There had been few happier days in Cleg Kelly's life than this on which
he spent the half of his week's wage for the benefit of the Kavannahs.
So altogether happy did he feel that he went and cuffed the ears of
two well-dressed boys for looking at him. Then he threw their new
bonnets into the gutter and departed in a perfect glow of happiness and
philanthropy.
ADVENTURE XIII.
CLEG'S SECOND BURGLARY.
Cleg slept soundly on his bed within the whitewashed hut. The last
thing he did the night before was to go to the bench where the men
had been working, and bring an armful of the fragrant pine shavings
for a bouquet to scent his chamber. And never did boy sleep better.
It must be confessed, however, that the position of night-watchman at
Callendar's, of which he had boasted to Vara Kavannah, was entirely
a sinecure. For it was not until he heard the gruff voices of the
men clicking their tools and answering one another in pre-breakfast
monosyllables that he realized he had changed his abode. Then he
stirred so sharply that the mattress fell off the trestles, and Cleg
was brought up all standing against the side of the hut.
All that day he went about his duties as usual. He trotted to the
newspaper office and distributed his roll of papers mechanically; but
his mind was with the Kavannahs, and he longed for the time to come
when he could, with some self-respect, go and gloat over the effects of
his generosity. Doubtless there was a touch of self-glorification in
this, which, however, he kept strictly to himself. But who will grudge
it to a boy, who for the sake of a lassie has spent nearly half of his
week's wage, and who knows that he will have to live on bread and water
for ten days in consequence?
Cleg judged that it would not be advisable for him to go to Tinklers'
Lands before noon. So in the meanwhile he betook himself to Simon
Square to "lag for" Humpy Joe, who had called him "Irishman" the
previous evening, at a time when, with his papers under his arm, Cleg
was incapacitated for warfare, being, like Martha, much cumbered with
serving.
But Humpy Joe proved unattainable. For he had seen his enemy's
approach, and as soon as Cleg set foot within the square, he saluted
him with a rotten egg, carefully selected and laid aside for such an
emergency. And had it not been for the habitual watchfulness of Cleg,
Joe's missile would have "got him." But as it was, a sudden leap into
the air like that of a jack-in-the-box just cleared the danger, and
the egg, passing between Cleg's bare feet, made a long yolky mark of
exclamation on the ground.
Being defeated in this, Humpy Joe looked forth from an end window,
and entertained the neighbourhood with a gratuitous and wholly
untrustworthy account of Cleg's ancestors. And Cleg, in reply, devised
ingenious tortures, which he declared would be the portion of Humpy
Joe, when next he caught him "out."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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