CHAPTER V.

Otago Witness, Issue 930, 25 September 1869, Page 19

CHAPTER V.

MISANTHROPY PIiAYS ITS PRANKS. None can imagine what a strange and alarming grinding of teeth reached him through thiß shadow. ■ ■ It was enough to drive him back : he advanced. To those to -whom silence has become dreadful; a howl is pleasing; That fierce growl reassured him— that threat was a promise. There was then, a£ length, a being alive and awake, though it might be a wild beast. He went to the side -whence came thiß snarl. He turned the corner' of a wall, and, behind, in the vast sepulchral light made by the reflection of snow and sea, he saw a thing placed as if for shelter. It was a cart; unless it was a hovel. It had wheels, it was a carriage. It had *a roof, — it was a dwelling. From the roof arose a funnel, and out of the funnel smoke. This smoke was red, and seemed to imply a good fire in the interior. Behind, raised hinges indicated a door, and in the centre of this door a square opening showed a light inside the van. He approached. That which had growled felt that he approached, and became furious. It was no longer a growl he had to do with, it was a roar. He heard a sharp sound, as of a ohain violently pulled to its full length, and suddenly, under the door, behind the hind wheels, two rows of sharp, white teeth appeared. At the same time as the mouth between the wheels, a head was put through the window. " Peace there !" said the head. The mouth was silent. The head began again, — " Is any one there ?" The chUd answered, — "Yes." " Who r (< j » "You? Who are you, whence come you?" "lam weary," said the child. " What o'clock is it ?» "I am cold." "What do you there?" " I am hungry." The head replied, — " Every one cannot be as happy as a lord. Go away." The head was withdrawn, and the window closed. The child bowed his forehead, drew the sleeping infant closer in his arms, and collected his strength to resume his journey ; he had taken some steps, and was hurrying away. However, at the same time that the window shut, the door opened ; a step had been let down ; the voice which had spoken to the child cried out angrily from the inside of the van. " Well ! why do you not enter ?" The child turned. " Come in," resumed the voice. " Who has sent mo a fellow like that, who is hungry and cold, and who does not come in ?" The child, at the name time repulsed and invited, remained motionless. The voice continued, — "You are told to come in, young rascaL" Ho made up his mind, any placed one foot on the lowest stop. There was a great growl under the van. He drew back. The gaping jaws appeared. " Peace !" cried the voice of the man. The jaws retreated, the growling ceased. "Ascend !" continued the man. The child with diflloulty mounted up three •teps. He was impeded by the iufant so benumbed, rolled up and enveloped in the jacket that nothing could bo distinguished of her, and the child was but a little shapolcss mo«». He passed ovor the three steps, and having reached tho threshold, stopped. No candle was burning in tho caravan, probably from tho economy of want, The hut was lighted up only by a red tinge, arising from tho opening at tho tip of the stone, in which sparkled a great Ere, On tho utono was smoking a porringer, and a saucopan, containing, to all appearance, something to eat, The savoury odour was perceptible The hut was furnished with a cheat, ft itool, and an unlighted lantern, which hang from the coiling. Betides, to the partition was attached somo boards on brockets, ond some hooks, from which hwng a variotjr of things. On tho boards, and depending from tho nails, wore rows of glassos. coppers, an alembic, a vassel nther like those used lor graining w«— which wo oiled grwulators— *nd

:a confusion of strange,, objects, d£*,wKioh ihe chil* u^deirstoo'dV^hirisg'arid which) weWutettsilSifof cboke'ry, arid chemistry. 1 The, caravan was oblong- in 'shape/ the, stove being iri front; ,, •It was not even a .little room; J It was scarcely- a big boW There was- more light' outside from the snow/ than inside from tne stove v Everything^ jto the' caravan was indistinct and misty. Nevertheless, a reflection 1 of the fire on the 'ceiling enabled the spectator to read in large letters", — ': " ? ■ ' CRST7S, PHILOSOPHER,/The chilli, iri " fact, was making his way into jbhe house of Homo arid TJrsus. The one had just been heard growling, the other speaking.' : > The childhaving reached the threshold, perceived, near the stove, a man — tall, smooth, "thin and old, dressed in grey, ■ whbßej head/ as he stood, reached the roof. The man could not have raised'himself on tiptoel . The caravan was just his size; "Enter !" said the man 1 , who ■was Ursud. The! child 1 entered. ' ' < "Put down your 1 bundle." The child placed his burden carefully on the top of the chest, for fear of awakening and terrifyirig her. ' The man continued,^— "What do -you put there so softly? You could not do more were it a case o£ relics. Is it that you are afraid of tearing a'hole in those rags of yours ? Ah ! worthless vagabond ! in the streets at this hour i Who are you ? Answer ! But no. I forbid you to answer. There ! You are cold. Warm yourself as quickly as you can,"', and he shoved him by tho shoulders in front of the fire. "Are you wet enough ? lire you frozen enough ? A nice state to come into a house S Oome, take off those outer rags, villain !" and as with one hand, with feverish haste, he dragged off the boy's rags which tore into . shreds, with the . other he took down from a nail a man's shirt, and' one of those knitted jackets which are up to this day called kiss-me-quicks. " Here are clothes. " He chose out of a heap a woollen rag, and chafed before the fire the limb of the exhausted and bewildered child, who at that moment of warm nakedness felt as if he were seeing and touching heaven. The limbs having been rubbed, he next essayed the feet. " Oome ! carcass ! you are not frost-bit-ten ! I was a fool to fancy you had something frozen, the hind-legs or thef ore- paws. Thou wilt not lose the use of them this time. Dress thyself!" The child put on the shirt, and the man placed over it the knitted jacket. "Now." The man kicked the stool forward, and made the little boy sit down, again shoving him by the shoulders, and then pointed with his finger to the porringer which smoked upon the stove. What the child saw in the porringer was, again, heaven to him — namely a potato and a bit of bacon. "You are hungry— eat !" The man took from the shelf a crust of hard bread, and an iron fork, and handed them to the child. The boy hesitated. " Perhaps you expect ma to lay a cloth." said the man, and he placed the porringer on the child's lap. " Gobble that up." Hunger overcame astonishment. The child began to eat. Tbe unfortunate boy devoured rather than ate. The glad sound of the crunching of bread filled the hut. The man grumbled, — " Not so quick, horrid gourmandiaer ! Is he not a greedy scoundrel ? When Buch scum are hungry, thoy eat in a revolting fashion. You should sco a lord sup. I, in my lifetime, have seen dukes eat. They do not eat. It is that wliioh is noble. They drink, however. Oome, wild boar I stnff yourself J" The absonce of ears, which is the con* coroitant of a hungry belly, caused the child to take little heed to the violence of these epithets, tempered as they wore by ohaTity of aotionj which involved a con-, tradiotion resulting in his benefit. For tho moment he was absorbed by two exigonces, and by two ecstasies— food and warmth.

Ursus continued his imprecations, muttering to himself, — "1 have seen King James supping m propria persona, in the Baoqueting-houso, where are t be admired the paintings of tho famous Rubon*. His Majesty touched nothing. That beggar over there browses, browses — a word dorived from brute. What made mo think of coming to thin Woymouth, sovon timos dovotod to tho infernal doitiea ? I have sold nothing sinco tho morning. I have harangued the snow. T have played the flute to tho hurricane. I have not pookotod a farthing ; and now, to-night, these beggars drop in. Horrid country ! Thero v a battlo, a struggle, a competition betvroon the fools of paaaongors, and myself. They try to give me nothing but farthings, I try to give them nothing but drugs. Well ! to-day there U nothing. Not. an idiot in the high way. Not a penny in the till Eat away] Hellborn,boyt Tow ead crunch! wttoft

Itlmei/.#l^n^in^c|an^!%BJglfaI tlmei/.#l^n^in^c|an^!%BJglfa cynicism of spungera.V -Fatten at^my,,expetise,' parasite^ Thtttjwretchedjboy over thisreHa moreihanhurigry/j liei^mad.. ;j It is not a'potite/it is ferooity. He is carried away bya mad virus.- Perhaps.he has the plague.- Had .you, the, plague,, thief? Suppose he were to give ,ii to Homo 1. "No, never! Let the populace die, but not my wolf.;« But, by the bye v l,am hungry myaelf. I declare that 'this is t a disagreeable incident. I have worked today far into the night: There are seasons in a man's life when he is hard pressed. I was to, night by hunger. I was all alone. I made a fire. I had but one potatoe, one crust of bread, a mouthful of bacon, and & drop of milk, and I put it to warm. I «»y to myself, ' good ' I think I am going to eat, and bang ! this crocodile must fall upon me at the very moment. He installs himself clean between my food and myself. Behold ! how my larder is devastated ! Eat ! pike, eat ! Shark ! how many teeth had you in your jaws ? ' Guzzle ! Wolf-cub,; no I withdraw that word. I respect wolves. Swallow up my food, boa. I have worked all day, and f ariinto the night, onun empty stomach ; my throat sore ; my pancreas in distress ; my entrails out of order ; and my recompence is to see another eat. " } Tia all one, though !We will divide. He shall have bread, the potato, and the bacon,' and I will have the milk." At this moment a wail, lamentable arid prolonged, arose in the hut. The man "You cry ! sycophant ! Why do you The boy turned towards him ; it was evident that it was not he who oried. He had hia mouth full. The ory was uninterrupted. The man went to the chest. "It is this packet then that wailß. Vale of Jehosaphat I Behold a vociferating parcel ! What the devil has your bundle got to croak about ?" ...,:■, He unrolled the jaoket, an infant's head appeared, the mouth open aud crying. "Well! Who goes there?" said the man " Here is another of them. When is this to end? Who is there? To arms! corporal ! call out the guard; another bang ! What have you brought me, thief ? J)o you not see it is thirsty ? " Oome ! the little one must have a drink. Good ! now I shall not have even the milk." He took down from the things lying m disorder on the shelf a bandage of linen, a sponge, and a phial, muttering savatrely, "What an infernal country!" Then he looked atthehttle infant. "'Tia a tfirl ! one can tell that by her scream, and she iB dronohed as well." He dragged away, as he had done from the boy, the tatters in whioh she was knotted rather than dressed, and swathed her in a rag, which, though of coarse linen, was clean and dry. This rough and sudden dressing exasperated the infant. " She mews relentlessly," said he. He bit off a long piece of sponge, tore from the roll a square piece of linen, drew from it a bit oi thread, took tho saucepan in which there was some milk from the stove, filled the 1 phial with milk drove down the sponge halfway mto its neck, covered the sponge with linen, tied l tins cork in with the throad, applied his cheeks to the phial to be sure that it was not too hot, and seized under his left arm the bewildered bundle, which was still crying. « Come ! have thy » upper, creature ; let me suckle you," and he put «ho neck of the bottl« to its mouth. The little infant drank greedily. He held the phial at tho necessary incline, grumbling-" They are all the wme, the cowards! When they have all they want they are silent." The chad had drank so energetically, and had seized so eagerly the end of the bread offered by across-grained Providence, that she was taken with a fit oi coughing. i j rr You are going to choke ! growled ursus. " A fine gobbler ia this ono, also ! " He drew away the spongo whioh aho was sucking, allowed the cough to subside, and then replaced the phial to her lips, saying, ! street walker !' In the meantime the boy had laid down his fork. Seeing tho infant drink had mJde him forget to eat The, moment before, whoa ho ato, tho expression in hti face was satWaetion-now it was gratitude He <ratohed tho infant's renewal mtle boy now and then lifted to Ursus Mi bein« able to express it. Ursui addressed Mm furiously. bling, and with tears in hu eyet. Yon have nothing 1 1" „. „ " WUiyou b« kind enough to ©at it an up, <mb 1 There is not too much for you, m there wu not wourfi for me, f Tit child took «jia» fork* W <W ** Mt.

■, iff Peni&; , ibßS^afioh, ItellVoutoeat f itall. You aie here to eat, drink, and sleep — eat, orl , ■willfeickyou out, ypu and youx companion." ,The toy, under this menace, began to eat again. He had not much trouble in finishing what was left in the porringer. Ursus muttered, " This building ia badly I joined." The cold comes in by the window pane." A pane had indeed been broken in front, either by some jolt of the cavern, or by a stone thrown by some mischievous boy. TJrsua had placed a star of paper over the fracture, which had become impasted. The blast entered there. He was half seated on the chest. The infant in his armß, and at the same time onhis knees, who was auckingvoluptuously at the, bottle, with that Divine somnolency which oherubims have before theirOreator, and infants before their mother's breast. "She is drunk," said Ursus^ and he oontinued, " After that, make sermons on temperance:" The wind tore from the pane the plaster paper, whioh flew across the hut ; but there was nothing in this to trouble the children entering into new life ; whilst the little girl drank, and the little boy ate, Ursus grumbled, — " Drunkenness begins with the infant in swaddling clothes, 9ive yourself the trouble then to be Bishop Tillhotson, and to thunder againßt excess of drinking. What an odious draught of wind J And then my atoveisold. It allows puffs of smoke to escape enough to give you triohiasis. One has to bear the inconveniences of cold, and the inconveniences of fire. One cannot see clearly. That being over there abuses my hospitality. Well ! 1 have not been able to distinguish the face of this animal. Comfort is wanting here. By Jupiter 1 lam a great admirer of exquisite banquets in well closed rooms. I have missed my vocation. I was born to be a sensualist. The greatest of sages was Philoxenuß, who wished to possess the neck of a orane, to be longer in tasting the pleasures of the table. Receipts to-day at zero. Nothing sold all day. Inhabitants, footmen, servants, and tradesmen, here is your doctor, here are your drugs. You are losing your time, old friend. Pack up your physio. Everyone is well down here. Here's a cursed town, where every one iB well. The skies alone have diarrhoea— what snow ! Anaxagoras taught that the snow was black, and he was right, cold being blackness. Ice is night. What a hurricane 1 1 can f anoy the delight of those at sea. The hurricane is the passage of demons. It is the row of the tempest fiends galloping and rolling head over heels above our boxes of bones. In the wind this one has a tail, that one has horns, another a flame for a tongue, another claws to its wings, another a lord chancellor's pannch, another an academician's pate. You may observe a form in every sound. To every fresh wind a fresh demon. The ear hears, the eyes see, the crack is a figure. Zounds ! There are folks at sea— that ia certain. My friends ! get through the storm as best you can. I have enough to do to get through life. Oomo now, do I keep an inn, or do I not ? "Why should 1 trade with these arrivals of travellers. The universal distress sends its spattoringa even as far as my poverty. Into my cabin fall hideouß drops of the great human mud. lam given up to the voracity of travellers. lam a prey— the prey of thoso dying of hunger. Winter night, a hut of pasteboard, an unfortunate friend below and without. The storm, a potato, a fire as big as my feet, parasites, the wind penetrating through every cranny, and not a halfpenny, and a bundle which nets up howls. I open them and find beggars within. Is this fair play of fata ? Besides, the laws are violated. Ah 1 vagabond with your vagabond child 1 Mischievous pick- pocket, evil-minded abortion, you walk the streets after curfew. If our good king only knew it, would he not have you thrown into the bottom of a ditch, just to teach you bettor. My gontloman walks out At night with my lady, nnd with the glass at iifteon dogroos of frost, bare-headed and bare-footed. Know that such thing! are forbidden. There wo rulei and regulations, you lawless ones. Vagabonds are punished, honest folks who have house* ore guarded and protected. King* are the fathers of the people I have my own house. You would have boon whipped in the public street had yon ehanoed to hate been met, and it would have been well done. There must be order in an established city. For my own port I did wrong not to denounoe the© to the constable. But I am sucha fool I understand what is right sad do what is wrong. Ah ! the ruffian I to oome here in suoh a state ! I did not see the snow upon them when they came in j It hod melted, and behold my whole house is swamped. I have aw inundation in my house. It will be neoossary to burn an incredible amount of ooftis to dry up this lako— oosls at twelve farthings, by the mine** standard. How am I going to manage to at throe into tbUoaroa? ffowitTstoiflwd, I eater Juto my nonary. Jam gojnjf tQ few |»

do^&ngi^df^ ,m'erit,]oMce,{arid f; unction 1 , 116-fasmpn1 16 - fasmpn the; miscarried fortunes of :that'Ooldßsal,I > ro|- 1 ifcitute/,' Misery,, to , briiig , to ' perfection, future gaUoW, birds,' .ajttd to give*; young thieves 5 the £ forms .of philosophy, The tongue' of ,th& wolf is the'warning of God. And to think if I had not been eaten up by creatures of this kind for, the last thirty years, I should berich,.Homo would be fat, I should have a medicine chest full of rarities, as many surgical instruments as Doctor Linacre, surgeon to King Henry .VIII. ■; divers animals of all kinds ? Egyptian mummies, and similar curiosities ; I should be a member of the College of Physicians, and have the right of Using the library^' built in 1652 by the Celebrated Harvey, and to study in the lantern of that dome whence you can see the whole of London. , I could continue my observations of solar obfuscation, and prove that a caligenous vapour arises from the planet. Such was the opinion of John Kepler, whd was b6rn the year before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and who was mathematician to the emperor. The sun is a chimney which sometimes smokes'; so does my stove. My stove is no better than the sun. Yes, I should have made my fortune ; my part would have been a different one— l should not be the insignificant fellow I am. I would not degrade science in the highways, for the crowd is not worthy of the doctrine, the crowd being nothing better than a confused mixture of all sorts of ages, sexes, humours, and conditions, that wise men of all periods have not hesitated to despise, and whose extravagance and passion most moderate men in their justice detest.' "Ah ! lam weary of existence ! After all, one does not live long ! This human life is soon done with. But, no — it is long. At intervals, that we should not become too discouraged, that we* may have the stupidity to consent to bear out existence, and not to profit by the magnificent occasions to hang ourselves which cords and nails offer us, nature puts on the air of taking a little care of man — not on this night, however. This subtle nature germinates the wheat, ripens the grape, gives her song to the nightingale. From time to time there is a ray of morning or a glass of gin, and this is what we call happiness. It is a narrow border of good around an immense winding-sheet of evil. We have a destiny, of which the devil has woven the stuff, and God has sewn the hem. In the meantime, thou hast eaten my supper, thief !" In the meantime, also, the infant whom i he held all the time in his hands, very tenderly, whilst he was vituperating, shut its eyes languidly ; a sign of repletion. Ursuß examined the phial, and grumbled,— " She has drunk it all up. The impudent creature !" He arose, and sustaining the infant with his left arm, with his right arm he raised the lid of tho chest and drew from beneath it a bear-skin, the one he called, as will be remembered, his real skin. Whilst he accomplished this he heard the other child eating, and looked at him sideways. " It will be a care if, henceforth, I have to feed that growing glutton. It will be a tape-worm in the entrails of my industry." He spread out still, with one arm, the bear-skin on tho chest, working his elbow and managing his movement so as not to disturb the beginning of the sleep into into which the infant had just sank. Then ho laid her down on the fur, on tho side next the fire. Having done so, he ptacod tho phial on the stove, and exclaimed, — i "It is I who am thirsty." He looked into tho pot. There were a few good mouthf uls of milk left in it ; he raisod it to his lips. At the moment when about to drink, his eye fell on the little girl. He replaced tho pot on the stove, took tho phial, uncorked it, poured into it all tho milk that remained, which was just auffioiont to fill it, replaced the sponge and the linen rag over it, which he tied round the neck of the bottle. "All tho tame; I am hungry and, thirsty," he observed. Ana he added, — " When one cannot eat broad, ono must drink wator." Behind tho stove there wm a jug with the spout broken oflf.» He took It and handed it to tho boy. "Wilt thou drink?" Tho child drank; and then went on eating. Until seized again tho pitcher, and conveyed it to hi* mouth. The tamper- j ature of the water which it oontainod had boen unequally modified by tho proximity of the store. fie swallowed aome mouthful* and made agrimaoft. " Water 1 protending to be pure, thou rosemblest false friends. Thou art warm at the top *nd oo)d at tht bottom," In the meantime the boy b*4 finished bit supper. The porringer w»* more than

pii^lS&rl^it^'^e^ #4r hi kneVal /■• ii i 11' 11111 * 1 '- h • r^*"^^'^*""'-^"' r< UrVus^turned^towardafhim. ->?, - ;/,%*'/ ,•,«; ; J ' s'^That, is not all.;, N>w\ forus/both. The mouth, is not made only for eating, Hf'is? made for speaking. , ; Now"ihat,you are warmed and stuffed, animal, take care of yourself. ' You' are going 'to answer my questions. Whence come you,?" The child replied, — ; "I know not;" v * ; , " How meanest thou that thou knowest not?" ," ' "I, was abandoned this eVeningon the sea-shore." ' '" " ', ; ' '' ' "Ah! scamp!, what is your, name?, He is bo good for, nothing that his relations abandon him." "lihavenb^elations." . ' , , ' "Give in a little to my tastes, and observe' that I do not like thoee who sing to a tune which contains falsehoods. \ Thou must have relatives since you have a sister." , ' ' "It is not my sister." " It is not your sister ?" "No." " Who is she then f ( " It is a little one whom I found." " Found f "Yes." . "What ! did you pick her up ? " "Yes." , " Where ? If you lie I will exterminate you." " On the breast of a woman who is dead in the snow." "When?" "An hour ago.'* "Where?" " A league from hence." " The frontal arches of Ursus knitted, and took that pointed shape which characterises emotion in the brows of a philosopher. " Dead ! Then behold one who is happy. She musk be left in the snow. She is well off there. On which side V " On the Bide of the sea." "Did you cross the bridge ?" " Yes." Ursus opened the window at the back and examined the view. The weather had not improved. The snow fell thickly and mournfully. He shut the window. He went to the broken glass ; he filled the fracture with a rag j he heaped the stove with turf ; he spread it out as far ashe could the bear-skin on the chest ; took a large book which he had in a corner,' and placed it under the bolster for a pillow, and laid on it the head of the sleeping infant. Then he turned to the boy. "Lie down there." The boy obeyed, and stretched himself at full length by the side of the infant. Uraus rolled the bear-skin over the two children, and tucked it under their feet. He took down from a shelf, and tied to his body, a linon belt with a large pocket, containing, no doubt, a case of instruments and bottles of restoratives. Then he took the lantern from where it hung at the ceiling and lighted it. It was a dark lantern. In giving light it left the children in shadow. Ursus half opened the door, and said, — "I am going out ; be not afraid. I shall return. Sleep." Then letting down the steps, he called Homo. He was answered by a louder growL Ursus holding the lantern in his hand, descended. The steps were replaced, the door was reclosed. The children remained alone. From without, a voice, the voice of Uraus, demanded, — "Boy, you have just eaten up my supper, aro you asleep already V v No," replied the child. " Well, if she bellows, give her the restof the milk." The clinking of a chain being undone was heard, and the sound of a man's foot' steps, mixed with the pads of an animal, died off in the distance. A few instants after, both children slept profoundly. There was an ineffable mingling in their breathings. a They had more thin chastity —they had ignoranoe. If the* word marriage wm not inappropriate on this 1 occasion, they were husband and" wife after the fashion of t&e angels. Sucht innooenoo in such darkness f Suoh purity in such an embraoe ! These foretastos off heaven are only possibly to childhood, and no immensity approaches tRo greatnos* of little children— of att galfe, thin i» the deepest The fearful perpetuity of » dead man ohained beyona life, the mighty' animosity of the ocean to * wreoft, ther whiten**! of the snow covering up buried bodies, do not equal in patho* two mouth* of children which meet divinely fa sleep, and the mooting of which wm sol •ran » Wm. (To b« continued,)