Part 33 (2/2)
He reflected.
”But I wouldn't be done. I got a cherry pipe. I thought it wouldn't be so easy to break if she found it. I used to plant the bowl in one place and the stem in another because I reckoned that if she found one she mightn't find the other. It doesn't look much of an idea now, but it seemed like an inspiration then. Kids get rum ideas.”
He reflected.
”Well, one day I was having a smoke out at the back, when I heard her coming, and I pulled out the stem in a hurry and put the bowl behind the water-b.u.t.t and the stem under the house. Mother was coming round for a dipper of water. I got out of her way quick, for I hadn't time to look innocent; but the bowl of the pipe was hot and she got a whiff of it.
She went sniffing round, first on one side of the cask and then on the other, until she got on the scent and followed it up and found the bowl.
Then I had only the stem left. She looked for that, but she couldn't scent it. But I couldn't get much comfort out of that. Have you got the matches?
”Then I gave it best for a time and smoked cigars. They were the safest and most satisfactory under the circ.u.mstances, but they cost me two s.h.i.+llings a week, and I couldn't stand it, so I started a pipe again and then mother gave in at last. G.o.d bless her, and G.o.d forgive me, and us all--we deserve it. She's been at rest these seventeen long years.”
Mitch.e.l.l reflected.
”And what did your old man do when he found out that you were smoking?”
I asked.
”The old man?”
He reflected.
”Well, he seemed to brighten up at first. You see, he was sort of pensioned off by mother and she kept him pretty well inside his income.... Well, he seemed to sort of brighten up--liven up--when he found out that I was smoking.”
”Did he? So did my old man, and he livened me up, too. But what did your old man do--what did he say?”
”Well,” said Mitch.e.l.l, very slowly, ”about the first thing he did was to ask me for a fill.”
He reflected.
”Ah! many a solemn, thoughtful old smoke we had together on the quiet--the old man and me.”
He reflected.
”Is your old man dead, Mitch.e.l.l?” I asked softly. ”Long ago--these twelve years,” said Mitch.e.l.l.
COMING ACROSS
We were delayed for an hour or so inside Sydney Heads, taking pa.s.sengers from the _Oroya_, which had just arrived from England and anch.o.r.ed off Watson's Bay. An Adelaide boat went alongside the ocean liner, while we dropped anchor at a respectable distance. This puzzled some of us until one of the pa.s.sengers stopped an ancient mariner and inquired. The sailor jerked his thumb upwards, and left. The pa.s.sengers stared aloft till some of them got the lockjaw in the back of their necks, and then another sailor suggested that we had yards to our masts, while the Adelaide boat had not.
It seemed a pity that the new chums for New Zealand didn't have a chance to see Sydney after coming so far and getting so near. It struck them that way too. They saw Melbourne, which seemed another injustice to the old city. However, nothing matters much nowadays, and they might see Sydney in happier times.
They looked like new chums, especially the ”furst clarsters,” and there were two or three Scotsmen among them who looked like Scots, and talked like it too; also an Irishman. Great Britain and Ireland do not seem to be learning anything fresh about Australia. We had a yarn with one of these new arrivals, and got talking about the banks. It turned out that he was a radical. He spat over the side and said:
<script>