There was a gurgling t.i.tter, but, disdaining to notice the interruption, Gubblum lifted his tawny face into the glare of the sun, and said:
"It was my son as did it--him that is learning for a parson. He came home from St. Bees, and "Mother," he said, before he"d been in the house a minute, "let"s take fathers clogs off, and then his feet will come out of the stirrups."
A loud laugh bubbled over the company. Gubblum sat erect in the saddle and added with a grave face:
"That"s what comes of eddication and reading the Bible and all o" that!
If I had fifty sons I"d make "em all parsons."
The people laughed again, and crowed and exchanged nods and knowing winks. They enjoyed the peddler"s talk, and felt an indulgent tenderness for his slow and feeble intellect. He on his part enjoyed no less to a.s.sume a simple and shallow nature. A twinkle lurked under his bushy brows while he "smoked the gonies." They laughed and he smiled slyly, and both were satisfied.
Gubblum Oglethorpe, peddler, of Branth"et Edge, got off his pony and stroked its tousled mane. He was leading it to a temporary stable, when he met face to face the young wrestler, Paul Ritson, who was coming from the tent in his walking costume. Drawing up sharply, he surveyed Paul rapidly from head to foot, and then asked him with a look of bewilderment what he could be doing there.
"Why, when did you come back to these parts?"
Paul smiled.
"Come back! I"ve not been away."
The old man looked slyly up into Paul"s face and winked. Perceiving no response to that insinuating communication, his wrinkled face became more grave, and he said:
"You were nigh to London three days ago."
"Nigh to London three days ago!" Paul laughed, then nodded across at a burly dalesman standing near, and said: "Geordie, just pinch the old man, and see if he"s dreaming."
There was a general t.i.tter, followed by glances of amused inquiry. The peddler took off his hat, held his head aside, scratched it leisurely, glanced up again at the face of young Ritson, as if to satisfy himself finally as to his ident.i.ty, and eventually muttered half aloud:
"Well, I"m fair maizelt--that"s what I am!"
"Maizelt--why?"
"I could ha" sworn I saw you at a spot near London three days ago."
"Not been there these three years," said Paul.
"Didn"t you wave your hand to me as we went by--me and Bessy?"
"Did I? Where?"
"Why, at the Hawk and Heron, in Hendon."
"Never saw the place in my life."
"Sure of that?"
"Sure."
The grave old head dropped once more, and the pony"s head was held down to the withered hand that scratched and caressed it. Then the first idea of a possible reason on Paul"s part for keeping his movements secret suggested itself afresh to Gubblum. He glanced soberly around, caught the eye of the young dalesman furtively, and winked again. Paul laughed outright, nodded his head good-humoredly, and rather ostentatiously winked in response. The company that had gathered about them caught the humor of the situation, and t.i.ttered audibly enough to provoke the peddler"s wrath.
"But I say you have seen it," shouted Gubblum in emphatic tones.
At that moment a slim young man walked slowly past the group. He was well dressed, and carried himself with ease and some dignity, albeit with an air of listlessness--a weary and dragging gait, due in part to a slight infirmity of one foot. When some of the dalesmen bowed to him his smile lacked warmth. He was Hugh Ritson, the younger brother of Paul.
Gubblum"s manner gathered emphasis. "You were standing on the step of the Hawk and Heron," said he, "and I waved my hand and shouted "A canny morning to you, Master Paul"--ey, that I did!"
"You don"t say so!" said Paul, with mock solemnity. His brother had caught the peddler"s words, and stopped.
"But I do say so," said Gubblum, with many shakes of his big head. Let any facetious young gentleman who supposed that it was possible to make sport of him, understand once for all that it might be as well to throw a stone into his own garden.
"Why, Gubblum," said Paul, smothering a laugh, "what was I doing at Hendon?"
"Doing! Well, a chap "at was on the road along of me said that Master Paul had started innkeeper."
"Innkeeper!"
There was a prolonged burst of laughter, amid which one amused patriarch on a stick shouted: "Feel if tha"s abed, Gubblum, ma man!"
"And if I is abed, it"s better nor being in bed-lam, isn"t it?" shouted the peddler.
Then Gubblum scratched his head again, and said more quietly: "It caps all. If it wasn"t you, it must ha" been the old gentleman hissel"."
"Are we so much alike? Come, let"s see your pack."
"His name was Paul, anyways."
Hugh Ritson had elbowed his way through the group, and was now at Gubblum"s elbow listening intently. When the others had laughed, he alone preserved an equal countenance.
"Paul--what?" he asked.
"Nay, don"t ax me--I know nowt no mair--I must be an auld maizelin, I must, for sure!"
Hugh Ritson turned on his heel and walked off.
CHAPTER II.
The Vale of Newlands runs north and south. On its east banks rise the Cat Bell fells and the Eel Crags; on the west rise Hindscarth and Robinson, backed by Whiteless Pike and Grasmoor. A river flows down the bed of the valley, springing in the south among the heights of Dale Head, and emptying into Ba.s.senthwaite on the north. A village known as Little Town stands about midway in the vale, and a road runs along each bank. The tents were pitched for the sports near the bed of the valley, on the east side of the Newlands Beck. On the west side, above the road, there was a thick copse of hazel, oak, and birch. From a clearing in this wood a thin column of pale blue smoke was rising through the still air. A hut in the shape of a cone stood a few yards from the road. It was thatched from the ground upward with heather and bracken, leaving only a low aperture as door. Near the hut a small fire of hazel sticks crackled under the pot that swung from a forked triangle of oak limbs.
f.a.gots were stacked at one end of the clearing; a pile of loose bark lay near. It was a charcoal pit, and behind a line of hurdles that were propped with poles and intertwined with dead gra.s.s and gorse, an old man was building a charcoal fire.
He was tall and slight, and he stooped. His eyes were large and heavy; his long beard was whitening. He wore a low-crowned hat with broad brim, and a loose flannel jacket without a waistcoat. Most of us convey the idea that to our own view we are centers of our circles, and that the universe revolves about us. This old man suggested a different feeling.
To himself he might have been a thing gone somehow out of its...o...b..t.
There was a listless melancholy, a lonely weariness in his look and movements. An old misery seemed to sit on him.
His name was Matthew Fisher; but the folk of the country-side called him Laird Fisher. The dubious dignity came of the circ.u.mstance that he was the holder of an absolute royalty on a few acres of land under Hindscarth. The royalty had been many generations in his family. His grandfather had set store by it. When the lord of the manor had worked the copper pits at the foot of the Eel Crags, he had tried to possess himself of the royalties of the Fishers. But the peasant family resisted the aristocrat. Luke Fisher believed there was a fortune under his feet, and he meant to try his own luck on his holding some day. That day never came. His son, Mark Fisher, carried on the tradition, but made no effort to unearth the fortune. They were a cool, silent, slow, and stubborn race. Matthew Fisher followed his father and his grandfather, and inherited the family faith. All these years the tenders of the lord of the manor were ignored, and the Fishers enjoyed their t.i.tle of courtesy or badinage. When Matthew was a boy there was a rhyme current in the vale which ran:
"There"s t" auld laird, and t" young laird, and t" laird among t" barns.