Up among the larches a faint
chopping
sound could
just be heard, irregular but persistent.
just be heard, irregular but persistent.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v20 - Phi to Qui
The
dentist "from Paris," established with great pomp on his un-
horsed carriage, a huge case of instruments in the front, held
firmly on the seat a peasant adorned with a swelled face, and
informed the public that he was going to extract the tooth with
## p. 11945 (#579) ##########################################
JULES QUESNAY DE BEAUREPAIRE
11945
the same instrument that he used for crowned heads. At a little
distance long tables were spread under sheds, charged with cider
and strong-smelling drinks. The landlord's assistant had to make
way with his elbows to the billiard table, to separate two sabot-
makers who were settling a doubtful game with a fight.
"Do you enjoy the fun, my little Jacques? " said Renaud,
trying to look delighted.
"On the contrary, I am bored to death. My head aches, and
I feel sick. I like the forest ever so much better. "
But there were also fêtes in the forest. There they felt at
home, and Renaud took his little friend to all of them.
First, there was gathering the lilies-of-the-valley about Ascen-
sion Day. The fields are celebrated for their profusion from
Grez to St. Agert. Gentle and simple alike love these sweet
flowers, whose milky whiteness gleams in the shade, against the
deep green of their pointed leaves. All the idle population of
the neighboring towns crowds the forest in the charming sea-
son when the lilies burst into flower. The woods change their
aspect. Young men from town arrive with their great-coats
under their arms; young ladies sing in high soprano voices the
romances of Louisa Puget; some young men are exchanging
words of love with their sweethearts, others pursuing the objects
of their fancy. In the evening, nosegays pass from hand to
hand. The mothers follow, large and imposing, their caps ad-
orned with artificial flowers, the strings floating in the breeze.
Greasy papers cover the ground in open spaces. One hears the
bottles knock against each other in the baskets carried by means
of a walking-stick passed through the handles by some happy
couple.
On the Fête of St. Louis (August 15th) the nutting begins.
The strangers come again, and once more fill the forest with
noisy merriment. The nuts in their hairy envelopes cover the
branches. The draper's wife has stuffed her pockets with them;
the policeman has filled his basket. The priest's nephew, a cor-
poral on leave, strikes them down with a quarter-staff; the col-
lector's wife uses her yellow parasol to bend down the branches.
Some of the young men get excited, and challenge each other
to a gymnastic bout. Elsewhere they are dancing in a ring. No
one but the barber, who was formerly a waiter in Courbevoie,
refuses to take part, and replies scornfully, "I only care for reg-
ular dances. "
## p. 11946 (#580) ##########################################
11946
JULES QUESNAY DE BEAUREPAIRE
The Little Parisian draws his friend on one side.
"I don't care for this either: let's be off, brother. "
"My darling, you love the real forest, then, as much as I
do? "
"Yes, I do love it. But you don't know how I wish that
what the people said was true that dear Jean had a gun, and
we could hunt the game together. "
Renaud the Poacher trembled.
What! again this longing! How often has he cherished it
himself during the two years they have lived together!
"What are you talking about? " he broke out: "are you mad?
My gun? I swear it's broken; but why-why are you always
thinking of sport? "
The Little Parisian looks dreamily up at the green vault over
his head; he inhales the scent of the woods; he has all sorts of
wild thoughts. The mysterious thicket attracts him; he begins to
understand why he loves the Chemins-Verts. He replies:-
"I don't know if I am thinking of sport, but I long to get
deeper and deeper into the forest, to watch all that goes on, to
catch the birds on the wing. "
The dead leaves lay in heaps on the path, the wind had
blown them into ridges like the waves of the sea. He stepped
over them proudly, and threw back his head, thrilling with youth-
ful excitement, and exclaimed: -
"The forest is ours! this delicious air is ours! "
Renaud saw himself in this enthusiastic child.
## p. 11947 (#581) ##########################################
11947
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
(1863-)
HE fiction of the English writer who began by signing his lit-
erary work with the initial "Q. ," is among the most virile
and pleasing written by the younger British school. A. T.
Quiller-Couch-the full name of this author-makes stories that are
full of vigor and invention; romantic in treatment, yet realistic in
their close observation, and in the understanding sympathy with which
he studies the life of humble folk and the types and scenes of his
native country. He is a Cornishman, and has given his main atten-
tion to the people of that locality, spending
most of his time within the sound of the
Cornish seas. His novels and short tales in
spirit and method affiliate him with Barrie,
Kipling, and Stevenson, and he is little in-
ferior to them in strength and originality.
Although his literary production includes
criticism and poetry, his reputation is based
substantially on his stories. 'Dead Man's
Rock' in 1887 won him much favor, and
other books followed in due course: The
Astonishing History of Troy Town, The
Splendid Spur,' and 'The Blue Pavilions,'
historical novels; and the collections of A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
short stories entitled 'Naughts and Crosses,'
'I Saw Three Ships; and other Winter's Tales,' 'The Delectable
Duchy,' and 'Wandering Heath. ' 'Ia,' a novelette, is a tale of love
in a Cornish fishing village. Mr. Quiller-Couch's strongest novel is
the brilliant 'The Splendid Spur,' recognized by the critics as one of
the most stirring romances by a contemporaneous English novelist.
In 'The Delectable Duchy,' which is finely representative of his
short-story work, are grouped a number of Cornish tales and sketches,
exquisite for truth, pathos, and poetry, rich with feeling for the lights
and shadows in the life of the Welsh poor. The writer thus ranges
from the dramatic to the idyllic, and is successful in both veins. His
fiction as a whole is thoroughly healthy and inspiriting. The unpleas-
ant realism and the decadent pessimism of the day he stands quite
apart from.
Like R. L. Stevenson, he unites the power of making
>
## p. 11948 (#582) ##########################################
11948
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
stories instinct with adventurous interest, with a literary gift and an
insight into character which have gained him the approval of captious
critics, and made him a favorite with those who read a story for the
story's sake.
In his personality and manner of life, Quiller-Couch seems a man
of affairs and of outdoor sports rather than the traditional book-man.
He was born November 21st, 1863. His family has lived in Corn-
wall for generations, and he comes of good stock; father, uncle, and
grandfather being distinguished scientists in the fields of biology and
medicine. He was educated in various Devonshire schools, then went
up to Trinity College, Oxford. As an undergraduate he contributed
clever verse to the college paper, adopting the pseudonym "Q. " He
was and is an athlete, as one might infer from his books,- and in
his day was stroke of the college boat. He took his degree in 1887,
and was appointed classical lecturer at Trinity; but soon turned to
fiction, went to London, and joined the staff of the Speaker - Barrie
being a fellow-worker. This newspaper connection has been retained
ever since, although Mr. Quiller-Couch now lives in a charming
country house at Fowey in Cornwall. The volume 'Adventures in
Criticism' is made up of selected book reviews representing his jour-
nalistic work, which is decidedly fresh and good. The Elizabethan
anthology, The Golden Pomp,' also testifies to his reading and schol-
arship.
The work of A. T. Quiller-Couch is refutation of the charge that
the end-of-the-century in English literature has nothing to offer but
the morbid and unwholesome. He is a strong, manly writer, whose
steadily growing influence is tonic and welcome.
WHEN THE SAP ROSE: A FANTASIA
From The Delectable Duchy. Copyright 1893, by Macmillan & Co.
Α
N OLD yellow van, the "Comet," came jolting along the edge
of the downs and shaking its occupants together like peas
in a bladder. The bride and bridegroom did not mind
this much; but the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages,
who had bound them in wedlock at the Bible Christian Chapel
two hours before, was discomforted by a pair of tight boots, that
nipped cruelly whenever he stuck out his feet to keep his equi-
librium.
Nevertheless, his mood was genial; for the young people had
taken his suggestion and acquired a copy of their certificate.
## p. 11949 (#583) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11949
This meant five extra shillings in his pocket. Therefore, when
the van drew up at the cross-roads for him to alight, he wished
them long life and a multitude of children with quite a fatherly
air.
"You can't guess where I'm bound for.
It's to pay my
old mother a visit. Ah, family life's the pretty life-that ever
I should say it! "
They saw no reason why he should be cynical, more than
other men. And the bride, in whose eyes this elderly gentleman
with the tight boots appeared a rosy-winged Cupid, waved her
handkerchief until the vehicle had sidled round the hill, resem-
bling in its progress a very infirm crab in a hurry.
As a fact, the Registrar wore a silk hat, a suit of black West-
of-England broadcloth, a watch-chain made out of his dead wife's
hair, and two large seals that clashed together when he moved
His face was wide and round, with a sanguine complexion, gray
side-whiskers, and a cicatrix across the chin. He had shaved in
a hurry that morning; for the wedding was early, and took place
on the extreme verge of his district. His is a beautiful office
recording day by day the solemnest and most mysterious events
in nature. Yet, standing at the cross-roads, between down and
woodland, under an April sky full of sun and southwest wind,
he threw the ugliest shadow in the landscape.
The road towards the coast dipped-too steeply for tight
boots - down a wooded coombe; and he followed it, treading deli-
cately. The hollow of the V ahead, where the hills overlapped
against the pale blue, was powdered with a faint brown bloom,
soon to be green, an infinity of bursting buds. The larches
stretched their arms upwards, as men waking. The yellow was
out on the gorse, with a heady scent like a pineapple's; and
between the bushes spread the gray film of coming bluebells.
High up, the pines sighed along the ridge, turning paler; and
far down, where the brook ran, a mad duet was going on be-
tween thrush and chaffinch,-"Cheer up, cheer up, Queen! " "Clip,
clip, clip, and kiss me-Sweet! "—one against the other.
Now, the behavior of the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and
Marriages changed as he descended the valley. At first he went
from side to side, because the loose stones were sharp and lay
unevenly; soon he zigzagged for another purpose,-to peer into
the bank for violets, to find a gap between the trees where, by
## p. 11950 (#584) ##########################################
11950
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
bending down with a hand on each knee and his head tilted
back, he could see the primroses stretching in broad sheets to
the very edge of the pine woods. By frequent tilting his collar
broke from its stud and his silk hat settled far back on his neck.
Next he unbuttoned his waistcoat and loosened his braces; but
no, he could not skip,- his boots were too tight He looked at
each tree as he passed. "If I could only see » he muttered.
"I'll swear there used to be one on the right, just here. "
But he could not find it here,- perhaps his memory misgave
him; and presently turned with decision, climbed the low fence
on his left, between him and the hollow of the coombe, and
dropped into the plantation on the other side. Here the ground
was white in patches with anemones; and as his feet crushed
them, descending, the babel of the birds grew louder and louder.
He issued on a small clearing by the edge of the brook,
where the grass was a delicate green, each blade pushing up
straight as a spear-point from the crumbled earth.
Here were
more anemones, between patches of last year's bracken, and on
the further slope a mass of daffodils. He pulled out a pocket-
knife that had sharpened some hundreds of quill pens, and look-
ing to his right, found what he wanted at once.
It was a sycamore, on which the buds were swelling. He cut
a small twig, as big round as his middle finger, and sitting him-
self down on a barked log close by, began to measure and cut it
to a span's length, avoiding all knots. Then, taking the knife by
the blade between finger and thumb, he tapped the bark gently
with the tortoise-shell handle. And as he tapped, his face went
back to boyhood again, in spite of the side-whiskers, and his
mouth was pursed up to a silent tune.
For ten minutes the tapping continued, the birds ceased their
contention, and broke out restlessly at intervals. A rabbit across
the brook paused and listened at the funnel-shaped mouth of his
hole, which caught the sound and redoubled it.
"Confound these boots! " said the Registrar, and pulling them
off, tossed them among the primroses. They were "elastic-sides. "
The tapping ceased. A breath of the landward breeze came
up, combing out the tangle that winter had made in the grass,
caught the brook on the edge of a tiny fall, and puffed it back
six inches in a spray of small diamonds. It quickened the whole
copse. The oak saplings rubbed their old leaves one on another,
## p. 11951 (#585) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11951
as folks rub their hands, feeling life and warmth; the chestnut
buds groped like an infant's fingers; and the chorus broke out
again, the thrush leading,-"Tiurru, tiurru, chippewee; tio-tee, tio-
tee; queen, queen, que-een ! »
In a moment or two he broke off suddenly, and a honey-bee
shot out of an anemone-bell like a shell from a mortar.
For a
new sound disconcerted them—a sound sharp and piercing. The
Registrar had finished his whistle and was blowing like mad,
moving his fingers up and down. Having proved his instrument,
he dived a hand into his tail-pocket and drew out a roll, tied
around with ribbon. It was the folded leather-bound volume in
which he kept his blank certificates. And spreading it on his
knees, he took his whistle again and blew, reading his music from
the blank pages, and piping a strain he had never dreamed of.
For he whistled of Births and Marriages.
O happy Registrar! O happy, happy Registrar! You will
never get into those elastic-sides again. Your feet swell as they
tap the swelling earth, and at each tap the flowers push, the sap
climbs, the speck of life moves in the hedge-sparrow's egg; while
far away on the downs, with each tap the yellow van takes bride
and groom a foot nearer felicity. It is hard work in worsted
socks; for you smite with the vehemence of Pan, and Pan had a
hoof of horn.
The Registrar's mother lived in the fishing-village, two miles
down the coombe. Her cottage leant back against the cliff so
closely that the boys, as they followed the path above, could toss
tabs of turf down her chimney: and this was her chief annoy-
ance.
Now it was close on the dinner-hour, and she stood in her
kitchen beside a pot of stew that simmered over the wreck-wood
fire.
Suddenly a great lump of earth and grass came bouncing
down the chimney, striking from side to side, and soused into
pot, scattering the hot stew over the hearth-stone and splash-
ing her from head to foot.
Quick as thought, she caught up a besom and rushed out
around the corner of the cottage.
"You stinking young adders! " she began.
A big man stood on the slope above her.
«< Mother, cuff my head, that's a dear. I couldn' help doin' it. "
## p. 11952 (#586) ##########################################
11952
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
It was the elderly Registrar. His hat, collar, tie, and waist-
coat were awry; his boots were slung on the walking-stick over
his shoulder; stuck in his mouth and lit was a twist of root-fibre,
such as country boys use for lack of cigars, and he himself had
used forty years before.
The old woman turned to an ash color, leant on her besom,
and gasped.
"William Henry! "
"I'm not drunk, mother: been a Band of Hope these dozen
years. "
He stepped down the slope to her and bent his head
low. "Box my ears, mother, quick! You used to have a wonder-
ful gift o' cuffin'. "
"William Henry, I'm bound to do it or die. "
"Then be quick about it. "
Half laughing, half sobbing, she caught him a feeble cuff,
and next instant held him close to her old breast. The Registrar
disengaged himself after a minute, brushed his eyes, straightened
his hat, picked up the besom, and offered her his arm. They
passed into the cottage together.
THE PAUPERS
From The Delectable Duchy. ' Copyright 1893, by Macmillan & Co.
I
οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον,
ἢ ὅθ᾽ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον
ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή *
RⓇ
OUND the skirts of the plantation, and half-way down the hill,
there runs a thick fringe of wild cherry-trees. Their white
blossom makes, for three weeks in the year, a pretty con-
trast with the larches and Scotch firs that serrate the long ridge
above; and close under their branches runs the line of oak rails
that marks off the plantation from the meadow.
A laboring-man came deliberately round the slope, as if fol-
lowing this line of rails. As a matter of fact, he was treading
*«For greater strength and virtue are there none
Than where with single mind a man and wife
Maintain a household. »
## p. 11953 (#587) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11953
the little-used footpath that here runs close alongside the fence
for fifty yards before diverging down-hill towards the village. So
narrow is this path that the man's boots were powdered to a rich
gold by the buttercups they had brushed aside.
By-and-by he came to a standstill, looked over the fence, and
listened.
Up among the larches a faint chopping sound could
just be heard, irregular but persistent. The man put a hand to
his mouth, and hailed
"Hi-i-i! Knock off! Stable clock's gone noo-oon! "
Came back no answer.
But the chopping ceased at once; and
this apparently satisfied the man, who leaned against the rail
and waited, chewing a spear of brome-grass, and staring stead-
ily but incuriously at his boots. Two minutes passed without
stir or sound in this corner of the land. The human figure was
motionless. The birds in the plantation were taking their noon-
day siesta. A brown butterfly rested with spread wings on the
rail so quietly, he might have been pinned there.
A cracked voice was suddenly lifted a dozen yards off, and
within the plantation: -
――
-
"Such a man as I be to work! Never heard a note o' that
blessed clock, if you'll believe me. Ab-sorbed, I s'pose. "
A thin withered man in a smock-frock emerged from among
the cherry-trees with a bill-hook in his hand, and stooped to pass
under the rail.
"Ewgh! The pains I suffer in that old back of mine you'll
never believe, my son, not till the appointed time when you come
to suffer 'em yoursel'. Well-a-well! Says I just now, up among
the larches, Heigh, my sonny-boys, I can crow over you, any-
ways: for I was a man grown when Squire planted ye; and here
I be, a lusty gaffer, markin' ye down for destruction. ' But hullo!
where's the dinner? "
"There bain't none. "
"Hey ? "
"There bain't none. "
"How's that? Damme! William Henry, dinner's dinner, an'
don't you joke about it. Once you begin to make fun o' sacred
things like meals and vittles -»
"And don't you flare up like that, at your time o' life. We're
fashionists to-day: dining out. 'Quarter after nine this morning
I was passing by the Green wi' the straw-cart, when old Jan
XX-748
## p. 11954 (#588) ##########################################
11954
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
Trueman calls after me, 'Have 'ee heard the news? ' 'What
news? ' says I. 'Why,' says he, 'me an' my misses be going
into the House this afternoon-can't manage to pull along by
ourselves any more,' he says; 'an' we wants you an' your father
to drop in soon after noon an' take a bite wi' us, for old times'
sake. 'Tis our last taste o' free life, and we'm going to do the
thing fittywise,' he says. "
The old man bent a meditative look on the village roofs
below.
"We'll pleasure 'en, of course," he said slowly. "So 'tis come
round to Jan's turn? But a' was born in the year of Waterloo
victory, ten year' afore me, so I s'pose he've kept his doom off
longer than most. "
The two set off down the footpath. There is a stile at the
foot of the meadow, and as he climbed it painfully, the old man
spoke again.
"And his doorway, I reckon, 'll be locked for a little while,
an' then opened by strangers; an' his nimble youth be forgot
like a flower o' the field; an' fare thee well, Jan Trueman!
Maria, too I can mind her well as a nursing mother-a comely
woman in her day. I'd no notion they'd got this in their
mind. "
-
"Far as I can gather, they've been minded that way ever
since their daughter Jane died, last fall. '
>>>
From the stile where they stood they could look down into
the village street. And old Jan Trueman was plain to see, in
clean linen and his Sunday suit, standing in the doorway and
welcoming his guests.
"Come ye income ye in, good friends," he called, as they
approached. "There's cold bekkon, an' cold sheep's liver, an'
Dutch cheese, besides bread, an' a thimble-full o' gin-an'-water
for every soul among ye, to make it a day of note in the
parish. "
He looked back over is shoulder into the kitchen. A dozen
men and women, all elderly, were already gathered there. They
had brought their own chairs. Jan's wife wore her bonnet and
shawl, ready to start at a moment's notice. Her luggage in a
blue handkerchief lay on the table. As she moved about and
supplied her guests, her old lips twitched nervously; but when
she spoke it was with no unusual tremor of the voice.
## p. 11955 (#589) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11955
"I wish, friends, I could ha' cooked ye a little something hot;
but there'd be no time for the washing-up, an' I've ordained to
leave the place tidy. "
One of the old women answered:
-:
"There's naught to be pardoned, I'm sure. Never do I mind
such a gay set-off for the journey. For the gin-an'-water is a
little addition beyond experience. The vittles, no doubt, you
begged up at the Vicarage, sayin' you'd been a peck o' trouble
to the family, but this was going to be the last time. "
"I did, I did," assented Mr. Trueman.
"But the gin-an'-water-how on airth you contrived it is a
riddle! "
The old man rubbed his hands together and looked around
with genuine pride.
"There was old Miss Scantlebury," said another guest, a
smock-frocked gaffer of seventy, with a grizzled shock of hair.
"You remember Miss Scantlebury? "
"O' course, o' course. "
« Well, she did it better 'n anybody I've heard tell of. When
she fell into redooced circumstances she sold the eight-day clock
that was the only thing o' value she had left. Brown o' Tregar-
rick made it, with a very curious brass dial, whereon he carved
a full-rigged ship that rocked like a cradle, an' went down stern
foremost when the hour struck. 'Twas worth walking a mile to
see. Brown's grandson bought it off Miss Scantlebury for two
guineas, he being proud of his grandfather's skill; an' the old
lady drove into Tregarrick Work'us behind a pair o' grays wi'
the proceeds. Over and above the carriage hire, she'd enough
left to adorn the horse wi' white favors an' give the rider a crown,
large as my lord. Aye, an' at the Work'us door she said to the
fellow, said she, 'All my life I've longed to ride in a bridal
chariot; an' though my only lover died of a decline when I
was scarce twenty-two, I've done it at last,' said she; 'an' now
heaven an' airth can't undo it! >»
A heavy silence followed this anecdote, and then one or two
of the women vented small disapproving coughs. The reason
was the speaker's loud mention of the Workhouse. A week, a
day, a few hours before, its name might have been spoken in
Mr. and Mrs. Trueman's presence. But now they had entered
its shadow; they were "going "— whether to the dim vale of
Avilion, or with chariot and horses of fire to heaven, let nobody
-
## p. 11956 (#590) ##########################################
11956
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
too curiously ask. If Mr. and Mrs. Trueman chose to speak
definitely, it was another matter.
Old Jan bore no malice, however, but answered, "That beats
me, I own. Yet we shall drive, though it be upon two wheels
an' behind a single horse. For Farmer Lear's driving into Tre-
garrick in an hour's time, an' he've a-promised us a lift. "
"But about that gin-an'-water? For real gin-an'-water it is,
to sight an' taste. "
"Well, friends, I'll tell ye: for the trick may serve one of
ye in the days when you come to follow me, tho' the new reliev-
ing officer may have learnt wisdom before then. You must know
we've been considering of this step for some while; but hearing
that old Jacobs was going to retire soon, I says to Maria, 'We'll
bide till the new officer comes, and if he's a green hand, we'll
diddle 'en. ' Day before yesterday, as you know, was his first
round at the work; so I goes up an' draws out my ha'af-crown
same as usual, an' walks straight off for the Four Lords for a
ha'af-crown's worth o'gin. Then back I goes, an' demands an
admission order for me an' the missus. Why, where's your
ha'af-crown? ' says he. Gone in drink,' says I. 'Old man,'
says he, 'you'm a scandal, an' the sooner you're put out o' the
way o' drink, the better for you an' your poor wife. ' 'Right
you are,' I says; an' I got my order. But there, I'm wasting
time; for to be sure you've most of ye got kith and kin in the
place where we'm going, and 'll be wanting to send 'em a word
by us. "
It was less than an hour before Farmer Lear pulled up to the
door in his red-wheeled spring-cart.
"Now, friends," said Mrs. Trueman, as her ears caught the
rattle of the wheels, "I must trouble ye to step outside while I
tidy up the floor. "
The women offered their help, but she declined it. Alone she
put the small kitchen to rights, while they waited outside around
the door. Then she stepped out with her bundle, locked the
door after her, and slipped the key under an old flower-pot on
the window ledge. Her eyes were dry.
"Come along, Jan. ”
There was a brief hand-shaking, and the paupers climbed up
beside Farmer Lear.
"I've made a sort o' little plan in my head," said old Jan at
parting, "of the order in which I shall see ye again, one by one.
## p. 11957 (#591) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11957
'Twill be a great amusement to me, friends, to see how the fact
fits in wi' my little plan. "
The guests raised three feeble cheers as the cart drove away,
and hung about for several minutes after it had passed out of
sight, gazing along the road as wistfully as more prosperous men
look in through church-yard gates at the acres where their kins-
folk lie buried.
II
The first building passed by the westerly road as it descends.
into Tregarrick is a sombre pile of some eminence, having a
gateway and lodge before it, and a high encircling wall. The
sun lay warm on its long roof, and the slates flashed gayly there,
as Farmer Lear came over the knap of the hill and looked down
on it.
He withdrew his eyes nervously to glance at the old
couple beside him. At the same moment he reined up his dun-
colored mare.
"I reckoned," he said timidly, "I reckoned you'd be for stop-
ping hereabouts an' getting down. You'd think it more seemly
that's what I reckoned: an' 'tis down-hill now all the way. "
For ten seconds and more neither the man nor the woman
gave a sign of having heard him. The spring-cart's oscillatory
motion seemed to have entered into their spinal joints; and now
that they had come to a halt, their heads continued to wag for-
ward and back as they contemplated the haze of smoke, spread
like a blue scarf over the town, and the one long slate roof that
rose from it as if to meet them. At length the old woman spoke,
and with some viciousness, though her face remained as blank
as the Workhouse door.
"The next time I go back up this hill, if ever I do, I'll be
carried up feet first. "
"Maria," said her husband, feebly reproachful, "you tempt
the Lord, that you do. "
"Thank 'ee, Farmer Lear," she went on, paying no heed:
"you shall help us down, if you've a mind to, an' drive on.
We'll make shift to trickly 'way down so far as the gate; for I'd
be main vexed if anybody that had known me in life should see
us creep in. Come along, Jan. "
Farmer Lear alighted, and helped them out carefully. He
was a clumsy man, but did his best to handle them gently.
When they were set on their feet, side by side on the high-road,
## p. 11958 (#592) ##########################################
11958
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
he climbed back, and fell to arranging the reins, while he cast
about for something to say.
“Well, folks, I s'pose I must be wishing 'ee good-bye. " He
meant to speak cheerfully, but over-acted, and was hilarious in-
stead. Recognizing this, he blushed.
"We'll meet in heaven, I daresay," the woman answered. "I
put the door-key, as you saw, under the empty geranium-pot
'pon the window-ledge; an' whoever the new tenant's wife may
be, she can eat off the floor if she's minded. Now drive along,
that's a good soul, and leave us to fend for ourselves. "
They watched him out of sight before either stirred. The
last decisive step, the step across the Workhouse threshold, must
be taken with none to witness. If they could not pass out of
their small world by the more reputable mode of dying, they
would at least depart with this amount of mystery. They had
left the village in Farmer Lear's cart, and Farmer Lear had left
them in the high-road; and after that, nothing should be known.
"Shall we be moving on? " Jan asked at length. There was
a gate beside the road just there, with a small triangle of green
before it, and a granite roller half buried in dock leaves. With-
out answering, the woman seated herself on this, and pulling a
handful of the leaves, dusted her shoes and skirt.
"Maria, you'll take a chill that'll carry you off, sitting 'pon
that cold stone. "
"I don't care. 'Twon't carry me off afore I get inside, an'
I'm going in decent or not at all. Come here, an' let me titti-
vate you. "
He sat down beside her, and submitted to be dusted.
"You'd as lief lower me as not in their eyes, I verily believe. "
"I always was one to gather dust. "
"An' a fresh spot o' bacon-fat 'pon your weskit, that I've kept
the moths from since goodness knows when! "
Old Jan looked down over his waistcoat. It was of good
West-of-England broadcloth, and he had worn it on the day when
he married the woman at his side.
"I'm thinking-" he began.
"Hey? "
"I'm thinking I'll find it hard to make friends in- in there.
'Tis such a pity, to my thinking, that by reggilations we'll be
parted as soon as we get inside. You've a-got so used to my
little ways an' corners, an' we've a-got so many little secrets
## p. 11959 (#593) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11959
together an' old-fash'ned odds an' ends o' knowledge, that you
can take my meaning almost afore I start to speak. An' that's a
great comfort to a man o' my age. It'll be terrible hard, when
I wants to talk, to begin at the beginning every time. There's
that old yarn o' mine about Hambly's cow an' the lawn-mowing
machine-I doubt that anybody 'll enjoy it so much as you
always do; an' I've so got out o' the way o' telling the beginning
-which bain't extra funny, though needful to a stranger's under-
standing the whole joke-that I 'most forgets how it goes. "
"We'll see one another now an' then, they tell me. The sexes
meet for Chris'mas-trees an' such-like. "
"I'm jealous that 'twon't be the same. You can't hold your
triflin' confabs with a great Chris'mas-tree blazin' away in your
face as important as a town afire. "
"Well, I'm going to start along," the old woman decided,
getting on her feet; "or else some one 'll be driving by and see-
ing us. "
Jan too stood up.
«<
"We may so well make our congees here," she went on, as
under the porter's nose. "
An awkward silence fell between them for a minute; and
these two old creatures, who for more than fifty years had felt
no constraint in each other's presence, now looked into each oth-
er's eyes with a fearful diffidence. Jan cleared his throat, much
as if he had to make a public speech.
"Maria," he began in an unnatural voice, "we're bound for
to part, and I can trewly swear, on leaving ye, that—”
"that for twoscore year and twelve it's never entered your
head to consider whether I've made 'ee a good wife or a bad.
Kiss me, my old man; for I tell 'ee I wouldn' ha' wished it
other. An' thank 'ee for trying to make that speech. What did
it feel like? "
"Why, 't rather reminded me o' the time when I offered 'ee
marriage. "
"It reminded me o' that, too.
Com'st along. "
They tottered down the hill towards the Workhouse gate.
When they were but ten yards from it, however, they heard the
sound of wheels on the road behind them, and walked bravely
past, pretending to have no business at that portal. They had
descended a good thirty yards beyond (such haste was put into
them by dread of having their purpose guessed) before the
## p. 11960 (#594) ##########################################
11960
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
vehicle overtook them,-a four-wheeled dog-cart carrying a com-
mercial traveler, who pulled up and offered them a lift into the
town.
They declined.
Then, as soon as he passed out of sight, they turned, and be-
gan painfully to climb back towards the gate. Of the two, the
woman had shown the less emotion.
dentist "from Paris," established with great pomp on his un-
horsed carriage, a huge case of instruments in the front, held
firmly on the seat a peasant adorned with a swelled face, and
informed the public that he was going to extract the tooth with
## p. 11945 (#579) ##########################################
JULES QUESNAY DE BEAUREPAIRE
11945
the same instrument that he used for crowned heads. At a little
distance long tables were spread under sheds, charged with cider
and strong-smelling drinks. The landlord's assistant had to make
way with his elbows to the billiard table, to separate two sabot-
makers who were settling a doubtful game with a fight.
"Do you enjoy the fun, my little Jacques? " said Renaud,
trying to look delighted.
"On the contrary, I am bored to death. My head aches, and
I feel sick. I like the forest ever so much better. "
But there were also fêtes in the forest. There they felt at
home, and Renaud took his little friend to all of them.
First, there was gathering the lilies-of-the-valley about Ascen-
sion Day. The fields are celebrated for their profusion from
Grez to St. Agert. Gentle and simple alike love these sweet
flowers, whose milky whiteness gleams in the shade, against the
deep green of their pointed leaves. All the idle population of
the neighboring towns crowds the forest in the charming sea-
son when the lilies burst into flower. The woods change their
aspect. Young men from town arrive with their great-coats
under their arms; young ladies sing in high soprano voices the
romances of Louisa Puget; some young men are exchanging
words of love with their sweethearts, others pursuing the objects
of their fancy. In the evening, nosegays pass from hand to
hand. The mothers follow, large and imposing, their caps ad-
orned with artificial flowers, the strings floating in the breeze.
Greasy papers cover the ground in open spaces. One hears the
bottles knock against each other in the baskets carried by means
of a walking-stick passed through the handles by some happy
couple.
On the Fête of St. Louis (August 15th) the nutting begins.
The strangers come again, and once more fill the forest with
noisy merriment. The nuts in their hairy envelopes cover the
branches. The draper's wife has stuffed her pockets with them;
the policeman has filled his basket. The priest's nephew, a cor-
poral on leave, strikes them down with a quarter-staff; the col-
lector's wife uses her yellow parasol to bend down the branches.
Some of the young men get excited, and challenge each other
to a gymnastic bout. Elsewhere they are dancing in a ring. No
one but the barber, who was formerly a waiter in Courbevoie,
refuses to take part, and replies scornfully, "I only care for reg-
ular dances. "
## p. 11946 (#580) ##########################################
11946
JULES QUESNAY DE BEAUREPAIRE
The Little Parisian draws his friend on one side.
"I don't care for this either: let's be off, brother. "
"My darling, you love the real forest, then, as much as I
do? "
"Yes, I do love it. But you don't know how I wish that
what the people said was true that dear Jean had a gun, and
we could hunt the game together. "
Renaud the Poacher trembled.
What! again this longing! How often has he cherished it
himself during the two years they have lived together!
"What are you talking about? " he broke out: "are you mad?
My gun? I swear it's broken; but why-why are you always
thinking of sport? "
The Little Parisian looks dreamily up at the green vault over
his head; he inhales the scent of the woods; he has all sorts of
wild thoughts. The mysterious thicket attracts him; he begins to
understand why he loves the Chemins-Verts. He replies:-
"I don't know if I am thinking of sport, but I long to get
deeper and deeper into the forest, to watch all that goes on, to
catch the birds on the wing. "
The dead leaves lay in heaps on the path, the wind had
blown them into ridges like the waves of the sea. He stepped
over them proudly, and threw back his head, thrilling with youth-
ful excitement, and exclaimed: -
"The forest is ours! this delicious air is ours! "
Renaud saw himself in this enthusiastic child.
## p. 11947 (#581) ##########################################
11947
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
(1863-)
HE fiction of the English writer who began by signing his lit-
erary work with the initial "Q. ," is among the most virile
and pleasing written by the younger British school. A. T.
Quiller-Couch-the full name of this author-makes stories that are
full of vigor and invention; romantic in treatment, yet realistic in
their close observation, and in the understanding sympathy with which
he studies the life of humble folk and the types and scenes of his
native country. He is a Cornishman, and has given his main atten-
tion to the people of that locality, spending
most of his time within the sound of the
Cornish seas. His novels and short tales in
spirit and method affiliate him with Barrie,
Kipling, and Stevenson, and he is little in-
ferior to them in strength and originality.
Although his literary production includes
criticism and poetry, his reputation is based
substantially on his stories. 'Dead Man's
Rock' in 1887 won him much favor, and
other books followed in due course: The
Astonishing History of Troy Town, The
Splendid Spur,' and 'The Blue Pavilions,'
historical novels; and the collections of A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
short stories entitled 'Naughts and Crosses,'
'I Saw Three Ships; and other Winter's Tales,' 'The Delectable
Duchy,' and 'Wandering Heath. ' 'Ia,' a novelette, is a tale of love
in a Cornish fishing village. Mr. Quiller-Couch's strongest novel is
the brilliant 'The Splendid Spur,' recognized by the critics as one of
the most stirring romances by a contemporaneous English novelist.
In 'The Delectable Duchy,' which is finely representative of his
short-story work, are grouped a number of Cornish tales and sketches,
exquisite for truth, pathos, and poetry, rich with feeling for the lights
and shadows in the life of the Welsh poor. The writer thus ranges
from the dramatic to the idyllic, and is successful in both veins. His
fiction as a whole is thoroughly healthy and inspiriting. The unpleas-
ant realism and the decadent pessimism of the day he stands quite
apart from.
Like R. L. Stevenson, he unites the power of making
>
## p. 11948 (#582) ##########################################
11948
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
stories instinct with adventurous interest, with a literary gift and an
insight into character which have gained him the approval of captious
critics, and made him a favorite with those who read a story for the
story's sake.
In his personality and manner of life, Quiller-Couch seems a man
of affairs and of outdoor sports rather than the traditional book-man.
He was born November 21st, 1863. His family has lived in Corn-
wall for generations, and he comes of good stock; father, uncle, and
grandfather being distinguished scientists in the fields of biology and
medicine. He was educated in various Devonshire schools, then went
up to Trinity College, Oxford. As an undergraduate he contributed
clever verse to the college paper, adopting the pseudonym "Q. " He
was and is an athlete, as one might infer from his books,- and in
his day was stroke of the college boat. He took his degree in 1887,
and was appointed classical lecturer at Trinity; but soon turned to
fiction, went to London, and joined the staff of the Speaker - Barrie
being a fellow-worker. This newspaper connection has been retained
ever since, although Mr. Quiller-Couch now lives in a charming
country house at Fowey in Cornwall. The volume 'Adventures in
Criticism' is made up of selected book reviews representing his jour-
nalistic work, which is decidedly fresh and good. The Elizabethan
anthology, The Golden Pomp,' also testifies to his reading and schol-
arship.
The work of A. T. Quiller-Couch is refutation of the charge that
the end-of-the-century in English literature has nothing to offer but
the morbid and unwholesome. He is a strong, manly writer, whose
steadily growing influence is tonic and welcome.
WHEN THE SAP ROSE: A FANTASIA
From The Delectable Duchy. Copyright 1893, by Macmillan & Co.
Α
N OLD yellow van, the "Comet," came jolting along the edge
of the downs and shaking its occupants together like peas
in a bladder. The bride and bridegroom did not mind
this much; but the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages,
who had bound them in wedlock at the Bible Christian Chapel
two hours before, was discomforted by a pair of tight boots, that
nipped cruelly whenever he stuck out his feet to keep his equi-
librium.
Nevertheless, his mood was genial; for the young people had
taken his suggestion and acquired a copy of their certificate.
## p. 11949 (#583) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11949
This meant five extra shillings in his pocket. Therefore, when
the van drew up at the cross-roads for him to alight, he wished
them long life and a multitude of children with quite a fatherly
air.
"You can't guess where I'm bound for.
It's to pay my
old mother a visit. Ah, family life's the pretty life-that ever
I should say it! "
They saw no reason why he should be cynical, more than
other men. And the bride, in whose eyes this elderly gentleman
with the tight boots appeared a rosy-winged Cupid, waved her
handkerchief until the vehicle had sidled round the hill, resem-
bling in its progress a very infirm crab in a hurry.
As a fact, the Registrar wore a silk hat, a suit of black West-
of-England broadcloth, a watch-chain made out of his dead wife's
hair, and two large seals that clashed together when he moved
His face was wide and round, with a sanguine complexion, gray
side-whiskers, and a cicatrix across the chin. He had shaved in
a hurry that morning; for the wedding was early, and took place
on the extreme verge of his district. His is a beautiful office
recording day by day the solemnest and most mysterious events
in nature. Yet, standing at the cross-roads, between down and
woodland, under an April sky full of sun and southwest wind,
he threw the ugliest shadow in the landscape.
The road towards the coast dipped-too steeply for tight
boots - down a wooded coombe; and he followed it, treading deli-
cately. The hollow of the V ahead, where the hills overlapped
against the pale blue, was powdered with a faint brown bloom,
soon to be green, an infinity of bursting buds. The larches
stretched their arms upwards, as men waking. The yellow was
out on the gorse, with a heady scent like a pineapple's; and
between the bushes spread the gray film of coming bluebells.
High up, the pines sighed along the ridge, turning paler; and
far down, where the brook ran, a mad duet was going on be-
tween thrush and chaffinch,-"Cheer up, cheer up, Queen! " "Clip,
clip, clip, and kiss me-Sweet! "—one against the other.
Now, the behavior of the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and
Marriages changed as he descended the valley. At first he went
from side to side, because the loose stones were sharp and lay
unevenly; soon he zigzagged for another purpose,-to peer into
the bank for violets, to find a gap between the trees where, by
## p. 11950 (#584) ##########################################
11950
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
bending down with a hand on each knee and his head tilted
back, he could see the primroses stretching in broad sheets to
the very edge of the pine woods. By frequent tilting his collar
broke from its stud and his silk hat settled far back on his neck.
Next he unbuttoned his waistcoat and loosened his braces; but
no, he could not skip,- his boots were too tight He looked at
each tree as he passed. "If I could only see » he muttered.
"I'll swear there used to be one on the right, just here. "
But he could not find it here,- perhaps his memory misgave
him; and presently turned with decision, climbed the low fence
on his left, between him and the hollow of the coombe, and
dropped into the plantation on the other side. Here the ground
was white in patches with anemones; and as his feet crushed
them, descending, the babel of the birds grew louder and louder.
He issued on a small clearing by the edge of the brook,
where the grass was a delicate green, each blade pushing up
straight as a spear-point from the crumbled earth.
Here were
more anemones, between patches of last year's bracken, and on
the further slope a mass of daffodils. He pulled out a pocket-
knife that had sharpened some hundreds of quill pens, and look-
ing to his right, found what he wanted at once.
It was a sycamore, on which the buds were swelling. He cut
a small twig, as big round as his middle finger, and sitting him-
self down on a barked log close by, began to measure and cut it
to a span's length, avoiding all knots. Then, taking the knife by
the blade between finger and thumb, he tapped the bark gently
with the tortoise-shell handle. And as he tapped, his face went
back to boyhood again, in spite of the side-whiskers, and his
mouth was pursed up to a silent tune.
For ten minutes the tapping continued, the birds ceased their
contention, and broke out restlessly at intervals. A rabbit across
the brook paused and listened at the funnel-shaped mouth of his
hole, which caught the sound and redoubled it.
"Confound these boots! " said the Registrar, and pulling them
off, tossed them among the primroses. They were "elastic-sides. "
The tapping ceased. A breath of the landward breeze came
up, combing out the tangle that winter had made in the grass,
caught the brook on the edge of a tiny fall, and puffed it back
six inches in a spray of small diamonds. It quickened the whole
copse. The oak saplings rubbed their old leaves one on another,
## p. 11951 (#585) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11951
as folks rub their hands, feeling life and warmth; the chestnut
buds groped like an infant's fingers; and the chorus broke out
again, the thrush leading,-"Tiurru, tiurru, chippewee; tio-tee, tio-
tee; queen, queen, que-een ! »
In a moment or two he broke off suddenly, and a honey-bee
shot out of an anemone-bell like a shell from a mortar.
For a
new sound disconcerted them—a sound sharp and piercing. The
Registrar had finished his whistle and was blowing like mad,
moving his fingers up and down. Having proved his instrument,
he dived a hand into his tail-pocket and drew out a roll, tied
around with ribbon. It was the folded leather-bound volume in
which he kept his blank certificates. And spreading it on his
knees, he took his whistle again and blew, reading his music from
the blank pages, and piping a strain he had never dreamed of.
For he whistled of Births and Marriages.
O happy Registrar! O happy, happy Registrar! You will
never get into those elastic-sides again. Your feet swell as they
tap the swelling earth, and at each tap the flowers push, the sap
climbs, the speck of life moves in the hedge-sparrow's egg; while
far away on the downs, with each tap the yellow van takes bride
and groom a foot nearer felicity. It is hard work in worsted
socks; for you smite with the vehemence of Pan, and Pan had a
hoof of horn.
The Registrar's mother lived in the fishing-village, two miles
down the coombe. Her cottage leant back against the cliff so
closely that the boys, as they followed the path above, could toss
tabs of turf down her chimney: and this was her chief annoy-
ance.
Now it was close on the dinner-hour, and she stood in her
kitchen beside a pot of stew that simmered over the wreck-wood
fire.
Suddenly a great lump of earth and grass came bouncing
down the chimney, striking from side to side, and soused into
pot, scattering the hot stew over the hearth-stone and splash-
ing her from head to foot.
Quick as thought, she caught up a besom and rushed out
around the corner of the cottage.
"You stinking young adders! " she began.
A big man stood on the slope above her.
«< Mother, cuff my head, that's a dear. I couldn' help doin' it. "
## p. 11952 (#586) ##########################################
11952
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
It was the elderly Registrar. His hat, collar, tie, and waist-
coat were awry; his boots were slung on the walking-stick over
his shoulder; stuck in his mouth and lit was a twist of root-fibre,
such as country boys use for lack of cigars, and he himself had
used forty years before.
The old woman turned to an ash color, leant on her besom,
and gasped.
"William Henry! "
"I'm not drunk, mother: been a Band of Hope these dozen
years. "
He stepped down the slope to her and bent his head
low. "Box my ears, mother, quick! You used to have a wonder-
ful gift o' cuffin'. "
"William Henry, I'm bound to do it or die. "
"Then be quick about it. "
Half laughing, half sobbing, she caught him a feeble cuff,
and next instant held him close to her old breast. The Registrar
disengaged himself after a minute, brushed his eyes, straightened
his hat, picked up the besom, and offered her his arm. They
passed into the cottage together.
THE PAUPERS
From The Delectable Duchy. ' Copyright 1893, by Macmillan & Co.
I
οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον,
ἢ ὅθ᾽ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον
ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή *
RⓇ
OUND the skirts of the plantation, and half-way down the hill,
there runs a thick fringe of wild cherry-trees. Their white
blossom makes, for three weeks in the year, a pretty con-
trast with the larches and Scotch firs that serrate the long ridge
above; and close under their branches runs the line of oak rails
that marks off the plantation from the meadow.
A laboring-man came deliberately round the slope, as if fol-
lowing this line of rails. As a matter of fact, he was treading
*«For greater strength and virtue are there none
Than where with single mind a man and wife
Maintain a household. »
## p. 11953 (#587) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11953
the little-used footpath that here runs close alongside the fence
for fifty yards before diverging down-hill towards the village. So
narrow is this path that the man's boots were powdered to a rich
gold by the buttercups they had brushed aside.
By-and-by he came to a standstill, looked over the fence, and
listened.
Up among the larches a faint chopping sound could
just be heard, irregular but persistent. The man put a hand to
his mouth, and hailed
"Hi-i-i! Knock off! Stable clock's gone noo-oon! "
Came back no answer.
But the chopping ceased at once; and
this apparently satisfied the man, who leaned against the rail
and waited, chewing a spear of brome-grass, and staring stead-
ily but incuriously at his boots. Two minutes passed without
stir or sound in this corner of the land. The human figure was
motionless. The birds in the plantation were taking their noon-
day siesta. A brown butterfly rested with spread wings on the
rail so quietly, he might have been pinned there.
A cracked voice was suddenly lifted a dozen yards off, and
within the plantation: -
――
-
"Such a man as I be to work! Never heard a note o' that
blessed clock, if you'll believe me. Ab-sorbed, I s'pose. "
A thin withered man in a smock-frock emerged from among
the cherry-trees with a bill-hook in his hand, and stooped to pass
under the rail.
"Ewgh! The pains I suffer in that old back of mine you'll
never believe, my son, not till the appointed time when you come
to suffer 'em yoursel'. Well-a-well! Says I just now, up among
the larches, Heigh, my sonny-boys, I can crow over you, any-
ways: for I was a man grown when Squire planted ye; and here
I be, a lusty gaffer, markin' ye down for destruction. ' But hullo!
where's the dinner? "
"There bain't none. "
"Hey ? "
"There bain't none. "
"How's that? Damme! William Henry, dinner's dinner, an'
don't you joke about it. Once you begin to make fun o' sacred
things like meals and vittles -»
"And don't you flare up like that, at your time o' life. We're
fashionists to-day: dining out. 'Quarter after nine this morning
I was passing by the Green wi' the straw-cart, when old Jan
XX-748
## p. 11954 (#588) ##########################################
11954
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
Trueman calls after me, 'Have 'ee heard the news? ' 'What
news? ' says I. 'Why,' says he, 'me an' my misses be going
into the House this afternoon-can't manage to pull along by
ourselves any more,' he says; 'an' we wants you an' your father
to drop in soon after noon an' take a bite wi' us, for old times'
sake. 'Tis our last taste o' free life, and we'm going to do the
thing fittywise,' he says. "
The old man bent a meditative look on the village roofs
below.
"We'll pleasure 'en, of course," he said slowly. "So 'tis come
round to Jan's turn? But a' was born in the year of Waterloo
victory, ten year' afore me, so I s'pose he've kept his doom off
longer than most. "
The two set off down the footpath. There is a stile at the
foot of the meadow, and as he climbed it painfully, the old man
spoke again.
"And his doorway, I reckon, 'll be locked for a little while,
an' then opened by strangers; an' his nimble youth be forgot
like a flower o' the field; an' fare thee well, Jan Trueman!
Maria, too I can mind her well as a nursing mother-a comely
woman in her day. I'd no notion they'd got this in their
mind. "
-
"Far as I can gather, they've been minded that way ever
since their daughter Jane died, last fall. '
>>>
From the stile where they stood they could look down into
the village street. And old Jan Trueman was plain to see, in
clean linen and his Sunday suit, standing in the doorway and
welcoming his guests.
"Come ye income ye in, good friends," he called, as they
approached. "There's cold bekkon, an' cold sheep's liver, an'
Dutch cheese, besides bread, an' a thimble-full o' gin-an'-water
for every soul among ye, to make it a day of note in the
parish. "
He looked back over is shoulder into the kitchen. A dozen
men and women, all elderly, were already gathered there. They
had brought their own chairs. Jan's wife wore her bonnet and
shawl, ready to start at a moment's notice. Her luggage in a
blue handkerchief lay on the table. As she moved about and
supplied her guests, her old lips twitched nervously; but when
she spoke it was with no unusual tremor of the voice.
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11955
"I wish, friends, I could ha' cooked ye a little something hot;
but there'd be no time for the washing-up, an' I've ordained to
leave the place tidy. "
One of the old women answered:
-:
"There's naught to be pardoned, I'm sure. Never do I mind
such a gay set-off for the journey. For the gin-an'-water is a
little addition beyond experience. The vittles, no doubt, you
begged up at the Vicarage, sayin' you'd been a peck o' trouble
to the family, but this was going to be the last time. "
"I did, I did," assented Mr. Trueman.
"But the gin-an'-water-how on airth you contrived it is a
riddle! "
The old man rubbed his hands together and looked around
with genuine pride.
"There was old Miss Scantlebury," said another guest, a
smock-frocked gaffer of seventy, with a grizzled shock of hair.
"You remember Miss Scantlebury? "
"O' course, o' course. "
« Well, she did it better 'n anybody I've heard tell of. When
she fell into redooced circumstances she sold the eight-day clock
that was the only thing o' value she had left. Brown o' Tregar-
rick made it, with a very curious brass dial, whereon he carved
a full-rigged ship that rocked like a cradle, an' went down stern
foremost when the hour struck. 'Twas worth walking a mile to
see. Brown's grandson bought it off Miss Scantlebury for two
guineas, he being proud of his grandfather's skill; an' the old
lady drove into Tregarrick Work'us behind a pair o' grays wi'
the proceeds. Over and above the carriage hire, she'd enough
left to adorn the horse wi' white favors an' give the rider a crown,
large as my lord. Aye, an' at the Work'us door she said to the
fellow, said she, 'All my life I've longed to ride in a bridal
chariot; an' though my only lover died of a decline when I
was scarce twenty-two, I've done it at last,' said she; 'an' now
heaven an' airth can't undo it! >»
A heavy silence followed this anecdote, and then one or two
of the women vented small disapproving coughs. The reason
was the speaker's loud mention of the Workhouse. A week, a
day, a few hours before, its name might have been spoken in
Mr. and Mrs. Trueman's presence. But now they had entered
its shadow; they were "going "— whether to the dim vale of
Avilion, or with chariot and horses of fire to heaven, let nobody
-
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A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
too curiously ask. If Mr. and Mrs. Trueman chose to speak
definitely, it was another matter.
Old Jan bore no malice, however, but answered, "That beats
me, I own. Yet we shall drive, though it be upon two wheels
an' behind a single horse. For Farmer Lear's driving into Tre-
garrick in an hour's time, an' he've a-promised us a lift. "
"But about that gin-an'-water? For real gin-an'-water it is,
to sight an' taste. "
"Well, friends, I'll tell ye: for the trick may serve one of
ye in the days when you come to follow me, tho' the new reliev-
ing officer may have learnt wisdom before then. You must know
we've been considering of this step for some while; but hearing
that old Jacobs was going to retire soon, I says to Maria, 'We'll
bide till the new officer comes, and if he's a green hand, we'll
diddle 'en. ' Day before yesterday, as you know, was his first
round at the work; so I goes up an' draws out my ha'af-crown
same as usual, an' walks straight off for the Four Lords for a
ha'af-crown's worth o'gin. Then back I goes, an' demands an
admission order for me an' the missus. Why, where's your
ha'af-crown? ' says he. Gone in drink,' says I. 'Old man,'
says he, 'you'm a scandal, an' the sooner you're put out o' the
way o' drink, the better for you an' your poor wife. ' 'Right
you are,' I says; an' I got my order. But there, I'm wasting
time; for to be sure you've most of ye got kith and kin in the
place where we'm going, and 'll be wanting to send 'em a word
by us. "
It was less than an hour before Farmer Lear pulled up to the
door in his red-wheeled spring-cart.
"Now, friends," said Mrs. Trueman, as her ears caught the
rattle of the wheels, "I must trouble ye to step outside while I
tidy up the floor. "
The women offered their help, but she declined it. Alone she
put the small kitchen to rights, while they waited outside around
the door. Then she stepped out with her bundle, locked the
door after her, and slipped the key under an old flower-pot on
the window ledge. Her eyes were dry.
"Come along, Jan. ”
There was a brief hand-shaking, and the paupers climbed up
beside Farmer Lear.
"I've made a sort o' little plan in my head," said old Jan at
parting, "of the order in which I shall see ye again, one by one.
## p. 11957 (#591) ##########################################
A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
11957
'Twill be a great amusement to me, friends, to see how the fact
fits in wi' my little plan. "
The guests raised three feeble cheers as the cart drove away,
and hung about for several minutes after it had passed out of
sight, gazing along the road as wistfully as more prosperous men
look in through church-yard gates at the acres where their kins-
folk lie buried.
II
The first building passed by the westerly road as it descends.
into Tregarrick is a sombre pile of some eminence, having a
gateway and lodge before it, and a high encircling wall. The
sun lay warm on its long roof, and the slates flashed gayly there,
as Farmer Lear came over the knap of the hill and looked down
on it.
He withdrew his eyes nervously to glance at the old
couple beside him. At the same moment he reined up his dun-
colored mare.
"I reckoned," he said timidly, "I reckoned you'd be for stop-
ping hereabouts an' getting down. You'd think it more seemly
that's what I reckoned: an' 'tis down-hill now all the way. "
For ten seconds and more neither the man nor the woman
gave a sign of having heard him. The spring-cart's oscillatory
motion seemed to have entered into their spinal joints; and now
that they had come to a halt, their heads continued to wag for-
ward and back as they contemplated the haze of smoke, spread
like a blue scarf over the town, and the one long slate roof that
rose from it as if to meet them. At length the old woman spoke,
and with some viciousness, though her face remained as blank
as the Workhouse door.
"The next time I go back up this hill, if ever I do, I'll be
carried up feet first. "
"Maria," said her husband, feebly reproachful, "you tempt
the Lord, that you do. "
"Thank 'ee, Farmer Lear," she went on, paying no heed:
"you shall help us down, if you've a mind to, an' drive on.
We'll make shift to trickly 'way down so far as the gate; for I'd
be main vexed if anybody that had known me in life should see
us creep in. Come along, Jan. "
Farmer Lear alighted, and helped them out carefully. He
was a clumsy man, but did his best to handle them gently.
When they were set on their feet, side by side on the high-road,
## p. 11958 (#592) ##########################################
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A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
he climbed back, and fell to arranging the reins, while he cast
about for something to say.
“Well, folks, I s'pose I must be wishing 'ee good-bye. " He
meant to speak cheerfully, but over-acted, and was hilarious in-
stead. Recognizing this, he blushed.
"We'll meet in heaven, I daresay," the woman answered. "I
put the door-key, as you saw, under the empty geranium-pot
'pon the window-ledge; an' whoever the new tenant's wife may
be, she can eat off the floor if she's minded. Now drive along,
that's a good soul, and leave us to fend for ourselves. "
They watched him out of sight before either stirred. The
last decisive step, the step across the Workhouse threshold, must
be taken with none to witness. If they could not pass out of
their small world by the more reputable mode of dying, they
would at least depart with this amount of mystery. They had
left the village in Farmer Lear's cart, and Farmer Lear had left
them in the high-road; and after that, nothing should be known.
"Shall we be moving on? " Jan asked at length. There was
a gate beside the road just there, with a small triangle of green
before it, and a granite roller half buried in dock leaves. With-
out answering, the woman seated herself on this, and pulling a
handful of the leaves, dusted her shoes and skirt.
"Maria, you'll take a chill that'll carry you off, sitting 'pon
that cold stone. "
"I don't care. 'Twon't carry me off afore I get inside, an'
I'm going in decent or not at all. Come here, an' let me titti-
vate you. "
He sat down beside her, and submitted to be dusted.
"You'd as lief lower me as not in their eyes, I verily believe. "
"I always was one to gather dust. "
"An' a fresh spot o' bacon-fat 'pon your weskit, that I've kept
the moths from since goodness knows when! "
Old Jan looked down over his waistcoat. It was of good
West-of-England broadcloth, and he had worn it on the day when
he married the woman at his side.
"I'm thinking-" he began.
"Hey? "
"I'm thinking I'll find it hard to make friends in- in there.
'Tis such a pity, to my thinking, that by reggilations we'll be
parted as soon as we get inside. You've a-got so used to my
little ways an' corners, an' we've a-got so many little secrets
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11959
together an' old-fash'ned odds an' ends o' knowledge, that you
can take my meaning almost afore I start to speak. An' that's a
great comfort to a man o' my age. It'll be terrible hard, when
I wants to talk, to begin at the beginning every time. There's
that old yarn o' mine about Hambly's cow an' the lawn-mowing
machine-I doubt that anybody 'll enjoy it so much as you
always do; an' I've so got out o' the way o' telling the beginning
-which bain't extra funny, though needful to a stranger's under-
standing the whole joke-that I 'most forgets how it goes. "
"We'll see one another now an' then, they tell me. The sexes
meet for Chris'mas-trees an' such-like. "
"I'm jealous that 'twon't be the same. You can't hold your
triflin' confabs with a great Chris'mas-tree blazin' away in your
face as important as a town afire. "
"Well, I'm going to start along," the old woman decided,
getting on her feet; "or else some one 'll be driving by and see-
ing us. "
Jan too stood up.
«<
"We may so well make our congees here," she went on, as
under the porter's nose. "
An awkward silence fell between them for a minute; and
these two old creatures, who for more than fifty years had felt
no constraint in each other's presence, now looked into each oth-
er's eyes with a fearful diffidence. Jan cleared his throat, much
as if he had to make a public speech.
"Maria," he began in an unnatural voice, "we're bound for
to part, and I can trewly swear, on leaving ye, that—”
"that for twoscore year and twelve it's never entered your
head to consider whether I've made 'ee a good wife or a bad.
Kiss me, my old man; for I tell 'ee I wouldn' ha' wished it
other. An' thank 'ee for trying to make that speech. What did
it feel like? "
"Why, 't rather reminded me o' the time when I offered 'ee
marriage. "
"It reminded me o' that, too.
Com'st along. "
They tottered down the hill towards the Workhouse gate.
When they were but ten yards from it, however, they heard the
sound of wheels on the road behind them, and walked bravely
past, pretending to have no business at that portal. They had
descended a good thirty yards beyond (such haste was put into
them by dread of having their purpose guessed) before the
## p. 11960 (#594) ##########################################
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A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
vehicle overtook them,-a four-wheeled dog-cart carrying a com-
mercial traveler, who pulled up and offered them a lift into the
town.
They declined.
Then, as soon as he passed out of sight, they turned, and be-
gan painfully to climb back towards the gate. Of the two, the
woman had shown the less emotion.
