CHAPTER XIX
CORP IS BROUGHT TO HEEL--GRIZEL DEFIANT
Corp Shiach was a bare-footed colt of a boy, of ungainly build, with anose so thick and turned up that it was a certificate of character, andhis hands were covered with warts, which he had a trick of biting tillthey bled. Then he rubbed them on his trousers, which were thepicturesque part of him, for he was at present "serving" to the masons(he had "earned his keep" since long before he could remember), and sowore the white or yellow ducks which the dust of the quarry stains ararer orange color than is known elsewhere. The orange of the masons'trousers, the blue of the hearthstones, these are the most beautifulcolors to be seen in Thrums, though of course Corp was unaware of it. Hewas really very good-natured, and only used his fists freely because ofimagination he had none, and thinking made him sweat, and consequentlythe simplest way of proving his case was to say, "I'll fight you." Whatmight have been the issue of a conflict between him and Shovel was aproblem for Tommy to puzzle over. Shovel was as quick as Corp wasdeliberate, and would have danced round him, putting in unexpectedones, but if he had remained just one moment too long within Corp'sreach--
They nicknamed him Corp because he took fits, when he lay like one dead.He was proud of his fits, was Corp, but they were a bother to him, too,because he could make so little of them. They interested doctors andother carriage folk, who came to his aunt's house to put their fingersinto him, and gave him sixpence, and would have given him more, but whenthey pressed him to tell them what he remembered about his fits, hecould only answer dejectedly, "Not a damned thing."
"You might as well no have them ava," his wrathful aunt, with whom helived, would say, and she thrashed him until his size forbade it.
Soon after the Muckley came word that the Lady of the Spittal was to bebrought to see Corp by Mr. Ogilvy, the school-master of Glen Quharity,and at first Corp boasted of it, but as the appointed day drew near hebecame uneasy.
"The worst o't," he said to anyone who would listen, "is that my auntieis to be away frae hame, and so they'll put a' their questions to me."
The Haggerty-Taggertys and Birkie were so jealous that they said theywere glad _they_ never had fits, but Tommy made no such pretence.
"Oh, Corp, if I had thae fits of yours!" he exclaimed greedily.
"If they were mine to give awa'," replied Corp sullenly, "you couldhave them and welcome." Grown meek in his trouble, he invited Tommy tospeak freely, with the result that his eyes were partially opened to thesuperiority of that boy's attainments. Tommy told him a number ofinteresting things to say to Mr. Ogilvy and the lady about his fits,about how queer he felt just before they came on, and the visions he hadwhile he was lying stiff. But though the admiring Corp gave attentiveear, he said hopelessly next day, "Not a dagont thing do I mind. Whenthey question me about my fits I'll just say I'm sometimes in them andsometimes out o' them, and if they badger me more, I can aye kick."
Tommy gave him a look that meant, "Fits are just wasted on you," andCorp replied with another that meant, "I ken they are." Then theyparted, one of them to reflect.
"Corp," he said excitedly, when next they met, "has Mr. Ogilvy or thelady ever come to see you afore?"
They had not, and Corp was able to swear that they did not even know himby sight.
"They dinna ken me either," said Tommy.
"What does that matter?" asked Corp, but Tommy was too full to speak. Hehad "found a way."
The lady and Mr. Ogilvy found Corp such a success that the one gave hima shilling and the other took down his reminiscences in a note-book. Butif you would hear of the rings of blue and white and yellow Corp saw,and of the other extraordinary experiences he described himself ashaving when in a fit, you need not search that note-book, for the pagehas been torn out. Instead of making inquiries of Mr. Ogilvy, try anyother dominie in the district, Mr. Cathro, for instance, who delightedto tell the tale. This of course was when it leaked out that Tommy hadpersonated Corp, by arrangement with the real Corp, who was listening inrapture beneath the bed.
Tommy, who played his part so well that he came out of it in a daze, hadCorp at heel from that hour. He told him what a rogue he had been inLondon, and Corp cried admiringly, "Oh, you deevil! oh, you queer littledeevil!" and sometimes it was Elspeth who was narrator, and then Tommy'snoble acts were the subject; but still Corp's comment was "Oh, thedeevil! oh, the queer little deevil!" Elspeth was flattered by hishero-worship, but his language shocked her, and after consulting MissAilie she advised him to count twenty when he felt an oath coming, atthe end of which exercise the desire to swear would have passed away.Good-natured Corp willingly promised to try this, but he was neverhopeful, and as he explained to Tommy, after a failure, "It just made mewaur than ever, for when I had counted the twenty I said a big Damn,thoughtful-like, and syne out jumpit three little damns, like as if thefirst ane had cleckit in my mouth."
It was fortunate that Elspeth liked Corp on the whole, for during thethree years now to be rapidly passed over, Tommy took delight in hissociety, though he never treated him as an equal; Corp indeed did notexpect that, and was humbly grateful for what he got. In summer, fishingwas their great diversion. They would set off as early as four in themorning, fishing wands in hand, and scour the world for trout, ploddinghome in the gloaming with stones in their fishing-basket to deceivethose who felt its weight. In the long winter nights they liked best tolisten to Blinder's tales of the Thrums Jacobites, tales never put intowriting, but handed down from father to son, and proved true in theoddest of ways, as by Blinder's trick of involuntarily holding out hishands to a fire when he found himself near one, though he might besweating to the shirt and the time a July forenoon. "I make no doubt,"he told them, "as I do that because my forbear, Buchan Osler (calledBuchan wi' the Haap after the wars was ower), had to hod so lang fraethe troopers, and them so greedy for him that he daredna crawl to a fireonce in an eight days."
The Lord of the Spittal and handsome Captain Body (whose being "out"made all the women anxious) marched through the Den, flapping theirwings at the head of a fearsome retinue, and the Thrums folk looked soglum at them that gay Captain Body said he should kiss every lass whodid not cheer for Charlie, and none cheered, but at the same time noneran away. Few in Thrums cared a doit for Charlie, but some hung onbehind this troop till there was no turning back for them, and one ofthese was Buchan. He forced his wife to give Captain Body a white rosefrom her bush by the door, but a thorn in it pricked the gallant, andthe blood from his fingers fell on the bush, and from that year it grewred roses.
"If you dinna believe me," Blinder said, "look if the roses is no red onthe bush at Pyotdykes, which was a split frae Buchan's, and speirwhether they're no named the blood rose."
"I believe you," Tommy would say breathlessly: "go on."
Captain Body was back in the Den by and by, but he had no thought ofpreeing lasses' mouths now. His face was scratched and haggard and hisgay coat torn, and when he crawled to the Cuttle Well he caught some ofthe water in his bonnet and mixed meal with it, stirring the preciouscompound with his finger and using the loof of his hand as a spoon.Every stick of furniture Buchan and the other Thrums rebels possessedwas seized by the government and rouped in the market-place of Thrums,but few would bid against the late owners, for whom the things weresecretly bought back very cheaply.
To these and many similar stories Tommy listened open-mouthed, seeingthe scene far more vividly than the narrator, who became alarmed at hisquick, loud breathing, and advised him to forget them and go back tohis lessons. But his lessons never interested Tommy, and he would gointo the Den instead, and repeat Blinder's legends, with embellishmentswhich made them so real that Corp and Elspeth and Grizel were afraid tolook behind them lest the spectre of Captain Body should be standingthere, leaning on a ghostly sword.
At such times Elspeth kept a firm grip of Tommy's hand, but one eveningas they all ran panic-stricken from some imaginary alarm, she lost himnear the Cuttle Well, and then, as it seemed to her, the Den bec
amesuddenly very dark and lonely. At first she thought she had it toherself, but as she stole timidly along the pink path she heard voices,and she cried "Tommy!" joyously. But no answer came, so it could not beTommy. Then she thought it must be a pair of lovers, but next moment shestood transfixed with fear, for it was the Painted Lady, who was comingalong the path talking aloud to herself. No, not to herself--to someoneshe evidently thought was by her side; she called him darling and othersweet names, and waited for his replies and nodded pleased assent tothem, or pouted at them, and terrified Elspeth knew that she was talkingto the man who never came.
When she saw Elspeth she stopped irresolutely, and the two stood lookingin fear at each other. "You are not my brat, are you?" the Painted Ladyasked.
"N-no," the child gasped.
"Then why don't you call me nasty names?"
"I dinna never call you names," Elspeth replied, but the woman stilllooked puzzled.
"Perhaps you are naughty also?" she said doubtfully, and then, as ifmaking up her mind that it must be so, she came closer and said, with avoice full of pity: "I am so sorry."
Elspeth did not understand half of it, but the pitying voice, which wasof the rarest sweetness, drove away much of her fear, and she said: "Doyou no mind me? I was wi' Tommy when he gave you the gold packet onMuckley night."
Then the Painted Lady remembered. "He took such a fancy to me," shesaid, with a pleased simper, and then she looked serious again.
"Do you love him?" she asked, and Elspeth nodded.
"But is he all the world to you?"
"Yes," Elspeth said.
The Painted Lady took her by the arm and said impressively, "Don't lethim know."
"But he does know," said Elspeth.
"I am so sorry," the Painted Lady said again. "When they know too well,then they have no pity."
"But I want Tommy to know," Elspeth insisted.
"That is the woeful thing," the Painted Lady said, rocking her arms in away that reminded the child of Grizel. "We want them to know, we cannothelp liking them to know!"
Suddenly she became confidential. "Do you think I showed my love tooopenly?" she asked eagerly. "I tried to hide it, you know. I covered myface with my hands, but he pulled them away, and then, of course, heknew."
She went on, "I kissed his horse's nose, and he said I did that becauseit was his horse. How could he know? When I asked him how he knew, hekissed me, and I pretended to be angry and ran away. But I was notangry, and I said to myself, 'I am glad, I am glad, I am glad!'
"I wanted so to be good, but--It is so difficult to refuse when youlove him very much, don't you think?"
The pathos of that was lost on the girl, and the Painted Lady continuedsadly: "It would be so nice, would it not, if they liked us to be good?I think it would be sweet." She bent forward and whispered emphatically,"But they don't, you know--it bores them.
"Never bore them--and they are so easily bored! It bores them if you sayyou want to be married. I think it would be sweet to be married, but youshould never ask for a wedding. They give you everything else, but ifyou say you want a wedding, they stamp their feet and go away. Why areyou crying, girl? You should not cry; they don't like it. Put on yourprettiest gown and laugh and pretend you are happy, and then they willtell you naughty stories and give you these." She felt her ears andlooked at her fingers, on which there may once have been jewels, butthere were none now.
"If you cry you lose your complexion, and then they don't love you anymore. I had always such a beautiful skin. Some ladies when they losetheir complexion paint. Horrid, isn't it? I wonder they can do such athing."
She eyed Elspeth suspiciously. "But of course you might do it just alittle," she said, pleadingly--"just to make them go on loving you,don't you think?
"When they don't want to come any more they write you a letter, and yourun with it to your room and kiss it, because you don't know what isinside. Then you open it, and that breaks your heart, you know." Shenodded her head sagaciously and smiled with tears in her eyes. "Never,never, never open the letter. Keep it unopened on your breast, and thenyou can always think that he may come to-morrow. And if--"
Someone was approaching, and she stopped and listened. "My brat!" shecried, furiously, "she is always following me," and she poured forth atorrent of filthy abuse of Grizel, in the midst of which Tommy (for itwas he) appeared and carried Elspeth off hastily. This was the onlyconversation either child ever had with the Painted Lady, and it borebad fruit for Grizel. Elspeth told some of the Monypenny women about it,and they thought it their duty to point out to Aaron that the PaintedLady and her child were not desirable acquaintances for Tommy andElspeth.
"I dinna ken," he answered sharply, "whether Tommy's a fit acquaintancefor Grizel, but I'm very sure o' this, that she's more than a fitacquaintance for him. And look at what she has done for this house. Ikenna what we should do if she didna come in nows and nans."
"You ken well, Aaron," they said, "that onything we could do in the wayo' keeping your house in order we should do gladly."
"Thank you," he replied ungraciously, "but I would rather have her."
Nevertheless he agreed that he ought to forbid any intercourse with thePainted Lady, and unfortunately Grizel heard of this. Probably therenever would have been any such intercourse; Grizel guarded against itmore than anyone, for reasons she never spoke of, but she resented thisveto proudly.
"Why must you not speak to my mamma?" she demanded of Tommy and Elspeth.
"Because--because she is a queer one," he said.
"She is not a queer one--she is just sweet."
He tried to evade the question by saying weakly, "We never see her tospeak to at any rate, so it will make no difference. It's no as if youever asked us to come to Double Dykes."
"But I ask you now," said Grizel, with flashing eyes.
"Oh, I darena!" cried Elspeth.
"Then I won't ever come into your house again," said Grizel, decisively.
"No to redd up?" asked Tommy, incredulously. "No to bake nor to iron?You couldna help it."
"Yes I could."
"Think what you'll miss!"
Grizel might have retorted, "Think what you will miss!" but perhaps thereply she did make had a sharper sting in it. "I shall never comeagain," she said loftily, "and my reason for not coming is that--that mymamma thinks your house is not respectable!" She flung this over hershoulder as she stalked away, and it may be that the tears came whenthere were none to see them, but hers was a resolute mind, and thoughshe continued to be friendly with Tommy and Elspeth out of doors shenever again crossed their threshold.
"The house is in a terrible state for want o' you," Tommy would say,trying to wheedle her. "We hinna sanded the floor for months, and thebox-iron has fallen ahint the dresser, and my gray sark is rove up theback, and oh, you should just see the holes in Aaron's stockings!"
Then Grizel rocked her arms in agony, but no, she would not go in.