CHAPTER X.
In the Woods.
I roam the woods that crown The upland, where the mingled splendours glow, Where the gay company of trees look down On the green fields below.
Let in through all the trees Come the strange rays; the forest depths are bright, Their sunny-coloured foliage in the breeze Twinkles like beams of light. --Bryant.
Perks was very much annoyed that Benny had not stayed to see him performthe feat of picking a gentleman's pocket, nevertheless, he was veryanxious to cultivate our hero's acquaintance, especially as Benny hadgenerally treated him with unmistakable contempt; so on the followingmorning he sought out Benny, and tried his very best to make himselfagreeable. But Benny was in a decidedly unfriendly mood, and threw coldwater on all Perks' advances. But, nothing daunted, Perks kept near himmost of the day, and even offered to treat him to what he called "afeed." But it was of no use. Benny had learned a lesson he would noteasily forget, and he knew that his safety lay in having as little to dowith Perks and his class as possible. So as evening came on and Perksstill hung around him, he lost all patience, and, doubling his fist inan unmistakable manner, he said, with a gymnastic flourish,
"Look 'ere, Perks, if yer don't walk yer pegs in double-quick time,you'll wish yer had, that's all."
"Oh, that's yer game, is it?" said Perks, in a defiant tone, andsquaring up in front of Benny.
"It are," was the reply; "an' if yer don't want to see fire, you'dbetter be off like greased lightnin'."
"I shall go when I likes, and not afore," said Perks; "an' if yer thinksyer's goin' to bully this little chap, you's got the wrong pig by theear."
"I wants to bully nobody," said Benny, in a milder tone; "but I won'thave yer a hangin' about me all day."
"I 'spose yer wants to crib somethin' without my knowin' it," saidPerks, with a sneer.
"It's a lie," said Benny, colouring painfully, as the event of theprevious day crossed his mind.
"'T ain't a lie, neither," was the response, "or you'd not get so redover it."
"D' yer think I's a thief, then?" said Benny.
"No," said Perks scornfully, "but I knows it."
"An' yer shall know some'at else afore yer a minit older," said Benny,springing upon him, and dealing him a blow between the eyes that madehim stagger; and, before he could recover himself, a second blow senthim reeling against a wall.
For a moment Perks glared at his antagonist with flaming eyes, but hesaw that he was no match for Benny, so he turned on his heel and walkedaway. He had not gone many steps, however, before he came back again.
"Look 'ere, Ben Bates," he said, "you's licked me now, but I'll get myrevenge, an' I'll a'most plague the life out o' yer," and once more hewalked away.
Perks kept his word; from that day he became the greatest plague ofBenny's life. He stole his matches, picked his pocket, tripped him up inthe street, and annoyed him in every possible way that he could imagine,always mindful, however, to keep out of the reach of Benny's arm; and,being fleet-footed, that was not difficult.
Benny, however, said that he could "'ford to bide his time," so hequietly went on his way, feeling that nothing could trouble him verymuch now that "little Nell" was getting better again.
And as the summer advanced she did seem to get very much better. Thecough became less troublesome, her appetite improved, her cheerfulnesscame back, and altogether she seemed to be taking, as Joe Wrag put it,"a new lease of her life."
And yet a close observer would have noticed that the improvement wasmore in appearance than in reality. The pink spot still burned on eithercheek, and her great round eyes shone with an unnatural lustre, and herstrength, which had been failing for months, did not seem to come back;and though she went out with Benny in the morning and came back with himin the evening, yet each evening she seemed more tired and worn than onthe previous one. She made no complaint, however; but, on the contrary,always declared that she was getting ever so much better.
For several weeks Joe Wrag had been planning to give the children atreat; and one fine morning in June he put in an appearance at TempestCourt before they had left, much to their surprise and delight.
Nelly was the first to see him coming up the court, and ran to meethim, her eyes beaming with pleasure. "Oh, Joe," she exclaimed, "I's sopleased to see you!"
"Is you, my purty?" said Joe fondly; and, stooping down, he took her upin his arms, and carried her into the house.
Granny looked up in surprise, and Benny stared in bewilderment, fearingthere was mischief in the wind.
"Yer don't get much heavier," said Joe, sitting down with Nelly on hisknee. "We'll have to feed yer up a bit somehow."
"Oh, I's very well, Joe," said Nelly, nestling closer to her old friend.
"Dunno 'bout that," said Joe reflectively; "but what d' yer say 'bouthavin' holiday to-day?"
"Oh, Methusaler!" said Benny, brightening up in a moment, "that's thegame, are it?" and he went out in the doorway and stood on his head--asure sign that he was more than usually delighted.
Nelly looked up in Joe's face with a beautiful light in her eyes. "D'yer mean it, Joe?" she said, simply.
"Ay, my bonny, that I do," responded Joe.
"Oh, then, won't it be jist--jist--"
"Profusely," said Benny, coming to her rescue with one of his grandwords, of which he had been laying in a stock of late.
"Now, then," said Joe, "get on yer best togs, and let's be off."
Poor children! they had not much of best or worst in the way of attire,but, such as it was, it was clean and neatly mended. Granny did hervery best to turn them out respectable, and certainly they did her nodiscredit.
"Where is we going?" said Nelly, as she stepped along by Joe's side, hereyes sparkling with delight.
"Into the woods somewhere on t' other side o' the water," said Joe,looking fondly down into the child's beaming eyes.
Benny had nearly stood on his head again when he heard that; but thoughtbetter of it, and contented himself with a shrill whistle expressive ofdelight.
"Better an' better," he thought, flinging his cap into the air andcatching it on his toe; "won't I enjoy myself, just, that's all?"
By ten o'clock they were on the landing-stage, and soon after they weregliding up the river towards Eastham. Oh, how the wavelets sparkled inthe summer's sunshine, and how the paddle-wheels tossed the water intofoam! How happy everything seemed to-day! The ferries were crowded withpassengers, all of whom seemed in the best of spirits; and the rush ofwater and the beat of the engine seemed to Nelly the happiest sounds shehad ever heard.
Benny was rushing here and there and everywhere, and asking Joequestions about everything. But Nelly sat still. Her thoughts were toobig for utterance, and her little heart was full to overflowing.
At length they reach New Ferry, where several passengers get off andseveral others get on; then on they glide again. The river here seemslike a sheet of glass, so broad and smooth. Now they are nearing theriver's bank, and Nelly is delighted to watch the trees gliding past.How wonderful everything seems! Surely her dreams are becoming a realityat last.
For awhile after they land they sit on the river's bank in the shade ofthe trees, and Nelly rubs her eyes and pinches herself, to be certainthat she is not asleep. How grandly the mile-wide river at their feetflows downward to the sea! And what a beautiful background to thepicture the wooded landscape makes that stretches away beyond Garstonand Aigburth! And Nelly wonders to herself if it is possible that heavencan be more beautiful than this.
But Benny soon gets impatient to be off into the wood, and, humouringhis wish, they set off up the narrow path, between banks of ferns andprimroses and wild flowers of almost every hue. The tall trees wavetheir branches above them, and the birds whistle out their happy hearts.Here and there the grasshoppers chirp among the undergrowth, and myriadsof insects make the air vocal with their ceaseless hum.
They had scarcely got into the heart of the wood er
e they found thatBenny was missing; but they were neither surprised nor alarmed at this,for the lad was fairly brimming over with delight, and could not stayfor five minutes in the same place if he were to be crowned.
Nelly was as much delighted as her brother; perhaps more so, but shehad a different way of expressing it. She felt as she sat on a mossybank, holding Joe's rough and horny hand within both her own, and lookedaway up the long avenues between the trees, and watched the dancingsunlight that was sifted down in golden patches, and listened to thedreamy murmur of the summer's wind through the leafy trees, minglingwith the song of birds and the lowing of the cattle in the distantfields, as if she could have cried for very joy. It was all so solemn,and yet so delightful, so awe-inspiring and yet so gladsome, thatshe hardly knew whether to laugh outright, or hide her face on Joe'sshoulder and have a good cry.
Benny, however, decided the matter for her. He had been wandering no oneknew whither, and Joe was beginning to think that it was time to go offin search of him, when they heard him shouting at the top of his voice,--
"Joe, Joe! Golly! Make haste--quick, d' ye hear? Thunder!"
Judging by the tone of his voice, as well as by his words, that he wasin a difficulty of some kind, Joe and Nelly started off in the directionfrom whence the sound came. They had not gone far, however, before theyespied our hero, and at sight of him Joe stood stock-still and heldhis sides. For there was Benny suspended by his nether garment to thebranch of a tree, and striking out with his hands and feet like a hugeoctopus in a frantic and vain endeavour to recover a horizontal position.
He had gone out on this branch, which was not more than six feet fromthe ground, for some unknown purpose, and, missing his hold, he slipped,and would have fallen to the ground but for the friendly stump that heldhim suspended in mid-air.
"Joe! Oh, do come! Murder and turf! D' ye hear? What's yer larfin at?Are 'e moon-struck? Oh--h--!" he shrieked out at the top of his voice,still going through most unheard-of gymnastic exercises, and vainlytrying to raise his head to the level of his heels.
To make the matter worse, a young gentleman passing at the time inquiredof Benny, with a very grave face, "Whether his was a new method oflearning to swim on dry land? If so, he thought he had got the actionnearly perfect, the only thing required was to keep his head just atrifle higher."
By this time, however, Joe had come to his relief, and easily lifted himdown without further mishap.
The young gentleman tried to poke some more fun at Benny, but he wouldnot reply, and soon after set off with Joe and Nelly to get some dinner.After dinner they took a ramble across the fields, in the directionof Raby Mere. Benny's adventure had rather sobered him, so he did notobject to assist his sister in gathering wild flowers, while Joeartistically arranged them into what seemed to the children to be amagnificent bouquet.
Fleet-footed indeed were the hours of that long summer's afternoon.Benny wished a thousand times that the day could last for ever; andNelly, though she was getting tired, watched with a look of pain in hereyes the sun getting farther and farther down in the western sky.
As they were returning across the fields Benny was strongly tempted toleap a ditch that he had noticed at the beginning of their ramble--sostrongly tempted indeed that he could not resist it. So off he set ata swinging trot as soon as they got into the field. Joe guessed whathe was after, and called him back; but it was of no use, he either didnot hear or would not heed, for he went faster and faster as he nearedthe ditch. Joe saw him fling up his hands, take a flying leap, and thendisappear. After waiting a few moments, and he did not appear on theopposite bank, Joe and Nelly hurried after him. On reaching the ditchthey found that he was stuck fast in the mud about two feet from theopposite side, and the more he tried to get out the deeper he sank.
"Oh, quick, Joe!" he shouted, "or I'll be out o' sight in another minit."
"Sarve you right!" said Joe, laughing; "you had no business to get inthere."
"I can't stay to argify," retorted Benny; "don't yer see there's scarceanything of me left?"
"Ay, I see plain enough," said Joe, going to the other side, and pullinghim out, though not without an effort. "I wonder what mischief you'll beinto next?"
"Dunno," said Benny, regarding his legs with a look of dismay. Then,after a long pause, "I say, Joe, how's I to get this mud off?"
"Scrape off what yer can," said Joe, "and let the rest dry, and it'llrub off as clean as a new pin."
Benny was rather ashamed of his appearance, however, when he got intothe wood again, and found himself in the midst of two or three hundredSunday-school children and their teachers, all nicely dressed, who hadcome out for a picnic. But when he saw them each with a small bun loafand a cup of milk, he could not help drawing near, notwithstanding therather disgraceful state of his legs. Nelly was also anxious to have anearer view of all those happy-looking children.
Fortunately for Benny, the superintendent of the school was thegentleman that had invited him into the chapel months before. Benny feltsure he knew them again, but whether he did or not he invited all threeto sit down with the rest, and gave them each a bun and a cup of milk.
Joe was as delighted as the children with the kindness shown, and wassoon quite at his ease.
After lunch the children ran races for prizes, and Benny was invited tocompete with the rest. This suited him exactly, and very soon after,with about a dozen others, he was bounding up a broad avenue between thetrees, in a well-matched and most exciting race.
For the first half of the distance Benny dropped into the rear, then hebegan gradually to gain upon the others. Now was his time, so putting ona spurt, for which he had saved his breath, he went bounding ahead ofall the others, and amid loud hurrahs came first into the goal.
Benny never felt so proud in his life before as when that first prize--abrand new sixpence--was put into his hand. His success, however,disqualified him from competing again, so he had to content himself withwatching the others run.
But the most delightful circumstance of all to Nelly was when all thechildren stood up in a large circle, and sang in their pure young voicesthe following hymn:--
"Land ahead! Its fruits are waving O'er the fields of fadeless green; And the living waters laving Shores where heavenly forms are seen.
"There let go the anchor. Riding On this calm and silvery bay, Seaward fast the tide is gliding, Shores in sunlight stretch away.
"Now we're safe from all temptation, All the storms of life are past; Praise the Rock of our salvation, We are safely home at last."
Nelly never forgot that little hymn to her dying day; and when thatevening they glided down the placid river towards home, she repeated toherself over and over again--
"Seaward fast the tide is gliding, Shores in sunlight stretch away."
And when in her little corner she lay down to sleep, it was only todream of the sunlit shores on the banks of the far Jordan river.
Heaven seemed nearer and dearer to her ever after that day, and shesometimes almost longed for the sunny slopes of that far-off countrywhere there should be no more weariness nor pain.