Part 22 (2/2)

Odd it is, I suggested, how every trade has its own terms of speech

”Yes, and its own tools too,” added Bettesworth; and with deep interest he spoke of the tools this basket- them ”as fine!” And the tools are ”sharp as lancets; and every tool with a special name for it”

This reminded me to repeat to Bettesworth a siiven me, and will publish, itrush collars ”Very nice smooth collars,”

Bettesworth murmured appreciatively But when I proceeded to tell how the art is likely to die, because the few men who understand it keep their methods secret, this stirred him ”Same,” he said, ”as them Jeffreys over there t'other side o' Moorways, what used to make these little wooden bottles you remembers seein' They'd never let nobody see hoas done But I never heared tell of anybody else everthese ”bottles,” like tiny barrels, slung at labouringwith their clothes and baskets in the harvest-field or hop-garden It was to the s-hole in the side that the thirsty labourer used to put hisback with the bottle above him Whether the beer carried well and kept cool in these diminutive barrels I do not know; but certainly to the eye they had a rustic charree with Bettesworth's praises: ”_Purty_ little bottles they got to be at last--even with glass ends to 'em, and white hoops They used to boil 'em in a copper--whether that was so's to bend the wood I dunno

Little ones from a pint up to three pints I had a three-pint one about somewheres, but I couldn't put hteenpence was the price of a quart one--but they had iron hoops But they wouldn't let nobody see how they ain--_they_ wouldn't allow nobody to see how they finished a axe-head

”These Jeffreys never done nothing else but o ood money at it, too But they had to walk miles for it You can understand, when the round, to get all round in tireat bundle o' traps: an' then they'd begin putting' in the rods--'cause they was allowed to cut what rods they wanted for it, where-ever they orkin', and they knowed purty near where a ot, from the farmer I never knowed nobody else catch moles like they did, but they wouldn't show ye how they done it, or how they made their traps

”There was a man name o' Murrell--Sonny Murrell ays used to call 'n--lived at Cashford _He_ was a very good mole-catcher One tiht away from Old Mill to Culverley Mill--it looked as if they'd bin tippin' cart-loads o'

rubbish all over the hter as that was, done by moles, in all my creepin's” (I think ”creepin's” was the word Bettesworth used, but his voice had sunk very low just here, and I could as easily hear the clock as him) ”But they sent for Sonny He was a _clever_ old cock, in et round 'n--soh; you'll see how they'll push round a trap--but after he'd bin there a fortnight you couldn't tell as there'd bin any moles at all”

One other topic which we briefly touched upon must not be omitted

Before ate by the road, he was saying, te of it, I warned hi out in this easterly wind Ah, he said, we ht expect east winds for the next three months now, for this was the 21st of March, and ”where the wind is at twelve o'clock on the 21st of March, there she'll bide for three months afterwards” So he had once firh apparently with little faith in it For when I laughed, he said, ”I've noticed it a good ht and soer was the one He said he'd noticed it hunderds o' times We used to terrify 'n about that, afterwards--'cause he was a et up an' walk out o' the roo April I ay froood deal, and neither sawof ith, to enable hie when the weather was at all fit, but the drizzling rains and the raw chill winds of that spring-time were not favourable to the old ht touch of pleurisy, if nothing worse, earlier in the year

May, however, was not a week old before the weather brightened and grew splendid The very sky seemed to lift in the serene warmth; and now, if ever he was to do so, Bettesworth should show soht rally I ree, in the dusk of a Sunday evening (the 7th of May), and there was Bettesworth, slowly toiling up the ascent to Jack's cottage, even at that late hour It was too dark to distinguish his features, but by the lift of his chin and a suggestion of lateral curvature in his figure, I recognized hi ho The week that followed saw hi h to be invited to a seat where he ether it becaain be any better than he was now The sunshi+ne was soft and pleasant, where it alighted on his end of the seat, and the shade of the garden trees at , but to hiifts of renewed life any more When he arrived, I had expected that presently, after a rest, it would be his wish to go farther into the garden and see how the crops proet so far had been all that he could do His thighs, as could be seen by the clinging of the trousers to theedhe toldof his , to show his ”e Stevens, and others--how thin they were; and by his own account the men had sole the how he could creep about at all Bryant, by the way, had already toldcompassionately He added that Bettesworth offered to show his arms also, but that he had said, ”No, Fred, you no call to trouble I can take your word for it without seein'”

Sitting there weary in the sunshi+ne, Bettesworth was in a entleman on the road,” he said, had met him the previous day, and reentlee Stevens says, cause he was 'long with entleman) ”looked at my hands and says, 'Why, your hands looks jest as if they was dyin' off' I dunno what he meant; but he called his wife and said, 'Don't his hands look jest as if they was dyin' off?' And she said so they did I dunno who he was: he was a stranger to me But what should you think he meant by that?”

Mournfully the old man held out his knotted hand for my opinion He was plainly worried by the odd phrase, and fancied, I believe, that the ”gentleman” had seen some secret token of death in his hands

The instinctive will to live was still strong in him, sustained by the conservatis to Bryant, he said a day or two before this, ”I prays for 'em to carryto the churchyard

_May 17_--Once more, on the 17th of May, he found his way here Not obviously worse, he co to try the re a lear He was more cheerful, however He sat in the sunshi+ne, and chatted in his kindliest hbours

There was Carver Cook, for instance He was seventy-seven years old, and fretting because he was out of work ”I en't earnt a crown, not in these last three weeks,” he had told Bettesworth On the previous afternoon, just as it was beginning to rain, the two old ether out of the wet; and ”Carver” standing a glass of ale, there they stayed until the rain slackened, and had a very happy, comfortable two hours I asked what Bettesworth's old friend had to live upon

”Well,” Bettesworth said, ”he've got that cot; and he've saved ot money put by But he says if it don't last out he shall sell the cot He shan't study nobody None of his sons an'

daughters don't offer to help 'n, and never gives 'n nothin' His garden he does all hisself; and when he wants any firin' or wood, he gets a hoss an' gets it home hisself But old Car'line, he says, is jest as contented now as ever she was in her life 'Why don't ye look in and see her?' he says But I says, 'Well, Carver, I never was much of a one for pokin' into other people's houses'” He paused, allowing est that perhaps he preferred other people to come and see him But to that he demurred ”No I likes to o in solass with 'ehly to Bettesworth's taste, again, as it is to the groom's taste to talk of horses, or to the architect's to discuss new buildings, was a little narrative he had of another neighbour's work in the fields ”Porter's brother,” he said, ”started down there at Priestley's Friday ot the sack dinner-ti ”plants” in the field, at which the ot on very well at first; but presently he cae and then four rows o' turnips,” and there the ground was so full eeds that to hoe it properly was ile of ”lily,” or bindweed, with tendrils trailing ”as fur as from here to that tree” (say four or five yards); and when pulled at, the lily proved to have turned three or four times round a plant, which came aith it ”So when the foreman come and saw, he says, 'I dunno, Porter--I almost thinks you better leave off' 'Well, I'd jest as soon,' Porter says, 'for I can't seem to satisfy _myself_'” So he left off, and the foreh the crop in and plant again

It was pleasant enough to me to sit in the afternoon sunshi+ne and hear this talk of village folk and outdoor doings, but after a little while I was called away, and did not see Bettesworth's departure I should have watched it, if I had known the truth; for, once he had got outside the gate, he had set foot for the last tiarden

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