A CRIPPLE BOY.
JOHN HOLL returned from work a few minutes after Evan came in. John Holl
was a dustman. A short, broadly-built man, with his shoulders bowed
somewhat from carrying heavy baskets up area steps. His looks were
homely, and his attire far from clean; but John was a good husband and
father, and the great proportion of the many twopences he daily received
as douceurs for discharging his duties were brought home to his wife, as
was all the weekly money, instead of being exchanged for liquor at the
public-house.
Sarah Holl added to the family income by going out charring. She was a
big woman, with a rough voice, and slipshod in walk; her hands were red
and hard from much scrubbing and polishing, and she was considered
generally by the servants in the establishments at which she worked to
be a low person. But Sarah's heart was in the right place; her children
loved her, and her husband regarded her as a treasure.
It was not until John Holl had changed his dirt-stained clothes, and had
freshened himself up with a copious wash, had put on a pair of list
slippers of Sarah's manufacture in place of his heavy boots, and had
seated himself by the fire with his long pipe alight, while Sarah
bustled about getting the tea, that he was informed of the important
events which had taken place; for John, like many more distinguished
men, had his idiosyncrasies, and one of these was that he hated to be,
as he called it, "hustled," before he had tidied up. John was not quick
of comprehension, and could not give due weight to what was said to him
while engaged in the important work of changing; therefore all pieces of
family news were reserved until he had taken his seat and his pipe was
fully alight. Then Mrs. Holl began--
"What do you think, John, Evan 'as been a-doing to-day?"
John gave a grunt, to signify that he would prefer hearing the facts to
wasting his brain-power in random guesses.
"Why, he has been in the Serpentine, and was nigh drowned, and had to be
taken to the 'Mane Society and put into a hot bath, and all his clothes
shrunk that much as you never seed."
"I thought the ice weren't strong enough to bear," John said, taking his
pipe from his mouth; "one of my mates tells me as he heard a chap going
along with skates say as it weren't strong enough on the Serpentine to
hold a cat."
"No more it ain't, John; but Carrie Hill's little dog run on and fell
through, and nothing would do but that Evan must go out and risk his
life to fetch it out. And a nice business he made of it; when he got
close out to the dog down he went hisself, and would have been drowned
as sure as fate if a young gent as was a-standing there hadn't swam out
and brought him in. And I think you ought to speak to him, John, for
such venturesome ways; he don't mind my speaking no more than the wind
a-blowing."
John Holl smoked his pipe in silence for some time, looking solemnly
into the fire; the number of facts and ideas presented suddenly to him
were too great to be instantly taken in and grappled with.
"And how do you feel now, Evan?" he said at last; "cold right through
the bones?"
"No, father; I am as warm as need be; and what do you think? I have got
thirty-eight bob and some coppers which they 'scribed for me."
"Did they, now?" John Holl said. Then after taking in this new fact, and
turning it over in different lights, he said to his wife, "Well, Sarah,
it seems to me that if the people who saw our Evan go into the water
subscribed well-nigh upon two pounds for the boy, they must have thought
that what he did warn't a thing for him to be jawed for, but a brave,
good-hearted sort of action; and I ain't no manner of doubt, Sarah, that
that's just what you think it yerself, only you are a bit scared over
the thought that he might have been drowned, which is natural and
woman-like. It seems to me as Evan has done a wery honourable kind o'
action. I know as I should have liked to have done it myself, though I
holds that a man can't have too much of hot water and plenty of soap in
it, cold water allus giving me the shivers, and being no good for
getting out dirt--not where its ground in pretty thick. I suppose it's
cos of this that I didn't larn to swim. Evan, my boy, your father feels
proud of yer, and so does your mother--as proud as a peacock--though she
don't think it's right to say so."
Whereupon Mrs. Holl, finding to her great inward satisfaction that the
paternal sanction and approval had been given to Evan's adventure, felt
no longer constrained to keep up a semblance of disapproval, but
embraced him with great heartiness, and then wiped her eyes with the
corner of her apron. Then came the great point of the disposal of Evan's
fortune. His first proposal was to hand it over to his father as a
contribution towards the general expenses, but this John Holl
peremptorily refused.
"It's your money, boy, to do as you like with; it's earned in a
honourable way, and a way to be proud of. You are to do with it just
what you likes; it were best not to spend it foolish, but if you are
disposed to spend it foolish, you do so."
"There are such lots of things I should like to buy," Evan said. "I
should like to buy mother a new Sunday bonnet, and I should like to get
you a pound of bacca; and Winnie wants a new pair of boots and
stockings, and there's lots of things I should like to get for Harry,
and some warm gloves for Sue, and--and no end of things."
"Two pounds," John Holl said, "is a nice little lump of money, Evan; but
when you gets as old as I am you will know as two pounds don't go wery
far. My advice to you is this, whatever you get yer sure a while
afterwards to want something else, and to wish as you had bought that
instead; that's human nature, and it's the same with men, women, and
boys--at least that's my 'sperience, and mother will tell you the same.
My advice is, give that money to mother to keep for you, say for a
month. Well then, every day you can settle fresh what you mean to buy,
and that will be most as good as buying it; perhaps towards the end of
the month you will have settled yer mind on to something which really
seems to you better than all the others: that's my advice."
"And capital good advice too, father," Harry said.
And thus the approval of the two authorities of the family having been
obtained, the matter was considered as settled.
"And who was the young gent as went in and fetched you out, Evan?" John
Holl asked, when the important business of tea was concluded, and he
again settled himself to his pipe. "He must have been a good sort; I
should like to shake hands with that chap."
"He told me as his name were Frank Norris," Evan replied; "he is one of
the scholars we see going along to Vincent Square; I knew him again
directly. He was one of those chaps as fought so well the day they got
attacked going back to the School. A fine-looking chap he is too, with a
pleasant face, and a nice sort of way about him. No nonsense, you know;
he talked just pleasant and nice, as Harry might talk to me, just as if
he was a sort of pal, and not a swell no-how."
"I should like to shake hands with him," John Holl repeated; "he saved
your life, that's sure enough"--for by this time Harry had related the
full details of the affair. "I think, Sarah, as it would be only right
and proper, come Sunday, for you and I to go round to that young
fellow's house and tell him how we feels about it. If it had been a chap
of our own station in life I suppose there ain't nothing we wouldn't do
for him, if we saw our way to it; and though I don't see as it's likely
as we can do nothing for this young fellow, the least as we can do is to
go and tell him what we thinks about it. Did he tell you where he lived,
Evan?"
"No, father. He didn't say where he lived; but he writ down in a
pocket-book my name and where we lived, and said as how he would look in
one of these days and see that I was none the worse for my ducking."
"Well, I hopes as how he will," John said, "but if he don't come soon,
we must find him out. I expect his name or his father's name would be
down in a 'Rectory, and the name ain't so common a one as there would be
likely to be a great many on them living about here; but if there was
fifty I would call on them all till I found the right one. I shan't be
easy in my mind, not till I have shaken that young chap's hand and told
him what I thinks on it. And I am sure your mother feels the same as I
do. And now, Harry, take out that fiddle of yours and let's have a tune;
my pipe allus seems to draw better and sweeter while you are playing."
One of the children--there were eight in all in the room--fetched
Harry's fiddle from the wall. It was a cheap, common instrument, but
even far better judges of music than the Holls would have been able to
discern, in spite of its cracked and harsh tone, that the lad who was
playing it had a genius for music. It is true that the airs which he was
playing, those which the street boys of the day whistled as they walked
by, were not of a nature to display his powers. Harry could play other
and very different kinds of music; for whenever Evan earned a sixpence
by holding a horse, or doing any other odd job, a penny or twopence were
sure to go in the purchase of a sheet of music for Harry at the cheap
bookstalls. Harry had learned the notes from a secondhand book of
instructions which John Holl had bought for him one Saturday night, when
the weather had been particularly hot, and people in their desire to
get their dust-bins emptied were more liberal than usual. But of an
evening, when John was at home, Harry always played popular airs, as his
father and family were unable to appreciate the deeper and better music.
This he reserved for the time when the children were at school, and
mother was either charring or was at the wash-tub.
Sarah used to wonder silently at the sounds which seemed to her to have
no particular air, such as she could beat time to with her foot as she
worked; but in her heart she appreciated them; they made her feel as if
she was in church, and sometimes she would draw her apron across her
eyes, wondering all the time what there was in the tones of the fiddle
which should make her cry.
Three or four days later, when Harry, as usual, was playing on his
violin, and Mrs. Holl was washing, there was a knock at the door.
"Drat it!" Mrs. Holl muttered, "who's a-coming bothering now, just when
I am busy?"
"If no one is to come except when you are not busy," Harry laughed, as
Mrs. Holl moved towards the door, wiping the lather from her arms and
hands, "we shan't have many visitors, for as far as I can see you are
always busy."
"Ah!" he exclaimed, as Mrs. Holl opened the door, and he saw who was
standing without, "it's the gentleman who got Evan out of the water."
"Mrs. Holl?" Frank asked interrogatively, and then, catching sight of
Harry, he at once walked across to him and shook him by the hand.
"I hope I am not intruding, Mrs. Holl, but I promised your son to look
in and see how he was; and as I had to come down to the School to-day
for a book I wanted for my holiday task, I thought it would be a good
opportunity to fulfil my promise."
"It is no intrusion, sir, and I am sure I am heartily glad to see yer,
and thank ye for coming," Mrs. Holl said, as she dusted an already
spotless chair and placed it for her visitor. "My John does nothing
every evening but talk of how he wishes he could see you, to tell you
how beholden he and me feels to you for having brought our Evan to land
just as he was being drowned."
"No thanks are required indeed, Mrs. Holl," Frank said cheerfully, "it
was a sort of partnership affair. You see I was going in after the dog,
only Evan, who was a sort of friend of the family, had first claim; so
we agreed that he should try first and do all the hard work of breaking
the ice, and then, if the cold was too much for him, I was to go out and
fetch him in and finish the job myself. So you see it was a mutual
arrangement, and no particular thanks due to any one. But your son is a
plucky young fellow, Mrs. Holl, and he behaved most gallantly. I find
too, from what your son here tells me, that I owe him one for having
fetched help up from the School when we were getting the worst of it
just opposite your house here. Well, in the first place, how is he? None
the worse, I hope, for the cold."
"Not at all, sir. He is out to-day with a friend of ours as 'as got a
barrow, and lives in the next street, but who is that hoarse with the
cold that he can't speak out of a whisper; so he offered Evan sixpence
to go along with him to do the shouting, and a nice shouting he will
make; his voice goes through and through my head when he is only
a-talking with his brothers and sisters here, and if anything can bring
them to the windows it will be his voice. He offered to come round here
with the barrow afore they started off this morning, but says I, 'No,
Evan; I have a good name in the street, I hope, and don't wish to be
dighted as a nuisance to the neighbourhood, nor to have my neighbours
accusing me of a-being the cause of fits in their children.'"
"I don't suppose that it would be as bad as that, Mrs. Holl," Frank
said, laughing. "However, if his voice is as loud and clear as that, it
is evident that he is not much the worse for his cold bath. I came round
partly to see him, partly to know if I could do anything for him; he
seems a sharp lad, and I am sure he is as honest as he is plucky. As a
beginning, my uncle says he could come into the house as a sort of
errand-boy, and to help the footman, until he can hear of some better
position for him among his friends."
"I am sure you are very good, sir," Mrs. Holl said gratefully; "I will
mention it to his father, and he---- But I doubt whether Evan's steady
enough for a place yet, he is allus getting into mischief; there never
was such a boy for scrapes; if all my eight were like him I should go
clean mad afore the week was out. When he is in the house, as long as he
is talking or singing I can go on with my work, but the moment that he
is quiet I have to drop what I am a-doing on and look arter him, for he
is sure to be up to some mischief or other."
"No, no, mother," Harry put in, laughing; "you are giving Evan a worse
character than he deserves. He is up to fun, as is only natural with one
who has got the free use of his limbs, but he never does any real harm."
"No, I don't say that he does real harm, 'Arry," Mrs. Holl replied,
"but I do say as at present he is too full of boyish tricks to be of any
good in a place, and we should be a-having him back here a week arter he
went, and that would be a nice show of gratitude to this gentleman for
his kindness."
"I don't suppose he is as bad as you make out, Mrs. Holl; and no doubt
he would tame down after a time, just as other boys do. Perhaps a place
in a warehouse would be more suitable for him at first.
"And it was you who were playing as I came in," he went on, noticing the
violin; "I was wondering who was playing so well. How jolly it must be
to play! I wish I could, but I should never have patience to learn. Who
taught you?"
"I picked it up myself, sir," Harry replied, "from a book father bought
me. You see I have plenty of time on my hands; I don't get out much,
except just along the street, for I can't very well get across crossings
by myself. The wheels go well enough on a level, but I cannot push them
up a curb-stone. But what with reading and fiddling the days pass
quickly enough, especially when mother is at home; she is out two or
three days a week, and then the time seems rather long."
"I should think so," Frank said; "I should go mad if I were laid up
entirely. I am awfully sorry for you. If you are fond of books I shall
be glad to let you have some; I have got no end of them, and there they
stand on my shelf unopened from year's end to year's end. What sort of
books do you like best? Sea stories, or Indians, or what?"
"I should like any story-books, sir," Harry replied, his eyes
brightening up with pleasure; "I have read a few which father has
picked up for me at the bookstalls, and I have gone through and through
them until I could almost say them by heart. And then tales of travel
and history,--oh, I love history! to read what people did hundreds of
years ago, and how nations grew up step by step, just like children, it
is splendid!"
"I am afraid," Frank said, with a laugh, "that I don't care so much for
history as you do. Names are hard enough to remember, but dates are
awful; I would rather do the toughest bit of construing than have a page
of Greek history to get up. Well, I will certainly look you up some
books on history and some travels, and will send you some of Marryat's
stories. I suppose you do not care for schoolbooks; I have got a
barrow-load that I shall never want again."
"Oh yes, sir," Harry said eagerly, "I think I should like those best of
all. Have you a Virgil, sir? I do like Virgil, and all that story about
the siege of Troy. I only had it for a fortnight. Father bought it for
me, and then one of the little ones managed somehow to take it out and
lose it; she ran out with it for a bit of fun, and we suppose sat down
on a doorstep and forgot it."
"But, bless me," Frank exclaimed, "you don't mean to say that you read
Virgil in Latin! You are a rum fellow. How on earth did you learn it?"
"I have taught myself, sir," Harry said. "Father is awfully good, and
often picks up books for me at old bookstalls. Of course sometimes he
gets things I can't make out. But he got twelve once for a shilling, and
there was a Latin Grammar and Dictionary among them; and when I had
learned the Grammar, it was very easy with the Dictionary to make out
the sense of some of the Latin books. But of course I often come across
things that I don't understand. I think sometimes if some one would
explain them to me once or twice, so that I could really understand how
the rules in the Grammar are applied, I could get on faster."
"Well, you are a rum fellow!" Frank exclaimed again. "I wish I liked
learning as you do, for though I am in the Sixth at Westminster, I own
that I look upon the classics as a nuisance. Well, now, look here; I
have got an hour at present with nothing special to do, so if you like
we will have a go at it together. What have you got here?" and he walked
across to a shelf on which were a number of books. "Oh! here is a Cæsar;
suppose we take that; it's easy enough generally, but there are some
stiffish bits now and then. Let's start off from the beginning, and
perhaps I may be able to make things clear for you a bit."
In spite of Mrs. Holl's protestations that Harry ought not to trouble
the gentleman, the two lads were soon deep in their Cæsar. Frank found,
to his surprise, that the cripple boy had a wonderful knack of grasping
the sense of passages, but that never having been regularly taught to
construe, he was unable to apply the rules of grammar which he had
learned. Frank taught him how to do this, how to take a sentence to
pieces, how to parse it word by word, and to see how each word depended
upon the others, so that even if absolutely in ignorance of the meaning
of any one word in a sentence, he could nevertheless parse them
unerringly in the order in which they would be rendered in
English--could determine the value of each, and their bearing upon one
another.
This was quite a revelation to Harry; his face flushed with eagerness
and excitement, and so interested were both lads in their work, that the
hour was far exceeded before the lesson came to an end by Mrs. Holl
interfering bodily in the matter by carrying off the Dictionary, and
declaring that it was a shame that Harry should give so much trouble.
"It is no trouble at all, Mrs. Holl," Frank said, laughing. "You see one
is accustomed a little to teaching, as one often gives one's fag, or any
other little chap who asks, a construe, or explains his lesson to him.
But I can tell you that there are precious few of them who take it all
in as quickly as your son does. Now that I have made myself at home, I
will come in sometimes when school begins again, if you will let me, for
half an hour and read with Harry. But I don't think he will want any
help long. Still, it may help to show him the regular way of getting at
things. And now I must hurry off. You will ask Evan to think over what I
have said. Here is my address. I wrote it down in case I should find no
one in. If he makes up his mind about it before I come again, he had
better call on me there; the best time would be between nine and eleven
in the morning; I have always finished breakfast by nine, and I have put
off my holiday task so long, that I must stick at it regularly two hours
a day till school begins again, so he will be pretty sure to find me
between nine and eleven. Will you tell your husband not to worry himself
about seeing me? I don't want to be thanked, for it was, as I told you,
a sort of partnership business between your boy and me."
"Now I call that a downright nice sort of young chap," Mrs. Holl said,
as their visitor departed, "good-hearted and good-natured, without no
sort of nonsense. He just sits himself down and makes himself at home
as if he was one of the family, and I was able to go on with my washing
just as if he hadn't been here."
For a time Harry did not answer.
"So, that's a gentleman," he said at last, in a low voice, as if
thinking aloud; "I have never spoken to a gentleman before."
"Well, lad," Sarah Holl said, "there ain't much difference between the
gentry and other sorts. I don't see very much of them myself in the
houses I goes to, but I hears plenty about them from the servants' talk;
and, judging from that, a great many of them 'as just as nasty and
unpleasant ways as other people."
"I suppose," Harry said thoughtfully, "there can't be much difference in
real nature between them and us; there must, of course, be good and bad
among them; but there is more difference in their way of talking than I
expected."
"Well, of course, Harry; they have had education, that accounts for it;
just the same as you, who have educated yourself wonderful, talks
different to John and me and the rest of us."
"Yes," Harry said; "but I am not talking about mistakes in grammar; it's
the tone of voice, and the way of speaking that's so different. Now why
should that be, mother?"
"I suppose a good deal of it," Mrs. Holl answered, "is because they are
brought up in nusseries, and they can't run about the house, or holloa
or shout to each other in the streets. D' ye see they are taught to
speak quiet, and they hear their fathers and mothers, and people round
them, speaking quiet. You dun't know, Harry, how still it is in some of
them big houses, you seem half afraid to speak above a whisper."
"Yes, but I don't think he spoke lower than I do, mother, or than the
rest of us. O mother!" he went on, after a while, "isn't he good? Just
to think of his spending an hour and a half sitting here, showing me how
to construe. Why, I see the whole thing in a different way now; he has
made clear all sorts of things that I could not understand; and he said
he would come again too, and I am quite sure that when he says a thing
he means to do it. I don't believe he could tell a lie if he tried. And
is he not good-looking too?"
"He is a pleasant-looking young chap," Mrs. Holl replied, "but I should
not call him anything out of the way. Now I should call you a
better-looking chap than he is, Harry."
"O mother, what an idea!" Harry exclaimed, quite shocked at what seemed
to him a most disrespectful comparison to his hero.
"It ain't no idea at all," Mrs. Holl rejoined stoutly; "any one with
eyes in his head could see that if you was dressed the same as he is you
would be a sight the best-looking chap of the two."
"Ah mother!" Harry said, laughing, "you remind me of an old saying I saw
in a book the other day, 'A mother's geese are all swans.'"
"I am sure," Mrs. Holl said, in an aggrieved voice, "you ain't no goose,
Harry, and if any one else said so I should give them a bit of my mind
sharp enough."
Harry did not attempt to argue with her, but with a little laugh turned
to his books again, and was soon deep in the mysteries of Cæsar.
The next day a carrier's cart stopped before Mrs. Holl's house, to the
great amazement of the neighbourhood--for such an occurrence had not
been known in the memory of the oldest inhabitant in the street, and
quite a crowd of children collected to witness the delivery of a square
heavy box of considerable weight at the door.
Harry was almost beside himself with delight as he took out the
treasures it contained; and as fully half were story-books, his delight
was shared by the rest of the young Holls. It was evening when the cart
arrived, and John was just enjoying his first pipe, and he once more
uttered the sentiment he had expressed so often during the last four
days, "I should like to shake that young chap by the hand."
[Illustration]