The Fairchild Family

by Mrs. Sherwood

  Story of Henry's Adventure

  Kind Mrs. Burke gave him a piece of bread and honey]

  Henry Fairchild sat with William and James Burke for some time underthe shade of the building, and had the pleasure of hearing the twobrothers sparring on each side of him, though they did not come toblows again. Whatever one said the other contradicted; if one said sucha thing _is_, the other said, "I am sure it is _not_;" or, "There yougo--that's just you." "Nonsense" was a favourite word of James's."Nonsense, Will," was his constant answer to everything his brotherproposed; and they used many words which Henry did not understand.

  All this time Tom did not appear, and his brothers did not seem tothink about him.

  After a while William said:

  "Let us go into the cornfield, and see what the men are about; thisyard is very dull."

  "No," said James, "let us show Master Fairchild the young bull."

  "No! no!" cried Henry, "I do not want to see it."

  Both the boys laughed outright at Henry's cry of "I do not want to seeit;" and then they assured him that the creature was well tied up--hewas in the cattle stall, just opposite to them, and could not hurtthem; and they laughed again till Henry was ashamed, and said that hewould go with them to look at him.

  The cattle stall was a long, low, and narrow building, which ran onewhole side of the yard. At some seasons it was filled with cattle, eachone having a separate stall, and being tied in it, but at this timethere was no creature in it but this bull.

  Now it must be told that, whilst the boys were in the barn, and justabout the time in which James and William had been scuffling with eachother and making much noise, Tom, who had not yet taken the trouble towash himself, had got to the top of the cattle shed, and had beenamusing himself by provoking the bull through an air-hole in the roof.

  First he had thrown down on his head a quantity of house-leek whichgrew on the tiles, and then he had poked at him with a stick till thecreature got furious and began to beat about him, and at length to setup a terrible bellowing.

  Tom knew well that he should get into trouble if it was found out thathe had been provoking the creature; so down he slipped, and was off inanother direction in a few minutes.

  The labourers were all in the field, and Henry and his companions werein the barn, so that no one heard distinctly the bellowing of the bullbut the girl in the dairy, and she had been too long accustomed to thenoises of a farm to give it a second thought. The animal, however, wasso furious that he broke his fastenings, snapping the ropes, and comingout of the stall, and even trying to force the door of the shed; butin this he failed, as there was a wooden bar across it on the outside.After a little while he ceased to bellow, so no one was aware of themischief which had been done, and no one suspected that the bull wasloose.

  James walked first to the door of the cattle shed, William came next,and afterwards Henry.

  James did not find it easy to move the bar, so he called William tohelp him. The reason why it was hard to move was, that the head of thebull was against the door, and he was pressing it on the bar; themoment the bar was removed, the bull's head forced open the door, andthere stood the sullen frowning creature in the very face of poorHenry, with nothing between them but a few yards of the court. Theother two boys were, by the sudden opening of the door, forced behindit, so that the bull only saw Henry; but Henry did not stay to look athis fiery eyes, or to observe the temper in which he lowered histerrible head to the ground and came forward.

  "Run, run for your life!" cried William and James, from behind thedoor; and Henry did run, and the bull after him, bellowing and tearingup the ground before him; and he came on fast, but Henry had got thestart of a few yards, and that start saved his life. Still he ran, thebull following after. Henry had not waited to consider which way heran. He had taken his way in the direction of a lane which ran out ofthe yard; the gate was open--he flew through--the terrible beast wasafter him--he could hear his steps and his deep snortings and puffings;in another minute he would have reached Henry, and would probably havegored him to death, when all at once every dog about the farm, firstcalled and then urged on by William and James, came barking and yelpingin full cry on the heels of the bull.

  The leader of these was a bulldog of the true breed, and though young,had all his teeth in their full strength. Behind him came dogs of everykind which is common in this country, and if they could do little else,they could bay and yelp, and thus puzzle and perplex the bull.

  James and William, each with a stick in their hands, were behind them,urging them on, calling for help, and putting themselves to greatdanger for the sake of Henry. Tom was not there to see the mischief hehad wrought.

  Another moment, and the bull would have been up with Henry, when hefound himself bitten in the flank by the sharp fangs of Fury meeting inhis flesh. The animal instantly turned upon the dog; most horribly didhe bellow, and poor Henry then indeed felt that his last moment wascome.

  The noises were becoming more dreadful every instant; the men camerunning from the fields, pouring into the lane from all sides: thewomen and girls from the house were shrieking over the low wall fromthe bottom of the court, so that the noise might be heard a miledistant.

  Henry Fairchild never looked back, but ran on as fast as he possiblycould, till, after a little while, seeing a stile on his left hand, hesprang up to it, tumbled over in his haste, fell headlong on thenew-shorn grass, and would have gotten no hurt whatever, had not hisnose and his upper lip made too free with a good-sized stone. Henry'snose and lip being softer than the stone, they of course had the worstof it in the encounter.

  A very few minutes afterwards, but before the labourers had got thebull back into its place, which was no easy matter, one of the men,running from a distant field towards the noise, found poor Henry, tookhim up far more easily than he would have taken up a bag of meal, andcarried him, all bloody as he was, to the mistress, by a short cutthrough the garden.

  Henry's nose had bled, and was still bleeding, when the man brought himto the house; but no one even thought of him till the fierce bull wassafe within four walls. But it had been a dangerous affair, as the mensaid, "to get _that_ job done;" nor was it done till both Fury and thebull were covered with foam and blood.

  When everything was quiet in and about the yard, Mrs. Burke began tolook up, not only her own children, but all the careless young peopleabout.

  "Where is Tom?" was the mother's first cry. Dick and Jane had made herknow that they were not far off, by the noise they were both making.

  "Tom is quite safe," replied someone.

  "And Master Fairchild?" said Mrs. Burke.

  Every one then ran different ways to look for Henry, and when he wasfound, all covered in blood, in the kitchen, Mrs. Burke was, as shesaid, ready to faint away. Everybody, however, was glad when they foundno harm was done to the child, beyond a bloody nose and a lip swelledto a monstrous size. Kind Mrs. Burke herself took him up to her boys'room, where she washed him and made him dress himself in a completesuit of Tom's, engaging to get his own things washed and cleaned forhim in a few hours.

  She then brought him down into the parlour, set him on the sofa, gavehim a piece of bread and honey, and begged him not to stir from thencetill his father returned; nor had Henry any wish to disobey her.

  Henry was hardly seated on the couch with his bread and honey in hishand, when first one and then another of the children came in: the lastwho came was James, lugging in Tom.

  Now, it is very certain that Tom stood even in more need of a scouringand clean clothes than Henry had done; for he had not used water norchanged his clothes since he had been rolled by his brothers in the mudin the yard. This mud had dried upon him, and no one who did not expectto see him could possibly have known him. He was lugged by main forceinto the parlour, though he kicked and struggled, and held on uponeverything within his reach. He came in as he had gone out; but when hewas fairly in, he became quite still, and stood sulking.

  "I'll tell you what
, mother," said James, "you may thank Tom for allthe mischief--and he knows it."

  "Knows what?"

  "That it was through him the bull got loose, and that poor Fury isnearly killed."

  "I am sure it was not," answered Tom.

  "I say it was," replied James; and then all the brothers and sistersbegan to speak at once.

  _Judy._ "Just like you, Tom."

  _Mary._ "And see what a condition he is in."

  _William._ "You know Hodge saw you, Tom, on the top of the shed."

  _Tom._ "I am sure he did not."

  _Elizabeth._ "What a dirty creature you are, Tom; and how you smell ofthe stable!"

  _Jane._ "Mother! mother! I want some bread and honey, like MasterFairchild."

  _Dick._ "I want a sop in the pan, mother--mayn't I have a sop?"

  In the midst of all this noise and confusion, in walked Mr. Fairchildand Mr. Burke. The men in the yard had told them of what had happened;and it had been made plain to Mr. Burke that Tom had been at the bottomof the mischief.

  Mr. Fairchild hastened in all anxiety to his poor boy; and was full ofthankfulness to God for having saved him from the dreadful danger whichhad threatened him; and Mr. Burke began to speak to his son Tom withmore severity than he often used. He even called for a cane, and saidhe would give it him soundly, and at that minute too; but Mrs. Burkestepped in and begged him off; and as she stood between him and hisfather he slunk away, and kept out of his sight as long as Henry andMr. Fairchild stayed.

  If Tom never came within sight of his father all the rest of that day,Henry never once went out of the reach of his father's eye.

  After dinner and tea, Henry was again dressed in his own clothes, whichMrs. Burke had got washed and cleaned for him, and in the cool of theevening he walked quietly home with his father.

  "Oh, papa!" said Henry, when they came again under the shade ofBlackwood, "I do not now wish to have my own way, as I did thismorning, I am now quite sure that it does not make people happy to haveit."

  "Then, my boy," replied Mr. Fairchild, "you have learned a very goodlesson to-day, and I trust that you will never forget it."