TOLD TO PARSON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 202, 24 August 1904, Page 10

TOLD TO PARSON.

(Complete StoTy.)

BY EDEK PHILLPOTTS. (Author of "A Tiger's Cub," etc) A little girl came rushing into the gate \ of the vicarage at I'ostbiidge, Dart- j moor; and it chanced that she met the minister himself, as he bent in his garden and scattered lime around upspringim, .vttitU. "These e!ucrs would try the patience of :i -..int.' he said, bearing footsteps ana nut locking up. ''They have oaten oil ufeiirly all my young larkspurs. How can one iignt Lhein?" Then a small, breathless voice broke in upon him. "Please, tir, mother sent mc, an , I've ruinii.il a'moht ail the way from our cott.sgtj wi'out stopping once. 'Tis old Mr. Munily please. Lle'm c.yin£ —so he told nuilhfjr when her fetched him his milk this morning—an' lip says he've got something very special to tell anybody care to come an' listen to it. But nobody don't want to hear his secrets in the village; so mother said 'twaa your iob, please, an' sent mc for your honour." ~ " 'My job'—yes, so it is, little maid. I'll come at once. An' they'd better send for the doctor. It isn't his regular visiting day until Thursday; but probably it's 'iii.-j job,' too." "Mother ;ixed the old man that; an' he said as he didn't want no doctor, nor his traade (medicine) either. He says li'm nearly a hundred years old; an' he i won't b< 1 messrd about with at his tinio j of life; but just die easy an' comf^r.,- : n.ble." " I In 20 minutes the clergyman hnd | wali oil a mile and crossed a strip of the J wilderness that stretched round about tbp little hamlet on Dartmocr where he laboured. A single cottage separated , from the re-t by wide tracts of furze j and heather stood here., and near it lay | a neglected garden. But fJatler Mundy ; had long reased to fight tb.e Moor or j care for his plot of land. Llia patch of the reclaimed earth returned fast to primitive savagery. Brakefern sprouted in the potato bed; m.*h, heather, and briar cliukcn ihe currant bushes; fearle?= rabbiis nibbled every green thing. "Come in. whoever you may be," said an ancient voiie. So the '-isitor obeyed ;;i.I entered, io find the ="fi"erer fully ■ !vfss(>d. i-iftins by si rive of prai. Noah Mundy was yon - rail, but now his ! heiffht. hiitl v:mi->"°ed, aril ha had bee:i | long bent under his bunion of years. A hsld yellnw pl:nll rose abovi , his countenance. :\r.>\ infinite ntje marked his j faep. A." the o: , it h through centuries j of cooling has wrinkled into mountains tween them, so these aged features, uml flnttrnoii rvut into or:';]!! beds bentamped :t!iil lorn with the fret and fever o* !o;sj life, had become a* a book whereon time h;i.l written many thim;s for those who could rr>aO them. Very wpnk wrs Lhe man and very thin. lie was lool'.iWs and almost hairless: the «i\nnty That fell from his chin was white, while his moustache had lon™ Vv-on dvosi wi*h KnntT to a lively yellow. ]\;=, pypg rernn"ne;3 nlivp. though one was flrr><- r l over with ;>n opaline haze. Ku! froi'i I!. , - otl.rr he saw clearly enough for ;:!) hi* n-'cils. !!p madi it a bonst that be c-oiil ! 'i"t wiite, and he would not react There was no book in his ho'.i'sn. '"Ti.« yon—eh ? I could have wished fo r a msin out of your trade, but it won't mriMer. I've goL a thing worth iflliug: but r.iari; this: I clon't. care n bu+lcTi what yon think of it, nn' I don't want nrmp of W your lrnnktnn an' lies after F're told it. "Fit down in that thieky chair nn' smoke your pipe rm' keep cool. Han't no use getting excited now, for whal I he going to t--'! 'c happened more'n h"Hv years ago—afore you was born or thought abo-.rt." " x .fy smoke won't trtiuWo yon?" "p.ah! I've smoked and cbowed an' •snufferi for morc'n half a century. I'm inrey tlirontrh an' through—soaked in it as you might r-ay. An' ni for smoke. if what you tell to ehureli be true, 1 ■.hall hiiVP smoke, an' fire too, afore In.-.g. But hell's only a joke to frighten ! females. 1 don't set no store by it." "Beftor leave that. Mr Mundy. If you really believe your end is near, let. us be I serious. Yea, I'll smoke my pipe. And i yon must feel very, very sure that what you tell mo. is absolutely sacred, unless yon wish it otherwise." "Nought sacred about it, I reckon — all t'other way. An' as for telling, you I can go an' shout it from top of Believer Tor if you'-rn niindrrl to. I tlon't care a furdpn cut'o who know* it now. Wa : t i till I'm out of it; an' then do as you I pler».se." ■ Rβ drank a little milk, remained eilent a moment with his eyes upon the fire. I and presently began to tell his life's strange talc. j "Mc nn' my brother was the only children oar parents ever bad; an , my bro- ' thpr was fivr> yesrs older'n rre. Mv i fnthcr. Jonns Mundy, got. money I through n will, an , he bro'.ijrht it t" ! Dartmonr. like a fool, nn , rented a bit of I Moor from the Duchy of Cornwall, an' i built a farm upon it, an' set to work ; to reclaim the land. At fir>t he pros- | ppred, an' AIleT Bottom Farm, as my father callfd it, was r> promising pliee, so [ long as swat of iran poured out there : without censing. You can se-. , the ruins i of it. yet, for when Jonns Mnndy di o d ! an' it PallH to mo. T left it an' eomrd I ip bore: an" !b« ohnp ris took it off my I hands—l>p wpnt b«nkrupt in3ide three j year. Tis all failed to pieces now, for ; none tried a^fin. • "But that's to overrun the matter. j When 1 was fifteen an' my brother. John ; Jatnes, was twenty, us both failed in Jove with the wine maid. You stare; 'but though fiftc-n jn years. I was ! twenty-live in umit-rstanding, an' a very j oncoming youLh where women were con"- ---| cprnrd. Nolly Fiakor had turned seven- , toeii, an' more thnn once 1 told her that ! though a hoy of liftpfn couldn't wed a maid of her age without making folks laugh, eren if he could get a parson to lii'.h them, yet a chnp of threc-an'-twrnty might very properly take a girl i of five-on'-twenty without the deed call- , ing for any question. An , her loved mc i truly enough ; for though you only see j a worn out scarecrow afore you ntny. yet seventy year agone 1 filled the eye of more maidens than one, and was a bowerly youth to look upon —tall, straight, tough, -wi' hair so black as a crow. "•lonn James he never knowed that I carerl a button for Nelly. I never showed it to a living soul but her by word or I look ; an' she kept quiet—for fear of . heirs? liiiighi'd at no Her folks were clend on the match with John; J.irm-s. an' lip pressed her so hard that! i she'd h ive took him but for mc. He was I a pretty fellow too —the Mrtnriys weTe , very porsoniible as a family, dif- j : ferent tho gh from n;e. Fair polled, wi* flaxen hair, an' terrible strong was John I James, an' the best ■wrastler on Dartj-> I moor in them days. "Mc an" hpr met by appointment a week afore she'd got to give him a final 'yes' or 'no.' I mind it very well to this honr; an' yet 'tis seventy odd jrsaTS ngene. On Hartland Tot us sat in the heather unseen, an' I put my arms

around her, am' loved her, an' prernieed to make her a happy woman. Then i told her what she'd got to do. First ! made her prick her finger wi' a thorn < the furzs, an' draw blood, an' afore the Living God she'd marry mc s<.. soon as I eonld make her mistress of a farm. She v.t.s tor joking about the mattcT at first, but I soon forced her to grow serious. She done what I told her, an , since she hefieved in the Living God, I reckoned her oath would bind her fast enough. As for mc, I laughed nut of sight, for I never believed in nothing but myself—not even when I was a hoy under twenty years old. Next I bade her fall out with John James. I put words in her mouth to say to him. '1 know the fashion of man he be^ —short an' fiery in his temper,' 1 told her. "lie hot an' quick with him. Tell him he's not your sort an' never will be— quarrel with his colour, if you like. Tell him hem too pink an' white for 'c. Say 'tis enough that your own eyes be blue, an' that you'd never wed a blue-eyed man. Make him angry—you bant a woman if you don't know how to do that. Then the rest ha easy enough. He'll flare an' flame like a tar barrel on Guy Fawkes night. But he'll trouble you no more, for hem so proud as Satan. "Neily Biker look in all I said; nn" inside a week she'd dropped my brother. But 'twar, what he done after that startled folks, for without a word to any living soul, he vunishi-d. t!i a dew of the morning, four-an'-twenty hours after she'd dinged him over. I was the lust that s< , ed liiin. AYe vrer r working together ou* pon' the land; an' he was 50 , .:;- an' eriuly wi' his tronb! • n' had'i'i a word to fliii™ at mc. Dimpsy fell, an' I went in a U r >\ -..ir-d i\i uuii m\ |.!f .(-I. ;t:i ;_;u home. 'Twas autumn an' r.s hud been spread : ug manure upon the meadow. 'Ho you ciiming, John .lames? , I said. 'You go ;:> hell,' h.p answered. "J 'll come when Ire a mind to. an' nwylv I won't come at. al!.' So honip I walked wi'out r,notber w<.r<l: an' he never corned; nn' nohody ever a whisper about, him .'gain from that day to this. For a soldier he went 'twas thought; but the ;ifter history of un never reached nobody at Posthridge; an' whether he was -.hot or whether he gathered glory in foreign parts none 'pon Dartymoor can it'll you. "A nine days' wonder it was; an , it killed my mother; fer John James was tho apple of her eye. Her never cared n button for mc. 'cause I was the living likeness of her brother—my uncle Silan "find. They sent him to Botany B;'y for burning down wheat-stacks. A bad iot he was. no doubt; an' a fool to boo;, which is worse. For he got eatched an" punished. An' lie desprred all he got— 't<r letting 'pm catch him. '•"With John James out of the way. I coined to be a b.t more importnn' i:i the house, an' when my mot her died, father got to trust mc with liis mone. I was oKI fro my vrvs, you see. As fnr Kelly, slie kept ho true to mc as the liiid to nest —for five yi:irs; a.:.' then I'd got to },;■ twenty, an , had save I three hundred pound for her; an' <he was twenty-two. A good many chaps wanted to marry her; but she kept our secret close; an' snid 'Day' to some very snug men. an* jupf waited '"'ir mc an' Aller Bottom Farm.

"Then, when F'd reckoned to nßme ihe day an' take her bo soon as 1 come 1 of age Oliver Honeywell turned up from down country an' rented that old loneinent from what he called Merripit. good land as any 'pon all Dartmoor goes with it. An' he corned wi' a llour ifih of trumpets an' plenty of money. Flo was going to lam us all how to • arm, an' bow 1 o make money 'pon weekdays, an' how to get to heaven ■^uwdaye. "Hot the devil: I fpp him row —n smug, sleek, fat, handsome, prospermia man, with the insolence of a spoilt cat' llt ,- d prench jn the open ;iir of a Sunday, for there was no parson nor church liere in thrm Strong as a horse — a vpry practical man—nlw.iys right. Did plenty of gr.od. as the saying goes. an , went about, like a proce.-j-ion, as n he expected angels from lien yon !o hiwaiting for him al every strc.-t corner with a golden crown. His right hnnii was (jerii'TOUs, but .he lock very good rare his left hand knowed it. He. didn't 'o his good in secret, nor yet hide his light under a bushel. lie wns a blackl»?«)rrd man. with scholarship an' money behind him. Hs knew the bettermost folks. They called upon him. I believe, nn' axed him to their house?, it wa.= «aid. He hunted and paid money to Kf>!p three diti'prptit packs o' hflunds. An old mother feppt house foT him. Hi" tried to patronise the whole of Pnptiiridffe an' plar the squire, an , virar rolled into one. Men as owed him nought an' thanked him for nougii! yiil'ed their hnir to him. But there be some fools who will always touch their hats to a pair o' horsps. Tliere corned to be an idea in people's minds thnt Honeywell was a Godsend. Ihough if you asked them why, they generally couldn't tell you. "At least she said so, though Christ

"An' my Nelly failed i ,l love \\it\\ him. knows that the pompous fool, for all his fine lirven, weren't a patch' on what 1 was at twenty-one. Any way he corned courting her, for 'twas not known vet that mc an' Nelly w.is more'n friends; nn' then when he beard how we h»d l>i'»n secretly tokened for no less th.*n six years, he corned to see mc with a long winded lie in his mouth. An* the lie was larded wi' tests from Scripture. Nelly Baker had misunderstood her ff-el-ings about mc, he said; her h.\d never knowed what true love was till she met him : an' he hoped T'd behave as honestly as he had; aji' all the rest of it. In fact, sbe'd throwed mc over for him an' bis motley an' his high position; an' he corned to let mc down gently with bits from the Biblo. As for her, she always lusted after money nn' property. "Tis fought hand to hand, for I flew at the roan like a dog. an' I'd have strangled him an" tored tlir iiver out of him. but some chaps heard him howling .in' runned along an' pulled mc off hid throat in tfrae. ""He didn't have the law of mc; but Nelly Bnker kept out of my way afterwards, like as if I was the plague; an' then six months passed an' they was axed out in marriage so errand as you pleu.se at YVidercombe Church. "I only seed her once more; but after lying in wait for her. weeks an' weeks, like a fox for a rabbit, it chanced at last that I met her one evening going home across the moor above Aller Bottom Farm 'pon the edge of the last of our fields. Then us had a bit of a tell. 'Twas July a fortnight afore she was going to marry Mr Oliver Honeywell. "I axed her to change tier mind; I spoke to her so gentle as a dove croons; but she was ice ail through—cold an' hard an' wicked to mc. Then I growed savage. I noticed how mincing h'T'd growed in her* speech since Honeywell had took her up. She was changed from a good Devon maid into a" town miss,! f«U o' airs an' graces that made mc sick te see. He'd poisoned her. '• T>o try srn' be sensible,' she said. •We were silly ctriMren all tfcem yeaie.

yon know, Mr Muudy. You'll find some>ody mnch better suited to you than I —really you will. luive you ever ougiit cf Mary fleep now? She's pretr than 1 am—l am sure she is. , '■'Her named the darter of William P.eep, a common labourer as worked on Honeywell's farm at ten shilling a week. Then the devil in mc broke loose, an' quite right too. " 'We've gone up in the world of late then. 'Twas always your hope and prayer to come by a bit of property. But 'tis a coorious thing,' I said, 'do you know that you'm standing just where my brother, John James, stood last time evPT he was seed by mortal eyes.' '• 'What's that to mo?' she snid. '.Let mc go by, please, Mr Mundy. I'm late as it is." li 'He was never seed again,' I told her. ' 'Tis a coorious thing to m.\ as you be standing on the same spot a.t the fame time —just fis be did —:". the first E-hnclow of nkht. His you sec. made mc my father's heir, an' rich enough to give you a good home some day.' ,; Thcn her growed a thought pale an' tried to pass mc. "I went home presently; but from that hoar Nelly I-iaker was seen no more. None ever knowed Id been the last to speak with her; an' non< <-\-< j r pitied liir; but there was a rare fuss made over Oliver Honeywell. lli» \v.>rs black for her; nn' bided a bachelor for live year. Then he married :: widow; but not till his mother died. "An' that's the story .! thought would interest sonic folks. , " The minister tapped hi* pipo on tbn hob and I- nocked the ashes out. He cleared his throat an , spoke. lie had learned nothing that was new to him. "It is v strange story indeed, Mr. Mundy; and 1 am interested to have heard it from your own lips. Humour has nol lied for (i:ico. T!>o f;ile. ns you tell it. is substantially the s.ime that has bpen hn mled down in this village for two generations. But no one knows thnt you were the last to see Nolly Baker. Did you ever guess what happened?" The old man smiled and showed.his empty gums. "No—l didn't guess, because I knowed very well without guessing," he said"All the same, I should have thought that you, with your mighty fine knowledge of human nnture, would have guessed very quick. 'Twas I killed my brother —broke in the buck of his head wi' a pickaxe wben he was flown on ore knee tying h bootlnec. An' mp only 15 year old! An' I killed Nplly linker— how it don't mottpr. You'll find the dust of 'em Ride by side in one of then old 'money pits' 'pon Believer Tor. 'Tis a place that looks dur php , ', an" there's a ring of stones a hundred ynrds away from it. The 'nM men' buried their fVad there once, I've heard tell. Br"a'< down a pert flat slab o' granite alonjreid." , a while thorn tree: nn' you'll find what's left of 'em in a deop hole behind. Fo she never eornpd by any property after all." The ancient sinner's liead fell forward, but his eyes were still open. '•Oood God! After nil those years! Man. man. make your pence; confess your awful crime!" cried the clergyman. The other answered: "NoTie of that —none of that rot! I'd do the same this minute; an' if t; < was anything that coined after—ir I meet that damned witch in hell to-mnr row—l'd kill her over apiin. if her sli! : lirtd a body I could shako the li f e out of. Now get you gone an' let mil- pas.= in peace." The rerorend gentleman departed at Ims best F.peed, but presently returned brrnginf «oi;ps and wrdi?l«. With bin tlierp eAmf a cottage woman who r>cr formed perriecs for the ?iek. But whpc Mr=. Budjper Fnw Mnndy, fVic per rpTTCi) tij.-.t ?ikti<> r«Jmnin<»d to do. "Tip's pon/ , .* , «he ssid. ''poft an' swpe' ■?<; n bahv fifls tn s'ivo. Some soap an w?tfrr nn' n rnflrn hr> nil he wants now yonr honour: not <bH here beantifn! broth, nor brandy neither. Po yon hafl Inst go backnlong, sir: an' send oki Motlier Dawe up to help mc, if vovj please." A HEAVY PENSION LIST. President Roosevelt nap perturbed even his most sturdj supporter? by a decree awarding a pension to every sol dier over 62 who took part in Ihe Civi War. It is urged by his political adver paries that rhe decree i=. arbitrary am illegal. What alarm? all Americans, irrespective of party or sect- with tho «. ception. of course, of possible pensionpif —is that the effect, of the President's action will be lo add enormously to tlic already bloated pension list of the l.'ni ted States. If Great Britain had gone ii for pensioning to'the extent th.it tin Republic hns- done, wo should have beer in the bankruptcy conrt. long sine. Jγ Ihe Mates, whose wars have been few compared with our?, the Pension Funi , costs the Treasury over £27.000,000 ;, year. The history of the mutter shows that the conditions under whicli .soldiers s-'Tid their widows and children partita pnto in this gigantic outpouring have been made eaeier from time, to time, bu! President Roosevelt's decree breaks al' records. Under the law of 38f>0 soldierwere awarded pension* only on proof o! mrrrvtel or physical disability. Now. however, the soldier reet ives his doie at th« age of 62. when possibly he is as hale r.nd beari? as any man in the Republic (*n one occasion in the history of thf States the number of claimants foi pen-ions wa-S f-o numerous that whnt v..i.< called an "alarm act" was passed, requiring proof of indigence, but that precaution is now almost forgotten, and the -whole tendency ha<- been lo make the eveT-incrcasing grants wholesale. Tc shows how the payments have been augmented, take as tin example a soldi>'i discharged in 1862, who lost both hands in the service. He was entitled to a peiibion of right dollars a month fro:n the day of Ris discharge, but by subsequent acts his allowance ha* been gradually raised till it now reaches 1!u comfortable sum of 100 dollars a month. Not only arc soldiers pensioned, but mothers, fathers, end widows also participate in this comprehensive liberality. Two years ago the number of invalids entitled to pension? was 435.114, and tiie number e of widow* and dependents wa--145,111. But besides receiving a monthly payment ihe soldier wbo has'lost a limb in his country's service is supplied \vith an aruiicial !hnb lrro of cost every three yen is. and his tare is paid to and from the place uherr , lie i-= to *r>!ey* his a; ; iSeial limb. The o\ soldier is also »;i----tilled to other benefits. The result is 'hat the total sum paid in pensions between 1790 and 100] reached the eiganrie snm n{ 2.763.330.033 dollars. In the latter rc*r a* nraoh as »«,27.i dois. weTC p»M for ertTnf»»l limbs. S*naP w«r»Jf>r ffe*t Pr*eM<Tit R««i?«ve.]t , « dc«ee kaa epeo*e* dismny.