Johnny Ludlow, Second Series

Tod and I were there for the short Easter holidays, w

, having nothing else to do, got the mater to come with me for a practice on the chu

e end of April: and to judge by the weather, it might hav

George Reed's cottage,

the babie

three elder children around, watering the beds with a doll's watering-pot, a

ce upwards to show it: and a pale mite of a face it was, with sleepy eyes. "

eir teeth are trou

han Susy. She's a-lying there in the basket indoors. Would

in and see, Johnny," she said to me in an undert

as its sister. These two were twins, and about a year old. When they were born, Church Dykely went on finely

now, but very still and quiet), and letting it clasp its little fist round one of her fingers. "No doubt it is

claimed. "Why, ma'am, they must both be a good deal worse than they be, afore we does

ey. "They both seem feverish; this one especially. I hear you

ed. "She come over yesterday was a

is she d

e in some shop; is quite in clover there, by all accounts. Two good gownds she brought over to her bac

e she was not

ed it, and been obliged to go to a doctor," answered Hester Reed. "That

e mater was taking her final word with Mrs. Reed, I went on to open the gate for h

e: as if I had been holding it

n, fond of fine gowns and caps. Mrs. Todhetley came away, and Ann Dovey went

aving been the eldest of a numerous flock at home, and was no doubt all the fonder of them because she had none of her own. M

d till it nearly touched Mrs. Reed's, who had sat down opposite to her with the other baby. "Sarah Ta

fter dinner, and saw 'em both," assented Mrs. Reed

o, with all her neighbourly visits, had

hat you be

ess of the Man

ysic. Leastways, I said a dose might bring 'em round," add

"There's nothing like a dose of physic for little ones; it often stops a bout o

Mrs. Reed. "It crossed my mind to try 'em w

ills be

when I was getting the headache so much. They're as mild a

right pills to give to babies?"

eks back, I ran out to Abel Crew, chancing to see him go by the gate, and asked w

it get hi

rare bad one to take physic, he is. You may cover a powder in treacle that thick, Ann Dovey, but the boy scents it out s

sort. Look at this one! lying like a lamb in my arms, staring up at me with its poor eyes, and never moving.

emarked Hester Reed, "and for that reason I know

was that in the evening she was for the second time at George Reed's cottage. Mrs. Reed had put the three elder ones to bed; or, as she expressed it, "got 'em out o' the way;" and was undressin

ir physic yet?" was M

. "You be just come in time to hold 'em for me

an cottages generally are, and the rooms were of a fairly good size. Opposite the bed stood a high deal press with a flat top to it, which Mrs. Reed made a shelf of, for keeping thing

erhaps. Mrs. Dovey, curious in all matters, lifted the lid and sniffed at the

questioned Ann Dovey, as Mrs. Reed came ba

ed old Abel Crew if he could give me some

water. Taking out one of the pills she proceeded to crush it into small bits,

, Hester Reed," pronounc

t a drop mor

hildren was fed with the delectable c

t a whole pill be too mu

be too much for Georgy, he said, No-two wouldn't hurt h

de ready, and swallowed it in her turn. Then the two babies were c

ife went up to bed. Men who have to be up at five in the morning must go to rest betimes. The fire and candle were put out, the do

morning might be close upon the dawn, she knew not; but she was startled out of her sleep by the cries of the babies. A

ed George Reed, when he had ligh

ut a kettle of water on. Then, dressing himself, he ran out for Mr. D

ught them down to the kitchen fire; the three elder children, aroused by the cries, had come down too, and were standing about in thei

o these children?" exclaimed Duffham,

se?" sobbed Mrs. Reed, in

tor, in a fume. "It is somethi

hriek that might have b

ilst he stood there. Duffham repeated his conjecture as to poison; and Mrs. Reed, all topsy-tu

"How can you think

ave both died from some irritant poison," asserted Duffham

ring from the point; not evasively, but in her mind's bewilderment. "It mu

ive them a

l apiece when I

Duffham. "Wha

Abel C

ect, he assumed that these pills must have contained it; and he had never

procured these pills from Abel Crew some time before, and had given one of the said pills to each of the ba

is box of pill

he had put the box in its place again on the top of the

of sealing-wax in the house

dead little ones, answered that he had not. But the eldest child, Annie, spoke up, saying that

he pill-box up in the back of a letter that he took from his pocket, and sealed it wi

," he said. "Thi

ed, her distress increasing at the possibility that he might be right. "

was nodding his head in a

ison in his pills?" went on Mrs. Reed. "If yo

acknowledged Duffham. "I like old Abel, and shall be sorr

ad. She had more faith

to think nothing of camping out in the fields by night, under the summer stars. Who he was, or what he was, or why he had come, or why he stayed, nobody kn

d, formerly used to impound stray cattle, but left to itself since the square space for the new pound had been railed r

and his nights chiefly in studying the stars. Sir Peter struck up a sort of speaking acquaintanceship with him, and, it was said, was surprised at his stock of knowledge and the extent of his travels; for he knew personally many foreign places where even Sir Peter himself had never been. That may have caused Sir Peter-who was lord of the ma

ing, she at any rate did not oppose it. Abel Crew filled his garden with rare and choice and useful field herbs, the valuable properties of which he alone understood; and of ordinary sweet flowers, such as bees love to suck. He set up bee-hives and sold the honey; he distilled lavender and bergamot for perfumes; he converted his herbs and roots into medicines, which he supplied to the poor people around, charging so small a price for them that it could sc

p, far-seeing, and often sad expression that sat in the earnest eyes. He was old now-sixty, I dare say; tall, slender, and very upright still; his white hair brushed back from his forehead and worn rather long. What his original condition of life might have been did not transpire; he never talked of it. More than once I had seen him reading Latin books; and

silk velvet, and a frilled shirt of fine cambric. His breeches were tied at the knee with black ribbon, in which was a plain, glistening steel buckle; buckles to match shone in his shoes. His stockings were black, and in the winter he wore bl

egitimate medical nostrums had failed-calomel and blisters and bleeding-Abel Crew's simple decoctions and leaves had worked a cure. Look at young Mrs. Sterling at the Court. When that first baby of hers came to town-and a fine squalling young brat he was, with a mouth like a crocodile's!-gatherings arose in her chest or somewhere, one after another; it was said the agony was awful. Duffham's skill seemed to have gone a blackberrying, the other doctor's also, for neither of the two could do anything for her, and the Court thought she would have died of it. Upon that, some relation of old Sterling's was summoned from London-a great physician

lled in the interests of humanity. The patients he chiefly treated were the poor, those who could not have paid Duffham a coin worth thinking about. Duffham knew this. And, instead of being jealous of him, as some medical men might have been, or ridiculing him for

d when it was known abroad that two of his pills had caused the

ith an accident; though it was curious enough that it should be so. In taking a pan of boiling herbs off the fire, he let one of the handles slip out of his fingers; it sent the pan down on that side, spilled a lot

unusual a thing for Abel Crew not to be about, and for his door to be closed, that some of them had been arriving at a sensible con

ocked at the door with his cane, and entered. Abel had dresse

rew was as good at burns and scalds as he himself was. It had b

hall be able to dress it with my healing-salve. I am much obliged to you for comin

t heard of the foot, or the neighbours either, and had come in fo

who had got up out of respect, and was

of his pills to each of her babies, and both had died of it. Ab

s," said he, speaking as gently as you ple

their ordinary food throughout the day, and very little of that. George Reed came running to me in the night, but it wa

laimed Abel, looking troubl

c, I th

oses, deemed it his duty to look into the affair a little, and to resent it. He had left his forge and a bar of iron red-hot in it, and come tearing along in his leather apr

he, pushing back the door with a bang, and stepping in fiercely. Duffham, foreseei

ills to poison peo

is black arms. "Be you going to ea

you mea

selled a box of pills to Hester Reed last winter?-be you thi

ached continually, and her side often had a dull pain in it, and asked me to give her something. I di

y, more quietly, his fierceness subdued by Abe

f, that Hester Reed had from me in the

ade 'e

nd made

Crew. Our Ann, my wife, helped to give them there two pills to the children; and I'm not a-

ey," said Abel, in a pleasant tone, rest

kill

not made pills all these year

e it if the p

say? 'Twasn

ys it was the p

fham say

had gave 'em nothing but them there two pills of Abel Crew's. Duffham said the pills must have had poison in 'em, and

ny suspected medicine must

e with all my heart and mind,"-the blacksmith turned round from the door to say more kindly, his good-nature cropping up again,-"that it'll turn out it warn

el Crew in his garden, sitting against the cottage w

ked, turning in at the gate. "Did y

h complaints as hers. But if I had, in one sense, given her the wrong, they could not h

ve been the pills that did th

don't pretend to know, but my pills never did. I tried to get down as far as Reed's to inquire par

o appear at the i

ion-as though it surprised him. Perhaps

e an inquest,

Jones. He has gone ov

over and done with," said he. "It makes

silver hair, it was next to impossible to believe he could be the author of the two children

n my pills come to be analyzed-as of course they m

ered round, and was strongly in favour of Abel Crew. All the parish had been to see him; and his protestations, that he had never in his life put any kind of poison into his medicines, m

r were two of the jurymen. Dobbs the blacksmith was another. They all dressed themselves in their Sunday-going clothes to attend it. It was called for two in the afternoon; and soon after that hour the county coroner (who had dashe

and filled; but Henry Rimmer's brother, constituting himself master of the ceremonies, reserved the chairs for what he called the "big people," meaning those of importance in the place. The Squire was bowed into one; and to my s

nes if he supposed that was the way justice must be administered in England, and that he ought to have had Crew present. Old Jones who was in a regular fluster with it all, and his legs more gouty than ever, tol

y the help of a stick and somebody's arm. Abel had dressed himself in his black velvet suit; and as he took off his hat on entering and bowed respectfully to the coroner,

t-mortem, testified to arsenic being the cause of death. The next question was, how had it been administered? A rumour arose in the room that the pills had been analyzed; b

ed eleven months and a half-had been ailing for a day or two, seemed feverish, would not eat their food, were very cross at times and unnaturally still at others, and she came to the conclusion that their te

what is evidence," interr

hildren a pill apiece in the evening after they were undressed, mashing the pill up in a little sugar and warm water. She then put them to bed upstairs and went to bed herself not long after. In the night she and her hu

ven them during the d

eed, sir. They w

tle that they did

them with some potato mashed up in a spoonful o' broth at midday-we'd ha

ay was bread soaked in mil

ter and the milk and sugar was put in afterwards. 'Twas

d the sugar, the same that the

er children ate plenty of it. T

rm water from that you sa

water was the same that I biled

absolutely no food given to them a

ap, sir. N

t the

rse, sir. None o' the r

ou procure t

he pills. Giving the full acco

you had that box from Abel Crew," spoke the coroner. "How do you know that t

surprised as though she had been asked whether

of the jury, "how do you

ch came to her. "We've had no physic but that in the cottage since winter, nor for ever

resumed the coroner. "So that it might be handl

l or two out for my own taking, I used to step on a chair-for it's too high for me to reach without-and help myself. The box have never been took from the place at all, sir, till Tuesday night, when I brought it downstairs with me. Wh

aused a moment. "You swear that

om its place since Abel Crew gave it me, till I reached

abit of taking these p

t had 'em, sir; once I took three; but sinc

inconvenience fr

ht, when she asked whether they was fit pills to

now the box a

eturned Hester Reed, inwardly marvelling

tanding close to him, on the other side his clerk-who sat writing

nd looked "well." "Yes, sir, it is the same box

quickly asked the coroner, catching

em pill-boxes is all so like one another

he pills. Are they, in

after taking off the lid. "One mig

anded the corone

ather more left-six or seven

from her and put on the lid. We soon learnt that two

the result. The pills contained arsenic, he said; not enough to kill a grown person, he thought, but enough to kill a child. As Pettipher was only a small man (in a business point of view) and sold groceries as w

he coroner had his head bent over his clerk's notes, speaking to him in an undertone, Abel Crew suddenly asked to be allowed to look at the pills

l, in a clear, firm tone, after diving into it w

rom a juryman. It might have been irregular for Abel Crew to be allowed so much; but as it

etching out his hand for the box as e

nished to Mrs. Reed, sir," replied Abel, advancing and pla

have heard the evidence of the witness, Hester Reed; you may see for

sisted Abel. "I know my own pills, and I know my o

ols!" exploded the coroner, who was a man of qu

, but it had my little private mark upon it,"

ark, pray?" as

y are so faint that a casual observer might not notice them; but they are always there. Of all the pill-boxes no

is silenced it. You might have heard a pin drop. The words seemed to mak

oroner, who was known to be fond of desultory conversations

at would satisfy the eye or ear. But I am certain,

without their entailing an ache or a pain, and that one each had poisoned the babies. Perkins the butcher observed to the coroner that the box must have been chan

hat the box could have been changed. It had never been touched by any hands but her own while it stood in its pla

ess stands your own sleepi

ther room, where my

children ge

'Twould be qu

he box when you took it down on Tuesday n

y, sir. Nobody

he tou

of it to look

ave her alo

ute or so, while I went into the back'us

in her hands wh

. I know the poor little innocents was lying one on one knee, and one o

ou took the pills out of

ut Ann Dovey wouldn't do not

he coroner in his curt

y: something seemed, too, to have put her out. Possessing scant veneration for coroners at the best of

ere put quietly, and tended only to extract confirmation of Mrs. Reed's evidence, as to fetchi

Hester Reed, go into the back k

Ann Dovey, who felt instinctively the ball was begi

e of the pill-box w

my hand, if y

nto the kitchen dur

't," was the

, except for th

. What

ng with that box? Did you, for i

oded Mrs. Dovey, growing every moment more resentful, at being questioned. "If I had knowed the bothe

eed on her return, the same box she left

ieked Ann Dovey. "D'you suppose, sir, I carry boxes and pills

f his; I've seen him take 'em; mayhap you'd picked

men were good friends enough; but their respective ladies were apt to regard jealously all work taken to the rival establishment. Any other of the jurymen might have made the remark with comparative impunity; not so Do

nd what do you take, Bill Dobbs? Pints o' beer when you can get

o him by the post he was now filling, and of the necessity of maintaining the dignity of demeanour w

ons I put to you," continued the coroner. "Did you take with you any p

nating in a sob: and why she should have set on to shi

wear p

ary pause. But her lips grew white, and

pocket on t

her breath. And if ever I saw a woman look frig

evening, witness?" repea

-e

were in it? Do

and all the impudence suddenly gone out of her. "And my thimble, sir;-and som

? You are sure y

d for the sudden agitation, nobody could see any reason: and perhaps it was only that

n of any kind in

she went into hysterics instead of replying, he let her go.

return a verdict of Manslaughter against Abel Crew; seemed red-hot to do it, in fact. But two of them dissented. They were not satisfied, they said; and they held out for adjou

arew. Abel himself corrected the coroner. Upon that, the co

f doing so. When I first came to this neighbourhood I gave my name correctly-Car

you must have

hat has been very rare-I have written it Carew. Old Sir Peter Chavasse knew it was Carew, and

him short. "Stand back, Abel Carew. The p