heard +a succession of alternate fierce growls and short shrieks, and both +Mrs. Rowles and Juliet stopped short.</p> + +<p>The growls seemed to be those of a big dog, and the shrieks those of a +little girl. Both sounds came from an inner yard of the farm, through +which there was a public right of way. Something in the shrieks made +Mrs. Rowles's cheek turn pale, and something in the growls made +Juliet's face flush red.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Mrs. Rowles, "it is some child in danger!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_52.jpg" width="400" height="622" alt="JULIET SEIZED THE DOG BY HIS COLLAR." /> +<span class="caption">JULIET SEIZED THE DOG BY HIS COLLAR.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is some horrid cruel dog!" said Juliet.</p> + +<p>The aunt went cautiously through the gate into the inner yard, and the +niece rushed through it boldly. What they saw was indeed alarming.</p> + +<p>Little Emily Rowles was in a corner of the wall, shut in there on one +side by a great high kennel, and on the other side by the huge mastiff +who belonged to the kennel. He lay on the ground, his head on his +paws, and his eyes fixed on the child; and whenever she made the +slightest movement he growled in the fiercest manner. No wonder she +uttered cries of dread and despair.</p> + +<p>Before Mrs. Rowles could think what was best to do, Juliet had done +it.</p> + +<p>Fearless, because she did not understand the danger, Juliet rushed at +the dog, seized him by his collar, and with all her strength pulled +him away from the corner. He was so astonished at finding himself thus +handled that all his fierceness, half of which was pretended, died out +of him, and he looked up wildly at the new-comer, and forgot the other +girl whom he had been bullying with such pleasure.</p> + +<p>Emily had leaped into her mother's arms, and was sobbing with +excitement and relief.</p> + +<p>"My child! my darling! how did it happen? How came you to get caught +by that brute? How came you to be here at all?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Emily was still unable to reply. Her mother carried her to a bench at +the other side of the yard, and soothed her until she was calm again.</p> + +<p>But Juliet stood beside the dog; he was ashamed of himself, and he +bowed to a will stronger than his own. He felt that she was not afraid +of him, and he was afraid of her. Not that he had had any intention of +really hurting Emily; but it had seemed to him great fun, after doing +nothing all day but doze in the shade, to keep a child in custody, and +hear her cries for help.</p> + +<p>"What made you come here, Emily?" said Mrs. Rowles again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, father said Philip and I might come and meet you. And we did not +know which way you would come, so Philip went by the road and I came +by the fields."</p> + +<p>"But how did you get over by the dog's kennel?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he was inside it, and I thought he was asleep. So I just went up +to look in at him, and he bounced out and shut me into the corner; and +he growled horribly, and would not let me come out."</p> + +<p>"Poor child! And all the folks in the hay-field, I suppose, and not a +creature within call. I've often told you, Emily, not to go near +strange dogs."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother, I know. It was my own fault."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And if I had not happened to come this way—"</p> + +<p>"I must have stayed there till the folks came from the hay-field. I +should have pretty near died of fright. Mother, who is that little +girl?"</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Rowles remembered her niece.</p> + +<p>Juliet had remained within a few paces of the dog, and stood like a +statue, looking straight before her, as if she did not wish to see +Mrs. Rowles and Emily. Her face was pale now, her mouth set, and her +brows knitted with their most sullen expression. Her aspect was +anything but attractive.</p> + +<p>"Come here, Juliet, my dear," her aunt called out. "Let me thank you +and kiss you."</p> + +<p>Juliet did not stir.</p> + +<p>"I want to thank you and—" Emily, clasped in her mother's arms, could +not bring herself to add "kiss you."</p> + +<p>"I don't want no thanks and no kisses," said the London child.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you have been so brave and good."</p> + +<p>"I'm not a screaming coward like <i>her</i>," said Juliet; "that's all. Are +we going to stay here all night?"</p> + +<p>Emily whispered to her mother, "Who is she?"</p> + +<p>"Your poor cousin from London. You must be <i>very</i> kind to her, poor +girl; she is <i>so</i> disagreeable."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>Emily looked with a sort of awe at her sullen cousin.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Rowles set her own child on the ground, and went and put her +hand on Juliet's shoulder, saying, "Emily wants to thank you for being +so brave. You <i>have</i> a spirit of your own!"</p> + +<p>Juliet coloured as if angry at being praised, and said, "It ain't no +use to have a spirit when you are stupid and awkward. I tore my sleeve +with pulling at that dog."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is nothing; that can be mended. Now we must be getting home, +or father will wonder where we are."</p> + +<p>They went through the gate at the further side of the farm, and came +out into fields. In one of these, but at a little distance, they saw +the farmer and all his men and maids busily turning over the hay that +it might be well dried by the early sun next morning. Juliet asked no +questions, though she was surprised at every step by strange country +customs; and it did not cross the minds of Mrs. Rowles and Emily to +explain what they themselves knew so well. Indeed, Emily was still +trembling from the fright she had undergone, and Mrs. Rowles's +thoughts were fully occupied.</p> + +<p>They came to a stile over which they climbed, Juliet so awkwardly that +she slipped into a ditch among sting-nettles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, the horrid things!" she exclaimed; "they've bitten me!"</p> + +<p>"It is only nettles," said her aunt; "you've got stung."</p> + +<p>"I see the marks of their teeth," persisted Juliet, rubbing the little +spots made by the nettles.</p> + +<p>Emily would have laughed at her cousin, but that she felt too much +depressed by her own adventure.</p> + +<p>And then they were on the towing-path, and the great river, all +glowing with the reflected gold and red of the sunset sky, was gliding +past them on its peaceful way.</p> + +<p>"There!" said Mrs. Rowles, "do you know what that is, Juliet?"</p> + +<p>"A river."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is the Thames,"</p> + +<p>"No, it ain't; not my Thames."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear; though you do contradict me, it is the Thames for all +that."</p> + +<p>"I know the Thames well enough," said Juliet; "it is twice as broad as +this. And it is all inky-like; and it has wharves and smoky chimneys +and steamboats and masts all over it. This ain't no Thames; I know +bettor than that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but, cousin Juliet," Emily put in, "the Thames is young here, and +it is old at London. Some day you will get old, and once on a time +mother was a little girl like you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<p>Still unconvinced the London child made no rejoinder.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles began to cross to the lock-house by the planks of the +lock.</p> + +<p>"Come carefully, Juliet, you are not used to this."</p> + +<p>Juliet marched across the narrow bridge with firm foot and steady eye. +Emily followed nervously.</p> + +<p>On the island they found Mr. Rowles; and Philip, who, not meeting his +mother on the road from the station, had hurried home again. He and +his father stared at Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" cried Mr. Rowles. "Whom have we here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ned," said his wife soothingly, "it is your own little niece, +Juliet Mitchell. I thought you'd like to have her here a bit, seeing +as they are none too well off, and she's never been in the real +country at all till now."</p> + +<p>Rowles whistled doubtfully. He stood there in his shirt sleeves, with +his thumbs in his waistcoat pockets, and his black straw hat pushed +back on his head. His eyes were fixed on his niece's face with a gaze +of inquiry, and a sort of dislike seemed to grow up in his heart and +in hers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," he said, at length. "Where's your box?"</p> + +<p>Juliet did not know what he meant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where's your box—your luggage?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't got any," said Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Then where's your Sunday frock?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't got one," said Juliet; "it's at the pawn-shop."</p> + +<p>Rowles whistled more fiercely.</p> + +<p>"I say, Emma, I'll be bound you found that fellow Mitchell in +bed—now, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ned, I did; because—"</p> + +<p>"I knew it. And I never knew any good come of lying in bed by day and +sitting up at night to do your work, or pretend to do it."</p> + +<p>"But that is his business, Ned."</p> + +<p>"Then it is a bad business, say I."</p> + +<p>"And people must have morning papers. Besides, Thomas is ill."</p> + +<p>"And likely to be ill, I should say, sleeping by day and working by +night."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles drew her husband aside to tell him quietly the condition +in which she had found his sister. He was softened by the sad story, +but persisted in thinking that all Mitchell's misfortunes arose from +the fact that he worked by night and slept by day. "It is going +against nature," he said. "Why, the sun shows you what you ought to +do. You don't catch the sun staying up after daylight or going down in +the morning."</p> + +<p>"But the moon and stars are up by night," said Mrs. Rowles laughing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The moon's a she; and as for the stars, they are little uns, and +children are always contrary."</p> + +<p>Mr. Rowles grew good-tempered over his own wit, and at length allowed +that Thomas Mitchell's mode of life was a necessary evil, but an evil +all the same. Then he said that he had not had any idea that the +Mitchells were badly off; he had only been to see them twice since +their marriage, when they had appeared to be comfortable. And he had +always supposed that money was to be had in London almost for the +asking. In fact, he was one of the old-fashioned sort, and never +troubled himself about London ways; and he did not think his sister's +affairs any concern of his. But if Mary was so badly off, and it was a +help to her to get Juliet out of the way, why Juliet might stay as +long as she liked. One mouth more would not make much difference. He +could not say fairer than that, could he?</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles was quite content with the fairness of his speech; and she +went into the house, brought out from her cupboard some odds and ends +for supper, and then lighted the lamp and called in her husband and +the children.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you say grace, Juliet," said Mr. Rowles. He quite expected to +find that she did not know what he meant.</p> + +<p>But she spoke the right words clearly and reverently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>When they had nearly finished their supper, Rowles suddenly turned to +Juliet, saying, "Your father has his supper along of your breakfast, +don't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Juliet, "when we have a breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Don't you always have a breakfast?"</p> + +<p>"Most days, when mother has got on with her work."</p> + +<p>Rowles turned away.</p> + +<p>A cry of "Lock-man! Hie! Lock-man!" sounded on the calm evening air.</p> + +<p>Rowles went out, and his voice was heard in conversation with that of +another man; then the lifting up of the sluices broke the stillness, +and the creaking of the lock-gate as it opened. After that Rowles came +in again, laughing scornfully.</p> + +<p>"It was the chap that slipped into the water this morning. He is a +persevering chap, to be sure. He says he is determined to learn to +row, and to swim, and to punt, and to fish. And he went down this +afternoon, and now he's gone up, and he is dead-beat already; and how +he'll get home he can't tell for the life of him. Why, he knows just +as much about boating as Juliet there. I'd like to see him and her +double sculling. They'd just be a pair, they would."</p> + +<p>Juliet listened to everything but said little, and when she was +ordered off to bed she silently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> followed Emily up to the attic, where +Mrs. Rowles had already contrived to make a second little bed on the +floor.</p> + +<p>After she was in bed Juliet listened for a long while to the roar of +the weir, wondering at what she thought must be distant thunder. Then +the occasional twitter of a bird, or the soft lowing of a cow, or the +splash of a fish leaping in the river, disturbed her from her thoughts +and startled her. And once, when all was very dark and very silent, +she heard the regular pulse of oars, and the clanking of chains, and +the creaking of wood, and subdued voices; and she imagined robbers. +But all became quiet again; and at last, at last, her ideas grew +confused, and she fell asleep.</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image_63.jpg" width="200" height="81" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_64.jpg" width="600" height="139" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h2>ON THE RIVER</h2> + + +<p>HOW wonderful the country seemed to the London child! Everything was +strange and beautiful. And though Juliet would not confess how +surprised she felt, yet by little looks and words her aunt and cousins +knew that she was taking in fresh ideas every minute.</p> + +<p>They asked her how she slept. She replied that she could not sleep +well because it was so dreadfully quiet; if it had not been for the +noise of the "buses" a long way off, and those folks that came home +late and creaked their door, she would not have been able to go to +sleep at all. "My ears was all stretched like," said Juliet, "and +wanted something to work on."</p> + +<p>When they told how the distant <i>buses</i> was the roar of the weir, and +the late-comers a party of gentlemen managing the lock for themselves, +she tried to appear as if she quite understood, but she did not +succeed.</p> + +<p>"Some of them stay out late and let themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> through at 2 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, and +some of them get up early and let themselves through at 3 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, but it +is none of my business to get out of bed for pleasure-boats." Thus +said Mr. Rowles.</p> + +<p>"Who are <i>they</i>?" asked Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the folks on the river. You'll see plenty of them if you stay +here long enough."</p> + +<p>Juliet was not much the wiser; she had heard of mermaids, and thought +at first that the folks on the river must be of that race of beings. +But she waited to see.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Rowles said that Juliet must make herself useful, and might +begin by fetching some water from the well.</p> + +<p>Juliet did not know what a well might be; but she took up a jug and +went out to the riverside. There was a boat pulled up to the bank on +the side of the island away from the towing-path, and as all she +thought about was the fact that she was to bring water, she climbed +into the boat, over the thwarts, and up to the stern. As she crept +along she saw in the shadowed water at the side of the boat a vast +number of little fish playing together, and, like any other child, she +wanted to catch some of them. She dipped the jug down among them, as +she supposed, but alas! instead of winning the minnows she lost the +jug! The handle grew slippery when wet, and away it went out of her +hand, falling with a crash on a big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> stone, and lying in fragments on +the gravel beneath the water.</p> + +<p>Juliet was in consternation. "I say, what a scolding I shall get! Even +mother used to scold a little sometimes when I smashed so much +crockery. And Aunt Emma—and that dreadful cross Uncle Rowles—!"</p> + +<p>The child gasped for breath, but returned indoors where her aunt was +putting away the remains of the breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Why, Juliet, child, you look scared. Have you fetched the water?"</p> + +<p>"No, aunt; 'cause I've broke the jug."</p> + +<p>"Broke the jug! What jug?"</p> + +<p>"The jug I took to get the water in. As soon as ever I put it in the +river it just slipped away and went into pieces."</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear! Which jug was it?"</p> + +<p>"It was a yellow one with blue flowers on it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that one!" and Mrs. Rowles's face cleared. "If it was only that +old one with the broken spout and the cracked handle I really don't +care a bit."</p> + +<p>"I am always so unlucky with crockery," said Juliet. "I've broke +enough in my time to pave Cheapside—jugs and cups and basins."</p> + +<p>"Oh, child!" said her aunt, shocked at the exaggeration.</p> + +<p>"That's what the people in our house used to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> say every time I broke +anything. I'm always unlucky."</p> + +<p>"Well, never mind; this time you've been very clever. That yellow jug +was horrid ugly, and being shabby at the spout and the handle, I often +wished it would get itself broken instead of the pretty new ones. I'm +quite glad you've broken it; I think you were very clever to break +that one."</p> + +<p>So said the kind aunt, hoping to soothe Juliet's sorrow for her +awkwardness and carelessness. This sort of praise was quite new to the +child. To be praised instead of reproved for her stupidity, to be met +with smiles rather than sighs, was something so uncommon that Juliet +almost believed that she really had done a clever and useful deed. +After a few minutes she quite believed it, and held up her head, +taking credit for her breakage which was so clever and so amusing.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Rowles called Emily and bade her take Juliet to the well and +show her how to draw a bucket of water. A loud scream was heard, and +Mrs. Rowles's heart almost ceased beating, so fearful was she that one +of the children had fallen into the well. She ran out to the back of +the house, and saw the two girls standing together with consternation +on their faces. It appeared that Juliet had insisted on lowering the +bucket by the windlass, and that, by some awkward mi she had +let it fall off the hook, and there it lay at the bottom of the well, +and there seemed to be no means of getting it back again.</p> + +<p>This time Mrs. Rowles could not find any consolation for Juliet on the +subject of her stupidity.</p> + +<p>"I always do let things drop," said the child, keeping back tears of +vexation. "Once I let baby drop, and once I let a loaf drop in the mud +that the scavengers had swept to the side of the road. I'm too stupid +and awkward for the country. I'd better go back to London where it +does not show so much among such a many more awkward people."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles put aside all Juliet's remarks, and Emily was anxious to +know what kind of things "scavengers" might be, and when Mr. Rowles +could be spared from the lock he brought a punting pole, and after a +good deal of trouble fished up the bucket. He called Juliet a little +idiot; and Philip remarked that girls never could do anything, +especially London ones, who are always so conceited and stuck-up.</p> + +<p>Poor Juliet felt very unhappy. There was no use in trying to do +better; all her relations were joined together against her. Her father +and mother had sent her away because she was so stupid, and now her +uncle and aunt did not want her. Well, she did not care. She did not +ask them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> to have her on a visit; they must put up with her ways if +they chose to have her.</p> + +<p>"Juliet," said Mrs. Rowles, "do you know what radishes are?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Then will you pull some from the lot that are growing near the +pig-sty? I like the white ones best."</p> + +<p>Juliet made no answer, but marched out into the garden and presently +returned with a bunch of turnips.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear child, but those are not radishes! You did not find those +near the pig-sty."</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you did not attend to what I said. I am sorry you have +pulled these. Your uncle will be vexed."</p> + +<p>"I don't care," said Juliet; "you should not send me on your errands."</p> + +<p>These unkind words made Mrs. Rowles feel very sad. Grown people often +make children unhappy, and children make grown people unhappy very, +very often.</p> + +<p>It was quite certain that this sullen girl who would not take the +trouble to do better, caused a great deal of annoyance to her +relations. But they did not intend to get tired of her until they had +given her every chance of correcting some of her faults. On the Sunday +they dressed her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> in some of Emily's good clothes, and they were glad +to see that she looked nice in them. She went to church in the morning +with her aunt; Philip and Emily were with the Sunday-schools. In the +evening Mr. Rowles was able to go to church, having engaged a young +man to look after the lock for a couple of hours.</p> + +<p>Philip thought himself capable of managing locks and boats and punts +and everything else. When they came back from church that evening he, +with the two girls, got into the old boat from which Juliet had +dropped the poor yellow jug.</p> + +<p>"Give us a row, Phil," said Emily.</p> + +<p>"All right, here goes'" he replied, and he untied the boat from the +post to which she was fastened, and took up the sculls and off they +went.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely summer evening. Mr. and Mrs. Rowles stood on the bank +of their island and watched the young voyagers. Philip was quite used +to boating and they had no fears. He hardly needed to pull at all, the +stream took them down so quickly. Juliet's ill-humour gave way when +all around was so delightful. She saw the clear, rippling water, and +the deep green shade under the trees, and the withies waving their +tops, and forget-me-nots lying in blue patches under the bank; and +larks were trilling overhead, and wagtails dabbling on the shelving +gravel tow-path.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she said sighing, "it is beautiful!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>They were now coming up the stream again, and keeping out of the +current under the bank of an island. There were some swans lying among +the withies and rushes.</p> + +<p>"What are those great white birds?" asked Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know swans when you see them?" was Philip's retort.</p> + +<p>"No; I don't know almost nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I can tell you that a blow from a swan's wing will break +a man's leg, and a peck from a swan's bill would knock out both your +eyes. Hie! Swish!"</p> + +<p>And Philip pulled the boat as close as he could to the swans, who +instantly grew very angry, and stretched out their long necks, hissing +loudly, and flapped their great wings on the water.</p> + +<p>Emily gave a shriek, and threw herself to the further side of the +boat, in terror lest the swans should strike her or peck at her. Her +sudden movement sent the boat deep into the water on her side, and +Juliet thought they would be upset. But she was not so frightened as +to lose her wits. She did not like the swans, but the danger of being +drowned was greater than that of being pecked; and to keep the boat +steady she leaned over on the side of the birds, while Philip, also +alarmed, gave a few strong strokes, and placed them beyond further +peril.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Emily," he said, "how could you be so stupid? Don't you know that you +must always sit still in a boat?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, half crying; "but you frightened me so about the +swans."</p> + +<p>"Girls never can take a bit of fun. And if Juliet had not leaned the +other way so as to balance you, we might all have been in the water, +and the swans would have got you, and you might never have seen +Littlebourne Eyot again."</p> + +<p>At this Emily cried outright.</p> + +<p>Juliet asked Philip what he meant by an eyot. He told her that an +island in the Thames is called an <i>eyot</i> or <i>ait</i>; and he also said +that she had more sense than most girls, and if she liked he would +teach her how to row, which some women can do almost as well as men.</p> + +<p>"I should think I could do it without being taught," said Juliet.</p> + +<p>"No, you could not. You would catch crabs, and you would feather in +the air, and you would run into the banks, and go aground on the +shallows, and be carried over the weirs."</p> + +<p>"I should not care," said Juliet. "I could eat the crabs, and make a +pillow of the feathers; I am not afraid."</p> + +<p>"You have a good deal of pluck for a girl," said Philip; "but don't +you get playing with boats, or you will come to grief."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I sha'n't ask <i>your</i> leave," said Juliet.</p> + +<p>"I sha'n't give it," replied Philip with a rough laugh.</p> + +<p>And Juliet spoke no more, but knitted her brows fiercely.</p> + +<p>When the children landed at the lock, and told of the adventure with +the swans, Mrs. Rowles was profuse with praise of Juliet's presence of +mind. In fact she was almost too profuse, and wishing to encourage her +niece ran the risk of making her conceited. Juliet's brows grew +smooth, her eyes brightened, her head rose higher.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," she said aside to Emily, "it is not so difficult to manage +a boat if you have your wits about you. When people give way and lose +their wits, then it is dangerous, if you like."</p> + +<p>Which remarks seemed to Emily extremely sensible, but to Philip, who +overheard them, extremely foolish.</p> + +<p>During the next week Mrs. Rowles felt that Juliet was improving in +temper and conduct; praise was doing the child good she thought. She +did not know that it was also doing her harm.</p> + +<p>One day a letter and a parcel came for Juliet. The letter was from her +mother, full of good news. Mr. Mitchell had gone to work again; she +had herself made a summer mantle for one of Miss Sutton's friends, and +had been paid four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> and sixpence for it. Albert had got a rise of a +shilling a-week; and baby's cheeks were getting to have quite a +colour. Mrs. Mitchell was sure that Juliet was very good and very +happy, and making herself useful to her aunt and uncle. And when they +could spare her to come back to London she must get a little place, +and earn her own living like a woman. If Mrs. Mitchell had any fresh +troubles since Juliet left home, she did not mention them in her +letter.</p> + +<p>Then the parcel—ah! that came from Miss Sutton and some of her +friends at the West-end. It contained nice articles of clothing. A +pair of strong boots, two pink cotton pinafores, some few other +things, and a clean, large-print prayerbook. Juliet's face grew so +happy over her letter and her presents that, to Mrs. Rowles surprise, +it became quite pretty. This was the first time that she had perceived +how the girl's ill-tempered countenance spoilt her really good +features.</p> + +<p>"Is she like her father or her mother?" Mr. Rowles inquired of his +wife. "But there! she can't be like her father—a pasty-faced, drowsy +fellow, always sleeping in the daytime, and never getting a bit of +sunshine to freshen him up. Not like some of them, camping out and +doing their cooking in the open air, and getting burnt as black as +gipsies. There they are—at it again!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>And he went out to the lock.</p> + +<p>There were two boats waiting to go down. The people in one of them +were quite unknown to Rowles, but in the second was that middle-aged +man who was so determined to learn to row.</p> + +<p>"How are you getting on, sir?" asked Rowles. "Easier work now, ain't +it?"</p> + +<p>The man seemed unwilling to reply. He had an oar, and with him was a +youth in a suit of flannels pulling the other oar, while on the seat +sat an elderly gentleman steering.</p> + +<p>"Did you find it very hard at first?" said the lad to his colleague.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, Mr. Leonard; and I don't find it any too easy now."</p> + +<p>The old gentleman laughed. "Well, Roberts, take it coolly going down +stream, and reserve your energies for coming up. I say, lock-keeper, I +am told that you let lodgings; have you any rooms vacant?"</p> + +<p>"My missus has two rooms, sir," replied Rowles, as he leaned on the +great white wooden handle while the lock was emptying through the +sluices of the lower gates. "There is a gentleman who generally comes +in August, being an upper-class lawyer and can't leave his work till +the best of the summer is over, just like printers who lie in bed all +day and work all night."</p> + +<p>"Don't say a word against printers," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> old gentleman laughing. +"That won't do, will it Leonard?"</p> + +<p>"No, father," the youth replied.</p> + +<p>"So, as I was saying," Rowles went on, "he comes here every August and +September, and letters come by the bushel with Q.C. on them; and young +Walker—the postman, you know—would just as soon he staid in London. +But before August and after September Mrs. Rowles has a tidy little +sitting-room and bed-room, if so be as you know anyone would be likely +to take them."</p> + +<p>"I was only thinking," said the gentleman, "that the hotel is rather +too expensive—"</p> + +<p>By this time the boat had floated near to the lower gates.</p> + +<p>"Hold her up! hold her up!" cried Rowles, "or I can't open the gates. +Not you, sir," he added to the stranger who was sculling the other +boat; "but you, I mean, Mr. Robert."</p> + +<p>For Rowles had caught the name of the servant who was so persevering +on the river.</p> + +<p>"All right," returned Roberts; "give Mr. Burnet the ticket, please."</p> + +<p>Rowles stooped down and gave the old gentleman the ticket for the +lock, and then the two boats passed out into the open stream. The +lock-keeper went indoors to ask if dinner was ready.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Quite ready," was Mrs. Rowles's cheerful reply. "Call the children +in, will you, Ned?"</p> + +<p>He went out by the backdoor into the garden, and saw how the sky was +clouding up from the south-west. "Rain coming; bring on the +scarlet-runners and the marrows. Phil-lip! Emil-ly! Jule-liet! Come in +to dinner."</p> + +<p>Then Philip appeared, hot and tired from digging; and Emily came with +some needlework at which she had been stitching in the intervals of +watching her brother. The holidays had begun, and they were thoroughly +enjoyed by these children.</p> + +<p>"And where is Juliet?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," answered Emily.</p> + +<p>"Well, you must bring her in. Mother says dinner is quite ready."</p> + +<p>"I think she must be in our bed-room," and Emily went upstairs to seek +her cousin, and to wash her own dusty little hands.</p> + +<p>But Juliet was not in the attic.</p> + +<p>"Then she must have gone into the lodgers' rooms," said Mrs. Rowles.</p> + +<p>But there was no sign of her in those shut-up rooms; no sign of her +anywhere in the house, nor in the garden, nor on the eyot at all, nor +on the towing-path as far as could be seen.</p> + +<p>"What can have become of her?"</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_78.jpg" width="600" height="138" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h2>MISSING!</h2> + + +<p>"Well, well," said Mr. Rowles, "never mind; we must eat our dinners +without her. She would not miss her share of this cabbage if she knew +how tasty and juicy it is."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles sat down very unwillingly. If the child was not on the +island where could she be? It was very strange.</p> + +<p>"She has no idea of time," Mr. Rowles went on, between mouthfuls of +the cabbage. "I'm not going to blame her for that; she only takes +after her father, who does not know day from night."</p> + +<p>They had a dull meal, being more anxious about Juliet than they cared +to confess to each other. They thought she might have gone up the +towing-path, or down the towing-path, or by the road towards the +village, or by the fields towards the station. And at every sound from +outside someone went to the door peering out with the hope of seeing +the child. But an hour passed, and no Juliet appeared. Then her aunt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +became seriously anxious, dreading lest some terrible thing should +have happened.</p> + +<p>"If she had fallen into the lock—" said Mrs. Rowles.</p> + +<p>"We should have heard her scream," said Mr. Rowles.</p> + +<p>"If she had been kidnapped by gipsies," said Emily; "but then—"</p> + +<p>"There are no gipsies about," said Philip.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles now began to think that Juliet must have set off to go +home. "We have not been kind enough to her, poor child, and she can't +bear it any longer."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk nonsense," was Rowles's reply, as he obeyed a call to the +lock. "We've been too kind; and if Thomas Mitchell had taken to any +sensible business that did not keep him up all night, thereby breaking +down his health, he would be able to support his family, and there +would be no need for us to bother ourselves with such a cross-grained +girl as that. Now, Phil, off to your digging again. Yes, gents, I +know; how they do keep calling out for one, to be sure!"</p> + +<p>Philip went out to the kitchen-garden. Within a few minutes his voice +was heard, loudly raised.</p> + +<p>"Here! Father! Mother! Emily! Come quick! Just look here!"</p> + +<p>All three responded to his call</p> + +<p>"Whatever is the matter?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, look there! The boat is gone!"</p> + +<p>"So she is! Well, I never!" and Mr. Rowles stared blankly at the post +to which his boat was usually moored. "Someone has made off with the +<i>Fairy</i>. That beats everything!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles was wringing her hands. "Oh, dear, dear, dear! This is +worse than I expected. She never will come home again safe!"</p> + +<p>"No," said the lock-keeper, "them that has took her are not likely to +send her back; and if so be as she has drifted down by accident she +will be drawn over Banksome Weir and be smashed. I'm glad she is only +an old, worn-out thing."</p> + +<p>"An old, worn-out thing!" cried Mrs. Rowles, quite wildly. "A poor, +dear child of twelve! What are you thinking of?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of the <i>Fairy</i>. You don't mean, wife—" and he grew +more serious—"you don't mean that you think the child was in her?"</p> + +<p>"That is what I do think, Ned."</p> + +<p>"Well, that is bad."</p> + +<p>"And see," cried Phil, "she must have taken the sculls, for they are +gone too. I know Juliet thought she could manage a boat; she said so +the other day."</p> + +<p>Emily was crying. Mr and Mrs. Rowles looked at each other in an agony. +They knew pretty well what must happen to Juliet alone in a boat. She +would be carried rapidly down stream, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> the current would draw the +little bark to the weir, and over the weir, and it would be dashed +about by the swirling rush of water, capsized, and its occupant thrown +out. And nothing more would be seen of poor Juliet but a white, +lifeless body carried home.</p> + +<p>Oh, it was too sad to think of!</p> + +<p>"What can we do? What can we do? What would her own mother do?"</p> + +<p>"Hope for the best, Emma," said Mr. Rowles. "If I had another boat I +would send Phil down to look for her. Perhaps the next boat that goes +through would let him jump into the bows."</p> + +<p>"I might run down the towing-path," said Phil. "I can run pretty +quick."</p> + +<p>"And if you did see her in the <i>Fairy</i> out in mid-stream, how could +you get near enough to help her? No; the only chance will be to ask +some of them to take you down in their boat. Here they come; both +ways."</p> + +<p>The lower gate of the lock was open, so that the boat coming up passed +through first. Rowles worked the handles as quickly as he could; +standing on the bank while the lock filled he asked the two gentlemen +in the boat if they had seen anything of a little girl out by herself +on the river.</p> + +<p>"No," replied one of the young men; "we only started from just below +Littlebourne Ferry. I have noticed no little girl in a boat."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nor I," added the other gentleman. "And I think I should have noticed +such a person, for little girls don't often go out boating alone."</p> + +<p>"And an ignorant London child, too," groaned Mr. Rowles. "And many a +time I told her never to think of boating by herself; but she is so +obstinate and so stupid, there is no knowing what she has done. And if +you gentlemen have not met her, she must have got below Littlebourne +Ferry, and then she would be very near Banksome Weir, and there is no +saying what has become of her."</p> + +<p>The two gentlemen looked very grave, but did not offer to turn and go +down stream to look for Juliet.</p> + +<p>As their boat came out of the lock another was waiting to come in. It +contained Mr. Webster, the vicar of Littlebourne, and his wife.</p> + +<p>"Beg your pardon, sir," said Rowles as soon as he had closed the gate +above them, "would you mind if Philip was to jump into your bows and +go down a bit with you? Because there's a girl, my niece in fact, who +must have gone off in my little <i>Fairy</i>, and she don't know bow oar +from stroke, and if she gets alongside Banksome Weir she'll go over +and be drowned."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me!" said Mr. Webster. "How did the child come to be all +alone in a boat?"</p> + +<p>"Through being brought up without a grain of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> sense. What can you +expect when the father sleeps all day so that he never can give a word +of advice to his children? Now, in with you, Phil; and I shall be glad +to see you come back—" he broke off with a cough.</p> + +<p>"I will pull as hard as I can," said Mr. Webster. "We must hope that +by God's mercy the child will be saved."</p> + +<p>Phil dropped from the bank into the boat, and the moment they were out +of the lock the boat went flying down the river as fast as the current +and the vicar's strong arms could send her.</p> + +<p>"She will be very wet when she comes in," said Mrs. Rowles; "it is +beginning to rain."</p> + +<p>"She'll be pretty wet if she's been in the river," said Mr. Rowles.</p> + +<p>His wife heaped up the kitchen fire and put coffee on to boil, and +laid some clean garments to get warm, and waited with anxious heart +for some news of the missing child.</p> + +<p>Emily went up to the attic and looked at the belongings of Juliet, +which lay on the table and hung on pegs. Her cousin's real character +was better known to Emily than to anyone else at Littlebourne Lock. +Juliet was proud and conceited, and thought she could do whatever +other people did; then, when her carelessness brought her into +accidents and difficulties, she would grow very cross and angry with +herself, and when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> reproved for her faults would say, "I don't care; +I'm that stupid and awkward that I can't do anything right." Emily had +seen her stamping on the ground at the end of the garden after some +unfortunate occurrence, and had heard her sobbing and choking in her +bed after some stern words from Mr. Rowles. Emily knew that it was not +humility but wounded pride which made Juliet so sullen and dull; and +Emily wondered if a girl who did not wish to learn, and would not +condescend to be taught, could ever possibly improve.</p> + +<p>"And if she is drowned," cried Emily with a burst of tears, "she can +never learn anything more on earth! Oh, I do pray to God to let Juliet +be saved, and learn, and grow better!"</p> + +<p>The sky became dark, distant thunder growled over the hill; would +Juliet Mitchell escape the consequences of her disobedience and +self-conceit?</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image_84.jpg" width="200" height="91" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_85.jpg" width="600" height="142" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h2>FOUND!</h2> + + +<p>FAST as Mr. Webster rowed, it was not fast enough for Philip's +anxiety. They both knew that if the <i>Fairy</i> had drifted down to +Banksome Weir they would probably be too late to save Juliet from a +terrible death. On a single minute might depend the fate of the girl.</p> + +<p>Mr. Webster set his teeth and pulled with all his strength; Mrs. +Webster was steering, and she kept the boat in mid-stream that it +might get the full force of the current. Phil knelt in the bows, +keeping the sharpest look-out for any sign of his missing cousin. The +damp wind blew down the river and drove them on.</p> + +<p>They passed many other boats and two or three barges, but not a sign +of the <i>Fairy</i>. They flew along between green banks, between hedges, +trees, houses. Sometimes they could see nothing more distant than a +hedge, at other times the flat fields stretched back and back, and +were lost at the feet of misty gray hills. But not on the river,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> nor +on the banks, nor in the fields, could Philip see Juliet's figure.</p> + +<p>"How little even some grown men know about rowing!" was Mr. Webster's +remark when he saw a heavy-looking boat with a smaller one tied to its +stern coming up the middle of the stream. "It is that old gentleman +who, they say, is staying at the hotel with his son, and their +man-servant is sculling them up the very stiffest bit of the current."</p> + +<p>"Hoorah!" shouted Philip. "All right, Juliet!"</p> + +<p>For on the seat beside Mr. Burnet, sheltered by his umbrella, sat the +truant girl, while young Leonard was giving Roberts instructions in +the art of rowing.</p> + +<p>The two boats met and came alongside. Philip was so greatly relieved +in mind that he almost felt inclined to cry, while Juliet was silent +and ashamed if not sulky.</p> + +<p>"This child has given her friends at Littlebourne Lock a terrible +fright," said Mr. Webster to Mr. Burnet. "When they discovered that +the boat was missing as well as the girl, they quite thought that both +must have gone over the weir together."</p> + +<p>The vicar had brought his boat close beside Mr. Burnet's, and held the +rowlocks of the latter while he asked questions.</p> + +<p>"Is she hurt in any way?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, not at all. I think we came upon her just in time."</p> + +<p>"Had she got down as far as the weir?"</p> + +<p>"Just to the first pier which is marked with the word DANGER."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Juliet!" cried Philip with a gasp. "If the <i>Fairy</i> had been drawn +to the wrong side of that post—"</p> + +<p>Mr. Webster looked so grave, and they were all so impressed with a +sense of the great peril she had incurred, that Juliet's pride and +coldness were broken down for once, and she sat beside Mr. Burnet +weeping silently.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Mrs. Webster, "she is tired, and I daresay hungry, +and you had better get her home as quickly as you can. There is heavy +rain coming up, and we must be down at Egham by four o'clock if +possible. I am afraid we shall be caught by the storm. Philip Rowles, +get into this gentleman's boat, and help to take your cousin home."</p> + +<p>"And I will look in one day, little girl, and have a talk with you," +said the vicar of Littlebourne as he bent to his work and flew down +the river, distancing the storm.</p> + +<p>Leonard Burnet now took an oar and Roberts took the other, and they +rowed hard against wind and current. Mr. Burnet sheltered Juliet and +himself as best he could against the rain, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> came in heavy, +uncertain dashes. Philip had to sit on the planks at their feet, for +the stern seat only held two.</p> + +<p>"Do tell me, Juliet, all that has happened to you. Did the <i>Fairy</i> go +adrift by accident?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Juliet through her muffled sobs.</p> + +<p>"Then how did she get unmoored? I do believe she has lost a scull!" +Philip added, trying to examine the poor old boat which was being +towed behind them. "I can't make out very well, but I think she has +lost a scull and her rudder."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Juliet in a husky voice.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what my father will say—" Philip began.</p> + +<p>"I know what he will say," interrupted Mr. Burnet. "He will be so +overjoyed to see his little niece again safe and sound that he will +say not a word about the scull and the rudder."</p> + +<p>"He will want to know how it all happened," said Philip; then he +added, addressing Juliet, "you will have to tell him every bit about +it from beginning to end."</p> + +<p>"I can't, I won't," said Juliet faintly.</p> + +<p>Philip was all in a fidget to hear a full account of Juliet's +adventure, so he said, shaking his head, "Ah, then, I should advise +you to tell <i>me</i> the story, and then I can tell it to father, and save +you the trouble."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, Juliet," added Mr. Burnet; "tell us the whole story."</p> + +<p>Thus persuaded, the girl poured out the tale of her adventures, which +had been pent up in her stubborn heart, as the waters were sometimes +pent up in the lock; and then, just as the waters when they escape +from the lock pour out and away in a mad foaming rush, so Juliet's +thoughts and words poured themselves out in a torrent when once she +began to talk.</p> + +<p>"I thought—I thought—it was quite easy to manage a boat; and I +thought I would just take the <i>Fairy</i> a little way, over to the +opposite bank, and get some forget-me-nots and come back again."</p> + +<p>"Were you not forbidden to take out the boat?" asked Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>Juliet hung her head, and then lifting it said, "Yes; but I did not +care. I would not be ordered about by them, nor by nobody. So I got +into the boat when they were all busy and untied the bit of rope from +the post, and then the water made it move away quite quick. And I +wanted to sit on the little seat that goes across, and I slipt and +caught my shin such a crack against the edge of it, and I went down on +my face on the floor; and I should have liked to call out, but I did +not want anybody to know that I was gone. And when I did get on the +seat and rubbed my shin-bone,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> which it has got the skin scratched off +and sticking to my stocking, there was two great pieces of wood to be +put out on each side to push the boat on with."</p> + +<p>"The sculls," Philip put in.</p> + +<p>"They ain't skulls; they are more like arms, or legs perhaps. They +were so heavy, and when I pulled one up from the floor and put the end +of it over into the water, I found it was the wrong end, and the spoon +part had come into the boat. So I got that one to go right after a +fight with it, and the other one went right much sooner; and so when +they were right in their sockets the boat was gone out into the middle +of the water. And I <i>was</i> frightened, I can tell you."</p> + +<p>"I should think so!" said Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said young Leonard.</p> + +<p>"And so I tried to put both the sticks in the water at the same time, +but when one went down the other went up, and the one that went down +made a great splash, and then got itself so much under the water that +it would not come up again for a long time; and so the one that went +up seemed to get stuck, and when it came down it made a worse splash +than the other one, and the water jumped up and hit me in the face and +made my hat all wet. And there was a great black boat as big as Noah's +ark going by, and three horses drawing it, and a little chimney in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +it, and two men, and they called out 'See-saw! see-saw!' and it was +awful rude of them."</p> + +<p>"And what happened next?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought I could get along better if I had one oar at a time; +and so I took up one and put both hands to it, and dipped it down deep +and pulled it hard in the water, and so the other one got loose +somehow and slipped away and fell into the water. And there was a boat +and people sitting in it on chairs with fishing-rods, and they did so +laugh at me; and some men on the bank they laughed too, and called out +something, but I don't know what they said. And then the boat went on +and on, and I saw some broad white posts like you have at Littlebourne +Weir, and the boat went up sideways tight against the posts, and I sat +still and waited until somebody come by to help me."</p> + +<p>"And were you not frightened?"</p> + +<p>"I was that frightened I could not have spoke if it was ever so."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, well," said Mr. Burnet, "here you are safe, and very +thankful you must be that we came down just in time to save you. Had +the boat been carried over the weir you would have been drowned. But +when Roberts saw you he knew you were one of the Littlebourne +children, and my son felt sure that you were in distress."</p> + +<p>As soon as Juliet had told her story she r into silence; the +excitement of her rescue was passing off, and the terror of her danger +remained. She sat beside Mr. Burnet and heard the rain pattering on +his umbrella, and wished she was at the lock and wished she was in +London, and wished she was grown-up and doing for herself, and not so +stupid and always putting other people out and making things go wrong. +Juliet was quite sure that though she had got into trouble with the +boat, there were heaps of other things that she would be very clever +about.</p> + +<p>The rain was pouring down when Mr. Burnet's boat arrived at +Littlebourne Lock.</p> + +<p>Cries of joy greeted Juliet as soon as her relations saw her. Mr. +Rowles was full of gruff thanks to the gentlemen, and begged the whole +party to go inside the house until the rain should cease. For there +was bright sky beyond the black clouds, and the shower would soon be +over. So they all went into the "lodgers' rooms," as Mrs. Rowles +called those which she was in the habit of letting, and there they sat +together talking.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid," said Mrs. Rowles, "that Juliet will never do better +until she learns to be guided by the orders and the advice of other +people. I used to think that she wanted encouraging and helping on, +but I find that she really thinks a great deal of herself, and does +not like to be told anything."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But she must and shall be told!" cried her uncle. "A bit of a girl +setting herself up against her elders indeed! If she is to stay in my +house she shall obey my orders. Do you hear me, Juliet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Juliet.</p> + +<p>"And your aunt's orders."</p> + +<p>"Yes, as long as I am in your house."</p> + +<p>With these words Juliet burst into a flood of angry tears, and kicked +her heels upon the floor in a violent manner.</p> + +<p>"You had better go up to your room," said Mrs. Rowles gently.</p> + +<p>The girl flung herself away, slamming the door after her.</p> + +<p>"A troublesome child," said Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Poor thing! there are excuses to be made for her. Of late +years her father has been a good deal out of work and in bad health; +and then living in a close-packed part of London is trying to the +temper. And she's a baby beginning to feel her feet, and beginning to +feel herself getting on towards a woman. I am very sorry for her, poor +child, but I don't know about keeping her with us. You don't want your +whole comfort upset."</p> + +<p>"And your boat too," said Rowles; "and your scull broken and lost. +It's a-clearing up, I do believe," he added, going out to the front of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> house, for he never stayed indoors when he could be out. Roberts +followed him.</p> + +<p>"Where does the child come from?" Mr. Burnet asked of Mrs. Rowles.</p> + +<p>She named the street, and added, "Her father is a printer, and that is +one thing that makes my husband so set against her."</p> + +<p>"Why so?" inquired the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Because he thinks it unhealthy and wicked-like to work by night and +sleep by day, as you must when you are on a morning paper like poor +Thomas. You see, sir, Rowles has been lock-keeper these seventeen +years with eighteen shillings a-week and a house, and his hours from +six in the morning to ten at night; so he always gets his money +regular and his sleep regular, and he can't see why other men can't do +the same."</p> + +<p>"We cannot be all of one trade," remarked Mr. Burnet. "And I hope he +does not hold that bad opinion of all in the printing business, +because I am a printer myself."</p> + +<p>"You, sir!" cried Mrs. Rowles, while Emily opened her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean exactly in the same way as that child's father, but I am +in the same line. When I was a younger man I used to sit in the office +of a newspaper every alternate night to receive the foreign telegrams +as they came in. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> rather trying. Ah, Mrs. Rowles, while half +the world is asleep in bed the other half is hard at work getting +things ready for the sleepers when they waken. Do you know that, my +dear?" he finished, as he turned to Emily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," replied Emily. "The people in Australia are asleep while +the people in England are awake."</p> + +<p>The gentleman laughed. "I did not mean that exactly, but you are quite +right, my child. Yes, day and night come turn about to most of us. I +am taking life easier now as I grow old. Most of my work is over. It +is my boy's turn to go on with the task. One wants rest after the heat +and burden of the day; and it is a blessed thing when at evening time +there is light, and we can think over the mistakes and the mercies of +the past, and look forward to the repose and joy of the future."</p> + +<p>These words were so serious that Mrs. Rowles did not attempt to reply +to them. And presently Mr. Burnet roused himself from his solemn +thoughts and said brightly, "There! clear shining after rain. Now, we +must say good-bye and go home."</p> + +<p>While Mr. Burnet and Mrs. Rowles had been talking, Roberts and the +lock-keeper had also been conversing.</p> + +<p>"It is my own fault," Rowles said, "and my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> wife's. One might know +that a London girl like that would be sure to get into trouble in the +country. Her father's a printer; sits up all night, and naturally +never has his head clear for anything."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now," replied Roberts; "you are too hard on printers, you +are. If they were not clear-headed I don't see how they could set up +their type without more mistakes than they make. Why, I've had +relations myself in the printing line, and Mr. Burnet is a +master-printer himself."</p> + +<p>"Is he now?" said Rowles.</p> + +<p>"That's what we're down here for. He's bought up half the <i>Thames +Valley Times and Post</i>, and he wants to live near the works, and while +we are looking out for a house we have to stay at the hotel. Mr. +Leonard is going into the business too, as soon as he is old enough."</p> + +<p>Roberts had just reached this point when Mr. Burnet came out from the +house. Rowles looked with more interest at the old gentleman who was +in the same line with Thomas Mitchell, and from that moment began to +think better of printers in general.</p> + +<p>The sky was rapidly clearing, so the three visitors turned the +cushions of the boat, and stepping into it went through the lock, and +were soon going up between the green banks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> and hedges, all +deliciously freshened by the heavy summer rain.</p> + +<p>"He's a nice old fellow," Rowles muttered to himself; "but then all +printers are not like him. Here, Phil, see what you can do to put the +<i>Fairy</i> in order again. But as for that Juliet, if my wife was not so +soft-hearted I would turn the girl out to run home or to get her own +living."</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image_97.jpg" width="200" height="89" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_98.jpg" width="600" height="143" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2>BETTERING HERSELF.</h2> + + +<p>Juliet Mitchell had gone up to the little room which she shared with +Emily Rowles. It did not contain much furniture, and what there was +had seen its best days long before. The chest of drawers had lost most +of its handles; the looking-glass which stood on the drawers swung +round the wrong way unless it was propped up by a book or by a box. It +had swung round in this manner, but had stuck half-way. When Juliet +entered the room she came face to face with the glass, and +consequently face to face with herself.</p> + +<p>What she saw was enough to frighten her, and did frighten her. The +scowling brows, the flushed cheeks, the pushed-out lips, were more +like those of some fierce and raging animal than the features of a +young girl in a Christian land. She stopped short and glared at her +own reflection. It glared back as angrily at her. "What a horrid, +ugly, cross thing, you are!" said Juliet.</p> + +<p>The face in the glass said the very same words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> with its lips, though +it made no sound. Then Juliet stood still and talked with herself.</p> + +<p>"You are the ugliest, the crossest, most stupid, awkward creature I +ever did come near; and so I tell you plainly, Juliet Mitchell. Since +you came into this house not a thing but what is tiresome have you +done. Why, if your aunt was to jaw you from morning to night you would +do no better; and you can't stand being jawed, you know. And your aunt +just looks at you in a way that is more piercing than if she was to +talk for weeks! And your uncle, he's your own mother's own brother; +but there! he'd be glad enough if you was to take yourself off. And +that's about the best thing you can do. Take yourself off and get your +own living like other girls of your age. Nobody wants you, here or in +London. There's a many little places going; and when you've shown that +you can take care of yourself and don't want none of their advice, nor +none of their money either, then won't they be pleased to get a letter +from you!"</p> + +<p>Like many another young girl—ay, and boy too—Juliet had a great +notion of independence—of getting away from advice and restraint, and +of earning money for herself. In London more than in the country, +girls go off and engage themselves as servants or in some other +capacity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> and so start alone in the world like little boats putting +out on a stormy sea without sail or oar, rudder or compass. And many, +many are wrecked on the first rock; and many go through wild tempests +and suffer terrible hardships. A few battle through the winds and +waves and reach a happy shore.</p> + +<p>Had Juliet asked advice of anyone, or had she knelt and implored +guidance from her Heavenly Father, she would not have made the mad +resolve which now shaped itself in her mind. It was the resolve to go +away from Littlebourne Lock, on that side of the river which she knew +least—away from her relations, from the village, from the church, +from the railway, to find a situation with some stranger in a place +where no one knew her; in a word, to provide for herself.</p> + +<p>As her resolve grew more fixed she felt calmer, and even pleased. +Smiles began to flicker over her features; and when she next looked in +the glass she murmured to her reflection, "I say, you ain't so +bad-looking after all!"</p> + +<p>A knock on the door roused her. Mrs. Rowles came in.</p> + +<p>The good aunt sat down on the foot of the bed and drew the girl +towards her, putting her motherly arm round the little figure, and +smoothing the ruffled hair. Mrs. Rowles went on to explain to Juliet +the great danger which she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> had run, and the extreme naughtiness of +flat disobedience; and all the while Juliet stood with a calm face and +silent manner, so that her aunt thought she was penitent. But this +quietness was caused by her having so fully made up her mind as to +what she would do next. She let Mrs. Rowles speak on, and appeared +meek and humble; but in reality her thoughts were not on anything that +she heard.</p> + +<p>"And so," said Mrs. Rowles, rising at length and unclasping the +sheltering arms, "when you have been with us a little longer, and have +learnt a little more, we will get you a nice situation—and Mrs. +Webster knows all the good situations that are going,—and you shall +have a start in life; and I've written to your mother to tell her what +I think of doing for you. We shall have her answer the day after +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Juliet said coldly, "All right."</p> + +<p>"I thought you might like another frock," said Mrs. Rowles, "so I have +been making one for you out of a gown of my own; and here are two new +print aprons, and I've put a fresh ribbon on your hat. You are quite +set up now, my dear."</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Juliet without thanking her aunt, "that them things +are good enough for going to service."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, quite good enough—if you should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> happen to hear of a little +place to suit you. Don't you like them?"</p> + +<p>"They are right enough," said Juliet.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Rowles turned and went away, wondering that so young a girl +should be so hard, and totally unsuspicious of the resolve which was +in that young hard heart.</p> + +<p>It was a resolve which could not be put in execution at once; Juliet +must needs wait for a favourable opportunity. Two days went by and she +did not find one; then came a letter from her mother saying that if +Juliet could find a situation in the country it would be better than +coming back to overcrowded London, where young girls in swarms were +looking out for means of earning their livings. Mrs. Mitchell said +little more; all were pretty well except baby, who was always poorly.</p> + +<p>Juliet now considered that she had got a sort of permission from her +mother to do what she wished to do. She thought she could defy her +uncle and aunt if they found any fault with her actions.</p> + +<p>The eventful moment arrived.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles and Emily had gone to the village to buy a few things for +the lodgers who were expected shortly. Mr. Rowles was busy at the +lock; Philip was going to take out the <i>Fairy</i> for her first trip +after her repairs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>Juliet came down from the attic. She wore her new-made frock, her +re-trimmed hat, and carried a parcel containing the print aprons. Phil +did not notice what she wore or what she carried.</p> + +<p>"Take me in the boat, Phil," she said coaxingly.</p> + +<p>"I thought you had had enough of the boat," he replied.</p> + +<p>"But you will be in it, this time."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't want you," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, just set me down on the opposite bank."</p> + +<p>"I don't mind doing that; but you may have to wait a long time before +I come back for you."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Juliet; "I don't care how long you are."</p> + +<p>She stepped into the <i>Fairy</i>, and sat quite still while Philip rowed +her to the far-off bank. Then she got out very gravely, and sat down +on the grass until he was out of sight.</p> + +<p>Fields came down to the water's edge. Where Juliet sat there was a +muddy bit of gravel shelving to the river. She did not know what made +this break in the bank. It had been formed by cows and horses coming +down to drink. In the field there were now no animals; had there been +she would have hesitated about remaining in it. But as soon as Phil +had disappeared she stood and looked about her, and perceived that +there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> was no living creature in sight, except the larks singing on +high and the grasshoppers chirping among the grass.</p> + +<p>Juliet walked swiftly across the field to a gate which stood open, and +through which she passed. Hardly had she entered the second field when +she saw at the further side of it about a dozen cows. Her heart fell. +Like most London girls she was horribly afraid of cows. Yet to go back +would be to undo her plan; besides the animals had already seen her, +and all their heads were turned in her direction.</p> + +<p>"I must not irritate them," she thought, "and yet I must get on out of +this field. If I creep along under the hedge they will not notice me."</p> + +<p>Her frock was a dark green, and her hat a black one. She sidled along +close to the hedge, keeping her eyes on the cows, which presently +resumed their feeding. But as she did not look where she was treading +she went down, splash! into a ditch.</p> + +<p>Mud and duckweed covered her boots, several dirty marks were made on +her frock, the parcel fell out of her hand, and probably the black +stains on the paper had penetrated to the contents. This was her first +misfortune.</p> + +<p>She got herself out of the ditch and went on more carefully, keeping +still in the shade of the hedge. Then a great spray of bramble caught +a bow of ribbon on her hat and lifted the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> thing off her head. +It flew up in the air, and only after repeated jumps could she get +hold of it and bring it down again. This was her second misfortune.</p> + +<p>Her tumblings and jumpings had attracted the attention of the cows +once more, and a calf being young and inquisitive thought he would +like to have a nearer view of the intruder, and began to follow +Juliet. This was her third misfortune.</p> + +<p>Her first impulse was to run, but a second thought told her that the +cows would be sure to run after her. So she did not run, but walked as +fast as she could, the calf walking faster and gaining on her. She +stumbled and tripped and panted, and fixed her eyes on a gate, hoping +that she might reach it before the calf came up with her. On she went +with terrified steps, arrived at the gate, and found it fastened.</p> + +<p>She threw the parcel over, climbed up the five wooden bars, and was +going to climb down on the other side when she felt the great, warm, +wet lips of the calf playing with her left ankle. She gave one screech +of horror and threw herself head-foremost to the ground. It was soft +and mossy, and she rose, shaken and bruised, and with a hole in the +knee of each stocking.</p> + +<p>But she had escaped from the calf. The copse or wood into which she +had entered was dark and cool. A pathway went curving in and out +among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> the trees. At a sharp turn she came suddenly upon a big man +with a beard, who pointed a gun full at her, and said, "Stand, or I'll +fire!"</p> + +<p>This was her fourth misfortune.</p> + +<p>Here was a dreadful, cruel robber such as she had read about in +badly-printed penny books, and he would shoot her dead in half a +minute. She gave a scream and turned to run back, but the man strode +after her and laid a huge hand on her shoulder. At this she screamed +and danced with terror.</p> + +<p>"Now, now," roared the man, "stop that row! What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"I want to go away!" cried Juliet.</p> + +<p>"So you shall. But answer my questions first."</p> + +<p>Glancing up at him Juliet perceived that he was laughing. All her +fears vanished and she began to laugh too.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here?" asked the man again.</p> + +<p>"I'm only walking through the wood," said Juliet, recovering her +courage. "There ain't no law against that, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but there is. 'Trespassers will be prosecuted with the utmost +rigour of the law.' Where do you come from?"</p> + +<p>"From over there," and Juliet pointed behind her.</p> + +<p>"Oh! And where are you going?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Over there," and she pointed before her.</p> + +<p>The man whistled. "If you're not a Londoner, I'm a Dutchman. You're +pretty sharp, you are."</p> + +<p>"No, I ain't," said Juliet, stolidly; "I'm that stupid and awkward +that I can't do nothing right. So I want a general place, I do."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the big man, laughing; "awkward and stupid wants a place. +Hope you'll get it, miss. Well, now, look here. Go right on and get +out of the wood as quick as ten thousand lightnings, or else you'll be +prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law."</p> + +<p>Juliet wriggled away from under his heavy hand and ran right ahead, +thankful to escape from the gun.</p> + +<p>She came soon to the edge of the wood and found a fence easy to climb. +On the other side of this she came into a lane which led out on a +highroad. It was now late in the day; the sun was getting low, and the +shadows grew longer and the air sweeter. She walked on quietly, +thinking herself safe from pursuit. How surprised every one would be +when they discovered that she had started in life by herself! Perhaps +they would see that she was not so stupid and awkward as they thought.</p> + +<p>"But I've got no place yet," said the girl to herself. "I must find +one pretty sharp or I shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> have nowhere to sleep to-night. Here's +two houses; either on 'em would do for me."</p> + +<p>Two small brick houses stood by the roadside. They had green doors, +and shutters outside the windows, and little gardens in front.</p> + +<p>"There ain't not a bit of use in being shy," said Juliet to herself, +her courage all the while sinking lower and lower. "I'm as bold as +brass, I always was. Here goes!"</p> + +<p>She walked up to the door of the first cottage and rapped on it with +her knuckles.</p> + +<p>It was opened by a tall, thin, elderly woman in a high black bonnet. +"What do you want?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Please, missus, I want a place; general servant, like."</p> + +<p>The woman looked at her from the crown of her hat to the heels of her +boots. "Oh, do you? Where have you been living?"</p> + +<p>"Over there," said Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Over where?"</p> + +<p>"Littlebourne way."</p> + +<p>The woman seemed to be thinking deeply.</p> + +<p>"Got a first-rate character, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said Juliet hastily, "I've not been in a regular +situation, as the saying is, but helping a friend, you know."</p> + +<p>"It's a pity you've left her," said the woman. "What wages were you +getting?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<p>Juliet said, lamely enough, "I didn't have no regular wages. They kep' +me, and gave me these," showing the aprons.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Did they send you away?"</p> + +<p>"No, missus; I just took French leave and come away when it suited me. +I want to better myself."</p> + +<p>"I see. Well, come in. I'll try you. My name is <i>Bosher</i>. Do you +hear—<i>Mrs. Bosher</i>?"</p> + +<p>While Juliet stood in the narrow passage Mrs. Bosher locked and bolted +the door, and at every sound the poor, foolish girl grew more and more +unhappy, and more cut off from all hope and all happiness. Mrs. +Bosher's bonnet and Mrs. Bosher's name were enough to terrify any +young person with a bad conscience.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Juliet's new mistress, "my name is Bosher"—here the +bonnet nodded,—"and now you are my servant, and while you are in my +service you will do precisely everything that I tell you. I have a +brother who has a gun; sometimes he shoots rooks, sometimes he +shoots—other things. He lives next door. If you do a single thing +that displeases me, you shall be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of +the law."</p> + +<p>Juliet longed to scream, or kick, or run away; but she did not dare to +move. "The utmost rigour of the law" might mean something awful: it +might mean being hanged, or being shot by Mrs. Bosher's brother. The +passage was almost dark,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> and Juliet stood trembling beside her +dreadful mistress. Oh, if only it were possible to be back once more +at the lock! Oh, if only she could escape from this new situation! +Locked doors, and windows shuttered on the outside, made this cottage +a very prison. The man with the gun living-next door, the unknown +rigour of the law hanging over her head, Mrs. Bosher glaring through +the twilight—how endure them even for a night? And how get away from +them in the morning?</p> + +<p>She was pushed into a kitchen and bidden to wash up some cups and +saucers. "And woe betide you if you break one of them!" said Mrs. +Bosher, her bonnet nodding so strangely that it seemed to be the +speaker rather than its wearer.</p> + +<p>Juliet was so fearful lest she might let slip a cup or saucer that she +spent about half an hour in washing the crockery. While she did this +at a side table, Mrs. Bosher was ironing linen at the table in the +middle of the room. From time to time the sharp, sensible eyes of the +woman rested upon the face of the girl, and at such moments the top of +the black bonnet nodded as if it were alive.</p> + +<p>When Juliet had finished her task Mrs. Bosher said, "Now, you shall +have bread-and-milk for supper, and then go to bed."</p> + +<p>"I don't like bread-and-milk," returned Juliet, "and it is too early +to go to bed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Indeed. What do you like for supper? And at what hour do you prefer +to go to bed?"</p> + +<p>"I like bread and cheese; and we went to bed at ten o'clock when +uncle's work was done."</p> + +<p>The bonnet nodded faster than before.</p> + +<p>"You will eat bread-and-milk or nothing, and if your aunt let you sit +up till ten o'clock I am not so foolish."</p> + +<p>A basin of the food which Juliet declined to eat was set before her. +She was very hungry, but having refused it already she let it lie +untasted. Meanwhile Mrs. Bosher lighted a lamp.</p> + +<p>"It is nearly nine o'clock. Now you go to bed. Come along."</p> + +<p>There was a door which Mrs. Bosher opened, revealing a flight of +stairs. She pushed Juliet up them, and though the girl would have +liked to rebel, she did not dare to do so. In fact, she thought the +wisest plan would be to go quietly up to the bed-room, and, as soon as +Mrs. Bosher herself was in bed, to get out by the window and make her +way back to Littlebourne Lock. There was a full moon, and the night +was almost as light as the day.</p> + +<p>So she let herself be pushed upstairs into an almost empty little room +in the roof, and when she heard the door locked upon her she laughed +silently, thinking that the cruel woman had done the very thing her +prisoner wished her to do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> Mrs. Bosher's heavy steps went down the +wooden stairs; the door of the house was opened, shut, and locked, and +Juliet's spirits rose when she knew that she was alone. She might as +well run away at once.</p> + +<p>She looked at the window. It was in the roof—a skylight. There was no +means of getting up to it, and no means of opening it that Juliet +could perceive. Oh, she was caught in a trap! One or two large stars +stared down through the small panes, and the diffused light of the +moon was enough to show the girl how hopeless was her condition. She +was in prison, caught, with no chance of escape. What a terrible +position she had brought herself into! If her aunt could see her! If +her own dear mother could see her!</p> + +<p>Juliet threw herself on the little hard bed and wept bitterly. Not a +sound could she hear! Alone, hungry, miserable!</p> + +<p>After a while her sobs ceased and she felt sleepy. She pulled up a +blanket and quilt which she had been lying on and thought that she +might as well sleep a little, and waken with fresh courage and fresh +plans. Like many other people Juliet made her most earnest prayers +when she was in trouble. She turned and knelt upon the bed, saying all +her petitions with earnestness; then she lay down again, and her +dreams took her far away from all her many misfortunes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_113.jpg" width="600" height="140" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h2>BACK IN LONDON.</h2> + + +<p>When Juliet awoke in the early morning she could not at first remember +where she was. It was not the old home in London, crowded with father, +mother, and children. It was not the new home at Littlebourne, where +Emily's bed lay beside that of her cousin. Oh, but it was the prison +in which the dreadful Mrs. Bosher and her bonnet had shut up an +unhappy girl and kept her all night!</p> + +<p>Looking round the room, Juliet saw on the boards close to the door the +same basin of bread-and-milk which she had refused to eat on the +previous evening. Mrs. Bosher must have put it in noiselessly while +her prisoner was asleep. The prisoner could not resist her fare this +morning, but ate it all up, though the milk was just what she called +"on the turn."</p> + +<p>She did not know what the time was; the sun rose so early that he +shone as brightly at five o'clock as at seven o'clock. What did it +matter? Juliet could not get out until her jailer chose to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> release +her. As soon as Mrs. Bosher opened the house-door, or sent her out for +water, or for a cabbage, or to hang up wet linen, she would make off +and run away somewhere. Not through the wood, lest the awful brother +might be there again, and the utmost rigour of the law prosecute the +trespasser; but somewhere, anywhere.</p> + +<p>Juliet lay down and slept again. She was disturbed by the door of the +room being opened, and the bonnet nodding in.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are not up. Come down and wash in the scullery."</p> + +<p>The bonnet went down the stairs, and Juliet followed. It stood over +her while she washed and brushed her hair, and made herself tidy. Then +it gave her a toasting-fork and some slices of bread, and set her in +front of the kitchen fire. While thus obeying Mrs. Bosher the mind of +Juliet was trying to strike out some plan of escape; but when she saw +the brother outside in the road she put off running away. The clock +told her that the hour was eight. The Littlebourne family was now at +breakfast too. How they must be fretting for want of Juliet!</p> + +<p>As it happened, they were not fretting at all, but talking together +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>Juliet did not want much more in the way of breakfast. She sat, cross +and ugly, scowling at Mrs. Bosher.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + +<p>When breakfast was ended and the dinner put to cook in the oven, +Juliet began once more to look about for a chance of escape. The +brother was not to be seen from the window. There must come the right +moment presently. Mrs. Bosher left the kitchen. Now the right moment +had come. Juliet put on her hat, and went into the passage.</p> + +<p>"That is a good girl," said the deep voice, "I'm ready too."</p> + +<p>A strong hand took Juliet by the arm, and the hat and the bonnet went +out together. Speechless with terror, the girl could not resist. She +was hurried along the road in the direction furthest from +Littlebourne, past the brother's house, and past several other houses. +What could it all mean? Whither were they going?</p> + +<p>At the corner of a cross-road there stood the brother himself, but +without the gun. Mrs. Bosher led Juliet to him, and his hand took the +place of his sister's.</p> + +<p>"Here's the runaway," said Mrs. Bosher. "She'll be safe with you."</p> + +<p>"Rather," said the big man; "or she shall know the rigour of the law." +It was odd how his eyes laughed while his mouth was so awful.</p> + +<p>"So you'll dispose of her, Jim; and I'll run back, for I've left the +door open."</p> + +<p>The bonnet went nodding away, and the burly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> Jim dragged Juliet along +faster than she could walk, and almost as fast as she could run. She +was soon tired and out of breath. Neither spoke.</p> + +<p>They went along one road and turned down another, and crossed the +Thames by a bridge, and passed through a street of shops, and then, by +a dirty lane among gas-works, arrived at a place which Juliet had seen +before.</p> + +<p>"Why, it is Littlebourne station!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>And there, on the platform where the sun was beating down with fierce +heat, stood Mr. and Mrs. Webster. The big man took Juliet up to them +and placed her in front of them, saying, "Here she is; I've done my +part of the business, and I place her safely in your charge."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Webster was looking at Juliet with pitying eyes; the vicar of +Littlebourne appeared sterner than his wife.</p> + +<p>"Very good," he said to Mrs. Bosher's brother; "we will take her in +charge. It happens very fortunately that we are going to London +to-day, and so can dispose of her. How much anxiety and trouble her +bad conduct has caused! It was very clever of Mrs. Bosher to guess who +the girl was."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, so it was. When my sister came in last night to tell me how +a young thing from Littlebourne had come to her house, having run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +away from home seemingly, I should never have seen my way to finding +out the truth. But then women are quicker-witted than men, though they +are not so steady-headed. And my sister says, 'She must have come +across the fields somehow.' And I says, 'I met a slip of a girl in the +wood, and made believe that I was going to shoot her.' And says Mrs. +Bosher, 'It's the same girl, take my word for it,' says she. 'And, +you, Jim,' she says, 'step over to the lock the first thing in the +morning, and ask Mrs. Rowles if they have seen a girl coming through +the fields in this direction.' Which I did."</p> + +<p>To all this Juliet was listening eagerly.</p> + +<p>"And two words settled it," said Mrs. Bosher's brother; "two words +with Mrs. Rowles. 'Why,' says she, 'it must be our niece Juliet who +ran away last night, and we <i>have</i> been in a state ever since.' And +then she described her niece, and I saw plain enough that it was this +identical girl. There came an old gentleman in a boat just then, and +so I said good-morning and went to tell my sister what I had heard."</p> + +<p>"They did not wish to have the girl brought back to them?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir; they'd had enough of her. They said she must go to her +home in London. And Mrs. Rowles knew that you would be going to town +to-day, and she promised to send word to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> you that I would bring this +runaway here to meet you; and Mrs. Rowles said she knew you would see +her safe home, because you are always ready to help everybody."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Webster smiled. "And what did Mr. Rowles say about his niece?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he said she was a regular bad un; went off alone in the boat and +got shipwrecked. He said she had a father who never thought of getting +up to work until other folks were going to bed, and what else could +you expect from the daughter of such a man as that? But the old +gentleman who had got out of the boat said, 'Tut, nonsense!' and +seemed to want to have an argument with Rowles after I had left. And +now, sir, I see your train coming, and I have talked myself out; so +good-morning to you and to your good lady."</p> + +<p>Lifting his hat, Mrs. Bosher's brother went away, and Juliet saw no +more of him. She was pushed into a carriage with the vicar and Mrs. +Webster. Indignant she was, and unhappy; all her folly and all her +wickedness were coming back upon her now.</p> + +<p>During the long, hot journey up to London Mr. Webster several times +spoke very severely to Juliet. He knew enough of her story to be aware +that she was selfish and conceited, unwilling to be taught, and +resolved to have her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> own way. He told her how she might have lived +most happily at the lock until a nice little situation had been found +for her; but she had spoilt everything, and made her uncle and aunt +glad to get rid of her. He told her that unless she could become more +humble and teachable she would never learn anything good; that it is +the childlike, humble souls which grow in wisdom and in favour with +God and man.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Webster did not say much, but looked so gently at Juliet that her +looks had almost as much effect as her husband's words. The experience +of the last few days, her frights, her misfortunes, the gun of Mrs. +Bosher's brother, the locking up in Mrs. Bosher's house, this sudden +journey home, all showed Juliet that she had tried the patience of +grown-up people more than they could bear. She looked with hazy eyes +on the country that they were passing through; she hardly saw the +fields and trees. But at length she noticed that the houses were more +numerous, and then that the fields were gone, and then that she was in +London—hot, smoky, noisy London once more.</p> + +<p>"It is very annoying for you," said Mr. Webster to his wife in a low +tone, which yet was distinct enough to Juliet's young ears—"very +annoying for you to be obliged to go to the other side of the city, +when your mother expects you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> at eleven o'clock. But there is no help +for it. I have to go down to Westminster. I don't suppose I shall see +you till we meet at Paddington to come back by the 7:45 train. I will +put you and the child into an omnibus in Praed Street, and when you +get out Juliet Mitchell must guide you to her home."</p> + +<p>Even the West-end was hot and steamy on that broiling August day. +Never before had Juliet thought London so unpleasant; the reason being +that this was the first time she could contrast the town with the +country. It seemed to her that the further she went through the +streets the thicker the air became, the dimmer the light, the dingier +the houses. And so indeed it was. And when she brought Mrs. Webster +into the street which contained No. 103, she wondered how that lady +would like to exchange Littlebourne vicarage for an East-end vicarage.</p> + +<p>An almost similar thought was passing through Mrs. Webster's mind, or +rather, the same thought reversed.</p> + +<p>"Juliet," she said, "I wonder how your father and mother would like to +leave London and come and live at Littlebourne?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, ma'am," answered Juliet.</p> + +<p>"I have heard a good deal about them from Mrs. Rowles. Your father +would have better health if he lived in the country."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + +<p>By this time they had reached No. 103. Juliet's heart was beating at +the sight of the well-known door-step of her home. She forgot all +about Mrs. Webster, and ran on. There were lots of boys and girls +playing in the street; some called out to her, some stared at Mrs. +Webster. But Juliet took no notice; only ran on, climbed up the dear +old dirty, steep stairs without bannisters, and got to the door of the +back attic, followed closely by her companion.</p> + +<p>The girl did not knock, but rushed in, and then stood aghast. A +strange woman was there but no one else.</p> + +<p>"Where is mother?" cried Juliet.</p> + +<p>"Whose mother?" responded the strange woman.</p> + +<p>"My mother."</p> + +<p>"Ain't she got e'er a name?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; she's Mrs. Mitchell."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the Mitchell lot has gone into the front room, if you please. +Going up again in the world, I can tell you."</p> + +<p>Juliet turned and dashed into the front room. There she found another +surprise.</p> + +<p>Her father lay sleeping; her mother was sewing at some black hats and +bits of crape. The other children, all but Albert, stood round about +the room; some crying silently, some watching their mother, who paused +every now and then in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> work to wipe away tears which quickly +returned.</p> + +<p>But there was one whom Juliet missed.</p> + +<p>"Mother," she said, as Mrs. Mitchell's arms clasped closely round her, +"where is baby?"</p> + +<p>Tears poured down from the mother's eyes. "Oh, baby, baby, our darling +baby is gone! He was took with the croup yesterday morning, and he +just went off in the evening. There was too many of you, and now he's +gone!"</p> + +<p>A sad silence fell upon the room. Thomas Mitchell moaned in his sleep, +as if his dreams were painful. Outside in the street there was a sound +of angry voices—two women quarrelling. Mrs. Webster had once had a +baby of her own; it had died. She felt, she knew, all that Mrs. +Mitchell was feeling now.</p> + +<p>The bits of black on which the mother was at work were poor and +skimpy, but they betokened a real sorrow. And though Mrs. Mitchell +knew that the "home for little children" was far, far better for them +than the busy, hard world, yet she could not bring her heart to be +thankful that baby was taken; all that she could say was, "Thy will be +done!"</p> + +<p>In the mortuary belonging to the church lay the little, thin, pale +body of baby Thomas Mitchell. Life, though short, had been very hard +for him, and he had gone out of it at the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> call from his Father +in heaven—at the first sound of that voice which is sweeter and more +drawing than the voice of a mother.</p> + +<p>Other children had gone before him; but because he was the baby his +loss was more acutely felt than that of the others had been. Juliet +sat and thought of the many times she had bumped his tender head +against the wall, and how often she had let him slip off her lap, or +left him lying in the rain or in the fierce sunshine. And now the +darling baby had died, and she away from home! She had not watched his +last sigh, she had not given him one farewell kiss! Already he was in +his tiny coffin, and she would never in this life see him again, save +in those blessed dreams which now and then restore to us for a time +our loved and lost ones.</p> + +<p>Juliet could not have explained—perhaps it could not be +explained—how it was that the death of baby during her absence seemed +to be connected with her bad conduct. It is certain that this sudden +shock affected her greatly. It was, as it were, a break in her life; +her old ill-tempered, unteachable childhood went into the past, and a +gentle womanhood sprang up in the future. For the present there was a +sad, humble, penitent girl.</p> + +<p>When she began once more to know what was going on in that room, she +found that Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> Webster was telling Mrs. Mitchell, in very mild +terms, of the reasons why Juliet was sent home.</p> + +<p>"I am quite a stranger," said the lady, "and I feel myself an intruder +in your time of sorrow. You have my deepest sympathy. And I trust that +Juliet will henceforth do better. She has had some severe lessons. Do +you think your husband would be stronger if he lived in the country?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am; the doctor at the dispensary says that country air would +do wonders for him. But then he can't leave his work; it is no use to +live in the country and have a good appetite if you have no means of +getting victuals for your appetite."</p> + +<p>"No, of course not," said Mrs. Webster.</p> + +<p>"We are doing better now," continued Mrs. Mitchell. "He's at work +again, and Miss Sutton—that's a kind lady—is trying to bring us +women face to face with our employers and no middleman between. But I +don't know how it will act. I've done work for Miss Sutton and her +friends, but the same people don't keep on wanting mantles. I could +have borne anything if I hadn't to make up crape for ourselves!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Webster pressed Mrs. Mitchell's hand kindly, and took her leave.</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_125.jpg" width="600" height="139" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h2>THE ADVENTURE OF THE "TURKEYS PIN."</h2> + + +<p>The disappearance of Juliet Mitchell from Littlebourne Lock the second +time did not surprise or frighten her relations nearly so much as her +flight had done on the first occasion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she'll come home," said Mrs. Rowles; "never fear. When she is +hungry she'll turn up, or someone will bring her."</p> + +<p>But as the evening closed in, and neither meal-time nor bed-time +brought the wanderer home, some alarm began to spread through the +house. Philip had taken his boat to the place where he had left +Juliet, but she was not there. He went again and shouted for her, but +there was no reply. Then Mr. Rowles shouted from the lock in a voice +that must have been heard at half a mile's distance. Still no sign of +Juliet.</p> + +<p>"You should not have left her there, Phil," said Mrs. Rowles.</p> + +<p>"I've often set Emily down at the same place," was Phil's defence, "to +gather king-cups or forget-me-nots."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; but Juliet is not Emily."</p> + +<p>This could not be denied. It accounted for Juliet's absence, but it +did not bring her home.</p> + +<p>Dozens of boats went up the river, and dozens went down. Rowles said +to the occupants of each of them, "If you should see a girl of +thirteen what has got lost, be so good as to tell her to come home +double-quick, or it will be worse for her."</p> + +<p>Some of the people laughed, and some said "Very well;" but evening +deepened into night without bringing Juliet.</p> + +<p>The last boat was that of the old gentleman's butler, or valet, or +whatever he liked to call himself. When Rowles made his speech about +the missing girl, the man replied, "I know; that is the child whose +father is a printer. Mr. Burnet takes an interest in that child, being +himself a master-printer, and the son of a journeyman printer."</p> + +<p>"The son of a journeyman printer!" Rowles repeated. "You don't say so, +Mr. Robert?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do say it. My Mr. Burnet's father began life at the bottom of +the ladder, and ended it near the top; and my Mr. Burnet began life +near the top, and is ending it quite at the top. Hard work, Mr. +Rowles, hard work, perseverance, honesty, and temperance; that's what +does it. Your little girl's father may get to the top of the tree +yet."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not with his bad health," replied Rowles, shaking his head; "and not +without his proper night's sleep."</p> + +<p>"They make up their sleep in the daytime," said the other, beginning +to push his boat out of the lock which was now full. "I've got +relations of my own in the same line, so I know they can make up their +sleep in the daytime. Well, good-night; if I see the girl I'll hurry +her home."</p> + +<p>"Good—night, Mr. Robert. I'm glad you've learnt to manage your boat."</p> + +<p>As Roberts went off his voice was heard saying, "It is hard work, and +perseverance, and honesty, and temperance that does it." And he was +not wrong.</p> + +<p>Ten o'clock came. The lock-house was closed, and all its inmates went +to bed. Mrs. Rowles had little sleep, watching all night for Juliet's +knock. But it did not come.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock next morning Mr. Rowles went out to look up and down +the river, and to prophesy the weather. It was still and cloudless and +warm. While he was standing idly beside the running water, listening +to the twitter of birds and the lowing of cows, he heard yet another +cry, that of a man; and presently he saw on the far-off bank the +figure of a big, burly man with a bushy beard.</p> + +<p>"I do believe it's Mrs. Bosher's brother!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Over! over!" bawled the man, as if hailing a ferry-boat.</p> + +<p>"Well, if that ain't a joke! I ain't the ferry. Here you, Phil, jump +into the <i>Fairy</i> and go and see what that man wants."</p> + +<p>So Phil played the part of the ferry and brought Mrs. Bosher's brother +to the lock-eyot.</p> + +<p>He told his story. The previous evening he had met a young girl in the +wood, and as it was private property, he had warned her out of it. +Afterwards he found that she had gone to his sister's house, evidently +a runaway, and had engaged herself as a general servant. But Mrs. +Bosher, who was one that never took no rest, never even took off her +bonnet, saw through that girl, and knew right well that she had come +from the Littlebourne side of the river; and perhaps Mrs. Rowles could +state what family had lost a little maid-servant.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mrs. Rowles could tell him all about Juliet; and after giving him +some breakfast sent him back in the <i>Fairy</i> to his own side of the +river, with a request that Mrs. Bosher would take Juliet to the +station, where someone would meet the tiresome girl and convey her to +her home in London.</p> + +<p>The big man promised to do all this, and went out with Rowles +intending to have a pipe and a gossip with him, when down came a boat +rowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> by Leonard Burnet, and steered by the old master-printer; and +so the gossip was cut short, though not the pipe.</p> + +<p>"I am not going through," said Mr. Burnet from the boat. "Help me to +land, Rowles; I want to have a talk with you. Who is that man?" +looking at the big person who had just gone off in the little <i>Fairy</i>.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is Mrs. Bosher's brother. I hope you are well, sir, and the +young gentleman; likewise Mr. Robert."</p> + +<p>"Yes, thanks, Leonard and I are very well; but Roberts has a smart +touch of rheumatism, and will not come on the river to-day. May I sit +here, Rowles?" added Mr. Burnet, pointing to a seat under some small +trees.</p> + +<p>"If you please, sir. Why, Emma, where are <i>you</i> a-going?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles curtsied to Mr. Burnet. "I am going, Ned, to the vicarage. +I heard say that Mr. and Mrs. Webster are going to London to-day, and +if they would take charge of Juliet it would save my time and money."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rowles hurried off, and caught Mrs. Webster, who most kindly +undertook the charge of Juliet if Mrs. Bosher should bring her to the +station, and to see her safe to her own home in London.</p> + +<p>While Mrs. Rowles was absent on this errand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> her husband was having a +very important conversation with Mr. Burnet under the small trees. +Neither Leonard nor Phil heard what passed, as they were not within +earshot; but when they presently came near their fathers they caught +these words from Mr. Burnet:</p> + +<p>"I hope that he will consent to do as we suggest. It was really my boy +who first thought that it would be a good move. These young people +sometimes get hold of ideas which are worth carrying out. And then +Roberts took it up, knowing as he does from his relations the +difficulties of that kind of life in London."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure, sir," said Rowles doubtfully, "it is very kind of you to +think of doing such kindness to a stranger. But I'm much afeard that +Thomas Mitchell is so used to his topsy-turvy way of living, that he +will not fit in with the morning for getting up and the night for +going to bed."</p> + +<p>"I will endeavour to get him to try it, at all events. I have taken a +lease of the Bourne House; very likely you know it."</p> + +<p>"I should think I did! A good old gentleman used to live there when I +was a boy, as like to you, sir, as one pea is to another; and, what is +more, Mrs. Bosher's brother farms all the arable land belonging to +it."</p> + +<p>"Does he? Of course I know all about my future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> tenant, but I did not +know he was Mrs. Bosher's brother. Well, Rowles, there is a nice +little cottage on the property which your brother-in-law can rent +cheap from me; and I will put him on the <i>Thames Valley Times and +Post</i>, which only comes out once a week, and does not keep the men up +at night. We also do a good deal of handbill printing, and catalogues +for sales, and that kind of work, which is easy enough. And I hope to +see your friends settled down here by the beginning of the week after +next."</p> + +<p>Rowles shook his head, feeling certain that the arrangement would not +answer. But Mr. Burnet was determined to try it, and Leonard was +delighted with the project.</p> + +<p>"Your cousins," said Leonard to Philip, "will have to learn all about +country things. I don't suppose they know a garden when they see one."</p> + +<p>"No, they don't," was Phil's answer. "When Juliet saw the first of the +country from the train window, she says to mother, 'It's a pretty +churchyard!' says she."</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet looked very sad for a few moments, then he stood up and +said that he must be going back, as he had to meet Mrs. Bosher's +brother and talk over the barns and the stables and the +farm-buildings. "And on Monday," he added, "I think I shall go to town +and see your brother-in-law, and offer him a place at my +printing-office. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> have already inquired his character of his present +employers."</p> + +<p>Rowles's head was shaking again; but he only held the boat for Mr. +Burnet and Leonard to step into it, and his forebodings of failure on +Mitchell's part were for the moment kept to himself.</p> + +<p>There were also forebodings of failure in the mind of Roberts, when +his master talked so hopefully of what was going to happen to Juliet's +father.</p> + +<p>"Don't make too sure, Mr. Leonard, of anything. I daresay that +Juliet's father will have better health living in the country, but as +for his getting to be foreman of your printing-office, I have my +doubts."</p> + +<p>Perhaps Roberts's doubts were due to his attack of rheumatism. He was +at this time suffering so much from it that he was almost cross. He +was laid up the very day that Mr. Burnet took possession of the Bourne +House, and sat wrapped in flannel, though the weather was very warm.</p> + +<p>"Don't talk to me any more," he said savagely when a tremendous twinge +seemed to be piercing between his bones, "about your Juliet's father +and your Mrs. Bosher's brother. If people have not got names of their +own I don't want to hear about such people."</p> + +<p>The housekeeper who was waiting on him began to say, "The name of Mrs. +Bosher's brother—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, do! How this arm does ache, to be sure!"</p> + +<p>Leonard was in the room. He got as far as, "The name of Juliet's +father—"</p> + +<p>"I won't hear it!" cried poor Roberts, kicking out his right foot, in +which the pain was steely cold.</p> + +<p>"We want you to go and see him on Monday," said Leonard.</p> + +<p>"Then you may want!" and he flung out the left foot in which the pain +was red-hot.</p> + +<p>The housekeeper signed to Leonard to leave the invalid to himself. +When this attack was over Roberts would be himself again—kind and +gentle and polite.</p> + +<p>But there was no chance of his being able to go to London to make +arrangements for the move of the Mitchell family. Mr. Burnet was in +the habit of leaving a great deal to Roberts, being himself old and +ailing, and easily upset. On the Sunday, a lovely, sweet, clear day, +it was plain that Roberts would not be of any use for another week or +more.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet and his son were walking back from evening service, and +enjoying the calm of Sunday evening. Everything had been beautiful; +the hymns, the sermon in church; the hymns of the birds and the +sermons of the harvest, in the fields.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Delicious!" said Mr. Burnet, pausing as he entered his own large +grounds. "How I wish poor Roberts was well enough to enjoy it all. I +am afraid his exertions at the oar, and his exposure to the evening +damps, have brought on this painful attack. The only thing I can do is +to go to town myself to see this Thomas Mitchell, and I really do not +feel up to it."</p> + +<p>The father and son walked on side by side. Presently Leonard said, "Do +you think I could go and make the arrangements with Mitchell?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet stopped in his walk, and leaning on his stick said, "Upon +my word, Leonard, I do not see why you could not."</p> + +<p>"Then let me do it, father; and if you give me a note to the head of +the press where Mitchell works, perhaps he would let me look round, +and take a practical lesson in the business."</p> + +<p>"A good idea!" exclaimed Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>It was settled in that way; and on the Monday, Mr. Burnet being very +gouty, and Roberts very rheumatic, there was no one who could possibly +go to town except Leonard. He went off, armed with directions and +papers from his father.</p> + +<p>Arrived in London he presented himself at the great printing-office +where Mitchell worked; was courteously received by one of the heads of +it, and was shown some of the type, the presses, the paper, and other +things used for printing that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> morning journal which deprived Thomas +Mitchell and many others of almost every night's rest. Having seen as +much as he could remember, he said to the gentleman who was explaining +matters, "I think I must now speak to Mitchell, who is to leave you on +Saturday, and to begin work with us on Monday next."</p> + +<p>"I will send for him," replied the gentleman. "He is a good, steady +fellow, and if his health becomes stronger will deserve your +confidence and regard."</p> + +<p>Then, speaking down a telephone, "Send Thomas Mitchell to me."</p> + +<p>The answer came back: "Mitchell has this moment knocked off work and +gone."</p> + +<p>"Provoking!" said the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"It does not matter," said Leonard. "I know his address, and I can go +there and speak to him."</p> + +<p>He set off, having a vague notion of the neighbourhood in which the +Mitchells lived. Leonard was not much used to London, especially that +part of it, and as he went he saw many things to interest him. The day +was hot and close, and the narrower streets were far from pleasant. He +was struck by the number of small grocers' shops, and the smell of +paraffin which pervaded this part of London. He also noticed how dry +the vegetables appeared, and how moist the fruits which were exposed +for sale; further, how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> shabby and threadbare were the carpets +floating at the pawnbrokers' doors, and how fusty the odour from them. +In a word, Leonard could not help seeing that this was a very poor +region.</p> + +<p>It did <i>not</i> strike him that poverty and crime are near neighbours; +that the circumstances which make the honest man poor, make the lazy +man a thief. Leonard was too young to be suspicious. He scarcely saw a +shambling poorly-dressed rather wasted man whom he passed, and who +afterwards stumbled along a very little way behind him. Nor did he +specially notice two rather well-dressed but coarse-looking men who +kept just ahead of him.</p> + +<p>But when these two began to talk loud he did notice them. When they +stood in the middle of the narrow pavement, quarrelling, Leonard +paused and looked on.</p> + +<p>"You did!" said the one.</p> + +<p>"I did not!" said the other.</p> + +<p>"I'll make you confess it on your marrow-bones!"</p> + +<p>"You shall have every bone in your body broke first!"</p> + +<p>By this time a crowd had begun to collect. The two men seemed +preparing for a fight.</p> + +<p>"Part them, someone!" cried Leonard.</p> + +<p>"Let them fight it out!" cried a costermonger, seating himself on his +barrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll see fair play!" roared a great unwashed man.</p> + +<p>A voice behind Leonard said in his ear, "You come out of this, young +fellow!" and looking round the lad saw the shabby, sickly man who had +been following him.</p> + +<p>The crowd hemmed them all four in the midst of it.</p> + +<p>"Hallo! The bobbies!" was whispered.</p> + +<p>The crowd opened a way through which one of the disputants rushed, all +eyes fixed upon him.</p> + +<p>An arm came over Leonard's shoulder, and a dirty hand clutched his +turquoise breast-pin; another arm came over the other shoulder and +another hand clutched the first one. At the same moment two +policemen's helmets peered over the crowd, and a stern voice said, +"What's up? What's your game?"</p> + +<p>Then in some mysterious way the first hand and arm vanished, and only +the second remained, and Leonard found himself thus hugged by a +stranger, and confronted by two stalwart policemen.</p> + +<p>When an English man or boy finds himself in the hands (or, as in this +case, in the arms) of a stranger, his first impulse is to show fight. +Naturally Leonard began to plunge and to double his fists. But he +could not keep this up, for the man whose arm was round him quickly +retired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> and stood a few paces off, looking wan and haggard, and very +unlike a thief or ruffian.</p> + +<p>The crowd had melted away. The two policemen stood with faces fixed in +something between a grin and a scowl.</p> + +<p>"What are you all up to?" said Leonard, in astonishment at the +suddenness of the whole affair.</p> + +<p>"Just this, young man," replied one of the policemen, "that if you +want to walk about in this part of London you had better not wear such +an enticing pin in your scarf."</p> + +<p>Leonard put up his hand, and found that his turquoise pin was pulled +half-way out of his scarf. He said angrily, "Then why don't you take +the thief in charge?" And he pointed at the sickly-looking man who +stood close by.</p> + +<p>"Because he was too quick for us. He's on the other side of the river +long before this."</p> + +<p>"Why, there he stands!" cried Leonard, pointing again at the shabby +figure.</p> + +<p>"Begging your pardon, young sir, this is him that has saved your pin +from them two thieves. You owe him many thanks, and something more +substantial, in my humble opinion."</p> + +<p>Then Leonard understood the affair, and how the poor delicate man had +prevented the smart colleagues from making off with the valuable pin +given him by his late mother, and therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> very greatly precious to +him. He turned to his defender with warm thanks.</p> + +<p>The two policemen sauntered away.</p> + +<p>"I am awfully obliged to you, I'm sure," said Leonard. "You don't look +well."</p> + +<p>"No," replied the poor man; "I have had sickness and sorrow lately, +and a little thing upsets me. I shall be better in a few minutes. You +put your pin in your pocket, sir; and do not show any jewellery when +you come through these shady slums."</p> + +<p>"I think I must have come wrong."</p> + +<p>"What street do you want?"</p> + +<p>Leonard named it.</p> + +<p>"Well, you have not come wrong exactly; but you had better have stuck +to the main thoroughfares, and not have taken these short cuts, which +are all very well for some of us, but not for young gents with +'turkeys' breast-pins. If you are not ashamed of my company I can take +you straight to the street you've named."</p> + +<p>After his late escape Leonard felt suspicious of every stranger in +London; but as he really had reason to feel obliged to this man, he +put aside that feeling and walked on for some time with his new +acquaintance.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_140.jpg" width="600" height="140" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h2>A THOROUGH CHANGE.</h2> + + +<p>"I am afraid," Leonard said presently, "that I am taking you out of +your way."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, sir; I live in that same street. There's a good many of +us live there. It is like a rabbit-warren."</p> + +<p>"Really!" said Leonard.</p> + +<p>"It swarms with old and young—young ones mostly. Too many of 'em. We +ought not to grieve too much when they are taken from this hard world +to rest and safety. But the mothers do grieve, poor things!—and the +fathers too."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you have lost a child lately," said Leonard, very gently.</p> + +<p>"He was buried yesterday."</p> + +<p>They went on in silence until they turned into a street which appeared +to begin much better than it ended. Leonard's guide said, "Here we +are; this is your street."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you; but don't come any further." And Leonard began to +fumble in his pocket for a half-crown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is my street too," said the poor man.</p> + +<p>"All right then. I want No. 103."</p> + +<p>"I live at 103 myself."</p> + +<p>"That is curious. Do you know a Mr. Mitchell in that house?"</p> + +<p>"I know him pretty well; I am Thomas Mitchell."</p> + +<p>Then Leonard shook hands heartily with his guide, and as they walked +slowly along the cooler side of the street he unfolded all the plans +which Mr. Burnet had made for the Mitchell family. They were already +known in part to the father and mother, but the children had not been +informed of what was in store for them. Mrs. Mitchell had thought that +such a prospect would excite them greatly, and that their +disappointment would be great if anything occurred at the last moment +to upset the plan.</p> + +<p>But now it must be declared.</p> + +<p>All the children were at home, it being holiday-time. Juliet sat at +needlework, Albert was carpentering an old wooden box and turning it +into a cupboard; the younger ones were playing with some firewood, and +building castles with it. Mrs. Mitchell was stitching at one more +mantle, and thinking over every little incident of her baby's life and +death.</p> + +<p>Into the midst of this quiet scene came Leonard Burnet, full of life +and vigour, and overflowing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> with the happy message he had brought. He +told them of the pretty cottage with honeysuckle on the porch, of the +garden full of cauliflowers and scarlet-runners, of the clear bright +river, of the open fields, of the shady woods, the winding lanes, and +of all the pleasant things of rural life. Then he spoke of Mr. and +Mrs. Rowles, and the lock, and the boats; of Philip and Emily; of the +good vicar and Mrs. Webster; of Mrs. Bosher's brother, and the horses, +cows, pigs, and poultry which he possessed.</p> + +<p>How strange it all seemed to Juliet! How far away, and yet how well +known! She was the only one of her family who had seen these places +and persons, and the thought of them filled her with both sorrow and +pleasure. Several times as Leonard talked he turned to her, saying, +"You know the lock, Juliet?" or "You have seen Mrs. Bosher's brother, +I think, Juliet?" or else "The fields and the river are very nice, are +they not?" and to each of his appeals she had gravely bowed her head +in assent.</p> + +<p>In the end it was arranged that the following Monday should be spent +by the Mitchell family in packing up the few goods which they +possessed, and that on Tuesday they should send off those goods by the +Littlebourne carrier, who would be directed by Mr. Burnet to call for +them; and then they should all go by omnibus to Pa station, +and be met at Littlebourne station by Mr. Burnet, or Leonard, or Mr. +Burnet's butler, or Mrs. Bosher's brother.</p> + +<p>"Or perhaps by all of us!" said Leonard laughing.</p> + +<p>These plans and hours being clearly understood, and Leonard having +advanced Mitchell a sovereign to help pay for the move, he took his +leave, his scarf-pin safe in his waistcoat-pocket. He left the whole +family in a state of wonder and delight, which would have been even +greater had they guessed what further surprises were in store for +them.</p> + +<p>No week ever seemed so short and so long to people as that week +appeared to the Mitchells. There was not time enough to finish up +everything that ought to be finished, and to say good-bye to every one +who had been kind and friendly to them in London. Then there were +notices to be given the school, and to the society and the dispensary +which had helped Thomas Mitchell in his trouble. The clergyman and the +schoolmaster and schoolmistress came to say farewell; and as for the +neighbours, poor as they all were, and rude as some were, they crowded +with wishes and gifts.</p> + +<p>"Two gallipots," said one old woman, "for you to put your black +currant jam in."</p> + +<p>"A few cuttings of geraniums," said a young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> gardener who worked in +Victoria Park; "try if you can get them to take."</p> + +<p>"My school-prize," said a big girl, putting a red-and-gold-covered +book into the hands of little Amy; "I've grown too old for it, so you +may have it."</p> + +<p>And Miss Sutton came with the good news that one great West-end draper +had promised to meet his workwomen face to face, and no longer to +employ any middlemen. "For which you will be thankful," said Miss +Sutton to Mrs. Mitchell, "though you will not yourself reap the +benefit."</p> + +<p>Yes, Mrs. Mitchell was very thankful for many things; but there was +one which brought ever-fresh tears to her eyes as she left the +swarming city. "I leave three little graves!"</p> + +<p>And Juliet! She hardly knew how she ought to feel or how she did. +Certainly there was a great deal of shame in her heart; and equally +certainly there was a great deal of pride—not the old pride of +self-conceit, but a reasonable pride in knowing so much about the +things of the country. She had enough to do to explain to her brothers +and sisters the many new things which they saw from the train, and to +answer their hundreds of questions.</p> + +<p>At Littlebourne there was quite a sensation on their arrival. Mr. +Burnet was there in his pony-carriage, and Leonard, and Mrs. Bosher's +brother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> with a donkey-cart. Mrs. Rowles and Emily laughed and cried +over their relations; and poor Mitchell became so faint from fatigue +and emotion that Mrs. Webster, who now arrived on the scene, hurried +him and his wife and little ones into a "fly" to get them out of the +hubbub.</p> + +<p>The station-master and the porters were quite glad when this party +moved off.</p> + +<p>They went slowly along the roads, in the soft air sweetened by recent +showers, talking all together, all at the same time. What did it +matter? Nobody wanted to hear anybody's words except his own. At the +cottage they ceased talking, and all ran about through the small +garden, up and down the flight of stairs, in and out the rooms.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Webster laid down on the dresser a parcel containing +home-made bread and fresh butter. Next Mrs. Bosher's brother brought +from the donkey-cart some bacon, eggs, and milk. The pony-carriage had +concealed under the seat some soap, candles, and cheese. Mrs. Rowles +had a bundle of blankets as a loan, for the present moment; and Mrs. +Bosher came in with sheets and towels for Mrs. Mitchell to use until +her own arrived. All these kindnesses overpowered the London people, +and they knew not how to thank their new friends.</p> + +<p>To avoid being thanked Mrs. Bosher nodded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> her bonnet at Juliet and +went away. Mrs. Webster also departed. Mr. Burnet asked Mitchell to +meet him at the works next morning, and then he and Leonard drove off. +Mrs. Bosher's brother hauled in a half-sack of coals and two great +faggots from the donkey-cart, and then he, too, said good-bye.</p> + +<p>The Rowles party stayed longer.</p> + +<p>"Ned will come to see you, I hope," said Mrs. Rowles to her +brother-in-law. "But he says he is afraid he can't come in the middle +of the night; but would half-past ten be late enough?"</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" said Mrs. Mitchell, somewhat puzzled. "Well, we must sit +up for him if necessary; but I did hope that Thomas would have his +proper nights' rests here in the country. We ought all to be in bed by +ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>"You see, Rowles cannot leave the lock unless he gets a deputy. Philip +is hardly strong enough by himself. And Ned says that of course Tom +can't come to the lock, being at work all night and asleep all day."</p> + +<p>"That will not be the case here," said Mitchell smiling. "Besides, +there's one or two things that I may as well explain to Rowles. Seems +to me he's got some ideas upside down in his head."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know!" cried Mrs. Rowles; "but my idea is that you had +better have your suppers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> now and go to bed as quick as you can. +There'll be lots of new things to see to-morrow. And if Ned can't come +you'll be sure to have Mr. Robert the butler at Bourne House, and the +housekeeper. You see, they all know Juliet—" Here Mrs. Rowles broke +off, and Juliet shrank away, feeling bitterly that they knew little +that was good of her.</p> + +<p>She was, however, able to eat her supper with the rest of her family, +and to sleep on the shake-down of blankets, and to rise in the morning +refreshed and happy and ready for the new life before her.</p> + +<p>The carrier arrived about eleven o'clock that morning, and the few +bits of furniture and so forth which had come from London were put, +one by one, in new places. Mrs. Mitchell said that a pound of paint +would touch them up quite smart-like.</p> + +<p>Thomas Mitchell and Albert had not stayed at Honeysuckle Cottage to +see the arrival of these goods, but had gone to the works to meet Mr. +Burnet there at nine o'clock. They were told by the foreman to go into +the office, and there they awaited the arrival of the master.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet soon appeared, and after a few words of greeting took a key +from his pocket and opened the letter-box. From it he took a large +number of business letters. He laid them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> into several separate heaps. +Then he pressed the button of an electric-bell, and a lad came in from +some other part of the buildings.</p> + +<p>"Here, Willie, take these letters, if you please. One for Mr. Toop, +one for Mr. Richard Macnunn, two for Mr. Plasket, and here is a very +fat one for 'Arthur George Rayner, Esq., Foreman at the Works of the +<i>Thames Valley Times and Post</i>, Littlebourne, Berkshire, England.' It +really looks like something important."</p> + +<p>When the boy had gone off to deliver the letters, Mr. Burnet took +Mitchell outside the office and pointed out to him the different parts +of the building and the advantages of the position. One of these was +that the Little Bourne, a small but rapid stream, flowed close by, +supplying water. There were gas-works on the premises, and there was a +small tramway for sending paper, &c., from one end to the other. There +was handsome stabling, and there were lofty, airy work-rooms.</p> + +<p>"Every appliance for making a good thing of it," said Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>He held up his hand for silence as a strange, low sound rolled out +from the works. Was it the roar of fire or an explosion of steam? But +no sign of fire followed, and nothing shook or broke. Only there came +a second roar, louder than the first, and then the great gates of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +great yard burst open, and out poured a crowd of men, jumping, +dancing, shouting, and apparently in great joy.</p> + +<p>"A strike," said Mitchell, "or what?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," answered Mr. Burnet calmly but gravely; "I have no +notion what can be the matter."</p> + +<p>The men came nearer, some twenty in all, and in the midst of them was +one man seated in a chair and carried by four others.</p> + +<p>"What can they be doing with Rayner?" exclaimed Mr. Burnet. "Why are +they chairing him?"</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Rayner! Hurrah for New Zealand! Hurrah for everybody! +Half-time to-day and a sovereign apiece! Hurrah for Rayner and New +Zealand!"</p> + +<p>All this was most extraordinary; and yet even more extraordinary was +the conduct and manner of Rayner. He laughed loudly, and then he +plunged his face into his handkerchief and sobbed wildly. He shook +hands with every one near, and then waved them away with a majestic +air. In fact he seemed to have taken leave of his senses; the truth +was, that his senses had taken leave of him for a season. And yet the +sight of Mr. Burnet's perplexed face sobered him in a measure.</p> + +<p>He swaggered up to his master, saying, "Shake hands, Burnet; I'm not +too proud for that."</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet obeyed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Listen to me, I'll tell you something. Wonders will never cease. If +you had a brother, Burnet, whom you had not seen for thirty-five +years, would not your heart yearn towards him? Yes, even a letter from +his lawyer would fill your heart with joy."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," said Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>"Here's a letter, come this minute; why, joy is nothing to it. I'm a +made man, a rich man, snap my fingers at you all! Do you hear? My +brother in New Zealand is dead. What do you say to that?"</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry for you," said Mr. Burnet.</p> + +<p>"Are you? You are that envious you don't know how to look me in the +face! Thirty thousand pounds, Burnet! What do you say to that? Have +you got thirty thousand pounds? I snap my fingers at you all!" And he +did it.</p> + +<p>"My poor brother died six months ago. Ah! sad, sad! Lonely old +bachelor! Not a creature to weep for him but me. They have been six +months finding out my address; and now I can go to New Zealand and +live on my property worth thirty thousand pounds, or, the lawyer +writes, the land can be sold and the cash sent over to me. I think I +like cash better than land. Shake hands again, Burnet. I've told the +men I'll give them a half-holiday, as there's not much doing, and a +sovereign apiece, which you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> will advance to them. I'll give a cheque +for it, you know."</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet did not respond.</p> + +<p>"Now, some men," Rayner went on, wiping the heat from his streaming +face, "would have their heads turned by such luck as the death of a +rich bachelor brother; but I'm as cool as a cucumber, only the weather +is rather warm. Shake hands, Burnet; you'll never find a bit of pride +in me. Cheer again, mates, and off to your homes, and may you all have +rich brothers and end with thirty thousand pounds!"</p> + +<p>It was evident that poor Rayner's head was completely turned by his +sudden prosperity. Perhaps few men could have taken such a change +without some excitement; probably few men would have become so insane +on account of what only changed his fortunes, not himself, or, rather, +had so far only changed himself for the worse. All this bluster and +talk made no impression on either Mr. Burnet or Mitchell, who waited +quietly until Rayner's extravagant delight should have spent itself.</p> + +<p>The other men, too, began to see how ridiculous Rayner was making +himself. They soon moved off, by twos and threes, back to their work; +and presently Rayner found himself alone with his employer and the new +man just come down from London.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Mr. Burnet calmly, "that you will not wish to work +any longer, Rayner, in my factory?"</p> + +<p>"That for your factory!" said Rayner, snapping his fingers again; +"I'll never do another day's work as long as I live. I'll pay you what +you like instead of a week's notice, or you may fine me what you like. +But I'm off to London by the next train to see my lawyer, and to enjoy +myself a bit. I'll send for my wife and the children when I'm ready +for them."</p> + +<p>"Hear one word," said Mr. Burnet. "I have no wish to detain you an +hour if you wish to go, nor will I take any payment or fine. The only +thing that troubles me is that not one of the other men is capable of +filling your place, not one of them could undertake the position of +foreman, even if I were willing to offer it."</p> + +<p>"No," replied Rayner, "you can't fill my place with one of those +duffers. But, I say, what about this chap from London? Can't you make +him foreman?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet and Mitchell looked at each other; then said the master, +"What do you think, Mitchell?"</p> + +<p>"Settle it between you," cried Rayner, "it is no business of mine. +Good-bye, and good luck to you! I shall see no more of that old <i>Times +and Post</i>, I'm thankful to say. New times and a new post for me! So +I'm off!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> + +<p>And away he went, down the private road and into the highroad, and to +his cottage home, where he astounded his wife by his words and manner, +and from whence he betook himself and was seen no more in +Littlebourne. A fortnight later, Mrs. Rayner, a quiet, sensible woman, +took herself and her children out of the place, and Rayner and his +thirty thousand pounds were only remembered as something to laugh over +and wonder at.</p> + +<p>As for Thomas Mitchell—well, it was almost too good to be true. He +looked over the works, saw the presses, talked with the men, and came +to the conclusion that he could undertake the duties of foreman. It +was a great rise for him.</p> + +<p>"I never thought of such a thing, sir, when I came down here."</p> + +<p>"Nor did I, Mitchell. I only thought of bringing you into good air, +and setting you up in health. If Rayner had not made room for you, you +could only have been one of the journeymen printers."</p> + +<p>"Seems to me," said Mitchell huskily, "that a kind Hand has led me +here in a wonderful way. I see quite plainly that it is not myself +that has brought me here."</p> + +<p>"I see that too," answered Mr. Burnet. "I little thought when I found +a naughty girl astray on the river that such events would occur. Your +Juliet did not seem of any consequence to me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> but when Rowles told me +of her father's bad health I just said to myself that he would have a +better chance in the country. And the idea put itself into shape, and +you were brought down here, and then exactly at the right moment +Rayner's good fortune—if it really turns out to be good fortune—came +to him, and the post was open for you, and I believe you will prove to +be the right man in the right place."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image_154.jpg" width="200" height="90" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_155.jpg" width="600" height="138" alt="Decorative Image" /></div> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h2>A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.</h2> + + +<p>There was one person who was much vexed that he could not have a hand +in the late doings. This was Roberts, the butler, who still was far +from well, and not allowed out except in the garden on dry days.</p> + +<p>But he talked a good deal with the housekeeper; and one day, after one +of these talks, she went to Mr. Burnet and said, "If you have no +objection, sir, I should like to ask Mrs. Mitchell and Juliet to take +tea with me some afternoon."</p> + +<p>"By all means," replied Mr. Burnet. "You can give them some of your +scones, Mrs. Johnson, and some of your new strawberry jam."</p> + +<p>Accordingly a day was fixed for Mrs. Mitchell and Juliet to drink tea +at Bourne House. They arrived at four o'clock, neatly dressed, and +were taken by Mrs. Johnson into her own little room.</p> + +<p>"You see," explained the housekeeper, "I am what is called +cook-housekeeper; I do the cooking and manage the house. Then there is +Mary the housemaid, under my orders; she is out this afte so +you won't see her. And there is the butler, who is not under my +orders; and you won't see him, because he has his meals in his room, +being still an invalid. I daresay your Juliet will take his tea up to +him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I will," cried Juliet. "He has been very kind to me."</p> + +<p>"So have a good many people," said Mrs. Johnson. "Now, here you are. +You'll find him in the first room on the right-hand side, at the top +of the first flight of stairs."</p> + +<p>As soon as Juliet had started with the tray on which Roberts's tea was +arranged, Mrs. Johnson went on talking to Mrs. Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"The house is not all furnished yet, and Roberts is not in the room +which is really to be his. There are three reception rooms, a lovely +drawing-room opening into the conservatory, good dining-room, and +small study. Eight bed-rooms: Mr. Burnet's, Mr. Leonard's, the +butler's, the housemaid's, mine, and there will be three spare rooms; +so I suppose Mr. Burnet means to have a good deal of staying company."</p> + +<p>"Eight bed-rooms!" repeated Mrs. Mitchell; "and only one housemaid for +all of them! Why, however will she keep them all?"</p> + +<p>"You may well ask that," said the housekeeper in a peculiar tone. +"I'll show you over the house by and by, and you shall judge for +yourself how Mary will manage it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<p>Juliet now returned.</p> + +<p>"Well, how does he seem?"</p> + +<p>"He seems pretty well," said Juliet; "and he was very kind."</p> + +<p>"Ay, he's kind enough. Sugar, Mrs. Mitchell? Jam, Juliet? You are able +to leave the little ones when you come out, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Mrs. Mitchell answered. "My second girl, Amy, is almost as +big as Juliet, and a handy girl too. And you know we have no baby +now."</p> + +<p>"I know, I know," said the housekeeper. "So you did not feel much put +about when Juliet was away from you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not in that way."</p> + +<p>"No, to be sure. Scones, Mrs. Mitchell? Milk, Juliet?"</p> + +<p>When tea was ended Mrs. Johnson took her visitors over the house. They +saw the sitting-rooms, only partly furnished, and all the bed-rooms +except that in which Roberts was reposing himself. Some of these +chambers were furnished, others were quite empty. Mary's room had two +beds in it, two chests of drawers, two washstands, and so forth.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" and Mrs. Johnson nodded her head; "yes, you see I got everything +double. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>"Everything double!" said Mrs. Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"And only Mary in the room."</p> + +<p>"Only Mary in the room!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, I see you don't take in what I mean. It is this. When we get +settled and have a lot of visitors in the house I shall want help in +the kitchen, and Mary will want help in the rooms. What would you say +to letting Juliet come and try how she would like the place?"</p> + +<p>There was no doubt that Juliet would like it; her face said so. And +Mrs. Mitchell, after looking serious for a few minutes, brightened up +and said, "Do you think she would do? You know, she was so tiresome +that her aunt could not keep her."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; but she has had a stern lesson, and if she will try to +be a good girl I should like to give her the chance. What do you say +yourself, Juliet?"</p> + +<p>Instead of saying as she used, "I'm that stupid and awkward that I +can't do nothing," or that still worse thing, "I suppose I can do +anything I want to," Juliet replied modestly, "I will try to do what +you tell me."</p> + +<p>"That's all I want," cried Mrs. Johnson kindly; "no girl can do better +than what she is told. And as soon as I can settle it with Mr. Burnet +I will come and settle it with you. Now, we will go out and look at +the gardens, which are pretty though not to say large."</p> + +<p>When there came a pause in the conversation Juliet said to her mother, +"Mr. Robert was very kind, and would like to take you and me and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +father in a boat on the river some day soon. And he would like to go +on Saturday afternoon if he is well enough. And he thinks Mrs. +Bosher's brother would come too, and if Mr. Robert is not well enough +to row, Mrs. Bosher's brother will row, and Mr. Robert will steer; and +Mr. Robert says we are to meet him at the lock at three o'clock, which +is between luncheon and dinner."</p> + +<p>"And I hope you will have a nice trip," were Mrs. Johnson's last words +as she said good-bye at the gate.</p> + +<p>Juliet felt quite frightened at her good fortune; it seemed to make +her want to cry more than poverty and trouble had done. And she said +her prayers more earnestly than she had said them when she was naughty +and unhappy. As the days went by and all was well, her father growing +stronger, the children rosier, the house more comfortable, she did +feel very deeply that the great blessings showered upon her had not +been deserved, but were sent to make her better in the future than she +had been in the past.</p> + +<p>There was yet one more thing that she desired; that was to take her +parents down the river to the place where she had been almost +shipwrecked in the <i>Fairy</i>. They, too, wished to see the spot where +their daughter had narrowly escaped a terrible death, which they +shuddered even to think of.</p> + +<p>Three o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> the whole Mitchell +family at the lock. The children came to see their elders off, and to +spend the afternoon with Philip and Emily.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you out in the daylight," said Mr. Rowles to Mr. +Mitchell. "You are twice the man you were, now that you are keeping +better hours."</p> + +<p>Mitchell only smiled; he did not think it possible to quite overcome +Rowles's prejudice.</p> + +<p>"Here's the tub which Phil has brought up from the ferry. He thought +you would like a flat-bottomed tub, Mary."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mitchell looked about, expecting to see a round thing similar to +a washing-tub.</p> + +<p>But her husband knew better. "Yes," said he, "when I was a young man I +used to go to Battersea on holidays, I and some others, and nothing +would suit us but outrigged gigs, randans, and such like; but now I'm +growing old, and a flat-bottomed tub suits us better, my missus and +me. Shall we get in, do you think, Ned?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, get in. Here they come, four on 'em—two blue stripes, one red +stripe, and one all gals. They can all go in together."</p> + +<p>"In the water!" cried Mrs. Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"No, Mary; in the lock. What a cockney you are!"</p> + +<p>He went to work the paddles and the handles, and while he was so +employed the others heard a tremendous halloo from the bank on the far +side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> of the river. Juliet looked slightly alarmed and said to her +mother, "I think it is Mrs. Bosher's brother."</p> + +<p>And so it was. He had come down through the wood and the fields by the +same path which Juliet had gone up on the sad day when she ran away +from Littlebourne Lock. But he was not frightened by the cows, nor +caught by the brambles, and had he met himself with a gun he would not +have been at all terrified.</p> + +<p>As soon as his loud deep voice was heard, Philip got into the <i>Fairy</i> +and went across to fetch him. While this was doing the four boats got +through the lock, and Rowles came back to talk to his friends.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you can swim?" he said to Mitchell.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and so can my boy Albert. Swimming-baths in London, you know, +where you get clean and learn to swim all in one."</p> + +<p>"A better bath here," returned Rowles, "and nothing to pay."</p> + +<p>He looked lovingly at the beautiful river, rippled by the soft wind +into a deeper blue than the clear blue overhead. Mitchell, too, was +learning to love the Thames.</p> + +<p>"And what are you waiting for now?" Mrs. Rowles asked.</p> + +<p>"Why, for a friend; that is to say, Mr. Robert from the House."</p> + +<p>"Ah, he can't get along very fast on account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> his rheumatics. But +he won't keep you standing about very long; and here's Mrs. Bosher's +brother to fill up the time." And Rowles turned to greet the new +arrival, who looked indeed big enough to fill up any amount of time or +space, even had he been without the great yellow rose which he wore in +his button-hole.</p> + +<p>While they were in friendly talk with Mrs. Bosher's brother, the party +on the eyot did not notice who was coming along the road from the +village. It was a middle-aged man, who walked rather limpingly, and +who made most extraordinary gestures as he approached the group. First +he stood and stared, then he rubbed his eyes and stared again. Then he +took out his spectacles and put them on, took them off, rubbed them, +and put them on again.</p> + +<p>He advanced a few steps, cast his hands up in the air, leaned heavily +on his stick, and exclaimed under his breath, "I can't believe it! Who +could have thought it? It is like a story-book!"</p> + +<p>Then he went on a few steps further and came close behind the group, +which was gathered round Mrs. Bosher's brother, listening to his loud, +hearty remarks.</p> + +<p>Rowles was the first who saw the new-comer. He looked over his +shoulder and nodded. Then Mrs. Bosher's brother roared out, "Hullo! +here you are at last! How do you feel?"</p> + +<p>And before the new-comer could reply to this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> greeting all the other +eyes were turned upon him, with expressions of surprise and +bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"You! What brings you here?"</p> + +<p>"What brings <i>you</i> here?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bosher's brother was the only person who remained calm. "What's +the matter?" said he. "Are you old friends or old enemies?"</p> + +<p>"It is so odd," said Mitchell; "I can't make it out."</p> + +<p>"Well, shake hands," cried Roberts; and he shook hands all round.</p> + +<p>When that was over Mr. Rowles said he would like to know what it was +all about, and so at last matters were explained.</p> + +<p>"It is Daniel Roberts, who married my poor sister Nan, that died nine +years come the 1st of November." While Mitchell said this he was +gazing harder than ever at Roberts.</p> + +<p>"Why did you never tell me his name?" Mrs. Mitchell asked of Juliet.</p> + +<p>"I did," Juliet replied. "I always called him Mr. Robert."</p> + +<p>"Ain't he Mr. Robert then?" asked Rowles, still perplexed.</p> + +<p>"No," said the butler; "I am Daniel Roberts. Roberts is my surname, +and Robert is not my Christian name. But some people have no ear for +music, and can't hear an S when it is at the end of the word."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mitchell turned to her children. "It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> your Uncle Roberts. I +<i>am</i> surprised at finding him here. Why, Daniel, Mrs. Johnson said she +thought it was partly owing to you that Mr. Burnet had us brought down +here."</p> + +<p>"So it was, Mary. But, mind you, I did not know it was you. That girl +there, they called her Juliet, and then they talked about Juliet's +father being a printer and out of health, and all that; and I thinks +to myself that there was Mitchell, poor Nan's brother, who was a +printer, and I should not like to think that he was out of health and +out of work, and that gave me a kind of feeling for all printers, and +I put in a word for Juliet's father. But I little thought that +Juliet's father was poor Nan's brother."</p> + +<p>"Ain't you glad, man?" said Mrs. Bosher's brother, giving a squeeze to +Roberts's rheumatic arm; "ain't you glad?"</p> + +<p>"Glad—oh, it's agony!—yes, glad as I can be."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can't make it out now!" said Mitchell, taking off his hat to +cool his head. "Just to think that Mr. Robert the butler is my +brother-in-law!"</p> + +<p>"Are you sorry, man?" roared Mrs. Bosher's brother, putting his great +rose into Mitchell's face; "are you sorry?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry!—phew, it's delicious, but stifling—no, I'm certainly not +sorry."</p> + +<p>"Then get into the boat, and do the rest of your talking there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p> + +<p>They took the hint. Mrs. Bosher's brother rowed them gently down the +stream to Banksome Weir, the scene of Juliet's escape, and afterwards +he rowed them gently back again. He said he could do that kind of +rowing in his sleep.</p> + +<p>They were all very happy; a happy family party.</p> + +<p>And not the least happy was Juliet Mitchell, who had put away from her +all her former follies and ill-humours, and had begun a new life of +gentleness, obedience, and industry.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burnet and Leonard passed them in another boat, and smiled and +nodded at them.</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Webster passed them, walking on the towing-path, and +nodded and smiled at them.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bosher's bonnet came to see them in the evening, and nodded more +than ever.</p> + +<p>And a very kind letter came from Miss Sutton, with a hymn-book as a +special present to Juliet.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Littlebourne Lock, by F. 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Bayford Harrison + +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: Littlebourne Lock + +Author: F. Bayford Harrison + +Release Date: July 3, 2008 [EBook #25959] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLEBOURNE LOCK *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: "I'VE SPILT THE SOUP, AND BROKE THE JUG."] + + + LITTLEBOURNE LOCK. + + + + BY + + F. BAYFORD HARRISON, + + Author of "Brothers in Arms;" "Battlefield Treasure;" + "Missy;" &c. + + + _ILLUSTRATED._ + + + + + + + LONDON: + + BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 49 OLD BAILEY, E.C. + + GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAP. Page + + I. THE LOCK-HOUSE, 7 + + II. NO. 103, 19 + + III. JULIET MITCHELL, 32 + + IV. THE "PRETTY CHURCHYARD," 44 + + V. ON THE RIVER, 59 + + VI. MISSING! 73 + + VII. FOUND! 80 + +VIII. BETTERING HERSELF, 93 + + IX. BACK IN LONDON, 108 + + X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE "TURKEYS PIN," 120 + + XI. A THOROUGH CHANGE, 135 + +XII. A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. 150 + + * * * * * + + + + +LITTLEBOURNE LOCK. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE LOCK-HOUSE. + + +The mist of a July morning shrouded the river and its banks. It was a +soft thin mist, not at all like a winter fog, and through it, and high +above it, the sun was shining, and the larks singing; and Edward +Rowles, the lock-keeper, knew well that within an hour or two the +brightest sunshine would gladden England's river Thames. + +He came out from his house, which was overgrown with honeysuckle and +clematis, and he looked up the stream and down the stream, and then at +the weir over which the water tumbled and roared; he saw that +everything was all right after its night's rest. So he put his hands +in his pockets, and went round to the back of the house to see how his +peas and beans were conducting themselves. They were flourishing. Next +he looked at some poultry in a wired-off space; they seemed very glad +to see him, even the little chickens having good appetites, and being +ready for their breakfasts. + +After this inspection Edward Rowles went indoors again, and looked at +his son Philip, who was still asleep in his little camp-bed in the +corner of the sitting-room. + +"Get up, lad, get up," said the father; "don't be the last." + +Philip opened his eyes and rubbed them, and within a few minutes was +washing and dressing. + +In the meantime Mrs. Rowles was lighting the fire in the kitchen, +filling the kettle with water from the well, getting down bread and +butter from a shelf, and preparing everything for the morning meal. + +Presently there appeared a little girl, Emily by name, who slept in a +tiny attic all by herself, and who was very slow in dressing, and +generally late in coming down. + +"Come, bustle about, Emily," said her mother. "Here, this slice of +bread is very dry, so toast it, and then it will be extra nice." + +Emily obeyed. Philip got a broom and swept out the kitchen; Mr. Rowles +brought in a handful of mustard-and-cress as a relish for +bread-and-butter. And soon they were all seated at the table. + +"Not a boat in sight," said Mr. Rowles; "nor yet a punt." + +"It is early yet," replied his wife; "wait until the first train from +London comes in." + +"Like enough there will be folks come by it," rejoined Rowles; "they +must be precious glad to get out of London this hot day." + +"Why must they be glad, father?" asked Philip. + +"Because London is awful hot in hot weather; it seems as if it had not +got enough air for all the folks to breathe that live in it. Millions +of people, Philip. Write down a million on your slate, boy." + +Philip brought his slate and pencil and wrote 1,000,000. + +"Write it over again, and twice more. Now that seems a good many, eh? +Well, there are more people in London than all those millions on your +slate. What do you think of that?" + +The boy had no idea at all of what a million of people would look +like, nor a million of lemon drops, nor a million of anything. He did +not even try to gain an idea on the subject. + +"Mother," said Emily, "does Aunt Mary live in London? And Albert and +Juliet and Florry and Neddy--and--and all the others." + +"Yes, poor things! they live in London." + +"And they don't like hot days in London?" + +"Hot days must be better than cold ones. I say, Rowles," and his wife +turned to him and spoke in a gentler tone, "do you know I have been +thinking so much lately about Mary and all of them. It is a long time +since we had a letter. I wonder if it is all right with them." + +"As right as usual, I'll be bound," said Rowles gruffly. + +"I've a sort of feeling on me," Mrs. Rowles pursued, "that they are +not doing well. The saying is, that no news is good news; but I'm not +so sure of that--not always." + +"Mary went her own way," said the lock-keeper, "and if it turns out +the wrong way it is no business of mine. When a woman marries a fine, +stuck-up London printer, who works all night on a morning paper and +sleeps half the day, what can you expect? Can you expect good health, +or good temper, or good looks from a man who turns night into day and +day into night?" + +"Children, run and give these crumbs and some barley to the chickens. +Now, Rowles, you know very well that I never did join you in your +dislike to Thomas Mitchell. Printing was his trade, and there must be +morning papers I suppose, and I daresay he'd like to work by day and +sleep by night if he could. I think your sister Mary made a mistake +when she married a Londoner, after being used to the country where you +_can_ draw a breath of fresh air. And I'm afraid that Tom's money +can't be any too much for eight children living, and two put away in +the cemetery, pretty dears! And I was just thinking to myself that it +would seem friendly-like if I was to journey up to London and see how +they are getting on. It is less trouble than writing a letter." + +"It costs more," said Rowles. + +A long, distant whistle was heard. + +"There they come!" and Rowles rose from his chair, and took his burly +figure out into the garden-plot which lay between the cottage and the +lock. + +Mrs. Rowles followed him, saying, "There is a train at 10.22; and if I +leave the dinner all ready you can boil the potatoes for yourself." + +"What do you want to go for, at all? Women are always gadding about, +just to show off their bonnets, or to look at other people's. Here +they come--two of them!" he added. + +For two steam launches, whistling horribly, were coming up, and +required that the lock should be opened for them. + +Nothing gave Philip and Emily more pleasure than to help their father +open the lock-gates. They liked going to school, and they liked +playing with their friends, but opening the lock-gates, and then +watching them as they closed, was more delightful than any other kind +of work or play. + +Philip knew that a river on which large boats and barges went to and +fro must be kept up by locks, or it would run away so fast that it +would become too shallow for any but small boats. Littlebourne lock is +built from one bank of the river to an island in it. There are great +wooden gates, opened by great wooden handles; but to explain how a +lock is made and worked would be difficult, though it is easily +understood when examined. Philip and Emily had lived nearly all their +lives in Littlebourne lock-house, and they knew more about boating and +such matters than old men and women who live all their lives in +London. + +The two little steamers came into the lock as soon as Rowles, assisted +by his children, opened the lower gate. The men on them talked to +Rowles while the lock was being filled by the water, which came +through the sluices in the upper gate. + +Philip listened to this talk; but Emily went up to the other gate. Her +father and brother did not notice what she was doing. They came +presently and opened the upper gates, talking all the time to the men +on the launches. Then they heard cries. + +"Look out! take care! keep in!" + +Emily's voice sounded shrill and terrified. + +"This side! this side!" she was crying wildly; and she jumped about on +the bank of the island as if frightened at something in the water. + +Rowles ran to the place. The first launch was just coming out of the +lock, closely followed by the other. Across the narrow piece of water +just outside the lock was a rowing boat. In it was one man. He looked +scared, for the nose of his boat was stuck in the bank of the island, +and the stern had swung round almost to the opposite bank. The man was +standing up with a scull in his hands, poking at the bank near the +bows; and at every poke his boat went further across the narrow +stream, and was in imminent danger of being cut in two or swamped, or +in some way destroyed by the foremost launch. + +"Ah, they are at it again!" cried Rowles; "these cockney boatmen, how +they do try to drown themselves! Hold hard!" he shouted to the +engineer of the launch. + +And the engineer of that steamer did try to hold hard, but the man +behind him did not see what was the matter, or that anything was the +matter, and therefore he kept his engines going, and pressed close +behind on the foremost launch. + +Fortunately Rowles had in his hand a long pole with which to push +small boats in and out of the lock. With this he caught the side of +the endangered craft, and would have drawn it into safety, but the +occupant of it flourished his scull about in so foolish a manner that +he hindered what Rowles was trying to do, and all the time--which +was but a couple of minutes--the launches were slowly bearing down +upon him. + +Philip had seized an oar which was lying by, Emily had caught up a +clothes-line; Philip pushed his oar at the man in the boat, Emily +threw him the end of her rope. Rowles had at length caught the side of +the boat with the hook at the end of his pole, and brought it close to +the bank. + +The man gave a spring to get out on dry land. Of course his boat went +away from him, nearly jerking Rowles into the water. As for the +awkward creature himself, he fell on his knees on the plank edging of +the bank, and his feet dangled in the stream. The launch went on +again, crushing the rudder of the small boat. + +It required the help of Rowles and Philip to pull the man up on his +feet, and get him to believe that he was safe. He staggered up the +bank to the pathway on the top of it, and gasped for breath. + +"That--that--was a narrow shave!" said he. + +"Ay, for them that goes out fooling in a white shirt," said Mr. +Rowles. + +"It is only my feet that are wet," remarked the stranger, beginning to +recover his colour; "and I did not know there was any harm in a white +shirt." + +"No harm in the shirt if the man who wore it knew what he was about. +Why, I've seen them go out in frock-coats and tall hats and kid +gloves. I've seen them that did not know bow from stern; and then, +when they are drowned, they are quite surprised." + +"I don't know much about boating," returned the man; "but my gentleman +said he thought I had better practise a bit, because he will want me +to row him about of an evening. Well, another time I will keep out of +the way of the steam-launches." + +"You had better, sir. And put off your coat, and your waistcoat, and +your watch and chain, and rig yourself out in a flannel shirt and a +straw hat. And, pray, how are you going to get home?" + +At this moment Mrs. Rowles came to the door, shading her eyes with her +hand, for the sun was now bright and hot, and calling out "Phil--lip! +Em--ily! time to be off." + +The girl threw down her rope and obeyed her mother's call, but Philip +lingered. He could not make out who and what the stranger might be. + +That person said, "Perhaps, Mr. Rowles, you would let your boy come +with me just to put me in the right way." + +"No, no; he is going to school. You be off, Phil, before I look at you +again." + +So, rather unwillingly, Philip also retreated into the house, from +whence he and Emily presently emerged with their books, and +disappeared across the fields in the direction of the village, where +their company was requested by the schoolmaster and the schoolmistress +until four o'clock, with a long interval for dinner and play. + +"I would let him go with you if it was not for his schooling," +remarked Mr. Rowles; "but he must waste no time if he wants to get the +prize. You won't get a prize for rowing. Why, some of them that comes +here don't know what you mean by feathering!" + +The stranger looked very humble. He was a middle-aged man of ordinary +appearance, but extremely neat in his dress. His cloth clothes were +all of spotless black, his necktie was black with a small white spot; +he showed a good deal of fine shirt-front, and a pair of clean cuffs. +Then his hair was carefully cut, and he had trimmed whiskers, but no +beard or moustache. His hands were not those of a working-man, nor had +they the look of those of a gentleman. Edward Rowles could not make +him out. + +"I'm sure you are not a boating man," said he. + +"Oh, no! oh, dear no! I never rowed a boat before. Though I have been +at sea: I have crossed the Channel with Mr. Burnet. But not rowing +myself, of course." + +"Who's Mr. Burnet?" asked Rowles. + +"We are staying at the hotel," replied the stranger; "and what's more, +I must be getting back, for he likes his breakfast at a quarter-past +ten sharp. Can I get back another way? Can't I go down that river?" + +He pointed up the stream which came swirling from the weir. + +"No," said Rowles, "you can't go up the weir-stream, any more than you +could leap a donkey over a turnpike-gate. Get into your boat, and pull +yourself quietly up under the left-hand bank." + +"I have no rope to pull it by," said the stranger meekly. + +"They come down here," remarked Rowles with infinite contempt, and +speaking to the river, "and don't know what you mean by pulling. They +think it is the same as towing. If you'd rather tow your boat I will +lend you a line, provided that you promise faithfully to return it. It +is the missus's clothes-line. And you will keep her close under the +bank of the towing-path, and you will pass under all the other lines +which you meet. Do you see?" + +"Oh, yes, thank you," said the stranger, anxious to be off. "My name +is Roberts, with Mr. Burnet at the hotel; and you shall have the rope +back again." + +"Tie it round the bow thwart, as you have no mast," said Rowles. + +Mr. Roberts stared. + +"There, stand aside, I'll do it for you. They sit on a thwart and +don't know what it is, half of them." + +Grumbling and fumbling, Rowles at length got Roberts across the +lock-gates and put the line into his hands, telling him to look out +for barges and rapids; and then the stranger set off on his return +journey, and Rowles went into his house to tell his wife that he +thought they were a stupider lot this summer than ever they had been +before. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +No. 103. + + +When Mrs. Rowles had put on her best gown and her Sunday bonnet she +was as pleasant-looking a woman as one was likely to meet between +Littlebourne and London. "Going to town" was rather an event in her +life, and one that called for the best gown and bonnet as well as for +three-and-fourpence to pay the fare. + +"Ned never will go to see his sister," said Mrs. Rowles to herself. "I +might as well try to move the lock as try to move him. And now that I +have made up my mind to go I had better go, and get it over. Ned +thinks that Londoners are too grand to care for their country +relations. But I don't think Mary is too grand to give me a welcome. I +don't want a fuss made over me, I am sure; and if I run up unexpected +she won't be able to make a fuss with the dinner. And when it is six +months since you heard from them it is about time for you to go and +see them. I am not comfortable in my mind; six months is a long time. +Suppose they had gone off to Australia! I really should not wonder!" + +It was nearly time to start on her walk to the station. + +Rowles looked into the cottage, and his wife explained to him how he +was to manage his dinner. + +"Ah, peas now!" he said, looking at the green pearls lying in water in +a pudding basin. "They don't see such peas as those in London, I can +tell you; and you'd be a deal welcomer, Emma, if you were to take them +a basketful of green stuff. I suppose Thomas Mitchell has his supper +for breakfast when he gets up at night, and begins his day's work at +bed-time. He might like peas for breakfast at ten o'clock P.M.; +likewise broad beans. Just you wait three minutes. I bear them no +ill-will, though I never could approve of a man being an owl." + +Within five minutes Rowles came back from his garden with a basket of +fresh-smelling vegetables. He gave it to his wife, saying, "You be +off, or you'll miss your train. Give them my love when they get up +this evening. There's a call for the 'Lock a-hoy!' And here they come, +girls in flannels and sailor hats, rowing for their lives, and men +lolling on the cushions with fans and parasols." + +The husband went to open the gates for one of those water-parties +which are to be seen nowhere but on the Thames, and Mrs. Rowles set +off to walk to Littlebourne station. + +She met with no adventures on her journey; reached Paddington safely, +took an omnibus into the city, and then walked to one of the smaller +streets on the eastern side of London. + +This street was one which began with good, well-kept houses, and +dwindled away into small ones out of repair. About the middle of the +street Mrs. Rowles stopped, and went up on the door-step of a +neat-looking house, every window of which had white curtains and +flower-pots. She pulled the bell-handle which was second from the top +in a row of handles at the side of the door, and put her basket down +to rest herself, summoning up a kindly smile with which to greet her +sister-in-law, Mary Mitchell. The air of London was heavy and the +sunshine pale to Mrs. Rowles's thinking, and the sky overhead was a +very pale blue. There were odd smells about; stale fish and +brick-fields seemed to combine, and that strange fusty odour which +infects very old clothes. Mrs. Rowles preferred the scent of broad +beans and pinks. + +It was some time before the door was opened, and then a young woman +appeared, holding it just ajar. + +"Well, Mary, my dear--oh, I declare, it is not Mary!" + +"Would you please to say who you want?" The young woman was not over +polite. + +"I have come up from the country to see my sister-in-law, Mary +Mitchell. I beg your pardon, my dear, if I rang the wrong bell." + +"Mrs. Mitchell don't live here," was the short reply. + +"Not live here! Whatever do you mean?" + +"I mean what I say; are you deaf? Mrs. Mitchell left here near upon +six months ago." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Rowles, much astonished; "I never thought of such a +thing. Whatever shall I do? And all this green stuff to carry back +again." + +"Can't you take it to her?" asked the young woman more gently. + +"I don't know where she has gone to. Australia most likely." + +"Australia, indeed! She has only gone to the other end of the street, +No. 103. And when you can't pay your rent, and three weeks running on +to four, what can you expect from your landlord?" + +The door was closed, and Mrs. Rowles left standing on the step, +greatly shocked and agitated. Had the Mitchells been turned out by +their landlord for not paying their rent? Had they grown dishonest? +Had Mitchell taken to drink? What could it mean? + +"No. 103. And this is only 42; the odd numbers are on the other side. +I must cross. What a lot of rubbish on the road; and do you think I +would let my girl stand out bareheaded like that, gossiping with a lot +of idle young chaps?" Thus thinking and moralizing Mrs. Rowles went +down the street towards the eastern end of it. + +She noticed the change in the houses. Their fronts grew narrower; +there was a storey less; the door-steps were not hearth-stoned; the +area railings were broken. No white curtains, or but few and soiled +ones; hardly a flower; windowpanes filled with brown paper instead of +glass; doors standing half open; heaps of cinders and refuse lying at +the edge of the pavement; girls almost without frocks nursing dirty, +white-faced babies. It seemed a long way to No. 103. No. 99 stood out +from its fellows, and marked the point at which the street became +narrower, dirtier, noisier than before. Was it possible that Edward +Rowles's sister could be living here? + +The comely, well-clad woman from Littlebourne looked into the entry of +No. 103. She saw a narrow passage, without floorcloth or carpet; a +narrow, dirty staircase led up to the rooms above. From the front room +on the ground floor came the whirring sound of a sewing-machine; it +might perhaps be Mary Mitchell at work. + +Mrs. Rowles knocked on the door of the room. + +"Who's there?" + +"Please, does Mrs. Mitchell live here?" + +"Top floor, back," replied the voice, and the whirr was resumed. + +Picking her way, for the stairs were thick with mud from dirty boots +and with droppings from pails, beer-cans, and milk-jugs, Mrs. Rowles +went up the first flight. In the front room a woman's voice was +scolding in strong language; in the back room a baby was wailing +piteously. On the next floor one door stood open, revealing a bare +room, with filthy and torn wall-paper, with paint brown from +finger-marks, with cupboard-doors off their hinges, and the grate +thick with rust. The visitor shuddered. Through the next half-open +door she saw linen, more brown than white, hanging from lines +stretched across, and steaming as it dried in the room, which was that +of five persons, eating, living, and sleeping in it. + +Mrs. Rowles felt a little faint; she thought that so many stairs were +very trying. From this point there was nothing in the way of +hand-rail; so she kept close to the wall as she carried her basket up +still higher. + +At the door of the back room she knocked. + +There was a sort of scuffling noise inside, and a few moments passed +before it was opened. + +The sisters-in-law looked at each other in amazement. Rosy Emma +Rowles, in her blue gown and straw bonnet with red roses, with her +stout alpaca umbrella and her strong basket packed tight with +vegetables, was an unaccustomed vision at No. 103; while the pale, +thin, ragged, miserable Mary Mitchell was an appalling representative +of her former self. + +"Mary!" + +"Is it you, Emma Rowles? However did you get here?" + +"I came by the train from Littlebourne," said Mrs. Rowles simply. "May +I come in?" + +"Oh, you may come in if you care to," was the bitter reply. + +Mrs. Rowles looked round her as she entered, and was so much shocked +at what she saw that for a few moments she could not speak. + +In the middle of the room was a square table, on which lay a mass of +thick black silk and rich trimmings, which even Emma Rowles's country +eyes could see were being put together to form a very handsome mantle +suitable for some rich lady. A steel thimble, a pair of large +scissors, a reel of cotton and another of silk lay beside the +materials. In strong contrast to this beautiful and expensive stuff +was the sight which saddened the further corner of the small room. +Close under the sloping, blackened ceiling was a mattress laid on the +floor, and on it a wan, haggard man, whom Mrs. Rowles supposed to be +Thomas Mitchell, though she hardly recognized him. There was also +another mattress on the floor. The blankets were few, but well-worn +counterpanes covered the beds. A little washstand with broken +crockery, a kettle, some jam-pots, and some medicine bottles were +about all the rest of the furniture. All that she saw told Mrs. Rowles +very plainly that her relations had fallen into deep poverty. + +"Why, Tom," she began, "I'm afraid you are ill." + +"Been ill these two months," he replied in a weak voice. + +"Sit down," said Mrs. Mitchell, pushing the best chair to her +sister-in-law, and standing by the table to resume her work. + +"We did not know Tom was ill," said Mrs. Rowles. + +"I daresay not," answered Mrs. Mitchell. + +"I would have come sooner to see him if I had known." + +"Oh, it is no use to bother one's relations when one falls into +misfortunes. It is the rich folks who are welcome, not the poor ones." + +"I hope you will make _me_ welcome," said Mrs. Rowles, "though I am +not rich." + +"Well, you are richer than we are," remarked Mrs. Mitchell, softening +a little, "and you are welcome; I can't say more. But I daresay if +you had known what a place you were coming to you would have thought +twice about it. Six months we have had of it. First there were the +changes made at the printing-office, and then the men struck work, and +there was soon very little to live on; for it's when the strike +allowance doesn't come in so fast that the pinch comes." + +Mrs. Rowles looked round to see where the children could be hiding. +Not a child's garment was to be seen, nor a toy. + +"Where are the children?" she asked, half fearing to hear that they +were all dead. + +"Albert has got a little place in the printing-office. He was took on +when Tom was laid up with rheumatic fever. Juliet is gone to the +kitchen to try if she can get a drop of soup or something. They only +make it for sick people now the hot weather has set in. Florry and +Tommy and Willie and Neddy are all at school, because the school-board +officer came round about them the other day. But it is the church +school as they go to, where they ain't kept up to it quite so sharp. +They will be in presently." + +"And the baby?" + +"Oh, the baby is out with Amy. He's that fractious with his teeth that +Thomas can hardly put up with him in the house." + +Mrs. Rowles was now taking out the good things from her basket. She +produced a piece of bacon, some beans, about a peck of peas, a +home-made dripping cake, and some new-laid eggs. + +"Edward packed it with his own hands," she explained. "He hoped you +would not be too proud to accept a few bits of things from the +country." + +"Proud? Me proud?" and Mrs. Mitchell burst into tears. + +"We are too hungry to be proud," said the sick man, with more interest +in his tone. "They do smell good. They remind me of the country." + +After rubbing her eyes Mrs. Rowles looked about for a saucepan, and, +having found an old one in the cupboard, began to fill it with the +bacon and the broad beans. "We killed a pig in the spring," she said; +"and Rowles is a rare one to keep his garden stuff going." + +Little was said while Mrs. Rowles cooked, and Mrs. Mitchell sewed, and +Thomas sniffed the reviving green odour of the fresh vegetables. This +quiet was presently interrupted by the sound of someone coming up the +stairs. + +Mrs. Mitchell listened. "That is Juliet. There! I expected it!" + +And a crash was heard, and a cry, and they knew that something +unpleasant had happened. + +"There never was such a child!" said the mother; while the father +moaned out, "Oh, dear!" + +Mrs. Rowles went out on the landing at the top of the stairs, and saw +a girl of about thirteen sitting crouched on the lower half of the +double flight, beside her the broken remains of a jug, and some soup +lying in a pool, which she was trying to scrape up with her fingers, +sucking them after each attempt. + +"Is that you, Juliet?" said her aunt. + +"Yes. I've spilt the soup and broke the jug." + +"Oh, Juliet, how could you?" + +"The jug had got no handle; that's why I came to drop it. And the soup +was only a teeny drop, so it's no great loss. And the bannisters was +all broke away for lighting the fires, and that's how I came to fall +over; and I might have broke my leg and been took to the hospital, and +I should have had plenty of grub there." + +The child said this in a surly tone, as if all that had happened had +been an injury to her--even her escape from breaking her leg--and to +no one else. + +"Well, come up," said Mrs. Rowles, who would hardly have been so calm +had the soup and the jug been her own; "come up and see what there is +for dinner here." + +"_I_ don't care," said Juliet, as she left the remains of the spoilt +articles where they lay, and came up to the room. She was a +strange-looking child, with brows knitted above her deep-set eyes, +with a dark, pale skin, and dark untidy hair. + +"Ah, you've been at it again!" cried Mrs. Mitchell. "Well, it was my +own fault to send you for it. You are the stupidest and awkwardest +girl I ever come across." + +"Then, why _did_ you send me?" retorted Juliet. "I didn't want to go, +I'm sure." + +"Hush, Juliet," interposed her father; "you must not speak so to your +mother. Here is your aunt come from Littlebourne, and brought in the +most splendid dinner." + +"I don't want no dinner," said Juliet. + +"Oh," said Mrs. Rowles very gently, "I thought you would help me dish +it up." + +"I'm that stupid and awkward," said the girl, "that I should spill it +and spoil it for you. If they'd let me go to a place I might learn to +do better." + +"Who would take her?" Mrs. Mitchell appealed to her sister; "and she +ought to help her own people before wanting to go out among +strangers." + +"Yes, of course," replied Mrs. Rowles. "Everything is like charity, +and begins at home." + +By this time the unwonted prospect of a really hearty dinner began to +soften the stern Juliet, and her brows unknitted themselves, showing +that her eyes would be pretty if they wore a pleasant expression. It +seemed to Mrs. Rowles that life had latterly been too hard and sad for +this girl, just beginning to grow out of the easy ignorance of +childhood which takes everything as it comes; and a little plan began +to form itself in the good woman's mind for improving Juliet's +disposition and habits. + +Before the dinner was ready there was a loud noise of feet tramping +upstairs. They were the feet of five more young Mitchells; and Amy's +footsteps were very heavy, for she carried the baby. Albert, who was +in the printing-office, did not come home to dinner. + +Though the plates and knives and forks were all out of order, and +though an old newspaper acted as tablecloth, yet the meal was +thoroughly enjoyed; even Mitchell ate some of the beans, with a boiled +egg, and said that they put new life into him. Mrs. Rowles's own +appetite was satisfied with a slice of cake and the brightening faces +around her. + +Mrs. Mitchell gave a contemptuous glance at the mantle hanging on a +nail in the wall, and took the baby on her knee and danced him about; +and the little fellow burst into a chuckling laugh, and Thomas echoed +it with a fainter and feebler one. + +At that precise moment there was a knock on the door. A voice said +"May I come in?" and a little elderly lady put her head into the +room. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +JULIET MITCHELL. + + +"It is Miss Sutton. Come in, miss," said Mary Mitchell. + +The lady who came in was, in Mrs. Rowles's eyes, exactly like a mouse. +Her eyes were bright, her nose was sharp, and her clothing was all of +a soft grayish-brown. And she was as quick and brisk as one of those +pretty little animals, at which silly people often think they are +frightened. + +"Nearly two o'clock, Mrs. Mitchell. Now, if you can get the children +off to school, I have something important to say to you, and only ten +minutes to say it in. Bustle away, my dears," she said to the +children. + +After a little clamouring they all went off except Juliet and the +baby. + +"Don't you go, Juliet," said Mrs. Rowles; "I want to speak to you +presently, before I go home." + +"Then, Juliet," said her mother, "do you think you could carry baby +safely downstairs, and sit on the door-step with him until Miss Sutton +goes away?" + +"I shall be sure to bump his head against the wall; I always do," was +Juliet's sulky reply. + +"Oh, you must try not to do so," put in Miss Sutton. + +"And you might put his head on the side away from the wall," said Mrs. +Rowles cheerfully. + +"I might," returned Juliet in a doubtful voice; "but that would be on +the wrong arm." + +"The wrong arm will be the right arm this time;" and Mrs. Rowles laid +the baby on Juliet's bony right arm, and both children arrived safely +on the door-step within three minutes. + +"Now," said Miss Sutton, "who may this good woman be?" + +"My brother's wife from Littlebourne, miss; and she brought us a real +good dinner, and we are all truly thankful. Amen." + +"You come to a poor part of London," said Miss Sutton; "and I am not +going to say but that the poverty is deserved, part of it, at all +events. There was Thomas Mitchell, aged twenty-three, getting good +wages as a journeyman printer. There was Mary Rowles, parlour-maid at +the West-end, costing her mistress at the rate of fifty pounds a year, +aged twenty-one. Because they could keep themselves comfortably they +thought they could keep ten children on Thomas's wages. So they got +married, and found they could not do it, not even when the ten was +reduced to eight. Because a gentleman can keep himself comfortably on +a hundred and fifty pounds a year, does he try to keep a wife and ten +children on it?" + +"Oh, yes, ma'am," said Mrs. Rowles, thinking that she ought to say +something, and yet not knowing what to say. + +"Oh, no, no," murmured Mary Mitchell. + +"Of course not," pursued Miss Sutton. "He says, 'What I have is only +enough to keep myself, so I had better not marry.' Do you know why I +have not married?" + +"No, miss," replied Mrs. Mitchell, getting to work again on the +mantle. + +"Because the man I liked had not enough to keep a wife and family; he +looked before he leaped. He never leaped at all; he never even +proposed to me point-blank, but it came round to me through a friend. +But you working-people, you never look, and you always leap, and when +you have got your ten children and nothing to feed them on, then you +think that the gentlefolks who would not marry because they had not +enough to keep families on, are to stint and starve themselves to keep +_your_ families. Does that seem fair?" + +Mrs. Mitchell stitched away; the others did not reply. + +Miss Sutton went on: "If I had ten children, or even two children, I +could not afford to give you what I do." Here she put down a +half-crown on the table. "Now, listen to a plan I have in my head. You +know, Mrs. Mitchell, what we West-end ladies have to pay for our +mantles, even the plainest and simplest we can get; two guineas and a +half, and upwards to any price you like to name. You also know what +you receive for making them." + +"Yes, miss, I do;" and Mrs. Mitchell shook her head. + +"How much is it?" + +"I get ninepence; some of the women only get sevenpence halfpenny." + +Mrs. Rowles could not believe her ears. + +"Well, say ninepence. Now, I and some of my friends are going to buy +the materials, and pay you for the work just the difference between +the cost of materials and the price we should pay in a shop. Do you +see?" + +"Yes, miss, I see; but it won't do," and Mrs. Mitchell shook her head +again. + +"Why not?" + +"Because ladies like to go to a shop and see hundreds of different +mantles, and choose the one they like best." + +"We shall have dozens of paper patterns to choose from, and the +cutting-out will be done by a friend of mine who is very clever at it. +I shall begin by ordering my winter mantle at once. I shall give about +eight shillings a yard for the stuff; three yards makes twenty-four +shillings; then some braid or something of the sort, say six yards at +two shillings; that is twelve; twenty-four and twelve are thirty-six; +a few buttons and sundries, say five shillings; thirty-six and five +are forty-one. I shall give you seven shillings for the work, and I +shall have a handsome mantle for two pounds eight shillings. Better +than ninepence, and finding your own cotton and sewing-silk. Eh?" + +"Yes, Miss Sutton; it is very kind of you. But it won't do. There are +too many of us women; and you ladies, you all like to go shopping." + +"You see," said Miss Sutton, turning to Mrs. Rowles, "what we want to +do is to get rid of the _middleman_. We are going to try if we can +persuade the great shop-keepers to come face to face with the people +who actually do the work. I don't know how we shall succeed, but we +will make an effort, and we will keep 'pegging away' until we get +something done. And, one word more, Mrs. Mitchell; do not bring Juliet +up to the slop-work trade. Get her a situation. When your husband is +strong again and goes to work, then set the girl up with some decent +clothes, and we will find her a little place." + +"She wants a little place," said Mrs. Mitchell; "but there's no place +hereabouts. Our clergyman says he has nine thousand people in his +parish, all so poor that his own house is the only one where there is +a servant kept." + +"You don't say so!" cried Mrs. Rowles, unable to keep longer silence. +"Why, with us there are laundresses that keep servants! and many +little places for girls--minding babies and such like." + +"Ah, in the country," said Miss Sutton; "I daresay. Oh, this dreadful, +ravenous London; it eats up men, women, and children! Well, I must go +on to another house. Good-bye, good-bye." + +As the lady went away Mrs. Rowles asked, "Where does she come from?" + +"She lives in a street near Hyde Park. She and many other ladies, and +gentlemen too, have districts in the East-end, because there are no +ladies and gentlemen here who could be district visitors; there are +only poor people here." + +Emma Rowles thought deeply for a few minutes, while Mary Mitchell +stitched away. + +Thomas Mitchell had raised himself up, and was saying, "I shall soon +be much better. I feel I am going to be strong again. Emma Rowles has +given me quite a turn." + +"Don't say that, Tom; it is rude," whispered his wife. + +"I mean a turn for the better, a turn for the better." + +"I wish, oh, I wish," Mrs. Rowles burst out, "how I wish I could turn +you all out into the country! Fresh air, fresh water, room to move +about! Where the rain makes the trees clean, instead of making the +streets dirty, like it does here. Though we have mud up to your eyes +in the country too; but then it is sweet, wholesome mud. Ah! what is +that?" + +A noise of confused voices rose from the street, and Mrs. Mitchell ran +to the window. But these attics were not the whole size of the house, +and the window was set so far back that she could not see the pavement +on her own side of the street. + +"It is that Juliet again, I'll be bound! There never was such a girl +for getting into scrapes! She seems to have no heart, no spirit, for +doing better." + +With a hopeless sigh Mrs. Mitchell went back to the mantle. + +Her sister could not take things so easily. She was not used to the +incessant cries and outcries, quarrels, accidents, and miseries of a +great city. Mrs. Rowles ran swiftly down the sloppy stairs to the open +door, there she found Juliet leaning against the railings, while the +baby lay sprawling on the step. + +"Whatever is the matter?" asked Mrs. Rowles, breathless with fear. + +"Nothing," was Juliet's reply. + +"But I heard loud voices." + +"That was only when Miss Sutton walked on baby." + +"Poor little fellow! How did that happen?" + +"Oh, I don't know; he just slipped off my lap at the very moment that +she was coming out. He's not hurt." + +Mrs. Rowles picked up the baby to make sure that he was not injured, +and found no mark or bruise. + +"But his spine might be hurt, or his brain, without there being any +outside mark. I am afraid you are very careless." + +"Yes, I am. I don't care about nothing." + +"Now, that's not at all pretty of you, Juliet." + +"Don't want it to be pretty." + +"And it's not kind and nice." + +"Don't want to be kind and nice." + +"And I am afraid people will not love you if you go on like this." + +"Don't want people to love me." + +Mrs. Rowles knew not how to soften this hard heart. "Juliet, don't you +want to help your sick father and your hard-working mother, and all +your hungry little brothers and sisters?" + +"No, I don't. I want to go away from them. I want to have mutton-chops +and rice puddings like we used to have when there was not so many of +us; and merino frocks, and new boots with elastic sides; and the +Crystal Palace." + +"Oh, you would like to leave home?" + +"Yes, I would. They worrit me, and I worrit them." + +"Oh, poor child, poor child!" + +The kind-hearted Emma Rowles made curious little noises with her +tongue and her teeth, and toiled again up the staircase with baby in +her arms, and Juliet silently following as she went. Mrs. Rowles +framed short, unworded prayers for guidance at this present crisis; +and when she stood again in her sister-in-law's room her resolve was +taken. + +She put the baby into his father's arms. + +"There, Thomas, I do hope you will get about soon. Do you think your +trade is a healthy one? My Ned, he always says that it is bad to work +by night, and bad to sleep by day, says he." + +"Emma Rowles," was Mitchell's sharp rejoinder, "does your Ned ever +read a newspaper?" + +"Yes, most every day. Them passing through the lock often give him a +_Standard_ or a _Telegraph_." + +"Then he'd better not find fault with the printers. If the public +would be content with evening papers, we printers might keep better +hours." + +"There now!" said Mrs. Rowles, venturing on a short laugh "Do you +know, I never thought of when the morning papers get printed." + +"There's a many as thoughtless as you, and more so." + +Mitchell laughed scornfully. His wife also laughed a very little, and +baby chuckled as if he too thought his aunt's ignorance of the world +very amusing; but none of these laughs moved Juliet even to smile. + +Then Emma Rowles began to tie her bonnet-strings, and to pull her +mantle on her shoulders. + +"I will take back the empty basket, please," she said. "And, +Thomas,--Mary,--I want you to let me take something else." + +"There's not much you can take," said Thomas. + +"Will you lend me one of your children?" + +"Oh, not my precious, precious baby-boy!" cried Mary, throwing aside +the mantle. "He's the only baby we've got now!" + +"No, not baby; I should be rather afraid of him. But one of the +others." + +"Well--" and Mrs. Mitchell hesitated. + +"Take me," said Juliet, in a low, hard voice. "I'm that stupid and +awkward and careless that I'm no good to anybody. And I don't want to +learn, and I don't want to be good. All I want is mutton-chops and +puddings, and new boots." + +Her sullen little face stared at her aunt with a look of stolid +indifference on it. Was it possible that poverty had pinched her +child's heart so hard as to have pinched all softness and sweetness +out of it? + +Mrs. Rowles's heart was full of softness and sweetness. + +"May I take Juliet home with me? I can't promise mutton-chops, but +there will be beans and bacon. And boots perhaps we can manage." + +"I don't like parting with any of them. Though, to be sure, Florry can +mind baby; or even little Amy can. Juliet, my child, shall I let you +go?" and Mrs. Mitchell clasped the girl in her arms, and tears +streamed down the mother's face, while Juliet stood as stony and +unmoved as ever. + +"She's got no clothes for going on a visit," said Mitchell. + +"She can have some of my girl's; they are just of a size." + +"All right, then, Emma. You're a good sister, you are. Not one of my +people has come forward like this. They are all so high and mighty and +so well-to-do in the world, they can't turn their eyes down so low as +me and mine. But you've give me a turn for the better, Emma Rowles. +You'll see I'll be at work on Monday night, if not sooner." + +Juliet being lent to her, Mrs. Rowles felt that she might now proceed +on her homeward journey, which would occupy some three hours. So, +after affectionate farewells she set off, her basket hanging on one +arm and her niece hanging on the other; and they clambered into +omnibuses, rushed over crossings and under horses' heads, ran full +tilt against old gentlemen, and caught themselves on the hooks and +buttons of old ladies, in a way which Juliet alone would never have +done. But Mrs. Rowles, being unused to London, was more fussy and +hurried than any Londoner could ever find time to be. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE "PRETTY CHURCHYARD." + + +IT was late in the day when the aunt and niece seated themselves in +the train for Littlebourne. Mrs. Rowles counted up her money, and then +counted up the time. + +"It will be eight o'clock before we get home," she remarked; "it will +be getting dark and near your bed-time." + +"I don't care," said Juliet; "I don't want to go to bed." + +"Oh, no; but I shall be tired and sleepy. Juliet, have you ever been +in the country?" + +"No." + +"But you said you liked the Crystal Palace." + +"No, I didn't," was Juliet's polite reply. + +"I beg your pardon, my dear, I thought you did." + +"I said," explained Juliet, slightly abashed by her aunt's courteous +manner--"I said I wanted to go to the Crystal Palace. Father said once +that he would take us on a bank holiday, but then we got poor, and so +he never kept his word. We always have been poor, we never had +mutton-chops but only three times; and now we are poorer than we used +to be, and we don't even get rice puddings." + +"Well, I'll try and give you rice puddings, and suet ones too." + +"Oh, I don't care," said the child relapsing into her usual manner; "I +don't want your puddings." + +The carriage soon filled with other passengers, and there came over +Mrs. Rowles a slight sensation of shame when she saw how they glanced +at Juliet in her patched frock and untidy hat. And the neat +country-woman felt that to walk with this London child through the +village of Littlebourne, where every creature, down to the cows and +cats and dogs, all knew the lock-keeper's wife, would be a great trial +of courage. + +It was only now that Mrs. Rowles realized the condition of many of the +working-class (_so called_, for harder work is done by heads than by +hands) in the great city, who yet are not what is known as "poor." The +Mitchell family had drifted away from the Rowles family. A letter now +and then passed between them, but Rowles had held such a prejudice +against Mitchell's employment that really no intercourse had taken +place between the two families. Mrs. Rowles had been drawn, she knew +not how, but by some sort of instinct, to visit her brother-in-law +this day; and she had further been impelled to offer Juliet a trip to +the country. But now she almost regretted it. + +Juliet sat opposite her aunt, looking out blankly at the houses as the +train passed through the western suburbs. After a while she stood up +at the window. Fields and trees were beginning to be more frequent +than at first. Soon the houses became rare, and the fields continuous. + +Juliet's lips were muttering something which Mrs. Rowles could not +hear in the noise made by the train. + +She leaned forward to the child. "What do you say?" + +"Pretty churchyard!" said Juliet. + +"_What_ do you say?" + +"Pretty churchyard' pretty churchyard!" + +"Whatever do you mean, my child!" + +"I mean, this churchyard is bigger and prettier than the churchyards +in London, where I used to play when I was little." + +Mrs. Rowles's eyes filled with tears. She understood now that Juliet +had only known trees and flowers by seeing them in the churchyards of +London, disused for the dead, and turned into gardens--grim +enough--for the living. And so to the child's mind green grass and +waving boughs seemed to be always disused churchyards. Such sad +ignorance would seem impossible, if we did not know it to be a _fact_. + +"But, Juliet, these are fields. Grass grows in them for the cows and +sheep to eat, and corn to make us bread, and flowers to make us happy +and to make us good." + +Juliet did not reply. She gazed out at the landscape through which +they were passing, and which was growing every moment more soft and +lovely as the sky grew mellower and the shadows longer. She almost +doubted her aunt's words. And yet this would be a very big churchyard; +and certainly there were cows and sheep in sight, and there were red +and white and yellow flowers growing beside the line. So she said +nothing, but thought that she would wait and find out things for +herself. + +At Littlebourne station Mrs. Rowles and Juliet alighted. The +ticket-collector looked hard at Juliet, and the cabman outside the +gate said, "Got a little un boarded out, Mrs. Rowles?" + +Mrs. Rowles shook her head and walked on. She bethought herself of a +means by which to avoid most of her neighbours' eyes. She would go +round the field way, and not through the village. It was a much +prettier walk, but rather longer. + +"Are you tired, Juliet?" she asked kindly. + +"Of course I am." + +"Well, we shall soon be home now." + +"It don't matter," said the child; "I'm 'most always tired." + +They went through some pasture-fields where cows lay about quiet and +happy, and through corn-fields where green wheat and barley rustled in +the evening breeze. + +"You're right," muttered Juliet; "it ain't all churchyard, 'cause they +don't have cows and green flowers in churchyards." + +"Do you like the country, my dear?" + +"I don't know yet. I ain't seen any shops, nor any mutton-chops." + +"Well, you shall see them all by and by. Now we are going through a +farmyard, where you will see cocks and hens, and perhaps some little +pigs." + +But before they had time to look for either pigs or poultry they heard +a succession of alternate fierce growls and short shrieks, and both +Mrs. Rowles and Juliet stopped short. + +The growls seemed to be those of a big dog, and the shrieks those of a +little girl. Both sounds came from an inner yard of the farm, through +which there was a public right of way. Something in the shrieks made +Mrs. Rowles's cheek turn pale, and something in the growls made +Juliet's face flush red. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Mrs. Rowles, "it is some child in danger!" + +[Illustration: JULIET SEIZED THE DOG BY HIS COLLAR.] + +"It is some horrid cruel dog!" said Juliet. + +The aunt went cautiously through the gate into the inner yard, and the +niece rushed through it boldly. What they saw was indeed alarming. + +Little Emily Rowles was in a corner of the wall, shut in there on one +side by a great high kennel, and on the other side by the huge mastiff +who belonged to the kennel. He lay on the ground, his head on his +paws, and his eyes fixed on the child; and whenever she made the +slightest movement he growled in the fiercest manner. No wonder she +uttered cries of dread and despair. + +Before Mrs. Rowles could think what was best to do, Juliet had done +it. + +Fearless, because she did not understand the danger, Juliet rushed at +the dog, seized him by his collar, and with all her strength pulled +him away from the corner. He was so astonished at finding himself thus +handled that all his fierceness, half of which was pretended, died out +of him, and he looked up wildly at the new-comer, and forgot the other +girl whom he had been bullying with such pleasure. + +Emily had leaped into her mother's arms, and was sobbing with +excitement and relief. + +"My child! my darling! how did it happen? How came you to get caught +by that brute? How came you to be here at all?" + +Emily was still unable to reply. Her mother carried her to a bench at +the other side of the yard, and soothed her until she was calm again. + +But Juliet stood beside the dog; he was ashamed of himself, and he +bowed to a will stronger than his own. He felt that she was not afraid +of him, and he was afraid of her. Not that he had had any intention of +really hurting Emily; but it had seemed to him great fun, after doing +nothing all day but doze in the shade, to keep a child in custody, and +hear her cries for help. + +"What made you come here, Emily?" said Mrs. Rowles again. + +"Oh, father said Philip and I might come and meet you. And we did not +know which way you would come, so Philip went by the road and I came +by the fields." + +"But how did you get over by the dog's kennel?" + +"Oh, he was inside it, and I thought he was asleep. So I just went up +to look in at him, and he bounced out and shut me into the corner; and +he growled horribly, and would not let me come out." + +"Poor child! And all the folks in the hay-field, I suppose, and not a +creature within call. I've often told you, Emily, not to go near +strange dogs." + +"Yes, mother, I know. It was my own fault." + +"And if I had not happened to come this way--" + +"I must have stayed there till the folks came from the hay-field. I +should have pretty near died of fright. Mother, who is that little +girl?" + +Then Mrs. Rowles remembered her niece. + +Juliet had remained within a few paces of the dog, and stood like a +statue, looking straight before her, as if she did not wish to see +Mrs. Rowles and Emily. Her face was pale now, her mouth set, and her +brows knitted with their most sullen expression. Her aspect was +anything but attractive. + +"Come here, Juliet, my dear," her aunt called out. "Let me thank you +and kiss you." + +Juliet did not stir. + +"I want to thank you and--" Emily, clasped in her mother's arms, could +not bring herself to add "kiss you." + +"I don't want no thanks and no kisses," said the London child. + +"Oh, but you have been so brave and good." + +"I'm not a screaming coward like _her_," said Juliet; "that's all. Are +we going to stay here all night?" + +Emily whispered to her mother, "Who is she?" + +"Your poor cousin from London. You must be _very_ kind to her, poor +girl; she is _so_ disagreeable." + +Emily looked with a sort of awe at her sullen cousin. + +Then Mrs. Rowles set her own child on the ground, and went and put her +hand on Juliet's shoulder, saying, "Emily wants to thank you for being +so brave. You _have_ a spirit of your own!" + +Juliet coloured as if angry at being praised, and said, "It ain't no +use to have a spirit when you are stupid and awkward. I tore my sleeve +with pulling at that dog." + +"Oh, that is nothing; that can be mended. Now we must be getting home, +or father will wonder where we are." + +They went through the gate at the further side of the farm, and came +out into fields. In one of these, but at a little distance, they saw +the farmer and all his men and maids busily turning over the hay that +it might be well dried by the early sun next morning. Juliet asked no +questions, though she was surprised at every step by strange country +customs; and it did not cross the minds of Mrs. Rowles and Emily to +explain what they themselves knew so well. Indeed, Emily was still +trembling from the fright she had undergone, and Mrs. Rowles's +thoughts were fully occupied. + +They came to a stile over which they climbed, Juliet so awkwardly that +she slipped into a ditch among sting-nettles. + +"Oh, the horrid things!" she exclaimed; "they've bitten me!" + +"It is only nettles," said her aunt; "you've got stung." + +"I see the marks of their teeth," persisted Juliet, rubbing the little +spots made by the nettles. + +Emily would have laughed at her cousin, but that she felt too much +depressed by her own adventure. + +And then they were on the towing-path, and the great river, all +glowing with the reflected gold and red of the sunset sky, was gliding +past them on its peaceful way. + +"There!" said Mrs. Rowles, "do you know what that is, Juliet?" + +"A river." + +"Yes, it is the Thames," + +"No, it ain't; not my Thames." + +"Yes, my dear; though you do contradict me, it is the Thames for all +that." + +"I know the Thames well enough," said Juliet; "it is twice as broad as +this. And it is all inky-like; and it has wharves and smoky chimneys +and steamboats and masts all over it. This ain't no Thames; I know +bettor than that." + +"Oh, but, cousin Juliet," Emily put in, "the Thames is young here, and +it is old at London. Some day you will get old, and once on a time +mother was a little girl like you." + +Still unconvinced the London child made no rejoinder. + +Mrs. Rowles began to cross to the lock-house by the planks of the +lock. + +"Come carefully, Juliet, you are not used to this." + +Juliet marched across the narrow bridge with firm foot and steady eye. +Emily followed nervously. + +On the island they found Mr. Rowles; and Philip, who, not meeting his +mother on the road from the station, had hurried home again. He and +his father stared at Juliet. + +"Well, I never!" cried Mr. Rowles. "Whom have we here?" + +"Oh, Ned," said his wife soothingly, "it is your own little niece, +Juliet Mitchell. I thought you'd like to have her here a bit, seeing +as they are none too well off, and she's never been in the real +country at all till now." + +Rowles whistled doubtfully. He stood there in his shirt sleeves, with +his thumbs in his waistcoat pockets, and his black straw hat pushed +back on his head. His eyes were fixed on his niece's face with a gaze +of inquiry, and a sort of dislike seemed to grow up in his heart and +in hers. + +"Oh, very well," he said, at length. "Where's your box?" + +Juliet did not know what he meant. + +"Where's your box--your luggage?" + +"Haven't got any," said Juliet. + +"Then where's your Sunday frock?" + +"Haven't got one," said Juliet; "it's at the pawn-shop." + +Rowles whistled more fiercely. + +"I say, Emma, I'll be bound you found that fellow Mitchell in +bed--now, didn't you?" + +"Yes, Ned, I did; because--" + +"I knew it. And I never knew any good come of lying in bed by day and +sitting up at night to do your work, or pretend to do it." + +"But that is his business, Ned." + +"Then it is a bad business, say I." + +"And people must have morning papers. Besides, Thomas is ill." + +"And likely to be ill, I should say, sleeping by day and working by +night." + +Mrs. Rowles drew her husband aside to tell him quietly the condition +in which she had found his sister. He was softened by the sad story, +but persisted in thinking that all Mitchell's misfortunes arose from +the fact that he worked by night and slept by day. "It is going +against nature," he said. "Why, the sun shows you what you ought to +do. You don't catch the sun staying up after daylight or going down in +the morning." + +"But the moon and stars are up by night," said Mrs. Rowles laughing. + +"The moon's a she; and as for the stars, they are little uns, and +children are always contrary." + +Mr. Rowles grew good-tempered over his own wit, and at length allowed +that Thomas Mitchell's mode of life was a necessary evil, but an evil +all the same. Then he said that he had not had any idea that the +Mitchells were badly off; he had only been to see them twice since +their marriage, when they had appeared to be comfortable. And he had +always supposed that money was to be had in London almost for the +asking. In fact, he was one of the old-fashioned sort, and never +troubled himself about London ways; and he did not think his sister's +affairs any concern of his. But if Mary was so badly off, and it was a +help to her to get Juliet out of the way, why Juliet might stay as +long as she liked. One mouth more would not make much difference. He +could not say fairer than that, could he? + +Mrs. Rowles was quite content with the fairness of his speech; and she +went into the house, brought out from her cupboard some odds and ends +for supper, and then lighted the lamp and called in her husband and +the children. + +"Suppose you say grace, Juliet," said Mr. Rowles. He quite expected to +find that she did not know what he meant. + +But she spoke the right words clearly and reverently. + +When they had nearly finished their supper, Rowles suddenly turned to +Juliet, saying, "Your father has his supper along of your breakfast, +don't he?" + +"Yes," replied Juliet, "when we have a breakfast." + +"Don't you always have a breakfast?" + +"Most days, when mother has got on with her work." + +Rowles turned away. + +A cry of "Lock-man! Hie! Lock-man!" sounded on the calm evening air. + +Rowles went out, and his voice was heard in conversation with that of +another man; then the lifting up of the sluices broke the stillness, +and the creaking of the lock-gate as it opened. After that Rowles came +in again, laughing scornfully. + +"It was the chap that slipped into the water this morning. He is a +persevering chap, to be sure. He says he is determined to learn to +row, and to swim, and to punt, and to fish. And he went down this +afternoon, and now he's gone up, and he is dead-beat already; and how +he'll get home he can't tell for the life of him. Why, he knows just +as much about boating as Juliet there. I'd like to see him and her +double sculling. They'd just be a pair, they would." + +Juliet listened to everything but said little, and when she was +ordered off to bed she silently followed Emily up to the attic, where +Mrs. Rowles had already contrived to make a second little bed on the +floor. + +After she was in bed Juliet listened for a long while to the roar of +the weir, wondering at what she thought must be distant thunder. Then +the occasional twitter of a bird, or the soft lowing of a cow, or the +splash of a fish leaping in the river, disturbed her from her thoughts +and startled her. And once, when all was very dark and very silent, +she heard the regular pulse of oars, and the clanking of chains, and +the creaking of wood, and subdued voices; and she imagined robbers. +But all became quiet again; and at last, at last, her ideas grew +confused, and she fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ON THE RIVER + + +HOW wonderful the country seemed to the London child! Everything was +strange and beautiful. And though Juliet would not confess how +surprised she felt, yet by little looks and words her aunt and cousins +knew that she was taking in fresh ideas every minute. + +They asked her how she slept. She replied that she could not sleep +well because it was so dreadfully quiet; if it had not been for the +noise of the "buses" a long way off, and those folks that came home +late and creaked their door, she would not have been able to go to +sleep at all. "My ears was all stretched like," said Juliet, "and +wanted something to work on." + +When they told how the distant _buses_ was the roar of the weir, and +the late-comers a party of gentlemen managing the lock for themselves, +she tried to appear as if she quite understood, but she did not +succeed. + +"Some of them stay out late and let themselves through at 2 A.M., and +some of them get up early and let themselves through at 3 A.M., but it +is none of my business to get out of bed for pleasure-boats." Thus +said Mr. Rowles. + +"Who are _they_?" asked Juliet. + +"Oh, the folks on the river. You'll see plenty of them if you stay +here long enough." + +Juliet was not much the wiser; she had heard of mermaids, and thought +at first that the folks on the river must be of that race of beings. +But she waited to see. + +Then Mrs. Rowles said that Juliet must make herself useful, and might +begin by fetching some water from the well. + +Juliet did not know what a well might be; but she took up a jug and +went out to the riverside. There was a boat pulled up to the bank on +the side of the island away from the towing-path, and as all she +thought about was the fact that she was to bring water, she climbed +into the boat, over the thwarts, and up to the stern. As she crept +along she saw in the shadowed water at the side of the boat a vast +number of little fish playing together, and, like any other child, she +wanted to catch some of them. She dipped the jug down among them, as +she supposed, but alas! instead of winning the minnows she lost the +jug! The handle grew slippery when wet, and away it went out of her +hand, falling with a crash on a big stone, and lying in fragments on +the gravel beneath the water. + +Juliet was in consternation. "I say, what a scolding I shall get! Even +mother used to scold a little sometimes when I smashed so much +crockery. And Aunt Emma--and that dreadful cross Uncle Rowles--!" + +The child gasped for breath, but returned indoors where her aunt was +putting away the remains of the breakfast. + +"Why, Juliet, child, you look scared. Have you fetched the water?" + +"No, aunt; 'cause I've broke the jug." + +"Broke the jug! What jug?" + +"The jug I took to get the water in. As soon as ever I put it in the +river it just slipped away and went into pieces." + +"Dear, dear! Which jug was it?" + +"It was a yellow one with blue flowers on it." + +"Oh, that one!" and Mrs. Rowles's face cleared. "If it was only that +old one with the broken spout and the cracked handle I really don't +care a bit." + +"I am always so unlucky with crockery," said Juliet. "I've broke +enough in my time to pave Cheapside--jugs and cups and basins." + +"Oh, child!" said her aunt, shocked at the exaggeration. + +"That's what the people in our house used to say every time I broke +anything. I'm always unlucky." + +"Well, never mind; this time you've been very clever. That yellow jug +was horrid ugly, and being shabby at the spout and the handle, I often +wished it would get itself broken instead of the pretty new ones. I'm +quite glad you've broken it; I think you were very clever to break +that one." + +So said the kind aunt, hoping to soothe Juliet's sorrow for her +awkwardness and carelessness. This sort of praise was quite new to the +child. To be praised instead of reproved for her stupidity, to be met +with smiles rather than sighs, was something so uncommon that Juliet +almost believed that she really had done a clever and useful deed. +After a few minutes she quite believed it, and held up her head, +taking credit for her breakage which was so clever and so amusing. + +Then Mrs. Rowles called Emily and bade her take Juliet to the well and +show her how to draw a bucket of water. A loud scream was heard, and +Mrs. Rowles's heart almost ceased beating, so fearful was she that one +of the children had fallen into the well. She ran out to the back of +the house, and saw the two girls standing together with consternation +on their faces. It appeared that Juliet had insisted on lowering the +bucket by the windlass, and that, by some awkward mischance, she had +let it fall off the hook, and there it lay at the bottom of the well, +and there seemed to be no means of getting it back again. + +This time Mrs. Rowles could not find any consolation for Juliet on the +subject of her stupidity. + +"I always do let things drop," said the child, keeping back tears of +vexation. "Once I let baby drop, and once I let a loaf drop in the mud +that the scavengers had swept to the side of the road. I'm too stupid +and awkward for the country. I'd better go back to London where it +does not show so much among such a many more awkward people." + +Mrs. Rowles put aside all Juliet's remarks, and Emily was anxious to +know what kind of things "scavengers" might be, and when Mr. Rowles +could be spared from the lock he brought a punting pole, and after a +good deal of trouble fished up the bucket. He called Juliet a little +idiot; and Philip remarked that girls never could do anything, +especially London ones, who are always so conceited and stuck-up. + +Poor Juliet felt very unhappy. There was no use in trying to do +better; all her relations were joined together against her. Her father +and mother had sent her away because she was so stupid, and now her +uncle and aunt did not want her. Well, she did not care. She did not +ask them to have her on a visit; they must put up with her ways if +they chose to have her. + +"Juliet," said Mrs. Rowles, "do you know what radishes are?" + +"Yes." + +"Then will you pull some from the lot that are growing near the +pig-sty? I like the white ones best." + +Juliet made no answer, but marched out into the garden and presently +returned with a bunch of turnips. + +"Oh, my dear child, but those are not radishes! You did not find those +near the pig-sty." + +"No." + +"I am afraid you did not attend to what I said. I am sorry you have +pulled these. Your uncle will be vexed." + +"I don't care," said Juliet; "you should not send me on your errands." + +These unkind words made Mrs. Rowles feel very sad. Grown people often +make children unhappy, and children make grown people unhappy very, +very often. + +It was quite certain that this sullen girl who would not take the +trouble to do better, caused a great deal of annoyance to her +relations. But they did not intend to get tired of her until they had +given her every chance of correcting some of her faults. On the Sunday +they dressed her in some of Emily's good clothes, and they were glad +to see that she looked nice in them. She went to church in the morning +with her aunt; Philip and Emily were with the Sunday-schools. In the +evening Mr. Rowles was able to go to church, having engaged a young +man to look after the lock for a couple of hours. + +Philip thought himself capable of managing locks and boats and punts +and everything else. When they came back from church that evening he, +with the two girls, got into the old boat from which Juliet had +dropped the poor yellow jug. + +"Give us a row, Phil," said Emily. + +"All right, here goes'" he replied, and he untied the boat from the +post to which she was fastened, and took up the sculls and off they +went. + +It was a lovely summer evening. Mr. and Mrs. Rowles stood on the bank +of their island and watched the young voyagers. Philip was quite used +to boating and they had no fears. He hardly needed to pull at all, the +stream took them down so quickly. Juliet's ill-humour gave way when +all around was so delightful. She saw the clear, rippling water, and +the deep green shade under the trees, and the withies waving their +tops, and forget-me-nots lying in blue patches under the bank; and +larks were trilling overhead, and wagtails dabbling on the shelving +gravel tow-path. + +"Oh!" she said sighing, "it is beautiful!" + +They were now coming up the stream again, and keeping out of the +current under the bank of an island. There were some swans lying among +the withies and rushes. + +"What are those great white birds?" asked Juliet. + +"Don't you know swans when you see them?" was Philip's retort. + +"No; I don't know almost nothing." + +"Well, then, I can tell you that a blow from a swan's wing will break +a man's leg, and a peck from a swan's bill would knock out both your +eyes. Hie! Swish!" + +And Philip pulled the boat as close as he could to the swans, who +instantly grew very angry, and stretched out their long necks, hissing +loudly, and flapped their great wings on the water. + +Emily gave a shriek, and threw herself to the further side of the +boat, in terror lest the swans should strike her or peck at her. Her +sudden movement sent the boat deep into the water on her side, and +Juliet thought they would be upset. But she was not so frightened as +to lose her wits. She did not like the swans, but the danger of being +drowned was greater than that of being pecked; and to keep the boat +steady she leaned over on the side of the birds, while Philip, also +alarmed, gave a few strong strokes, and placed them beyond further +peril. + +"Emily," he said, "how could you be so stupid? Don't you know that you +must always sit still in a boat?" + +"Yes," she answered, half crying; "but you frightened me so about the +swans." + +"Girls never can take a bit of fun. And if Juliet had not leaned the +other way so as to balance you, we might all have been in the water, +and the swans would have got you, and you might never have seen +Littlebourne Eyot again." + +At this Emily cried outright. + +Juliet asked Philip what he meant by an eyot. He told her that an +island in the Thames is called an _eyot_ or _ait_; and he also said +that she had more sense than most girls, and if she liked he would +teach her how to row, which some women can do almost as well as men. + +"I should think I could do it without being taught," said Juliet. + +"No, you could not. You would catch crabs, and you would feather in +the air, and you would run into the banks, and go aground on the +shallows, and be carried over the weirs." + +"I should not care," said Juliet. "I could eat the crabs, and make a +pillow of the feathers; I am not afraid." + +"You have a good deal of pluck for a girl," said Philip; "but don't +you get playing with boats, or you will come to grief." + +"I sha'n't ask _your_ leave," said Juliet. + +"I sha'n't give it," replied Philip with a rough laugh. + +And Juliet spoke no more, but knitted her brows fiercely. + +When the children landed at the lock, and told of the adventure with +the swans, Mrs. Rowles was profuse with praise of Juliet's presence of +mind. In fact she was almost too profuse, and wishing to encourage her +niece ran the risk of making her conceited. Juliet's brows grew +smooth, her eyes brightened, her head rose higher. + +"Oh, well," she said aside to Emily, "it is not so difficult to manage +a boat if you have your wits about you. When people give way and lose +their wits, then it is dangerous, if you like." + +Which remarks seemed to Emily extremely sensible, but to Philip, who +overheard them, extremely foolish. + +During the next week Mrs. Rowles felt that Juliet was improving in +temper and conduct; praise was doing the child good she thought. She +did not know that it was also doing her harm. + +One day a letter and a parcel came for Juliet. The letter was from her +mother, full of good news. Mr. Mitchell had gone to work again; she +had herself made a summer mantle for one of Miss Sutton's friends, and +had been paid four and sixpence for it. Albert had got a rise of a +shilling a-week; and baby's cheeks were getting to have quite a +colour. Mrs. Mitchell was sure that Juliet was very good and very +happy, and making herself useful to her aunt and uncle. And when they +could spare her to come back to London she must get a little place, +and earn her own living like a woman. If Mrs. Mitchell had any fresh +troubles since Juliet left home, she did not mention them in her +letter. + +Then the parcel--ah! that came from Miss Sutton and some of her +friends at the West-end. It contained nice articles of clothing. A +pair of strong boots, two pink cotton pinafores, some few other +things, and a clean, large-print prayerbook. Juliet's face grew so +happy over her letter and her presents that, to Mrs. Rowles surprise, +it became quite pretty. This was the first time that she had perceived +how the girl's ill-tempered countenance spoilt her really good +features. + +"Is she like her father or her mother?" Mr. Rowles inquired of his +wife. "But there! she can't be like her father--a pasty-faced, drowsy +fellow, always sleeping in the daytime, and never getting a bit of +sunshine to freshen him up. Not like some of them, camping out and +doing their cooking in the open air, and getting burnt as black as +gipsies. There they are--at it again!" + +And he went out to the lock. + +There were two boats waiting to go down. The people in one of them +were quite unknown to Rowles, but in the second was that middle-aged +man who was so determined to learn to row. + +"How are you getting on, sir?" asked Rowles. "Easier work now, ain't +it?" + +The man seemed unwilling to reply. He had an oar, and with him was a +youth in a suit of flannels pulling the other oar, while on the seat +sat an elderly gentleman steering. + +"Did you find it very hard at first?" said the lad to his colleague. + +"Yes, I did, Mr. Leonard; and I don't find it any too easy now." + +The old gentleman laughed. "Well, Roberts, take it coolly going down +stream, and reserve your energies for coming up. I say, lock-keeper, I +am told that you let lodgings; have you any rooms vacant?" + +"My missus has two rooms, sir," replied Rowles, as he leaned on the +great white wooden handle while the lock was emptying through the +sluices of the lower gates. "There is a gentleman who generally comes +in August, being an upper-class lawyer and can't leave his work till +the best of the summer is over, just like printers who lie in bed all +day and work all night." + +"Don't say a word against printers," said the old gentleman laughing. +"That won't do, will it Leonard?" + +"No, father," the youth replied. + +"So, as I was saying," Rowles went on, "he comes here every August and +September, and letters come by the bushel with Q.C. on them; and young +Walker--the postman, you know--would just as soon he staid in London. +But before August and after September Mrs. Rowles has a tidy little +sitting-room and bed-room, if so be as you know anyone would be likely +to take them." + +"I was only thinking," said the gentleman, "that the hotel is rather +too expensive--" + +By this time the boat had floated near to the lower gates. + +"Hold her up! hold her up!" cried Rowles, "or I can't open the gates. +Not you, sir," he added to the stranger who was sculling the other +boat; "but you, I mean, Mr. Robert." + +For Rowles had caught the name of the servant who was so persevering +on the river. + +"All right," returned Roberts; "give Mr. Burnet the ticket, please." + +Rowles stooped down and gave the old gentleman the ticket for the +lock, and then the two boats passed out into the open stream. The +lock-keeper went indoors to ask if dinner was ready. + +"Quite ready," was Mrs. Rowles's cheerful reply. "Call the children +in, will you, Ned?" + +He went out by the backdoor into the garden, and saw how the sky was +clouding up from the south-west. "Rain coming; bring on the +scarlet-runners and the marrows. Phil-lip! Emil-ly! Jule-liet! Come in +to dinner." + +Then Philip appeared, hot and tired from digging; and Emily came with +some needlework at which she had been stitching in the intervals of +watching her brother. The holidays had begun, and they were thoroughly +enjoyed by these children. + +"And where is Juliet?" + +"I don't know," answered Emily. + +"Well, you must bring her in. Mother says dinner is quite ready." + +"I think she must be in our bed-room," and Emily went upstairs to seek +her cousin, and to wash her own dusty little hands. + +But Juliet was not in the attic. + +"Then she must have gone into the lodgers' rooms," said Mrs. Rowles. + +But there was no sign of her in those shut-up rooms; no sign of her +anywhere in the house, nor in the garden, nor on the eyot at all, nor +on the towing-path as far as could be seen. + +"What can have become of her?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MISSING! + + +"Well, well," said Mr. Rowles, "never mind; we must eat our dinners +without her. She would not miss her share of this cabbage if she knew +how tasty and juicy it is." + +Mrs. Rowles sat down very unwillingly. If the child was not on the +island where could she be? It was very strange. + +"She has no idea of time," Mr. Rowles went on, between mouthfuls of +the cabbage. "I'm not going to blame her for that; she only takes +after her father, who does not know day from night." + +They had a dull meal, being more anxious about Juliet than they cared +to confess to each other. They thought she might have gone up the +towing-path, or down the towing-path, or by the road towards the +village, or by the fields towards the station. And at every sound from +outside someone went to the door peering out with the hope of seeing +the child. But an hour passed, and no Juliet appeared. Then her aunt +became seriously anxious, dreading lest some terrible thing should +have happened. + +"If she had fallen into the lock--" said Mrs. Rowles. + +"We should have heard her scream," said Mr. Rowles. + +"If she had been kidnapped by gipsies," said Emily; "but then--" + +"There are no gipsies about," said Philip. + +Mrs. Rowles now began to think that Juliet must have set off to go +home. "We have not been kind enough to her, poor child, and she can't +bear it any longer." + +"Don't talk nonsense," was Rowles's reply, as he obeyed a call to the +lock. "We've been too kind; and if Thomas Mitchell had taken to any +sensible business that did not keep him up all night, thereby breaking +down his health, he would be able to support his family, and there +would be no need for us to bother ourselves with such a cross-grained +girl as that. Now, Phil, off to your digging again. Yes, gents, I +know; how they do keep calling out for one, to be sure!" + +Philip went out to the kitchen-garden. Within a few minutes his voice +was heard, loudly raised. + +"Here! Father! Mother! Emily! Come quick! Just look here!" + +All three responded to his call + +"Whatever is the matter?" + +"Why, look there! The boat is gone!" + +"So she is! Well, I never!" and Mr. Rowles stared blankly at the post +to which his boat was usually moored. "Someone has made off with the +_Fairy_. That beats everything!" + +Mrs. Rowles was wringing her hands. "Oh, dear, dear, dear! This is +worse than I expected. She never will come home again safe!" + +"No," said the lock-keeper, "them that has took her are not likely to +send her back; and if so be as she has drifted down by accident she +will be drawn over Banksome Weir and be smashed. I'm glad she is only +an old, worn-out thing." + +"An old, worn-out thing!" cried Mrs. Rowles, quite wildly. "A poor, +dear child of twelve! What are you thinking of?" + +"I was thinking of the _Fairy_. You don't mean, wife--" and he grew +more serious--"you don't mean that you think the child was in her?" + +"That is what I do think, Ned." + +"Well, that is bad." + +"And see," cried Phil, "she must have taken the sculls, for they are +gone too. I know Juliet thought she could manage a boat; she said so +the other day." + +Emily was crying. Mr and Mrs. Rowles looked at each other in an agony. +They knew pretty well what must happen to Juliet alone in a boat. She +would be carried rapidly down stream, and the current would draw the +little bark to the weir, and over the weir, and it would be dashed +about by the swirling rush of water, capsized, and its occupant thrown +out. And nothing more would be seen of poor Juliet but a white, +lifeless body carried home. + +Oh, it was too sad to think of! + +"What can we do? What can we do? What would her own mother do?" + +"Hope for the best, Emma," said Mr. Rowles. "If I had another boat I +would send Phil down to look for her. Perhaps the next boat that goes +through would let him jump into the bows." + +"I might run down the towing-path," said Phil. "I can run pretty +quick." + +"And if you did see her in the _Fairy_ out in mid-stream, how could +you get near enough to help her? No; the only chance will be to ask +some of them to take you down in their boat. Here they come; both +ways." + +The lower gate of the lock was open, so that the boat coming up passed +through first. Rowles worked the handles as quickly as he could; +standing on the bank while the lock filled he asked the two gentlemen +in the boat if they had seen anything of a little girl out by herself +on the river. + +"No," replied one of the young men; "we only started from just below +Littlebourne Ferry. I have noticed no little girl in a boat." + +"Nor I," added the other gentleman. "And I think I should have noticed +such a person, for little girls don't often go out boating alone." + +"And an ignorant London child, too," groaned Mr. Rowles. "And many a +time I told her never to think of boating by herself; but she is so +obstinate and so stupid, there is no knowing what she has done. And if +you gentlemen have not met her, she must have got below Littlebourne +Ferry, and then she would be very near Banksome Weir, and there is no +saying what has become of her." + +The two gentlemen looked very grave, but did not offer to turn and go +down stream to look for Juliet. + +As their boat came out of the lock another was waiting to come in. It +contained Mr. Webster, the vicar of Littlebourne, and his wife. + +"Beg your pardon, sir," said Rowles as soon as he had closed the gate +above them, "would you mind if Philip was to jump into your bows and +go down a bit with you? Because there's a girl, my niece in fact, who +must have gone off in my little _Fairy_, and she don't know bow oar +from stroke, and if she gets alongside Banksome Weir she'll go over +and be drowned." + +"Oh, dear me!" said Mr. Webster. "How did the child come to be all +alone in a boat?" + +"Through being brought up without a grain of sense. What can you +expect when the father sleeps all day so that he never can give a word +of advice to his children? Now, in with you, Phil; and I shall be glad +to see you come back--" he broke off with a cough. + +"I will pull as hard as I can," said Mr. Webster. "We must hope that +by God's mercy the child will be saved." + +Phil dropped from the bank into the boat, and the moment they were out +of the lock the boat went flying down the river as fast as the current +and the vicar's strong arms could send her. + +"She will be very wet when she comes in," said Mrs. Rowles; "it is +beginning to rain." + +"She'll be pretty wet if she's been in the river," said Mr. Rowles. + +His wife heaped up the kitchen fire and put coffee on to boil, and +laid some clean garments to get warm, and waited with anxious heart +for some news of the missing child. + +Emily went up to the attic and looked at the belongings of Juliet, +which lay on the table and hung on pegs. Her cousin's real character +was better known to Emily than to anyone else at Littlebourne Lock. +Juliet was proud and conceited, and thought she could do whatever +other people did; then, when her carelessness brought her into +accidents and difficulties, she would grow very cross and angry with +herself, and when reproved for her faults would say, "I don't care; +I'm that stupid and awkward that I can't do anything right." Emily had +seen her stamping on the ground at the end of the garden after some +unfortunate occurrence, and had heard her sobbing and choking in her +bed after some stern words from Mr. Rowles. Emily knew that it was not +humility but wounded pride which made Juliet so sullen and dull; and +Emily wondered if a girl who did not wish to learn, and would not +condescend to be taught, could ever possibly improve. + +"And if she is drowned," cried Emily with a burst of tears, "she can +never learn anything more on earth! Oh, I do pray to God to let Juliet +be saved, and learn, and grow better!" + +The sky became dark, distant thunder growled over the hill; would +Juliet Mitchell escape the consequences of her disobedience and +self-conceit? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +FOUND! + + +FAST as Mr. Webster rowed, it was not fast enough for Philip's +anxiety. They both knew that if the _Fairy_ had drifted down to +Banksome Weir they would probably be too late to save Juliet from a +terrible death. On a single minute might depend the fate of the girl. + +Mr. Webster set his teeth and pulled with all his strength; Mrs. +Webster was steering, and she kept the boat in mid-stream that it +might get the full force of the current. Phil knelt in the bows, +keeping the sharpest look-out for any sign of his missing cousin. The +damp wind blew down the river and drove them on. + +They passed many other boats and two or three barges, but not a sign +of the _Fairy_. They flew along between green banks, between hedges, +trees, houses. Sometimes they could see nothing more distant than a +hedge, at other times the flat fields stretched back and back, and +were lost at the feet of misty gray hills. But not on the river, nor +on the banks, nor in the fields, could Philip see Juliet's figure. + +"How little even some grown men know about rowing!" was Mr. Webster's +remark when he saw a heavy-looking boat with a smaller one tied to its +stern coming up the middle of the stream. "It is that old gentleman +who, they say, is staying at the hotel with his son, and their +man-servant is sculling them up the very stiffest bit of the current." + +"Hoorah!" shouted Philip. "All right, Juliet!" + +For on the seat beside Mr. Burnet, sheltered by his umbrella, sat the +truant girl, while young Leonard was giving Roberts instructions in +the art of rowing. + +The two boats met and came alongside. Philip was so greatly relieved +in mind that he almost felt inclined to cry, while Juliet was silent +and ashamed if not sulky. + +"This child has given her friends at Littlebourne Lock a terrible +fright," said Mr. Webster to Mr. Burnet. "When they discovered that +the boat was missing as well as the girl, they quite thought that both +must have gone over the weir together." + +The vicar had brought his boat close beside Mr. Burnet's, and held the +rowlocks of the latter while he asked questions. + +"Is she hurt in any way?" + +"No, not at all. I think we came upon her just in time." + +"Had she got down as far as the weir?" + +"Just to the first pier which is marked with the word DANGER." + +"Oh, Juliet!" cried Philip with a gasp. "If the _Fairy_ had been drawn +to the wrong side of that post--" + +Mr. Webster looked so grave, and they were all so impressed with a +sense of the great peril she had incurred, that Juliet's pride and +coldness were broken down for once, and she sat beside Mr. Burnet +weeping silently. + +"Well, well," said Mrs. Webster, "she is tired, and I daresay hungry, +and you had better get her home as quickly as you can. There is heavy +rain coming up, and we must be down at Egham by four o'clock if +possible. I am afraid we shall be caught by the storm. Philip Rowles, +get into this gentleman's boat, and help to take your cousin home." + +"And I will look in one day, little girl, and have a talk with you," +said the vicar of Littlebourne as he bent to his work and flew down +the river, distancing the storm. + +Leonard Burnet now took an oar and Roberts took the other, and they +rowed hard against wind and current. Mr. Burnet sheltered Juliet and +himself as best he could against the rain, which came in heavy, +uncertain dashes. Philip had to sit on the planks at their feet, for +the stern seat only held two. + +"Do tell me, Juliet, all that has happened to you. Did the _Fairy_ go +adrift by accident?" + +"No," replied Juliet through her muffled sobs. + +"Then how did she get unmoored? I do believe she has lost a scull!" +Philip added, trying to examine the poor old boat which was being +towed behind them. "I can't make out very well, but I think she has +lost a scull and her rudder." + +"Yes," said Juliet in a husky voice. + +"I don't know what my father will say--" Philip began. + +"I know what he will say," interrupted Mr. Burnet. "He will be so +overjoyed to see his little niece again safe and sound that he will +say not a word about the scull and the rudder." + +"He will want to know how it all happened," said Philip; then he +added, addressing Juliet, "you will have to tell him every bit about +it from beginning to end." + +"I can't, I won't," said Juliet faintly. + +Philip was all in a fidget to hear a full account of Juliet's +adventure, so he said, shaking his head, "Ah, then, I should advise +you to tell _me_ the story, and then I can tell it to father, and save +you the trouble." + +"Yes, Juliet," added Mr. Burnet; "tell us the whole story." + +Thus persuaded, the girl poured out the tale of her adventures, which +had been pent up in her stubborn heart, as the waters were sometimes +pent up in the lock; and then, just as the waters when they escape +from the lock pour out and away in a mad foaming rush, so Juliet's +thoughts and words poured themselves out in a torrent when once she +began to talk. + +"I thought--I thought--it was quite easy to manage a boat; and I +thought I would just take the _Fairy_ a little way, over to the +opposite bank, and get some forget-me-nots and come back again." + +"Were you not forbidden to take out the boat?" asked Mr. Burnet. + +Juliet hung her head, and then lifting it said, "Yes; but I did not +care. I would not be ordered about by them, nor by nobody. So I got +into the boat when they were all busy and untied the bit of rope from +the post, and then the water made it move away quite quick. And I +wanted to sit on the little seat that goes across, and I slipt and +caught my shin such a crack against the edge of it, and I went down on +my face on the floor; and I should have liked to call out, but I did +not want anybody to know that I was gone. And when I did get on the +seat and rubbed my shin-bone, which it has got the skin scratched off +and sticking to my stocking, there was two great pieces of wood to be +put out on each side to push the boat on with." + +"The sculls," Philip put in. + +"They ain't skulls; they are more like arms, or legs perhaps. They +were so heavy, and when I pulled one up from the floor and put the end +of it over into the water, I found it was the wrong end, and the spoon +part had come into the boat. So I got that one to go right after a +fight with it, and the other one went right much sooner; and so when +they were right in their sockets the boat was gone out into the middle +of the water. And I _was_ frightened, I can tell you." + +"I should think so!" said Mr. Burnet. + +"Go on," said young Leonard. + +"And so I tried to put both the sticks in the water at the same time, +but when one went down the other went up, and the one that went down +made a great splash, and then got itself so much under the water that +it would not come up again for a long time; and so the one that went +up seemed to get stuck, and when it came down it made a worse splash +than the other one, and the water jumped up and hit me in the face and +made my hat all wet. And there was a great black boat as big as Noah's +ark going by, and three horses drawing it, and a little chimney in +it, and two men, and they called out 'See-saw! see-saw!' and it was +awful rude of them." + +"And what happened next?" + +"Why, I thought I could get along better if I had one oar at a time; +and so I took up one and put both hands to it, and dipped it down deep +and pulled it hard in the water, and so the other one got loose +somehow and slipped away and fell into the water. And there was a boat +and people sitting in it on chairs with fishing-rods, and they did so +laugh at me; and some men on the bank they laughed too, and called out +something, but I don't know what they said. And then the boat went on +and on, and I saw some broad white posts like you have at Littlebourne +Weir, and the boat went up sideways tight against the posts, and I sat +still and waited until somebody come by to help me." + +"And were you not frightened?" + +"I was that frightened I could not have spoke if it was ever so." + +"Well, well, well," said Mr. Burnet, "here you are safe, and very +thankful you must be that we came down just in time to save you. Had +the boat been carried over the weir you would have been drowned. But +when Roberts saw you he knew you were one of the Littlebourne +children, and my son felt sure that you were in distress." + +As soon as Juliet had told her story she relapsed into silence; the +excitement of her rescue was passing off, and the terror of her danger +remained. She sat beside Mr. Burnet and heard the rain pattering on +his umbrella, and wished she was at the lock and wished she was in +London, and wished she was grown-up and doing for herself, and not so +stupid and always putting other people out and making things go wrong. +Juliet was quite sure that though she had got into trouble with the +boat, there were heaps of other things that she would be very clever +about. + +The rain was pouring down when Mr. Burnet's boat arrived at +Littlebourne Lock. + +Cries of joy greeted Juliet as soon as her relations saw her. Mr. +Rowles was full of gruff thanks to the gentlemen, and begged the whole +party to go inside the house until the rain should cease. For there +was bright sky beyond the black clouds, and the shower would soon be +over. So they all went into the "lodgers' rooms," as Mrs. Rowles +called those which she was in the habit of letting, and there they sat +together talking. + +"I am afraid," said Mrs. Rowles, "that Juliet will never do better +until she learns to be guided by the orders and the advice of other +people. I used to think that she wanted encouraging and helping on, +but I find that she really thinks a great deal of herself, and does +not like to be told anything." + +"But she must and shall be told!" cried her uncle. "A bit of a girl +setting herself up against her elders indeed! If she is to stay in my +house she shall obey my orders. Do you hear me, Juliet?" + +"Yes," answered Juliet. + +"And your aunt's orders." + +"Yes, as long as I am in your house." + +With these words Juliet burst into a flood of angry tears, and kicked +her heels upon the floor in a violent manner. + +"You had better go up to your room," said Mrs. Rowles gently. + +The girl flung herself away, slamming the door after her. + +"A troublesome child," said Mr. Burnet. + +"Yes, sir. Poor thing! there are excuses to be made for her. Of late +years her father has been a good deal out of work and in bad health; +and then living in a close-packed part of London is trying to the +temper. And she's a baby beginning to feel her feet, and beginning to +feel herself getting on towards a woman. I am very sorry for her, poor +child, but I don't know about keeping her with us. You don't want your +whole comfort upset." + +"And your boat too," said Rowles; "and your scull broken and lost. +It's a-clearing up, I do believe," he added, going out to the front of +the house, for he never stayed indoors when he could be out. Roberts +followed him. + +"Where does the child come from?" Mr. Burnet asked of Mrs. Rowles. + +She named the street, and added, "Her father is a printer, and that is +one thing that makes my husband so set against her." + +"Why so?" inquired the gentleman. + +"Because he thinks it unhealthy and wicked-like to work by night and +sleep by day, as you must when you are on a morning paper like poor +Thomas. You see, sir, Rowles has been lock-keeper these seventeen +years with eighteen shillings a-week and a house, and his hours from +six in the morning to ten at night; so he always gets his money +regular and his sleep regular, and he can't see why other men can't do +the same." + +"We cannot be all of one trade," remarked Mr. Burnet. "And I hope he +does not hold that bad opinion of all in the printing business, +because I am a printer myself." + +"You, sir!" cried Mrs. Rowles, while Emily opened her eyes. + +"I don't mean exactly in the same way as that child's father, but I am +in the same line. When I was a younger man I used to sit in the office +of a newspaper every alternate night to receive the foreign telegrams +as they came in. It was rather trying. Ah, Mrs. Rowles, while half +the world is asleep in bed the other half is hard at work getting +things ready for the sleepers when they waken. Do you know that, my +dear?" he finished, as he turned to Emily. + +"Yes, sir," replied Emily. "The people in Australia are asleep while +the people in England are awake." + +The gentleman laughed. "I did not mean that exactly, but you are quite +right, my child. Yes, day and night come turn about to most of us. I +am taking life easier now as I grow old. Most of my work is over. It +is my boy's turn to go on with the task. One wants rest after the heat +and burden of the day; and it is a blessed thing when at evening time +there is light, and we can think over the mistakes and the mercies of +the past, and look forward to the repose and joy of the future." + +These words were so serious that Mrs. Rowles did not attempt to reply +to them. And presently Mr. Burnet roused himself from his solemn +thoughts and said brightly, "There! clear shining after rain. Now, we +must say good-bye and go home." + +While Mr. Burnet and Mrs. Rowles had been talking, Roberts and the +lock-keeper had also been conversing. + +"It is my own fault," Rowles said, "and my wife's. One might know +that a London girl like that would be sure to get into trouble in the +country. Her father's a printer; sits up all night, and naturally +never has his head clear for anything." + +"Oh, come now," replied Roberts; "you are too hard on printers, you +are. If they were not clear-headed I don't see how they could set up +their type without more mistakes than they make. Why, I've had +relations myself in the printing line, and Mr. Burnet is a +master-printer himself." + +"Is he now?" said Rowles. + +"That's what we're down here for. He's bought up half the _Thames +Valley Times and Post_, and he wants to live near the works, and while +we are looking out for a house we have to stay at the hotel. Mr. +Leonard is going into the business too, as soon as he is old enough." + +Roberts had just reached this point when Mr. Burnet came out from the +house. Rowles looked with more interest at the old gentleman who was +in the same line with Thomas Mitchell, and from that moment began to +think better of printers in general. + +The sky was rapidly clearing, so the three visitors turned the +cushions of the boat, and stepping into it went through the lock, and +were soon going up between the green banks and hedges, all +deliciously freshened by the heavy summer rain. + +"He's a nice old fellow," Rowles muttered to himself; "but then all +printers are not like him. Here, Phil, see what you can do to put the +_Fairy_ in order again. But as for that Juliet, if my wife was not so +soft-hearted I would turn the girl out to run home or to get her own +living." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BETTERING HERSELF. + + +Juliet Mitchell had gone up to the little room which she shared with +Emily Rowles. It did not contain much furniture, and what there was +had seen its best days long before. The chest of drawers had lost most +of its handles; the looking-glass which stood on the drawers swung +round the wrong way unless it was propped up by a book or by a box. It +had swung round in this manner, but had stuck half-way. When Juliet +entered the room she came face to face with the glass, and +consequently face to face with herself. + +What she saw was enough to frighten her, and did frighten her. The +scowling brows, the flushed cheeks, the pushed-out lips, were more +like those of some fierce and raging animal than the features of a +young girl in a Christian land. She stopped short and glared at her +own reflection. It glared back as angrily at her. "What a horrid, +ugly, cross thing, you are!" said Juliet. + +The face in the glass said the very same words with its lips, though +it made no sound. Then Juliet stood still and talked with herself. + +"You are the ugliest, the crossest, most stupid, awkward creature I +ever did come near; and so I tell you plainly, Juliet Mitchell. Since +you came into this house not a thing but what is tiresome have you +done. Why, if your aunt was to jaw you from morning to night you would +do no better; and you can't stand being jawed, you know. And your aunt +just looks at you in a way that is more piercing than if she was to +talk for weeks! And your uncle, he's your own mother's own brother; +but there! he'd be glad enough if you was to take yourself off. And +that's about the best thing you can do. Take yourself off and get your +own living like other girls of your age. Nobody wants you, here or in +London. There's a many little places going; and when you've shown that +you can take care of yourself and don't want none of their advice, nor +none of their money either, then won't they be pleased to get a letter +from you!" + +Like many another young girl--ay, and boy too--Juliet had a great +notion of independence--of getting away from advice and restraint, and +of earning money for herself. In London more than in the country, +girls go off and engage themselves as servants or in some other +capacity, and so start alone in the world like little boats putting +out on a stormy sea without sail or oar, rudder or compass. And many, +many are wrecked on the first rock; and many go through wild tempests +and suffer terrible hardships. A few battle through the winds and +waves and reach a happy shore. + +Had Juliet asked advice of anyone, or had she knelt and implored +guidance from her Heavenly Father, she would not have made the mad +resolve which now shaped itself in her mind. It was the resolve to go +away from Littlebourne Lock, on that side of the river which she knew +least--away from her relations, from the village, from the church, +from the railway, to find a situation with some stranger in a place +where no one knew her; in a word, to provide for herself. + +As her resolve grew more fixed she felt calmer, and even pleased. +Smiles began to flicker over her features; and when she next looked in +the glass she murmured to her reflection, "I say, you ain't so +bad-looking after all!" + +A knock on the door roused her. Mrs. Rowles came in. + +The good aunt sat down on the foot of the bed and drew the girl +towards her, putting her motherly arm round the little figure, and +smoothing the ruffled hair. Mrs. Rowles went on to explain to Juliet +the great danger which she had run, and the extreme naughtiness of +flat disobedience; and all the while Juliet stood with a calm face and +silent manner, so that her aunt thought she was penitent. But this +quietness was caused by her having so fully made up her mind as to +what she would do next. She let Mrs. Rowles speak on, and appeared +meek and humble; but in reality her thoughts were not on anything that +she heard. + +"And so," said Mrs. Rowles, rising at length and unclasping the +sheltering arms, "when you have been with us a little longer, and have +learnt a little more, we will get you a nice situation--and Mrs. +Webster knows all the good situations that are going,--and you shall +have a start in life; and I've written to your mother to tell her what +I think of doing for you. We shall have her answer the day after +to-morrow." + +Juliet said coldly, "All right." + +"I thought you might like another frock," said Mrs. Rowles, "so I have +been making one for you out of a gown of my own; and here are two new +print aprons, and I've put a fresh ribbon on your hat. You are quite +set up now, my dear." + +"I suppose," said Juliet without thanking her aunt, "that them things +are good enough for going to service." + +"Oh yes, quite good enough--if you should happen to hear of a little +place to suit you. Don't you like them?" + +"They are right enough," said Juliet. + +Then Mrs. Rowles turned and went away, wondering that so young a girl +should be so hard, and totally unsuspicious of the resolve which was +in that young hard heart. + +It was a resolve which could not be put in execution at once; Juliet +must needs wait for a favourable opportunity. Two days went by and she +did not find one; then came a letter from her mother saying that if +Juliet could find a situation in the country it would be better than +coming back to overcrowded London, where young girls in swarms were +looking out for means of earning their livings. Mrs. Mitchell said +little more; all were pretty well except baby, who was always poorly. + +Juliet now considered that she had got a sort of permission from her +mother to do what she wished to do. She thought she could defy her +uncle and aunt if they found any fault with her actions. + +The eventful moment arrived. + +Mrs. Rowles and Emily had gone to the village to buy a few things for +the lodgers who were expected shortly. Mr. Rowles was busy at the +lock; Philip was going to take out the _Fairy_ for her first trip +after her repairs. + +Juliet came down from the attic. She wore her new-made frock, her +re-trimmed hat, and carried a parcel containing the print aprons. Phil +did not notice what she wore or what she carried. + +"Take me in the boat, Phil," she said coaxingly. + +"I thought you had had enough of the boat," he replied. + +"But you will be in it, this time." + +"Oh, I don't want you," said the boy. + +"Well, then, just set me down on the opposite bank." + +"I don't mind doing that; but you may have to wait a long time before +I come back for you." + +"All right," said Juliet; "I don't care how long you are." + +She stepped into the _Fairy_, and sat quite still while Philip rowed +her to the far-off bank. Then she got out very gravely, and sat down +on the grass until he was out of sight. + +Fields came down to the water's edge. Where Juliet sat there was a +muddy bit of gravel shelving to the river. She did not know what made +this break in the bank. It had been formed by cows and horses coming +down to drink. In the field there were now no animals; had there been +she would have hesitated about remaining in it. But as soon as Phil +had disappeared she stood and looked about her, and perceived that +there was no living creature in sight, except the larks singing on +high and the grasshoppers chirping among the grass. + +Juliet walked swiftly across the field to a gate which stood open, and +through which she passed. Hardly had she entered the second field when +she saw at the further side of it about a dozen cows. Her heart fell. +Like most London girls she was horribly afraid of cows. Yet to go back +would be to undo her plan; besides the animals had already seen her, +and all their heads were turned in her direction. + +"I must not irritate them," she thought, "and yet I must get on out of +this field. If I creep along under the hedge they will not notice me." + +Her frock was a dark green, and her hat a black one. She sidled along +close to the hedge, keeping her eyes on the cows, which presently +resumed their feeding. But as she did not look where she was treading +she went down, splash! into a ditch. + +Mud and duckweed covered her boots, several dirty marks were made on +her frock, the parcel fell out of her hand, and probably the black +stains on the paper had penetrated to the contents. This was her first +misfortune. + +She got herself out of the ditch and went on more carefully, keeping +still in the shade of the hedge. Then a great spray of bramble caught +a bow of ribbon on her hat and lifted the whole thing off her head. +It flew up in the air, and only after repeated jumps could she get +hold of it and bring it down again. This was her second misfortune. + +Her tumblings and jumpings had attracted the attention of the cows +once more, and a calf being young and inquisitive thought he would +like to have a nearer view of the intruder, and began to follow +Juliet. This was her third misfortune. + +Her first impulse was to run, but a second thought told her that the +cows would be sure to run after her. So she did not run, but walked as +fast as she could, the calf walking faster and gaining on her. She +stumbled and tripped and panted, and fixed her eyes on a gate, hoping +that she might reach it before the calf came up with her. On she went +with terrified steps, arrived at the gate, and found it fastened. + +She threw the parcel over, climbed up the five wooden bars, and was +going to climb down on the other side when she felt the great, warm, +wet lips of the calf playing with her left ankle. She gave one screech +of horror and threw herself head-foremost to the ground. It was soft +and mossy, and she rose, shaken and bruised, and with a hole in the +knee of each stocking. + +But she had escaped from the calf. The copse or wood into which she +had entered was dark and cool. A pathway went curving in and out +among the trees. At a sharp turn she came suddenly upon a big man +with a beard, who pointed a gun full at her, and said, "Stand, or I'll +fire!" + +This was her fourth misfortune. + +Here was a dreadful, cruel robber such as she had read about in +badly-printed penny books, and he would shoot her dead in half a +minute. She gave a scream and turned to run back, but the man strode +after her and laid a huge hand on her shoulder. At this she screamed +and danced with terror. + +"Now, now," roared the man, "stop that row! What are you doing here?" + +"I want to go away!" cried Juliet. + +"So you shall. But answer my questions first." + +Glancing up at him Juliet perceived that he was laughing. All her +fears vanished and she began to laugh too. + +"What are you doing here?" asked the man again. + +"I'm only walking through the wood," said Juliet, recovering her +courage. "There ain't no law against that, I suppose." + +"Yes, but there is. 'Trespassers will be prosecuted with the utmost +rigour of the law.' Where do you come from?" + +"From over there," and Juliet pointed behind her. + +"Oh! And where are you going?" + +"Over there," and she pointed before her. + +The man whistled. "If you're not a Londoner, I'm a Dutchman. You're +pretty sharp, you are." + +"No, I ain't," said Juliet, stolidly; "I'm that stupid and awkward +that I can't do nothing right. So I want a general place, I do." + +"Oh!" said the big man, laughing; "awkward and stupid wants a place. +Hope you'll get it, miss. Well, now, look here. Go right on and get +out of the wood as quick as ten thousand lightnings, or else you'll be +prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law." + +Juliet wriggled away from under his heavy hand and ran right ahead, +thankful to escape from the gun. + +She came soon to the edge of the wood and found a fence easy to climb. +On the other side of this she came into a lane which led out on a +highroad. It was now late in the day; the sun was getting low, and the +shadows grew longer and the air sweeter. She walked on quietly, +thinking herself safe from pursuit. How surprised every one would be +when they discovered that she had started in life by herself! Perhaps +they would see that she was not so stupid and awkward as they thought. + +"But I've got no place yet," said the girl to herself. "I must find +one pretty sharp or I shall have nowhere to sleep to-night. Here's +two houses; either on 'em would do for me." + +Two small brick houses stood by the roadside. They had green doors, +and shutters outside the windows, and little gardens in front. + +"There ain't not a bit of use in being shy," said Juliet to herself, +her courage all the while sinking lower and lower. "I'm as bold as +brass, I always was. Here goes!" + +She walked up to the door of the first cottage and rapped on it with +her knuckles. + +It was opened by a tall, thin, elderly woman in a high black bonnet. +"What do you want?" she said. + +"Please, missus, I want a place; general servant, like." + +The woman looked at her from the crown of her hat to the heels of her +boots. "Oh, do you? Where have you been living?" + +"Over there," said Juliet. + +"Over where?" + +"Littlebourne way." + +The woman seemed to be thinking deeply. + +"Got a first-rate character, I suppose?" + +"Oh, well," said Juliet hastily, "I've not been in a regular +situation, as the saying is, but helping a friend, you know." + +"It's a pity you've left her," said the woman. "What wages were you +getting?" + +Juliet said, lamely enough, "I didn't have no regular wages. They kep' +me, and gave me these," showing the aprons. + +"Ah! Did they send you away?" + +"No, missus; I just took French leave and come away when it suited me. +I want to better myself." + +"I see. Well, come in. I'll try you. My name is _Bosher_. Do you +hear--_Mrs. Bosher_?" + +While Juliet stood in the narrow passage Mrs. Bosher locked and bolted +the door, and at every sound the poor, foolish girl grew more and more +unhappy, and more cut off from all hope and all happiness. Mrs. +Bosher's bonnet and Mrs. Bosher's name were enough to terrify any +young person with a bad conscience. + +"Yes," said Juliet's new mistress, "my name is Bosher"--here the +bonnet nodded,--"and now you are my servant, and while you are in my +service you will do precisely everything that I tell you. I have a +brother who has a gun; sometimes he shoots rooks, sometimes he +shoots--other things. He lives next door. If you do a single thing +that displeases me, you shall be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of +the law." + +Juliet longed to scream, or kick, or run away; but she did not dare to +move. "The utmost rigour of the law" might mean something awful: it +might mean being hanged, or being shot by Mrs. Bosher's brother. The +passage was almost dark, and Juliet stood trembling beside her +dreadful mistress. Oh, if only it were possible to be back once more +at the lock! Oh, if only she could escape from this new situation! +Locked doors, and windows shuttered on the outside, made this cottage +a very prison. The man with the gun living-next door, the unknown +rigour of the law hanging over her head, Mrs. Bosher glaring through +the twilight--how endure them even for a night? And how get away from +them in the morning? + +She was pushed into a kitchen and bidden to wash up some cups and +saucers. "And woe betide you if you break one of them!" said Mrs. +Bosher, her bonnet nodding so strangely that it seemed to be the +speaker rather than its wearer. + +Juliet was so fearful lest she might let slip a cup or saucer that she +spent about half an hour in washing the crockery. While she did this +at a side table, Mrs. Bosher was ironing linen at the table in the +middle of the room. From time to time the sharp, sensible eyes of the +woman rested upon the face of the girl, and at such moments the top of +the black bonnet nodded as if it were alive. + +When Juliet had finished her task Mrs. Bosher said, "Now, you shall +have bread-and-milk for supper, and then go to bed." + +"I don't like bread-and-milk," returned Juliet, "and it is too early +to go to bed." + +"Indeed. What do you like for supper? And at what hour do you prefer +to go to bed?" + +"I like bread and cheese; and we went to bed at ten o'clock when +uncle's work was done." + +The bonnet nodded faster than before. + +"You will eat bread-and-milk or nothing, and if your aunt let you sit +up till ten o'clock I am not so foolish." + +A basin of the food which Juliet declined to eat was set before her. +She was very hungry, but having refused it already she let it lie +untasted. Meanwhile Mrs. Bosher lighted a lamp. + +"It is nearly nine o'clock. Now you go to bed. Come along." + +There was a door which Mrs. Bosher opened, revealing a flight of +stairs. She pushed Juliet up them, and though the girl would have +liked to rebel, she did not dare to do so. In fact, she thought the +wisest plan would be to go quietly up to the bed-room, and, as soon as +Mrs. Bosher herself was in bed, to get out by the window and make her +way back to Littlebourne Lock. There was a full moon, and the night +was almost as light as the day. + +So she let herself be pushed upstairs into an almost empty little room +in the roof, and when she heard the door locked upon her she laughed +silently, thinking that the cruel woman had done the very thing her +prisoner wished her to do. Mrs. Bosher's heavy steps went down the +wooden stairs; the door of the house was opened, shut, and locked, and +Juliet's spirits rose when she knew that she was alone. She might as +well run away at once. + +She looked at the window. It was in the roof--a skylight. There was no +means of getting up to it, and no means of opening it that Juliet +could perceive. Oh, she was caught in a trap! One or two large stars +stared down through the small panes, and the diffused light of the +moon was enough to show the girl how hopeless was her condition. She +was in prison, caught, with no chance of escape. What a terrible +position she had brought herself into! If her aunt could see her! If +her own dear mother could see her! + +Juliet threw herself on the little hard bed and wept bitterly. Not a +sound could she hear! Alone, hungry, miserable! + +After a while her sobs ceased and she felt sleepy. She pulled up a +blanket and quilt which she had been lying on and thought that she +might as well sleep a little, and waken with fresh courage and fresh +plans. Like many other people Juliet made her most earnest prayers +when she was in trouble. She turned and knelt upon the bed, saying all +her petitions with earnestness; then she lay down again, and her +dreams took her far away from all her many misfortunes. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +BACK IN LONDON. + + +When Juliet awoke in the early morning she could not at first remember +where she was. It was not the old home in London, crowded with father, +mother, and children. It was not the new home at Littlebourne, where +Emily's bed lay beside that of her cousin. Oh, but it was the prison +in which the dreadful Mrs. Bosher and her bonnet had shut up an +unhappy girl and kept her all night! + +Looking round the room, Juliet saw on the boards close to the door the +same basin of bread-and-milk which she had refused to eat on the +previous evening. Mrs. Bosher must have put it in noiselessly while +her prisoner was asleep. The prisoner could not resist her fare this +morning, but ate it all up, though the milk was just what she called +"on the turn." + +She did not know what the time was; the sun rose so early that he +shone as brightly at five o'clock as at seven o'clock. What did it +matter? Juliet could not get out until her jailer chose to release +her. As soon as Mrs. Bosher opened the house-door, or sent her out for +water, or for a cabbage, or to hang up wet linen, she would make off +and run away somewhere. Not through the wood, lest the awful brother +might be there again, and the utmost rigour of the law prosecute the +trespasser; but somewhere, anywhere. + +Juliet lay down and slept again. She was disturbed by the door of the +room being opened, and the bonnet nodding in. + +"Oh, you are not up. Come down and wash in the scullery." + +The bonnet went down the stairs, and Juliet followed. It stood over +her while she washed and brushed her hair, and made herself tidy. Then +it gave her a toasting-fork and some slices of bread, and set her in +front of the kitchen fire. While thus obeying Mrs. Bosher the mind of +Juliet was trying to strike out some plan of escape; but when she saw +the brother outside in the road she put off running away. The clock +told her that the hour was eight. The Littlebourne family was now at +breakfast too. How they must be fretting for want of Juliet! + +As it happened, they were not fretting at all, but talking together +cheerfully. + +Juliet did not want much more in the way of breakfast. She sat, cross +and ugly, scowling at Mrs. Bosher. + +When breakfast was ended and the dinner put to cook in the oven, +Juliet began once more to look about for a chance of escape. The +brother was not to be seen from the window. There must come the right +moment presently. Mrs. Bosher left the kitchen. Now the right moment +had come. Juliet put on her hat, and went into the passage. + +"That is a good girl," said the deep voice, "I'm ready too." + +A strong hand took Juliet by the arm, and the hat and the bonnet went +out together. Speechless with terror, the girl could not resist. She +was hurried along the road in the direction furthest from +Littlebourne, past the brother's house, and past several other houses. +What could it all mean? Whither were they going? + +At the corner of a cross-road there stood the brother himself, but +without the gun. Mrs. Bosher led Juliet to him, and his hand took the +place of his sister's. + +"Here's the runaway," said Mrs. Bosher. "She'll be safe with you." + +"Rather," said the big man; "or she shall know the rigour of the law." +It was odd how his eyes laughed while his mouth was so awful. + +"So you'll dispose of her, Jim; and I'll run back, for I've left the +door open." + +The bonnet went nodding away, and the burly Jim dragged Juliet along +faster than she could walk, and almost as fast as she could run. She +was soon tired and out of breath. Neither spoke. + +They went along one road and turned down another, and crossed the +Thames by a bridge, and passed through a street of shops, and then, by +a dirty lane among gas-works, arrived at a place which Juliet had seen +before. + +"Why, it is Littlebourne station!" she exclaimed. + +And there, on the platform where the sun was beating down with fierce +heat, stood Mr. and Mrs. Webster. The big man took Juliet up to them +and placed her in front of them, saying, "Here she is; I've done my +part of the business, and I place her safely in your charge." + +Mrs. Webster was looking at Juliet with pitying eyes; the vicar of +Littlebourne appeared sterner than his wife. + +"Very good," he said to Mrs. Bosher's brother; "we will take her in +charge. It happens very fortunately that we are going to London +to-day, and so can dispose of her. How much anxiety and trouble her +bad conduct has caused! It was very clever of Mrs. Bosher to guess who +the girl was." + +"Yes, sir, so it was. When my sister came in last night to tell me how +a young thing from Littlebourne had come to her house, having run +away from home seemingly, I should never have seen my way to finding +out the truth. But then women are quicker-witted than men, though they +are not so steady-headed. And my sister says, 'She must have come +across the fields somehow.' And I says, 'I met a slip of a girl in the +wood, and made believe that I was going to shoot her.' And says Mrs. +Bosher, 'It's the same girl, take my word for it,' says she. 'And, +you, Jim,' she says, 'step over to the lock the first thing in the +morning, and ask Mrs. Rowles if they have seen a girl coming through +the fields in this direction.' Which I did." + +To all this Juliet was listening eagerly. + +"And two words settled it," said Mrs. Bosher's brother; "two words +with Mrs. Rowles. 'Why,' says she, 'it must be our niece Juliet who +ran away last night, and we _have_ been in a state ever since.' And +then she described her niece, and I saw plain enough that it was this +identical girl. There came an old gentleman in a boat just then, and +so I said good-morning and went to tell my sister what I had heard." + +"They did not wish to have the girl brought back to them?" + +"Oh, no, sir; they'd had enough of her. They said she must go to her +home in London. And Mrs. Rowles knew that you would be going to town +to-day, and she promised to send word to you that I would bring this +runaway here to meet you; and Mrs. Rowles said she knew you would see +her safe home, because you are always ready to help everybody." + +Mrs. Webster smiled. "And what did Mr. Rowles say about his niece?" + +"Oh, he said she was a regular bad un; went off alone in the boat and +got shipwrecked. He said she had a father who never thought of getting +up to work until other folks were going to bed, and what else could +you expect from the daughter of such a man as that? But the old +gentleman who had got out of the boat said, 'Tut, nonsense!' and +seemed to want to have an argument with Rowles after I had left. And +now, sir, I see your train coming, and I have talked myself out; so +good-morning to you and to your good lady." + +Lifting his hat, Mrs. Bosher's brother went away, and Juliet saw no +more of him. She was pushed into a carriage with the vicar and Mrs. +Webster. Indignant she was, and unhappy; all her folly and all her +wickedness were coming back upon her now. + +During the long, hot journey up to London Mr. Webster several times +spoke very severely to Juliet. He knew enough of her story to be aware +that she was selfish and conceited, unwilling to be taught, and +resolved to have her own way. He told her how she might have lived +most happily at the lock until a nice little situation had been found +for her; but she had spoilt everything, and made her uncle and aunt +glad to get rid of her. He told her that unless she could become more +humble and teachable she would never learn anything good; that it is +the childlike, humble souls which grow in wisdom and in favour with +God and man. + +Mrs. Webster did not say much, but looked so gently at Juliet that her +looks had almost as much effect as her husband's words. The experience +of the last few days, her frights, her misfortunes, the gun of Mrs. +Bosher's brother, the locking up in Mrs. Bosher's house, this sudden +journey home, all showed Juliet that she had tried the patience of +grown-up people more than they could bear. She looked with hazy eyes +on the country that they were passing through; she hardly saw the +fields and trees. But at length she noticed that the houses were more +numerous, and then that the fields were gone, and then that she was in +London--hot, smoky, noisy London once more. + +"It is very annoying for you," said Mr. Webster to his wife in a low +tone, which yet was distinct enough to Juliet's young ears--"very +annoying for you to be obliged to go to the other side of the city, +when your mother expects you at eleven o'clock. But there is no help +for it. I have to go down to Westminster. I don't suppose I shall see +you till we meet at Paddington to come back by the 7:45 train. I will +put you and the child into an omnibus in Praed Street, and when you +get out Juliet Mitchell must guide you to her home." + +Even the West-end was hot and steamy on that broiling August day. +Never before had Juliet thought London so unpleasant; the reason being +that this was the first time she could contrast the town with the +country. It seemed to her that the further she went through the +streets the thicker the air became, the dimmer the light, the dingier +the houses. And so indeed it was. And when she brought Mrs. Webster +into the street which contained No. 103, she wondered how that lady +would like to exchange Littlebourne vicarage for an East-end vicarage. + +An almost similar thought was passing through Mrs. Webster's mind, or +rather, the same thought reversed. + +"Juliet," she said, "I wonder how your father and mother would like to +leave London and come and live at Littlebourne?" + +"I don't know, ma'am," answered Juliet. + +"I have heard a good deal about them from Mrs. Rowles. Your father +would have better health if he lived in the country." + +By this time they had reached No. 103. Juliet's heart was beating at +the sight of the well-known door-step of her home. She forgot all +about Mrs. Webster, and ran on. There were lots of boys and girls +playing in the street; some called out to her, some stared at Mrs. +Webster. But Juliet took no notice; only ran on, climbed up the dear +old dirty, steep stairs without bannisters, and got to the door of the +back attic, followed closely by her companion. + +The girl did not knock, but rushed in, and then stood aghast. A +strange woman was there but no one else. + +"Where is mother?" cried Juliet. + +"Whose mother?" responded the strange woman. + +"My mother." + +"Ain't she got e'er a name?" + +"Yes; she's Mrs. Mitchell." + +"Oh, the Mitchell lot has gone into the front room, if you please. +Going up again in the world, I can tell you." + +Juliet turned and dashed into the front room. There she found another +surprise. + +Her father lay sleeping; her mother was sewing at some black hats and +bits of crape. The other children, all but Albert, stood round about +the room; some crying silently, some watching their mother, who paused +every now and then in her work to wipe away tears which quickly +returned. + +But there was one whom Juliet missed. + +"Mother," she said, as Mrs. Mitchell's arms clasped closely round her, +"where is baby?" + +Tears poured down from the mother's eyes. "Oh, baby, baby, our darling +baby is gone! He was took with the croup yesterday morning, and he +just went off in the evening. There was too many of you, and now he's +gone!" + +A sad silence fell upon the room. Thomas Mitchell moaned in his sleep, +as if his dreams were painful. Outside in the street there was a sound +of angry voices--two women quarrelling. Mrs. Webster had once had a +baby of her own; it had died. She felt, she knew, all that Mrs. +Mitchell was feeling now. + +The bits of black on which the mother was at work were poor and +skimpy, but they betokened a real sorrow. And though Mrs. Mitchell +knew that the "home for little children" was far, far better for them +than the busy, hard world, yet she could not bring her heart to be +thankful that baby was taken; all that she could say was, "Thy will be +done!" + +In the mortuary belonging to the church lay the little, thin, pale +body of baby Thomas Mitchell. Life, though short, had been very hard +for him, and he had gone out of it at the first call from his Father +in heaven--at the first sound of that voice which is sweeter and more +drawing than the voice of a mother. + +Other children had gone before him; but because he was the baby his +loss was more acutely felt than that of the others had been. Juliet +sat and thought of the many times she had bumped his tender head +against the wall, and how often she had let him slip off her lap, or +left him lying in the rain or in the fierce sunshine. And now the +darling baby had died, and she away from home! She had not watched his +last sigh, she had not given him one farewell kiss! Already he was in +his tiny coffin, and she would never in this life see him again, save +in those blessed dreams which now and then restore to us for a time +our loved and lost ones. + +Juliet could not have explained--perhaps it could not be +explained--how it was that the death of baby during her absence seemed +to be connected with her bad conduct. It is certain that this sudden +shock affected her greatly. It was, as it were, a break in her life; +her old ill-tempered, unteachable childhood went into the past, and a +gentle womanhood sprang up in the future. For the present there was a +sad, humble, penitent girl. + +When she began once more to know what was going on in that room, she +found that Mrs. Webster was telling Mrs. Mitchell, in very mild +terms, of the reasons why Juliet was sent home. + +"I am quite a stranger," said the lady, "and I feel myself an intruder +in your time of sorrow. You have my deepest sympathy. And I trust that +Juliet will henceforth do better. She has had some severe lessons. Do +you think your husband would be stronger if he lived in the country?" + +"Yes, ma'am; the doctor at the dispensary says that country air would +do wonders for him. But then he can't leave his work; it is no use to +live in the country and have a good appetite if you have no means of +getting victuals for your appetite." + +"No, of course not," said Mrs. Webster. + +"We are doing better now," continued Mrs. Mitchell. "He's at work +again, and Miss Sutton--that's a kind lady--is trying to bring us +women face to face with our employers and no middleman between. But I +don't know how it will act. I've done work for Miss Sutton and her +friends, but the same people don't keep on wanting mantles. I could +have borne anything if I hadn't to make up crape for ourselves!" + +Mrs. Webster pressed Mrs. Mitchell's hand kindly, and took her leave. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE ADVENTURE OF THE "TURKEYS PIN." + + +The disappearance of Juliet Mitchell from Littlebourne Lock the second +time did not surprise or frighten her relations nearly so much as her +flight had done on the first occasion. + +"Oh, she'll come home," said Mrs. Rowles; "never fear. When she is +hungry she'll turn up, or someone will bring her." + +But as the evening closed in, and neither meal-time nor bed-time +brought the wanderer home, some alarm began to spread through the +house. Philip had taken his boat to the place where he had left +Juliet, but she was not there. He went again and shouted for her, but +there was no reply. Then Mr. Rowles shouted from the lock in a voice +that must have been heard at half a mile's distance. Still no sign of +Juliet. + +"You should not have left her there, Phil," said Mrs. Rowles. + +"I've often set Emily down at the same place," was Phil's defence, "to +gather king-cups or forget-me-nots." + +"Yes, I know; but Juliet is not Emily." + +This could not be denied. It accounted for Juliet's absence, but it +did not bring her home. + +Dozens of boats went up the river, and dozens went down. Rowles said +to the occupants of each of them, "If you should see a girl of +thirteen what has got lost, be so good as to tell her to come home +double-quick, or it will be worse for her." + +Some of the people laughed, and some said "Very well;" but evening +deepened into night without bringing Juliet. + +The last boat was that of the old gentleman's butler, or valet, or +whatever he liked to call himself. When Rowles made his speech about +the missing girl, the man replied, "I know; that is the child whose +father is a printer. Mr. Burnet takes an interest in that child, being +himself a master-printer, and the son of a journeyman printer." + +"The son of a journeyman printer!" Rowles repeated. "You don't say so, +Mr. Robert?" + +"Yes, I do say it. My Mr. Burnet's father began life at the bottom of +the ladder, and ended it near the top; and my Mr. Burnet began life +near the top, and is ending it quite at the top. Hard work, Mr. +Rowles, hard work, perseverance, honesty, and temperance; that's what +does it. Your little girl's father may get to the top of the tree +yet." + +"Not with his bad health," replied Rowles, shaking his head; "and not +without his proper night's sleep." + +"They make up their sleep in the daytime," said the other, beginning +to push his boat out of the lock which was now full. "I've got +relations of my own in the same line, so I know they can make up their +sleep in the daytime. Well, good-night; if I see the girl I'll hurry +her home." + +"Good--night, Mr. Robert. I'm glad you've learnt to manage your boat." + +As Roberts went off his voice was heard saying, "It is hard work, and +perseverance, and honesty, and temperance that does it." And he was +not wrong. + +Ten o'clock came. The lock-house was closed, and all its inmates went +to bed. Mrs. Rowles had little sleep, watching all night for Juliet's +knock. But it did not come. + +At six o'clock next morning Mr. Rowles went out to look up and down +the river, and to prophesy the weather. It was still and cloudless and +warm. While he was standing idly beside the running water, listening +to the twitter of birds and the lowing of cows, he heard yet another +cry, that of a man; and presently he saw on the far-off bank the +figure of a big, burly man with a bushy beard. + +"I do believe it's Mrs. Bosher's brother!" + +"Over! over!" bawled the man, as if hailing a ferry-boat. + +"Well, if that ain't a joke! I ain't the ferry. Here you, Phil, jump +into the _Fairy_ and go and see what that man wants." + +So Phil played the part of the ferry and brought Mrs. Bosher's brother +to the lock-eyot. + +He told his story. The previous evening he had met a young girl in the +wood, and as it was private property, he had warned her out of it. +Afterwards he found that she had gone to his sister's house, evidently +a runaway, and had engaged herself as a general servant. But Mrs. +Bosher, who was one that never took no rest, never even took off her +bonnet, saw through that girl, and knew right well that she had come +from the Littlebourne side of the river; and perhaps Mrs. Rowles could +state what family had lost a little maid-servant. + +Yes, Mrs. Rowles could tell him all about Juliet; and after giving him +some breakfast sent him back in the _Fairy_ to his own side of the +river, with a request that Mrs. Bosher would take Juliet to the +station, where someone would meet the tiresome girl and convey her to +her home in London. + +The big man promised to do all this, and went out with Rowles +intending to have a pipe and a gossip with him, when down came a boat +rowed by Leonard Burnet, and steered by the old master-printer; and +so the gossip was cut short, though not the pipe. + +"I am not going through," said Mr. Burnet from the boat. "Help me to +land, Rowles; I want to have a talk with you. Who is that man?" +looking at the big person who had just gone off in the little _Fairy_. + +"Oh, that is Mrs. Bosher's brother. I hope you are well, sir, and the +young gentleman; likewise Mr. Robert." + +"Yes, thanks, Leonard and I are very well; but Roberts has a smart +touch of rheumatism, and will not come on the river to-day. May I sit +here, Rowles?" added Mr. Burnet, pointing to a seat under some small +trees. + +"If you please, sir. Why, Emma, where are _you_ a-going?" + +Mrs. Rowles curtsied to Mr. Burnet. "I am going, Ned, to the vicarage. +I heard say that Mr. and Mrs. Webster are going to London to-day, and +if they would take charge of Juliet it would save my time and money." + +Mrs. Rowles hurried off, and caught Mrs. Webster, who most kindly +undertook the charge of Juliet if Mrs. Bosher should bring her to the +station, and to see her safe to her own home in London. + +While Mrs. Rowles was absent on this errand, her husband was having a +very important conversation with Mr. Burnet under the small trees. +Neither Leonard nor Phil heard what passed, as they were not within +earshot; but when they presently came near their fathers they caught +these words from Mr. Burnet: + +"I hope that he will consent to do as we suggest. It was really my boy +who first thought that it would be a good move. These young people +sometimes get hold of ideas which are worth carrying out. And then +Roberts took it up, knowing as he does from his relations the +difficulties of that kind of life in London." + +"I'm sure, sir," said Rowles doubtfully, "it is very kind of you to +think of doing such kindness to a stranger. But I'm much afeard that +Thomas Mitchell is so used to his topsy-turvy way of living, that he +will not fit in with the morning for getting up and the night for +going to bed." + +"I will endeavour to get him to try it, at all events. I have taken a +lease of the Bourne House; very likely you know it." + +"I should think I did! A good old gentleman used to live there when I +was a boy, as like to you, sir, as one pea is to another; and, what is +more, Mrs. Bosher's brother farms all the arable land belonging to +it." + +"Does he? Of course I know all about my future tenant, but I did not +know he was Mrs. Bosher's brother. Well, Rowles, there is a nice +little cottage on the property which your brother-in-law can rent +cheap from me; and I will put him on the _Thames Valley Times and +Post_, which only comes out once a week, and does not keep the men up +at night. We also do a good deal of handbill printing, and catalogues +for sales, and that kind of work, which is easy enough. And I hope to +see your friends settled down here by the beginning of the week after +next." + +Rowles shook his head, feeling certain that the arrangement would not +answer. But Mr. Burnet was determined to try it, and Leonard was +delighted with the project. + +"Your cousins," said Leonard to Philip, "will have to learn all about +country things. I don't suppose they know a garden when they see one." + +"No, they don't," was Phil's answer. "When Juliet saw the first of the +country from the train window, she says to mother, 'It's a pretty +churchyard!' says she." + +Mr. Burnet looked very sad for a few moments, then he stood up and +said that he must be going back, as he had to meet Mrs. Bosher's +brother and talk over the barns and the stables and the +farm-buildings. "And on Monday," he added, "I think I shall go to town +and see your brother-in-law, and offer him a place at my +printing-office. I have already inquired his character of his present +employers." + +Rowles's head was shaking again; but he only held the boat for Mr. +Burnet and Leonard to step into it, and his forebodings of failure on +Mitchell's part were for the moment kept to himself. + +There were also forebodings of failure in the mind of Roberts, when +his master talked so hopefully of what was going to happen to Juliet's +father. + +"Don't make too sure, Mr. Leonard, of anything. I daresay that +Juliet's father will have better health living in the country, but as +for his getting to be foreman of your printing-office, I have my +doubts." + +Perhaps Roberts's doubts were due to his attack of rheumatism. He was +at this time suffering so much from it that he was almost cross. He +was laid up the very day that Mr. Burnet took possession of the Bourne +House, and sat wrapped in flannel, though the weather was very warm. + +"Don't talk to me any more," he said savagely when a tremendous twinge +seemed to be piercing between his bones, "about your Juliet's father +and your Mrs. Bosher's brother. If people have not got names of their +own I don't want to hear about such people." + +The housekeeper who was waiting on him began to say, "The name of Mrs. +Bosher's brother--" + +"Hold your tongue, do! How this arm does ache, to be sure!" + +Leonard was in the room. He got as far as, "The name of Juliet's +father--" + +"I won't hear it!" cried poor Roberts, kicking out his right foot, in +which the pain was steely cold. + +"We want you to go and see him on Monday," said Leonard. + +"Then you may want!" and he flung out the left foot in which the pain +was red-hot. + +The housekeeper signed to Leonard to leave the invalid to himself. +When this attack was over Roberts would be himself again--kind and +gentle and polite. + +But there was no chance of his being able to go to London to make +arrangements for the move of the Mitchell family. Mr. Burnet was in +the habit of leaving a great deal to Roberts, being himself old and +ailing, and easily upset. On the Sunday, a lovely, sweet, clear day, +it was plain that Roberts would not be of any use for another week or +more. + +Mr. Burnet and his son were walking back from evening service, and +enjoying the calm of Sunday evening. Everything had been beautiful; +the hymns, the sermon in church; the hymns of the birds and the +sermons of the harvest, in the fields. + +"Delicious!" said Mr. Burnet, pausing as he entered his own large +grounds. "How I wish poor Roberts was well enough to enjoy it all. I +am afraid his exertions at the oar, and his exposure to the evening +damps, have brought on this painful attack. The only thing I can do is +to go to town myself to see this Thomas Mitchell, and I really do not +feel up to it." + +The father and son walked on side by side. Presently Leonard said, "Do +you think I could go and make the arrangements with Mitchell?" + +Mr. Burnet stopped in his walk, and leaning on his stick said, "Upon +my word, Leonard, I do not see why you could not." + +"Then let me do it, father; and if you give me a note to the head of +the press where Mitchell works, perhaps he would let me look round, +and take a practical lesson in the business." + +"A good idea!" exclaimed Mr. Burnet. + +It was settled in that way; and on the Monday, Mr. Burnet being very +gouty, and Roberts very rheumatic, there was no one who could possibly +go to town except Leonard. He went off, armed with directions and +papers from his father. + +Arrived in London he presented himself at the great printing-office +where Mitchell worked; was courteously received by one of the heads of +it, and was shown some of the type, the presses, the paper, and other +things used for printing that morning journal which deprived Thomas +Mitchell and many others of almost every night's rest. Having seen as +much as he could remember, he said to the gentleman who was explaining +matters, "I think I must now speak to Mitchell, who is to leave you on +Saturday, and to begin work with us on Monday next." + +"I will send for him," replied the gentleman. "He is a good, steady +fellow, and if his health becomes stronger will deserve your +confidence and regard." + +Then, speaking down a telephone, "Send Thomas Mitchell to me." + +The answer came back: "Mitchell has this moment knocked off work and +gone." + +"Provoking!" said the gentleman. + +"It does not matter," said Leonard. "I know his address, and I can go +there and speak to him." + +He set off, having a vague notion of the neighbourhood in which the +Mitchells lived. Leonard was not much used to London, especially that +part of it, and as he went he saw many things to interest him. The day +was hot and close, and the narrower streets were far from pleasant. He +was struck by the number of small grocers' shops, and the smell of +paraffin which pervaded this part of London. He also noticed how dry +the vegetables appeared, and how moist the fruits which were exposed +for sale; further, how shabby and threadbare were the carpets +floating at the pawnbrokers' doors, and how fusty the odour from them. +In a word, Leonard could not help seeing that this was a very poor +region. + +It did _not_ strike him that poverty and crime are near neighbours; +that the circumstances which make the honest man poor, make the lazy +man a thief. Leonard was too young to be suspicious. He scarcely saw a +shambling poorly-dressed rather wasted man whom he passed, and who +afterwards stumbled along a very little way behind him. Nor did he +specially notice two rather well-dressed but coarse-looking men who +kept just ahead of him. + +But when these two began to talk loud he did notice them. When they +stood in the middle of the narrow pavement, quarrelling, Leonard +paused and looked on. + +"You did!" said the one. + +"I did not!" said the other. + +"I'll make you confess it on your marrow-bones!" + +"You shall have every bone in your body broke first!" + +By this time a crowd had begun to collect. The two men seemed +preparing for a fight. + +"Part them, someone!" cried Leonard. + +"Let them fight it out!" cried a costermonger, seating himself on his +barrow. + +"I'll see fair play!" roared a great unwashed man. + +A voice behind Leonard said in his ear, "You come out of this, young +fellow!" and looking round the lad saw the shabby, sickly man who had +been following him. + +The crowd hemmed them all four in the midst of it. + +"Hallo! The bobbies!" was whispered. + +The crowd opened a way through which one of the disputants rushed, all +eyes fixed upon him. + +An arm came over Leonard's shoulder, and a dirty hand clutched his +turquoise breast-pin; another arm came over the other shoulder and +another hand clutched the first one. At the same moment two +policemen's helmets peered over the crowd, and a stern voice said, +"What's up? What's your game?" + +Then in some mysterious way the first hand and arm vanished, and only +the second remained, and Leonard found himself thus hugged by a +stranger, and confronted by two stalwart policemen. + +When an English man or boy finds himself in the hands (or, as in this +case, in the arms) of a stranger, his first impulse is to show fight. +Naturally Leonard began to plunge and to double his fists. But he +could not keep this up, for the man whose arm was round him quickly +retired and stood a few paces off, looking wan and haggard, and very +unlike a thief or ruffian. + +The crowd had melted away. The two policemen stood with faces fixed in +something between a grin and a scowl. + +"What are you all up to?" said Leonard, in astonishment at the +suddenness of the whole affair. + +"Just this, young man," replied one of the policemen, "that if you +want to walk about in this part of London you had better not wear such +an enticing pin in your scarf." + +Leonard put up his hand, and found that his turquoise pin was pulled +half-way out of his scarf. He said angrily, "Then why don't you take +the thief in charge?" And he pointed at the sickly-looking man who +stood close by. + +"Because he was too quick for us. He's on the other side of the river +long before this." + +"Why, there he stands!" cried Leonard, pointing again at the shabby +figure. + +"Begging your pardon, young sir, this is him that has saved your pin +from them two thieves. You owe him many thanks, and something more +substantial, in my humble opinion." + +Then Leonard understood the affair, and how the poor delicate man had +prevented the smart colleagues from making off with the valuable pin +given him by his late mother, and therefore very greatly precious to +him. He turned to his defender with warm thanks. + +The two policemen sauntered away. + +"I am awfully obliged to you, I'm sure," said Leonard. "You don't look +well." + +"No," replied the poor man; "I have had sickness and sorrow lately, +and a little thing upsets me. I shall be better in a few minutes. You +put your pin in your pocket, sir; and do not show any jewellery when +you come through these shady slums." + +"I think I must have come wrong." + +"What street do you want?" + +Leonard named it. + +"Well, you have not come wrong exactly; but you had better have stuck +to the main thoroughfares, and not have taken these short cuts, which +are all very well for some of us, but not for young gents with +'turkeys' breast-pins. If you are not ashamed of my company I can take +you straight to the street you've named." + +After his late escape Leonard felt suspicious of every stranger in +London; but as he really had reason to feel obliged to this man, he +put aside that feeling and walked on for some time with his new +acquaintance. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A THOROUGH CHANGE. + + +"I am afraid," Leonard said presently, "that I am taking you out of +your way." + +"Not at all, sir; I live in that same street. There's a good many of +us live there. It is like a rabbit-warren." + +"Really!" said Leonard. + +"It swarms with old and young--young ones mostly. Too many of 'em. We +ought not to grieve too much when they are taken from this hard world +to rest and safety. But the mothers do grieve, poor things!--and the +fathers too." + +"Perhaps you have lost a child lately," said Leonard, very gently. + +"He was buried yesterday." + +They went on in silence until they turned into a street which appeared +to begin much better than it ended. Leonard's guide said, "Here we +are; this is your street." + +"Oh, thank you; but don't come any further." And Leonard began to +fumble in his pocket for a half-crown. + +"It is my street too," said the poor man. + +"All right then. I want No. 103." + +"I live at 103 myself." + +"That is curious. Do you know a Mr. Mitchell in that house?" + +"I know him pretty well; I am Thomas Mitchell." + +Then Leonard shook hands heartily with his guide, and as they walked +slowly along the cooler side of the street he unfolded all the plans +which Mr. Burnet had made for the Mitchell family. They were already +known in part to the father and mother, but the children had not been +informed of what was in store for them. Mrs. Mitchell had thought that +such a prospect would excite them greatly, and that their +disappointment would be great if anything occurred at the last moment +to upset the plan. + +But now it must be declared. + +All the children were at home, it being holiday-time. Juliet sat at +needlework, Albert was carpentering an old wooden box and turning it +into a cupboard; the younger ones were playing with some firewood, and +building castles with it. Mrs. Mitchell was stitching at one more +mantle, and thinking over every little incident of her baby's life and +death. + +Into the midst of this quiet scene came Leonard Burnet, full of life +and vigour, and overflowing with the happy message he had brought. He +told them of the pretty cottage with honeysuckle on the porch, of the +garden full of cauliflowers and scarlet-runners, of the clear bright +river, of the open fields, of the shady woods, the winding lanes, and +of all the pleasant things of rural life. Then he spoke of Mr. and +Mrs. Rowles, and the lock, and the boats; of Philip and Emily; of the +good vicar and Mrs. Webster; of Mrs. Bosher's brother, and the horses, +cows, pigs, and poultry which he possessed. + +How strange it all seemed to Juliet! How far away, and yet how well +known! She was the only one of her family who had seen these places +and persons, and the thought of them filled her with both sorrow and +pleasure. Several times as Leonard talked he turned to her, saying, +"You know the lock, Juliet?" or "You have seen Mrs. Bosher's brother, +I think, Juliet?" or else "The fields and the river are very nice, are +they not?" and to each of his appeals she had gravely bowed her head +in assent. + +In the end it was arranged that the following Monday should be spent +by the Mitchell family in packing up the few goods which they +possessed, and that on Tuesday they should send off those goods by the +Littlebourne carrier, who would be directed by Mr. Burnet to call for +them; and then they should all go by omnibus to Paddington station, +and be met at Littlebourne station by Mr. Burnet, or Leonard, or Mr. +Burnet's butler, or Mrs. Bosher's brother. + +"Or perhaps by all of us!" said Leonard laughing. + +These plans and hours being clearly understood, and Leonard having +advanced Mitchell a sovereign to help pay for the move, he took his +leave, his scarf-pin safe in his waistcoat-pocket. He left the whole +family in a state of wonder and delight, which would have been even +greater had they guessed what further surprises were in store for +them. + +No week ever seemed so short and so long to people as that week +appeared to the Mitchells. There was not time enough to finish up +everything that ought to be finished, and to say good-bye to every one +who had been kind and friendly to them in London. Then there were +notices to be given the school, and to the society and the dispensary +which had helped Thomas Mitchell in his trouble. The clergyman and the +schoolmaster and schoolmistress came to say farewell; and as for the +neighbours, poor as they all were, and rude as some were, they crowded +with wishes and gifts. + +"Two gallipots," said one old woman, "for you to put your black +currant jam in." + +"A few cuttings of geraniums," said a young gardener who worked in +Victoria Park; "try if you can get them to take." + +"My school-prize," said a big girl, putting a red-and-gold-covered +book into the hands of little Amy; "I've grown too old for it, so you +may have it." + +And Miss Sutton came with the good news that one great West-end draper +had promised to meet his workwomen face to face, and no longer to +employ any middlemen. "For which you will be thankful," said Miss +Sutton to Mrs. Mitchell, "though you will not yourself reap the +benefit." + +Yes, Mrs. Mitchell was very thankful for many things; but there was +one which brought ever-fresh tears to her eyes as she left the +swarming city. "I leave three little graves!" + +And Juliet! She hardly knew how she ought to feel or how she did. +Certainly there was a great deal of shame in her heart; and equally +certainly there was a great deal of pride--not the old pride of +self-conceit, but a reasonable pride in knowing so much about the +things of the country. She had enough to do to explain to her brothers +and sisters the many new things which they saw from the train, and to +answer their hundreds of questions. + +At Littlebourne there was quite a sensation on their arrival. Mr. +Burnet was there in his pony-carriage, and Leonard, and Mrs. Bosher's +brother with a donkey-cart. Mrs. Rowles and Emily laughed and cried +over their relations; and poor Mitchell became so faint from fatigue +and emotion that Mrs. Webster, who now arrived on the scene, hurried +him and his wife and little ones into a "fly" to get them out of the +hubbub. + +The station-master and the porters were quite glad when this party +moved off. + +They went slowly along the roads, in the soft air sweetened by recent +showers, talking all together, all at the same time. What did it +matter? Nobody wanted to hear anybody's words except his own. At the +cottage they ceased talking, and all ran about through the small +garden, up and down the flight of stairs, in and out the rooms. + +Then Mrs. Webster laid down on the dresser a parcel containing +home-made bread and fresh butter. Next Mrs. Bosher's brother brought +from the donkey-cart some bacon, eggs, and milk. The pony-carriage had +concealed under the seat some soap, candles, and cheese. Mrs. Rowles +had a bundle of blankets as a loan, for the present moment; and Mrs. +Bosher came in with sheets and towels for Mrs. Mitchell to use until +her own arrived. All these kindnesses overpowered the London people, +and they knew not how to thank their new friends. + +To avoid being thanked Mrs. Bosher nodded her bonnet at Juliet and +went away. Mrs. Webster also departed. Mr. Burnet asked Mitchell to +meet him at the works next morning, and then he and Leonard drove off. +Mrs. Bosher's brother hauled in a half-sack of coals and two great +faggots from the donkey-cart, and then he, too, said good-bye. + +The Rowles party stayed longer. + +"Ned will come to see you, I hope," said Mrs. Rowles to her +brother-in-law. "But he says he is afraid he can't come in the middle +of the night; but would half-past ten be late enough?" + +"Dear, dear!" said Mrs. Mitchell, somewhat puzzled. "Well, we must sit +up for him if necessary; but I did hope that Thomas would have his +proper nights' rests here in the country. We ought all to be in bed by +ten o'clock." + +"You see, Rowles cannot leave the lock unless he gets a deputy. Philip +is hardly strong enough by himself. And Ned says that of course Tom +can't come to the lock, being at work all night and asleep all day." + +"That will not be the case here," said Mitchell smiling. "Besides, +there's one or two things that I may as well explain to Rowles. Seems +to me he's got some ideas upside down in his head." + +"Oh, I don't know!" cried Mrs. Rowles; "but my idea is that you had +better have your suppers now and go to bed as quick as you can. +There'll be lots of new things to see to-morrow. And if Ned can't come +you'll be sure to have Mr. Robert the butler at Bourne House, and the +housekeeper. You see, they all know Juliet--" Here Mrs. Rowles broke +off, and Juliet shrank away, feeling bitterly that they knew little +that was good of her. + +She was, however, able to eat her supper with the rest of her family, +and to sleep on the shake-down of blankets, and to rise in the morning +refreshed and happy and ready for the new life before her. + +The carrier arrived about eleven o'clock that morning, and the few +bits of furniture and so forth which had come from London were put, +one by one, in new places. Mrs. Mitchell said that a pound of paint +would touch them up quite smart-like. + +Thomas Mitchell and Albert had not stayed at Honeysuckle Cottage to +see the arrival of these goods, but had gone to the works to meet Mr. +Burnet there at nine o'clock. They were told by the foreman to go into +the office, and there they awaited the arrival of the master. + +Mr. Burnet soon appeared, and after a few words of greeting took a key +from his pocket and opened the letter-box. From it he took a large +number of business letters. He laid them into several separate heaps. +Then he pressed the button of an electric-bell, and a lad came in from +some other part of the buildings. + +"Here, Willie, take these letters, if you please. One for Mr. Toop, +one for Mr. Richard Macnunn, two for Mr. Plasket, and here is a very +fat one for 'Arthur George Rayner, Esq., Foreman at the Works of the +_Thames Valley Times and Post_, Littlebourne, Berkshire, England.' It +really looks like something important." + +When the boy had gone off to deliver the letters, Mr. Burnet took +Mitchell outside the office and pointed out to him the different parts +of the building and the advantages of the position. One of these was +that the Little Bourne, a small but rapid stream, flowed close by, +supplying water. There were gas-works on the premises, and there was a +small tramway for sending paper, &c., from one end to the other. There +was handsome stabling, and there were lofty, airy work-rooms. + +"Every appliance for making a good thing of it," said Mr. Burnet. + +He held up his hand for silence as a strange, low sound rolled out +from the works. Was it the roar of fire or an explosion of steam? But +no sign of fire followed, and nothing shook or broke. Only there came +a second roar, louder than the first, and then the great gates of the +great yard burst open, and out poured a crowd of men, jumping, +dancing, shouting, and apparently in great joy. + +"A strike," said Mitchell, "or what?" + +"I don't know," answered Mr. Burnet calmly but gravely; "I have no +notion what can be the matter." + +The men came nearer, some twenty in all, and in the midst of them was +one man seated in a chair and carried by four others. + +"What can they be doing with Rayner?" exclaimed Mr. Burnet. "Why are +they chairing him?" + +"Hurrah for Rayner! Hurrah for New Zealand! Hurrah for everybody! +Half-time to-day and a sovereign apiece! Hurrah for Rayner and New +Zealand!" + +All this was most extraordinary; and yet even more extraordinary was +the conduct and manner of Rayner. He laughed loudly, and then he +plunged his face into his handkerchief and sobbed wildly. He shook +hands with every one near, and then waved them away with a majestic +air. In fact he seemed to have taken leave of his senses; the truth +was, that his senses had taken leave of him for a season. And yet the +sight of Mr. Burnet's perplexed face sobered him in a measure. + +He swaggered up to his master, saying, "Shake hands, Burnet; I'm not +too proud for that." + +Mr. Burnet obeyed. + +"Listen to me, I'll tell you something. Wonders will never cease. If +you had a brother, Burnet, whom you had not seen for thirty-five +years, would not your heart yearn towards him? Yes, even a letter from +his lawyer would fill your heart with joy." + +"No doubt," said Mr. Burnet. + +"Here's a letter, come this minute; why, joy is nothing to it. I'm a +made man, a rich man, snap my fingers at you all! Do you hear? My +brother in New Zealand is dead. What do you say to that?" + +"I am very sorry for you," said Mr. Burnet. + +"Are you? You are that envious you don't know how to look me in the +face! Thirty thousand pounds, Burnet! What do you say to that? Have +you got thirty thousand pounds? I snap my fingers at you all!" And he +did it. + +"My poor brother died six months ago. Ah! sad, sad! Lonely old +bachelor! Not a creature to weep for him but me. They have been six +months finding out my address; and now I can go to New Zealand and +live on my property worth thirty thousand pounds, or, the lawyer +writes, the land can be sold and the cash sent over to me. I think I +like cash better than land. Shake hands again, Burnet. I've told the +men I'll give them a half-holiday, as there's not much doing, and a +sovereign apiece, which you will advance to them. I'll give a cheque +for it, you know." + +Mr. Burnet did not respond. + +"Now, some men," Rayner went on, wiping the heat from his streaming +face, "would have their heads turned by such luck as the death of a +rich bachelor brother; but I'm as cool as a cucumber, only the weather +is rather warm. Shake hands, Burnet; you'll never find a bit of pride +in me. Cheer again, mates, and off to your homes, and may you all have +rich brothers and end with thirty thousand pounds!" + +It was evident that poor Rayner's head was completely turned by his +sudden prosperity. Perhaps few men could have taken such a change +without some excitement; probably few men would have become so insane +on account of what only changed his fortunes, not himself, or, rather, +had so far only changed himself for the worse. All this bluster and +talk made no impression on either Mr. Burnet or Mitchell, who waited +quietly until Rayner's extravagant delight should have spent itself. + +The other men, too, began to see how ridiculous Rayner was making +himself. They soon moved off, by twos and threes, back to their work; +and presently Rayner found himself alone with his employer and the new +man just come down from London. + +"I suppose," said Mr. Burnet calmly, "that you will not wish to work +any longer, Rayner, in my factory?" + +"That for your factory!" said Rayner, snapping his fingers again; +"I'll never do another day's work as long as I live. I'll pay you what +you like instead of a week's notice, or you may fine me what you like. +But I'm off to London by the next train to see my lawyer, and to enjoy +myself a bit. I'll send for my wife and the children when I'm ready +for them." + +"Hear one word," said Mr. Burnet. "I have no wish to detain you an +hour if you wish to go, nor will I take any payment or fine. The only +thing that troubles me is that not one of the other men is capable of +filling your place, not one of them could undertake the position of +foreman, even if I were willing to offer it." + +"No," replied Rayner, "you can't fill my place with one of those +duffers. But, I say, what about this chap from London? Can't you make +him foreman?" + +Mr. Burnet and Mitchell looked at each other; then said the master, +"What do you think, Mitchell?" + +"Settle it between you," cried Rayner, "it is no business of mine. +Good-bye, and good luck to you! I shall see no more of that old _Times +and Post_, I'm thankful to say. New times and a new post for me! So +I'm off!" + +And away he went, down the private road and into the highroad, and to +his cottage home, where he astounded his wife by his words and manner, +and from whence he betook himself and was seen no more in +Littlebourne. A fortnight later, Mrs. Rayner, a quiet, sensible woman, +took herself and her children out of the place, and Rayner and his +thirty thousand pounds were only remembered as something to laugh over +and wonder at. + +As for Thomas Mitchell--well, it was almost too good to be true. He +looked over the works, saw the presses, talked with the men, and came +to the conclusion that he could undertake the duties of foreman. It +was a great rise for him. + +"I never thought of such a thing, sir, when I came down here." + +"Nor did I, Mitchell. I only thought of bringing you into good air, +and setting you up in health. If Rayner had not made room for you, you +could only have been one of the journeymen printers." + +"Seems to me," said Mitchell huskily, "that a kind Hand has led me +here in a wonderful way. I see quite plainly that it is not myself +that has brought me here." + +"I see that too," answered Mr. Burnet. "I little thought when I found +a naughty girl astray on the river that such events would occur. Your +Juliet did not seem of any consequence to me, but when Rowles told me +of her father's bad health I just said to myself that he would have a +better chance in the country. And the idea put itself into shape, and +you were brought down here, and then exactly at the right moment +Rayner's good fortune--if it really turns out to be good fortune--came +to him, and the post was open for you, and I believe you will prove to +be the right man in the right place." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. + + +There was one person who was much vexed that he could not have a hand +in the late doings. This was Roberts, the butler, who still was far +from well, and not allowed out except in the garden on dry days. + +But he talked a good deal with the housekeeper; and one day, after one +of these talks, she went to Mr. Burnet and said, "If you have no +objection, sir, I should like to ask Mrs. Mitchell and Juliet to take +tea with me some afternoon." + +"By all means," replied Mr. Burnet. "You can give them some of your +scones, Mrs. Johnson, and some of your new strawberry jam." + +Accordingly a day was fixed for Mrs. Mitchell and Juliet to drink tea +at Bourne House. They arrived at four o'clock, neatly dressed, and +were taken by Mrs. Johnson into her own little room. + +"You see," explained the housekeeper, "I am what is called +cook-housekeeper; I do the cooking and manage the house. Then there is +Mary the housemaid, under my orders; she is out this afternoon, so +you won't see her. And there is the butler, who is not under my +orders; and you won't see him, because he has his meals in his room, +being still an invalid. I daresay your Juliet will take his tea up to +him." + +"Oh, yes, I will," cried Juliet. "He has been very kind to me." + +"So have a good many people," said Mrs. Johnson. "Now, here you are. +You'll find him in the first room on the right-hand side, at the top +of the first flight of stairs." + +As soon as Juliet had started with the tray on which Roberts's tea was +arranged, Mrs. Johnson went on talking to Mrs. Mitchell. + +"The house is not all furnished yet, and Roberts is not in the room +which is really to be his. There are three reception rooms, a lovely +drawing-room opening into the conservatory, good dining-room, and +small study. Eight bed-rooms: Mr. Burnet's, Mr. Leonard's, the +butler's, the housemaid's, mine, and there will be three spare rooms; +so I suppose Mr. Burnet means to have a good deal of staying company." + +"Eight bed-rooms!" repeated Mrs. Mitchell; "and only one housemaid for +all of them! Why, however will she keep them all?" + +"You may well ask that," said the housekeeper in a peculiar tone. +"I'll show you over the house by and by, and you shall judge for +yourself how Mary will manage it." + +Juliet now returned. + +"Well, how does he seem?" + +"He seems pretty well," said Juliet; "and he was very kind." + +"Ay, he's kind enough. Sugar, Mrs. Mitchell? Jam, Juliet? You are able +to leave the little ones when you come out, I suppose?" + +"Oh, yes," Mrs. Mitchell answered. "My second girl, Amy, is almost as +big as Juliet, and a handy girl too. And you know we have no baby +now." + +"I know, I know," said the housekeeper. "So you did not feel much put +about when Juliet was away from you?" + +"Oh, no, not in that way." + +"No, to be sure. Scones, Mrs. Mitchell? Milk, Juliet?" + +When tea was ended Mrs. Johnson took her visitors over the house. They +saw the sitting-rooms, only partly furnished, and all the bed-rooms +except that in which Roberts was reposing himself. Some of these +chambers were furnished, others were quite empty. Mary's room had two +beds in it, two chests of drawers, two washstands, and so forth. + +"Ah!" and Mrs. Johnson nodded her head; "yes, you see I got everything +double. Do you understand?" + +"Everything double!" said Mrs. Mitchell. + +"And only Mary in the room." + +"Only Mary in the room!" + +"Well, I see you don't take in what I mean. It is this. When we get +settled and have a lot of visitors in the house I shall want help in +the kitchen, and Mary will want help in the rooms. What would you say +to letting Juliet come and try how she would like the place?" + +There was no doubt that Juliet would like it; her face said so. And +Mrs. Mitchell, after looking serious for a few minutes, brightened up +and said, "Do you think she would do? You know, she was so tiresome +that her aunt could not keep her." + +"Yes, I know; but she has had a stern lesson, and if she will try to +be a good girl I should like to give her the chance. What do you say +yourself, Juliet?" + +Instead of saying as she used, "I'm that stupid and awkward that I +can't do nothing," or that still worse thing, "I suppose I can do +anything I want to," Juliet replied modestly, "I will try to do what +you tell me." + +"That's all I want," cried Mrs. Johnson kindly; "no girl can do better +than what she is told. And as soon as I can settle it with Mr. Burnet +I will come and settle it with you. Now, we will go out and look at +the gardens, which are pretty though not to say large." + +When there came a pause in the conversation Juliet said to her mother, +"Mr. Robert was very kind, and would like to take you and me and +father in a boat on the river some day soon. And he would like to go +on Saturday afternoon if he is well enough. And he thinks Mrs. +Bosher's brother would come too, and if Mr. Robert is not well enough +to row, Mrs. Bosher's brother will row, and Mr. Robert will steer; and +Mr. Robert says we are to meet him at the lock at three o'clock, which +is between luncheon and dinner." + +"And I hope you will have a nice trip," were Mrs. Johnson's last words +as she said good-bye at the gate. + +Juliet felt quite frightened at her good fortune; it seemed to make +her want to cry more than poverty and trouble had done. And she said +her prayers more earnestly than she had said them when she was naughty +and unhappy. As the days went by and all was well, her father growing +stronger, the children rosier, the house more comfortable, she did +feel very deeply that the great blessings showered upon her had not +been deserved, but were sent to make her better in the future than she +had been in the past. + +There was yet one more thing that she desired; that was to take her +parents down the river to the place where she had been almost +shipwrecked in the _Fairy_. They, too, wished to see the spot where +their daughter had narrowly escaped a terrible death, which they +shuddered even to think of. + +Three o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday saw the whole Mitchell +family at the lock. The children came to see their elders off, and to +spend the afternoon with Philip and Emily. + +"Glad to see you out in the daylight," said Mr. Rowles to Mr. +Mitchell. "You are twice the man you were, now that you are keeping +better hours." + +Mitchell only smiled; he did not think it possible to quite overcome +Rowles's prejudice. + +"Here's the tub which Phil has brought up from the ferry. He thought +you would like a flat-bottomed tub, Mary." + +Mrs. Mitchell looked about, expecting to see a round thing similar to +a washing-tub. + +But her husband knew better. "Yes," said he, "when I was a young man I +used to go to Battersea on holidays, I and some others, and nothing +would suit us but outrigged gigs, randans, and such like; but now I'm +growing old, and a flat-bottomed tub suits us better, my missus and +me. Shall we get in, do you think, Ned?" + +"Yes, get in. Here they come, four on 'em--two blue stripes, one red +stripe, and one all gals. They can all go in together." + +"In the water!" cried Mrs. Mitchell. + +"No, Mary; in the lock. What a cockney you are!" + +He went to work the paddles and the handles, and while he was so +employed the others heard a tremendous halloo from the bank on the far +side of the river. Juliet looked slightly alarmed and said to her +mother, "I think it is Mrs. Bosher's brother." + +And so it was. He had come down through the wood and the fields by the +same path which Juliet had gone up on the sad day when she ran away +from Littlebourne Lock. But he was not frightened by the cows, nor +caught by the brambles, and had he met himself with a gun he would not +have been at all terrified. + +As soon as his loud deep voice was heard, Philip got into the _Fairy_ +and went across to fetch him. While this was doing the four boats got +through the lock, and Rowles came back to talk to his friends. + +"I suppose you can swim?" he said to Mitchell. + +"Yes; and so can my boy Albert. Swimming-baths in London, you know, +where you get clean and learn to swim all in one." + +"A better bath here," returned Rowles, "and nothing to pay." + +He looked lovingly at the beautiful river, rippled by the soft wind +into a deeper blue than the clear blue overhead. Mitchell, too, was +learning to love the Thames. + +"And what are you waiting for now?" Mrs. Rowles asked. + +"Why, for a friend; that is to say, Mr. Robert from the House." + +"Ah, he can't get along very fast on account of his rheumatics. But +he won't keep you standing about very long; and here's Mrs. Bosher's +brother to fill up the time." And Rowles turned to greet the new +arrival, who looked indeed big enough to fill up any amount of time or +space, even had he been without the great yellow rose which he wore in +his button-hole. + +While they were in friendly talk with Mrs. Bosher's brother, the party +on the eyot did not notice who was coming along the road from the +village. It was a middle-aged man, who walked rather limpingly, and +who made most extraordinary gestures as he approached the group. First +he stood and stared, then he rubbed his eyes and stared again. Then he +took out his spectacles and put them on, took them off, rubbed them, +and put them on again. + +He advanced a few steps, cast his hands up in the air, leaned heavily +on his stick, and exclaimed under his breath, "I can't believe it! Who +could have thought it? It is like a story-book!" + +Then he went on a few steps further and came close behind the group, +which was gathered round Mrs. Bosher's brother, listening to his loud, +hearty remarks. + +Rowles was the first who saw the new-comer. He looked over his +shoulder and nodded. Then Mrs. Bosher's brother roared out, "Hullo! +here you are at last! How do you feel?" + +And before the new-comer could reply to this greeting all the other +eyes were turned upon him, with expressions of surprise and +bewilderment. + +"You! What brings you here?" + +"What brings _you_ here?" + +Mrs. Bosher's brother was the only person who remained calm. "What's +the matter?" said he. "Are you old friends or old enemies?" + +"It is so odd," said Mitchell; "I can't make it out." + +"Well, shake hands," cried Roberts; and he shook hands all round. + +When that was over Mr. Rowles said he would like to know what it was +all about, and so at last matters were explained. + +"It is Daniel Roberts, who married my poor sister Nan, that died nine +years come the 1st of November." While Mitchell said this he was +gazing harder than ever at Roberts. + +"Why did you never tell me his name?" Mrs. Mitchell asked of Juliet. + +"I did," Juliet replied. "I always called him Mr. Robert." + +"Ain't he Mr. Robert then?" asked Rowles, still perplexed. + +"No," said the butler; "I am Daniel Roberts. Roberts is my surname, +and Robert is not my Christian name. But some people have no ear for +music, and can't hear an S when it is at the end of the word." + +Mrs. Mitchell turned to her children. "It is your Uncle Roberts. I +_am_ surprised at finding him here. Why, Daniel, Mrs. Johnson said she +thought it was partly owing to you that Mr. Burnet had us brought down +here." + +"So it was, Mary. But, mind you, I did not know it was you. That girl +there, they called her Juliet, and then they talked about Juliet's +father being a printer and out of health, and all that; and I thinks +to myself that there was Mitchell, poor Nan's brother, who was a +printer, and I should not like to think that he was out of health and +out of work, and that gave me a kind of feeling for all printers, and +I put in a word for Juliet's father. But I little thought that +Juliet's father was poor Nan's brother." + +"Ain't you glad, man?" said Mrs. Bosher's brother, giving a squeeze to +Roberts's rheumatic arm; "ain't you glad?" + +"Glad--oh, it's agony!--yes, glad as I can be." + +"Well, I can't make it out now!" said Mitchell, taking off his hat to +cool his head. "Just to think that Mr. Robert the butler is my +brother-in-law!" + +"Are you sorry, man?" roared Mrs. Bosher's brother, putting his great +rose into Mitchell's face; "are you sorry?" + +"Sorry!--phew, it's delicious, but stifling--no, I'm certainly not +sorry." + +"Then get into the boat, and do the rest of your talking there." + +They took the hint. Mrs. Bosher's brother rowed them gently down the +stream to Banksome Weir, the scene of Juliet's escape, and afterwards +he rowed them gently back again. He said he could do that kind of +rowing in his sleep. + +They were all very happy; a happy family party. + +And not the least happy was Juliet Mitchell, who had put away from her +all her former follies and ill-humours, and had begun a new life of +gentleness, obedience, and industry. + +Mr. Burnet and Leonard passed them in another boat, and smiled and +nodded at them. + +Mr. and Mrs. Webster passed them, walking on the towing-path, and +nodded and smiled at them. + +Mrs. Bosher's bonnet came to see them in the evening, and nodded more +than ever. + +And a very kind letter came from Miss Sutton, with a hymn-book as a +special present to Juliet. + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Littlebourne Lock, by F. 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