England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English
"I shall take it in, Johnny; the Pater would like to see it, There,
mother, you go in first."
Tod unfastened the dog and took it into the dining-room, where sat Mr.
Reste. The dog seemed a gentle creature, and went about looking at us
all with his intelligent eyes. Mrs. Todhetley stroked him.
"Well, that is a nice dog!" cried the Squire. "Whose is it, lads?"
"It is yours, sir, if you will accept him from me," said Mr. Reste. "I
came across him in London the other day, and thought you might like him
in place of Don. I have taught him to answer to the same name."
"We'll call him 'Don the Second'--and I thank you heartily," said the
Squire, with a beaming face. "Good Don! Good old fellow! You shall be
made much of."
* * * * *
He married Katrine without much delay, taking her off to London to be
nursed up; and Mr. Barbary set sail for Canada. The bank-notes, you ask
about? Why, what Katrine saw in her father's hands were but _half_ the
notes, for Mr. Reste divided them the day they arrived, giving thirty
pounds to his host, and keeping thirty himself. And Dick Standish,
for once, had not been in the fight; and the Squire, meeting him in
the turnip-field on Christmas Day, gave him five shillings for a
Christmas-box. Which elated Dick beyond telling; and the Squire was glad
of it later, when poor Dick had gone away prematurely to the Better
Land.
And all the sympathy Katrine had from her father, when he came to hear
about the summer-apple tree, was a sharp wish that she could have had
her ridiculous ideas shaken out of her.
A TRAGEDY
I.--GERVAIS PREEN
I
Crabb Cot, Squire Todhetley's estate in Worcestershire, lay close to
North Crabb, and from two to three miles off Islip, both of which places
you have heard of already. Half way on the road to Islip from Crabb, a
side road, called Brook Lane, branched straight off on the left towards
unknown wilds, for the parts there were not at all frequented. Passing a
solitary homestead here and there, Brook Lane would bring you at the end
of less than two miles to a small hamlet, styled Duck Brook.
I am not responsible for the name. I don't know who is. It was called
Duck Brook long before my time, and will be, no doubt, long after I have
left time behind me. The village rustics called it Duck Bruck.
Duck Brook proper contains some twenty or thirty houses, mostly humble
dwellings, built in the form of a triangle, and two or three shops. A
set of old stocks for the correction of the dead-and-gone evil-doers
might be seen still, and a square pound in which to imprison stray
cattle. And I would remark, as it may be of use further on, that the
distance from Duck Brook to either Islip or Crabb was about equal--some
three miles, or so; it stood at right angles between them. Passing down
Brook Lane (which was in fact a fairly wide turnpike road) into the
high road, turning to the right would bring you to Crabb; turning to the
left, to Islip.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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