Old Duff went with us across the first field, turning off there to take the short-cut to his home. It was a warm, still, lovely evening, the moon rising. The gleaners were busy in the square paddock: Mrs.
Todhetley spoke to some as we pa.s.sed. At the other end, near the crooked stile, two urchins stood fighting, the bigger one trying to take a small armful of wheat from the other. I went to the rescue, and the marauder made off as fast as his small bare feet would carry him.
"He haven"t gleaned, hisself, and wants to take mine," said the little one, casting up his big grey eyes to us appealingly through the tears.
He was a delicate-looking pale-faced boy of nine, or so, with light hair.
"Very naughty of him," said Mrs. Todhetley. "What"s your name?"
"It"s d.i.c.k, lady."
"d.i.c.k--what?"
"d.i.c.k Mitchel."
"Dear me--I thought I had seen the face before," said Mrs. Todhetley to me. "But there are so many boys about here, Johnny; and they all look pretty much alike. How old are you, d.i.c.k?"
"I"m over ten," answered d.i.c.k, with an emphasis on the over. Children catch up ideas, and no doubt he was as eager as the parents could be to impress on the world his fitness to be a ploughboy.
"How is it that you have been gleaning, d.i.c.k?"
"Mother couldn"t, "cause o" the babby. They give me leave to come on since four o"clock: and I"ve got all this."
d.i.c.k looked at the stile and then at his bundle of wheat, so I took it while he got over. As we went on down the lane, Mrs. Todhetley inquired whether he wanted to be a ploughboy. Oh yes! he answered, his face lighting up, as if the situation offered some glorious prospect. It "ud be two shilling a week; happen more; and mother said as he and Totty and Sam and the t"others "ud get treacle to their bread on Sundays then.
Apparently Mrs. Mitchel knew how to diplomatize.
"I"ll give him one of the rusks, I think, Johnny," whispered Mrs.
Todhetley.
But while she was taking it from the bag, he ran in with his wheat. She called to him to come back, and gave him one. His mother had taken the wheat from him, and looked out at the door with it in her hands. Seeing her, Mrs. Todhetley went up, and said Mr. Jacobson would not at present do anything. The next minute Mitchel appeared pulling at his straw hair.
"It is hard lines," he said, humbly, "when the lad"s of a" age to be earning, and the master can"t be got to take him on. And me to ha"
worked on the same farm, man and boy; and father afore me."
"Mr. Jacobson thinks the boy would not be strong enough for the work."
"Not strong enough, and him rising eleven!" exclaimed Mitchel, as if the words were some dreadful aspersion on d.i.c.k. "How can he be strong if he gets no work to make him strong, ma"am? Strength comes with the working--and n.o.body don"t oughtn"t to know that better nor the master.
Anyhow, if he _don"t_ take him, it"ll be cruel hard lines for us."
d.i.c.k was outside, dividing the rusk with a small girl and boy, all three seated in the lane, and looking as happy over the rusk as if they had been children in a fairy tale. "It"s Totty," said he, pausing in the work of division to speak, "and that "un"s Sam." Mrs. Todhetley could not resist the temptation of finding two more rusks, which made one apiece.
"He is a good-natured little fellow, Johnny," she remarked, as we went along. "Intelligent, too: in that he takes after his mother."
"Would it be wrong to let him go on the farm as ploughboy?"
"Johnny, I don"t know. I"d rather not give an opinion," she added, looking right before her into the moon, as if seeking for one there. "Of course he is not old enough or big enough, practically speaking; but on the other hand, where there are so many mouths to feed, it seems hard not to let him earn money if he can earn it. The root of the evil lies in there being so many mouths--as was said at Mr. Jacobson"s this afternoon."
It was winter before I heard anything more of the matter. Tod and I got home for Christmas. One day in January, when the skies were lowering, and the air was cold and raw, but not frosty, I was crossing a field on old Jacobson"s land then being ploughed. The three brown horses at the work were as fine as you"d wish to see.
"You"ll catch it smart on that there skull o" yourn, if ye doan"t keep their yeads straight, ye young divil."
The salutation was from the man at the tail of the plough to the boy at the head of the first horse. Looking round, I saw little Mitchel. The horses stopped, and I went up to him. Hall, the ploughman, took the opportunity to beat his arms. I dare say they were cold enough.
"So your ambition is attained, is it, d.i.c.k? Are you satisfied?"
d.i.c.k seemed not to understand. He was taller, but the face looked pinched, and there was never a smile on it.
"Do you like being a ploughboy?"
"It"s hard and cold. Hard always; frightful cold of a morning."
"How"s Totty?"
The face lighted up just a little. Totty weren"t any better, but she didn"t die; Jimmy did. Which was Jimmy?--Oh, Jimmy was after Nanny, next to the babby.
"What did Jimmy die of?"
Whooping cough. They"d all been bad but him--d.i.c.k. Mother said he"d had it when he was no older nor the babby.
Whether the whooping-cough had caused an undue absorption of Mitchel"s means, certain it was, d.i.c.k looked famished. His cheeks were thin, his hands blue.
"Have you been ill, d.i.c.k?"
No, he had not been ill. "Twas Jimmy and the t"others.
"He"s the incapablest little villain I ever had put me to do with,"
struck in the ploughman. "More lazy nor a fattened pig."
"Are you lazy, d.i.c.k?"
I think an eager disclaimer was coming out, but the boy remembered in time who was present--his master, the ploughman.
"Not lazy wilful," he said, bursting into tears. "I does my best: mother tells me to."
"Take that, you young sniveller," said Hall, dealing him a good sound slap on the left cheek. "And now go on: ye know ye"ve got this lot to go through to-day."
He took hold of the plough, and d.i.c.k stretched up his poor trembling hands to the first horse to guide him. I am sure the boy _was_ trying to do his best; but he looked weak and famished and ill.
"Why did you strike him, Hall? He did nothing to deserve it."
"He don"t deserve nothing else," was Hall"s answer. "Let him alone, and the furrows "ud be as crooked as a dog"s leg. You dun" know what these young "uns be for work, sir.--Keep "em in the line, you fool!"
Looking back as I went down the field, I watched the plough going slowly up it, d.i.c.k seeming to have his hands full with the well-fed horses.
"Yes, I heard the lad was taken on, Johnny," Mrs. Todhetley said when I told her that evening. "Mitchel prevailed with his master at last. Mr.
Jacobson is good-hearted, and knew the Mitchels were in sore need of the extra money the boy would earn. Sickness makes a difference to the poor as well as to the rich."
I saw d.i.c.k Mitchel three or four times during that January. The Jacobsons had two nephews staying with them from Oxfordshire, and it caused us to go over often. The boy seemed a weak little mite for the place; but of course, having undertaken the work, he had to do it. He was no worse off than others. To be at the farm before six o"clock, he had to leave home at half-past five, taking his breakfast with him, which was chiefly dry bread. As to the boy"s work, it varied--as those acquainted with the executive of a busy farm can tell you. Besides the ploughing, he had to pump, and carry water and straw, and help with the horses, and go errands to the blacksmith"s and elsewhere, and so on.