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diff --git a/4296.txt b/4296.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..524d8d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/4296.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7380 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Friarswood Post-Office, by Charlotte M. Yonge + + +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: Friarswood Post-Office + + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + + + +Release Date: December 29, 2007 [eBook #4296] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIARSWOOD POST-OFFICE*** + + +Transcribed from the 1909 Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +FRIARSWOOD +POST-OFFICE + + +BY +C. M. YONGE, +AUTHOR OF "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE" + +WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS +BY +A. G. WALKER +SCULPTOR + +LONDON: +WELLS GARDNER, DARTON, & CO., LTD. +3 & 4 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. +AND 44 VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE STRANGE LAD + + +'Goodness! If ever I did see such a pig!' said Ellen King, as she +mounted the stairs. 'I wouldn't touch him with a pair of tongs!' + +'Who?' said a voice from the bedroom. + +'Why, that tramper who has just been in to buy a loaf! He is a perfect +pig, I declare! I only wonder you did not find of him up here! The +police ought to hinder such folk from coming into decent people's shops! +There, you may see him now!' + +'Is that he upon the bridge--that chap about the size of our Harold?' + +'Yes. Did you ever see such a figure? His clothes aren't good enough +for a scare-crow--and the dirt, you can't see that from here, but you +might sow radishes in it!' + +'Oh, he's swinging on the rail, just as I used to do. Put me down, +Nelly; I don't want to see any more.' And the eyes filled with tears; +there was a working about the thin cheeks and the white lips, and a long +sigh came out at last, 'Oh, if I was but like him!' + +'Like him! I'd wish something else before I wished that,' said Ellen. +'Don't think about it, Alfred dear; here are Miss Jane's pictures.' + +'I don't want the pictures,' said Alfred wearily, as he laid his head +down on his white pillow, and shut his eyes because they were hot with +tears. + +Ellen looked at him very sadly, and the feeling in her own mind was, that +he was right, and nothing could make up for the health and strength that +she knew her mother feared would never return to him. + +There he lay, the fair hair hanging round the white brow with the furrows +of pain in it, the purple-veined lids closed over the great bright blue +eyes, the long fingers hanging limp and delicate as a lady's, the limbs +stretched helplessly on the couch, whither it cost him so much pain to be +daily moved. Who would have thought, that not six months ago that poor +cripple was the merriest and most active boy in the parish? + +The room was not a sad-looking one. There were spotless white dimity +curtains round the lattice window; and the little bed, and the walnut of +the great chest, and of the doors of the press-bed on which Alfred lay, +shone with dark and pale grainings. There was a carpet on the floor, and +the chairs had chintz cushions; the walls were as white as snow, and +there were pretty china ornaments on the mantel-piece, many little +pictures hanging upon the walls, and quite a shelf of books upon the +white cloth, laid so carefully on the top of the drawers. A little table +beside Alfred held a glass with a few flowers, a cup with some toast and +water, a volume of the 'Swiss Family Robinson;' and a large book of +prints of animals was on a chair where he could reach it. + +A larger table was covered with needle-work, shreds of lining, scissors, +tapes, and Ellen's red work-box; and she herself sat beside it, a very +nice-looking girl of about seventeen, tall and slim, her lilac dress and +white collar fitting beautifully, her black apron sitting nicely to her +trim waist, and her light hair shining, like the newly-wound silk of the +silk-worm, round her pleasant face; where the large, clear, well-opened +blue eyes, and the contrast of white and red on the cheek, were a good +deal like poor Alfred's, and gave an air of delicacy. + +Their father had been, as their mother said, 'the handsomest coachman who +ever drove to St. James's;' but he had driven thither once too often; he +had caught his death of cold one bitter day when Lady Jane Selby was +obliged to go to a drawing-room, and had gone off in a deep decline +fourteen years ago, when the youngest of his five children was not six +weeks old. + +The Selby family were very kind to Mrs. King, who, besides her husband's +claims on them, had been once in service there; and moreover, had nursed +Miss Jane, the little heiress, Ellen's foster-sister. By their help she +had been able to use her husband's savings in setting up a small shop, +where she sold tea, tobacco and snuff, tape, cottons, and such little +matters, besides capital bread of her own baking, and various +sweet-meats, the best to the taste of her own cooking, the prettiest to +the eye brought from Elbury. Oranges too, and apples, shewed their +yellow or rosy cheeks at her window in their season; and there was +sometimes a side of bacon, displaying under the brown coat the delicate +pink stripes bordering the white fat. Of late years one pane of her +window had been fitted up with a wooden box, with a slit in it on the +outside, and a whole region round it taken up with printed sheets of +paper about 'Mails to Gothenburg,--Weekly Post to Vancouver's Island'--and +all sorts of places to which the Friarswood people never thought of +writing. + +Altogether, she throve very well; and she was a good woman, whom every +one respected for the pains she took to bring up her children well. The +eldest, Charles, had died of consumption soon after his father, and there +had been much fear for his sister Matilda; but Lady Jane had contrived to +have her taken as maid to a lady who usually spent the winter abroad, and +the warm climate had strengthened her health. She was not often at +Friarswood; but when she came she looked and spoke like a lady--all the +more so as she gave herself no airs, but was quite simple and humble, for +she was a very good right-minded young woman, and exceedingly fond of her +home and her good mother. + +Ellen would have liked to copy Matilda in everything; and as a first +step, she went for a year to a dress-maker; but just as this was over, +Alfred's illness had begun; and as he wanted constant care and +attendance, it was thought better that she should take in work at home. +Indeed Alfred was such a darling of hers, that she could not have endured +to go away and leave him so ill. + +Alfred had been a most lively, joyous boy, with higher spirits than he +quite knew what to do with, all fun and good-humour, and yet very +troublesome and provoking. He and his brother Harold were the monkeys of +the school, and really seemed sometimes as if they _could not_ sit still, +nor hinder themselves from making faces, and playing tricks; but that was +the worst of them--they never told untruths, never did anything mean or +unfair, and could always be made sorry when they had been in fault. Their +old school-mistress liked them in spite of all the plague they gave her; +and they liked her too, though she had tried upon them every punishment +she could devise. + +Little Miss Jane, the orphan whom the Colonel and Mrs. Selby had left to +be brought up by her grandmother, had a great fancy that Alfred should be +a page; and as she generally had her own way, he went up to the Grange +when he was about thirteen years old, and put on a suit thickly sown with +buttons. But ere the gloss of his new jacket had begun to wear off, he +had broken four wine-glasses, three cups, and a decanter, all from not +knowing where he was going; he had put sugar instead of salt into the +salt-cellars at the housekeeper's dining-table, that he might see what +she would say; and he had been caught dressing up Miss Jane's Skye +terrier in one of the butler's clean cravats; so, though Puck, the +aforesaid terrier, liked him better than any other person, Miss Jane not +excepted, a regular complaint went up of him to my Lady, and he was sent +home. He was abashed, and sorry to have vexed mother and disappointed +Miss Jane; but somehow he could not be unhappy when he had Harold to play +with him again, and he could halloo as loud as they pleased, and stamp +about in the garden, instead of being always in mind to walk softly. + +There was the pony too! A new arrangement had just been made, that the +Friarswood letters should be fetched from Elbury every morning, and then +left at the various houses of the large straggling district that depended +on that post-office. All letters from thence must be in the post before +five o'clock, at which time they were to be sent in to Elbury. The post- +master at Elbury asked if Mrs. King's sons could undertake this; and +accordingly she made a great effort, and bought a small shaggy forest +pony, whom the boys called 'Peggy,' and loved not much less than their +sisters. + +It was all very well in the summer to take those two rides in the cool of +the morning and evening; but when winter came on, and Alfred had to start +for Elbury in the tardy dawn of a frosty morning, or still worse, in the +gloom of a wet one, he did not like it at all. He used to ride in +looking blue and purple with the chill; and though he went as close to +the fire as possible, and steamed like the tea-kettle while he ate his +breakfast and his mother sorted the letters, he had not time to warm +himself thoroughly before he had to ride off to leave them--two miles +further altogether; for besides the bag for the Grange, and all the +letters for the Rectory, and for the farmers, there was a young +gentlemen's school at a great old lonely house, called Ragglesford, at +the end of a very long dreary lane; and many a day Alfred would have +given something if those boys' relations would only have been so good as, +with one consent, to leave them without letters. + +It would not have mattered if Alfred had been a stouter boy; but his +mother had always thought he had his poor father's constitution, and +therefore wished him to be more in the house; but his idleness had +prevented his keeping any such place. It might have been the cold and +wet, or, as Alfred thought, it might have been the strain he gave himself +one day when he was sliding on the ice and had a fall; but one morning he +came in from Elbury very pale, and hobbling, as he said his hip hurt him +so much, that Harold must take the letters round for him. + +Harold took them that morning, and for many another morning and evening +besides; while poor Alfred came from sitting by the fire to being a +prisoner up-stairs, only moved now and then from his own bed to lie +outside that of his mother, when he could bear it. The doctor came, and +did his best; but the disease had thrown itself into the hip joint, and +it was but too plain that Alfred must be a great sufferer for a long +time, and perhaps a cripple for life. But how long might this life be? +His mother dared not think. Alfred himself, poor boy, was always trying +with his whole might to believe himself getting better; and Ellen and +Harold always fancied him so, when he was not very bad indeed; but for +the last fortnight he had been decidedly worse, and his heart and hopes +were sinking, though he would not own it to himself, and that and the +pain made his spirits fail so, that he had been more inclined to be +fretful than any time since his illness had begun. + +His view from the window was a pleasant one; and when he was pretty well, +afforded him much amusement. The house stood in a neat garden, with +green railings between it and the road, over which Alfred could see every +one who came and went towards Elbury, and all who had business at the +post-office, or at Farmer Shepherd's. Opposite was the farm-yard; and if +nothing else was going on, there were always cocks and hens, ducks and +turkeys, pigs, cows, or horses, to be seen there; and the cow-milking, or +the taking the horses down to the water, the pig-feeding, and the like, +were a daily amusement. Sloping down from the farm-yard, the ground led +to the river, a smooth clear stream, where the white ducks looked very +pretty, swimming, diving, and 'standing tail upwards;' and there was a +high-arched bridge over it, where Alfred could get a good view of the +carriages that chanced to come by, and had lately seen all the young +gentlemen of Ragglesford going home for the summer holidays, making such +a whooping and hurrahing, that the place rang again; and beyond, there +were beautiful green meadows, with a straight path through them, leading +to a stile; and beyond that, woods rose up, and there was a little +glimpse of a stately white house peeping through them. Hay-making was +going on merrily in the field, under the bright summer sun, and the air +was full of the sweet smell of the grass, but there was something sultry +and oppressive to the poor boy's feelings; and when he remembered how +Farmer Shepherd had called him to lend a hand last year, and how happy he +had been tossing the hay, and loading the waggon, a sad sick feeling +crept over him; and so it was that the tears rose in his eyes, and he +made his sister lay him back on the pillow, for he did not wish to see +any more. + +Ellen worked and thought, and wanted to entertain him, but could not +think how. Presently she burst out, however, 'Oh, Alfred! there's Harold +coming running back! There he is, jumping over that hay-cock--not +touched the ground once--another--oh! there's Farmer Shepherd coming +after him!' + +'Hold your tongue,' muttered Alfred moodily, as if each of her words gave +him unbearable pain; and he hid his face in the pillow. + +Ellen kept silence for ten minutes, and then broke forth again, 'Now +then, Alfred, you _will_ be glad! There's Miss Jane getting over the +stile.' + +'I don't want Miss Jane,' grumbled Alfred; and as Ellen sprang up and +began smoothing his coverings, collecting her scraps, and tidying the +room, already so neat, he growled again, 'What a racket you keep!' + +'There, won't you be raised up to see her? She does look so pretty in +her new pink muslin, with a double skirt, and her little hat and feather, +that came from London; and there's Puck poking in the hay--he's looking +for a mouse! And she's showering the hay over him with her parasol! Oh, +look, Alfred!' and she was going to lift him up, but he only murmured a +cross 'Can't you be quiet?' and she let him alone, but went on talking: +'Ah, there's Puck's little tail wriggling out--hinder-end foremost--here +he comes--they are touching their hats to her now, the farmer and all, +and she nods just like a little queen! She's got her basket, Alfred. I +wonder what she has for you in it! Oh dear, there's that strange boy on +the bridge! She won't like that.' + +'Why, what would he do to her? He won't bite her,' said Alfred. + +'Oh, if he spoke to her, or begged of her, she'd be so frightened! There, +he looked at her, and she gave such a start. You little vagabond! I'd +like to--' + +'Stuff! what could he do to her, with all the hay-field and Farmer +Shepherd there to take care of her? What a fuss you do make!' said poor +Alfred, who was far too miserable just then to agree with any one, though +at almost any other time he would have longed to knock down any strange +boy who did but dare to pass Miss Selby without touching his cap; and her +visits were in general the very light of his life. + +They were considered a great favour; for though old Lady Jane Selby was a +good, kind-hearted person, still she had her fancies, and she kept her +young grand-daughter like some small jewel, as a thing to be folded up in +a case, and never trusted in common. She was afraid to allow her to go +about the village, or into the school and cottages, always fancying she +might be made ill, or meet with some harm; but Mrs. King being an old +servant, whom she knew so well, and the way lying across only two meadows +beyond Friarswood Park, the little pet was allowed to go so far to visit +her foster-mother, and bring whatever she could devise to cheer the poor +sick boy. + +Miss Jane, though of the same age as Ellen, and of course with a great +deal more learning and accomplishment, had been so little used to help +herself, or to manage anything, that she was like one much younger. The +sight of the rough stranger on the bridge was really startling to her, +and she came across the road and garden as fast as she could without a +run; and the first thing the brother and sister heard, was her voice +saying rather out of breath and fluttered, 'Oh, what a horrid-looking +boy!' + +Seeing that Mrs. King was serving some one in the shop, she only nodded +to her, and came straight up-stairs. Alfred raised up his head, and +beheld the little fairy through the open door, first the head, and the +smiling little face and slight figure in the fresh summer dress. + +Miss Jane was not thought very pretty by strangers; but that dainty +little person, and sweet sunny eyes and merry smile, and shy, kind, +gracious ways, were perfect in the eyes of her grandmamma and of Mrs. +King and her children, if of nobody else. Alfred, in his present dismal +state, only felt vexed at a fresh person coming up to worry him, and make +a talking; especially one whose presence was a restraint, so that he +could not turn about and make cross answers at his will. + +'Well, Alfred, how are you to-day?' said the sweet gay voice, a little +subdued. + +'Better, Ma'am, thank you,' said Alfred, who always called himself +better, whatever he felt; but his voice told the truth better than his +words. + +'He's had a very bad night, Miss Jane,' said his sister; 'no sleep at all +since two o'clock, and he is so low to-day, that I don't know what to do +with him.' + +Alfred hated nothing so much as to hear that he was low, for it meant +that he was cross. + +'Poor Alfred!' said the young lady kindly. 'Was it pain that kept you +awake?' + +'No, Ma'am--not so much--' said the boy. + +Miss Jane saw he looked very sad, and hoped to cheer him by opening her +basket. 'I've brought you a new book, Alfred. It is "The +Cherry-stones." Have you finished the last?' + +'No, Ma'am.' + +'Did you like it?' + +'Yes, Ma'am.' + +But it was a very matter-of-course sort of Yes, and disappointed Miss +Jane, who thought he would have been charmed with the 'Swiss Family +Robinson.' + +Ellen spoke: 'Oh yes, Alfred, you know you did like it. I heard you +laughing to yourself at Ernest and the shell of soup. And Harold reads +that; and 'tis so seldom he will look at a book.' + +Jane did not like this quite as well as if Alfred had spoken up more; but +she dived into her basket again, and brought out a neat little packet of +green leaves, with some strawberries done up in it, and giving a little +smile, she made sure that it would be acceptable. + +Ellen thanked vehemently, and Alfred gave feeble thanks; but, unluckily, +he had so set his mind upon raspberries, that he could not enjoy the +thought of anything else. It was a sickly distaste for everything, and +Miss Selby saw that he was not as much pleased as she meant him to be; +she looked at him wistfully, and, half grieved, half impatient, she +longed to know what he would really like, or if he were positively +ungrateful. She was very young, and did not know whether it was by his +fault or her mistake that she had failed to satisfy him. + +Puck had raced up after her, and had come poking and snuffling round +Alfred. She would have called him away lest he should be too much for +one so weak, but she saw Alfred really did enjoy this: his hand was in +the long rough coat, and he was whispering, 'Poor Puck,' and 'Good little +doggie;' and the little hairy rummaging creature, with the bright black +beads of eyes gleaming out from under his shaggy hair, was doing him more +good than her sense and kindness, or Ellen's either. + +She turned to the window, and said to Ellen, 'What a wild-looking lad +that is on the bridge!' + +'Yes, Miss Jane,' said Ellen; 'I was quite afraid he would frighten you.' + +'Well, I was surprised,' said Jane; 'I was afraid he might speak to me; +but then I knew I was too near friends for harm to come to me;' and she +laughed at her own fears. 'How ragged and wretched he looks! Has he +been begging?' + +'No, Miss Jane; he came into the shop, and bought some bread. He paid +for it honestly; but I never did see any one so dirty. And there's +Alfred wishing to be like him. I knew you would tell him it is quite +wicked, Miss Jane.' + +It is not right, I suppose, to wish to be anything but what we are,' said +Jane, rather puzzled by the appeal; 'and perhaps that poor beggar-boy +would only like to have a nice room, and kind mother and sister, like +you, Alfred.' + +'I don't say anything against them!' cried the boy vehemently; +'but--but--I'd give anything--anything in the world--to be able to run +about again in the hay-field! No, don't talk to me, Ellen, I say--I hate +them all when I see them there, and I forced to lie here! I wish the sun +would never shine!' + +He hid his eyes and ears in the pillow, as if he never wished to see the +light again, and would hear nothing. The two girls both stood trembling. +Ellen looked at Miss Selby, and she felt that she must say something. But +what could she say? + +With tears in her eyes she laid hold of Alfred's thin hand and tried to +speak, choked by tears. 'Dear Alfred, don't say such dreadful things. +You know we are all so sorry for you; but God sent it.' + +Alfred gave a groan of utter distress, as if it were no consolation. + +'And--and things come to do us good,' continued Miss Jane, the tears +starting to her cheeks. + +'I don't know what good it can do me to lie here!' cried Alfred. + +'Oh, but, Alfred, it must.' + +'I tell you,' exclaimed the poor boy, forgetting his manners, so that +Ellen stood dismayed, 'it does not do me good! I didn't use to hate +Harold, nor to hate everybody.' + +'To hate Harold!' said Jane faintly. + +'Ay,' said Alfred, 'when I hear him whooping about like mad, and jumping +and leaping, and going on like I used to do, and never shall again.' + +The tears came thick and fast, and perhaps they did him good. + +'But, Alfred,' said Jane, trying to puzzle into the right thing, +'sometimes things are sent to punish us, and then we ought to submit +quietly.' + +'I don't know what I've done, then,' he cried angrily. 'There have been +many worse than I any day, that are well enough now.' + +'Oh, Alfred, it is not who is worse, but what one is oneself,' said Jane. + +Alfred grunted. + +'I wish I knew how to help you,' she said earnestly; 'it is so very sad +and hard; and I dare say I should be just as bad myself if I were as ill; +but do, pray, Alfred, try to think that nobody sent it but God, and that +He must know best.' + +Alfred did not seem to take in much comfort, and Jane did not believe she +was putting it rightly; but it was time for her to go home, so she said +anxiously, 'Good-bye, Alfred; I hope you'll be better next time--and--and--' +She bent down and spoke in a very frightened whisper, 'You know when we +go to church, we pray you may have patience under your sufferings.' + +Then she sprang away, as if ashamed of the sound of her own words; but as +she was taking up her basket and wishing Ellen good-bye, she saw that the +strange lad had moved nearer the house, and timid little thing as she +was, she took out a sixpence, and said, 'Do give him that, and ask him to +go away.' + +Ellen had no very great fancy for facing the enemy herself, but she made +no objection; and looking down-stairs, she saw her brother Harold waiting +while his mother stamped the letters, and she called to him, and sent him +out to the boy. + +He came back in a few moments so much amazed, that she could see the +whites all round his eyes. + +'He won't have it! He's a rum one that! He says he's no beggar, and +that if the young lady would give him work, he'd thank her; but he wants +none of her money, and he'll stand where he chooses!' + +'Why didn't you lick him?' hallooed out Alfred's voice from his bed. 'Oh! +if I--' + +'Nonsense, Alfred!' cried Miss Jane, frightened into spirit; 'stand +still, Harold! I don't mind him.' + +And she put up her parasol, and walked straight out at the house door as +bold as a little lioness, going on without looking to the right or left. + +'_If_--' began Harold, clenching his fists--and Alfred raised himself +upon his bed with flashing eyes to watch, as the boy had moved nearer, +and looked for a moment as if he were going to grin, or say something +impudent; but the quiet childish form stepping on so simply and steadily +seemed to disarm him, and he shrunk back, left her to trip across the +road unmolested, and stood leaning over the rail of the bridge, gazing +after her as she crossed the hay-field. + +Harold rode off with the letters; and Alfred lay gazing, and wondering +what that stranger could be, counting the holes in his garments, and +trying to guess at his history. + +One good thing was, that Alfred was so much carried out of himself, that +he was cheerful all the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER II--HAY-MAKING + + +There was again a sultry night, which brought on so much discomfort and +restlessness, that poor Alfred could not sleep. He tried to bear in mind +how much he had disturbed his mother the night before, and he checked +himself several times when he felt as if he could not bear it any longer +without waking her, and to remember his old experience, that do what she +would for him, it would be no real relief, and he should only be sorry +the next day when he saw her going about her work with a worn face and a +head-ache. + +Then every now and then Miss Selby's words about being patient came back +to him. Sometimes he thought them hard, coming from a being who had +never known sickness or sorrow, and wondered how she would feel if laid +low as he was; but they would not be put away in that manner, for he knew +they were true, and were said by others than Miss Jane, though he had +begun to think no phrase so tiresome, hopeless, or provoking. People +always told him to be patient when they had no comfort to give him, and +did not know what he was suffering. He would not have minded it so much +if only he could have got it out of his head. Somehow it would not let +him call to his mother, if it was only because very likely all he should +get by so doing would be to be again told to be patient. And then came +Miss Jane's telling him his illness might be good for him, as if she +thought he deserved to be punished. Really that was hard! Who could +think he deserved this wearing pain and helplessness, only because he had +played tricks on the butler and housekeeper, and now and then laughed at +church? + +'It is just like Job and his friends,' thought Alfred. 'I don't want her +to come and see me any more!' + +Poor Alfred! There was a little twinge here. His conscience could not +give quite such an account as did that of Job! But he did not like +recollecting his own errors better than any of us do, and liked much more +to feel himself very hardly used, and greatly to be pitied. Thereupon he +opened his lips to call to his mother, but that old thought about +patience returned on him; he had mercy on her regular breathing, though +it made him quite envious to hear it, and he said to himself that he +would let her alone, at least till the next time the clock struck. It +would be three o'clock next time. Oh dear, would the night never be +over? How often such a round of weary thoughts came again and again can +hardly be counted; but, at any rate, poor Alfred was exercising one act +of forbearance, and that was so much gain. At last he found, by the +increasing light shewing him the shapes of all the pictures, that he must +have had a short sleep which had made him miss the clock, and he felt a +good deal injured thereby. + +However, Mrs. King was too good a nurse not to be awakened by his first +movement, and she came to him, gave him some cold tea, and settled his +pillow so as to make him more comfortable; and when he begged her to let +in a little more air, she went to open the window wider, and relieve the +closeness of the little room. She had learnt while living with Lady Jane +that night air is not so dangerous as some people fancy; and it was an +infinite relief to Alfred when the lattice was thrown back, and the cool +breeze came softly in, with the freshness of the dew, and the delicious +scent of the hay-field. + +Mrs. King stood a moment to look out at the beautiful stillness of early +dawn, the trees and meads so gravely calmly quiet, and the silver dew +lying white over everything; the tanned hay-cocks rising up all over the +field, the morning star and waning moon glowing pale as light of morning +spread over the sky. Then a cock crew somewhere at a distance, and Mrs. +Shepherd's cock answered him more shrilly close by, and the swallows +began to twitter under the eaves. + +'It _will_ be a fine day, to be sure!' she said. 'The farmer will get in +his hay!' and then she stood looking as if something had caught her +attention. + +'What do you see, Mother?' asked Alfred. + +'I was looking what that was under yon hay-cock,' said Mrs. King; 'and I +do believe it is some one sleeping there.' + +'Ha!' cried Alfred. 'I dare say it is the boy that would not have Miss +Jane's sixpence.' + +'I'm sure I hope he's after no harm,' said Mrs. King; 'I don't like to +have tramps about so near. I hope he means no mischief by the farmer's +poultry.' + +'He can't be one of that sort, or he wouldn't have refused the money,' +said Alfred. 'How nice and cool it must be sleeping in the hay! I'll +warrant he doesn't lie awake. I wish I was there!' + +'You'll know what to be thankful for one of these days, my poor lad,' +said his mother, sighing; then yawning, she said, 'I must go back to bed. +Mind you call out, Alfred, if you hear anything like a noise in the farm- +yard.' + +This notion rather interested Alfred; he began to build up a fine scheme +of shouting out and sending Harold to the rescue of the cocks and hens, +and how well he would have done it himself a year ago, and pinned the +thief, and fastened the door on him. Not that he thought this individual +lad at all likely to be a thief, nor did he care much for Farmer +Shepherd, who was a hard man and no favourite; but to catch a thief would +be a grand feat. And while settling his clever plan, and making some +compliments for the magistrate to pay him, Alfred, fanned by the cool +breeze, fell into a sound sleep, and did not wake till the sun was high, +and all the rest of the house were up and dressed. + +That good sleep made him much more able to bear the burden of the day. +First, his mother came with the towel and basin, and washed his face and +hands; and then he had his little book, and said his prayers; and somehow +to-day he felt so much less fractious than usual, that he asked to be +taught patience, and not _only_ to be made well, as he had hitherto done. + +That over, he lay smiling as he waited for his breakfast, and when Ellen +brought it to him, he had not one complaint to make, but ate it almost +with a relish. 'Is that boy gone?' he asked Ellen, as she tidied the +room while he was eating. + +'What, the dirty boy? No, there he is, speaking to the farmer. Will he +beg of him?' + +'Asking for work, more likely.' + +'I'd sooner give work to a pig at once,' said Ellen; 'but I do believe +he's getting it. I fancy they are short of hands for the hay. Yes, he's +pointing into the field. Ay, and he's sending him into the yard.' + +'I hope he'll give him some breakfast,' said Alfred. 'Do you know he +slept all night on a hay-cock?' + +'Yes, so Mother said, just like a dog; and he got up like a dog this +morning,--never so much as washed himself at the river. Why, he's coming +here! Whatever does he want?' + +'The lad?' + +'No, the farmer.' + +Mr. Shepherd's heavy tread was heard below, and, as Alfred said, Ellen +had only to hold her tongue for them be able to hear his loud tones +telling Mrs. King that the glass was falling, and his hay in capital +order, and his hands short, and asking whether her boy Harold would come +and help in the hay-field between the post times. Mrs. King gave a ready +answer that the boy would be well pleased, and the farmer promised him +his victuals and sixpence for the day. 'Your lass wouldn't like to come +too, I suppose, eh?' + +Ellen flushed with indignation. She go a hay-making! Her mother was +civilly making answer that her daughter was engaged with her sick +brother, and besides--had her work for Mrs. Price, which must be finished +off. The farmer, saying he had not much expected her, but thought she +might like a change from moping over her needle, went off. + +Ellen did not feel ready to forgive him for wanting to set her to field- +work. There is some difference between being fine and being refined, and +in Ellen's station of life it is very difficult to hit the right point. +To be refined is to be free from all that is rough, coarse, or ungentle; +to be fine, is to affect to be above such things. Now Ellen was really +refined in her quietness and maidenly modesty, and there was no need for +her to undertake any of those kinds of tasks which, by removing young +girls from home shelter, do sometimes help to make them rude and +indecorous; but she was _fine_, when she gave herself a little mincing +air of contempt, as if she despised the work and those who did it. Lydia +Grant, who worked so steadily and kept to herself so modestly, that no +one ventured a bold word to her as she tossed her hay, was just as +refined as Ellen King behind her white blinds, ay, or as Jane Selby +herself in her terraced garden. Refinement is in the mind that loves +whatsoever is pure, lovely, and of good report; finery is in disdaining +what is homely or humble. + +Boys of all degrees are usually, when they are good for anything, the +greatest enemies of the finery tending to affectation; and Alfred at once +began to make a little fun of his sister, and tell her it would be a +famous thing for her, he believed she had quite forgotten how to run, and +did not know a rake from a fork when she saw it. He knew she was longing +for a ride in the waggon, if she would but own it. + +Ellen used to be teased by this kind of joking; but she was too glad to +see Alfred well enough so to entertain himself, to think of anything but +pleasing him, so she answered good-humouredly that Harold must make hay +for them all three to-day, no doubt but he would be pleased enough. + +He was heard trotting home at this moment, and whistling as he hitched up +the pony at the gate, and ran in with the letter-bag, to snap up his +breakfast while the letters were sorted. + +'Here, let me have them,' called Alfred, and they were glad he should do +it, for he was the quickest of the family at reading handwriting; but he +was often too ill to attend to it, and more often the weary fretfulness +and languor of his state made him dislike to exert himself, so it was apt +to depend on his will or caprice. + +'Look sharp, Alf!' hallooed out Harold, rushing up-stairs with the bags +in one hand, and his bread-and-butter in the other. 'If you find a +letter for that there Ragglesford, I don't know what I shall do to you! I +must be back in no time for the hay!' + +And he had bounced down-stairs again before Ellen had time to scold him +for making riot enough to shake Alfred to pieces. He was a fine tall +stout boy, with the same large fully open blue eyes, high colour, white +teeth, and light curly hair, as his brother and sister, but he was much +more sunburnt. If you saw him with his coat off, he looked as if he had +red gloves and a red mask on, so much whiter was his skin where it was +covered; and he was very strong for his age, and never had known what +illness was. The brothers were very fond of each other, but since Alfred +had been laid up, they had often been a great trial to each other--the +one seemed as little able to live without making a noise, as the other to +endure the noise he made; and the sight of Harold's activity and the +sound of his feet and voice, vexed the poor helpless sufferer more than +they ought to have done, or than they would had the healthy brother been +less thoughtless in the joy of his strength. + +To-day, however, all was smooth. Alfred did not feel every tread of +those bounding limbs like a shock to his poor diseased frame; and he only +laughed as he unlocked the leathern bag, and dealt out the letters, +putting all those for the Lady Jane Selby, Miss Selby, and the servants, +into their own neat little leathern case with the padlock, and sorting +out the rest, with some hope there might be one from Matilda, who was a +very good one to write home. There was none from her, but then there was +none for Ragglesford, and that was unexpected good luck. If the old +housekeeper left in charge had been wicked enough to get her newspaper +that day, Alfred felt that in Harold's place he should be sorely tempted +to chuck it over the hedge. Ellen looked as if he had talked of +murdering her, and truly such a breach of trust would have been a very +grievous fault. + +'The Reverend--what's his name? the Reverend Marcus Cope, Friarswood, +near Elbury,' read Alfred; 'one, two, three letters, and a newspaper. +Yes, and this long printed-looking thing. Who is he, Ellen?' + +'What did you say?' said Ellen, who was busy shaking her mother's bed, +and had not heard at the first moment, but now turned eagerly; 'what did +you say his name was?' + +'The Reverend Marcus Cope,' repeated Alfred. 'Is that another new +parson?' + +'Why, did not we tell you what a real beautiful sermon the new clergyman +preached on Sunday? Mr. Cope, so that's his name. I wonder if he is +come to stay.--Mother,' she ran to the head of the stairs, 'the new +clergyman's name is the Reverend Mr. Marcus Cope.' + +'He don't live at Ragglesford, I hope!' cried Harold, who regarded any +one at the end of that long lane as his natural enemy. + +'No, it only says Friarswood,' said Ellen. 'You'll have to find out +where he lives, Harold.' + +'Pish! it will take me an hour going asking about!' said Harold +impatiently. 'He must have his letters left here till he chooses to come +for them, if he doesn't know where he lives.' + +'No, no, Harold, that won't do,' said Mrs. King. 'You must take the +gentleman his letters, and they'll be sure to know at the Park, or at the +Rectory, or at the Tankard, where he lodges. Well, it will be a real +comfort if he is come to stop.' + +So Harold went off with the letters and the pony, and Ellen and her +mother exchanged a few words about the gentleman and his last Sunday's +sermon, and then Ellen went to dust the shop, and put out the bread, +while her mother attended to Alfred's wound, the most painful part of the +day to both of them. + +It was over, however, and Alfred was resting afterwards when Harold +cantered home as hard as the pony could or would go, and came racing up +to say, 'I've seen him! He's famous! He stood out in the road and met +me, and asked for his letters, and he's to be at the Parsonage, and he +asked my name, and then he laughed and said, "Oh! I perceive it is the +royal mail!" I didn't know what he was at, but he looked as +good-humoured as anything. Halloo! give me my old hat, Nell--that's it! +Hurrah! for the hay-waggon! I saw the horses coming out!' + +And off he went again full drive; and Alfred did nothing worse than give +a little groan. + +Ellen had enough to do in wondering about Mr. Cope. News seemed to +belong of right to the post-office, and it was odd that he should have +preached on Sunday, and now it should be Tuesday, without anything having +been heard of him, not even from Miss Jane; but then the young lady had +been fluttered by the strange boy, and Alfred had been so fretful, that +it might have put everything out of her head. + +Friarswood was used to uncertainty about the clergyman. The Rector had +fallen into such bad health, that he had long been unable to do anything, +and always hoping to get better, he had sent different gentlemen to take +the services, first one and then another, or had asked the masters at +Ragglesford to help him; but it was all very irregular, and no one had +settled down long enough to know the people or do much good in visiting +them. My Lady, as they all called Lady Jane, was as sorry as any one +could be, and she tried what she could do by paying a very good school- +master and mistress, and giving plenty of rewards; but nothing could be +like the constant care of a real good clergyman, and the people were all +the worse for the want. They had the church to go to, but it was not +brought home to them. The Rector had been obliged at last to go abroad, +one of the Ragglesford gentlemen had performed the service for the +ensuing Sundays, until now there seemed to be a chance that this new +clergyman was coming to stay. + +This interested Alfred less than his sister. His curiosity was chiefly +about the strange lad; and when he was moved to his place by the window +he turned his eyes anxiously to make him out in the line of hay-makers, +two fields off, as they shook out the grass to give it the day's +sunshine. He knew them all, the ten women, with their old straw bonnets +poked down over their faces, and deep curtains sewn on behind to guard +their necks; the farm men come in from their other work to lend a hand, +three or four boys, among whom he could see Harold's white shirt sleeves, +and sometimes hear his merry laugh, and he was working next to the figure +in brown faded-looking tattered array, which Alfred suspected to belong +to the strange boy. So did Ellen. 'Ah!' she said, 'Harold ye scraped +acquaintance with that vagabond-looking boy; I wish I had warned him +against it, but I suppose he would only have done it all the more.' + +'You want to make friends with him yourself, Ellen! We shall have you +nodding to him next! You are as curious about him as can be!' said +Alfred slyly. + +'Me! I never was curious about nothing so insignificant,' said Ellen. +'All I wish is, that that boy may not be running into bad company.' + +The hay-fields were like an entertainment on purpose for Alfred all day; +he watched the shaking of the brown grass all over the meadows in the +morning, and the farmer walking over it, and smelling it, and spying up +to guess what would come of the great rolling towers of grey clouds edged +with pearly white, soft but dazzling, which varied the intense blue of +the sky. + +Then he watched all the company sit or lie down on the shady side of the +hedge, under the pollard-willows, and Tom Boldre the shuffler and one or +two more go into the farm-house, and come out with great yellow-ware with +pies in them, and the little sturdy-looking kegs of beer, and two mugs to +go round among them all. There was Harold lying down, quite at his ease, +close to the strange boy; Alfred knew how much better that dinner would +taste to him than the best with the table-cloth neatly spread in his +mother's kitchen; and well did Alfred remember how much more enjoyment +there was in such a meal as that, than in any one of the dainties that my +Lady sent down to tempt his sickly appetite. And what must pies and beer +be to the wanderer who had eaten the crust so greedily the day before! +Then, after the hour's rest, the hay-makers rose up to rake the hay into +beds ready for the waggons. Harold and the stranger were raking opposite +to each other, and Alfred could see them talking; and when they came into +the nearer hay-field, he saw Harold put up his hand, and point to the +open window, as if he were telling the other lad about the sick boy who +was lying there. + +He was so much absorbed in thus watching, that he did not pay much heed +to what interested his mother and sister--the reports which came by every +customer about the new clergyman, who, it appeared, had been staying in +the next parish till yesterday, when he had moved into the Rectory; and +Mrs. Bonham, the butcher's wife, reported that the Rectory servants said +he was come to stay till their master came back. All this and much more +Mrs. King heard and rehearsed to Ellen, while Alfred lay, sometimes +reading the 'Swiss Robinson,' sometimes watching the loading of the +wains, as they creaked slowly through the fields, the horses seeming to +enjoy the work, among their fragrant provender, as much as the human +kind. When five o'clock struck, Harold gave no signs of quitting the +scene of action; and Mrs. King, in much anxiety lest the letters should +be late, sent Helen to get the pony ready, while she herself went into +the field to call the boy. + +Very unwilling he was to come--he shook his shoulders, and growled and +grumbled, and said he should be in plenty of time, and he wished the post +was at the bottom of the sea. Nothing but his mother's orders and the +necessity of the case could have made him go at all. At last he walked +off, as if he had lead in his feet, muttering that he wished he had not +some one to be always after him. Mrs. King looked at the grimy face of +his disreputable-looking companion, and wondered whether he had put such +things into his head. + +Very cross was Harold as he twitched the bridle out of Ellen's hand, +threw the strap of the letter-bag round his neck, and gave such a +re-echoing switch to the poor pony, that Alfred heard it up-stairs, and +started up to call out, 'For shame, Harold!' + +Harold was ashamed: he settled himself in the saddle and rode off, but +Alfred had not the comfort of knowing that his ill-humour was not being +vented upon the poor beast all the way to Elbury. Alfred had given a +great deal of his heart to that pony, and it made him feel helpless and +indignant to think that it was ill-used. Those tears of which he was +ashamed came welling up into his eyes as he lay back on his pillow; but +they were better tears than yesterday's--they were not selfish. + +'Never mind, Alfy,' said Ellen, 'Harold's not a cruel lad; he'll not go +on, if he was cross for a bit. It is all that he's mad after that boy +there! I wish mother had never let him go into the hay-field to meet bad +company! Depend upon it, that boy has run away out of a Reformatory! +Sleeping out at night! I can't think how Farmer Shepherd could encourage +him among honest folk!' + +'Well, now I think of it, I should not wonder if he had,' said Mrs. King. +'He is the dirtiest boy that ever I did see! Most likely; I wish he may +do no mischief to-night!' + +Harold came home in better humour, but a fresh vexation awaited him. Mrs. +King would not let him go to the hay-home supper in the barn. The men +were apt to drink too much and grow riotous; and with her suspicions +about his new friend, she thought it better to keep him apart. She was a +spirited woman, who would be minded, and Harold knew he must submit, and +that he had behaved very ill. Ellen told him too how much Alfred had +been distressed about the pony, and though he would not shew her that he +cared, it made him go straight up-stairs, and with a somewhat sheepish +face, say, 'I say, Alf, the pony's all right. I only gave him one cut to +get him off. He'd never go at all if he didn't know his master.' + +'He'd go fast enough for my voice,' said Alfred. + +'You know I'd never go for to beat him,' continued Harold; 'but it was +enough to vex a chap--wasn't it?--to have Mother coming and lugging one +off from the carrying, and away from the supper and all. Women always +grudge one a bit of fun!' + +'Mother never grudged us cricket, nor nothing in reason,' said Alfred. +'Lucky you that could make hay at all! And what made you so taken up +with that new boy that Ellen runs on against, and will have it he's a +convict?' + +'A convict! if Ellen says that again!' cried Harold; 'no more a convict +than she is.' + +'What is he, then? Where does he come from?' + +'His name is Paul Blackthorn,' said Harold; 'and he's the queerest chap I +ever came across. Why, he knew no more what to do with a prong than the +farmer's old sow till I shewed him.' + +'But where did he come from?' repeated Alfred. + +'He walked all the way from Piggot's turnpike yesterday,' said Harold. +'He's looking for work.' + +'And before that?' + +'He'd been in the Union out--oh! somewhere, I forgot where, but it's a +name in the Postal Guide.' + +'Well, but you've not said who he is,' said Ellen. + +'Who? why, I tell you, he's Paul Blackthorn.' + +'But I suppose he had a father and mother,' said Ellen. + +'No,' said Harold. + +'No!' Ellen and Alfred cried out together. + +'Not as ever he heard tell of,' said Harold composedly, as if this were +quite natural and common. + +'And you could go and be raking with him like born brothers there!' said +Ellen, in horror. + +'D'ye think I'd care for stuff like that?' said Harold. 'Why, he +sings--he sings better than Jack Lyte! He's learnt to sing, you know. +And he's such a comical fellow! he said Mr. Shepherd was like a big pig +on his hind legs; and when Mrs. Shepherd came out to count the scraps +after we had done, what does he do but whisper to me to know how long our +withered cyder apples had come to life!' + +Such talents for amusing others evidently far out-weighed in Harold's +consideration such trifling points as fathers, mothers, and +respectability. Alfred laughed; but Ellen thought it no laughing matter, +and reproved Harold for being wicked enough to hear his betters made game +of. + +'My betters!' said Harold--'an old skinflint like Farmer Shepherd's old +woman?' + +'Hush, Harold! I'll tell Mother of you, that I will!' cried Ellen. + +'Do then,' said Harold, who knew his sister would do no such thing. She +had made the threat too often, and then not kept her word. + +She contented herself with saying, 'Well, all I know is, that I'm sure +now he has run away out of prison, and is no better than a thief; and if +our place isn't broken into before to-morrow morning, and Mother's silver +sugar-tongs gone, it will be a mercy. I'm sure I shan't sleep a wink all +night.' + +Both boys laughed, and Alfred asked why he had not done it last night. + +'How should I know?' said Ellen. 'Most likely he wanted to see the way +about the place, before he calls the rest of the gang.' + +'Take care, Harold! it's a gang coming now,' said Alfred, laughing again. +'All coming on purpose to steal the sugar-tongs!' + +'No, I'll tell you what they are come to steal,' said Harold +mischievously; 'it's all for Ellen's fine green ivy-leaf brooch that +Matilda sent her!' + +'I dare say Harold has been and told him everything valuable in the +house!' said Ellen. + +'I think,' said Alfred gravely, 'it would be a very odd sort of thief to +come here, when the farmer's ploughing cup is just by.' + +'Yes,' said Harold, 'I'd better have told him of that when I was about +it; don't you think so, Nelly?' + +'If you go on at this rate,' said Ellen, teased into anger, 'you'll be +robbing the post-office yourself some day.' + +'Ay! and I'll get Paul Blackthorn to help me,' said the boy. 'Come, +Ellen, don't be so foolish; I tell you he's every bit as honest as I am, +I'd go bail for him.' + +'And I _know_ he'll lead you to ruin!' cried Ellen, half crying: 'a boy +that comes from nowhere and nobody knows, and sleeps on a hay-cock all +night, no better than a mere tramp!' + +'What, quarrelling here? 'said Mrs. King, coming up-stairs. 'The lad, I +wish him no ill, I'm sure, but he'll be gone by to-morrow, so you may +hold your tongues about him, and we'll read our chapter and go to bed.' + +Harold's confidence and Ellen's distrust were not much wiser the one than +the other. Which was nearest being right? + + + + +CHAPTER III--A NEW FRIEND + + +The post-office was not robbed that night, neither did the silver sugar- +tongs disappear, though Paul Blackthorn was no farther off than the hay- +loft at Farmer Shepherd's, where he had obtained leave to sleep. + +But he did not go away with morning, though the hay-making was over. +Ellen saw him sitting perched on the empty waggon, munching his +breakfast, and to her great vexation, exchanging nods and grins when +Harold rode by for the morning's letters; and afterwards, there was a +talk between him and the farmer, which ended in his having a hoe put into +his hand, and being next seen in the turnip-field behind the farm. + +To make up for the good day, this one was a very bad one with poor +Alfred. There was thunder in the air, and if the sultry heat weighed +heavily even on the healthy, no wonder it made him faint and exhausted, +disposed to self-pity, and terribly impatient and fretful. He was +provoked by Ellen's moving about the room, and more provoked by Harold's +whistling as he cleaned out the stable; and on the other hand, Harold was +petulant at being checked, and vowed there was no living in the house +with Alfred making such a work. Moreover, Alfred was restless, and +wanted something done for him every moment, interrupting Ellen's work, +and calling his mother up from her baking so often for trifles, that she +hardly knew how to get through it. + +The doctor, Mr. Blunt, came, and he too felt the heat, having spent hours +in going his rounds in the closeness and dust. He was a rough man, and +his temper did not always hold out; he told Alfred sharply that he would +have no whining, and when the boy moaned and winced more than he would +have done on a good day, he punished him by not trying to be +tender-handed. When Mrs. King said, perhaps a little lengthily, how much +the boy had suffered that morning, the doctor, wearied out, no doubt, +with people's complaints, cut her short rather rudely, 'Ay, ay, my good +woman, I know all that.' + +'And can nothing be done, Sir, when he feels so sinking and weak?' + +'Sinking--he must feel sinking--nothing to do but to bear it,' said Mr. +Blunt gruffly, as he prepared to go. 'Don't keep me now;' and as Alfred +held up his hand, and made some complaint of the tightness of the +bandage, he answered impatiently, 'I've no time for that, my lad; keep +still, and be glad you've nothing worse to complain of.' + +'Then you don't think he is getting any better, Sir?' said Mrs. King, +keeping close to him. 'I thought he was yesterday, and I wanted to speak +to you. My oldest daughter thought if we could get him away to the sea, +and--' + +'That's all nonsense,' said the hurried doctor; 'don't you spend your +money in that way; I tell you nothing ever will do him any good.' + +This was at the bottom of the stairs; and Mr. Blunt was off. He was the +cleverest doctor for a good way round, and it was not easy to Mrs. King +to secure his attendance. Her savings and Matilda's were likely to melt +away sadly in paying him, since she was just too well off to be doctored +at the parish expense, and he was really a good and upright man, though +wanting in softness of manner when he was hurried and teased. If Mrs. +King had known that he was in haste to get to a child with a bad burn, +she might have thought him less unkind in the short ungentle way in which +he dashed her hopes. Alas! there had never been much hope; but she +feared that Alfred might have heard, and have been shocked. + +Ellen heard plainly enough, and her heart sank. She tried to look at her +brother's face, but he had put it out of sight, and spoke not a word; and +she only could sit wondering what was the real drift of the cruel words, +and whether the doctor meant to give no hope of recovery, or only to +dissuade her mother from vainly trying change of air. Her once bright +brother always thus! It was a sad thought, and yet she would have been +glad to know he would be no worse; and Ellen's heart was praying with all +her might that he might have his health and happiness restored to him, +and that her mother might be spared this bitter sorrow. + +Alfred said nothing about the doctor's visit, but he could eat no dinner, +and did not think this so much the fault of his sickly taste, as of his +mother's potato-pie; he could not think why she should be so cross as to +make that thing, when she knew he hated it; and as to poor Harold, Alfred +would hardly let him speak or stir, without ordering Ellen down to tell +him not to make such a row. + +Ellen was thankful when Harold was fairly hunted out of the house and +garden, even though he betook himself to the meadow, where Paul +Blackthorn was lying on the grass with his feet kicking in the air, and +shewing the skin through his torn shoes. The two lads squatted down on +the grass with their heads together. Who could tell what mischief that +runaway might be putting into Harold's head, and all because Alfred could +not bear with him enough for him to be happy at home? + +They were so much engrossed, that it needed a rough call from the farmer +to send Paul back to his work when the dinner-hour was over; whereupon +Harold came slowly to his digging again. + +Hotter and hotter did it grow, and the grey dull clouds began to gain a +yellow lurid light in the distance; there were low growlings of thunder +far away, and Ellen left her work unfinished, and forgot how hot she was +herself in toiling to fan Alfred, so as to keep him in some little degree +cooler, while the more he strove with the heat, the more oppressed and +miserable he grew. + +Poor fellow! his wretchedness was not so much the heat, as the dim +perception of Mr. Blunt's hasty words; he had not heard them fully--he +dared not inquire what they had been, and he could not endure to face +them--yet the echo of 'nothing will ever do him good,' seemed to ring +like a knell in his ears every time he turned his weary head. Nothing do +him good! Nothing! Always these four walls, that little bed, this +wasting weary lassitude, this gnawing, throbbing pain, no pony, no +running, no shouting, no sense of vigour and health ever again, and +perhaps--that terrible perhaps, which made Alfred's very flesh quail, he +would not think of; and to drive it away, he found some fresh toil to +require of the sister who could not content him, toil as she would. + +Slowly the afternoon hours rolled on, one after the other, and Alfred had +just been in a pet with the clock for striking four when he wanted it to +be five, when the sky grew darker, and one or two heavy drops of rain +came plashing down on the thirsty earth. + +'The storm is coming at last, and now it will be cooler,' said Ellen, +looking out from the window. 'Dear me!' she added, there stopping short. + +'What?' asked Alfred. 'What are you gaping at?' + +'I declare!' cried Ellen, 'it's the new clergyman! It is Mr. Cope, and +he is coming up to the wicket!' + +Alfred turned his head with a peevish sound; he was in the dreary mood to +resent whatever took off attention from him for a moment. + +'A very pleasant-looking gentleman,' commented Ellen, 'and so young! He +does not look older than Charles Lawrence! I wonder whether he is coming +in, or if it is only to post a letter. Oh! there he is, talking to +Mother! There!' + +A vivid flash of lightning came over the room at that moment and made +them all pause till it was followed up by the deep rumble of the thunder, +and then down rushed the rain, plashing and leaping up again, bringing +out the delicious scent from the earth, and seeming in one moment to +breathe refreshment and relief on the sick boy. His brow was already +clearing, as he listened to his mother's tones of welcome, as she was +evidently asking the stranger to sit down and wait for the storm to be +over, and the cheerful voice that replied to her. He did not scold Ellen +for, as usual, making things neat; and whereas, five minutes sooner, he +would have hated the notion of any one coming near him, he now only hoped +that his mother would bring Mr. Cope up; and presently he heard the well- +known creak of the stairs under a manly foot, and his mother's voice +saying something about 'a great sufferer, Sir.' + +Then came in sight his mother's white cap, and behind her one of the most +cheerful lively faces that Alfred had ever beheld. The new Curate looked +very little more than a boy, with a nice round fresh rosy face, and curly +brown hair, and a quick joyous eye, and regular white teeth when he +smiled that merry good-humoured smile. Indeed, he was as young as a +deacon could be, and he looked younger. He knocked his tall head against +the top of the low doorway as he came into the room, and answered Mrs. +King's apologies with a pleasant laugh. Ellen knew her mother would like +him the better for his height, for no one since the handsome coachman +himself had had to bend his head to get into the room. Alfred liked the +looks of him the first moment, and by way of salutation put up one of his +weary, white, blue-veined hands to pull his damp forelock; but Mr. Cope, +nodding in answer to Ellen's curtsey, took hold of his hand at once, and +softening the cheery voice that was so pleasant to hear, said, 'Well, my +boy, I hope we shall be good friends. And what's your name?' + +'Alfred King, Sir,' was the answer. It really was quite a pleasure not +to begin with the old weary subject of being pitied for his illness. + +'King Alfred!' said Mr. Cope. 'I met King Harold yesterday. I've got +into royal company, it seems!' + +Alfred smiled, it was said so drolly; but his mother, who felt a little +as if she were being laughed at, said, 'Why, Sir, my brother's name was +Alfred; and as to Harold, it was to please Miss Jane's little sister that +died--she was quite a little girl then, Sir, but so clever, and she would +have him named out of her History of England.' + +'Did Miss Selby give you those flowers?' said Mr. Cope, admiring the rose +and geranium in the cup on the table. + +'Yes, Sir;' and Mrs. King launched out in the praises of Miss Jane and of +my Lady, an inexhaustible subject which did not leave Alfred much time to +speak, till Mrs. King, seeing the groom from the Park coming with the +letter-bag through the rain, asked Mr. Cope to excuse her, and went down- +stairs. + +'Well, Alfred, I think you are a lucky boy,' he said. 'I was comparing +you with a lad I once knew of, who got his spine injured, and is laid up +in a little narrow garret, in a back street, with no one to speak to all +day. I don't know what he would not give for a sister, and a window like +this, and a Miss Jane.' + +Alfred smiled, and said, 'Please, Sir, how old is he?' + +'About sixteen; a nice stout lad he was, as ever I knew, till his +accident; I often used to meet him going about with his master, and +thought it was a pleasure to meet such a good-humoured face.' + +Alfred ventured to ask his trade, and was told he was being brought up to +wait on his father, who was a bricklayer, but that a ladder had fallen +with him as he was going up with a heavy load, and he had been taken at +once to the hospital. The house on which he was employed belonged to a +friend of Mr. Cope, and all in the power of this gentleman had been done +for him, but that was not much, for it was one of the families that no +one can serve; the father drank, and the mother was forced to be out +charing all day, and was so rough a woman, that she could hardly be much +comfort to poor Jem when she was at home. + +Alfred was quite taken up with the history by this time, and kept looking +at Mr. Cope, as if he would eat it up with his eager eyes. Ellen asked +compassionately who did for the poor boy all day. + +'His mother runs in at dinner-time, if she is not at work too far off, +and he has a jug of water and a bit of bread where he can reach them; the +door is open generally, so that he can call to some of the other lodgers, +but though the house is as full as a bee-hive, often nobody hears him. I +believe his great friend is a little school-girl, who comes and sits by +him, and reads to him if she can; but she is generally at school, or else +minding the children.' + +'It must be very lonely,' said Alfred, perceiving for the first time that +there could be people worse off than himself; 'but has he no books to +read?' + +'He was so irregularly sent to school, that he could not read to himself, +even if his corner were not so dark, and the window so dingy. My friend +gave him a Bible, but he could not get on with it; and his mother, I am +sorry to say, pawned it.' + +Ellen and Alfred both cried out as if they had never heard of anything so +shocking. + +'It was grievous,' said Mr. Cope; 'but the poor things did not know the +value, and when there was scarcely a morsel of bread in the house, there +was cause enough for not judging them hardly, but I don't think Jem would +allow it now. He got some of his little friend's easy Scripture lessons +and the like, in large print, which he croons over as he lies there +alone, till one feels sure that they are working into his heart. The +people in the house say that though he has been ill these three years, he +has never spoken an ill-tempered word; and if any one pities him, he +answers, "It is the Lord," and seems to wish for no change. He lies +there between dozing and dreaming and praying, and always seems content.' + +'Does he think he shall get well?' said Alfred, who had been listening +earnestly. + +'Oh no; there is no chance of that; it is an injury past cure. But I +suppose that while he bears the Will of God so patiently here, his +Heavenly Father makes it up to him in peacefulness of heart now, and the +hope of what is to come hereafter.' + +Alfred made no answer, but his eyes shewed that he was thinking; and Mr. +Cope rose, and looked out of window, as a gleam of sunshine, while the +dark cloud lifted up from the north-west, made the trees and fields glow +with intense green against the deep grey of the sky, darker than ever +from the contrast. Ellen stood up, and Alfred exclaimed, 'Oh Sir, please +come again soon!' + +'Very soon,' said Mr. Cope good-humouredly; 'but you've not got rid of me +yet, the rain is pretty hard still, and I see the beggarmen dancing all +down the garden-walk.' + +Alfred and Ellen smiled to hear their mother's old word for the drops +splashing up again; and Mr. Cope went on: + +'The garden looks very much refreshed by this beautiful shower. It is in +fine order. Is it the other monarch's charge?' + +'Harold's, Sir,' said Ellen. 'Yes, he takes a great pride in it, and so +did Alfred when he was well.' + +'Ah, I dare say; and it must be pleasant to you to see your brother +working in it now. I see him under that shed, and who is that lad with +him? They seem to have some good joke together.' + +'Oh,' said Ellen, 'Harold likes company, you see, Sir, and will take up +with anybody. I wish you could be so good as to speak to him, Sir, for +lads of that age don't mind women folk, you see, Sir.' + +'What? I hope his majesty does not like bad company?' said Mr. Cope, not +at all that he thought lightly of such an evil, but it was his way to +speak in that droll manner, especially as Ellen's voice was a little bit +peevish. + +'Nobody knows no harm of the chap,' said Alfred, provoked at Ellen for +what he thought unkindness in setting the clergyman at once on his +brother; but Ellen was the more displeased, and exclaimed: + +'Nor nobody knows no good. He's a young tramper that hired with Farmer +Shepherd yesterday, a regular runaway and reprobate, just out of prison, +most likely.' + +'Well, I hope not so bad as that,' said Mr. Cope, 'he's not a bad-looking +boy; but I dare say you are anxious about your brother. It must be dull +for him, to have his companion laid up;--and by the looks of him, I dare +say his spirits are sometimes too much for you,' he added, turning to +Alfred. + +'He does make a terrible racket sometimes,' said Alfred. + +'Ay, and I dare say you will try to bear with it, and not drive him out +to seek dangerous company,' said Mr. Cope; at which Alfred blushed a +little, as he remembered the morning, and that he had never thought of +this danger. + +Mr. Cope added, 'I think I shall go and talk to those two merry fellows; +I must not tire you, my lad, but I will soon come here again;' and he +took leave. + +Heartily did Ellen exclaim, 'Well, that is a nice gentleman!' and as +heartily did Alfred reply. He felt as if a new light had come in on his +life, and Mr. Cope had not said one word about patience. + +Ellen expected Mr. Cope to come back and warn her mother against Paul +Blackthorn, but she only saw him stand talking to the two lads till he +made them both grin again, and then as the rain was over, he walked away; +Paul went back to his turnips, and Harold came thundering up-stairs in +his great shoes. Alfred was cheerful, and did not mind him now; but +Ellen did, and scolded him for the quantity of dirt he was bringing up +with him from the moist garden, which was all one steam of sweet smells, +as the sun drew up the vapour after the rain. + +'If you were coming in, you'd better have come out of the rain, not stood +idling there with that good-for-nothing lad. The new minister said he +would be after you if you were taking up with bad company.' + +'Who told you I was with bad company?' said Harold. + +'Why, I could see it! I hope he rebuked you both.' + +'He asked us if we could play at cricket--and he asked the pony's name,' +said Harold, 'if that's what you call rebuking us!' + +'And what did he say to that boy?' + +'Oh! he told him he heard he was a stranger here, like himself, and asked +how long he'd been here, and where he came from.' + +'And what did he say?' + +'He said he was from Upperscote Union--come out because he was big enough +to keep himself, and come to look for work,' said Harold. 'He's a right +good chap, I'll tell you, and I'll bring him up to see Alfy one of these +days!' + +'Bring up that dirty boy! I should like to see you!' cried Ellen, making +_such_ a face. 'I don't believe a word of his coming out of the Union. +I'm sure he's run away out of gaol, by the look of him!' + +'Ellen--Harold--come down to your tea!' called Mrs. King. + +So they went down; and presently, while Mrs. King was gone up to give +Alfred his tea, there came Mrs. Shepherd bustling across, with her black +silk apron thrown over her cap with the crimson gauze ribbons. She +wanted a bit of tape, and if there were none in the shop, Harold must +match it in Elbury when he took the letters. + +Ellen was rather familiar with Mrs. Shepherd, because she made her gowns, +and they had some talk about the new clergyman. Mrs. Shepherd did not +care for clergymen much; if she had done so, she might not have been so +hard with her labourers. She was always afraid of their asking her to +subscribe to something or other, so she gave it as her opinion, that she +should never think it worth while to listen to such a very young man as +that, and she hoped he would not stay; and then she said, 'So your +brother was taking up with that come-by-chance lad, I saw. Did he make +anything out of him?' + +'He fancies him more than I like, or Mother either,' said Ellen. 'He +says he's out of Upperscote Union; but he's a thorough impudent one, and +owns he's no father nor mother, nor nothing belonging to him. I think it +is a deal more likely that he is run away from some reformatory, or +prison.' + +'That's just what I said to the farmer!' said Mrs. Shepherd. 'I said he +was out of some place of that sort. I'm sure it's a sin for the +gentlemen to be setting up such places, raising the county rates, and +pampering up a set of young rogues to let loose on us. Ay! ay! I'll +warrant he's a runaway thief! I told the farmer he'd take him to his +sorrow, but you see he is short of hands just now, and the men are so set +up and grabbing, I don't know how farmers is to live.' + +So Mrs. Shepherd went away grumbling, instead of being thankful for the +beautiful crop of hay, safely housed, before the thunder shower which had +saved the turnips from the fly. + +Ellen might have doubted whether she had done right in helping to give +the boy a bad name, but just then in came the ostler from the Tankard +with some letters. + +'Here!' he said, 'here's one from one of the gentlemen lodging here +fishing, to Cayenne. You'll please to see how much there is to pay.' + +Ellen looked at her Postal Guide, but she was quite at a fault, and she +called up-stairs to Alfred to ask if he knew where she should look for +Cayenne. He was rather fond of maps, and knew a good deal of geography +for a boy of his age, but he knew nothing about this place, and she was +just thinking of sending back the letter, to ask the gentleman where it +was, when a voice said: + +'Try Guiana, or else South America.' + +She looked up, and there were Paul's dirty face and dirtier elbows, +leaning over the half-door of the shop. + +'Why, how do you know?' she said, starting back. + +'I learnt at school, Cayenne, capital of French Guiana.' Sure enough +Cayenne had Guiana to it in her list, and the price was found out. + +But when this learned geographer advanced into the shop, and asked for a +loaf, what a hand and what a sleeve did he stretch out! Ellen scarcely +liked to touch his money, and felt all her disgust revive. But, for all +that, and for all her fear of Harold's running into mischief, what +business had she to set it about that the stranger was an escaped +convict? + +Meanwhile, Alfred had plenty of food for dreaming over his fellow +sufferer. It really seemed to quiet him to think of another in the same +case, and how many questions he longed to have asked Mr. Cope! He wanted +to know whether it came easier to Jem to be patient than to himself; +whether he suffered as much wearing pain; whether he grieved over the +last hope of using his limbs; and above all, the question he knew he +never could bear to ask, whether Jem had the dread of death to scare his +thoughts, though never confessed to himself. + +He longed for Mr. Cope's next visit, and felt strongly drawn towards that +thought of Jem, yet ashamed to think of himself as so much less patient +and submissive; so little able to take comfort in what seemed to soothe +Jem, that it was the Lord's doing. Could Jem think he had been a wicked +boy, and take it as punishment? + + + + +CHAPTER IV--PAUL BLACKTHORN + + +'I say,' cried Harold, running up into his brother's room, as soon as he +had put away the pony, 'do you know whether Paul is gone?' + +'It is always Paul, Paul!' exclaimed Ellen; 'I'm sure I hope he is.' + +'But why do you think he would be?' asked Alfred. + +'Oh, didn't you hear? He knows no more than a baby about anything, and +so he turned the cows into Darnel meadow, and never put the hurdle to +stop the gap--never thinking they could get down the bank; so the farmer +found them in the barley, and if he did not run out against him downright +shameful--though Paul up and told him the truth, that 'twas nobody else +that did it.' + +'What, and turned him off?' + +'Well, that's what I want to know,' said Harold, going on with his tea. +'Paul said to me he didn't know how he could stand the like of that--and +yet he didn't like to be off--he'd taken a fancy to the place, you see, +and there's me, and there's old Caesar--and so he said he wouldn't go +unless the farmer sent him off when he came to be paid this evening--and +old Skinflint has got him so cheap, I don't think he will.' + +'For shame, Harold; don't call names!' + +'Well, there he is,' said Alfred, pointing into the farm-yard, towards +the hay-loft door. This was over the cow-house in the gable end; and in +the dark opening sat Paul, his feet on the top step of the ladder, and +Caesar, the yard-dog, lying by his side, his white paws hanging down over +the edge, his sharp white muzzle and grey prick ears turned towards his +friend, and his eyes casting such appealing looks, that he was getting +more of the hunch of bread than probably Paul could well spare. + +'How has he ever got the dog up the ladder?' cried Harold. + +'Well!' said Mrs. King, 'I declare he looks like a picture I have seen--' + +'Well, to be sure! who would go for to draw a picture of the like of +that!' exclaimed Ellen, pausing as she put on her things to carry home +some work. + +'It was a picture of a Spanish beggar-boy,' said Mrs. King; 'and the +housekeeper at Castlefort used to say that the old lord--that's Lady +Jane's brother--had given six hundred pounds for it.' + +Ellen set out on her walk with a sound of wonder quite beyond words. Six +hundred pounds for a picture like Paul Blackthorn! She did not know that +so poor and feeble are man's attempts to imitate the daily forms and +colourings fresh from the Divine Hand, that a likeness of the very +commonest sight, if represented with something of its true spirit and +life, wins a strange value, especially if the work of the great master- +artists of many years ago. + +And even the painter Murillo himself, though he might pleasantly recall +on his canvas the notion of the bright-eyed, olive-tinted lad, resting +after the toil of the day, could never have rendered the free lazy smile +on his face, nor the gleam of the dog's wistful eyes and quiver of its +eager ears, far less the glow of setting sunlight that shed over all that +warm, clear, ruddy light, so full of rest and cheerfulness, beautifying, +as it hid, so many common things: the thatched roof of the barn, the +crested hayrick close beside it; the waggons, all red and blue, that had +brought it home, and were led to rest, the horses drooping their meek +heads as they cooled their feet among the weed in the dark pond;--the +ducks moving, with low contented quacks and quickly-wagging tails, in one +long single file to their evening foraging in the dewy meadows; the +spruce younger poultry pecking over the yard, staying up a little later +than their elders to enjoy a few leavings in peace, free from the +persecutions of the cross old king of the dung-hill;--all this left in +shade, while the ruddy light had mounted to the roofs, gave brilliance to +every round tuft of moss, and gleamed on the sober foliage of the old +spreading walnut tree. + +'Poor lad,' said Mrs. King, 'it seems a pity he should come to such a +rough life, when he seems to have got such an education! I hope he is +not run away from anywhere.' + +'You're as bad as Ellen, mother,' cried Harold, 'who will have it that +he's out of prison.' + +'No, not that,' said Mrs. King; 'but it did cross me whether he could +have run away from school, and if his friends were in trouble for him.' + +'He never had any friends,' said Harold, 'nor he never ran away. He's +nothing but a foundling. They picked him up under a blackthorn bush when +he was a baby, with nothing but a bit of an old plaid shawl round him.' + +'Did they ever know who he belonged to?' asked Alfred. + +'Never; nor he doesn't care if they don't, for sure they could be no +credit to him; but they that found him put him into the Union, and there +an old woman, that they called Granny Moll, took to him. She had but one +eye, he says; but, Mother, I do believe he never had another friend like +her, for he got to pulling up the bits of grass, and was near crying when +he said she was dead and gone, and then he didn't care for nothing.' + +'But who taught him about Cayenne?' asked Alfred. + +'Oh, that was the Union School. All the children went to school, and +they had a terrible sharp master, who used to cut them over the head +quite cruel, and was sent away at last for being such a savage; but Paul +being always there, and having nothing else to do, you see, got on ever +so far, and can work sums in his head downright wonderful. There came an +inspector once who praised him up, and said he'd recommend him to a place +where he'd be taught to be a school-master, if any one would pay the +cost; but the guardians wouldn't hear of it at no price, and were quite +spiteful to find he was a good scholar, for fear, I suppose, that he'd +know more than they.' + +'Hush, hush, Harold,' said his mother; 'wait till you have to pay the +rates before you run out against the guardians.' + +'What do you mean, Mother?' + +'Why, don't you see, the guardians have their duties to those who pay the +rates, as well as those that have parish pay. What they have to do, is +to mind that nobody starves, or the like; and their means comes out of +the rates, out of my pocket, and the like of me, as well as my Lady's and +all the rich. Well, whatever they might like to do, it would not be +serving us fairly to take more than was a bare necessity from us, to send +your Master Paul and the like of him to a fine school. 'Tis for them to +be just, and other folk to be generous with what's their own.' + +'Mother talks as if she was a guardian herself!' said Alfred in his funny +way. + +'Ah, the collector's going his rounds,' responded Harold; and Mrs. King +laughed good-humouredly, always glad to see her sick boy able to enjoy +himself; but she sighed, saying, 'Ay, and ill can I spare it, though +thanks be to God that I've been as yet of them that pay, and not of them +that receive.' + +'Go on the parish! Mother, what are you thinking of?' cried both sons +indignantly. + +Poor Mrs. King was thinking of the long winter, and the heavy doctor's +bill, and feeling that, after all, suffering and humbling might not be so +very far off; but she was too cheerful and full of trust to dwell on the +thought, so she smiled and said, 'I only said I was thankful, boys, for +the mercy that has kept us up. Go on now, Harold; what about the boy?' + +'Why, I don't know that he'd have gone if they had paid his expenses ever +so much,' said Harold, 'for he's got a great spirit of his own, and +wouldn't be beholden to any one, he said, now he could keep himself--he'd +had quite enough of the parish and its keep; so he said he'd go on the +tramp till he got work; and they let him out of the Union with just the +clothes to his back, and a shilling in his pocket. 'Twas the first time +he had ever been let out of bounds since he was picked up under the tree; +and he said no one ever would guess the pleasure it was to have nobody to +order him here and there, and no bounds round him; and he quite hated the +notion of getting inside walls again, as if it was a prison.' + +'Oh, I know! I can fancy that!' cried Alfred, raising himself and +panting; 'and where did he go first?' + +'First, he only wanted to get as far from Upperscote as ever he could, so +he walked on; I can't say how he lived, but he didn't beg; he got a job +here and a job there; but there are not so many things he knows the knack +of, having been at school all his life. Once he took up with a man that +sold salt, to draw his cart for him, but the man swore at him so awfully +he could not bear it, and beat him too, so he left him, and he had lived +terrible hard for about a month before he came here! So you see, Mother, +there's not one bit of harm in him; he's a right good scholar, and never +says a bad word, nor has no love for drink; so you won't be like Ellen, +and be always at me for going near him?' + +'You're getting a big boy, Harold, and it is lonely for you,' said Mrs. +King reluctantly; 'and if the lad is a good lad I'd not cast up his +misfortune against him; but I must say, I should think better of him if +he would keep himself a little bit cleaner and more decent, so as he +could go to church.' + +Harold made a very queer face, and said, 'How is he to do it up in the +hay-loft, Mother? and he ha'n't got enough to pay for lodgings, nor for +washing, nor to change.' + +'The river is cheap enough,' said Alfred. 'Do you remember when we used +to bathe together, Harold, and go after the minnows?' + +'Ay, but he don't know how; and then they did plague him so in the Union, +that he's got to hate the very name of washing--scrubbing them over and +cutting their hair as if they were in gaol.' + +'Poor boy! he is terribly forsaken,' said Mrs. King compassionately. + +'You may say that!' returned Harold; 'why, he's never so much as seen how +folks live at home, and wanted to know if you were most like old Moll or +the master of the Union!' + +Alfred went into such a fit of laughter as almost hurt him; but Mrs. King +felt the more pitiful and tender towards the poor deserted orphan, who +could not even understand what a mother was like, and the tears came into +her eyes, as she said, 'Well, I'm glad he's not a bad boy. I hope he +thinks of the Father and the Home that he has above. I say, Harold, +against next Sunday I'll look out Alfred's oldest shirt for him to put +on, and you might bring me his to wash, only mind you soak it well in the +river first.' + +Harold quite flushed with gratitude for his mother's kindness, for he +knew it was no small effort in one so scrupulously and delicately clean, +and with so much work on her hands; but Mrs. King was one who did her +alms by her trouble when she had nothing else to give. Alfred smiled and +said he wondered what Ellen would say; and almost at the same moment +Harold shot down-stairs, and was presently seen standing upon Paul's +ladder talking to him; then Paul rose up as though to come down, and +there was much fun going on, as to how Caesar was to be got down; for, as +every one knows, a dog can mount a ladder far better than he can descend; +and poor Caesar stretched out his white paw, looked down, seemed to turn +giddy, whined, and looked earnestly at his friends till they took pity on +him and lifted him down between them, stretching out his legs to their +full length, like a live hand-barrow. + +A few seconds more, and there was a great trampling of feet, and then in +walked Harold, exclaiming, 'Here he is!' And there he stood, shy and +sheepish, with rusty black shag by way of hair, keen dark beads of eyes, +and very white teeth; but all the rest, face, hands, jacket, trousers, +shoes, and all, of darker or lighter shades of olive-brown; and as to the +rents, one would be sorry to have to count them; mending them would have +been a thing impossible. What a difference from the pure whiteness of +everything around Alfred! the soft pink of the flush of surprise on his +delicate cheek, and the wavy shine on his light hair. A few months ago, +Alfred would have been as ready as his brother to take that sturdy hand, +marbled as it was with dirt, and would have heeded all drawbacks quite as +little; but sickness had changed him much, and Paul was hardly beside his +couch before the colour fleeted away from his cheek, and his eye turned +to his mother in such distress, that she was obliged to make a sign to +Harold in such haste that it looked like anger, and to mutter something +about his being taken worse. And while she was holding the smelling +salts to him, and sprinkling vinegar over his couch, they heard the two +boys' voices loud under the window, Paul saying he should never come +there again, and Harold something about people being squeamish and fine. + +It hurt Alfred, and he burst out, almost crying, 'Mother! Mother, now +isn't that too bad!' + +'It is very thoughtless,' said Mrs. King sorrowfully; 'but you know +everybody has their feelings, Alfred, and I am sorry it happened so.' + +'I'm sure I couldn't help it,' said Alfred, as if his mother were turning +against him. 'Harold had better have brought up the farmer's whole +stable at once!' + +'When you were well, you did not think of such things any more than he +does.' + +Alfred grunted. He could not believe that; and he did not feel gently +when his brother shewed any want of consideration; but his mother thought +he would only grow crosser by dwelling on the unlucky subject, so she +advised him to lie still and rest before his being moved to bed, and went +down herself to finish some ironing. + +Presently Alfred saw the Curate coming over the bridge with quick long +steps, and this brought to his mind that he had been wishing to hear more +of the poor crippled boy. He watched eagerly, and was pleased to see Mr. +Cope turn in at the wicket, and presently the tread upon the stairs was +heard, and the high head was lowered at the door. + +'Good evening, Alfred; your mother told me it would not disturb you if I +came up alone;' and he began to inquire into his amusements and +occupations, till Alfred became quite at home with him, and at ease, and +ventured to ask, 'If you please, Sir, do you ever hear about Jem now?' +and as Mr. Cope looked puzzled, 'the boy you told me of, Sir, that fell +off the scaffold.' + +'Oh, the boy at Liverpool! No, I only saw him once when I was staying +with my cousin; but I will ask after him if you wish to hear.' + +'Thank you, Sir. I wanted to know if he had been a bad boy.' + +'That I cannot tell. Why do you wish to know? Was it because he had +such an affliction?' + +'Yes, Sir.' + +'I don't think that is quite the way to look at troubles,' said Mr. Cope. +'I should think his accident had been a great blessing to him, if it took +him out of temptation, and led him to think more of God.' + +'But isn't it punishment?' said Alfred, not able to get any farther; but +Mr. Cope felt that he was thinking of himself more than of Jem. + +'All our sufferings in this life come as punishment of sin,' he said. 'If +there had been no sin, there would have been no pain; and whatever we +have to bear in this life is no more than is our due, whatever it may +be.' + +'Every one is sinful,' said Alfred slowly; 'but why have some more to +bear than others that may be much worse?' + +'Did you never think it hard to be kept strictly, and punished by your +good mother?' + +Alfred answered rather fretfully, 'But if it is good to be punished, why +ain't all alike?' + +'God in His infinite wisdom sees the treatment that each particular +nature needs. Some can be better trained by joy, and some by grief; some +may be more likely to come right by being left in active health; others, +by being laid low, and having their faults brought to mind.' + +Alfred did not quite choose to take this in, and his answer was half +sulky: + +'Bad boys are quite well!' + +'And a reckoning will be asked of them. Do not think of other boys. +Think over your past life, of which I know nothing, and see whether you +can believe, after real looking into it, that you have done nothing to +deserve God's displeasure. There are other more comforting ways of +bringing joy out of pain; but of this I am sure, that none will come home +to us till we own from the bottom of our heart, that whatever we suffer +in this life, we suffer most justly for the punishment of our sins. God +bless and help you, my poor boy. Good night.' + +With these words he went down-stairs, for well he knew that while Alfred +went on to justify himself, no peace nor joy could come to him, and he +thought it best to leave the words to work in, praying in his heart that +they might do so, and help the boy to humility and submission. + +Finding Mrs. King in her kitchen, he paused and said, 'We shall have a +Confirmation in the spring, Mrs. King; shall not you have some candidates +for me?' + +'My daughter will be very glad, thank you, Sir; she is near to seventeen, +and a very good girl to me. And Harold, he is but fourteen--would he be +old enough, Sir?' + +'I believe the Bishop accepts boys as young; and he might be started in +life before another opportunity.' + +'Well, Sir, he shall come to you, and I hope you won't think him too idle +and thoughtless. He's a good-hearted boy, Sir; but it is a charge when a +lad has no father to check him.' + +'Indeed it is, Mrs. King; but I think you must have done your best.' + +'I hope I have, Sir,' she said sadly; 'I've tried, but my ability is not +much, and he is a lively lad, and I'm sometimes afraid to be too strict +with him.' + +'If you have taught him to keep himself in order, that's the great thing, +Mrs. King; if he has sound principles, and honours you, I would hope much +for him.' + +'And, Sir, that boy he has taken a fancy to; he is a poor lost lad who +never had a home, but Harold says he has been well taught, and he might +take heed to you.' + +'Thank you, Mrs. King; I will certainly try to speak to him. You said +nothing of Alfred; do you think he will not be well enough?' + +'Ah! Sir,' she said in her low subdued voice, 'my mind misgives me that +it is not for Confirmation that you will be preparing him.' + +Mr. Cope started. He had seen little of illness, and had not thought of +this. 'Indeed! does the doctor think so ill of him? Do not these cases +often partially recover?' + +'I don't know, Sir; Mr. Blunt does not give much account of him,' and her +voice grew lower and lower; 'I've seen that look in his father's and his +brother's face.' + +She hid her face in her handkerchief as if overpowered, but looked up +with the meek look of resignation, as Mr. Cope said in a broken voice, 'I +had not expected--you had been much tried.' + +'Yes, Sir. The Will of the Lord be done,' she said, as if willing to +turn aside from the dark side of the sorrow that lay in wait for her; +'but I'm thankful you are come to help my poor boy now--he frets over his +trouble, as is natural, and I'm afraid he should offend, and I'm no +scholar to know how to help him.' + +'You can help him by what is better than scholarship,' said Mr. Cope; and +he shook her hand warmly, and went away, feeling what a difference there +was in the ways of meeting affliction. + + + + +CHAPTER V--AN UNWELCOME VISITOR + + +'The axe is laid to the root of the tree,' was said by the Great +Messenger, when the new and better Covenant was coming to pierce, try, +and search into, the hearts of men. + +Something like this always happens, in some measure, whenever closer, +clearer, and more stringent views of faith and of practice are brought +home to Christians. They do not always take well the finding that more +is required of them than they have hitherto fancied needful; and there +are many who wince and murmur at the sharp piercing of the weapon which +tries their very hearts; they try to escape from it, and to forget the +disease that it has touched, and at first, often grow worse rather than +better. Well is it for them if they return while yet there is time, +before blindness have come over their eyes, and hardness over their +heart. + +Perhaps this was the true history of much that grieved poor Mrs. King, +and distressed Ellen, during the remainder of the summer. Anxious as +Mrs. King had been to bring her sons up in the right way, there was +something in Mr. Cope's manner of talking to them that brought things +closer home to them, partly from their being put in a new light, and +partly from his being a man, and speaking with a different kind of +authority. + +Alfred did not like his last conversation--it was little more than his +mother and Miss Selby had said--but then he had managed to throw it off, +and he wanted to do so again. It was pleasanter to him to think himself +hardly treated, than to look right in the face at all his faults; he knew +it was of no use to say he had none, so he lumped them all up by calling +himself a sinful creature, like every one else; and thus never felt the +weight of them at all, because he never thought what they were. + +And yet, because Mr. Cope's words had made him uneasy, he could not rest +in this state; he was out of temper whenever the Curate's name was +spoken, and accused Ellen of bothering about him as much as Harold did +about Paul Blackthorn; and if he came to see him, he made himself sullen, +and would not talk, sometimes seeming oppressed and tired, and unable to +bear any one's presence, sometimes leaving Ellen to do all the answering, +dreading nothing so much as being left alone with the clergyman. Mr. +Cope had offered to read prayers with him, and he could not refuse; but +he was more apt to be thinking that it was tiresome, than trying to enter +into what, poor foolish boy, would have been his best comfort. + +To say he was cross when Mr. Cope was there, would be saying much too +little; there was scarcely any time when he was not cross; he was hardly +civil even to Miss Jane, so that she began to think it was unpleasant to +him to have her there; and if she were a week without calling, he +grumbled hard thoughts about fine people; he was fretful and impatient +with the doctor; and as to those of whom he had no fears, he would have +been quite intolerable, had they loved him less, or had less pity on his +suffering. + +He never was pleased with anything; teased his mother half the night, and +drove Ellen about all day. She, good girl, never said one word of +impatience, but bore it all with the sweetest good humour; but her mother +now and then spoke severely for Alfred's own good, and then he made +himself more miserable than ever, and thought she was unkind and harsh, +and that he was very much to be pitied for having a mother who could not +bear with her poor sick boy. He was treating his mother as he was +treating his Father in Heaven. + +How Harold fared with him may easily be guessed--how the poor boy could +hardly speak or step without being moaned at, till he was almost turned +out of his own house; and his mother did not know what to do, for Alfred +was really very ill, and fretting made him worse, and nothing could be so +bad for his brother as being driven out from home, to spend the long +summer evenings as he could. + +Ellen would have been thankful now, had Paul Blackthorn been the worst +company into which Harold fell. Not that Paul was a bit cleaner; on the +contrary, each day could not fail to make him worse, till, as Ellen had +once said, you might almost grow a crop of radishes upon his shoulders. + +Mrs. King's kind offer of washing his shirt had come to nothing. She +asked Harold about it, and had for answer, 'Do you think he would, after +the way you served him?' + +Either he was affronted, or he was ashamed of her seeing his rags, or, +what was not quite impossible, there was no shirt at all in the case; and +he had a sturdy sort of independence about him, that made him always turn +surly at any notion of anything being done for him for charity. + +How or why he stayed on with the farmer was hard to guess, for he had +very scanty pay, and rough usage; the farmer did not like him; the +farmer's wife scolded him constantly, and laid on his shoulders all the +mischief that was done about the place; and the shuffler gave him half +his own work to do, and hunted him about from dawn till past sunset. He +was always going at the end of every week, but never gone; perhaps he had +undergone too much in his wanderings, to be ready to begin them again; or +perhaps either Caesar or Harold, one or both, kept him at Friarswood. And +there might be another reason, too, for no one had ever spoken to him +like Mr. Cope. Very few had ever thrown him a kindly word, or seemed to +treat him like a thing with feelings, and those few had been rough and +unmannerly; but Mr. Cope's good-natured smile and pleasant manner had +been a very different thing; and perhaps Paul promised to come to the +Confirmation class, chiefly because of the friendly tone in which he was +invited. + +When there, he really liked it. He had always liked what he was taught, +apart from the manner of teaching; and now both manner and lessons were +delightful to him. His answers were admirable, and it was not all head +knowledge, for very little more than a really kind way of putting it was +needed, to make him turn in his loneliness to rest in the thought of the +ever-present Father. Hard as the discipline of his workhouse home had +been, it had kept him from much outward harm; the little he had seen in +his wanderings had shocked him, and he was more untaught in evil than +many lads who thought themselves more respectable, so there was no habit +of wickedness to harden and blunt him; and the application of all he had +learnt before, found his heart ready. + +He had not gone to church since he left the workhouse: he did not think +it belonged to vagabonds like him; besides, he always felt walls like a +prison; and he had not profited much by the workhouse prayers, which were +read on week-days by the master, and on Sundays by a chaplain, who always +had more to do than he could manage, and only went to the paupers when +they were very ill. But when Mr. Cope talked to him of the duty of going +to church, he said, 'I will, Sir;' and he sat in the gallery with the +young lads, who were not quite as delicate as Alfred. + +The service seemed to rest him, and to be like being brought near a +friend; and he had been told that church might always be his home. He +took a pleasure in going thither--the more, perhaps, that he rather liked +to shew how little he cared for remarks upon his appearance. There was a +great deal of independence about him; and, having escaped from the +unloving maintenance of the parish, while he had as yet been untaught +what affection or gratitude meant, he _would_ not be beholden to any one. + +Scanty as were his wages, he would accept nothing from anybody; he daily +bought his portion of bread from Mrs. King, but it was of no use for her +to add a bit of cheese or bacon to it; he never would see the relish, and +left it behind; and so he never would accept Mr. Cope's kind offers of +giving him a bit of supper in his kitchen, perhaps because he was afraid +of being said to go to the Rectory for the sake of what he could get. + +He did not object to the farmer's beer, which was sometimes given him +when any unusual extra work had been put on him. That was his right, for +in truth the farmer did not pay him the value of his labour, and perhaps +disliked him the more, because of knowing in his conscience that this was +shameful extortion. + +However, just at harvest time, when Paul's shoes had become very like +what may be sometimes picked up by the roadside, Mr. Shepherd did +actually bestow on him a pair that did not fit himself! Harold came home +quite proud of them. + +However, on the third day they were gone, and the farmer's voice was +heard on the bridge, rating Paul violently for having changed them away +for drink. + +Mrs. King felt sorrowful; but, as Ellen said, 'What could you expect of +him?' In spite of the affront, there was a sort of acquaintance now over +the counter between Mrs. King and young Blackthorn; and when he came for +his bread, she could not help saying, 'I'm sorry to see you in those +again.' + +'Why, the others hurt me so, I could hardly get about,' said Paul. + +'Ah! poor lad, I suppose your feet has got spread with wearing those old +ones; but you should try to use yourself to decent ones, or you'll soon +be barefoot; and I do think it was a pity to drink them up.' + +'That's all the farmer, Ma'am. He thinks one can't do anything but +drink.' + +'Well, what is become of them?' + +'Why, you see, Ma'am, they just suited Dick Royston, and he wanted a pair +of shoes, and I wanted a Bible and Prayer-book, so we changed 'em.' + +When Ellen heard this, she could not help owning that Paul was a good boy +after all, though it was in an odd sort of way. But, alas! when next he +was to go to Mr. Cope, there was a hue-and-cry all over the hay-loft for +the Prayer-book. There was no place to put it safely, or if there had +been, Poor Paul was too great a sloven to think of any such thing; and as +it was in a somewhat rubbishy state to begin with, it was most likely +that one of the cows had eaten it with her hay; and all that could be +said was, that it would have been worse if it had been the Bible. + +As to Dick Royston, to find that he would change away his Bible for a +pair of shoes, made Mrs. King doubly concerned that he should be a good +deal thrown in Harold's way. There are many people who neglect their +Bibles, and do not read them; but this may be from thoughtlessness or +press of care, and is not like the wilful breaking with good, that it is +to part with the Holy Scripture, save under the most dire necessity; and +Dick was far from being in real want, nor was he ignorant, like Mr. +Cope's poor Jem, for he had been to school, and could read well; but he +was one of those many lads, who, alas! are everywhere to be found, who +break loose from all restraint as soon as they can maintain themselves. +They do their work pretty well, and are tolerably honest; but for the +rest--alas! they seem to live without God. Prayers and Church they have +left behind, as belonging to school-days; and in all their strength and +health, their days of toil, their evenings of rude diversion, their +Sundays of morning sleep, noonday basking in the sun, evening cricket, +they have little more notion of anything concerning their souls than the +horses they drive. If ever a fear comes over them, it seems a long long +way off, a whole life-time before them; they are awkward, and in dread of +one another's jeers and remarks; and if they ever wish to be better, they +cast it from them by fancying that time must steady them when they have +had their bit of fun, or that something will come from somewhere to +change them all at once, and make it easy to them to be good--as if they +were not making it harder each moment. + +This sort of lad had been utterly let alone till Mr. Cope came; and Lady +Jane and the school-master felt it was dreary work to train up nice lads +in the school, only to see them run riot, and forget all good as soon as +they thought themselves their own masters. + +Mr. Cope was anxious to do the best he could for them, and the +Confirmation made a good opportunity; but the boys did not like to be +interfered with--it made them shy to be spoken to; and they liked +lounging about much better than having to poke into that mind of theirs, +which they carried somewhere about them, but did not like to stir up. +They had no notion of going to school again--which no one wanted them to +do--nor to church, because it was like little boys; and they wouldn't be +obliged. + +So Mr. Cope made little way with them; a few who had better parents came +regularly to him, but others went off when they found it too much +trouble, and behaved worse than ever by way of shewing they did not care. +This folly had in some degree taken possession of Harold; and though he +could not be as bad as were some of the others, he was fast growing +impatient of restraint, and worried and angry, as if any word of good +advice affronted him. Driven from home by the fear of disturbing Alfred, +he was left the more to the company of boys who made him ashamed of being +ordered by his mother; and there was a jaunty careless style about all +his ways of talking and moving, that shewed there was something wrong +about him--he scorned Ellen, and was as saucy as he dared even to his +mother; and though Mr. Cope found him better instructed than most of his +scholars, he saw him quite as idle, as restless at church, and as ready +to whisper and grin at improper times, as many who had never been trained +like him. + +One August Sunday afternoon, Mrs. King was with Alfred while Ellen was at +church. He was lying on his couch, very uncomfortable and fretful, when +to the surprise of both, a knock was heard at the door. Mrs. King looked +out of the window, and a smart, hard-looking, pigeon's-neck silk bonnet +at once nodded to her, and a voice said, 'I've come over to see you, +Cousin King, if you'll come down and let me in. I knew I should find you +at home.' + +'Betsey Hardman!' exclaimed Alfred, in dismay; 'you won't let her come up +here, Mother?' + +'Not if I can help it,' said Mrs. King, sighing. If there were a thing +she disliked above all others, it was Sunday visiting. + +'You must help it, Mother,' said Alfred, in his most pettish tones. 'I +won't have her here, worrying with her voice like a hen cackling. Say +you won't let her come her!' + +'Very well,' said Mrs. King, in doubt of her own powers, and in haste to +be decently civil. + +'Say you won't,' repeated Alfred. 'Gadding about of a Sunday, and +leaving her old sick mother--more shame for her! Promise, Mother!' + +He had nearly begun to cry at his mother's unkindness in running down- +stairs without making the promise, for, in fact, Mrs. King had too much +conscience to gain present quiet for any one by promises she might be +forced to break; and Betsey Hardman was only too well known. + +Her mother was an aunt of Alfred's father, an old decrepit widow, nearly +bed-ridden, but pretty well to do, by being maintained chiefly by her +daughter, who made a good thing of taking in washing in the suburbs of +Elbury, and always had a girl or two under her. She had neither had the +education, nor the good training in service, that had fallen to Mrs. +King's lot; and her way of life did not lead to softening her tongue or +temper. Ellen called her vulgar, and though that is not a nice word to +use, she was coarse in her ways of talking and thinking, loud-voiced, and +unmannerly, although meaning to be very good-natured. + +Alfred lay in fear of her step, ten times harder than Harold's in his +most boisterous mood, coming clamp clamp! up the stairs; and her shrill +voice--the same tone in which she bawled to her deaf mother, and hallooed +to her girls when they were hanging out the clothes in the high +wind--coming pitying him--ay, and perhaps her whole weight lumbering down +on the couch beside him, shaking every joint in his body! His mother's +ways, learnt in the Selby nursery, had made him more tender, and more +easily fretted by such things, than most cottage lads, who would have +been used to them, and never have thought of not liking to have every +neighbour who chose running up into the room, and talking without regard +to subject or tone. + +He listened in a fright to the latch of the door, and the coming in. +Betsey's voice came up, through every chink of the boards, whatever she +did herself; and he could hear every word of her greeting, as she said +how it was such a fine day, she said to Mother she would take a holiday, +and come and see Cousin King and the poor lad: it must be mighty dull for +him, moped up there. + +Stump! stump! Was she coming? His mother was answering something too +soft for him to hear. + +'What, is he asleep?' + +'O Mother, must you speak the truth?' + +'Bless me! I should have thought a little cheerful company was good for +him. Do you leave him quite alone? Well--' and there was a frightful +noise of the foot of the heaviest chair on the floor. 'I'll sit down and +wait a bit! Is he so very fractious, then?' + +What was his mother saying? Alfred clenched his fist, and grinned anger +at Betsey with closed teeth. There was the tiresome old word, 'Low--ay, +so's my mother; but you should rise his spirits with company, you see; +that's why I came over; as soon as ever I heard that there wasn't no hope +of him, says I to Mother--' + +What? What was that she had heard? There was his mother, probably +trying to restrain her voice, for it came up now just loud enough to make +it most distressing to try to catch the words, which sounded like +something pitying. 'Ay, ay--just like his poor father; when they be +decliny, it will come out one ways or another; and says I to Mother, I'll +go over and cheer poor Cousin King up a bit, for you see, after all, if +he'd lived, he'd be nothing but a burden, crippled up like that; and a +lingering job is always bad for poor folks.' + +Alfred leant upon his elbow, his eyes full stretched, but feeling as if +all his senses had gone into his ears, in his agony to hear more; and he +even seemed to catch his mother's voice, but there was no hope in that; +it was of her knowing it would be all for the best; and the sadness of it +told him that she believed the same as Betsey. Then came, 'Yes; I +declare it gave me such a turn, you might have knocked me down with a +feather. I asked Mr. Blunt to come in and see what's good for Mother, +she feels so weak at times, and has such a noise in her head, just like +the regiment playing drums, she says, till she can't hardly bear herself; +and so what do you think he says? Don't wrap up her head so warm, says +he--a pretty thing for a doctor to say, as if a poor old creature like +that, past seventy years old, could go without a bit of flannel to her +head, and her three night-caps, and a shawl over them when there's a +draught. I say, Cousin, I ha'n't got much opinion of Mr. Blunt. Why +don't you get some of them boxes of pills, that does cures wonderful? +Ever so many lords and ladies cured of a perplexity fit, by only just +taking an imposing draught or two.' + +Another time Alfred would have laughed at the very imposing draught, that +was said to cure lords and ladies of this jumble between apoplexy and +paralysis; but this was no moment for laughing, and he was in despair at +fancying his mother wanted to lead her off on the quack medicine; but she +went on. + +'Well, only read the papers that come with them. I make my girl Sally +read 'em all to me, being that she's a better scholar; and the long words +is quite heavenly--I declare there ain't one of them shorter than +peregrination. I'd have brought one of them over to shew you if I hadn't +come away in a hurry, because Evans's cart was going out to the merry +orchard, and says I to Mother, Well, I'll get a lift now there's such a +chance to Friarswood: it'll do them all a bit of good to see a bit of +cheerful company, seeing, as Mr. Blunt says, that poor lad is going after +his father as fast as can be. Dear me, says I, you don't say so, such a +fine healthy-looking chap as he was. Yes, he says, but it's in the +constitution; it's getting to the lungs, and he'll never last out the +winter.' + +Alfred listened for the tone of his mother's voice; he knew he should +judge by that, even without catching the words--low, subdued, sad--he +almost thought she began with 'Yes.' + +All the rest that he heard passed by him merely as a sound, noted no more +than the lowing of the cattle, or the drone of the thrashing machine. He +lay half lifted up on his pillows, drawing his breath short with +apprehension; his days were numbered, and death was coming fast, fast, +straight upon him. He felt it within himself--he knew now the meaning of +the pain and sinking, the shortness of breath and choking of throat that +had been growing on him through the long summer days; he was being 'cut +off with pining sickness,' and his sentence had gone forth. He would +have screamed for his mother in the sore terror and agony that had come +over him, in hopes she might drive the notion from him; but the dread of +seeing her followed by that woman kept his lips shut, except for his long +gasps of breath. + +And she could not keep him--Mr. Blunt could not keep him; no one could +stay the hand that had touched him! Prayer! They had prayed for his +father, for Charlie, but it had not been God's Will. He had himself many +times prayed to recover, and it had not been granted--he was worse and +worse. + +Moreover, whither did that path of suffering lead? Up rose before Alfred +the thought of living after the unknown passage, and of answering for all +he had done; and now the faults he had refused to call to mind when he +was told of chastisement, came and stood up of themselves. Bred up to +know the good, he had not loved it; he had cared for his own pleasure, +not for God; he had not heeded the comfort of his widowed mother; he had +been careless of the honour of God's House, said and heard prayers +without minding them; he had been disrespectful and ill-behaved at my +Lady's--he had been bad in every way; and when illness came, how +rebellious and murmuring he had been, how unkind he had been to his +patient mother, sister, and brother; and when Mr. Cope had told him it +was meant to lead him to repent, he would not hear; and now it was too +late, the door would be shut. He had always heard that there was a time +when sorrow was no use, when the offer of being saved had been thrown +away. + +When Ellen came in, and after a short greeting to Betsey Hardman, went up- +stairs, she found Alfred lying back on his pillow, deadly white, the +beads of dew standing on his brow, and his breath in gasps. She would +have shrieked for her mother, but he held out his hand, and said, in a +low hoarse whisper, 'Ellen, is it true?' + +'What, Alfy dear? What is the matter?' + +'What _she_ says.' + +'Who? Betsey Hardman? Dear dear Alf, is it anything dreadful?' + +'That I shall die,' said Alfred, his eyes growing round with terror +again. 'That Mr. Blunt said I couldn't last out the winter.' + +'Dear Alfy, don't!' cried Ellen, throwing her arms round him, and kissing +him with all her might; 'don't fancy it! She's always gossiping and +gadding about, and don't know what she says, and she'd got no business to +tell stories to frighten my darling!' she exclaimed, sobbing with +agitation. 'I'm sure Mr. Blunt never said no such thing!' + +'But Mother thinks it, Ellen.' + +'She doesn't, she can't!' cried Ellen vehemently; 'I know she doesn't, or +she could never go about as she does. I'll call her up and ask her, to +satisfy you.' + +'No, no, not while that woman is there!' cried Alfred, holding her by the +dress; 'I'll not have _her_ coming up.' + +Even while he spoke, however, Mrs. King was coming. Betsey had spied an +old acquaintance on the way from church, and had popped out to speak to +her, and Mrs. King caught that moment for coming up. She understood all, +for she had been sitting in great distress, lest Alfred should be +listening to every word which she was unable to silence, and about which +Betsey was quite thoughtless. So many people of her degree would talk to +the patient about himself and his danger, and go on constantly before him +with all their fears, and the doctor's opinions, that Betsey had never +thought of there being more consideration and tenderness shewn in this +house, nor that Mrs. King would have hidden any pressing danger from the +sick person; but such plain words had not yet passed between her and Mr. +Blunt; and though she had long felt what Alfred's illness would come to, +the perception had rather grown on her than come at any particular +moment. + +Now when Ellen, with tears and agitation, asked what that Betsey had been +saying to frighten Alfred so, and when she saw her poor boy's look at +her, and heard his sob, 'Oh, Mother!' it was almost too much for her, and +she went up and kissed him, and laid him down less uneasily, but he felt +a great tear fall on his face. + +'It's not true, Mother, I'm sure it is not true,' cried Ellen; 'she +ought--' + +Mrs. King looked at her daughter with a sad sweet face, that stopped her +short, and brought the sense over her too. 'Did he say so, Mother?' said +Alfred. + +'Not to me, dear,' she answered; 'but, Ellen, she's coming back! She'll +be up here if you don't go down.' + +Poor Ellen! what would she not have given for power to listen to her +mother, and cry at her ease? But she was forced to hurry, or Betsey +would have been half-way up-stairs in another instant. She was a hopeful +girl, however, and after that 'not to me,' resolved to believe nothing of +the matter. Mrs. King knelt down by her son, and looked at him tenderly; +and then, as his eyes went on begging for an answer, she said, 'Dr. Blunt +never told me there was no hope, my dear, and everything lies in God's +power.' + +'But you don't think I shall get well, Mother?' + +'I don't feel as if you would, my boy,' she said, very low, and fondling +him all the time. 'You've got to cough like Father and Charlie, +and--though He might raise my boy up--yet anyhow, Alfy boy, if God sees +it good for us, it _will_ be good for us, and we shall be helped through +with it.' + +'But I'm not good, Mother! What will become of me?' + +'Perhaps the hearing this is all out of God's mercy, to give you time to +get ready, my dear. You are no worse now than you were this morning; you +are not like to go yet awhile. No, indeed, my child; so if you don't put +off any longer--' + +'Mother!' called up Ellen. She was in despair. Betsey was not to be +kept by her from satisfying herself upon Alfred's looks, and Mrs. King +was only in time to meet her on the stairs, and tell her that he was so +weak and low, that he could not be seen now, she could not tell how it +would be when he had had his tea. + +Ellen thought she had never had so distressing a tea-drinking in her +life, as the being obliged to sit listening civilly to Betsey's long +story about the trouble she had about a stocking of Mrs. Martin's that +was lost in the wash, and that had gone to Miss Rosa Marlowe, because +Mrs. Martin had her things marked with a badly-done K. E. M., and all +that Mrs. Martin's Maria and all Miss Marlowe's Jane had said about it, +and all Betsey's 'Says I to Mother,'--when she was so longing to be +watching poor Alfred, and how her mother could sit so quietly making tea, +and answering so civilly, she could not guess; but Mrs. King had that +sense of propriety and desire to do as she would be done by, which is the +very substance of Christian courtesy, the very want of which made Betsey, +with all her wish to be kind, a real oppression and burthen to the whole +party. + +And where was Harold? Ellen had not seen him coming out of church, but +meal-times were pretty certain to bring him home. + +'Oh,' said Betsey, 'I'll warrant he is off to the merry orchard.' + +'I hope not,' said Mrs. King gravely. + +'He never would,' said Ellen, in anger. + +'Ah, well, I always said I didn't see no harm in a lad getting a bit of +pleasure.' + +'No, indeed,' said Mrs. King. 'Harold knows I would not stint him in the +fruit nor in the pleasure, but I should be much vexed if he could go out +on a Sunday, buying and selling, among such a lot as meet at that +orchard.' + +'Well, I'm sure I don't know when poor folks is to have a holiday if not +on a Sunday, and the poor boy must be terrible moped with his brother so +ill.' + +'Not doing thine own pleasure on My holy day,' thought Ellen, but she did +not say it, for her mother could not bear for texts to be quoted at +people. But her heart was very heavy; and when she went up with some tea +to Alfred, she looked from the window to see whether, as she hoped, +Harold might be in Paul's hay-loft, preferring going without his tea to +being teased by Betsey. Paul sat in his loft, with his Bible on his +knee, and his head on Caesar's neck. + +'Alfred,' said Ellen, 'do you know where Harold is? Sure he is not gone +to the merry orchard?' + +'Is not he come home?' said Alfred. 'Oh, then he is! He is gone to the +merry orchard, breaking Sunday with Dick Royston! And by-and-by he'll be +ill, and die, and be as miserable as I am!' And Alfred cried as Ellen +had never seen him cry. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE MERRY ORCHARD + + +Where was Harold? + +Still the evening went on, and he did not come. Alfred had worn himself +out with his fit of crying, and lay quite still, either asleep, or +looking so like it, that when Betsey had finished her tea, and again +began asking to see him, Ellen could honestly declare that he was asleep. + +Betsey had bidden them good-bye, more than half affronted at not being +able to report to her mother all about his looks, though she carried with +her a basket of gooseberries and French beans, and Mrs. King walked all +the way down the lane with her, and tried to shew an interest in all she +said, to make up for the disappointment. + +Maybe likewise Mrs. King felt it a relief to her uneasiness to look up +and down the road, and along the river, and into the farm-yard, in the +hope that Harold might be in sight; but nothing was to be seen on the +road, but Master Norland, his wife, and baby, soberly taking their Sunday +walk; nor by the river, except the ducks, who seemed to be enjoying their +evening bath, and almost asleep on the water; nor in the yard, except +Paul Blackthorn, who had come down from his perch to drive the horses in +from the home-field, and shut the stable up for the night. + +She could not help stopping a moment at the gate, and calling out to Paul +to ask whether he had seen anything of Harold. He seemed to have a great +mind not to hear, and turned very slowly with his shoulder towards her, +making a sound like 'Eh?' as if to ask what she said. + +'Have you seen my boy Harold?' + +'I saw him in the morning.' + +'Have you not seen him since? Didn't he go to church with you?' + +'No; I don't go to Sunday school.' + +'Was he there?' + +She did not receive any answer. + +'Do you know if many of the boys are gone to the merry orchard?' + +'Ay.' + +'Well, you are a good lad not to be one of them.' + +'Hadn't got any money,' said Paul gruffly; but Mrs. King thought he said +so chiefly from dislike to be praised, and that there had been some +principle as well as poverty to keep him away. + +'It might be better if no one had it on a Sunday,' she could not help +sighing out as she looked anxiously along the lane ere turning in, and +then said, 'My good lad, I don't want to get you to be telling tales, but +it would set my heart at rest, and his poor brother's up there, if you +could tell me he is not gone to Briar Alley.' + +Paul turned up his face from the gate upon which he was leaning his +elbows, and gazed for a moment at her sad, meek, anxious face, then +exclaimed, 'I can't think how he could!' + +Poor Paul! was it not crossing him how impossible it would seem to do +anything to vex one who so cared for him? + +'Then he is gone,' she said mournfully. + +'They were all at him,' said Paul; 'and he said he'd never seen what it +was like. Please don't take on, Missus; he's right kind and +good-hearted, and wanted to treat me.' + +'I had rather he had hearkened to you, my boy,' said Mrs. King. + +'I don't know why he should do that,' said Paul, perhaps meaning that a +boy who heeded not such a mother would certainly heed no one else. 'But +please, Missus,' he added, 'don't beat him, for you made me tell on him.' + +'Beat him! no,' said Mrs. King, with a sad smile; 'he's too big a boy for +me to manage that way. I can't do more than grieve if he lets himself be +led away.' + +'Then I'd like to beat him myself if he grieves you!' burst out Paul, +doubling up his brown fist with indignation. + +'But you won't,' said Mrs. King gently; 'I don't want to make a quarrel +among you, and I hope you'll help to keep him out of bad ways, Paul. I +look to you for it. Good-night.' + +Perhaps the darkness and her own warm feeling made her forget the +condition of that hand; at any rate, as she said Good-night she took it +in her own and shook it heartily, and then she went in. + +Paul did not say Good-night in answer; but when she had turned away, his +head went down between his two crossed arms upon the top of the gate, and +he did not move for many many minutes, except that his shoulders shook +and shook again, for he was sobbing as he had never sobbed since Granny +Moll died. If home and home love were not matters of course to you, you +might guess what strange new fountains of feeling were stirred in the +wild but not untaught boy, by that face, that voice, that touch. + +And Mrs. King, as she walked to her own door in the twilight, with bitter +pain in her heart, could not help thinking of those from the highways and +hedges who flocked to the feast set at naught by such as were bidden. + +A sad and mournful Sunday evening was that to the mother and daughter, as +each sat over her Bible. Mrs. King would not talk to Ellen, for fear of +awakening Alfred; not that low voices would have done so, but Ellen was +already much upset by what she had heard and seen, and to talk it over +would have brought on a fit of violent crying; so her mother thought it +safest to say nothing. They would have read their Bible to one another, +but each had her voice so choked with tears, that it would not do. + +That Alfred was sinking away into the grave, was no news to Mrs. King; +but perhaps it had never been so plainly spoken to her before, and his +own knowledge of it seemed to make it more sure; but broken-hearted as +she felt, she had been learning to submit to this, and it might be better +and safer for him, she thought, to be aware of his state, and more ready +to do his best with the time left to him. That was not the freshest +sorrow, or more truly a darker cloud had come over, namely, the feeling, +so terrible to a good careful mother, that her son is breaking out of the +courses to which she has endeavoured and prayed to bring him up--that he +is casting off restraint, and running into evil that may be the beginning +of ruin, and with no father's hand to hold him in. + +O Harold, had you but seen the thick tears dropping on the walnut table +behind the arm that hid her face from Ellen, you would not have thought +your fun worth them! + +That merry orchard was about three miles from Friarswood. It belonged to +a man who kept a small public-house, and had a little farm, and a large +garden, with several cherry trees, which in May were perfect gardens of +blossoms, white as snow, and in August with small black fruit of the sort +known as merries; and unhappily the fertile produce of these trees became +a great temptation to the owner and to all the villagers around. + +As Sunday was the only day when people could be at leisure, he chose +three Sundays when the cherries were ripe for throwing open his orchard +to all who chose to come and buy and eat the fruit, and of course cakes +and drink of various kinds were also sold. It was a solitary spot, out +of the way of the police, or the selling in church-time would have been +stopped; but as there may be cases of real distress, the law does not +shut up all houses for selling food and drink on a Sunday, so others, +where there is no necessity, take advantage of it; and so for miles round +all the idle young people and children would call it a holiday to go away +from their churches to eat cherries at Briar Alley, buying and selling on +a Sunday, noisy and clamorous, and forgetting utterly that it was the +Lord's Day, not their day of idle pleasure. + +It was a sad pity that an innocent feast of fruit should be almost out of +reach, unless enjoyed in this manner. To be sure, merries might be +bought any day of the week at Briar Alley, and were hawked up and down +Friarswood so cheaply that any one might get a mouth as purple as the +black spaniel's any day in the season; but that was nothing to the fun of +going with numbers, and numbers never could go except on a Sunday. But +if people wish to serve God truly, why, they must make up their minds to +miss pleasures for His sake, and this was one to begin with; and I am +much mistaken if the happiness of the week would not have turned out +greater in the end with him. Ay, and as to the owner of the trees, who +said he was a poor man, and could not afford to lose the profit, I +believe that if he would have trusted God and kept His commandment, his +profit in the long run would have been greater here, to say nothing of +the peril to his own soul of doing wrong, and leading so many into +temptation. + +The Kings had been bred up to think a Sunday going to the merry orchard a +thing never to be done; and in his most idle days Alfred would never have +dreamt of such a thing. Indeed, their good mother always managed to have +some treat to make up for it when they were little; and they certainly +never wanted for merries, nay, a merry pudding had been their dinner this +very day, with savage-looking purple juice and scalding hot stones. If +Harold went it was for the frolic, not for want of the dainty; and wrong +as it was, his mother was grieving more at the thought of his casting +away the restraint of his old habits than for the one action. One son +going away into the unseen world, the other being led away from the paths +of right--no wonder she wept as she tried to read! + +At last voices were coming, and very loud ones. The summer night was so +still, they could be heard a great way--those rude coarse voices of +village boys boasting and jeering one another. + +'I say, wouldn't you like to be one of they chaps at Ragglesford School?' + +'What lots they bought there on Saturday, to be sure!' + +'Well they may: they've lots of tin!' + +'Have they? How d'ye know?' + +'Why, the money-letters! Don't I know the feel of them--directed to +master this and master that, and with a seal and a card, and half a +sovereign, or maybe a whole one, under it; and such lots as they gets +before the holidays--that's to go home, you see.' + +'Well, it's a shame such little impudent rogues should get so much +without ever doing a stroke of work for it.' + +'I say, Harold, don't ye never put one of they letters in your pocket?' + +'For shame, Dick!' + +'Ha! I shall know where to come when I wants half a sovereign or so!' + +'No, you won't.' + +It was only these last two or three speeches that reached the cottage at +all clearly; and they were followed by a sound as if Harold had fallen +upon one of the others, and they were holding him off, with halloos and +shouts of hoarse laughing, which broke Alfred's sleep, and his voice came +down-stairs with a startled cry of 'Mother! Mother! what is that?' She +ran up-stairs in haste, and Ellen threw the door open. The sudden +display of the light silenced the noisy boys; and Harold came slowly up +the garden-path, pretty certain of a scolding, and prepared to feel it as +little as he could help. + +'Well, Master, a nice sort of a way of spending a Sunday evening this!' +began Ellen; 'and coming hollaing up the lane, just on purpose to wake +poor Alfred, when he's so ill!' + +'I'm sure I never meant to wake him.' + +'Then what did you bring all that good-for-nothing set roaring and +shouting up the road for? And just this evening, too, when one would +have thought you would we have cared for poor Mother and Alfred,' said +she, crying. + +'Why, what's the matter now?' said Harold. + +'Oh, they've been saying he can't live out the winter,' said Ellen, +shedding the tears that had been kept back all this time, and broke out +now with double force, in her grief for one brother and vexation with the +other. + +But next winter seemed a great way off to Harold, and he was put out +besides, so he did not seem shocked, especially as he was reproached with +not feeling what he did not know; so all he did was to say angrily, 'And +how was I to know that?' + +'Of course you don't know anything, going scampering over the country +with the worst lot you can find, away from church and all, not caring for +anything! Poor Mother! she never thought one of her lads would come to +that!' + +'Plenty does so, without never such a fuss,' said Harold. 'Why, what +harm is there in eating a few cherries?' + +There would be very little pleasure or use in knowing what a wrangling +went on all the time Mrs. King was up-stairs putting Alfred to bed. Ellen +had all the right on her side, but she did not use it wisely; she was +very unhappy, and much displeased with Harold, and so she had it all out +in a fretful manner that made him more cross and less feeling than was +his nature. + +There was something he did feel, however--and that was his mother's pale, +worn, sorrowful face, when she came down-stairs and hushed Ellen, but did +not speak to him. They took down the books, read their chapter, and she +read prayers very low, and not quite steadily. He would have liked very +much to have told her he felt sorry, but he was too proud to do so after +having shewn Ellen he was above caring for such nonsense. + +So they all went to bed, Harold on a little landing at the top of the +stairs; but--whether it was from the pounds of merry-stones he had +swallowed, or the talk he had had with his sister--he could not go to +sleep, and lay tossing and tumbling about, thinking it very odd he had +not heeded more what Ellen had said when he first came in, and the notion +dawning on him more and more, that day after day would come and make +Alfred worse, and that by the time summer came again he should be alone. +Who could have said it? Why had not he asked? What could he have been +thinking about? It should not be true! A sort of frenzy to speak to +some one, and hear the real meaning of those words, so as to make sure +they were only Ellen's nonsense, came over him in the silent darkness. +Presently he heard Alfred moving on his pillow, for the door was open for +the heat; and that long long sigh made him call in a whisper, 'Alf, are +you awake?' + +In another moment Harold was by his brother's side. 'Alf! Alf! are you +worse?' he asked, whispering. + +'No.' + +'Then what's all this? What did they say? It's all stuff; I'm sure it +is, and you're getting better. But what did Ellen mean?' + +'No, Harold,' said Alfred, getting his brother's hand in his, 'it's not +stuff; I shan't get well; I'm going after poor Charlie; and don't you be +a bad lad, Harold, and run away from your church, for you don't know--how +bad it feels to--' and Alfred turned his face down, for the tears were +coming thick. + +'But you aren't going to die, Alf. Charlie never was like you, I know he +wasn't; he was always coughing. It is all Ellen. Who said it? I won't +let them.' + +'The doctor said it to Betsey Hardman,' said Alfred; and his cough was +only too like his brother's. + +Harold would have said a great deal in contempt of Betsey Hardman, but +Alfred did not let him. + +'You'll wake Mother,' he said. 'Hush, Harold, don't go stamping about; I +can't bear it! No, I don't want any one to tell me now; I've been +getting worse ever since I was taken, and--oh! be quiet, Harold.' + +'I can't be quiet,' sobbed Harold, coming nearer to him. 'O Alf! I +can't spare you! There hasn't been no proper downright fun without you, +and--' + +Harold had lain down by him and clung to his hand, trying not to sob +aloud. + +'O Harold!' sighed Alfred, 'I don't think I should mind--at least not so +much--if I hadn't been such a bad boy.' + +'You, Alfy! Who was ever a good boy if you was not?' + +'Hush! You forget all about when I was up at my Lady's, and all that. +Oh! and how bad I behaved at church, and when I was so saucy to Master +about the marbles; and so often I've not minded Mother. O Harold! and +God judges one for everything!' + +What a sad terrified voice it was! + +'Oh! don't go on so, Alf! I can't bear it! Why, we are but boys; and +those things were so long ago! God will not be hard on little boys. He +is merciful, don't you know?' + +'But when I knew it was wrong, I did the worst I could!' said Alfred. +'Oh, if I could only begin all over again, now I do care! Only, Harold, +Harold, you are well; you can be good now when there's time.' + +'I'll be ever so good if you'll only get well,' said Harold. 'I wouldn't +have gone to that there place to-night; but 'tis so terribly dull, and +one must do something.' + +'But in church-time, and on Sunday!' + +'Well, I'll never do it again; but it was so sunshiny, and they were all +making such fun, you see, and it did seem so stuffy, and so long and +tiresome, I couldn't help it, you see.' + +Alfred did not think of asking how, if Harold could not help it this +time, he could be sure of never doing so again. He was more inclined to +dwell on himself, and went back to that one sentence, 'God judges us for +everything.' Harold thought he meant it for him, and exclaimed, + +'Yes, yes, I know, but--oh, Alf, you shouldn't frighten one so; I never +meant no harm.' + +'I wasn't thinking about that,' sighed Alfred. 'I was wishing I'd been a +better lad; but I've been worse, and crosser, and more unkind, ever since +I was ill. O Harold! what shall I do?' + +'Don't go on that way,' said Harold, crying bitterly. 'Say your prayers, +and maybe you will get well; and then in the morning I'll ask Mr. Cope to +come down, and he'll tell you not to mind.' + +'I wouldn't listen to Mr. Cope when he told me to be sorry for my sins; +and oh, Harold, if we are not sorry, you know they will not be taken +away.' + +'Well, but you are sorry now.' + +'I have heard tell that there are two ways of being sorry, and I don't +know if mine is the right.' + +'I tell you I'll fetch Mr. Cope in the morning; and when the doctor comes +he'll be sure to say it is all a pack of stuff, and you need not be +fretting yourself.' + +When Harold awoke in the morning, he found himself lying wrapped in his +coverlet on Alfred's bed, and then he remembered all about it, and looked +in haste, as though he expected to see some sudden and terrible change in +his brother. + +But Alfred was looking cheerful, he had awakened without discomfort; and +with some amusement, was watching the starts and movements, the grunts +and groans, of Harold's waking. The morning air and the ordinary look of +things, had driven away the gloomy thoughts of evening, and he chiefly +thought of them as something strange and dreadful, and yet not quite a +dream. + +'Don't tell Mother,' whispered Harold, recollecting himself, and starting +up quietly. + +'But you'll fetch Mr. Cope,' said Alfred earnestly. + +Harold had begun not to like the notion of meeting Mr. Cope, lest he +should hear something of yesterday's doings, and he did not like Alfred +or himself to think of last night's alarm, so he said, 'Oh, very well, +I'll see about it.' + +He had not made up his mind. Very likely, if chance had brought him face +to face with Mr. Cope, he would have spoken about Alfred as the best way +to hinder the Curate from reproving himself; but he had not that right +sort of boldness which would have made him go to meet the reproof he so +richly deserved, and he was trying to persuade himself either that when +Alfred was amused and cheery, he would forget all about 'that there +Betsey's nonsense,' or else that Mr. Cope might come that way of himself. + +But Alfred was not likely to forget. What he had heard hung on him +through all the little occupations of the morning, and made him meek and +gentle under them, and he was reckoning constantly upon Mr. Cope's +coming, fastening on the notion as if he were able to save him. + +Still the Curate came not, and Alfred became grieved, feeling as if he +was neglected. + +Mr. Blunt, however, came, and at any rate he would have it out with him; +so he asked at once very straightforwardly, 'Am I going to die, Sir?' + +'Why, what's put that in your head?' said the doctor. + +'There was a person here talking last night, Sir,' said Mrs. King. + +'Well, but am I?' said Alfred impatiently. + +'Not just yet, I hope,' said Mr. Blunt cheerfully. 'You are weak, but +you'll pick up again.' + +'But of this?' persisted Alfred, who was not to be trifled with. + +Mr. Blunt saw he must be in earnest. + +'My boy,' he said, 'I'm afraid it is not a thing to be got over. I'll do +the best I can for you, by God's blessing; and if you get through the +winter, and it is a mild spring, you might do; but you'd better settle +your mind that you can't be many years for this world.' + +Many years! that sounded like a reprieve, and sent gladness into Ellen's +heart; but somehow it did not seem in the same light to Alfred; he felt +that if he were slowly going down hill and wasting away, so as to have no +more health or strength in which to live differently from ever before, +the length of time was not much to him, and in his sickly impatience he +would almost have preferred that it should not be what Betsey kindly +called 'a lingering job.' + +There he lay after Mr. Blunt was gone, not giving Ellen any trouble, +except by the sad thoughtfulness of his face, as he lay dwelling on all +that he wanted to say to Mr. Cope, and the terror of his sin and of +judgment sweeping over him every now and then. + +Still Mr. Cope came not. Alfred at last began to wonder aloud, and asked +if Harold had said anything about it when he came in to dinner; but he +heard that Harold had only rushed in for a moment, snatched up a lump of +bread and cheese, and made off to the river with some of the lads who +meant to spend the noon-tide rest in bathing. + +When he came for the evening letters he was caught, and Mr. Cope was +asked for; and then it came out that Harold had never given the message +at all. + +Alfred, greatly hurt, and sadly worn by his day of expectation, had no +self-restraint left, and flew out into a regular passion, calling his +brother angry names. Harold, just as passionate, went into a rage too, +and scolded his brother for his fancies. Mrs. King, in great +displeasure, turned him out, and he rushed off to ride like one mad to +Elbury; and poor Alfred remained so much shocked at his own outbreak, +just when he meant to have been good ever after, and sobbing so +miserably, that no one could calm him at all; and Ellen, as the only +hope, put on her bonnet to fetch Mr. Cope. + +At that moment Paul was come for his bit of bread. She found him looking +dismayed at the sounds of violent weeping from above, and he asked what +it was. + +'Oh, Alfred is so low and so bad, and he wants Mr. Cope! Here's your +bread, don't keep me!' + +'Let me go! I'll be quicker!' cried Paul; and before she could thank +him, he was down the garden and right across the first field. + +Alfred had had time to cry himself exhausted, and to be lying very still, +almost faint, before Mr. Cope came in in the summer twilight. Good Paul! +He had found that Mr. Cope was dining at Ragglesford and had run all the +way thither; and here was the kind young Curate, quite breathless with +his haste, and never regretting the cheerful party whence he had been +called away. All Alfred could say was, 'O Sir, I shall die; and I'm a +bad boy, and wouldn't heed you when you said so.' + +'And God has made you see your sins, my poor boy,' said Mr. Cope. 'That +is a great blessing.' + +'But if I can't do anything to make up for them, what's the use? And I +never shall be well again.' + +'You can't make up for them; but there is One Who has made up for them, +if you will only truly repent.' + +'I wasn't sorry till I knew I should die,' said Alfred. + +'No, your sins did not come home to you! Now, do you know what they +are?' + +'Oh yes; I've been a bad boy to Mother, and at church; and I've been +cross to Ellen, and quarrelled with Harold; and I was so audacious at my +Lady's, they couldn't keep me. I never did want really to be good. Oh! +I know I shall go to the bad place!' + +'No, Alfred, not if you so repent, that you can hold to our Blessed +Saviour's promise. There is a fountain open for sin and all +uncleanness.' + +'It is very good of Him,' said Alfred, a little more tranquilly, not in +the half-sob in which he had before spoken. + +'Most merciful!' said Mr. Cope. + +'But does it mean me?' continued Alfred. + +'You were baptized, Alfred, you have a right to all His promises of +pardon.' And he repeated the blessed sentences: + +'Come unto Me, all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh +you.' + +'God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, to the end +that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting +life.' + +'But how ought I to believe, Sir?' + +'You say you feel what your sins are; think of them all as you lie, each +one as you remember it; say it out in your heart to our Saviour, and pray +God to forgive it for His sake, and then think that it cost some of the +pain He bore on the Cross, some of the drops of His agony in the Garden. +Each sin of ours was indeed of that burden!' + +'Oh, that will make them seem so bad!' + +'Indeed it does; but how it will make you love Him, and feel thankful to +Him, and anxious not to waste the sufferings borne for your sake, and +glad, perhaps, that you are bearing some small thing yourself. But you +are spent, and I had better not talk more now. Let me read you a few +prayers to help you, and then I will leave you, and come again +to-morrow.' + +How differently those Prayers and Psalms sounded to Alfred now that he +had really a heart grieved and wearied with the burthen of sin! The +point was to make his not a frightened heart, but a contrite heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--HAROLD TAKES A WRONG TURN + + +Mrs. King was very anxious about Alfred for many hours after this visit +from the Curate, for he was continually crying, not violently, but the +tears flowing quietly from his eyes as he lay, thinking. Sometimes it +was the badness of the faults as he saw them now, looking so very +different from what they did when they were committed in the carelessness +of fun and high spirits, or viewed afterwards in the hardening light of +self-justification. Now they did look so wantonly hard and rude--unkind +to his sister, ruinous to Harold, regardless of his widowed mother, +reckless of his God--that each one seemed to cut into him with a sense of +its own badness, and he was quite as much grieved as afraid; he hated the +fault, and hated himself for it. + +Indeed, he was growing less afraid, for the sorrow seemed to swallow that +up; the grief at having offended One so loving was putting out the terror +of being punished; or rather, when he thought that this illness was +punishment, he was almost glad to have some of what he deserved; just as +when he was a little boy, he really used to be happier afterwards for +having been whipped and put in the corner, because that was like making +it up. Though he knew very well that if he had ten thousand times worse +than this to bear, it would not be making up for his faults, and he felt +now that one of them had been his 'despising the chastening of the Lord.' +And then the thought of what had made up for it would come: and though he +had known of it all his life, and heeded it all too little, now that his +heart was tender, and he had felt some of the horror and pain of sin, he +took it all home now, and clung to it. He recollected the verses about +that One kneeling--nay, falling on the ground, in the cold dewy night, +with the chosen friends who could not watch with Him, and the agony and +misery that every one in all the world deserved to feel, gathering on +Him, Who had done no wrong, and making His brow stream with great drops +of Blood. + +And the tortures, the shame, the slow Death--circumstance after +circumstance came to his mind, and 'for me,' 'this fault of mine helped,' +would rise with it, and the tears trickled down at the thought of the +suffering and of the Love that had caused it to be undergone. + +Once he raised up his head, and saw through the window the deep dark-blue +sky, and the stars, twinkling and sparkling away; that pale band of +light, the Milky Way, which they say is made of countless stars too far +off to be distinguished, and looking like a cloud, and on it the larger, +brighter burnished stars, differing from one another in glory. He +thought of some lines in a book Miss Jane once gave Ellen, which said of +the stars: + + 'The Lord resigned them all to gain + The bliss of pardoning thee.' + +And when he thought that it was the King of those stars Who was scourged +and spit on, and for the sake of _his_ faults, the loving tears came +again, and he turned to another hymn of Ellen's: + + 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee!' + +And going on with this, he fell into a more quiet sleep than he had had +for many nights. + +Alfred had worked up his mind to a point where it could not long remain; +and when he awoke in the morning, the common affairs of the day occupied +him in a way that was not hurtful to him, as the one chief thought was +ever present, only laid away for a time, and helping him when he might +have been fretful or impatient. + +He was anxious for Mr. Cope, and grateful when he saw him coming early in +the day. Mr. Cope did not, however, say anything very new. He chiefly +wished to shew Alfred that he must not think all his struggle with sin +over, and that he had nothing to do but to lie still and be pardoned. +There was much more work, as he would find, when the present strong +feeling should grow a little blunt; he would have to keep his will bent +to bear what was sent by God, and to prove his repentance by curing +himself of all his bad habits of peevishness and exacting; to learn, in +fact, to take up his cross. + +Alfred feebly promised to try, and it did not seem so difficult just +then. The days were becoming cooler, and he did not feel quite so ill; +and though he did not know how much this helped him, it made it much +easier to act on his good resolutions. Miss Selby came to see him, and +was quite delighted to see him looking so much less uncomfortable and +dismal. + +'Why, Alfred,' said she, 'you must be much better.' + +Ellen looked mournful at this, and shook her head so that Miss Jane +turned her bright face to her in alarm. + +'No, Ma'am,' said Alfred. 'Dr. Blunt says I can never get over it.' + +'And does that make you glad?' almost gasped Miss Jane. + +'No, Ma'am,' said Alfred; 'but Mr. Cope has been talking to me, and made +it all so--' + +He could not get out the words; and, besides, he saw Miss Jane's eyes +winking very fast to check the tears, and Ellen's had begun to rain down +fast. + +'I didn't mean to be silly,' said little Jane, in rather a trembling +voice; 'but I'm sorry--no--I'm glad you are happy and good, Alfred.' + +'Not good, Miss Jane,' cried Alfred; 'I'm such a bad boy, but there are +such good things as I never minded before--' + +'Well then, I think you'll like what I've brought you,' said Jane +eagerly. + +It was a little framed picture of our Blessed Lord on His Cross, all +darkness round, and the Inscription above His Head; and Miss Jane had +painted, in tall Old English red letters, under it the two words, 'For +me.' + +Alfred looked at it as if indeed it would be a great comfort to him to be +always reminded by the eye, of how 'He was wounded for our +transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.' + +He thanked Miss Jane with all his heart, and she and Ellen soon found a +place to hang it up well in his sight. It was a pretty bright sight to +see her insisting on holding the nail for it, and then playfully +pretending to shrink and fancy that Ellen would hammer her fingers. + +Alfred could enjoy the sunshine of his sick-room again; and Ellen and his +mother down-stairs told Miss Selby, with many tears, of the happy change +that had come over him ever since he had resigned himself to give up +hopes of life. Mrs. King looked so peaceful and thankful, that little +Jane could hardly understand what it was that made her so much more at +rest. + +Even Ellen, though her heart ached at the hope having gone out, and left +a dark place where it had been, felt the great relief from hour to hour +of not being fretted and snarled at for whatever she either did or left +undone. Thanks and smiles were much pleasanter payment than groans, +murmurs, and scoldings; and the brother and sister sometimes grew quite +cheerful and merry together, as Alfred lay raised up to look over the +hedge into the harvest-field across the meadow, where the reaper and his +wife might be seen gathering the brown ears round, and cutting them with +the sickle, and others going after to bind them into the glorious wheat +sheaves that leant against each other in heaps of blessed promise of +plenty. + +Paul tried reaping; but the first thing he did was to make a terrible cut +in his hand, which the shuffler told him was for good luck! Some of the +women in the field bound it up, but he was good for nothing after it +except going after the cattle, and so he was likely to lose all the +chance of earning himself any better clothes in harvest-time. + +Harold grumbled dreadfully that his mother could not spare him to go +harvesting beyond their own tiny quarter of an acre of wheat. The post +made it impossible for him to go out to work like the labourers; and +besides, his mother did not think he had gained much good in hay-time, +and wished to keep him from the boys. + +Very hard he thought it; and to hear him grumble, any one would have +thought Mrs. King was a tyrant far worse than Farmer Shepherd, working +the flesh off his bones, taking away the fun and the payment alike. + +The truth was, that the morning when Harold threw away from him the +thought of his brother's danger, and broke all his promises to him in the +selfish fear of a rebuke from the clergyman, had been one of the turning- +points of his life, and a turning-point for the bad. It had been a +hardening of his heart, just as it had begun to be touched, and a letting +in of evil spirits instead of good ones. + +He became more than ever afraid of Mr. Cope, and shirked going near him +so as to be spoken to; he cut Ellen off short if she said a word to him, +and avoided being with Alfred, partly because it made him melancholy, +partly because he was afraid of Alfred's again talking to him about the +evil of his ways. In reality, his secret soul was wretched at the +thought of losing his brother; but he tried to put the notion away from +him, and to drown it in the noisiest jokes and most riotous sports he +could meet with, keeping company with the wildest lads about the parish. +That Dick Royston especially, whose honesty was doubtful, but who, being +a clever fellow, was a sort of leader, was doing great harm by setting +his face against the new parson, and laughing at the boys who went to +him. Mrs. King was very unhappy. It was almost worse to think of Harold +than of his sick brother; and Alfred grieved very much too, and took to +himself the blame of having made home miserable to Harold, and driven him +into bad company; of having been so peevish and unpleasant, that it was +no wonder he would not come near him more than could be helped; and above +all, of having set a bad example of idleness and recklessness, when he +was well. If the tears were brought into his eyes at first by some +unkind neglect of Harold's, they were sure to end in this thought at +last; and then the only comfort was, that Mr. Cope had told him that he +might make his sick-bed very precious to his brother's welfare, by +praying always for him. + +Mr. Cope had talked it over with Mrs. King; and they had agreed that as +Harold was under the regular age for Confirmation, and seemed so little +disposed to prepare for it in earnest, they would not press it on him. He +was far from fit for it, and he was in such a mood of impatient +irreverence, that Mr. Cope was afraid of making his sin worse by forcing +serious things on him, and his mother was in constant fear of losing her +last hold on him. + +Yet Harold was not a bad or unfeeling boy by nature; and if he would but +have paused to think, he would have been shocked to see how cruelly he +was paining his widowed mother and dying brother, just when he should +have been their strength and stay. + +One afternoon in October, when Alfred was in a good deal of pain, Mr. +Blunt said he would send out some cooling ointment for the wound at the +joint, when Harold took the evening letters into Elbury. Alfred reckoned +much on the relief this was to give, and watched the ticks of the clock +for the time for Harold to set off. + +'Make haste,' were the last words his mother spoke--and Harold fully +meant to make haste; nor was it weather to tempt him to stay long, for +there was a chill raw fog hanging over the meadows, and fast turning into +rain, which hung in drops upon his eyebrows, and the many-tiered cape of +his father's box-coat, which he always wore in bad weather. It was +fortunate he was likely to meet nothing, and that he and the pony both +knew the road pretty well. + +How fuzzy the grey fog made the lamps of the town look! Did they disturb +the pony? What a stumble! Ha! there's a shoe off. Be it known that it +was Harold's own fault; he had not looked at the shoes for many a +morning, as he knew it was his duty to do. + +He left Peggy with her ears back, much discomposed at being shod in a +strange forge, and by any one but Bill Saunders. + +Then Harold was going to leave his bag at the post-office, when, as he +turned up the street, some one caught hold of him, and cried, 'Ho! Harold +King on foot! What's the row? Old pony tumbled down dead?' + +'Cast a shoe,' said Harold. + +'Oh, jolly, you'll have to wait!' went on Dick Royston. 'Come in here! +Here's such a lark!' + +Harold looked into a court-yard belonging to a low public-house, and saw +what was like a tent, with a bright red star on a blue ground at the end, +lighted up. A dark figure came between, and there was a sudden crack +that made Harold start. + +'It's the unique (he called it eu-ni-quee) royal shooting-gallery, +patronized by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,' (what a story!) +said Dick. 'You've only to lay down your tin; one copper for three +shots, and if you hit, you may take your choice--gingerbread-nuts, or +bits of cocoa-nut, or, what's jolliest, lollies with gin inside 'em! +Come, blaze away! or ha'n't you got the money? Does Mother keep you too +short?' + +If there was a thing Harold had a longing for, it was to fire off a gun! +If there was a person he envied more than another, it was old Isaac +Coffin, when he prowled up and down Farmer Ledbitter's fields with an old +blunderbuss and some powder, to keep off the birds! + +To be sure it was a public-house, but it was not inside one! And Mother +would call it gambling. Oh, but it wasn't cards or skittles! And if he +shot away his half-pence, how should he pay for the shoeing of the pony? +The blacksmith might trust him, or the clerk at the post-office would +lend him the money, or Betsey Hardman. And the time? One shot would not +waste much! Pony must be shod. Besides, Dick and all the rest would say +he was a baby. + +He paid the penny, threw aside his cap, and took the gun, though after +all it was only a sham one, and what a miss he made! What business had +every one to set up that great hoarse laugh? which made him so angry that +he had nearly turned on Dick and cuffed him for his pains. + +However, he was the more bent on trying again, and the owner of the +gallery shewed him how to manage better. He hit anything but the middle +of the star, and just saw how he thought he might hit next time. Next +time was barely a miss, so that the man actually gave him a gin-drop to +encourage him. That made him mad to meet with real success; but it was +the turn of another 'young gent,' as the man called him, and Harold had +to stand by, with his penny in his hand, burning with impatience, and +fancying he could mend each shot of that young gent, and another, and +another, and another, who all thrust in to claim their rights before him. +His turn came at last; and so short and straight was the gallery, that he +really did hit once the side of the star, and once the middle, and thus +gained one gingerbread-nut, and three of the gin-drops. + +It would have been his nature to share them with Alfred, but he could not +do so without saying where he had been, and that he could not do, so he +gave one to Dick, and swallowed the rest to keep out the cold. + +Just then the town clock struck six, and frightened him. He had been +there three-quarters of an hour. What would they say at the post-office? + +The clerk looked out of his hole as angry as clerk could look. 'This +won't do, King,' he said. 'Late for sorting! Fine, remember--near an +hour after time.' + +'Pony cast a shoe, Sir,' said Harold. He had never been so near a +downright falsehood. + +'Whew! Then I suppose I must not report you this time! But look out! +You're getting slack.' + +No time this for borrowing of the clerk. Harold was really frightened, +for he _had_ dawdled much more than he ought of late, and though he +sometimes fancied himself sick of the whole post business, a complaint to +his mother would be a dreadful matter. It put everything else out of his +head; and he ran off in great haste to get the money from Betsey Hardman, +knocking loud at her green door. + +What a cloud of steamy heat the room was, with the fire glowing like a +red furnace, and five black irons standing up before it; and +clothes-baskets full of heaps of whiteness, and horses with vapoury webs +of lace and cambric hanging on them; and the three ironing-boards, where +smoothness ran along with the irons; and the heaps of folded clothes; and +Betsey in her white apron, broad and red in the midst of her maidens! + +'Ha! Harold King! Well, to be sure, you are a stranger! Don't come +nigh that there hoss; it's Mrs. Parnell's best pocket-handkerchiefs, real +Walencines!' (she meant Valenciennes.) 'If you'll just run up and see +Mother, I'll have it out of the way, and we'll have a cup of tea.' + +'Thank you, but I--' + +'My! What a smoke ye're in! Take care, or I shall have 'em all to do +over again. Go up to Mother, do, like a good lad.' + +'I can't, Betsey; I must go home.' + +'Ay! that's the way. Lads never can sit down sensible and comfortable! +it's all the same--' + +'I wanted,' said Harold, interrupting her, 'to ask you to lend me +sixpence. Pony's cast a shoe, and I had to leave her with the smith.' + +'Ay? Who did you leave her with?' + +'The first I came to, up in Wood Street.' + +'Myers. Ye shouldn't have done that. His wife's the most stuck-up proud +body I ever saw--wears steel petticoats, I'll answer for it. You should +have gone to Charles Shaw.' + +'Can't help it,' said Harold. 'Please, Betsey, let me have the sixpence; +I'll pay you faithfully to-morrow!' + +'Ay! that's always the way. Never come in unless ye want somewhat. +'Twasn't the way your poor father went on! He'd a civil word for every +one. Well, and can't you stop a minute to say how your poor brother is?' + +'Much the same,' said Harold impatiently. + +'Yes, he'll never be no better, poor thing! All decliny; as I says to +Mother, what a misfortune it is upon poor Cousin King! they'll all go +off, one after t'other, just like innocents to the slaughter.' + +This was not a cheerful prediction; and Harold petulantly said he must +get back, and begged for the sixpence. He got it at last, but not till +all Betsey's pocket had been turned out; and finding nothing but +shillings and threepenny-bits, she went all through her day's expenses +aloud, calling all her girls to witness to help her to account for the +sixpence that ought to have been there. + +Mrs. Brown had paid her four and sixpence--one florin and a +half-crown--and she had three threepenny-pieces in her pocket, and +twopence. Then Sally had been out and got a shilling's-worth of soap, +and six-penn'orth of blue, and brought home one shilling; and there was +the sausages--no one could recollect what they had cost, though they +talked so much about their taste; and five-pence-worth of red-herrings, +and the butter; yes, and threepence to the beggar who said he had been in +Sebastopol. Harold's head was ready to turn round before it was all +done; but he got away at last, with a scolding for not going up to see +Mother. + +Home he trotted as hard as the pony would go, holding his head down to +try to bury nose and mouth in his collar, and the thick rain plastering +his hair, and streaming down the back of his neck. What an ill-used +wretch was he, said he to himself, to have to rattle all over the country +in such weather! + +Here was home at last. How comfortable looked the bright light, as the +cottage door was thrown open at the sound of the horse's feet! + +'Well, Harold!' cried Ellen eagerly, 'is anything the matter?' + +'No,' he said, beginning to get sulky because he felt he was wrong; 'only +Peggy lost a shoe--' + +'Lame?' + +'No, I took her to the smith.' + +'Give me Alfred's ointment, please, before you put her up. He is in such +a way about it, and we can't put him to bed--' + +'Haven't got it.' + +'Not got it! O Harold!' + +'I should like to know how to be minding such things when pony loses a +shoe, and such weather! I declare I'm as wet--!' said Harold angrily, as +he saw his sister clasp her hands in distress, and the tears come in her +eyes. + +'Is Harold come safe?' called Mrs. King from above. + +'Is the ointment come?' cried Alfred, in a piteous pain-worn voice. + +Harold stamped his foot, and bolted to the stable to put the pony away. + +'It's not come,' said Ellen, coming up-stairs, very sadly. + +'He has forgot it.' + +'Forgot it!' cried Alfred, raising himself passionately. 'He always does +forget everything! He don't care for me one farthing! I believe he +wants me dead!' + +'This is very bad of him! I didn't think he'd have done it,' said Mrs. +King sorrowfully. + +'He's been loitering after some mischief,' exclaimed Alfred. 'Taking his +pleasure--and I must stay all this time in pain! Serve him right to send +him back to Elbury.' + +Mrs. King had a great mind to have done so; but when she looked at the +torrents of rain that streamed against the window, and thought how wet +Harold must be already, and of the fatal illnesses that had been begun by +being exposed to such weather, she was afraid to venture a boy with such +a family constitution, and turning back to Alfred, she said, 'I am very +sorry, Alfred, but it can't be helped; I can't send Harold out in the +rain again, or we shall have him ill too.' + +Poor Alfred! it was no trifle to have suffered all day, and to be told +the pain must go on all night. His patience and all his better thoughts +were quite worn away, and he burst into tears of anger and cried out that +it was very hard--his mother cared for Harold more than for him, and +nobody minded it, if he lay in such pain all night. + +'You know better than that, dear,' said his poor mother, sadly grieved, +but bearing it meekly. 'Harold shall go as soon as can be to-morrow.' + +'And what good will that be to-night?' grumbled Alfred. 'But you always +did put Harold before me. However, I shall soon be dead and out of your +way, that's all!' + +Mrs. King would not make any answer to this speech, knowing it only made +him worse. She went down to see about Harold, an additional offence to +Alfred, who muttered something about 'Mother and her darling.' + +'How can you, Alfred, speak so to Mother?' cried Ellen. + +'I'm sure every one is cross enough to me,' returned Alfred. + +'Not Mother,' said Ellen. 'She couldn't help it.' + +'She won't send Harold out again, though; I'm sure I'd have gone for +him.' + +'You don't know what the rain was,' said Ellen. + +'Well, he should have minded; but you're all against me.' + +'You'll be sorry by-and-by, Alfred; this isn't like the way you talk +sometimes.' + +'Some one else had need to be sorry, not me.' + +Perhaps, in the midst of his captious state, Alfred was somewhat pacified +by hearing sounds below that made him certain that Harold was not +escaping without some strong words from his mother. + +They were not properly taken. Harold was in no mood of repentance, and +the consciousness that he had been behaving most unkindly, only made him +more rough and self-justifying. + +'I can't help it! I can't be a slave to run about everywhere, and +remember everything--pony losing her shoe, and nigh tumbling down with +me, and Ross at the post so cross for nothing!' + +'You'll grieve at the way you have used your poor brother one of these +days, Harold,' quietly answered his mother, so low, that Alfred could not +hear through the floor. 'Now, you'll please to go to bed.' + +'Ain't I to have no supper?' said Harold in a sullen voice, with a great +mind to sit down in the chimney-corner in defiance. + +'I shall give you something hot when you are in bed. If I treated you as +you deserve, I should send you to Mr. Blunt's this moment; but I can't +afford to have you ill too, so go to bed this moment.' + +His mother could still master him by her steadiness and he went up, +muttering that he'd no notion of being treated like a baby, and that he +would soon shew her the difference: he wasn't going to be made a slave to +Alfred, and 'twas all a fuss about that stuff! + +He did fancy he said his prayers; but they could not have been real ones, +for he was no softer when his mother came to his bedside with a great +basin of hot gruel. He said he hated such nasty sick stuff, and grunted +savagely when, with a look that ought to have gone to his heart, she +asked if he thought he deserved anything better. + +Yet she did not know of the shooting gallery, nor of his false excuses. +If he had not been deceiving her, perhaps he might have been touched. + +'Well, Harold,' she said at last, after taking the empty basin from him, +and picking up his wet clothes and boots to dry them by the fire, 'I hope +as you lie there you'll come to a better mind. It makes me afraid for +you, my boy. It is not only your brother you are sinning against, but if +you are a bad boy, you know Who will be angry with you. Good-night.' + +She lingered, but Harold was still hard, and would neither own himself +sorry, nor say good-night. + +When she passed his bed at the top of the stairs again, after hanging up +the things by the fire, he had his head hidden, and either was, or +feigned to be, asleep. + +Alfred's ill-temper was nearly gone, but he still thought himself +grievously injured, and was at no pains to keep himself from groaning and +moaning all the time he was being put to bed. In fact, he rather liked +to make the most of it, to shew his mother how provoking she was, and to +reproach Harold for his neglect. + +The latter purpose he did not effect; Harold heard every sound, and +consoled himself by thinking what an intolerable work Alfred was making +on purpose. If he had tried to bear it as well as possible, his brother +would have been much more likely to be sorry. + +Alfred was thinking too much about his misfortunes and discomforts to +attend to the evening reading, but it soothed him a little, and the pain +was somewhat less, so he did fall asleep, so uneasily though, that Mrs. +King put off going to bed as late as she could. + +It was nearly eleven, and Ellen had been in bed a long time, when Alfred +started, and Mrs. King turned her head, at the click of the wicket gate, +and a step plashing on the walk. She opened the little window, and the +gust of wet wind puffed the curtains, whistled round the room, and almost +blew out the candle. + +'Who's there? + +'It's me, Mrs. King! I've got the stuff,' called a hoarse tired voice. + +'Well, if ever! It's Paul Blackthorn!' exclaimed Mrs. King. 'Thank ye +kindly. I'll come and let you in.' + +'Paul Blackthorn!' cried Alfred. 'Been all the way to Elbury for me! O +Mother, bring him up, and let me thank him! But how ever did he know?' +The tears came running down Alfred's cheeks at such kindness from a +stranger. Mrs. King had hurried down-stairs, and at the threshold stood +a watery figure, holding out the gallipot. + +'Oh! thank you, thank you; but come in! Yes, come in! you must have +something hot, and get dried.' + +Paul shambled in very foot-sore. He looked as if he were made of moist +mud, and might be squeezed into any shape, and streams of rain were +dropping from each of his many rags. + +'Well, I don't know how to thank you--such a night! But he'll sleep easy +now. How did you come to think of it?' + +'I was just coming home from the parson's, and I met Harold putting up +Peggy, in a great way because he'd forgotten. That's all, Missus,' said +Paul, looking shamefaced. 'Good-night to you.' + +'No, no, that won't do. I must have you sit down and get dry,' said Mrs. +King, nursing up the remains of the fire; and as Paul's day-garments +served him for night-gear likewise, he could hardly help accepting the +invitation, and spreading his chilled hands to the fire. + +As to Mrs. King's feelings, it must be owned that, grateful as she was, +it was rather like sitting opposite to the heap in the middle of Mr. +Shepherd's farm-yard. + +'Would you take that?' she said, holding out a three-penny piece. 'I'd +make it twice as much if I could, but times are hard.' + +'No, no, Missus, I didn't do it for that,' said Paul, putting it aside. + +'Then you must have some supper, that I declare.' + +And she brought out a slice of cold bacon, and some bread, and warmed +some beer at the fire. She would go without bacon and beer herself to- +morrow, but that was nothing to her. It was a real pleasure to see the +colour come into Paul's bony yellow cheeks at the hearty meal, which he +could not refuse; but he did not speak much, for he was tired out, and +the fire and the beer were making him very sleepy. + +Alfred rapped above with the stick that served as a bell. It was to beg +that Paul would come and be thanked; and though Mrs. King was a little +afraid of the experiment, she did ask him to walk up for a moment. + +Grunt went he, and in rather an unmannerly way, he said, 'I'd rather +not.' + +'Pray do,' said Mrs. King; 'I don't think Alfred will sleep easy without +saying thank you.' + +So Paul complied, and in a most ungainly fashion clumped up-stairs and +stood at the door. He had not forgotten his last reception, and would +not come a step farther, though Alfred stretched out his hand and begged +him to come in. + +Alfred could say only 'Thank you, I never thought any one would be so +kind.' + +And Paul made gruff reply, 'Ye're very welcome,' turned about as if he +were running away, and tumbled down-stairs, and out of the house, without +even answering Mrs. King's 'Good-night.' + +Harold had wakened at the sounds. He heard all, but he chose to seem to +be asleep, and, would you believe it? he was only the more provoked! +Paul's exertion made his neglect seem all the worse, and he was +positively angry with him for 'going and meddling, and poking his nose +where he'd no concern. Now he shouldn't be able to get the stuff +to-morrow, and so make it up; and of course mother would go and dock +Paul's supper out of his dinner!' + +If such reflections were going on upon one side of the partition, there +were very different thoughts upon the other. The stranger's kindness had +done more than relieve Alfred's pain: the warm sense of thankfulness had +softened his spirit, and carried off his selfish fit. He knew not how +kind people were to him, and how ungrateful he had been to punish his +innocent mother and sister, and so much to magnify a bit of +thoughtlessness on Harold's part; to be angry with his mother for not +driving him out when she thought it might endanger his health and life, +and to say such cruel things on purpose to wound her. Alfred felt +himself far more cruel than he had even thought Harold. + +And was this his resolution? Was this the shewing the sincerity of his +repentance through his conduct in illness? Was this patience? Was it +brotherly love? Was it the taking up the cross so as to bear it like his +Saviour, Who spoke no word of complaining, no murmur against His +tormentors? + +How he had fallen! How he had lost himself! It was a bitter distress, +and threw him almost into despair. He prayed over and over to be +forgiven, and began to long for some assurance of pardon, and for +something to prevent all his right feelings and wishes from thus seeming +to slip away from his grasp at the first trial. + +He told his mother how sorry he was; and she answered, 'Dear lad, don't +fret about it. It was very hard for you to bear, and you are but +learning, you see, to be patient.' + +'But I'm not learning if I don't go on no better,' sighed Alfred. + +'By bits you are, my boy,' she said; 'you are much less fractious now +than you used to be, only you could not stand this out-of-the-way trial.' + +Alfred groaned. + +'Do you remember what our Saviour said to St. Peter?' said his mother; +'"Whither I go thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow Me +afterwards." You see, St. Peter couldn't bear his cross then, but he +went on doing his best, and grieving when he failed, and by-and-by he did +bear it almost like his Master. He got to be made strong out of +weakness.' + +There was some comfort to Alfred in this; but he feared, and yet longed, +to see Mr. Cope, and when he came, had scarcely answered his questions as +to how he felt, before he said, 'O Sir, I've been a bad boy again, and so +cross to them all!' + +'O Sir,' said Ellen, who could not bear for him to blame himself, 'I'm +sure it was no wonder--he's so distracted with the pain, and Harold +getting idling, and forgetting to bring him the ointment. Why, even that +vagabond boy was so shocked, that he went all the way to Elbury that very +night for it. I told Alfred you'd tell him that anybody would be put +out, and nobody would think of minding what he said.' + +'Nobody, especially so kind a sister,' said Mr. Cope, smiling; 'but that +is not what Alfred is thinking of.' + +'No, Sir,' said Alfred; 'their being so good to me makes it all the +worse.' + +'I quite believe so; and you are very much disappointed in yourself.' + +'Oh yes, Sir, just when I wanted to be getting patient, and more like--' +and his eyes turned to the little picture, and filled with tears. + +Mr. Cope said somewhat of what his mother had said that he was but a +scholar in patience, and that he must take courage, though he had +slipped, and pray for new strengthening and refreshing to go on in the +path of pain his Lord had hallowed for him. + +Perhaps the words reminded Alfred of the part of the Catechism where they +occur, for he said, 'Oh, I wish I was confirmed! If I could but take the +Holy Sacrament, to make me stronger, and sure of being forgiven--' + +'You shall--before--' said Mr. Cope, speaking eagerly, but becoming +choked as he went on. 'You are one whom the Church would own as ready +and desirous to come, though you cannot be confirmed. You should at +once--but you see I am not yet a priest; I have not the power to +administer the Holy Communion; but I trust I shall be one in the spring, +and then, Alfred--Or if you should be worse, I promise you that I would +bring some one here. You shall not go without the Bread of Life.' + +Alfred felt what he said to the depths of his heart, but he could not say +anything but 'Thank you, Sir.' + +Mr. Cope, still much moved, laid his hand upon that of the boy. 'So, +Alfred, we prepare together. As I hope and long to prepare myself to +have that great charge committed to me, which our Saviour Christ gave to +His Apostles; so you prepare for the receiving of that Bread and that Cup +which will more fully unite you to Him, and join your suffering to what +He bore for you.' + +'How shall I, Sir?' murmured Alfred. + +'I will do my best to shew you,' said Mr. Cope; 'but your Catechism tells +you best. Think over that last answer.' + +Alfred's face lighted sweetly as he went over it. 'Why, that's what I +can't help doing, Sir; I can't forget my faults, I'm so afraid of them; +and I'm sure I do want to lead a new life, if I didn't keep on being so +bad; and thinking about His dying is the best comfort I have. Nor I'm +sure I don't bear ill-will to nobody, only I suppose it is not charity to +run out at poor Mother and Ellen when one's put out.' + +'Perhaps that is what you want to learn,' said Mr. Cope, 'and to get all +these feelings deepened, and more earnest and steadfast. If the long +waiting does that for you, it will be good, and keep you from coming +lightly to the Holy Feast.' + +'Oh, I could not do that!' exclaimed Alfred. 'And may I think that all +my faults will be taken away and forgiven?' + +'All you repent of, and bring in faith--' + +'That is what they say at church in the Absolution,' said Alfred +thoughtfully. + +'Rather it is what the priest says to them,' said Mr. Cope; 'it is the +applying the promise of forgiveness that our Saviour bought. I may not +yet say those words with authority, Alfred, but I should like to hope +that some day I may speak them to you, and bring rest from the weight at +your heart.' + +'Oh! I hope I may live to that!' said Alfred. + +'You shall hear them, whether from me or from another,' said Mr. Cope, +'that is, if God will grant us warning. But you need not fear, Alfred, +if you thoroughly repent, and put your full faith in the great Sacrifice +that has been offered for your sins and the sins of all the world. God +will take care of His child, and you already have His promise that He +will give you all that is needful for your salvation.' + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--CONFIRMATION + + +If Harold had known all the consequences of his neglect, perhaps he would +have been more sorry for it than as yet he had chosen to be. + +The long walk and the warm beer and fire sent Paul to his hay-nest so +heavy with sleep, that he never stirred till next morning he was wakened +by Tom Boldre, the shuffler, kicking him severely, and swearing at him +for a lazy fellow, who stayed out at night and left him to do his work. + +Paul stumbled to his feet, quite confused by the pain, and feeling for +his shoes in the dark loft. The shuffler scarcely gave him an instant to +put them on, but hunted him down-stairs, telling him the farmer was +there, and he would catch it. + +It would do nobody any good to hear the violent way in which Mr. Shepherd +abused the boy. He was a passionate man, and no good labourers liked to +work with him because of his tongue. With such grown men as he had, he +was obliged to keep himself under some restraint, but this only incited +him to make up for it towards the poor friendless boy. + +It was really nearly eight o'clock, and Paul's work had been neglected, +which was enough to cause displeasure; and besides, Boldre had heard Paul +coming home past eleven, and the farmer insisted on knowing what he had +been doing. + +Under all his rags, Paul was a very proud boy, and thus asked, he would +not tell, but stood with his legs twisted, looking very sulky. + +'No use asking him,' cried Mrs. Shepherd's shrill voice at the back door; +'why, don't ye hear that Mrs. Barker's hen-roost has been robbed by Dick +Royston and two or three more on 'em?' + +'I never robbed!' cried Paul indignantly. + +'None of your jaw,' said the farmer angrily. 'If you don't tell me this +moment where you've been, off you go this instant. Drinking at the +Tankard, I'll warrant.' + +'No such thing, Sir,' said Paul. 'I went to Elbury after some medicine +for a sick person.' + +Somehow he had a feeling about the house opposite, which would not let +him come out with the name in such a scene. + +'That's all stuff,' broke in Mrs. Shepherd, 'I don't believe one word of +it! Send him off; take my advice, Farmer, let him go where he comes +from; Ellen King told me he was out of prison.' + +Paul flushed crimson at this, and shook all over. He had all but turned +to go, caring for nothing more at Friarswood; but just then, John Farden, +one of the labourers, who was carrying out some manure, called out, 'No, +no, Ma'am. Sure enough he did go to Elbury to Dr. Blunt's. I was on the +road myself, and I hears him. "Good-night," says I. "Good-night," says +he. "Where be'est going?" says I. "To doctor's," says he, "arter some +stuff for Alfred King." + +'Yes,' said Paul, speaking more to Farden than to his master, 'and then +Mrs. King gave me some supper, and that was what made me so late.' + +'She ought to be ashamed of herself, then,' said Mrs. Shepherd +spitefully, 'having a vagabond scamp like that drinking beer at her house +at that time of night. How one is deceived in folks!' + +'Well, what are you doing here?' cried the farmer, turning on Paul +angrily; 'd'ye mean to waste any more of the day?' + +So Paul was not turned off, and had to go straight to his work. It was +well he had had so good a supper, for he had not a moment to snatch a bit +of breakfast. It so happened that his work was to go with John Farden, +who was carrying out the manure in the cart. Paul had to hold the horse, +while John forked it out into little heaps in the field. John was a +great big powerful man, with a foolish face, not a good workman, nor a +good character, or he would not have been at that farm. He had either +never been taught anything, or had forgotten it all; he never went near +church; he had married a disreputable wife, and had two or three unruly +children, who were likely to be the plagues of their parents and the +parish, but not a whit did John heed; he did not seem to have much more +sense than to work just enough to get food, lodging, beer, and tobacco, +to sleep all night, and doze all Sunday. There was not any malice nor +dishonesty in him; but it was terrible that a man with an immortal soul +should live so nearly the life of the brute beasts that have no +understanding, and should never wake to the sense of God or of eternity. + +He was not a man of many words, and nothing passed for a long time but +shouts of hoy, and whoa, and the like, to the horse. Paul went heavily +on, scarce knowing what he was about; there was a stunned jaded feel +about him, as if he were hunted and driven about, a mere outcast, +despised by every one, even by the Kings, whose kindness had been his +only ray of brightness. Not that his senses or spirits were alive enough +even to be conscious of pain or vexation; it was only a dull dreary +heedlessness what became of him next; and, quick clever boy as he had +been in the Union, he did not seem to have a bit more sense, thought, or +feeling, than John Farden. + +John Farden was the first to break the silence: 'I wouldn't bide,' said +he. + +Paul looked up, and muttered, 'I have nowhere to go.' + +'Farmer uses thee shameful,' repeated John. 'Why don't thee cut?' + +Paul saw the smoke of Mrs. King's chimney. That had always seemed like a +friend to him, but it came across him that they too thought him a runaway +from prison, and he felt as if his only bond of fellowship was gone. But +there was something else, too; and he made answer, 'I'll bide for the +Confirmation.' + +'Eh?' said John, 'what good'll that do ye?' + +'Help me to be a good lad,' said Paul, who knew John Farden would not +enter into any other explanation. + +'Why, what'll they do to ye?' + +'The Bishop will put his hand on me and bless me,' said Paul; and as he +said the words there was hope and refreshment coming back. He was a +child of God, if no other owned him. + +'Whoy,' said Farden, much as he might have spoken to his horse, 'rum sort +of a head thou'st got! Thee'll never go up to Bishop such a guy!' + +'Can't help it,' said Paul rather sullenly; 'it ain't the clothes that +God looks at.' + +John scanned him all over, with his face looking more foolish than ever +in the puzzle he felt. + +'Well,' he said, 'and what wilt get by it?' + +'God's grace to do right, I hope,' said Paul; then he added, out of his +sad heart, 'It's bad enough here, to be sure. It would be a bad look-out +if one hoped for nothing afterwards.' + +Somehow John's mind didn't take in the notion of afterwards, and he did +not go on talking to Paul. Perhaps there was a dread in his poor dull +mind of getting frightened out of the deadly stupefied sleep it was bound +in. + +But that bit of talk had done Paul great good, by rousing him to the +thought of what he had to hope for. There was the Confirmation nigh at +hand, and then on beyond there was rest; and the words came into his +mind, 'There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at +rest.' + +Poor, poor boy! He was very young to have such yearnings towards the +grave, and well-nigh to wish he lay as near to it as Alfred King, so he +might have those loving tender hands near him, those kind voices round +him. Paul had gone through a great deal in these few months; and, used +to good shelter and regular meals, he was less inured to bodily hardship +than many a cottage boy. His utter neglect of his person was telling on +him; he was less healthy and strong than he had been, and though high +spirits, merriment, and the pleasure of freedom and independence, had +made all light to him in the summer, yet now the cold weather, with his +insufficient food and scanty clothing, was dulling him and deadening him, +and hard work and unkind usage seemed to be grinding his very senses +down. To be sure, when twelve o'clock came, he went up into the loft, +ate his bit of dry bread, and said his prayers, as he had not been able +to do in the morning, and that made him feel less forlorn and downcast +for a little while; but then as he sat, he grew cold, and numb, and +sleepy, and seemed to have no life in him, but to be moving like a horse +in a mill, when Boldre called him down, and told him not to be idling +there. + +The theft in Mrs. Barker's poultry-yard was never traced home to any one, +but the world did not the less believe Dick Royston and Jesse Rolt to +have been concerned in it. Indeed, they had been drinking up some of +their gains when Harold met them at the shooting-gallery: and Mrs. +Shepherd would not put it out of her head that Paul Blackthorn was in the +secret, and that if he did really go for the medicine as he said, it was +only as an excuse for carrying the chickens to some receiver of stolen +goods. She had no notion of any person doing anything out of pure love +and pity. Moreover, it is much easier to put a suspicion into people's +heads than out again; and if Paul's whole history and each day's doings +had been proved to her in a court of justice, she would still have +chiefly remembered that she had always thought ill of him, and that Ellen +King had said he was a runaway convict, and so she would have believed +him to the end. + +Ellen had long ago forgotten that she had said anything of the kind; and +though she still held her nose rather high when Paul was near, she would +have answered for his honesty as readily as for that of her own brothers. +But hers had not been the charity that thinketh no evil, and her idle +words had been like thistle-down, lightly sent forth, but when they had +lighted, bearing thorns and prickles. + +Those thorns were galling poor Paul. Nobody could guess what his +glimpses of that happy, peaceful, loving family were to him. They seemed +to him like a softer, better kind of world, and he looked at their fair +faces and fresh, well-ordered garments with a sort of reverence; a kind +look or greeting from Mrs. King, a mere civil answer from Ellen, those +two sights of the white spirit-looking Alfred, were like the rays of +light that shone into his dark hay-loft. Sometimes he heard them singing +their hymns and psalms on a Sunday evening, and then the tears would come +into his eyes as he leant over the gate to listen. And, as if it was +because Ellen kept at the greatest distance from him, he set more store +by her words and looks than those of any one else, was always glad when +she served him in the shop, and used to watch her on Sunday, looking as +fresh as a flower in her neat plain dress. + +And now to hear that she not only thought meanly of him, which he knew +well enough, but thought him a thief, a runaway, and an impostor coming +about with false tales, was like a weight upon his sunken spirits, and +seemed to take away all the little heart hard usage had left him, made +him feel as if suspicious eyes were on him whenever he went for his bit +of bread, and took away all his peace in looking at the cottage. + +He did once take courage to say to Harold, 'Did your sister really say I +had run away from gaol?' + +'Oh, nobody minds what our Ellen says,' was the answer. + +'But did she say so?' + +'I don't know, I dare say she did. She's so fine, that she thinks no one +that comes up-stairs in dirty shoes worth speaking to. I'm sure she's +the plague of my life--always at me.' + +That was not much comfort for Paul. He had other friends, to be sure. +All the boys in the place liked him, and were very angry with the way the +farmer treated him, and greatly to their credit, they admired his +superior learning instead of being jealous of it. Mrs. Hayward, the +sexton's wife, the same who had bound up his hand when he cut it at +harvest, even asked him to come in and help her boys in the evenings with +what they had to prepare for Mr. Cope. He was not sorry to do so +sometimes. The cottage was a slatternly sort of place, where he did not +feel ashamed of himself, and the Haywards were mild good sort of folks, +from whom he was sure never to hear either a bad or an unkind word; +though he did not care for them, nor feel refreshed and helped by being +with them as he did with the Kings. + +John Farden, too, was good-natured to him, and once or twice hindered +Boldre from striking or abusing him; he offered him a pipe once, but Paul +could not smoke, and another time brought him out a pint of beer into the +field. Mrs. Shepherd spied him drinking it from her upper window, and +believed all the more that he got money somehow, and spent it in drink. + +So the time wore on till the Confirmation, all seeming like one dull +heavy dream of bondage; and as the weather became colder, the poor boy +seemed to have no power of thinking of anything, but of so getting +through his work as to avoid violence, to keep himself from perishing +with cold, and not to hurt his chilblains more than he could help. + +All his quick intellect and good instruction seemed to have perished +away, and the last time he went to Mr. Cope's, he sat as if he were +stupid or asleep, and when a question came to him, sat with his mouth +open like silly Bill Pridden. + +Mr. Cope knew him too well not to feel, as he wrote the ticket, that +there were very few of whom he could so entirely from his heart say +'Examined and APPROVED,' as the poor lonely outcast foundling, Paul +Blackthorn, who could not even tell whether he were fifteen, sixteen, or +seventeen, but could just make sure that he had once been caned by old +Mr. Haynes, who went away from the Union twelve years ago. + +'Do you think you can keep the ticket safe if I give it you now, Paul?' +asked Mr. Cope, recollecting that the cows might sup upon it like his +Prayer-book. + +Paul put his hands down to the bottom of his pockets. They were all one +hole, and that sad lost foolish look came over his wan face again, and +startled Mr. Cope. + +The boys grinned, but Charles Hayward stepped forward. 'Please, Sir, let +me take care of it for him.' + +Mr. Cope and Paul both agreed, and Mr. Cope kept Charles for a moment to +say, as he gave him a shilling, 'Look here, Charles, do you think you can +manage to get that poor fellow a tolerable breakfast on Saturday before +he goes? And if you could make him look a little more decent?' + +Charles pulled his forelock and looked knowing. In fact, there was a +little plot among these good-natured boys, and Harold King was in it too, +though he was not of the Confirmation party, and said and thought he was +very glad of it. He did not want to bind himself to be so very good. +Silly boy; as if Baptism had not bound him already! + +Mrs. Hayward put her head out as Paul passed her cottage, and called out, +'I say, you Paul, you come in to-morrow evening with our Charlie and Jim, +and I'll wash you when I washes them.' + +Good Mrs. Hayward made a mistake that the more delicate-minded Mrs. King +would never have made. Perhaps if a pail of warm water and some soap had +been set before Paul, he might actually have washed himself; but he was +much too big and too shamefaced a lad to fancy sharing a family scrubbing +by a woman, whatever she might do to her own sons. But considering the +size of the Hayward cottage, and the way in which the family lived, this +sort of notion was not likely to come into the head of the good-natured +mother. + +So she and her boys were much vexed when Paul did not make his +appearance, and she made a face of great disgust when Charles said, +'Never mind, Mother, my white frock will hide no end of dirt.' + +'I shall have to wash it over again before you can wear it, I know,' said +Mrs. Hayward. 'Not as I grudges the trouble; he's a poor lost orphant, +that it's a shame to see so treated.' + +Mrs. Hayward did not know that she was bestowing the cup of cold water, +as well as being literally ready to wash the feet of the poor disciple. + +A clean body is a type and token of a pure mind; and though the lads of +Friarswood did not quite perceive this, there was a feeling about them of +there being something unnatural and improper, and a disgrace to +Friarswood, in any one going up to the Bishop in such a condition as +Paul. Especially, as Charles Hayward said, when he was the pick of the +whole lot. Perhaps Charles was right, for surely Paul was single-hearted +in his hope of walking straight to his one home, Heaven, and he had been +doing no other than bearing his cross, when he so patiently took the +being 'buffeted' when he did well, and faithfully served his froward +master. + +But Paul was not to escape the outward cleansing, and from one of the +very last people from whom it would have been expected. He had just +pulled his bed of hay down over him, and was trying to curl himself up so +as to stop his teeth from chattering, with Caesar on his feet, when the +dog growled, and a great voice lowered to a gruff whisper, said, 'Come +along, young un!' + +'I'm coming,' cried Paul. + +Though it was not Boldre's voice, it had startled him terribly; he was so +much used to ill-treatment, that he expected a savage blow every moment. + +But the great hand that closed on him, though rough, was not unkind. + +'Poor lad, how he quakes!' said John Farden's voice. 'Don't ye be +afeard, it's only me.' + +'Nobody got at the horses?' cried Paul. + +'No, no; only I ain't going to have you going up to yon big parson all +one muck-heap! Come on, and make no noise about it.' + +Paul did not very well know what was going to befall him, but he did not +feel unsafe with John Farden, and besides, his lank frame was in the +grasp of that big hand like a mouse in the power of a mastiff. So he let +himself be hauled down the ladder, into an empty stall, where, behold, +there was a dark lantern (which had been at bad work in its time), a +pail, a brush, a bit of soap, and a ragged towel. + +John laid hold of him much as Alfred in his page days used to do of Lady +Jane's little dog when it had to be washed, but Puck had the advantage in +keeping on his shaggy coat all the time, and in being more gently +handled, whereas Farden scrubbed with such hearty good-will, that Paul +thought his very skin would come off. But he had undergone the like in +the workhouse, and he knew how to accommodate himself to it; and when his +rough bath was over, though he was very sore, and stiff, and chilly, he +really felt relieved, and more respectable than he had done for many +months, only rather sorry he must put on his filthy old rags again; and +he gave honest John more thanks than might have been expected. + +The Confirmation was to be at eleven o'clock, at Elbury, and John had +undertaken his morning's work, so that Mr. Shepherd grudgingly consented +to spare him, knowing that all the other farmers of course did the same, +and that there would be a cry of shame if he did not. + +Paul had just found his way down the ladder in the morning, with thoughts +going through his mind that to him this would be the coming of the +Comforter, and he was sure he wanted comfort; and that for some hours of +this day at least, he should be at peace from rude words and blows, when +he heard a great confusion of merry voices and suppressed laughing, and +saw the heads of some of the lads bobbing about near Mrs. King's garden. + +Was it time already to set off, he wondered, looking up to the sun; but +then those boys seemed to be in an uproarious state such as did not suit +his present mood, nor did he think Mr. Cope would consider it befitting. +He would have let them go by, feeling himself such a scare-crow as they +might think a blot upon them; but he remembered that Charles Hayward had +his ticket, and as he looked at himself, he doubted whether he should be +let into a strange church. + +'Paul! Paul Blackthorn!' called Harold, with a voice all aglee. + +'Well!' said Paul, 'what do you want of me?' + +'Come on, and you'll see.' + +'I don't want a row. Is Charlie Hayward there? Just ask him for my +card, and don't make a work.' + +'He'll give it you if you'll come for it,' said Harold; and seeing there +was no other chance, Paul slowly came. Harold led him to the stable, +where just within the door stood a knot of stout hearty boys, snorting +with fun, hiding their heads on each other's shoulders, and bending their +buskined knees with merriment. + +'Now then!' cried Charles Hayward, and he had got hold of the only button +that held Paul's coat together. + +Paul was bursting out with something, but George Grant's arms were round +his waist, and his hands were fumbling at his fastenings. They were each +one much stronger than he was now, and they drowned his voice with shouts +of laughter, while as fast as one garment was pulled off, another was put +on. + +'Mind, you needn't make such a work, it bain't presents,' said George +Grant, 'only we won't have them asking up at Elbury if we've saved the +guy to bring in.' + +'It is a present, though, old Betty Bushel's shirt,' said Charles +Hayward. 'She said she'd throw it at his head if he brought it back +again; but the frock's mine.' + +'And the corduroys is mine,' said George Grant. 'My! they be a sight too +big in the band! Run in, Harold, and see if your mother can lend us a +pin.' + +'And the waistcoat is my summer one,' said Fred Bunting. 'He's too big +too; why, Paul, you're no better than a natomy!' + +'Never mind, my white frock will hide it all,' said Charles, 'and here's +Ned's cap for you. Oh! and it's poor Alfred's boots.' + +Paul could not make up his mind to walk all the way in the boots, but to +satisfy the boys he engaged to put them on as soon as they were getting +to Elbury. + +'My! he looks quite respectable,' cried Charles, running back a little +way to look at him. + +'I wonder if Mr. Cope will know him?' exclaimed Harold, jumping leap-frog +fashion on George Grant's back. + +'The maids will take him for some strange gentleman,' exclaimed Jem +Hayward; 'and why, bless me, he's washed, I do declare!' as a streak of +light from the door fell on Paul's visage. + +'No, you don't mean it,' broke out Charles. 'Let's look! yes, I protest, +why, the old grime between his eyes is gone after all. How did you +manage that, Paul?' + +Paul rather uneasily mumbled something about John Farden, and the boys +clapped their hands, and shouted, so that Alfred, who well knew what was +going on, raised himself on his pillow and laughed. It was rather blunt +treatment for feelings if they were tender, but these were rough warm- +hearted village boys, and it was all their good-nature. + +'And where's the grub?' asked Charles importantly, looking about. + +'Oh, not far off,' said Harold; and in another moment, he and Charles had +brought in a black coffee-pot, a large mug, some brown sugar, a hunch of +bread, some butter, and a great big smoking sausage. + +Paul looked at it, as if he were not quite sure what to do with it. One +boy proceeded to turn in an inordinate quantity of sugar, another to pour +in the brown coffee that sent out a refreshing steam enough to make any +one hungry. George Grant spread the butter, cut the sausage in half, put +it on the bread, and thrust it towards Paul. + +'Eat it--s--s,' said Charles, patting Paul on the back. 'Mr. Cope said +you was to, and you must obey your minister.' + +'Not all for me?' said Paul, not able to help a pull at the coffee, the +mug warming his fingers the while. + +'Oh yes, we've all had our breakfastisses,' said George Grant; 'we are +only come to make you eat yours like a good boy, as Mr. Cope said you +should.' + +They stood round, looking rather as they would have done had Paul been an +elephant taking his meal in a show; but not one would hear of helping him +off with a crumb out of Mr. Cope's shilling. George Grant was a big +hungry lad, and his breakfast among nine at home had not been much to +speak of; but savoury as was the sausage, and perfumy as was the coffee, +he would have scorned to take a fragment from that stranger, beg him to +do so as Paul might; and what could not be eaten at that time, with a +good pint of the coffee, was put aside in a safe nook in the stable to be +warmed up for supper. + +That morning's work was not a bad preparation for Confirmation after all. + +Harold had stayed so long, that he had to jump on the pony and ride his +fastest to be in time at the post. He was very little ashamed of not +being among those lads, and felt as if he had the more time to enjoy +himself; but there were those who felt very sad for him--Alfred, who +would have given so much to receive the blessing; and Ellen, whose +confirmation was very lonely and melancholy without either of her +brothers; besides his mother, to whom his sad carelessness was such +constant grief and heart-ache. + +Ellen was called for by the carriage from the Grange, and sat up behind +with the kitchen-maid, who was likewise to be confirmed. Little Miss +Jane sat inside in her white dress and veil, looking like a snowdrop, +Alfred thought, as his mother lifted him up to the window to see her, as +the carriage stood still while Ellen climbed to her seat. + +In the course of the morning, Mrs. King made time to read over the +Confirmation Service with Alfred, to think of the blessing she was +receiving, and to pray that it might rest upon her through life. And +they entreated, too, that Harold might learn to care for it, and be +brought to a better mind. + +'O Mother,' said Alfred, after lying thinking for sometime, 'if I thought +Harold would take up for good and be a better boy to you than I have +been, I should not mind anything so much.' + +And there was Harold all the time wondering whether he should be able to +get out in the evening to have a lark with Dick and Jesse. + +Ellen was set down by-and-by. Her colour was very deep, but she looked +gentle and happy, and the first thing she did was to bend over Alfred, +kiss him, and say how she wished he had been there. + +Then, when she had been into her own room, she came back and told them +about the beautiful large Elbury Church, and the great numbers of young +girls and boys on the two sides of the aisle, and of the Bishop seated in +the chair by the altar, and the chanted service, with the organ sounding +so beautiful. + +And then how her heart had beat, and she hardly dared to speak her vow, +and how she trembled when her turn came to go up to the rail, but she +said it was so comfortable to see Mr. Cope in his surplice, looking so +young among the other clergymen, and coming a little forward, as if to +count out and encourage his own flock. She was less frightened when she +had met his kind eye, and was able to kneel down with a more quiet mind +to receive the gift which had come down on the Day of Pentecost. + +Alfred wanted to know whether she had seen Paul, but Ellen had been +kneeling down and not thinking of other people, when the Friarswood boys +went up. Only she had passed him on the way home, and seen that though +he was lagging the last of the boys, he did not look dull and worn, as he +had been doing lately. + +Ellen had been asked to go to the Grange after church to-morrow evening, +and drink tea there, in celebration of the Confirmation which the two +young foster-sisters had shared. + +Harold went to fetch her home at night, and they both came into the house +fresh and glowing with the brisk frosty air, and also with what they had +to tell. + +'O mother, what do you think? Paul Blackthorn is to go to the Grange to- +morrow. My Lady wants to see him, and perhaps she will make Mr. Pound +find some work for him about the farm.' + +Harold jumped up and snapped his fingers towards the farm. 'There's for +old Skinflint!' said he; 'not a chap in the place but will halloo for +joy!' + +'Well, I am glad!' said Mrs. King; 'I didn't think that poor lad would +have held out much longer, winter weather and all. But how did my Lady +come to hear of it?' + +'Oh, it seems she noticed him going to church in all his rags, and Mr. +Cope told her who he was; so Miss Jane came and asked me all about him, +and I told her what a fine scholar he is, and how shamefully the farmer +and Boldre treat him, and how good he was to Alfred about the ointment, +and how steady he is. And I told her about the boys dressing him up +yesterday, and how he wouldn't take a gift. She listened just as if it +was a story, and she ran away to her grandmamma, and presently came back +to say that the boy was to come up to-morrow after his work, for Lady +Jane to speak to him.' + +'Well, at least, he has been washed once,' said Mrs. King; 'but he's so +queer; I hope he will have no fancies, and will behave himself.' + +'I'll tackle him,' declared Harold decidedly. 'I've a great mind to go +out this moment and tell him.' + +Mrs. King prevented this; she persuaded Harold that Mrs. Shepherd would +fly out at them if she heard any noise in the yard, and that it would be +better for every one to let Paul alone till the morning. + +Morning came, and as soon as Harold was dressed, he rushed to the farm- +yard, but he could not find Paul anywhere, and concluded that he had been +sent out with the cows, and would be back by breakfast-time. + +As soon as he had brought home the post-bag, he dashed across the road +again, but came back in a few moments, looking beside himself. + +'He's gone!' he said, and threw himself back in a chair. + +'Gone!' cried Mrs. King and Ellen with one voice, quite aghast. + +'Gone!' repeated Harold. 'The farmer hunted him off this morning! Missus +will have it that he's been stealing her eggs, and that there was a +lantern in the stable on Friday night; so they told him to be off with +him, and he's gone!' + +'Poor, poor boy! just when my Lady would have been the making of him!' +cried Ellen. + +'But where--which way is he gone?' asked Mrs. King. + +'I might ride after him, and overtake him,' cried Harold, starting up, +'but I never thought to ask! And Mrs. Shepherd was ready to pitch into +me, so I got away as soon as I could. Do you run over and ask, Ellen; +you always were a favourite.' + +They were in such an eager state, that Ellen at once sprang up, and +hastily throwing on her bonnet, ran across the road, and tapped at Mrs. +Shepherd's open door, exclaiming breathlessly, 'O Ma'am, I beg your +pardon, but will you tell me where Paul Blackthorn is gone?' + +'Paul Blackthorn! how should I know?' said Mrs. Shepherd crossly. 'I'm +not to be looking after thieves and vagabonds. He's a come-by-chance, +and he's a go-by-chance, and a good riddance too!' + +'Oh but, Ma'am, my Lady wanted to speak to him.' + +This only made Mrs. Shepherd the more set against the poor boy. + +'Ay, ay, I know--coming over the gentry; and a good thing he's gone!' +said she. 'The place isn't to be harbouring thieves and vagrants, or +who's to pay the rates? My eggs are gone, I tell you, and who should +take 'em but that lad, I'd like to know?' + +'Them was two rotten nest-eggs as I throwed away when I was cleaning the +stable.' + +'Who told you to put in your word, John Farden?' screamed Mrs. Shepherd, +turning on him. 'Ye'd best mind what ye're about, or ye'll be after him +soon.' + +'No loss neither,' muttered John, stopping to pick up his shovel. + +'And you didn't see which way he was gone?' asked Ellen, looking from the +labourer to the farmer's wife. + +'Farmer sent un off or ever I come,' replied John, 'or I'd ha' gied un a +breakfast.' + +'I'm sure I can't tell,' said Mrs. Shepherd, with a toss of her head. +'And as to you, Ellen King, I'm surprised at you, running after a scamp +like that, that you told me yourself was out of a prison.' + +'Oh but, Mrs. Shepherd--' + +'You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' interrupted Mrs. Shepherd; 'and I +wonder your mother allows it. But there's nothing like girls +now-a-days.' + +Ellen thought John Farden grinned; and feeling as if nothing so shocking +could ever happen to her again, she flew back, she hardly knew how, to +her home, clapped the door after, and dropping into a chair as Harold had +done, burst into such a fit of crying, that she could not speak, and only +shook her head in answer to Harold's questions as to how Paul was gone. + +'Oh, no one knew!' she choked out among her sobs; 'and Mrs. Shepherd--such +things!' + +Harold stamped his foot, and Mrs. King tried to soothe her. In the +midst, she recollected that she could not bear her brothers to guess at +the worst part of the 'such things;' and recovering herself a moment, she +said, 'No, no, they've driven him off! He's gone, and--and, oh! Mother, +Mrs. Shepherd will have it he's a thief, and--and she says I said so.' + +That was bad enough, and Ellen wept bitterly again; while her mother and +Harold both cried out with surprise. + +'Yes--but--I did say I dare said he was out of a reformatory--and that +she should remember it! Now I've taken away his character, and he's a +poor lost boy!' + +Oh, idle words! idle words! + + + + +CHAPTER IX--ROBBING THE MAIL + + +There was no helping it! People must have their letters whether Paul +Blackthorn were lost or not, and Harold was a servant of the public, and +must do his duty, so after some exhortations from his mother, he ruefully +rose up, hoping that he should not have to go to Ragglesford. + +'Yes, you will,' said his mother, 'and maybe to wait. Here's a +registered letter, and I think there are two more with money in them.' + +'To think,' sighed Harold, as he mounted his pony, 'of them little chaps +getting more money for nothing, than Paul did in a month by working the +skin off his bones!' + +'Don't be discontented, Harold, on that score. Them little chaps will +work hard enough by-and-by: and the money they have now is to train them +in making a fit use of it then.' + +Harold looked anxiously up and down the road for Paul, and asked Mr. +Cope's housekeeper whether he had been there to take leave. No; and +indeed Harold would have been a little vexed if he had wished good-bye +anywhere if not at home. + +There was a fine white frost, and the rime hung thickly on every spray of +the heavy branches of the dark firs and larches that overhung the long +solitary lane between the Grange and Ragglesford, and fringed the park +palings with crystals. Harold thought how cold poor Paul must be going +on his way in his ragged clothes. The ice crackled under the pony's feet +as she trotted down Ragglesford Lane, and the water of the ford looked so +cold, that Peggy, a very wise animal, turned her head towards the foot- +bridge, a narrow and not very sound affair, over which Harold had +sometimes taken her when the stream was high, and threatened to be over +his feet. + +Harold made no objection; but no sooner were all the pony's four hoofs +well upon the bridge, than at the other end appeared Dick Royston. + +'Hollo, Har'ld!' was his greeting, 'I've got somewhat to say to ye.' + +'D'ye know where Paul Blackthorn is?' asked Harold. + +'Not I--I'm a traveller myself, you must know.' + +'You, going to cut?' cried Harold. + +'Ay,' said Dick, laying hold of the pony's rein. 'The police have been +down at Rolt's--stupid fellow left old gander's feet about--Mrs. Barker +swore to 'em 'cause he'd had so many kicks and bites on common--Jesse's +took up and peached--I've been hiding about all night--precious cold it +was, and just waiting, you see, to wish you good-bye.' + +Harold, very much shocked, could have dispensed with his farewells, nor +did he like the look of his eyes. + +'Thank you, Dick; I'm sorry--I didn't think--but I'm after time--I wish +you'd let go of Peggy.' + +'So that's all you have to say to an old comrade!' said Dick; 'but, I +say, Har'ld, I'm not going so. I must have some tin to take me to +Portsmouth. I want to know what you've got in that there bag!' + +'You won't have that; it's the post. Let go, Dick;' and he pushed the +pony forward, but Dick had got her fast by the head. Harold looked round +for help, but Ragglesford Lane was one of the loneliest places in the +country. There was not a house for half a mile, and Lady Jane's +plantations shut in the road on either side. + +'I mean to have it,' said Dick, looking coolly up into his face; 'I mean +to see if there's any of the letters with a half-sovereign in 'em, that +you tell us about.' + +'Dick, Dick, it would be robbing! For shame, Dick! What would become of +Mother and me?' + +'That's your look-out,' said Dick; and he stretched out his hand for the +bag. He was four years older than Harold, and much stouter. + +Harold, with a ready move, chucked the bag round to his back, and shouted +lustily in hopes that there might be a keeper in the woods, 'Help! +Thieves! He's robbing the post!' + +Dick's hoarse laugh was all the answer. 'That'll do, my dear,' he said; +'now you'd best be quiet; I'd be loath to hurt you.' + +For all answer, Harold, shouting all the time, dealt him a stroke right +over the eyes and nose with his riding-switch, and made a great effort to +force the pony on in hopes the blow might have made him slacken his hold. +But though one moment Dick's arm was thrown over his watering eyes, the +other hand held the bridle as firmly as ever, and the next instant his +fist dealt Harold such a blow, as nearly knocked out all his breath. +Setting his teeth, and swearing an oath, Dick was pouncing on the boy's +arm, when from the road before them came bursting a meagre thing darting +like a wild cat, which fell upon him, hallooing as loud as Harold. + +Dick turned in fury, and let go the bridle. The pony backed in alarm. +The new-comer was grappling with the thief, and trying to drag him aside. +'On, on; go on, Har'ld!' he shouted, but his strength was far from equal +to Dick's, who threw him aside on the hand-rail. Old rotten rail that it +was, it crashed under the weight, and fell with both the boys into the +water. Peggy dashed forward to the other side, where Harold pulled her +up with much difficulty, and turned round to look at the robber and the +champion. The fall was not far, nor the water deep, and they had both +risen, and were ready to seize one another again in their rage. And now +Harold saw that he who had come to his help was no other than Paul +Blackthorn, who shouted loudly, 'On, go on! I'll keep him.' + +'He'll kill you!' screamed Harold, in despair, ready to push in between +them with his horse; but at that moment cart-wheels were heard in the +road, and Dick, shaking his fist, and swearing at them both, shook off +Paul as if he had been a feather, and splashing out of the ford on the +other side, leapt over the hedge, and was off through the plantations. + +Paul more slowly crept up towards Harold, dripping from head to foot. + +'Paul! Paul! I'm glad I've found you!' cried Harold. 'You've saved the +letters, man, and one was registered! Come along with me, up to the +school.' + +'Nay, I'll not do that,' said Paul. + +'Then you'll stay till I come back,' said Harold earnestly; 'I've got so +much to tell you! My Lady sent for you. Our Ellen told her all about +you, and you're to go to her. Ellen was in such a way when she found you +were off.' + +'Then she didn't think I'd taken the eggs?' said Paul. + +'She'd as soon think that I had,' said Harold. 'Why, don't we all know +that you're one of the parson's own sort? But what made you go off +without a word to nobody?' + +'I don't know. Every one was against me,' said Paul; 'and I thought I'd +just go out of the way, and you'd forget all about me. But I never +touched those eggs, and you may tell Mr. Cope so, and thank him for all +his kindness to me.' + +'You'll tell him yourself. You're going home along with me,' cried +Harold. 'There! I'll not stir a step till you've promised! Why, if you +make off now, 'twill be the way to make them think you have something to +run away for, like that rascal.' + +'Very well,' said Paul, rather dreamily. + +'Then you won't?' said Harold. 'Upon your word and honour?' + +Paul said the words after him, not much as if he knew what he was about; +and Harold, rather alarmed at the sound of the Grange clock striking, +gave a cut to the pony, and bounded on, only looking back to see that +Paul was seating himself by the side of the lane. Harold said to himself +that his mother would not have liked to see him do so after such a +ducking, but he knew that he was more tenderly treated than other lads, +and with reason for precaution too; and he promised himself soon to be +bringing Paul home to be dried and warmed. + +But he was less speedy than he intended. When he arrived at the school, +he had first to account to the servants for his being so late, and then +he was obliged to wait while the owner of the registered letter was to +sign the green paper, acknowledging its safe delivery. + +Instead of having the receipt brought back to him, there came a message +that he was to go up to tell the master and the young gentlemen all about +the robbery. + +So the servant led the way, and Harold followed a little shy, but more +curious. The boys were in school, a great bare white-washed room, +looking very cold, with a large arched window at one end, and forms +ranged in squares round the hacked and hewed deal tables. Harold thought +he should tell Alfred that the young gentlemen had not much the advantage +of themselves in their schoolroom. + +The boys were mostly smaller than he was, only those of the uppermost +form being of the same size. There might be about forty of them, looking +rather red and purple with the chilly morning, and all their eighty eyes, +black or brown, blue or grey, fixed at once upon the young postman as he +walked into the room, straight and upright, in his high stout gaiters +over his cord trousers, his thick rough blue coat and red comforter, with +his cap in his hand, his fair hair uncovered, and his blue eyes and rosy +cheeks all the more bright for that strange morning's work. He was a +well-mannered boy, and made his bow very properly to Mr. Carter, the +master, who sat at his high desk. + +'So, my little man,' said the master, 'I hear you've had a fight for our +property this morning. You've saved this young gentleman's birthday +present of a watch, and he wants to thank you.' + +'Thank you, Sir,' said Harold; 'but he'd have been too much for me if +Paul hadn't come to help. He's a deal bigger than me.' + +The boys all made a thumping and scuffling with their feet, as if to +applaud Harold; and their master said, 'Tell us how it was.' + +Harold gave the account in a very good simple manner, only he did not say +who the robber was--he did not like to do so--indeed, he would not quite +believe it could be his old friend Dick. The boys clapped and thumped +doubly when he came to the switching, and still more at the tumble into +the water. + +'Do you know who the fellow was?' asked Mr. Carter. + +'Yes, I knowed him,' said Harold, and stopped there. + +'But you had rather not tell. Is that it?' + +'Please, Sir, he's gone, and I wouldn't get him into trouble.' + +At this the school-boys perfectly stamped, and made signs of cheering. + +'And who is the boy that came to help you?' + +'Paul Blackthorn, Sir; he's a boy from the Union who worked at Farmer +Shepherd's. He's a right good boy, Sir; but he's got no friends, nor +no--nothing,' said Harold, pausing ere he finished. + +'Why didn't you bring him up with you?' asked the master. + +'Please, Sir, he wouldn't come.' + +'Well,' said Mr. Carter, 'you've behaved like a brave fellow, and so has +your friend; and here's something in token of gratitude for the rescue of +our property.' + +It was a crown piece. + +'And here,' said the boy whose watch had been saved, 'here's +half-a-crown. Shake hands, you're a jolly fellow; and I'll tell my uncle +about you.' + +Harold was a true Englishman, and of course his only answer could be, +'Thank you, Sir, I only did my duty;' and as the other boys, whose money +had been rescued, brought forward more silver pledges of gratitude, he +added, 'I'll take it to Paul--thank you, Sir--thank you, Sir.' + +'That's right; you must share, my lad,' said the school-master. 'It is a +reward for both of you.' + +'Thank you, Sir, it was _my_ duty,' repeated Harold, making his bow. + +'Sir, Sir, pray let us give him three cheers,' burst out the head boy in +an imploring voice. + +Mr. Carter smiled and nodded; and there was such a hearty roaring and +stamping, such 'hip, hip, hurrah!' bursting out again and again, that the +windows clattered, and the room seemed fuller of noise than it could +possibly hold. It is not quite certain that Mr. Carter did not halloo as +loud as any of the boys. + +Harold turned very red, and did not know which way to look while it was +going on, nor what to do when it was over, except to say a very odd sort +of 'Thank you, Sir;' but his heart leapt up with a kind of warm grateful +feeling of liking towards those boys for going along with him so +heartily; and the cheers gave a pleasure and glow that the coins never +would have done, even had he thought them his own by right. + +He was not particularly good in this; he had never felt the pinch of +want, and was too young to care; and he did not happen to wish to buy +anything in particular just then. A selfish or a covetous boy would not +have felt as he did; but these were not his temptations. Knowing, as he +did, that the assault had been the consequence of his foolish boasts +about the money-letters, and that he, being in charge, ought to defend +them to the last gasp, he was sure he deserved the very contrary from a +reward, and never thought of the money belonging to any one but Paul, who +had by his own free will come to the rescue, and saved the bag from +robbery, himself from injury and disgrace. + +How happy he was in thinking what a windfall it was for his friend, and +how far it would go in fitting him up respectably! + +Peggy was ready to trot nearly as fast as he wished her down the lane to +the place where he had left Paul; and no sooner did Harold come in sight +of the olive-coloured rags, than he bawled out a loud 'Hurrah! Come on, +Paul; you don't know what I've got for you! 'Twas a young gentleman's +watch as you saved; and they've come down right handsome! and here's +twelve-and-sixpence for you--enough to rig you out like a regular swell! +Why, what's the matter?' he added in quite another voice, as he had now +come up to Paul, and found him sitting nearly doubled up, with his head +bent over his knees. + +He raised his face up as Harold came, and it was so ghastly pale, that +the boy, quite startled, jumped off his pony. + +'Why, old chap, what is it? Have you got knit up with cold, sitting +here?' + +'Yes, I suppose so,' said Paul; but his very voice shivered, his teeth +chattered, and his knees knocked together with the chill. 'The pains run +about me,' he added; but he spoke as if he hardly knew what he was doing +or saying. + +'You must come home with me, and Mother will give you something hot,' +said Harold. 'Come, you'll catch your death if you don't. You shall +ride home.' + +He pulled Paul from his seat with some difficulty, and was further +alarmed when he found that the poor fellow reeled and could hardly stand; +but he was somewhat roused, and knew better what he was about. Harold +tried to put him on the pony, but this could not be managed: he could not +help himself enough, Peggy always swerved aside, nor was Harold strong +enough to lift him up. + +The only thing to be done was for Harold to mount, and Paul to lean +against the saddle, while the pony walked. When they had to separate at +the ford, poor Paul's walk across the bridge was so feeble and +staggering, that Harold feared every moment that he would fall where the +rail was broken away, but was right glad to put his arm on his shoulder +again to help to hold him up. The moving brought a little more life back +to the poor boy's limbs, and he walked a little better, and managed to +tell Harold how he had felt too miserable to speak to any one after the +rating the farmer had given him, and how he had set out on the tramp for +more work, though with hope so nearly dead in his heart, that he only +wished he could sit down and die. He had walked out of the village +before people were about, so as not to be noticed, and then had found +himself so weak and weary that he could not get on without food, and had +sat down by the hedge to eat the bit of bread he had with him. Then he +had taken the first lonely-looking way he saw, without knowing that it +was one of Harold's daily rides, and was slowly dragging himself up the +hill from the ford when the well-known voice, shouting for help, had +suddenly called him back, and filled him with spirit and speed that were +far enough off now, poor fellow! + +That was a terrible mile and a half--Harold sometimes thought it would +never be over, or that Paul would drop down, and he would have to gallop +off for help; but Paul was not one to give in, and somehow they got back +at last, and Harold, with his arm round his friend, dragged him through +the garden, and across the shop, and pushed him into the arm-chair by the +fire, Mrs. King following, and Ellen rushing down from up-stairs. + +'There!' cried Harold, all in a breath, 'there he is! That rascal tried +to rob me on Ragglesford Bridge, and was nigh too much for me; but _he_ +there came and pulled him off me, and got spilt into the river, and he's +got a chill, and if you don't give him something jolly hot, Mother, he'll +catch his death!' + +Mrs. King thought so too: Paul's state looked to her more alarming than +it did even to Harold. He did not seem able to think or speak, but kept +rocking himself towards the fire, and that terrible shivering shaking him +all over. + +'Poor lad!' she said kindly. 'I'll tell you what, Harold, all you can do +is put him into your bed at once.--Here, Ellen, you run up first, and +bring me a shirt to warm for him. Then we'll get his own clothes dried.' + +'No, no,' cried Harold, with a caper, 'we'll make a scare-crow of 'em. +You don't know what I know, Mother. I've got twelve shillings and +sixpence here all his own; and you'll see what I won't do with it at old +Levi's, the second-hand clothes man, to-night.' + +Harold grew less noisy as he saw how little good the fire was doing to +his patient, and how ill his mother seemed to think him. He quietly +obeyed her, by getting him up-stairs, and putting him into his own bed, +the first in which Paul had lain down for more than four months. Then +Mrs. King sent Harold out for some gin; she thought hot spirits and water +the only chance of bringing back any life after such a dreadful chill; +and she and Ellen kept on warming flannels and shawls to restore some +heat, and to stop the trembling that shook the bed, so that Alfred felt +it, even in the next room, where he lay with the door open, longing to be +able to help, and wishing to understand what could have happened. + +At last, the cordial and the warm applications effected some good. Paul +was able to say, 'I don't know why you are so good to me,' and seemed +ready to burst into a great fit of crying; but Mrs. King managed to stop +him by saying something about one good turn deserving another, and that +she hoped he was coming round now. + +Harold was now at leisure to tell the story in his brother's room. Alfred +did not grieve now at his brother's being able to do spirited things; he +laughed out loud, and said, 'Well done, Harold!' at the switching, and +rubbed his hands, and lighted up with glee, as he heard of the +Ragglesford boys and their cheers; and then, Harold went eagerly on with +his scheme for fitting up Paul at the second-hand shop, both Mrs. King +and Alfred taking great interest in his plans, till Mrs. King hearing +something like a moan, went back to Paul. + +She found his cheeks and hands as burning hot as they had been cold; they +were like live coals; and what was worse, such severe pains were running +all over his limbs, that he was squeezing the clothes into his mouth that +he might not scream aloud. + +Happily it was Mr. Blunt's day for calling; and before the morning was +over he came, and after a few words of explanation, he stood at Paul's +bedside. + +Not much given to tenderness towards the feelings of patients of his +degree, Mr. Blunt's advice was soon given. 'Yes, he is in for rheumatic +fever--won't be about again for a long time to come. I say, Mistress, +all you've got to do is to send in your boy to the Union at Elbury, tell +'em to send out a cart for him, and take him in as a casual pauper. Then +they may pass him on to his parish.' + +Therewith Mr. Blunt went on to attend to Alfred. + +'Then you think this poor lad will be ill a long time, Sir?' said Mrs. +King, when Mr. Blunt was preparing to depart. + +'Of course he will; I never saw a clearer case! You'd better send him +off as fast as you can, while he can be moved. He'll have a pretty bout +of it, I dare say. + +'It is nothing infectious, of course, Sir?' said the mother, a little +startled by this hastiness. + +'Infectious--nonsense! why, you know better than that, Mrs. King; I only +meant that you'd better get rid of him as quick as you can, unless you +wish to set up a hospital at once--and a capital nurse you'd be! I would +leave word with the relieving officer for you, but that I've got to go on +to Stoke, and shan't be at home till too late.' + +Mrs. King's heart ached for the poor forlorn orphan, when she remembered +what she had heard of the nursing in Elbury Union. She did not know how +to turn him from her door the day he had saved her son from danger such +as she could not think of without shuddering; and yet, what could she do? +Her rent and the winter before her, a heavy doctor's bill, and the loss +of Alfred's work! + +Slowly she went up the stairs again to the narrow landing that held the +bed where Paul Blackthorn lay. He was quite still, but there were large +tears coursing one after the other from his eyes, his hollow cheeks quite +glazed with them. + +'Is the pain so very bad?' she said in her soft voice, putting her hand +over his hot forehead, in the way that Alfred liked. + +'I don't--know,' he answered; and his black eyes, after looking up once +in her face with the piteous earnest glance that some loving dogs have, +shut themselves as if on purpose to keep in the tears, but she saw the +dew squeezing out through the eye-lashes. + +'My poor boy, I'm sure it's very bad for you,' she said again. + +'Please, don't speak so kind,' said Paul; and this time he could not +prevent a-sob. 'Nobody ever did so before, and--' he paused, and went +on, 'I suppose they do it up in Heaven, so I hope I shall die.' + +'You are vexing about the Union,' said Mrs. King, without answering this +last speech, or she knew that she should begin to cry herself. + +'I _did_ think I'd done with them,' said Paul, with another sob. 'I said +I'd never set foot in those four walls again! I was proud, maybe; but +please don't stop with me! If you wouldn't look and speak like that, the +place wouldn't seem so hard, seeing I'm bred to it, as they say;' and he +made an odd sort of attempt to laugh, which ended in his choking himself +with worse tears. + +'Harold is not gone yet,' said Mrs. King soothingly; 'we'll wait till he +comes in from his work, and see how you are, when you've had a little +sleep. Don't cry; you aren't going just yet.' + +That same earnest questioning glance, but with more hope in it, was +turned on her again; but she did not dare to bind herself, much as she +longed to take the wanderer to her home. She went on to her son's room. + +'Mother, Mother,' Alfred cried in a whisper, so eager that it made him +cough, 'you can't never send him to the workhouse?' + +'I can't bear the thought, Alfy,' she said, the tears in her eyes; 'but I +don't know what to do. It's not the trouble. That I'd take with all my +heart, but it is hard enough to live, and--' + +'I'm sure,' said Ellen, coming close, that her undertone might be heard, +'Harold and I would never mind how much we were pinched.' + +'And I could go without--some things,' began Alfred. + +'And then,' went on the mother, 'you see, if we got straitened, and +Matilda found it out, she'd want to help, and I can't have her savings +touched; and yet I can't bear to let that poor lad be sent off, so ill as +he is, and after all he's done for Harold--such a good boy, too, and one +that's so thankful for a common kind word.' + +'O Mother, keep him!' said Alfred; 'don't you know how the Psalm says, +"God careth for the stranger, and provideth for the fatherless and the +widow"?' + +Mrs. King almost smiled. 'Yes, Alf, I think it would be trusting God's +word; but then there's my duty to you.' + +'You've not sent Harold off for the cart?' said Alfred. + +'No; I thought somehow, we have enough for to-day; and it goes against me +to send him away at once. I thought we'd wait to see how it is +to-morrow; and Harold won't mind having a bed made up in the kitchen.' + +Tap, tap, on the counter. Some one had come in while they were talking. +It was Mr. Cope, very anxious to hear the truth of the strange stories +that were going about the place. Ellen and Alfred thought it very +tiresome that he was so long in coming up-stairs; but the fact was, that +their mother was very glad to talk the matter over without them. She +knew indeed that Mr. Cope was a very young man, and not likely to be so +well able as herself, with all her experience, to decide what she could +afford, or whether she ought to follow her feelings at the risk of debt +or of privations for her delicate children; but she also knew that though +he had not experience, education had given him a wider and clearer range +of thought; and that, as her pastor, he ought to be consulted; so though +she did not exactly mean to make it a matter for his decision (unless, +indeed, he should have some view which had not occurred to her), she knew +that he was by far the best person to help her to see her way, and form +her own judgment. + +Mr. Cope heard all the story with as much eagerness as the Ragglesford +boys themselves, and laughed quite out loud at Harold's spirited defence. + +'That's a good lad!' said he. 'Well, Mrs. King, I don't think you need +be very uneasy about your boy. When a fellow can stand up like that in +defence of his duty, there must be the right stuff in him to be got at in +time! And now, as to his ally--this other poor fellow--very kind of you +to have taken him in.' + +'I couldn't do no other, Sir,' said Mrs. King; 'he came in so drenched, +and so terribly bad, I could do nothing but let him lie down on Harold's +bed; and now Dr. Blunt thinks he's going to have a rheumatic fever, and +wanted me to send in to the relieving officer, to have him removed, but I +don't know how to do that; the poor lad doesn't say one word against it, +but I can see it cuts him to the heart; and they do tell such stories of +the nurses at the Union, that it does seem hard to send him there, such +an innocent boy, too, and one that doesn't seem to know how to believe it +if one says a kind word to him.' The tears were in Mrs. King's eyes as +she went on: 'I do wish to let him stay here and do what I can for him, +with all my heart, and so does all the children, but I don't hardly know +what's right by them, poor things. If the parish would but allow him +just one shilling and sixpence a week out of the house, I think I could +do it.' + +'What, with your own boy in such a state, you could undertake to nurse a +stranger through a rheumatic fever!' + +'It wouldn't make much difference, Sir,' said Mrs. King. 'You see I am +up a good deal most nights with Alfred, and we have fire and candle +almost always alight. I should only be glad to do it for a poor +motherless lad like that, except for the cost; and I thought perhaps if +you could speak to the Guardians, they might allow him ever so little, +because there will be expenses.' + +Mr. Cope had not much hope from the parish, so he said, 'Mr. Shepherd +ought to do something for him after he has worked for him so long. He +has been looking wretchedly ill for some time past; and I dare say half +this illness is brought on by such lodging and living as he got there. +But what did you say about some eggs?' + +Mrs. King told him; and he stood a moment thoughtful, then said, 'Well, +I'll go and see about it,' and strode across to the farm. + +When Mr. Cope came back, Ellen was serving a customer. He stood looking +redder than they had ever seen him, and tapping the toe of his boot +impatiently with his stick; and the moment the buyer had turned away, he +said, 'Ellen, ask your mother to be kind enough to come down.' + +Mrs. King came, and found the young Curate in such a state of +indignation, as he could not keep to himself. He had learnt more than he +had ever known, or she had ever known, of the oppression that the farmer +and his wife and Tom Boldre had practised on the friendless stranger, and +he was burning with all the keen generous displeasure of one new to such +base ways. At the gate he had met, going home to dinner, John Farden +with Mrs. Hayward, who had been charing at the farm. Both had spoken +out, and he had learned how far below the value of his labour the boy had +been paid, how he had been struck, abused, and hunted about, as would +never have been done to one who had a father to take his part. And he +had further heard Farden's statement of having himself thrown away the +eggs, and Mrs. Hayward's declaration that she verily believed that the +farmer only made the accusation an excuse for hurrying the lad off +because he thought him faltering for a fever, and wouldn't have him sick +there. + +This was shocking enough; Mr. Cope had thought it merely the kind-hearted +woman's angry construction, but it was still worse when he came to the +farmer and his wife. + +So used were they to think it their business to wring the utmost they +could out of whatever came in their way, that they had not the slightest +shame about it. They thought they had done a thing to be proud of in +making such a good bargain of the lad, and getting so much work out of +him for so little pay; in fact, that they had been rather weakly kind in +granting him the freedom of the hay-loft; the notion of his dishonesty +was firmly fixed in their heads, though there was not a charge to bring +against him. This was chiefly because they had begun by setting him down +as a convict, and because they could not imagine any one living honestly +on what they gave him. And lastly, the farmer thought the cleverest +stroke of all, was the having got rid of him just as winter was coming on +and work was scarce, and when there seemed to be a chance of his being +laid up to encumber the rates. Mr. Cope was quite breathless after the +answer he had made to them. He had never spoken so strongly in his life +before, and he could hardly believe his own ears, that people could be +found, not only to do such things, but to be proud of having done them. + +It is to be hoped there are not many such thoroughgoing tyrants; but +selfishness is always ready to make any one into a tyrant, and Mammon is +a false god, who manages to make his servants satisfied that they are +doing their duty. + +It was plain enough that no help was to be expected from the farm, and +neither Mrs. King nor the clergyman thought there was much hope in the +Guardians; however, they were to be applied to, and this would be at +least a reprieve for Paul. Mr. Cope went up to see him, and found Harold +sitting on the top step of the stairs. + +'Well, boys,' he said, in his hearty voice, 'so you've had a battle, I +hear. I'm glad it turned out better than your namesake's at Hastings.' + +Paul was not too ill to smile at this; and Harold modestly said, 'It was +all along of he, Sir.' + +'And he seems to be the chief sufferer.--Are you in much pain, Paul?' + +'Sometimes, Sir, when I try to move,' said Paul; 'but it is better when +I'm still.' + +'You've had a harder time of it than I supposed, my boy,' said Mr. Cope. +'Why did you never let me know how you were treated?' + +Paul's face shewed more wonder than anything else. 'Thank you, Sir,' he +said, 'I didn't think it was any one's business.' + +'No one's business!' exclaimed the young clergyman. 'It is every one's +business to see justice done, and it should never have gone on so if you +had spoken. Why didn't you?' + +'I didn't think it would be any use,' again said Paul. 'There was old +Joe Joiner, he always said 'twas a hard world to live in, and that there +was nothing for it but to grin and bear it.' + +'There's something better to be done than to grin,' said Mr. Cope. + +'Yes, I know, Sir,' said Paul, with a brighter gleam on his face; 'and I +seem to understand that better since I came here. I was thinking,' he +added, 'if they pass me back to Upperscote, I'll tell old Joe that folks +are much kinder than he told me, by far.' + +'Kinder--I should not have thought that your experience!' exclaimed Mr. +Cope, his head still running on the Shepherds. + +But Paul did not seem to think of them at all, or else to take their +treatment as a matter-of-course, as he did his Union hardships. There +was a glistening in his eyes; and he moved his head so as to sign down- +stairs, as he said, 'I didn't think there was ne'er a one in the world +like _her_.' + +'What, Mrs. King? I don't think there are many,' said Mr. Cope warmly. +'And yet I hope there are.' + +'Ay, Sir,' said Paul fervently. 'And there's Harold, and John Farden, +and all the chaps. Please, Sir, when I'm gone away, will you tell them +all that I'll never forget 'em? and I'll be happier as long as I live for +knowing that there are such good-hearted folks.' + +Mr. Cope felt trebly moved towards one who thought harshness so much more +natural than kindness, and who received the one so submissively, the +other so gratefully; but the conversation was interrupted by Harold's +exclaiming that my Lady in her carriage was stopping at the gate, and +Mother was running out to her. + +Rumours of the post-office robbery, as little Miss Selby called it, had +travelled up to the Grange, and she was wild to know what had happened to +Harold; but her grandmamma, not knowing what highway robbers might be +roaming about Friarswood, would not hear of her walking to the +post-office, and drove thither with her herself, in full state, close +carriage, coachman and footman; and there was Mrs. King, with her head in +at the carriage window, telling all the story. + +'So you have this youth here?' said Lady Jane. + +'Yes, my Lady; he was so poorly that I couldn't but let him lie down.' + +'And you have not sent him to the workhouse yet?' + +'Why, no, not yet, my Lady; I thought I would wait to see how he is to- +morrow.' + +'You had better take care, Mary,' said Lady Jane. 'You'll have him too +ill to be moved; and then what will you do? a great lad of that age, and +with illness enough in the house already!' She sighed, and it was not +said unkindly; but Mrs. King answered with something about his being so +good a lad, and so friendless. And Miss Jane exclaimed, 'O Grandmamma, +it does seem so hard to send him to the workhouse!' + +'Do not talk like a silly child, my dear,' said Lady Jane. 'Mary is much +too sensible to think of saddling herself with such a charge--not fit for +her, nor the children either--even if the parish made it worth her while, +which it never will. The Union is intended to provide for such cases of +destitution; and depend on it, the youth looks to nothing else.' + +'No, my Lady,' said Mrs. King; 'he is so patient and meek about it, that +it goes to one's very heart.' + +'Ay, ay,' said the old lady; 'but don't be soft-hearted and weak, Mary. +It is not what I expect of you, as a sensible woman, to be harbouring a +mere vagrant whom you know nothing about, and injuring your own +children.' + +'Indeed, my Lady,' began Mrs. King, 'I've known the poor boy these four +months, and so has Mr. Cope; and he is as steady and serious a boy as +ever lived.' + +'Very likely,' said Lady Jane; 'and I am sure I would do anything for +him--give him work when he is out again, or send him with a paper to the +county hospital. Eh?' + +But the county hospital was thirty miles off; and the receiving day was +not till Saturday. That would not do. + +'Well,' added Lady Jane, 'I'll drive home directly, and send Price with +the spring covered cart to take him in to Elbury. That will be better +for him than jolting in the open cart they would send for him.' + +'Why, thank you, my Lady, but I--I had passed my word that he should not +go to-day.' + +Lady Jane made a gesture as if Mary King were a hopelessly weak +good-natured woman; and shaking her head at her with a sort of lady-like +vexation, ordered the coachman to drive on. + +My Lady was put out. No wonder. She was a very sensible, managing woman +herself, and justly and up-rightly kind to all her dependants; and she +expected every one else to be sternly and wisely kind in the same +pattern. Mrs. King was one whom she highly esteemed for her sense and +good judgment, and she was the more provoked with her for any failure in +these respects. If she had known Paul as the Kings did, it is probable +she might have felt like them. Not knowing him, nor knowing the secrets +of Elbury Union, she thought it Mrs. King's clear duty to sacrifice him +for her children's sake. Moreover, Lady Jane had strict laws against +lodgers--the greatest kindness she could do her tenants, though often +against their will. So to have her model woman receiving a strange boy +into her house, even under the circumstances, was beyond bearing. + +So Mrs. King stood on her threshold, knowing that to keep Paul Blackthorn +would be an offence to her best friend and patroness. Moreover, Mr. Cope +was gone, without having left her a word of advice to decide her one way +or the other. + + + + +CHAPTER X--CHRISTMAS DAY + + +Things are rather apt to settle themselves; and so did Paul Blackthorn's +stay at the post-office, for the poor boy was in such an agony of pain +all night, and the fever ran so high, that it was impossible to think of +moving him, even if the waiting upon him in such suffering had not made +Mrs. King feel that she could not dismiss him to careless hands. His +patience, gratitude, and surprise at every trouble she took for him were +very endearing, as were the efforts he made to stifle and suppress moans +and cries that the terrible aches would wring from him, so as not to +disturb Alfred. When towards morning the fever ran to his head, and he +did not know what he said, it was more moving still to see that the +instinct of keeping quiet for some one's sake still suppressed his voice. +Then, too, his wanderings shewed under what dread and harshness his life +had been spent, and what his horror was of a return to the workhouse. In +his senses, he would never have thought of asking to remain at +Friarswood; but in his half-conscious state, he implored again and again +not to be sent away, and talked about not going back, but only being left +in a corner to die; and Mrs. King, without knowing what she was about, +soothed him by telling him to lie still, for he was not going to that +place again. At day-break she sent Harold, on his way to the post, for +an order from the relieving officer for medical attendance; and, after +some long and weary hours, the Union doctor came. He said, like Mr. +Blunt, that it was a rheumatic fever, the effect of hardship and +exposure; for which perhaps poor Paul--after his regular meals, warm +clothing, and full shelter, in the workhouse--was less prepared than many +a country lad, whose days had been much happier, but who had been +rendered more hardy by often going without some of those necessaries +which were provided for the paupers. + +The head continued so much affected, that the doctor said the hair must +be taken off; which was done by old Master Warren, who singed the horses +in the autumn, killed the pigs in the winter, and shaved the men on +Saturday night. It was a very good thing for all parties; and he would +take no pay for his trouble, but sent down a pitcher with what he called +'all manner of yarbs' steeping in it, with which, as he said, to 'ferment +the boy's limbs.' Foment was what he meant; and Mrs. King thought, as it +was kindly intended, and could do no harm, she would try if it would do +any good; but she could not find that it made much difference whether she +used that or common warm water. However, the good will made Paul smile, +and helped to change his notion about its being very few that had any +compassion for a stranger. So, too, did good Mrs. Hayward, who, when he +was at the worst, twice came to sit up all night with him after her day's +work; and though she was not as tender a nurse as Mrs. King, treated him +like her own son, and moreover carried off to her own tub all the clothes +she could find ready to be washed, and would not take so much as a +mouthful of meat or drink in return, struggling, toil-worn body as she +was. + +The parish, as might have been foreseen, would afford nothing but the +doctor to a chance-comer such as Paul. If he needed more, he might come +into the House, and be passed home to Upperscote. + +But by the time this reply came, Mrs. King not only felt that it would be +almost murder to send a person in such a state four miles on a November +day, but she was caring so much for her patient, that it sounded almost +as impossible as to send Alfred away. + +Besides, she had remembered the cup of cold water, she had thought of the +widow's cruse of oil and barrel of meal, and she had called to mind, +'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, +ye have done it unto Me;' and thereupon she took heart, and made up her +mind that it was right to tend the sick lad; and that even if she should +bring trouble and want on herself and her children, it would be a Heaven- +sent trial that would be good for them. + +So she made up her resolution to a winter of toil, anxiety, and trouble, +and to Lady Jane's withdrawal of favour; and thinking her ungrateful, +which, to say the truth, grieved her more than anything else, excepting +of course her forebodings for Alfred. + +Ellen was in great distress about my Lady's displeasure. Not that she +dreamt of her mother's giving up Paul on that account; but she was very +fond of her little foster-sister, and of many of the maid-servants, and +her visits to the Grange were the chief change and amusement she ever +had. So while Mrs. King was busy between the shop, her work, and Paul, +Ellen sat by her brother, making the housekeeper's winter dress, and +imagining all sorts of dreadful things that might come of my Lady being +angry with them, till Alfred grew quite out of patience. 'Well, suppose +and suppose,' he said, 'suppose it was not to happen at all! Why, +Mother's doing right would be any good for nothing if she only did it to +please my Lady.' + +Certainly this was the very touchstone to shew whether the fear of man +were the guide. And Ellen was still more terrified that day, for when +she went across to the farm for the evening's supply of milk and butter, +Mrs. Shepherd launched out into such a torrent of abuse against her and +her mother, that she came home trembling from head to foot; and Mrs. King +declared she should never go thither again. They would send to Mrs. +Price's for the little bit of fresh butter that was real nourishment to +Alfred: the healthy ones would save by going without any. + +One word more as to the Shepherds, and then we have done with him. On +the Sunday, Mr. Cope had an elder brother staying with them, who preached +on the lesson for the day, the second chapter of the Prophet Habakkuk; +and when he came to the text, 'Woe to him that coveteth an evil +covetousness to his house,' he brought in some of the like passages, the +threats to those that 'grind the faces of the poor,' that 'oppress the +hireling in his wages,' and that terrible saying of St. James, 'Behold, +the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of +you kept by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are +entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.' + +Three days after, the Curate was very much amazed to hear that Mr. and +Mrs. Shepherd did not choose to be preached at in their own church, and +never meant to come thither again. Now it so happened that he could +testify that the sermon had been written five years ago, and that his +brother had preached it without knowing that the Shepherds were in +existence, for he had only come late the night before, and there was so +much to say about their home, that the younger brother had not said a +word about his parish before church, though the Kings and their guests +were very near his heart. + +But it was of no use to say so. It was the _truth_ that wounded the +farmer and his wife, and no one could make that otherwise. They did not +choose to hear their sin rebuked, so they made an excuse by pretending to +take offence, and except when they now and then went to the next parish +to a meeting-house, cut themselves off from all that might disturb them +in the sole pursuit of gain. It is awful to think of such hardening of +the heart, first towards man, then towards the warnings of God. + +And mind, whoever chooses profit rather than mercy, is in the path of +Farmer Shepherd. + +Some certainty as to Lady Jane Selby's feelings came on the second +evening of Paul's illness. Mrs. Crabbe, the housekeeper, was seen with +infinite trouble and disgust getting her large person over the stiles +across the path fields. A call from her was almost a greater event than +one from my Lady herself. Why! Mother had been her still-room maid, and +always spoke to her as 'Ma'am,' and she called her 'Mary,' and she had +chosen Matilda's name for her, and had given her a silver watch! + +So when Mrs. Crabbe had found her way in, and had been set down to rest +in the arm-chair, she proceeded to give 'Mary' a good round scolding +against being weak and soft-hearted, saying at last that my Lady was +quite in a way about it. She was sure that Harold would catch his death +of cold, putting him to sleep in the kitchen, upon the stones--and so--my +Lady had sent off the cart with the little chair-bed, that would take +down and put up again--mattress, bed-clothes, and all. + +That was a comfortable finish to the scolding! Not that it was a finish +though, for the thanks made Mrs. Crabbe afraid the family thought +themselves forgiven, so she went on to declare they all would be pinched, +and get into debt, and she should advise her god-daughter, Matilda, not +to help them with a farthing of her wages, and as to going without their +full meals, that was what none of them were fit to do. With which it +appeared that the cart was bringing a can of broth, a couple of rabbits, +some calves'-feet jelly, and a bottle of port wine for Alfred, who lived +on that and cod-liver oil more than on any other nourishment. + +At that rate, Lady Jane's displeasure did not seem likely to do much +harm; but there was pain in it too, for when Mrs. Crabbe had managed to +get up-stairs, past the patch-work quilt that was hung up to shelter Paul +from the draught, and had seen Alfred, and been shocked to find how much +wasted he was since she last had seen him, she said, 'One thing you +know--my Lady says she can't have Miss Selby coming down here to see +Alfred while this great lad is always about. And I'm sure it is not +proper for her at any time, such a young lady as she is, over all those +inconvenient stiles. I declare I shall speak to Mr. Price about them.' + +Losing Miss Jane's visits was to Alfred like losing a sunbeam, and his +spirit felt very dreary after he had heard this sentence. Ellen knew her +well enough to suspect that she was very sorry, but that she could not +help herself; and Mrs. King caught the brother and sister making such +grumbling speeches to each other about the old lady's crossness, that her +faithful, grateful spirit was quite grieved, and she spoke strongly up +for the just, right-minded lady to whom she had loyally looked up for +many and many a year, though, with the right sort of independence, she +would not give up to any one's opinion what she knew to be her duty. + +'We all knew it must cost us something,' she said, 'and we'll try to be +ready with it, though it does go to one's heart that the first should be +what vexes you, my Alfy; but it won't be for long.' + +'No, Mother; but if it ain't here long? Oh! I don't seem to have +nothing to look to if Miss Jane ain't coming here no more, with her +pretty ways!' + +And there were large tears on his cheeks. Mrs. King had tears in her +eyes too, but she bent down over the boy, and turning his eyes to the +little picture on the wall, she said in a whisper in his ear, 'Didn't He +bear His Cross for the sake of other people?' Alfred did not answer; he +turned his face in towards the pillow, and though Ellen thought he was +crying, it did not seem to her to be so sadly. + +Cost them something their kindness did. To be sure, there came a party +of boys with the master from Ragglesford, when there had been time for +them to write the history of the robbery to their homes; and as it came +just before the monthly letter which they all had to write by way of +practice, to be shewn up to the master, it was a real treasure to them to +have such a story to tell. Some of their friends, especially the uncle +who gave the watch, had sent small sums of money for the lad who had +behaved so well, and these altogether came to a fair amount, which the +boys were highly pleased to give over into Mrs. King's hands. She, like +Harold, never made the smallest question that it was all for Paul's +benefit, and though, when she mentioned it to him, he gave a cheery +smile, and said it would lessen the cost of his illness to her, yet she +put it all aside with the first twelve-and-sixpence. She told Ellen that +it went against her to touch the orphan's money, and that unless it came +to very bad times indeed, it should be kept to set him up decently when +he should recover. + +No one else could afford aid in money, not Mr. Cope, for he had little +more than a maintenance for himself; indeed, Mrs. King was not in a +station where it would seem becoming to offer alms to her. Lady Jane +gave help in nourishing food, but the days when this would come were +uncertain, and she had made a resolution against undertaking any share of +the expense, lest she should seem to encourage Mary King, as she said, in +such weak good nature--cramming up her house with a strange boy like +that, when she had quite enough to do with her own son. So they had to +fight on as they could; and the first week, when Paul's illness was at +the height, Ellen had so much more to do for Alfred and about the house, +and was so continually called off her work, that she could not finish +Mrs. Crabbe's gown as soon as was expected; and the ladies' maid, who was +kept waiting, took huff, and sent her new purple silk to Elbury to be +madeup. + +It is not quite certain that Ellen did not shed a few tears. + +Harold had to go without his butter, and once took it much to heart that +his mother would buy no shrimps for tea, but after some one had whispered +to him that if there were a trouble about rent, or about Mr. Blunt's +bill, Peggy would be sold, he bore it all pretty well; and after all, +Alfred and Paul were so apt to give him tastes of their dainties, that he +had not much loss! + +Rent was the care. The pig was killed and cut up to great advantage; +Mrs. King sold a side of it at once, which went a good way towards it, +but not the whole; and there was a bad debt of John Farden's for bread, +contracted last winter, and which he had never paid off in the summer. +That would just have made it up, but what hopes were there of that? + +Just then, however, came a parcel from Matilda. It was her way of +helping her family to send them the clothes which her mistresses allowed +her to have when they left them off, when Mrs. King either made them up +for herself or Ellen, or disposed of them at Elbury. + +What a treat those parcels were! How curious were all the party at the +unpacking, looking at the many odd things that were sure to come out, on +the happy doubtful certainty that each one would be remembered by the +good sister. + +So there were the little directed parcels--a neat knitted grey and black +handkerchief for Mother to wear in the shop; a whole roll of +fashion-books for Ellen, and a nice little pocket-book besides; and a +bundle of 'Illustrated News' to amuse the boys; a precious little square +book of 'Hymns for the Sick' for Alfred; and a famous pair of +riding-gloves, like bears' paws, for Harold. And what rolls besides! +Worn flimsy dresses, once pretty, but now only fit for the old-clothes +man, yet whose trimmings Ellen pulled out and studied; bonnets that +looked as if they had been sat upon; rolls of soft ragged cambric +handkerchiefs, on which Mrs. King seized as the most valuable part of the +cargo, so useful would they be to poor Alfred; some few real good things, +in especial, a beautiful thick silk dress which had been stained, but +which dyeing would render very useful; and a particularly nice grey cloth +mantle, which Matilda had mentioned in her letter as likely to be useful +to Ellen--it was not at all the worse for wear, except as to the lining +of the hood, and she should just fancy Ellen in it. + +Ellen could just fancy herself in it. She had a black silk one, which +had come in the same way, and looked very well, but it was just turning +off, and it was not warm enough for winter without a shawl under it. That +grey looked as if it was made for her, it suited her shoulders and her +shape so well! She put it on and twisted about in it, and then she saw +her good mother not saying one word, and knew she was thinking of the sum +that was wanting to the rent. + +'Well, Mother,' said Ellen, 'I'll go in and take the things to Betsey on +the next market-day, and if we can get thirty shillings on them without +the mantle--' + +'Yes, if you can, my dear,' said her mother; 'I'm sure I should be very +glad for you to have it, but you see--' + +And Mrs. King sighed. + +Ellen passed by Paul on the landing, and saw him with his face flushed +with pain and fever, trying to smile at her. She remembered how her +unkind words had brought trouble on him, and how her mother had begun by +telling her that they must give up their own wishes if they were to nurse +him. + +Ellen went to Elbury on the market-day, and by the help of Betsey +Hardman, she got great credit for her bargaining. She brought home +thirty shillings, and ten shillings' worth of soap for the shop, where +that article was running low; but she did not bring home the cloak, +though Betsey had told her a silk cloak over a shawl looked so mean! and +she feared all the servants at the Grange would think the same! + +'They always were good children to me,' said Mrs. King to Mr. Cope, 'but +somehow, since Paul has been here, I think they are better than ever! +There's poor Alfred, though his cough has been so bad of late, has been +so thoughtful and so good; he says he's quite ashamed to find how patient +Paul is under so much sharper pain than he ever had, and he's ready to +send anything to Paul that he fancies will do him good--quite carried out +of himself, you see; and there's Harold, so much steadier; I've hardly +had to find fault with him since that poor boy made off--he's sure to +come in in time, and takes care not to disturb his brother, and helps his +sister and me all he can.' + +Mr. Cope was not at all surprised that the work of mercy was blessed to +all the little household, nor that it drew out all the better side of +their dispositions. + +There was no positive change, nor sudden resolution, to alter Harold; but +he had been a good deal startled by Dick's wickedness, and in him had +lost a tempter. Besides, he considered Paul as his own friend, received +for his sake, and therefore felt himself bound to do all he could for +him, and though he was no nurse, he could do much to set his mother and +Ellen free to attend to their patients. And Paul's illness, though so +much less dangerous, frightened and subdued Harold much more than the +quiet gradual pining away of Alfred, to which he was used. The severe +pain, the raging fever, and the ramblings in talk, were much more fearful +things to witness than the low cough, the wearing sore, and the helpless +languor, though there was much hope for the one, and scarcely any for the +other. While to Harold's apprehension, Alfred was always just the same, +only worsening visibly from month to month; Paul was better or worse +every time he came in, and when fresh from hearing his breath gasp with +sharp pain, or receiving his feeble thanks for some slight service, it +was not in Harold to go out and get into thoughtless mischief. + +Moreover, there were helpful things to do at home, such as Harold liked. +He was fond of chopping wood, so he was very obliging about the oven, and +what he liked best of all was helping his mother in certain evening +cookeries of sweet-meats, by receipts from Mrs. Crabbe. On the day of +the expedition from Ragglesford, the young gentlemen had found out that +Mrs. King's bottles contained what they called 'the real article and no +mistake,' much better than what the old woman at the turnpike sold; and +so they were, for Mrs. King made them herself, and, like an honest woman, +without a morsel of sham in them. She was not going to break the Eighth +Commandment by cheating in a comfit any more than by stealing a purse; +and the children of Friarswood had long known that, and bought all the +'lollies' that they were not naughty enough to buy on Sundays, when, as +may be supposed, her shutters were not shut only for a decent show. + +And now Harold did not often ride up to the school without some little +master giving him a commission for some variety of sweet-stuff; and +though Mrs. King used to say it was a pity the children should throw away +their money in that fashion, it brought a good deal into her till, and +Harold greatly liked assisting at the manufacture. How often he licked +his fingers during the process need not be mentioned; but his objection +to Ragglesford was quite gone off, now that some one was nearly certain +to be looking out for him, with a good-natured greeting, or an inquiry +for Paul. He knew one little boy from another, and felt friendly with +them all, and he really was quite grieved when the holidays came, and +they wished him good-bye. The coach that had been hired to take them to +Elbury seemed something to watch for now, and some thoughtful boy stopped +all the whooping and hurraing as they came near the house on the bridge. +Some other stopped the coach, and they all came dropping off it like a +swarm of black flies, and tumbling into the shop, where Mrs. King and her +daughter had need to have had a dozen pair of hands to have served them, +and they did not go till they had cleared out her entire stock of sweet +things and gingerbread; nay, some of them would have gone off without +their change, if she had not raced out to catch them with it after they +were climbing up the coach, and then the silly fellows said they hated +coppers! And meeting Harold and his post-bag on his way home from +Elbury, they raised such a tremendous cheer at him that poor Peggy seemed +to make but three springs from the milestone to the bridge, and he could +not so much as touch his cap by way of answer. + +Somehow, even after those droll customers were gone, every Saturday's +reckoning was a satisfactory one. More always seemed to come in than +went out. The potatoes had been unusually free from disease in Mrs. +King's garden, and every one came for them; the second pig turned out +well; a lodger at the butcher's took a fancy to her buns; and on the +whole, winter, when her receipts were generally at the lowest, was now +quite a prosperous time with her. The great pressure and near anxiety +she had expected had not come, and something was being put by every week +towards the bill for flour, and for Mr. Blunt's account, so that she +began to hope that after all the Savings Bank would not have to be left +quite bare. + +Quite unexpectedly, John Farden came in for a share of the savings of an +old aunt at service, and, like an honest fellow as he was, he got himself +out of debt at once. This quite settled all Mrs. King's fears; Mr. Blunt +and the miller would both have their due, and she really believed she +should be no poorer! + +Then she recollected the widow's cruse of oil, and tears of thankfulness +and faith came into her eyes, and other tears dropped when she remembered +the other more precious comfort that the stranger had brought into the +widow's house, but she knew that the days of miracles and cures past hope +were gone, and that the Christian woman's promise was 'that her children +should come again,' but not till the resurrection of the just. + +And though to her eye each frost was freshly piercing her boy's breast, +each warm damp day he faded into greater feebleness, yet the hope was far +clearer. He was happy and content. He had laid hold of the blessed hope +of Everlasting Life, and was learning to believe that the Cross laid on +him here was in mercy to make him fit for Heaven, first making him afraid +and sorry for his sins, and ready to turn to Him Who could take them +away, and then almost becoming gladness, in the thought of following his +Master, though so far off. + +Not that Alfred often said such things, but they breathed peace over his +mind, and made Scripture-reading, prayers, and hymns very delightful to +him, especially those in Matilda's book; and he dwelt more than he told +any one on Mr. Cope's promise, when he trusted to be made more fully 'one +with Christ' in the partaking of His Cup of Life. It used to be his +treat, when no one was looking, to read over that Service in his Prayer- +book, and to think of the time. It was like a kind of step; he could fix +his mind on that, and the sense of forgiveness he hoped for therein, +better than on the great change that was coming; when there was much fear +and shrinking from the pain, and some dread of what as yet seemed strange +and unknown, he thought he should feel lifted up so as to be able to bear +the thought, when that holy Feast should have come to him. + +All this made him much less occupied with himself, and he took much more +share in what was going on; he could be amused and playful, cared for all +that Ellen and Harold did, and was inclined to make the most of his time +with his brother. It was like old happy times, now that Alfred had +ceased to be fretful, and Harold took heed not to distress him. + +One thing to which Alfred looked forward greatly, was Paul's being able +to come into his room, and the two on their opposite sides of the wall +made many pleasant schemes for the talk and reading that were to go on. +But when the day came, Alfred was more disappointed than pleased. + +Paul had been cased, by Lady Jane's orders, in flannel; he had over that +a pair of trousers of Alfred's--much too long, for the Kings were very +tall, and he was small and stunted in growth--and a great wrapping-gown +that Mr. Cope had once worn when he was ill at college, and over his +shaven head a night-cap that had been their father's. + +Ellen, with many directions from Alfred, had made him up a couch with +three chairs, and the cushions Alfred used to have when he could leave +his bed; the fire was made up brightly, and Mrs. King and Harold helped +Paul into the room. + +But all the rheumatic pain was by no means over, and walking made him +feel it; he was dreadfully weak, and was so giddy and faint after the +first few steps, that they could not bring him to shake hands with Alfred +as both had wished, but had to lay him down as fast as they could. So +tired was he, that he could hardly say anything all the time he was +there; and Alfred had to keep silence for fear of wearying him still +more. There was a sort of shyness, too, which hindered the two from even +letting their eyes meet, often as they had heard each other's voices, and +had greeted one another through the thin partition. As Paul lay with his +eyes shut, Alfred raised himself to take a good survey of the sharp +pinched features, the hollow cheeks, deep-sunk pits for the eyes,--and +yellow ghastly skin of the worn face, and the figure, so small and wasted +that it was like nothing, curled up in all those wraps. One who could +read faces better than young Alfred could, would have gathered not only +that the boy who lay there had gone through a great deal, but that there +was much mind and thought crushed down by misery, and a gentle nature not +fit to stand up alone against it, and so sinking down without exertion. + +And when Alfred was learning a verse of his favourite hymn-- + + 'There is a rill whose waters rise--' + +Paul's eye-lids rose, and looked him all over dreamily, comparing him +perhaps with the notions he had carried away from his two former +glimpses. Alfred did not look now so utterly different from anything he +had seen before, since Mrs. King and Ellen had been hovering round his +bed for nearly a month past; but still the fair skin, pink colour, dark +eye-lashes, glossy hair, and white hands, were like a dream to him, as if +they belonged to the pure land whither Alfred was going, and he was quite +loath to hear him speak like another boy, as he knew he could do, having +often listened to his talk through the wall. At the least sign of +Alfred's looking up, he turned away his eyes as if he had been doing +something by stealth. + +He came in continually after this; and little things each day, and +Harold's talk, made the two acquainted and like boys together; but it was +not till Christmas Day that they felt like knowing each other. + +It was the first time Paul felt himself able to be of any use, for he was +to be left in charge of Alfred, while Mrs. King and both her other +children went to church. Paul was sadly crippled still, and every frost +filled his bones with acute pain, and bent him like an old man, so that +he was still a long way from getting down-stairs, but he could make a +shift to get about the room, and he looked greatly pleased when Alfred +declared that he should want nobody else to stay with him in the morning. + +Very glad he was that his mother would not be kept from Ellen's first +Holy Communion. Owing to the Curate not being a priest, the Feast had +not been celebrated since Michaelmas; but a clergyman had come to help +Mr. Cope, that the parish might not be deprived of the Festival on such a +day as Christmas. + +Harold, though in a much better mood than at the Confirmation time, was +not as much concerned to miss it as perhaps he ought to have been. +Thought had not come to him yet, and his head was full of the dinner with +the servants at the Grange. It was sad that he and Ellen should alone be +able to go to it; but it would be famous for all that! Ay, and so were +the young postman's Christmas-boxes! + +So Paul and Alfred were left together, and held their tongues for full +five minutes, because both felt so odd. Then Alfred said something about +reading the Service, and Paul offered to read it to him. + +Paul had not only been very well taught, but had a certain gift, such as +not many people have, for reading aloud well. Alfred listened to those +Psalms and Lessons as if they had quite a new meaning in them, for the +right sound and stress on the right words made them sound quite like +another thing; and so Alfred said when he left off. + +'I'm sure they do to me,' said Paul. 'I didn't know much about "good- +will to men" last Christmas.' + +'You've not had overmuch good-will from them, neither,' said Alfred, +'since you came out.' + +'What! not since I've been at Friarswood?' exclaimed Paul. 'Why, I used +to think all _that_ was only something in a book.' + +'All what?' asked Alfred. + +'All about--why, loving one's neighbour--and the Good Samaritan, and so +on. I never saw any one do it, you know, but it was comfortable like to +read about it; and when I watched to your mother and all of you, I saw +how it was about one's neighbour; and then, what with that and Mr. Cope's +teaching, I got to feel how it was--about God!' and Paul's face looked +very grave and peaceful. + +'Well,' said Alfred, 'I don't know as I ever cared about it much--not +since I was a little boy. It was the fun last Christmas.' + +And Paul looking curious, Alfred told all about the going out for holly, +and the dining at the Grange, and the snap-dragon over the pudding, till +he grew so eager and animated that he lost breath, and his painful cough +came on, so that he could just whisper, 'What did you do?' + +'Oh! I don't know. We had prayers, and there was roast beef for dinner, +but they gave it to me where it was raw, and I couldn't eat it. Those +that had friends went out; but 'twasn't much unlike other days.' + +'Poor Paul!' sighed Alfred. + +'It won't be like that again, though,' said Paul, 'even if I was in a +Union. I know--what I know now.' + +'And, Paul,' said Alfred, after a pause, 'there's one thing I should like +if I was you. You know our Blessed Saviour had no house over Him, but +was left out of the inn, and nobody cared for Him.' + +Paul did not make any answer; and Alfred blushed all over. + +Presently Alfred said, 'Harold will run in soon. I say, Paul, would you +mind reading me what they will say after the Holy Sacrament--what the +Angels sang is the beginning.' + +Paul found it, and felt as if he must stand to read such praise. + +'Thank you,' said Alfred. 'I'm glad Mother and Ellen are there. They'll +remember us, you know. Did you hear what Mr. Cope promised me?' + +Paul had not heard; and Alfred told him, adding, 'It will be the Ember- +week in Lent. You'll be one with me then, Paul?' + +'I'd like to promise,' said Paul fervently; 'but you see, when I'm well--' + +'Oh, you won't go away for good. My Lady, or Mr. Cope, will get you +work; and I want you to be Mother's good son instead of me; and a brother +to Harold and Ellen.' + +'I'd never go if I could help it,' said Paul; 'I sometimes wish I'd never +got better! I wish I could change with you, Alfred; nobody would care if +'twas me; nor I'm sure I shouldn't.' + +'I should like to get well!' said Alfred slowly, and sighing. 'But then +you've been a much better lad than I was.' + +'I don't know why you should say that,' said Paul, with his hand under +his chin, rather moodily. 'But if I thought I could be good and go on +well, I would not mind so much. I say, Alfred, when people round go on +being--like Tom Boldre, you know--do you think one can always feel that +about God being one's Father, and church home, and all the rest?' + +'I can't say--I never tried,' said Alfred. 'But you know you can always +go to church--and then the Psalms and Lessons tell you those things. +Well, and you can go to the Holy Sacrament--I say, Paul, if you take it +the first time with me, you'll always remember me again every time +after.' + +'I must be very odd ever to forget you!' said Paul, not far from crying. +'Ha!' he exclaimed, 'they are coming out of church!' + +'I want to say one thing more, while I've got it in my head,' said +Alfred. 'Mr. Cope said all this sickness was a cross to me, and I'd got +to take it up for our Saviour's sake. Well, and then mayn't yours be +being plagued and bullied, without any friends? I'm sure something like +it happened to our Lord; and He never said one word against them. Isn't +that the way you may be to follow Him?' + +Illness and thought had made such things fully plain to Alfred, and his +words sank deep into Paul's mind; but there was not time for any answer, +for Harold was heard unlocking the door, and striding up three steps at a +time, sending his voice before him. 'Well, old chaps, have you +quarrelled yet? Have you been jolly together? I say, Mrs. Crabbe told +Ellen that the pudding was put into the boiler at eight o'clock last +night; and my Lady and Miss Jane went in to give it a stir! I'm to bring +you home a slice, you know; and Paul will know what a real pudding is +like.' + +The two boys spent a happy quiet afternoon with Mrs. King; and Charles +Hayward brought all the singing boys down, that they might hear the +carols outside the window. Paul, much tired, was in his bed by that +time; but his last thought was that 'Good-will to Men' had come home to +him at last. + + + + +CHAPTER XI--BETTER DAYS FOR PAUL + + +Paul's reading was a great prize to Alfred, for he soon grew tired +himself; his sister could not spare time to read to him, and if she did, +she went mumbling on like a bee in a bottle. Her mother did much the +same, and Harold used to stumble and gabble, so that it was horrible to +hear him. Such reading as Paul's was a new light to them all, and was a +treat to Ellen as she worked as much as to Alfred; and Paul, with hands +as clean as Alfred's, was only too happy to get hold of a book, and +infinitely enjoyed the constant supply kept up by Miss Selby, to make up +for her not coming herself. + +Then came the making out the accounts, a matter dreaded by all the +family. Ellen and Alfred both used to do the sums; but as they never +made them the same, Mrs. King always went by some reckoning of her own by +pencil dots on her thumb-nail, which took an enormous time, but never +went wrong. So the slate and the books came up after tea, one night, and +Ellen set to work with her mother to pick out every one's bill. There +might be about eight customers who had Christmas bills; but many an +accountant in a London shop would think eight hundred a less tough +business than did the King family these eight; especially as there was a +debtor and creditor account with four, and coals, butcher's meat, and +shoes for man and horse, had to be set against bread, tea, candles, and +the like. + +One pound of tea, 3_s._ 6_d._, that was all very well; but an ounce and a +half of the same made Ellen groan, and look wildly at the corner over +Alfred's bed, as if in hopes she should there see how to set it down, so +as to work it. + +'Fourpence, all but--' said a voice from the arm-chair by the fire. + +Ellen did not take any particular heed, but announced the fact that three +shillings were thirty-six pence, and six was forty-two. Also that +sixteen ounces were one pound, and sixteen drams one ounce; but there she +got stuck, and began making figures and rubbing them out, as if in hopes +that would clear up her mind. Mrs. King pecked on for ten minutes on her +nail. + +'Well,' she said, 'Paul's right; it is fourpence.' + +'However did you do it?' asked Ellen. + +'As 16 to 1.5, so 42,' quoth Paul quickly. 'Three halves into 42; 21 and +42 is 63; 63 by 16, gives 3 and fifteen-sixteenths. You can't deduct a +sixteenth of a penny, so call it fourpence.' + +Ellen and Alfred were as wise as to the working as they were before. + +Next question--Paul's answer came like the next line in the book--Mrs. +King proved him right, and so on till she was quite tired of the proofs, +and began to trust him. Alfred asked how he could possibly do such +things, which seemed to him a perfect riddle. + +'I should have had my ears pretty nigh pulled off if I took five minutes +to work _that_ in my head,' said Paul. 'But I've forgotten things now; I +could do it faster once.' + +'I'm sure you hadn't need,' said Mrs. King; 'it's enough to distract +one's senses to count so fast. All in your poor head too!' + +'And I've got to write them all out to-morrow,' said Ellen dismally; 'I +must wait till dark, or I shan't set a stitch of work. I wish people +would pay ready money, and then one wouldn't have to set down their +bills. Here's Mr. Cope, bread--bread--bread, as long as my arm!' + +'If you didn't mind, maybe I could save you the trouble, Miss Ellen,' +said Paul. + +'Did you ever make out a bill?' asked Mrs. King. + +'Never a real one; but every Thursday I used to do sham ones. Once I did +a jeweller's bill for twelve thousand pounds and odd! It is so long +since I touched a pen, that may be I can't write; but I should like to +try.' + +Ellen brought a pen, and the cover of a letter; and hobbling up to the +table, he took the pen, cleared it of a hair that was sticking in it, +made a scratch or two weakly and ineffectually, then wrote in a neat +clear hand, without running up or down, 'Friarswood, Christmas.' + +'A pretty hand as ever I saw!' said Mrs. King. 'Well, if you can write +like that, and can be trusted to make no mistakes, you might write out +our bills; and we'd be obliged to you most kindly.' + +And so Paul did, so neatly, that when the next evening Mr. Cope walked in +with the money, he said, looking at Harold, 'Ah! my ancient Saxon, I must +make my compliments to you: I did not think you could write letters as +well as you can carry them.' + +''Twas Paul did it, Sir,' said Harold. + +'Yes, Sir; 'twas Paul,' said Mrs. King. 'The lad is a wonderful scholar: +he told off all the sums as if they was in print; and to hear him +read--'tis like nothing I ever heard since poor Mrs. Selby, Miss Jane's +mother.' + +'I saw he had been very well instructed--in acquaintance with the Bible, +and the like.' + +'And, Sir, before I got to know him for a boy that would not give a false +account of himself, I used to wonder whether he could have run away from +some school, and have friends above the common. If you observe, Sir, he +speaks so remarkably well.' + +Mr. Cope had observed it. Paul spoke much better English than did even +the Kings; though Ellen was by way of being very particular, and +sometimes a little mincing. + +'You are quite sure it is not so?' he said, a little startled at Mrs. +King's surmise. + +'Quite sure now, Sir. I don't believe he would tell a falsehood on no +account; and besides, poor lad!' and she smiled as the tears came into +her eyes, 'he's so taken to me, he wouldn't keep nothing back from me, no +more than my own boys.' + +'I'm sure he ought not, Mrs. King,' said the Curate, 'such a mother to +him as you have been. I should like to examine him a little. With so +much education, he might do something better for himself than +field-labour.' + +'A very good thing it would be, Sir,' said Mrs. King, looking much +cheered; 'for I misdoubt me sometimes if he'll ever be strong enough to +gain his bread that way--at least, not to be a good workman. There! he's +not nigh so tall as Harold; and so slight and skinny as he is, going +about all bent and slouching, even before his illness! Why, he says what +made him stay so long in the Union was that he looked so small and young, +that none of the farmers at Upperscote would take him from it; and so at +last he had to go on the tramp.' + +Mr. Cope went up-stairs, and found Ellen, as usual, at her needle, and +Paul in the arm-chair close by Alfred, both busied in choosing and +cutting out pictures from Matilda's 'Illustrated News,' with which Harold +ornamented the wall of the stair-case and landing. Mr. Cope sat down, +and made them laugh with something droll about the figures that were +lying spread on Alfred. + +'So, Paul,' he said, 'I find Mrs. King has engaged you for her +accountant.' + +'I wish I could do anything to be of any use,' said Paul. + +'I've half a mind to ask you some questions in arithmetic,' said Mr. +Cope, with his merry eyes upon the boy, and his mouth looking grave; +'only I'm afraid you might puzzle me.' + +'I can't do as I used, Sir,' said Paul, rather nervously; 'I've forgotten +ever so much; and my head swims.' + +The slate was lying near; Mr. Cope pushed it towards him, and said, +'Well, will you mind letting me see how you can write from dictation?' + +And taking up one of the papers, he read slowly several sentences from a +description of a great fire, with some tolerably long-winded newspaper +words in them. When he paused, and asked for the slate, there it all +stood, perfectly spelt, well written, and with all the stops and capitals +in the right places. + +'Famously done, Paul! Well, and do you know where this place was?' +naming the town. + +Paul turned his eyes about for a moment, and then gave the name of a +county. + +'That'll do, Paul. Which part of England?' + +'Midland.' + +And so on, Mr. Cope got him out of his depth by asking about the rivers, +and made him frown and look teased by a question about a battle fought in +that county. If he had ever known, he had forgotten, and he was weak and +easily confused; but Mr. Cope saw that he had read some history and +learnt some geography, and was not like some of the village boys, who +used to think Harold had been called after Herod--a nice namesake, truly! + +'Who taught you all this, Paul?' he said. 'You must have had a cleverer +master than is common in Unions. Who was he?' + +'He was a Mr. Alcock, Sir. He was a clever man. They said in the House +that he had been a bit of a gentleman, a lawyer, or a clerk, or +something, but that he could never keep from the bottle.' + +'What! and so they keep him for a school-master?' + +'He was brought in, Sir; he'd got that mad fit that comes of drink, Sir, +and was fresh out of gaol for debt. And when he came to, he said he'd +keep the school for less than our master that was gone. He couldn't do +anything else, you see.' + +'And how did he teach you?' + +'He knocked us about,' said Paul, drawing his shoulders together with an +unpleasant recollection; 'he wasn't so bad to me, because I liked getting +my tasks, and when he was in a good humour, he'd say I was a credit to +him, and order me in to read to him in the evening.' + +'And when he was not?' + +'That was when he'd been out. They said he'd been at the gin-shop; but +he used to be downright savage,' said Paul. 'At last he never thought it +worth while to teach any lessons but mine, and I used to hear the other +classes; but the inspector came all on a sudden, and found it out one day +when he'd hit a little lad so that his nose was bleeding, and so he was +sent off.' + +'How long ago was this?' + +'Going on for a year,' said Paul. + +'Didn't the inspector want you to go to a training-school?' said Alfred. + +'Yes; but the Guardians wouldn't hear of it.' + +'Did you wish it?' asked Mr. Cope. + +'I liked my liberty, Sir,' was the answer; and Paul looked down. + +'Well, and what you do think now you've tried your liberty?' + +Paul didn't make any answer, but finding that good-humoured face still +waiting, he said slowly, 'Why, Sir, it was well-nigh the worst of all to +find I was getting as stupid as the cows.' + +Mr. Cope laughed, but not so as to vex him; and added, 'So that was the +way you learnt to be a reader, Paul. Can you tell me what books you used +to read to this master?' + +Paul paused; and Alfred said, '"Uncle Tom's Cabin," Sir; he told us the +story of that.' + +'Yes,' said Paul; 'but that wasn't all: there was a book about Paris, and +all the people in the back lanes there; and a German prince who came, and +was kind.' + +'You must not tell them stories out of that book, Paul,' said Mr. Cope +quickly, for he knew it was a very bad one. + +'No, Sir,' said Paul; 'but most times it was books he called philosophy, +that I couldn't make anything of--no story, and all dull; but he was very +savage if I got to sleep over them, till I hated the sight of them.' + +'I'm glad you did, my poor boy,' said Mr. Cope. 'But one thing more. +Tell me how, with such a man as this, you could have learnt about the +Bible and Catechism, as you have done.' + +'Oh,' said Paul, 'we had only the Bible and Testament to read in the +school, because they were the cheapest; and the chaplain asked us about +the Catechism every Sunday.' + +'What was the chaplain's name?' + +Paul was able, with some recollection, to answer; but he knew little +about the clergyman, who was much overworked, and seldom able to give any +time to the paupers. + +Three days after, Mr. Cope again came into the post-office. + +'Well, Mrs. King, I suppose you don't need to be told that our friend +Paul has spoken nothing but truth. The chaplain sends me his baptismal +registry, for which I asked. Just seventeen he must be--a foundling, +picked up at about three weeks old, January 25th, 1836. They fancy he +was left by some tramping musicians, but never were able to trace them--at +least, so the chaplain hears from some of the people who remember it. +Being so stunted, and looking younger than he is, no farmer would take +him from the House, and the school-master made him useful, so he was kept +on till the grand exposure that he told us of.' + +'Ah! Sir,' said Mrs. King,' I'm afraid that master was a bad man. I +only wonder the poor lad learnt no more harm from him!' + +'One trembles to think of the danger,' said Mr. Cope; 'but you see +there's often a guard over those who don't seek the temptation, and +perhaps this poor fellow's utter ignorance of anything beyond the Union +walls helped him to let the mischief pass by his understanding, better +than if he had had any experience of the world.' + +'I doubt if he'll ever have that, Sir,' said Mrs. King, her sensible face +lighting up rather drolly; 'there's Harold always laughing at him for +being so innocent, and yet so clever at his book.' + +'So much the better for him,' said Mr. Cope. 'The Son of Sirach never +said a wiser word than that "the knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom." +Why, Mrs. King, what have I said? you look as if you had a great mind to +laugh at me.' + +'I beg your pardon, Sir,' said Mrs. King, much disconcerted at what +seemed to her as if it might have been disrespect, though that was only +Mr. Cope's droll way of putting it, 'I never meant--' + +'Well, but what were you thinking of?' + +'Why, Sir, I beg your pardon, but I was thinking it wouldn't have been +amiss if he had had sense enough to keep himself clean and tidy.' + +'I agree with you,' said Mr. Cope, laughing, and seeing she used +'innocent' in a slightly different sense from what he did; 'but perhaps +Union cleanliness was not inviting, and he'd not had you to bring him up +to fresh cheeks like Harold's. Besides, I believe it was half depression +and want of heart to exert himself, when there was no one to care for +him; and he certainly had not been taught either self-respect, or to +think cleanliness next to godliness.' + +'Poor lad--no,' said Mrs. King; 'nor I don't think he'd do it again, and +I trust he'll never be so lost again.' + +'Lost, and found,' said Mr. Cope gravely. 'Another thing I was going to +say was, that this irreverent economy of the Guardians, in allowing no +lesson-books but the Bible, seems to have, after all, been blest to him +in his knowledge of it, like an antidote to the evil the master poured +in.' + +'Yes, Sir,' said Mrs. King, 'just so; only he says, that though he liked +it, because, poor lad, there was nothing else that seemed to him to speak +kind or soft, he never knew how much it was meant for him, nor it didn't +seem to touch him home till he came to you, Sir.' + +Mr. Cope half turned away. His bright eyes had something very like a +tear in them, for hardly anything could have been said to make the young +clergyman so happy, as to tell him that any work of his should be +blessed; but he went on talking quickly, to say that the chaplain gave a +still worse account of Alcock than Paul's had been, saying that some +gentlemen who had newly become Guardians at the time of the inspector's +visit, had taken up the matter, and had been perfectly shocked at the +discoveries they had made about the man to whom the poor children had +been entrusted. + +On his dismissal, some of the old set, who were all for cheapness, had +talked of letting young Blackthorn act as school-master; but as he was so +very young, and had been brought up by this wretched man, the gentlemen +would not hear of it; and as they could not afford to accept the +inspector's offer of recommending him to a government school, he had been +sent out in quest of employment, as being old enough to provide for +himself. Things had since, the chaplain said, been put on a much better +footing, and he himself had much more time to attend to the inmates. As +to Paul, he was glad to hear that he was in good hands; he said he had +always perceived him to be a very clever boy, and knew no harm of him but +that he was a favourite with Alcock, which he owned had made him very +glad to get him out of the House, lest he should carry on the mischief. + +Mr. Cope and Mrs. King were both of one mind, that this was hard measure. +So it was. Man's measure always is either over hard or over soft, +because he cannot see all sides at once. Now they saw Paul's side, his +simplicity, and his suffering; the chaplain had only seen the chances of +his conveying the seeds of ungodly teaching to the workhouse children; he +could not tell that the pitch which Paul had not touched by his own will, +had not stuck by him--probably owing to that very simplicity which had +made him so helpless in common life. + +Having learnt all this, Mr. Cope proposed to Paul to use the time of his +recovery in learning as much as he could, so as to be ready in case any +opportunity should offer for gaining his livelihood by his head rather +than by his hands. + +Paul's face glowed. He liked nothing better than to be at a book, and +with Mr. Cope to help him by bright encouragements and good-natured +explanations instead of tweaks of the ears and raps on the knuckles, what +could be pleasanter? So Mr. Cope lent him books, set him questions, and +gave him pen, ink, and copy-book, and he toiled away with them till his +senses grew dazed, and his back ached beyond bearing; so that 'Mother,' +as he called her now, caught him up, and made him lie on his bed to rest, +threatening to tell Mr. Cope not to set him anything so hard; while Ellen +watched in wonder at any one being so clever, and was proud of whatever +Mr. Cope said he did well; and Harold looked on him as a more +extraordinary creature than the pie-bald horse in the show, who wore a +hat and stood on his hind legs, since he really was vexed when book and +slate were taken out of his hands. + +He would have over-tasked himself in his weakness much more, if it had +not been for his lovingness to Alfred. To please Alfred was always his +first thought; and even if a difficult sum were just on the point of +proving itself, he would leave off at the first moment of seeing Alfred +look as if he wanted to be read to, and would miss all his calculations, +to answer some question--who was going down the village, or what that +noise could be. + +Alfred tried to be considerate, and was sorry when he saw by a furrow on +Paul's brow that he was trying to win up again all that some trifling +saying had made him lose. But Alfred was not scholar enough to perceive +the teasing of such interruptions, and even had he been aware of it, he +was not in a state when he could lie quite still long together without +disturbing any one; he could amuse himself much less than formerly, and +often had most distressing restless fits, when one or other of them had +to give him their whole attention; and it was all his most earnest +efforts could do to keep from the old habit of fretfulness and murmuring. +And he grieved so much over the least want of temper, and begged pardon +so earnestly for the least impatient word--even if there had been real +provocation for it--that it was a change indeed since the time when he +thought grumbling and complaint his privilege and relief. Nothing helped +him more than Paul's reading Psalms to him--the 121st was his +favourite--or saying over hymns to him in that very sweet voice so full +of meaning. Sometimes Ellen and Paul would sing together, as she sat at +her work, and it almost always soothed him to hear the Psalm tunes, that +were like an echo from the church, about which he had cared so little +when he had been able to go there in health and strength, but for which +he now had such a longing! He came to be so used to depend on their +singing the Evening Hymn to him, that one of the times when it was most +hard for him to be patient, was one cold evening, when Ellen was so +hoarse that she could not speak, and an unlucky draught in from the shop +door had so knit Paul up again, that he was lying in his bed, much nearer +screaming than singing. + +Most of all, however, was Alfred helped by Mr. Cope's visits, and the +looking forward to the promised Feast, with more earnestness as the time +drew on, and he felt his own weakness more longing for the support and +blessing of uniting his suffering with that of his Lord. 'In all our +afflictions He was afflicted,' was a sound that came most cheeringly to +him, and seemed to give him greater strength and good-will to bear his +load of weakness. + +There was a book which young Mrs. Selby had given his mother, which was +often lying on his bed, and had marks in it at all the favourite places. +Some he liked to look at himself, some for Paul to read to him. They +were such sentences as these: + +'My son, I descended from Heaven for thy salvation; I took upon Me thy +miseries; not necessity, but charity, drawing Me thereto, that thou +thyself mightest learn patience, and bear temporal miseries without +grudging.' + +'For from the hour of My Birth, even until My Death on the Cross, I was +not without suffering and grief.' + +And then again: + +'Offer up thyself unto Me, and give thyself wholly for God, and thy +offering shall be acceptable.' + +'Behold, I offered up Myself wholly unto My Father for thee, and gave My +whole Body and Blood for thy food, that I might be wholly thine, and that +thou mightest continue Mine unto the end.' + +So he might think of all that he went through as capable of being made a +free offering, which God would accept for the sake of the One Great +Offering, 'consuming and burning away' (as the book said) 'all his sins +with the fire of Christ's love, and cleansing his conscience from all +offences.' It was what he now felt in the words, 'Thy Will be done,' +which he tried to say in full earnest; but he thought he should be very +happy when he should go along with the offering ourselves, our souls, and +bodies, to be a 'reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice.' + +Each of Mr. Cope's readings brought out or confirmed these refreshing +hopes; and Paul likewise dwelt on such thoughts. Hardship had been a +training to him, like sickness for Alfred; he knew what it was to be +weary and heavy laden, and to want rest, and was ready to draw closer to +the only Home and Father that he could claim. His gentle unresisting +spirit was one that so readily forgot ill-will, that positively Harold +cherished more dislike to the Shepherds than he did; and there was no +struggle to forgive, no lack of charity for all men, so that hope and +trust were free. + +These two boys were a great deal to the young deacon. Perhaps he +reckoned on his first ministration as a priest by Alfred's bedside, as +much or even more than did the lad, for to him the whole household were +as near and like-minded friends, though neither he nor they ever departed +from the fitting manners of their respective stations. He was one who +liked to share with others what was near his heart, and he had shewn +Alfred the Service for the Ordination of Priests, and the Prayers for +Grace that would be offered, and the holy vows that he would take upon +him, and the words with which those great Powers would be conferred--those +Powers that our Chief Shepherd left in trust for the pastors who feed His +flock. + +And once he had bent down and whispered to Alfred to pray that help might +be given to him to use those powers faithfully. + +So wore on the early spring; and the morning had come when he was to set +out for the cathedral town, when Harold rode up to the parsonage door, +and something in his looks as he passed the window made Mr. Cope hasten +to the door to meet him. + +'O Sir!' said Harold, bursting out crying as he began to speak, 'poor +Alfred is took so bad; and Mother told me to tell you, Sir--if he's not +better--he'll never live out the day!' + +Poor Harold, who had never seemed to heed his brother's illness, was +quite overwhelmed now. It had come upon him all at once. + +'What is it? Has the doctor been?' + +'No, Sir; I went in at six o'clock this morning to ask him to come out, +and he said he'd come--and sent him a blister--but Alf was worse by the +time I got back, Sir,--he can't breathe--and don't seem to notice.' + +And without another word, nor waiting for comfort, Harold dug his heels +into Peggy, passed his elbow over his eyes, and cantered on with the +tears drying on his face in the brisk March wind. + +There was no finishing breakfast for the Curate; he thrust his letters +into his pocket, caught up his hat, and walked off with long strides for +the post-office. + +It shewed how different things were from usual, that Paul, who had hardly +yet been four times down-stairs, his thin pointed face all in a flush, +was the only person in the shop, trying with a very shaky hand to cut out +some cheese for a great stout farm maid-servant, who evidently did not +understand what was the matter, and stared doubly when the clergyman put +his strong hand so as to steady Paul's trembling one, and gave his help +to fold up the parcel. + +'How is he, Paul?' + +Paul was very near crying as he answered, 'Much worse, Sir. Mother has +been up all night with him. O Sir! he did so want to live till you came +home.' + +'May I go up?' asked Mr. Cope. + +Paul was sure that he might, and crept up after him. It was bad enough, +but not quite so bad as Harold, in his fright, had made Mr. Cope believe. +Poor boy! it had all come upon him now; and seeing his brother unable to +speak and much oppressed, he fancied he did not know him, whereas Alfred +was fully sensible, though too ill to do more than lift his eyes, and put +out his weak fingers as Mr. Cope came into the room, where he was lying +raised on his pillows, with his mother and sister doing all they could +for him. + +A terrible pain in the side had come on in the night, making every breath +painful, every cough agonizing, and his whole face and brow were crimson +with the effort of gasping. + +Paul looked a moment but could not bear it, and went, and sat down on the +top of the stairs; while Mr. Cope kindly held Alfred's hot hand, and Mrs. +King, in her low patient tone, told how the attack had begun. + +She was in the midst, when Mr. Blunt's gig was seen at the gate. His +having thus hastened his coming was more than they had dared to hope; and +while Mrs. King felt grateful for the kindness, Ellen feared that it +shewed that he thought very badly of the case. + +Mr. Cope was much hurried, but he could not bear to go till he had heard +Mr. Blunt's opinion; so he went down to the kitchen, tried to console +Paul by talking kindly to him, wrote a note, and read his letters. + +They were much comforted to hear that Mr. Blunt thought that there was +hope of subduing the present inflammatory pain; and though there was much +immediate danger, it was not hastening so very fast to the end as they +had at first supposed. Yet, in such a state as Alfred's, a few hours +might finish all. There was no saying. + +Already, when Mr. Cope went up again, the remedies had given some relief; +and though the breaths came short and hard, like so many stabs, Alfred +had put his head into an easier position, and his eyes and lips looked +more free to look a greeting. There was so much wistful earnestness in +his face, and it deeply grieved Mr. Cope to be forced to leave him, and +in too much haste even to be able to pray with him. + +'Well, Alfred, dear fellow,' he said, his voice trembling, 'I am come to +wish you good-bye. I am comforted to find that Mr. Blunt thinks there is +good hope that you will be here--that we shall be together when I come +back. Yes, I know that is what is on your mind, and I do reckon most +earnestly on it; but if it should not be His Will--here, Ellen, will you +take care of this note? If he should be worse, will you send this to Mr. +Carter, at Ragglesford? and I know he will come at once.' + +The dew stood on Alfred's eye-lashes, and his lips worked. He looked up +sadly to Mr. Cope, as if this did not answer his longings. + +Mr. Cope replied to the look--'Yes, dear boy, but if it cannot be, still +remember it is Communion. He can put us together. We all drink into one +Spirit. I shall be engaged in a like manner--I would not--I could not +go, Alfred, for pleasure--no, nor business--only for this. You must +think that I am gone to bring you home the Gift--the greatest, best +Gift--the one our Lord left with His disciples, to bear them through +their sorrows and pains--through the light affliction that is but for a +moment, but worketh an exceeding weight of glory. And if I should not be +in time,' he added, nearly sobbing as he spoke, 'then--then, Alfred, the +Gift, the blessing is yours all the same. It is the Great High Priest to +Whom you must look--perhaps you may do so the more really if it should +not be through--your friend. If we are disappointed, we will make a +sacrifice of our disappointment. Good-bye, my boy; God bless you!' +Bending close down to his face, he whispered, 'Think of me. Pray for +me--now--always.' Then, rising hastily, he shook the hands of the mother +and sister, ran down-stairs, and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XII--REST AT LAST + + +The east wind had been swept aside by gales from the warm south, and the +spring was bursting out everywhere; the sky looked softly blue, instead +of hard and chill; the sun made everything glisten: the hedges were full +of catkins; white buds were on the purple twigs of the blackthorns; +primroses were looking out on the sunny side of the road; the larks were +mounting up, singing as if they were wild with delight; and the sunbeams +were full of dancing gnats, as the Curate of Friarswood walked, with +quick eager steps, towards the bridge. + +His eyes were anxiously bent on the house, watching the white smoke +rising from the chimney; then he hastened on to gain the first sight at +the upper windows, feeling almost as he could have done had it been a +brother who lay there; so much was his heart set on the first whom he had +striven to help through the valley of the shadow of death. The window +was open, but the blind was not drawn; and almost at the same moment the +gate opened, some one looked out, and seeing him, waved his hand and arm +in joyful signal towards some one within, and this gesture set Mr. Cope's +heart at rest. + +Was it Harold? No, it was Paul Blackthorn, who stood leaning on the +wicket, as he held it open for the clergyman, at whom he looked up as if +expecting some change, and a little surprised to find the same voice and +manner. + +'Well, Paul, then he is not worse?' + +'No, Sir, thank you, he is better. The pain has left him, and he can +speak again,' said Paul, but not very cheerfully. + +'That is a great comfort! But who's that?' as a head, not Ellen's, +appeared for a moment at the window. + +'That's Miss King, Sir--Miss Matilda!' + +'Oh! Well, and how are the bones, Paul? Better, I hope, since I see you +are come out with the bees,' said Mr. Cope, laying his hand kindly on his +shoulder (a thing fit to touch now, since it was in a fustian coat of +poor Alfred's), and accommodating his swift strong steps to the feeble +halt with which Paul still moved. + +'Thank you, Sir, yes; I've been down here twice when the sun was out,' he +said, as if it were a grand undertaking; but then, with a sudden smile, +'and poor Caesar knew me, Sir; he came right across the road, and wagged +his tail, and licked my hand.' + +'Good old Caesar! You were his best friend, Paul.--Well, Mrs. King, this +is a blessing!' + +Mrs. King looked sadly worn out with nursing, and her eyes were full of +tears. + +'Yes, Sir,' she said, 'indeed it is. My poor darling has been so much +afraid he was too much set on your coming home, and yet so patient and +quiet about it.' + +'Then you ventured to wait?' + +And Mr. Cope heard that the attack of inflammation had given way to +remedies, but that Alfred was so much weakened, that they could not raise +him again. He was sustained by as much nourishment as they could give +him: but the disease had made great progress, and Mr. Blunt did not think +that he could last many days. His eldest sister had come for a fortnight +from her place, and was a great comfort to them all. 'And so is Paul,' +said Mrs. King, looking for him kindly; 'I don't know what we should do +without his help up-stairs and down. And, Sir, yesterday,' she added, +colouring a good deal--'I beg your pardon, but I thought, maybe, you'd +like to hear it--Alfred would have nobody else up with him in morning +church-time--and made him read the most--of that Service, Sir.' + +Mr. Cope's eyes glistened, and he said something huskily of being glad +that Alfred could think of it. + +It further appeared that Alfred had wished very much to see Miss Selby +again, and that Mrs. King had sent the two sisters to the Grange to talk +it over with Mrs. Crabbe, and word had been sent by Harold that morning +that the young lady would come in the course of the afternoon. + +Mr. Cope followed Mrs. King up-stairs; Alfred's face lighted up as his +sister Matilda made way for the clergyman. He was very white, and his +breath was oppressed; but his look had changed very much--it had a +strange, still sort of brightness and peace about it. He spoke in very +low tones, just above a whisper, and smiled as Mr. Cope took his hand, +and spoke to him. + +'Thank you, Sir. It is very nice,' he said. + +'I thank God that He has let you wait for me,' said Mr. Cope. + +'I am glad,' said Alfred. 'I did want to pray for it; but I thought, +perhaps, if it was not His Will, I would not--and then what you said. And +now He is making it all happy.' + +'And you do not grieve over your year of illness?' + +'I would not have been without it--no,' said Alfred, very quietly, but +with much meaning. + +'"It is good for me that I have been in trouble," is what you mean,' said +Mr. Cope. + +'It has made our Saviour seem--I mean--He is so good to me,' said Alfred +fervently. + +But talking made him cough, and that brought a line in the fair forehead +so full of peace. Mr. Cope would not say more to him, and asked his +mother whether the Feast, for which he had so much longed, should be on +the following day. She thought it best that it should be so; and Alfred +again said, 'Thank you, Sir,' with the serene expression on his face. Mr. +Cope read a Psalm and a prayer to him, and thinking him equal to no more, +went away, pausing, however, for a little talk with Paul in the shop. + +Paul did not say so, but, poor fellow, he had been rather at a loss since +Matilda had come. In herself, she was a very good, humble, sensible +girl; but she wore a dark silk dress, and looked, moved, and spoke much +more like a lady than Ellen: Paul stood in great awe of her, and her +presence seemed all at once to set him aloof from the others. + +He had been like one of themselves for the last three months, now he felt +that he was like a beggar among them; he did not like to call Mrs. King +mother, lest it should seem presuming; Ellen seemed to be raised up the +same step as her sister, and even Alfred was almost out of his reach; +Matilda read to him, and Paul's own good feeling shewed him that he would +be only in the way if he spent all his time in Alfred's room as formerly; +so he kept down-stairs in the morning, and went to bed very early. Nobody +was in the least unkind to him: but he had just begun to grieve at being +a burden so long, and to wonder how much longer he should be in getting +his health again. And then it might be only to be cast about the world, +and to lose his one glimpse of home kindness. Poor boy! he still cried +at the thought of how happy Alfred was. + +He did all he could to be useful, but he could scarcely manage to stoop +down, could carry nothing heavy, and moved very slowly; and he now and +then made a dreadful muddle in the shop, when a customer was not like +Mrs. Hayward, who told him where everything was, and the price of all she +wanted, as well as Mrs. King could do herself. He could sort the letters +and see to the post-office very well; and for all his blunders, he did so +much by his good-will, that when Mrs. King wanted to cheer him up, she +declared that he saved her all the expense of having in a woman from the +village to help, and that he did more about the house than Harold. + +This was true: for Harold did not like doing anything but manly things, +as he called them; whereas Paul did not care what it was, so that it +saved trouble to her or Ellen. + +Talking and listening to Harold was one use of Paul. Now that it had +come upon him, and he saw Alfred worse from day to day, the poor boy was +quite broken-hearted. Possibly, when at his work, or riding, he managed +to shake off the remembrance; but at home it always came back, and he +cried so much at the sight of Alfred, and at any attempt of his brother +to talk to him, that they could scarcely let him stay ten minutes in the +room. Then, when Paul had gone to bed on the landing at seven o'clock, +he would come and sit on his bed, and talk, and cry, and sob about his +brother, and his own carelessness of him, often till his mother came out +and ordered him down-stairs to his own bed in the kitchen; and Paul +turned his face into the pillow to weep himself to sleep, loving Alfred +very little less than did his brother, but making less noise about it, +and feeling very lonely when he saw how all the family cared for each +other. + +So Mr. Cope's kind manner came all the more pleasantly to him; and after +some talk on what they both most cared about, Mr. Cope said, 'Paul, Mr. +Shaw of Berryton tells me he has a capital school-master, but in rather +weak health, and he wants to find a good intelligent youth to teach under +him, and have opportunities of improving himself. Five pounds a year, +and board and lodgings. What do you think of it, Paul?' + +Paul's sallow face began growing red, and he polished the counter, on +which he was leaning; then, as Mr. Cope repeated, 'Eh, Paul?' he said +slowly, and in his almost rude way, 'They wouldn't have me if they knew +how I'd been brought up.' + +'Perhaps they would if they knew what you've come to in spite of bringing +up. And,' added Mr. Cope, 'they are not so much pressed for time but +that they can wait till you've quite forgotten your tumble into the +Ragglesford. We must fatten you--get rid of those spider-fingers, and +you and I must do a few more lessons together--and I think Mrs. King has +something towards your outfit; and by Whitsuntide, I told Mr. Shaw that I +thought I might send him what I call a very fair sample of a good steady +lad.' + +Paul did not half seem to take it in--perhaps he was too unhappy, or it +sounded like sending him away again; or, maybe, such a great step in life +was more than he could comprehend, after the outcast condition to which +he had been used: but Mr. Cope could not go on talking to him, for the +Grange carriage was stopping at the gate, and Matilda and Ellen were both +coming down-stairs to receive Miss Jane. Poor little thing, she looked +very pale and nervous; and as she shook hands with the Curate, as he met +her in the garden-path, she said with a startled manner, 'Oh! Mr. +Cope--were you there? Am I interrupting--?' + +'Not at all,' he said. 'I had only called in as I came home, and had +just come down again.' + +'Is it--is it very dreadful?' murmured Jane, with a sort of gasp. She +was so entirely unused to scenes of sadness or pain, that it was very +strange and alarming to her, and it was more difficult than ever to +believe her no younger than Ellen. + +'Very far from dreadful or distressing,' said Mr. Cope kindly, for he +knew it was not her fault that she had been prevented from overcoming +such feelings, and that this was a great effort of kindness. 'It is a +very peaceful, soothing sight--he is very happy, and not in a suffering +state.' + +'Oh, will you tell Grandmamma?' said Jane, with her pretty look of +earnestness; 'she is so much afraid of its much for me, and she was so +kind in letting me come.' + +So Miss Selby went on to the two sisters, and Mr. Cope proceeded to the +carriage, where Lady Jane had put out her head, glad to be able to ask +him about the state of affairs. Having nothing but this little grand- +daughter left to her, the old lady watched over her with almost +over-tender care, and was in much alarm both lest the air of the sick- +room should be unwholesome, or the sight too sorrowful for her; and +though she was too kind to refuse the wish of the dying boy, she had come +herself, in order that 'the child,' as she called her, might not stay +longer than was good for her; and she was much relieved to hear Mr. +Cope's account of Alfred's calm state, and of the freshness of the clean +room, in testimony of which he pointed to the open window. + +'Yes,' she said, 'I hope Mary King was wise enough; but I hardly knew how +it might be with such a number about the house--that boy and all. He is +not gone, is he?' + +'No, he is not nearly well enough yet, though he does what he can to be +useful to her. When he is recovered, I have a scheme for him.' + +So Mr. Cope mentioned Mr. Shaw's proposal, by which my Lady set more +store than did Paul as yet. Very kind-hearted she was, though she did +not fancy adopting chance-comers into her parish; and as long as he was +not saddled upon Mary King, as she said, she was very glad of any good +for him; so she told Mr. Cope to come to her for what he might want to +fit him out properly for the situation; and turning her keen eyes on him +as he stood near the cottage door, pronounced that, after all, he was a +nice, decent-looking lad enough, which certainly her Ladyship would not +have said before his illness. + +Miss Jane did not stay long. Indeed, Alfred could not talk to her, and +she did not know what to say to him; she could only stand by his bed, +with the tears upon her cheeks, making little murmuring sounds in answer +to Mrs. King, who said for her son what she thought he wished to have +said. Meanwhile, Jane was earnestly looking at him, remarking with awe, +that, changed as he was since she had last seen him--so much more wasted +away--the whole look of his face was altered by the gentleness and peace +that it had gained, so as to be like the white figure of a saint. + +She could not bear it when Mrs. King told her Alfred wanted to thank her +for all her kindness in coming to see him. 'Oh, no,' she said, 'I was +not kind at all;' and her tears would not be hindered. 'Only, you know, +I could not help it.' + +Alfred gave her a bright look. Any one could see what a pleasure it was +to him to be looking at her again, though he did not repent of his share +in the sacrifice for Paul's sake. No, if Paul had been given up that +Miss Jane might come to him, Alfred would not have had the training that +made all so sweet and calm with him now. He turned his head to the +little picture, and said, 'Thank you, Ma'am, for that. That's been my +friend.' + +'Yes, indeed it has, Miss Jane,' said his mother. 'There's nothing you +ever did for him that gave him the comfort that has been.' + +'And please, Ma'am,' said Alfred, 'will you tell my Lady--I give her my +duty--and ask her pardon for having behaved so bad--and Mrs. Crabbe--and +the rest?' + +'I will, Alfred; but every one has forgiven that nonsense long ago.' + +'It was very bad of me,' said Alfred, pausing for breath; 'and so it was +not to mind you--Miss Jane--when you said I was ill for a warning.' + +'Did I?' said Jane. + +'Yes--in hay-time--I mind it--I didn't mind for long--but 'twas true. He +had patience with me.' + +The cough came on, and Jane knew she must go; her grandmother had bidden +her not to stay if it were so, and she just ventured to squeeze Alfred's +hand, and then went down-stairs, checking her tears, to wish Matilda and +Ellen good-bye; and as she passed by Paul, told him not to uncover his +still very short-haired head, and kindly hoped he was better. + +Paul, in his dreary feelings, hardly thought of Mr. Cope's plan, till, as +he was getting the letters ready for Harold, he turned up one in Mr. +Cope's writing, addressed to the 'Rev. A. Shaw, Berryton, Elbury.' + +'That's to settle for me, then,' he said; and Harold who was at tea, +asking, 'What's that?' he explained. + +'Well,' said Harold, 'every one to his taste! I wouldn't go to school +again, not for a hundred pounds; and as to _keeping_ school!' (Such a +face as he made really caused Paul to smile.) 'Nor you don't half like +it, neither,' continued Harold. 'Come, you'd better stay and get work +here! I'd sooner be at the plough-tail all day, than poke out my eyes +over stuff like that,' pointing to Paul's slate, covered with figures. +'Here, Nelly,' as she moved about, tidying the room, 'do you hear? Mr. +Cope's got an offer of a place for Paul--five pounds a year, and board +and lodging, to be school-master's whipper-in, or what d'ye call it?' + +'What do you say, Harold?' cried Ellen, putting her hands on the back of +a chair, quite interested. 'You going away, Paul?' + +'Mr. Cope says so--and I must get my living, you know,' said Paul. + +'But not yet; you are not well enough yet,' said the kind girl. 'And +where did you say--?' + +'To Berryton.' + +'Berryton--oh! that's just four miles out on the other side of Elbury, +where Susan Congleton went to live that was housemaid at the Grange. She +says it's such a nice place, and such beautiful organ and singing at +church! And what did you say you were to be, Paul?' + +'I'm to help the school-master.' + +'Gracious me!' cried Ellen. 'Why, such a scholar as you are, you'll be +quite a gentleman yet, Paul. Why, they school-masters get fifty or sixty +pounds salaries sometimes. I protest it's the best thing I've heard this +long time! Was it Mr. Cope's doing, or my Lady's?' + +'Mr. Cope's,' said Paul, beginning to think he had been rather less +grateful than he ought. + +'Ah! it is like him,' said Ellen, 'after all the pains he has taken with +you. And you'll not be so far off, Paul: you'll come to see us in the +holidays, you know.' + +'To be sure he will,' said Harold; 'or if he don't, I shall go and fetch +him.' + +'Of course he will,' said Ellen, with her hand on Paul's chair, and +speaking low and affectionately to console him, as she saw him so +downcast; 'don't you know how poor Alfy says he's come to be instead of a +son to Mother, and a brother to us? I must go up and tell Alf and +mother. They'll be so pleased.' + +Paul felt very differently about the plan now. All the house +congratulated him upon it, and Matilda evidently thought more of him now +that she found he was to have something to do. But such things as these +were out of sight beside that which was going on in the room above. + +Alfred slept better that night, and woke so much revived, that they +thought him better: and Harold, greatly comforted about him, stood +tolerably quietly by his side, listening to one or two things that Alfred +had longed for months past to say to him. + +'Promise me, Harold dear, that you'll be a good son to Mother: you'll be +the only one now.' + +Harold made a bend of his head like a promise. + +'O Harold, be good to her!' went on Alfred earnestly; 'she's had so much +trouble! I do hope God will leave you to her--if you are steady and +good. Do, Harold! She's not like some, as don't care what their lads +get to. And don't take after me, and be idle! Be right-down good, +Harold, as Paul is; and when you come to be ill--oh! it won't be so bad +for you as it was for me!' + +'I do want to be good,' sighed Harold. 'If I'd only been confirmed; but +'twas all along of them merries last summer!' + +'And I was such a plague to you--I drove you out,' said Alfred. + +'No, no, I was a brute to you! Oh! Alfy, Alfy, if I could only get back +the time!' + +He was getting to the sobs that hurt his brother; and his sister was +going to interfere; but Alfred said: + +'Never mind, Harold dear, we've been very happy together, and we'll +always love each other. You'll not forget Alf, and you'll be Mother's +good son to take care of her! Won't you?' + +So Harold gave that promise, and went away with his tears. Poor fellow, +now was his punishment for having slighted the Confirmation. Like Esau, +an exceeding bitter cry could not bring back what he had lightly thrown +away. Well was it for him that this great sorrow came in time, and that +it was not altogether his birthright that he had parted with. He found +he could not go out to his potato-planting and forget all about it, as he +would have liked to have done--something would not let him; and there he +was sitting crouched up and sorrowful on the steps of the stairs, when +Mr. Cope and all the rest were gathered in Alfred's room, a church for +the time. Matilda and Ellen had set out the low table with the fair +white cloth, and Mr. Cope brought the small cups and paten, which were +doubly precious to him for having belonged to his father, and because the +last time he had seen them used had been for his father's last Communion. + +Now was the time to feel that a change had really passed over the young +pastor in the time of his absence. Before, he could only lead Alfred in +his prayers, and give him counsel, tell him to hope in his repentance, +and on what that hope was founded. Now that he had bent beneath the hand +of the Bishop, he had received, straight down from the Twelve, the Power +from on High. It was not Mr. Cope, but the Lord Who had purchased that +Pardon by His own most Precious Blood, Who by him now declared to Alfred +that the sins and errors of which he had so long repented, were pardoned +and taken away. The Voice of Authority now assured him of what he had +been only told to hope and trust before. And to make the promise all the +more close and certain, here was the means of becoming a partaker of the +Sacrifice--here was that Bread and that Cup which shew forth the Lord's +Death till He come. It was very great rest and peace, the hush that was +over the quiet room, with only Alfred's hurried breath to be heard beside +Mr. Cope's voice as he spoke the blessed words, and the low responses of +the little congregation. Paul was close beside Alfred--he would have him +there between his mother and the wall--and the two whose first Communion +it was, were the last to whom Mr. Cope came. To one it was to be the +Food for the passage into the unseen world; to the other might it be the +first partaking of the Manna to support him through the wilderness of +this life. + +'From the highways and hedges,' here was one brought into the foretaste +of the Marriage Supper. Ah! there was one outside, who had loved idle +pleasure when the summons had been sent to him. Perhaps the misery he +was feeling now might be the means of sparing him from missing other +calls, and being shut out at last. + +It seemed to fulfil all that Alfred had wished. He lay still between +waking and sleeping for a long time afterwards, and then begged for Paul +to read to him the last chapters of the Book of Revelation. Matilda +wished to read them for him; but he said, 'Paul, please.' Paul's voice +was fuller and softer when it was low; his accent helped the sense, and +Alfred was more used to them than to his visitor sister. Perhaps there +was still another reason, for when Paul came to the end, and was turning +the leaves for one of Alfred's favourite bits, he saw Alfred's eyes on +him, as if he wanted to speak. It was to say, 'Brothers quite now, Paul! +Thank you. I think God must have sent you to help me.' + +Alfred seemed better all the evening, and they went to bed in good +spirits; but at midnight, Mr. Cope, who was very deeply studying and +praying, the better to fit himself for his new office in the ministry, +was just going to shut his book, and go up to bed, when he heard a +tremulous ring at the bell. + +It was Harold, his face looking very white in the light from Mr. Cope's +candle. + +'Oh! please, Sir,' he said, 'Alfred is worse; and Mother said, if your +light wasn't out, you'd like to know.' + +'I am very grateful to her,' said Mr. Cope; and taking up his plaid, he +wrapped one end round the boy, and put his arm round him, as he felt him +quaking as Paul had done before, but not crying--too much awe-struck for +that. He said that his mother thought something had broken in the lungs, +and that he would be choked. Mr. Cope made the more haste, that he might +judge if the doctor would be of any use. + +Paul was sitting up in his bed--they had not let him get up--but his eyes +were wide open with distress, as he plainly heard the loud sob that each +breath had become. Mrs. King was holding Alfred up in her arms; Matilda +was trying to chafe his feet; Ellen was kneeling with her face hidden. + +The light of sense and meaning was not gone from Alfred's eyes, though +the last struggle had come. He gave a look as though he were glad to see +Mr. Cope, and then gazed on his brother. Mrs. King signed to Harold to +come nearer, and whispered, 'Kiss him.' His sisters had done so, and he +had missed Harold. Then Mr. Cope prayed, and Alfred's eyes at first +owned the sounds; but soon they were closed, and the long struggling +breaths were all that shewed that the spirit was still there. + +'He shall swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God shall wipe away +tears from all eyes.' + +One moment, and the blue eyes they knew so well were opened and smiling +on his mother, and then-- + +It was over; and through affliction and pain, the young spirit had gone +to rest! + +The funeral day was a very sore one to Paul Blackthorn. He would have +given the world to be there, and have heard the beautiful words of hope +which received his friend to his resting-place, but he could not get so +far. He had tried to carry a message to a house not half so far off as +the church, but his knees seemed to give way under him, and his legs +ached so much that he could hardly get home. Somehow, a black suit, just +such as Harold's, had come home for him at the same time; but this could +not hinder him from feeling that he was but a stranger, and one who had +no real place in the home where he lived. There was the house full of +people, who would only make their remarks on him--Miss Hardman (who was +very critical of the coffin-plate), the school-master, and some of the +upper-servants of the house--and poor Mrs. King and Matilda, who could +not help being gratified at the attention to their darling, were obliged +to go down and be civil to them; while Ellen, less used to restraint, was +shut into her own room crying; and Harold was standing on the stairs, +very red, but a good deal engaged with his long hat-band. Poor Paul! he +had not even his usual refuge--his own bed to lie upon and hide his +face--for that had been taken away to make room for the coffin to be +carried down. + +There, they were going at last, when it had seemed as if the bustle and +confusion would never cease. There was Alfred leaving the door where he +had so often played, carried upon the shoulders of six lads in white +frocks, his old school-fellows and Paul's Confirmation friends. How Paul +envied them for doing him that last service! There was his mother, +always patient and composed, holding Harold's arm--Harold, who must be +her stay and help, but looking so slight, so boyish, and so young, then +the two girls, Ellen so overpowered with crying that her sister had to +lead her; Mrs. Crabbe with Betsey Hardman, who held up a great white +handkerchief, for other people's visible grief always upset her, as she +said; and besides, she felt it a duty to cry at such a time; and the rest +two and two, quite a train, in their black suits: how unlike the dreary +pauper funerals Paul had watched away at Upperscote! That respectable +look seemed to make him further off and more desolate, like one cut off, +whom no one would follow, no one would weep for. Alfred, who had called +him a brother, was gone, and here he was alone! + +The others were taking their dear one once more to the church where they +had so often prayed that he might have a happy issue out of all his +afflictions. + +They were met by Mr. Cope, ending his loving intercourse with Alfred by +reading out the blessed promise of Resurrection--the assurance that the +body they were sowing in weakness would be raised in power; so that the +noble boy, whom they had seen fade away like a drooping flower, would +rise again blossoming forth in glory, after the Image of the +Incorruptible--that Image, thought Mr. Cope, as he read on, which he +faithfully strove to copy even through the sufferings due to the +corruptible. His voice often shook and faltered. He had never before +read that Service; and perhaps, except for those of his own kin, it could +never be a greater effort to him, going along with Alfred as he had done, +holding up the rod and staff that bore him through the dark valley. And +each trembling of his tone seemed to answer something that the mother was +feeling in her peaceful, hopeful, thankful grief--yes, thankful that she +could lay her once high-spirited and thoughtless boy in his grave, with +the same sure and certain hope of a joyful Resurrection, as that ripe and +earnest-minded Christian his father, or his little innocent brother. It +was peace--awful peace, indeed, but soothing even to Ellen and Harold, +new as they were to grief. + +But to poor Paul at home, out of hearing of the words of hope, only +listening to the melancholy toll of the knell, and quite alone in the +disarranged forlorn house, there seemed nothing to take off the edge of +misery. He was not wanted to keep Alfred company now, nor to read to +him--no one needed him, no one cared for him. He wandered up to where +Alfred had lain so long, as if to look for the pale quiet face that used +to smile to him. There was nothing but the bed-frame and mattress! He +threw himself down on it and cried. He did not well know why--perhaps +the chief feeling was that Alfred was gone away to rest and bliss, and he +was left alone to be weary and without a friend. + +At last the crying began to spend itself, and he turned and looked up. +There was Alfred's little picture of the Crucified still on the wall, and +the words under it, 'For us!' Paul's eye fell on it; and somehow it +brought to mind what Alfred had said to him on Christmas Day. There was +One Who had no home on earth; there was One Who had made Himself an +outcast and a wanderer, and Who had not where to lay His Head. Was not +He touched with a fellow-feeling for the lonely boy? Would He not help +him to bear his friendless lot as a share of His own Cross? Nay, had He +not raised him up friends already in his utmost need? 'There is a Friend +Who sticketh closer than a brother.' He was the Friend that Paul need +never lose, and in Whom he could still meet his dear Alfred. These +thoughts, not quite formed, but something like them, came gently as balm +to the poor boy, and though they brought tears even thicker than the +first burst of lonely sorrow, they were as peaceful as those shed beside +the grave. Though Paul was absent in the body, this was a very different +shutting out from Harold's on last Tuesday. + +Paul must have cried himself to sleep, for he did not hear the funeral- +party return, and was first roused by Mrs. King coming up-stairs. He had +been so much used to think of this as Alfred's room, that he had never +recollected that it was hers; and now that she was come up for a moment's +breathing-time, he started up ashamed and shocked at being so caught. + +But good motherly Mrs. King saw it all, and how he had been weeping where +her child had so long rested. Indeed, his face was swelled with crying, +and his voice all unsteady. + +'Poor lad! poor lad!' she said kindly, 'you were as fond of him as any of +them; and if we wanted anything else to make you one of us, that would do +it.' + +'O Mother,' said Paul, as she kindly put her hand on him, 'I could not +bear it--I was so lost--till I looked at _that_,' pointing to the little +print. + +'Ay,' said Mrs. King, as she wiped her quiet tears, 'that Cross was +Alfred's great comfort, and so it is to us all, my boy, whatever way we +have to carry it, till we come to where he is gone. No cross, no crown, +they say.' + +Perhaps it was not bad for any one that this forlorn day had given Paul a +fresh chill, which kept him in bed for nearly a week, so as gently to +break the change from her life of nursing to Mrs. King, and make him very +happy and peaceful in her care. + +And when at last on a warm sunny Sunday, Paul Blackthorn returned thanks +in church for his recovery--ay, and for a great deal besides--he had no +reason to think that he was a stranger cared for by no one. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--SIX YEARS LATER + + +It is a beautiful morning in Easter week. The sun is shining on the +gilded weathercock, which flashes every time it veers from south to west; +the snowdrops are getting quite out of date, and the buttercups and +primroses have it all their own way; the grass is making a start, and +getting quite long upon the graves in Friarswood churchyard. + +'Really, I should have sent in the Saxon monarch to tidy us up!' says to +himself the tall young Rector, as he stepped over the stile with one long +stride; 'but I suppose he is better engaged.' + +That tall young Rector is the Reverend Marcus Cope, six years older, but +young still. The poor old Rector, Mr. John Selby, died four years ago +abroad; and Lady Jane and Miss Selby's other guardians gave the living to +Mr. Cope, to the great joy of all the parish, except the Shepherds, who +have never forgiven him for their own usage of their farming boy, nor for +the sermon he neither wrote nor preached. + +The Saxon monarch means one Harold King, who looks after the Rectory +garden and horse, as well as the post-office and other small matters. + +The clerk is unlocking the church, and shaking out the surplice, and Mr. +Cope goes into the vestry, takes out two big books covered with green +parchment, and sees to the pen. It is a very good one, judging by the +writing of the last names in that book. They are Francis Mowbray and +Jane Arabella Selby. + +'Captain and Mrs. Mowbray will be a great blessing to the place, if they +go on as they have begun,' thinks Mr. Cope. 'How happy they are making +old Lady Jane, and how much more Mrs. Mowbray goes among the cottages now +that she does more as she pleases.' + +Then Mr. Cope goes to the porch and looks out. He sees two men getting +over the stile. One is a small slight person, in very good black +clothes, not at all as if they were meant to ape a gentleman, and +therefore thoroughly respectable. He has a thin face, rather pointed as +to the chin and nose, and the eyes dark and keen, so that it would be +over-sharp but that the mouth looks so gentle and subdued, and the whole +countenance is grave and thoughtful. You could not feel half so sure +that he is a certificated school-master, as you can that his very brisk- +looking companion is so. + +'Good morning, Mr. Brown.--Good morning, Paul,' said Mr. Cope. 'I did +not expect to see you arrive in this way.' + +The grave face glitters up in a merry look of amusement, while, with a +little colouring, he answers: + +'Why, Sir, Matilda said it was the proper thing, and so we supposed she +knew best.' + +There are not so many people who _do_ talk of Paul now. Most people know +him as Mr. Blackthorn, late school-master at Berryton, where the boys +liked him for his bright and gentle yet very firm ways; the parents, for +getting their children on, and helping them to be steady; and the +clergyman, for being so perfectly to be trusted, so anxious to do right, +and, while efficient and well informed, perfectly humble and free from +conceit. Now he has just got an appointment to Hazleford school, in +another diocese, with a salary of fifty pounds a year; but, as Charles +Hayward would tell you, 'he hasn't got one bit of pride, no more than +when he lived up in the hay-loft.' + +There is not long to wait. There is another party getting over the +stile. There is a very fine tall youth first. As Betsey Hardman tells +her mother, 'she never saw such a one for being fine-growed and stately +to look at, since poor Charles King when he wore his best wig.' A very +nice open honest face, and as merry a pair of blue eyes as any in the +parish, does Harold wear, nearly enough to tell you that, if in these six +years it would be too much to say he has never done _anything_ to vex his +mother, yet in the main his heart is in the right place--he is a very +good son, very tender to her, and steady and right-minded. + +Whom is he helping over the stile? Oh, that is Mrs. Mowbray's pretty +little maid! a very good young thing, whom she has read with and taught; +and here, lady-like and delicate-looking as ever, is Matilda. Bridemaids +before the bride! that's quite wrong; but the bride has a shy fit, and +would not get over first, and Matilda and Harold are, the one encouraging +her, the other laughing at her; and Mr. Blackthorn turns very red, and +goes down the path to meet her, and she takes his arm, and Harold takes +Lucy, and Mr. Brown Miss King. + +Very nice that bride looks, with her hair so glossy under her straw +bonnet trimmed with white, her pretty white shawl, and quiet purple silk +dress, her face rather flushed, but quiet-looking, as if she were growing +more like her mother, with something of her sense and calmness. + +How Mr. Blackthorn ever came to ask her that question, nobody can guess, +and Harold believes he does not know himself. However, it got an answer +two years ago, and Mrs. King gave her consent with all her heart, though +she knew Betsey Hardman would talk of picking a husband up out of the +gutter, and that my Lady would look severe, and say something of silly +girls. Yes--and though the rich widower bailiff had said sundry civil +things of Miss Ellen being well brought up and notable--'For,' as Mrs. +King wrote to Matilda, 'I had rather see Ellen married to a good +religious man than to any one, and I do not know one I can be so sure of +as Paul, nor one that is so like a son to me; and if he has no friends +belonging to him, that is better than bad friends.' And Ellen herself, +from looking on him as a mere boy, as she had done at their first +acquaintance, had come to thinking no one ever had been so wise or so +clever, far less so good, certainly not so fond of her--so her answer was +no great wonder. Then they were to be prudent, and wait for some +dependence; and so they did till Mr. Shaw recommended Paul Blackthorn for +Hazleford school, where there is a beautiful new house for the master, so +that he will have no longer to live in lodgings, and be 'done for,' as +the saying is. Harold tells Ellen that he is afraid that without her he +won't wash above once in four months; but however that may be, she is +convinced that the new school-house will be lost on him, and that in +spite of all his fine arithmetic, his fifty pounds will never go so far +for one as for two; and so she did not turn a deaf ear to his entreaties +that she would not send him alone to Hazleford. + +They wanted very much to get 'Mother' to come and live with them, give up +the post-office, and let Harold live in Mr. Cope's house; but Mother has +a certain notion that Harold's stately looks and perfect health might not +last, if she were not always on the watch to put him into dry clothes if +he comes in damp, and such like 'little fidgets,' as he calls them, which +he would not attend to from any one but Mother. So she will keep on the +shop and the post-office, and try to break in that uncouth girl of John +Farden's to be a tidy little maid; and Mr. and Mrs. Blackthorn will spend +their holidays with her and Harold. She may come to them yet in time, +if, as Paul predicts, Master Harold takes up with Lucy at the Grange--but +there's time enough to think of that; and even if he should, it would +take many years to make Lucy into such a Mrs. King as she who is now very +busy over the dinner at home, but thinking about a good deal besides the +dinner. + +There! Paul and Ellen have stood and knelt in an earnest reverent +spirit, making their vows to one another and before God, and His blessing +has been spoken upon them to keep them all their lives through. + +It is with a good heart of hope that Mr. Cope speaks that blessing, +knowing that, as far as human eye can judge, here stands a man who truly +feareth the Lord, and beside him a woman with the ornament of a meek and +quiet spirit. + +They are leaving the church now, the bridegroom and his bride, arm in +arm, but they turn from the path to the wicket, and Harold will not let +even Matilda follow them. Just by the south wall of the church there are +three graves, one a very long one, one quite short, one of middle length. +The large one has a head-stone, with the names of Charles King, aged +forty years, and Charles King, aged seven years. The middle-sized one +has a stone cross, and below it 'Alfred King, aged sixteen years,' and +the words, 'In all their afflictions He was afflicted.' + +It was Matilda who paid the cost of that stone, Miss Selby who drew the +pattern of it, and 'Mother' who chose the words, as what Alfred himself +loved best. At the bottom of Ellen's best work-box is a copy of verses +about that very cross. She thinks they ought to have been carved out +upon it, but Paul knows a great deal better, so all she could do was to +write them out on a sheet of note-paper with a wide lace border, and keep +them as her greatest treasure. Perhaps she prizes them even more than +the handsome watch that Mr. Shaw gave Paul, though less, of course, than +the great Bible and Prayer-book, in which Mr. Cope has waited till this +morning to write the names of Paul and Ellen Blackthorn. + +So they stand beside the cross, and read the words, and they neither of +them can say anything, though the white sweet face is before the eyes of +their mind at the same time, and Ellen thinks she loves Paul twice as +much for having been one of his great comforts. + +'Good-bye, Alfred dear,' she whispers at last. + +'No, not good-bye,' says Paul. 'He is as much with us as ever, wherever +we are. Remember how we were together, Ellen. I have always thought of +him at every Holy Communion since, and have felt that if till now, no one +living--at least one at rest, were mine by right.' + +Ellen pressed his arm. + +'Yes,' said Paul; 'the months I spent with Alfred were the great help and +blessing of my life. I don't believe any recollection has so assisted to +guard me in all the frets and temptations there are in a life like mine.' + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIARSWOOD POST-OFFICE*** + + +******* This file should be named 4296.txt or 4296.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/2/9/4296 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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