D. F. E. Sykes

“ Well, I suppose the thoughts of danger to Miriam that his silent broodings had conjured up were the convulsion that had fired his passion and loosed his tongue. We ordinary folk are so begirt by law and order and convention that we forget the elemental forces and little realise the heights and depths to which human nature can soar or fall when law and order and convention are swept away as I have seen the dam walls swept away by the waters of a swollen, raging stream. ”

“ Ah! Abe, Abe, let us judge not lest we be judged. How can you, who have always known a father’s love and such a father’s—and had a Christian home and nurture—how can you mete out just measure to such as Ephraim? It is for One who knows all to judge, not for us who can at best see but darkly as through a glass.”
“And now have you two done your billing and cooing —billing and cooing indeed !—came Ruth’s brisk voice as she entered the room with a basin of broth and half a teacake for her invalid. “You’ve been making Miriam cry, Abe, and I won’t have it. ”

“ I had the day before me, the rare treat of an extra holiday, the price of a luncheon of bread and cheese—with an onion—and a pint of ale, in my pocket, youth and health, a sunlit sky, the pure, fresh air of the far-flung moors, sweet thoughts of Miriam to warm my heart and many a scheme for the future to busy my brain—what more could man ask of life? ”

“ ON the slope of the hill as it shelves down to the Colne from Pole Moor lies the little cluster of houses called Burn Platts, and there dwelt, if so nomadic a people could be properly said to dwell anywhere, those terrors of the countryside, the bogeys of all the children for miles around, the Burnplatters—horse-dealers, gipsies, fortune-tellers cloth-lifters, roost-spoilers poachers, tramps, thieves, whiskey-spinners, and evil-doers generally. ”

“ But, alas! we don’t live in a perfect state, and human nature will have a long way to travel before it ceases to be true that if you want to get the best out of a man set him to work for himself. Anyhow—I’m no philosopher—Jim and I toiled in those early days at Mitchell Mill, and for many a long year thereafter, like galley-slaves. We had a long row to hoe, and we knew it. And were there not Miriam and Ruth to cheer us when we despaired, and to lighten our toil by all the arts of loving and good women. ”

“ We were loth to tell what we knew and yet we knew not what mischief our silence might entail. On one point we were clearly resolved: if any man’s life or liberty were clearly imperilled then, come what might, it was our clear duty to declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Two considerations closed our mouths. First and foremost I hated the very thought of having the name of my Miriam bandied about, blazoned in every newspaper, on the lips of every soaker in every pot house from Stalybridge to Huddersfield. ”

“ Wrigley cast her keen glance at her husband.
“I believe you’ve been arguing, John. It’s that horrid gin. It’s a strange thing a man can’t take spirits without wanting to argue. And you lost your temper, too. I heard you from the bedroom. That temper of yours will be your undoing, John, You must pray against it, mustn’t he, Mr. Holmes?”
“Oh Lord!” muttered Mr. Wrigley, feebly, mopping his brow with a large silk handkerchief.
“Now we’ll go in to tea. John, you’ll take Ruth; Abel, look after Mrs. Haigh; Jim must look after himself, for I want Miriam to sit by me.” ”

“ They’re so in love with love that if they haven’t a romance of their own they’re quick to enter into another’s, and if the course of true love doesn’t run smooth it’s not for want of willing help to straighten the way. And I dare say my astute sister may have reflected that one good turn deserves another, and that she herself might have need of a brother’s backing in the days to come. Anyhow, though with many a discouraging shake of her clever little head, she promised me to do what she could to win to speech with Miriam and help me to my heart’s desire. ”

“ I daresay there are people who wonder at those who take a delight in a hearty feed. I expect these are the folk who all their lives have always had more than enough to eat. We were not in that case—far otherwise. The fare at Pole Moor was ample enough, but ever of the plainest, porridge and buttermilk, buttermilk and porridge, bacon and pork, pork and bacon, with haver bread—Ruth had as neat a turn of the wrist for swishing the meal and water on to a bakestone as ever you saw—butcher’s meat and white bread perhaps once a week, and now and then a dish of tea. ”

“ Nor, for another thing, had my experience of life and human nature then taught me what devastating havoc can be wrought in the heart of man by thwarted passion, its fires fed by strong drink. “Hell,” says the proverb, “has no fury like a woman scorned,” and I suppose a man who sees the woman he has for years looked upon as his own and whom after his wild and fiery fashion he loves, give the treasures of her young love to another, is in like case to a woman scorned. ”

“ People who really intend mischief don’t go babbling their designs over a pot. They lie low and keep their mouths shut. Then their blow falls like lightning out of a summer sky. Besides, there’s law in the land. As for the mill and our pieces, Jim and I can look after them. And as for Miriam—why, we aren’t in the Highlands of Scotland, where such things might be, but in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and, anyway, Miriam is not the girl to be forced into marriage by Ephraim Sykes and all the Burnplatters put together. ”

“ There was no one in the bottom room or “house,” which was all uncared for—no fire in the grate, which argued badly for the comforts a sick man should have; and again I reproached myself that I had suffered myself to be beguiled into going to the Wakes, though a quick afterthought told me that to have missed the Wakes would have been to have missed one whose dark bright eyes had haunted me day and night ever since, dancing in and out with my shuttle at the loom, and mocking me in my dreams. ”

“ You say this ring once belonged to Miriam’s mother, and that that mother went the way of shame. Then, Mother Sykes, though you were at your last gasp, I tell you, you lie foully in your throat. Her mother was the loved and honoured wife of as good and God-fearing and of as unfortunate and wronged a man as ever trod this earth. I knew him well, and closed his eyes in death, and were it the last word I have to speak, James Garside was no seducer of women. Aye, even a Burnplatter’s daughter would be safe with him, as a Burnplatter’s granddaughter is safe with Abel Holmes. ”

“ What about the living? What about Miriam? If her grandmother made things plain to you, Burnplatts is no place for her now her only protector’s dead and gone. Come to that, it never was. Surely she’s not left alone in the house with her dead. Oh, if I’d only the strength of a kitling I’d be down to Burnplatts myself. You’ll go, Ruth?”
“And have you so little knowledge of your father, Abel? The maid Miriam is well seen to. There’s that strange man, Daft Billy, hangs about the place and will see no harm comes to her—a wild, uncouth creature, but a faithful. ”

“ I had no more notion of the noble art of self-defence than a boy perforce picks up in his schooldays’ scrimmages. Moreover, my reverend father had always impressed upon me that if an adversary smote me on one cheek it was my Christian duty to turn to him the other also. But that was a doctrine I had always regarded as a counsel of perfection, and clearly, unless I had mind to be pounded to a jelly, which I certainly had not, this was no occasion for its practical application, for Tom o’ Bill’s fists were hovering about my head and chest, and I’d much ado to keep clear of them. ”

“ Only give him plenty to eat and a fair allowance of his favourite homebrewed and Jim seemed as fresh as new paint and ready to start again after doing a day’s work that would have made every bone in my body ache for a week.
Now, in my young days I confess to a fondness for reading the works of Mr. Robert Owen, of Lanark, and, to be sure, we are all taught to believe in the brotherhood of man and to bear one another’s burden, and that may mean that the strong should cheerfully earn the whole cake and give the better half of it to the weak, thankful to be able to do it. ”

“ Garside had given me for my own, the ring engraved “Mizpah,” that even by the moon’s light sparkled and glistened as I slipt it on to Miriam’s finger.
“No! no! not there. I musn’t wear it there. See, it shall be close my heart,” and she kissed it and slid it within the folds of her dress. “I’ll wear it there, and no one at Burnplatts must see it. Why, there’s men there would rob a church for less than these bright stones. And Granny and Ephraim Oh! I’m feart, I’m feart. ”

“ And on the waggon was piled a huge cone of rushes cunningly plaited together, on whose summit perched, with precarious seat, Tim o’ Tame Water, who was regarded with fear and trembling by all the children for miles around, he being by way of being the village idiot, though, when I come to think of it, a man who can make a fairish living without doing a handstroke of work from January to December may not be quite such a fool as he’s reckoned. ”

“ Now, I suppose there never was maiden yet born into this world who has not revelled in a love story. You’ve only to look at the dear creatures as they crowd round a church door at a wedding to make sure of that. The sight of a white veil and orange blossoms sets their sweet hearts all of a quiver. ”

“ I am the father of two fine sons and a daughter, who bids fair to be nearly as good to look upon as my Miriam, and unite to six sturdy little Haigh lads and one bright maiden, who, I fear me, will prove as great a tyrant as Jim declares our Ruth to be. ”

“ I saw the two well-known gamekeepers that all the countryside knew as Bill o’ Jack’s, and Tom o’ Bill’s, William Bradbury and Tom, his son, men of bad repute, wenchers and ale-bibbers, and never so happy as when they could get some poor devil of a weaver into trouble with his betters for snaring a rabbit or bagging a bird. ”

“ Of his right within the wide expanse watered by the Colne he made no question—he had come to regard it as his spiritual own, his vineyard, his parish.
“That’s all very well, father,” commented Ruth, “and doubtless you could speak to the Burnplatters and the Bradburys to their eternal profit. But I’ve a better plan; one that will keep Ephraim Sykes out of harm and cover those who plot his destruction with confusion. Now you two, listen to me. A woman’s wit, you know, can jump over a wall whilst a man is groping round for a gate.” ”

“ He seemed to be, in his sick fancies, in the cottage at Grasmere, with his bride by his side, and then his face shone, and his look was the look of a man full of a rich content, but at times a cloud gathered on his countenance, his brow knitted, and he would peer anxiously about with a bewildered air as though searching for his soul’s peace. “Esmeralda” was the last word that passed his lips. We buried him in Saddlworth Churchyard and Mary and myself were the only mourners. ”

“ Then Ruth unfolded her plan, and as I listened I rubbed my hands together gleefully, and when it stood revealed in all its completeness, clapped Ruth on the back and declared with conviction that such a headpiece was thrown away on a woman and she ought to have been ’prenticed to a ’torney, a compliment that Ruth received with deprecating modesty, and clearly not ill-pleased, though, to be sure, it was one of our most rooted and cherished convictions that all attornies were sons of the Father of Lies, and bound to end up in the brimstone lake. ”

“ And it shall be heaped before her eyes, and she shall see the yellow glisten of it, and hear the rich chink of it, and handle, and, if she likes, fondle it, as they say misers do, that she may realise that it is a real thing and all her own, and that if she list she may shake the dust of Pole Moor from her feet and go out into the wide world with power to pick and choose. ”

“ Now you won’t need to be told that if ever a man felt bursting with happiness that man was no other than myself in those weeks of my convalescence, with Miriam to keep me company, and, as Jim put it, “cocker me up like a great spoiled babby.” But I protest that Miriam was in greater danger of being spoiled than I. I say nothing of my wondering pride and worship in those days. It is right and natural that a lover should worship his mistress—doesn’t the very marriage service say, “With my body I thee worship?”—it is natural that he should deem her peerless among women ”

“ But, father or no father, I’m going to get Miriam away from those Burnplatts riff-raff if it’s to be done by hook or crook. A man’s not a pig if he chances to have been born in a stye, and Miriam’s a good girl, Burnplatter or no Burnplatter. ”

“ Now I’ve often reflected—there’s nothing like a good dinner for inducing pious meditation—that it is a sure proof of the infinite goodness and wisdom of the great Architect of the universe that the best and most wholesome and necessary things are ever the most abundant and cheapest, and accessible to all God’s creatures. What, for instance, is cheaper than cold water? And what water is to man, inside and outside, the stupid creature never realises till he is compelled at times to do without. ”

“ Esmeralda showed it to me before ever she quitted Manchester. Showed me the letters traced on the inner side of it. I’d seen her often after she grew up, unbeknown to old Mrs. Garside, and I’d made myself known to her. At first she was fleyed of me; but blood’s thicker than water. She told me, too, the young master was courting her, but his mother would never consent. There was some talk of another woman they’d planned for him. I disremember exactly, but it’ll come back to me, maybe to-morrow. Give me another sup of summat, Miriam—my head’s that wammy, un’ it’s desperate cold. ”