The Settlers at Home Part 2

"I think they will sweep the shallow waters, there to the left, for more stickleback," replied Oliver. "They will make up a load, to sell before the heat of the day, before they set about anything else."

Oliver was right. All the three repaired to the shallow water, and stood among the reeds, so as to be half hidden. The children could see, however, that when little George came down the garden, shouting to them to come to breakfast, the strangers took heed to the child. They turned their heads for a moment towards the garden, and then spoke together and laughed.

"There, now!" cried Oliver, vexed: "that is all because we forgot to go to breakfast. So much for my not having a watch! Mother need not have sent George to make such a noise; but, if I had had a watch, he would not have come at all; and these people would not have been put in mind of us."

"You will soon be able to have a watch now, like the boys in Holland,"

said Mildred. "Your alabaster things will change away for a watch; will not they? But we might not have remembered breakfast, if you had had a watch."

"We are forgetting it now," said Oliver, catching up George and running to the house, followed by Mildred, who could not help feeling as if Roger was at her heels.

They were surprised to find how late it was. Their father was already gone with Pastor Dendel's load of manure. Their mother only waited to kiss them before she went, and to tell them the their father meant to be back as soon as he could; and that meantime, neighbour Gool had promised to keep an eye on the mill. If anything happened to frighten them, Oliver or Ailwin had only to set the mill-sails agoing, and neighbour Gool and his men would be with them presently. She did not think, however, that anything would happen in the little time that their father would be away.

"I will tell you what we will do!" cried Oliver, starting from his chair, after he had been eating his bread and milk, in silence, for some time after his mother's departure. "Let us dress up a figure to look like father, and set him at the mill-window; so that those Redfurns shall not find out that he is away. Won't that be good?"

"Put him on the mill-steps. They may not look up at the window."

"The mill-steps, then. Where is father's old hat? Put it on the broom there, and see how it looks. Run up to the mill, dear, and bring his jacket--and his ap.r.o.n," he shouted as his sister ran.

Mildred brought both, and they dressed up the broom.

"That will never do," said Mildred. "Look how the sleeves hang; and how he holds his head! It is not a bit like a man."

"'Tis a good scarecrow," declared Ailwin. "I have seen many a worse scarecrow than that."

"But this is to scare the Redfurns, and they are far wiser than crows,"

said Mildred. "Look how George pulls at the ap.r.o.n, and tugs at the broomstick behind! It does not scare even him."

"It will look very different on the steps--in the open air," Oliver declared. "A bunch or two of straw in the sleeves, and under the jacket, will make it seem all alive."

And he carried it out, and tied it upon the mill-steps. It was no easy matter to fasten it so as to make it look at all like a man naturally mounting stairs. The more difficult it was, however, the more they all became interested in the business. Mildred brought straw, and Ailwin tied a knot here, and another knot there, while Oliver c.o.c.ked the hat in various directions upon the head, till they all forgot what they were dressing up the figure for. The reason popped into Ailwin's head again, when she had succeeded in raising the right arm to the rail, in a very life-like manner.

"There!" said she, stepping backwards to view her work, "that makes a very good master for me. I will obey him in everything he bids me till master comes home."

At the same moment, she walked backwards against something, and little George clung screaming to Mildred's knees. Roger had spread his arms for Ailwin to walk back into; and Stephen was behind, leaning against the cow-shed. They had been watching all that the party had been doing, and, having overheard every word, had found out the reason.

The children saw at once how very foolish they had been; and the thought confused them so much, that they did not know what to do next. Poor Ailwin, who could never learn wisdom, more or less, now made matters worse by all she said and did. Stout and strong as she was, she could do nothing, for Roger had taken the hint she had given by walking backwards, with her arms crossed behind her: he had pinioned her. She cried out to Oliver to run up, and set the mill-sails agoing, to bring neighbour Gool. Stephen took this second hint. He quietly swung Oliver off the steps, sent down his scarecrow after him, and himself took his seat on the threshold of the mill. There he sat, laughing to see how Ailwin wearied herself with struggles, while Roger, by merely hanging on her arms, prevented her getting free. When, however, Oliver flew at the boy, and struck him some fierce blows, Stephen came down, drove the little girl and the baby into the house, and locked them in, and then went to help Roger with his strong arm.

It was clear to Mildred what she ought to do. Crying as she was, she put George in a corner, with some playthings, to keep him from the fire till she came to him again, and then mounted the stairs, as quickly as her trembling limbs would let her,--first to her mother's room, and then out upon the roof. She tied a large red handkerchief of her mother's upon her father's Sunday walking-stick, and then waved it, as high as she could hold it, above her head, while she considered how she could fasten it; for it would never do to leave George alone below for many minutes. Perhaps neighbour Gool had seen it already, and would soon be here with his men. But, lest he should not, she must fix her flag, and trust to Stephen and Roger not thinking of looking up to the roof from the yard below. At last, after many attempts, she thrust the stick into a crevice of the roof, and fixed it with heavy things round it,--having run down three or four times, to see that George was safe.

There was, indeed, no time to be lost, for the intruders below were doing all the mischief they could think of, short of robbing and burning the premises. The great tall man, Stephen, strolling about the lower rooms, found Mrs Linacre's knitting, and pulled out the needles, and unravelled the work. Roger spied a heap of bulbs on the corner of a high shelf. They were Mr Linacre's rare and valuable tulip-roots, brought from Holland. Roger cut one of them open, to see what it looked like, and then threw the whole lot into the boiler, now steaming over the fire, saying the family should have a dish the more at dinner to-day. They got hold of Oliver's tools, and the cup he was at work upon. Stephen raised his arm, about to dash the cup to the ground, when Oliver sprang forward, and said--

"You shall have it,--you shall have my cup;--you don't know what a beauty it will be, when it is done. Only let me finish it, and you shall have it in exchange for the stickleback you caught this morning.

The stickleback will do to manure our garden; and I am sure you will like the cup, if you will only let me finish it."

"Manure your garden, indeed!" cried Stephen, gruffly. "I'll cut up your garden to shreds first. What business has your garden in our carr? You and your great landlord will find what it is to set your outlandish plants growing where our geese ought to be grazing. We'll show you that we don't want any foreigners here; and if you don't like our usage, you may go home again; and n.o.body will cry for you back."

"We pay for our garden and our mill," said Oliver. "We wrong n.o.body, and we work for our living, and you are a very cruel man."

"You pay the king: and the parliament does not choose that the king should have any more money to spend against them. Mind you that, boy!

And--"

"I am sure I don't know anything about the king and the parliament, or any such quarrels," said Oliver. "It is very hard to punish us for them, it is very cruel."

"You shall have reason to call me cruel twenty times over, if you don't get away out of our carr," said Stephen. "Manure your garden, indeed!

Not I! And you shall not manure another yard in these Levels. Come here, Roger."

They went out again into the yard, and Oliver, now quite overcome, laid down his head on his arms, and cried bitterly.

"Here's your cup, however," said Ailwin, now released by Roger's being employed elsewhere. "This bit of plaster is the only thing they have laid hands on that they have not ruined." Oliver started up, and hid his work and tools in a bundle of straw, in the corner of the kitchen.

"What Mildred will say, I don't know," said Ailwin. "That boy has wrung the neck of her white hen."

Oliver was desperate on hearing this. He ran out to see whether he could not, by any means, get into the mill, to set the sails agoing: but there were Stephen and Roger, carrying water, which they threw over all the gypsum that was ground,--floating away as much as they could of it, and utterly spoiling the rest, by turning it into a plaster.

"Did you ever see the like?" cried Ailwin. "And there is nothing master is so particular about as keeping that stuff dry. See the woman, too!

How I'd like to tug the hair off her head! She looks badly, poor creature, too."

Stephen's wife had, indeed, come up to enjoy the sport, when she found that no man was on the premises, and that there was no danger. There she stood, leaning against a post of the mill, her black, untidy hair hanging about her pale, hollow cheeks, and her lean arms crossed upon her bosom.

"There were such ague-struck folk to be seen at every turn," said Ailwin, "before the foreigners came to live in the carr. I suppose they brought some healing with them; for one does not often see now such a poor creature as that. She might be ashamed of herself,--that woman; she laughs all her poor sides can, at every pailful Roger pours out.-- Eh! But she's not laughing now! Eh! What's the matter now?"

The matter was that neighbour Gool was in sight, with three or four men.

A cheer was heard from them while they were still some way off. Oliver ran out and cheered, waving his hat over his head. Ailwin cheered, waving a towel out of the window. Mildred cheered from the roof, waving her red flag; and George stood in the doorway, shouting and clapping his little hands.

If the object was to catch the trespa.s.sers, all this cheering took place a little too soon. Stephen and Roger were off, like their own wild-ducks,--over the garden hedge, and out of sight. Neighbour Gool declared that if they were once fairly among the reeds in the marsh, it would be sheer waste of time to search for them; for they could dodge and live in the water, in a way that honest people that lived on proper hard ground could not follow. Here was the woman; and yonder was the tent. Revenge might be taken that way, better than by ducking in the ponds after the man and boy. Suppose they took the woman to prison, and made a great fire in the carr, of the tent and everything in it!

Oliver did not see that it could make up to them for what they had lost, to burn the tent; and he was pretty sure his father would not wish such a thing to be done. His father would soon be home. As for the woman, he thought she ought to go to prison, if Mr Gool would take her there.

"That I will," said Gool. "I will go through with the thing now I am in it. I came off the minute I saw your red flag; and I might have been here sooner, if I had not been so full of watching the mill-sails, that I never looked off from them till my wife came to help to watch. Come, you woman," said he to Nan Redfurn, "make no faces about going to prison, for I am about to give you a ride there."

"She looks very ill," thought Oliver,--"not fit to be jolted on a horse."

"You'll get no magistrate to send me to prison," said the woman. "The justices are with the parliament, every one. You will only have to bring me back, and be sorry you caught me, when you see what comes of it."

"Cannot we take care of her here till father comes home?" said Oliver, seeing that neighbour Gool looked perplexed, and as if he believed what the woman said.

"No, no," said Mildred, whispering to her brother. "Don't let that woman stay here."

"Neighbour Gool will take care of us till father comes home," said Oliver: "and the woman looks so ill! We can lock her up here: and, you see, Ailwin is ever so much stronger than she is, poor thing!"

Neighbour Gool put on an air of being rather offended that nothing great was to be done, after his trouble in coming to help. In his heart, however, he was perhaps not very sorry; for he knew that the magistrates were not willing to countenance the king's settlers in the Levels, while the Parliament Committee was sitting at Lincoln. Gool patted Oliver's head when the boy thanked him for coming; and he joked Mildred about her flag: so he could not be very cross. He left two men to guard the prisoner and the premises, till Mr Linacre should return.

These two men soon left off marching about the garden and yard, and sat down on the mill-steps; for the day grew very hot. There they sat talking in the shade, till their dinners should be ready. Nan Redfurn was so far from feeling the day to be hot, that when her cold ague-fit came on, she begged to be allowed to go down to the kitchen fire.

Little George stood staring at her for some time, and then ran away; and Mildred, not liking to be in the same room with a woman who looked as she did, and who was a prisoner, stole out too, though she had been desired to watch the woman till dinner should be ready. Ailwin was so struck with compa.s.sion, that she fetched her warmest woollen stockings and her winter cloak of linsey-woolsey,--it was such a piteous thing to hear a woman's teeth chattering in her head, in that way, at noon in the middle of August. Having wrapped her up, she put her on a stool, close to the great kitchen fire; and drew out the screen that was used only in winter, to keep off the draughts from the door. If the poor soul was not warm in that corner, nothing could make her so. Then Ailwin began to sing to cheer her heart, and to be amazingly busy in cooking dinner for three additional persons. She never left off her singing but when she out went for the vegetables, and other things she wanted for her cooking; and when she came in again she resumed her song,--still for the sake of the poor creature behind the screen.

"Do you feel yourself warmer now, neighbour?" said she at the end of an hour. "If not, you are past my understanding."

There was no answer; and Ailwin did not wonder, as she said to herself, that it was too great a trouble for one so poorly to be answering questions: so Ailwin went on slicing her vegetables and singing.