This was in allusion to the indifferent crop of hops just being picked
and the consequently small demand for charcoal; but it was a
digression too. We had begun talking of a wasp sting. From that to
gnats, and from gnats to a certain tank where they bred, was an
obvious transition.
And now the tank suggested charcoal. For, according to Bettesworth, a
little knob of charcoal put into a tank is better than an equal
quantity of lime, for keeping the water sweet. Further, "If you got a
bit o' meat that's goin' anyways wrong, you put a little bit o'
charcoal on to that, and you won't taste anything bad. I've heared
ever so many charcoal-burners say that. And meat is a thing as won't
keep--not butcher's meat; partic'lar in the summer when you sims to
want it most--something with a little taste to 't." So, charcoal is
useful; but "Ah! it's purty near all up with charcoal-burnin' now."
A good deal that followed, about the technicalities of
charcoal-burning, has been printed in another place, and is omitted
here. One point, however, may now be taken up. It is the curious fact
that all the charcoal-burners of the neighbourhood are congregated in
one district, and the numerous families of them rejoice in one
name--that of Parratt.
"I never knowed anybody but Parratts do it about here," Bettesworth
said; and the name reminded him of a story, as follows:
"My old brother-in-law Snip was down at Devizes one time--him what
used to travel with a van--_Snip_ they always called 'n. And there was
a feller come into the fair with one of these vans all hung round with
bird-cages, ye know--poll-parrots and all kinds o' birds. So old Snip
says to 'n, 'Parrots?' he says, 'what's the use o' you talkin' about
parrots? Why, where I come from,' he says, 'we got Parratts as 'll
burn charcoal, let alone talk. Talk better 'n any o' yourn,' he says.
'You give 'em some beer and _they'll_ talk--or dig hop-ground, or
anything.' Lor'! how that feller did go on at 'n, old Snip said!"
Bettesworth knew something of charcoal-burning by experience, but he
owned himself ignorant of its inner technical niceties. Moreover, he
felt it right to respect a trade "mystery," explaining, "'Tis no use
to be a trade, if everybody can do it. 'Relse we should have poor
livin' then."
_October_ 31, 1902.--A memorandum of October 31 gives just a foretaste
of the approaching winter, and just a momentary searching back into
the experience gained when Bettesworth worked at a farm. For there
must have been hoar-frost lingering on the lawn that last morning in
October, to evoke the old man's opinion, "the less you goes about on
grass while there's a frost on it the better" for the grass. "If
anybody goes over a bit o' clover-lay with the white frost on it you
can tell for a month after what course they took."
_November 11._--Amid some personalities which it would be difficult to
disguise and which had better be omitted, I find in November another
reference to the harsh social life of the village, and it is in
connexion with that same bully whom Bettesworth had previously
chastised. As before, details must be suppressed; I only suggest that
in these dark November nights the labourers in want of company of
course sought it at the public-house. There, I surmise, the bully was
boasting, until Bettesworth shut him up with a retort brutally direct.
Even as it was repeated to me his expression is not printable.
Bettesworth was no angel. He seemed rather, at times, a hard-grained
old sinner; but he always took the manly side, whether with fists or
coarse tongue. In this instance his fitting rebuke won a laugh of
approval from the company, and even "a pint" for himself from one who
was a relative, but no friend, of the offender.
_December 16._--One dry, cloudy day in December Bettesworth used his
tongue forcibly again, but in how much pleasanter a connexion! A
little tree in the garden had to be transplanted to a new position, on
the edge of a bed occupied by old sprouting stumps of kale. One of
these stumps was exactly in the place destined for the tree, and
Bettesworth ruthlessly pulled it up, talking to it:
"You come out of it. There's plenty more like you. If you complains,
we'll chuck ye in the bottom o' the hole for the tree to feed on!"