Johnny Ludlow, First Series. Henry Wood
not been in the way o’ seeing or hearing, master; I’ve been in the tent alone. If folks had come to my aid, Corry might not have died. I’ve had nothing but water to put to her lips all day?”
“What was the matter with her?” Tod asked, convinced at length that Lena was not there.
“She have been ailing long—worse since the moon come in. The sickness took her with the summer, and the strength began to go out. Jake have been down, too. He couldn’t get out to bring us help, and we have had none.”
Jake was the husband, we supposed. The help meant food, or funds to get it with.
“He sat all yesterday cutting skewers, his hands a’most too weak to fashion ’em. Maybe he’d sell ’em for a few ha’pence, he said; and he went out this morning to try, and bring home a morsel of food.”
“Tod,” I whispered, “I wish that hard-hearted Molly had–”
“Hold your tongue, Johnny,” he interrupted sharply. “Is Jake your husband?” he asked of the woman.
“He is my husband, and the children’s father.”
“Jake would not be likely to steal a child, would he?” asked Tod, in a hesitating manner, for him.
She looked up, as if not understanding. “Steal a child, master! What for?”
“I don’t know,” said Tod. “I thought perhaps he had done it, and had brought the child here.”
Another comical stare from the woman. “We couldn’t feed these of ours; what should we do with another?”
“Well: Jake called at our house to sell his skewers; and, directly afterwards, we missed my little sister. I have been hunting for her ever since.”
“Was the house far from here!”
“A few miles.”
“Then he have sunk down of weakness on his way, and can’t get back.”
Putting her head on her knees, she began to sob and moan. The child—the living one—began to bawl; one couldn’t call it anything else; and pulled at the green rushes.
“He knew Corry was sick and faint when he went out. He’d have got back afore now if his strength hadn’t failed him; though, maybe, he didn’t think of death. Whist, then, whist, then, Dor,” she added, to the boy.
“Don’t cry,” said Tod to the little chap, who had the largest, brightest eyes I ever saw. “That will do no good, you know.”
“I want Corry,” said he. “Where’s Corry gone?”
“She’s gone up to God,” answered Tod, speaking very gently. “She’s gone to be a bright angel with Him in heaven.”
“Will she fly down to me?” asked Dor, his great eyes shining through their tears at Tod.
“Yes,” affirmed Tod, who had a theory of his own on the point, and used to think, when a little boy, that his mother was always near him, one of God’s angels keeping him from harm. “And after a while, you know, if you are good, you’ll go to Corry, and be an angel, too.”
“God bless you, master!” interposed the woman. “He’ll think of that always.”
“Tod,” I said, as we went out of the tent, “I don’t think they are people to steal children.”
“Who’s to know what the man would do?” retorted Tod.
“A man with a dying child at home wouldn’t be likely to harm another.”
Tod did not answer. He stood still a moment, deliberating which way to go. Back to Alcester?—where a conveyance might be found to take us home, for the fatigue was telling on both of us, now that disappointment was prolonged, and I, at least, could hardly put one foot before another. Or down to the high-road, and run the chance of some vehicle overtaking us? Or keep on amidst these fields and hedgerows, which would lead us home by a rather nearer way, but without chance of a lift? Tod made up his mind, and struck down the lane the way we had come up. He was on first, and I saw him suddenly halt, and turn to me.
“Look here, Johnny!”
I looked as well as I could for the night and the trees, and saw something on the ground. A man had sunk down there, apparently from exhaustion. His face was a tawny white, just like the dead child’s. A stout stick and the bundles of skewers lay beside him.
“Do you see the fellow, Johnny? It is the gipsy.”
“Has he fainted?”
“Fainted, or shamming it. I wonder if there’s any water about?”
But the man opened his eyes; perhaps the sound of voices revived him. After looking at us a minute or two, he raised himself slowly on his elbow. Tod—the one thought uppermost in his mind—said something about Lena.
“The child’s found, master!”
Tod seemed to give a leap. I know his heart did. “Found!”
“Been safe at home this long while.”
“Who found her?”
“’Twas me, master.”
“Where was she?” asked Tod, his tone softening. “Let us hear about it.”
“I was making back for the town” (we supposed he meant Alcester), “and missed the way; land about here’s strange to me. A-going through a bit of a groove, which didn’t seem as if it was leading to nowhere, I heard a child crying. There was the little thing tied to a tree, stripped, and–”
“Stripped!” roared Tod.
“Stripped to the skin, sir, save for a dirty old skirt that was tied round her. A woman carried her off to that spot, she told me, robbed her of her clothes, and left her there. Knowing where she must ha’ been stole from—through you’re accusing me of it, master—I untied her to lead her home, but her feet warn’t used to the rough ground, and I made shift to carry her. A matter of two miles it were, and I be not good for much. I left her at home safe, and set off back. That’s all, master.”
“What were you doing here?” asked Tod, as considerately as if he had been speaking to a lord. “Resting?”
“I suppose I fell, master. I don’t remember nothing, since I was tramping up the lane, till your voices came. I’ve had naught inside my lips to-day but a drink o’ water.”
“Did they give you nothing to eat at the house when you took the child home?”
He shook his head. “I saw the woman again, nobody else. She heard what I had to say about the child, and she never said ‘Thank ye.’”
The man had been getting on his feet, and took up the skewers, that were all tied together with string, and the stick. But he reeled as he stood, and would have fallen again but for Tod. Tod gave him his arm.
“We are in for it, Johnny,” said he aside to me. “Pity but I could be put in a picture—the Samaritan helping the destitute!”
“I’d not accept of ye, sir, but that I have a child sick at home, and want to get to her. There’s a piece of bread in my pocket that was give me at a cottage to-day.”
“Is your child sure to get well?” asked Tod, after a pause; wondering whether he could say anything of what had occurred, so as to break the news.
The man gazed right away into the distance, as if searching for an answer in the far-off star shining there.
“There’s been a death-look in her face this day and night past, master. But the Lord’s good to us all.”
“And sometimes, when He takes children, it is done in mercy,” said Tod. “Heaven is a better place than this.”
“Ay,” rejoined the man, who was leaning heavily on Tod, and could never have got home without him, unless he had crawled on hands and knees. “I’ve been sickly on and off for this year past; worse lately; and I’ve