Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

it,) and there passed the time in telling stories until we fell asleep.

Although I had struggled hard to conceal it, I had been very nigh to crying all the evening; and this unkind act of Mouldy's set me off. Í think I must have wanted very much to cry. No doubt that the slap on the cheek that Mouldy had given me would have drawn tears from my eyes at any time, but for no longer a time than the smart lasted; but now, although I scarcely felt the smart at all, I felt choked with sobs, and the tears fell faster than I could wipe them away. I couldn't leave off. I seemed bereft of all power to try even. It was as though I was full of sorrow, and must be emptied of it. It wasn't sorrow of the bellowing sort; for as I lay with my face to the waggon-floor, if it had not been for the sound of my sobbing, neither of my companions would have been aware that I was crying.

"Take that, for tellin' lies !" said he, savagely, at the same time giving me a cruel back-handed This was the way in which we spent the even-slap; "and now begin to snivel, and I'll give yer ing of the Sunday on which I was taken ill. another." Mouldy and Ripston had been out as usual in the afternoon; but I felt not at all inclined for walking, and stayed in the van until they came back. We had been lucky enough to pick up a few halfpence the night before, and had a half-quartern loaf and a pennyworth of treacle for dinner; that is to say, Ripston and Mouldy so dined; but for my part, I had no stomach for bread and treacle; indeed, I had eaten nothing since Saturday at dinner-time. I was hot and shivery; my tongue was dry, and my eyes smarted with a burning pain. I had had headache before, but never as now; it throbbed as though it was being tapped with hammers; or rather-for I very well remember the sensation-with door-knockers about which a bit of wash-leather had been tied by way of dulling the sound. There was a little straw luckily left in the van the day before, and, with more consideration than might have been expected in them, my companions let me have it all to myself. But I could get no comfort out of it. It was no use shaking it and punching it up; my head was so heavy, that as soon as I laid it down every bit of spring was taken out of the straw instantly. As it grew later I grew worse. It was my turn to be "pillow;" but Ripston kindly offered to take my place, and Mouldy, with an equal show of goodnature, insisted on my taking Ripston's body part, although the choice was fairly with him, he having been "pillow" the previous night. They even went to bed an hour before their usual time, in order that I might lie comfortably.

But Ripston couldn't stand it. My head, he declared, scorched him through his jacket and waistcoat, and made his ribs too hot for him to bear; besides, I shook so as to cause his legs to move, and to disturb Mouldy. Although a very fair-tempered boy in the day-time-indeed, whenever he was awake—when he was half-asleep he was about as nasty-tempered a chap as can well be imagined. He gave the calf of Ripston's leg a severe and sudden punch.

"Wot's that for ?" inquired the naturally indignant Ripston.

"I'll show yer wot it's for if you don't lay still -jiggin' yer leg about as if you was practisin' a hornpipe !" replied Mouldy, savagely.

"Well, jest you hit the right 'un next time," said Ripston. "It ain't me jiggin' at all; it's

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It was one of the oddest fits of crying that ever happened to me or any other boy, I believe. Ever since that day when I had seen my father and his neighbour looking out for me in Covent Garden Market, I had resolved to think no more about home, but go on free and easy as it were, and taking matters just as they came. When on the night of the day on which I had seen him from between the chinks of the gooseberry sieves with the donkey whip in his hand, and heard what he had to say about me, when I lay down in the van that night, I reckoned up the whole business, and, as I at the time thought, settled it for good and all. "Now look here," I had said to myself, "you've seen your father and you've heard him, and there's no sort of doubt as to what you'll get if you goes home. Are you going home? Certainly not. Very well, then; that's a settler. If you are not going home, you've got to do as other people do; and it's no use funking, and making yourself miserable about them that don't care a pin's head about you, and are only waiting to lay hold on you, to whack you within an inch of your life. So let's have no more snivelling and whispering, 'Good night, father, and little Polly,' and saying your prayers to yourself like a sneak, and all the while pretending to listen to the jolly good story Mouldy's telling." From that night my heart seemed set to freezing, as one may say, and it had been freezing ever since; so that, until and within the last day or two, any moderate weight of rascality might slide over it smooth and slick, and without the least danger of breaking in at a soft part. It was frozen over strongly enough almost to bear anything. Now, however, there was a thaw. The rain had come, and the frost was broken up completely. The thaw seemed to begin right at the core, softening my hard starved-up little heart, setting it free, and swelling and heaving in a manner that was altogether too much for me.

Likewise it was too much for Mouldy. True to his word, that if I set up a snivelling he would give me another, he once more flung up his open hand and caught me a harder spank even than the first one. Ripston immediately fired up with a degree of pluck that did him honour.

"The gallus brute!" he exclaimed, meaning Mouldy, who, as I before have said, was a bigger and a stronger boy than either of us-" the gal

lus brute! to punch a poor cove wot's littler than he is, and ill too! Don't lay there, Smiffield, old boy! get up and help us; we'll jolly soon give him wot he wants."

"Mustard plasters is good for wheezin's at the chest; ain't they, Mouldy ?" "Werry likely."

"I recollects havin' one on when I was a kid. I wonder how much mustard he'd take, Mouldy? A pen'orth 'ud do, I should think; he ain't got a werry big chest."

"Not a bit; the shops is all shut up, 'cept the doctors'-they keeps open on Sundays, don't you know ?"

And without waiting for my assistance, Ripston turned back his cuffs and began dancing round Mouldy with a determination that seemed fairly to stagger him. But I was in no mind for Mouldy was strangely inattentive to his comfighting, and tried to make matters up between panion's conversation. To Ripston's last obserthem, assuring them that I was not crying be-vation he made no reply at all. After a pause of cause of the slap on the face; that it had not a minute or two's duration, said Ripstonhurt me at all. I was crying because I felt so "He seems to get wheezin's wuss and wuss; ill. I was glad that I did take this course, for as don't you think he do, Mouldy? Think it 'ud soon as poor Mouldy was sufficiently awake to be any good tryin' it on to beg that mustard tounderstand the true condition of affairs, he ex- night, Mouldy ?" pressed himself as penitently as a boy could. He owned that he was a precious coward, and offered me the satisfaction of hitting him on the nose as hard as I chose, while he held both his "They on'y sells pills. P'r'aps pills 'ud do hands behind him-an offer which Ripston urged him more good than mustard-eh, Mouldy? The me to accept. Finding that I would not, how-wust of pills, they've got such precious rum names ever, he was determined to make it up somehow, that a cove don't know what to arks for." so he insisted on my having his cap to lay my "Pen'orth of pills-that's what I should ask head on, and his jacket to cover me. Ripston's for." heart was good to do as much; but only the day before, while running away from the beadle, he had lost his cap, and the blue guernsey which served him for shirt as well as jacket, was, except his trousers, the whole of his wardrobe, and I could hardly expect him to oblige me to the extent of stripping himself.

But although the boys did their best to make me comfortable; letting me have all the straw to myself, and tucking me up as nicely as the bedclothes would permit, I did not feel any better. That is to say, I was hot and cold as before, and my eyelids pressed heavy and burning on my eyes, and my tongue was parched, and my breath came short and laboured. I did feel better though, somehow, since I had got over my crying fit; I felt lighter, and more inclined, if I may so press it, to go easy with my illness-to lie still, and let it do just as it pleased with me.

CHAPTER XVIII.

"And s'pose the cove behind the counter said, 'What sort of pills, my man?'” "Then I should say, openin' uns," replied Mouldy, after a little consideration. "I never thought of that. I s'pose they all are openin' uns ?"

"I never heard of a sort that different was expected on," replied Mouldy, with the same sort of indifference in his tone as had distinguished his manner from the first. He seemed all the while to be thinking of something else.

[ocr errors]

"Then that's agreed on," continued Ripston; "the fust peany we ketches hold on in the mornin' goes for pills for Smiffield. What say, Mouldy ?" But Mouldy said nothing; and both boys were quiet for full a minute. I, too, remained quite ex-quiet, for the purpose of hearing the whispered conversation going on between them. Not that I felt anxious about it. I didn't feel anxious about anything. I didn't care what they talked about, only I liked to hear them. It appeared as though Mouldy's reserved manner of speech presently roused Ripston's suspicions.

[merged small][ocr errors]

It was easy to see that each minute Mouldy and Ripston grew more and more alarmed at my condition. After they had spread the jacket over me and made me comfortable, they did not lie down again, but went and sat in the corner of the van that was farthest from me, talking in whispers.

"P'r'aps it's on'y a cold," whispered Ripston. "When a cold does reg'lar ketch hold on you, it do make you feel precious bad; don't it, Mouldy ?"

Umph!" was all the answer that Mouldy

made.

"It is a cold; don't you think it is, Mouldy ?" "It's summat, I s'pose," replied Mouldy, vaguely, and in so low a whisper that I could scarcely hear it.

"If he don't get better in the mornin', we'll have to get him some physic, Mouldy." 66 "Yes."

"Mouldy!" said he, suddenly, "if it ain't a cold, what is the matter with Smiffield ?"

"Who said it warn't a cold? How should I know what's the matter with him mor'n you?" snapped Mouldy.

[ocr errors]

Well, you know, Mouldy, you've been in the 'orspital, and you might have seen what the matter was with a good many coves," explained Ripston. "Don't you recollect anybody's case as was like his'n ?"

"You hold your jaw !" replied he, in an impatient whisper. "How do yer know as he's asleep?" "Sure he is. Don't you hear how reg'lar his wheezin's is ?"

"Yes; and I hears summat else, too," said Mouldy, moodily.

"What else?"

"I hears the straw as he's a-layin' on raspin' together. If he is asleep, he's got that precious shiverin' on him." And then, in a still lower whisper, he continued, "I wish I hadn't lent him my jacket, Rip. Jigger the cap wot he's got his head on; but I do wish I hadn't lent him my jacket."

"There you are agin!" replied Ripston, reproachfully. "I never see such a feller as you are. Greedy beggar! He'd ha' lent you his jacket, I'd bet a shillin', if you wanted it." "Lent it be jiggered! It's as good as givin' it; that's wot I'm a-lookin' at."

"What d'yer mean? You can have it back in the mornin' can't yer?" demanded Ripston.

"'Course I can," answered Mouldy. “Oh, yes! I can have it back, Rip, and I can have summat with it, Rip, which I don't pertickler want, thanky."

"Can't you open your mouth, and tell a feller what you mean?" "Hush! Here, put your head over the side, 'cos he mightn't be asleep arter all, you know, and it might frighten him."

So they both rose softly, and leaned their heads over the side of the van. Somehow, however, my hearing was particularly sharp that night, and I could make out all that they said as plainly almost as though they had stooped down to whisper it.

"Was you ever waxinated, Rip ?"

'I was so, and got the places to prove it. But wot's that got to do with Smiffield ?"

"Well, you see, Rip, I never was waxinated, so I shall stay up at this end of the wan till the mornin'. You're all right, old boy, and may sleep along with him if you likes; bein' waxinated, you won't catch it."

"Catch what?"

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

an awful voice.

"'Cos they goes cranky, and tears all their hair off if they don't," replied Mouldy.

"Lor'! jes fancy poor Smiffield dyin'!" said Ripston, after a few moments' silence. "Poor old Smiff !"

I could scarcely credit my ears, but there could be no mistake about it-Ripston was crying.

I wasn't alarmed-I wasn't even surprised-to hear Mouldy say that I had the fever. Nor did my indifference arise from ignorance. I felt as ill as possible; and "the fever," being the very worst complaint I had ever heard of, seemed to be exactly the proper name for my ailment. "The fever " was very common in Fryingpan Alley. It was never spoken of any other way than as "the fever," and when it once made a settlement in the alley, a good time for Mr. Crowl was sure to follow. But even when I thought on my ailment as one which commonly killed those whom it seized--and for an instant the awful, gaping bullfinch, with his spears, appeared to my mind's eyes-I felt in no dread. I wanted nothing, but to be let alone-not to be moved, or touched, or spoken to. I was glad to hear both Ripston and Mouldy moving to the other end of the van.

Crouching down together, they went on whispering; but I didn't try to make out what they were saying; I didn't care. Besides the buzzing of their voices, I could hear all the other sounds,the laughing, and talking, and swearing of the lads tossing and playing cards; the dull tramping of feet; and the flapping of waggon tail-boards and the clinking of the chains as the lodgers climbed up to their roosts. By degrees, however, these last-mentioned sounds grew less and less, and presently ceased altogether. Still I could hear the low buzz, buzz, of the two boys, and knew that they were not asleep. I was glad of it, for within the last half-hour or so I had grown terribly thirsty, and sorely wanted a drink of water. I called Mouldy.

"You awake, Mouldy ?"

"All right, old boy! we won't go to sleep," he answered.

"Could you get me a drink of water, Mouldy ?" "There!" whimpered Ripston; "what a jolly fool you are, Mouldy! Now you've started him. Why didn't you do as I nudged yer to, and pretend to be asleep?"

"Could I get you a drink of water, Smiffy! How could I, old boy?" replied Mouldy, soothingly. "Where am I to get it from ?"

"Couldn't you get us a drop from the pump out in the strand, Mouldy-jest a little drop?"

"Cert'in'y I could go to the pump, Smiffy; but what's the use, when I ain't got nothink to carry it in-no mug nor nothink? You keep quiet till mornin'-about five, don't you know when the waggon chanson get ir horses out; you shall have a precious lot then as much as ever you can drink?

Qa! I cant wait till five, Moully. I can't wait at all. I shall go out of my mind if I have to wait ever such a little while feel all scorchedpa drink. Don't say wait till five, Mouldy

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

Well, I don't warnt to say it if you don't like hear it, Smiffy; it's true that's wot made me

say it."

What's the time now, Mouldy?"

"It's about one. Don't you think so, Ripston ?" "Jest about. It's high tide at one, and I can heat it beatin' agin the wall. Don't you hear it, Smiffield ?"

I was terribly thirsty; and listening, I could make out the noise of the rising river striking with a full, cold sound against the wall at the bottom. It was a delicious sound. I did not think of the river at night, black and muddy, and bleak, as it really was. I could hear the plashing, and my fevered mind conjured up the picture of the river as I had seen it on the morning following my first night under the dark arches,— the sunshiny, rippling river, with the hay barge lazily floating along. To go down to the brink of it and drink was the consuming thought that suddenly possessed me. Why not? I knew my way, and wanted neither cup nor jug. I could lay down on the wall of the wharf, and bending my head over, drink, and drink as much as I pleased. I got up, and began climbing over the waggon side. It was so dark that my companions could not see me; they could hear me, however, and by the time I had got one leg over the side, Ripston had clutched and was clinging to the other.

[ocr errors]

"Why, Smiffield!" he exclaimed, in a fright

ened and half-crying voice, "Hallo, old matey! I may be due to my two poor little ragamuffin where was you goin' ?" partners, after all.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

"Yes there is," I replied, struggling to get away from Ripston; you said so. You said that it was high tide; and I'm goin' down to the river."

"Oh no, you ain't!" whimpered Ripston, tugging frantically at my leg. "You ain't a-goin' arter water; you're a-goin' down to the river to drownd yerself! You're a-goin' out of your mind, just like Mouldy has been sayin' you would; and you wants to chuck yourself into the river. Do come, Mouldy! Ketch hold on his hand with a bit of my guernsey, if you are frightened; on'y do come, and help me to make him lay down agin."

But Mouldy was not to be persuaded. It was evident that he thought a great deal either about not being vaccinated, or about the possibility of my being mad, and capable of doing him an injury by biting. Anyhow, he kept his position at the further end of the van, from whence he addressed me :

"Wot are you up to, Smiffield? D' yer want to rouse up the whole arches an' set 'em agin us? D' yer want to bring the peelers, which 'll be here directly, pokin' an' pryin' about our wan to see wot's the matter ?"

"I only want some water, Mouldy."

"Well, and who said as yer shouldn't have any? leastways, I cert'n'y said so myself, but I didn't mean it, Smiffield. I will get yer some. "You lay down as Ripston wants yer to, an' I'll go an' get yer some water."

"Oh, ah! I knows yer!" exclaimed Ripston, suddenly suspicious of Mouldy's motives. "You're a-goin' to hook it, that's what you're goin' to do. It's all rubbish about your goin' to get water; you're a-goin' to leave me to look arter him best way I can."

I must say that I was much of the same opinion as Ripston; but we both misjudged the honest fellow.

"You wait jest a minnit, an' you'll see all about my cuttin' away an' leavin' yer," said he, dropping over the side of the van.

"But what have yer got to fetch water in ?" Ripston called after him.

"It's all right, Itell yer. You lay down, Smiffield, and I'll fetch yer a drink in my cap; there !"

[ocr errors]

Mouldy kept his word. I lay down on my straw again; and he took the cap my head had been resting on, and presently could be heard picking his way towards the river. It was a good step in the day, and when you had a glimmer of light to help you, and to save you from stumbling over things; but now, in the pitchy dark, it was as good as double as far, and more than ten times as dangerous, for the carts and things were not put in in a very regular way, and you might come full butt against a wheel where you expected to find a clear passage. Mouldy was, however, lucky enough to get along with very little bungling, and in what Ripston said was less than three minutes, (it seemed twenty to me, I was so eager for him to come back with the water,) we could hear his steps shuffling quicker and quicker, lest what he had been to fetch should dribble all away before he got it home. However, he managed very well; the cap, though an old one, was sound, and so greasy as to be nearly waterproof, and when he gave it up to Ripston over the side there must have been fully a pint in it. In about five long gulps I drank it off, and then lying down again fell into a sleep so full of little bits and tags of dreams that it was like being awake, and lost in a crowd in a foreign country, and which lasted till Ripston roused me by shaking me, and told me I must turn out, as the carman was getting the horses out of the stable.

I tried to do as Ripston asked, but couldn't. I could sit up, but when I tried to use my legs I couldn't get any stiffness into my knees, and I slid down again, grazing my elbows.

"Now then, young fellows," said the carman, "tumble out; I ain't got no time to waste, I can tell you."

"Please, sir, here's one as can't tumble out," said Mouldy, who, rather than come near me, was peeping in through the rails at the back of the van.

"How d' ye mean, can't tumble out?" asked the carman.

"Well, he might tumble out, guv'nor, and that's about all he's ekal to. I'm jiggered if he can climb out!"

"What the d-1 do you mean?" asked the carman, locking the stable door, and coming forward in a mighty hurry with his lantern. "Why can't he get out? He got in, didn't he?"

"He complains of his legs bein' nummy, sir, and he can't stand," observed Ripston, pleadingly. "Would you mind givin' him a lift out, if you please?"

"Yes, I'll thunderin' soon give him a lift out such a one as he won't forget in a hurry, I promise you."

And so saying, the gruff carman, with the lan tern in his hand, leapt into the van. "Out you

I was willing enough. I have thought many times since, that both Mouldy and Ripston no doubt thought that I had a narrow squeak of doing a very horrible thing, and were very thankful in their own minds that they were able to persuade me from going down to the river. True, the cold wind off the water blow-come, you lazy young whelp !" said he; but just ing on me when so full of fever might have as the words were out of his mouth he flashed caused my death as surely as drowning. Then the lantern light on to my face, and he inagain, I might, while groping in the dark, have mediately altered his tune. slipped in; and if I had, it would have been all over with me, for when the river is full there is enough water under the wall there to have drowned me had I been ten feet high instead of barely four; so, considering everything, my thanks that I am still in the land of the living

"Lor' A'mighty, young 'un!" he exclaimed. "Why, how long has this been?"

"It's been a-comin' on since yesterday arternoon," replied Ripston; "we didn't know as how it had come on as strong as that, though, mister; 'cos we couldn't see him."

"Where does he live? You must get him home somehow," said the carman.

Where was the use of telling him? "If I could only collar hold on him, he wouldn't run away agin for one while," were among the last words I had heard my father say; and was it likely that he would feel more tenderly disposed towards me now? It would have been bad enough to have been collared hold of when I was well, and could get out of the way of the whacks a bit; but, now that I couldn't even so much as stand, it would be ten times worse. "D' ye hear, young 'un?" repeated the carwhereabouts do you live when you're at

[ocr errors]

man; home ?"

But I made no answer, pretending not to hear him.

"Don't either of you chaps know where he lives ?"

There were no secrets between us. Each one knew where the other's home was, together with the full particulars of his reasons for abandoning the same; but we were bound by the most terrific oaths never to split on each other. A suspicion, however, that mine might possibly be regarded as an exceptional case seemed to occur to Mouldy, and as the carman asked the question, he

about me. Then going to his horses' heads, he led them out of the arches, Ripston sitting down beside me as I lay in the van.

As for Mouldy, afraid as he was of the terrible "fever," he couldn't leave me without a parting friendly word. I heard him hauling himself up at the tail-board, and looking that way, saw his dirty sympathising face peering sadly between the rails.

[ocr errors]

Good-bye, Smiffield," said he. "Mister," (this to the carman,) “there's a jacket wot he's covered over with; it's mine; tell the work'us to take care of it for him 'ginst he comes out. Lord bless you, old Smiff! Cheer up, old son !" And he suddenly vanished.

Ripston remained in the van until we turned out of the arches into Hungerford; then he gave my hot hand a squeeze, and with his lips pressed tightly together, looked at me, and nodded in a very meaning and hearty manner, tucked the horse-cloth about me, and without a word dropped over the tail-board, and was gone.

CHAPTER XIX.

directed at me an inquiring glance to that effect. IN WHICH, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF DOCTOR

But I returned his look with one of a sort that made him comprehend my wishes on the subject instantly.

"He lives here," Mouldy replied.

"Yes; but where does he come from?"

"He lives here, and he grubs here, and he sleeps here, same as we do-same as all on us," persisted Mouldy.

"I know all about that; but where's his home? where does his father and mother live? Come, now."

"He ain't got no home of that there kind that ever I heard tell of; did you, Ripston ?"

"No, nor yet no father nor mother," replied his confederate; "he's a horfen, that's wot he is."

"Poor little beggar," said the carman, looking down on me pityingly; "well, he'll die if he's left here, that's certain; he's more than half dead now, I believe."

[ocr errors]

"Wouldn't a couple of pills set him right, don't you think, mister ?" inquired Ripston, solicitously; a couple of good strong openin' uns? If as you would be so kind as to lend us a penny to buy 'em with, we would give it you back"

"What stuff! he's past pills by a very long way," interrupted the honest carman. ""Tain't no business of mine, of course, but I haven't got the heart to leave him here. Shall I take you to the work'us, young 'un?"

I didn't care where-anywhere but home to Fryingpan Alley. I felt too weak to speak, so I nodded "Yes" to the carman's question.

"I'm jolly well sure to get a bullying from the work'us for my pains," continued he; "never mind-they can't refuse to take you. Here, Toby," (he always called Mouldy "Toby," not knowing his other name,) "unbuckle the cloth off the near side mare, and chuck it up here."

Mouldy did as he was desired; and the good carman, first taking the precaution to light his pipe, and take half-a-dozen good pulls at it, wrapped the great warm horse-cloth tenderly

FLINDERS, I MANAGE TO CHEAT

THE WORMS.

I QUIT THE WORKHOUSE WITH MUCH LESS
CEREMONY THAN I ENTERED IT.

My good friend the carman was not far wrong in his anticipations that his interference in my behalf would not be gratefully regarded by the workhouse authorities.

He dared not

Objection met him at the gate. admit me without an order, the porter said, and intimated to the carman that his best plan would be to take me back to where he had found me; at the same time broadly hinting his disbelief in the story from first to last, and his opinion that I was the carman's own boy, whom he found it convenient to get rid of. Goaded by these insinuations, my friend expressed his determination to leave me on the workhouse steps, and go about his business. But to this course the policeman demurred, and threatened to take the carman to the station-house, and impound his waggon and horses if he attempted so to desert me.

After half-an-hour of this sort of sparring, the master of the workhouse made his appearance, and overwhelmed the unlucky carman with perplexing questions. Did I belong to that parish? Did the carman bring me on his own account, or on account of his master, whose address the van bore? My friend informed the great man that he had brought me on no one's account, but purely out of humanity, and detailed as much as he knew of me-how that his master's van was placed at night under the Adelphi dark arches, and how that, to his knowledge, I had slept in the same for several months. But this explanation, so far from simplifying matters, made them worse. It was clear, the master said, that my occupancy and tenancy of the carter's van or premises gave me a claim on the parish in which the said carter resided and paid poor-rates; that the master was bound by the acts of his servant; and that if I was admitted, it would only be on agreement that the Bedfordbury carter paid for my maintenance.

« AnteriorContinuar »