Part 5 (1/2)

He considered it--it was on a day in October, 1900--and so strayed off into a rahbours (he co) would leave his fowls alone, because depredations of that kind were an unheard-of thing in our parish

”There, I will say that,” he observed, ”you never no fear o' _losin'_ anything here If a round, there 'tis nobody don't touch it Up there at (he nae) they say 'tis different But here, I should think there never was a better place for that!”

For a certain reason I took up this point, and hinted that Flah in Yorkshi+re h people, I had been told, never lock their doors at night, for fear of locking out the spirits of relatives drowned at sea

Would Bettesworth take the bait, and tell hosts? Not he The interruption changed the course, but not the character, of his talk He looked rather shocked at these benighted Yorkshi+remen, and commented severely, ”Weak-minded, _I_ calls it” Then, after a momentary silence, he was off on a new track, with reminiscences of Selsey fisher into Sussex; who go about, ”any tiht, accordin' to the tides,” and whose thick boots can be heard ”clu the street” in the dark All ular hands e farot quite away fro wondered whether Bettesworth had any ghost stories, I harked back now to the Fla him on to be communicative It was all in vain, however He shook his head The subject seen to hiht, an' I never htened hen I was carter chap at Penstead Our farm was doay from t'other, 'cause Mr Barnes had two farms--'t least, he had three--and ourn ay froon--no, the pole-carriage I set up on the front on the shafts, with a truss o' hay behind me; and all of a sudden she” (the un to turn round in the road The chap 'long with one on to open the gate, and so there was I alone And all 'tas a old donkey rollin' in the road She'd shtened she was, till she turned right round there in the road 'Twas a nasty thing for s over the traces, and all that, and me doeen 'e over a drunken ht

”Wonder's 't hadn't broke his ribs, ain' him like that I went all asprawl; barked me hands too But when he hollered out, I knoho 'twas then 'Twas old”

Well, it doesn't host stories to be had, so I related a schoolday adventure, of a gloorm picked up, and worn in a cap for a little way, and then loorli froruff ”Hullo, mate!”

Bettesworth did not find this silly, like h story It opened another vista of rely he took the chance, co,

”Ah! porchers, very likely, lurkin' about there for a meetin, p'r'aps

They do like that, sometimes I remember once, when Mellish was keeper at Culverley, there was sos, talkin' about what they was goin' to do Mellish, he slips out, to send the word round, 'cause all the o out at such a job, if need be So he sends round the ht, an' several more, to meet 'n at a certain place, where he'd heard these chaps say they was goin' to work And so they (the poachers) set in there talkin' about what they was goin' to do; and at last, when they coht off into the town While they'd bin keepin' the keeper there a-watchin' 'e had bin' an' purty well cleared the place out _Bags_-full, they must ha' had Mellish told me so hisself While he was expectin' to have they, they was havin' him

He never was so sold, he said But a clever trick, I calls it”

VIII

_October 17, 1900_-Tords of Bettesworth's, noted down for their strangeness at the tiht, the October air He was discussing the scarlet-runner beans (I can picture now their war another picking froht, because in the sheltered corner where the beans stood, uplifted as it was above the mists that chilled the bottoets o' mornin's” would not be felt

”Snibblin'” was a neord to me, and now I find it associated in lish winter

Near the beans there were brussels sprouts, their large leaves soaked with colour out of the clouded day Little grey swarms of ”white fly”

flitted out as I walked between theht--”they little arden, the sad rich autumn tints, the overcast sky, the moist motionless air

To this undertone of peace--the peace you can best absorb at labours like his--he was able to discourse dispassionately of things not peaceful In a cottage higher up the valley there was trouble this October I h summary, an old woman had died, her last days rendered unhappy by thelabourer Talk of his ”carrying on,” his late hours, his frantic drinking, and subsequent delirium, crept stealthily up and down the lanes He was ”a low blackguard,” ”a scaenerally breathless, once or twice shrill

But Bettesworth kept his head An indignant ets such a good hoht to 't?” was Bettesworth's calm rejoinder

_November 10_--A month later a ripple of excitement from the outside world found its way down the lane Saturday, November 10, was the day when General Buller, recalled from the war, arrived at Aldershot, and for miles around the occasion waspeople It was a point of honour with them not to desert their favourite under a cloud They left off work early, and flocked to Aldershot station by hundreds, if not thousands, toMonday Bettesworth, full of enthusiasave me an account of the affair as he had had it from numerous eyewitnesses For, in truth, it had been ”all the talk yesterday”--on the Sunday, na Bill Skinner, in particular, had been voluble, with such excla of excited eyes, that Bettesworth was reminded not without concern of the sunstroke which had threatened Skinner's reason two summers previously Nevertheless, the tale orth Bettesworth's hearing and repeating; ”there never was a land sofrom the train, the General's first act had been to shake hands with his old coach folk

”And there was never a sign o' soldiers; 'twas all townspeople--civilians, that is; and the cheerin'--there! Skinner said he hollered till he was hoarse He ast o over; but I said, 'Naw' Not but what I _likes_ the old feller!”

Bettesworth made no answer but that expressive ”No” of disinclination, but I can a off enthusiastically for an eight- and exciteone by for ever Prudence warned hiular way, here at home

There was another reason, too, to restrain his us swiftly back for a moment from war incidents and the public excitement to the very interior of that hovel down by the ”Lake,” to learn that poor old Lucy Bettesworth was oncean unwonted kindliness, had thrown her into sudden hysteria ending in epileptic fits Even had Bettesworth felt inclined, he could not have left her He told me the circumstances, and much, too, of her life history--the most of which has been already published, and may be oage all Bettesworth's thoughts It allowed him to take interest in Buller's return, and on the same day to discourse of other outside h these months