Just at that moment I fancied that I heard a sort of laugh from up in
the other tree, but my eyes were fixed upon Old Brownsmith, and I had a
large piece of apple in my mouth that I dared not begin to chew.
He stood looking at me as I stood there, feeling three of his cats come
and begin rubbing themselves up against my legs in the most friendly
way, while I felt as if my misfortunes were being piled up one on the
top of the other.
From previous conversations I had gathered that he expected the boys to
now and then eat a little fruit, and there was no harm in it; but it
seemed so hard that the very first time I tasted an apple he should be
standing there watching me.
"Dinner's ready," he said suddenly; "come along."
"Shall I leave the baskets here, sir?" I said.
"Yes; just as they are."
He stooped down and examined the apples, turning them over a little.
"Hah! yes," he said; "nicely picked. That will do. You've got on too."
He went on, and I was following behind the cats, but he drew on one side
to let me walk by him.
"Eat your apple," he said smiling, as he looked sidewise at me. "Only
we always pick out the ugliest fruit and vegetables for home use, and
send the best-looking to market."
"I'll remember that, sir," I said.
"Do, Grant, my lad. You will not lose by it, for I'll tell you
something. The shabbiest-looking, awkwardly-grown apples, pears, and
plums are generally the finest flavoured."
"Are they, sir?" I said.
"That they are, my boy. If you want a delicious pear don't pick out the
great shapely ones, but those that are screwed all on one side and
covered with rusty spots. The same with the plums and apples. They are
almost always to be depended upon."
I had finished my mouthful of apple, and thrust the fruit in my jacket
pocket.
"It is often the same with people in this life, my boy. Many of the
plain-looking, shabby folks are very beautiful everywhere but outside.
There's a moral lesson for you. Save it up."
I said I would, and looked at him sidewise, hesitating, for I wanted to
speak to him. I was wondering, too, whether he knew that I had been
fighting with Shock, for my hands were very dirty and my knuckles were
cut.
He did not speak any more, but stooped and took up one of the cats, to
stroke it and let it get up on his shoulder, and we had nearly reached
the house before I burst out desperately:
"If you please, Mr Brownsmith--"
Then I stopped short and stared at him helplessly, for the words seemed
to stick in my throat.
"Well," he said, "what is it? Want to speak to me?"
"Yes, sir," I burst out; "I want to tell you that I--that I broke--"
"The ladder, eh?" he said smiling. "That's right, Grant; always speak
out when you have had an accident of any kind. Nothing like being
frank. It's honest and gives people confidence in you. Yes, I know all
about the ladder. I was coming to see if you wanted it moved when I saw
you overcome by it. Did Ike trim off that branch?"
"Yes, sir," I cried hastily. "I'm very sorry, sir. I did not know
that--"
"It was so heavy, Grant. Leverage, my boy. A strong man can hardly
hold a ladder if he gets it off the balance."
"Will it cost much to--"
"It was an old ladder, Grant, and I'm not sorry it is broken; for there
was a bad crack there, I see, covered over by the paint. We might have
had a nasty accident. It will do now for the low trees. Look here."
He led me into the shed where the ladders hung, and showed me the broken
ladder, neatly sawn off at the top, and thinned down a little, and
trimmed off with a spokeshave, while a pot of lead-coloured paint and a
brush stood by with which the old gentleman had been going over the
freshly-cut wood.
"My job," he said quietly. "Dry by to-morrow. You were quite right to
tell me."
Then there was a pause.
"How many apples does that make you've had to-day?" he said, suddenly.
"Apples, sir? Oh! that was the first."
"Humph!" he ejaculated, looking at me sharply. "And so you've been
having a set-to with Shock, eh?"
"Yes, sir," I said in an aggrieved tone; "he--"
"Don't tell tales out of school, Grant," he said. "You've had your
fight, and have come off better than I expected. Don't let's have any
more of it, if you can help it. There, have a wash; make haste.
Dinner's waiting."
The relief I felt was something tremendous, and though five minutes or
so before I had not wanted any dinner, I had no sooner had a good wash
in the tin bowl with the clean cold water from the pump, and a good rub
with the round towel behind the kitchen door, than I felt outrageously
hungry; and it was quite a happy, flushed face, with a strapped-up wound
on the forehead and a rather swollen and cut lip, that looked out at me
from the little square shaving glass on the wall.
That morning I had been despondently thinking that I was making no end
of enemies in my new home. That afternoon I began to find that things
were not so very bad after all. Shock was sulky, and seemed to delight
in showing me the roots of his hair in the nape of his neck, always
turning his back; but he did not throw any more apples and he played no
more pranks, but went on steadily picking.
I did the same, making no further advances to him, though, as I recalled
how I hammered his body and head, and how he must have been pricked by
falling into the gooseberry bush, I felt sorry, and if he had offered to
shake hands I should have forgotten how grubby his always were, and held
out mine at once.
As the afternoon wore on we filled our baskets, and more had to be
fetched. Then, later on, I wanted my ladder moved to another tree, and
came down and called Ike, but he was not there, so I asked one of the
other men, who came and did it for me, and then moved Shock's.
I was just mounting again when Ike came up, taking long strides and
scowling angrily.
"S'pose you couldn't ha' waited a moment, could you?" he growled. "I
didn't move the ladder just as you wanted, I suppose. You're precious
partickler, you are. Now, look here, my fine gentleman, next time you
want a ladder moved you may move it yourself."
"But I did call you, Ike," I said; "and you weren't there."
"I hadn't gone to get another two hundred o' plarnts, I suppose, and was
comin' back as fast as I could, I s'pose. No, o' course not. I ought
to ha' been clost to your elber, ready when you called. Never mind;
next time you wants the ladder moved get some one else, for I sha'n't do
it;" and he strode away.
Half an hour later he was back to see if I wanted it moved, and waited
till I had finished gathering a few more apples, when, smiling quite
good-humouredly, he shifted the ladder into a good place.
"There," he said, "you'll get a basketful up there.
"Shock, shall I shift yours 'fore I go? That's your sort. Well, you
two chaps have picked a lot."
I soon grew quite at home at Old Brownsmith's, and found him very kind.
Ike, too, in his rough way, quite took to me--at least if anything had
to be done he was offended if I asked another of the men. I worked hard
at the fruit-picking, and kept account when Ike laid straw or fern over
the tops of the bushel and half-bushel baskets, and placed sticks
across, lattice fashion, to keep the apples and pears in. Then of a
night I used to transfer the writing on the slate to a book, and tell
Old Brownsmith what I had put down, reading the items over and summing
up the quantities and the amounts they fetched when the salesmen's
accounts came from Covent Garden.
The men and women about the place--all very quiet, thoughtful people--
generally had a smile for me when I said good-morning, and I went on
capitally, my old troubles being distant and the memories less painful
day by day.
But somehow I never got on with Shock. I didn't want to make a
companion of him, but I did not want him to be an enemy, and that he
always seemed to be.
He never threw lumps of soil or apples or potatoes at me now; but he
would often make-believe to be about to hurl something, and if he could
not get away because of his work he always turned his back.
"He doesn't like me, Ike," I said to the big gardener one day.
"No, he don't, that's sartain," said Ike. "He's jealous of you, like,
because the ganger makes so much of you."
"Mr Brownsmith would make as much of him if he would be smart and
clean, and act like other boys," I said.
"Yes, but that's just what he won't do, won't Shock. You see, young
'un, he's a 'riginal--a reg'lar 'riginal, and you can't alter him.
Ain't tried to lick you again, has he?"
"Oh, no!" I said; "and he does not throw at me."
"Don't shy at you now! Well, I wonder at that," said Ike. "He's a
wunner at shying. He can hit anything with a stone. I've seen him
knock over a bird afore now, and when he gets off in the fields of an
evening I've often knowed him bring back a rabbit."
"What does he do with it?"
"Do with it! Come, there's a good 'un. Cook it down in the shed, and
eat it. He'd eat a'most anything. But don't you mind him. It don't
matter whether he's pleased or whether he ain't. If he's too hard on
you, hit him again, and don't be afraid."
In fact the more I saw of Shock, the more distant he grew; and though I
tried to make friends with him by putting slices of bread and butter and
bits of cold pudding in the shed down the garden that he used to like to
make his home at meal-time and of an evening, he used to eat them, and
we were as bad friends as ever.
One morning, when there was rather a bigger fire than usual down in the
old tool-shed, I walked to the door, and found Shock on his knees
apparently making a pudding of soft clay, which he was kneading and
beating about on the end of the hearthstone.
I looked round for the twig, for I felt sure that he was going to use
the clay for pellets to sling at me, but there was no stick visible.
As I came to the doorway he just glanced over his shoulder; and then,
seeing who it was, he shuffled round a little more and went on.
"What are you doing, Shock?" I asked.
He made no reply, but rapidly pinched off pieces of the clay and roughly
formed them into the head, body, legs, and arms of a human being, which
he set up against the wall, and then with a hoarse laugh knocked into a
shapeless mass with one punch of his clay-coated fist.
"He meant that for me," I said to myself; and I was going to turn away
when I caught sight of something lying in the shadow beneath the little
old four-paned window.
It was something I had never seen before except in pictures; and I was
so interested that I stepped in and was about to pick up the object, but
Shock snatched it away.
"Where did you get it?" I said eagerly.