The History of David Grieve

e supper, which should, according to the rule of the house, have been eaten in complete silence. Hannah Grieve, th

ecurred with so much regularity. Hannah had won, of course, as the grim self-importance of her bearing amply showed. Louie had been forced to patch the house-linen as usual, mainly by the temporary confiscation of her Sunday hat, the one piece of decent clothing she possessed, and to which she clung

ld put down her plate of porridge with a bang w

discomfort. He had just finished the delivery of a long grace, into which h

rridge-porridge-porridge-porridge-an I hate it-an it's bi

observant scrutiny, as though she were a dangerous animal that must be watched. Otherwise Louie m

should be content wi your state o' life, Louie. It's

she were bursting with it. 'Mrs. Wigson, she's allus makin em nice things. She's kind, she is

er unpalatable food, evidently from the instinctive fear, nasty as it

ell,' began Reuben, expostul

o wastin your breath on sich a minx. If

studying his niece every now and then uncomfortably. He was a tall, large-boned man, with weakish eyes, sandy whiskers and beard, grown in a fringe round his long face, and a gene

e was in the act of furtively transferring to Louie a portion of bacon. But he could not restrain himself from look

. It was a clear, frosty April night, promising a full moon. The fresh, nipping air blew on the girl's heated temples and swollen eyes. Against her will almost, her spir

'Lias's story, but Hannah was bustling about, and he never mentioned 'Lias in her hearing. To do

ft at the farm one summer's day by a passing tourist, who paid Hannah handsomely for some bread

long had a tradition that there is a beautiful woman-an English Hamadryad-lives in the side of the Scout; that she comes to bathe

n the discrepancies of evidence. What was a Hamadryad? and why no mention of Easter

warned both him and the truant outside that prayer-time had come. Louie came in noisil

'wrestling' in prayer, he was a personality and an influence even for the wife who, in spite of a dumb congruity of habit, regarded him generally as incompetent and in the way. Reuben's religious sense was strong and deep, but some very natural and pathetically human instincts entered also into his constant pleasure in this daily function. Hannah, with her strong and harsh feat

would be suddenly and deafeningly let loose upon Uncle Reuben in the middle of his peroration, as sometimes happened when the speaker forgot himself. To-night that catastrophe was just avoid

d just finished putting a patch on a pair of Reuben's trousers, was folding up her work

'll be bound. And lighting a dip beside her, she went upstairs with a treacherously quiet step. There was a sound of an opening door, an

on yo'n been makkin o' yorsel! I'st teach yo to burn three candles down

long the Riviera; her magnificent hair hung in masses over her shoulders, crowned by the primroses of the morning, which had been hurriedly twisted into a wreath by a bit of red ribbon rummaged out of some drawer of odds-and-ends; and her thin brown arms and hands appeared under the white cloak-nothing but a sheet-which was being now trodden underfoot in the child's passionate efforts to get away from her aunt. Ten minu

hake as she spoke; 'I wor set yo should just see her fur yance at her antics. Yo say soomtimes I'm hard on her. Well, I'd ask ony pusson aloive if they'd put up wi this soart o' thing-dressin up like a bad hizzy that w

t teeth, and with a wild strength she at last flung off her aunt and sprang for the door. But Hannah was too quick for her and put her back against it. 'No-

looked peremptorily at her husband. He, poor man, was much perplexed. The hour of devot

ndles, an fret your aunt?' he said with a feeble solemnity, his l

g up the corners of her mouth as Uncle Reuben addressed her. The tears were still running off her face, but she me

exasperated by the

and losing her temper for good and all, 'yo've got your mit

med Reuben, 'Han

yes. 'My mither worn't bad; an if yo say she wor, yo're a beast for sa

is impossible. It seemed to Hannah that the chi

heat, while she opened the door-'an the less y

child out and

imed Reuben, in his perplexity-pric

arrot-cry, as it seemed

he said violently; 'an she

Hannah began, with trembling hands, to pick up the contents

ng her finery, the convulsive sobs beginning again as soo

ark. It was David, who had been hanging over

whisper through the door she shut in his face;

on reading. His book was a battered copy of 'Anson's Voyages,' which also came from 'Lias's store, and he had been straining his eyes over it with enchantment. Then had come the sudden noise upstairs and down, and his candle and hi

the field threw long shadows down the white slope; to his left was the cart-shed with its black caverns and recesses, and the branches of the apple-trees against the lu

f books and dreams or simply into the wild shepherd life of the moors, was often inclined to a vague irritation with Louie's state of perpetual revolt. The food was nasty, their clothes were ugly and scanty, Aunt Hannah was as hard as nails-at the same time Louie was enough to put anybody's back up. What did she get by it? -that was his feeling; though, perhaps, he never shaped it. He had never felt much pity for her. She had a way of putting herself out of court,

h were like a clutch of physical pain, and which the healthy young animal instinctively and passionately avoided whenever it could. But to-night, in the dark and in solitude, there were no distractions, and as the boy put his head down on his arms, rolling it from side to side as though to shake them off, the same old images pursued him-the lodging-house room, and the curtainless iron bed in which he slept with his father: reminiscences of some long, inexplicable anguish through which that father had passed; then of his death, and his own lonely crying. He seemed still to feel the strange sheets in that bed

moonlight was streaming in on the poor gauds, which lay wildly scattered over the floor. David looked at them with amazement. Amongst them he sa

othing to say. But timidly he stretched out his hand and laid the back of it against her wet cheek. He half expected she would shake it off, but she did not. It made him feel less lonely that she let it stay; the impulse to comfort had somehow brought himself comfort. He stood there, feeling very cold, thinking a w