Brownsmith's Boy Part 42

"Yes," I cried, "I'll work away and as hard as I can; but I begin to wish now that you had some gla.s.s."

"So do I," said the old gentleman.

"There!" I said, coming down the ladder, "I think that will heal up now, like the poor swineherd's leg. It's as smooth as smooth."

"Let me look," said a voice behind me; and I started with surprise to find myself face to face with a man who seemed to be Old Brownsmith when he was, if not Young Brownsmith, just about what he would have been at forty.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

BROTHER SOLOMON.

The new-comer went slowly up the ladder, looked at my work, and then took out a small knife with a flat ivory handle, came down again, stropped the knife on his boot, went up, and pared my stump just round the edge, taking off a very thin smooth piece of bark.

"Good!" he said as he wiped his knife, came down, and put the knife away; "but your knife wanted a touch on a bit o' Turkey-stone. How are you, Ezra?"

Old Brownsmith set down some cats gently, got up off the bushel basket slowly, and shook hands.

"Fairly, Solomon, fairly; and how are you?"

"Tidy," said the visitor, "tidy;" and he stared very hard at me. "This is him, is it?"

"Yes, this is he, Solomon. Grant, my lad, this is my brother Solomon."

I bowed after the old fashion taught at home.

"Shake hands. How are you?" said Mr Solomon; and I shook hands with him and said I was quite well, I thanked him; and he said, "Hah!"

"He has just come up from Hampton, Grant--from Sir Francis Linton's.

He's going to take you back."

"Take me back, sir!" I said wonderingly. "Have--have I done anything you don't like?"

"No, my lad, no--only I've taught you all I can; and now you will go with him and learn gardening under gla.s.s--to grow peaches, and grapes, and mushrooms, and all kinds of choice flowers."

I looked at him in a troubled way, and he hastened to add:

"A fine opportunity for you, my boy. Brother Solomon is a very famous gardener and takes prizes at the shows."

"Oh! as to that," said Brother Solomon, "we're not much. We do the best we can."

"Horticultural medals, gold and bronze," said Old Brownsmith, smiling.

"There!--you'll have to do so as well, Grant, my lad--you will have to do me credit."

I crept close to him and half-whispered:

"But must I go, sir?"

"Yes, my lad, it is for your benefit," he said rather sternly; and I suppose I gave him such a piteous look that his face softened a little and he patted my shoulder. "Come," he said, "you must be a man!"

I seemed to have something in my throat which I was obliged to swallow; but I made an effort, and after a trial or two found that I could speak more clearly.

"Shall I have to go soon, sir?"

"Yes: now," said Old Brownsmith.

"Not till I've had a look round," said Brother Solomon in a slow meditative way, as he took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands, staring about him at the trees and bushes, and then, as a cat gave a friendly rub against his leg, he stooped down after the fashion of his brother, picked it up, and held it on his arm, stroking it all the time.

I had not liked the look of Brother Solomon, for he seemed cold, and quiet, and hard. His face looked stiff, as if he never by any chance smiled; and it appeared to me as if I were going from where I had been treated like a son to a home where I should be a stranger.

"Yes," he said after looking about him, as if he were going to find fault, "I sha'n't go back just yet awhile."

"Oh no! you'll have a snap of something first, and Grant here will want a bit of time to pack up his things."

Old Brownsmith seemed to be speaking more kindly to me now, and this made me all the more miserable, for I had felt quite at home; and though Shock and I were bad friends, and Ike was not much of a companion, I did not want to leave them.

Old Brownsmith saw my looks, and he said:

"You will run over now and then to see me and tell me how you get on.

Brother Solomon here never likes to leave his gla.s.s-houses, but you can get away now and then. Eh, Solomon?"

"P'r'aps," said Brother Solomon, looking right away from us. "We shall see."

My heart sank as I saw how cold and unsympathetic he seemed. I felt that I should never like him, and that he would never like me. He had hardly looked at me, but when he did there was to me the appearance in his eyes of his being a man who hated all boys as nuisances and to make matters worse, he took his eyes off a bed of onions to turn them suddenly on his brother and say:

"Hadn't he better go and make up his bundle?"

"Yes, to be sure," said Old Brownsmith. "Go and tell Mrs Dodley you want your clean clothes, my boy; and tell her my brother Solomon's going to have a bit with us."

"And see whether your boy has given my horse his oats, will you?" said Brother Solomon.

I went away, feeling very heavy-hearted, and found Shock in the stable, in the next stall to old Basket, watching a fine stoutly-built cob that had just been taken out of a light cart. The horse's head-stall had been taken off, and a halter put on; and as he munched at his oats, Shock helped him, munching away at a few that he took from one hand.

I was in so friendly a mood to every one just then that I was about to go up and shake hands with Shock; but as soon as he saw me coming he dived under the manger, and crept through into old Basket's stall, and then thrust back his doubled fist at me, and there it was being shaken menacingly, as if he were threatening to punch my head.

This exasperated me so that in an instant the honey within me was turned to vinegar, and I made a rush round at him, startling our old horse so that he snorted and plunged; but I did not catch Shock, for he dived back through the hole under the manger into the next stall. Then on under the manger where Brother Solomon's horse was feeding, making him start back and nearly break his halter, while Shock went on into the third stall, disturbing a hen from the nest she had made in the manger, and sending her cackling and screaming out into the yard, where the c.o.c.k and the other hens joined in the hubbub.

As I ran round to the third stall I was just in time to see Shock's legs disappearing, as he climbed up the perpendicular ladder against the wall, and shot through the trap-door into the hay-loft.

"You shall beg my pardon before I go," I said between my teeth, as I looked up, and there was his grubby fist coming out of the hole in the ceiling, and being shaken at me.

I rushed at the ladder, and had ascended a couple of rounds, when bang went the trap-door, and there was a b.u.mp, which I knew meant that Shock had seated himself on the trap, so that I could not get it up.

"Oh, all right!" I said aloud. "I sha'n't come after you, you dirty old grub. I'm going away to-day, and you can shake your fist at somebody else."

I had satisfied myself that Brother Solomon's horse was all right, so I now strode up to the house and told Mrs Dodley to spread the table for a visitor, and said that I should want my clean things as I was going away.

"What! for a holiday?" she said.