Pete made an able and keen lieutenant, but the other boys were still disappointing. It is true that Benjamin worked well and was often smart enough, but he had a roving disposition, which was more dangerous than Albert's, since it led him invariably down to the muddy Rother banks at Rye, where the great ships stood in the water, filling the air with good smells of fish and tar. Jemmy would loaf for hours round the capstans and building-stocks, and the piles of muddy rope that smelled of ooze, and he would talk to the sailormen and fishermen about voyages to the Azores and the Cape or to the wild seas south of the Horn, and would come home prating of sails and smoke-stacks, charts and logs,[Pg 148] and other vain things that had nothing to do with Odiam. Reuben remembered that the boy's mother came of a family of ship-builders and sailormen, and he would tremble for Jemmy's allegiance, and punish his truancies twice as severely as Albert's."Margaret," replied Edith; "when you are as old as I, you will not look upon beauty as you do now;a gentle heart and a pallid cheek will seem lovelier then, than brightness and bloom, if there be pride on the brow. But, Stephen, what said the steward when you gave him the gold?"
ONE:"I've only just come in, m?aster. Went r?ound to the London Trader after hearing the poll. By the way, I picked up a piece of news thurold Jury's darter wot used to be at Cheat Land has just died. Bob Hilder t?ald meseems as she lodges wud his sister."The figure did not move. Reuben took a step towards it, and then it tottered forward, and to his horror fell against him, almost bearing him to the floor.
ONE:One evening at the beginning of August she wandered out of the kitchen for a breath of fresh air in the garden before going up to bed. Her head ached, and her cheeks burned from the fire. She did not know it, but the flush and fever made her nearly beautiful. She was[Pg 339] not a bad-looking woman, though a trifle too dark and heavy-featured, and now the glow on her cheeks and the restless brilliancy of her eyes had kindled her almost into loveliness.
TWO:"The hound!" he cried, striking his fists together, "the miserable, cowardy hound!gone and left megone to be a gentleman, the lousy pig. Oh, Lard, I wish as I had him in these hands o' mine!I'd m?ake a gentleman of him!"
THREE:"I agree with you there," said Reuben, "it's not wot life gives that's good, it's wot you t?ake out of it."
