“Eddicated!” echoed Bill. “Eddication’s a fine thing, aint it, if it brings an old gaffer like ’im to trampin’ the road! Seems to me the more people’s eddicated the less they’s able to make a livin’.”
“That’s true! that’s dorned true!” said the man named Dubble, bringing his great fist down on the table with a force that made the tankards jump. “My darter, she’s larned to play the pianner, an’ I’m dorned if she kin do anythin’ else! Just a gillflurt she is, an’ as sassy as a magpie. That’s what eddication ‘as made of ‘er an’ be dorned to ‘t!”
“‘Scuse me,” and Bill Bush now addressed himself immediately to Helmsley, “ef I may be so bold as to arsk you wheer ye comes from, meanin’ no ‘arm, an’ what’s yer purfession?”
Helmsley looked up with a friendly smile.
“I’ve no profession now,” he answered at once. “But in my time — before I got too old — I did a good deal of office work.”
“Office work! In a ‘ouse of business, ye means? Readin’, ‘ritin’, ‘rithmetic, an’ mebbe sweepin’ the floor at odd times an’ runnin’ errands?”
“That’s it!” answered Helmsley, still smiling.
“An’ they won’t ‘ave ye no more?”
“I am too old,” he answered quietly.
Here Dubble turned slowly round and surveyed him.
“How old be ye?”
“Seventy.”
Silence ensued. The men glanced at one another. It was plain that the “one touch of nature which makes the whole world kin” was moving them all to kindly and compassionate feeling for the age and frail appearance of their new companion. What are called “rough” and “coarse” types of humanity are seldom without a sense of reverence and even affection for old persons. It is only among ultra-selfish and callous communities where over-luxurious living has blunted all the finer emotions, that age is considered a crime, or what by some individuals is declared worse than a crime, a “bore.”
At that moment a short girl, with a very red face and round beady eyes, came into the room carrying on a tray two quaint old pewter tureens full of steaming soup, which emitted very savoury and appetising odours. Setting these down before Matt Peke and Helmsley, with two goodly slices of bread beside them, she held out her podgy hand.
“Threepence each, please!”
They paid her, Peke adding a halfpenny to his threepence for the girl herself, and Helmsley, who judged it safest to imitate Peke’s behaviour, doing the same. She giggled.
“‘Ope you aint deprivin’ yourselves!” she said pertly.
“No, my dear, we aint!” retorted Peke. “We can afford to treat ye like the gentlemen doos! Buy yerself a ribbin to tie up yer bonnie brown ‘air!”
She giggled again, and waited to see them begin their meal, then, with a comprehensive roll of her round eyes upon all the company assembled, she retired. The soup she had brought was certainly excellent, — strong, invigorating, and tasty enough to have done credit to a rich man’s table, and Peke nodded over it with mingled surprise and appreciation.
“Miss Tranter knows what’s good, she do!” he remarked to Helmsley in a low tone. “She’s cooked this up speshul! This ’ere broth aint flavoured for me, — it’s for you! Glory be good to me if she aint taken a fancy ter yer! — shouldn’t wonder if ye ‘ad the best in the ‘ouse!”
Helmsley shook his head demurringly, but said nothing. He knew that in the particular position in which he had placed himself, silence was safer than speech.
Meanwhile, the short beady-eyed handmaiden returned to her mistress in the kitchen, and found that lady gazing abstractedly into the fire.
“They’ve got their soup,” she announced, “an’ they’re eatin’ of it up!”
“Is the old man taking it?” asked Miss Tranter.
“Yes’m. An’ ’e seems to want it ‘orful bad, ‘orful bad ’e do, on’y ’e swallers it slower an’ more soft like than Matt Peke swallers.”
Miss Tranter ceased to stare at the fire, and stared at her domestic instead.
“Prue,” she said solemnly, “that old man is a gentleman!”
Prue’s round eyes opened a little more roundly.
“Lor’, Mis’ Tranter!”
“He’s a gentleman,” repeated the hostess of the “Trusty Man” with emphasis and decision; “and he’s fallen on bad times. He may have to beg his bread along the road or earn a shilling here and there as best he can, but nothing” — and here Miss Tranter shook her forefinger defiantly in the air— “nothing will alter the fact that he’s a gentleman!”
Prue squeezed her fat red hands together, breathed hard, and not knowing exactly what else to do, grinned. Her mistress looked at her severely.
“You grin like a Cheshire cat,” she remarked. “I wish you wouldn’t.”
Prue at once pursed in her wide mouth to a more serious double line.
“How much did they give you?” pursued Miss Tranter.
“‘Apenny each,” answered Prue.
“How much have you made for yourself to-day all round!”
“Sevenpence three fardin’s,” confessed Prue, with an appealing look.
“You know I don’t allow you to take tips from my customers,” went on Miss Tranter. “You must put those three farthings in my poor-box.”
“Yes’m!” sighed Prue meekly.
“And then you may keep the sevenpence.”
“Oh thank y’ ‘m! Thank y’, Mis’ Tranter!” And Prue hugged herself ecstatically. “You’se ‘orful good to me, you is, Mis’ Tranter!”
Miss Tranter stood a moment, an upright inflexible figure, surveying her.
“Do you say your prayers every night and morning as I told you to do?”
Prue became abnormally solemn.
“Yes, I allus do, Mis’ Tranter, wish I may die right ’ere if I don’t!”
“What did I teach you to say to God for the poor travellers who stop at the ‘Trusty Man’?”
“‘That it may please Thee to succour, help and comfort all that are in danger, necessity and tribulation, we beseech Thee to hear us Good Lord!’” gabbled Prue, shutting her eyes and opening them again with great rapidity.
“That’s right!” And Miss Tranter bent her head graciously. “I’m glad you remember it so well! Be sure you say it to-night. And now you may go, Prue.”
Prue went accordingly, and Miss Tranter, resuming her knitting, returned to the bar, and took up her watchful position opposite the clock, there to remain patiently till closing time.
CHAPTER VII
The minutes wore on, and though some of the company at the “Trusty Man” went away in due course, others came in to replace them, so that even when it was nearing ten o’clock the common room was still fairly full. Matt Peke was evidently hail-fellow-well-met with many of the loafers of the district, and his desultory talk, with its quaint leaning towards a kind of rustic philosophy intermingled with an assumption of profound scientific wisdom, appeared to exercise considerable fascination over those who had the patience and inclination to listen to it. Helmsley accepted a pipe of tobacco offered to him by the surly-looking Dubble and smoked peacefully, leaning back in his chair and half closing his eyes with a drowsy air, though in truth his senses had never been more alert, or his interest more keenly awakened. He gathered from the general conversation that Bill Bush was an accustomed night lodger at the “Trusty Man,” that Dubble had a cottage not far distant, with a scolding wife and an uppish daughter, and that it was because she knew of his home discomforts that Miss Tranter allowed him to pass many of his evenings at her inn, smoking and sipping a mild ale, which without fuddling his brains, assisted him in part to forget for a time his domestic worries. And he also found out that the sturdy farmer sedately sucking his pipe in a corner, and now and then throwing in an unexpected and random comment on whatever happened to be the topic of conversation, was known as “Feathery” Joltram, though why “Feathery” did not seem very clear, unless the term was, as it appea
red to be, an adaptation of “father” or “feyther” Joltram. Matt Peke explained that old “Feathery” was a highly respected character in the “Quantocks,” and not only rented a large farm, but thoroughly understood the farming business. Moreover, that he had succeeded in making himself somewhat of a terror to certain timorous time-servers, on account of his heterodox and obstinate principles. For example, he had sent his children to school because Government compelled him to do so, but when their schooldays were over, he had informed them that the sooner they forgot all they had ever learned during that period and took to “clean an’ ‘olesome livin’,” the better he should be pleased.
“For it’s all rort an’ rubbish,” he declared, in his broad, soft dialect. “I dozn’t keer a tinker’s baad ‘apenny whether tha knaw ‘ow to ‘rite tha mizchief or to read it, or whether king o’ England is eatin’ ‘umble pie to the U-nited States top man, or noa, — I keerz nawt aboot it, noben way or t’other. My boys ‘as got to laarn draawin’ crops out o’ fields, — an’ my gels must put ‘and to milkin’ and skimmin’ cream an’ makin’ foinest butter as iver went to market. An’ time comin’ to wed, the boys ‘ull take strong dairy wives, an’ the gels ‘ull pick men as can thraw through men’s wurrk, or they’ze nay gels nor boys o’ mine. Tarlk o’ Great Britain! Heart alive! Wheer would th’ owd country be if ‘twere left to pulin’ booky clerks what thinks they’re gemmen, an’ what weds niminy-piminy shop gels, an’ breeds nowt but ricketty babes fit for workus’ burial! Noa, by the Lord! No school larnin’ for me nor mine, thank-ee! Why, the marster of the Board School ’ere doant know more practical business o’ life than a suckin’ calf! With a bit o’ garden ground to ’is cot, e’ doant reckon ‘ow io till it, an’ that’s the rakelness o’ book larnin’. Noa, noa! Th’ owd way o’ wurrk’s the best way, — brain, ‘ands, feet an’ good ztrong body all zet on’t, an’ no meanderin’ aff it! Take my wurrd the Lord A’mighty doant ‘elp corn to grow if there’s a whinin’ zany ahint the plough!”
With these distinctly “out-of-date” notions, “Feathery” Joltram had also set himself doggedly against church-going and church people generally. Few dared mention a clergyman in his presence, for his open and successful warfare with the minister of his own parish had been going on for years and had become well-nigh traditional. Looking at him, however, as he sat in his favourite corner of the “Trusty Man’s” common room, no one would have given him credit for any particular individuality. His round red face expressed nothing, — his dull fish-like eyes betrayed no intelligence, — he appeared to be nothing more than a particularly large, heavy man, wedged in his chair rather than seated in it, and absorbed in smoking a long pipe after the fashion of an infant sucking a feeding-bottle, with infinite relish that almost suggested gluttony.
The hum of voices grew louder as the hour grew later, and one or two rather noisy disputations brought Miss Tranter to the door. A look of hers was sufficient to silence all contention, and having bent the warning flash of her eyes impressively upon her customers, she retired as promptly and silently as she had appeared. Helmsley was just thinking that he would slip away and get to bed, when, a firm tread sounded in the outer passage, and a tall man, black-haired, black-eyed, and of herculean build, suddenly looked in upon the tavern company with a familiar nod and smile.
“Hullo, my hearties!” he exclaimed. “Is all tankards drained, or is a drop to spare?”
A shout of welcome greeted him:— “Tom!” “Tom o’ the Gleam!” “Come in, Tom!” “Drinks all round!” — and there followed a general hustle and scraping of chairs on the floor, — every one seemed eager to make room for the newcomer. Helmsley, startled in a manner by his appearance, looked at him with involuntary and undisguised admiration. Such a picturesque figure of a man he had seldom or never seen, yet the fellow was clad in the roughest, raggedest homespun, the only striking and curious note of colour about him being a knitted crimson waistcoat, which instead of being buttoned was tied together with two or three tags of green ribbon. He stood for a moment watching the men pushing up against one another in order to give him a seat at the table, and a smile, half-amused, half-ironical, lighted up his sun-browned, handsome face.
“Don’t put yourselves out, mates!” he said carelessly. “Mind Feathery’s toes! — if you tread on his corns there’ll be the devil to pay! Hullo, Matt Peke! How are you?”
Matt rose and shook hands.
“All the better for seein’ ye again, Tom,” he answered, “Wheer d’ye hail from this very present minit?”
“From the caves of Cornwall!” laughed the man. “From picking up drift on the shore and tracking seals to their lair in the hollows of the rocks!” He laughed again, and his great eyes flashed wildly. “All sport, Matt! I live like a gentleman born, keeping or killing at my pleasure!”
Here “Feathery” Joltram looked up and dumbly pointed with the stem of his pipe to a chair left vacant near the middle of the table. Tom o’ the Gleam, by which name he seemed to be known to every one present, sat down, and in response to the calls of the company, a wiry pot-boy in shirt-sleeves made his appearance with several fresh tankards of ale, it now being past the hour for the attendance of that coy handmaiden of the “Trusty Man,” Miss Prue.
“Any fresh tales to tell, Tom?” inquired Matt Peke then— “Any more harum-scarum pranks o’ yours on the road?”
Tom drank off a mug of ale before replying, and took a comprehensive glance around the room.
“You have a stranger here,” he said suddenly, in his deep, thrilling voice, “One who is not of our breed, — one who is unfamiliar with our ways. Friend or foe?”
“Friend!” declared Peke emphatically, while Bill Bush and one or two of the men exchanged significant looks and nudged each other. “Now, Tom, none of yer gypsy tantrums! I knows all yer Romany gibberish, an’ I ain’t takin’ any. Ye’ve got a good ‘art enough, so don’t work yer dander up with this ’ere old chap what’s a-trampin’ it to try and find out all that’s left o’s fam’ly an’ friends ‘fore turnin’ up ’is toes to the daisies. ‘Is name is David, an’ ‘e’s been kickt out o’ office work through bein’ too old. That’s ’is ticket!”
Tom o’ the Gleam listened to this explanation in silence, playing absently with the green tags of ribbon at his waistcoat. Then slowly lifting his eyes he fixed them full on Helmsley, who, despite himself, felt an instant’s confusion at the searching intensity of the man’s bold bright gaze.
“Old and poor!” he ejaculated. “That’s a bad lookout in this world! Aren’t you tired of living!”
“Nearly,” answered Helmsley quietly— “but not quite.”
Their looks met, and Tom’s dark features relaxed into a smile.
“You’re fairly patient!” he said, “for it’s hard enough to be poor, but it’s harder still to be old. If I thought I should live to be as old as you are, I’d drown myself in the sea! There’s no use in life without body’s strength and heart’s love.”
“Ah, tha be graat on the love business, Tom!” chuckled “Feathery” Joltram, lifting his massive body with a shake out of the depths of his comfortable chair. “Zeems to me tha’s zummat like the burd what cozies a new mate ivery zummer!”
Tom o’ the Gleam laughed, his strong even white teeth shining like a row of pearls between his black moustaches and short-cropped beard.
“You’re a steady-going man, Feathery,” he said, “and I’m a wastrel. But I’m ne’er as fickle as you think. I’ve but one love in the world that’s left me — my kiddie.”
“Ay, an’ ‘ow’s the kiddie?” asked Matt Peke— “Thrivin’ as iver?”
“Fine! As strong a little chap as you’ll see between Quantocks and Land’s End. He’ll be four come Martinmas.”
“Zo agein’ quick as that!” commented Joltram with a broad grin. “For zure ’e be a man grow’d! Tha’ll be puttin’ the breechez on ’im an’ zendin’ ’im to the school — —”
“Never!” interrupted Tom defiantly. “T
hey’ll never catch my kiddie if I know it! I want him for myself, — others shall have no part in him. He shall grow up wild like a flower of the fields — wild as his mother was — wild as the wild roses growing over her grave — —”
He broke off suddenly with an impatient gesture.
“Psha! Why do you drag me over the old rough ground talking of Kiddie!” he exclaimed, almost angrily. “The child’s all right. He’s safe in camp with the women.”
“Anywheres nigh?” asked Bill Bush.
Tom o’ the Gleam made no answer, but the fierce look in his eyes showed that he was not disposed to be communicative on this point. Just then the sound of voices raised in some dispute on the threshold of the “Trusty Man,” caused all the customers in the common room to pause in their talking and drinking, and to glance expressively at one another. Miss Tranter’s emphatic accents rang out sharply on the silence.
“It wants ten minutes to ten, and I never close till half-past ten,” she said decisively. “The law does not compel me to do so till eleven, and I resent private interference.”
“I am aware that you resent any advice offered for your good,” was the reply, delivered in harsh masculine tones. “You are a singularly obstinate woman. But I have my duty to perform, and as minister of this parish I shall perform it.”
“Mind your own business first!” said Miss Tranter, with evident vehemence.
“My business is my duty, and my duty is my business,” — and here the male voice grew more rasping and raucous. “I have as much right to use this tavern as any one of the misled men who spend their hard earnings here and neglect their homes and families for the sake of drink. And as you do not close till half-past ten, it is not too late for me to enter.”
Delphi Collected Works of Marie Corelli Page 659