LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3490, 18 June 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MB. BOWKER'B COURTSHIP ; OB THE HEROISM OF TRUE LOVE.. (All tho Tear Round.) (Concluded.) Nor was Abraham in other matter* unequal to his duties. He and Selina want into all the shows together, and if she had demanded a'l the rock and all tho "humbugs " in the market, she might hare had them. But she was sickening for a cry all along, and she was right glad to getaway from her escort, and to escape all question from her father, and unloose the flood-gate of her tears in her own bodrooru. I darssay the paies of despised love were psetfcy much the same thing to the princely melancholic Dane as they were to Mr Bowker. The Dane had a faculty of eloquence and a gift of scholarship which Mr Bowker had not; but that young gentloman, glaring disconsolate into his own fireless grate, by the light of one candle, with his ears still obscured by the big collars, saw there pretty much what his more learned and polished fellow sufferer looked at under similar circumstances — a miserable, foolish jumble of a world, namely, in which it was surely worth no sane man's while to bear fardefs any longer. We are pretty much of the same flesh and blood all the world over, and share toothache and heartache and other ills in a fairly equal manner. There had been a little misunderstanding between tho sweethearts tho night before, but William knew that ho had meant no quarwl, and had supposed Selina's ill humour to be as transient as his own. Selina had put on a few small airs and graces, with a half unconscious intent to display and test her powor. The moment choson had been inopportune — tho most charming creatures are not always wise. Therefore these two young people were now engagod in breaking their own hearts, sitting within half-a-dozen yards of oacbij other— out of sight and hearing. "They'ift a queer sort, be women-folks/ mused .the young man sadly j "but if S'liner wants to marry a creeter as is moor like a cross betwigst a ehe'p an' a bullock nor like a mon, it cent co affair o' mine. Tak your own road, wench, tak your own road !" Therewith he took his way to bed, and lay down beside his lore. The heads of their two beds touched tho same wall, and the heads of the occupants of tho bedß were within a foot of oach other. So near, and yet so far away. You will observe that William had that bitterest of jealousy's draughts at his lipe, which is brewed by a lover's contempt for his rival. Soys the laureate :—

n » .t " 111 * known me, to dcolino On a range of lower feelings, and a narrower heart tban mine I" There's the rub ! She has left me-me, me, for that fellow! Had he beon hinds omer| or richer, or cleverer, have we not all fanoied that we could have borne it better P The young fellow tossed his stalwart limbs hither and thithor in the bed, through the long, sloeplcss. night, and his sweetheart cried miserably and quioily all night through, on tho other side of the wall, within a foot of him.

• " Her , cent got as much, 'cart as ud make a pin s yed, mourned William to himself, unconscious of her tears. *i. MOh y d i!? r m^»" s °U°a lamented, "I've throwed him away. I'm a wicked, bad gell. know K2» t0 - *»&>' r

So the grej dawn Jose on theße two deep., less and unhappy people. William descended to the pump in the back yard, and had a wash ia the half-light of four o'clock, and Sehnagotoutofbedand took ely peeps at him through her tears. William, his abiu-

the Hilly Piece, nnd over Stevenson's Hills and down Jacob's Ladder, and Dead Man's lane, and on to the brooVside again. There on June Bridge, he Btood and watched the eddies circle round the great stone?, and found that negative atd bewildered comfort which trouble always finds in running waters. Meantime Selina had gone back to bed, and had there renewed her tears, and was finding some comfort in running water aho And at the moment when William stoood upon June Bridge, Mr Benjamin Gough, in a suit ot flannels, was making his way to the dayshift in Stnp-and-at-it. Lest you should find yourself too much disturbed by the phrase, let me explain that the btnp-andat-it was a coal mine, so named, by its inmates, from the can't phrapo of some . fc aoggy or ganger-" Now, lads strip and at

Poor William regretted his holiday, atd longed for the hour when work should boein •again. He beguiled the heavy hours of the day by the composition of woe-begono verses, ™*°* f °rt»Wß llaß Presented a fragment whioh I here embalm . —

The son that sbines bo bright above. . . - Knows (naught about my wrt » ? f,il love j Bring nothiDg to my heart but pain.' c It is » ver/ dismal thing, . . That in my ears the birds do sins. While my Selina Ms gOBe of! ; ' ' To walk with MrlAbrjibam Gough." , William's muse- fa in the 'right. It is a" Very dismal thing to the wOurided heart, grown egotistio through its pain, that nature should seem out of sympathy withit-that the sun should shine, and the birds should erne, .Tusfc as brightly and as merrily as though Selina were still true and gentle. William took his humble meal of bread and cheese and his pint or so of beer at a little public-house in the aforesaid lane, and then Btrolled home again, still very miserable, but a trifle soothed by the verse- making process. He was due at. the mine at six o'clock, and two hours before that time ho was up. stairs exchanging his Sunday costume for the work day coaly flannels, when he became conscious of a bustlo in the street. Looking through the window he beheld men running £i j coatl esß, and unbonnettod, unahawled women scurrying along as fast as their feet could take them. Everybody ran m one direction, and in the orowd he caught a moment s glimpsa of Selina and her father. Tho girl b face was white with some strong excitement, and there was a look of the wildest imaginable fear in her eyes. Both hands were pressed to her heart as she ran. A Black Country collier's instinct in a case like this is pretty like to bo true. "William threw his window open, and cried to hurrying crowd :— "Wheerisit?" "At the Strip-an'-at-it," Borne familiar voice called out as the Btraggliog crowd swept " What is it ? " he cried again. " Shaft on lire ! " cried another voice in answer, and in a second tho street was clear. William Bowler dashed down staire and hurled himself along the street. " Anybody down ? " he gasped, as he turned the corner and passed the hindmost figure m the hurrying mass. The woman knew him. " For God's sake, lend me thy hand, Willyurn, she gasped in answer; "my Joe's in.? 1 He caught the shrivelled little figure in his great arms, as though the old woman had been a baby, and dashed on again. Ay, the tale was true ! There belched and Tolloyed the rolling smoke! There were hundreds upon hundreds of people already crowded on the pit mound and about the Bhaft, and from overy quarter men and women came streaming in, white-faced and breathless. William set his withered burthen down, and pushed through to the edge of the shaft. There was water in the up-cast, and the engine* were at work full power. Up came tho enormous bucket and splashed its two or threo hundred gallons down the burning shaft,, and dropped like a stone down. the up-cas% and' atter a long pause came trembling and labouring up again, and vomited its freight again, and dropped like a stone for more.

" You. might just as well etand< in a ring an' spit at it," said Bowker, with Ms face all pale andhiseye3on fire; "get the sbinktors up,, an let a mon or tew go down." " Will you mat one, BUI Bowkor W Baid a brawny, coal-smeared man besido him. " Vis, I wull," was the ouswor, given like a a bulldogs growl. "I'll make another," said' bhe man. "An' me," "An 1 me, 1 " "An 1 me," cried a dozon more.

"Eig the bowk, somebody," said the loveloss verse-maker, taking at once, and as by right, the place he was born for;. "Bill— Jo& —Abel— Darkey— come wi'me."'

The crowd divided, and the five made for tho offices, and found there, in a row, a number of barrel-shaped machines of metal, eaoh having a small hose and' a : pumping apparatus attached to it. Those were a new boon from, tho gonorouß hand of eoience— a French contrivance, as the name affixed to each; got forth— " L f Extincte.ur." Eaoh of the men seized one of these, and' bore it to the edge of tho shaft, the orowd onoe more making way. A bucket, technically oalled " a bowk," some two feet deep and eighteen inches wide, was affixed to tho. wtro rope which swung above the burning- shaft. The self-appointed leader asked for flannol clothing. A dozengarments wore flung to him at once. He wrapped himself up like a mummy, and bound a cotton handkerchief over his- faoe. Then, with tho machine strapped secuwiy across his shoulder, ha-sot one foots in tlie bucket, and laid a, hand upon the rope. A man ran forward with- a Blonder claih, wliioh he passed rapidly round' the volunteer's- waist, and fired to the rope whioh supported" the bowk. Another thrust an end of ropo ihfco his hand, and stood by to reeve out the nest as he descended. Then came the word— "Short, steady." The engine panted,, the rope tightened, the clumsy figure wifch tho maohine bound about it swung into tho smoko, and in a death-like-stillness, with he»e and there a smothered gasp, the man w£nt down. His comrade at the edge- dribbled the rope- through his coal-blackened fingers aB delicately as though it liad been a Bilken throadi Then came a sudden tug at it, and the word was flashed to the engine room, andtheoreakof the wheel ceased, and the tho gliding; wire rope wa9 still. Then for the spaco of a. minute not a sound was heard, but every eye was on the ropo, and; every eheei was pallid with suspense, and every hcark was with: tho hero in tho fiery depth below. Then aame another warning tug at tho rope, and again the word flashed to the engino room. Tho wheel spun jound, the rope glidedy quivered, stopped, the- figure swung up through tho emoko again, was eizod, lowered^ landed. When his comrades laid hand"* upon him, the flannel garments fell from him in huge blackened flakes, so near to the flames had he been, He cast these garments from him, and they fell, half tinder, at his feet. Then ho drew off tho m chief which bound his faoe, and at the godlike heroic pallor of his countenance, and the sot lips and gleaming eyes, women whispered pantingly. " God blof s him !" and tho breath of those bold follows was drawn hard. Tben ho reeled, and a pair of arms like a bear's wore round him in a second. In ten minutes more he was outsido tbo crowd, and a bottle of whiskey, which came from nobody knew where, was at his lips as he lay upon tho ground, and two or three women ran for water.

And whilst all Hub was doing, another man as good as he, was swinging downwards in the blinding smoke. So fiorcealcap the flames made at this hero that they caught him fairly for a moment in their arms, and when he was brought to the surface he hung limp and senseless, with great patches of smouldering fire upon his garments, and his hands and fuce cracked and blackened. But tho next man was ready, and when hi in turn came to the light, ho hai said good-hy to tho light for over in this world. Uot this, nor anything that fear could urge, could ttay the rest. Man after man went down. There were five-and-lhirty mon and boys below, and they would have them up or die. With that godlike pallor on their lips and checks, withthoße wide eyes that looked death in tho face, and knew him, and defied him— down they went! I saw these things, who lell tho story. Man after man defied that fiory fiell, and faced its lurid smoky darknesj undismayed, until, at last, their valour won thoday. The love-lorn William had but little room in 'ri T? aT C ? r BU P° rfl u°us sentiment as he hud his hand upon tho wire rope, and set his iS°- W iWTfc a S aiD - Yet 3 UBfc » h °P° w jthere-that Selma should not grieve too igreatlyif this second venture failed, and he should njee_fc hu, death. He was not, as*k' : rule, devotionally inclined, but he whispered inwardly, "God be good to her!" And there, at that second, he saw her face before mm— so wet and fixed, that in its agony of fWftua prayer it looked liic marble, Tbp

rope grew taut, ho passed tho handkerckie about his face again, and with the memory of her. eyes upon him, dropped out of sight. The man at the side of the Bhaft paid out I ho slender line again, and old hands watched it clos.ly. Yard after yard ran Out. The great cod at his feet snaked itself, ring by ring, through hie coaly fingers. Still no warning message came from below. The engine stopped at l a *t. and they knew that the foot of the shaft was reached. Had the explorer fainted by tho way P Ho might, for all they knew abore, be roasting down below that minute! Even then, his boul, newly released, might bo abovo them. ■ 1 Through the dead «i ence of tho crowd the word flashed to the engiuo room. Tho wheel wont round, and the wire rope glided and quivered up again, over it. There wag not a man or woman there who did not augur the same thing from the tenser quiver of the rope, and when, at last, through the thinner coils of smoke about the top of the shaft the r.scuer s figure swung vilh the first of tho rescued in his arms, tlicro was heard one sound of infinite pathos- >i sigh of relief from twenty thousand breast-. -und doad silence [ fell again.

"Alive?" asked one, laying a hand on Bowker'sarm.

.Bill nodded and pushed him by, and made his way towards that marble face, nursing his burthen still. ■

"Soliner," ho said quietly, " here's your sweetheart." .

" No, no, no, Bill," B lio answered, "there's on y one man i' the world for me, Bill, if ever He forgives me an' my wicked ways." Cheer on cheer of triumph rang in their ears The women fought for Bill Bowker, and kissed him, and cried over him. Men shook hands with him, and with each other. Strangers mingled their tears. The steel rope was eliding up and down at a rare rate now, and the half Buffocated prisoners Of the fire were being carried up in batches. Selina and her lover stood side by side and watched the last skipf ul to the surface. "That's the lot," yelled one coal-smeared giant as the skip swung up. Out.broke the cheers again, peal on peaL William stood silent, with the tears in those brave eyea. The ponitent stole a hand in his.

"Oh, Bill," she whispered, "you didn't think I wanted him ?" •

"What else did you think I fetched him out for ?" queried William, a smile of comedy gleaming through the manly moisture of his eyes.

She dropped her head upon his breast, and put both arms about him, and neither Bhe nor he thought of the crowd in that blissful moment when Mr Bowkor's courtship ended, and his soul was assured of soul.