ACROSS COUNTRY.
The two men came after at their ease. No sooner was Nimrod on the
road, however, than he began to quicken his pace. He quickened it
fast, and within a minute or so was trotting swiftly along. The men
ran panting and shouting behind. The more they shouted, the faster
Nimrod went. Ere long he was out of their sight, though Clare could
hear them cursing and calling for a time.
He had endeavoured to stop Nimrod, but the bull seemed to have made up
his mind that he had obeyed enough for one day. He did not heed a word
Clare said to him, but kept on and on at a swinging trot. Clare would
have jumped off had he been sure the proceeding would stop him; but,
now that he would not obey him, he feared lest, in doing so, he might
let him loose on the country, when there was no saying what mischief
he might not work. On the other hand, he felt sure that he could
restrain him from violence, though he might not prevent his
frolicking. He must therefore keep his seat.
For a few miles Nimrod was content with the highway, now trotting
beautifully, now breaking into a canter. But all at once he turned at
right angles in the middle of the road, cleared the skirting fence
like a hunter, and took a bee-line across the fields. Compelled
sometimes to abandon it, he showed great judgment in choosing the
place at which to get out of the enclosure, or cross the natural
obstruction. On and on he went, over hedge after hedge, through field
after field, until Clare began to wonder where all the people in the
world had got to. Then a strange feeling gradually came over
him. Surely at some time or other he had seen the meadow he was
crossing! Was he asleep, and dreaming the jolly ride he was having on
Nimrod’s back? What a strong creature Nimrod was! Would he never be
tired? How oddly he felt! Were his senses going from him? It was like
the strangest mixture of a bad dream and a good!
There seemed at length no further room for doubt or mistake. Everything
was in its place! It was plain why Nimrod was so obstinate! The dear
old fellow was carrying him back to where they had been together so
many happy days! They were nigh Mr. Goodenough’s farm, and making
straight for it! How strange it was! he had felt himself a measureless
distance from it! But in his wandering he had taken many turns he did
not heed, and Nimrod had come the shortest way. Delight filled his
heart at the thought of seeing once more the places where his father
and mother seemed yet to live. But instantly came the thought of Maly,
and drowned the other thought in bitterness. Then he felt how worthless
place is, when those who made it dear are gone. Father and mother are
home--not the house we were born in!
They were soon upon the farm where once he had abundance of labour,
abundance to eat, and abundance of lowly friendship. Nimrod was making
for his old stable. He was weary now, and breathing heavily, though
not at all spent. Was he dreaming of a golden age, in which Clare
should be ever at his beck and call?
Clare had little inclination to encounter any of the people of the
farm. He would indeed have been glad, from a little way off, to get a
sight of his once friend and master, the farmer himself; and very
gladly would he have gone into the stable in the hope of a greeting
from old Jonathan; but he would not willingly meet “the mistress!”
Nimrod should take him to his old stall; there he would tie him up,
and flee from the place! The evening was now come, and in the dusk he
would escape unseen.
When they reached Nimrod’s door, they found it closed; and Clare,
stiff enough by this time, slipped off to open it. Nimrod began to paw
the stones, and blow angry puffs from his wounded nose. When Clare got
the door open, he saw, to his confusion, a vague dark bulk, another
bull, in Nimrod’s stall! The roar that simultaneously burst from each
was ferocious, and down went Nimrod’s head to charge. It was a
terrible moment for Clare: the new bull was fast by the head, and,
unable to turn it to his adversary, would be gored to death almost in
a moment! He could not let Nimrod be guilty of such unfairness! And
the mistress would think he had brought him back for the very purpose!
He all but jumped on the horns of his friend, making him yield just
ground enough for the shutting of the door. He knew well, however,
that not three such doors in one would keep Nimrod from an enemy. With
his back to it he stood facing him and talking to him, and all the
while they heard the bull inside struggling to get free. He stood
between two horned rages, only a chain and a plank betwixt him and the
one at his back, with which he had no influence. A coward would have
escaped, and left the two bullies to settle between them which had the
better right to the stall--not without blood, almost as certainly not
without loss of life, perhaps human as well as bovine. But Clare was
made of other stuff.
Before he could get Nimrod away, the bellowing brought out the
farmer. All his men had gone to the village; only himself and his wife
were at home.
“What’s got the brute?” he cried on the threshold, but instantly began
to run, for he saw through the gathering darkness a darker shape he
knew, roaring and pawing at the door of his old quarters, and a boy
standing between him and it, with marvellous courage in mortal danger.
He understood at once that Nimrod had broken loose and come back. But
when he came near enough to recognize Clare, astonishment, and
something more sacred than astonishment, held him dumb. Ever since the
unjust blow that sent the boy from him, his heart had been aware of a
little hollow of remorse in it. Now all his former relations with him
while his adoptive father yet lived, came back upon him. He remembered
him dressed like the little gentleman he always was--and there he
stood, the same gentle fearless creature, in absolute rags! If his
wife saw him! The farmer had no fear of Nimrod in his worst rages, but
he feared his wife in her gentlest moods. Happily for both, a critical
moment in the cooking of the supper had arrived.
“Clare!” he stammered.
“Yes, sir,” returned Clare, and laid hold of Nimrod’s horn. The animal
yielded, and turned away with him. The farmer came nearer, and put his
arm round the boy’s neck. The boy rubbed his cheek against the arm.
“I’m sorry I struck you, Clare!” faltered the big man.
“Oh, never mind, sir! That was long ago!” answered the boy.
“Tell me how you’ve been getting on.”
“Pretty well, sir! But I want to tell you first how it is I’m here
with Nimrod. Only it would be better to put him somewhere before I
begin.”
“It would,” agreed the farmer; and between them, with the enticements
of a pail of water and some fresh-cut grass, they got him into a shed,
where they hoped he would forget the proximity of the usurper, and,
with the soothing help of his supper, go to sleep.
Then Clare told his story. Mr. Goodenough afterward asseverated that,
if he had not known him for a boy that would not lie, he would not
have believed the half of it.
“Come, Abdiel!” said Clare, the moment he ended--and would have
started at once.
“Won’t you have something after your long ride?” said the farmer.
Clare looked down at his clothes, and laughed. The farmer knew what he
meant, and did not ask him into the house.
“When had you anything to eat?” he inquired.
“I shall do very well till to-morrow,” answered Clare.
“Then if you will go, I’m glad of the opportunity of paying you the
wages I owed you,” said the farmer, putting his hand in his pocket.
“You gave me my food! That was all I was worth!” protested Clare.
“You were worth more than that! I knew the difference when I had
another boy in your place! I wish I had you again!--But it wouldn’t
do, you know! it wouldn’t do!” he added hastily.
With that he succeeded in pulling a sovereign from the depth of a
trowser-pocket, and held it out to Clare. It was neither large wages
nor a greatly generous gift, but it seemed to the boy wealth
enormous. He could not help holding out his hand, but he was ashamed
to open it. What the giver regarded as a debt, the receiver regarded
as a gift. He stood with his hand out but clenched. There was a combat
inside him.
“It’s too much!” he protested, looking at the sovereign almost with
fear. “I never had so much money in my life!”
“You earned it well,” said the farmer magnanimously.
The moral cramp forsook his hand. He took the money with a hearty
“Thank you, sir.” As he put it in his pocket, he felt its corners
carefully, lest there should be a hole. But his pockets had not had
half the wear of the clothes they inhabited.
“Where are you going?” asked the farmer.
Clare mentioned the small town in whose neighbourhood he had left the
caravans, and said he thought the people of the menagerie would like
him to help them with the beasts. The farmer shook his head.
“It’s not a respectable occupation!” he remarked.
Clare did not understand him.
“Do they cheat?” he asked.
“No; I don’t suppose they cheat worse than anybody else. But it ain’t
respectable.”
Had he known a little more, Clare might have asserted that the men
about the menagerie were at least as respectable as almost any farmer
with a horse to sell. But he knew next to nothing of wickedness,
whence many a man whose skull he had brains enough to fill three
times, regarded him as a simpleton.
Clare thought everything honest honourable. When people said
otherwise, he did not understand, and continued to act according as he
understood. A thousand dishonourable things are done, and largely
approved, which Clare would not have touched with one of his fingers:
he could see nothing more dishonourable in having to do with wild
beasts than in having to do with tame ones. If any boy wants to know
the sort of thing I count in that thousand, I answer him--“The next
thing you are asked to do, or are inclined to do--if you have any
doubt about it, DON’T DO IT.” That is the way to know the honourable
thing from the dishonourable.
Clare made no attempt to argue the question with the farmer. He
inquired of him the nearest way to the town, and went--the quicker
that he heard the voice of Mrs. Goodenough, calling her husband to
supper.