Part 36 (1/2)
ABOUT THE Pa.s.sOVER OF THE BRUTE
Mary soon forgave her brother for his failure over the electric light business, and they became as good friends as ever, except when Peter demanded sums of money for services which Mary could not remember he had rendered. Peter had a trick of benefiting himself, and charging the cost to his sister. They were settled for the winter; Peter had turfed up the c.h.i.n.ks in the walls, adding a solid plaster of clay; had repaired the thatch of gorse where it had rotted, laying on big stones to prevent the removal of any portion by the gales; and had cut the winter supply of fern. He sent in the bill to Mary, and she had taken it to Master, and Master had put on silver spectacles and golden wisdom and revised the costs so thoroughly, that Peter had to complain he had not received the price of the tobacco smoked during the work of restoration.
Mary still mourned for Old Sal, knowing she would never see ”the like o'
he again,” while Peter cooked his mommet and cursed Pendoggat. Peter was a weak little creature, who could only revenge himself by deeds of witchcraft. He was not muscular like his sister, who would have stood up to any man on Dartmoor, and made some of them sorry for themselves before she had done with them. Mary believed in witchcraft, because she was to a certain extent religious; she had been baptised, for instance, and that was an act of witchcraft pure and simple, as it was intended to protect the child from being overlooked by the devil; but, if any man had insulted her, she would not have made a mommet of him, or driven a nail into his footprint; she would have taken her stick, ”as big as two spears and a dag,” and whacked him well with it.
The prospect of winter encouraged Peter to turn his mind towards literary pursuits. There were days of storm and long evenings to be occupied; and the little savage considered he might fill those hours with work for which his talents seemed to qualify him, and possibly bequeath to posterity some abiding monument of his genius. Peter had a weekly paper and studied it well. He gathered from it that people still wrote books; apparently every one wrote thern, though only about one in every hundred was published. Most people had the ma.n.u.scripts of their books put away in cupboards, linhays, and old teapots, waiting the favourable moment to bring them forth and astonish the world. This was something of a revelation to Peter. Where was his book! Why had he remained so long a mute inglorious scholar? Possibly the commoners who met him in daily intercourse had their books completed and stored away safely in their barns, and he was certainly as learned as any of them.
Peter went off to Master, and opened to him the secret of his mind.
Master was entirely sympathetic. He gave it as his opinion that any one could write a book. When the art of forming letters of the alphabet had been acquired, nothing indeed remained, except pen, ink, and paper; and, as he reminded Peter, Mother Cobley sold ink at one penny the bottle, while pen and paper could be obtained from the same source for an additional twopence. Genius could therefore startle the world at threepence a head.
Peter was profoundly interested. He indicated the big tomes, which Master kept always lying beside him: a copy of the _Arcadia_, a Bible dictionary, a volume of Shakespeare, and a few books of poetry, most of them presents from a former rector long deceased, and suggested that Master was accountable for the lot. The old man beamed through his spectacles, coughed uneasily, and generally a.s.sumed that att.i.tude of modesty which is said to be one of the most marked traits of literary men.
”You can spell turnips,” Master reminded.
”Sure 'nuff,” said Peter. ”I can spell harder words than he. I can spell hyacinth, and he'm a proper little brute.”
He proceeded to spell the word, making only three mistakes. Master advised him to confine himself for the present to more simple language, and went on to ask what was the style and subject of Peter's proposed undertaking.
”I wants yew to tell me,” was the answer.
Master had an idea that genius ought to be inspired from within and not from without, but he merely answered: ”Nothing's no trouble, varmer,”
and suggested that Peter should compose a diary. ”'Tis what a man does every day,” he explained. ”How he gets up, and how he goes to bed, and how he yets his dinner, and how his belly feels.”
Peter considered that the idea was brilliant. Such an item as how he drank his beer would certainly prove entertaining, and might very well be original.
”Then he ses things about other volk, and about the weather,” Master went on. ”He puts down all he can think of, so long as it be decent.
Mun't put down anything that bain't decent 'cause that would shock volks.”
”Nothing 'bout Varmer Pendoggat and Chegwidden's maid?” the other suggested, in rather a disappointed voice.
”Hark ye, Peter,” said Master decidedly, ”you had best bide quiet about that. Volks wun't tak' your word against his, and if he purty nigh murders ye no one wun't try to stop 'en. A man bain't guilty till he be found out, and Varmer Pendoggat ain't been found out.”
”He can't touch I. Mary wun't let 'en, and I've made a mommet of 'en tu,” said the little man.
”Made a mommet, ha' ye? Aw, man, that be an awful thing to du. It be calling in the devil to work for ye, and the devil wun't work wi'out pay, man. He'll come sure 'nuff, and say to yew: 'I wants your soul, Peter. I've a bought 'en wi' that mommet what yew made.' I be main cruel sorry for yew, Peter.”
”It be done now,” said Peter gloomily.
Master wagged his head until his silver spectacles dropped off his nose, added a little wisdom, then returned to his subject.
”Yew mun write things what you wun't be ashamed to let folk read. When 'tis a wet day yew ses so, and when it be fine you ses it be butiful.
When yew gets thoughts yew puts 'em all down.”
”What du'ye mean?” asked the aspirant.
”Why, you think as how it be a proper feeling when you'm good, and yew ses so. That be a thought.”
”S'pose yew bain't feeling good?” suggested Peter quite naturally.