Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own PeopleKipling, Rudyard
History
Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People
Kipling, Rudyard
India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Fiction; India -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, English
‘It’s along o’ yon hill there,’ said Learoyd, watching the bare
sub-Himalayan spur that reminded him of his Yorkshire moors. He was
speaking more to himself than his fellows. ‘Ay,’ said he, ‘Rumbolds Moor
stands up ower Skipton town, an’ Greenhow Hill stands up ower Pately
Brig. I reckon you’ve never heeard tell o’ Greenhow Hill, but you bit
o’ bare stuff if there was nobbut a white road windin’ is like ut;
strangely like. Moors an’ moors an’ moors, wi’ never a tree for shelter,
an’ gray houses wi’ flagstone rooves, and pewits cryin’, an’ a windhover
goin’ to and fro just like these kites. And cold! A wind that cuts you
like a knife. You could tell Greenhow Hill folk by the red-apple
colour o’ their cheeks an’ nose tips, and their blue eyes, driven
into pinpoints by the wind. Miners mostly, burrowin’ for lead i’ th’
hillsides, followin’ the trail of th’ ore vein same as a field-rat. It
was the roughest minin’ I ever seen. Yo’d come on a bit o’ creakin’ wood
windlass like a well-head, an’ you was let down i’ th’ bight of a rope,
fendin’ yoursen off the side wi’ one hand, carryin’ a candle stuck in
a lump o’ clay with t’other, an’ clickin’ hold of a rope with t’other
hand.’
‘An’ that’s three of them,’ said Mulvaney. ‘Must be a good climate in
those parts.’
Learoyd took no heed.
‘An’ then yo’ came to a level, where you crept on your hands and knees
through a mile o’ windin’ drift, an’ you come out into a cave-place as
big as Leeds Townhall, with a engine pumpin’ water from workin’s ‘at
went deeper still. It’s a queer country, let alone minin’, for the hill
is full of those natural caves, an’ the rivers an’ the becks drops into
what they call pot-holes, an’ come out again miles away.’
‘Wot was you doin’ there?’ said Ortheris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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