Part 24 (1/1)

What o off all in a moment

Widder Cook was hereshe was talkin' about her husband Cha'les

They'd bin tater-hoein', an' when they left off she said, 'a drop o'

beer wouldn't hurt us' 'No,' he said, 'a drop o' beer and a bit o'

bread an' cheese, an' then git off to bed' So they sent for the beer

And they hadn't bin in bed half an hour afore she woke, and he'd moved; an' she put her arm across 'n an' there he was, dead” So thehad told Bettesworth; and now he repeated it to me--the last tale I shall ever hear froly with his poor old dried-up o like that” We agreed that it was a merciful way to be taken

It still interested hiarden, and he asked how the potatoes were co up, and listened to my account of the peas and carrots, but said he was ”never e Bryant laing Well, Bettesworth too had mown my lawn in hot weather, and sain when, recalling how I had known hireat piece of trenching which had been his first job for me

So presently I ca, ”I shall not see hili land Bettesworth has served

Half-way down the hill the old road- up from his work as I passed, asked, ”Can ye keep yerself warhed, ”Pretty nearly How about you?” ”It _boils_ out,” he said

The perspiration stood on his face while he spoke of motor-cars, and the dust they raised; but tocars and all seeh the reason is obscure, somehow it seems fit that possibly my last talk with Bettesworth should be associated with the blue distant English country, and the summer dust, and that sunburnt old folk jest which consists in asking, when it is so particularly and exhilaratingly warm as to-day, ”Can you keep yourself warm?”

_July 21_--The weather was as brilliantly hot this afternoon as a week ago; and Bettesworth's bedrooed He lay with eyes looking glazed between the half-shut lids, and he was breathing hard His niece accompanied me upstairs; but he took no notice of our entry until she mentioned my name, upon which he turned a little and put up a feeble hand for h he seemed to rouse a little, and to understand one or two remarks I ventured But when he spoke it was as if utterly exhausted, and we could not alwayshiarden, and how Bryant waspretty brown, _you_ know” ”Yes,” he said feebly, ”and if you don't keep it cut ” Next I reported on the potatoes--hoell they were co: ”the same sort as you planted for me last year” ”Ah--the _Victoria_, wa'n't they?” The question was a mere murmur ”No, _Duke of York_ And don't you remember what a crop we had, when you planted 'em?” There came the faintest of smiles, and ”None of what I planted failed much, did they?” Indeed, no The shallots he had planted during his last day's work had just been harvested; the beans which he sowed the sa I told him they were over ”You can't expect no other,” he said,at this time of year and in such dry weather Ihiain he just sn of rational interest and pride in his labour

For after this he beca Diainst the veranda,”

apparentlymy veranda ”What for?” his niece asked ”To keep the wall up” Then I, ”We won't trouble about that to-day,” as if he had been consulting me about the work, and he see; so, grasping his hand, I said ”Good-bye” He asked, ”Are ye goin' to the club?” (He was thinking of the Oddfellows' fete arranged for to- all day, his niece said, not to hear the band) ”It isn't till to-in' about,” he muttered crossly ”Yes, but they've settled it noe assured hiain to see hi to his niece, he had been counting onfor several days ”if this was Friday”

The thought ca without any suspicion that anyone could think of him with admiration and reverence

_July 25 (Tuesday)_--Bettesworth died this evening at six o'clock

_July 28 (Friday)_--This afternoon I went to the funeral

A week earlier (almost to the hour) when I parted from him, he seemed too ill to take his money--too unconscious, Iat the foot of the bed; but she said, glancing ly towards him, ”I think he'd like to take it, sir” So I turned to his into his hand, which he held up lirasped the silver, then it dropped out on to his bare chest and slid under the bed-gohence I rescued it, and, finding his purse under the pillow, put his last wages away safely there

On the Saturday I saw him, but I think he did not know ht of hiarden; but I put it aside for fear of spoiling truer because more spontaneous memories of him in time to come