RISEN.
It was not until the pit was cleared of water and about to go to work
again, that the question of Bill Haden and his wife removing from their
cottage came forward for decision. Jack had been staying with Mr. Brook,
who had ordered that the house in which the late manager had lived
should be put in good order and furnished from top to bottom, and had
arranged for his widow and children to remove at once to friends living
at a distance. Feeling as he did that he owed his life to the young man,
he was eager to do everything in his power to promote his comfort and
prosperity, and as he was, apart from the colliery, a wealthy man and a
bachelor, he did not care to what expense he went.
The house, "the great house on the hill," as Jack had described it when
speaking to his artist friend Pastor years before, was a far larger and
more important building than the houses of managers of mines in general.
It had, indeed, been originally the residence of a family owning a good
deal of land in the neighbourhood, but they, when coal was discovered
and work began, sold this property and went to live in London, and as
none cared to take a house so close to the coal-pits and village of
Stokebridge, it was sold for a nominal sum to the owner of the Vaughan,
and was by him used as a residence for his manager.
Now, with the garden nicely laid out, redecorated and repaired outside
and in, and handsomely furnished, it resumed its former appearance of a
gentleman's country seat. Mr. Brook begged Jack as a favour not to go
near the house until the place was put in order, and although the young
man heard that a Birmingham contractor had taken it in hand, and that a
large number of men were at work there, he had no idea of the extensive
changes which were taking place.
A few days before work began again at the Vaughan Jack went down as
usual to the Hadens', for he had looked in every day to say a few words
to them on his way back from the pit-mouth. "Now, dad," he said, "we
must not put the matter off any longer. I am to go into the manager's
house in a fortnight's time. I hear they have been painting and cleaning
it up, and Mr. Brook tells me he has put new furniture in, and that I
shall only have to go in and hang up my hat. Now I want for you to
arrange to come up on the same day."
"We ha' been talking the matter over in every mortal way, the old woman
and me, Jack, and I'll tell 'ee what we've aboot concluded. On one side
thou really wan't t' have us oop wi' 'ee."
"Yes, indeed, dad," Jack said earnestly.
"I know thou dost, lad; me and Jane both feels that. Well that's an
argiment that way. Then there's the argiment that naturally thou
would'st not like the man who hast brought thee oop to be working in the
pit o' which thou wast manager. That's two reasons that way; on the
other side there be two, and the old 'ooman and me think they are
stronger than t'others. First, we should be out o' place at the house
oop there. Thou wilt be getting to know all kinds o' people, and
whatever thou may'st say, Jack, your mother and me would be oot o'
place. That's one argiment. The next argiment is that we shouldn't like
it, Jack, we should feel we were out o' place and that our ways were out
o' place; and we should be joost miserable. Instead o' doing us a
kindness you'd joost make our lives a burden, and I know 'ee don't want
to do that. We's getting on in loife and be too old to change our ways,
and nothing thou could'st say could persuade us to live a'ways dressed
up in our Sunday clothes in your house."
"Well, dad, I might put you both in a comfortable cottage, without work
to do."
"What should I do wi'out my work, Jack? noa, lad, I must work as long as
I can, or I should die o' pure idleness. But I needn't work at a stall.
I'm fifty now, and although I ha' got another fifteen years' work in me,
I hope, my bones bean't as liss as they was. Thou might give me the job
as underground viewer. I can put in a prop or see to the firing o' a
shot wi' any man. Oi've told my mates you want to have me and the old
woman oop at th' house, and they'll know that if I stop underground it
be o' my own choice. I know, lad, it wouldn't be roight for me to be a
getting droonk at the "Chequers" and thou manager; but I ha' told t' old
'ooman that I will swear off liquor altogether."
"No, no, dad!" Jack said, affected at this proof of Bill Haden's desire
to do what he could towards maintaining his dignity. "I wouldn't think
o't. If you and mother feel that you'd be more happy and comfortable
here--and maybe you are right, I didn't think over the matter from thy
side as well as my own, as I ought to have done--of course you shall
stay here; and, of course, you shall have a berth as under-viewer. As
for swearing off drink altogether, I wouldn't ask it of you, though I do
wish you could resolve never to drink too much again. You ha' been used
to go to the "Chequers" every night for nigh forty years, and you
couldn't give it up now. You would pine away without somewhere to go to.
However, this must be understood, whenever you like to come up to me I
shall be glad to see you, and I shall expect you on Sundays to dinner if
on no other day; and whenever the time shall come when you feel, dad,
that you'd rather give up work, there will be a cottage for you and
mother somewhere handy to me, and enough to live comfortably and free
from care."
"That's a bargain, lad, and I'm roight glad it be off my mind, for I
ha' been bothering over't ever since thee spoke to me last."
The same evening Jack had a long talk with Harry. His friend, although
healthy, was by no means physically strong, and found the work of a
miner almost beyond him. He had never taken to the life as Jack had
done, and his friend knew that for the last year or two he had been
turning his thoughts in other directions, and that of all things he
would like to be a schoolmaster. He had for years read and studied a
good deal, and Mr. Dodgson said that with a year in a training college
he would be able to pass. He had often talked the matter over with Jack,
and the latter told him now that he had entered his name in St. Mark's
College, Chelsea, had paid his fees six months in advance, his savings
amply sufficing for this without drawing upon his salary, and that he
was to present himself there in a week's time.
The announcement took away Harry's breath, but as soon as he recovered
himself he accepted Jack's offer as frankly as it was made. It had
always been natural for Jack to lend him a hand, and it seemed to him,
as to Jack, natural that it should be so now.
"Have you told Nelly?"
"No, I left it for you to tell, Harry. I know, of course, one reason why
you want to be a schoolmaster, and she will know it too. She is a
strange girl, is Nelly; I never did quite understand her, and I never
shall; why on earth she should refuse you I can't make out. She's had
lots o' other offers these last four years, but it's all the same.
There's no one she cares for, why shouldn't she take you?"
"I can wait," Harry said quietly, "there's plenty of time; perhaps some
day I shall win her, and I think--yes, I think now--that I shall."
"Well," Jack said cheerfully, "as you say there's plenty of time; I've
always said thirty was the right age to marry, and you want eight years
of that, and Nelly won't get old faster than you do, so if she don't
fall in love with any one else it must come right; she has stood out for
nearly four years, and though I don't pretend to know anything of women,
I should think no woman could go on saying no for twelve years."
Harry, although not given to loud mirth, laughed heartily at Jack's
views over love-making, and the two then walked across to Nelly Hardy's
cottage. Jack told her what Bill Haden and his wife had decided, and she
approved their determination. Then Harry said what Jack had arranged for
him.
Nelly shook her head as if in answer to her own thoughts while Harry was
speaking, but when he ceased she congratulated him warmly.
"You were never fit for pit-work, Harry, and a schoolmaster's life will
suit you well. It is curious that Jack's two friends should both have
taken to the same life."
Jack's surprise was unbounded when, a month after the reopening of the
Vaughan, Mr. Brook took him over to his new abode. His bewilderment at
the size and completeness of the house and its fittings was even greater
than his pleasure.
"But what am I to do alone in this great place, Mr. Brook?" he asked; "I
shall be lost here. I am indeed deeply grateful to you, but it is much
too big for me altogether."
"It is no bigger now than it has always been," Mr. Brook said, "and you
will never be lost as long as you have your study there," and he pointed
to a room snugly fitted up as a library and study. "You will be no more
lonely than I or other men without wives and families; besides you know
these may come some day."
"Ah! but that will be many years on," Jack said; "I always made up my
mind not to marry till I was thirty, because a wife prevents you making
your way."
"Yes; but now that you have made your way so far, Jack, a wife will aid
rather than hinder you. But it will be time to think of that in another
three or four years. You will not find it so dull as you imagine, Jack.
There is your work, which will occupy the greater part of your day.
There is your study for the evening. You will speedily know all the
people worth knowing round here; I have already introduced you to a good
many, and they will be sure to call as soon as you are settled here. In
the stable, my dear boy, you will find a couple of horses, and a saddle,
and a dog-cart, so that you will be able to take exercise and call
about. I shall keep the horses. I consider them necessary for my
manager. My men will keep the garden in order, and I think that you will
find that your salary of L350 a year to begin with ample for your other
expenses."
Jack was completely overpowered by the kindness of his employer, but the
latter would not hear of thanks. "Why, man, I owe you my life," he said;
"what are these little things in comparison?"
Jack found fewer difficulties than he had anticipated in his new
position. His speech at the opening of the mine added to the favour with
which he was held for his conduct at the time of the explosion, and
further heightened the respect due to him for his defence of the
Vaughan. As he went through the mine he had ever a cheery "Good morning,
Bob," "Good morning, Jack," for his old comrades, and the word "sir" was
now universally added to the answered "Good morning," a concession not
always made by colliers to their employers.
The miners soon felt the advantages of the new manager's energy, backed
as he was in every respect by the owner. The work as laid down by the
government inspector was carried out, and Mr. Brook having bought up for
a small sum the disused Logan mine, in which several of the lower seams
of coal were still unworked, the opening between the pits was made
permanent, and the Logan shaft became the upcast to the Vaughan, thus
greatly simplifying the work of ventilation, lessening the danger of
explosion, and giving a means of escape for the miners should such a
catastrophe recur in spite of all precautions.
As nearly half the old workers at the pit had perished in the explosion,
an equal number of new hands had to be taken on. Jack, sharing the
anxiety of the vicar and Mr. Dodgson, that all the good work should not
be checked by the ingress of a fresh population, directed that all
vacancies should be filled up by such colliers of good character as
resided at Stokebridge, working for other pits in the neighbourhood. As
the Vaughan promised to be the most comfortable and well-worked pit in
the country, these were only too glad to change service, and more names
were given in than vacancies could be found for. As all the inhabitants
of Stokebridge had participated in the benefits of the night schools and
classes, and in the improvements which had taken place, the advance of
the village suffered no serious check from the catastrophe at the
Vaughan.