"But must I go, sir?"
"Yes, my lad, it is for your benefit," he said rather sternly; and I
suppose I gave him such a piteous look that his face softened a little
and he patted my shoulder. "Come," he said, "you must be a man!"
I seemed to have something in my throat which I was obliged to swallow;
but I made an effort, and after a trial or two found that I could speak
more clearly.
"Shall I have to go soon, sir?"
"Yes: now," said Old Brownsmith.
"Not till I've had a look round," said Brother Solomon in a slow
meditative way, as he took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands,
staring about him at the trees and bushes, and then, as a cat gave a
friendly rub against his leg, he stooped down after the fashion of his
brother, picked it up, and held it on his arm, stroking it all the time.
I had not liked the look of Brother Solomon, for he seemed cold, and
quiet, and hard. His face looked stiff, as if he never by any chance
smiled; and it appeared to me as if I were going from where I had been
treated like a son to a home where I should be a stranger.
"Yes," he said after looking about him, as if he were going to find
fault, "I sha'n't go back just yet awhile."
"Oh no! you'll have a snap of something first, and Grant here will want
a bit of time to pack up his things."
Old Brownsmith seemed to be speaking more kindly to me now, and this
made me all the more miserable, for I had felt quite at home; and though
Shock and I were bad friends, and Ike was not much of a companion, I did
not want to leave them.
Old Brownsmith saw my looks, and he said:
"You will run over now and then to see me and tell me how you get on.
Brother Solomon here never likes to leave his glass-houses, but you can
get away now and then. Eh, Solomon?"
"P'r'aps," said Brother Solomon, looking right away from us. "We shall
see."
My heart sank as I saw how cold and unsympathetic he seemed. I felt
that I should never like him, and that he would never like me. He had
hardly looked at me, but when he did there was to me the appearance in
his eyes of his being a man who hated all boys as nuisances and to make
matters worse, he took his eyes off a bed of onions to turn them
suddenly on his brother and say:
"Hadn't he better go and make up his bundle?"
"Yes, to be sure," said Old Brownsmith. "Go and tell Mrs Dodley you
want your clean clothes, my boy; and tell her my brother Solomon's going
to have a bit with us."
"And see whether your boy has given my horse his oats, will you?" said
Brother Solomon.
I went away, feeling very heavy-hearted, and found Shock in the stable,
in the next stall to old Basket, watching a fine stoutly-built cob that
had just been taken out of a light cart. The horse's head-stall had
been taken off, and a halter put on; and as he munched at his oats,
Shock helped him, munching away at a few that he took from one hand.
I was in so friendly a mood to every one just then that I was about to
go up and shake hands with Shock; but as soon as he saw me coming he
dived under the manger, and crept through into old Basket's stall, and
then thrust back his doubled fist at me, and there it was being shaken
menacingly, as if he were threatening to punch my head.
This exasperated me so that in an instant the honey within me was turned
to vinegar, and I made a rush round at him, startling our old horse so
that he snorted and plunged; but I did not catch Shock, for he dived
back through the hole under the manger into the next stall. Then on
under the manger where Brother Solomon's horse was feeding, making him
start back and nearly break his halter, while Shock went on into the
third stall, disturbing a hen from the nest she had made in the manger,
and sending her cackling and screaming out into the yard, where the cock
and the other hens joined in the hubbub.
As I ran round to the third stall I was just in time to see Shock's legs
disappearing, as he climbed up the perpendicular ladder against the
wall, and shot through the trap-door into the hay-loft.
"You shall beg my pardon before I go," I said between my teeth, as I
looked up, and there was his grubby fist coming out of the hole in the
ceiling, and being shaken at me.
I rushed at the ladder, and had ascended a couple of rounds, when bang
went the trap-door, and there was a bump, which I knew meant that Shock
had seated himself on the trap, so that I could not get it up.
"Oh, all right!" I said aloud. "I sha'n't come after you, you dirty
old grub. I'm going away to-day, and you can shake your fist at
somebody else."
I had satisfied myself that Brother Solomon's horse was all right, so I
now strode up to the house and told Mrs Dodley to spread the table for
a visitor, and said that I should want my clean things as I was going
away.
"What! for a holiday?" she said.
"No; I'm going away altogether," I said.
"I know'd it," she cried angrily; "I know'd it. I always said it would
come to that with you mixing yourself up with that bye. A nasty dirty
hay-and-straw-sleeping young rascal, as is more like a monkey than a
bye. And now you're to be sent away."
"Yes," I said grimly; "now I'm to be sent away."
She stood frowning at me for a minute, and then took off her dirty apron
and put on a clean one, with a good deal of angry snatching.
"I shall just go and give Mr Brownsmith a bit of my mind," she said.
"I won't have you sent away like that, and all on account of that bye."
"No, no," I said. "I'm going away with Mr Brownsmith's brother, to
learn all about hothouses I suppose."
"Oh, my dear bye!" she exclaimed. "You mustn't do that. You'll have to
be stoking and poking all night long, and ketch your death o' cold, and
be laid up, and be ill-used, and be away from everybody who cares for
you, and and I don't want you to go."
The tears began to run down the poor homely-looking woman's face, and
affected me, so that I was obliged to run out, or I should have caught
her complaint.
"I must be a man over it," I said. "I suppose it's right;" and I went
off down the garden to say "Good-bye" to the men and women, and have a
few last words with Ike.
As I went down the garden I suddenly began to feel that for a long time
past it had been my home, and that every tree I passed was an old
friend. I had not known it before, but it struck me now that I had been
very happy there leading a calm peaceable life; and now I was going away
to fresh troubles and cares amongst strangers, and it seemed as if I
should never be so happy again.
To make matters worse I was going down the path that I had traversed
that day so long ago, when I first went to buy some fruit and flowers
for my mother, and this brought back her illness, and the terrible
trouble that had followed. Then I seemed to see myself up at the window
over the wall there, at Mrs Beeton's, watching the garden, and Shock
throwing dabs of clay at me with the stick.
"Poor old Shock!" I said. "I wonder whether he'll be glad when I'm
gone. I suppose he will."
I was thinking about how funny it was that we had never become a bit
nearer to being friendly, and then I turned miserable and choking, for I
came upon half a dozen of the women pulling and bunching onions for
market.
"I've come to say good-bye," I cried huskily. "I'm going away."
"Oh! are you?" said one of them just looking up. "Good luck to you!"
The coolness of the rough woman seemed to act as a check on my
sentimentality, and I went on feeling quite hurt; and a few minutes
later I was quite angry, for I came to where the men were digging, and
told them I was going away, and one of them stopped, and stared, and
said:
"All right! will yer leave us a lock of yer hair?"