Read Online Charles Palliser by The Quincunx - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: The Quincunx
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and a year went by and then another, and I became bored with spinning my top and trundling my hoop around the terraced grass-plats, I chafed increasingly at my confinement to the house and garden. I might remark, incidentally, that I never saw the mole-spade in Mr Pimlott’s possession again. (And this confirmed my suspicion that he had lent it to the tramper to effect his entry.) Neither did I ever venture back into the Wilderness, at first through fear but then it was something else that restrained me — a superstitious desire, I think, to leave something unexplored, to have something that I feared as dangerous and yet knew I could face up to and find to be safe after all.
I particularly resented my afternoon walks because the village-children used to jeer at me when they saw me walking with my mother or Sukey as if I were under guard, and so I used to run on as far ahead of my escort as I could in order to look as if I were alone. I envied the children for running barefoot in the summer when I used to see them on the Green playing their elaborate games of chuck-farthing and kiss-in-the-ring and drop-the-handkerchief. And on the long summer evenings I watched them playing at shuttlecock in the wide street from the front windows of the house.
Above all, and later, as I grew bigger and my walks extended further, I envied the boys of my age whom I sometimes heard shouting above our heads where they were bird-nesting in the high branches or whom I glimpsed in the A WISE CHILD
31
distance swimming in the river — the white flash of their bodies visible as they dived from the bank. Once or twice while I was walking with Sukey we met one of her brothers, especially Harry who was only a few years my senior, and he always seemed to be doing exciting things: helping to drive cattle, or tenting crows, or harvesting. And quite often it came about that we fell in with Job and that he happened to be walking our way.
I liked Job, particularly because, when he and Sukey were not giggling and whispering to each other, he told me about the things he had done as a boy. He had been very keen on swimming and I conceived the idea that he might be permitted to teach me.
I asked my mother about this and at last she agreed.
And so one fine Sunday afternoon that summer, Job and I went to the mill-pond on the river at Twycott. He was a good teacher and on that first day I learned a great deal. I was impressed by the way he dived from the bank and swam underwater and I envied this ability and yet was terrified of the thought of emulating him, especially when he would swim beneath the water-gate of the abandoned mill. He tried to teach me but seeing how frightened I was, he desisted and contented himself with improving my skill in merely swimming.
Our lessons became a regular occurrence on Sundays, and afterwards Job would walk home with me to have tea in the kitchen with Sukey and Mrs Belflower. One day only a few weeks later, however, Sukey told me with tears in her eyes that I would not be seeing him again for a very long time. He had gone to “ ’list” as a soldier. (She told me that this was because of the way Mr Emeris — prompted by Bissett — was pursuing him with his suspicions of involvement in the burgling of our house.) I was so disappointed at this interruption of my swimming-lessons that my mother had the idea of asking Sukey if the eldest of her young brothers, Harry, could continue the lessons. She looked a little doubtful at this but said she thought it could be arranged.
So next Sunday it was Harry who accompanied me to the river, largely in silence for he spoke rarely and seemed uninterested in my conversation. He was a well-built, straw-haired lad with a big jaw and pale blue eyes. His approach was much more pragmatic than Job’s for he insisted that I should first of all learn to stay under the water in order to overcome my natural fear of it, and his conviction that this was desirable seemed to increase when he
I particularly resented my afternoon walks because the village-children used to jeer at me when they saw me walking with my mother or Sukey as if I were under guard, and so I used to run on as far ahead of my escort as I could in order to look as if I were alone. I envied the children for running barefoot in the summer when I used to see them on the Green playing their elaborate games of chuck-farthing and kiss-in-the-ring and drop-the-handkerchief. And on the long summer evenings I watched them playing at shuttlecock in the wide street from the front windows of the house.
Above all, and later, as I grew bigger and my walks extended further, I envied the boys of my age whom I sometimes heard shouting above our heads where they were bird-nesting in the high branches or whom I glimpsed in the A WISE CHILD
31
distance swimming in the river — the white flash of their bodies visible as they dived from the bank. Once or twice while I was walking with Sukey we met one of her brothers, especially Harry who was only a few years my senior, and he always seemed to be doing exciting things: helping to drive cattle, or tenting crows, or harvesting. And quite often it came about that we fell in with Job and that he happened to be walking our way.
I liked Job, particularly because, when he and Sukey were not giggling and whispering to each other, he told me about the things he had done as a boy. He had been very keen on swimming and I conceived the idea that he might be permitted to teach me.
I asked my mother about this and at last she agreed.
And so one fine Sunday afternoon that summer, Job and I went to the mill-pond on the river at Twycott. He was a good teacher and on that first day I learned a great deal. I was impressed by the way he dived from the bank and swam underwater and I envied this ability and yet was terrified of the thought of emulating him, especially when he would swim beneath the water-gate of the abandoned mill. He tried to teach me but seeing how frightened I was, he desisted and contented himself with improving my skill in merely swimming.
Our lessons became a regular occurrence on Sundays, and afterwards Job would walk home with me to have tea in the kitchen with Sukey and Mrs Belflower. One day only a few weeks later, however, Sukey told me with tears in her eyes that I would not be seeing him again for a very long time. He had gone to “ ’list” as a soldier. (She told me that this was because of the way Mr Emeris — prompted by Bissett — was pursuing him with his suspicions of involvement in the burgling of our house.) I was so disappointed at this interruption of my swimming-lessons that my mother had the idea of asking Sukey if the eldest of her young brothers, Harry, could continue the lessons. She looked a little doubtful at this but said she thought it could be arranged.
So next Sunday it was Harry who accompanied me to the river, largely in silence for he spoke rarely and seemed uninterested in my conversation. He was a well-built, straw-haired lad with a big jaw and pale blue eyes. His approach was much more pragmatic than Job’s for he insisted that I should first of all learn to stay under the water in order to overcome my natural fear of it, and his conviction that this was desirable seemed to increase when he
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