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Page 43
He cocked up his ears at that, and asked if his "speciments," as he
called them, were safe. "Ay," said Joe, "they are safe enough.
Nobody hereabout thinks a little lot of stones worth meddling with,
so long as they don't lie in their road." With that the jolly-jist
jumped up, and said Joe must have something to eat and drink. Then
Joe thought to himself, "Come, come, we are getting back to our own
menseful way again." But he would not stir a peg till he heard
what he was to have for getting the stones again; for Joe knew he
would never hear the last of it, if he came home empty-handed. They
made it all right very soon, however; and the old man went
up-stairs, and brought down the two leather bags, and gave them to
Joe to carry, as if nothing had happened; and off they started,
very like as they did before.
The Ske�l-Hill folk all gathered together about the door to look
after them, as if they had been a show; but they neither of them
minded for that, but walked away as thick as inkle-weavers till
they got to the foot of our great meadow, where the stones were all
lying just as Joe had turned them out of the bags, only rather
grown over with grass. And as Joe picked them up one by one, and
handed them to the old jolly-jist, it did Joe's heart good to see
how pleased he looked. He wiped them on his coat-cuff, and wet
them, and glowered at them through his spectacles, as if they were
something good to eat, and he was very hungry; and then he packed
them away into the bags till they were both chock full again.
Well, the bargain was, that Joe should carry them back to
Ske�l-Hill; so back they put, the jolly-jist watching his bags all
the way, as if they were full of golden guineas, and our Joe a
thief. When they got there, he made Joe take them right into the
parlor; and the first thing he did was to call for some red wax and
a light, and he clapped a great splatch of a seal on either bag;
and then he looked at Joe, and gave a little grunt of a laugh, and
a smartish wag of the head, as much as to say, "Do it again, Joe,
if you can." But after that he said, "Here, Joe, is five shillings
for restoring my speciments, and here is another five shillings for
showing me a speciment of human nature that I did not believe in
until this day." [This story is told of Professor Sedgwick in broad
_patois_ by Alexander Craig Gibson, F.S.A.]
"That is good," cried the squire, clapping his knee emphatically. "It
was like the professor, and it was like Joe Bulteel. The story does them
both credit. I am glad I heard it. Alice, fill our glasses again." Then
he stood up, and looked around with a smile.
"God's blessing on this house, and on all beneath its roof-tree!
"Wife and children, a merry Christmas to you!
"Friends and serving hands, a merry Christmas to you!"
CHAPTER VII.
WOOING AND WEDDING.
"She was made for him,--a special providence in his behalf."
"Like to like,--and yet love may be dear bought."
"In time comes she whom Fate sends."
Until after Twelfth Night the Christmas festivities were continued; but
if the truth had been admitted, the cumbrous ceremonials, the excessive
eating and visiting, would have been pronounced by every one very
tiresome. Julius found it particularly so, for the festival had no roots
in his boyhood's heart; and he did not include it in his dreams of
pre-existence.
"It is such semblance of good fellowship, such a wearisome pretence of
good wishes that mean nothing," he said one day. "What value is there in
such talk?"
"Well," answered the squire, "it isn't a bad thing for some of us to
feel obliged once in a twelve months to be good-natured, and give our
neighbors a kind wish. There are them that never do it except at
Christmas. Eh? What?"
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