Willy

“ Every body was fond of Willy, and anxious to amuse and comfort him. All that happened out of doors was told to him; all the kindest friends and pleasantest visitors came to see him; the new books were brought to him to read first; the best fruit and flowers always set apart for him; and all the in-door occupations arranged as much as possible with a view to his convenience. He and his little sister Rose were the dearest friends in the world, and certain to take part in whatever interested each other. ”

“ In the contour of skull certainly I discern something paternal; but whether in all respects the future man shall transcend his father's fame, Time, the trier of Geniuses, must decide. Be it pronounced peremptorily at present that Willy is a well-mannered child, and though no great student, hath yet a lively eye for things that lie before him. ”

“ The boys were too excited to get sleepy before the silver was hidden. Their mother told them they might go down into the garden and help Balla, on condition that they would not talk. [Pg 60]
"That's the way we always do when we bury the treasure. Ain't it, Willy?" asked Frank.
"If a man speaks, it's death!" declared Willy, slapping his hand on his side as if to draw a sword, striking a theatrical attitude and speaking in a deep voice. ”

“ As Willy and I came through the open gates, a sort of straggling cheer was set up by the men, which was shrilly augmented and prolonged by shrieks from the children in the niches. Willy walked up to the bonfire. ”

“ But Willy was an universal favourite with his father’s old friends—wild fellows like Sir Julian himself amongst them there were two cousins, with large country-houses, sporting-men, and bachelors. They shared Willy between them, and quarrelled which should have the most of him. So he grew up to be man, with no settled provision, but always welcome, not only to the two cousins, but at every house in which, like Milton’s lark, ‘he came to startle the dull night’—the most amusing companion!—a famous shot—a capital horseman—knew the ways of all animals, fishes, and birds ”

“ Willy Ray had not merely his mother's features; he had her disposition also. He had the rounded neck and lissom limbs of a woman; he had a woman's complexion, and the light of a woman's look in his soft blue eyes. When the years gave a thin curly beard to his cheek they took nothing from its delicate comeliness. It was as if nature had down to the last moment meant Willy for a girl. He had been an apt scholar at school, and was one of the few persons in Wythburn having claims to education. Willy's elder brother, Ralph, more nearly resembled his father. ”

“ Sir Julian Losely (Willy’s father) lived with the French lady as his wife, and reared Willy in his house, with as much pride and fondness as if he intended him for his heir. The poor boy, I suspect, got but little regular education; though of course, he spoke his French mother’s tongue like a native; and, thanks also perhaps to his mother, he had an extraordinary talent for mimicry and acting. His father was passionately fond of private theatricals, and Willy had early practice in that line. ”

“ And he told how, after the "Peace of Tilsit," the old man had wandered back to Thuringia.
"But don't think he forgot you, Bettina," said Willy very hastily. Then he touched his head. "Poor old man," he added, "he has forgotten everything," and he told poor, wild-eyed Bettina that old Hans was like a child, always talking about Frederick the Great and his battles, and remembering not a word about Jena.
"But the queer thing," said Willy, "is that he starts at any very loud noise and he had the mark of a wound on the back of his head. What it means we have no idea, as he remembers nothing." ”

“ Now, it so happened that this governess was not kind and good as Willy’s mother had been, but was selfish and cruel. She gave him long, hard lessons, and if he did not get them—which he often could not—would punish him cruelly; sometimes by shutting him up in a dark closet, sometimes by making him go without eating, and sometimes by whipping him. And all the while she managed to make Willy’s father believe that she was kind and good to him.
“Poor little Willy! He grew pale and sad-looking, and no wonder. I was at the house one day——”
“Oh, Miss Harper! Did you know him?” ”

“ And Willy's ta'en down the bush o' woodbine,
Hung atween her bower and thine
And Willy has kill'd the master kid,
That ran beneath that lady's bed;
And Willy has loosed her left foot shee,
And letten his lady lighter be;
And now he's gotten a bonny young son,
And mickle grace be him upon.
THE DÆMON LOVER
Original O where have you been, my long, long love,
This long seven years and more?"—
"O I'm come to seek my former vows
Ye granted me before."—
"O hold your tongue of your former vows,
For they will breed sad strife ”

“ As a rule, I did not see him again until luncheon next day, and I wondered more and more how he spent his time.
Willy seemed to know little more about his father’s occupations than I did.
“Oh, I don’t know what he’s up to,” he had said, when I asked him. “He prowls about the place from goodness knows what awful hour in the morning till breakfast, and he sits in that den of his all day, more or less. I’ve plenty to do besides watching him.” ”

“ Peering through the crack of the door as he put the question, he saw Miss Willy hurriedly pulling basting threads out of a muslin skirt, and the fluttering bird-like motions of her hands increased the singular feeling of repulsion with which she inspired him. Though he was aware that she was an entirely harmless person, and, more-over, that her "days" supplied the only companionship his wife really enjoyed, he resented angrily the weeks of work and gossip which the little seamstress spent under his roof. ”

“ Willy was sceptical. He thought Frank had been dreaming, or that it was only Uncle Balla, or "some one" moving about the yard. But a second cackle of warning reached them, and in a minute both boys were out of bed pulling on their clothes with trembling impatience.
"Let's go and wake Uncle Balla," proposed Willy, getting himself all tangled in the legs of his trousers.
"No; I'll tell you what, let's catch him ourselves," suggested Frank.
"All right," assented Willy. "We'll catch him and lock him up; suppose he's got a pistol? your gun maybe won't go off; it doesn't always burst the cap." ”

“ That my true love Willy
Was staring at my bed-feet."
"Lay still, lay still, my ae dochter,
An keep my back frae the call,
For it's na the space o' half an hour,
Sen he gaed frae your hall.''
An' hey Willy, and hoa, Willy,
Winna ye turn agen;
But aye the louder that she cried,
He rade against the win'.
He rade up yon high hill,
And doun yon dowie den;
The roaring that was in Clyde's water,
Wad ha fleyed ten thousand men.
(read explain. call, cold.) ”

“ She failed to throw it back because she was placing a bet with herself that Willy was short for Wilhelmina.
Willy straightened his tongue out. "Jim, I've got to see you."
Now Willy was a nervous little guy from faulty thyroid but neurotic in a bearable way. He sounded even more upset than he usually did. I didn't particularly like him, but he was a topflight illustrator and I liked the way he drew women, and besides I'd been trying for a year to tag him for our agency. All the slicker art agencies were after him, that's how good he was. ”

“ How proud Willy was of Frank!
"Go 'way from here; I ain't no deserter. I'm a-huntin' for deserters, myself," the man replied, laughing. [Pg 91]
Frank smiled at Willy with a nod, as much as to say, "You see,—just what Tim told us!"
"Ain't your name Mr. Billy Johnson?"
"Yes; that's my name."
"You are the man we're looking for. March down that road. But don't run,—if you do, we'll shoot you!"
As the boys seemed perfectly serious and the muzzles of both guns were pointing directly at him, the man began to think that they were in earnest. But he could hardly credit his senses. ”

“ Like the saying goes, all I can draw is flies and rubber checks, and frequently a blank. I've seen a lot of artists do their stuff, but none of them come up to Willy. You've seen his illos in most of the big slicks—you know, the guy and gal in all angles on the yellow beach under a pink sky, and the story title reads "When Will You Come Back, Dearest?", or the cola series on the back cover where the girl swigs and the guy gawks at her bathing suit, that sort of stuff. The fat accounts, they all came running for Willy. With him on the payroll the agency could have made a fortune. ”

“ Willy was chosen devil. It was his business to dive off the spring-board and run the gauntlet, the others being scattered in the water. To catch the aboriginal seemed a comparatively easy matter, all things considered. He was, however, a superb swimmer and trickster, diving and dodging like a cormorant. A dozen times surrounded, he marvellously eluded his pursuers. ”

“ There was another advantage in being a sheep, or a cow, or a hen; animals of that sort never lost anything—didn't have medals to lose.
"And this wasn't mine," groaned Willy. [Pg 92] "What'll the mistress do to me? Don' know; blister both hands, I s'pose!"
Willy had intended to play ball with the little boys, but it was not to be thought of now. Putting his fish behind a tree, he ran to the brook again and poked with a stick as far as he could reach; then waded in up to his knees, for the medal might have rolled out of his pocket. ”

“ You may talk about father as much as you've a mind to," said Willy, scowling; "for he no business to whip me so. He thinks boys are pretty near fools."
"That's just what my father thinks," returned Fred.
Whereupon the two boys were friends again, having got back to their one point of agreement.
"If I had a boy I wouldn't treat him [Pg 165] so,—now I tell you," said Willy, clinching his little fists. "I'd let him have a good time when he's young." ”

“ Willy is a wiry, wrinkled, white-haired little man—little now, because stooping a bit under the weight of well-nigh eighty years—who is greatly respected by his neighbors far and near because he has "been sooth." ”

“ Willy, whose flow of language seemed{53} checked by his father’s presence, gave an assenting grunt.
“It is a long time since there has been a Miss Sarsfield at Durrus, and it is thirty years since she died. You will find Willy and I are sad barbarians, and we shall have to trust to you to civilize us.”
I am singularly unfitted to deal with the compliments of elderly gentlemen. ”

“ It was always the ambition of a boy of lively temperament, such as Willy represented himself to be, to choose as hard a "peat" as he could possibly find, to serve as a weapon in the mimic battles fought on the road to school. As the fire was composed wholly of peat, and the chimney was wide, the place would be often a difficult one to study in when the wind was in the wrong quarter. At such times, to use Willy's description:
"It wes juist a reeky hole! We wes all well learned to pit up wi' the reek! I niver thocht muckle o' reek aifter that schule!" ”

“ And when Willy talked of enjoying the gardens while his stronger sisters were climbing the hills, there was more to be told of cradles borne upon men's shoulders, in which Willy could be carried to the top of the highest [92] hills as easily as his sisters on their mountain ponies. And now the packing was all finished, and the luggage sent on board, and every body was anxious to follow it ”

“ Here we are doing the same thing from year's end to year's end; why, with our money we ought to be hob-nobbing with the duke.” In moments of dejection this was one of Willy's commonest thoughts. “I did my best, but I was opposed. Father doesn't care, and as for the girls, they'll take up with any man so long as he is young. Still, in spite of them I should have got on if I hadn't lost my nerve and had to give up hunting; and without hunting there is no way of making acquaintances.”
Willy had relied on a hunter as Berkins had on pheasants and glass-houses. ”

“ What an amazing gift of the gab Willy had! Rain or no rain, it was clear that he and Mrs. Sweeny meant to talk to one another for the rest of the afternoon.
The old man in the chimney-corner had watched me during all this time, and muttered to himself every now and then—what, I could not understand. We must{255} have been sitting there for ten minutes at least, when the two boys whom Willy had left to look for the ferret came dripping in, with the object of their search safely housed in a bag, and silently stationed themselves along with their brothers and sisters in the corner by the bed. ”

“ Willy was tidy for an artist. Most of the boys on the agency's hook have la Boheme delusions that class them apart from us hucksters; their studios, which we see in spite of ourselves, look like barns. But Willy's neuroses, although conventional, were bearable because in a lot of ways he was practical. ”

“ Willy was afraid to go to bed alone, which is hardly to be wondered at; for he had a strange and dreadful habit of walking in his sleep. Such habits are not as common now as they were in old times, I believe. Whether Willy's walks had anything to do with the cider and doughnuts, which were sometimes given him in the evening, unknown [Pg 19] to his mother, I cannot say; but Mrs. Parlin was never sure, when she "tucked" him into his trundle-bed, that he would spend the night there. Quite as likely he would go wandering about the house ”

“ He began to laugh at what he had said in a way very unusual with him.
“Theo,” Willy said abruptly, interrupt{107}ing his father’s laughter, “you’re looking dead beat; I’ll go and light your candle.”
“What are you in such a hurry about?” demanded Uncle Dominick, turning on Willy with unexpected fierceness. “Don’t you know it is manners to wait till you’re asked?”
Willy did not answer, but went out into the hall; and I, feeling both scared and angry, got up with the intention of following him as quickly as possible. ”