Bevis: The Story of a Boy

by Richard Jefferies

on theground an inch deep. Scale consists of minute particles which fly offred-hot iron when it is hammered--the sparks, in fact, which, when theygo out, fall, and are found to be metal; like the meteors in the sky,the scale shooting from Vulcan's anvil, which go out and drop on theearth. Mark lifted the sledge, put it down, twisted up the vice, anduntwisted it, while Jonas, the smith, stood blowing the bellows with hisleft hand, and patting the fire on the forge with his little spud of ashovel.

  "Find anything you want," he said presently.

  "I'll take this," said Mark. "There's sixpence."

  He had chosen a bit of iron rod, short, and thicker than their ramrod.Bevis had told him what to look for.

  "All right, sir--anything else?"

  "Well," said Mark, moving towards the door, "I don't know,"--thenstopping with an admirable assumption of indifference. "Suppose you hadto stop up one end of a pipe, how should you do it?"

  "Make it white-hot," said the smith. "Bring it to me."

  "Will white-hot shut tight?"

  "Quite tight--it runs together when hit. Bring it to me. I say,where's the punt?" grinning. His white teeth gleamed between his openlips--a row of ivory set in a grimy face.

  "The punt's at the bottom," said Mark, with a louring countenance.

  "Nice boys," said the smith. "You're very nice boys. If you wasmine--" He took up a slender ash plant that was lying on the bench, andmade it ply and whistle in the air.

  Mark tossed his chin, kicked the door open, and walked off.

  "I say!--I say!" shouted the smith. "Bring it to me."

  "Keep yourself to yourself," said Mark loftily.

  Boys indeed! The smith swore, and it sounded in his broad deep chestlike the noise of the draught up the furnace. He was angry withhimself--he thought he had lost half-a-crown, at least, by just swishingthe stick up and down. If you want half-a-crown, you must control yourfeelings.

  Mark told Bevis what the smith had said, and they went to work, and thesame evening filed off the end of the rod Mark had bought. Bevis's planwas to file this till it almost fitted the tube, but not quite. Then hemeant to make the tube red-hot--almost white--and insert the littleblock. He knew that heat would cause the tube to slightly enlarge, sothat the block being cold could be driven in; then as the tube cooled itwould shrink in and hold it tight, so that none of the gas of the powdercould escape.

  The block was to be driven in nearly half an inch below the rim; the rimwas to be next made quite white-hot, and in that state hammered overtill it met in the centre, and overlapped a little. Again madewhite-hot, the overlapping (like the paper of a paper tube doubled in)was to be hammered and solidly welded together. The breech would thenbe firmly closed, and there would not be the slightest chance of itsblowing out. This was his own idea, and he explained it to Mark.

  They had now to decide how long the barrel should be: they had boughtrather more tube than they wanted. Five, or even four feet would be solong, the gun would be inconvenient to handle, though with a rest, andvery heavy. In a barrel properly built up, the thickness graduallydecreases from the breech to the muzzle, so that as the greatest weightis nearest the shoulder the gun balances. But this iron tube was thesame thickness from one end to the other, and in consequence, when heldup horizontally, it seemed very heavy at the farther extremity.

  Yet they wanted a long barrel, else it would not be like a propermatchlock. Finally, they fixed on forty inches, which would be long,but not too long; with a barrel of three feet four inches they ought,they considered, to be able to kill at a great distance. Adding thestock, say fifteen inches, the total length would be four feet seven.

  Next morning, taking their tools and a portable vice in a flag-basket,as they often did to the boat, they made a detour and went to JohnYoung's cottage. On the door-step there sat a little girl without shoesor stockings; her ragged frock was open at her neck. At first, shelooked about twelve years old, as the original impression of age isderived from height and size. In a minute or two she grew older, andwas not less than fourteen. The rest of the family were in the fieldsat work, Loo had been left to wait upon them. Already she had a hugefire burning on the hearth, which was of brick; the floor too was brick.With the door wide open they could hardly stand the heat till theflames had fallen. Bevis did not want so much flame; embers are best tomake iron hot. Taking off their jackets they set to work, put the tubein the fire, arranged the anvil, screwed the vice to the deal table,which, though quite clean, was varnished with grease that had sunk intothe wood, selected the hammer which they thought would suit, and toldLoo to fetch them her father's hedging-gloves.

  These are made of thick leather, and Mark thought he could hold the tubebetter with them, as it would be warm from one end to the other. Thelittle block of iron, to form the breech, was filed smooth, so as tojust _not_ fit the tube. When the tube was nearly white-hot, Mark puton the leather gloves, seized and placed the colder end on the anvil,standing the tube with the glowing end upwards.

  Bevis took the iron block, or breech-piece, with his pincers, insertedit in the white-hot tube, and drove it down with a smart tap. Somescale fell off and dropped on Mark's shirt-sleeve, burning little holesthrough to his skin. He drew his breath between his teeth, so suddenand keen was the pain of the sparks, but did not flinch. Bevis hastilythrew his jacket over Mark's arms, and then gave the block three moretaps, till it was flush with the top of the tube.

  By now the tube was cooling, the whiteness superseded by a red, whichgradually became dull. Mark put the tube again in the fire, and Loo wassent to find a piece of sacking to protect his arm from the sparks. Hisface was not safe, but he had sloped his hat over it, and hold his headdown. There were specks on his hat where the scale or sparks had burntit. Loo returned with a sack, when Bevis, who had been thinking,discovered a way by which Mark might escape the sparks.

  He pulled the table along till the vice fixed to it projected over theanvil. Next time Mark was to stand the tube upright just the same, butto put it in the vice, and tighten the vice quickly, so that he need nothold it. Bevis had a short punch to drive the block or breech-piecedeeper into the tube. Loo, blowing at the embers, with her scorchedface close to the fire, declared that the tube was ready. Mark drew itout, and in two seconds it was fixed in the vice, but with the colderend in contact with the anvil underneath. Bevis put his punch on theblock and tapped it sharply till he had forced it half an inch beneaththe rim.

  He now adjusted it for the next heating himself, for he did not wish allthe end of the tube to be so hot; he wanted the end itself almostwhite-hot, but not the rest. While it was heating they went out ofdoors to cool themselves, leaving Loo to blow steadily at the embers.She watched their every motion as intent as a cat a mouse; she ran withher naked brown feet to fetch and carry; she smiled when Mark put on theleather gloves, for she would have held it with her hands, though it hadbeen much hotter.

  She would have put her arm on the anvil to receive a blow from thehammer; she would have gone down the well in the bucket if they hadasked her. Her mind was full of this wonderful work--what could they bemaking? But her heart and soul was filled with these great big boyswith their beautiful sparkling eyes and white arms, white as milk, andtheir wilful, imperious ways. How many times she had watched them fromafar! To have them so near was almost too great a joy; she was like aslave under their feet; they regarded her less than the bellows in herhands.

  Directly the tube was white-hot at the extremity, she called them. Markset the tube up; Bevis carefully hammered the rim over, folding it downon the breech block. Another heating, and he hammered the yieldingmetal still closer together, welding the folds. A third heating, and hefinished it, deftly levelling the projections. The breech was complete,and it was much better done than they had hoped. As it cooled the tubeshrank on the block; the closed end of the tube shrank too, and thebreech-piece was incorporated into the tube itself. Their barrel wasindeed far safer at the breech than scores of the brittle g
uns turnedout cheap in these days.

  Loo, seeing them begin to put their tools in the flag-basket, asked,with tears in her eyes, if they were not going to do any more? They hadbeen there nearly three hours, for each heating took some time, but ithad not seemed ten minutes to her. Bevis handed the barrel to her, andtold her to take great care of it; they would come for it at night. Itwas necessary to smuggle it up into the armoury at home, and that couldnot be done by day. She took it. Had he given it in charge of a fileof soldiers it could not have been safer; she would watch it as a birddoes her nest.

  Just then John came in, partly for his luncheon, partly out of curiosityto see how they were getting on. "Picters you be!" said John.

  Pictures they were--black and grimy, not so much from the iron as thesticks and logs, half burnt, which they had handled; they