Chapter V: The Children

On a winter's morning the Red House children were playing in a great ruin which stood near their home. Clay works had brought a busy company to Shipley vale in past times; but now only the walls of the drying houses and the stack of the furnace still stood, while above them, on the hill, large pits, whither had flowed the liquid clay from its bed on the high moor, were now filled with herbage, foxgloves, blackberries and sapling trees.

This famous playground found a small company of children and dogs assembled, and among them, as cheerful as any, was an ancient man. Old Billy Marydrew delighted in young people, and they found him more understanding than the middle-aged.

Children and red dogs romped over ground sparkling with frost, and Billy sat on a stone and enjoyed the entertainment. Auna fetched and carried; Avis issued orders, John Henry with some condescension, took his part. And then he quarrelled with his brother about a terrier that he was trying to teach a trick.

"He shall do it; I'll larn him," vowed John Henry hotly.

"He can't do it--no Irish terrier could do it," answered Peter.

They argued over the ability of the bewildered bitch, and Peter appealed to Billy; whereupon Mr. Marydrew agreed that John Henry was demanding impossibilities.

"When I was as young as you, John Henry," he said, "my father gave me some silkworms for a present, and I was a determined nipper and thought I'd train 'em up in the way they should go. And I gave 'em some very fine poplar leaves, which other worms be fond of. But my father warned me and said they must have lettuce. 'No, father,' I told him. 'They shall eat the poplar, because I will it. I won't have no caterpillars setting up their wills against mine.'"

"Did you make 'em, Mr. Marydrew?" asked Auna.

"I did not, my pretty. Instead, I found out that, though a small boy can put a worm on a leaf, the whole round world won't make the worm eat it--not if it isn't his food."

"And nobody won't make 'Nixie' stand on her head," vowed Peter, "because it's contrary to her nature to do such foolishness. They French poodles will larn any silly thing; but not an English dog."

John argued to the contrary; Avis and Auna tried to teach the puppies to slide on a frozen pond and John Henry, quite unconvinced, turned to pursue 'Nixie's' studies. But that wise dog had bolted home.

Then came along Jacob Bullstone, and hearing his children's voices, he turned off the road and entered the ruin. He joined the games for a few minutes; then Avis and Peter, who were in charge of the dogs, went homeward, and John Henry followed with Auna, while their father proceeded to the road beside old William.

"I've been to Owley," he said. "My brother-in-law's weakening. Doesn't like this cold weather."

The ancient laughed.

"He'll stand to it a bit longer yet. The pinch be going to come when the babby does. Then he'll have to work for the pair of 'em, and go to market instead of his wife."

"What's the matter with the man?"

"Nothing. A very ordinary sort of man, and if he'd been a lord, or a landed proprietor, or any sort of chap called to spend money instead of earn it, he'd have been a great success. Don't we know scores of the upper people like him? But he wants a thick-set hedge of money between him and real life. Even as it is, he has had a good bit of yours, not to say his father's. Afore Jeremy Huxam can shine, he must have the mercy and good-will of his neighbours. Their good-will he's got, and their mercy he'll surely want, if there ever comes a time when he's got to stand alone. But a charming chap I'm sure, and not an enemy. Same as your wife, without her pluck and sense, Jacob. Your boys are more like their grandmother than her own son be."

"So I've heard, and don't want to hear it again," answered Bullstone. "Judith Huxam's no great heroine of mine, Billy, as you know. I see myself in my sons, and who more likely to be in them?"

"They're a very fine pair of dear boys, and their fortunes are on their foreheads," said Mr. Marydrew. "Born to command is John Henry. Peter's most like you in my judgment--got your painstaking care for details. He's larning all there is to know about the dogs."

"From me."

"Who else? And why for don't you see all the way with Judith Huxam? My late daughter thought the world of her."

"Too much hell-fire," answered Jacob. "She's narrow and self-righteous, and I don't want any child of mine to grow up either one, or the other."

"A pinch of hell-fire doctrine don't hurt the young," declared Billy. "'Tis true that you and me know the fire's cold; but a lively sense of the dangers of wrong-doing be a good tonic for the girls and boys. I keep in touch with the rising generation, because they believe in me in a way I can't expect you middle-aged folks to do. And I see what they want--discipline. That ain't your strong suit, nor yet your wife's. You go in for example; but that's not enough. You know what's good for a puppy, though I wouldn't say you know so well what's good for a little human."

Jacob laughed.

"You're a wise old bird--to call you 'old.' But how do you keep so young in your mind, William? Is it just character, or do you try for it?"

"I try for it," answered Billy. "Yes, I try for it. You can't keep young-minded at my age without an effort. And this I do. I never look back, Jacob. I don't drag the past after me, and I'm lucky, maybe, because I haven't got much in my past to drag. What is it--what is most of the past--but a garment that makes you discomfortable, a boot that galls? Let the past bury the past and always look forward."

Jacob considered and struck his gaitered leg with his walking-stick.

"The mind no doubt works healthiest when it's working forward," he admitted. "I know that much. Even the best of the past makes you turn to sadness rather than happiness. Because the good time has gone, I suppose, and never can come back no more."

"That's why business be such a blessing to some minds. Business always means looking forward--so your father used to say."

"He looked forward sure enough, and I've got to thank him for no little that he did," replied Bullstone. "A rare man of business, and nobody ever cut a loss and put it behind him quicker and cleaner than he did. All for land, and pretty well the last thing he said in my ear was, 'Buy in Brent.' He knew Brent to be on the up grade in his time, and he'd always buy when he could. Some nice parcels I've got for building, Billy; but most of them are not up to my selling price yet."

They talked of Brent and then Jacob looked at his watch.

"Toddle up the valley and have dinner with us."

"Not to-day. I've promised your missis to come Sunday," said William.