The Gold of Chickaree Part 16

'And then, Hazel, how long was it before you began to forgive me?'

'O there was no forgiveness in question,' she said, pa.s.sing his words with a blush. 'The criticising shewed a little bit of real interest. And that is what I had been as hungry for, as your mill people for more tangible things. But I did not mean that I thought?I did not think about it at all. Not much.'

'Not all?not much,' said Rollo. 'No. Only a little. I understand.

And what should I have got for my pains, if I had pressed the final question a year ago?'

'I did not think a _little_,' said Hazel, looking flushed and downcast,?'only when you made me. And when people talked.'

Rollo enjoyed the sight a minute or two, and then proposed a run.

He kept it a very gentle run, however, and when they came to a talking pace again resumed the subject of the mills.

'How much have you thought about it?' he asked. 'What next would you propose?'

'Does your increase of wages let the children stay at home when they are sick? and the little ones when they are well?'

'I admit no children under twelve nor employ any families that send their little children to other mills. That was one of the first steps I took; to settle that. The other thing is somewhat less easy to manage. I cannot make a rule. There would be endless shamming.

The only way is to keep a careful supervision myself, and send home any child manifestly unfit for work. In such a case I keep on the wages for one week; at the end of that time the child comes, or doesn't come. If the latter, I know something is very much amiss, and look after the case accordingly. And this matter, as yet, I can trust to n.o.body but myself.'

'You can trust me,' said Hazel. 'In such matters women's eyes are surer than men's.'

'At twelve miles distance?' said he smiling.

'You are going to open a short cut. And even twelve miles, upon Jeannie, is not much.'

Rollo rode a few yards in silence.

'She is your property, of course you know?'

'Thank you, Mr. Rollo!' Hazel said softly. She was smoothing out some locks of Jeannie's mane, which the wind and the run had tossed out of place.

'Take care!' said her companion. 'I shall not take thanks from you in that shape. Here is the Hollow. I am glad Charteris is at this end.'

The banks of the dell had risen up about them and the mill buildings began to appear. Paul Charteris' woollen mills came first, brown and dismal as such things are apt to look, surrounded with their straggling settlement of poor cottages. It was a glorious October day; fair over-head and glowing over all the earth; if atmosphere and colouring could have put a blessing upon misery the houses of Mill Hollow would have owned the blessing. But the clear golden light shewed the bare walls, the barren ground, the dingy, forlorn hopelessness of everything, in the full blank nakedness of the facts.

Slowly the riders walked their horses now, looking at it all. Slowly pa.s.sed one mill after another with its straggling tenements for toil and discontent. Getting beyond these, and higher up the valley, new signs began to appear. Mills are mills indeed, and own no kindred with beauty. But along the slopes of the Hollow, behind and between the mill buildings, were tokens of life. Numbers of new cottages were risen, and rising, on the upper slopes of the banks, the new village even flowing over the crest of the hill upon the level land above. Most were of gray stone; some were frame houses painted white; each one that was finished having a s.p.a.ce of ground enclosed within a little paling fence. You could see indications of change everywhere. Here some of the old huts were taking down, leaving room for new erections; there, certain old rubbish heaps had disappeared; the people they met seemed to wear a different air and to step more alertly. Further up the valley and close upon the roadway Hazel could see a building going up which was clearly no mill cottage; it was much too large. The cottages indeed were of different sizes, to suit different families and different tastes; this however was another affair. Low stone walls of considerably extent were getting a roof put on; the windows were large and many; yet it had hardly the look of a church. Builders and teamsters were at work over all this part of the valley.

The bright eyes had been very intent, the tokens of excitement in either cheek growing deeper and more defined; clearly, for Wych Hazel, Morton Hollow had changed names. But absorbed in her scrutiny she had given neither word nor look to anything but the Hollow.

Now she suddenly turned to her companion.

'What is that for?' she said. 'A church?'

'Not exactly. But given better wages and houses to live in?what is the next step you would take in dealing with a very ignorant community, whom you wished to raise to a higher level?'

'Teach them, I suppose. Then is that your reading-room, Mr.

Rollo?'

'Hitherto?I will shew you where I read,' he said, suddenly breaking off. And dismounting, he came to Wych Hazel and took her down, ordering the horses forward to the bend. They went then to the door of one of the mills near at hand and Rollo whistled. The door opening, they were admitted to a great, long, low room, at the back of which bales were stowed from floor to ceiling. A large s.p.a.ce was more or less filled with bales standing about; evidently on the move, either to be hoisted away for use or stowed up like the rest for keeping.

'Here is my place,' said Rollo. 'When Sat.u.r.day night comes, all is made snug as the deck of a frigate; this part of the floor is cleared and supplied with benches; I have lamps hung from the rafters, and yonder I stand on a cotton bale. Do you know what I do it for??

not mount a cotton bale, I mean, but what for I have gone into the whole thing?'

'I suppose I know,' said Hazel. 'To identify yourself, in a sort, with the people, and to give them good amus.e.m.e.nts, and to entice them on.'

'All that. And to keep them out of the gin shops. Sat.u.r.day night is pay time. With his pockets full of money, what can a poor rascal do but ruin himself with beer, if he knows nothing better? I am following an English example in the endeavour to save them. I provide coffee and buns, at cost prices; and then I manage to give them entertainment, with a spice of instruction, till too late in the night to allow of any foolery at the other places. I think I am succeeding pretty well; the popularity of my readings has been steadily on the increase. By and by I am going to vary the programme with microscopic and other exhibitions,?as soon as the people are ready for it, and I am ready.'

Miss Wych walked over to a prostrate cotton bale, and mounting upon it took a general survey of the room, ending with its owner and a flash of fun.

'Now,' she said, 'I am you, and you are the audience. Would they come to a regular night-school, do you think? And whereabouts in the Hollow do you intend to place a cotton bale for me?'

'What will you do from it?'

'Something so different from what you do, that unless we run on different evenings, one of us will draw empty houses,' said Hazel, softly stepping along the cotton-bale from end to end. 'Where does Miss Powder sit?'?this with a sudden pause at one end of the bale.

'Where she will never sit again,' said Rollo. 'She was here Sat.u.r.day night with a party. I had wind of it before, and notified my people that it would be a German night. So it was.'

Hazel laughed. 'And she went home to study German!?Very dangerous conduct, Mr. Rollo! Suppose _I_ had come with the party?'

Rollo was here interrupted by a question of business. When it was despatched, he came up to Wych Hazel's perch and jumped her down.

'You must come away,' he said; 'it's too cold here for you. What is in your mind, Hazel? What will you do, if I give you a bale? and where will you have it? Go on, and tell me what is in your head?'

The wistful look came back again, humble and sweet. Clearly, however well Hazel thought of her power to take care of herself, she was less sure about taking care of other people. 'I doubt if I am fit for any such elevation yet,' she said. 'But I suppose there are some things I could teach the children. And I might be a Visiting Committee?to go about in the houses and find out the women's wants and troubles, and clear some of them away. I know at least how people ought _not_ to live.'

'You can do that,' said Rollo; 'and that is just what you will do admirably. Did you think I was going to set you to teach school?'

'Are you quite sure you are not?' said she, laughing up at him. 'I could, Mr. Rollo,?if I might learn first.'

'You could not teach these creatures. But you see another use for my nondescript building over there. Shall we go and look at it.'

The short walk was enlivened for Hazel by the encounters that met them. Every child gave a full smile, and every man a salutation with good will in it. On the other side the master had a word for every one, gracious as well as discriminating. It was evident that he knew them all, and their ways and their needs.

The schoolhouse, if it were that, was found to be rather a s.p.a.cious erection. The main apartment was lofty, large and light; the fittings were not in yet. On each side a narrower and lower room or hall ran the whole length of the central one which was lighted from a clerestory. The workmen were putting in window-frames and hanging doors, and finishing the roofing. All the halls communicated.

'This is for the children by day, and for the night-schools and my entertainments in the evening. The hall to the west is for a coffee room. My coffee and buns are popular.'

'Where do you get them? From the top of the hill?'

Rollo shook his head. 'No, that would not do. I arranged an old office for a bakery, found my people, and got Gyda to teach them.

So several of the women in the Hollow turn a penny that way; and then the bread is sold to the men at cost prices. Coffee the same.

And Sat.u.r.day nights the throng is in earnest. Then they come to me in good humour.'

'Well, do many of the older women work in the mills?'

'They all work that can,' said Rollo gravely.

'But Mr. Rollo!?then I will tell you another thing you want; and that is a room and a keeper for the little children. Don't you know?'

she said, facing round in her eagerness,?'such a place as I have read of in France, I think, where the women who go out to work leave their children all day; so that they cannot burn themselves up, nor fret themselves to death, nor do anything but play and be happy.'