Henery Walker

“ It was a nice letter, and, arter thanking Henery Walker for all his kindness, 'is uncle said that he was getting an old man, and p'r'aps he should come and lay 'is bones in England arter all, and if he did 'e should certainly come and see his grand-nephew, Henery Walker.
Most of us thought Henery Walker's fortune was as good as made, but Bob
Pretty, a nasty, low poaching chap that has done wot he could to give
Claybury a bad name, turned up his nose at it.
"I'll believe he's coming 'ome when I see him," he ses. "It's my belief he went to Australey to get out o' your way, Henery." ”

“ Henery Walker stayed outside five minutes, and then 'e come back in ag'in to ask for advice. His idea seemed to be that, as the old gentleman was deaf, Bob Pretty was passing 'isself off as Henery Walker, and the disgrace was a'most more than 'e could bear. He began to get excited ag'in, and Smith 'ad just said “Hush!” once more when we 'eard somebody whistling outside, and in come Bob Pretty. ”

“ That was on'y common sense; but, as John Biggs said, it did seem 'ard to think as 'ow Bob Pretty should be allowed to get off scot-free, and with Henery Walker's five pounds too. “There's one thing,” he ses to Bob; “you won't 'ave any of these other pore chaps money; and, if they're men, they ought to make it up to Henery Walker for the money he 'as saved 'em by finding you out.” ”

“ This one is no relation to you at all; he's a very respectable old gentleman.”
“I'll go and ask 'im,” ses Henery Walker, getting up, “and I'll tell 'im wot sort o' man you are, Bob Pretty.”
“He's gone to bed now, Henery,” ses Bob Pretty.
“I'll come in the fust thing to-morrow morning, then,” ses Henery Walker.
“Not in my 'ouse, Henery,” ses Bob Pretty; “not arter the things you've been sayin' about me. I'm a pore man, but I've got my pride. Besides, I tell you he ain't your uncle. He's a pore old man I'm giving a 'ome to, and I won't 'ave 'im worried.” ”

“ Smith asked 'im wot he meant, but 'is deafness come on ag'in. Henery Walker 'ad an extra dose o' gin put in, and arter he 'ad tasted it the old gentleman seemed to get more amiable-like, and 'im and Henery Walker sat by theirselves talking quite comfortable.
“Why not come and stay with me?” ses Henery Walker, at last. “You can do as you please and have the best of everything.”
“Bob Pretty ses you're arter my money,” ses the old gentleman, shaking his 'ead. “I couldn't trust you.” ”

“ Sutton that it wasn't his friends that shot them pore fellers he won't pay them anything. 'Tain't likely 'e would, is it?”
Henery Walker, wot 'ad been standing up looking fierce at 'im, sat down agin, struck all of a heap.
“And he might want your ten pounds back, Henery,” said Bob in a soft voice. “And seeing as 'ow you was kind enough to give five to me, and spent most of the other, it 'ud come 'ard on you, wouldn't it? Always think afore you speak, Henery. I always do.” ”

“ Fust one went off 'ome and then another, and at last, when there was on'y three or four of 'em left, Henery Walker, wot prided himself on 'is artfulness, 'ad an idea.
"One of us must get Bob Pretty up 'ere to-morrow night and stand 'im a pint, or p'r'aps two pints," he ses. "While he's here two other chaps must 'ave a row close by his 'ouse and pretend to fight. Mrs. Pretty and the young 'uns are sure to run out to look at it, and while they are out another chap can go in quiet-like and get the hamper." ”

“ Directly Ted Brown and Joe Smith started, Mrs. Pretty and her sister, and all the kids excepting the baby, run out, and they'd 'ardly gone afore I was inside the back door and looking for that hamper, and I'd hardly started afore I heard them coming back agin. I was at the foot o' the stairs at the time, and, not knowing wot to do, I went up 'em into Bob's bedroom.”
“Well?” ses Bill Chambers, as Henery Walker stopped and looked round.
“A'most direckly arterwards I 'eard Mrs. Pretty and her sister coming upstairs,” ses Henery Walker, with a shudder. ”

“ Henningsen, who knew him intimately, was unaware of any romance in the career of his chieftain; yet there was one, the only one of his life and it has been given to the world, within a few years, by a near relative of Walker. The object of his love was Helen Martin, a beautiful New Orleans girl, whom he met in Nashville after his return from Europe. She is described by Mr. Daniel Francis Barr, who had the story from Walker's cousin, as "a most attractive woman—the loveliness of face and form being enhanced by that endearing charm which helplessness to beauty lends. ”

“ Do ye conceive me?”
“I do, I do; but no baily—I deserved that place,” wailed Henery, signifying wasted genius by gazing blankly at visions of a high destiny apparently visible to him on Billy Smallbury’s smock-frock. “There, ’twas to be, I suppose. Your lot is your lot, and Scripture is nothing; for if you do good you don’t get rewarded according to your works, but are cheated in some mean way out of your recompense.”
“No, no; I don’t agree with’ee there,” said Mark Clark, decisively. God’s a perfect gentleman in that respect.” ”

“ They begged and prayed of ‘er to let ‘em go up and just ‘ave a peep at ‘im, but she wouldn't. She said she'd go upstairs and peep for ‘em, and she came down agin and said that ‘e was a little bit flushed, but sleeping like a lamb.
“They went round the corner and drank the ale up, and Bill Chambers said it was a good job. Henery thought ‘e was clever, because nobody else did. As for ‘is ‘eadaches, he put ‘em down to over-eating.
“Several other chaps called to see Job, but none of them was allowed to go up, and for seven weeks that unfortunate man never touched a drop of anything. ”

“ Tyler was delighted to see us, in spite of her momentary bitterness on the subject of "Henery."
"He'll be down-right sorry to miss you young folks," she said. "It's mighty nice of you to come 'way out here to say good-bye. But Henery's always gallivantin' round when he ought to be at home 'tending to the farm. Men is restless creatures anyway, Miss Helen. Won't you come in and set in the parlour? ”

“ In the churchyard of Irongray a table stone, reared by Sir Walter Scott, commemorates Helen Walker, the prototype of Jeanie Deans, whose integrity and tenderness are, in his “Heart of Midlothian,” so admirably portrayed by that great novelist. The following is the inscription:—
This stone was erected
by the author of Waverley
to the memory of
Helen Walker,
who died in the year of God 1791.
This humble individual practised in real
life the virtues
with which fiction has invested
the imaginary character of
Jeanie Deans ”

“ The Angel's answer was prompt. “Why, I figgered that you couldn't ketch Jeems Henery an' wouldn't ketch me. An',” the Angel added dreamily, “it come might' nigh bein' that-a-way if I just had——”
“You're a horrid, wicked little boy,” St. Hilda cried, but the Angel would not be perturbed, for he was a practical moralist.
“Jeems Henery,” he called into space, “come hyeh!” And out of space James Henry came, as though around the corner he had been waiting the summons.
“Jeems Henery, who was the gamblin'est, cussin'est, lyin'est boy on Viper?” ”

“ The company suspended consideration of whether they wanted their souls blessed that moment, as the shortest way to the end of the story.
“I believe that if so be that Baily Pennyways’ heart were put inside a nutshell, he’d rattle,” continued Henery. “He’ll strain for money as a salmon will strain for the river’s head. ’Tis a thief and a robber, that’s what ’tis.”
Gabriel thought fit to change the subject. “You must be a very aged man, malster, to have sons growed mild and ancient,” he remarked. ”

“ To complaine to my prince Henerye.
'That shall not need,' sais my lord Haward;
'If thou canst lett me this robber see,
Ffor euery peny he hath taken thee froe,
Thou shalt be rewarded a shilling,' quoth hee.
'Now God forefend,' saies Henery Hunt,
'My lord, you shold worke soe farr amisse!
God keepe you out of that traitors hands!
For you wott full litle what a man hee is.
'Hee is brasse within, and steele without,
And beames hee beares in his topcastle stronge ”

“ The pilgrim who rambles as far as Wootton-Wawen will surely stroll onward to Henley-in-Arden. The whole of that region was originally covered by the Forest of Arden [42] —the woods that Shakespeare had in mind when he was writing As You Like It, a comedy whereof the atmosphere, foliage, flowers, scenery, and spirit are purely those of his native Warwickshire. Henley, if the observer may judge by the numerous inns that fringe its long, straggling, picturesque street, must once have been a favourite halting-place for the coaches that plied between London and Birmingham. ”

“ So there were quite a number of men came in of a morning from half-past eight to half-past nine; and Carry who, as has been said, was in no ways loath to be admired, had a bright smile, and a laughing remark ready for each. So Stephen Walker’s shop was quite a well-known rendezvous, and the young men would stand there chatting with Carry till the ‘bus came along past the end of the street, where the coachman would regularly stop for them. ”

“ Henley succeeded in his speculation, by lecturing, in the most important manner, on all sorts of subjects, from the origin of evil down to a shoe. He also published a variety of pamphlets, and a periodical farrago called the 'Hyp Doctor,' for which he is said to have had pay from Sir 250 Robert Walpole; and as his popularity rapidly increased in consequence of his addressing himself to uneducated understandings, he removed from his Oratory in Newport Market to the more capacious room in Clare Market ”

“ Sometimes I think it's a blessin' when I hear of the goings-on of the young folk today. Well, you never know how things might have been. Takes all my time to keep up with what is. It's the Lord's will, I tell Henery—He knows best. Take another glass of milk, Miss Helen. There's plenty more where that come from. Feed's gettin' scarce, though. It dries up in this weather."
We chatted awhile with Mrs. Tyler—perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we inserted with difficulty monosyllables at intervals into her monologue—and finally persuaded her to let us go. ”

“ Henley standing by the roadside listening to the retreating wheels of the coach. The forest was dense, and the moonlight, struggling through the tree-tops, fell upon the ground in patches, adding to the obscurity. Henley seated himself upon a fallen tree, to await the arrival of the cart. Although quite as courageous as the average of men, he could not help a slight feeling of apprehension concerning the outcome of his enterprise. Of course, he knew nothing about these people; but the girl was prepossessing and refined to an unusual degree. ”

“ I think that American moment was more thrilling than any given moment at Henley; and though there is more comfort in a college barge, and more gentle seclusion for the favored spectator, I am not going to own that it equals as a view-point the observation-train, with its successive banks of shouting and glowing girls, all a flutter of handkerchiefs and parasols, which used to keep abreast of the racing crews beside the stately course of the Connecticut Thames. Otherwise I think it best to withhold comparisons, lest the impartial judge should decide in favor of Henley. ”

“ In the Civil War, which so soon followed, and later in the service of the Khedive of Egypt, were several of Walker’s officers, and for years after his death there was no war in which one of the men trained by him in the jungles of Nicaragua did not distinguish himself. In his memoirs, the Englishman, General Charles Frederic Henningsen, writes that though he had taken part in some of the greatest battles of the Civil War he would pit a thousand men of Walker’s command against any five thousand Confederate or Union soldiers. ”

“ I asked. "Just to pull you together."
"I don't think I need it, Ted, unless you tell me to take it." I started to hand it back to "Henery," but Mrs. Tyler was too quick for me. She snatched the bottle: "I'll just lock this away in the medicine closet, and when Henery's back troubles him again, he can have it along with one of my hot poultices."
"Henery" looked truly woeful; it was an awful price to ask a man to pay for a drink. As Helen finished the biscuit and milk we heard a carriage outside, and Mr. Claybourne came rushing in. ”

“ Are they satisfactory women?" she inquired softly of Henery Fray.
"Oh mem -- don't ask me! Yielding women -- as scarlet a pair as ever was!" groaned Henery under his breath.
"Sit down."
"Who, mem?"
"Sit down."
Joseph Poorgrass, in the background, twitched, and his lips became dry with fear of some terrible consequences, as he saw Bathsheba summarily speaking, and Henery slinking off to a corner.
"Now the next. Laban Tall, you'll stay on working for me?"
"For you or anybody that pays me well, ma'am," replied the young married man.
"True -- the man must live!" ”

“ Young Southerners drifted to Nicaragua, as naturally as young Northerners ran away to sea. A son and a nephew of Senator Bayard ran away from school to join the filibusters, and might have added some military glory to the family name, but that Walker sent them home at the request of the American State department. Henningsen's first aid was a youth of nineteen, named Burbank, who had run away from the Virginia military institute, and would have been entitled, had he lived, to a fortune of 100,000 dollars, which in those days was esteemed wealth. ”

“ Nor did she guess that Al Gepper stood at the darkened window of his room, watching her.
Penny drove as fast as she could to the Henley home in the southern section of Riverview. Lights blazed from the downstairs windows.
Abandoning her car in the driveway, she rang the doorbell. After a long wait, a maid appeared.
[176]
“Is Mr. Henley here?” Penny asked breathlessly. “Or Mrs. Henley? It’s most important that I talk with them at once.”
“Mrs. Henley has been at the seashore for a month,” the maid replied in an agitated voice. “Mr. Henley is somewhere downtown. ”