Mr. Bucket

“ Bucket and his fat forefinger are much in consultation together under existing circumstances. When Mr. Bucket has a matter of this pressing interest under his consideration, the fat forefinger seems to rise, to the dignity of a familiar demon. He puts it to his ears, and it whispers information; he puts it to his lips, and it enjoins him to secrecy; he rubs it over his nose, and it sharpens his scent; he shakes it before a guilty man, and it charms him to his destruction. ”

“ Bucket. "Not a bit!"
"Then, what," retorts that worthy, pointing to the figure, "did you say it was the lady for?"
"Cos," says Jo, with a perplexed stare, but without being at all shaken in his certainty, "Cos that there's the wale, the bonnet, and the gownd. It is her and it an't her. It an't her hand, nor yet her rings, nor yet her woice. But that there's the wale, the bonnet, and the gownd, and they're wore the same way wot she wore 'em, and its her height wot she wos, and she give me a sov'ring and hooked it."
"Well!" says Mr. Bucket, slightly, "we haven't got much good out of you. ”

“ She is simply immense!
But Jack and Jill are walking up the hill.
(I didn’t mean that rhyme.)
I must watch them.
I love to watch their walk,
And wonder as I watch;
He, stoop-shouldered, clumsy, hide-bound,
Yet lusty,
Bearing his share of the 1-lb bucket as though it were a paperweight.
She, erect, standing, her head uplifting,
Holding, but bearing not the bucket.
They have reached the spring.
They have filled the bucket.
Have you heard the “Old Oaken Bucket”?
I will sing it:—
Of what countless patches is the bed-quilt of life composed! ”

“ The leading lady of the company was a remarkably handsome person, remarkably so.” Mr. Buffboot sighed, I remember, and then said, “Well! no matter! She loved ‘not wisely, but too well,’ and married a lawyer’s clerk. When the company to which she and Buskin were attached concluded their season at B——, they had to proceed to the next town on their circuit, some twenty miles distant. The majority of the people went by coach or waggon—there was no railroad at that time—but Buskin and Miss Bugles were allowed by the manager to have a post-chaise, and to travel in state. ”

“ We, the Buckets, are atoms of creation; yet we, the Buckets, are living types of the immensity of the world’s inhabitants. We illustrate their ups and downs—their fulness and their emptiness—their risings and their falling—and all the several goods and ills, the world’s denizens in general, and Buckets in particular, are undoubted heirs to.
It hath ever been the fate of the fulness of one Bucket to guarantee the emptiness of another; and (mark the moral!) the rising Bucket is the richly-stored one; its sinking brother’s attributes, like Gratiano’s wit, being “an infinite deal of nothing.” ”

“ But he ought to knowed better as to come any smart tricks with ye, Bucky, and we're pals, ain't we, Bucky? Say we're pals if ye like and I'll do my part."
"Pals we be, Reddy, and never ye mind enough of what he says to put in yer eye. We can split the gold ourselves and leave Mr. Thirkle here with this friend of ours. Ye know I'll play fair with ye, Red—ye know that, don't ye?"
"Sure," said Petrak. "Here's my paw on it, Bucky, and good luck to us and long life and merry times. That's a heap of gold for two, Bucky." ”

“ I almost began to dread that I should wake up in a moment to find myself in the dark, crouched up upon my bed in Cumberland. So powerfully did this fear possess me that I was on the point of crying aloud, "Speak! speak!" when Elmscott took me by the arm.
"Madame," said he, "I have taken the liberty of bringing hither my cousin, Mr. Morrice Buckler, who is anxious--as who is not?--for the honour of your acquaintance."
"It is no liberty," she replied graciously, in a voice that was exquisitely sweet, and she let her eyes fall upon my face with a quick and watchful scrutiny. ”

“ I shouted to Otto. "Fetch one of the women and some water!"
My outcry brought Ilga onto the landing.
"What has befallen?" she asked, leaning over the rail.
"'Tis but a swoon," I replied; "nothing more. There is no cause for alarm."
"Poor creature!" she said tenderly, and came running down the stairs. "Let me look, Mr. Buckler. Ailments, you know, are a woman's province."
I was kneeling by the couch, supporting Lady Tracy's head upon my arm, and I drew aside, but without removing my arm. Ilga caught sight of her face, and stopped. ”

“ I’ll learn yez to play horse with a fullgrown, able-bodied white man.” He punctuated his points with short-arm jolts that Bucky laughingly parried.
“Before ladies, Mick! Haven’t you forgot your manners, Red-haid?”
Swiftly Mr. O’Halloran came to flushed rigidity. “Madam, I must still be apologizing. The surprise of meeting me friend went to me head, I shouldn’t wonder.”
Bucky doubled up with apparent mirth. “Get into the other room, Curly, and get your other togs on,” he ordered. “Can’t you see that Mick is going to fall in love with you if he sees you a minute longer, you young rascal? ”

“ Then, raising her face with a look which was wonderfully timid and shy, she said:
"You are a brave man, Mr. Buckler"; and after another pause, "I do ask you."
With that she crossed the road and mounted upon her horse. I did the same, and the little cavalcade rode out from Innspruck along the highway to Landeck. The Countess pressed on ahead, and thinking that she had no wish to speak with me, I rode some paces behind her. Behind me came Otto and the servants. Otto, I should say, had resumed his old impenetrable air. ”

“ He’s so fond of letting them fly around promiscuous he might hurt himself. Good. Now we can sit down and have a friendly talk. Where did you say you was intending to spend the next few weeks before I interrupted so unthinking and disarranged your plans? I’m talking to you, Mr. Anderson.”
“I was heading for Sonora,” the man whined.
What Bucky thought was: “Right strange direction to be taking for Sonora. I’ll bet my pile you were going up into the hills to meet some of Wolf Leroy’s gang. But why you were taking the kid along beats me, unless it was just cussedness.” ”

“ Buckskin made friends with him at once and toddled back and forth between dining room and kitchen, carrying Pegleg to be kissed by Newbigging and Derek alternately.
"Ah, he's a bonnie wee boy," said the Scot admiringly. "He'll mak' a son to be proud of. But keep him away from the sea, Mr. Vale. It mak's a bad son, and a bad husband, too." ”

“ Everyone still smiled upon them, and cheered with lusty shouts, until Buskin could not help remarking, ‘I had no idea that we could have been so recognised. These people must have come frequently to the theatre, regardless of the distance.’ ‘And we really must have made a strong impression upon their rude minds,’ replied Miss Bugles; ‘the fact promises well for the next season.’ On, on! still on! as the novelists say, and still the same pleasant greeting everywhere, and never did a happier couple pull up at the Red Lion to change horses than Harry Buskin and Adeline Bugles. ”

“ Well, he said, 'I guess nothin', Butch.' Just like that. Butch was that surprised you could knocked him over with a feather. 'An' never dance with her no more?' he says. 'Not if you say I can't, Butch,' Billy says. Just like that.
"Well, you know, any other man to take water the way he did from Butch--why, everybody'd despise him. But not Billy. You see, he can afford to. He's got a rep as a fighter, an' when he just stood back 'an' let Butch have his way, everybody knew he wasn't scared, or backin' down, or anything. ”

“ I won’t even look at you—see, see!” They kept conveying thus, with the friendliest liberality, that they wouldn’t look, quite positively wouldn’t. What she was to see was that he hovered at the other end of the counter, Mr. Buckton’s end, and surrendered himself again to that frustration. It quickly proved so great indeed that what she was to see further was how he turned away before he was attended to, and hung off, waiting, smoking, looking about the shop ”

“ Pretty certain, youngster."
"Oh, Butcher!"
"Trouble is, they've got the goods on me—dead to rights."
"But does the Doctor know how it'll break up the nine?"
Butcher laughed loudly.
"He doesn't ap-preciate that, youngster."
"No," said the Big Man, reflectively. "They never do, do they?"
The luncheon bell rang, and they hurried down. The Big Man was overwhelmed by the discovery. If Butcher didn't cover first, how could they ever beat Andover and the Princeton freshmen? Even Hill School and Pennington might trounce them. ”

“ Bucky lit his cigar, leaned back, and began to tell the story of Frank Hardman and the knife-thrower. Only one thing he omitted to tell, and that was the conviction that had come home to him a few moments ago that his little comrade was no boy, but a woman. O’Halloran was a chivalrous Irishman, a daredevil of an adventurer, with a pure love of freedom that might very likely in the end bring him to face a row of loaded carbines with his back to a wall, but Bucky had his reticencies that even loyal friendship could not break down. ”

“ How comes it that you know so much concerning me?"
"Nay," she laughed. "You go too fast, Mr. Buckler. I know nothing concerning you save that some injustice has been done you. I was told of a homespun student, glum and musty as an old book, and I find instead a town-gallant point-de-vice, who will barter me compliments with the best of them."
"You got your knowledge, doubtless, from Hugh Marston," I replied, with a glance at the door ”

“ What Master Frank needs is a first-class dressing-down, and here the little cuss has got me bluffed to a fare-you-well so that I’m mum as a hooter on the nest,” he admitted to himself ruefully. “Just when something comes up that needs a good round damn I catch that big brown Sunday school eye of his, and it’s Bucky back to Webster’s unabridged. I’ve got to quit trailing with him, or I’ll be joining the church first thing I know. He makes me feel like I want to be good, confound the little swindle.” ”

“ But it is possible to be honest without being handsome; and rogues assume virtues they do not possess. Certainly, the valuable package was not concealed upon the person of Buckner. The only alternative was, that he had thrown it away,—cast it into some hole, or pitched it into the river.
"There can be no doubt this is the man that took the package from the counter, for no one else came near me while I was in the saloon," reasoned Peverell, whose vehemence had calmed down, and given place to a deep anxiety. ”

“ He laughed harshly and his hands clenched as he thought of Bucky Nome. He had done right by him. But the skull—Mrs. Becker—was that right? Like a flash there came to him out of the darkness a picture of the scene beside the fire—of Mrs. Becker and the colonel, of the woman's golden head resting on her husband's shoulder, her sweet blue eyes filled with all the truth and glory of womanhood as she had looked up into his grizzled face. And then there took its place the scene beside the fire in the factor's room. ”

“ And one said, "There was never a hyena that didn't think his own son fairer than the King's child." The good doctor laughed heartily at that. He turned to Ah Fun and said (pounding on the bucket) : "Ah Fun, treasure of my miserable heart, take you the bucket, and going to the well, fetch us home some water, for there is no milk, the terrible cow having kicked it over. Hence we can have only water with our Evening Rice. And be sure, my chiefest comfort, (rum dum, went the bucket) , to rinse the bucket thoroughly, twice at least." ”

“ He did not like leaving Buckskin for so long, but he had a way of barricading him with chairs on the couch in the dining room that had answered very well when he had gone to visit Hobbs. After breakfast he imprisoned him thus, gave him Pegleg to play with, a bottle of milk and two biscuits for refreshment, and left Jock on the foot of the couch for company.
The ride to Brancepeth made him feel better, the invigorating air, the light rise and fall in the stirrups, the feel of the well-groomed horse beneath him. ”

“ If he took up that devil-may-care challenge he must fight it out alone. Moreover, as his furtive glance went round the ring of faces, he doubted whether a rope and the nearest telegraph pole might not be his fate if he went the limit. Sourly he accepted defeat, raging in his craven spirit at the necessity.
“Hell! I don’t fight with boys,” he snarled,
“So?”
Bucky moved forward with the curious lightness of a man spring-footed. His gaze held the other’s shifting eyes as he plucked the knife from his opponent’s hand. ”

“ Bucky waved a hand easily into space. “That’s all right, too, son. There’s a heap of directions you can hit from here. Take any one you like. But if I was as beat as you are, I think I’d keep on the Epitaph road.” He laughed his warm, friendly laugh, before the geniality of which discord seemed to melt, and again his arm went round the other’s weary shoulders with a caressing gesture that was infinitely protecting.
The boy laughed tremulously. “You’re awfully good to me. I know I’m a cry-baby, sissy boy, but if you’ll be patient with me I’ll try to be gamer.” ”

“ The embankment was strewn with men and milk-cans, chiefly the latter. No one seemed to be wholly dead, although one or two looked pretty near it.
A few feet away, Burkett, the constable, was having a convulsion in his vain endeavour to extricate his cranium from a milk-can. ”