The History of David Grieve

looked upon the farm and all

the stable and cow-house, running Aunt Hannah's errands with the donkey-cart to Clough End, helping in the haymaking and the sheep-shearing, or the driving of stock to and from the various markets Reuben frequented. All these things he had done with a curious placidity, a detachment and yet readiness of mind, as one who lends himself, without reluctance, to a life not his own. It was this tem

st natural affection, in which he and Louie had been brought up-for Reuben's timorous advances had done but little to redress the balance-had not troubled him much, till suddenly it was writ so monstrous large in Hannah's refusal to take pity on the fainting and agonised Louie. Thenceforward every morsel of food

, may have had something to say to it. Anyway, a new reflective temper set in. The young immature creature became self-conscious

ere to be grazed on the farm during the summer. In general, David had taken the liveliest interest in the animals, in the number and quality of them, in the tariff to be paid for them, a

ybody's buyin, Davy,' said Reuben, inspecting his mixed herd with a critical ey

lked on as far in front of his uncle as might be, with his

neasy look at the boy. 'Owd Wigson wor that full up wi yell when I l

keen neighbourly relish for the misdeeds of the Wigsons. Reuben did not k

notions as iver wor-wi their new foods, an their pills an strengthening mixtures-messin wi cows as though they wor humans

him. He had grown used to the boy's companionship, and the obstinate silence which David still p

f rheumatic fever. Hannah got a doctor, and tended her sufficiently while the worst lasted, partly because she was, after all, no monster, but only a commonly sordid and hard-natured woman, and partly because for a day or two Louie's state set her pondering, perfo

hold, he was extremely necessary to Hannah's convenience, and now whenever Hannah ill-treated Louie her convenience suffered. David disappeared. Her errands were undone, the wood uncut, and coals and water had to be carried as they best could. As to reprisals, with a strong boy of fourteen, grown very nearly to a man's height, Hannah found herself a good deal at a loss. 'Bully-raggin' he took no more account of than o

n for the moody lad, who had at last learnt to champion her, if their common isolation and dependence had but brought out in her towards him anything clinging-anything confidential, any true spirit of comradeship! On the contrary, while she was still ill in bed, and almost absolutely dependent on what he might choose to do for her, she gibed and flouted him past bea

was she exasperated now more than ever by his bookish tastes. Possibly she was doubly jealous of his books; at any rate, unless he h

hed by some one anxious not to make a noise-and Reuben's head looked round it. Louie, amazed, woke up in earnest, and Reuben came stealthily in. He had his hat

tubble of red hair, which came like a grotesque

or-as tough as nails, a sight worse nor owd Croker to deal wi, ony day in th' week. I could mak nowt on him-an he gan me sich a poor price. I darn't tak a penny

s falling forward on his nose, the corners

owing above the sheet. Then the eyes blinked suddenly, and flinging out her hand at him with a passion

he said

grotesquely concerned face, he went out o

rned 'agen his wark,' and was on his way to hate the farm and all it contained, was plain even to Reuben. Why was he so glum and silent-why didn't

him, and he had gradually seen less and less of the man who had been the kind comrade and teacher of his early childhood. His only real companions during this year of moody adolescence were his books. From the forgotten deposit in the old meal-ark upstairs, which had yielded 'Paradise Lost,' he drew other treasures by degrees. He found there, in all, some tattered leaves-three or four books altogether-of Pope's 'Iliad,' about half of F

led to the adventure of the Pool. He heard only that 'Lias was 'bad,' and mostly in his b

of wintry weather; and one day, as he was bringing the sheep home

? Yo might leeten him up a bit, an' he wants it, t' Lord

e, and David had a constant temptation to struggle with. He understood that to excite 'Lias, to throw him again into the frenzy which had begotten the vision of

ver David showed himself at the door, and he would p

him soom tay,' or 'Margret, yo'

rsation would glide imperceptibly into one of those scenes of half-d

his tumult of 'Lias's fancies year after year, till the solid world often turned about her. And she, all the while, so simple, so sane-the ordinary good woman, with the ordinary woman's hunger for the common blessings of life-a little love, a little chat, a little prosaic well-being! She had had two sons-they were gone. She had been the proud wife 'o' t' cliverest mon atwixt Sheffield

took up

never allow his wife to use the trade of her youth. When he became dependent on her, Margaret bought a disused loom from a cousin, had it mended and repaired, and set to work. Her fingers had not forgotten their old cunning; and when she was paid for her first 'cut,' she hurried home to 'Lias with a reviving joy in her crushed heart. Thenceforward, she lived at her loom; she became a skilled and favoured worke

ng as that bent, white form sat beside her fire, Margaret was happy. Her heart sank with every fresh sign of age and weakness, revived with every brighter hour. He

ret had the selfishness of the angelic woman-everything was judged as it affected her idol. So at f

for tea. The old man was sitting drooped in his chair, his chin on his breast, his black eyes staring beyond David at the wall. David was seized with curiosity-what was he t

ement, 'Louie and I went up, Easter Eve, to t' Pool, but we went to

e in the back kitchen, but who was in reality a few steps behind him, mending something which had gone wrong in her loom, ran forward suddenly to the fire, and bending over h

things, Margret, yo'

anaged to say to David, 'Howd yo

e eyes that David sat dumbfounded, and presently sulkily got

leased him. Her eyes flamed at him under the brown woollen shawl she wore pinned under her chin; the little emaciated creature became a fury. What did he come there for, 'moiderin 'Lias wi h

'It wor he towd me about t' witch-it wor

id, trembling all through in her passion, as she held the boy-'it's aw play to yo and your minx of a sister. An if it means deein to the old man hissel, yo don't care! "Margaret," says the doctor to me last week, "if you can keep his mind quiet he may hang on a bit. But you munna let him excite hissel about owt-he mun tak things varra easy. He's like a wilted leaf-nob

boy was going away in a half-sulle

'Lias an t' Pool, n

ben towd m

mind that o' Reuben Grieve, when foak coe him a foo. Wal, I'st tell yo, Davy, an if iver yo want to say a

ds, and choking down the tears which had begun to rise. Then, looking straight before her, and

f a sudden, the moorland villages round were overtaken by an epidemic of spirit-rapping and table-turning. 'It wor sperrits here, sperrits there, sperrits everywhere-t' warld wor gradely swarmin wi 'em,' said Margaret bitterly. It was all started, apparently, by a wort

stan,' took the bet. Margaret heard nothing of it. He announced on Easter Eve that he was going to a brother in Edale for the Sunday, and gave her the slip. She saw no more of him till the carrier brought home to her, on the Sunday morning, a starved and pallid object-'gon

. What do I keer?-what doos it matter to me what he saw? I doan't bleeve he saw owt, if yo ast me. He wor skeert wi his own thinkins, an th' cowd gripped him i' th' in'ards, an twisted him as yo may twist a withe of hay-Aye! it wor a cruel neet. When I opened t' door i' t' early mornin, t' garden wor aw black-th' ice on t' reservoir wor inches

er own passion choked her. David stood beside her awkwardly, his eyes fixed on the g

utumn. Against its deep reds and browns, Margaret's small profile was thrown out-the profile already of the old woman, with the meeting nose and chin, the hollow cheek, the maze of wrinkles round the eyes. Into that face, worn by the labour and the grief of the p

felt. There was, at all times, a natural responsiveness in him of a strange kind, vibrating rather to pain than joy. H

y, but still in a kind of tense way, 'then, when 'Lias wor took bad, yo kn

shook

most. I thowt th' boys ud keer for us-we'd gien em a good bringin up, an they wor boath on 'em larnin trades i' Manchester. Yan evenin-it wor that hot we had aw t' doors an windows open-theer ca

iped away her tears. He

y wudna let me ha em. And so we kep it fro 'Lias. Soomtimes I think he knows t' boys are dead-an then soomtimes he frets 'at they doan't coom an se

after a minute of choking silence, Margaret caught his look, she saw, though he tr

owt to trouble him again, laddie-will yo? If he'd yeerd yo just now-but, by t' Lord's blessin, he did na-he'd ha worked himsel up fearfu'! I'd ha had naw sleep wi

r shawl. She was just moving away, when something of a different sort struck her sensitive soul, and she turned again.

wind-He sends us help when we're droppin for sorrow. It worn't for nothin He made us all o' a piece. Theer's good foak i' th' warld-aye, thee

kes up a burden again and adjusts it anew

antly falling out with and resenting his own faculty of pity, of emotion. The attitude of mind had in it a sort of secret half-conscious terror of what feeling might do with him did he but give it head. He did not want to feel-feeling onl

the Scout, and Reuben and David and the dogs were out after their sheep night and day, the boy still found time to shovel the snow from Margaret's roof and cut a passage for her to the road. The hours he spent this winter by her kitch

im that 'Reuben Grieve's nevvy' was beginning to be much seen in the public-houses; he had ceased entirely to go to chapel or Sunday school; and the local gossips, starti

ising troubles of his own he found the energy to buttonhole Reuben

the back kitchen, while she peeled her potatoes with a fierce competence and energy which made his heart sick within him, Reuben told her, with incoherent repetitions of

n position, she fell upon Reuben and his supporter with a rhetoric whereof the moral flavour was positively astounding. Standing with the potato-bowl on one hip and a hand holding the knife on the other, she delivered her views as to David's laziness, temper, and general good-for-nothingness. If Reuben chose to incur the risks of

ps he'll tak th' place an try? I'd not gie him as mich wage as ud fill his stomach i' th' week-noa, I'd not, not if yo wor to ask me-a bletherin windy chap as i

se new and intolerable attempts of her husband to dislodge the yoke of years excited in her, it was as though l

ious unpleasant ways. There were certain little creature comforts, making but small show on the surface of a life of general abstinence and frugality, but which, in the course of years, had grown very important to Reuben, and which Hannah had never denied him. They were now withdrawn. In her present state of temper with her better half, Hannah could not b

s-too often, by a great deal, for the other shining lights of the congregation. But his much speaking seemed to come rather of restlessness than of a fall 'experience,' so torn, subtle, and difficult were the things he sa

thought of for a moment. But when he passed her, he got no greeting from her; she drew her skirts aside, and her stony eye looked beyond him, as though there were nothing on the road. And the sharp-tongued things she said of him came round to him one by one. Reuben, too, avoided the minister, who, a year or two before, had brought fountains of refreshing to his soul, and in the business of th

shooting up fast to man's stature, might have been seen among the topers at the 'Crooked Cow,' nay, even lending an excited ear to the Secularist speakers, who did their best to keep things lively at a certain low public kept by one Jerry Timmins, a Radical wag, who had often measured himself both in the meeting-houses and in the streets against the local preachers, and, according to his own following, with no sm

ous enthusiasts, ministers and others, which took place on the sam

s ready, so that after various attempts to make a butt of him he was generally let alone. He got what he wanted-he learnt to know what smoking and drinking might be like, and the jokes of the taproom. And all by the help of a few shillings dealt out to him this wint