THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
"Still to ourselves in every place consigned.
Our own felicity we make or find."
"Catch, then, oh, catch the transient hour!
Improve each moment as it flies.
Life's a short summer, man a flower;
He dies, alas! how soon he dies!"
There are days which rise sadly, go on without sunshine, and pass into
night without one gleam of color. Life, also, has these pallid,
monotonous hours. A distrust of all things invades the soul, and
physical inertia and mental languor make daily existence a simple
weight. It was Christmas-time, but the squire felt none of the elation
of the season. He was conscious that the old festal preparations were
going on, but there was no response to them in his heart. Julius had
arrived, and was helping Sophia to hang the holly and mistletoe. But
Sandal knew that his soul shrank from the nephew he had called into his
life; knew that the sound of his voice irritated him, that his laugh
filled him with resentment, that his very presence in the house seemed
to desecrate it, and to slay for him the very idea of home.
He was sitting in the "master's room," wondering how the change had come
about. But he found nothing to answer the wonder, because he was looking
for some palpable wrong, some distinctive time or cause. He was himself
too simple-hearted to reflect that it is seldom a great fault which
destroys liking for a person. A great fault can be forgiven. It is small
personal offences constantly repeated; little acts of meanness, and,
above all, the petty plans and provisions of a selfish nature. Besides
which, the soul has often marvellous intuitions, unmasking men and
things; premonitions, warnings, intelligences, that it cannot doubt and
cannot explain.
Inside the house there was a pleasant air and stir of preparation; the
rapid movements of servants, the shutting and opening of doors, the low
laughter of gay hearts well contented with the time and the
circumstances. Outside, the mesmerizing snow was falling with a soft,
silent persistence. The squire looked sadly at the white hills, and the
white park, and the branches bending under their load, and the sombre
sky, gray upon darker gray.
Last Christmas the girls had relied entirely upon his help. He had found
the twine, and driven the nails, and steadied the ladder when Sophia's
light form mounted it in order to hang the mistletoe. They had been so
happy. The echo of their voices, their snatches of Christmas carols,
their laughter and merry badinage, was still in his heart. He remembered
the impromptu lunch, which they had enjoyed so much while at work. He
could see the mother come smiling in, with constant samples of the
Christmas cheer fresh out of the oven. He had printed the verses and
mottoes himself, spent all the afternoon over them, and been rather
proud of his efforts. Charlotte had said, "they were really beautiful;"
even Sophia had admitted that "they looked well among the greens." But
to-day he had not been asked to assist in the decorations. True, he had
said, in effect, that he did not wish to assist; but, all the same, he
felt shut out from his old pre-eminence; and he could not help
regarding Julius Sandal as a usurper.
These were drearisome Christmas thoughts and feelings; and they found
their climax in a pathetic complaint, "I never thought Charlotte would
have given me the go-by. All along she has taken my side, no matter what
came up. Oh, my little lass!"
As if in answer to the heart-cry, Charlotte opened the door. She was
dressed in furs and tweeds, and she had the squire's big coat and
woollen wraps in her hand. Before he could speak, she had reached his
chair, and put her arm across his shoulder, and said in her bright,
confidential way, "Come, father, let you and me have a bit of pleasure
by ourselves: there isn't much comfort in the house to-day."
"You say right, Charlotte; you do so, my dear. Where shall we go? Eh?
Where?"
"Wherever you like best. There is no snow to hamper us yet. Some of the
servants are down from Up-Hill. Ducie has sent mother a great spice-loaf
and a fine Christmas cheese."
"Ducie is a kind woman. I have known Ducie ever since I knew myself.
Could we climb the fell-breast, Charlotte? Eh? What?"
"I think we could. Ducie will miss it, if you don't go and wish her 'a
merry Christmas.' You never missed grandfather Latrigg. Old friends are
best, father."
"They are that. Is Steve at home?"
"He isn't coming home this Christmas. I wasn't planning about Steve,
father. Don't think such a thing as that of me."
"I don't, Charlotte. I don't think of Charlotte Sandal and of any thing
underhand at the same time. I'm a bit troubled and out of sorts this
morning, my dear."
She kissed him affectionately for answer. She not only divined what a
trial Julius had become, but she knew also that his heart was troubled
in far greater depths than Julius had any power to stir. Harry Sandal
was really at the root of every bitter moment. For Harry had not taken
the five hundred pounds with the creditable contrite humiliation of the
repenting prodigal. It was even yet doubtful whether he would respond to
his parents' urgent request to spend Christmas at Seat-Sandal. And when
there is one rankling wrong, which we do not like to speak of, it is so
natural to relieve the heart by talking a great deal about those wrongs
which we are less inclined to disguise and deny.
In the great hall a sudden thought struck the squire; and he stood
still, and looked in Charlotte's face. "You are sure that you want to
go, my dear? Won't you be missed? Eh? What?"
She clasped his hand tighter, and shook her head very positively. "They
don't want me, father. I am in the way."
He did not answer until they had walked some distance; then he asked
meaningly, "Has it come to that? Eh? What?"
"Yes, it has come to that."
"I am very glad it isn't you. And I'm nettled at myself for ever showing
him a road to slight you, Charlotte."
"If there is any slight between Julius and me, father, I gave it; for he
asked me to marry him, and I plainly told him no."
"Hear--you--but. I _am_ glad. You refused him? Come, come, that's a bit
of pleasure I would have given a matter of five pounds to have known a
day or two since. It would have saved me a few good ratings. Eh? What?"
"Why, father! Who has been rating you?"
"Myself, to be sure. You can't think what set-downs I have given William
Sandal. Do you mind telling me about that refusal, Charlotte? Eh? What?"
"Not a bit. It was in the harvest-field. He said he loved me, and I told
him gentlemen did not talk that way to girls who had never given them
the least encouragement; and I said I did not love him, and never, never
could love him. I was very firm, father, perhaps a little bit cross; for
I did not like the way he spoke. I don't think he admires me at all now."
"I dare be bound he doesn't. 'Firm and a little bit cross.' It wouldn't
be a nice five minutes for Julius. He sets a deal of store by himself;"
and then, as if he thought it was his duty not to show too much
gratification, he added, "I hope you were very civil, Charlotte. A good
asker should have a good nay-say. And you refused him? Well, I _am_
pleased. Mother never heard tell of it? Eh? What?"
"Oh, no; I have told no one but you. At the long end you always get at
my secrets, father."
"We've had a goodish few together,--fishing secrets, and such like; but
I must tell mother this one, eh? She _will_ go on about it. In the
harvest-field, was it? I understand now why he walked himself off a day
or two before the set day. And he is all for Sophia now, is he? Well, I
shouldn't wonder if Sophia will 'best' him a little on every side. You
_have_ given me a turn, Charlotte. I didn't think of a son-in-law
yet,--not just yet. Dear me! How life does go on! Ever since the
sheep-shearing it has been running away with me. Life is a road on which
there is no turning round, Charlotte. Oh, if there only were! If you
could just run back to where you made the wrong turning! If you could
only undo things that you have done! Eh? What?"
"Not even God can make what has been, not to have been. When a thing is
done, if it is only the taking of a walk, the walk is taken to all
eternity."
At the word "eternity," they stood on the brow of the hill which they
had been climbing, and the squire said it again very solemnly.
"Eternity! How dreadful to spend it in repentance which can undo
nothing! That is the most awful conception of the word 'eternity.' Eh?
What?"
They were silent a moment, then Sandal turned and looked westward. "It
is mizzling already, Charlotte; the snow will turn into rain, and we
shall have a downpour. Had we not better go home?"
But Charlotte painted in such glowing colors Ducie's fireside, and the
pipe, and the cosey, quiet dinner they would be sure to get there, that
the squire could not resist the temptation. "For all will be at sixes
and sevens at home," he commented, "and no peace for anybody, with
greens and carols and what not. Eh? What?"
"And very likely, as it is Christmas Eve, you may be asked to give
Sophia away. So a nice dinner, and a quiet smoke, and an hour's nap will
help you through to-night." And the thought in each heart, beyond this
one, was "Perhaps Harry will be at home."
Nobody missed the fugitives. Mrs. Sandal was sure Harry would come, and
she was busy preparing his room with her own hands. The brightest fire,
the gayest greens, the whitest and softest and best of every thing, she
chose for Harry's room.
Certainly they were not missed by Julius and Sophia. They were far too
much interested in themselves and in their own affairs. From the first
hour of his return to Seat-Sandal, Sophia had understood that Julius was
her lover, and that the time for his declaration rested in the main with
herself. When the Christmas bells were ringing, when the house was
bright with light and evergreens, and the very atmosphere full of
happiness, she had determined to give him the necessary encouragement.
But the clock of Fate cannot be put back. When the moment arrives, the
word is spoken or the deed done. Both of them were prepared for the
moment, and yet not just then prepared; for Love still holds his great
surprise somewhat in reserve.
They were in the drawing-room. The last vase had been filled, the last
wreath hung; and Sophia looked at her beautiful hands, marked with the
rim of the scissors, and stained with leaves and berries, in a little
affected distress. Julius seated himself on the sofa beside her. She
trembled, but he looked at her almost triumphantly. Over Sophia's heart
he knew his power. With the questioning, unwinking gaze of love his eyes
sought hers, and he tenderly spoke her name, "_Sophia_." She could
answer only by her conscious silence.
"My wife! Mine in lives long forgotten."
"O Julius!"
"Always mine; missed in some existences, recovered in others, but
bringing into every life with you my mark of ownership. See here."
Then he lifted her hand, and opening its palm upward, he placed his own
in the same attitude beside it. "Look into them both, Sophia, and see
how closely our line of fortune is alike. That is something, but
behold." And he showed her a singular mark, which had in his own palm
its precise counterpart.
"Is it not also in Charlotte's palm? In others?"
"No, indeed. Among all the women on earth, only yours has this facsimile
of my own. It is the soul mark upon the body. Every educated Hindoo can
trace it; and all will tell you, that, if two individuals have it
precisely alike, they are twin souls, and nothing can prevent their
union."
"Did they explain it to you, Julius?"
"An Oriental never explains. They apprehend what is too subtle for
words. They know best just what they have never been told. Sophia, this
hand of yours fits mine. It is the key to it; the interpreter of my
fate. Give me my own, darling."
To Charlotte he would never have spoken in such a tone. She would have
resented its claim and authority, and perceived that it was likely to be
the first encroachment of a tyranny she did not intend to bow to. But
Sophia was easily deceived on this ground. She liked the mystical air it
gave to the event; the gray sanction of unknown centuries to the love of
to-day.
They speculated and supposed, and were supremely happy. The usual lover
wanders in the dreams of the future: they sought each other through the
phantom visions of the past. And they were so charmed with the
occupation, that they quite forgot the exigencies and claims of the
present existence until the rattle of wheels, the stamping of feet, and
a joyful cry from Mrs. Sandal recalled them to it.
"It is Harry," said Sophia. "I must go to him, Julius."
He held her very firmly. "I am first. Wait a moment. You must promise me
once more: 'My life is your life, my love is your love, my will is your
will, my interest is your interest; I am your second self.' Will you say
this Sophia, as I say it?" And she answered him without a word. Love
knows how such speech may be. Even when she had escaped from her lover,
she was not very sorry to find that Harry had gone at once to his own
room; for he had driven through the approaching storm, and been
thoroughly drenched. She was longing for a little solitude to bethink
her of the new position in which she found herself; for, though she had
a dreamy curiosity about her pre-existences, she had a very active and
positive interest in the success and happiness of her present life.
Suddenly she remembered Charlotte, and with the remembrance came the
fact that she had not seen her since the early forenoon. But she
immediately coupled the circumstance with the absence of the squire, and
then she reached the real solution of the position in a moment. "They
have gone to Up-Hill, of course. Father always goes the day before
Christmas; and Charlotte, no doubt, expected to find Steve at home. I
must tell Julius about Charlotte and Steve. Julius will not approve of
a young man like Steve in our family, and it ought not to be. I am sure
father and mother think so."
At this point in her reflections, she heard Charlotte enter her own
room, but she did not go to her. Sophia had a dislike to wet, untidy
people, and she was not in any particular flurry to tell her success.
Indeed, she was rather inclined to revel for an hour in the sense of it
belonging absolutely to Julius and herself. She was not one of those
impolitic women, who fancy that they double their happiness by imparting
it to others.
She determined to dress with extraordinary care. The occasion warranted
it, surely; for it was not only Christmas Eve, it was also her betrothal
eve. She put on her richest garment, a handsome gown of dark blue silk
and velvet. A spray of mistletoe-berries was in her black hair, and a
glittering necklace of fine sapphires enhanced the beauty and whiteness
of her exquisite neck and shoulders. She was delighted with the effect
of her own brave apparel, and also a little excited with the course
events had taken, or she never would have so far forgotten the
privileges of her elder birth as to visit Charlotte's room first on
such an important personal occasion.
Charlotte was still wrapped in her dressing-gown, lazily musing before
the crackling, blazing fire. Her hands were clasped above her head, her
feet comfortably extended upon the fender, her eyes closed. She had been
a little tired with buffeting the storm; and the hot tea, which Mrs.
Sandal had insisted upon as a preventative of cold, had made her, as she
told Sophia, "deliciously dozy."
"But dinner will be ready in half an hour, and you have to dress yet,
Charlotte. How do I look?"
"You look charming. How bright your eyes are, Sophia! I never saw you
look so well. How much Julius will admire you to-night!"
"As to that, Julius always admires me. He says he used to dream about
me, even before he saw me."
"Oh, you know that is nonsense! He couldn't do that. I dare say he
dreams about you now, though. I should think he would like to."
"You will have to hurry, Charlotte."
"I can dress in ten minutes if I want to."
"I will leave you now." She hesitated a moment at the door, but she
could not bring herself to speak of her engagement. She saw that
Charlotte was in one of her "no-matter-every-thing-right" moods, and
knew she would take the important news without the proper surprise and
enthusiasm. In fact, she perceived that Harry's visit occupied her whole
mind; for, as she stood a moment or two irresolute as to her own
desires, Charlotte talked eagerly of her brother.
"Well, I hope if Harry is of so much importance in your eyes, you will
dress decently to meet him. The rector is coming to dinner also."
"I shall wear my blue gown. If I imitate you, I cannot be much out of
the way. Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! I hope Harry will have a pleasant visit. We
must do our best, Sophia, to make him happy."
"O Charlotte, if you have nothing to talk about but Harry, Harry, Harry,
I am going! I am very fond of Harry, but I don't pretend to be blind to
Harry's faults. Remember how many disagreeable hours he has given us
lately. And I must say that I think he was very ungrateful about the
hundred and eighty pounds I gave him. He never wrote me a line of
thanks."
"You did not give it to Harry, you loaned it to me. Be just Sophia. I
have paid you fifteen pounds of it back already, and I shall not buy a
single new dress until it is all returned. You will not lose a shilling,
Sophia."
"How Quixotic you can be! However, it is no use exciting ourselves
to-night. One likes to keep the peace at Yule-tide, and so I will bow
down to your idol as much as I can conscientiously."
Charlotte made no answer. She had risen hastily, and with rather
unnecessary vigor was rattling the ewer and basin, and plashing out the
water. Sophia came back into the room, arranged the glass at the proper
angle to give her a last comprehensive review of herself; and this being
quite satisfactory, she went away with a smiling complacency, and a
subdued excitement of manner, which in some peculiar way revealed to
Charlotte the real position of affairs between her sister and Julius
Sandal.
"She might have told me." She dashed the water over her face at the
implied complaint; and it was easy to see, from the impatient way in
which she subsequently unbound her hair, and pulled the comb through it,
and from the irritability of all her movements, that she felt the
omission to be a slight, not only indicating something not quite
pleasant in the past, but prefiguring also she knew not what
disagreeable feelings for the future.
"It is not Sophia's fault," she muttered; "Julius is to blame for it. I
think he really hates me now. He has said to her, 'There is no need to
tell Charlotte, specially; it will make her of too much importance. I
don't approve of Charlotte in many ways.' Oh, I know you, sir!" and with
the thought she pulled the string of her necklace so impatiently that it
broke; and the golden beads fell to her feet, and rolled hither and
thither about the room.
The incident calmed her. She finished her toilet in haste, and went
down-stairs. All the rooms were lighted, and she saw Julius and Sophia
pacing up and down the main parlor, hand in hand, so interested in their
_sotto voce_ conversation as to be quite unconscious that she had stood
a moment at the open door for their recognition. So she passed on
without troubling them. She heard her mother's happy laugh in the large
dining-room, and she guessed from its tone that Harry was with her. Mrs.
Sandal was beautifully dressed in black satin, and she held in her hand
a handsome silver salver. Evidently she had been about to leave the room
with it, when detained by some remark of her son's; for she was half-way
between the table and the door, her pretty, kindly face all alight with
love and happiness.
Harry was standing on the hearth-rug, facing the room,--a splendidly
handsome young fellow in a crimson and yellow uniform. He was in the
midst of a hearty laugh, but when he saw Charlotte there was a sudden
and wonderful transformation in his face. It grew in a moment much
finer, more thoughtful, wistful, human. He sprang forward, took her in
his arms, and kissed her. Then he held her from him a little, looked at
her again, and kissed her again; and with that last kiss he whispered,
"You good sister. You saved me, Charlotte, with that five hundred
pounds."
"I would have given it had it been my all, it been fifty times as much,
Harry."
There was no need to say another word. Harry and Charlotte understood
each other, and Harry turned the conversation upon his cousin.
"This Indian fellow, this Sandal of the Brahminical caste, what is he
like, Charley?"
"He does not admire me, Harry; so how can I admire him?"
"Then there must be something wrong with him in the fundamentals; a
natural-born inability to admire what is lovely and good."
"You mustn't say such a thing as that, Harry. I am sure that Sophia is
engaged to him."
"Does father like him?"
"Not much; but Julius is a Sandal, after all, and"--
"After me, the next heir. Exactly. It shall not be my fault, Charley, if
he does not stand a little farther off soon. I can get married too."
"O Harry, if you only would! It is your duty; and there is little Emily
Beverley. She is so beautiful and good, and she adores you, Harry."
"Dear little Emmy. I used to love Emmy a long time ago."
"It would make father so happy, and mother and me too. And the Beverleys
are related to mother,--and isn't mother sweet. Father was saying"--
At that moment the squire entered the room. His face was a little
severe; but the moment his eyes fell upon Charlotte and Harry, every
line of sternness was gone like a flash. Harry's arm was round his
sister's waist, her head against his shoulder; but in a moment he gently
released himself, and went to his father. And in his nineteenth-century
way he said what the erring son of old said, "Father, I have not done
right lately. I am very sorry."
"Say no more, Harry, my lad. There shall be no back reckoning between
you and me. You have been mixed up with a sight of follies, but you can
over-get all that. You take after me in looks. Up-sitting and
down-sitting, you are my son. You come of a good kind; you have a kind
heart and plenty of dint;[Dint, energy.] now, then, make a
fresh start, Harry. Oh, my dear, dear son!" The father's eyes were full
of tears, his face shone with love, and he held the young man's hand in
a clasp which forgave every thing in the past, and promised everything
for the future.
Then Julius and Sophia came in, and there was barely time to introduce
the young men before dinner was served. They disliked each other on
sight; indeed, the dislike was anterior to sight, and may be said to
have commenced when Harry first heard how thoroughly at home Julius had
made himself at Seat-Sandal, and when Julius first saw what a desirable
estate and fine old "seat" Harry's existence deprived him of. And in
half an hour this general aversion began to particularize itself. The
slim, suave youth, with his black eyes and soft speech, and small hands
and feet, seemed to Harry Sandal in every respect an interloper. The
Saxon in this Sandal was lost in the Oriental. The two races were,
indeed, distinctly evident in the two men in many ways, but noticeably
in their eyes: Harry's being large, blue, and wide open; those of
Julius, very black; and in their long, narrow setting and dreamy look,
expressing centuries of tranquil contemplation.
But the dinner passed off very pleasantly, more so than family festivals
usually pass. After it the lovers went into private session to consider
whether they should declare their new relationship during the evening,
or wait until Julius could have a private audience with the squire.
Sophia was inclined to the first course, because of the presence of the
rector. She felt that his blessing on her betrothal would add a
religious grace to the event, but Julius was averse to speak on any
matter so private to himself before Harry Sandal. He felt that he could
neither endure his congratulations nor his dissent; that, in fact, he
did not want his opinion on the matter at all. Besides, he had
determined to have but one discussion of the affair, and that must
include all pertaining to Sophia's rights and her personal fortune.
While they were deciding this momentous question, the rector and
Charlotte were singing over the carols for the Christmas service; the
squire was smoking and listening; and Harry was talking in a low voice
to his mother. But after the rector had gone, it became very difficult
to avoid a feeling of _ennui_ and restraint, although it was Christmas
Eve. Mrs. Sandal soon went into the housekeeper's room to assist in the
preparation of the Yule hampers for the families of the men who worked
on the estate. Sandal fell into a musing fit, and soon appeared to be
dozing; although Charlotte saw that he occasionally opened his eyes, and
looked at the whispering lovers, or else shot her a glance full of
sympathetic intelligence.
Music has many according charms, and Charlotte tried it, but with small
success. Julius and Sophia had a song in their own hearts, and this
night they knew no other. Harry loved his sister very dearly, but he was
not inclined to "carolling;" and the repression and constraint were soon
evident through all the conventional efforts to be "merry." It was the
squire who finally hit upon the circumstance which tided over the
evening, and sent every one to bed in a ripple of laughter. For, when
the piano was closed, he opened his eyes, and said, "Sophia, your mother
tells me she has had a very nice Christmas present from the little maid
you took such a liking to,--little Agnes Bulteel. It is a carriage hap
made of sheepskins white as the snow, and from some new breed of sheep
surely; for the wool is longer and silkier than ever I saw."
"Agnes Bulteel!" cried Charlotte. "O Sophia! where are her last letters?
I am sure father would like to hear about Joe and the jolly-jist."
"Joe Bulteel is no fool," said the squire warmly. "It is the way around
here to laugh a bit at Joe; but Joe aims to do right, and he is a very
spirity lad. What are you and Sophia laughing at? Eh? What?"
"Get the letters, Sophia. Julius and Harry will enjoy them I know. Harry
must remember Joe Bulteel."
"Certainly. Joe has carried my line and creel many a day. Trout couldn't
fool Joe. He was the one to find plovers' eggs, and to spot a blaeberry
patch. Joe has some senses ordinary people do not have, I think. I
should like to hear about Joe and the _what_?"
"The jolly-jist,--Professor Sedgwick really. Joe has been on the fells
with the professor."
So they drew around the fire, and Sophia went for the letters. She was a
good reader, and could give the county peculiarities with all their
quaint variations of mood and temper and accent. She was quite aware
that the reading would exhibit her in an entirely new _rôle_ to Julius,
and she entered upon the task with all the confidence and enthusiasm
which insured the entertainment. And as both Professor Sedgwick and Joe
Bulteel were well known to the squire and Harry, they entered into the
joke also with all their hearts; and one peal of laughter followed
another, as the squire's comments made many a distinct addition to the
unconscious humor of the letters.
At that point of the story where Joe had triumphantly pocketed his last
five shillings, and gone home reflecting on what a "famous job it would
be to sell all the stones on their fell at five shillings a little
bagful," Mrs. Sandal entered. A servant followed with spiced wine and
dainty bits of cake and pastry; and then, after a merry interval of
comment and refreshment, Sophia resumed the narrative.
All this happened at the end of May, Miss Sandal; and one day last
August father went down Lorton way, and it was gayly late when he
got home. As he was sitting on his own side the fire, trying to
loose the buttons of his spats, he said to Joe, "I called at
Skeàl-Hill on my road home." Mother was knitting at her side of the
hearth. She hadn't opened her mouth since father came home; nay,
she hadn't so much as looked at him after the one hard glower that
she gave him at first; but when he said he'd been at Skeàl-Hill,
she gave a grunt, and said, as if she spoke to nobody but herself,
"Ay, a blind body might see that."--"I was speaking to Joe," said
father. "Joe," said he again, "I was at Skeàl-Hill,"--mother gave
another grunt then,--"and they told me that thy old friend the
jolly-jist is back again. I think thou had better step down, and
see if he wants to buy any more broken stones; old Abraham has a
fine heap or two lying aside Kirgat." Joe thought he had done many
a dafter thing than take father at his word, whether he meant it or
not; and so thought, so done, for next morning he took himself off
to Skeàl-Hill.
When he got there, and asked if the jolly-jist was stirring yet,
one servant snorted, and another grunted, till Joe got rather
maddish; but at last one of them skipjacks of fellows, that wear a
little jacket like a lass's bedgown, said he would see. He came
back laughing, and said, "Come this way, Joe." Well, our Joe
followed him till he stopped before a room door; and he gave a
little knock, and then opened it, and says he, "Joe, sir." Joe
wasn't going to stand that; and he said, "'Joe, sir,' he'll ken its
'Joe, sir,' as soon as he sees the face of me. And get out with thy
'Joe, sir,' or I'll make thee laugh at the wrong side of that ugly
face of thine." With that the fellow skipped out of our Joe's way
gayly sharp, and Joe stepped quietly into the room.
There the little old gentleman was sitting at a table
writing,--gray hair, spectacles, white neck-cloth, black
clothes,--just as if he had never either doffed or donned himself
since he went away. But before Joe could put out his hand, or say a
civil word to him, he glinted up at Joe through his spectacles very
fierce like, and grunted out something about wondering how Joe
durst show his face again. Well, that put the cap on all for poor
Joe. He had thought over what father said, and _how_ he said it, on
his road down till he found himself getting rather mad about it;
and the way they all snorted and laughed when he came to Skeàl-Hill
made him madder; and that bedgown fellow, with his "Joe, sir," made
him madder than ever; but when the old jolly-jist--that he thought
would be so fain to see him, if it was only for the sake of their
sprogue on the fells together--when he wondered "how Joe durst show
his face there," it set Joe rantin' mad, and he _did_ make a burst.
At this point the squire was laughing so noisily that Sophia had to
stop; and his hearty _ha, ha, ha_! was so contagious, that Harry and
Julius and Charlotte, and even Mrs. Sandal, echoed it in a variety of
merry peals. Sophia was calmer. She sat by the lamp, pleasantly
conscious of the amusement she was giving; and, considering that she had
already laughed the circumstance out in her room, quite as well
entertained as any of the party. In a few minutes the squire recovered
himself. "Let us have the rest now, Sophia. I'd have given a gold
guinea to have heard Joe's 'burst.'"
"Show my face?" said Joe; "and what should I show, then? If it
comes to showing faces, I've a better face to show than ever
belonged to one of your breed, if the rest of them are aught like
the sample they have sent us. But if you must know," said Joe, "I
come of a stock that never would be frightened to show their face
to a king, let alone an old noodles that calls himself a
jolly-jist. And I defy the face of clay," said Joe, "to show that
any of us ever did aught he need to be ashamed of, wherever we show
our faces. Dare to show my face, eh?" said Joe again, "My song! but
this is a bonnie welcome to give a fellow that has come so far to
see you such a hot morning." Joe said a deal more of the same make;
and all the time he was saying it, the old man laid himself back in
his great chair, and kept twiddling his thumbs, and glancing up at
Joe with a half-smirk on his face, as if he had got something very
funny before him.
"Joe is like all these shepherd lads," said the squire, "as independent
as never was. They are a manly race, but the Bulteels all come of a good
kind."
Julius laughed scornfully, but the squire took him up very short. "You
need not laugh, nephew. It is as I say. The Bulteels are as good stock
as the Sandals; a fine old family, and, like the Sandals, at home here
when the Conqueror came. Joe would do the right thing I'll be bound. Let
us hear if he didn't, Sophia."
After a while Joe stopped, for he had run himself very near short
of wind; and he began rather to think shame of shouting and
bellering so at an old man, and him as whisht as a trout through it
all. And when Joe pulled in, he only said, as quietly as ever was,
that Joe was a "natural curiosity."
Joe didn't know very well what this meant; but he thought it was
sauce, and it had like to have set him off again; but he beat
himself down as well as he could, and he said, "Have you any thing
against me? If you have, speak it out like a man; and don't sit
there twiddling your thumbs, and calling folks out of their names
in this road." Then it came out plain enough. All this ill-nature,
Miss Sandal, was just because poor Joe hadn't brought him the same
stones as he had gathered on the fells; and he said that changing
them was either a very dirty trick, or a very clumsy joke.
"Trick," said Joe. "_Joke_, did you say? It was ratherly past a
joke to expect me to carry a load of broken stones all the way
here, when there was plenty on the spot. I'm not such a fool as
you've taken me for," said Joe. The jolly-jist took off his
spectacles, and glowered at Joe without them. Then he put them on
again, and glowered at Joe with them; and then he laughed, and
asked Joe, if he thought there could be no difference in stones.
"Why!" answered Joe, "you hardly have the face to tell me that one
bag of stones isn't as good as another bag of stones; and surely to
man you'll never be so conceited as to say that you can break
stones better than old Abraham Atchisson, who breaks them for his
bread, and breaks them all day long and every day."
With that the old man laughed again, and told Joe to sit down; and
then he asked him what he thought made him take so much trouble
seeking bits of stone on the fells, if he could get what he wanted
on the road-side. "Well," Joe said, "if I must tell you the truth,
I thought you were rather soft in the head; but it made no matter
what I thought, so long as you paid me so well for going with you."
As Joe said this, it came into his head that it was better to
flatter a fool than to fight him; and after all, that there might
be something in the old man liking stones of his own breaking
better than those of other folks' breaking. We all think the most
of what we have had a hand in ourselves, don't we Miss Sandal? It's
nothing but natural. And as soon as this run, through Joe's head,
he found himself getting middling sorry for the old man; and he
said, "What will you give me to get you your own bits of stones
back again?"
He cocked up his ears at that, and asked if his "speciments," as he
called them, were safe. "Ay," said Joe, "they are safe enough.
Nobody hereabout thinks a little lot of stones worth meddling with,
so long as they don't lie in their road." With that the jolly-jist
jumped up, and said Joe must have something to eat and drink. Then
Joe thought to himself, "Come, come, we are getting back to our own
menseful way again." But he would not stir a peg till he heard
what he was to have for getting the stones again; for Joe knew he
would never hear the last of it, if he came home empty-handed. They
made it all right very soon, however; and the old man went
up-stairs, and brought down the two leather bags, and gave them to
Joe to carry, as if nothing had happened; and off they started,
very like as they did before.
The Skeàl-Hill folk all gathered together about the door to look
after them, as if they had been a show; but they neither of them
minded for that, but walked away as thick as inkle-weavers till
they got to the foot of our great meadow, where the stones were all
lying just as Joe had turned them out of the bags, only rather
grown over with grass. And as Joe picked them up one by one, and
handed them to the old jolly-jist, it did Joe's heart good to see
how pleased he looked. He wiped them on his coat-cuff, and wet
them, and glowered at them through his spectacles, as if they were
something good to eat, and he was very hungry; and then he packed
them away into the bags till they were both chock full again.
Well, the bargain was, that Joe should carry them back to
Skeàl-Hill; so back they put, the jolly-jist watching his bags all
the way, as if they were full of golden guineas, and our Joe a
thief. When they got there, he made Joe take them right into the
parlor; and the first thing he did was to call for some red wax and
a light, and he clapped a great splatch of a seal on either bag;
and then he looked at Joe, and gave a little grunt of a laugh, and
a smartish wag of the head, as much as to say, "Do it again, Joe,
if you can." But after that he said, "Here, Joe, is five shillings
for restoring my speciments, and here is another five shillings for
showing me a speciment of human nature that I did not believe in
until this day." [This story is told of Professor Sedgwick in broad
_patois_ by Alexander Craig Gibson, F.S.A.]
"That is good," cried the squire, clapping his knee emphatically. "It
was like the professor, and it was like Joe Bulteel. The story does them
both credit. I am glad I heard it. Alice, fill our glasses again." Then
he stood up, and looked around with a smile.
"God's blessing on this house, and on all beneath its roof-tree!
"Wife and children, a merry Christmas to you!
"Friends and serving hands, a merry Christmas to you!"