Henry colored to the brow at the inferior workman"s vanity and its concomitant, detraction. But he governed himself, by a mighty effort, and said, "Oh, that"s your grievance now, is it? Mr. Cheetham--sir--will you ask some respectable grinder to examine these blades of mine?"
"Certainly. You are right, Little. The man to judge a forger"s work is a grinder, and not another forger. Reynolds, just take a look at them, will ye?"
A wet grinder of a thoroughly different type and race from the greyhound, stepped forward. He was thick-set in body, fresh-colored, and of a square manly countenance. He examined the blades carefully, and with great interest.
"Well," said Henry, "were they forged by a smith, or a novice that is come here to learn anvil work?"
Reynolds did not reply to him, nor to Mr. Cheetham: he turned to the men. "Mates, I"m noane good at lying. Hand that forged these has naught to learn in Hillsbro", nor any other shop."
"Thank you, Mr. Reynolds," said Henry, in a choking voice. "That is the first gleam of justice that I--" He could say no more.
"Come, don"t you turn soft for a word or two," said Cheetham. "You"ll wear all this out in time. Go to the office. I have something to say to you."
The something was said. It amounted to this--"Stand by me and I"ll stand by you."
"Well, sir," said Henry, "I think I must leave you if the committees refuse my offer. It is hard for one man to fight a couple of trades in such a place as this. But I"m firm in one thing: until those that govern the unions say "no" to my offer, I shall go on working, and the sc.u.m of the trades sha"n"t frighten me away from my forge."
"That"s right; let the blackguards bl.u.s.ter. Bayne tells me you have had another anonymous."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, look here: you must take care of yourself, outside the works; but, I"ll take care of you inside. Here, Bayne, write a notice that, if any man molests, intimidates, or affronts Mr. Little, in my works, I"ll take him myself to the town-hall, and get him two months directly. Have somebody at the gate to put a printed copy of that into every man"s hand as he leaves."
"Thank you, sir!" said Henry, warmly. "But ought not the police to afford me protection, outside?"
"The police! You might as well go to the beadle. No; change your lodging, if you think they know it. Don"t let them track you home. Buy a brace of pistols, and, if they catch you in a dark place, and try to do you, give them a barrel or two before they can strike a blow. No one of THEM will ever tell the police, not if you shot his own brother dead at that game. The law is a dead letter here, sir. You"ve nothing to expect from it, and nothing to fear."
"Good heavens! Am I in England?"
"In England? No. You are in Hillsborough."
This epigram put Cheetham in good humor with himself, and, when Henry told him he did not feel quite safe, even in his own forge, nor in his handling-room, and gave his reasons, "Oh," said cheerful Cheetham, "that is nothing. Yours is a box-lock; the blackguard will have hid in the works at night, and taken the lock off, left his writing, and then screwed the lock on again: that is nothing to any Hillsborough hand.
But I"ll soon stop that game. Go you to Chestnut Street, and get two first-cla.s.s Bramah locks. There"s a pocket knife forge upstairs, close to your handling-room. I"ll send the pocket-knife hand down-stairs, and you fasten the Bramah locks on both doors, and keep the keys yourself.
See to that now at once: then your mind will be easy. And I shall be in the works all day now, and every day: come to me directly, if there is any thing fresh."
Henry"s forge was cold, by this time; so he struck work, and spent the afternoon in securing his two rooms with the Bramah locks. He also took Cheetham"s advice in another particular. Instead of walking home, he took a cab, and got the man to drive rapidly to a certain alley. There he left the cab, ran down the alley, and turned a corner, and went home round about. He doubled like a hare, and dodged like a criminal evading justice.
But the next morning he felt a pleasing sense of security when he opened his forge-room with the Bramah key, and found no letters nor threats of any kind had been able to penetrate.
Moreover, all this time you will understand he was visiting "Woodbine Cottage" twice a week, and carving Grace Carden"s bust.
Those delightful hours did much to compensate him for his troubles in the town, and were even of some service to him in training him to fence with the trades of Hillsborough: for at "Woodbine Villa" he had to keep an ardent pa.s.sion within the strict bounds of reverence, and in the town he had constantly to curb another pa.s.sion, wrath, and keep it within the bounds of prudence. These were kindred exercises of self-restraint, and taught him self-government beyond his years. But what he benefited most by, after all, was the direct and calming effect upon his agitated heart, and irritated nerves, that preceded, and accompanied, and followed these sweet, tranquilizing visits. They were soft, solacing, and soothing; they were periodical and certain, he could count on leaving his cares and worries, twice every week, at the door of that dear villa; and, when he took them up again, they were no longer the same; heavenly balm had been shed over them, and over his boiling blood.
One Sat.u.r.day he heard, by a side-wind, that the Unions at a general meeting had debated his case, and there had been some violent speeches, and no decision come to; but the majority adverse to him. This discouraged him sadly, and his yearning heart turned all the more toward his haven of rest, and the hours, few but blissful, that awaited him.
About 11 o"clock, that same day, the postman brought him a letter, so vilely addressed, that it had been taken to two or three places, on speculation, before it reached its destination.
Little saw at once it was another anonymous communication. But he was getting callous to these missives, and he even took it with a certain degree of satisfaction. "Well done, Bramah! Obliged to send their venom by post now." This was the feeling uppermost in his mind. In short, he opened the letter with as much contempt as anger.
But he had no sooner read the foul scrawl, than his heart died within him.
"Thou"s sharp but not sharp enow. We know where thou goes courting up hill. Window is all gla.s.s and ripe for a Peter shall blow the house tatums. There"s the stuff in Hillsbro and the men that have done others so, and will do her job as wells thine. Powders a good servant but a bad master.
"ONE WHO MEANS DOING WHAT HE SAYS."
At this diabolical threat, young Little leaned sick and broken over the handle of his bellows.
Then he got up, and went to Mr. Cheetham, and said, patiently, "Sir, I am sorry to say I must leave you this very day."
"Don"t say that, Little, don"t say that."
"Oh it is with a heavy heart, sir; and I shall always remember your kindness. But a man knows when he is beat. And I"m beat now." He hung his head in silence awhile. Then he said, in a faint voice, "This is what has done it, sir," and handed him the letter.
Mr. Cheetham examined it, and said, "I am not surprised at your being taken aback by this. But it"s nothing new to us; we have all been threatened in this form. Why, the very last time I fought the trades, my wife was threatened I should be brought home on a shutter, with my intestines sweeping the ground. That was the purport, only it was put vernacular and stronger. And they reminded me that the old gal"s clothes (that is Mrs. Cheetham: she is only twenty-six, and the prettiest la.s.s in Coventry, and has a row of ivories that would do your heart good: now these Hillsborough hags haven"t got a set of front teeth among "em, young or old). Well, they told me the old gal"s clothes could easily be spoiled, and her doll"s face and all, with a penn"orth of vitriol."
"The monsters!"
"But it was all brag. These things are threatened fifty times, for once they are done."
"I shall not risk it. My own skin, if you like. But not hers: never, Mr.
Cheetham: oh, never; never!"
"Well, but," said Mr. Cheetham, "she is in no danger so long as you keep away from her. They might fling one of their petards in at the window, if you were there; but otherwise, never, in this world. No, no, Little, they are not so bad as that. They have blown up a whole household, to get at the obnoxious party; but they always make sure he is there first."
Bayne was appealed to, and confirmed this; and, with great difficulty, they prevailed on Little to remain with them, until the Unions should decide; and to discontinue his visits to the house on the hill in the meantime. I need hardly say they had no idea the house on the hill was "Woodbine Villa."
He left them, and, sick at heart, turned away from Heath Hill, and strolled out of the lower part of the town, and wandered almost at random, and sad as death.
He soon left the main road, and crossed a stile; it took him by the side of a babbling brook, and at the edge of a picturesque wood. Ever and anon he came to a water-wheel, and above the water-wheel a dam made originally by art, but now looking like a sweet little lake. They were beautiful places; the wheels and their attendant works were old and rugged, but picturesque and countrified; and the little lakes behind, fringed by the master-grinder"s garden, were strangely peaceful and pretty. Here the vulgar labor of the grindstone was made beautiful and incredibly poetic.
"Ah!" thought poor Little, "how happy a workman must be that plies his trade here in the fresh air. And how unfortunate I am to be tied to a power-wheel, in that filthy town, instead of being here, where Nature turns the wheel, and the birds chirp at hand, and the scene and the air are all purity and peace."
One place of the kind was particularly charming. The dam was larger than most, and sloping gra.s.s on one side, cropped short by the grinder"s sheep: on the other his strip of garden: and bushes and flowers hung over the edge and gla.s.sed themselves in the clear water. Below the wheel, and at one side, was the master-grinder"s cottage, covered with creepers.
But Henry"s mind was in no state to enjoy these beauties. He envied them; and, at last, they oppressed him, and he turned his back on them, and wandered, disconsolate, home.
He sat down on a stool by his mother, and laid his beating temples on her knees.
"What is it, my darling?" said she softly.
"Well, mother, for one thing, the Unions are against me, and I see I shall have to leave Hillsborough, soon or late."
"Never mind, dear; happiness does not depend upon the place we live in; and oh, Henry, whatever you do, never quarrel with those terrible grinders and people. The world is wide. Let us go back to London; the sooner the better. I have long seen there was something worrying you.
But Sat.u.r.day and Monday--they used to be your bright days."
"It will come to that, I suppose," said Henry, evading her last observation. "Yes," said he, wearily, "it will come to that." And he sighed so piteously that she forbore to press him. She had not the heart to cross-examine her suffering child.