MY SECRET DEPARTURE
SINCE Jim had compelled me to plough the ground while he slept, or
otherwise idled his time, by the time I was twelve years of age I could
plough a straight furrow. It was considered a crime of the deepest dye
to plough a crooked one. There was a ploughing match to come off at
Haselbury, and Mr. Greenham entered me on the list as a first-class boy,
and Jim was entered as a first-class man; we then had to practise side
by side in a field of clover. Everybody said I should win the head
prize, which for the boys was L3, while the head prize for men was L5
with a society's coat and buttons. At length the important day arrived,
and everybody went to the field where a piece of land or ridge must be
ploughed in fourteen rounds; that is to say, the plough must go across
the field and back again fourteen times, which makes twenty-eight
furrows for each piece of land. Neither more nor less must be ploughed
in these twenty-eight furrows. All the furrows must be straight, no
grass or weeds must be seen sticking up between them, and when finished
the ridge must be level and even. Now there was one ridge which had a
hollow across it in a diagonal direction, and as all the pieces of land
to be ploughed were drawn for by lot, this piece came to my share.
I asked the umpires if they expected me to get that hollow up level, and
they said Yes, most decidedly; but they would give me an extra half hour
to do it in. So at it we went, whistling the tune of "God speed the
plough and the Devil take the farmer." Now, notwithstanding the hollows,
I had the pleasure of hearing my work praised exceedingly, which gave me
much courage. I finished my piece as soon as the rest had finished
theirs. We then had the pleasure, the inestimable pleasure, of seeing
the farmers and gentry eating roast reef and plum pudding in a decorated
barn. The smell of these good things ought to have done us good. For
myself I was very hungry, having had nothing to eat since before six
o'clock in the morning. When they had dined we were called in one by one
to receive our rewards. I heard my name called, and went into the barn
to receive my prize. The squire, who was the spokesman, praised my work
and said that I should make an excellent ploughman, and had it not been
for the hollow, which I had not fetched up to their satisfaction, I
should have been entitled to the first prize. But as it was I should be
awarded the third prize of L1.
Now Jim got nothing. I do not know why, for he was undoubtedly a good
ploughman when he chose to put himself into his work. So he sent me home
with the horses, as it was getting late, and said he would go and get my
L1. I had no choice but to obey his orders, and I never saw my money,
for he went straightway to Temperance Patch's, and spent it there. My
poor mother went to him about it, but she received nothing but curses.
So now I began seriously to think how I could get out of his power. I
used to measure myself once a week to see how soon I should be tall
enough for the Army. I was thirteen years of age, and big and strong. So
when Her Majesty Queen Victoria was crowned I went to Yeovil, and for
the first time in my life saw and heard a military band. I asked them to
take me, as I could play a flute or cornet, but they replied, "You must
grow a bit, and then call on us again."
I grew a good deal during the next year, when I was fourteen. I was
determined to bear Jim's cruelty no longer, and I knew I was now tall
enough for the Army. So I made preparations for a start. I was receiving
four shillings and sixpence a week, which was good wages at that time;
but of course this all went for my maintenance. I went to my master,
however, and asked him to keep my wages for three or four weeks, so that
I might take it all in a lump, but I shrewdly held my tongue as to why.
It was the only occasion on which I did not act quite openly with my
mother, but in my mind I knew I should make it up to her later. So when
my wages amounted to nearly L1, I asked Mr. Greenham for it and then
made a start. I put together what few clothes I had and got up at three
o'clock in the morning, with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow secretly
bidding adieu to mother, father, brothers and sisters.
On arriving at the end of the village I glanced back to take a last look
at the church and steeple, which were just discernible in the grey dawn.
I thought of Mr. Cornwall, and Miss Brown, some of whose teaching again
came into my mind. I remembered that I had so often repeated the words,
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," and "I will lay me down in
peace and take my rest, for it is Thou, O Lord, that makest me to dwell
in safety." I now began to make tracks for Weymouth, thirty-three miles
distant, and beyond the first seven miles I did not know an inch of the
way.
I trudged on, however, like a snail, carrying all I possessed on my
back. After about nine or ten hours' sharp walking I arrived at the
quaint old town of Dorchester, where I walked leisurely through the
streets, looking at the old-fashioned houses, and such things as took my
attention. Just as I was going to turn into a shop to get some bread and
cheese, a smart recruiting sergeant came striding up the street towards
me. He clapped his hand upon my shoulder and said, "Here, young man,
will you enlist?" I do not know whether the perversity I showed is a
characteristic of human nature, or whether it belonged to me
individually, but if he had asked me to take a dose of poison, I could
not have felt more vexed and annoyed; and when he showed me the
shilling, the disgust I felt was beyond description. Perhaps the fact of
my being very hungry had something to do with it, but at any rate the
idea of being a soldier went entirely out of my head for ever.
After an hour's rest in Dorchester, I travelled forward I still had
about eight miles to go, and my feet were already blistered. I scarcely
felt it, however, as I had often had them blistered when ploughing, with
Jim's ill-usage into the bargain; but now I had freed myself for ever
from his cruelty, and I went along with a light heart.
I reached Weymouth about five o'clock in the afternoon. I had done the
thirty-three miles, including stoppages, in fourteen hours. I walked
round the harbour and asked every skipper I could find if he would take
me on board his vessel in any capacity, but from all came the same
answer, "No." So I began to think that the world and its inhabitants
were not exactly what I had always thought or fancied they were. All the
sea-songs I had heard, "The poor Sailor Boy," "The Cabin Boy," and
others, had led me to believe that the skippers of vessels were only too
glad to get hold of a boy when the chance offered; but now I found out
my mistake. But one man told me that a shipowner in Jersey was in want
of hands. I made inquiries and soon found out that a steamer would start
for Jersey at nine o'clock the same evening.
I went on board, paid ten shillings for my passage, and was soon off
towards Jersey.
I cannot describe how much I enjoyed the view of the sea, especially
when we began to lose sight of Portland. The moon was shining and I
could look around and see a great expanse of water. The sea was not
rough, although there was a swell which was sufficient to toss the
vessel up and down in what I soon found to be a very disagreeable
manner. I soon began in right earnest to feel what the French call "mal
de mer."
After a twelve-hours' passage, which was considered good work at that
time, we landed in Jersey. I at once found my way to the shipowner, and
he set me to work there and then unloading salt from a ship at one
shilling and sixpence a day. The salt was not in lumps, but in the form
of small grain. It was at that time used in England for manure; but in
Jersey and France it was used for salting butter, meat and fish. To any
whose shoes have been worn off their feet, and their feet blistered and
made sore with walking, I need hardly say that the salt soon found its
way into my boots and made me nearly faint with pain. However, it was
soon over, and in a couple of days I believe my feet were hard enough to
walk upon flints without any inconvenience.
Sunday soon came round, and I brushed myself up and went to St. James'
Church. As I glanced over my person I found that my only suit was very
much the worse for wear after unloading, but I had no idea of staying
away from church on this account. In the afternoon I went to the town
church and saw the soldiers walk down from Fort Regent, with their fife
and drum band playing "The girl I left behind me" right down to the
church door. As soon as they were out again the band struck up "The
Irish Washerwoman." I thought it was very wicked, and wondered what my
father would have said about it. On the Monday morning, the judge of the
island, who was my employer, came into the stores, where I was at work,
racking brandy, and adding water and logwood and a drug, the name of
which I do not remember, by which means we made three hogsheads out of
two. Now the judge was one of the richest merchants in the island, and
therefore thought it his duty to set a good example to the other
merchants, and to all seafaring men. He was a large importer of wine,
rum, brandy, and gin, and was always very particular to see that we did
not put too much water and logwood into the brandy, and water and
sulphuric acid into the gin. So that his spirits were always considered
the best in the island. The judge went regularly to church, and as he
was walking round the stores on this particular Monday morning he came
up to me and said, "Young man, I was much pleased to see you at church
yesterday. Are those the only clothes you have?" I confess that these
remarks about my clothes did not please me, because on the Sunday I had
gone to church feeling unhappy at not being able to change my garments,
and hoped that no one would notice me; and when I found that the judge
had noticed me, I must say I felt seriously annoyed. I answered him
civilly, however, that it was my only suit, but that I should get a new
one at the first opportunity. The judge raised my wages there and then
to two shillings a day, and in the afternoon called me into his private
office and told me to go to his house as his wife would like to see me.
During the rest of the day I was nearly beside myself, wondering what on
earth such a great lady could want with a poor boy like me; therefore I
was twisting and turning the thing over in my mind, wondering whether
she could speak English, and what she would say to me and how I should
answer her. At length evening came, and I went to the house and was
presented to her. She was exceedingly plain in her dress, as all Jersey
ladies were, and I could scarcely believe it was the wife of the judge.
However, she soon told me what she wanted me for. She said, "J'ai some
clothes for de garcon; de coat was too much big, go to de tailor and
have one gros cossack too make little from fit for yourself. Reste vous
one little minute, je donne vous some-sing for to mange." The drift of
all this was that she gave me a meal and a left-off suit of the judge's.
He was one of the largest men in the island. I was a mere stripling, and
I believe I could have stood in one of the legs of the trousers. I could
not get a tailor to do anything with such a suit unless I paid him more
than a new suit of clothes, and I did not go to church for several
Sundays, until I had saved enough to buy myself a decent suit.
Now the judge was known to be a very pious man. He would take hold of
little dirty urchins in the street when he heard them using bad language
and reprimand them. His own people had to pull a long face and assume a
virtue if they had it not. And when the postman came round with a
petition to get off his Sunday duty, everybody in the district signed it
except the judge. He could not forego the pleasure of receiving and
reading a few letters and allow the poor postman to go free on a Sunday.
I have been greatly amused more than once on going into an Assize Hall
and seeing the judge sitting in his chair, looking as grave and solemn
as only a judge can look. The clerk of the court read the Queen's
proclamation against vice and immorality; solemnly called upon the
magistrates and sheriffs of counties to use all their power to suppress
all kinds of vice and lewdness, especially Sabbath breaking; and yet the
judge could not allow the double rap at his door to cease on a Sunday.
I got on capitally with this lady; we seemed to understand each other at
first sight. But do what I would, I could not bring myself to feel the
respect due to her, simply because she wore a pair of old and dirty
wooden shoes, a short, rough woollen skirt, a great red-patterned
kerchief over her shoulders, and a large, stiff, white muslin cap on her
head. Altogether she cut such a figure, that I could not fancy she was
the wife of a rich merchant and judge. But I found after a while that
the ladies of Jersey were exceedingly plain and unassuming. They
assisted in house and dairy work; they milked and fed the cows. It was a
very common thing to see the farmers' wives and daughters milk cows into
one can, and goats into another; then, tying the cans together and
slinging them across an old horse's back, they would perch themselves on
the top, and set off to town at five o'clock in the morning, to sell the
milk from door to door. They returned to breakfast and spent the
remainder of the day working in the fields. I saw them, both in Jersey
and in France, actually ploughing, sowing, reaping and mowing; and yet
these people were rich and had their thousands in the bank. After
witnessing how hard the women had to work in Jersey and France, I was
not surprised that Napoleon I. said that England was a paradise for
women.
I continued in the employ of the judge all the summer. My usual work was
to adulterate the wine, brandy, gin, rum, and whisky; and though
constantly amongst this firewater, I am thankful to say I did not
acquire the taste for any of it. Yet all who worked there could have
what they liked. The judge gave carte blanche. I often thought what a
paradise this would have been for Jim, how he would have made himself a
perfect walking swill-tub; but it would have soon killed him. I watched
many strong sturdy fellows from Devon and Cornwall actually kill
themselves with the accursed stuff. Not that they were drunkards;
nothing of the sort. But because brandy could be purchased at sixpence a
bottle, so they would constantly be sipping it. They did not get drunk,
but would take a little in winter to keep the cold out, and a little
more in summer to keep out the heat; they would soon get "brain fever,"
or as some people would say, sunstroke, and die ramping mad. I have seen
and known this in many cases both of men and women.