Part 11 (2/2)

A squalid, damp, close room, with the earthen floor sunk in many places and holding pools of water. The mother smoking in the chimney corner, the eldest daughter nursing an illegitimate child, and quarrelling with her mother in a coa.r.s.e, angry tone. The children, ragged and hungry, fighting for the fireside. The father away, at some unlawful occupation probably, or sitting drinking his wages in an alehouse. That was what they saw, and what any man may see to-day for himself in his own village, whether in England or Australia, that working man's paradise.

Drink, dirt, and sloth, my friends of the working orders, will produce the same effects all over the world.

As they came in the woman of the house rose and curtseyed to the Vicar, but the eldest girl sat still and turned away her head. The Vicar, after saluting her mother, went gently up to her, and patting the baby's cheek, asked her kindly how she did. The girl tried to answer him, but could only sob. She bent down her head again over the child, and began rocking it to and fro.

”You must bring it to be christened,” said the Vicar kindly. ”Can you come on Wednesday?”

”Yes, I'll come,” she said with a sort of choke. And now the woman having lit a fresh candle, ushered them into the sick man's room.

”Typhus and scarlatina!” said the Doctor. ”How this place smells after being in the air. He is sensible again, I think.”

”Quite sensible,” the sick man answered aloud. ”So you've come, Mr.

Thornton; I'm glad of it; I've got a sad story to tell you; but I'll have vengeance if you do your duty. You see the state I am in!”

”Ague!” said the Vicar.

”And who gave it me?”

”Why, G.o.d sent it to you,” said the Vicar. ”All people living in a narrow wet valley among woodlands like this, must expect ague.”

”I tell you she gave it to me. I tell you she has overlooked me; and all this doctor's stuff is no use, unless you can say a charm as will undo her devil's work.”

”My good friend,” said the Vicar, ”you should banish such fancies from your mind, for you are in a serious position, and ought not to die in enmity with anyone.”

”Not die in enmity with her? I'd never forgive her till she took off the spell.”

”Whom do you mean?” asked the Vicar.

”Why, that infernal witch, Madge, that lives with old Hawker,” said the man excitedly. ”That's who I mean!”

”Why, what injury has she done you?”

”Bewitched me, I tell you! Given me these shaking fits. She told me she would, when I left; and so she has, to prevent my speaking. I might a spoke out anytime this year, only the old man kept me quiet with money; but now it's nigh too late!”

”What might you have spoken about?” asked the Vicar.

”Well, I'll just relate the matter to you,” said the man, speaking fast and thick, ”and I'll speak the truth. A twelvemonth agone, this Madge and me had a fierce quarrel, and I miscalled her awful, and told her of some things she wasn't aware I knew of; and then she said, 'If ever a word of that escapes your lips, I'll put such a spell on ye that your bones shall shake apart.' Then I says, if you do, your b.a.s.t.a.r.d son shall swing.”

”Who do you mean by her b.a.s.t.a.r.d son?”

”Young George Hawker. He is not the son of old Mrs. Hawker! Madge was brought to bed of him a fortnight before her mistress; and when she bore a still-born child, old Hawker and I buried it in the wood, and we gave Madge's child to Mrs. Hawker, who never knew the difference before she died.”

”On the word of a dying man, is that true?” demanded the Vicar.

”On the word of a dying man that's true, and this also. I says to Madge, 'Your boy shall swing, for I know enough to hang him.' And she said, 'Where are your proofs?' and I--O Lord! O Lord! she's at me again.”

He sank down again in a paroxysm of s.h.i.+vering, and they got no more from him. Enough there was, however, to make the Vicar a very silent and thoughtful man, as he sat watching the sick man in the close stifling room.

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