anddisturbance so distasteful to us was a treat to him. It was"thunder-boy" and "cuckoo-boy," as the thunder rolled or the cuckoocalled; he could not conceive anything being caused unseen without humanagency.
The Deity was human.
"Ah!" said he thoughtfully, "He got a high ladder and climbed up overthe hedges to make the thunder."
"Has He got any little Bobbies?"
"No."
"I suppose He had when He was down here?"
"No."
"No," (with pity) "He didn't have no peoples." The pleasure of refusalwas not to be resisted.
"Now do, Bobby, dear?"
"I san't: say it again."
"O! _do_ do it."
"I san't: say it again."
"Now, _do_."
"I san't," shaking his head, as much as to say it's very dreadful of me,but I shan't. They could not explain to him that the glowing sunset wasreally so far away, he wanted to go to it. "It's only just over theblackberry hedge." Some one was teaching him that God loved littleboys; "But does he love ladies too?"
As for papa he had to tell stories by the hour, day after day, and whenhe ceased and said he could not remember any more, Bevis frowned. "Rackyour brains! rack your brains!" said he. A nightingale built in thehedge near the house, and all night long her voice echoed in the bedroom. Listening one night as he was in bed he remarked, "Thenightingale has two songs: first he sings `Sir-rup--sir-rup,' and thenhe sings `Tweet.'"
For his impudence he had a box on the ear: "Pooh! It went pop like afoxglove," he laughed.
At Brighton he was taken over the Pavilion, and it was some trouble toexplain to him that this fine house had been built for a gentlemancalled a king. By-and-by, in the top stories, rather musty from oldcarpets and hangings: "Hum!" said he; "seems stuffy. I can smell thatgentleman's dinner," i.e. George the Fourth's.
Visiting a trim suburban villa, while the ladies talked they sent himout on the close-mown lawn to play. When he came in, "Well, dear, didyou enjoy yourself?"
"Don't think much of _your_ garden," said Bevis; "no buttercups."
At prayers: "Make Bobby a good boy, and see that you do everything Itell you."
"You longered your promise," did not fulfil it for a long time."Straight yourselves," when out walking he wished them to go straight onand not turn. "Round yourselves, round yourselves," when he wanted themto take a turning. When he grew up to be a big man he expressed hisdetermination to "knock down the policeman and kill the hanging-man,"then he could do as he liked. "Tiffeck" was the cat's cough.
Driving over Westminster Bridge the first time, and seeing the Houses ofParliament, which reminded him of his toy bricks, he inquired "If therewas anything inside?" Older people have asked that of late years. Ashe did not get his wishes quickly, it appeared to him there were "toomany perhapses in this place:" he wanted things done "punctually atnow." A waterfall was the "tumbling water."
They told him there was one part of us that did not die. "Then," hesaid directly, "I suppose that is the thinking part." What more, O!Descartes, Plato, philosophers, is there in your tomes? The crucifixionhurt his feelings very much, the cruel nails, the unfeeling spear: helooked at the picture a long time, and then turned over the page,saying, "If God had been there He would not have let them do it."
"What are you going to be when you're a man?" asked grandpa. "Anengineer, a lawyer?"
"Pooh! I'm going to be a king, and wear a gold crown!"
A glowing March sunset made the tops of the elms, red with flower beforethe leaf, show clear against the sky. "They look like red seaweeddipped in water," he said.
Such were some of the short and disconnected jottings in mamma'sprayer-book: mere jottings, but well she could see the scene in her mindwhen the words were said. Latest of all, the second visit to theseaside, where, after rioting on the sands and hurling pebbles in thesummer waves, suddenly he stopped, looked up at her and said, "O! wasn'tit a good thing the sea was made!" It was indeed.
Every one being so much in the field, mamma was left alone, and wearyingof it, asked Frances to come up frequently to her: Frances was willingenough to do so, especially as she could talk unreservedly of Big Jack,so that it was a pleasure to her to come. At last, on the Friday, asBevis did not write again, his mother proposed that they should drive upto Jack's, and see how the boys were on the morrow. Frances wasdiscreetly delighted: Jack could not come down to see her just now, andwith Bevis's mother she could go up and see him with propriety. So itwas agreed that the dog-cart should be ready early on Saturdayafternoon. Charlie learned something of this--he played in and out theplace, and waved his cap thrice as a warning.
Now, in the kitchen on Friday evening there was a curious talk of Bevisand Mark. Had it not been for the harvest something would have creptout about them among the cottagers. Such inveterate gossipers wouldhave sniffed out something, some one would have supposed this, anotherwould have said they were not at Big Jack's, a third might have caught aglimpse of them when on the mainland. But the harvest filled theirhands with work, sealed their eyes, and shut their mouths. Anearthquake would hardly disturb the reapers. So soon as they hadcompleted the day's work they fell asleep. Pan's nocturnal rambleswould have been noticed had it not been for this, though he might havecome down from Jack's.
However, as it chanced, not a word was said till the Friday evening,when there came into the kitchen a labouring man, sent by his master tohave some talk with the Bailiff respecting a proposed bargain. Everyevening the Bailiff took his quart in the kitchen, and though it wassummer always in the same corner by the hearth. He had no home, an oldand much-crusted bachelor: he had a dim craving for company, and heliked to sit there and sip while Polly worked round briskly.
A deal of gossip was got through in that kitchen. Men came in and out,they lingered on the door-step with their fingers on the latch just toadd one more remark. That evening when the bargain, a minor matter, hadbeen discussed, this man, with much roundabout preliminary solemnlydeclared that as he had been working up in Rushland's field (about halfa mile from the New Sea), he had distinctly heard Bevis and Mark talkingto each other, and it seemed to him that the sound came over the water.
Sometimes he said he could hear folk talk at a great distance, four orfive times as far off as most could, and had frequently told people whatthey had been conversing about when they had been a mile or more away.He could not hear like this always, but once now and then, and he wasquite sure that he had heard Master Bevis and Master Mark talkingsomething about shooting, and that the sound came from over the water.He did not believe they were at Jack's, there was "summat" (something)very curious about it.
The Bailiff and Polly and the visitor turned this over and over, andgossiped, and discussed it for some time, till the man had to go. Theynever for a moment doubted the perfect truth of what he had stated.Half-educated people are always ready to believe the marvellous, nor wasthere anything so unusual in this claim to a second sight of hearing, soto say. Once now and then, in the country, you meet with people who layserious claim to possess the power, and most astonishing instances arerelated of it.
Whether being so much in the open air sharpens the senses, whether thesound actually did travel over the water, it is not possible to say, orwhether some little suspicion of the real facts had got out, and thisfellow cunningly devised his story knowing that sooner or laterconfirmation of his wonderful powers of hearing would be derived in thediscovery of what Bevis had been doing. The only persons who could tellwere John Young and Loo: the one was spell-bound by the bribe he knew heshould obtain, Loo was much too eager to share the game to breathe aword. Poachers, however, get about at odd hours in odd places, and seethings they are not meant to.
Still in the country the belief lingers that here and there a persondoes possess the power, and the story so worked upon the Bailiff andPolly, that at last Polly ventured in to tell her mistress. Hermistress at once dismissed it as ridiculous. She was too well educatedto dream
dreams. Yet when she retired, do you know! she sat a littlewhile and thought about it, so contagious is superstition. In themorning she sent down to Frances to come an hour earlier--she wanted tosee Bevis.
Frances came, and the dog-cart was at the door when Loo (who had beensent on an errand to the town--a common thing on Saturdays) rushed up tothe door, thrust a letter into mamma's hand, and darted away.
"Why!" said she. "It's Bevis--why!" she read aloud, Frances lookingover her shoulder:--"Dear Mamma, Please come up to the place where theboats are kept
Bevis: The Story of a Boy Page 91
