Читать книгу Miriam: A Tale of Pole Moor and the Greenfield Hills - D. F. E. Sykes - Страница 6

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IT was the first morning of the eagerly awaited Saddleworth Wakes in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, a year so full of great doings in the country, and followed by a year of still greater doings, that there is little marvel that I call it easily to mind. I had been out of bed by cock-crow to steal across the bare, worm-eaten boards of the chamber floor as prattily as my six feet of height and fourteen stone of weight would permit, to peer through the long diamond-paned window of bottle-green glass up the valley towards Greenfield, the quarter whence we folk of Biggie got our weather. It was a glorious sun-rising and promised a glorious day, and so I stole back to bed in great content, glad that though it was not the Sabbath I could stretch my long limbs between the blankets—sheets were an unknown luxury for such folk as myself and fellow chamberer, Jim Haigh, sometimes called Jim o’ ’Lijah’s, sometimes Jim th’ Tuner, but more often simply Th’ Tuner.

I suppose so small a bedroom rarely accommodated two men of our inches. For if I was six-feet-nothing in my stocking-feet, Jim o’ertopped me by a good four inches, and, whilst I was still, as it were, in the making, and lank and willowy, Jim, though but four years my senior, which made him four-and-twenty, was broad and deep chested, with the arms and legs of a very son of Anak. The turn-up bed,

“Contrived a double debt to pay,

A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day,”

into which Jim insinuated himself very gingerly o’ nights, creaked and groaned under his weight, and every morning he woke with cold feet, for the simple reason that they stretched a good half yard out of the bottom of the bedstead. He could not stand upright in our little chamber, and as for yawning and stretching himself, as one does in rousing from insufficient sleep, it was sheer out of the question. A giant truly was my friend Jim, but surely the gentlest and simplest of all created mortals, save when roused to wrath (and that he was not easily), and then let lesser men beware, for Jim in those rare moods knew not his own strength, and I’d as lieve have countered a sledge-hammer in punier hands as met the fall of Jim’s clenched fists.

Yet, curiously enough, this man of mighty girth and sinew held me in a sort of wondering reverence. For, despite my protests, Jim insisted to all and sundry of our common acquaintance that I was what he called a “powerful scholard”—I, whom my reverend father, the pastor of Pole Moor Chapel, had wept over and finally despaired of as a hopeless dunce and dullard, unfit for that ministry to which I had been destined from my cradle. Read and write I could ’tis true, nor could I truthfully say “the rule of three did puzzle me, and fractions drove me mad.” English history from the great Alfred’s time to poor, mad George the Third’s I knew fairly well, and could, under compulsion make out from the Latin how Balbus built a wall. But it was when my father set me to the Hebrew, maintaining that a minister of the Gospel should be able to read the Law and Prophets in their original,—it was then, I say that I struck and roundly declared that a parson I would never be. And so it came that I was bound ’prentice at Wrigley Mill to learn the full craft of a master clothier, pledging myself by solemn covenant “my master well and faithfully to serve, his secrets keep, Hurt or Damage to him not to do, Alehouses and ill Company not to frequent, nor Matrimony contract.” As if, commented Jim, when I read over to him these articles, a man would be likely to get wed on the “One shilling yearly for Pocket Money” which, with “Meat, Drink, Washing, Lodging, and two good Suits of Apparel as well Linen as Woollen,” was all I got for working like a slave for “th’ owd felly,” as my master was called by his hands. I had been boarded out by Mr. Wrigley with Mary Haigh, who lived in a small cottage in the mill yard, and it was Mary’s son who had been my true and constant friend from the first days of my apprenticeship, and who now lay slumbering soundly and snoring in the most determined manner in the turnup bed an arm’s length from my side.

I must have dropped off into a morning dose, for when I came back again to consciousness Jim was sat on the side of his couch, a little rickety, spindle-shanked, rush-bottomed chair in front of him, against the back of which was propped a small mirror about the size of a sheet of note-paper, its usefulness and beauty much marred by a crack that ran diagonally across a blotted surface. The half of a cocoanut shell, which served Jim as a shaving pot, rested on the floor, and Jim was alternately stropping a very harsh-scraping razor, lathering his face and throat, and shaving himself as he wielded the razor in the right hand and pinched his nose firmly with the left.

“Did ta’ ivver hear tell o’ th’ lad at th’ schooil at th’ inspector wer’ hearkening to read?" he broke off to ask, when he noticed that I had opened my eyes.

“What about him?” I asked.

“Well he come to one o’ them guisehanged long names i’ th’ Bible, an’ baulked at it. ‘Say summat sharp,’ whispers th’ schooilmester. ‘Razzer,’ says th’ lad, ‘Razzer’. But it wer’ noan this razzer I’ll go bail, for I’ve stropped it till mi shackle warks, an’ I’d as soon tha’ took a curry comb to me for comfort.”

“You’re making yourself mighty fine to-day, Jim, and it isn’t one of your Sundays for Church,” I commented, noticing his knee-breeches, and that he had already donned polished shoon with buckles of nickel silver and a striped and starred linen shirt.

“Church? No, thank God. It’s noan Church to-day. I’m off to th’ Wakes, and so are ta’, mi hearty. Why, man, it’s th’ Rushbearing, an’ aw’ve n’er missed th’ Rushbearing sin’ aw wer’ a little ’un, an’ aw n’er mean to. There’ll be some ale stirring to-day at th’ Church, aw can tell thee, an’ aw’st ha’ mi share on ’t, tha’ may bet thi Sunday booits.”

“At the Church?” I queried.

“Aye, th’ Church Inn, to be sure. Don’t thee act so gaumless. Ger up an’ don thee, lad. Aw do believe there’s a collop for breakfas’, aw hear it sizzlin’, an’ smell it, too, for that matter. So doant tha be so greedy on th’ porridge, leave a corner for th’ collop.”

And if any assurance were needed that breakfast was well forward it was supplied by the shrill voice of Mother Haigh calling at the bottom of the stairs:

“Are yo’ idle good-for-nowts goin’ to lig i’ bed till th’ wheel starts to morn? Th’ porridge’s bin ready this bit back, an’ th’ bacon’s welly stuck to th’ pan bottom Ger up, do."

Was there ever so clean a kitchen as Mary Haigh’s, I wonder. Certainly there never was one oftener fettled. Jim’s mother had few household gods, but those I verily believe she worshipped. The floor was sanded, the hearth blue-storied, the steel fender shone like burnished silver, you could see your face reflected with queer distortions in the brass knob of the oven door, the oaken press and settle and the deal chairs fairly sparkled with what Mary called elbow grease, the top of the little round three-legged table was white almost as driven snow. And as for Mary herself, sure never was a nattier little woman in all Yorkshire or Lancashire to boot. Nor a harder working. She was a tewer, as all the country-side would tell you, and always had been since she had been left a widow with little Jim still at the breast. She’d kept herself and Jim too, and anyone could see that Jim at all events hadn’t wanted. Even yet she did some burling in the house, and many of the hands at Wrigley’s paid her no less than a penny a week—bar missings—to heat their dinners for them, and in summer time she brewed for the behoof of the mill-girls a sweet and heady beverage called treacle-drink, of which the great merit was that it cost only a meg, in other words a half-penny, the quart, but which, Jim avowed, more in sorrow than in anger, possessed the fatal drawback that you got no forrader on a bucketful.

We’d an extra spread for this morning’s meal in honour of the Wakes. We started on the porridge. This Mary poured from the porringer into a large earthenware bowl, a dull russet colour on the outside, a highly glazed yellow on the inner. It stood in the centre of the table. Before Jim’s seat was a basin of “whom-brewed,” which he always took with his porridge. Mary and myself preferred buttermilk, which she fetched from Wrigley’s big house at Holly Grove every churning day. We helped ourselves from the central dish by long leaden spoons, and I’ve always attributed the size of my mouth to the fact that in my tenderest years. I had to use these large-bowled spoons or “go bowt.”

Mary exhorted us to draw and eat heartily of the porridge she declared made by God a-purpose for growing lads.

"You’ll noan start without sayin’ grace, Jim,” she expostulated as Jim made a flourish over the steaming pottage with his spoon.

“What for water-porridge?” asked Jim. “Aw’ve n’er said grace for porridge mother, an’ aw’st noan begin. Ax Abel, he’s noan partickler.”

“There’s collops when yo’n etten th’ porridge up, but not afore.”

“Oh, collops. Well, then, here goes: ‘Sanctify these blessings—th’ collops aw mean, noan th’ watter porridge—to our use an’ us to Thy service, Amen.’ Nah, Abel, fair do’s. Eh! aw wish it were th’ Wakes six days a week, an’ all th’ year raand. Aw do like collop wi’ haver bread an’ plenty o’ mustard.”

When I look back on those days that seem sometimes so far, far away, and at other times as though but yesterday, I blush to think how much I must be in Mary’s debt. For certain sure am I that the sum paid by Mr. Wrigley for my board and lodging never paid Mary. But she never stinted me, and the only times she grieved were the days I was off my food and could not eat my fill of the homely but wholesome fare she set before me. When I grew older and more noticing, as they say, I once hinted that my father should be asked to supplement Mr. Wrigley’s payment, though well I knew there was little to spare at the Manse at Pole Moor. But Mary had waxed wroth at this. “A bargain was a bargain,” she maintained with warmth. “She’d made hers and she’d stick to it. Besides, she never could abide a finicking eater, picking here an’ pishing an’ pshawing, as if th’ fooid weren’t good enough for ’im. Besides, didn’t I read th’ papper to her every week an’ a portion o’ th’ Scriptures, to say nowt o’ th’ ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ It were as gooid as having a parson i’ th’ house, wi’out his airs.”

“How mich brass has ta?” whispered Jim to me, as he shredded his tobacco, the while his mother cleared the few pots and busied herself with washing—up.

“Three shillings,” I confided, fingering the coins lovingly in my breeches’ pocket.

“An’ I’ve four—seven shillin’ ’atween us. We’st ha’ to be careful. There’s th’ dobby—horses, an’ th’ swings, an’ Tom Wild’s show—aw wouldn’t miss ‘The Pirates’ Lair’ for owt—an’ th’ fat woman with a beard, an’ the three—legged hen, an’ th’ hot peas, an’ th’ brandy—snap, an’ th’ shooitin’ gallery, an’ th’ aunt sally, an’ th weighin’ machine, an’ th’ pig ’at counts up to twenty, an’ we ’st want a rattle apiece to scrat dahn th’ lasses’ shawls to mak’ ’em jump an’ squeal, an’ then there’s th’ ale, but there’s one comfort, tha’rt a poor supper—eh! aw dunnot see how it’s to be done wi’ th’ brass, but we’st happen meet a trump.”

“What’s a trump?” I asked.

“A chap wi’ more brass nor wit,” defined Jim, as he continued. “Then there’s a fairin’ for th’ mother. Aw munnot forget that if aw get as drunk as a wheel—head. ’Oo’d greet for a month ovver it. Nuts an’ brandy—snap. It’s my belief ’oo wraps ’em up i’ gilt papper an’ keeps ’em in th’ drawer wi’ them two silver spooins her gran’mother left her. ’Oo never eits ’em, that’s certain, but all th’ same yo’ munnot let me forget th’ fairin’ for th’ owd mother.”

“Why, to tell the truth, Jim, I hadn’t thought of going this year. You can have my two or three shillings and welcome.”

“And what for no, Abel?”

“You see, I haven’t been to see old Mr. Turner for ever so long, and last time I was there he seemed to me to be failing. He seems ill of his mind, and he’s none too long for this world.”

“Tha’ means th’ owd hermit, as they ca’ him, up at Dean yead? Aw could nivver mak’ aht how tha tak’ up wi’ such a God-forsaken owd scarecrow.”

This from Mary, who had finished her pots, and came from the sink, drying her hands on her apron.

“Why, the story’s simple enough and soon told, Mary,” I said. “And if you knew poor old Mr Turner as I know him I’m sure you’d feel for the poor man.

“Aye, but pity wi’out relief’s like mustard wi’out beef,” quoth Mary, who was great on proverbs. “An’ aw dunnot see what aw could do for th’ man—more by token ’at he welly fieyed me to death th’ only time aw ivver clapped mi e’en on ’im, an’ that were i’ owd Betty’s at th’ Weigh Key, when he’d come to buy a penn’orth o’ snuff. He nobbut wanted a winding-sheet to mak’ him look like a corpse. He gay’ me a turn, aw know. It’s kitchen physic he’s wanting, if aw’m to judge. But how did ta’ come to leet on him, Abel?”

“Why, you know, Mary, that when I walk home to Pole Moor I must needs cross over by Stanedge, and one day I’d turned off just below the “Floating Light” to take a sheep-walk that makes a short cut down to Marsden It came on to rain helter-skelter when I was in the very centre of the Moor, and n’er a tree nor a wall to crouch under for shelter. But a hundred yards or so from the path I saw an old ramshackle sort of building a one decker, that I thought might be a keeper’s hut. I made for it across the heather as fast as my two legs could carry me, for it was lightning and thundering to make matters worse. I knocked at the door, but there was no answer so I just lifted the sneck and walked in. There was no one in the house. I called and better called but I could make no one hear. There wasn’t even a cat, about the place and such a place. Poverty-stricken isn’t the word for it. It was clean enough, however. But just fancy, Mary. One chair, one table, a rack with one or two plates and mugs, and a truckle-bed in a corner, a smouldering fire, and a box of dried turf. But I cowered over the fire to dry me, and then I sat down by the table. There was a book on it. I opened it idly. You might have knocked me down with a feather, as you say. If it wasn’t a Greek Testament! I knew enough of my Alpha and Omega to make that out anyway, and just to pass the time I fell to trying how much of the first Gospel I could construe. I became absorbed in my task and did not hear the opening of the outer door, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a voice: ‘You make yourself at home, young sir.’ I rose in confusion and made what apology I could, and was for going. Mr. Turner, however, for it was he, bade me stay till the storm abated. He himself was dripping wet, but seemed to make no account of it. He stood by the fire, Which I had mended, and the rain siped off him—.”

“On to th’ clean fender, of course; just like a man,” interrupted Mary.

“There wasn’t a fender. Just th’ ash-hole.”

“Aw nivver did,” said Mary. “But go on.”

“He was very silent, and I had time to observe him as he gazed into the fire, seemingly oblivious of my presence.”

“Oblivious? What’s that?” asked Jim.

“Forgetful,” I answered, somewhat testily.

“Then why couldn’t ta’ say so?” said Jim. “Tha owt to ha’ bin a parson after all, an’ a gooid weaver spoiled.”

I disdained retort and went on: “He was only a littlish man, very thin, shockingly thin, all skin and bone, and his clothes simply hung on him. They were threadbare and much patched, but of good cut and material—West of England broadcloth, if I’m a judge.”

“Which you aren’t,” put in Jim.

“His hair was white as snow, and his face well, I don’t wonder that Mary thought she’d seen a corpse. Yet though the frame was worn and bent, and the hair so bleached, the face did not seem that of an old man. Not fifty. It was deathly pale and waxen. Scarce a wrinkle seamed his brow, but in his sunken eyes there dwelt a look of woe unutterable. ‘A man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief.’ The old words came to my mind as I looked on those worn, wan features. ‘Have you far to journey?’ he asked me suddenly. ‘To Pole Moor in Scammonden, sir,’ I told him. ‘My father is minister there Mr. Holmes. You’ll have heard of him, the Reverend Mr. Holmes,’ I added, with just pride.”

“Aw should think so, indeed”—Mary again.

“‘Nay I have little acquaintance in this neighbourhood,’ the man answered. ‘But you will need food before you reach home. I have little to tempt you.’ But I made haste to assure him I wanted nothing to eat. To tell the truth I didn’t just relish sitting down to table with this strange creature—he looked so other worldish, and I didn’t know him then as I have come to know him since—aye, and to like him, too. I suppose he must have seen me look enquiringly at the Greek Testament, for he handed it to me and asked me to read him a few verses But I hadn’t stumbled over many lines before he stopped me. ‘This is how it should go,’ he said. And then he reeled it off, as if it had been plain English I thought my father could read Greek but he reads it but haltingly where Mr. Turner comes.”

“As tak’ leave to doubt, that,” said Mary with conviction.

“But by now the storm had cleared, and I anxious to be on my way, for it’s no joke being on Stanedge off the beaten track in the dark, or even in the dusk. So I thanked my host for the shelter he had afforded me, and, timidly, and with little hopes of success, begged that on other days, as I passed his cottage, homeward bent, I might call and pay my respects. He gave, as I thought, but a grudging assent, but assent after a fashion he did. And that’s how I came to know Mr. Turner, but who he is and what he is, and how a man of cultured refinement, for any fool can see he’s that, came to live all alone in that wretched hovel, for it’s little better, beats me.”

“Oh, there’s all mak’s o’ tales about him,” said Mary. “He’s been th’ talk o’ th’ countryside this twenty year an’ more, to my knowledge. Some sayn one thing, an’ some another. I did hear he’d been a parson an’ had his frock ta’en off him for some prank or other. But it’s all ‘he says an’ shoo says,’ an’ I ma’ no count o’ them sort o’ tales. There’s wimmen i’ this parish as is nivver so happy as when they’re callin’ fro’ door to door an’ rakin’ up all th’ tittle-tattle they can gather an’ ladlin’ it out as they go, wi’ more to it. An’ all th’ time th’ breakfust pots is on th’ table, th’ asses on th’ hearth, th’ dust on th’ furniture, th’ beds just as they were ligged in, th’ slops i’ th’ pots, an’ th’ dinner for th’ poor fools ‘at’s teed to ’em takkin’ its luck on th’ hob or i’ th’ oven. Aw thank God aw’m noan o’ that mak’!”

“No, that you’re not,” quoth Jim right heartily. “But come, Abel, lad, let’s be starting for th’ Wakes or we’st miss th’ rush cart. We’st be back bi ten o’clock, mother, an’ aw should like some browies for my supper.”

“There’s nowt like browies to go to bed on when yo’n a skin full o’ ale,” Jim confided to me as we crossed the mill yard and made for the plank that crossed Diggle Brook and led on to the way to Woolroad and Dobcross, and so to Saddleworth.

“And how’s that?” I asked, more to humour Jim’s loquacity than because I thought myself likely to need the specific.

“Why, yo’ see,” expounded Jim, “th’ haver bread’s nourishin’ o’ itself and gives th’ ale summat to work on, but it’s th’ fat as does it. It swims your stoma’ an’ prevents th’ ale mountin’ to your yead. Tha can’t goa far wrong if tha sticks to ale n’ Owdham browies, an’ don’t yo’ forget it, an’ yo’ll have summat to thank Jim th’ Tuner for as long as yo’ live, if he is a fooil.”

“I can’t see, Jim, why you should seem to make a point of getting more drink than usual at Christmas time and the Wakes,” I ventured, somewhat timidly, for this was a soreish point with my friend, who for three hundred and sixty-three days of the year was as temperate a man as ever walked on two legs, barring, of course, the members of that new-fangled sect, the teetotallers, that has sprung up since Jim and I were young men.

Jim pondered deeply before he vouchsafed a reply.

“Why, as to Xersmas time,” he said, as we strode blithely along the road, exchanging greetings with many a friend and neighbour all bent in the same direction with “holiday” written in dress and beaming face, “as to Xersmas time aw dunnot think th’ reason’s far to seek. There’s th’ frost an’ snow, an’ th’ log o’ th’ fire, an’ th’ waits, an’ th’ bells ringing an’ ros’ beef an’ th’ plum pudding—oh! Jerusalem—an’ ivverybody stoppin’ yo’ an’ shakkin’ hands, an’ wishin’ yo’ a Merry Xersmas an’ a Happy New Year, an’ lookin’ as if they meant it. Why, the very robin ’at hops i’ th’ hedge seems to know its Xersmas time. An’ so, somehow, it’s nat’ral to tak’ a drop, an’, maybe, a drop too much at Xersmas. But as for th’ Wakes, now, when aw come to think on ’t, guise hang me if aw know what they’re for or how they come about at all. But yo’ll know, aw’ll be bun, for thi’ yead seems to be stuffed wi’ all sorts o’ lumber ’at’s nowt to do wi’ weavin’ gooid broad cloth. What is th’ Wakes, anyway, Abel?”

“Well, now, you know, Jim, it’s but a junketting and holiday-making. But it is held on St. Chad’s Day, and St. Chad was the patron saint of the old Church at Saddleworth. In the old evil Catholic times the monks used to wake all the night dedicated to St. Chad to burn candles and pray before the altar. And the people gathered rushes from the marshes and brook sides and brought them with great rejoicings to strew upon the mud floors of the Church. Then they made merry in token of their gratitude to God for planting His Church in their midst. But now all that was good and wholesome has died away, and all we’ve left is a senseless debauch, or so my father says.”

“An’ wi’ all respect to yo’r worthy father, who’s a preicher hissen an’ bound to improve th’ occasion in season an’ out o’ season, aw’st tak’ leave to differ fro’ him. It’s a poor heart that nivver rejoices. Here’s you an’ me, an’ nearly every man Jack on us i’ all this Valley, toilin’ an’ moilin’ fro’ daybreak till sunset, an’ often ovvertime, little ’uns an’ big ’uns, it mak’s no differ. An’ when we’n done us wark we’re so tired ’at we’re fain to crawl to bed. It’s all bed an’ wark, wark an’ bed, except o’ Sundays, an’ even o’ Sundays some folk ’ud have us wark harder nor o’ warkdays, what wi’ Chapel o’ mornin’ an’ Chapel o’ th’ neet, an’ Sunday Schooil, an’ prayer meetin’s, an’ experience meetin’s, an’ Bible classes. Why, man, if it weren’t for Xersmas an’ th’ Wakes an’ Whissund there’d be nother life nor colour nor a gleam o’ sunshine in all th’ long life on us.”

“Perhaps when this new Reform Bill comes—.” I began for I was by way of being a budding politician.

“Reform Bill!” snorted Jim. “There’s only one mak’ o’ politics for th’ working man:

‘Fear God an’ honour the King,

Eit thi porridge an’ howd thi din.’

But see yo’, yonder’s th’ rush cart. Let’s after it.”

And the rush-cart sure enough it was—a great wain from which the shafts had been removed stout ropes being substituted, with stangs across six in all, and to each stang two stout young fellows: all gay in rosetted knee-breeches and with streamers of bright colours fluttering from their jaunty caps. And on the waggon was piled a huge cone of rushes cunningly plaited together, on whose summit perched, with precarious seat, Tim o’ Tame Water, who was regarded with fear and trembling by all the children for miles around, he being by way of being the village idiot, though, when I come to think of it, a man who can make a fairish living without doing a handstroke of work from January to December may not be quite such a fool as he’s reckoned. Tim was furnished with a long slender wand or pole, to one end of which was tethered an old, battered tin can, the which he thrust invitingly under the noses of the men and women who watched the progress of the rush-cart. And the coppers rattled in gaily and freely, for who so mean as to begrudge a penny’s fee to the burly lads who had scoured the countryside to gather the rushes, whose deft hands had plaited the reedy pyramid, and who now grunted and sweated behind the stangs as, swaying from side to side of the road, now lifting the stans above their heads, now bending their brawny shoulders to the strain, they drew the creaking wain towards the door of the Church. Old men and withered beldames stood on their dorsteps to watch the throng pass by, and I doubt not drew disparaging comparisons between the rush-cart of that day and those they had danced behind so trippingly when they were young and light of foot and heart; comely matrons dandled their babes in their arms, and held them aloft that their chubby fists might drop a coin into the rattling tin; sturdy urchins dodged about the labouring wheels of the groaning cart in a way to bring your heart into your mouth, till you remembered that a special Providence watches over drunken men and children; and, fairest sight of all, the pretty young lasses, all donned in their Sunday best, and wearing fragrant nosegays of every hue under the sun, ran by the waggon side with many a lilt of rustic melody.

Following in the rear of the rush-cart, amid a jeering crowd, rode a man and his wife—their names and habitations I cared not to inquire—who were being “stanged”. The man rode behind his better, very much the better, half, with his face towards the tail of the sorry beast that bore this wretched couple. And as it plodded heavily through the throng the lads and lasses, aye, and even silly grown-up folk who ought to have had more sense, shouted the old nominy, “With a ran, tan, tan, on my old tin can, owd Betty”—I did not catch the name—”and her good man. She banged him, she banged him, for spending a penny when he stood in need, she up with a three-footed stool; she struck him so hard, she cut him so deep, till the blood ran down like a new stuck sheep.”

“What a burning shame!” I said to Jim, “to shame the poor folk so.”

“Not a bit on it,” laughed Jim. “It’s all in the fun o’ the fair. They’ll plaster their wounded feelings for ’em wi’ lashings o’ ale. I expect it’s a put up job.”

And so we went along the highway, past the stalls where nuts, and brandysnap, and humbugs, and peppermint, and all the sorts of goodstuffs you can think of made your money burn in your pocket; past the Aunt Sallies and cocoanut shies—three shies a penny—and the weighing machines and thumping machines—I remembered that last Wakes Jim, being pressed to try his strength, had struck so shrewd a buffet that the indicator whirled all over the brazen face of the dial, and for anything I know is whirling yet, and sent the machine itself staggering across the road—past the pea saloons, and past the booths of the bearded woman and the learned pig, aye, even past Tom Wild’s great show, despite the allurements of an elderly-young lady, whom only two years ago I had counted as fairer than Venus herself, if indeed she was not that goddess incarnate, but upon whom I now looked with cold and critical eye as she paced the platform in front of the booth in pink tights and skirts of gauze that had once been white. “A brazen hussy,” I heard many an honest mother comment to her admiring daughter, “’oo ought to be ashamed o’ hersen, barein’ her legs i’ that fashion for all the world to see.” And so in merry fit we came at length to the Church Inn at Saddleworth, before whose hospitable doors the rush-cart came to a halt, the lads threw down their stangs right gladly, wiped their streaming brows on their coat sleeves, and called lustily for quarts of ale. Tim o’ Tame Water pouched the contents of the collecting-tin, and made his way within doors to change the coppers into less bulky coinage and to apportion the spoil among those who had furnished forth the cart.

Jim looked on, somewhat gloomily, I thought.

“Aw wish aw had yet aw’m fain aw didn’t,” he vouchsafed.

“Wish you’d what?” I queried.

“Wish aw’d weighed in wi’ th’ rush-cart. They wanted me to, but th’ owd mother were agin it. Aw’ll be bun they’ll finger a matter o’ haulf a guinea apiece out o’ this year’s Rush. It beats goin’ out wi’ th’ waits at Xersmas time, an’ as for goin’ a wassailing at th’ New Year, why, that’s babby work. To be sure it’s harder work, tho’ aw could tug that owd cart, rushes an’ all, awmost by missen on a pinch, but then, look yo, it’s warmer work, an’, by gosh, a felly nivver knows how nice a gallon o’ ale can taste till he’s poo’d a rush-cart fro’ Woolroad to th’ Church. Aw’ve heard tell o’ a chap at used to put ki-an on salt herrings so’s he could enjoy his liquor more, but aw’t back a rush-cart agen th’ best ki-an ivver come out o’ a pepper-box lid. But then, on t’ other hand, if aw’d had th’ fingering o’ another hauf guinea, besides what we’n getten o’ our own, aw should happen ha’ ended up whur aw see Neddy Thurkill is by now. It’s a weary an’ a contrary world, Abel, when yo’ can see six things for a thing an’ just hauf a dozen agin it.”

“Why, what of Neddy Thurkill?” I asked, with quick misgiving.

Now Ned was our dyer, and a very good dyer, too; but never a Saturday night came round but he was turned out of the Hanging Gate at Diggle, maudlin drunk, and half his good wages gone in drink. He spent Sunday in bed mending the clocks and watches of the villagers, and he was as good a clock doctor as he was a dyer.

Jim jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the church, just opposite the inns and going to the door and pressing my way through a hustling, jeering crowd, I made my way to the space by the eastern wall of the churchyard, where stood the village stocks, and in them, in drunken gravity, with a churchwarden pipe brandished in one hand, and brandishing a pewter pot half full of ale in the other sat Neddy Thurkill. I turned away sadly enough for a better workman and a better hearted fellow than Ned never breathed, but for just this one fault and that a big one. I found Jim in the front room, which was crowded by a thirsty throng all clamouring for something to wash the dust out of their throats. I ordered my modest draught and managing by great good fortune to secure a seat on a settle near the window gazed moodily on the scene without.

To tell the truth I was somewhat out of element in that crowded room of jovial roysterers. Though not averse to a kindly quencher after a long walk, I saw neither rhyme nor reason in guzzling mighty draughts of ale just for the sake of “getting forrader,” and I’d outgrown my boyish affection for nuts and brandysnap, and swing-boats and dobby-horses made me sick, and fat women, even when bearded, had lost their pristine charm. My thoughts wandered from the scene that my eyes gazed upon but scarcely saw, and I fell to musing idly about my strange acquaintance, the recluse of Deanhead, and I reproached myself for having been beguiled from my first intent to visit him in his hour of lonely sickness. I’d have been glad enough to shake the dust of the Wakes from my feet and hie me over the moors to the lonely cottage, or rather hovel, which was all the poor old hermit had to call a home. But I was under solemn vow to watch over the potations of that good natured giant, Jim, whose hearty voice I could distinguish even in that Babel, calling on all and sundry to come and “sup”. I calculated that at his present rate of progression his few shillings would soon be gone, and I made up my mind to slip out presently and expend my little stock in the “fairings” for Mary and one or two of the mill girls and neighbours’ children, that I might in all truth assure Jim I was spent up when he came, as come I knew he would, to see if I could replenish his exhausted exchequer. Then we’d have to go home, Jim willy-nilly.

Bent on this goodly strategy, I made my way with no little difficulty along the narrow passage that led to the outer door, and stood a space upon the steps, glad to breathe again the air that stole down from Pots and Pans, and tasted all the sweeter after the mingled fumes of twist tobacco and stale ale of the room I had quitted. My slight elevation enabled me to see across and above the throng, and across the square and hard by the stocks I saw a sight that roused me smartly from my somewhat abstracted mood. I saw the two well-known gamekeepers that all the countryside knew as Bill o’ Jack’s, and Tom o’ Bill’s, William Bradbury and Tom, his son, men of bad repute, wenchers and ale-bibbers, and never so happy as when they could get some poor devil of a weaver into trouble with his betters for snaring a rabbit or bagging a bird. Tom was a fine upstanding fellow enough, but his father had an evil face, full of malice and guile. It was a common saying that Bill made the bullets and Tom shot them. But I’d no time just then for dwelling on family characteristics. I heard a scream and a voice, a young and sweet, pure voice, that cried, “Let me be, let me be.”

“Not till I’ve had a kiss, my bonnie gipsy wench.”

“Never, never; let me be, I say.”

“Jim,” I cried with all my might and main, “Jim, I want you”; and I was through that crowd, how I never knew.

And in the centre of a circle of jeering, laughing fools, that seemed to take what was passing as part of the fun of the fair, was Tom o’ Bill’s, flushed with drink and his exertions, in whose arms panted and struggled a young lass of some nineteen years.

She was somewhat fantastically dressed in a long scarlet cloak, and her skirt was shorter by an inch or two than a modest maiden’s should be. She wore no headgear, and her long lustrous hair, black as midnight and with ripples that just escaped being curls, fell in wild confusion about a face of purest oval and over a pair of eyes that now gleamed with mingled terror and passion as she panted and writhed in the clasp of the burly gamekeeper, beating with small, brown, clenched fist the mocking lips he sought to press to hers. Near by another woman, an old, dishevelled hag, shrieked, and swore, and hit, and scratched, and kicked in the grasp of that drunken reprobate, Bill Bradbury. She, too, I guessed, was a gipsy, and it was clear she was striving to help the younger woman, while Bill urged his son:

“Stick to it, Tom. I’ll hold the old bitch. Ha’ your will o’ the young ’un.”

“By your leave, no,” I cried, as I inserted my right hand in Tom’s neck gear, and with a sudden wrench sent him reeling on his heels into the crowd. “You’ll reckon with me first.”

“And who the hell are you?” he spluttered, as he recovered his balance. “Oh! it’s th’ parson’s lad o’ Pole Moor. Well, I’ve a score to settle with th’ owd ‘chart-i’-heaven, an’ I reckon I may as well pay it th’ young whelp.” And he came for me with a leap his arm crooked for a blow, and his huge fist clenched.

“A feight a feight,” cried the mob. “Make a ring, and fair do’s.”

A hurried glance showed me the girl, still panting and trembling, and arranging the folds of her disordered dress about a heaving bosom, clinging to the old beldam whom Bill had cast roughly from him when I sent his son whirling.

Now I’m no fighting man, and never was. I had no more notion of the noble art of self-defence than a boy perforce picks up in his schooldays’ scrimmages. Moreover, my reverend father had always impressed upon me that if an adversary smote me on one cheek it was my Christian duty to turn to him the other also. But that was a doctrine I had always regarded as a counsel of perfection, and clearly, unless I had mind to be pounded to a jelly, which I certainly had not, this was no occasion for its practical application, for Tom o’ Bill’s fists were hovering about my head and chest, and I’d much ado to keep clear of them. Of course the odds seemed all against me, for your gamekeeper is ever at home in a brawl.

But I was young and active, my brain and eye were clear, and I was as hard as pin-wire, whilst Tom had been keeping up the Wakes to some tune, and, though the drink had fired his blood, it served neither to steady his arms nor his legs. So I held my own fairly well, though I was conscious that my lips were beginning to swell and an eye to close up; and I think, maybe, I should have come off a little more than conqueror, as my father would have said, had not the old man, despite the protestations of the crowd which cried shame on him, joined in the fray and fetched me a sounding blow on the jowl that made the world spin round me. I almost lost consciousness, and beat my arms feebly in some sort of show of attack, and then became aware in a mazed sort of way that the tide of war had changed. For there was Jim, good old Jim, bristling and growling like a mighty mastiff, by my side. He had dealt Tom a blow that must have been like the kick of a stallion, and just as my senses cleared I saw him pick up the shrieking, cursing Bill o’ Jack’s, raise him high above his head, and hurl him a dozen yards or more into the midst of the cheering crowd.

Tom o’ Bill’s lay on one elbow on the ground his nose streaming, and spitting out his front teeth. “Do yo’ want any more? There’s plenty wheer that came fro’,” quoth Jim to Tom.

But Tom picked himself and, muttering “Yo’st both on yo’ pay for this,” limped off crest fallen.

“And nah, lad, we’st best be going whom. I’m spent up an’ awve fuffen,(fought) an’ if that doesn’t mak’ a gooid Wakes aw dunnot know what does. But what about these wenches here? Dost know ’em?”

Now I thought I did. I turned to the younger of the two.

“Aren’t you Burnplatters?” I asked.

She cast down her head, and a hot flush suffused her face.

“Yes, no, that is my grandmother…”

“I thought I’d seen the old lady our way,” I explained. “Well, if I may make so free, you’d better be making your way toward Slaithwaite, for yon two are ugly customers, and it is best you kept out of their way. So, by your leave, Jim and I will set you on your road.”

“Oh, please, don’t trouble. Granddam and I are used to taking care of ourselves. And oh! how can I thank you?”

“Thank Jim,” I said. “Come along, if you don’t mind. It’s a tidy step over Stanedge, and the night draws in betimes these days.”

So without more ado I took charge of the maiden, whose fluttering hand rested confidingly on my arm. Jim followed me with the elder woman as we made our way through the crowd.

“Tha’s getten a sweetheart at last,” I heard a young mill lass cry to Jim. “An’ a beauty oo is to be sure. Yo’ll noan be feart o’ her layin’ away, that’s one comfort.”

Jim disdained retort, and as we drew away from the Wakes, and the twain plodded steadily in our rear, I heard him more than once suggest to the poor old woman that they’d get on faster if he carried her on his back.

As for my companion she wrapped herself in reserve, replying in monosyllables to my clumsy efforts to draw her into conversation. I gleaned, however, that her name was Miriam, and that she lived at Burnplatts with her grandmother. They had come to the Wakes to sell those little penny whisks of heather which housewives use for dusting, and I don’t think I was far wrong in guessing that the old lady had hoped to turn a copper or two by telling the fortunes of those swains and maids who were willing to cross her palm with the accustomed coin. But of this Miriam said nought. We conveyed the twain through the cutting on the top of Stanedge, set them with their faces towards Pole Moor, and so took our leave. But, though I had met with little encouragement, I vowed within my heart that by hook or crook I would hold Miriam’s little brown hand in mine again.