"Hand it over, or I'll strangle ye." Then in a fit of passion he dragged
Brightly right across the saddle and tore his pocket open. The two
copper coins fell into his hand. He dropped Brightly upon the red and
yellow fragments, which cut his raw hands, then hit his horse, and rode
on triumphing. He had punished the miserable little dealer in rubbish;
and he fancied Brightly would not venture to frighten his horse again.
Pendoggat rode up to the high moor and felt the wind. He was about to
strike his horse into a canter, when a spectre started out of the gloom,
a wizened face reached his knee, an agonised voice cried: "Give I back
my duppence, master. Give I back my duppence."
Pendoggat shivered. He did not enjoy the sound of that voice, or the
sight of that face. He thought of death when he saw that face. Brightly
was only one of the mean things of the earth, and mean things make a
fuss about trifles. That face and that voice all over the loss of
twopence! Probably the wretched thing was mad. Honest men are often
frightened when they see lunatics.
"Us be cruel hungry, master. Us have eaten nought all day. Us have lost
our cloam and our rabbit-skins. Give I back my duppence, master. I'll
work for ye to-morrow."
Pendoggat hit his horse, and the animal cantered away, and the spectre
troubled him no longer. He wiped his chin again and felt satisfied. He
had made a poor creature suffer. There was a certain amount of crude
pleasure in that thought. But why had that face and voice suggested
death, the death of a man who has used his power to deprive a poor
wretch of his vineyard? Pendoggat flung the rabbit-skins into the gaping
pit of a mine-shaft and cantered on. He was a free man; he was a
commoner; the rivers and the rocks were his.
Brightly stumbled back to the hedge to reclaim his empty basket. He
talked to Ju for a little, and tried to understand things, but couldn't.
He would have to start all over again. He discovered a turnip, which had
probably rolled out of a cart and was therefore any one's property, and
he filled his stomach with that. Ju raked a bone bearing a few sinews
out of a rubbish-heap. So they might have done worse.
At the top of the village was an old cow-barn. Above was a loft
containing a little dry fern. Brightly and Ju lodged there. It was quite
away from other buildings, standing well out upon the moor, therefore
nobody heard a queer piping voice, singing and feasting on the quaint
doggerel far into the night--
"Jerusalem the golden,
Wi' milk and honey blest...
CHAPTER III
ABOUT PASTOR AND MASTER
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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