 CHAPTER 1 Get out of Mr. Fletcher's roadie idle lounging little— Vagabond, I think the woman, Sally Watkins, once my nurse, was going to say, but she changed her mind. My father and I both glanced round, surprised at her unusual reticence of epithets, but when the lad dressed turned, fixed his eyes on each of us for a moment, and made way for us, we ceased to wonder. Ragged, muddy, and miserable as he was, the poor boy looked anything but a vagabond. He need not go into the wet, my lad, keep close to the wall, and there will be shelter enough for us and thee, said my father, as he pulled my little hand-carriage into the alley, under cover from the pelting rain. The lad, with grateful look, put a hand out likewise and pushed me further in. A strong hand it was, roughened and browned with labour, though he was scarcely as old as I. What would I not have given to be so stalwart and so tall? Sally called from her house-door, would Master Phineas come in and sit by the fire a bit? But it was always a trouble to me, to move or walk, and I liked staying at the mouth of the alley, watching the autumnal shower come sweeping down the street. Besides, I wanted to look again at the stranger lad. He had scarcely stirred, but remained leaning against the wall, either through weariness or in order to be out of our way. He took little or no notice of us, but kept his eyes fixed on the pavement, for we actually boasted pavement in the high street of our town of Nortonbury, watching the eddying raindrops, which, each as it fell, threw up a little mist of spray. It was a serious, haggard face for a boy of only fourteen or so. Let me call it up before me. I can easily, even after more than fifty years. Brown eyes, deep sunken, with strongly marked brows, and those like most other Saxon noses, nothing particular, lips well-shaped, lying one upon the other, firm and close. A square, sharply outlined, resolute chin, of that type which gives character and determination to the whole physiognomy, and without which, in the fairest features, as in the best dispositions, one is always conscious of a certain want. As I have stated, in person the lad was tall and strongly built, and I, poor puny wretch, so reverenced physical strength. Everything in him seemed to indicate that which I had not. His muscular limbs, his square broad shoulders, his healthy cheek, though it was sharp and thin, even to his crisp curls of bright thick hair. Thus he stood, principal figure in a picture which is even yet as clear to me as yesterday, the narrow, dirty alley leading out of the high street, yet showing a glimmer of green field at the further end, the open house-doors on either side, through which came the drowsy bar of many a stocking loom, the prattle of children paddling in the gutter, and sailing though on a fleet of potato pairings. In front, the high street, with the mayor's house opposite, Porticoad and Grand, and beyond, just where the rain-clouds were breaking, rose up out of a nest of trees, the square tower of our ancient abbey, Nortonbury's boast and pride. On it, from a break in the clouds, came a sudden stream of light. The stranger lad lifted up his head to look at it. The rain will be over soon, I said, but doubted if he heard me. What could he be thinking of so intently, a poor working lad, whom few would have given credit for thinking at all? I do not suppose my father cast a second glance or thought on the boy, whom, from a sense of common justice, he had made take shelter beside us. In truth, worthy man, he had no lack of matter to occupy his mind, being sole architect of a long uphill but now thriving trade. I saw, by the hardening of his features, and the restless way in which he poked his stick into the little water-pools, that he was longing to be in his tanyard close by. He pulled out his great silver watch, the dread of our house, for it was a watch which seemed to imbibe something of its master's character, remorseless as justice or fate, it never aired a moment. Twenty-three minutes lost by the shower. Phineas, my son, how am I to get thee safe home, unless thee wilt go with me to the tanyard? I shook my head. It was very hard for Abel Fletcher to have for his only child such a sickly creature as I, now, at sixteen, as helpless and useless to him as a baby. Well, well, I must find some one to go home with thee. Although my father had got me a sort of carriage in which, with a little external aid, I could propel myself, so as to be his companion occasionally in his walks between our house, the tanyard and the friend's meeting-house, still he never trusted me anywhere alone. Here, Sally, Sally Watkins, do any of thy lads want to earn an honest penny? Sally was out of earshot. But I noticed that, as the lad nearest heard my father's words, the colour rushed over his face, and he started forward involuntarily. I had not before perceived how wasted and hungry-looking he was. Father, I whispered. But here the boy had mastered up his courage and voice. Sir, I want work. May I earn a penny? He spoke intolerably good English, different from our course, word, guh, sure drawl, and taking off his tattered old cap looked right up into my father's face. The old man scanned him closely. What is thy name, lad? John Halifax. Where dost thee come from? Cornwall. Has thee any parents living? No. I wished my father would not question thus, but possibly he had his own motives, which were rarely harsh, though his actions often appeared so. How old might thee be, John Halifax? Fourteen, sir. The art used to work? Yes. What sort of work? Anything that I can get to do? I listened nervously to this catechism which went on behind my back. Well, said my father, after a pause, thee shall take my son home, and I'll give thee a groat. Let me see, art thee allowed to be trusted? And holding him at arm's length, regarding him meanwhile with eyes that were the terror of all the rogues in Nortonbury, Abel Fletcher jingled temptingly the silver money in the pockets of his long-flapped brown waistcoat. I say, art thee allowed to be trusted? John Halifax neither answered nor declined his eyes. He seemed to feel that this was a critical moment, and to have gathered all his mental forces into a serious square to meet the attack. He met it, and conquered in silence. Lad, shall I give thee the groat now? Not till I've earned it, sir. So, drawing his hand back, my father slipped the money into mine and left us. I followed him with my eyes as he went sturdily plashing down the street, his broad, comfortable back which owned a coat of true quake-cut, but spotless, warm and fine. His ribbed hoes and leaven-gators and the wide-brimmed hat set over a fringe of grey hairs that crowned the whole with respectable dignity. He looked precisely what he was—an honest, honourable, prosperous tradesman. I watched him down the street, my good father, whom I respected perhaps even more than I loved him. The Cornish lad watched him likewise. It still rained slightly, so we remained under cover. John Halifax leaned in his old place, and did not attempt to talk. Once only, when the draught through the alley made me shiver, he pulled my cloak round me carefully. You are not very strong, I'm afraid. No. Then he stood idly looking up at the opposite, the Mayor's house, with its steps and portico and its fourteen windows, one of which was open and a cluster of little heads visible there. The Mayor's children—I knew them all by sight, though nothing more, for their father was a lawyer and minor tanner, they belonged to the Abbeyfolk and Orthodoxy, I to the Society of Friends. The Mayor's rosy children seemed greatly amused by watching us shivering shelterers from the rain. Doubtless our position made their own appear all the pleasanter. For myself it mattered little, but for this poor, desolate, homeless, wayfaring lad to stand in sight of their merry nursery window, and hear the clatter of voices, and of not unwelcome dinner-sounds, I wondered how he felt it. Just at this minute another head came to the window, a somewhat older child. I had met her with the rest, she was only a visitor. She looked at us, then disappeared. Soon after, we saw the front door half-opened, and an evident struggle taking place behind it, we even heard loud words across the narrow street. I will, I say I will! You shan't, Miss Ursula. But I will! And there stood the little girl, with a loaf in one hand, and carving-knife in the other. She succeeded in cutting off a large slice and holding it out. Take it, poor boy! You look so hungry! Do take it! But the servant forced her in, and the door was shut upon a sharp cry. It made John Halifax start, and look up at the nursery window, which was likewise closed. We heard nothing more. After a minute he crossed the street and picked up the slice of bread. Now in those days bread was precious exceedingly. The poor folk rarely got it, they lived on rye or meal. John Halifax had probably not tasted wheat and bread like this for months. It appeared not, he eyed it so ravenously. Then, glancing towards the shut door, his mind seemed to change. He was a long time before he ate a morsel. When he did so, it was quietly and slowly, looking very thoughtful all the while. As soon as the rain ceased we took our way home, down the high street, towards the Abbey Church, he guiding my carriage along in silence. I wished he would talk and let me hear again his pleasant Cornish accent. How strong you are! I said, sighing, when, with a sudden pull, he had saved me from being overturned by a horseman riding past, young Mr. Brithwood of the Mithe House, who never cared where he galloped or whom he hurt. So tall and so strong! Am I? Well, I shall want my strength. How? To earn my living. He drew up his broad shoulders, and planted on the pavement a firmer foot, as if he knew he had the world before him, would meet it single-handed and without fear. What have you worked at lately? Anything I could get, for I have never learned a trade. Would you like to learn one? He hesitated a moment, as if weighing his speech. Once I thought I should like to be what my father was. What was he? A scholar and a gentleman. This was news, though it did not much surprise me. My father, tanner as he was, and pertinaciously jealous of the dignity of trade, yet held strongly the common-sense doctrine of the advantages of good descent, at least in degree. For since it is a law of nature, admitting only rare exceptions, that the qualities of the ancestors should be transmitted to the race, the fact seems patent enough, that even allowing equal advantages, a gentleman's son has more chances of growing up a gentleman than the son of a working man. And though he himself, and his father before him, had both been working men, still I think Abel Fletcher never forgot that we originally came of a good stock, and that it pleased him to call me his only son. After one of our forefathers, not unknown, Phineus Fletcher, he wrote The Purple Island. Thus it seemed to me, and I doubted not it would to my father, much more reasonable and natural that a boy like John Halifax, in whom from every word he said, I detected a mind and breeding above his outward condition, should come of gentle than of borish blood. Then perhaps, I said, resuming the conversation, you would not like to follow a trade? Yes, I should. What would it matter to me? My father was a gentleman. And your mother? And he turned suddenly round, his cheeks hot, his lips quivering. She is dead. I do not like to hear strangers speak about my mother. I asked his pardon. It was plain he had loved and mourned her, and that circumstances had smothered down his quick boyish feelings into a man's tenacity of betraying where he had loved and mourned. I, only a few minutes after, said something about wishing we were not strangers. Do you? The lad's half-amazed, half-grateful smile went right to my heart. Have you been up and down the country much? A great deal, these last three years, doing a hand's turn as best I could, in hop-picking, apple-gathering, harvesting, only this summer I had typhus fever and could not work. What did you do then? I lay in a barn till I got well. I'm quite well now, you need not be afraid. No indeed, I had never thought of that. We soon became quite sociable together. He guided me carefully out of the town into the abbey walk, flecked with sunshine through overhanging trees. Once he stopped to pick up for me the large brown fan of a horse chestnut leaf. It's pretty, isn't it? Only it shows that autumn has come. And how shall you live in the winter when there is no out-of-door work to be had? I don't know. The lad's countenance fell, and that hungry, weary look which had vanished while we talked returned more painfully than ever. I reproached myself for having, under the influence of his merry talk, temporarily forgotten it. Ah! I cried eagerly, when we left the shade of the abbey trees and crossed the street. Here we are, at home. Are you? The homeless lad just glanced at it, the flight of spotless stone steps, guarded by ponderous railings, which led to my father's respectable and handsome door. Good day, then. Which means good-bye? I started. The word pained me. On my sad, lonely life, brief indeed, though ill health seemed to have doubled and trebled my sixteen years into a mournful maturity, this lad's face had come like a flash of sunshine, a reflection of the merry boyhood, the youth and strength that never were, never could be mine. To let it go from me was like going back into the dark. Knock by just yet, said I, trying painfully to disengage myself for my little carriage and mount the steps. John Halifax came to my aid. Suppose you let me carry you? I could, and—and it would be great fun, you know. He tried to turn it into a chest, so as not to hurt me. But the tremble in his voice was as tender as any woman's—tenderer than any woman's I ever was used to hear. I put my arms round his neck. He lifted me safely and carefully, and set me at my own door. Then, with another good-bye, he again turned to go. My heart cried after him with an irrepressible cry. What I said I do not remember, but it caused him to return. Is there anything more I can do for you, sir? Don't call me, sir. I'm only a boy like yourself. I want you. Don't go yet. Ah, here comes my father. John Halifax stood aside and touched his cap with a respectful deference as the old man passed. So hear thee be. Hast thou taken care of my son? Did he give thee thy groat, my lad? We had neither of us once thought of the money. When I acknowledged this, my father laughed, called John an honest lad, and began searching in his pocket for some larger coin. I ventured to draw his ear down and whispered something, but I got no answer. Meanwhile, John Halifax for the third time was going away. Stop, lad, I forget thy name. Here is thy groat, and a shilling added for being kind to my son. Thank you, but I don't want payment for kindness. He kept the groat, and put back the shilling into my father's hand. Eh! said the old man, much astonished, the artanod lad, but I can't stay talking with thee. Come into dinner, Phineas. I say, turning back to John Halifax with a sudden thought, art thee hungry? Very hungry. Nature gave way at last, and great tears came into the poor lad's eyes, nearly starving. Bless me, then get in and have thy dinner. But first, and my inexorable father held him by the shoulder, the art a decent lad, come of decent parents. Yes, most indignantly. The works for thy living. I do, whenever I can get it. Thee has never been in jail. No! thundered out the lad with a furious look. I don't want your dinner, sir. I would have stayed because your son asked me, and he was civil to me and I liked him. Now I think I had better go. Good day, sir. There is a verse in a very old book, even in its human histories the most pathetic of all books, which runs thus. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, though the soul of Jonathan was knit unto the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And this day I, a poorer and more helpless Jonathan, had found my David. I caught him by the hand, and would not let him go. There, get in lads, make no more ado, said Abel Fletcher, sharply, as he disappeared. So, still holding my David fast, I brought him into my father's house. End of Chapter 1, Recording by Corrie Samuel Chapter 2 of John Halifax, Gentlemen This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. John Halifax, Gentlemen, by Dinah Craig Chapter 2 Dinner was over. My father and I took ours in a large parlor, where the stiff, high-backed chairs eyed one another, in opposite rows across the wide, open floor, shiny and hard as marble. And slippery as glass. Except the table, the sideboard, and the cuckoo-clock, there was no other furniture. I did not bring the poor, wandering lad into this, my father's a special domain, but as soon as he was away in the tanyard I sent for John. Yale bought him in. Yale, the only woman kind we ever had about us, and who, saved to me when I happened to be very ill, certainly gave no indication of her sex in its softness and tenderness. There had evidently been wrath in a kitchen. Phineas, the latter got his dinner, and you mustn't keep an long. I be ain't going to let you knock yourself up with looking after a beggar-boy. A beggar-boy. The idea seemed so ludicrous that I could not help smiling at it as I regarded him. He had washed his face and combed out his fair curls, though his clothes were a thread-bear, all but ragged, they were not unclean, and there was a rosy, healthy freshness in his tanned skin, which showed me he loved and delighted in what poor folk generally abominate—water. And now the sickness of hunger had gone from his face, the lad, if not actually what our scriptural Saxon terms well-favoured, was certainly well-liking. A beggar-boy, indeed. I hoped he had not heard Yale's remark, but he had. Madam, said he, with a bow of perfect good humour, and even some slide-rollery. You mistake, I never begged in my life. I'm a person of independent property which consists of my head and my two hands, out of which I hope to realise a large capital some day. I laughed. Yale retired, abundantly mystified, and rather cross. John Halifax came to my easy chair, and in an altered tone asked me how I felt, and if he could do anything for me before he went away. You'll not go away, not till my father comes home at least. For I had been revolving many plans, which had one sole aim and object. To keep near me this lad, whose companionship and help seemed to me, brotherless, sisterless, and friendless as I was, the very thing that would give me an interest in life, or at least make it drag on less wearily. To say that what I projected was done out of charity or pity would not be true, it was simple selfishness. If that be selfishness which makes one leap towards, and cling to, a possible strength and good, which I conclude to be the secret of all those sudden likings that spring more from instinct than reason. I do not attempt to account for mine. I know not why the soul of Jonathan claved to the soul of David. I only know that it was so, and that the first day I beheld the lad John Halifax, I, Phineas Fletcher, loved him as my own soul. Thus, my entreaty, you'll not go away, was so earnest that it apparently touched the friendless boy to the core. Thank you, he said, in an unsteady voice, as leaning towards the fireplace he drew his hand backwards and forwards across his face. You were very kind. I'll stay an hour or so if you wish it. Then come and sit down here and let us have a talk. What this talk was, I cannot now recall, save that it ranged over many and wide themes such as boys delight in, chiefly of life and adventure. He knew nothing of my only world, books. Can you read? he asked me at last, suddenly. I should rather think so, and I could not help smiling, being somewhat proud of my erudition. And write? Oh yes, certainly. He thought a minute, and then said in a low tone, I can't write, and I don't know when I shall be able to learn, I wish you would put down something in a book for me. That I will. He took out of his pocket a little case of leather, with an under-one of black silk. Within this, again, was a book. He would not let it go out of his hands, but held it so I could see the leaves. It was a Greek testament. Look here! he pointed to the fly-leaf, and I read, Guy Halifax, his book. Guy Halifax, gentlemen, married Muriel Joyce, Spinster, May 17th, in the year of our Lord, 1779. John Halifax, their son, born June 18th, 1780. There was one more entry in a feeble, illiterate female hand. Guy Halifax died January 4th, 1781. What shall I write, John? said I, after a minute or two of silence. I'll tell you presently, can I get you a pen? He leaned on my shoulder with his left hand, but his right never once let go of the precious book. Right! Muriel Halifax died January 1st, 1791. Nothing more. Nothing more. He looked at the writing for a minute or two, dried it carefully by the fire, replaced the book in its two cases, and put it into his pocket. He said no other word but, thank you, and I asked him no questions. This was all I ever heard of the boy's parentage, nor do I believe he knew more himself. He was indebted to no forefathers for a family history. The chronicle commenced with himself, and was altogether his own making. No romantic antecedents ever turned up. His lineage remained uninvestigated, and his pedigree began and ended with his own honest name, John Halifax. Yale kept coming in and out of the parlour on diverse excuses, eyeing very suspiciously John Halifax and me, especially when she heard me laughing, a rare and notable fact, for Murth was not the fashion in our house, nor the tendency of my own nature. Now this young lad, hardly as the world had knocked him about even already, had an overflowing spirit of quiet drollery and healthy humour, which was to me an inexpressible relief. It gave me something I did not possess, something entirely new. I could not look at the dancing brown eyes and the quaint dimples of lurking fun that played hide-and-seek under the firm-set mouth, without feeling my heart cheered and delighted, like one brought out of a murky chamber into the open day. But all this was highly objectionable to Yale. Phineas—and she plant herself before me at the end of the table—it's a fine, sunshiny day, the ought to be out. I have been out, thank you, Yale. And John and I went on talking. Phineas—a second and more determined attack. Too much laughing be ain't good for thee, and it's time this lad were going about his own business. Hush, nonsense, Yale! No, she's right, said John Halifax, rising, while that look of premature gravity learned doubtless out of hard experience, chased all the boyish fun from his face. I've had a merry day, thank you kindly for it, and now I'll be gone. Gone. It was not to be thought of, at least not till my father came home. For now, more determinedly than ever, the plan which I had just ventured to hint at to my father fixed itself on my mind. Surely he would not refuse me, me, his sickly boy, whose life had in it so little pleasure. Why do you want to go? You have no work. No, I wish I had, but I'll get some. How? Just by trying everything that comes to hand. That's the only way. I never wanted bread, nor begged it yet, though I've often been rather hungry. And as for clothes? He looked down on his own, lightened thread-bear, here and there almost burst into holes by the stout muscles of the big growing boy, looked rather disconsolately. I'm afraid she would be sorry, that's all. She always kept me so tidy. By the way he spoke, she must have meant his mother. There the orphan lad had an advantage over me. Alas, I did not remember mine. Come, I said, for now I had quite made up my mind to take no denial and fear no rebuff from my father. Cheer up! Who knows what may turn up? Oh yes! Something always does. I'm not afraid. He tossed back his curls and looked smiling out through the window at the blue sky. That steady, brave, honest smile which will meet fate in every turn and fairly coax the jade into good humour. John, do you know you're uncommonly like a childish hero of mine, Dick Whittington? Did you ever hear of him? No. Come into the garden then, for I caught another ominous vision of Yale in the doorway, and I did not want to vex my good old nurse. Besides, unlike John, I was anything but brave. You'll hear the Abbey Bells chime presently, not unlike bow bells I used to fancy sometimes, and will lie on the grass, and I'll tell you the whole true and particular story of Sir Richard Whittington. I lifted myself and began looking for my crutches. John found and put them into my hand, with grave, pitiful look. You don't need these sort of things, I said, making pretence to laugh, for I had not grown used to them, and felt often ashamed. I hope you will not need them always. Perhaps not. Dr. Jessop isn't sure, but it doesn't matter much. Most likely I shan't live long. For this was, God forgive me, always the last and greatest comfort I had. John looked at me, surprised, troubled, compassionate, but he did not say a word. I hobbled past him, he following through the long passage to the garden door, there I paused, tired out. John Halifax took gentle hold of my shoulder. I think, if you did not mind, I'm sure I could carry you. I carried a meal-sack once, weighing eight stone. I burst out laughing, which maybe was what he wanted, and forthwith consented to assume the place of the meal-sack. He took me on his back, what a strong fellow he was, and fairly trotted with me down the garden walk. We were both very merry, and though I was his senior, I seemed with him, out of my great weakness and infirmity, to feel almost like a child. Pleased to take me to that Clematis Arba, it looks over the Avon. Now, how do you like our garden? It's a nice place. He did not go into ecstasies as I had half expected, but gazed about him observantly, while a quiet, intense satisfaction grew and diffused itself over his whole countenance. It's a very nice place. Certainly it was. A large square, chiefly grass, level as a bowling-green, with borders round. Beyond, divided by a low hedge, was the kitchen and fruit garden, my father's pride, as this old-fashioned pleasantce was mine. When, years ago, I was too weak to walk, I knew by crawling every inch of the soft, green, mossy, daisy-patterned carpet bounded by its broad gravel walk, and above that, apparently shut in as with an impassable barrier from the outer world by a three-sided fence, the high wall, the U-Hedge, and the river. John Halifax's comprehensive gaze seemed to take in all. Have you lived here long? he asked me. Ever since I was born. Ah, well, it's a nice place, he repeated, somewhat sadly. This grass-plot is very even, thirty yards square, I should guess. I'd get up and pace it, only I'm rather tired. Are you? Yet you were Carrie. Oh, that's nothing. I've often walked farther than to-day, but still it's a good step across the country since morning. How far have you come? From the foot of those hills, I forget what they call them, over there. I have seen bigger ones, but they're steep enough, bleak and cold too, especially when one is lying out among the sheep, at a distance they look pleasant. This is a very pretty view. I, so I had always thought it, more so than ever now when I had someone to say to how very pretty it was. Let me describe it, this first landscape, the sole picture of my boyish days, and vivid is all such pictures are. At the end of the arbor, the wall which enclosed us on the river-wood side was cut down, my father had done it at my asking, so as to make a seat, something after the fashion of Queen Mary's seat at Stirling, of which I had read. Thence one could see a goodly sweep of country. First, close below, flowed the Avon, Shakespeare's Avon, here, a narrow, sluggish stream, but capable, as we at Nortonbury sometimes knew to our cost, of being roused into fierceness and foam. Now it slipped on quietly enough, contenting itself with turning a flour mill hard by, the lazy whir of which made a sleepy incessant monotone which I was fond of hearing. From the opposite bank stretched a wide green level, called the Ham, dotted with pastoring cattle of all sorts. Beyond it was a second river, forming an arch of a circle round the verdant flat. But the stream itself lay so low as to be invisible from where we sat. You could only trace the line of its course by the small white sails, that glided in and out, oddly enough, from behind the clumps of trees and across meadowlands. They attracted John's attention. Those can't be boats, surely! Is there water there? To be sure, or you would not see the sails. It is the seven, though at this distance you can't perceive it. Yet it is deep enough, too, as you may see by the boats it carries. You would hardly believe so, to look at it here, but I believe it gets broader and broader, and turns out a noble river by the time it reaches the king's roads and forms the Bristol Channel. I've seen that, cried John, with a bright look. Ah! I like the seven! He stood gazing at it a good while, a new expression dawning in his eyes. Eyes in which, then, for the first time, I watched a thought grow and grow, till out of them was shining a beauty absolutely divine. All of a sudden the Abbey chimes burst out and made the lad start. What's that? Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London! I sang to the bells, and then it seemed such a commonplace history, and such a very low degree of honour to arrive at, that I was really glad I had forgotten to tell John the story. I merely showed him where, beyond our garden wall, and in the invisible high-road that interposed, rose up the grim old Abbey Tower. Probably this garden belonged to the Abbey in ancient time. Our orchard is so fine. The monks may have planted it. They liked fruit, those old fellows. Oh, did they? He evidently did not quite comprehend, but was trying, without asking, to find out what I referred to. I was almost ashamed, lest you might think I wanted to show off my superior knowledge. The monks were Parsons, John, you know. Very good men, I daresay, but rather idle. Oh, indeed! Do you think they planted that U-Hedge? And he went to examine it. Now, far and near our U-Hedge was noted. There was not its like in the whole country. It was about fifteen feet high, and as many thick. Century after century of growth was careful clipping and training, had compacted it into a massive green barrier, as close and impervious as a wall. John poked in and about it, peering through every interstice, leaning his breast against the solid depth of branches, but their close shield resisted all his strength. At last he came back to me, his face glowing with the vain efforts he had made. What were you about? Did you want to get through? I wanted just to see if it were possible. I shook my head. What would you do, John, if you were shut up here and had to get over the U-Hedge? You could not climb it. I know that, and therefore should not waste time in trying. Would you give up, then? He smiled. There was no giving up in that smile of his. I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd begin and break it twig by twig till I forced my way through and got out safe at the other side. Well done, lad, but if it's all the same to thee I would rather thee did not try that experiment upon my hedge at present. My father had come behind and overheard us, unobserved. We were both somewhat confounded, though a grim kindness of aspect showed that he was not displeased. Nay, even amused. Is that thy usual fashion of getting over a difficulty friend? What's thy name? I supplied the answer. The minute Abel Fletcher appeared, John seemed to lose all his boyish fun, and go back to that premature gravity and hardness of demeanour which I supposed his harsh experience of the world and of men had necessarily taught him, but which was very sad to see in a lad so young. My father sat down beside me on the bench, pushed aside an intrusive branch of chlamatis. Finally, because it would come back and tickle his bald plate, broke it off and threw it into the river. Then, leaning on his stick with both hands, eyed John Halifax sharply all over from top to toe. Didn't thee say thee wanted work? It looks rather like it. His glance upon the shabby clothes made the boy colour violently. Oh! thee needs to not be ashamed. Better men than thee have been in rags. Hast thee any money? The groat you gave—that is, paid me—I never take what I don't earn," said the lad, sticking a hand in either poor empty pocket. Don't be afraid. I was not going to give thee anything. Except, maybe, would thee like some work? Oh, sir! Oh, father! I hardly know which was the most grateful cry. Abel Fletcher looked surprised, but on the whole not ill-pleased. Putting on and pulling down his broad-brimmed hat, he sat meditatively for a minute or so, making circles in the gravel walk with the end of his stick. People said, nay, Yale herself once in a passion had thrown the fact at me, that the wealthy friend himself had come to Nortonbury without a shilling in his pocket. Well, what work can't they do, lad? Anything was the eager answer. Anything generally means nothing, sharply said my father. What has thee been at all this year? The truth, mind? John's eyes flashed, but a look from mine seemed to set him right again. He said, quietly and respectfully, Let me think a minute, and I'll tell you. All spring I was at a farmer's, riding the plough-horses, hoeing turnips. Then I went up the hills with some sheep. In June I tried hay-making and quarter fever. You needn't start, sir. I've been well these six weeks, or I wouldn't have come near your son. Then—that will do, lad, I'm satisfied. Thank you, sir. The ye need not say, sir, it is folly. I am able Fletcher. For my father retained scrupulously the friend's mode of speech, though he was practically but a lax member of the society, and had married out of its pale. In this announcement of his plain name appeared, I fancy, more pride than humility. Very well, I will remember," answered the boy fearlessly, though with an amused twist of his mouth, speedily restrained. And now, able Fletcher, I shall be willing and thankful for any work you can give me. We'll see about it. I looked gratefully and hopefully at my father, but his next words rather modified my pleasure. Phineas, one of my men at the tanyard, has gone enlisted this day, left an honest livelihood to be a paid cutthroat. Now, if I could get a lad, one too young to be caught hold of at every pot-house by that man of blood the recruiting agent, dost thee think this lad is fit to take the place? Whose place, father? Bill Watkins I was dumbfounded. I had occasionally seen the said Bill Watkins, whose business it was to collect the skins which my father had bought from the farmers round about. A distinct vision presented itself to me of Bill and his cart, from which dangled the sanguinary exuviae of defunct animals, while in front the said Bill sat enthroned, dirty-clad and dirty-handed, with his pipe in his mouth. The idea of John Halifax in such a position was not agreeable. But, father? He read deprecation in my looks. Alas, he knew too well how I disliked the tanyard and all belonging to it. They are at a fool, and the lad's another. He may go about his business for me. But, father, isn't there anything else? I have nothing else, or if I had I wouldn't give it. He that will not work neither shall he eat. I will work, said John sturdily. He had listened scarcely comprehending to my father and me. I don't care what it is, if only its honest work. April Fletcher was mollified. He turned his back on me, but that I little-minded, and addressed himself solely to John Halifax. Can't you drive? That I can, and his eyes brightened with boyish delight. Tut, it's only a cart, the cart with the skins. Does thee know anything of tanning? No, but I can learn. Hey, not so fast. Still, better be fast than slow. In the meantime, thee can drive the cart. Thank you, sir. April Fletcher, I mean. I'll do it well. That is as well as I can. And mind, no stopping on the road, no drinking, to find the king's cursed shilling at the bottom of the glass, like poor Bill, for thy mother to come home crying and pestering. Thee hasn't got one, eh? So much the better. All women are born fools, especially mothers. Sir! The lad's face was all crimson and quivering. His voice choked. It was with difficulty he smothered down a burst of tears. Perhaps this self-control was more moving than if he had wept. At least it answered better with my father. After a few minutes more, during which his stick had made a little grave in the middle of the walk and buried something there, I think something beside the pebble. April Fletcher said, not unkindly,—'Well, I'll take thee, though it isn't often I take a lad without a character of some sort. I suppose thee hast none.' None was the answer. While a straightforward, steady gaze which accompanied it, unconsciously contradicted the statement. His own honest face was the lad's best witness, at all events I thought so. "'Tis done, then,' said my father, concluding the business more quickly than I had ever before known his cautious temper settle even such a seemingly trifle matter. I say, seemingly, how blindly we talk when we talk of trifles. Carelessly rising, he, from some kindly impulse, or else to mark the closing of the bargain, shook the boy's hand, and left in it a shilling. What is this for?' To show I have hired thee as my servant. Servant! John repeated hastily, and rather proudly,—'Oh, yes, I understand. Well, I will try and serve you well.' My father did not notice that manly, self-dependent smile. He was too busy calculating how many more of those said shillings would be a fair equivalent for such labour as a lad ever so much the junior of Bill Watkins could supply. After some cogitation he hit upon the right sum. I forget how much. Be sure it was not over much, for money was scarce enough in this war-time. And, besides, there was a bleeper float, so widely that it tainted even my worthy father, that plenty was not good for the working classes, they required to be kept low. Having settled the question of wages, which John Halifax did not debate at all, my father left us, but turned back when half-way across the green-turfed square. These said thee had no money. There's a week in advance, my son being witness I pay at thee, and I can pay thee a shilling less every Saturday till we get straight. Very well, sir. Good afternoon, and thank you. John took off his cap as he spoke. Abel Fletcher involuntarily almost touched his hat in return of the salutation. Then he walked away, and we had the garden all to ourselves—we, Jonathan, and his newfound David. I did not fall upon his neck, like the princely Hebrew, to whom I have likened myself, but whom alas I resembled in nothing save my loving. But I grasped his hand for the first time, and looking up at him, as he stood thoughtfully by me, whispered, that I was very glad. Thank you, so am I, said he, in a low tone. Then all his old manner returned. He threw his battered cap high up in the air, and shouted out, Hurrah! a thorough boy. And I, in my poor, quavering voice, shouted, too. End of Chapter 2, Recording by Corrie Samuel Chapter 3 of John Halifax Gentlemen This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. John Halifax Gentlemen by Dinah Craig Chapter 3 When I was young, and long after then at intervals, I had the very useless, sometimes harmful, and invariably foolish habit of keeping a diary. To me, at least, it has been less foolish and harmful than to most, and out of it, together with much drawn out of the stores of a memory, made preternaturally vivid by a long introverted life, which, colorless itself, had nothing to do but reflect and retain clear images of the lives around it, out of these two sources I have compiled the present history. Therein, necessarily, many blank epochs occur. These I shall not try to fill up, but merely resume the thread of narration as recollection serves. Thus, after this first day, many days came and went before I again saw John Halifax, almost before I again thought of him. For it was one of my seasons of excessive pain, when I found it difficult to think of anything beyond those four gray-painted walls, where morning, noon, and night slipped wearily away, marked by no changes, save from daylight to candlelight, from candlelight to dawn. Afterwards, as my pain abated, I began to be haunted by occasional memories of something pleasant that had crossed my dreary life. Visions for brave, bright young face, ready alike to battle with and enjoy the world. I could hear the voice that, speaking to me, was always tender with pity, yet not enough pity to wound. I could see the peculiar smile just creeping round his grave-mouth, that irrepressible smile indicating the atmosphere of thorough heart cheerfulness which ripens all the fruits of a noble nature, and without which the very noblest has about it something unwholesome, blank and cold. I wondered if John had ever asked for me. At length I put the question, Yale thought he had, but wasn't sure, didn't bother her head about such folk. If he asked again, might he come upstairs? No. I was too weak to combat, and Yale was too strong an adversary, so I lay for days and days in my sick room, often thinking, but never speaking, about the lad. Never once asking for him to come to me, not though it would have been life to me to see his merry face, I longed after him so. At last I broke the bonds of sickness, which Yale always riveted as long and as tightly as she could, and plunged into the outer world again. It was one market day, Yale being absent, that I came downstairs. A soft, bright, autumn morning, milder spring, coaxing a wandering Robin to come and sing to me, loud as a choir of birds, out of the thinned trees of the Abbey Yard. I opened the window to hear him, though all the while in mortal fear of Yale. I listened, but caught no tone of her sharp voice, which usually came painfully from the back regions of the house. It would ill have harmonized with the sweet autumn day and the Robin's song. I sat, idly thinking so, and wondering whether it were a necessary and universal fact that human beings, unlike the year, should become harsh and unlovely as they grow old. My Robin had done singing, and I amused myself with watching a spot of scarlet winding down the rural road, a house being on the verge where an autumn berry melted into the country. It turned out to be the cloak of a well-to-do young farmer's wife riding to market in her cart beside her jolly-looking spouse. Very spruce and self-satisfied she appeared, and the market people turned to stare after her, for her costume was a novelty then. Doubtless, many thought as I did, how much prettier was scarlet than duffel grey. Behind the farmer's cart came another, which at first I scarcely noticed, being engrossed by the ruddy face under the red cloak. The farmer himself nodded good-humidly, but Mrs. Scarlet-Cloak turned up her nose. Oh, pride, pride, I thought, amused, and watched the two carts, the second of which was with difficulty passing the farmers on the opposite side of the narrow road. At last it succeeded in getting in advance to the young woman's evident annoyance, until the driver, turning, lifted his hat to her with such a merry, frank, pleasant smile. Surely I knew that smile, and the well-set head with its light curly hair. Also, alas, I knew the cart with relics of departed sheep dangling out behind. It was our cart of skins, and John Halifax was driving it. John, John! I called out, but he did not hear, for his horse had taken fright at the red cloak, and required a steady hand. Very steady the boy's hand was, so that the farmer clapped his two great fists, and shouted, Brave all! But John, my John Halifax, he sat in his cart and drove. His appearance was much as when I first saw him, shabbier, perhaps, as if through repeated drenchings, this had been a wet autumn, Yale had told me. Poor John, well might he look gratefully up at the clear blue sky today. I, and the sky never looked down on a brighter, cheerier face, the same face which, whatever rags it surmounted, would, I believe, have ennobled them all. I leaned out, watching him approach our house, watching him with so great pleasure that I forgot to wonder whether or no he would notice me. He did not, at first, being busy over his horse, until, just as the notion flashed across my mind that he was passing by our house, also, how keenly his doing so would pain me, the lad looked up. A beaming smile of surprise and pleasure, a friendly nod, then all at once his manner changed, he took off his cap, and bowed ceremoniously to his master's son. For the moment I was hurt, then I could not but respect the honest pride which thus intimated that he knew his own position, and wished neither to ignore nor to alter it. All advances between us must evidently come from my side. So, having made his salutation, he was driving on, when I called after him. John! John! Yes, sir, I'm so glad you're better again. Stop one moment till I come out to you. And I crawled on my crutches to the front door, forgetting everything but the pleasure of meeting him, forgetting even my terror of Yale. What could she say? Even though she held nominally the friend's doctrine, obeyed in the letter at least, call no man your master. What would Yale say, if she found me, Phineas Fletcher, talking in front of my father's respectable mansion, with a vagabond lad who drove my father's cart of skins? But I braved her, and opened the door. John, where are you? Here. He stood at the foot of the steps, with the reins on his arm. Did you want me? Yes, come up here, never mind the cart. But that was not John's way. He led the refractory horse, settled him comfortably under a tree, and gave him in charge to a small boy. Then he bounded back across the road, and was up the steps to my side in the single leap. I had no notion of seeing you, they said you were in bed yesterday. Then he had been inquiring for me. Would you be standing at the door this cold day? It's quite warm, I said, looking up at the sunshine and shivering. Please go in, if you'll come too. He nodded, then put his arm round mine and helped me in, as if he had been a big elder brother, and I a little ailing child. Well nursed and carefully guarded as I had always been, it was the first time in my life I ever knew the meaning of that rare thing—tenderness. A quality different from kindness, affectionateness, or benevolence, a quality which can only exist in strong, deep, and undemonstrative natures, and therefore in its perfection is oftenest found in men. John Halifax had it more than any one, woman or man, that I ever knew. I'm glad you're better, he said, and said no more. But one look of his expressed as much as half a dozen sympathetic sentences of other people. And how have you been, John? How do you like the tanyard? Tell me frankly. He pulled a wry face, though comical with all, and said cheerily, Everybody must like what brings them their daily bread, is a grand thing for me not to have been hungry for nearly thirty days. Poor John. I put my hand on his wrist, his strong, brawny wrist. Perhaps the contrast involuntarily struck us both with the truth, good for both to learn, that heaven's ways are not so unequal as we sometimes fancy they seem. I have so often wanted to see you, John. Couldn't you come in now? He shook his head and pointed to the cart. That minute, through the open hall door, I perceived Yale sauntering leisurely home from market. Now, if I was a coward, it was not for myself this time. The avalanche of ill words I knew must fall, but it shall not fall on him if I could help it. Jump up on your cart, John. Let me see how well you can drive. There. Goodbye for the present. Are you going to the tanyard? Yes, for the rest of the day. And he made a face, as if he did not quite revel in that delightful prospect. No wonder. I'll come and see you there this afternoon. No, with a look of delighted surprise. But you must not. You ought not. But I will. And I laughed to hear myself actually using that phrase. What would Yale have said? What? As she arrived just in time to receive a half-malicious, half-ceremonious bow from John as he drove off, what that excellent woman did say I have not the slightest recollection? I only remember that it did not frighten and grieve me as such attacks used to do. That in her own vernacular it all went in at one ear and out at other. That I persisted in looking out until the last glimmer of the bright curls had disappeared down the sunshiney road, then shut the front door, and crept in content. Between that time and dinner I sat quiet enough even to please Yale. I was thinking over the beautiful old Bible-story, which latterly had so vividly impressed itself on my mind, thinking of Jonathan as he walked by the stone easel with a shepherd lad who was to be king of Israel. I wondered whether he would have loved him, and seen the same future perfection in him, had Jonathan, the king's son, met the poor David keeping his sheep among the folds of Bethlehem. When my father came home he found me waiting in my place at table. He only said, The art better than my son. But I knew how glad he was to see me. He gave token of this by being remarkably conversable over our meal, though, as usual, his conversation had a sternly moral tone, adapted to the improvement of what he persisted in considering my infant mind. It had reference to an anecdote Dr. Jessup had just been telling him about a little girl, one of our doctor's patients, who in some passionate struggle had hurt herself very much with a knife. Let this be a warning to thee, my son, not to give way to violent passions. My good father thought I—there is little fear. For this child I remember her father well, for he lived at King's Well here. He was violent too, and much given to evil ways before he went abroad. Phineas, this child, this miserable child, will bear the mark of the wound all her life. Poor thing, said I, absently. No need to pity her, her spirit is not half broken yet. Thomas Jessup said to me, that little Ursula, is her name Ursula? And I called to mind the little girl, who had tried to give some bread to the hungry John Halifax, and whose cry of pain we heard as the door shut upon her. Poor little lady, how sorry I was! I knew John would be so infinitely sorry too, and all to no purpose, that I determined not to tell him anything about it. The next time I saw Dr. Jessup, I asked him after the child, and learned she had been taken away somewhere, I forgot where, and then the whole affair slipped from my memory. Father, said I, when he ceased talking, and Yale, who always ate her dinner at the same time and table at ourselves, but below the salt, had ceased nodding a respectful running comment on all he said. Father! Well, my son, I should like to go with you to the tanyard this afternoon. Here, Yale, who had been busy pulling back the table, replacing the long row of chairs, and re-sanding the broad center Sahara of the room to its dreary, pristine aridness, stopped, fairly aghast with amazement. Able! Able Fletcher! The lad's just out of his bed, he is no more fit to— Sure, woman! was the sharp answer. So, Phineas, the art really strong enough to go out? If thou wilt take me, Father? He looked pleased, as he always did when I used the friend's mode of phraseology, for I had not been brought up in the society, this having been the last request of my mother, rigidly observed by her husband. The more so, people said, as while she lived, they had not been quite happy together. But whatever he was to her, in their brief union, he was a good father to me, and for his sake I have always loved and honored the society of friends. Phineas, said he, after having stopped a volley of poor Yale's indignations, beseechings, threats, and prognostications by a resolute, get the lad ready to go. Phineas, my son, I rejoice to see thy minds turning towards business. I trust, should better health be vouchsafed thee, that some day soon— Not just yet, Father, said I sadly, for I knew what he referred to, and that it would never be. Mentally and physically I alike revolted for my father's trade. I held the tanyard in apparence, to enter it may be ill for days, sometimes for months and months I never went near it. That I should ever be what was my poor father's one desire, his assistant, and successor in his business, was, I knew, a thing totally impossible. It hurt me a little that my project of going with him today, should, in any way, have deceived him. And rather silently and drearily, we set out together, progressing through Nortonbury streets in our old way, my father marching along in his grave fashion, ice-steering my little carriage, and keeping as close as I could beside him. Many a person looked at us as we passed, almost everybody knew us, but few, even of our own neighbours, saluted us. We were non-conformists and Quakers. I had never been in the town since the day I came through it with John Halifax. The season was much later now, but it was quite warm still in the sunshine, and for a pleasant look to the streets, even the close narrow streets of Nortonbury. I beg its pardon, antiquaries hold it a most interesting and remarkable place, and I myself have sometimes admired its quaint, overhanging, ornamented house fronts, blackened and wonderfully old, but one rarely notices what has been familiar throughout life, and now I was less struck by the beauty of the picturesque old town than by the muddiness of its pathways and to the mingled noises of murmuring looms, scolding women and squabbling children, that came up from the alleys which lay between the High Street and the Avon. In those alleys were hundreds of our poor folk living, huddled together in misery, rags and dirt. Was John Halifax living there, too? My father's tanyard was in an alley a little further on. Already I perceived the familiar odor, a sometimes not unpleasant barky smell, at other times born in horrible wafts, as if from a lately forsaken battlefield. I wondered how anybody could endure it, yet some did, and among the workmen, as we entered, I looked round for the lad I knew. He was sitting in a corner in one of the sheds, helping two or three women to split bark, very busy at work, yet he found time to stop now and then, and administered a wisp of sweet hay to the old blind mare, as she went slowly round and round, turning the bark mill. Nobody seemed to notice him, and he did not speak to anybody. As we passed John did not even see us. I asked my father in a whisper how he liked the boy. What boy? A him? Oh, well enough! There's no harm in him that I know of. Dost you want him to wield thee about the yard? Here, I say, lad, bless me, I forgot thy name. John Halifax started up at the sharp tone of command, but when he saw me he smiled. My father walked on to some pits where he told me he was trying an important experiment, how a hide might be turned completely in five months instead of eight. I stayed behind. John, I want you. John shook himself free of the bark heap and came rather hesitatingly at first. Anything I can do for you, sir? Don't call me sir. If I say John, why don't you say Phineas? And I held out my hand. His was all grimed with bark dust. Are you not ashamed to shake hands with me? Nonsense, John! So he settled that point entirely, and though he never failed to maintain externally a certain gentle respectfulness of demeanour towards me, yet it was more the natural deference of the younger to the elder, of the strong to the weak, than the duty paid by a serving lad to his master's son, and this was how I best liked it to be. He guided me carefully among the tan pits, those deep fosses of abomination, with the slender network of pathways thrown between, until we reached the lower end of the yard. It was bounded by the Avon only, and by a great heap of refuse-bark. This is not a bad place to rest in, if you liked to get out of the carriage I'd make you comfortable here in no time. I was quite willing, so he ran off and fetched an old horse-rug, which he laid upon the soft, dry mass. Then he helped me thither, and covered me with my cloak. Lying thus, with my hat over my eyes, just distinguishing the shiny glimmer of the Avon running below, and below that, the green, level ham, dotted with cows, my position was anything but unpleasant. In fact, positively agreeable, I, even though the tanyard was close behind, but here it would offend none of my senses. Are you comfortable, Phineas? Very, if you would come and sit down, too. That I will. And we then began to talk. I asked him if he often patronised the bark-heap, he seemed so very much at home there. So I am, he answered, smiling. It is my castle, my house. And not unpleasant to live at, either. Except for when it rains, does it always rain at Nortonbury? For shame, John! And I pointed to the bluest of autumn skies, though in the distance an afternoon mist was slowly creeping on. All very fine now, but there's a fog coming over seven, and it is sure to rain at nightfall. I shall not get my nice little bit of October evening. You must spend it with indoors, then. John shook his head. You ought! It must be dreadfully cold on his bark-heap after sunset. Rather, sometimes. Are you cold now? Shall I fetch? But I haven't anything fit to wrap you in except this rug. He muffled it close around me, infinitely light and tender was his rough-looking boy's hand. I never saw anybody as thin as you, thinner much since I saw you. Have you been very, very ill-fineous? What hailed you? His anxiety was so earnest that I explained to him what I may as well explain here, and his miss once for all the useless topic. That from my birth I had been puny and diseased, that my life had been a succession of sicknesses, and that I could hope for little else until the end. But don't think I mind it, John, for I was grieved to see his shocked and troubled look. I'm very content. I have a quiet home, a good father, and now I think and believe I have found the one thing I wanted—a good friend. He smiled, but only because I did. I saw he did not understand me. In him, as in most strong and self-contained temperaments, was a certain slowness to receive impressions, which, however, being once received, are indelible. Though I, being in so many things his opposite, had none of this peculiarity, but felt at once quickly and keenly, yet I rather like to the contrary in him, as I think we almost always do like, in another, those peculiarities which are most different from our own. Therefore, I was neither vexed nor hurt, because the lad was slow to perceive all that he had so soon become, and all that I meant him to become, to me. I knew from every tone of his voice, every chance expression of his honest eyes, that he was one of those characters, in which we may be sure that for each feeling they express lies a countless wealth of the same unexpressed below, a character the keystone of which was that whereon is built all liking and all love, dependableness. He was one whom you may be long in knowing, but whom the more you know, the more you trust, and once trusting you trust for ever. Perhaps I may be supposed imaginative, or at least premature, in discovering all these characteristics in a boy of fourteen, and possibly in thus writing of him, I may unwittingly be drawing a little from after experience. However, being the truth, let it stand. Come, said I, changing the conversation, we have had enough of me. How goes the world with you? Have you taken kindly to the tanyard? Answer frankly. He looked at me hard, put both his hands in his pockets, and began to whistle a tune. Don't shirk the question, please, John. I want to know the real truth. Well, then, I hate the tanyard. Having relieved his mind by this ebullition, and by kicking a small heap of tan right down into the river, he became composed. But Phineas, don't imagine I intend to hate it always. I intend to get used to it, as many a better fellow than I has got used to many a worse thing. It's wicked to hate what wins one's bread, and is the only thing one is likely to get on in the world with, merely because it's disagreeable. You are a wise lad of your age, John. Now don't you be laughing at me? But I was not. I was in solemn earnest. And don't think I'm worse than I am, and especially that I'm not thankful to your good father for giving me a lift in the world, the first I ever really had. If I get one foot on the ladder, perhaps I may climb. I should rather believe so, answered I, very confidently. But you seem to have thought a good deal about these sort of things. Oh, yes! I have plenty of time for thinking, and one's thoughts travel fast enough, lying on this barkeep, faster than indoors. I often wish I could read, that is, read easily. As it is, I have nothing to do but to think, and to think of nothing but myself, and what I should like to be. Suppose, after Dick Whittington's fashion, you succeeded in your master's business, should you like to be a tanner? He paused, his truthful face betraying him. Then he said, resolutely, I would like to be anything that was honest and honourable. It's a notion of mine, that whatever a man may be, his trade does not make him, he makes his trade. That is. But I know I can't put the subject clear, for I have not got it clear in my own head yet. I'm only a lad. However it all comes to this, that whether I like it or not, I'll stick to the tanning as long as I can. That's right, I'm so glad. Nevertheless. And I watched him as he stood, his foot planted firmly, no easy feet on the shifting barkeep, his head erect, and his mouth close, but smiling. Nevertheless, John, it's my opinion that you might be anything you liked. He laughed. Questionable that, at least at present. Whatever I may be, I am just now the lad that drives your father's cart, and works in your father's tanyard, John Halifax, and very much at your service, Mr. Phineas Fletcher. Half in fun, half in earnest, he uncovered his fair locks, with a bow so contradictory to the rest of his appearance, that I involuntarily recalled the Greek testament, and, guy Halifax, gentlemen. However, that could be no matter to me, or to him, either, now. The lad, like many another, owed nothing to his father, but his mere existence. Heaven knows whether that gift is oftenest a curse or a boon. The afternoon had waned during our talk, but I was very loathed apart with my friend. Suddenly, I thought of asking where his home was. How do you mean? Where do you live? Where do you take your meals and sleep? Why, as to that, I have not much time for eating and drinking. Generally, I eat my dinner as I go along the road, where there's lots of blackberries by way of pudding, which is grand. Supper, when I do get it, I like best on this barkeep, after the men are away, and the tanyards clear. Your father lets me stay. And where is your lodging, then? Where do you sleep? He hesitated, coloured a little. To tell the truth, anywhere I can, generally here. What, out of doors? Just so. I was much shocked. To sleep out of doors seemed to me the very lowest air above human misery, so degrading, too, like a common tramp or vagabond, instead of a decent lad. John, how can you? Why do you do such a thing? I'll tell you, said he, sitting down beside me in a dogged way, as if he had read my thoughts, guessed at my suspicions, and was determined to show that he feared neither, that he would use his own judgment and follow his own will in spite of anybody. Look here! I get three shillings a week, which is about five pence a day. Out of that I eat three pence. I'm a big growing lad, and it's hard to be hungry. There's two pence left to pay for lodging. I tried it once, twice, at the decentest place I could find, but—here, an expression of intolerable disgust came over the boy's face. I don't intend to try that again. I was never used to it. Better keep my own company and the open air. Now you see. Oh, John! Nay, there's no need to be sorry. You don't know how comfortable it is to sleep out of doors, and so nice to wake in the middle of the night, and see the stars shining over your head. But isn't it very cold? No, not often. I scoop out a snug little nest in the bark, and curl up in it like a door-mouse wrapped in this rug, which one of the men gave me. Besides, every morning early I take a plunge and a swim in the stream, and that makes me warm all day. I shivered, I who feared the touch of cold water. Yet there, with all his hardships, he stood before me, the model of healthy boyhood. Alas! I envied him. But this trying life, which he made so light of, could not go on. What shall you do when winter comes? John looked grave. I don't know. I suppose I shall manage somehow, like the sparrows, he answered, perceiving not how apposite his illustration was, for truly he seemed as destitute as the birds of the air, whom one feedeth when they cry to him. My question had evidently made him thoughtful. He remained silent a good while. At last I said, John, do you remember the woman who spoke so sharply to you in the alley that day? Yes, I shall never forget anything which happened that day. He answered softly. She was my nurse once. She is not such a bad woman, though trouble has sharpened her temper. Her biggest boy Bill, who has gone off for a soldier, used to drive your cart, you know. Yes, said John interrogatively, for I was slow in putting forth my plans, that is, as much of them as it was needful he should know. Sally is poor, not so very poor, though. Your two-pinsonite would help her, and I dare say, if you'll let me speak to her, you might have Bill's attic all to yourself. She has but one other lad at home. It's worth trying for. It is indeed. You are very kind, Phineas. He said no more words than these, but their tone spoke volumes. I got into my little carriage again, for I was most anxious not to lose a day in this matter. I persuaded John to go at once with me to Sally Watkins. My father was not to be seen, but I ventured to leave word for him that I was gone home, and had taken John Halifax with me. It was astonishing how bold I felt myself growing, now that there was another beside myself to think and act for. We reached Widow Watkins' door. It was a poor place, poorer than I had imagined. But I remembered what agonies of cleanliness had been inflicted on me in nursery days, and took hope for John. Sally sat in her kitchen, tidy and subdued, mending an old jacket that had once been Bill's, until, being supplanted by the grand red coat, it descended upon Jem the second lad. But Bill still engrossed the poor mother's heart. She could do nothing but weep over him and curse boney-party. Her mind was so full of this that she apparently failed to recognize in a decent young workman, John Halifax, the half-starved lad she had belabored with her tongue in the alley. She consented at once to his lodging with her, though she looked up with an odd stare when I said he was a friend of mine. So we settled our business, first altogether, then Sally and I alone, while John went up to look at his room. I knew I could trust Sally, whom I was glad enough to help poor woman. She promised to make him extra comfortable and keep my secret too. When John came down she was quite civil to him, even friendly. She said it would really be a comfort to her that another fine strapping lad should sleep in Bill's bed and be coming in and out of her house, just like her poor dear boy. I felt rather doubtful of the resemblance, and indeed half angry, but John only smiled. And if, maybe, he'd do a hand's turn now and then about the kitchen, I suppose he beamed above it? Not a bit, said John Halifax, pleasantly. Before we left I wanted to see his room. He carried me up, and we both sat down on the bed that had been poor Bill's. It was nothing to boast of, being a mere sacking stuffed with hay, a blanket below and another at top. I had to beg for me ale the only pair of sheets John owned for a long time. The attic was very low and small, hardly big enough to whip a cat around, or even a kitten, yet John gazed about it with an air of proud possession. I declare I shall be as happy as a king, only look out of the window. I—the window was the grand advantage. Out of it one could crawl onto the roof, and from the roof was the finest view in all Nortonbury. On one side, the town, the abbey, and beyond it a wide stretch of meadow and woodland as far as you could see. On the other, the broad ham, the glittering curve of seven, and the distant country, sloping up into the blue hills far away. A picture, which in its incessant variety, its quiet beauty, and its inexpressibly soothing charm, was likely to make the simple everyday act of looking out a window unconsciously influence the mind as much as a world of books. Do you like your castle, John? said I, when I had silently watched his beaming face. Will it suit you? I rather think it will, he cried in hearty delight, and my heart likewise was very glad. Dear little attic room, close against the sky, so close that many a time the rain came pattering in, or the sun beating down on a roof made it a furnace, or the snow on the ledge drifted so high as to obscure the window. Yet how merry! how happy we have been there! How often have we both looked back upon it in after-days!