Read Online The Liverpool Rose by Katie Flynn - Free Book Online

face.
    Struggling to his knees, he peered out into the brilliant morning. The rain had cleared while he slept and a strong breeze was already drying the twigs and leaf mould underfoot. Heaving an enormous yawn, he gathered up his possessions, shoved everything into his ditty bag and set off to find himself some breakfast. He remembered, vaguely, that he had dreamed and that in his dream his mother had been advising him, but he could not for the life of him remember more than that. The river, the countryside and the conversation which they had held on the river bank had gone completely from his memory. But with his awakening on this fourth day of his adventure, he was aware, more strongly than ever, of the rightness of what he had done. Suddenly self-confident, he knew that he would find work which he could both do and enjoy, and that his future would be neither dark nor lonely.
    Tremendously elated by the thought of the adventures he was sure would lie ahead, Clem whistled as he walked along, heading for the farmhouse on the brow of the hill where he would try to get some work and also some breakfast.
    It was some weeks later that Clem came across the canal. He knew that if he followed it, it would take him to the great city of Leeds where everyone seemed to think he would find permanent work. He hated the thought of working in a factory or mill, but had common sense enough to realise that when the summer was over, there would be little or no work onthe land, particularly for a wanderer with no home of his own.
    Winters, furthermore, were hard in this area and Clem had no desire to be found stiff and stark, dead under a hedge when the snows came. Neither did he intend to go back to working underground and he had a strong suspicion that if he left if too long, he would not be the only person seeking work in the city. Therefore it behoved him to follow the canal and try to get work either along the way or in Leeds itself when he reached it.
    Accordingly, he took to the towpath and rapidly became fascinated both by the little villages clustered alongside the water, and by the canal barges themselves. What was more, many of the barges still used horses to tow them and it was not long before Clem’s natural love of the animals led him to gather handfuls of dandelion leaves, cow parsley and other such dainties from the verges as he passed, so that he might slip the fresh greenery to any horse he happened to meet.
    He guessed that as he got nearer the city the canal would become less attractive. Already, he thought, there were more mills and warehouses alongside the banks than fields, woods and meadows. He decided that if he could get work near the canal he would do so, and one day, while sitting on the bank eating the bread and cheese with which a farmer’s wife had paid him for his help in cleaning out and repainting her milking parlour, it occurred to him that it would be grand to work on the canal itself. Astonishingly, as though the thought had been a key turning in a lock, he remembered the dream he had had after he had left the village. Everything came back to him all in an instant: his mother’s face, her gentle loving look, andthe advice she had given him. His father and grandfather had helped to dig canals and his grandfather had actually worked on a barge. Surely he could do the same? He had always loved horses and knew himself to have a way with them, so that they would obey his commands with alacrity where other people had to threaten and scold to get the same results.
    He had no idea how canal folk lived, but guessed it was a hard life as well as a rewarding one. They could, to an extent, live off the land, he imagined, since there were plenty of fish in the canal, and the banks and meadows through which it passed abounded with rabbits. Furthermore, surely no one would object if a boatman helped himself to a few turnips or a nice cabbage? If he did so when the boat was tied up for the night, it seemed highly unlikely