The Grey Pool, and other stories

Chapter I

The Canal Boat. Dull and slow the long busy line of the Canal stretched out along the flat meadows — the monotonous towing path and a bare hedge beyond keeping step as it were by a dirty black coal barge, with a blank sameness of reiteration, which seemed to make it hardly possible for those on board to know whether any advance was made at all — for ever moving, yet never making any progress. The day was bleak, the January wind was bitingly cold and keen ; there was sleet in the air, wetting and freezing by turns; it blew in the teeth of the miserable horse which was tugging at the rickety old boat, and in the faces of two little girls who were running behind him, keeping him up to his work with sticks and stones. They were wretchedly clad, and their thin cotton frocks and shawls, their battered bonnets, seemed to let in the icy wind at every point, chilling them to the bone, while they could hardly manage to keep their worn shoes upon their little chilblained feet.

On board the barge, behind the shelter of the central cabin, sat a tall strong man smoking, his jacket and trousers in comfortable order, and leaning on the rudder as his share of the work. Whenever the little girls relaxed their pace or their exertions, he urged them on with an oath or a threat. It was a pitiful sight, the right of the strongest in its worst form, the "I will do what I like with my own," the true savage instinct of using his womankind as slaves because they were weak and because they were his. "Come on, Nelly," said the eldest of the two, for the little one had fallen back as her half-bare feet knocked against the sharp flints, " come on, dear, a bit longer, else Father'll pitch into us like anythink." The horse, however, was tired, and could scarcely be got to move, the children were nearly exhausted and went slower and slower, while the drunken fellow had sunk into a doze, and the whole concern came to a pause where the canal made a. turn, and there was a moment's respite from the bitter wind under shelter ot a bridge.

"It's quite a nice place," panted little Nelly, "let's cuddle up warm here among them big stones, father haven't a shouten this ten minutes and more." " We'd best get on a bit further," answered her more prudent sister doubtfully, " it ayn't so very fur to the lock, and then father mun get out hissen." But the temptation was too strong, and the little pair crouched down for a moment in the dainty shelter, as it seemed to them, among the flints and the mud. Presently the bargeman waked up fuming with wrath, but the lock was now so near that it was not worth his while to settle himself comfortably again, besides which there was a public house within reach, and he stepped sulkily on to the land, grumbling and half asleep, but shaking his fist at the world in general. The shivering, worn-out children crept timidly past him over the coals with which the boat was laden into the cabin, where they threw themselves on their mother.

She was sitting with her elbows on her knees gazing into the dying fire, and her long black elf locks hung about her face escaping out of the red handkerchief bound about her head. She took them into her arms, but it was more with the instinct of a hen gathering her chickens under her wings than any more conscious human action. Gradually, however, her face relaxed, and she lifted little Nelly upon her lap, pulled off the soaked and muddy shoes, and began chafing the cold feet and hands tenderly. " Why you're a'most perished wi' cold, child ; it's starving to-day, that's what 'tis." she said with a sigh. " I'm well nigh clammed, Mammie," put in poor Rowan:; gently, pressing closely up ; she was quite as cold and quite as weary as her sister, but she was lanky and sallow and bony and thin, and did not invite caresses like the rounder faced, black-eyed, still rosy-cheeked little Nelly, whom all her hardships could not rob of the childish graces of five years old.

The bargeman's wife reached out her hand, without rising, towards the food hidden in one of the dingiest corners of the smoky dark cabin ; it was full of bad smells and bilge water, dirty, mouldy, and unwholesome ; nothing indeed but the free passage of air through the gaping boards made it really habitable, though Joan did not appreciate her advan tages, and was always striving to stop the crannies with rags and paper. There is a curious horror of fresh air among those who live most in it, and who would theo retically be supposed to suffer most by its absence. " It ayn't yer Daddy's fault if there's aught left, I know that," she muttered, as she drew out the remains of some half cold potatoes, the bacon which had made the better part of the mess having all been devoured by the man. These, and a couple of raw turnips, evidently stolen out of some field, a few stale crusts, and a bit of cheese, were all that she had been able to save.

She had waited for her own meal till the two little ones came in ; they ate their share without a murmur, and then, thoroughly tired out, Rowan crouched down to sleep in a small heap by her mother's side ; Nelly held on tightly to her perch as long as she was conscious, and the mother let her stay, not caring to unclasp the child's fingers ; the boat was still, they had reached the lock, and her "master" had gone off to drink as usual. She herself sat brooding on in the twilight, staring into the now extinct fire with her great dark eyes wide open, but apparently seeing only the far off in time * The old Saxon " Rowena," sadly dipt. and space, and unconscious of what was going on around her. She was still under thirty; and haggard and worn as was the face, nothing could alter the noble lines of the brow and nose, and of the large eyes sunk deep in shadow.

The mouth and chin were not so good, they were heavy, almost sensual. It was the face of one in whom the two halves of man's nature were both strong, the typical white horse and the black pulling in contrary directions, and producing the struggle which of itself is misery. She had not been born to her present nomad life, but had been a servant girl in a comfortable and very strict methodist family in a small northern country town. She had chafed at the restrictions and petty interferences of the '• chapellers," that forging of crimes out of indifferent or completely innocent actions, which makes life a weariness and a stumbling block to characters with the boiling pas sion for freedom and desire for excitement, born with many strong natures. " Well guided," their very strength would make them among the best of their race ; but thwarted and stunted, it only serves to drive them out into the desert places and the storms of life.

On one of her rare free Sundays, Joan had gone "unbeknownst," for an "out" on the river with a set of people whom she knew would be particularly obnoxious in every way to her masters. The "ploy" had ended, much to her distress, by the whole party stopping at a public bouse some way from the town for " refreshments." — It is a large word for quantities of all kinds, time included. " Hap, you'll be in plenty time," reiterated one and another of the company in answer to her remonstrances, till at last finding to her horror that she had long outstayed her time, she was just leaving the door and starting anxiously home alone, when she encountered the most rigid elder of the chapel, face to face. He looked at her for a moment as if he could not believe his eyes, then drawing near, he said in his sternest tones — " Is this the right place or the right dealings for a Sabbath eve, girl ?

I must think it well to let my brother Simpson know where, and in what company, I have seen his handmaid." And he passed on without another word or look. She turned back to the group which she had just left. " There's my place and my character gone ! " she cried pas sionately. " They'll never forgie me, won't they Simpsons. Or, if I were kep', 'twould be mewed up like a bird i'th' cage, not 'lowed outside the door, neither Sundays nor week-days, and I must have my ' out ' sometimes, with all the washin', and the cookin', and the prayin' and fussin' as is goin' on." " I'll tell thee what thou'st best do, and that's just to wed wi' me ! " said the most reckless of the men present, a tall, handsome fellow, belonging to the barges from her own part of the county, and well known up and down as the most daring, headstrong man about ; rather hasty tempered, and mixed up with all the fights and troubles that he could anyhow thrust himself into.

She had been avoiding his rough gallantries all the afternoon, for Mark Ogden was considered a queerish chap; "his gets is great, but he just cobs 'em all away," was the general verdict ; but size and strength are always greatly respected, as in the days when Hercules was made a god, and Joan was flat tered by the admiration of the " strong man " of the com pany, though she had been protesting all day, " He dunno win (please) me, that's what he dunno." She could not now help listening a little, however, as he went on pressing his advantage. " Thou'll be fine and big (proud) wi' a house o' thine own, and nobody to say thee nay, i' th' stead o' screwed up i' one place allays, so unhealthful ! and there thee'd see the world like, and never tired on 't, for ye'd hardly be in one place wi' me afore we're off again."

" I must see and think about it by-and-by," answered Joan, pre-occupied and miserable, and not much delighted with the prospect. But her mind changed when, on arriv ing at home, she was received (as was only natural) with great indignation by her master and mistress. All the terrors of this world and the next came pouring down upon her in a perfect shower-bath of angry words from both at once. Half in fright, and half in obstinacy, she refused to give a'promise never to go out again on Sunday, upon which condition only would they consent to keep her, and she was summarily dismissed. " Whatever shall you do without a character ? " said her mistress anxiously. She was a good woman, though a little stiff in her goodness, and had compassion on the motherless girl, whom she would gladly have helped if it had been possible according to her lights.

" I'm a goin' to be married," answered Joan haughtily, almost, as it seemed to herself, without any will of her own. " 'Twere as if I were just druv to say it ! There, I couldn't nohow help it! It were just to be!" she said afterwards, with a dismal fatalism. And so she sealed her own miserable fate at eighteen, and turned herself out on the wide world for the remainder of her life. Some punishments seem to be so dispro portionately hard for the offence or mistake which brings them about. And the bitterest, heaviest burden of all is reserved for the accident, as it so often is, of marriage, when the wrong lot has been chosen. It was a wretched life, and she had known a better in every way. As the novelty of it wore off, she grew more and more unhappy, while the possibility of any improve ment in her lot seemed to become farther and farther off.

The perpetual wandering existence of a bargeman, subject to no restraint, even that of neighbours, utterly outside the law, except when some peculiarly brutal act brings them into the notice of the settled community, and the impossibility of any school or training for children, who change their place of abode almost every night of their lives, all combined to make the old " Navvy " (the word has now changed its meaning) into a sort of Ishmael, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him. Joan had a bitter tongue, and she stung her husband sometimes to the quick with her reproaches, while not even the chance of a blow could quell her fiery spirit, especially when she was roused like a lioness in defence of her young. When Mark was not drunk, and in tolerably good humour, he was not unkind, either to wife or child, but no one could depend upon his mood for an hour together, and woe betide the living thing, human or brute, which crossed his temper when the spirits were in him and the wits were out ; he was more like a wild beast than a man at such times.

This winter the drinking bouts had been even longer and worse than usual. Poor Joan did not know in what direction to turn for help ; all the money which he gained was spent at the public-houses along the canal side, and she and her children were half-starved, in addition to their other grievances. As the summer season came on, however, each year, life always grew more tolerable ; the lazy motion of the barge in the soft warm air soothed even Mark's temper, and his womankind began to breathe. They were moving north into their own old county, to fetch a load of cut stones, a much cleaner and less aggra vating cargo than the coal, and when they had nearly reached their destination, the leaks, which were many, became so bad that, to the great joy of the children, and still more to that of their mother, it was found necessary to overhaul the crazy old boat entirely.

Accordingly, they passed up a branch canal, along a narrow rocky valley to a spot under the hill where the water spread into a little quiet lake, and a wild encamp ment of wooden shanties shewed where the repair of the barges was carried on. It looked like the end of all things; the way seemed entirely blocked by a steep promontory, but for the arch of a short, sharp, black, mysterious-looking tunnel piercing right through the heart of the ridge, and hung with branching wych elms, beautiful old feathery ash, and rowan trees. The pool was nearly surrounded by a bit of sorest, full of tall hollies, and tangled fern growing in among the big stones, where the birch and oak found a scanty livelihood. • Only look at them posies," said Nelly, as the boat was brought in amidst the great bunches of yellow-flags, purple loosestrife, and flowering rush, a perfect garden of wild flowers which sprung up amongst the barges lying about in difthrent picturesque stages of decay, some in and some part out of the water.

Blue smoke rose out of the rude sheds for the forges and carpenters' shops, whose boarded walls were daubed with brilliant colours, a sort of gigantic palette of red, blue, orange, and black, where rustic artists had tried their effect and combination before using them on the boats. The noise of the hammering came sounding back from the steep overhanging hillside with a certain softness in the echo, making almost musical that not very melodious clang, as Joan came down the steep path from the scattered village above. She had spent the morning away in search of a temporary home. " Hast thee fund a lodging for theeself and the childer ? " enquired Mark, looking up from his engrossing pipe. "We shall just goo to the Robin Hood cottage, and bide wi' Mercy Gaunt, she's cousin by my mother's side.

She does the washin' for the big house, and I'm not like to have forgot the ironing and the gettin' up I done for they Simpsons so long. And Mercy's very throng now, and there'll be plenty o' work for me, for th' young squire's just come home from furrin parts, and there's going to be a sight o' folk stoppin' at the Ha'. Old madam, she's been quiet enow sin' the auld Squire Heron's death, but she'd cut off her hand for to pleasure Mr. Lawrence, Mercy says." " I dunot choose to be beholden to them o' th' Hall," muttered Mark sulkily, mindful of poaching raids on the THE GREY FOOL. 11 pheasants and trout in times past, and with a vivid inten tion of expeditions in the time to come. "The childer canna clem, and pretty much you'll gie to kip 'em — ye canna pick and choose like that," said Joan shortly.

Mark grunted, it was his manner of giving assent. In truth it was extremely convenient for him at that moment to get rid of the burden of his womankind in so easy a fashion, and Joan hastily made up the small bundle of their worldly goods, and went back to the children, who were cowering among the fern on the hillside, waiting anxiously for the success of the negociation with their father. She set off with them at once for the Robin Hood cottage. Their way led through the wood, along an ancient pack horse paved track, which went up and down among the steep rocks, utterly regardless of levels, apparently wherever the patient animals had chosen their own path. The trees were just bursting into leaf, and the ground where the underwood had lately been cut was carpeted with bunches of primroses, pale wood anemones, dog violets, and blue wild hyacinths.

She could hardly get the little girls along, as they darted in and out among the flowers like a couple of puppies. " Oh, isn't it just pretty ! Mother, you mus' wait ! " cried little Nelly imperiously, as she sat with her lap full of flowers, while Rowan twisted a garland for her and crowned the small queen of the wood. " And such a nice place for to hide in, nobody couldn't catch ye for hours if ye didn't want to," said poor Rowan, with a dismally precocious experience of the hardships of life. The Robin Hood cottage stood at the edge of the wood, on a shelf in the hill, with a high rough retaining wall in front ; a little croft lay behind, and an orchard, where, in the intervals of the old apple and walnut trees, hung the washerwoman's long lines of fluttering clothes. The projecting point overlooked the sweeps of craggy hills, folding one over the other, some fringed with trees, some clad with the brilliant green of the limestone pastures and broken by bare rock, while the lines of the white road and a dashing river crossed and recrossed each other far down the dale.

Higher up the stream the dale narrowed very much, tall masses of rock and fantastic tors rose out of the thick foliage, with the gables surmounted with stone balls of a grey old manor house just seen among the trees. Mrs. Mercy Gaunt was a notable stirring body, very clean, as befitted a " washywoman," and not a little par ticular, having no children of her own. She was really glad of Joan Ogden's help at the present pinch, but she made a favour of her own convenience, like some other folk. "I canna bear to be fashed wi' childer, and they all looks just like beggars, quite pitiful, as one may say ! " she complained that night to old Nat, her husband, that most useful functionary "the odd man," who did great part of the other servants' work up at the great house. He con sidered the new arrivals in a far more favourable light.

"The little un's as pretty a piece o' goods as I've set eyes on this long while, and Rowan, as is thy mother's namesake, is a nice little mayd enou', and favours her, too, i'th' face. Thee'll soon comb 'em and clean 'em like a set o' new pins — there's no dirty things ever seen in thy house, all the country knows that." Mrs. Gaunt smiled ; her husband's little compliment smoothed the ruffled waters. Little Nelly was sent to Mrs. Heron's school, Rowan was of too much use to be spared except on rare occasions. Joan did not profess any equality in her treatment of her children. Nelly was her darling ; she had come to her after the loss of a little boy, who had died of the hardships of their hardest winter, and the mother's heart had been so wrung that her whole soul was bent on keeping the new baby alive.

Mark had taken great umbrage against its sex. " What's the use o' yer havin' another gurl ? " repeated ■3 he angrily, as if she were to blame. " What's the use o' girls, I'd like to know ? I could ha' bred up a boy for to mind the 'orse and a' in no time ! " But the child grew so pretty and so winning that she softened even him to tenderness when he was sober. She was an adventurous, high spirited little thing, always keep ing her mother in hot water ; her crimes, however, were always imputed to the small nurse Rowan, five years older than herself, who was punished vicariously when Nelly got into mischief, while Joan clung more passionately to the baby culprit.

Chapter II

A Lull. Mark found sufficient work and pastime up and down the country to be in no hurry to go back to his boat, but as time went on, and Joan had begun to look forward with dread to the return to their old miserable life, the newly done up barge was chosen to join in conveying a regiment of Guards from London to Liverpool on their road to Ireland. It was the usual mode of transit in those days, and not an unpopu lar one. The men stood and lay about in the boats, sleep ing under tarpaulins at night, and cooking in the little black cabins, while the officers rode along the towing paths, or amused themselves by finding country roads which led to the same destination as the canal. In summer weather it was a very pleasant change from the barracks, with a touch of gipsy life not without its charm, and a curious contrast to the rush of their present railroad passage to fresh quarters.

" You'll not be wanting, Joan," said her lord, who had come up to give his orders to his wife, and stood leaning against the doorpost, looking into the cottage kitchen with its clean stone floor. " The men brings their own wives wi' 'em, what washes and minds 'em and cooks likewise, so you'd best stop where you be for the present." Poor Joan took a long breath ; no reprieve was ever more welcome. " Well, I scarce know what I should ha' done wi'out thee," Mrs. Gaunt vouchsafed to say coming out of the laundry, " wi' a' this ruck o' folk at the Ha', and fine linen and gaufferin and a' ; and Mr. Lawrence's shirts — leastways, the young squire, I should say, on'y I canna shape my tongue to it as have know'd him from the first day he come into the world. They shirt frills is allays on my mind, though I can't say as ever he giv' me a hasty word ; for a good tempered babby he were ever sin' he were borned and since.

Will ye come in and tak' a sup o' summat, Mark ? " she added, though not in a very cordial tone. He made a step inside the house, a " sup " of anything was not to be despised. " Here's my brother, Will Ratcliffe, a comin' up the hill " said Mercy, however, presently, not quite without malicious intentions. " I mun be off, I havn't any time to lose, wi' all them soldiers on me directly," muttered Mark hastily, looking with much distaste at the old keeper, who climbed slowly up the steep wood path, in his velveteen coat, brown leather leggings, and dark breeches. Close behind his heels came the great black retriever, " Douro " ; the two indeed were never seen apart; dog and man were on the most intimate terms. " She can do everything but speak, that ayn't no detriment to me, bless her, for she says things a deal better wi'out talking nor any human creetur as I knows on wi' their long tongues to 'em," her master often declared, somewhat cynically as to the merely men and women of his acquaintance.

" And what's Master Mark arter this turn, I'd like to know?" said the old man, wrinkling up his grizzled eyebrows, as he watched Mark's rather headlong progress down the hill. " Arter shootin' of they trout I'll be bound! There were a great big un, weighed a matter o' three pounds and a quarter, if be weighed an ounce, as I misses sin' Toosday out o' the Grey Pool, and no mistake. I heerd the gun, too, at daybreak, and Mark were seen along the dale i' the top o' the mornin'." Fly fishing is all very well for those who have leisure for the pastime, but when wanted for the pot, by either poacher or keeper, the trout are shot. " Th' auld squire were got very easy like about the game and the fishin', and he niver able to go out," said Nat, who had just come in from his work, " but Mr. Lawrence is like to be sterner wi' folk."

" He's a fine young fellow is the young master to look at sin' he come back from furrin parts, straight and tall, wi' a word and a smile for every one he meets, free wi' his hand to them as wants; but for a' that he will ha' his work done," observed Mercy approvingly. " But I wouldna counsel no man to mak' free wi' the pheasants for a' that," added her husband laughing. "And I should like to know why he should, either," cried old Ratcliffe indignantly, " and them poachers a takin' what isn't theirn, and is reared at greater cost nor barn door chickens, as I can tell that feeds 'em, and they knows it too ! A pund a head they costes the squire, when a's counted, if its a penny. And them lazy fellows, as dunna like work, and goes about wi' a good coat to their backs and a good gun to their shouthers, wi' sellin' pheasants up and down at good prices, aye, and trout too !

And to hear some folk talk, as if 'twere starvin' men snar ing a hare for to feed their wives and childer. Pretty much our fellows would laugh at that, I reckon." "What ha' ye got for me, Uncle Will?" interrupted little Nelly, sidling up to him as he sat by the ingle, " you promised as ye would bring me summat from the fair next time you went." With her bright black eyes, her high colour, and masses of shining dark hair, the wilful and wayward little beauty carried all before her. She was a privileged person in the house, whose wishes everybody obeyed, not even excepting old Mercy, whose moral maxims, however conscientiously aired from time to time, were always ignored in her favour. " See thee here," said old Will, " here's a bit o' ginger bread for thee — they says 'twere King Solomon wi' a gilt crown of his head, a judging o' the two babbies alongside 'im.

And here," he went on, pulling a broadside out of the other pocket, " is the last speech and confession of a man what's a going to be hanged, and his story writ underneath, wi' a pretty pictur' o' him danglin' from the rope." Rowan heard in the inner room, and came forth to join the group, her little arms were wrinkled with hot water, her cheeks were pale and her nose was red, she had been hard at work all the morning. " Have ye put the blue i' the starch ready for yer Aunt ? she'll be back in two minits," said her mother a little sharply. Poor Rowan drew back into her hole, she could hear the explanation of the fascinating picture of the hanging going on at great length, while she was to keep to the sloppy, dark, damp, washing place, and poor little Cinderella wiped away a few tears. Though she never grudged Nelly any of her good things, she would have been glad to have been allowed to pick up a few of the crumbs that fell from the rich portion allotted to her sister, and she longed with an aching sense of want for the warm kisses and tender caresses lavished on Nelly, and which never fell to her share.

Chapter III

Darkening Clouds. At the end of his expedition with the regiment, Mark returned in a very cross mood, and not at all content with his treatment. He had been well paid enough, but the military discipline, the order in which he had been kept, were not at all to his taste. Ishmael does not like the yoke, nor the wild ass the burden ; and he indemnified himself for his forced good conduct by an outbreak of stormy riotous idleness, drinking, gambling, and poaching, so that his wife heard of his lawless doings in all directions. It was the last of September, when, having exhausted not only his money but all means of getting more without work, he one day appeared at the Robin Hood cottage. Joan was alone among the soapsuds ; Mrs, Gaunt had gone up to the Hall. " We shall ha' to be off, ever so quick, Joan," said he sulkily.