BOB'S BAIT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 90

BOB'S BAIT.

Bt John Ackwop.th, Author of "Clog Shop Chronicles," "The Minder," "From Crooked Roots," Etc. Bob Stimmage's courtship, long drawn cut and fiercely pereevering, was ended at last, andi he was striding furiously down Whincop lane and anathematising the" whole world of women; whttst "Tit" •was slowly putting away her knitting with clouded face and wavering little sighs. She had nothing' on earth agaicet Bob except that he either could not or would not court her properly. "Him and his cockroaches !" she muttered to herself contemptuously in allusion to an interminable taje ho had told her; but the subject refused this time to be dismissed, and it was with her all nighl, and grew more insistent all next day. She took her chair to the door of the little wthite-wa&bed cottage and sat doWn in the cool evenIng to wait theTinevitable visit, but when no .Bob appeared, though she lingered until "the darkness set in, she went indoors with perplexity added to her other emotions. A week passed, and Bob had not been near her. She had stopped sitting in the doorway now, and had' already got a long way along the- pathway of repentance. On the eighth night, just as she was polishing t-he glass of the little lamp, a heavy ttbud came aWthe door, the latch was lifted, and in poked a Long-cased clock, 6x to be precise the case of it. "Oh ! massy, what's to .do?" and ©he lifted up the lamp to discover the bearer. Bob Stimmage deposited his burden on the floor and strode out of the house. "Whatever — oh, Lorjus days!" and Tit's portly mother came hurrying out of the scullery and stood transfixed before the tall case. "It's one of that Bob's crazy tricks," ■aid Tit scornfully, "but if he thinks " Bat here Mrs' Barnet touched the inlaid «pd polished case with covetous admiration, and broke in — ' "Hay, isn't it a bonny un? It's a !" The door opened again and Bob returned with the caee-head, the clock itself, and the weights. ■ "Now, then, Impidence! What's this rummaging work?" cried Tit with reddening face. ' Bob silently put down his burden, picked up a rickety table — Tit had always hotly ftsanted his very apparent contempt for the poorness of their household gods — standing near the scullery door and set it away, in the pantry, lifted the gorgeous case into the vacant place, and mutely proceeded to set up the clock itself. He was specially, lucky in the position he had selected, and Mrs Barnet was gloating over this striking piece of furniture with envious eyes-." "Bob Stimmage, dost know thou'rt in somehody else's house?" "Bob went coolly on fixing the case. "Tak that thing away : this isn't a Pop shop, 'mind thee. ' Bob deliberately turned 1 his back upon her and picked up. the clock works with their dragging chains, stealing as he did 10 a sly look at "Mother." , "I'll chop the maggoty old thing up if thou leaves' it "here. Thou thinks we are nobbut two . weak women, but I'll show thee!" Bob, hanging the pendulum, found the task too delicate for conversation. "Mother, what are you standing staring there for? Onny gaping sawney 'can bring they're Tubbitoh here, can they?" Mrs Barnet was beaming, at the grand moon face and its four, gilt fingers; and . Bob was busy, with the weights. Tit made- a dash at the olo*k, but as Bob made: no attempt • to- stop her she checked herself, her hands on. the case, whilst the clock began to strike. . Mother listened like' a jhaxmed thing, ,_ and . even Tit stopped her tirade to hearken. "When thou'e cVwie that Tom-fool work happen thou'll oppen thy great silly mouth." - Bob was listening to the beat of the clock : and so, baffled, mystified, but piqued with curiosity, Tit* • retreated to her mother's "rocker" and sat down, stiff with indignation. / Bob stepped back and squinted his eye to see that the case stood square and true, and then bent his head to listen •gain at the case-door. Then he carefully picked up the case-head, adjusted it k> its place, and finally stood away to survey the" effect. "Hej, "Bobby, what a grand clock! Whatever——"- •» But Bob wheeled round, held out the key to Mrs Barnet with a flourish, and said excitedly, "I've bowt it at Pinky's «TOtion for a lark — what's t'use o' me kSTin' braes— *nd I want you to give it houseroom till I want it ; there's no room for such fine things in my lodgin's" ; and without so much as a glance toward the amazed and outraged Tit he was gone. Weeks passed ; the great clock seemed to brighten the whole house, and Mrs Barnet was neveT weary of rubbing its Oase and boasting of its perfections. But Bob never darkened the door.Theri lie arrived one night when Tit was out with upholstered chairs and a real hair-seated rocker. What he said to Mrs Barnet has never been, known, but the took the goods in, though Tit whea she came home declared she would put them in the coalhouse. All the- same, a few days later mother rioted - that they had been carefully polished. Then the crazy Bob sent a chest of glass-knobbed drawers and a dresser with white-woo^ top, but though latterly he came with the goods he never as much as looked at

Tit, and her railings did not seem to perturb him in the least.

By this time mother had become mightily proud of the new furniture, and was constantly dropping wondering exclamations a 6 to what they should do if and when Bob fetched them back. For different reasons neither woman told how they had come by them, and the neighbours concluded that the Barnets, who were always "close," must have come into some "brass."

Tfie daye were shorter now, and Bob altogether invisible. Tit had become quite anxious about the furniture, and wished to her mother every day that " that Bob " would fetch them away before they got injured. One day, however, Mrs Barnet brought home tidings that Boj was to be married shortly, and poor Tit quite lost her temper because her mother could not tell the name of the happy bride. All the same, she gave special diligence in polishing the goods ; and one day cried with a fretful outbreak: "He'll not have that clock if he gets wed twenty times. I'll buy it off him myself."

Mother's only reply was an incomprehensible sniff.

After tea one dark evening she began to suggest to her parent ways and means for purchasing the furniture, or at least the grand clock. But mother was neither sympathetic nor very, reasonable. '

Tit was angry and tired, and wanted solitude, and so was retiring quite early, but just as she reached the foot of the stairs there was a knock at the door, and though she could have reached the latch from where 6he stood she bounded across the house into the chair-corner nearest the fire, whilst a voice that went through her cried: "Well, Mrs Barnet, I've come for the furniture."

"Furniture!" and mother's voice had -suddenly become distressful.

"Furniture? Then thou'll not have it! Leastways not till thous paid for storage," and* the overwrought little. Tit, red as a turkey cock and- quite desperate, flew at the grinning Bob as though she would have worried him.

Bob looked down upon her much as the hungry schoolboy looks at apple dumpling ; and then cried with an exultantnote that nearly gave him away: "But it's mine, isn't it.'

"Thine or not thine, thou'll let it he." Bob, one vast grin which was aggravating her to tears, still stared at her, and then replied in words evidently prepared beforehand: "That stuff's mine! Wheer I goes it goes, wheer it stops I stop." And he stood there palpably gloating over her distress.

She was gasping as though for breath and choking back hot tears. Then she looked up at him, and their eyes met. Just as he was snatching at her she turned tail • towards the stair-foot, and then, wheeling round, cried : " Thou can please thyself, but t' furniture's stoppin'." And he only caught her at the stair-head.