Part 22 (1/2)

Through devious courses the conversation slid back to his nephew's fa o' the others” There are six boys besides her husband for her to wait upon, so that, were she to begin, ”before she'd got a mouthful the others 'd be wantin' their second helpin'” The custom sounds barbarous--or shall I say archaic?--until one reet hoain within an hour On Sunday afternoon ”Jack was off to the town to this PSA or whatever it is He brought home another prize too A beautiful book--a foot by nine inches, and three or four inches thick!

Jack _can_ read, no mistake!” Unfortunately he reads in a very loud voice, so that Bettesworth groeary of it, in spite of his passion for being read to On Saturday night Jack was reading the paper, and said, ”'Like any ht, Jack; I be tired' All about this war” (in Manchuria) ”Sunday he said, 'Shall I read ye the paper, uncle? 'Tis nothin' but the war' 'Then on't have it to-day'”

Bettesworth's opinions on the ere tedious to ht that, after Mukden, the Russians were retreating ”right back into St Petersburg,” which would have been a retreat indeed!” But it ought to be stopped now”; the other Powers should interfere and say, ”You've had your go in, and now you et back into your own bounds” For the japanese, of course, Bettesworth was full of ad without food!” He exclaimed at their pluck and their prowess

Gradually his own , and at last, ”The purtiest little soldiers I ever see was the Sardinians” He described their s unifore ”you could get to pick out a good lish words they used), ”but it pestered 'em when they couldn't make ye understand But there, as as bad Every nation has their own slang” The funniest Bettesworth ever heard was that of the Turks, ”like a lot o' geese

I remember once a lot of 'em come up over the hill by our camp, with about four hundred prisoners They didn't let us have 'em, but was takin' 'em on to their own camp; but they was so proud for us to see, an' they was caperin' and cuttin' and dancin' about, jest like a lot o' geese”

Soe Bryant and his present job; so else, of his own coal supply, now reht up the coal merchant's receipt, which he had found in his waistcoat pocket He had given it to Liz, with his wife's little box full of receipts for coal, groceries, tea, and so on, and had recommended Liz to ”put 'em on the fire” ”You _be_ a careless old feller!” Liz retorted, and he repeated, laughing

He had been here nearly an hour, and at last I stood up Bettesworth took the hint He was looking the better for his whisky as he went off But all the ti, he had had a very hts of him had quite slipped away

xxxVI

_March 21, 1905_--There being no definite news of Bettesworth since he crept away that day, this afternoon I knocked at the door of Jack Bettesworth's cottage, where he is staying Presently the old man himself opened to me His cheeks were flushed and feverish He led the way indoors, saying that he was all alone; and as we settled down (he still wearing his cap) I remarked that he did not seeot this here pleurisy, and arot up from bed, quite recently, to rest for an hour or two

He had seen the club doctor--Jack had fetched hientleman He sounded me all over,” and sent out a plaster which ”I'm wearin' now,” Bettesworth said, ”like one o' they poor-man's plasters” This reminded him of a similar one he had once had, of which he said that he ”wore 'n for six months”; and truly the old-fashi+oned ”poor-ed to be unremovable Once properly plastered, the patient had to earn his na should wear or ”rot off,” as Bettesworth phrased it How this six-ht round his waist, and ”wide as a leather belt”--had been ”gored” by his ”old mother-in-law, or else 't'd ha' tore flesh and all off,” I will not spend tiht this new cold, he supposed, waiting for ”they old women” to come and pay hie at the ti about

Nor have they yet paid all

Not unhappily, but comfortably, he looked up to the nized the dingy old gabledme of the other rooms where I had heard it, and of the old ho had been alive then ”Mrs Smith had my other,” said Bettesworth, ”and she en't paid for 't yet I shall have 'n back, if she don't Jack persuaded ht,' I says, 'only I can't get there' He wanted to go instead of et sayin' ht But I shall have the clock back if she don't pay”

There also was his oldhomely over the mantelpiece; and I heard of a few pictures saved, which Jack had taken out of their fraain It see to the old man to have these relics of his married life still about him; and in the midst of them he hiht (he sat in a Windsor chair with arms), I could not see the flush on his face So pleasant was it to find him at last beside a clean hearth, warm and tidy and well cared-for, that I could not refrain froood fortune; he ift to praise his niece ”She looks after me,” he said warmly, ”as well as if I was a child I en't bin so comfortable since I dunno when” Perhaps never before in his life ”Before I was badwith she When I ay at work, I was alonderin' about her”

I had two shi+llings to hand over to hies left in the cottage garden; and in answer to inquiries as to his finances, he said that he had enough ht or so But he was paying Jack for his board and lodging, and see to do so

On Sundaythere had come to see him his sister-in-law from Middlesham, to whom he complained of a brother-in-law's indifference

The complaints were reiterated to ettin' on I _told_ her he never coht afore the funeral And after all I've done for 'n, whenever he was in any trouble or wanted help hisself, I was always the fust one he sent for, if there was anything the matter with he, same as that time when he fell off the hayrick

Sent for o to the doctor's for 'n, when he'd got one of his own gals at home It hurts me nohen I thinks of it sittin' here If he'd only jest come and say How do!

But no” We supposed that dick feared lest he should be asked to give help in some way

Pleurisy and pneumonia or not--it was hard to believe that he had suffered froot hold of the words somehow-- Bettesworth was at no loss that afternoon for interesting subjects of conversation An inquiry how his sister-in-laas faring led to a talk about her two sons, of whom one is out of work The other, a basket-maker (blind or crippled, I do not knohich) lives at hoot a lot of work come in ”Mostly stock work,”

Bettesworth believed, ”for some London firm he knows of” But besides this, he has a hundred stone jars from the brewery, to re-case with basket-work The handles and bottoms are of cane, the rest ”only skeleton work, as they calls it” Bettesworth always loved to know of technical things like this