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diff --git a/old/nwsnw10.txt b/old/nwsnw10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82812b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nwsnw10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8446 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of News from Nowhere, by William Morris +#8 in our series by William Morris + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced from the 1908 Longmans, Green, and Co. +edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +NEWS FROM NOWHERE +or AN EPOCH OF REST +being some chapters from +A UTOPIAN ROMANCE + +by William Morris + + + + +CHAPTER I: DISCUSSION AND BED + + + +Up at the League, says a friend, there had been one night a brisk +conversational discussion, as to what would happen on the Morrow of +the Revolution, finally shading off into a vigorous statement by +various friends of their views on the future of the fully-developed +new society. + +Says our friend: Considering the subject, the discussion was good- +tempered; for those present being used to public meetings and after- +lecture debates, if they did not listen to each others' opinions +(which could scarcely be expected of them), at all events did not +always attempt to speak all together, as is the custom of people in +ordinary polite society when conversing on a subject which interests +them. For the rest, there were six persons present, and consequently +six sections of the party were represented, four of which had strong +but divergent Anarchist opinions. One of the sections, says our +friend, a man whom he knows very well indeed, sat almost silent at +the beginning of the discussion, but at last got drawn into it, and +finished by roaring out very loud, and damning all the rest for +fools; after which befel a period of noise, and then a lull, during +which the aforesaid section, having said good-night very amicably, +took his way home by himself to a western suburb, using the means of +travelling which civilisation has forced upon us like a habit. As he +sat in that vapour-bath of hurried and discontented humanity, a +carriage of the underground railway, he, like others, stewed +discontentedly, while in self-reproachful mood he turned over the +many excellent and conclusive arguments which, though they lay at his +fingers' ends, he had forgotten in the just past discussion. But +this frame of mind he was so used to, that it didn't last him long, +and after a brief discomfort, caused by disgust with himself for +having lost his temper (which he was also well used to), he found +himself musing on the subject-matter of discussion, but still +discontentedly and unhappily. "If I could but see a day of it," he +said to himself; "if I could but see it!" + +As he formed the words, the train stopped at his station, five +minutes' walk from his own house, which stood on the banks of the +Thames, a little way above an ugly suspension bridge. He went out of +the station, still discontented and unhappy, muttering "If I could +but see it! if I could but see it!" but had not gone many steps +towards the river before (says our friend who tells the story) all +that discontent and trouble seemed to slip off him. + +It was a beautiful night of early winter, the air just sharp enough +to be refreshing after the hot room and the stinking railway +carriage. The wind, which had lately turned a point or two north of +west, had blown the sky clear of all cloud save a light fleck or two +which went swiftly down the heavens. There was a young moon halfway +up the sky, and as the home-farer caught sight of it, tangled in the +branches of a tall old elm, he could scarce bring to his mind the +shabby London suburb where he was, and he felt as if he were in a +pleasant country place--pleasanter, indeed, than the deep country was +as he had known it. + +He came right down to the river-side, and lingered a little, looking +over the low wall to note the moonlit river, near upon high water, go +swirling and glittering up to Chiswick Eyot: as for the ugly bridge +below, he did not notice it or think of it, except when for a moment +(says our friend) it struck him that he missed the row of lights down +stream. Then he turned to his house door and let himself in; and +even as he shut the door to, disappeared all remembrance of that +brilliant logic and foresight which had so illuminated the recent +discussion; and of the discussion itself there remained no trace, +save a vague hope, that was now become a pleasure, for days of peace +and rest, and cleanness and smiling goodwill. + +In this mood he tumbled into bed, and fell asleep after his wont, in +two minutes' time; but (contrary to his wont) woke up again not long +after in that curiously wide-awake condition which sometimes +surprises even good sleepers; a condition under which we feel all our +wits preternaturally sharpened, while all the miserable muddles we +have ever got into, all the disgraces and losses of our lives, will +insist on thrusting themselves forward for the consideration of those +sharpened wits. + +In this state he lay (says our friend) till he had almost begun to +enjoy it: till the tale of his stupidities amused him, and the +entanglements before him, which he saw so clearly, began to shape +themselves into an amusing story for him. + +He heard one o'clock strike, then two and then three; after which he +fell asleep again. Our friend says that from that sleep he awoke +once more, and afterwards went through such surprising adventures +that he thinks that they should be told to our comrades, and indeed +the public in general, and therefore proposes to tell them now. But, +says he, I think it would be better if I told them in the first +person, as if it were myself who had gone through them; which, +indeed, will be the easier and more natural to me, since I understand +the feelings and desires of the comrade of whom I am telling better +than any one else in the world does. + + + +CHAPTER II: A MORNING BATH + + + +Well, I awoke, and found that I had kicked my bedclothes off; and no +wonder, for it was hot and the sun shining brightly. I jumped up and +washed and hurried on my clothes, but in a hazy and half-awake +condition, as if I had slept for a long, long while, and could not +shake off the weight of slumber. In fact, I rather took it for +granted that I was at home in my own room than saw that it was so. + +When I was dressed, I felt the place so hot that I made haste to get +out of the room and out of the house; and my first feeling was a +delicious relief caused by the fresh air and pleasant breeze; my +second, as I began to gather my wits together, mere measureless +wonder: for it was winter when I went to bed the last night, and +now, by witness of the river-side trees, it was summer, a beautiful +bright morning seemingly of early June. However, there was still the +Thames sparkling under the sun, and near high water, as last night I +had seen it gleaming under the moon. + +I had by no means shaken off the feeling of oppression, and wherever +I might have been should scarce have been quite conscious of the +place; so it was no wonder that I felt rather puzzled in despite of +the familiar face of the Thames. Withal I felt dizzy and queer; and +remembering that people often got a boat and had a swim in mid- +stream, I thought I would do no less. It seems very early, quoth I +to myself, but I daresay I shall find someone at Biffin's to take me. +However, I didn't get as far as Biffin's, or even turn to my left +thitherward, because just then I began to see that there was a +landing-stage right before me in front of my house: in fact, on the +place where my next-door neighbour had rigged one up, though somehow +it didn't look like that either. Down I went on to it, and sure +enough among the empty boats moored to it lay a man on his sculls in +a solid-looking tub of a boat clearly meant for bathers. He nodded +to me, and bade me good-morning as if he expected me, so I jumped in +without any words, and he paddled away quietly as I peeled for my +swim. As we went, I looked down on the water, and couldn't help +saying - + +"How clear the water is this morning!" + +"Is it?" said he; "I didn't notice it. You know the flood-tide +always thickens it a bit." + +"H'm," said I, "I have seen it pretty muddy even at half-ebb." + +He said nothing in answer, but seemed rather astonished; and as he +now lay just stemming the tide, and I had my clothes off, I jumped in +without more ado. Of course when I had my head above water again I +turned towards the tide, and my eyes naturally sought for the bridge, +and so utterly astonished was I by what I saw, that I forgot to +strike out, and went spluttering under water again, and when I came +up made straight for the boat; for I felt that I must ask some +questions of my waterman, so bewildering had been the half-sight I +had seen from the face of the river with the water hardly out of my +eyes; though by this time I was quit of the slumbrous and dizzy +feeling, and was wide-awake and clear-headed. + +As I got in up the steps which he had lowered, and he held out his +hand to help me, we went drifting speedily up towards Chiswick; but +now he caught up the sculls and brought her head round again, and +said--"A short swim, neighbour; but perhaps you find the water cold +this morning, after your journey. Shall I put you ashore at once, or +would you like to go down to Putney before breakfast?" + +He spoke in a way so unlike what I should have expected from a +Hammersmith waterman, that I stared at him, as I answered, "Please to +hold her a little; I want to look about me a bit." + +"All right," he said; "it's no less pretty in its way here than it is +off Barn Elms; it's jolly everywhere this time in the morning. I'm +glad you got up early; it's barely five o'clock yet." + +If I was astonished with my sight of the river banks, I was no less +astonished at my waterman, now that I had time to look at him and see +him with my head and eyes clear. + +He was a handsome young fellow, with a peculiarly pleasant and +friendly look about his eyes,--an expression which was quite new to +me then, though I soon became familiar with it. For the rest, he was +dark-haired and berry-brown of skin, well-knit and strong, and +obviously used to exercising his muscles, but with nothing rough or +coarse about him, and clean as might be. His dress was not like any +modern work-a-day clothes I had seen, but would have served very well +as a costume for a picture of fourteenth century life: it was of +dark blue cloth, simple enough, but of fine web, and without a stain +on it. He had a brown leather belt round his waist, and I noticed +that its clasp was of damascened steel beautifully wrought. In +short, he seemed to be like some specially manly and refined young +gentleman, playing waterman for a spree, and I concluded that this +was the case. + +I felt that I must make some conversation; so I pointed to the Surrey +bank, where I noticed some light plank stages running down the +foreshore, with windlasses at the landward end of them, and said, +"What are they doing with those things here? If we were on the Tay, +I should have said that they were for drawing the salmon nets; but +here--" + +"Well," said he, smiling, "of course that is what they ARE for. +Where there are salmon, there are likely to be salmon-nets, Tay or +Thames; but of course they are not always in use; we don't want +salmon EVERY day of the season." + +I was going to say, "But is this the Thames?" but held my peace in my +wonder, and turned my bewildered eyes eastward to look at the bridge +again, and thence to the shores of the London river; and surely there +was enough to astonish me. For though there was a bridge across the +stream and houses on its banks, how all was changed from last night! +The soap-works with their smoke-vomiting chimneys were gone; the +engineer's works gone; the lead-works gone; and no sound of rivetting +and hammering came down the west wind from Thorneycroft's. Then the +bridge! I had perhaps dreamed of such a bridge, but never seen such +an one out of an illuminated manuscript; for not even the Ponte +Vecchio at Florence came anywhere near it. It was of stone arches, +splendidly solid, and as graceful as they were strong; high enough +also to let ordinary river traffic through easily. Over the parapet +showed quaint and fanciful little buildings, which I supposed to be +booths or shops, beset with painted and gilded vanes and spirelets. +The stone was a little weathered, but showed no marks of the grimy +sootiness which I was used to on every London building more than a +year old. In short, to me a wonder of a bridge. + +The sculler noted my eager astonished look, and said, as if in answer +to my thoughts - + +"Yes, it IS a pretty bridge, isn't it? Even the up-stream bridges, +which are so much smaller, are scarcely daintier, and the down-stream +ones are scarcely more dignified and stately." + +I found myself saying, almost against my will, "How old is it?" + +"Oh, not very old," he said; "it was built or at least opened, in +2003. There used to be a rather plain timber bridge before then." + +The date shut my mouth as if a key had been turned in a padlock fixed +to my lips; for I saw that something inexplicable had happened, and +that if I said much, I should be mixed up in a game of cross +questions and crooked answers. So I tried to look unconcerned, and +to glance in a matter-of-course way at the banks of the river, though +this is what I saw up to the bridge and a little beyond; say as far +as the site of the soap-works. Both shores had a line of very pretty +houses, low and not large, standing back a little way from the river; +they were mostly built of red brick and roofed with tiles, and +looked, above all, comfortable, and as if they were, so to say, +alive, and sympathetic with the life of the dwellers in them. There +was a continuous garden in front of them, going down to the water's +edge, in which the flowers were now blooming luxuriantly, and sending +delicious waves of summer scent over the eddying stream. Behind the +houses, I could see great trees rising, mostly planes, and looking +down the water there were the reaches towards Putney almost as if +they were a lake with a forest shore, so thick were the big trees; +and I said aloud, but as if to myself - + +"Well, I'm glad that they have not built over Barn Elms." + +I blushed for my fatuity as the words slipped out of my mouth, and my +companion looked at me with a half smile which I thought I +understood; so to hide my confusion I said, "Please take me ashore +now: I want to get my breakfast." + +He nodded, and brought her head round with a sharp stroke, and in a +trice we were at the landing-stage again. He jumped out and I +followed him; and of course I was not surprised to see him wait, as +if for the inevitable after-piece that follows the doing of a service +to a fellow-citizen. So I put my hand into my waistcoat-pocket, and +said, "How much?" though still with the uncomfortable feeling that +perhaps I was offering money to a gentleman. + +He looked puzzled, and said, "How much? I don't quite understand +what you are asking about. Do you mean the tide? If so, it is close +on the turn now." + +I blushed, and said, stammering, "Please don't take it amiss if I ask +you; I mean no offence: but what ought I to pay you? You see I am a +stranger, and don't know your customs--or your coins." + +And therewith I took a handful of money out of my pocket, as one does +in a foreign country. And by the way, I saw that the silver had +oxydised, and was like a blackleaded stove in colour. + +He still seemed puzzled, but not at all offended; and he looked at +the coins with some curiosity. I thought, Well after all, he IS a +waterman, and is considering what he may venture to take. He seems +such a nice fellow that I'm sure I don't grudge him a little over- +payment. I wonder, by the way, whether I couldn't hire him as a +guide for a day or two, since he is so intelligent. + +Therewith my new friend said thoughtfully: + +"I think I know what you mean. You think that I have done you a +service; so you feel yourself bound to give me something which I am +not to give to a neighbour, unless he has done something special for +me. I have heard of this kind of thing; but pardon me for saying, +that it seems to us a troublesome and roundabout custom; and we don't +know how to manage it. And you see this ferrying and giving people +casts about the water is my BUSINESS, which I would do for anybody; +so to take gifts in connection with it would look very queer. +Besides, if one person gave me something, then another might, and +another, and so on; and I hope you won't think me rude if I say that +I shouldn't know where to stow away so many mementos of friendship." + +And he laughed loud and merrily, as if the idea of being paid for his +work was a very funny joke. I confess I began to be afraid that the +man was mad, though he looked sane enough; and I was rather glad to +think that I was a good swimmer, since we were so close to a deep +swift stream. However, he went on by no means like a madman: + +"As to your coins, they are curious, but not very old; they seem to +be all of the reign of Victoria; you might give them to some +scantily-furnished museum. Ours has enough of such coins, besides a +fair number of earlier ones, many of which are beautiful, whereas +these nineteenth century ones are so beastly ugly, ain't they? We +have a piece of Edward III., with the king in a ship, and little +leopards and fleurs-de-lys all along the gunwale, so delicately +worked. You see," he said, with something of a smirk, "I am fond of +working in gold and fine metals; this buckle here is an early piece +of mine." + +No doubt I looked a little shy of him under the influence of that +doubt as to his sanity. So he broke off short, and said in a kind +voice: + +"But I see that I am boring you, and I ask your pardon. For, not to +mince matters, I can tell that you ARE a stranger, and must come from +a place very unlike England. But also it is clear that it won't do +to overdose you with information about this place, and that you had +best suck it in little by little. Further, I should take it as very +kind in you if you would allow me to be the showman of our new world +to you, since you have stumbled on me first. Though indeed it will +be a mere kindness on your part, for almost anybody would make as +good a guide, and many much better." + +There certainly seemed no flavour in him of Colney Hatch; and besides +I thought I could easily shake him off if it turned out that he +really was mad; so I said: + +"It is a very kind offer, but it is difficult for me to accept it, +unless--" I was going to say, Unless you will let me pay you +properly; but fearing to stir up Colney Hatch again, I changed the +sentence into, "I fear I shall be taking you away from your work--or +your amusement." + +"O," he said, "don't trouble about that, because it will give me an +opportunity of doing a good turn to a friend of mine, who wants to +take my work here. He is a weaver from Yorkshire, who has rather +overdone himself between his weaving and his mathematics, both indoor +work, you see; and being a great friend of mine, he naturally came to +me to get him some outdoor work. If you think you can put up with +me, pray take me as your guide." + +He added presently: "It is true that I have promised to go up-stream +to some special friends of mine, for the hay-harvest; but they won't +be ready for us for more than a week: and besides, you might go with +me, you know, and see some very nice people, besides making notes of +our ways in Oxfordshire. You could hardly do better if you want to +see the country." + +I felt myself obliged to thank him, whatever might come of it; and he +added eagerly: + +"Well, then, that's settled. I will give my friend call; he is +living in the Guest House like you, and if he isn't up yet, he ought +to be this fine summer morning." + +Therewith he took a little silver bugle-horn from his girdle and blew +two or three sharp but agreeable notes on it; and presently from the +house which stood on the site of my old dwelling (of which more +hereafter) another young man came sauntering towards us. He was not +so well-looking or so strongly made as my sculler friend, being +sandy-haired, rather pale, and not stout-built; but his face was not +wanting in that happy and friendly expression which I had noticed in +his friend. As he came up smiling towards us, I saw with pleasure +that I must give up the Colney Hatch theory as to the waterman, for +no two madmen ever behaved as they did before a sane man. His dress +also was of the same cut as the first man's, though somewhat gayer, +the surcoat being light green with a golden spray embroidered on the +breast, and his belt being of filagree silver-work. + +He gave me good-day very civilly, and greeting his friend joyously, +said: + +"Well, Dick, what is it this morning? Am I to have my work, or +rather your work? I dreamed last night that we were off up the river +fishing." + +"All right, Bob," said my sculler; "you will drop into my place, and +if you find it too much, there is George Brightling on the look out +for a stroke of work, and he lives close handy to you. But see, here +is a stranger who is willing to amuse me to-day by taking me as his +guide about our country-side, and you may imagine I don't want to +lose the opportunity; so you had better take to the boat at once. +But in any case I shouldn't have kept you out of it for long, since I +am due in the hay-fields in a few days." + +The newcomer rubbed his hands with glee, but turning to me, said in a +friendly voice: + +"Neighbour, both you and friend Dick are lucky, and will have a good +time to-day, as indeed I shall too. But you had better both come in +with me at once and get something to eat, lest you should forget your +dinner in your amusement. I suppose you came into the Guest House +after I had gone to bed last night?" + +I nodded, not caring to enter into a long explanation which would +have led to nothing, and which in truth by this time I should have +begun to doubt myself. And we all three turned toward the door of +the Guest House. + + + +CHAPTER III: THE GUEST HOUSE AND BREAKFAST THEREIN + + + +I lingered a little behind the others to have a stare at this house, +which, as I have told you, stood on the site of my old dwelling. + +It was a longish building with its gable ends turned away from the +road, and long traceried windows coming rather low down set in the +wall that faced us. It was very handsomely built of red brick with a +lead roof; and high up above the windows there ran a frieze of figure +subjects in baked clay, very well executed, and designed with a force +and directness which I had never noticed in modern work before. The +subjects I recognised at once, and indeed was very particularly +familiar with them. + +However, all this I took in in a minute; for we were presently within +doors, and standing in a hall with a floor of marble mosaic and an +open timber roof. There were no windows on the side opposite to the +river, but arches below leading into chambers, one of which showed a +glimpse of a garden beyond, and above them a long space of wall gaily +painted (in fresco, I thought) with similar subjects to those of the +frieze outside; everything about the place was handsome and +generously solid as to material; and though it was not very large +(somewhat smaller than Crosby Hall perhaps), one felt in it that +exhilarating sense of space and freedom which satisfactory +architecture always gives to an unanxious man who is in the habit of +using his eyes. + +In this pleasant place, which of course I knew to be the hall of the +Guest House, three young women were flitting to and fro. As they +were the first of the sex I had seen on this eventful morning, I +naturally looked at them very attentively, and found them at least as +good as the gardens, the architecture, and the male men. As to their +dress, which of course I took note of, I should say that they were +decently veiled with drapery, and not bundled up with millinery; that +they were clothed like women, not upholstered like armchairs, as most +women of our time are. In short, their dress was somewhat between +that of the ancient classical costume and the simpler forms of the +fourteenth century garments, though it was clearly not an imitation +of either: the materials were light and gay to suit the season. As +to the women themselves, it was pleasant indeed to see them, they +were so kind and happy-looking in expression of face, so shapely and +well-knit of body, and thoroughly healthy-looking and strong. All +were at least comely, and one of them very handsome and regular of +feature. They came up to us at once merrily and without the least +affectation of shyness, and all three shook hands with me as if I +were a friend newly come back from a long journey: though I could +not help noticing that they looked askance at my garments; for I had +on my clothes of last night, and at the best was never a dressy +person. + +A word or two from Robert the weaver, and they bustled about on our +behoof, and presently came and took us by the hands and led us to a +table in the pleasantest corner of the hall, where our breakfast was +spread for us; and, as we sat down, one of them hurried out by the +chambers aforesaid, and came back again in a little while with a +great bunch of roses, very different in size and quality to what +Hammersmith had been wont to grow, but very like the produce of an +old country garden. She hurried back thence into the buttery, and +came back once more with a delicately made glass, into which she put +the flowers and set them down in the midst of our table. One of the +others, who had run off also, then came back with a big cabbage-leaf +filled with strawberries, some of them barely ripe, and said as she +set them on the table, "There, now; I thought of that before I got up +this morning; but looking at the stranger here getting into your +boat, Dick, put it out of my head; so that I was not before ALL the +blackbirds: however, there are a few about as good as you will get +them anywhere in Hammersmith this morning." + +Robert patted her on the head in a friendly manner; and we fell to on +our breakfast, which was simple enough, but most delicately cooked, +and set on the table with much daintiness. The bread was +particularly good, and was of several different kinds, from the big, +rather close, dark-coloured, sweet-tasting farmhouse loaf, which was +most to my liking, to the thin pipe-stems of wheaten crust, such as I +have eaten in Turin. + +As I was putting the first mouthfuls into my mouth my eye caught a +carved and gilded inscription on the panelling, behind what we should +have called the High Table in an Oxford college hall, and a familiar +name in it forced me to read it through. Thus it ran: + + +"Guests and neighbours, on the site of this Guest-hall once stood the +lecture-room of the Hammersmith Socialists. Drink a glass to the +memory! May 1962." + + +It is difficult to tell you how I felt as I read these words, and I +suppose my face showed how much I was moved, for both my friends +looked curiously at me, and there was silence between us for a little +while. + +Presently the weaver, who was scarcely so well mannered a man as the +ferryman, said to me rather awkwardly: + +"Guest, we don't know what to call you: is there any indiscretion in +asking you your name?" + +"Well," said I, "I have some doubts about it myself; so suppose you +call me Guest, which is a family name, you know, and add William to +it if you please." + +Dick nodded kindly to me; but a shade of anxiousness passed over the +weaver's face, and he said--"I hope you don't mind my asking, but +would you tell me where you come from? I am curious about such +things for good reasons, literary reasons." + +Dick was clearly kicking him underneath the table; but he was not +much abashed, and awaited my answer somewhat eagerly. As for me, I +was just going to blurt out "Hammersmith," when I bethought me what +an entanglement of cross purposes that would lead us into; so I took +time to invent a lie with circumstance, guarded by a little truth, +and said: + +"You see, I have been such a long time away from Europe that things +seem strange to me now; but I was born and bred on the edge of Epping +Forest; Walthamstow and Woodford, to wit." + +"A pretty place, too," broke in Dick; "a very jolly place, now that +the trees have had time to grow again since the great clearing of +houses in 1955." + +Quoth the irrepressible weaver: "Dear neighbour, since you knew the +Forest some time ago, could you tell me what truth there is in the +rumour that in the nineteenth century the trees were all pollards?" + +This was catching me on my archaeological natural-history side, and I +fell into the trap without any thought of where and when I was; so I +began on it, while one of the girls, the handsome one, who had been +scattering little twigs of lavender and other sweet-smelling herbs +about the floor, came near to listen, and stood behind me with her +hand on my shoulder, in which she held some of the plant that I used +to call balm: its strong sweet smell brought back to my mind my very +early days in the kitchen-garden at Woodford, and the large blue +plums which grew on the wall beyond the sweet-herb patch,--a +connection of memories which all boys will see at once. + +I started off: "When I was a boy, and for long after, except for a +piece about Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, and for the part about High +Beech, the Forest was almost wholly made up of pollard hornbeams +mixed with holly thickets. But when the Corporation of London took +it over about twenty-five years ago, the topping and lopping, which +was a part of the old commoners' rights, came to an end, and the +trees were let to grow. But I have not seen the place now for many +years, except once, when we Leaguers went a pleasuring to High Beech. +I was very much shocked then to see how it was built-over and +altered; and the other day we heard that the philistines were going +to landscape-garden it. But what you were saying about the building +being stopped and the trees growing is only too good news;--only you +know--" + +At that point I suddenly remembered Dick's date, and stopped short +rather confused. The eager weaver didn't notice my confusion, but +said hastily, as if he were almost aware of his breach of good +manners, "But, I say, how old are you?" + +Dick and the pretty girl both burst out laughing, as if Robert's +conduct were excusable on the grounds of eccentricity; and Dick said +amidst his laughter: + +"Hold hard, Bob; this questioning of guests won't do. Why, much +learning is spoiling you. You remind me of the radical cobblers in +the silly old novels, who, according to the authors, were prepared to +trample down all good manners in the pursuit of utilitarian +knowledge. The fact is, I begin to think that you have so muddled +your head with mathematics, and with grubbing into those idiotic old +books about political economy (he he!), that you scarcely know how to +behave. Really, it is about time for you to take to some open-air +work, so that you may clear away the cobwebs from your brain." + +The weaver only laughed good-humouredly; and the girl went up to him +and patted his cheek and said laughingly, "Poor fellow! he was born +so." + +As for me, I was a little puzzled, but I laughed also, partly for +company's sake, and partly with pleasure at their unanxious happiness +and good temper; and before Robert could make the excuse to me which +he was getting ready, I said: + +"But neighbours" (I had caught up that word), "I don't in the least +mind answering questions, when I can do so: ask me as many as you +please; it's fun for me. I will tell you all about Epping Forest +when I was a boy, if you please; and as to my age, I'm not a fine +lady, you know, so why shouldn't I tell you? I'm hard on fifty-six." + +In spite of the recent lecture on good manners, the weaver could not +help giving a long "whew" of astonishment, and the others were so +amused by his naivete that the merriment flitted all over their +faces, though for courtesy's sake they forbore actual laughter; while +I looked from one to the other in a puzzled manner, and at last said: + +"Tell me, please, what is amiss: you know I want to learn from you. +And please laugh; only tell me." + +Well, they DID laugh, and I joined them again, for the above-stated +reasons. But at last the pretty woman said coaxingly - + +"Well, well, he IS rude, poor fellow! but you see I may as well tell +you what he is thinking about: he means that you look rather old for +your age. But surely there need be no wonder in that, since you have +been travelling; and clearly from all you have been saying, in +unsocial countries. It has often been said, and no doubt truly, that +one ages very quickly if one lives amongst unhappy people. Also they +say that southern England is a good place for keeping good looks." +She blushed and said: "How old am I, do you think?" + +"Well," quoth I, "I have always been told that a woman is as old as +she looks, so without offence or flattery, I should say that you were +twenty." + +She laughed merrily, and said, "I am well served out for fishing for +compliments, since I have to tell you the truth, to wit, that I am +forty-two." + +I stared at her, and drew musical laughter from her again; but I +might well stare, for there was not a careful line on her face; her +skin was as smooth as ivory, her cheeks full and round, her lips as +red as the roses she had brought in; her beautiful arms, which she +had bared for her work, firm and well-knit from shoulder to wrist. +She blushed a little under my gaze, though it was clear that she had +taken me for a man of eighty; so to pass it off I said - + +"Well, you see, the old saw is proved right again, and I ought not to +have let you tempt me into asking you a rude question." + +She laughed again, and said: "Well, lads, old and young, I must get +to my work now. We shall be rather busy here presently; and I want +to clear it off soon, for I began to read a pretty old book +yesterday, and I want to get on with it this morning: so good-bye +for the present." + +She waved a hand to us, and stepped lightly down the hall, taking (as +Scott says) at least part of the sun from our table as she went. + +When she was gone, Dick said "Now guest, won't you ask a question or +two of our friend here? It is only fair that you should have your +turn." + +"I shall be very glad to answer them," said the weaver. + +"If I ask you any questions, sir," said I, "they will not be very +severe; but since I hear that you are a weaver, I should like to ask +you something about that craft, as I am--or was--interested in it." + +"Oh," said he, "I shall not be of much use to you there, I'm afraid. +I only do the most mechanical kind of weaving, and am in fact but a +poor craftsman, unlike Dick here. Then besides the weaving, I do a +little with machine printing and composing, though I am little use at +the finer kinds of printing; and moreover machine printing is +beginning to die out, along with the waning of the plague of book- +making, so I have had to turn to other things that I have a taste +for, and have taken to mathematics; and also I am writing a sort of +antiquarian book about the peaceable and private history, so to say, +of the end of the nineteenth century,--more for the sake of giving a +picture of the country before the fighting began than for anything +else. That was why I asked you those questions about Epping Forest. +You have rather puzzled me, I confess, though your information was so +interesting. But later on, I hope, we may have some more talk +together, when our friend Dick isn't here. I know he thinks me +rather a grinder, and despises me for not being very deft with my +hands: that's the way nowadays. From what I have read of the +nineteenth century literature (and I have read a good deal), it is +clear to me that this is a kind of revenge for the stupidity of that +day, which despised everybody who COULD use his hands. But Dick, old +fellow, Ne quid nimis! Don't overdo it!" + +"Come now," said Dick, "am I likely to? Am I not the most tolerant +man in the world? Am I not quite contented so long as you don't make +me learn mathematics, or go into your new science of aesthetics, and +let me do a little practical aesthetics with my gold and steel, and +the blowpipe and the nice little hammer? But, hillo! here comes +another questioner for you, my poor guest. I say, Bob, you must help +me to defend him now." + +"Here, Boffin," he cried out, after a pause; "here we are, if you +must have it!" + +I looked over my shoulder, and saw something flash and gleam in the +sunlight that lay across the hall; so I turned round, and at my ease +saw a splendid figure slowly sauntering over the pavement; a man +whose surcoat was embroidered most copiously as well as elegantly, so +that the sun flashed back from him as if he had been clad in golden +armour. The man himself was tall, dark-haired, and exceedingly +handsome, and though his face was no less kindly in expression than +that of the others, he moved with that somewhat haughty mien which +great beauty is apt to give to both men and women. He came and sat +down at our table with a smiling face, stretching out his long legs +and hanging his arm over the chair in the slowly graceful way which +tall and well-built people may use without affectation. He was a man +in the prime of life, but looked as happy as a child who has just got +a new toy. He bowed gracefully to me and said - + +"I see clearly that you are the guest, of whom Annie has just told +me, who have come from some distant country that does not know of us, +or our ways of life. So I daresay you would not mind answering me a +few questions; for you see--" + +Here Dick broke in: "No, please, Boffin! let it alone for the +present. Of course you want the guest to be happy and comfortable; +and how can that be if he has to trouble himself with answering all +sorts of questions while he is still confused with the new customs +and people about him? No, no: I am going to take him where he can +ask questions himself, and have them answered; that is, to my great- +grandfather in Bloomsbury: and I am sure you can't have anything to +say against that. So instead of bothering, you had much better go +out to James Allen's and get a carriage for me, as I shall drive him +up myself; and please tell Jim to let me have the old grey, for I can +drive a wherry much better than a carriage. Jump up, old fellow, and +don't be disappointed; our guest will keep himself for you and your +stories." + +I stared at Dick; for I wondered at his speaking to such a dignified- +looking personage so familiarly, not to say curtly; for I thought +that this Mr. Boffin, in spite of his well-known name out of Dickens, +must be at the least a senator of these strange people. However, he +got up and said, "All right, old oar-wearer, whatever you like; this +is not one of my busy days; and though" (with a condescending bow to +me) "my pleasure of a talk with this learned guest is put off, I +admit that he ought to see your worthy kinsman as soon as possible. +Besides, perhaps he will be the better able to answer MY questions +after his own have been answered." + +And therewith he turned and swung himself out of the hall. + +When he was well gone, I said: "Is it wrong to ask what Mr. Boffin +is? whose name, by the way, reminds me of many pleasant hours passed +in reading Dickens." + +Dick laughed. "Yes, yes," said he, "as it does us. I see you take +the allusion. Of course his real name is not Boffin, but Henry +Johnson; we only call him Boffin as a joke, partly because he is a +dustman, and partly because he will dress so showily, and get as much +gold on him as a baron of the Middle Ages. As why should he not if +he likes? only we are his special friends, you know, so of course we +jest with him." + +I held my tongue for some time after that; but Dick went on: + +"He is a capital fellow, and you can't help liking him; but he has a +weakness: he will spend his time in writing reactionary novels, and +is very proud of getting the local colour right, as he calls it; and +as he thinks you come from some forgotten corner of the earth, where +people are unhappy, and consequently interesting to a story-teller, +he thinks he might get some information out of you. O, he will be +quite straightforward with you, for that matter. Only for your own +comfort beware of him!" + +"Well, Dick," said the weaver, doggedly, "I think his novels are very +good." + +"Of course you do," said Dick; "birds of a feather flock together; +mathematics and antiquarian novels stand on much the same footing. +But here he comes again." + +And in effect the Golden Dustman hailed us from the hall-door; so we +all got up and went into the porch, before which, with a strong grey +horse in the shafts, stood a carriage ready for us which I could not +help noticing. It was light and handy, but had none of that +sickening vulgarity which I had known as inseparable from the +carriages of our time, especially the "elegant" ones, but was as +graceful and pleasant in line as a Wessex waggon. We got in, Dick +and I. The girls, who had come into the porch to see us off, waved +their hands to us; the weaver nodded kindly; the dustman bowed as +gracefully as a troubadour; Dick shook the reins, and we were off. + + + +CHAPTER IV: A MARKET BY THE WAY + + + +We turned away from the river at once, and were soon in the main road +that runs through Hammersmith. But I should have had no guess as to +where I was, if I had not started from the waterside; for King Street +was gone, and the highway ran through wide sunny meadows and garden- +like tillage. The Creek, which we crossed at once, had been rescued +from its culvert, and as we went over its pretty bridge we saw its +waters, yet swollen by the tide, covered with gay boats of different +sizes. There were houses about, some on the road, some amongst the +fields with pleasant lanes leading down to them, and each surrounded +by a teeming garden. They were all pretty in design, and as solid as +might be, but countryfied in appearance, like yeomen's dwellings; +some of them of red brick like those by the river, but more of timber +and plaster, which were by the necessity of their construction so +like mediaeval houses of the same materials that I fairly felt as if +I were alive in the fourteenth century; a sensation helped out by the +costume of the people that we met or passed, in whose dress there was +nothing "modern." Almost everybody was gaily dressed, but especially +the women, who were so well-looking, or even so handsome, that I +could scarcely refrain my tongue from calling my companion's +attention to the fact. Some faces I saw that were thoughtful, and in +these I noticed great nobility of expression, but none that had a +glimmer of unhappiness, and the greater part (we came upon a good +many people) were frankly and openly joyous. + +I thought I knew the Broadway by the lie of the roads that still met +there. On the north side of the road was a range of buildings and +courts, low, but very handsomely built and ornamented, and in that +way forming a great contrast to the unpretentiousness of the houses +round about; while above this lower building rose the steep lead- +covered roof and the buttresses and higher part of the wall of a +great hall, of a splendid and exuberant style of architecture, of +which one can say little more than that it seemed to me to embrace +the best qualities of the Gothic of northern Europe with those of the +Saracenic and Byzantine, though there was no copying of any one of +these styles. On the other, the south side, of the road was an +octagonal building with a high roof, not unlike the Baptistry at +Florence in outline, except that it was surrounded by a lean-to that +clearly made an arcade or cloisters to it: it also was most +delicately ornamented. + +This whole mass of architecture which we had come upon so suddenly +from amidst the pleasant fields was not only exquisitely beautiful in +itself, but it bore upon it the expression of such generosity and +abundance of life that I was exhilarated to a pitch that I had never +yet reached. I fairly chuckled for pleasure. My friend seemed to +understand it, and sat looking on me with a pleased and affectionate +interest. We had pulled up amongst a crowd of carts, wherein sat +handsome healthy-looking people, men, women, and children very gaily +dressed, and which were clearly market carts, as they were full of +very tempting-looking country produce. + +I said, "I need not ask if this is a market, for I see clearly that +it is; but what market is it that it is so splendid? And what is the +glorious hall there, and what is the building on the south side?" + +"O," said he, "it is just our Hammersmith market; and I am glad you +like it so much, for we are really proud of it. Of course the hall +inside is our winter Mote-House; for in summer we mostly meet in the +fields down by the river opposite Barn Elms. The building on our +right hand is our theatre: I hope you like it." + +"I should be a fool if I didn't," said I. + +He blushed a little as he said: "I am glad of that, too, because I +had a hand in it; I made the great doors, which are of damascened +bronze. We will look at them later in the day, perhaps: but we +ought to be getting on now. As to the market, this is not one of our +busy days; so we shall do better with it another time, because you +will see more people." + +I thanked him, and said: "Are these the regular country people? +What very pretty girls there are amongst them." + +As I spoke, my eye caught the face of a beautiful woman, tall, dark- +haired, and white-skinned, dressed in a pretty light-green dress in +honour of the season and the hot day, who smiled kindly on me, and +more kindly still, I thought on Dick; so I stopped a minute, but +presently went on: + +"I ask because I do not see any of the country-looking people I +should have expected to see at a market--I mean selling things +there." + +"I don't understand," said he, "what kind of people you would expect +to see; nor quite what you mean by 'country' people. These are the +neighbours, and that like they run in the Thames valley. There are +parts of these islands which are rougher and rainier than we are +here, and there people are rougher in their dress; and they +themselves are tougher and more hard-bitten than we are to look at. +But some people like their looks better than ours; they say they have +more character in them--that's the word. Well, it's a matter of +taste.--Anyhow, the cross between us and them generally turns out +well," added he, thoughtfully. + +I heard him, though my eyes were turned away from him, for that +pretty girl was just disappearing through the gate with her big +basket of early peas, and I felt that disappointed kind of feeling +which overtakes one when one has seen an interesting or lovely face +in the streets which one is never likely to see again; and I was +silent a little. At last I said: "What I mean is, that I haven't +seen any poor people about--not one." + +He knit his brows, looked puzzled, and said: "No, naturally; if +anybody is poorly, he is likely to be within doors, or at best +crawling about the garden: but I don't know of any one sick at +present. Why should you expect to see poorly people on the road?" + +"No, no," I said; "I don't mean sick people. I mean poor people, you +know; rough people." + +"No," said he, smiling merrily, "I really do not know. The fact is, +you must come along quick to my great-grandfather, who will +understand you better than I do. Come on, Greylocks!" Therewith he +shook the reins, and we jogged along merrily eastward. + + + +CHAPTER V: CHILDREN ON THE ROAD + + + +Past the Broadway there were fewer houses on either side. We +presently crossed a pretty little brook that ran across a piece of +land dotted over with trees, and awhile after came to another market +and town-hall, as we should call it. Although there was nothing +familiar to me in its surroundings, I knew pretty well where we were, +and was not surprised when my guide said briefly, "Kensington +Market." + +Just after this we came into a short street of houses: or rather, +one long house on either side of the way, built of timber and +plaster, and with a pretty arcade over the footway before it. + +Quoth Dick: "This is Kensington proper. People are apt to gather +here rather thick, for they like the romance of the wood; and +naturalists haunt it, too; for it is a wild spot even here, what +there is of it; for it does not go far to the south: it goes from +here northward and west right over Paddington and a little way down +Notting Hill: thence it runs north-east to Primrose Hill, and so on; +rather a narrow strip of it gets through Kingsland to Stoke-Newington +and Clapton, where it spreads out along the heights above the Lea +marshes; on the other side of which, as you know, is Epping Forest +holding out a hand to it. This part we are just coming to is called +Kensington Gardens; though why 'gardens' I don't know." + +I rather longed to say, "Well, _I_ know"; but there were so many +things about me which I did NOT know, in spite of his assumptions, +that I thought it better to hold my tongue. + +The road plunged at once into a beautiful wood spreading out on +either side, but obviously much further on the north side, where even +the oaks and sweet chestnuts were of a good growth; while the +quicker-growing trees (amongst which I thought the planes and +sycamores too numerous) were very big and fine-grown. + +It was exceedingly pleasant in the dappled shadow, for the day was +growing as hot as need be, and the coolness and shade soothed my +excited mind into a condition of dreamy pleasure, so that I felt as +if I should like to go on for ever through that balmy freshness. My +companion seemed to share in my feelings, and let the horse go slower +and slower as he sat inhaling the green forest scents, chief amongst +which was the smell of the trodden bracken near the wayside. + +Romantic as this Kensington wood was, however, it was not lonely. We +came on many groups both coming and going, or wandering in the edges +of the wood. Amongst these were many children from six or eight +years old up to sixteen or seventeen. They seemed to me to be +especially fine specimens of their race, and enjoying themselves to +the utmost; some of them were hanging about little tents pitched on +the greensward, and by some of these fires were burning, with pots +hanging over them gipsy fashion. Dick explained to me that there +were scattered houses in the forest, and indeed we caught a glimpse +of one or two. He said they were mostly quite small, such as used to +be called cottages when there were slaves in the land, but they were +pleasant enough and fitting for the wood. + +"They must be pretty well stocked with children," said I, pointing to +the many youngsters about the way. + +"O," said he, "these children do not all come from the near houses, +the woodland houses, but from the country-side generally. They often +make up parties, and come to play in the woods for weeks together in +summer-time, living in tents, as you see. We rather encourage them +to it; they learn to do things for themselves, and get to notice the +wild creatures; and, you see, the less they stew inside houses the +better for them. Indeed, I must tell you that many grown people will +go to live in the forests through the summer; though they for the +most part go to the bigger ones, like Windsor, or the Forest of Dean, +or the northern wastes. Apart from the other pleasures of it, it +gives them a little rough work, which I am sorry to say is getting +somewhat scarce for these last fifty years." + +He broke off, and then said, "I tell you all this, because I see that +if I talk I must be answering questions, which you are thinking, even +if you are not speaking them out; but my kinsman will tell you more +about it." + +I saw that I was likely to get out of my depth again, and so merely +for the sake of tiding over an awkwardness and to say something, I +said - + +"Well, the youngsters here will be all the fresher for school when +the summer gets over and they have to go back again." + +"School?" he said; "yes, what do you mean by that word? I don't see +how it can have anything to do with children. We talk, indeed, of a +school of herring, and a school of painting, and in the former sense +we might talk of a school of children--but otherwise," said he, +laughing, "I must own myself beaten." + +Hang it! thought I, I can't open my mouth without digging up some new +complexity. I wouldn't try to set my friend right in his etymology; +and I thought I had best say nothing about the boy-farms which I had +been used to call schools, as I saw pretty clearly that they had +disappeared; so I said after a little fumbling, "I was using the word +in the sense of a system of education." + +"Education?" said he, meditatively, "I know enough Latin to know that +the word must come from educere, to lead out; and I have heard it +used; but I have never met anybody who could give me a clear +explanation of what it means." + +You may imagine how my new friends fell in my esteem when I heard +this frank avowal; and I said, rather contemptuously, "Well, +education means a system of teaching young people." + +"Why not old people also?" said he with a twinkle in his eye. "But," +he went on, "I can assure you our children learn, whether they go +through a 'system of teaching' or not. Why, you will not find one of +these children about here, boy or girl, who cannot swim; and every +one of them has been used to tumbling about the little forest ponies- +-there's one of them now! They all of them know how to cook; the +bigger lads can mow; many can thatch and do odd jobs at carpentering; +or they know how to keep shop. I can tell you they know plenty of +things." + +"Yes, but their mental education, the teaching of their minds," said +I, kindly translating my phrase. + +"Guest," said he, "perhaps you have not learned to do these things I +have been speaking about; and if that's the case, don't you run away +with the idea that it doesn't take some skill to do them, and doesn't +give plenty of work for one's mind: you would change your opinion if +you saw a Dorsetshire lad thatching, for instance. But, however, I +understand you to be speaking of book-learning; and as to that, it is +a simple affair. Most children, seeing books lying about, manage to +read by the time they are four years old; though I am told it has not +always been so. As to writing, we do not encourage them to scrawl +too early (though scrawl a little they will), because it gets them +into a habit of ugly writing; and what's the use of a lot of ugly +writing being done, when rough printing can be done so easily. You +understand that handsome writing we like, and many people will write +their books out when they make them, or get them written; I mean +books of which only a few copies are needed--poems, and such like, +you know. However, I am wandering from my lambs; but you must excuse +me, for I am interested in this matter of writing, being myself a +fair-writer." + +"Well," said I, "about the children; when they know how to read and +write, don't they learn something else--languages, for instance?" + +"Of course," he said; "sometimes even before they can read, they can +talk French, which is the nearest language talked on the other side +of the water; and they soon get to know German also, which is talked +by a huge number of communes and colleges on the mainland. These are +the principal languages we speak in these islands, along with English +or Welsh, or Irish, which is another form of Welsh; and children pick +them up very quickly, because their elders all know them; and besides +our guests from over sea often bring their children with them, and +the little ones get together, and rub their speech into one another." + +"And the older languages?" said I. + +"O, yes," said he, "they mostly learn Latin and Greek along with the +modern ones, when they do anything more than merely pick up the +latter." + +"And history?" said I; "how do you teach history?" + +"Well," said he, "when a person can read, of course he reads what he +likes to; and he can easily get someone to tell him what are the best +books to read on such or such a subject, or to explain what he +doesn't understand in the books when he is reading them." + +"Well," said I, "what else do they learn? I suppose they don't all +learn history?" + +"No, no," said he; "some don't care about it; in fact, I don't think +many do. I have heard my great-grandfather say that it is mostly in +periods of turmoil and strife and confusion that people care much +about history; and you know," said my friend, with an amiable smile, +"we are not like that now. No; many people study facts about the +make of things and the matters of cause and effect, so that knowledge +increases on us, if that be good; and some, as you heard about friend +Bob yonder, will spend time over mathematics. 'Tis no use forcing +people's tastes." + +Said I: "But you don't mean that children learn all these things?" + +Said he: "That depends on what you mean by children; and also you +must remember how much they differ. As a rule, they don't do much +reading, except for a few story-books, till they are about fifteen +years old; we don't encourage early bookishness: though you will +find some children who WILL take to books very early; which perhaps +is not good for them; but it's no use thwarting them; and very often +it doesn't last long with them, and they find their level before they +are twenty years old. You see, children are mostly given to +imitating their elders, and when they see most people about them +engaged in genuinely amusing work, like house-building and street- +paving, and gardening, and the like, that is what they want to be +doing; so I don't think we need fear having too many book-learned +men." + +What could I say? I sat and held my peace, for fear of fresh +entanglements. Besides, I was using my eyes with all my might, +wondering as the old horse jogged on, when I should come into London +proper, and what it would be like now. + +But my companion couldn't let his subject quite drop, and went on +meditatively: + +"After all, I don't know that it does them much harm, even if they do +grow up book-students. Such people as that, 'tis a great pleasure +seeing them so happy over work which is not much sought for. And +besides, these students are generally such pleasant people; so kind +and sweet tempered; so humble, and at the same time so anxious to +teach everybody all that they know. Really, I like those that I have +met prodigiously." + +This seemed to me such very queer talk that I was on the point of +asking him another question; when just as we came to the top of a +rising ground, down a long glade of the wood on my right I caught +sight of a stately building whose outline was familiar to me, and I +cried out, "Westminster Abbey!" + +"Yes," said Dick, "Westminster Abbey--what there is left of it." + +"Why, what have you done with it?" quoth I in terror. + +"What have WE done with it?" said he; "nothing much, save clean it. +But you know the whole outside was spoiled centuries ago: as to the +inside, that remains in its beauty after the great clearance, which +took place over a hundred years ago, of the beastly monuments to +fools and knaves, which once blocked it up, as great-grandfather +says." + +We went on a little further, and I looked to the right again, and +said, in rather a doubtful tone of voice, "Why, there are the Houses +of Parliament! Do you still use them?" + +He burst out laughing, and was some time before he could control +himself; then he clapped me on the back and said: + +"I take you, neighbour; you may well wonder at our keeping them +standing, and I know something about that, and my old kinsman has +given me books to read about the strange game that they played there. +Use them! Well, yes, they are used for a sort of subsidiary market, +and a storage place for manure, and they are handy for that, being on +the waterside. I believe it was intended to pull them down quite at +the beginning of our days; but there was, I am told, a queer +antiquarian society, which had done some service in past times, and +which straightway set up its pipe against their destruction, as it +has done with many other buildings, which most people looked upon as +worthless, and public nuisances; and it was so energetic, and had +such good reasons to give, that it generally gained its point; and I +must say that when all is said I am glad of it: because you know at +the worst these silly old buildings serve as a kind of foil to the +beautiful ones which we build now. You will see several others in +these parts; the place my great-grandfather lives in, for instance, +and a big building called St. Paul's. And you see, in this matter we +need not grudge a few poorish buildings standing, because we can +always build elsewhere; nor need we be anxious as to the breeding of +pleasant work in such matters, for there is always room for more and +more work in a new building, even without making it pretentious. For +instance, elbow-room WITHIN doors is to me so delightful that if I +were driven to it I would most sacrifice outdoor space to it. Then, +of course, there is the ornament, which, as we must all allow, may +easily be overdone in mere living houses, but can hardly be in mote- +halls and markets, and so forth. I must tell you, though, that my +great-grandfather sometimes tells me I am a little cracked on this +subject of fine building; and indeed I DO think that the energies of +mankind are chiefly of use to them for such work; for in that +direction I can see no end to the work, while in many others a limit +does seem possible." + + + +CHAPTER VI: A LITTLE SHOPPING + + + +As he spoke, we came suddenly out of the woodland into a short street +of handsomely built houses, which my companion named to me at once as +Piccadilly: the lower part of these I should have called shops, if +it had not been that, as far as I could see, the people were ignorant +of the arts of buying and selling. Wares were displayed in their +finely designed fronts, as if to tempt people in, and people stood +and looked at them, or went in and came out with parcels under their +arms, just like the real thing. On each side of the street ran an +elegant arcade to protect foot-passengers, as in some of the old +Italian cities. About halfway down, a huge building of the kind I +was now prepared to expect told me that this also was a centre of +some kind, and had its special public buildings. + +Said Dick: "Here, you see, is another market on a different plan +from most others: the upper stories of these houses are used for +guest-houses; for people from all about the country are apt to drift +up hither from time to time, as folk are very thick upon the ground, +which you will see evidence of presently, and there are people who +are fond of crowds, though I can't say that I am." + +I couldn't help smiling to see how long a tradition would last. Here +was the ghost of London still asserting itself as a centre,--an +intellectual centre, for aught I knew. However, I said nothing, +except that I asked him to drive very slowly, as the things in the +booths looked exceedingly pretty. + +"Yes," said he, "this is a very good market for pretty things, and is +mostly kept for the handsomer goods, as the Houses-of-Parliament +market, where they set out cabbages and turnips and such like things, +along with beer and the rougher kind of wine, is so near." + +Then he looked at me curiously, and said, "Perhaps you would like to +do a little shopping, as 'tis called." + +I looked at what I could see of my rough blue duds, which I had +plenty of opportunity of contrasting with the gay attire of the +citizens we had come across; and I thought that if, as seemed likely, +I should presently be shown about as a curiosity for the amusement of +this most unbusinesslike people, I should like to look a little less +like a discharged ship's purser. But in spite of all that had +happened, my hand went down into my pocket again, where to my dismay +it met nothing metallic except two rusty old keys, and I remembered +that amidst our talk in the guest-hall at Hammersmith I had taken the +cash out of my pocket to show to the pretty Annie, and had left it +lying there. My face fell fifty per cent., and Dick, beholding me, +said rather sharply - + +"Hilloa, Guest! what's the matter now? Is it a wasp?" + +"No," said I, "but I've left it behind." + +"Well," said he, "whatever you have left behind, you can get in this +market again, so don't trouble yourself about it." + +I had come to my senses by this time, and remembering the astounding +customs of this country, had no mind for another lecture on social +economy and the Edwardian coinage; so I said only - + +"My clothes--Couldn't I? You see--What do think could be done about +them?" + +He didn't seem in the least inclined to laugh, but said quite +gravely: + +"O don't get new clothes yet. You see, my great-grandfather is an +antiquarian, and he will want to see you just as you are. And, you +know, I mustn't preach to you, but surely it wouldn't be right for +you to take away people's pleasure of studying your attire, by just +going and making yourself like everybody else. You feel that, don't +you?" said he, earnestly. + +I did NOT feel it my duty to set myself up for a scarecrow amidst +this beauty-loving people, but I saw I had got across some +ineradicable prejudice, and that it wouldn't do to quarrel with my +new friend. So I merely said, "O certainly, certainly." + +"Well," said he, pleasantly, "you may as well see what the inside of +these booths is like: think of something you want." + +Said I: "Could I get some tobacco and a pipe?" + +"Of course," said he; "what was I thinking of, not asking you before? +Well, Bob is always telling me that we non-smokers are a selfish lot, +and I'm afraid he is right. But come along; here is a place just +handy." + +Therewith he drew rein and jumped down, and I followed. A very +handsome woman, splendidly clad in figured silk, was slowly passing +by, looking into the windows as she went. To her quoth Dick: +"Maiden, would you kindly hold our horse while we go in for a +little?" She nodded to us with a kind smile, and fell to patting the +horse with her pretty hand. + +"What a beautiful creature!" said I to Dick as we entered. + +"What, old Greylocks?" said he, with a sly grin. + +"No, no," said I; "Goldylocks,--the lady." + +"Well, so she is," said he. "'Tis a good job there are so many of +them that every Jack may have his Jill: else I fear that we should +get fighting for them. Indeed," said he, becoming very grave, "I +don't say that it does not happen even now, sometimes. For you know +love is not a very reasonable thing, and perversity and self-will are +commoner than some of our moralist's think." He added, in a still +more sombre tone: "Yes, only a month ago there was a mishap down by +us, that in the end cost the lives of two men and a woman, and, as it +were, put out the sunlight for us for a while. Don't ask me about it +just now; I may tell you about it later on." + +By this time we were within the shop or booth, which had a counter, +and shelves on the walls, all very neat, though without any pretence +of showiness, but otherwise not very different to what I had been +used to. Within were a couple of children--a brown-skinned boy of +about twelve, who sat reading a book, and a pretty little girl of +about a year older, who was sitting also reading behind the counter; +they were obviously brother and sister. + +"Good morning, little neighbours," said Dick. "My friend here wants +tobacco and a pipe; can you help him?" + +"O yes, certainly," said the girl with a sort of demure alertness +which was somewhat amusing. The boy looked up, and fell to staring +at my outlandish attire, but presently reddened and turned his head, +as if he knew that he was not behaving prettily. + +"Dear neighbour," said the girl, with the most solemn countenance of +a child playing at keeping shop, "what tobacco is it you would like?" + +"Latakia," quoth I, feeling as if I were assisting at a child's game, +and wondering whether I should get anything but make-believe. + +But the girl took a dainty little basket from a shelf beside her, +went to a jar, and took out a lot of tobacco and put the filled +basket down on the counter before me, where I could both smell and +see that it was excellent Latakia. + +"But you haven't weighed it," said I, "and--and how much am I to +take?" + +"Why," she said, "I advise you to cram your bag, because you may be +going where you can't get Latakia. Where is your bag?" + +I fumbled about, and at last pulled out my piece of cotton print +which does duty with me for a tobacco pouch. But the girl looked at +it with some disdain, and said - + +"Dear neighbour, I can give you something much better than that +cotton rag." And she tripped up the shop and came back presently, +and as she passed the boy whispered something in his ear, and he +nodded and got up and went out. The girl held up in her finger and +thumb a red morocco bag, gaily embroidered, and said, "There, I have +chosen one for you, and you are to have it: it is pretty, and will +hold a lot." + +Therewith she fell to cramming it with the tobacco, and laid it down +by me and said, "Now for the pipe: that also you must let me choose +for you; there are three pretty ones just come in." + +She disappeared again, and came back with a big-bowled pipe in her +hand, carved out of some hard wood very elaborately, and mounted in +gold sprinkled with little gems. It was, in short, as pretty and gay +a toy as I had ever seen; something like the best kind of Japanese +work, but better. + +"Dear me!" said I, when I set eyes on it, "this is altogether too +grand for me, or for anybody but the Emperor of the World. Besides, +I shall lose it: I always lose my pipes." + +The child seemed rather dashed, and said, "Don't you like it, +neighbour?" + +"O yes," I said, "of course I like it." + +"Well, then, take it," said she, "and don't trouble about losing it. +What will it matter if you do? Somebody is sure to find it, and he +will use it, and you can get another." + +I took it out of her hand to look at it, and while I did so, forgot +my caution, and said, "But however am I to pay for such a thing as +this?" + +Dick laid his hand on my shoulder as I spoke, and turning I met his +eyes with a comical expression in them, which warned me against +another exhibition of extinct commercial morality; so I reddened and +held my tongue, while the girl simply looked at me with the deepest +gravity, as if I were a foreigner blundering in my speech, for she +clearly didn't understand me a bit. + +"Thank you so very much," I said at last, effusively, as I put the +pipe in my pocket, not without a qualm of doubt as to whether I +shouldn't find myself before a magistrate presently. + +"O, you are so very welcome," said the little lass, with an +affectation of grown-up manners at their best which was very quaint. +"It is such a pleasure to serve dear old gentlemen like you; +especially when one can see at once that you have come from far over +sea." + +"Yes, my dear," quoth I, "I have been a great traveller." + +As I told this lie from pure politeness, in came the lad again, with +a tray in his hands, on which I saw a long flask and two beautiful +glasses. "Neighbours," said the girl (who did all the talking, her +brother being very shy, clearly) "please to drink a glass to us +before you go, since we do not have guests like this every day." + +Therewith the boy put the tray on the counter and solemnly poured out +a straw-coloured wine into the long bowls. Nothing loth, I drank, +for I was thirsty with the hot day; and thinks I, I am yet in the +world, and the grapes of the Rhine have not yet lost their flavour; +for if ever I drank good Steinberg, I drank it that morning; and I +made a mental note to ask Dick how they managed to make fine wine +when there were no longer labourers compelled to drink rot-gut +instead of the fine wine which they themselves made. + +"Don't you drink a glass to us, dear little neighbours?" said I. + +"I don't drink wine," said the lass; "I like lemonade better: but I +wish your health!" + +"And I like ginger-beer better," said the little lad. + +Well, well, thought I, neither have children's tastes changed much. +And therewith we gave them good day and went out of the booth. + +To my disappointment, like a change in a dream, a tall old man was +holding our horse instead of the beautiful woman. He explained to us +that the maiden could not wait, and that he had taken her place; and +he winked at us and laughed when he saw how our faces fell, so that +we had nothing for it but to laugh also - + +"Where are you going?" said he to Dick. + +"To Bloomsbury," said Dick. + +"If you two don't want to be alone, I'll come with you," said the old +man. + +"All right," said Dick, "tell me when you want to get down and I'll +stop for you. Let's get on." + +So we got under way again; and I asked if children generally waited +on people in the markets. "Often enough," said he, "when it isn't a +matter of dealing with heavy weights, but by no means always. The +children like to amuse themselves with it, and it is good for them, +because they handle a lot of diverse wares and get to learn about +them, how they are made, and where they come from, and so on. +Besides, it is such very easy work that anybody can do it. It is +said that in the early days of our epoch there were a good many +people who were hereditarily afflicted with a disease called +Idleness, because they were the direct descendants of those who in +the bad times used to force other people to work for them--the +people, you know, who are called slave-holders or employers of labour +in the history books. Well, these Idleness-stricken people used to +serve booths ALL their time, because they were fit for so little. +Indeed, I believe that at one time they were actually COMPELLED to do +some such work, because they, especially the women, got so ugly and +produced such ugly children if their disease was not treated sharply, +that the neighbours couldn't stand it. However, I'm happy to say +that all that is gone by now; the disease is either extinct, or +exists in such a mild form that a short course of aperient medicine +carries it off. It is sometimes called the Blue-devils now, or the +Mulleygrubs. Queer names, ain't they?" + +"Yes," said I, pondering much. But the old man broke in: + +"Yes, all that is true, neighbour; and I have seen some of those poor +women grown old. But my father used to know some of them when they +were young; and he said that they were as little like young women as +might be: they had hands like bunches of skewers, and wretched +little arms like sticks; and waists like hour-glasses, and thin lips +and peaked noses and pale cheeks; and they were always pretending to +be offended at anything you said or did to them. No wonder they bore +ugly children, for no one except men like them could be in love with +them--poor things!" + +He stopped, and seemed to be musing on his past life, and then said: + +"And do you know, neighbours, that once on a time people were still +anxious about that disease of Idleness: at one time we gave +ourselves a great deal of trouble in trying to cure people of it. +Have you not read any of the medical books on the subject?" + +"No," said I; for the old man was speaking to me. + +"Well," said he, "it was thought at the time that it was the survival +of the old mediaeval disease of leprosy: it seems it was very +catching, for many of the people afflicted by it were much secluded, +and were waited upon by a special class of diseased persons queerly +dressed up, so that they might be known. They wore amongst other +garments, breeches made of worsted velvet, that stuff which used to +be called plush some years ago." + +All this seemed very interesting to me, and I should like to have +made the old man talk more. But Dick got rather restive under so +much ancient history: besides, I suspect he wanted to keep me as +fresh as he could for his great-grandfather. So he burst out +laughing at last, and said: "Excuse me, neighbours, but I can't help +it. Fancy people not liking to work!--it's too ridiculous. Why, +even you like to work, old fellow--sometimes," said he, +affectionately patting the old horse with the whip. "What a queer +disease! it may well be called Mulleygrubs!" + +And he laughed out again most boisterously; rather too much so, I +thought, for his usual good manners; and I laughed with him for +company's sake, but from the teeth outward only; for _I_ saw nothing +funny in people not liking to work, as you may well imagine. + + + +CHAPTER VII: TRAFALGAR SQUARE + + + +And now again I was busy looking about me, for we were quite clear of +Piccadilly Market, and were in a region of elegantly-built much +ornamented houses, which I should have called villas if they had been +ugly and pretentious, which was very far from being the case. Each +house stood in a garden carefully cultivated, and running over with +flowers. The blackbirds were singing their best amidst the garden- +trees, which, except for a bay here and there, and occasional groups +of limes, seemed to be all fruit-trees: there were a great many +cherry-trees, now all laden with fruit; and several times as we +passed by a garden we were offered baskets of fine fruit by children +and young girls. Amidst all these gardens and houses it was of +course impossible to trace the sites of the old streets: but it +seemed to me that the main roadways were the same as of old. + +We came presently into a large open space, sloping somewhat toward +the south, the sunny site of which had been taken advantage of for +planting an orchard, mainly, as I could see, of apricot-trees, in the +midst of which was a pretty gay little structure of wood, painted and +gilded, that looked like a refreshment-stall. From the southern side +of the said orchard ran a long road, chequered over with the shadow +of tall old pear trees, at the end of which showed the high tower of +the Parliament House, or Dung Market. + +A strange sensation came over me; I shut my eyes to keep out the +sight of the sun glittering on this fair abode of gardens, and for a +moment there passed before them a phantasmagoria of another day. A +great space surrounded by tall ugly houses, with an ugly church at +the corner and a nondescript ugly cupolaed building at my back; the +roadway thronged with a sweltering and excited crowd, dominated by +omnibuses crowded with spectators. In the midst a paved be- +fountained square, populated only by a few men dressed in blue, and a +good many singularly ugly bronze images (one on the top of a tall +column). The said square guarded up to the edge of the roadway by a +four-fold line of big men clad in blue, and across the southern +roadway the helmets of a band of horse-soldiers, dead white in the +greyness of the chilly November afternoon--I opened my eyes to the +sunlight again and looked round me, and cried out among the +whispering trees and odorous blossoms, "Trafalgar Square!" + +"Yes," said Dick, who had drawn rein again, "so it is. I don't +wonder at your finding the name ridiculous: but after all, it was +nobody's business to alter it, since the name of a dead folly doesn't +bite. Yet sometimes I think we might have given it a name which +would have commemorated the great battle which was fought on the spot +itself in 1952,--that was important enough, if the historians don't +lie." + +"Which they generally do, or at least did," said the old man. "For +instance, what can you make of this, neighbours? I have read a +muddled account in a book--O a stupid book--called James' Social +Democratic History, of a fight which took place here in or about the +year 1887 (I am bad at dates). Some people, says this story, were +going to hold a ward-mote here, or some such thing, and the +Government of London, or the Council, or the Commission, or what not +other barbarous half-hatched body of fools, fell upon these citizens +(as they were then called) with the armed hand. That seems too +ridiculous to be true; but according to this version of the story, +nothing much came of it, which certainly IS too ridiculous to be +true." + +"Well," quoth I, "but after all your Mr. James is right so far, and +it IS true; except that there was no fighting, merely unarmed and +peaceable people attacked by ruffians armed with bludgeons." + +"And they put up with that?" said Dick, with the first unpleasant +expression I had seen on his good-tempered face. + +Said I, reddening: "We HAD to put up with it; we couldn't help it." + +The old man looked at me keenly, and said: "You seem to know a great +deal about it, neighbour! And is it really true that nothing came of +it?" + +"This came of it," said I, "that a good many people were sent to +prison because of it." + +"What, of the bludgeoners?" said the old man. "Poor devils!" + +"No, no," said I, "of the bludgeoned." + +Said the old man rather severely: "Friend, I expect that you have +been reading some rotten collection of lies, and have been taken in +by it too easily." + +"I assure you," said I, "what I have been saying is true." + +"Well, well, I am sure you think so, neighbour," said the old man, +"but I don't see why you should be so cocksure." + +As I couldn't explain why, I held my tongue. Meanwhile Dick, who had +been sitting with knit brows, cogitating, spoke at last, and said +gently and rather sadly: + +"How strange to think that there have been men like ourselves, and +living in this beautiful and happy country, who I suppose had +feelings and affections like ourselves, who could yet do such +dreadful things." + +"Yes," said I, in a didactic tone; "yet after all, even those days +were a great improvement on the days that had gone before them. Have +you not read of the Mediaeval period, and the ferocity of its +criminal laws; and how in those days men fairly seemed to have +enjoyed tormenting their fellow men?--nay, for the matter of that, +they made their God a tormentor and a jailer rather than anything +else." + +"Yes," said Dick, "there are good books on that period also, some of +which I have read. But as to the great improvement of the nineteenth +century, I don't see it. After all, the Mediaeval folk acted after +their conscience, as your remark about their God (which is true) +shows, and they were ready to bear what they inflicted on others; +whereas the nineteenth century ones were hypocrites, and pretended to +be humane, and yet went on tormenting those whom they dared to treat +so by shutting them up in prison, for no reason at all, except that +they were what they themselves, the prison-masters, had forced them +to be. O, it's horrible to think of!" + +"But perhaps," said I, "they did not know what the prisons were +like." + +Dick seemed roused, and even angry. "More shame for them," said he, +"when you and I know it all these years afterwards. Look you, +neighbour, they couldn't fail to know what a disgrace a prison is to +the Commonwealth at the best, and that their prisons were a good step +on towards being at the worst." + +Quoth I: "But have you no prisons at all now?" + +As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt that I had made a +mistake, for Dick flushed red and frowned, and the old man looked +surprised and pained; and presently Dick said angrily, yet as if +restraining himself somewhat - + +"Man alive! how can you ask such a question? Have I not told you +that we know what a prison means by the undoubted evidence of really +trustworthy books, helped out by our own imaginations? And haven't +you specially called me to notice that the people about the roads and +streets look happy? and how could they look happy if they knew that +their neighbours were shut up in prison, while they bore such things +quietly? And if there were people in prison, you couldn't hide it +from folk, like you may an occasional man-slaying; because that isn't +done of set purpose, with a lot of people backing up the slayer in +cold blood, as this prison business is. Prisons, indeed! O no, no, +no!" + +He stopped, and began to cool down, and said in a kind voice: "But +forgive me! I needn't be so hot about it, since there are NOT any +prisons: I'm afraid you will think the worse of me for losing my +temper. Of course, you, coming from the outlands, cannot be expected +to know about these things. And now I'm afraid I have made you feel +uncomfortable." + +In a way he had; but he was so generous in his heat, that I liked him +the better for it, and I said: + +"No, really 'tis all my fault for being so stupid. Let me change the +subject, and ask you what the stately building is on our left just +showing at the end of that grove of plane-trees?" + +"Ah," he said, "that is an old building built before the middle of +the twentieth century, and as you see, in a queer fantastic style not +over beautiful; but there are some fine things inside it, too, mostly +pictures, some very old. It is called the National Gallery; I have +sometimes puzzled as to what the name means: anyhow, nowadays +wherever there is a place where pictures are kept as curiosities +permanently it is called a National Gallery, perhaps after this one. +Of course there are a good many of them up and down the country." + +I didn't try to enlighten him, feeling the task too heavy; but I +pulled out my magnificent pipe and fell a-smoking, and the old horse +jogged on again. As we went, I said: + +"This pipe is a very elaborate toy, and you seem so reasonable in +this country, and your architecture is so good, that I rather wonder +at your turning out such trivialities." + +It struck me as I spoke that this was rather ungrateful of me, after +having received such a fine present; but Dick didn't seem to notice +my bad manners, but said: + +"Well, I don't know; it is a pretty thing, and since nobody need make +such things unless they like, I don't see why they shouldn't make +them, if they like. Of course, if carvers were scarce they would all +be busy on the architecture, as you call it, and then these 'toys' (a +good word) would not be made; but since there are plenty of people +who can carve--in fact, almost everybody, and as work is somewhat +scarce, or we are afraid it may be, folk do not discourage this kind +of petty work." + +He mused a little, and seemed somewhat perturbed; but presently his +face cleared, and he said: "After all, you must admit that the pipe +is a very pretty thing, with the little people under the trees all +cut so clean and sweet;--too elaborate for a pipe, perhaps, but-- +well, it is very pretty." + +"Too valuable for its use, perhaps," said I. + +"What's that?" said he; "I don't understand." + +I was just going in a helpless way to try to make him understand, +when we came by the gates of a big rambling building, in which work +of some sort seemed going on. "What building is that?" said I, +eagerly; for it was a pleasure amidst all these strange things to see +something a little like what I was used to: "it seems to be a +factory." + +"Yes," he said, "I think I know what you mean, and that's what it is; +but we don't call them factories now, but Banded-workshops: that is, +places where people collect who want to work together." + +"I suppose," said I, "power of some sort is used there?" + +"No, no," said he. "Why should people collect together to use power, +when they can have it at the places where they live, or hard by, any +two or three of them; or any one, for the matter of that? No; folk +collect in these Banded-workshops to do hand-work in which working +together is necessary or convenient; such work is often very +pleasant. In there, for instance, they make pottery and glass,-- +there, you can see the tops of the furnaces. Well, of course it's +handy to have fair-sized ovens and kilns and glass-pots, and a good +lot of things to use them for: though of course there are a good +many such places, as it would be ridiculous if a man had a liking for +pot-making or glass-blowing that he should have to live in one place +or be obliged to forego the work he liked." + +"I see no smoke coming from the furnaces," said I. + +"Smoke?" said Dick; "why should you see smoke?" + +I held my tongue, and he went on: "It's a nice place inside, though +as plain as you see outside. As to the crafts, throwing the clay +must be jolly work: the glass-blowing is rather a sweltering job; +but some folk like it very much indeed; and I don't much wonder: +there is such a sense of power, when you have got deft in it, in +dealing with the hot metal. It makes a lot of pleasant work," said +he, smiling, "for however much care you take of such goods, break +they will, one day or another, so there is always plenty to do." + +I held my tongue and pondered. + +We came just here on a gang of men road-mending which delayed us a +little; but I was not sorry for it; for all I had seen hitherto +seemed a mere part of a summer holiday; and I wanted to see how this +folk would set to on a piece of real necessary work. They had been +resting, and had only just begun work again as we came up; so that +the rattle of the picks was what woke me from my musing. There were +about a dozen of them, strong young men, looking much like a boating +party at Oxford would have looked in the days I remembered, and not +more troubled with their work: their outer raiment lay on the road- +side in an orderly pile under the guardianship of a six-year-old boy, +who had his arm thrown over the neck of a big mastiff, who was as +happily lazy as if the summer-day had been made for him alone. As I +eyed the pile of clothes, I could see the gleam of gold and silk +embroidery on it, and judged that some of these workmen had tastes +akin to those of the Golden Dustman of Hammersmith. Beside them lay +a good big basket that had hints about it of cold pie and wine: a +half dozen of young women stood by watching the work or the workers, +both of which were worth watching, for the latter smote great strokes +and were very deft in their labour, and as handsome clean-built +fellows as you might find a dozen of in a summer day. They were +laughing and talking merrily with each other and the women, but +presently their foreman looked up and saw our way stopped. So he +stayed his pick and sang out, "Spell ho, mates! here are neighbours +want to get past." Whereon the others stopped also, and, drawing +around us, helped the old horse by easing our wheels over the half +undone road, and then, like men with a pleasant task on hand, hurried +back to their work, only stopping to give us a smiling good-day; so +that the sound of the picks broke out again before Greylocks had +taken to his jog-trot. Dick looked back over his shoulder at them +and said: + +"They are in luck to-day: it's right down good sport trying how much +pick-work one can get into an hour; and I can see those neighbours +know their business well. It is not a mere matter of strength +getting on quickly with such work; is it, guest?" + +"I should think not," said I, "but to tell you the truth, I have +never tried my hand at it." + +"Really?" said he gravely, "that seems a pity; it is good work for +hardening the muscles, and I like it; though I admit it is pleasanter +the second week than the first. Not that I am a good hand at it: +the fellows used to chaff me at one job where I was working, I +remember, and sing out to me, 'Well rowed, stroke!' 'Put your back +into it, bow!'" + +"Not much of a joke," quoth I. + +"Well," said Dick, "everything seems like a joke when we have a +pleasant spell of work on, and good fellows merry about us; we feels +so happy, you know." Again I pondered silently. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: AN OLD FRIEND + + + +We now turned into a pleasant lane where the branches of great plane- +trees nearly met overhead, but behind them lay low houses standing +rather close together. + +"This is Long Acre," quoth Dick; "so there must once have been a +cornfield here. How curious it is that places change so, and yet +keep their old names! Just look how thick the houses stand! and they +are still going on building, look you!" + +"Yes," said the old man, "but I think the cornfields must have been +built over before the middle of the nineteenth century. I have heard +that about here was one of the thickest parts of the town. But I +must get down here, neighbours; I have got to call on a friend who +lives in the gardens behind this Long Acre. Good-bye and good luck, +Guest!" + +And he jumped down and strode away vigorously, like a young man. + +"How old should you say that neighbour will be?" said I to Dick as we +lost sight of him; for I saw that he was old, and yet he looked dry +and sturdy like a piece of old oak; a type of old man I was not used +to seeing. + +"O, about ninety, I should say," said Dick. + +"How long-lived your people must be!" said I. + +"Yes," said Dick, "certainly we have beaten the threescore-and-ten of +the old Jewish proverb-book. But then you see that was written of +Syria, a hot dry country, where people live faster than in our +temperate climate. However, I don't think it matters much, so long +as a man is healthy and happy while he IS alive. But now, Guest, we +are so near to my old kinsman's dwelling-place that I think you had +better keep all future questions for him." + +I nodded a yes; and therewith we turned to the left, and went down a +gentle slope through some beautiful rose-gardens, laid out on what I +took to be the site of Endell Street. We passed on, and Dick drew +rein an instant as we came across a long straightish road with houses +scantily scattered up and down it. He waved his hand right and left, +and said, "Holborn that side, Oxford Road that. This was once a very +important part of the crowded city outside the ancient walls of the +Roman and Mediaeval burg: many of the feudal nobles of the Middle +Ages, we are told, had big houses on either side of Holborn. I +daresay you remember that the Bishop of Ely's house is mentioned in +Shakespeare's play of King Richard III.; and there are some remains +of that still left. However, this road is not of the same +importance, now that the ancient city is gone, walls and all." + +He drove on again, while I smiled faintly to think how the nineteenth +century, of which such big words have been said, counted for nothing +in the memory of this man, who read Shakespeare and had not forgotten +the Middle Ages. + +We crossed the road into a short narrow lane between the gardens, and +came out again into a wide road, on one side of which was a great and +long building, turning its gables away from the highway, which I saw +at once was another public group. Opposite to it was a wide space of +greenery, without any wall or fence of any kind. I looked through +the trees and saw beyond them a pillared portico quite familiar to +me--no less old a friend, in fact, than the British Museum. It +rather took my breath away, amidst all the strange things I had seen; +but I held my tongue and let Dick speak. Said he: + +"Yonder is the British Museum, where my great-grandfather mostly +lives; so I won't say much about it. The building on the left is the +Museum Market, and I think we had better turn in there for a minute +or two; for Greylocks will be wanting his rest and his oats; and I +suppose you will stay with my kinsman the greater part of the day; +and to say the truth, there may be some one there whom I particularly +want to see, and perhaps have a long talk with." + +He blushed and sighed, not altogether with pleasure, I thought; so of +course I said nothing, and he turned the horse under an archway which +brought us into a very large paved quadrangle, with a big sycamore +tree in each corner and a plashing fountain in the midst. Near the +fountain were a few market stalls, with awnings over them of gay +striped linen cloth, about which some people, mostly women and +children, were moving quietly, looking at the goods exposed there. +The ground floor of the building round the quadrangle was occupied by +a wide arcade or cloister, whose fanciful but strong architecture I +could not enough admire. Here also a few people were sauntering or +sitting reading on the benches. + +Dick said to me apologetically: "Here as elsewhere there is little +doing to-day; on a Friday you would see it thronged, and gay with +people, and in the afternoon there is generally music about the +fountain. However, I daresay we shall have a pretty good gathering +at our mid-day meal." + +We drove through the quadrangle and by an archway, into a large +handsome stable on the other side, where we speedily stalled the old +nag and made him happy with horse-meat, and then turned and walked +back again through the market, Dick looking rather thoughtful, as it +seemed to me. + +I noticed that people couldn't help looking at me rather hard, and +considering my clothes and theirs, I didn't wonder; but whenever they +caught my eye they made me a very friendly sign of greeting. + +We walked straight into the forecourt of the Museum, where, except +that the railings were gone, and the whispering boughs of the trees +were all about, nothing seemed changed; the very pigeons were +wheeling about the building and clinging to the ornaments of the +pediment as I had seen them of old. + +Dick seemed grown a little absent, but he could not forbear giving me +an architectural note, and said: + +"It is rather an ugly old building, isn't it? Many people have +wanted to pull it down and rebuild it: and perhaps if work does +really get scarce we may yet do so. But, as my great grandfather +will tell you, it would not be quite a straightforward job; for there +are wonderful collections in there of all kinds of antiquities, +besides an enormous library with many exceedingly beautiful books in +it, and many most useful ones as genuine records, texts of ancient +works and the like; and the worry and anxiety, and even risk, there +would be in moving all this has saved the buildings themselves. +Besides, as we said before, it is not a bad thing to have some record +of what our forefathers thought a handsome building. For there is +plenty of labour and material in it." + +"I see there is," said I, "and I quite agree with you. But now +hadn't we better make haste to see your great-grandfather?" + +In fact, I could not help seeing that he was rather dallying with the +time. He said, "Yes, we will go into the house in a minute. My +kinsman is too old to do much work in the Museum, where he was a +custodian of the books for many years; but he still lives here a good +deal; indeed I think," said he, smiling, "that he looks upon himself +as a part of the books, or the books a part of him, I don't know +which." + +He hesitated a little longer, then flushing up, took my hand, and +saying, "Come along, then!" led me toward the door of one of the old +official dwellings. + + + +CHAPTER IX: CONCERNING LOVE + + + +"Your kinsman doesn't much care for beautiful building, then," said +I, as we entered the rather dreary classical house; which indeed was +as bare as need be, except for some big pots of the June flowers +which stood about here and there; though it was very clean and nicely +whitewashed. + +"O I don't know," said Dick, rather absently. "He is getting old, +certainly, for he is over a hundred and five, and no doubt he doesn't +care about moving. But of course he could live in a prettier house +if he liked: he is not obliged to live in one place any more than +any one else. This way, Guest." + +And he led the way upstairs, and opening a door we went into a fair- +sized room of the old type, as plain as the rest of the house, with a +few necessary pieces of furniture, and those very simple and even +rude, but solid and with a good deal of carving about them, well +designed but rather crudely executed. At the furthest corner of the +room, at a desk near the window, sat a little old man in a roomy oak +chair, well becushioned. He was dressed in a sort of Norfolk jacket +of blue serge worn threadbare, with breeches of the same, and grey +worsted stockings. He jumped up from his chair, and cried out in a +voice of considerable volume for such an old man, "Welcome, Dick, my +lad; Clara is here, and will be more than glad to see you; so keep +your heart up." + +"Clara here?" quoth Dick; "if I had known, I would not have brought-- +At least, I mean I would--" + +He was stuttering and confused, clearly because he was anxious to say +nothing to make me feel one too many. But the old man, who had not +seen me at first, helped him out by coming forward and saying to me +in a kind tone: + +"Pray pardon me, for I did not notice that Dick, who is big enough to +hide anybody, you know, had brought a friend with him. A most hearty +welcome to you! All the more, as I almost hope that you are going to +amuse an old man by giving him news from over sea, for I can see that +you are come from over the water and far off countries." + +He looked at me thoughtfully, almost anxiously, as he said in a +changed voice, "Might I ask you where you come from, as you are so +clearly a stranger?" + +I said in an absent way: "I used to live in England, and now I am +come back again; and I slept last night at the Hammersmith Guest +House." + +He bowed gravely, but seemed, I thought, a little disappointed with +my answer. As for me, I was now looking at him harder than good +manners allowed of; perhaps; for in truth his face, dried-apple-like +as it was, seemed strangely familiar to me; as if I had seen it +before--in a looking-glass it might be, said I to myself. + +"Well," said the old man, "wherever you come from, you are come among +friends. And I see my kinsman Richard Hammond has an air about him +as if he had brought you here for me to do something for you. Is +that so, Dick?" + +Dick, who was getting still more absent-minded and kept looking +uneasily at the door, managed to say, "Well, yes, kinsman: our guest +finds things much altered, and cannot understand it; nor can I; so I +thought I would bring him to you, since you know more of all that has +happened within the last two hundred years than any body else does.-- +What's that?" + +And he turned toward the door again. We heard footsteps outside; the +door opened, and in came a very beautiful young woman, who stopped +short on seeing Dick, and flushed as red as a rose, but faced him +nevertheless. Dick looked at her hard, and half reached out his hand +toward her, and his whole face quivered with emotion. + +The old man did not leave them long in this shy discomfort, but said, +smiling with an old man's mirth: + +"Dick, my lad, and you, my dear Clara, I rather think that we two +oldsters are in your way; for I think you will have plenty to say to +each other. You had better go into Nelson's room up above; I know he +has gone out; and he has just been covering the walls all over with +mediaeval books, so it will be pretty enough even for you two and +your renewed pleasure." + +The girl reached out her hand to Dick, and taking his led him out of +the room, looking straight before her; but it was easy to see that +her blushes came from happiness, not anger; as, indeed, love is far +more self-conscious than wrath. + +When the door had shut on them the old man turned to me, still +smiling, and said: + +"Frankly, my dear guest, you will do me a great service if you are +come to set my old tongue wagging. My love of talk still abides with +me, or rather grows on me; and though it is pleasant enough to see +these youngsters moving about and playing together so seriously, as +if the whole world depended on their kisses (as indeed it does +somewhat), yet I don't think my tales of the past interest them much. +The last harvest, the last baby, the last knot of carving in the +market-place, is history enough for them. It was different, I think, +when I was a lad, when we were not so assured of peace and continuous +plenty as we are now--Well, well! Without putting you to the +question, let me ask you this: Am I to consider you as an enquirer +who knows a little of our modern ways of life, or as one who comes +from some place where the very foundations of life are different from +ours,--do you know anything or nothing about us?" + +He looked at me keenly and with growing wonder in his eyes as he +spoke; and I answered in a low voice: + +"I know only so much of your modern life as I could gather from using +my eyes on the way here from Hammersmith, and from asking some +questions of Richard Hammond, most of which he could hardly +understand." + +The old man smiled at this. "Then," said he, "I am to speak to you +as--" + +"As if I were a being from another planet," said I. + +The old man, whose name, by the bye, like his kinsman's, was Hammond, +smiled and nodded, and wheeling his seat round to me, bade me sit in +a heavy oak chair, and said, as he saw my eyes fix on its curious +carving: + +"Yes, I am much tied to the past, my past, you understand. These +very pieces of furniture belong to a time before my early days; it +was my father who got them made; if they had been done within the +last fifty years they would have been much cleverer in execution; but +I don't think I should have liked them the better. We were almost +beginning again in those days: and they were brisk, hot-headed +times. But you hear how garrulous I am: ask me questions, ask me +questions about anything, dear guest; since I must talk, make my talk +profitable to you." + +I was silent for a minute, and then I said, somewhat nervously: +"Excuse me if I am rude; but I am so much interested in Richard, +since he has been so kind to me, a perfect stranger, that I should +like to ask a question about him." + +"Well," said old Hammond, "if he were not 'kind', as you call it, to +a perfect stranger he would be thought a strange person, and people +would be apt to shun him. But ask on, ask on! don't be shy of +asking." + +Said I: "That beautiful girl, is he going to be married to her?" + +"Well," said he, "yes, he is. He has been married to her once +already, and now I should say it is pretty clear that he will be +married to her again." + +"Indeed," quoth I, wondering what that meant. + +"Here is the whole tale," said old Hammond; "a short one enough; and +now I hope a happy one: they lived together two years the first +time; were both very young; and then she got it into her head that +she was in love with somebody else. So she left poor Dick; I say +POOR Dick, because he had not found any one else. But it did not +last long, only about a year. Then she came to me, as she was in the +habit of bringing her troubles to the old carle, and asked me how +Dick was, and whether he was happy, and all the rest of it. So I saw +how the land lay, and said that he was very unhappy, and not at all +well; which last at any rate was a lie. There, you can guess the +rest. Clara came to have a long talk with me to-day, but Dick will +serve her turn much better. Indeed, if he hadn't chanced in upon me +to-day I should have had to have sent for him to-morrow." + +"Dear me," said I. "Have they any children?" + +"Yes," said he, "two; they are staying with one of my daughters at +present, where, indeed, Clara has mostly been. I wouldn't lose sight +of her, as I felt sure they would come together again: and Dick, who +is the best of good fellows, really took the matter to heart. You +see, he had no other love to run to, as she had. So I managed it +all; as I have done with such-like matters before." + +"Ah," said I, "no doubt you wanted to keep them out of the Divorce +Court: but I suppose it often has to settle such matters." + +"Then you suppose nonsense," said he. "I know that there used to be +such lunatic affairs as divorce-courts: but just consider; all the +cases that came into them were matters of property quarrels: and I +think, dear guest," said he, smiling, "that though you do come from +another planet, you can see from the mere outside look of our world +that quarrels about private property could not go on amongst us in +our days." + +Indeed, my drive from Hammersmith to Bloomsbury, and all the quiet +happy life I had seen so many hints of; even apart from my shopping, +would have been enough to tell me that "the sacred rights of +property," as we used to think of them, were now no more. So I sat +silent while the old man took up the thread of the discourse again, +and said: + +"Well, then, property quarrels being no longer possible, what remains +in these matters that a court of law could deal with? Fancy a court +for enforcing a contract of passion or sentiment! If such a thing +were needed as a reductio ad absurdum of the enforcement of contract, +such a folly would do that for us." + +He was silent again a little, and then said: "You must understand +once for all that we have changed these matters; or rather, that our +way of looking at them has changed, as we have changed within the +last two hundred years. We do not deceive ourselves, indeed, or +believe that we can get rid of all the trouble that besets the +dealings between the sexes. We know that we must face the +unhappiness that comes of man and woman confusing the relations +between natural passion, and sentiment, and the friendship which, +when things go well, softens the awakening from passing illusions: +but we are not so mad as to pile up degradation on that unhappiness +by engaging in sordid squabbles about livelihood and position, and +the power of tyrannising over the children who have been the results +of love or lust." + +Again he paused awhile, and again went on: "Calf love, mistaken for +a heroism that shall be lifelong, yet early waning into +disappointment; the inexplicable desire that comes on a man of riper +years to be the all-in-all to some one woman, whose ordinary human +kindness and human beauty he has idealised into superhuman +perfection, and made the one object of his desire; or lastly the +reasonable longing of a strong and thoughtful man to become the most +intimate friend of some beautiful and wise woman, the very type of +the beauty and glory of the world which we love so well,--as we exult +in all the pleasure and exaltation of spirit which goes with these +things, so we set ourselves to bear the sorrow which not unseldom +goes with them also; remembering those lines of the ancient poet (I +quote roughly from memory one of the many translations of the +nineteenth century): + + +'For this the Gods have fashioned man's grief and evil day +That still for man hereafter might be the tale and the lay.' + + +Well, well, 'tis little likely anyhow that all tales shall be +lacking, or all sorrow cured." + +He was silent for some time, and I would not interrupt him. At last +he began again: "But you must know that we of these generations are +strong and healthy of body, and live easily; we pass our lives in +reasonable strife with nature, exercising not one side of ourselves +only, but all sides, taking the keenest pleasure in all the life of +the world. So it is a point of honour with us not to be self- +centred; not to suppose that the world must cease because one man is +sorry; therefore we should think it foolish, or if you will, +criminal, to exaggerate these matters of sentiment and sensibility: +we are no more inclined to eke out our sentimental sorrows than to +cherish our bodily pains; and we recognise that there are other +pleasures besides love-making. You must remember, also, that we are +long-lived, and that therefore beauty both in man and woman is not so +fleeting as it was in the days when we were burdened so heavily by +self-inflicted diseases. So we shake off these griefs in a way which +perhaps the sentimentalists of other times would think contemptible +and unheroic, but which we think necessary and manlike. As on the +other hand, therefore, we have ceased to be commercial in our love- +matters, so also we have ceased to be ARTIFICIALLY foolish. The +folly which comes by nature, the unwisdom of the immature man, or the +older man caught in a trap, we must put up with that, nor are we much +ashamed of it; but to be conventionally sensitive or sentimental--my +friend, I am old and perhaps disappointed, but at least I think we +have cast off SOME of the follies of the older world." + +He paused, as if for some words of mine; but I held my peace: then +he went on: "At least, if we suffer from the tyranny and fickleness +of nature or our own want of experience, we neither grimace about it, +nor lie. If there must be sundering betwixt those who meant never to +sunder, so it must be: but there need be no pretext of unity when +the reality of it is gone: nor do we drive those who well know that +they are incapable of it to profess an undying sentiment which they +cannot really feel: thus it is that as that monstrosity of venal +lust is no longer possible, so also it is no longer needed. Don't +misunderstand me. You did not seemed shocked when I told you that +there were no law-courts to enforce contracts of sentiment or +passion; but so curiously are men made, that perhaps you will be +shocked when I tell you that there is no code of public opinion which +takes the place of such courts, and which might be as tyrannical and +unreasonable as they were. I do not say that people don't judge +their neighbours' conduct, sometimes, doubtless, unfairly. But I do +say that there is no unvarying conventional set of rules by which +people are judged; no bed of Procrustes to stretch or cramp their +minds and lives; no hypocritical excommunication which people are +FORCED to pronounce, either by unconsidered habit, or by the +unexpressed threat of the lesser interdict if they are lax in their +hypocrisy. Are you shocked now?" + +"N-o--no," said I, with some hesitation. "It is all so different." + +"At any rate," said he, "one thing I think I can answer for: +whatever sentiment there is, it is real--and general; it is not +confined to people very specially refined. I am also pretty sure, as +I hinted to you just now, that there is not by a great way as much +suffering involved in these matters either to men or to women as +there used to be. But excuse me for being so prolix on this +question! You know you asked to be treated like a being from another +planet." + +"Indeed I thank you very much," said I. "Now may I ask you about the +position of women in your society?" + +He laughed very heartily for a man of his years, and said: "It is +not without reason that I have got a reputation as a careful student +of history. I believe I really do understand 'the Emancipation of +Women movement' of the nineteenth century. I doubt if any other man +now alive does." + +"Well?" said I, a little bit nettled by his merriment. + +"'Well," said he, "of course you will see that all that is a dead +controversy now. The men have no longer any opportunity of +tyrannising over the women, or the women over the men; both of which +things took place in those old times. The women do what they can do +best, and what they like best, and the men are neither jealous of it +or injured by it. This is such a commonplace that I am almost +ashamed to state it." + +I said, "O; and legislation? do they take any part in that?" + +Hammond smiled and said: "I think you may wait for an answer to that +question till we get on to the subject of legislation. There may be +novelties to you in that subject also." + +"Very well," I said; "but about this woman question? I saw at the +Guest House that the women were waiting on the men: that seems a +little like reaction doesn't it?" + +"Does it?" said the old man; "perhaps you think housekeeping an +unimportant occupation, not deserving of respect. I believe that was +the opinion of the 'advanced' women of the nineteenth century, and +their male backers. If it is yours, I recommend to your notice an +old Norwegian folk-lore tale called How the Man minded the House, or +some such title; the result of which minding was that, after various +tribulations, the man and the family cow balanced each other at the +end of a rope, the man hanging halfway up the chimney, the cow +dangling from the roof, which, after the fashion of the country, was +of turf and sloping down low to the ground. Hard on the cow, _I_ +think. Of course no such mishap could happen to such a superior +person as yourself," he added, chuckling. + +I sat somewhat uneasy under this dry gibe. Indeed, his manner of +treating this latter part of the question seemed to me a little +disrespectful. + +"Come, now, my friend," quoth he, "don't you know that it is a great +pleasure to a clever woman to manage a house skilfully, and to do it +so that all the house-mates about her look pleased, and are grateful +to her? And then, you know, everybody likes to be ordered about by a +pretty woman: why, it is one of the pleasantest forms of flirtation. +You are not so old that you cannot remember that. Why, I remember it +well." + +And the old fellow chuckled again, and at last fairly burst out +laughing. + +"Excuse me," said he, after a while; "I am not laughing at anything +you could be thinking of; but at that silly nineteenth-century +fashion, current amongst rich so-called cultivated people, of +ignoring all the steps by which their daily dinner was reached, as +matters too low for their lofty intelligence. Useless idiots! Come, +now, I am a 'literary man,' as we queer animals used to be called, +yet I am a pretty good cook myself." + +"So am I," said I. + +"Well, then," said he, "I really think you can understand me better +than you would seem to do, judging by your words and your silence." + +Said I: "Perhaps that is so; but people putting in practice commonly +this sense of interest in the ordinary occupations of life rather +startles me. I will ask you a question or two presently about that. +But I want to return to the position of women amongst you. You have +studied the 'emancipation of women' business of the nineteenth +century: don't you remember that some of the 'superior' women wanted +to emancipate the more intelligent part of their sex from the bearing +of children?" + +The old man grew quite serious again. Said he: "I DO remember about +that strange piece of baseless folly, the result, like all other +follies of the period, of the hideous class tyranny which then +obtained. What do we think of it now? you would say. My friend, +that is a question easy to answer. How could it possibly be but that +maternity should be highly honoured amongst us? Surely it is a +matter of course that the natural and necessary pains which the +mother must go through form a bond of union between man and woman, an +extra stimulus to love and affection between them, and that this is +universally recognised. For the rest, remember that all the +ARTIFICIAL burdens of motherhood are now done away with. A mother +has no longer any mere sordid anxieties for the future of her +children. They may indeed turn out better or worse; they may +disappoint her highest hopes; such anxieties as these are a part of +the mingled pleasure and pain which goes to make up the life of +mankind. But at least she is spared the fear (it was most commonly +the certainty) that artificial disabilities would make her children +something less than men and women: she knows that they will live and +act according to the measure of their own faculties. In times past, +it is clear that the 'Society' of the day helped its Judaic god, and +the 'Man of Science' of the time, in visiting the sins of the fathers +upon the children. How to reverse this process, how to take the +sting out of heredity, has for long been one of the most constant +cares of the thoughtful men amongst us. So that, you see, the +ordinarily healthy woman (and almost all our women are both healthy +and at least comely), respected as a child-bearer and rearer of +children, desired as a woman, loved as a companion, unanxious for the +future of her children, has far more instinct for maternity than the +poor drudge and mother of drudges of past days could ever have had; +or than her sister of the upper classes, brought up in affected +ignorance of natural facts, reared in an atmosphere of mingled +prudery and prurience." + +"You speak warmly," I said, "but I can see that you are right." + +"Yes," he said, "and I will point out to you a token of all the +benefits which we have gained by our freedom. What did you think of +the looks of the people whom you have come across to-day?" + +Said I: "I could hardly have believed that there could be so many +good-looking people in any civilised country." + +He crowed a little, like the old bird he was. "What! are we still +civilised?" said he. "Well, as to our looks, the English and Jutish +blood, which on the whole is predominant here, used not to produce +much beauty. But I think we have improved it. I know a man who has +a large collection of portraits printed from photographs of the +nineteenth century, and going over those and comparing them with the +everyday faces in these times, puts the improvement in our good looks +beyond a doubt. Now, there are some people who think it not too +fantastic to connect this increase of beauty directly with our +freedom and good sense in the matters we have been speaking of: they +believe that a child born from the natural and healthy love between a +man and a woman, even if that be transient, is likely to turn out +better in all ways, and especially in bodily beauty, than the birth +of the respectable commercial marriage bed, or of the dull despair of +the drudge of that system. They say, Pleasure begets pleasure. What +do you think?" + +"I am much of that mind," said I. + + + +CHAPTER X: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS + + + +"Well," said the old man, shifting in his chair, "you must get on +with your questions, Guest; I have been some time answering this +first one." + +Said I: "I want an extra word or two about your ideas of education; +although I gathered from Dick that you let your children run wild and +didn't teach them anything; and in short, that you have so refined +your education, that now you have none." + +"Then you gathered left-handed," quoth he. "But of course I +understand your point of view about education, which is that of times +past, when 'the struggle for life,' as men used to phrase it (i.e., +the struggle for a slave's rations on one side, and for a bouncing +share of the slave-holders' privilege on the other), pinched +'education' for most people into a niggardly dole of not very +accurate information; something to be swallowed by the beginner in +the art of living whether he liked it or not, and was hungry for it +or not: and which had been chewed and digested over and over again +by people who didn't care about it in order to serve it out to other +people who didn't care about it." + +I stopped the old man's rising wrath by a laugh, and said: "Well, +YOU were not taught that way, at any rate, so you may let your anger +run off you a little." + +"True, true," said he, smiling. "I thank you for correcting my ill- +temper: I always fancy myself as living in any period of which we +may be speaking. But, however, to put it in a cooler way: you +expected to see children thrust into schools when they had reached an +age conventionally supposed to be the due age, whatever their varying +faculties and dispositions might be, and when there, with like +disregard to facts to be subjected to a certain conventional course +of 'learning.' My friend, can't you see that such a proceeding means +ignoring the fact of GROWTH, bodily and mental? No one could come +out of such a mill uninjured; and those only would avoid being +crushed by it who would have the spirit of rebellion strong in them. +Fortunately most children have had that at all times, or I do not +know that we should ever have reached our present position. Now you +see what it all comes to. In the old times all this was the result +of POVERTY. In the nineteenth century, society was so miserably +poor, owing to the systematised robbery on which it was founded, that +real education was impossible for anybody. The whole theory of their +so-called education was that it was necessary to shove a little +information into a child, even if it were by means of torture, and +accompanied by twaddle which it was well known was of no use, or else +he would lack information lifelong: the hurry of poverty forbade +anything else. All that is past; we are no longer hurried, and the +information lies ready to each one's hand when his own inclinations +impel him to seek it. In this as in other matters we have become +wealthy: we can afford to give ourselves time to grow." + +"Yes," said I, "but suppose the child, youth, man, never wants the +information, never grows in the direction you might hope him to do: +suppose, for instance, he objects to learning arithmetic or +mathematics; you can't force him when he IS grown; can't you force +him while he is growing, and oughtn't you to do so?" + +"Well," said he, "were you forced to learn arithmetic and +mathematics?" + +"A little," said I. + +"And how old are you now?" + +"Say fifty-six," said I. + +"And how much arithmetic and mathematics do you know now?" quoth the +old man, smiling rather mockingly. + +Said I: "None whatever, I am sorry to say." + +Hammond laughed quietly, but made no other comment on my admission, +and I dropped the subject of education, perceiving him to be hopeless +on that side. + +I thought a little, and said: "You were speaking just now of +households: that sounded to me a little like the customs of past +times; I should have thought you would have lived more in public." + +"Phalangsteries, eh?" said he. "Well, we live as we like, and we +like to live as a rule with certain house-mates that we have got used +to. Remember, again, that poverty is extinct, and that the +Fourierist phalangsteries and all their kind, as was but natural at +the time, implied nothing but a refuge from mere destitution. Such a +way of life as that, could only have been conceived of by people +surrounded by the worst form of poverty. But you must understand +therewith, that though separate households are the rule amongst us, +and though they differ in their habits more or less, yet no door is +shut to any good-tempered person who is content to live as the other +house-mates do: only of course it would be unreasonable for one man +to drop into a household and bid the folk of it to alter their habits +to please him, since he can go elsewhere and live as he pleases. +However, I need not say much about all this, as you are going up the +river with Dick, and will find out for yourself by experience how +these matters are managed." + +After a pause, I said: "Your big towns, now; how about them? +London, which--which I have read about as the modern Babylon of +civilization, seems to have disappeared." + +"Well, well," said old Hammond, "perhaps after all it is more like +ancient Babylon now than the 'modern Babylon' of the nineteenth +century was. But let that pass. After all, there is a good deal of +population in places between here and Hammersmith; nor have you seen +the most populous part of the town yet." + +"Tell me, then," said I, "how is it towards the east?" + +Said he: "Time was when if you mounted a good horse and rode +straight away from my door here at a round trot for an hour and a +half; you would still be in the thick of London, and the greater part +of that would be 'slums,' as they were called; that is to say, places +of torture for innocent men and women; or worse, stews for rearing +and breeding men and women in such degradation that that torture +should seem to them mere ordinary and natural life." + +"I know, I know," I said, rather impatiently. "That was what was; +tell me something of what is. Is any of that left?" + +"Not an inch," said he; "but some memory of it abides with us, and I +am glad of it. Once a year, on May-day, we hold a solemn feast in +those easterly communes of London to commemorate The Clearing of +Misery, as it is called. On that day we have music and dancing, and +merry games and happy feasting on the site of some of the worst of +the old slums, the traditional memory of which we have kept. On that +occasion the custom is for the prettiest girls to sing some of the +old revolutionary songs, and those which were the groans of the +discontent, once so hopeless, on the very spots where those terrible +crimes of class-murder were committed day by day for so many years. +To a man like me, who have studied the past so diligently, it is a +curious and touching sight to see some beautiful girl, daintily clad, +and crowned with flowers from the neighbouring meadows, standing +amongst the happy people, on some mound where of old time stood the +wretched apology for a house, a den in which men and women lived +packed amongst the filth like pilchards in a cask; lived in such a +way that they could only have endured it, as I said just now, by +being degraded out of humanity--to hear the terrible words of +threatening and lamentation coming from her sweet and beautiful lips, +and she unconscious of their real meaning: to hear her, for +instance, singing Hood's Song of the Shirt, and to think that all the +time she does not understand what it is all about--a tragedy grown +inconceivable to her and her listeners. Think of that, if you can, +and of how glorious life is grown!" + +"Indeed," said I, "it is difficult for me to think of it." + +And I sat watching how his eyes glittered, and how the fresh life +seemed to glow in his face, and I wondered how at his age he should +think of the happiness of the world, or indeed anything but his +coming dinner. + +"Tell me in detail," said I, "what lies east of Bloomsbury now?" + +Said he: "There are but few houses between this and the outer part +of the old city; but in the city we have a thickly-dwelling +population. Our forefathers, in the first clearing of the slums, +were not in a hurry to pull down the houses in what was called at the +end of the nineteenth century the business quarter of the town, and +what later got to be known as the Swindling Kens. You see, these +houses, though they stood hideously thick on the ground, were roomy +and fairly solid in building, and clean, because they were not used +for living in, but as mere gambling booths; so the poor people from +the cleared slums took them for lodgings and dwelt there, till the +folk of those days had time to think of something better for them; so +the buildings were pulled down so gradually that people got used to +living thicker on the ground there than in most places; therefore it +remains the most populous part of London, or perhaps of all these +islands. But it is very pleasant there, partly because of the +splendour of the architecture, which goes further than what you will +see elsewhere. However, this crowding, if it may be called so, does +not go further than a street called Aldgate, a name which perhaps you +may have heard of. Beyond that the houses are scattered wide about +the meadows there, which are very beautiful, especially when you get +on to the lovely river Lea (where old Isaak Walton used to fish, you +know) about the places called Stratford and Old Ford, names which of +course you will not have heard of, though the Romans were busy there +once upon a time." + +Not heard of them! thought I to myself. How strange! that I who had +seen the very last remnant of the pleasantness of the meadows by the +Lea destroyed, should have heard them spoken of with pleasantness +come back to them in full measure. + +Hammond went on: "When you get down to the Thames side you come on +the Docks, which are works of the nineteenth century, and are still +in use, although not so thronged as they once were, since we +discourage centralisation all we can, and we have long ago dropped +the pretension to be the market of the world. About these Docks are +a good few houses, which, however, are not inhabited by many people +permanently; I mean, those who use them come and go a good deal, the +place being too low and marshy for pleasant dwelling. Past the Docks +eastward and landward it is all flat pasture, once marsh, except for +a few gardens, and there are very few permanent dwellings there: +scarcely anything but a few sheds, and cots for the men who come to +look after the great herds of cattle pasturing there. But however, +what with the beasts and the men, and the scattered red-tiled roofs +and the big hayricks, it does not make a bad holiday to get a quiet +pony and ride about there on a sunny afternoon of autumn, and look +over the river and the craft passing up and down, and on to Shooters' +Hill and the Kentish uplands, and then turn round to the wide green +sea of the Essex marsh-land, with the great domed line of the sky, +and the sun shining down in one flood of peaceful light over the long +distance. There is a place called Canning's Town, and further out, +Silvertown, where the pleasant meadows are at their pleasantest: +doubtless they were once slums, and wretched enough." + +The names grated on my ear, but I could not explain why to him. So I +said: "And south of the river, what is it like?" + +He said: "You would find it much the same as the land about +Hammersmith. North, again, the land runs up high, and there is an +agreeable and well-built town called Hampstead, which fitly ends +London on that side. It looks down on the north-western end of the +forest you passed through." + +I smiled. "So much for what was once London," said I. "Now tell me +about the other towns of the country." + +He said: "As to the big murky places which were once, as we know, +the centres of manufacture, they have, like the brick and mortar +desert of London, disappeared; only, since they were centres of +nothing but 'manufacture,' and served no purpose but that of the +gambling market, they have left less signs of their existence than +London. Of course, the great change in the use of mechanical force +made this an easy matter, and some approach to their break-up as +centres would probably have taken place, even if we had not changed +our habits so much: but they being such as they were, no sacrifice +would have seemed too great a price to pay for getting rid of the +'manufacturing districts,' as they used to be called. For the rest, +whatever coal or mineral we need is brought to grass and sent whither +it is needed with as little as possible of dirt, confusion, and the +distressing of quiet people's lives. One is tempted to believe from +what one has read of the condition of those districts in the +nineteenth century, that those who had them under their power +worried, befouled, and degraded men out of malice prepense: but it +was not so; like the mis-education of which we were talking just now, +it came of their dreadful poverty. They were obliged to put up with +everything, and even pretend that they liked it; whereas we can now +deal with things reasonably, and refuse to be saddled with what we do +not want." + +I confess I was not sorry to cut short with a question his +glorifications of the age he lived in. Said I: "How about the +smaller towns? I suppose you have swept those away entirely?" + +"No, no," said he, "it hasn't gone that way. On the contrary, there +has been but little clearance, though much rebuilding, in the smaller +towns. Their suburbs, indeed, when they had any, have melted away +into the general country, and space and elbow-room has been got in +their centres: but there are the towns still with their streets and +squares and market-places; so that it is by means of these smaller +towns that we of to-day can get some kind of idea of what the towns +of the older world were like;--I mean to say at their best." + +"Take Oxford, for instance," said I. + +"Yes," said he, "I suppose Oxford was beautiful even in the +nineteenth century. At present it has the great interest of still +preserving a great mass of pre-commercial building, and is a very +beautiful place, yet there are many towns which have become scarcely +less beautiful." + +Said I: "In passing, may I ask if it is still a place of learning?" + +"Still?" said he, smiling. "Well, it has reverted to some of its +best traditions; so you may imagine how far it is from its +nineteenth-century position. It is real learning, knowledge +cultivated for its own sake--the Art of Knowledge, in short--which is +followed there, not the Commercial learning of the past. Though +perhaps you do not know that in the nineteenth century Oxford and its +less interesting sister Cambridge became definitely commercial. They +(and especially Oxford) were the breeding places of a peculiar class +of parasites, who called themselves cultivated people; they were +indeed cynical enough, as the so-called educated classes of the day +generally were; but they affected an exaggeration of cynicism in +order that they might be thought knowing and worldly-wise. The rich +middle classes (they had no relation with the working classes) +treated them with the kind of contemptuous toleration with which a +mediaeval baron treated his jester; though it must be said that they +were by no means so pleasant as the old jesters were, being, in fact, +THE bores of society. They were laughed at, despised--and paid. +Which last was what they aimed at." + +Dear me! thought I, how apt history is to reverse contemporary +judgments. Surely only the worst of them were as bad as that. But I +must admit that they were mostly prigs, and that they WERE +commercial. I said aloud, though more to myself than to Hammond, +"Well, how could they be better than the age that made them?" + +"True," he said, "but their pretensions were higher." + +"Were they?" said I, smiling. + +"You drive me from corner to corner," said he, smiling in turn. "Let +me say at least that they were a poor sequence to the aspirations of +Oxford of 'the barbarous Middle Ages.'" + +"Yes, that will do," said I. + +"Also," said Hammond, "what I have been saying of them is true in the +main. But ask on!" + +I said: "We have heard about London and the manufacturing districts +and the ordinary towns: how about the villages?" + +Said Hammond: "You must know that toward the end of the nineteenth +century the villages were almost destroyed, unless where they became +mere adjuncts to the manufacturing districts, or formed a sort of +minor manufacturing districts themselves. Houses were allowed to +fall into decay and actual ruin; trees were cut down for the sake of +the few shillings which the poor sticks would fetch; the building +became inexpressibly mean and hideous. Labour was scarce; but wages +fell nevertheless. All the small country arts of life which once +added to the little pleasures of country people were lost. The +country produce which passed through the hands of the husbandmen +never got so far as their mouths. Incredible shabbiness and +niggardly pinching reigned over the fields and acres which, in spite +of the rude and careless husbandry of the times, were so kind and +bountiful. Had you any inkling of all this?" + +"I have heard that it was so," said I "but what followed?" + +"The change," said Hammond, "which in these matters took place very +early in our epoch, was most strangely rapid. People flocked into +the country villages, and, so to say, flung themselves upon the freed +land like a wild beast upon his prey; and in a very little time the +villages of England were more populous than they had been since the +fourteenth century, and were still growing fast. Of course, this +invasion of the country was awkward to deal with, and would have +created much misery, if the folk had still been under the bondage of +class monopoly. But as it was, things soon righted themselves. +People found out what they were fit for, and gave up attempting to +push themselves into occupations in which they must needs fail. The +town invaded the country; but the invaders, like the warlike invaders +of early days, yielded to the influence of their surroundings, and +became country people; and in their turn, as they became more +numerous than the townsmen, influenced them also; so that the +difference between town and country grew less and less; and it was +indeed this world of the country vivified by the thought and +briskness of town-bred folk which has produced that happy and +leisurely but eager life of which you have had a first taste. Again +I say, many blunders were made, but we have had time to set them +right. Much was left for the men of my earlier life to deal with. +The crude ideas of the first half of the twentieth century, when men +were still oppressed by the fear of poverty, and did not look enough +to the present pleasure of ordinary daily life, spoilt a great deal +of what the commercial age had left us of external beauty: and I +admit that it was but slowly that men recovered from the injuries +that they inflicted on themselves even after they became free. But +slowly as the recovery came, it DID come; and the more you see of us, +the clearer it will be to you that we are happy. That we live amidst +beauty without any fear of becoming effeminate; that we have plenty +to do, and on the whole enjoy doing it. What more can we ask of +life?" + +He paused, as if he were seeking for words with which to express his +thought. Then he said: + +"This is how we stand. England was once a country of clearings +amongst the woods and wastes, with a few towns interspersed, which +were fortresses for the feudal army, markets for the folk, gathering +places for the craftsmen. It then became a country of huge and foul +workshops and fouler gambling-dens, surrounded by an ill-kept, +poverty-stricken farm, pillaged by the masters of the workshops. It +is now a garden, where nothing is wasted and nothing is spoilt, with +the necessary dwellings, sheds, and workshops scattered up and down +the country, all trim and neat and pretty. For, indeed, we should be +too much ashamed of ourselves if we allowed the making of goods, even +on a large scale, to carry with it the appearance, even, of +desolation and misery. Why, my friend, those housewives we were +talking of just now would teach us better than that." + +Said I: "This side of your change is certainly for the better. But +though I shall soon see some of these villages, tell me in a word or +two what they are like, just to prepare me." + +"Perhaps," said he, "you have seen a tolerable picture of these +villages as they were before the end of the nineteenth century. Such +things exist." + +"I have seen several of such pictures," said I. + +"Well," said Hammond, "our villages are something like the best of +such places, with the church or mote-house of the neighbours for +their chief building. Only note that there are no tokens of poverty +about them: no tumble-down picturesque; which, to tell you the +truth, the artist usually availed himself of to veil his incapacity +for drawing architecture. Such things do not please us, even when +they indicate no misery. Like the mediaevals, we like everything +trim and clean, and orderly and bright; as people always do when they +have any sense of architectural power; because then they know that +they can have what they want, and they won't stand any nonsense from +Nature in their dealings with her." + +"Besides the villages, are there any scattered country houses?" said +I. + +"Yes, plenty," said Hammond; "in fact, except in the wastes and +forests and amongst the sand-hills (like Hindhead in Surrey), it is +not easy to be out of sight of a house; and where the houses are +thinly scattered they run large, and are more like the old colleges +than ordinary houses as they used to be. That is done for the sake +of society, for a good many people can dwell in such houses, as the +country dwellers are not necessarily husbandmen; though they almost +all help in such work at times. The life that goes on in these big +dwellings in the country is very pleasant, especially as some of the +most studious men of our time live in them, and altogether there is a +great variety of mind and mood to be found in them which brightens +and quickens the society there." + +"I am rather surprised," said I, "by all this, for it seems to me +that after all the country must be tolerably populous." + +"Certainly," said he; "the population is pretty much the same as it +was at the end of the nineteenth century; we have spread it, that is +all. Of course, also, we have helped to populate other countries-- +where we were wanted and were called for." + +Said I: "One thing, it seems to me, does not go with your word of +'garden' for the country. You have spoken of wastes and forests, and +I myself have seen the beginning of your Middlesex and Essex forest. +Why do you keep such things in a garden? and isn't it very wasteful +to do so?" + +"My friend," he said, "we like these pieces of wild nature, and can +afford them, so we have them; let alone that as to the forests, we +need a great deal of timber, and suppose that our sons and sons' sons +will do the like. As to the land being a garden, I have heard that +they used to have shrubberies and rockeries in gardens once; and +though I might not like the artificial ones, I assure you that some +of the natural rockeries of our garden are worth seeing. Go north +this summer and look at the Cumberland and Westmoreland ones,--where, +by the way, you will see some sheep-feeding, so that they are not so +wasteful as you think; not so wasteful as forcing-grounds for fruit +out of season, _I_ think. Go and have a look at the sheep-walks high +up the slopes between Ingleborough and Pen-y-gwent, and tell me if +you think we WASTE the land there by not covering it with factories +for making things that nobody wants, which was the chief business of +the nineteenth century." + +"I will try to go there," said I. + +"It won't take much trying," said he. + + + +CHAPTER XI: CONCERNING GOVERNMENT + + + +"Now," said I, "I have come to the point of asking questions which I +suppose will be dry for you to answer and difficult for you to +explain; but I have foreseen for some time past that I must ask them, +will I 'nill I. What kind of a government have you? Has +republicanism finally triumphed? or have you come to a mere +dictatorship, which some persons in the nineteenth century used to +prophesy as the ultimate outcome of democracy? Indeed, this last +question does not seem so very unreasonable, since you have turned +your Parliament House into a dung-market. Or where do you house your +present Parliament?" + +The old man answered my smile with a hearty laugh, and said: "Well, +well, dung is not the worst kind of corruption; fertility may come of +that, whereas mere dearth came from the other kind, of which those +walls once held the great supporters. Now, dear guest, let me tell +you that our present parliament would be hard to house in one place, +because the whole people is our parliament." + +"I don't understand," said I. + +"No, I suppose not," said he. "I must now shock you by telling you +that we have no longer anything which you, a native of another +planet, would call a government." + +"I am not so much shocked as you might think," said I, "as I know +something about governments. But tell me, how do you manage, and how +have you come to this state of things?" + +Said he: "It is true that we have to make some arrangements about +our affairs, concerning which you can ask presently; and it is also +true that everybody does not always agree with the details of these +arrangements; but, further, it is true that a man no more needs an +elaborate system of government, with its army, navy, and police, to +force him to give way to the will of the majority of his EQUALS, than +he wants a similar machinery to make him understand that his head and +a stone wall cannot occupy the same space at the same moment. Do you +want further explanation?" + +"Well, yes, I do," quoth I. + +Old Hammond settled himself in his chair with a look of enjoyment +which rather alarmed me, and made me dread a scientific disquisition: +so I sighed and abided. He said: + +"I suppose you know pretty well what the process of government was in +the bad old times?" + +"I am supposed to know," said I. + +(Hammond) What was the government of those days? Was it really the +Parliament or any part of it? + +(I) No. + +(H.) Was not the Parliament on the one side a kind of watch- +committee sitting to see that the interests of the Upper Classes took +no hurt; and on the other side a sort of blind to delude the people +into supposing that they had some share in the management of their +own affairs? + +(I) History seems to show us this. + +(H.) To what extent did the people manage their own affairs? + +(I) I judge from what I have heard that sometimes they forced the +Parliament to make a law to legalise some alteration which had +already taken place. + +(H.) Anything else? + +(I) I think not. As I am informed, if the people made any attempt +to deal with the CAUSE of their grievances, the law stepped in and +said, this is sedition, revolt, or what not, and slew or tortured the +ringleaders of such attempts. + +(H.) If Parliament was not the government then, nor the people +either, what was the government? + +(I) Can you tell me? + +(H.) I think we shall not be far wrong if we say that government was +the Law-Courts, backed up by the executive, which handled the brute +force that the deluded people allowed them to use for their own +purposes; I mean the army, navy, and police. + +(I) Reasonable men must needs think you are right. + +(H.) Now as to those Law-Courts. Were they places of fair dealing +according to the ideas of the day? Had a poor man a good chance of +defending his property and person in them? + +(I) It is a commonplace that even rich men looked upon a law-suit as +a dire misfortune, even if they gained the case; and as for a poor +one--why, it was considered a miracle of justice and beneficence if a +poor man who had once got into the clutches of the law escaped prison +or utter ruin. + +(H.) It seems, then, my son, that the government by law-courts and +police, which was the real government of the nineteenth century, was +not a great success even to the people of that day, living under a +class system which proclaimed inequality and poverty as the law of +God and the bond which held the world together. + +(I) So it seems, indeed. + +(H.) And now that all this is changed, and the "rights of property," +which mean the clenching the fist on a piece of goods and crying out +to the neighbours, You shan't have this!--now that all this has +disappeared so utterly that it is no longer possible even to jest +upon its absurdity, is such a Government possible? + +(I) It is impossible. + +(H.) Yes, happily. But for what other purpose than the protection +of the rich from the poor, the strong from the weak, did this +Government exist? + +(I.) I have heard that it was said that their office was to defend +their own citizens against attack from other countries. + +(H.) It was said; but was anyone expected to believe this? For +instance, did the English Government defend the English citizen +against the French? + +(I) So it was said. + +(H.) Then if the French had invaded England and conquered it, they +would not have allowed the English workmen to live well? + +(I, laughing) As far as I can make out, the English masters of the +English workmen saw to that: they took from their workmen as much of +their livelihood as they dared, because they wanted it for +themselves. + +(H.) But if the French had conquered, would they not have taken more +still from the English workmen? + +(I) I do not think so; for in that case the English workmen would +have died of starvation; and then the French conquest would have +ruined the French, just as if the English horses and cattle had died +of under-feeding. So that after all, the English WORKMEN would have +been no worse off for the conquest: their French Masters could have +got no more from them than their English masters did. + +(H.) This is true; and we may admit that the pretensions of the +government to defend the poor (i.e., the useful) people against other +countries come to nothing. But that is but natural; for we have seen +already that it was the function of government to protect the rich +against the poor. But did not the government defend its rich men +against other nations? + +(I) I do not remember to have heard that the rich needed defence; +because it is said that even when two nations were at war, the rich +men of each nation gambled with each other pretty much as usual, and +even sold each other weapons wherewith to kill their own countrymen. + +(H.) In short, it comes to this, that whereas the so-called +government of protection of property by means of the law-courts meant +destruction of wealth, this defence of the citizens of one country +against those of another country by means of war or the threat of war +meant pretty much the same thing. + +(I) I cannot deny it. + +(H.) Therefore the government really existed for the destruction of +wealth? + +(I) So it seems. And yet - + +(H.) Yet what? + +(I) There were many rich people in those times. + +(H.) You see the consequences of that fact? + +(I) I think I do. But tell me out what they were. + +(H.) If the government habitually destroyed wealth, the country must +have been poor? + +(I) Yes, certainly. + +(H.) Yet amidst this poverty the persons for the sake of whom the +government existed insisted on being rich whatever might happen? + +(I) So it was. + +(H.) What must happen if in a poor country some people insist on +being rich at the expense of the others? + +(I) Unutterable poverty for the others. All this misery, then, was +caused by the destructive government of which we have been speaking? + +(H.) Nay, it would be incorrect to say so. The government itself +was but the necessary result of the careless, aimless tyranny of the +times; it was but the machinery of tyranny. Now tyranny has come to +an end, and we no longer need such machinery; we could not possibly +use it since we are free. Therefore in your sense of the word we +have no government. Do you understand this now? + +(I) Yes, I do. But I will ask you some more questions as to how you +as free men manage your affairs. + +(H.) With all my heart. Ask away. + + + +CHAPTER XII: CONCERNING THE ARRANGEMENT OF LIFE + + + +"Well," I said, "about those 'arrangements' which you spoke of as +taking the place of government, could you give me any account of +them?" + +"Neighbour," he said, "although we have simplified our lives a great +deal from what they were, and have got rid of many conventionalities +and many sham wants, which used to give our forefathers much trouble, +yet our life is too complex for me to tell you in detail by means of +words how it is arranged; you must find that out by living amongst +us. It is true that I can better tell you what we don't do, than +what we do do." + +"Well?" said I. + +"This is the way to put it," said he: "We have been living for a +hundred and fifty years, at least, more or less in our present +manner, and a tradition or habit of life has been growing on us; and +that habit has become a habit of acting on the whole for the best. +It is easy for us to live without robbing each other. It would be +possible for us to contend with and rob each other, but it would be +harder for us than refraining from strife and robbery. That is in +short the foundation of our life and our happiness." + +"Whereas in the old days," said I, "it was very hard to live without +strife and robbery. That's what you mean, isn't it, by giving me the +negative side of your good conditions?" + +"Yes," he said, "it was so hard, that those who habitually acted +fairly to their neighbours were celebrated as saints and heroes, and +were looked up to with the greatest reverence." + +"While they were alive?" said I. + +"No," said he, "after they were dead." + +"But as to these days," I said; "you don't mean to tell me that no +one ever transgresses this habit of good fellowship?" + +"Certainly not," said Hammond, "but when the transgressions occur, +everybody, transgressors and all, know them for what they are; the +errors of friends, not the habitual actions of persons driven into +enmity against society." + +"I see," said I; "you mean that you have no 'criminal' classes." + +"How could we have them," said he, "since there is no rich class to +breed enemies against the state by means of the injustice of the +state?" + +Said I: "I thought that I understood from something that fell from +you a little while ago that you had abolished civil law. Is that so, +literally?" + +"It abolished itself, my friend," said he. "As I said before, the +civil law-courts were upheld for the defence of private property; for +nobody ever pretended that it was possible to make people act fairly +to each other by means of brute force. Well, private property being +abolished, all the laws and all the legal 'crimes' which it had +manufactured of course came to an end. Thou shalt not steal, had to +be translated into, Thou shalt work in order to live happily. Is +there any need to enforce that commandment by violence?" + +"Well," said I, "that is understood, and I agree with it; but how +about crimes of violence? would not their occurrence (and you admit +that they occur) make criminal law necessary?" + +Said he: "In your sense of the word, we have no criminal law either. +Let us look at the matter closer, and see whence crimes of violence +spring. By far the greater part of these in past days were the +result of the laws of private property, which forbade the +satisfaction of their natural desires to all but a privileged few, +and of the general visible coercion which came of those laws. All +that cause of violent crime is gone. Again, many violent acts came +from the artificial perversion of the sexual passions, which caused +overweening jealousy and the like miseries. Now, when you look +carefully into these, you will find that what lay at the bottom of +them was mostly the idea (a law-made idea) of the woman being the +property of the man, whether he were husband, father, brother, or +what not. That idea has of course vanished with private property, as +well as certain follies about the 'ruin' of women for following their +natural desires in an illegal way, which of course was a convention +caused by the laws of private property. + +"Another cognate cause of crimes of violence was the family tyranny, +which was the subject of so many novels and stories of the past, and +which once more was the result of private property. Of course that +is all ended, since families are held together by no bond of +coercion, legal or social, but by mutual liking and affection, and +everybody is free to come or go as he or she pleases. Furthermore, +our standards of honour and public estimation are very different from +the old ones; success in besting our neighbours is a road to renown +now closed, let us hope for ever. Each man is free to exercise his +special faculty to the utmost, and every one encourages him in so +doing. So that we have got rid of the scowling envy, coupled by the +poets with hatred, and surely with good reason; heaps of unhappiness +and ill-blood were caused by it, which with irritable and passionate +men--i.e., energetic and active men--often led to violence." + +I laughed, and said: "So that you now withdraw your admission, and +say that there is no violence amongst you?" + +"No," said he, "I withdraw nothing; as I told you, such things will +happen. Hot blood will err sometimes. A man may strike another, and +the stricken strike back again, and the result be a homicide, to put +it at the worst. But what then? Shall we the neighbours make it +worse still? Shall we think so poorly of each other as to suppose +that the slain man calls on us to revenge him, when we know that if +he had been maimed, he would, when in cold blood and able to weigh +all the circumstances, have forgiven his manner? Or will the death +of the slayer bring the slain man to life again and cure the +unhappiness his loss has caused?" + +"Yes," I said, "but consider, must not the safety of society be +safeguarded by some punishment?" + +"There, neighbour!" said the old man, with some exultation "You have +hit the mark. That PUNISHMENT of which men used to talk so wisely +and act so foolishly, what was it but the expression of their fear? +And they had need to fear, since they--i.e., the rulers of society-- +were dwelling like an armed band in a hostile country. But we who +live amongst our friends need neither fear nor punish. Surely if we, +in dread of an occasional rare homicide, an occasional rough blow, +were solemnly and legally to commit homicide and violence, we could +only be a society of ferocious cowards. Don't you think so, +neighbour?" + +"Yes, I do, when I come to think of it from that side," said I. + +"Yet you must understand," said the old man, "that when any violence +is committed, we expect the transgressor to make any atonement +possible to him, and he himself expects it. But again, think if the +destruction or serious injury of a man momentarily overcome by wrath +or folly can be any atonement to the commonwealth? Surely it can +only be an additional injury to it." + +Said I: "But suppose the man has a habit of violence,--kills a man a +year, for instance?" + +"Such a thing is unknown," said he. "In a society where there is no +punishment to evade, no law to triumph over, remorse will certainly +follow transgression." + +"And lesser outbreaks of violence," said I, "how do you deal with +them? for hitherto we have been talking of great tragedies, I +suppose?" + +Said Hammond: "If the ill-doer is not sick or mad (in which case he +must be restrained till his sickness or madness is cured) it is clear +that grief and humiliation must follow the ill-deed; and society in +general will make that pretty clear to the ill-doer if he should +chance to be dull to it; and again, some kind of atonement will +follow,--at the least, an open acknowledgement of the grief and +humiliation. Is it so hard to say, I ask your pardon, neighbour?-- +Well, sometimes it is hard--and let it be." + +"You think that enough?" said I. + +"Yes," said he, "and moreover it is all that we CAN do. If in +addition we torture the man, we turn his grief into anger, and the +humiliation he would otherwise feel for HIS wrong-doing is swallowed +up by a hope of revenge for OUR wrong-doing to him. He has paid the +legal penalty, and can 'go and sin again' with comfort. Shall we +commit such a folly, then? Remember Jesus had got the legal penalty +remitted before he said 'Go and sin no more.' Let alone that in a +society of equals you will not find any one to play the part of +torturer or jailer, though many to act as nurse or doctor." + +"So," said I, "you consider crime a mere spasmodic disease, which +requires no body of criminal law to deal with it?" + +"Pretty much so," said he; "and since, as I have told you, we are a +healthy people generally, so we are not likely to be much troubled +with THIS disease." + +"Well, you have no civil law, and no criminal law. But have you no +laws of the market, so to say--no regulation for the exchange of +wares? for you must exchange, even if you have no property." + +Said he: "We have no obvious individual exchange, as you saw this +morning when you went a-shopping; but of course there are regulations +of the markets, varying according to the circumstances and guided by +general custom. But as these are matters of general assent, which +nobody dreams of objecting to, so also we have made no provision for +enforcing them: therefore I don't call them laws. In law, whether +it be criminal or civil, execution always follows judgment, and +someone must suffer. When you see the judge on his bench, you see +through him, as clearly as if he were made of glass, the policeman to +emprison, and the soldier to slay some actual living person. Such +follies would make an agreeable market, wouldn't they?" + +"Certainly," said I, "that means turning the market into a mere +battle-field, in which many people must suffer as much as in the +battle-field of bullet and bayonet. And from what I have seen I +should suppose that your marketing, great and little, is carried on +in a way that makes it a pleasant occupation." + +"You are right, neighbour," said he. "Although there are so many, +indeed by far the greater number amongst us, who would be unhappy if +they were not engaged in actually making things, and things which +turn out beautiful under their hands,--there are many, like the +housekeepers I was speaking of, whose delight is in administration +and organisation, to use long-tailed words; I mean people who like +keeping things together, avoiding waste, seeing that nothing sticks +fast uselessly. Such people are thoroughly happy in their business, +all the more as they are dealing with actual facts, and not merely +passing counters round to see what share they shall have in the +privileged taxation of useful people, which was the business of the +commercial folk in past days. Well, what are you going to ask me +next?" + + + +CHAPTER XIII: CONCERNING POLITICS + + + +Said I: "How do you manage with politics?" + +Said Hammond, smiling: "I am glad that it is of ME that you ask that +question; I do believe that anybody else would make you explain +yourself, or try to do so, till you were sickened of asking +questions. Indeed, I believe I am the only man in England who would +know what you mean; and since I know, I will answer your question +briefly by saying that we are very well off as to politics,--because +we have none. If ever you make a book out of this conversation, put +this in a chapter by itself, after the model of old Horrebow's Snakes +in Iceland." + +"I will," said I. + + + +CHAPTER XIV: HOW MATTERS ARE MANAGED + + + +Said I: "How about your relations with foreign nations?" + +"I will not affect not to know what you mean," said he, "but I will +tell you at once that the whole system of rival and contending +nations which played so great a part in the 'government' of the world +of civilisation has disappeared along with the inequality betwixt man +and man in society." + +"Does not that make the world duller?" said I. + +"Why?" said the old man. + +"The obliteration of national variety," said I. + +"Nonsense," he said, somewhat snappishly. "Cross the water and see. +You will find plenty of variety: the landscape, the building, the +diet, the amusements, all various. The men and women varying in +looks as well as in habits of thought; the costume far more various +than in the commercial period. How should it add to the variety or +dispel the dulness, to coerce certain families or tribes, often +heterogeneous and jarring with one another, into certain artificial +and mechanical groups, and call them nations, and stimulate their +patriotism--i.e., their foolish and envious prejudices?" + +"Well--I don't know how," said I. + +"That's right," said Hammond cheerily; "you can easily understand +that now we are freed from this folly it is obvious to us that by +means of this very diversity the different strains of blood in the +world can be serviceable and pleasant to each other, without in the +least wanting to rob each other: we are all bent on the same +enterprise, making the most of our lives. And I must tell you +whatever quarrels or misunderstandings arise, they very seldom take +place between people of different race; and consequently since there +is less unreason in them, they are the more readily appeased." + +"Good," said I, "but as to those matters of politics; as to general +differences of opinion in one and the same community. Do you assert +that there are none?" + +"No, not at all," said he, somewhat snappishly; "but I do say that +differences of opinion about real solid things need not, and with us +do not, crystallise people into parties permanently hostile to one +another, with different theories as to the build of the universe and +the progress of time. Isn't that what politics used to mean?" + +"H'm, well," said I, "I am not so sure of that." + +Said he: "I take, you, neighbour; they only PRETENDED to this +serious difference of opinion; for if it had existed they could not +have dealt together in the ordinary business of life; couldn't have +eaten together, bought and sold together, gambled together, cheated +other people together, but must have fought whenever they met: which +would not have suited them at all. The game of the masters of +politics was to cajole or force the public to pay the expense of a +luxurious life and exciting amusement for a few cliques of ambitious +persons: and the PRETENCE of serious difference of opinion, belied +by every action of their lives, was quite good enough for that. What +has all that got to do with us?" + +Said I: "Why, nothing, I should hope. But I fear--In short, I have +been told that political strife was a necessary result of human +nature." + +"Human nature!" cried the old boy, impetuously; "what human nature? +The human nature of paupers, of slaves, of slave-holders, or the +human nature of wealthy freemen? Which? Come, tell me that!" + +"Well," said I, "I suppose there would be a difference according to +circumstances in people's action about these matters." + +"I should think so, indeed," said he. "At all events, experience +shows that it is so. Amongst us, our differences concern matters of +business, and passing events as to them, and could not divide men +permanently. As a rule, the immediate outcome shows which opinion on +a given subject is the right one; it is a matter of fact, not of +speculation. For instance, it is clearly not easy to knock up a +political party on the question as to whether haymaking in such and +such a country-side shall begin this week or next, when all men agree +that it must at latest begin the week after next, and when any man +can go down into the fields himself and see whether the seeds are +ripe enough for the cutting." + +Said I: "And you settle these differences, great and small, by the +will of the majority, I suppose?" + +"Certainly," said he; "how else could we settle them? You see in +matters which are merely personal which do not affect the welfare of +the community--how a man shall dress, what he shall eat and drink, +what he shall write and read, and so forth--there can be no +difference of opinion, and everybody does as he pleases. But when +the matter is of common interest to the whole community, and the +doing or not doing something affects everybody, the majority must +have their way; unless the minority were to take up arms and show by +force that they were the effective or real majority; which, however, +in a society of men who are free and equal is little likely to +happen; because in such a community the apparent majority IS the real +majority, and the others, as I have hinted before, know that too well +to obstruct from mere pigheadedness; especially as they have had +plenty of opportunity of putting forward their side of the question." + +"How is that managed?" said I. + +"Well," said he, "let us take one of our units of management, a +commune, or a ward, or a parish (for we have all three names, +indicating little real distinction between them now, though time was +there was a good deal). In such a district, as you would call it, +some neighbours think that something ought to be done or undone: a +new town-hall built; a clearance of inconvenient houses; or say a +stone bridge substituted for some ugly old iron one,--there you have +undoing and doing in one. Well, at the next ordinary meeting of the +neighbours, or Mote, as we call it, according to the ancient tongue +of the times before bureaucracy, a neighbour proposes the change, and +of course, if everybody agrees, there is an end of discussion, except +about details. Equally, if no one backs the proposer,--'seconds +him,' it used to be called--the matter drops for the time being; a +thing not likely to happen amongst reasonable men, however, as the +proposer is sure to have talked it over with others before the Mote. +But supposing the affair proposed and seconded, if a few of the +neighbours disagree to it, if they think that the beastly iron bridge +will serve a little longer and they don't want to be bothered with +building a new one just then, they don't count heads that time, but +put off the formal discussion to the next Mote; and meantime +arguments pro and con are flying about, and some get printed, so that +everybody knows what is going on; and when the Mote comes together +again there is a regular discussion and at last a vote by show of +hands. If the division is a close one, the question is again put off +for further discussion; if the division is a wide one, the minority +are asked if they will yield to the more general opinion, which they +often, nay, most commonly do. If they refuse, the question is +debated a third time, when, if the minority has not perceptibly +grown, they always give way; though I believe there is some half- +forgotten rule by which they might still carry it on further; but I +say, what always happens is that they are convinced, not perhaps that +their view is the wrong one, but they cannot persuade or force the +community to adopt it." + +"Very good," said I; "but what happens if the divisions are still +narrow?" + +Said he: "As a matter of principle and according to the rule of such +cases, the question must then lapse, and the majority, if so narrow, +has to submit to sitting down under the status quo. But I must tell +you that in point of fact the minority very seldom enforces this +rule, but generally yields in a friendly manner." + +"But do you know," said I, "that there is something in all this very +like democracy; and I thought that democracy was considered to be in +a moribund condition many, many years ago." + +The old boy's eyes twinkled. "I grant you that our methods have that +drawback. But what is to be done? We can't get ANYONE amongst us to +complain of his not always having his own way in the teeth of the +community, when it is clear that EVERYBODY cannot have that +indulgence. What is to be done?" + +"Well," said I, "I don't know." + +Said he: "The only alternatives to our method that I can conceive of +are these. First, that we should choose out, or breed, a class of +superior persons capable of judging on all matters without consulting +the neighbours; that, in short, we should get for ourselves what used +to be called an aristocracy of intellect; or, secondly, that for the +purpose of safe-guarding the freedom of the individual will, we +should revert to a system of private property again, and have slaves +and slave-holders once more. What do you think of those two +expedients?" + +"Well," said I, "there is a third possibility--to wit, that every man +should be quite independent of every other, and that thus the tyranny +of society should be abolished." + +He looked hard at me for a second or two, and then burst out laughing +very heartily; and I confess that I joined him. When he recovered +himself he nodded at me, and said: "Yes, yes, I quite agree with +you--and so we all do." + +"Yes," I said, "and besides, it does not press hardly on the +minority: for, take this matter of the bridge, no man is obliged to +work on it if he doesn't agree to its building. At least, I suppose +not." + +He smiled, and said: "Shrewdly put; and yet from the point of view +of the native of another planet. If the man of the minority does +find his feelings hurt, doubtless he may relieve them by refusing to +help in building the bridge. But, dear neighbour, that is not a very +effective salve for the wound caused by the 'tyranny of a majority' +in our society; because all work that is done is either beneficial or +hurtful to every member of society. The man is benefited by the +bridge-building if it turns out a good thing, and hurt by it if it +turns out a bad one, whether he puts a hand to it or not; and +meanwhile he is benefiting the bridge-builders by his work, whatever +that may be. In fact, I see no help for him except the pleasure of +saying 'I told you so' if the bridge-building turns out to be a +mistake and hurts him; if it benefits him he must suffer in silence. +A terrible tyranny our Communism, is it not? Folk used often to be +warned against this very unhappiness in times past, when for every +well-fed, contented person you saw a thousand miserable starvelings. +Whereas for us, we grow fat and well-liking on the tyranny; a +tyranny, to say the truth, not to be made visible by any microscope I +know. Don't be afraid, my friend; we are not going to seek for +troubles by calling our peace and plenty and happiness by ill names +whose very meaning we have forgotten!" + +He sat musing for a little, and then started and said: "Are there +any more questions, dear guest? The morning is waning fast amidst my +garrulity?' + + + +CHAPTER XV: ON THE LACK OF INCENTIVE TO LABOUR IN A COMMUNIST +SOCIETY + + + +"Yes," said I. "I was expecting Dick and Clara to make their +appearance any moment: but is there time to ask just one or two +questions before they come?" + +"Try it, dear neighbour--try it," said old Hammond. "For the more +you ask me the better I am pleased; and at any rate if they do come +and find me in the middle of an answer, they must sit quiet and +pretend to listen till I come to an end. It won't hurt them; they +will find it quite amusing enough to sit side by side, conscious of +their proximity to each other." + +I smiled, as I was bound to, and said: "Good; I will go on talking +without noticing them when they come in. Now, this is what I want to +ask you about--to wit, how you get people to work when there is no +reward of labour, and especially how you get them to work +strenuously?" + +"No reward of labour?" said Hammond, gravely. "The reward of labour +is LIFE. Is that not enough?" + +"But no reward for especially good work," quoth I. + +"Plenty of reward," said he--"the reward of creation. The wages +which God gets, as people might have said time agone. If you are +going to ask to be paid for the pleasure of creation, which is what +excellence in work means, the next thing we shall hear of will be a +bill sent in for the begetting of children." + +"Well, but," said I, "the man of the nineteenth century would say +there is a natural desire towards the procreation of children, and a +natural desire not to work." + +"Yes, yes," said he, "I know the ancient platitude,--wholly untrue; +indeed, to us quite meaningless. Fourier, whom all men laughed at, +understood the matter better." + +"Why is it meaningless to you?" said I. + +He said: "Because it implies that all work is suffering, and we are +so far from thinking that, that, as you may have noticed, whereas we +are not short of wealth, there is a kind of fear growing up amongst +us that we shall one day be short of work. It is a pleasure which we +are afraid of losing, not a pain." + +"Yes," said I, "I have noticed that, and I was going to ask you about +that also. But in the meantime, what do you positively mean to +assert about the pleasurableness of work amongst you?" + +"This, that ALL work is now pleasurable; either because of the hope +of gain in honour and wealth with which the work is done, which +causes pleasurable excitement, even when the actual work is not +pleasant; or else because it has grown into a pleasurable HABIT, as +in the case with what you may call mechanical work; and lastly (and +most of our work is of this kind) because there is conscious sensuous +pleasure in the work itself; it is done, that is, by artists." + +"I see," said I. "Can you now tell me how you have come to this +happy condition? For, to speak plainly, this change from the +conditions of the older world seems to me far greater and more +important than all the other changes you have told me about as to +crime, politics, property, marriage." + +"You are right there," said he. "Indeed, you may say rather that it +is this change which makes all the others possible. What is the +object of Revolution? Surely to make people happy. Revolution +having brought its foredoomed change about, how can you prevent the +counter-revolution from setting in except by making people happy? +What! shall we expect peace and stability from unhappiness? The +gathering of grapes from thorns and figs from thistles is a +reasonable expectation compared with that! And happiness without +happy daily work is impossible." + +"Most obviously true," said I: for I thought the old boy was +preaching a little. "But answer my question, as to how you gained +this happiness." + +"Briefly," said he, "by the absence of artificial coercion, and the +freedom for every man to do what he can do best, joined to the +knowledge of what productions of labour we really wanted. I must +admit that this knowledge we reached slowly and painfully." + +"Go on," said I, "give me more detail; explain more fully. For this +subject interests me intensely." + +"Yes, I will," said he; "but in order to do so I must weary you by +talking a little about the past. Contrast is necessary for this +explanation. Do you mind?" + +"No, no," said I. + +Said he, settling himself in his chair again for a long talk: "It is +clear from all that we hear and read, that in the last age of +civilisation men had got into a vicious circle in the matter of +production of wares. They had reached a wonderful facility of +production, and in order to make the most of that facility they had +gradually created (or allowed to grow, rather) a most elaborate +system of buying and selling, which has been called the World-Market; +and that World-Market, once set a-going, forced them to go on making +more and more of these wares, whether they needed them or not. So +that while (of course) they could not free themselves from the toil +of making real necessaries, they created in a never-ending series +sham or artificial necessaries, which became, under the iron rule of +the aforesaid World-Market, of equal importance to them with the real +necessaries which supported life. By all this they burdened +themselves with a prodigious mass of work merely for the sake of +keeping their wretched system going." + +"Yes--and then?" said I. + +"Why, then, since they had forced themselves to stagger along under +this horrible burden of unnecessary production, it became impossible +for them to look upon labour and its results from any other point of +view than one--to wit, the ceaseless endeavour to expend the least +possible amount of labour on any article made, and yet at the same +time to make as many articles as possible. To this 'cheapening of +production', as it was called, everything was sacrificed: the +happiness of the workman at his work, nay, his most elementary +comfort and bare health, his food, his clothes, his dwelling, his +leisure, his amusement, his education--his life, in short--did not +weigh a grain of sand in the balance against this dire necessity of +'cheap production' of things, a great part of which were not worth +producing at all. Nay, we are told, and we must believe it, so +overwhelming is the evidence, though many of our people scarcely CAN +believe it, that even rich and powerful men, the masters of the poor +devils aforesaid, submitted to live amidst sights and sounds and +smells which it is in the very nature of man to abhor and flee from, +in order that their riches might bolster up this supreme folly. The +whole community, in fact, was cast into the jaws of this ravening +monster, 'the cheap production' forced upon it by the World-Market." + +"Dear me!" said I. "But what happened? Did not their cleverness and +facility in production master this chaos of misery at last? Couldn't +they catch up with the World-Market, and then set to work to devise +means for relieving themselves from this fearful task of extra +labour?" + +He smiled bitterly. "Did they even try to?" said he. "I am not +sure. You know that according to the old saw the beetle gets used to +living in dung; and these people, whether they found the dung sweet +or not, certainly lived in it." + +His estimate of the life of the nineteenth century made me catch my +breath a little; and I said feebly, "But the labour-saving machines?" + +"Heyday!" quoth he. "What's that you are saying? the labour-saving +machines? Yes, they were made to 'save labour' (or, to speak more +plainly, the lives of men) on one piece of work in order that it +might be expended--I will say wasted--on another, probably useless, +piece of work. Friend, all their devices for cheapening labour +simply resulted in increasing the burden of labour. The appetite of +the World-Market grew with what it fed on: the countries within the +ring of 'civilisation' (that is, organised misery) were glutted with +the abortions of the market, and force and fraud were used +unsparingly to 'open up' countries OUTSIDE that pale. This process +of 'opening up' is a strange one to those who have read the +professions of the men of that period and do not understand their +practice; and perhaps shows us at its worst the great vice of the +nineteenth century, the use of hypocrisy and cant to evade the +responsibility of vicarious ferocity. When the civilised World- +Market coveted a country not yet in its clutches, some transparent +pretext was found--the suppression of a slavery different from and +not so cruel as that of commerce; the pushing of a religion no longer +believed in by its promoters; the 'rescue' of some desperado or +homicidal madman whose misdeeds had got him into trouble amongst the +natives of the 'barbarous' country--any stick, in short, which would +beat the dog at all. Then some bold, unprincipled, ignorant +adventurer was found (no difficult task in the days of competition), +and he was bribed to 'create a market' by breaking up whatever +traditional society there might be in the doomed country, and by +destroying whatever leisure or pleasure he found there. He forced +wares on the natives which they did not want, and took their natural +products in 'exchange,' as this form of robbery was called, and +thereby he 'created new wants,' to supply which (that is, to be +allowed to live by their new masters) the hapless, helpless people +had to sell themselves into the slavery of hopeless toil so that they +might have something wherewith to purchase the nullities of +'civilisation.' Ah," said the old man, pointing the dealings of to +the Museum, "I have read books and papers in there, telling strange +stories indeed of civilisation (or organised misery) with 'non- +civilisation'; from the time when the British Government deliberately +sent blankets infected with small-pox as choice gifts to inconvenient +tribes of Red-skins, to the time when Africa was infested by a man +named Stanley, who--" + +"Excuse me," said I, "but as you know, time presses; and I want to +keep our question on the straightest line possible; and I want at +once to ask this about these wares made for the World-Market--how +about their quality; these people who were so clever about making +goods, I suppose they made them well?" + +"Quality!" said the old man crustily, for he was rather peevish at +being cut short in his story; "how could they possibly attend to such +trifles as the quality of the wares they sold? The best of them were +of a lowish average, the worst were transparent make-shifts for the +things asked for, which nobody would have put up with if they could +have got anything else. It was a current jest of the time that the +wares were made to sell and not to use; a jest which you, as coming +from another planet, may understand, but which our folk could not." + +Said I: "What! did they make nothing well?" + +"Why, yes," said he, "there was one class of goods which they did +make thoroughly well, and that was the class of machines which were +used for making things. These were usually quite perfect pieces of +workmanship, admirably adapted to the end in view. So that it may be +fairly said that the great achievement of the nineteenth century was +the making of machines which were wonders of invention, skill, and +patience, and which were used for the production of measureless +quantities of worthless make-shifts. In truth, the owners of the +machines did not consider anything which they made as wares, but +simply as means for the enrichment of themselves. Of course the only +admitted test of utility in wares was the finding of buyers for them- +-wise men or fools, as it might chance." + +"And people put up with this?" said I. + +"For a time," said he. + +"And then?" + +"And then the overturn," said the old man, smiling, "and the +nineteenth century saw itself as a man who has lost his clothes +whilst bathing, and has to walk naked through the town." + +"You are very bitter about that unlucky nineteenth century," said I. + +"Naturally," said he, "since I know so much about it." + +He was silent a little, and then said: "There are traditions--nay, +real histories--in our family about it: my grandfather was one of +its victims. If you know something about it, you will understand +what he suffered when I tell you that he was in those days a genuine +artist, a man of genius, and a revolutionist." + +"I think I do understand," said I: "but now, as it seems, you have +reversed all this?" + +"Pretty much so," said he. "The wares which we make are made because +they are needed: men make for their neighbours' use as if they were +making for themselves, not for a vague market of which they know +nothing, and over which they have no control: as there is no buying +and selling, it would be mere insanity to make goods on the chance of +their being wanted; for there is no longer anyone who can be +compelled to buy them. So that whatever is made is good, and +thoroughly fit for its purpose. Nothing can be made except for +genuine use; therefore no inferior goods are made. Moreover, as +aforesaid, we have now found out what we want, so we make no more +than we want; and as we are not driven to make a vast quantity of +useless things we have time and resources enough to consider our +pleasure in making them. All work which would be irksome to do by +hand is done by immensely improved machinery; and in all work which +it is a pleasure to do by hand machinery is done without. There is +no difficulty in finding work which suits the special turn of mind of +everybody; so that no man is sacrificed to the wants of another. +From time to time, when we have found out that some piece of work was +too disagreeable or troublesome, we have given it up and done +altogether without the thing produced by it. Now, surely you can see +that under these circumstances all the work that we do is an exercise +of the mind and body more or less pleasant to be done: so that +instead of avoiding work everybody seeks it: and, since people have +got defter in doing the work generation after generation, it has +become so easy to do, that it seems as if there were less done, +though probably more is produced. I suppose this explains that fear, +which I hinted at just now, of a possible scarcity in work, which +perhaps you have already noticed, and which is a feeling on the +increase, and has been for a score of years." + +"But do you think," said I, "that there is any fear of a work-famine +amongst you?" + +"No, I do not," said he, "and I will tell why; it is each man's +business to make his own work pleasanter and pleasanter, which of +course tends towards raising the standard of excellence, as no man +enjoys turning out work which is not a credit to him, and also to +greater deliberation in turning it out; and there is such a vast +number of things which can be treated as works of art, that this +alone gives employment to a host of deft people. Again, if art be +inexhaustible, so is science also; and though it is no longer the +only innocent occupation which is thought worth an intelligent man +spending his time upon, as it once was, yet there are, and I suppose +will be, many people who are excited by its conquest of difficulties, +and care for it more than for anything else. Again, as more and more +of pleasure is imported into work, I think we shall take up kinds of +work which produce desirable wares, but which we gave up because we +could not carry them on pleasantly. Moreover, I think that it is +only in parts of Europe which are more advanced than the rest of the +world that you will hear this talk of the fear of a work-famine. +Those lands which were once the colonies of Great Britain, for +instance, and especially America--that part of it, above all, which +was once the United states--are now and will be for a long while a +great resource to us. For these lands, and, I say, especially the +northern parts of America, suffered so terribly from the full force +of the last days of civilisation, and became such horrible places to +live in, that they are now very backward in all that makes life +pleasant. Indeed, one may say that for nearly a hundred years the +people of the northern parts of America have been engaged in +gradually making a dwelling-place out of a stinking dust-heap; and +there is still a great deal to do, especially as the country is so +big." + +"Well," said I, "I am exceedingly glad to think that you have such a +prospect of happiness before you. But I should like to ask a few +more questions, and then I have done for to-day." + + + +CHAPTER XVI: DINNER IN THE HALL OF THE BLOOMSBURY MARKET + + + +As I spoke, I heard footsteps near the door; the latch yielded, and +in came our two lovers, looking so handsome that one had no feeling +of shame in looking on at their little-concealed love-making; for +indeed it seemed as if all the world must be in love with them. As +for old Hammond, he looked on them like an artist who has just +painted a picture nearly as well as he thought he could when he began +it, and was perfectly happy. He said: + +"Sit down, sit down, young folk, and don't make a noise. Our guest +here has still some questions to ask me." + +"Well, I should suppose so," said Dick; "you have only been three +hours and a half together; and it isn't to be hoped that the history +of two centuries could be told in three hours and a half: let alone +that, for all I know, you may have been wandering into the realms of +geography and craftsmanship." + +"As to noise, my dear kinsman," said Clara, "you will very soon be +disturbed by the noise of the dinner-bell, which I should think will +be very pleasant music to our guest, who breakfasted early, it seems, +and probably had a tiring day yesterday." + +I said: "Well, since you have spoken the word, I begin to feel that +it is so; but I have been feeding myself with wonder this long time +past: really, it's quite true," quoth I, as I saw her smile, O so +prettily! But just then from some tower high up in the air came the +sound of silvery chimes playing a sweet clear tune, that sounded to +my unaccustomed ears like the song of the first blackbird in the +spring, and called a rush of memories to my mind, some of bad times, +some of good, but all sweetened now into mere pleasure. + +"No more questions now before dinner," said Clara; and she took my +hand as an affectionate child would, and led me out of the room and +down stairs into the forecourt of the Museum, leaving the two +Hammonds to follow as they pleased. + +We went into the market-place which I had been in before, a thinnish +stream of elegantly {1} dressed people going in along with us. We +turned into the cloister and came to a richly moulded and carved +doorway, where a very pretty dark-haired young girl gave us each a +beautiful bunch of summer flowers, and we entered a hall much bigger +than that of the Hammersmith Guest House, more elaborate in its +architecture and perhaps more beautiful. I found it difficult to +keep my eyes off the wall-pictures (for I thought it bad manners to +stare at Clara all the time, though she was quite worth it). I saw +at a glance that their subjects were taken from queer old-world myths +and imaginations which in yesterday's world only about half a dozen +people in the country knew anything about; and when the two Hammonds +sat down opposite to us, I said to the old man, pointing to the +frieze: + +"How strange to see such subjects here!" + +"Why?" said he. "I don't see why you should be surprised; everybody +knows the tales; and they are graceful and pleasant subjects, not too +tragic for a place where people mostly eat and drink and amuse +themselves, and yet full of incident." + +I smiled, and said: "Well, I scarcely expected to find record of the +Seven Swans and the King of the Golden Mountain and Faithful Henry, +and such curious pleasant imaginations as Jacob Grimm got together +from the childhood of the world, barely lingering even in his time: +I should have thought you would have forgotten such childishness by +this time." + +The old man smiled, and said nothing; but Dick turned rather red, and +broke out: + +"What DO you mean, guest? I think them very beautiful, I mean not +only the pictures, but the stories; and when we were children we used +to imagine them going on in every wood-end, by the bight of every +stream: every house in the fields was the Fairyland King's House to +us. Don't you remember, Clara?" + +"Yes," she said; and it seemed to me as if a slight cloud came over +her fair face. I was going to speak to her on the subject, when the +pretty waitresses came to us smiling, and chattering sweetly like +reed warblers by the river side, and fell to giving us our dinner. +As to this, as at our breakfast, everything was cooked and served +with a daintiness which showed that those who had prepared it were +interested in it; but there was no excess either of quantity or of +gourmandise; everything was simple, though so excellent of its kind; +and it was made clear to us that this was no feast, only an ordinary +meal. The glass, crockery, and plate were very beautiful to my eyes, +used to the study of mediaeval art; but a nineteenth-century club- +haunter would, I daresay, have found them rough and lacking in +finish; the crockery being lead-glazed pot-ware, though beautifully +ornamented; the only porcelain being here and there a piece of old +oriental ware. The glass, again, though elegant and quaint, and very +varied in form, was somewhat bubbled and hornier in texture than the +commercial articles of the nineteenth century. The furniture and +general fittings of the ball were much of a piece with the table- +gear, beautiful in form and highly ornamented, but without the +commercial "finish" of the joiners and cabinet-makers of our time. +Withal, there was a total absence of what the nineteenth century +calls "comfort"--that is, stuffy inconvenience; so that, even apart +from the delightful excitement of the day, I had never eaten my +dinner so pleasantly before. + +When we had done eating, and were sitting a little while, with a +bottle of very good Bordeaux wine before us, Clara came back to the +question of the subject-matter of the pictures, as though it had +troubled her. + +She looked up at them, and said: "How is it that though we are so +interested with our life for the most part, yet when people take to +writing poems or painting pictures they seldom deal with our modern +life, or if they do, take good care to make their poems or pictures +unlike that life? Are we not good enough to paint ourselves? How is +it that we find the dreadful times of the past so interesting to us-- +in pictures and poetry?" + +Old Hammond smiled. "It always was so, and I suppose always will +be," said he, "however it may be explained. It is true that in the +nineteenth century, when there was so little art and so much talk +about it, there was a theory that art and imaginative literature +ought to deal with contemporary life; but they never did so; for, if +there was any pretence of it, the author always took care (as Clara +hinted just now) to disguise, or exaggerate, or idealise, and in some +way or another make it strange; so that, for all the verisimilitude +there was, he might just as well have dealt with the times of the +Pharaohs." + +"Well," said Dick, "surely it is but natural to like these things +strange; just as when we were children, as I said just now, we used +to pretend to be so-and-so in such-and-such a place. That's what +these pictures and poems do; and why shouldn't they?" + +"Thou hast hit it, Dick," quoth old Hammond; "it is the child-like +part of us that produces works of imagination. When we are children +time passes so slow with us that we seem to have time for +everything." + +He sighed, and then smiled and said: "At least let us rejoice that +we have got back our childhood again. I drink to the days that are!" + +"Second childhood," said I in a low voice, and then blushed at my +double rudeness, and hoped that he hadn't heard. But he had, and +turned to me smiling, and said: "Yes, why not? And for my part, I +hope it may last long; and that the world's next period of wise and +unhappy manhood, if that should happen, will speedily lead us to a +third childhood: if indeed this age be not our third. Meantime, my +friend, you must know that we are too happy, both individually and +collectively, to trouble ourselves about what is to come hereafter." + +"Well, for my part," said Clara, "I wish we were interesting enough +to be written or painted about." + +Dick answered her with some lover's speech, impossible to be written +down, and then we sat quiet a little. + + + +CHAPTER XVII: HOW THE CHANGE CAME + + + +Dick broke the silence at last, saying: "Guest, forgive us for a +little after-dinner dulness. What would you like to do? Shall we +have out Greylocks and trot back to Hammersmith? or will you come +with us and hear some Welsh folk sing in a hall close by here? or +would you like presently to come with me into the City and see some +really fine building? or--what shall it be?" + +"Well," said I, "as I am a stranger, I must let you choose for me." + +In point of fact, I did not by any means want to be 'amused' just +then; and also I rather felt as if the old man, with his knowledge of +past times, and even a kind of inverted sympathy for them caused by +his active hatred of them, was as it were a blanket for me against +the cold of this very new world, where I was, so to say, stripped +bare of every habitual thought and way of acting; and I did not want +to leave him too soon. He came to my rescue at once, and said - + +"Wait a bit, Dick; there is someone else to be consulted besides you +and the guest here, and that is I. I am not going to lose the +pleasure of his company just now, especially as I know he has +something else to ask me. So go to your Welshmen, by all means; but +first of all bring us another bottle of wine to this nook, and then +be off as soon as you like; and come again and fetch our friend to go +westward, but not too soon." + +Dick nodded smilingly, and the old man and I were soon alone in the +great hall, the afternoon sun gleaming on the red wine in our tall +quaint-shaped glasses. Then said Hammond: + +"Does anything especially puzzle you about our way of living, now you +have heard a good deal and seen a little of it?" + +Said I: "I think what puzzles me most is how it all came about." + +"It well may," said he, "so great as the change is. It would be +difficult indeed to tell you the whole story, perhaps impossible: +knowledge, discontent, treachery, disappointment, ruin, misery, +despair--those who worked for the change because they could see +further than other people went through all these phases of suffering; +and doubtless all the time the most of men looked on, not knowing +what was doing, thinking it all a matter of course, like the rising +and setting of the sun--and indeed it was so." + +"Tell me one thing, if you can," said I. "Did the change, the +'revolution' it used to be called, come peacefully?" + +"Peacefully?" said he; "what peace was there amongst those poor +confused wretches of the nineteenth century? It was war from +beginning to end: bitter war, till hope and pleasure put an end to +it." + +"Do you mean actual fighting with weapons?" said I, "or the strikes +and lock-outs and starvation of which we have heard?" + +"Both, both," he said. "As a matter of fact, the history of the +terrible period of transition from commercial slavery to freedom may +thus be summarised. When the hope of realising a communal condition +of life for all men arose, quite late in the nineteenth century, the +power of the middle classes, the then tyrants of society, was so +enormous and crushing, that to almost all men, even those who had, +you may say despite themselves, despite their reason and judgment, +conceived such hopes, it seemed a dream. So much was this the case +that some of those more enlightened men who were then called +Socialists, although they well knew, and even stated in public, that +the only reasonable condition of Society was that of pure Communism +(such as you now see around you), yet shrunk from what seemed to them +the barren task of preaching the realisation of a happy dream. +Looking back now, we can see that the great motive-power of the +change was a longing for freedom and equality, akin if you please to +the unreasonable passion of the lover; a sickness of heart that +rejected with loathing the aimless solitary life of the well-to-do +educated man of that time: phrases, my dear friend, which have lost +their meaning to us of the present day; so far removed we are from +the dreadful facts which they represent. + +"Well, these men, though conscious of this feeling, had no faith in +it, as a means of bringing about the change. Nor was that wonderful: +for looking around them they saw the huge mass of the oppressed +classes too much burdened with the misery of their lives, and too +much overwhelmed by the selfishness of misery, to be able to form a +conception of any escape from it except by the ordinary way +prescribed by the system of slavery under which they lived; which was +nothing more than a remote chance of climbing out of the oppressed +into the oppressing class. + +"Therefore, though they knew that the only reasonable aim for those +who would better the world was a condition of equality; in their +impatience and despair they managed to convince themselves that if +they could by hook or by crook get the machinery of production and +the management of property so altered that the 'lower classes' (so +the horrible word ran) might have their slavery somewhat ameliorated, +they would be ready to fit into this machinery, and would use it for +bettering their condition still more and still more, until at last +the result would be a practical equality (they were very fond of +using the word 'practical'), because 'the rich' would be forced to +pay so much for keeping 'the poor' in a tolerable condition that the +condition of riches would become no longer valuable and would +gradually die out. Do you follow me?" + +"Partly," said I. "Go on." + +Said old Hammond: "Well, since you follow me, you will see that as a +theory this was not altogether unreasonable; but 'practically,' it +turned out a failure." + +"How so?" said I. + +"Well, don't you see," said he, "because it involved the making of a +machinery by those who didn't know what they wanted the machines to +do. So far as the masses of the oppressed class furthered this +scheme of improvement, they did it to get themselves improved slave- +rations--as many of them as could. And if those classes had really +been incapable of being touched by that instinct which produced the +passion for freedom and equality aforesaid, what would have happened, +I think, would have been this: that a certain part of the working +classes would have been so far improved in condition that they would +have approached the condition of the middling rich men; but below +them would have been a great class of most miserable slaves, whose +slavery would have been far more hopeless than the older class- +slavery had been." + +"What stood in the way of this?" said I. + +"'Why, of course," said he, "just that instinct for freedom +aforesaid. It is true that the slave-class could not conceive the +happiness of a free life. Yet they grew to understand (and very +speedily too) that they were oppressed by their masters, and they +assumed, you see how justly, that they could do without them, though +perhaps they scarce knew how; so that it came to this, that though +they could not look forward to the happiness or peace of the freeman, +they did at least look forward to the war which a vague hope told +them would bring that peace about." + +"Could you tell me rather more closely what actually took place?" +said I; for I thought HIM rather vague here. + +"Yes," he said, "I can. That machinery of life for the use of people +who didn't know what they wanted of it, and which was known at the +time as State Socialism, was partly put in motion, though in a very +piecemeal way. But it did not work smoothly; it was, of course, +resisted at every turn by the capitalists; and no wonder, for it +tended more and more to upset the commercial system I have told you +of; without providing anything really effective in its place. The +result was growing confusion, great suffering amongst the working +classes, and, as a consequence, great discontent. For a long time +matters went on like this. The power of the upper classes had +lessened, as their command over wealth lessened, and they could not +carry things wholly by the high hand as they had been used to in +earlier days. So far the State Socialists were justified by the +result. On the other hand, the working classes were ill-organised, +and growing poorer in reality, in spite of the gains (also real in +the long run) which they had forced from the masters. Thus matters +hung in the balance; the masters could not reduce their slaves to +complete subjection, though they put down some feeble and partial +riots easily enough. The workers forced their masters to grant them +ameliorations, real or imaginary, of their condition, but could not +force freedom from them. At last came a great crash. To explain +this you must understand that very great progress had been made +amongst the workers, though as before said but little in the +direction of improved livelihood." + +I played the innocent and said: "In what direction could they +improve, if not in livelihood?" + +Said he: "In the power to bring about a state of things in which +livelihood would be full, and easy to gain. They had at last learned +how to combine after a long period of mistakes and disasters. The +workmen had now a regular organization in the struggle against their +masters, a struggle which for more than half a century had been +accepted as an inevitable part of the conditions of the modern system +of labour and production. This combination had now taken the form of +a federation of all or almost all the recognised wage-paid +employments, and it was by its means that those betterments of the +conditions of the workmen had been forced from the masters: and +though they were not seldom mixed up with the rioting that happened, +especially in the earlier days of their organization, it by no means +formed an essential part of their tactics; indeed at the time I am +now speaking of they had got to be so strong that most commonly the +mere threat of a 'strike' was enough to gain any minor point: +because they had given up the foolish tactics of the ancient trades +unions of calling out of work a part only of the workers of such and +such an industry, and supporting them while out of work on the labour +of those that remained in. By this time they had a biggish fund of +money for the support of strikes, and could stop a certain industry +altogether for a time if they so determined." + +Said I: "Was there not a serious danger of such moneys being +misused--of jobbery, in fact?" + +Old Hammond wriggled uneasily on his seat, and said: + +"Though all this happened so long ago, I still feel the pain of mere +shame when I have to tell you that it was more than a danger: that +such rascality often happened; indeed more than once the whole +combination seemed dropping to pieces because of it: but at the time +of which I am telling, things looked so threatening, and to the +workmen at least the necessity of their dealing with the fast- +gathering trouble which the labour-struggle had brought about, was so +clear, that the conditions of the times had begot a deep seriousness +amongst all reasonable people; a determination which put aside all +non-essentials, and which to thinking men was ominous of the swiftly- +approaching change: such an element was too dangerous for mere +traitors and self-seekers, and one by one they were thrust out and +mostly joined the declared reactionaries." + +"How about those ameliorations," said I; "what were they? or rather +of what nature?" + +Said he: "Some of them, and these of the most practical importance +to the mens' livelihood, were yielded by the masters by direct +compulsion on the part of the men; the new conditions of labour so +gained were indeed only customary, enforced by no law: but, once +established, the masters durst not attempt to withdraw them in face +of the growing power of the combined workers. Some again were steps +on the path of 'State Socialism'; the most important of which can be +speedily summed up. At the end of the nineteenth century the cry +arose for compelling the masters to employ their men a less number of +hours in the day: this cry gathered volume quickly, and the masters +had to yield to it. But it was, of course, clear that unless this +meant a higher price for work per hour, it would be a mere nullity, +and that the masters, unless forced, would reduce it to that. +Therefore after a long struggle another law was passed fixing a +minimum price for labour in the most important industries; which +again had to be supplemented by a law fixing the maximum price on the +chief wares then considered necessary for a workman's life." + +"You were getting perilously near to the late Roman poor-rates," said +I, smiling, "and the doling out of bread to the proletariat." + +"So many said at the time," said the old man drily; "and it has long +been a commonplace that that slough awaits State Socialism in the +end, if it gets to the end, which as you know it did not with us. +However it went further than this minimum and maximum business, which +by the by we can now see was necessary. The government now found it +imperative on them to meet the outcry of the master class at the +approaching destruction of Commerce (as desirable, had they known it, +as the extinction of the cholera, which has since happily taken +place). And they were forced to meet it by a measure hostile to the +masters, the establishment of government factories for the production +of necessary wares, and markets for their sale. These measures taken +altogether did do something: they were in fact of the nature of +regulations made by the commander of a beleaguered city. But of +course to the privileged classes it seemed as if the end of the world +were come when such laws were enacted. + +"Nor was that altogether without a warrant: the spread of +communistic theories, and the partial practice of State Socialism had +at first disturbed, and at last almost paralysed the marvellous +system of commerce under which the old world had lived so feverishly, +and had produced for some few a life of gambler's pleasure, and for +many, or most, a life of mere misery: over and over again came 'bad +times' as they were called, and indeed they were bad enough for the +wage-slaves. The year 1952 was one of the worst of these times; the +workmen suffered dreadfully: the partial, inefficient government +factories, which were terribly jobbed, all but broke down, and a vast +part of the population had for the time being to be fed on +undisguised "charity" as it was called. + +"The Combined Workers watched the situation with mingled hope and +anxiety. They had already formulated their general demands; but now +by a solemn and universal vote of the whole of their federated +societies, they insisted on the first step being taken toward +carrying out their demands: this step would have led directly to +handing over the management of the whole natural resources of the +country, together with the machinery for using them into the power of +the Combined Workers, and the reduction of the privileged classes +into the position of pensioners obviously dependent on the pleasure +of the workers. The 'Resolution,' as it was called, which was widely +published in the newspapers of the day, was in fact a declaration of +war, and was so accepted by the master class. They began +henceforward to prepare for a firm stand against the 'brutal and +ferocious communism of the day,' as they phrased it. And as they +were in many ways still very powerful, or seemed so to be; they still +hoped by means of brute force to regain some of what they had lost, +and perhaps in the end the whole of it. It was said amongst them on +all hands that it had been a great mistake of the various governments +not to have resisted sooner; and the liberals and radicals (the name +as perhaps you may know of the more democratically inclined part of +the ruling classes) were much blamed for having led the world to this +pass by their mis-timed pedantry and foolish sentimentality: and one +Gladstone, or Gledstein (probably, judging by this name, of +Scandinavian descent), a notable politician of the nineteenth +century, was especially singled out for reprobation in this respect. +I need scarcely point out to you the absurdity of all this. But +terrible tragedy lay hidden behind this grinning through a horse- +collar of the reactionary party. 'The insatiable greed of the lower +classes must be repressed'--'The people must be taught a lesson'-- +these were the sacramental phrases current amongst the reactionists, +and ominous enough they were." + +The old man stopped to look keenly at my attentive and wondering +face; and then said: + +"I know, dear guest, that I have been using words and phrases which +few people amongst us could understand without long and laborious +explanation; and not even then perhaps. But since you have not yet +gone to sleep, and since I am speaking to you as to a being from +another planet, I may venture to ask you if you have followed me thus +far?" + +"O yes," said I, "I quite understand: pray go on; a great deal of +what you have been saying was common place with us--when--when--" + +"Yes," said he gravely, "when you were dwelling in the other planet. +Well, now for the crash aforesaid. + +"On some comparatively trifling occasion a great meeting was summoned +by the workmen leaders to meet in Trafalgar Square (about the right +to meet in which place there had for years and years been bickering). +The civic bourgeois guard (called the police) attacked the said +meeting with bludgeons, according to their custom; many people were +hurt in the melee, of whom five in all died, either trampled to death +on the spot, or from the effects of their cudgelling; the meeting was +scattered, and some hundred of prisoners cast into gaol. A similar +meeting had been treated in the same way a few days before at a place +called Manchester, which has now disappeared. Thus the 'lesson' +began. The whole country was thrown into a ferment by this; meetings +were held which attempted some rough organisation for the holding of +another meeting to retort on the authorities. A huge crowd assembled +in Trafalgar Square and the neighbourhood (then a place of crowded +streets), and was too big for the bludgeon-armed police to cope with; +there was a good deal of dry-blow fighting; three or four of the +people were killed, and half a score of policemen were crushed to +death in the throng, and the rest got away as they could. This was a +victory for the people as far as it went. The next day all London +(remember what it was in those days) was in a state of turmoil. Many +of the rich fled into the country; the executive got together +soldiery, but did not dare to use them; and the police could not be +massed in any one place, because riots or threats of riots were +everywhere. But in Manchester, where the people were not so +courageous or not so desperate as in London, several of the popular +leaders were arrested. In London a convention of leaders was got +together from the Federation of Combined Workmen, and sat under the +old revolutionary name of the Committee of Public Safety; but as they +had no drilled and armed body of men to direct, they attempted no +aggressive measures, but only placarded the walls with somewhat vague +appeals to the workmen not to allow themselves to be trampled upon. +However, they called a meeting in Trafalgar Square for the day +fortnight of the last-mentioned skirmish. + +"Meantime the town grew no quieter, and business came pretty much to +an end. The newspapers--then, as always hitherto, almost entirely in +the hands of the masters--clamoured to the Government for repressive +measures; the rich citizens were enrolled as an extra body of police, +and armed with bludgeons like them; many of these were strong, well- +fed, full-blooded young men, and had plenty of stomach for fighting; +but the Government did not dare to use them, and contented itself +with getting full powers voted to it by the Parliament for +suppressing any revolt, and bringing up more and more soldiers to +London. Thus passed the week after the great meeting; almost as +large a one was held on the Sunday, which went off peaceably on the +whole, as no opposition to it was offered, and again the people cried +'victory.' But on the Monday the people woke up to find that they +were hungry. During the last few days there had been groups of men +parading the streets asking (or, if you please, demanding) money to +buy food; and what for goodwill, what for fear, the richer people +gave them a good deal. The authorities of the parishes also (I +haven't time to explain that phrase at present) gave willy-nilly what +provisions they could to wandering people; and the Government, by +means of its feeble national workshops, also fed a good number of +half-starved folk. But in addition to this, several bakers' shops +and other provision stores had been emptied without a great deal of +disturbance. So far, so good. But on the Monday in question the +Committee of Public Safety, on the one hand afraid of general +unorganised pillage, and on the other emboldened by the wavering +conduct of the authorities, sent a deputation provided with carts and +all necessary gear to clear out two or three big provision stores in +the centre of the town, leaving papers with the shop managers +promising to pay the price of them: and also in the part of the town +where they were strongest they took possession of several bakers' +shops and set men at work in them for the benefit of the people;--all +of which was done with little or no disturbance, the police assisting +in keeping order at the sack of the stores, as they would have done +at a big fire. + +"But at this last stroke the reactionaries were so alarmed, that they +were, determined to force the executive into action. The newspapers +next day all blazed into the fury of frightened people, and +threatened the people, the Government, and everybody they could think +of, unless 'order were at once restored.' A deputation of leading +commercial people waited on the Government and told them that if they +did not at once arrest the Committee of Public Safety, they +themselves would gather a body of men, arm them, and fall on 'the +incendiaries,' as they called them. + +"They, together with a number of the newspaper editors, had a long +interview with the heads of the Government and two or three military +men, the deftest in their art that the country could furnish. The +deputation came away from that interview, says a contemporary eye- +witness, smiling and satisfied, and said no more about raising an +anti-popular army, but that afternoon left London with their families +for their country seats or elsewhere. + +"The next morning the Government proclaimed a state of siege in +London,--a thing common enough amongst the absolutist governments on +the Continent, but unheard-of in England in those days. They +appointed the youngest and cleverest of their generals to command the +proclaimed district; a man who had won a certain sort of reputation +in the disgraceful wars in which the country had been long engaged +from time to time. The newspapers were in ecstacies, and all the +most fervent of the reactionaries now came to the front; men who in +ordinary times were forced to keep their opinions to themselves or +their immediate circle, but who began to look forward to crushing +once for all the Socialist, and even democratic tendencies, which, +said they, had been treated with such foolish indulgence for the last +sixty years. + +"But the clever general took no visible action; and yet only a few of +the minor newspapers abused him; thoughtful men gathered from this +that a plot was hatching. As for the Committee of Public Safety, +whatever they thought of their position, they had now gone too far to +draw back; and many of them, it seems, thought that the government +would not act. They went on quietly organising their food supply, +which was a miserable driblet when all is said; and also as a retort +to the state of siege, they armed as many men as they could in the +quarter where they were strongest, but did not attempt to drill or +organise them, thinking, perhaps, that they could not at the best +turn them into trained soldiers till they had some breathing space. +The clever general, his soldiers, and the police did not meddle with +all this in the least in the world; and things were quieter in London +that week-end; though there were riots in many places of the +provinces, which were quelled by the authorities without much +trouble. The most serious of these were at Glasgow and Bristol. + +"Well, the Sunday of the meeting came, and great crowds came to +Trafalgar Square in procession, the greater part of the Committee +amongst them, surrounded by their band of men armed somehow or other. +The streets were quite peaceful and quiet, though there were many +spectators to see the procession pass. Trafalgar Square had no body +of police in it; the people took quiet possession of it, and the +meeting began. The armed men stood round the principal platform, and +there were a few others armed amidst the general crowd; but by far +the greater part were unarmed. + +"Most people thought the meeting would go off peaceably; but the +members of the Committee had heard from various quarters that +something would be attempted against them; but these rumours were +vague, and they had no idea of what threatened. They soon found out. + +"For before the streets about the Square were filled, a body of +soldiers poured into it from the north-west corner and took up their +places by the houses that stood on the west side. The people growled +at the sight of the red-coats; the armed men of the Committee stood +undecided, not knowing what to do; and indeed this new influx so +jammed the crowd together that, unorganised as they were, they had +little chance of working through it. They had scarcely grasped the +fact of their enemies being there, when another column of soldiers, +pouring out of the streets which led into the great southern road +going down to the Parliament House (still existing, and called the +Dung Market), and also from the embankment by the side of the Thames, +marched up, pushing the crowd into a denser and denser mass, and +formed along the south side of the Square. Then any of those who +could see what was going on, knew at once that they were in a trap, +and could only wonder what would be done with them. + +"The closely-packed crowd would not or could not budge, except under +the influence of the height of terror, which was soon to be supplied +to them. A few of the armed men struggled to the front, or climbled +up to the base of the monument which then stood there, that they +might face the wall of hidden fire before them; and to most men +(there were many women amongst them) it seemed as if the end of the +world had come, and to-day seemed strangely different from yesterday. +No sooner were the soldiers drawn up aforesaid than, says an eye- +witness, 'a glittering officer on horseback came prancing out from +the ranks on the south, and read something from a paper which he held +in his hand; which something, very few heard; but I was told +afterwards that it was an order for us to disperse, and a warning +that he had legal right to fire on the crowd else, and that he would +do so. The crowd took it as a challenge of some sort, and a hoarse +threatening roar went up from them; and after that there was +comparative silence for a little, till the officer had got back into +the ranks. I was near the edge of the crowd, towards the soldiers,' +says this eye-witness, 'and I saw three little machines being wheeled +out in front of the ranks, which I knew for mechanical guns. I cried +out, "Throw yourselves down! they are going to fire!" But no one +scarcely could throw himself down, so tight as the crowd were packed. +I heard a sharp order given, and wondered where I should be the next +minute; and then--It was as if--the earth had opened, and hell had +come up bodily amidst us. It is no use trying to describe the scene +that followed. Deep lanes were mowed amidst the thick crowd; the +dead and dying covered the ground, and the shrieks and wails and +cries of horror filled all the air, till it seemed as if there were +nothing else in the world but murder and death. Those of our armed +men who were still unhurt cheered wildly and opened a scattering fire +on the soldiers. One or two soldiers fell; and I saw the officers +going up and down the ranks urging the men to fire again; but they +received the orders in sullen silence, and let the butts of their +guns fall. Only one sergeant ran to a machine-gun and began to set +it going; but a tall young man, an officer too, ran out of the ranks +and dragged him back by the collar; and the soldiers stood there +motionless while the horror-stricken crowd, nearly wholly unarmed +(for most of the armed men had fallen in that first discharge), +drifted out of the Square. I was told afterwards that the soldiers +on the west side had fired also, and done their part of the +slaughter. How I got out of the Square I scarcely know: I went, not +feeling the ground under me, what with rage and terror and despair.' + +"So says our eye-witness. The number of the slain on the side of the +people in that shooting during a minute was prodigious; but it was +not easy to come at the truth about it; it was probably between one +and two thousand. Of the soldiers, six were killed outright, and a +dozen wounded." + +I listened, trembling with excitement. The old man's eyes glittered +and his face flushed as he spoke, and told the tale of what I had +often thought might happen. Yet I wondered that he should have got +so elated about a mere massacre, and I said: + +"How fearful! And I suppose that this massacre put an end to the +whole revolution for that time?" + +"No, no," cried old Hammond; "it began it!" + +He filled his glass and mine, and stood up and cried out, "Drink this +glass to the memory of those who died there, for indeed it would be a +long tale to tell how much we owe them." + +I drank, and he sat down again and went on. + +"That massacre of Trafalgar Square began the civil war, though, like +all such events, it gathered head slowly, and people scarcely knew +what a crisis they were acting in. + +"Terrible as the massacre was, and hideous and overpowering as the +first terror had been, when the people had time to think about it, +their feeling was one of anger rather than fear; although the +military organisation of the state of siege was now carried out +without shrinking by the clever young general. For though the +ruling-classes when the news spread next morning felt one gasp of +horror and even dread, yet the Government and their immediate backers +felt that now the wine was drawn and must be drunk. However, even +the most reactionary of the capitalist papers, with two exceptions, +stunned by the tremendous news, simply gave an account of what had +taken place, without making any comment upon it. The exceptions were +one, a so-called 'liberal' paper (the Government of the day was of +that complexion), which, after a preamble in which it declared its +undeviating sympathy with the cause of labour, proceeded to point out +that in times of revolutionary disturbance it behoved the Government +to be just but firm, and that by far the most merciful way of dealing +with the poor madmen who were attacking the very foundations of +society (which had made them mad and poor) was to shoot them at once, +so as to stop others from drifting into a position in which they +would run a chance of being shot. In short, it praised the +determined action of the Government as the acme of human wisdom and +mercy, and exulted in the inauguration of an epoch of reasonable +democracy free from the tyrannical fads of Socialism. + +"The other exception was a paper thought to be one of the most +violent opponents of democracy, and so it was; but the editor of it +found his manhood, and spoke for himself and not for his paper. In a +few simple, indignant words he asked people to consider what a +society was worth which had to be defended by the massacre of unarmed +citizens, and called on the Government to withdraw their state of +siege and put the general and his officers who fired on the people on +their trial for murder. He went further, and declared that whatever +his opinion might be as to the doctrines of the Socialists, he for +one should throw in his lot with the people, until the Government +atoned for their atrocity by showing that they were prepared to +listen to the demands of men who knew what they wanted, and whom the +decrepitude of society forced into pushing their demands in some way +or other. + +"Of course, this editor was immediately arrested by the military +power; but his bold words were already in the hands of the public, +and produced a great effect: so great an effect that the Government, +after some vacillation, withdrew the state of siege; though at the +same time it strengthened the military organisation and made it more +stringent. Three of the Committee of Public Safety had been slain in +Trafalgar Square: of the rest the greater part went back to their +old place of meeting, and there awaited the event calmly. They were +arrested there on the Monday morning, and would have been shot at +once by the general, who was a mere military machine, if the +Government had not shrunk before the responsibility of killing men +without any trial. There was at first a talk of trying them by a +special commission of judges, as it was called--i.e., before a set of +men bound to find them guilty, and whose business it was to do so. +But with the Government the cold fit had succeeded to the hot one; +and the prisoners were brought before a jury at the assizes. There a +fresh blow awaited the Government; for in spite of the judge's +charge, which distinctly instructed the jury to find the prisoners +guilty, they were acquitted, and the jury added to their verdict a +presentment, in which they condemned the action of the soldiery, in +the queer phraseology of the day, as 'rash, unfortunate, and +unnecessary.' The Committee of Public Safety renewed its sittings, +and from thenceforth was a popular rallying-point in opposition to +the Parliament. The Government now gave way on all sides, and made a +show of yielding to the demands of the people, though there was a +widespread plot for effecting a coup d'etat set on foot between the +leaders of the two so-called opposing parties in the parliamentary +faction fight. The well-meaning part of the public was overjoyed, +and thought that all danger of a civil war was over. The victory of +the people was celebrated by huge meetings held in the parks and +elsewhere, in memory of the victims of the great massacre. + +"But the measures passed for the relief of the workers, though to the +upper classes they seemed ruinously revolutionary, were not thorough +enough to give the people food and a decent life, and they had to be +supplemented by unwritten enactments without legality to back them. +Although the Government and Parliament had the law-courts, the army, +and 'society' at their backs, the Committee of Public Safety began to +be a force in the country, and really represented the producing +classes. It began to improve immensely in the days which followed on +the acquittal of its members. Its old members had little +administrative capacity, though with the exception of a few self- +seekers and traitors, they were honest, courageous men, and many of +them were endowed with considerable talent of other kinds. But now +that the times called for immediate action, came forward the men +capable of setting it on foot; and a new network of workmen's +associations grew up very speedily, whose avowed single object was +the tiding over of the ship of the community into a simple condition +of Communism; and as they practically undertook also the management +of the ordinary labour-war, they soon became the mouthpiece and +intermediary of the whole of the working classes; and the +manufacturing profit-grinders now found themselves powerless before +this combination; unless THEIR committee, Parliament, plucked up +courage to begin the civil war again, and to shoot right and left, +they were bound to yield to the demands of the men whom they +employed, and pay higher and higher wages for shorter and shorter +day's work. Yet one ally they had, and that was the rapidly +approaching breakdown of the whole system founded on the World-Market +and its supply; which now became so clear to all people, that the +middle classes, shocked for the moment into condemnation of the +Government for the great massacre, turned round nearly in a mass, and +called on the Government to look to matters, and put an end to the +tyranny of the Socialist leaders. + +"Thus stimulated, the reactionist plot exploded probably before it +was ripe; but this time the people and their leaders were forewarned, +and, before the reactionaries could get under way, had taken the +steps they thought necessary. + +"The Liberal Government (clearly by collusion) was beaten by the +Conservatives, though the latter were nominally much in the minority. +The popular representatives in the House understood pretty well what +this meant, and after an attempt to fight the matter out by divisions +in the House of Commons, they made a protest, left the House, and +came in a body to the Committee of Public Safety: and the civil war +began again in good earnest. + +"Yet its first act was not one of mere fighting. The new Tory +Government determined to act, yet durst not re-enact the state of +siege, but it sent a body of soldiers and police to arrest the +Committee of Public Safety in the lump. They made no resistance, +though they might have done so, as they had now a considerable body +of men who were quite prepared for extremities. But they were +determined to try first a weapon which they thought stronger than +street fighting. + +"The members of the Committee went off quietly to prison; but they +had left their soul and their organisation behind them. For they +depended not on a carefully arranged centre with all kinds of checks +and counter-checks about it, but on a huge mass of people in thorough +sympathy with the movement, bound together by a great number of links +of small centres with very simple instructions. These instructions +were now carried out. + +"The next morning, when the leaders of the reaction were chuckling at +the effect which the report in the newspapers of their stroke would +have upon the public--no newspapers appeared; and it was only towards +noon that a few straggling sheets, about the size of the gazettes of +the seventeenth century, worked by policemen, soldiers, managers, and +press-writers, were dribbled through the streets. They were greedily +seized on and read; but by this time the serious part of their news +was stale, and people did not need to be told that the GENERAL STRIKE +had begun. The railways did not run, the telegraph-wires were +unserved; flesh, fish, and green stuff brought to market was allowed +to lie there still packed and perishing; the thousands of middle- +class families, who were utterly dependant for the next meal on the +workers, made frantic efforts through their more energetic members to +cater for the needs of the day, and amongst those of them who could +throw off the fear of what was to follow, there was, I am told, a +certain enjoyment of this unexpected picnic--a forecast of the days +to come, in which all labour grew pleasant. + +"So passed the first day, and towards evening the Government grew +quite distracted. They had but one resource for putting down any +popular movement--to wit, mere brute-force; but there was nothing for +them against which to use their army and police: no armed bodies +appeared in the streets; the offices of the Federated Workmen were +now, in appearance, at least, turned into places for the relief of +people thrown out of work, and under the circumstances, they durst +not arrest the men engaged in such business, all the more, as even +that night many quite respectable people applied at these offices for +relief, and swallowed down the charity of the revolutionists along +with their supper. So the Government massed soldiers and police here +and there--and sat still for that night, fully expecting on the +morrow some manifesto from 'the rebels,' as they now began to be +called, which would give them an opportunity of acting in some way or +another. They were disappointed. The ordinary newspapers gave up +the struggle that morning, and only one very violent reactionary +paper (called the Daily Telegraph) attempted an appearance, and rated +'the rebels' in good set terms for their folly and ingratitude in +tearing out the bowels of their 'common mother,' the English Nation, +for the benefit of a few greedy paid agitators, and the fools whom +they were deluding. On the other hand, the Socialist papers (of +which three only, representing somewhat different schools, were +published in London) came out full to the throat of well-printed +matter. They were greedily bought by the whole public, who, of +course, like the Government, expected a manifesto in them. But they +found no word of reference to the great subject. It seemed as if +their editors had ransacked their drawers for articles which would +have been in place forty years before, under the technical name of +educational articles. Most of these were admirable and +straightforward expositions of the doctrines and practice of +Socialism, free from haste and spite and hard words, and came upon +the public with a kind of May-day freshness, amidst the worry and +terror of the moment; and though the knowing well understood that the +meaning of this move in the game was mere defiance, and a token of +irreconcilable hostility to the then rulers of society, and though, +also, they were meant for nothing else by 'the rebels,' yet they +really had their effect as 'educational articles.' However, +'education' of another kind was acting upon the public with +irresistible power, and probably cleared their heads a little. + +"As to the Government, they were absolutely terrified by this act of +'boycotting' (the slang word then current for such acts of +abstention). Their counsels became wild and vacillating to the last +degree: one hour they were for giving way for the present till they +could hatch another plot; the next they all but sent an order for the +arrest in the lump of all the workmen's committees; the next they +were on the point of ordering their brisk young general to take any +excuse that offered for another massacre. But when they called to +mind that the soldiery in that 'Battle' of Trafalgar Square were so +daunted by the slaughter which they had made, that they could not be +got to fire a second volley, they shrank back again from the dreadful +courage necessary for carrying out another massacre. Meantime the +prisoners, brought the second time before the magistrates under a +strong escort of soldiers, were the second time remanded. + +"The strike went on this day also. The workmen's committees were +extended, and gave relief to great numbers of people, for they had +organised a considerable amount of production of food by men whom +they could depend upon. Quite a number of well-to-do people were now +compelled to seek relief of them. But another curious thing +happened: a band of young men of the upper classes armed themselves, +and coolly went marauding in the streets, taking what suited them of +such eatables and portables that they came across in the shops which +had ventured to open. This operation they carried out in Oxford +Street, then a great street of shops of all kinds. The Government, +being at that hour in one of their yielding moods, thought this a +fine opportunity for showing their impartiality in the maintenance of +'order,' and sent to arrest these hungry rich youths; who, however, +surprised the police by a valiant resistance, so that all but three +escaped. The Government did not gain the reputation for impartiality +which they expected from this move; for they forgot that there were +no evening papers; and the account of the skirmish spread wide +indeed, but in a distorted form for it was mostly told simply as an +exploit of the starving people from the East-end; and everybody +thought it was but natural for the Government to put them down when +and where they could. + +"That evening the rebel prisoners were visited in their cells by VERY +polite and sympathetic persons, who pointed out to them what a +suicidal course they were following, and how dangerous these extreme +courses were for the popular cause. Says one of the prisoners: 'It +was great sport comparing notes when we came out anent the attempt of +the Government to "get at" us separately in prison, and how we +answered the blandishments of the highly "intelligent and refined" +persons set on to pump us. One laughed; another told extravagant +long-bow stories to the envoy; a third held a sulky silence; a fourth +damned the polite spy and bade him hold his jaw--and that was all +they got out of us.' + +"So passed the second day of the great strike. It was clear to all +thinking people that the third day would bring on the crisis; for the +present suspense and ill-concealed terror was unendurable. The +ruling classes, and the middle-class non-politicians who had been +their real strength and support, were as sheep lacking a shepherd; +they literally did not know what to do. + +"One thing they found they had to do: try to get the 'rebels' to do +something. So the next morning, the morning of the third day of the +strike, when the members of the Committee of Public Safety appeared +again before the magistrate, they found themselves treated with the +greatest possible courtesy--in fact, rather as envoys and ambassadors +than prisoners. In short, the magistrate had received his orders; +and with no more to do than might come of a long stupid speech, which +might have been written by Dickens in mockery, he discharged the +prisoners, who went back to their meeting-place and at once began a +due sitting. It was high time. For this third day the mass was +fermenting indeed. There was, of course, a vast number of working +people who were not organised in the least in the world; men who had +been used to act as their masters drove them, or rather as the system +drove, of which their masters were a part. That system was now +falling to pieces, and the old pressure of the master having been +taken off these poor men, it seemed likely that nothing but the mere +animal necessities and passions of men would have any hold on them, +and that mere general overturn would be the result. Doubtless this +would have happened if it had not been that the huge mass had been +leavened by Socialist opinion in the first place, and in the second +by actual contact with declared Socialists, many or indeed most of +whom were members of those bodies of workmen above said. + +If anything of this kind had happened some years before, when the +masters of labour were still looked upon as the natural rulers of the +people, and even the poorest and most ignorant man leaned upon them +for support, while they submitted to their fleecing, the entire +break-up of all society would have followed. But the long series of +years during which the workmen had learned to despise their rulers, +had done away with their dependence upon them, and they were now +beginning to trust (somewhat dangerously, as events proved) in the +non-legal leaders whom events had thrust forward; and though most of +these were now become mere figure-heads, their names and reputations +were useful in this crisis as a stop-gap. + +"The effect of the news, therefore, of the release of the Committee +gave the Government some breathing time: for it was received with +the greatest joy by the workers, and even the well-to-do saw in it a +respite from the mere destruction which they had begun to dread, and +the fear of which most of them attributed to the weakness of the +Government. As far as the passing hour went, perhaps they were right +in this." + +"How do you mean?" said I. "What could the Government have done? I +often used to think that they would be helpless in such a crisis." + +Said old Hammond: "Of course I don't doubt that in the long run +matters would have come about as they did. But if the Government +could have treated their army as a real army, and used them +strategically as a general would have done, looking on the people as +a mere open enemy to be shot at and dispersed wherever they turned +up, they would probably have gained the victory at the time." + +"But would the soldiers have acted against the people in this way?" +said I. + +Said he: "I think from all I have heard that they would have done so +if they had met bodies of men armed however badly, and however badly +they had been organised. It seems also as if before the Trafalgar +Square massacre they might as a whole have been depended upon to fire +upon an unarmed crowd, though they were much honeycombed by +Socialism. The reason for this was that they dreaded the use by +apparently unarmed men of an explosive called dynamite, of which many +loud boasts were made by the workers on the eve of these events; +although it turned out to be of little use as a material for war in +the way that was expected. Of course the officers of the soldiery +fanned this fear to the utmost, so that the rank and file probably +thought on that occasion that they were being led into a desperate +battle with men who were really armed, and whose weapon was the more +dreadful, because it was concealed. After that massacre, however, it +was at all times doubtful if the regular soldiers would fire upon an +unarmed or half-armed crowd." + +Said I: "The regular soldiers? Then there were other combatants +against the people?" + +"Yes," said he, "we shall come to that presently." + +"Certainly," I said, "you had better go on straight with your story. +I see that time is wearing." + +Said Hammond: "The Government lost no time in coming to terms with +the Committee of Public Safety; for indeed they could think of +nothing else than the danger of the moment. They sent a duly +accredited envoy to treat with these men, who somehow had obtained +dominion over people's minds, while the formal rulers had no hold +except over their bodies. There is no need at present to go into the +details of the truce (for such it was) between these high contracting +parties, the Government of the empire of Great Britain and a handful +of working-men (as they were called in scorn in those days), amongst +whom, indeed, were some very capable and 'square-headed' persons, +though, as aforesaid, the abler men were not then the recognised +leaders. The upshot of it was that all the definite claims of the +people had to be granted. We can now see that most of these claims +were of themselves not worth either demanding or resisting; but they +were looked on at that time as most important, and they were at least +tokens of revolt against the miserable system of life which was then +beginning to tumble to pieces. One claim, however, was of the utmost +immediate importance, and this the Government tried hard to evade; +but as they were not dealing with fools, they had to yield at last. +This was the claim of recognition and formal status for the Committee +of Public Safety, and all the associations which it fostered under +its wing. This it is clear meant two things: first, amnesty for +'the rebels,' great and small, who, without a distinct act of civil +war, could no longer be attacked; and next, a continuance of the +organised revolution. Only one point the Government could gain, and +that was a name. The dreadful revolutionary title was dropped, and +the body, with its branches, acted under the respectable name of the +'Board of Conciliation and its local offices.' Carrying this name, +it became the leader of the people in the civil war which soon +followed." + +"O," said I, somewhat startled, "so the civil war went on, in spite +of all that had happened?" + +"So it was," said he. "In fact, it was this very legal recognition +which made the civil war possible in the ordinary sense of war; it +took the struggle out of the element of mere massacres on one side, +and endurance plus strikes on the other." + +"And can you tell me in what kind of way the war was carried on?" +said I. + +"Yes" he said; "we have records and to spare of all that; and the +essence of them I can give you in a few words. As I told you, the +rank and file of the army was not to be trusted by the reactionists; +but the officers generally were prepared for anything, for they were +mostly the very stupidest men in the country. Whatever the +Government might do, a great part of the upper and middle classes +were determined to set on foot a counter revolution; for the +Communism which now loomed ahead seemed quite unendurable to them. +Bands of young men, like the marauders in the great strike of whom I +told you just now, armed themselves and drilled, and began on any +opportunity or pretence to skirmish with the people in the streets. +The Government neither helped them nor put them down, but stood by, +hoping that something might come of it. These 'Friends of Order,' as +they were called, had some successes at first, and grew bolder; they +got many officers of the regular army to help them, and by their +means laid hold of munitions of war of all kinds. One part of their +tactics consisted in their guarding and even garrisoning the big +factories of the period: they held at one time, for instance, the +whole of that place called Manchester which I spoke of just now. A +sort of irregular war was carried on with varied success all over the +country; and at last the Government, which at first pretended to +ignore the struggle, or treat it as mere rioting, definitely declared +for 'the Friends of Order,' and joined to their bands whatsoever of +the regular army they could get together, and made a desperate effort +to overwhelm 'the rebels,' as they were now once more called, and as +indeed they called themselves. + +"It was too late. All ideas of peace on a basis of compromise had +disappeared on either side. The end, it was seen clearly, must be +either absolute slavery for all but the privileged, or a system of +life founded on equality and Communism. The sloth, the hopelessness, +and if I may say so, the cowardice of the last century, had given +place to the eager, restless heroism of a declared revolutionary +period. I will not say that the people of that time foresaw the life +we are leading now, but there was a general instinct amongst them +towards the essential part of that life, and many men saw clearly +beyond the desperate struggle of the day into the peace which it was +to bring about. The men of that day who were on the side of freedom +were not unhappy, I think, though they were harassed by hopes and +fears, and sometimes torn by doubts, and the conflict of duties hard +to reconcile." + +"But how did the people, the revolutionists, carry on the war? What +were the elements of success on their side?" + +I put this question, because I wanted to bring the old man back to +the definite history, and take him out of the musing mood so natural +to an old man. + +He answered: "Well, they did not lack organisers; for the very +conflict itself, in days when, as I told you, men of any strength of +mind cast away all consideration for the ordinary business of life, +developed the necessary talent amongst them. Indeed, from all I have +read and heard, I much doubt whether, without this seemingly dreadful +civil war, the due talent for administration would have been +developed amongst the working men. Anyhow, it was there, and they +soon got leaders far more than equal to the best men amongst the +reactionaries. For the rest, they had no difficulty about the +material of their army; for that revolutionary instinct so acted on +the ordinary soldier in the ranks that the greater part, certainly +the best part, of the soldiers joined the side of the people. But +the main element of their success was this, that wherever the working +people were not coerced, they worked, not for the reactionists, but +for 'the rebels.' The reactionists could get no work done for them +outside the districts where they were all-powerful: and even in +those districts they were harassed by continual risings; and in all +cases and everywhere got nothing done without obstruction and black +looks and sulkiness; so that not only were their armies quite worn +out with the difficulties which they had to meet, but the non- +combatants who were on their side were so worried and beset with +hatred and a thousand little troubles and annoyances that life became +almost unendurable to them on those terms. Not a few of them +actually died of the worry; many committed suicide. Of course, a +vast number of them joined actively in the cause of reaction, and +found some solace to their misery in the eagerness of conflict. +Lastly, many thousands gave way and submitted to 'the rebels'; and as +the numbers of these latter increased, it at last became clear to all +men that the cause which was once hopeless, was now triumphant, and +that the hopeless cause was that of slavery and privilege." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII: THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW LIFE + + + +"Well," said I, "so you got clear out of all your trouble. Were +people satisfied with the new order of things when it came?" + +"People?" he said. "Well, surely all must have been glad of peace +when it came; especially when they found, as they must have found, +that after all, they--even the once rich--were not living very badly. +As to those who had been poor, all through the war, which lasted +about two years, their condition had been bettering, in spite of the +struggle; and when peace came at last, in a very short time they made +great strides towards a decent life. The great difficulty was that +the once-poor had such a feeble conception of the real pleasure of +life: so to say, they did not ask enough, did not know how to ask +enough, from the new state of things. It was perhaps rather a good +than an evil thing that the necessity for restoring the wealth +destroyed during the war forced them into working at first almost as +hard as they had been used to before the Revolution. For all +historians are agreed that there never was a war in which there was +so much destruction of wares, and instruments for making them as in +this civil war." + +"I am rather surprised at that," said I. + +"Are you? I don't see why," said Hammond. + +"Why," I said, "because the party of order would surely look upon the +wealth as their own property, no share of which, if they could help +it, should go to their slaves, supposing they conquered. And on the +other hand, it was just for the possession of that wealth that 'the +rebels' were fighting, and I should have thought, especially when +they saw that they were winning, that they would have been careful to +destroy as little as possible of what was so soon to be their own." + +"It was as I have told you, however," said he. "The party of order, +when they recovered from their first cowardice of surprise--or, if +you please, when they fairly saw that, whatever happened, they would +be ruined, fought with great bitterness, and cared little what they +did, so long as they injured the enemies who had destroyed the sweets +of life for them. As to 'the rebels,' I have told you that the +outbreak of actual war made them careless of trying to save the +wretched scraps of wealth that they had. It was a common saying +amongst them, Let the country be cleared of everything except valiant +living men, rather than that we fall into slavery again!" + +He sat silently thinking a little while, and then said: + +"When the conflict was once really begun, it was seen how little of +any value there was in the old world of slavery and inequality. +Don't you see what it means? In the times which you are thinking of, +and of which you seem to know so much, there was no hope; nothing but +the dull jog of the mill-horse under compulsion of collar and whip; +but in that fighting-time that followed, all was hope: 'the rebels' +at least felt themselves strong enough to build up the world again +from its dry bones,--and they did it, too!" said the old man, his +eyes glittering under his beetling brows. He went on: "And their +opponents at least and at last learned something about the reality of +life, and its sorrows, which they--their class, I mean--had once +known nothing of. In short, the two combatants, the workman and the +gentleman, between them--" + +"Between them," said I, quickly, "they destroyed commercialism!" + +"Yes, yes, yes," said he; "that is it. Nor could it have been +destroyed otherwise; except, perhaps, by the whole of society +gradually falling into lower depths, till it should at last reach a +condition as rude as barbarism, but lacking both the hope and the +pleasures of barbarism. Surely the sharper, shorter remedy was the +happiest." + +"Most surely," said I. + +"Yes," said the old man, "the world was being brought to its second +birth; how could that take place without a tragedy? Moreover, think +of it. The spirit of the new days, of our days, was to be delight in +the life of the world; intense and overweening love of the very skin +and surface of the earth on which man dwells, such as a lover has in +the fair flesh of the woman he loves; this, I say, was to be the new +spirit of the time. All other moods save this had been exhausted: +the unceasing criticism, the boundless curiosity in the ways and +thoughts of man, which was the mood of the ancient Greek, to whom +these things were not so much a means, as an end, was gone past +recovery; nor had there been really any shadow of it in the so-called +science of the nineteenth century, which, as you must know, was in +the main an appendage to the commercial system; nay, not seldom an +appendage to the police of that system. In spite of appearances, it +was limited and cowardly, because it did not really believe in +itself. It was the outcome, as it was the sole relief, of the +unhappiness of the period which made life so bitter even to the rich, +and which, as you may see with your bodily eyes, the great change has +swept away. More akin to our way of looking at life was the spirit +of the Middle Ages, to whom heaven and the life of the next world was +such a reality, that it became to them a part of the life upon the +earth; which accordingly they loved and adorned, in spite of the +ascetic doctrines of their formal creed, which bade them contemn it. + +"But that also, with its assured belief in heaven and hell as two +countries in which to live, has gone, and now we do, both in word and +in deed, believe in the continuous life of the world of men, and as +it were, add every day of that common life to the little stock of +days which our own mere individual experience wins for us: and +consequently we are happy. Do you wonder at it? In times past, +indeed, men were told to love their kind, to believe in the religion +of humanity, and so forth. But look you, just in the degree that a +man had elevation of mind and refinement enough to be able to value +this idea, was he repelled by the obvious aspect of the individuals +composing the mass which he was to worship; and he could only evade +that repulsion by making a conventional abstraction of mankind that +had little actual or historical relation to the race; which to his +eyes was divided into blind tyrants on the one hand and apathetic +degraded slaves on the other. But now, where is the difficulty in +accepting the religion of humanity, when the men and women who go to +make up humanity are free, happy, and energetic at least, and most +commonly beautiful of body also, and surrounded by beautiful things +of their own fashioning, and a nature bettered and not worsened by +contact with mankind? This is what this age of the world has +reserved for us." + +"It seems true," said I, "or ought to be, if what my eyes have seen +is a token of the general life you lead. Can you now tell me +anything of your progress after the years of the struggle?" + +Said he: "I could easily tell you more than you have time to listen +to; but I can at least hint at one of the chief difficulties which +had to be met: and that was, that when men began to settle down +after the war, and their labour had pretty much filled up the gap in +wealth caused by the destruction of that war, a kind of +disappointment seemed coming over us, and the prophecies of some of +the reactionists of past times seemed as if they would come true, and +a dull level of utilitarian comfort be the end for a while of our +aspirations and success. The loss of the competitive spur to +exertion had not, indeed, done anything to interfere with the +necessary production of the community, but how if it should make men +dull by giving them too much time for thought or idle musing? But, +after all, this dull thunder-cloud only threatened us, and then +passed over. Probably, from what I have told you before, you will +have a guess at the remedy for such a disaster; remembering always +that many of the things which used to be produced--slave-wares for +the poor and mere wealth-wasting wares for the rich--ceased to be +made. That remedy was, in short, the production of what used to be +called art, but which has no name amongst us now, because it has +become a necessary part of the labour of every man who produces." + +Said I: "What! had men any time or opportunity for cultivating the +fine arts amidst the desperate struggle for life and freedom that you +have told me of?" + +Said Hammond: "You must not suppose that the new form of art was +founded chiefly on the memory of the art of the past; although, +strange to say, the civil war was much less destructive of art than +of other things, and though what of art existed under the old forms, +revived in a wonderful way during the latter part of the struggle, +especially as regards music and poetry. The art or work-pleasure, as +one ought to call it, of which I am now speaking, sprung up almost +spontaneously, it seems, from a kind of instinct amongst people, no +longer driven desperately to painful and terrible over-work, to do +the best they could with the work in hand--to make it excellent of +its kind; and when that had gone on for a little, a craving for +beauty seemed to awaken in men's minds, and they began rudely and +awkwardly to ornament the wares which they made; and when they had +once set to work at that, it soon began to grow. All this was much +helped by the abolition of the squalor which our immediate ancestors +put up with so coolly; and by the leisurely, but not stupid, country- +life which now grew (as I told you before) to be common amongst us. +Thus at last and by slow degrees we got pleasure into our work; then +we became conscious of that pleasure, and cultivated it, and took +care that we had our fill of it; and then all was gained, and we were +happy. So may it be for ages and ages!" + +The old man fell into a reverie, not altogether without melancholy I +thought; but I would not break it. Suddenly he started, and said: +"Well, dear guest, here are come Dick and Clara to fetch you away, +and there is an end of my talk; which I daresay you will not be sorry +for; the long day is coming to an end, and you will have a pleasant +ride back to Hammersmith." + + + +CHAPTER XIX: THE DRIVE BACK TO HAMMERSMITH + + + +I said nothing, for I was not inclined for mere politeness to him +after such very serious talk; but in fact I should liked to have gone +on talking with the older man, who could understand something at +least of my wonted ways of looking at life, whereas, with the younger +people, in spite of all their kindness, I really was a being from +another planet. However, I made the best of it, and smiled as +amiably as I could on the young couple; and Dick returned the smile +by saying, "Well, guest, I am glad to have you again, and to find +that you and my kinsman have not quite talked yourselves into another +world; I was half suspecting as I was listening to the Welshmen +yonder that you would presently be vanishing away from us, and began +to picture my kinsman sitting in the hall staring at nothing and +finding that he had been talking a while past to nobody." + +I felt rather uncomfortable at this speech, for suddenly the picture +of the sordid squabble, the dirty and miserable tragedy of the life I +had left for a while, came before my eyes; and I had, as it were, a +vision of all my longings for rest and peace in the past, and I +loathed the idea of going back to it again. But the old man chuckled +and said: + +"Don't be afraid, Dick. In any case, I have not been talking to thin +air; nor, indeed to this new friend of ours only. Who knows but I +may not have been talking to many people? For perhaps our guest may +some day go back to the people he has come from, and may take a +message from us which may bear fruit for them, and consequently for +us." + +Dick looked puzzled, and said: "Well, gaffer, I do not quite +understand what you mean. All I can say is, that I hope he will not +leave us: for don't you see, he is another kind of man to what we +are used to, and somehow he makes us think of all kind of things; and +already I feel as if I could understand Dickens the better for having +talked with him." + +"Yes," said Clara, "and I think in a few months we shall make him +look younger; and I should like to see what he was like with the +wrinkles smoothed out of his face. Don't you think he will look +younger after a little time with us?" + +The old man shook his head, and looked earnestly at me, but did not +answer her, and for a moment or two we were all silent. Then Clara +broke out: + +"Kinsman, I don't like this: something or another troubles me, and I +feel as if something untoward were going to happen. You have been +talking of past miseries to the guest, and have been living in past +unhappy times, and it is in the air all round us, and makes us feel +as if we were longing for something that we cannot have." + +The old man smiled on her kindly, and said: "Well, my child, if that +be so, go and live in the present, and you will soon shake it off." +Then he turned to me, and said: "Do you remember anything like that, +guest, in the country from which you come?" + +The lovers had turned aside now, and were talking together softly, +and not heeding us; so I said, but in a low voice: "Yes, when I was +a happy child on a sunny holiday, and had everything that I could +think of." + +"So it is," said he. "You remember just now you twitted me with +living in the second childhood of the world. You will find it a +happy world to live in; you will be happy there--for a while." + +Again I did not like his scarcely veiled threat, and was beginning to +trouble myself with trying to remember how I had got amongst this +curious people, when the old man called out in a cheery voice: "Now, +my children, take your guest away, and make much of him; for it is +your business to make him sleek of skin and peaceful of mind: he has +by no means been as lucky as you have. Farewell, guest!" and he +grasped my hand warmly. + +"Good-bye," said I, "and thank you very much for all that you have +told me. I will come and see you as soon as I come back to London. +May I?" + +"Yes," he said, "come by all means--if you can." + +"It won't be for some time yet," quoth Dick, in his cheery voice; +"for when the hay is in up the river, I shall be for taking him a +round through the country between hay and wheat harvest, to see how +our friends live in the north country. Then in the wheat harvest we +shall do a good stroke of work, I should hope,--in Wiltshire by +preference; for he will be getting a little hard with all the open- +air living, and I shall be as tough as nails." + +"But you will take me along, won't you, Dick?" said Clara, laying her +pretty hand on his shoulder. + +"Will I not?" said Dick, somewhat boisterously. "And we will manage +to send you to bed pretty tired every night; and you will look so +beautiful with your neck all brown, and your hands too, and you under +your gown as white as privet, that you will get some of those strange +discontented whims out of your head, my dear. However, our week's +haymaking will do all that for you." + +The girl reddened very prettily, and not for shame but for pleasure; +and the old man laughed, and said: + +"Guest, I see that you will be as comfortable as need be; for you +need not fear that those two will be too officious with you: they +will be so busy with each other, that they will leave you a good deal +to yourself, I am sure, and that is a real kindness to a guest, after +all. O, you need not be afraid of being one too many, either: it is +just what these birds in a nest like, to have a good convenient +friend to turn to, so that they may relieve the ecstasies of love +with the solid commonplace of friendship. Besides, Dick, and much +more Clara, likes a little talking at times; and you know lovers do +not talk unless they get into trouble, they only prattle. Good-bye, +guest; may you be happy!" + +Clara went up to old Hammond, threw her arms about his neck and +kissed him heartily, and said: + +"You are a dear old man, and may have your jest about me as much as +you please; and it won't be long before we see you again; and you may +be sure we shall make our guest happy; though, mind you, there is +some truth in what you say." + +Then I shook hands again, and we went out of the hall and into the +cloisters, and so in the street found Greylocks in the shafts waiting +for us. He was well looked after; for a little lad of about seven +years old had his hand on the rein and was solemnly looking up into +his face; on his back, withal, was a girl of fourteen, holding a +three-year old sister on before her; while another girl, about a year +older than the boy, hung on behind. The three were occupied partly +with eating cherries, partly with patting and punching Greylocks, who +took all their caresses in good part, but pricked up his ears when +Dick made his appearance. The girls got off quietly, and going up to +Clara, made much of her and snuggled up to her. And then we got into +the carriage, Dick shook the reins, and we got under way at once, +Greylocks trotting soberly between the lovely trees of the London +streets, that were sending floods of fragrance into the cool evening +air; for it was now getting toward sunset. + +We could hardly go but fair and softly all the way, as there were a +great many people abroad in that cool hour. Seeing so many people +made me notice their looks the more; and I must say, my taste, +cultivated in the sombre greyness, or rather brownness, of the +nineteenth century, was rather apt to condemn the gaiety and +brightness of the raiment; and I even ventured to say as much to +Clara. She seemed rather surprised, and even slightly indignant, and +said: "Well, well, what's the matter? They are not about any dirty +work; they are only amusing themselves in the fine evening; there is +nothing to foul their clothes. Come, doesn't it all look very +pretty? It isn't gaudy, you know." + +Indeed that was true; for many of the people were clad in colours +that were sober enough, though beautiful, and the harmony of the +colours was perfect and most delightful. + +I said, "Yes, that is so; but how can everybody afford such costly +garments? Look! there goes a middle-aged man in a sober grey dress; +but I can see from here that it is made of very fine woollen stuff, +and is covered with silk embroidery." + +Said Clara: "He could wear shabby clothes if he pleased,--that is, +if he didn't think he would hurt people's feelings by doing so." + +"But please tell me," said I, "how can they afford it?" + +As soon as I had spoken I perceived that I had got back to my old +blunder; for I saw Dick's shoulders shaking with laughter; but he +wouldn't say a word, but handed me over to the tender mercies of +Clara, who said - + +"Why, I don't know what you mean. Of course we can afford it, or +else we shouldn't do it. It would be easy enough for us to say, we +will only spend our labour on making our clothes comfortable: but we +don't choose to stop there. Why do you find fault with us? Does it +seem to you as if we starved ourselves of food in order to make +ourselves fine clothes? Or do you think there is anything wrong in +liking to see the coverings of our bodies beautiful like our bodies +are?--just as a deer's or an otter's skin has been made beautiful +from the first? Come, what is wrong with you?" + +I bowed before the storm, and mumbled out some excuse or other. I +must say, I might have known that people who were so fond of +architecture generally, would not be backward in ornamenting +themselves; all the more as the shape of their raiment, apart from +its colour, was both beautiful and reasonable--veiling the form, +without either muffling or caricaturing it. + +Clara was soon mollified; and as we drove along toward the wood +before mentioned, she said to Dick - + +"I tell you what, Dick: now that kinsman Hammond the Elder has seen +our guest in his queer clothes, I think we ought to find him +something decent to put on for our journey to-morrow: especially +since, if we do not, we shall have to answer all sorts of questions +as to his clothes and where they came from. Besides," she said +slily, "when he is clad in handsome garments he will not be so quick +to blame us for our childishness in wasting our time in making +ourselves look pleasant to each other." + +"All right, Clara," said Dick; "he shall have everything that you-- +that he wants to have. I will look something out for him before he +gets up to-morrow." + + + +CHAPTER XX: THE HAMMERSMITH GUEST-HOUSE AGAIN + + + +Amidst such talk, driving quietly through the balmy evening, we came +to Hammersmith, and were well received by our friends there. Boffin, +in a fresh suit of clothes, welcomed me back with stately courtesy; +the weaver wanted to button-hole me and get out of me what old +Hammond had said, but was very friendly and cheerful when Dick warned +him off; Annie shook hands with me, and hoped I had had a pleasant +day--so kindly, that I felt a slight pang as our hands parted; for to +say the truth, I liked her better than Clara, who seemed to be always +a little on the defensive, whereas Annie was as frank as could be, +and seemed to get honest pleasure from everything and everybody about +her without the least effort. + +We had quite a little feast that evening, partly in my honour, and +partly, I suspect, though nothing was said about it, in honour of +Dick and Clara coming together again. The wine was of the best; the +hall was redolent of rich summer flowers; and after supper we not +only had music (Annie, to my mind, surpassing all the others for +sweetness and clearness of voice, as well as for feeling and +meaning), but at last we even got to telling stories, and sat there +listening, with no other light but that of the summer moon streaming +through the beautiful traceries of the windows, as if we had belonged +to time long passed, when books were scarce and the art of reading +somewhat rare. Indeed, I may say here, that, though, as you will +have noted, my friends had mostly something to say about books, yet +they were not great readers, considering the refinement of their +manners and the great amount of leisure which they obviously had. In +fact, when Dick, especially, mentioned a book, he did so with an air +of a man who has accomplished an achievement; as much as to say, +"There, you see, I have actually read that!" + +The evening passed all too quickly for me; since that day, for the +first time in my life, I was having my fill of the pleasure of the +eyes without any of that sense of incongruity, that dread of +approaching ruin, which had always beset me hitherto when I had been +amongst the beautiful works of art of the past, mingled with the +lovely nature of the present; both of them, in fact, the result of +the long centuries of tradition, which had compelled men to produce +the art, and compelled nature to run into the mould of the ages. +Here I could enjoy everything without an afterthought of the +injustice and miserable toil which made my leisure; the ignorance and +dulness of life which went to make my keen appreciation of history; +the tyranny and the struggle full of fear and mishap which went to +make my romance. The only weight I had upon my heart was a vague +fear as it drew toward bed-time concerning the place wherein I should +wake on the morrow: but I choked that down, and went to bed happy, +and in a very few moments was in a dreamless sleep. + + + +CHAPTER XXI: GOING UP THE RIVER + + + +When I did wake, to a beautiful sunny morning, I leapt out of bed +with my over-night apprehension still clinging to me, which vanished +delightfully however in a moment as I looked around my little +sleeping chamber and saw the pale but pure-coloured figures painted +on the plaster of the wall, with verses written underneath them which +I knew somewhat over well. I dressed speedily, in a suit of blue +laid ready for me, so handsome that I quite blushed when I had got +into it, feeling as I did so that excited pleasure of anticipation of +a holiday, which, well remembered as it was, I had not felt since I +was a boy, new come home for the summer holidays. + +It seemed quite early in the morning, and I expected to have the hall +to myself when I came into it out of the corridor wherein was my +sleeping chamber; but I met Annie at once, who let fall her broom and +gave me a kiss, quite meaningless I fear, except as betokening +friendship, though she reddened as she did it, not from shyness, but +from friendly pleasure, and then stood and picked up her broom again, +and went on with her sweeping, nodding to me as if to bid me stand +out of the way and look on; which, to say the truth, I thought +amusing enough, as there were five other girls helping her, and their +graceful figures engaged in the leisurely work were worth going a +long way to see, and their merry talk and laughing as they swept in +quite a scientific manner was worth going a long way to hear. But +Annie presently threw me back a word or two as she went on to the +other end of the hall: "Guest," she said, "I am glad that you are up +early, though we wouldn't disturb you; for our Thames is a lovely +river at half-past six on a June morning: and as it would be a pity +for you to lose it, I am told just to give you a cup of milk and a +bit of bread outside there, and put you into the boat: for Dick and +Clara are all ready now. Wait half a minute till I have swept down +this row." + +So presently she let her broom drop again, and came and took me by +the hand and led me out on to the terrace above the river, to a +little table under the boughs, where my bread and milk took the form +of as dainty a breakfast as any one could desire, and then sat by me +as I ate. And in a minute or two Dick and Clara came to me, the +latter looking most fresh and beautiful in a light silk embroidered +gown, which to my unused eyes was extravagantly gay and bright; while +Dick was also handsomely dressed in white flannel prettily +embroidered. Clara raised her gown in her hands as she gave me the +morning greeting, and said laughingly: "Look, guest! you see we are +at least as fine as any of the people you felt inclined to scold last +night; you see we are not going to make the bright day and the +flowers feel ashamed of themselves. Now scold me!" + +Quoth I: "No, indeed; the pair of you seem as if you were born out +of the summer day itself; and I will scold you when I scold it." + +"Well, you know," said Dick, "this is a special day--all these days +are, I mean. The hay-harvest is in some ways better than corn- +harvest because of the beautiful weather; and really, unless you had +worked in the hay-field in fine weather, you couldn't tell what +pleasant work it is. The women look so pretty at it, too," he said, +shyly; "so all things considered, I think we are right to adorn it in +a simple manner." + +"Do the women work at it in silk dresses?" said I, smiling. + +Dick was going to answer me soberly; but Clara put her hand over his +mouth, and said, "No, no, Dick; not too much information for him, or +I shall think that you are your old kinsman again. Let him find out +for himself: he will not have long to wait." + +"Yes," quoth Annie, "don't make your description of the picture too +fine, or else he will be disappointed when the curtain is drawn. I +don't want him to be disappointed. But now it's time for you to be +gone, if you are to have the best of the tide, and also of the sunny +morning. Good-bye, guest." + +She kissed me in her frank friendly way, and almost took away from me +my desire for the expedition thereby; but I had to get over that, as +it was clear that so delightful a woman would hardly be without a due +lover of her own age. We went down the steps of the landing stage, +and got into a pretty boat, not too light to hold us and our +belongings comfortably, and handsomely ornamented; and just as we got +in, down came Boffin and the weaver to see us off. The former had +now veiled his splendour in a due suit of working clothes, crowned +with a fantail hat, which he took off, however, to wave us farewell +with his grave old-Spanish-like courtesy. Then Dick pushed off into +the stream, and bent vigorously to his sculls, and Hammersmith, with +its noble trees and beautiful water-side houses, began to slip away +from us. + +As we went, I could not help putting beside his promised picture of +the hay-field as it was then the picture of it as I remembered it, +and especially the images of the women engaged in the work rose up +before me: the row of gaunt figures, lean, flat-breasted, ugly, +without a grace of form or face about them; dressed in wretched +skimpy print gowns, and hideous flapping sun-bonnets, moving their +rakes in a listless mechanical way. How often had that marred the +loveliness of the June day to me; how often had I longed to see the +hay-fields peopled with men and women worthy of the sweet abundance +of midsummer, of its endless wealth of beautiful sights, and +delicious sounds and scents. And now, the world had grown old and +wiser, and I was to see my hope realised at last! + + + +CHAPTER XXII: HAMPTON COURT AND A PRAISER OF PAST TIMES + + + +So on we went, Dick rowing in an easy tireless way, and Clara sitting +by my side admiring his manly beauty and heartily good-natured face, +and thinking, I fancy, of nothing else. As we went higher up the +river, there was less difference between the Thames of that day and +Thames as I remembered it; for setting aside the hideous vulgarity of +the cockney villas of the well-to-do, stockbrokers and other such, +which in older time marred the beauty of the bough-hung banks, even +this beginning of the country Thames was always beautiful; and as we +slipped between the lovely summer greenery, I almost felt my youth +come back to me, and as if I were on one of those water excursions +which I used to enjoy so much in days when I was too happy to think +that there could be much amiss anywhere. + +At last we came to a reach of the river where on the left hand a very +pretty little village with some old houses in it came down to the +edge of the water, over which was a ferry; and beyond these houses +the elm-beset meadows ended in a fringe of tall willows, while on the +right hand went the tow-path and a clear space before a row of trees, +which rose up behind huge and ancient, the ornaments of a great park: +but these drew back still further from the river at the end of the +reach to make way for a little town of quaint and pretty houses, some +new, some old, dominated by the long walls and sharp gables of a +great red-brick pile of building, partly of the latest Gothic, partly +of the court-style of Dutch William, but so blended together by the +bright sun and beautiful surroundings, including the bright blue +river, which it looked down upon, that even amidst the beautiful +buildings of that new happy time it had a strange charm about it. A +great wave of fragrance, amidst which the lime-tree blossom was +clearly to be distinguished, came down to us from its unseen gardens, +as Clara sat up in her place, and said: + +"O Dick, dear, couldn't we stop at Hampton Court for to-day, and take +the guest about the park a little, and show him those sweet old +buildings? Somehow, I suppose because you have lived so near it, you +have seldom taken me to Hampton Court." + +Dick rested on his oars a little, and said: "Well, well, Clara, you +are lazy to-day. I didn't feel like stopping short of Shepperton for +the night; suppose we just go and have our dinner at the Court, and +go on again about five o'clock?" + +"Well," she said, "so be it; but I should like the guest to have +spent an hour or two in the Park." + +"The Park!" said Dick; "why, the whole Thames-side is a park this +time of the year; and for my part, I had rather lie under an elm-tree +on the borders of a wheat-field, with the bees humming about me and +the corn-crake crying from furrow to furrow, than in any park in +England. Besides--" + +"Besides," said she, "you want to get on to your dearly-loved upper +Thames, and show your prowess down the heavy swathes of the mowing +grass." + +She looked at him fondly, and I could tell that she was seeing him in +her mind's eye showing his splendid form at its best amidst the +rhymed strokes of the scythes; and she looked down at her own pretty +feet with a half sigh, as though she were contrasting her slight +woman's beauty with his man's beauty; as women will when they are +really in love, and are not spoiled with conventional sentiment. + +As for Dick, he looked at her admiringly a while, and then said at +last: "Well, Clara, I do wish we were there! But, hilloa! we are +getting back way." And he set to work sculling again, and in two +minutes we were all standing on the gravelly strand below the bridge, +which, as you may imagine, was no longer the old hideous iron +abortion, but a handsome piece of very solid oak framing. + +We went into the Court and straight into the great hall, so well +remembered, where there were tables spread for dinner, and everything +arranged much as in Hammersmith Guest-Hall. Dinner over, we +sauntered through the ancient rooms, where the pictures and tapestry +were still preserved, and nothing was much changed, except that the +people whom we met there had an indefinable kind of look of being at +home and at ease, which communicated itself to me, so that I felt +that the beautiful old place was mine in the best sense of the word; +and my pleasure of past days seemed to add itself to that of to-day, +and filled my whole soul with content. + +Dick (who, in spite of Clara's gibe, knew the place very well) told +me that the beautiful old Tudor rooms, which I remembered had been +the dwellings of the lesser fry of Court flunkies, were now much used +by people coming and going; for, beautiful as architecture had now +become, and although the whole face of the country had quite +recovered its beauty, there was still a sort of tradition of pleasure +and beauty which clung to that group of buildings, and people thought +going to Hampton Court a necessary summer outing, as they did in the +days when London was so grimy and miserable. We went into some of +the rooms looking into the old garden, and were well received by the +people in them, who got speedily into talk with us, and looked with +politely half-concealed wonder at my strange face. Besides these +birds of passage, and a few regular dwellers in the place, we saw out +in the meadows near the garden, down "the Long Water," as it used to +be called, many gay tents with men, women, and children round about +them. As it seemed, this pleasure-loving people were fond of tent- +life, with all its inconveniences, which, indeed, they turned into +pleasure also. + +We left this old friend by the time appointed, and I made some feeble +show of taking the sculls; but Dick repulsed me, not much to my +grief, I must say, as I found I had quite enough to do between the +enjoyment of the beautiful time and my own lazily blended thoughts. + +As to Dick, it was quite right to let him pull, for he was as strong +as a horse, and had the greatest delight in bodily exercise, whatever +it was. We really had some difficulty in getting him to stop when it +was getting rather more than dusk, and the moon was brightening just +as we were off Runnymede. We landed there, and were looking about +for a place whereon to pitch our tents (for we had brought two with +us), when an old man came up to us, bade us good evening, and asked +if we were housed for that that night; and finding that we were not, +bade us home to his house. Nothing loth, we went with him, and Clara +took his hand in a coaxing way which I noticed she used with old men; +and as we went on our way, made some commonplace remark about the +beauty of the day. The old man stopped short, and looked at her and +said: "You really like it then?" + +"Yes," she said, looking very much astonished, "Don't you?" + +"Well," said he, "perhaps I do. I did, at any rate, when I was +younger; but now I think I should like it cooler." + +She said nothing, and went on, the night growing about as dark as it +would be; till just at the rise of the hill we came to a hedge with a +gate in it, which the old man unlatched and led us into a garden, at +the end of which we could see a little house, one of whose little +windows was already yellow with candlelight. We could see even under +the doubtful light of the moon and the last of the western glow that +the garden was stuffed full of flowers; and the fragrance it gave out +in the gathering coolness was so wonderfully sweet, that it seemed +the very heart of the delight of the June dusk; so that we three +stopped instinctively, and Clara gave forth a little sweet "O," like +a bird beginning to sing. + +"What's the matter?" said the old man, a little testily, and pulling +at her hand. "There's no dog; or have you trodden on a thorn and +hurt your foot?" + +"No, no, neighbour," she said; "but how sweet, how sweet it is!" + +"Of course it is," said he, "but do you care so much for that?" + +She laughed out musically, and we followed suit in our gruffer +voices; and then she said: "Of course I do, neighbour; don't you?" + +"Well, I don't know," quoth the old fellow; then he added, as if +somewhat ashamed of himself: "Besides, you know, when the waters are +out and all Runnymede is flooded, it's none so pleasant." + +"_I_ should like it," quoth Dick. "What a jolly sail one would get +about here on the floods on a bright frosty January morning!" + +"WOULD you like it?" said our host. "Well, I won't argue with you, +neighbour; it isn't worth while. Come in and have some supper." + +We went up a paved path between the roses, and straight into a very +pretty room, panelled and carved, and as clean as a new pin; but the +chief ornament of which was a young woman, light-haired and grey- +eyed, but with her face and hands and bare feet tanned quite brown +with the sun. Though she was very lightly clad, that was clearly +from choice, not from poverty, though these were the first cottage- +dwellers I had come across; for her gown was of silk, and on her +wrists were bracelets that seemed to me of great value. She was +lying on a sheep-skin near the window, but jumped up as soon as we +entered, and when she saw the guests behind the old man, she clapped +her hands and cried out with pleasure, and when she got us into the +middle of the room, fairly danced round us in delight of our company. + +"What!" said the old man, "you are pleased, are you, Ellen?" + +The girl danced up to him and threw her arms round him, and said: +"Yes I am, and so ought you to be grandfather." + +"Well, well, I am," said he, "as much as I can be pleased. Guests, +please be seated." + +This seemed rather strange to us; stranger, I suspect, to my friends +than to me; but Dick took the opportunity of both the host and his +grand-daughter being out of the room to say to me, softly: "A +grumbler: there are a few of them still. Once upon a time, I am +told, they were quite a nuisance." + +The old man came in as he spoke and sat down beside us with a sigh, +which, indeed, seemed fetched up as if he wanted us to take notice of +it; but just then the girl came in with the victuals, and the carle +missed his mark, what between our hunger generally and that I was +pretty busy watching the grand-daughter moving about as beautiful as +a picture. + +Everything to eat and drink, though it was somewhat different to what +we had had in London, was better than good, but the old man eyed +rather sulkily the chief dish on the table, on which lay a leash of +fine perch, and said: + +"H'm, perch! I am sorry we can't do better for you, guests. The +time was when we might have had a good piece of salmon up from London +for you; but the times have grown mean and petty." + +"Yes, but you might have had it now," said the girl, giggling, "if +you had known that they were coming." + +"It's our fault for not bringing it with us, neighbours," said Dick, +good-humouredly. "But if the times have grown petty, at any rate the +perch haven't; that fellow in the middle there must have weighed a +good two pounds when he was showing his dark stripes and red fins to +the minnows yonder. And as to the salmon, why, neighbour, my friend +here, who comes from the outlands, was quite surprised yesterday +morning when I told him we had plenty of salmon at Hammersmith. I am +sure I have heard nothing of the times worsening." + +He looked a little uncomfortable. And the old man, turning to me, +said very courteously: + +"Well, sir, I am happy to see a man from over the water; but I really +must appeal to you to say whether on the whole you are not better off +in your country; where I suppose, from what our guest says, you are +brisker and more alive, because you have not wholly got rid of +competition. You see, I have read not a few books of the past days, +and certainly THEY are much more alive than those which are written +now; and good sound unlimited competition was the condition under +which they were written,--if we didn't know that from the record of +history, we should know it from the books themselves. There is a +spirit of adventure in them, and signs of a capacity to extract good +out of evil which our literature quite lacks now; and I cannot help +thinking that our moralists and historians exaggerate hugely the +unhappiness of the past days, in which such splendid works of +imagination and intellect were produced." + +Clara listened to him with restless eyes, as if she were excited and +pleased; Dick knitted his brow and looked still more uncomfortable, +but said nothing. Indeed, the old man gradually, as he warmed to his +subject, dropped his sneering manner, and both spoke and looked very +seriously. But the girl broke out before I could deliver myself of +the answer I was framing: + +"Books, books! always books, grandfather! When will you understand +that after all it is the world we live in which interests us; the +world of which we are a part, and which we can never love too much? +Look!" she said, throwing open the casement wider and showing us the +white light sparkling between the black shadows of the moonlit +garden, through which ran a little shiver of the summer night-wind, +"look! these are our books in these days!--and these," she said, +stepping lightly up to the two lovers and laying a hand on each of +their shoulders; "and the guest there, with his over-sea knowledge +and experience;--yes, and even you, grandfather" (a smile ran over +her face as she spoke), "with all your grumbling and wishing yourself +back again in the good old days,--in which, as far as I can make out, +a harmless and lazy old man like you would either have pretty nearly +starved, or have had to pay soldiers and people to take the folk's +victuals and clothes and houses away from them by force. Yes, these +are our books; and if we want more, can we not find work to do in the +beautiful buildings that we raise up all over the country (and I know +there was nothing like them in past times), wherein a man can put +forth whatever is in him, and make his hands set forth his mind and +his soul." + +She paused a little, and I for my part could not help staring at her, +and thinking that if she were a book, the pictures in it were most +lovely. The colour mantled in her delicate sunburnt cheeks; her grey +eyes, light amidst the tan of her face, kindly looked on us all as +she spoke. She paused, and said again: + +"As for your books, they were well enough for times when intelligent +people had but little else in which they could take pleasure, and +when they must needs supplement the sordid miseries of their own +lives with imaginations of the lives of other people. But I say +flatly that in spite of all their cleverness and vigour, and capacity +for story-telling, there is something loathsome about them. Some of +them, indeed, do here and there show some feeling for those whom the +history-books call 'poor,' and of the misery of whose lives we have +some inkling; but presently they give it up, and towards the end of +the story we must be contented to see the hero and heroine living +happily in an island of bliss on other people's troubles; and that +after a long series of sham troubles (or mostly sham) of their own +making, illustrated by dreary introspective nonsense about their +feelings and aspirations, and all the rest of it; while the world +must even then have gone on its way, and dug and sewed and baked and +built and carpentered round about these useless--animals." + +"There!" said the old man, reverting to his dry sulky manner again. +"There's eloquence! I suppose you like it?" + +"Yes," said I, very emphatically. + +"Well," said he, "now the storm of eloquence has lulled for a little, +suppose you answer my question?--that is, if you like, you know," +quoth he, with a sudden access of courtesy. + +"What question?" said I. For I must confess that Ellen's strange and +almost wild beauty had put it out of my head. + +Said he: "First of all (excuse my catechising), is there competition +in life, after the old kind, in the country whence you come?" + +"Yes," said I, "it is the rule there." And I wondered as I spoke +what fresh complications I should get into as a result of this +answer. + +"Question two," said the carle: "Are you not on the whole much +freer, more energetic--in a word, healthier and happier--for it?" + +I smiled. "You wouldn't talk so if you had any idea of our life. To +me you seem here as if you were living in heaven compared with us of +the country from which I came." + +"Heaven?" said he: "you like heaven, do you?" + +"Yes," said I--snappishly, I am afraid; for I was beginning rather to +resent his formula. + +"Well, I am far from sure that I do," quoth he. "I think one may do +more with one's life than sitting on a damp cloud and singing hymns." + +I was rather nettled by this inconsequence, and said: "Well, +neighbour, to be short, and without using metaphors, in the land +whence I come, where the competition which produced those literary +works which you admire so much is still the rule, most people are +thoroughly unhappy; here, to me at least most people seem thoroughly +happy." + +"No offence, guest--no offence," said he; "but let me ask you; you +like that, do you?" + +His formula, put with such obstinate persistence, made us all laugh +heartily; and even the old man joined in the laughter on the sly. +However, he was by no means beaten, and said presently: + +"From all I can hear, I should judge that a young woman so beautiful +as my dear Ellen yonder would have been a lady, as they called it in +the old time, and wouldn't have had to wear a few rags of silk as she +does now, or to have browned herself in the sun as she has to do now. +What do you say to that, eh?" + +Here Clara, who had been pretty much silent hitherto, struck in, and +said: "Well, really, I don't think that you would have mended +matters, or that they want mending. Don't you see that she is +dressed deliciously for this beautiful weather? And as for the sun- +burning of your hay-fields, why, I hope to pick up some of that for +myself when we get a little higher up the river. Look if I don't +need a little sun on my pasty white skin!" + +And she stripped up the sleeve from her arm and laid it beside +Ellen's who was now sitting next her. To say the truth, it was +rather amusing to me to see Clara putting herself forward as a town- +bred fine lady, for she was as well-knit and clean-skinned a girl as +might be met with anywhere at the best. Dick stroked the beautiful +arm rather shyly, and pulled down the sleeve again, while she blushed +at his touch; and the old man said laughingly: "Well, I suppose you +DO like that; don't you?" + +Ellen kissed her new friend, and we all sat silent for a little, till +she broke out into a sweet shrill song, and held us all entranced +with the wonder of her clear voice; and the old grumbler sat looking +at her lovingly. The other young people sang also in due time; and +then Ellen showed us to our beds in small cottage chambers, fragrant +and clean as the ideal of the old pastoral poets; and the pleasure of +the evening quite extinguished my fear of the last night, that I +should wake up in the old miserable world of worn-out pleasures, and +hopes that were half fears. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII: AN EARLY MORNING BY RUNNYMEDE + + + +Though there were no rough noises to wake me, I could not lie long +abed the next morning, where the world seemed so well awake, and, +despite the old grumbler, so happy; so I got up, and found that, +early as it was, someone had been stirring, since all was trim and in +its place in the little parlour, and the table laid for the morning +meal. Nobody was afoot in the house as then, however, so I went out +a-doors, and after a turn or two round the superabundant garden, I +wandered down over the meadow to the river-side, where lay our boat, +looking quite familiar and friendly to me. I walked up stream a +little, watching the light mist curling up from the river till the +sun gained power to draw it all away; saw the bleak speckling the +water under the willow boughs, whence the tiny flies they fed on were +falling in myriads; heard the great chub splashing here and there at +some belated moth or other, and felt almost back again in my boyhood. +Then I went back again to the boat, and loitered there a minute or +two, and then walked slowly up the meadow towards the little house. +I noted now that there were four more houses of about the same size +on the slope away from the river. The meadow in which I was going +was not up for hay; but a row of flake-hurdles ran up the slope not +far from me on each side, and in the field so parted off from ours on +the left they were making hay busily by now, in the simple fashion of +the days when I was a boy. My feet turned that way instinctively, as +I wanted to see how haymakers looked in these new and better times, +and also I rather expected to see Ellen there. I came to the hurdles +and stood looking over into the hay-field, and was close to the end +of the long line of haymakers who were spreading the low ridges to +dry off the night dew. The majority of these were young women clad +much like Ellen last night, though not mostly in silk, but in light +woollen mostly gaily embroidered; the men being all clad in white +flannel embroidered in bright colours. The meadow looked like a +gigantic tulip-bed because of them. All hands were working +deliberately but well and steadily, though they were as noisy with +merry talk as a grove of autumn starlings. Half a dozen of them, men +and women, came up to me and shook hands, gave me the sele of the +morning, and asked a few questions as to whence and whither, and +wishing me good luck, went back to their work. Ellen, to my +disappointment, was not amongst them, but presently I saw a light +figure come out of the hay-field higher up the slope, and make for +our house; and that was Ellen, holding a basket in her hand. But +before she had come to the garden gate, out came Dick and Clara, who, +after a minute's pause, came down to meet me, leaving Ellen in the +garden; then we three went down to the boat, talking mere morning +prattle. We stayed there a little, Dick arranging some of the +matters in her, for we had only taken up to the house such things as +we thought the dew might damage; and then we went toward the house +again; but when we came near the garden, Dick stopped us by laying a +hand on my arm and said, - + +"Just look a moment." + +I looked, and over the low hedge saw Ellen, shading her eyes against +the sun as she looked toward the hay-field, a light wind stirring in +her tawny hair, her eyes like light jewels amidst her sunburnt face, +which looked as if the warmth of the sun were yet in it. + +"Look, guest," said Dick; "doesn't it all look like one of those very +stories out of Grimm that we were talking about up in Bloomsbury? +Here are we two lovers wandering about the world, and we have come to +a fairy garden, and there is the very fairy herself amidst of it: I +wonder what she will do for us." + +Said Clara demurely, but not stiffly: "Is she a good fairy, Dick?" + +"O, yes," said he; "and according to the card, she would do better, +if it were not for the gnome or wood-spirit, our grumbling friend of +last night." + +We laughed at this; and I said, "I hope you see that you have left me +out of the tale." + +"Well," said he, "that's true. You had better consider that you have +got the cap of darkness, and are seeing everything, yourself +invisible." + +That touched me on my weak side of not feeling sure of my position in +this beautiful new country; so in order not to make matters worse, I +held my tongue, and we all went into the garden and up to the house +together. I noticed by the way that Clara must really rather have +felt the contrast between herself as a town madam and this piece of +the summer country that we all admired so, for she had rather dressed +after Ellen that morning as to thinness and scantiness, and went +barefoot also, except for light sandals. + +The old man greeted us kindly in the parlour, and said: "Well, +guests, so you have been looking about to search into the nakedness +of the land: I suppose your illusions of last night have given way a +bit before the morning light? Do you still like, it, eh?" + +"Very much," said I, doggedly; "it is one of the prettiest places on +the lower Thames." + +"Oho!" said he; "so you know the Thames, do you?" + +I reddened, for I saw Dick and Clara looking at me, and scarcely knew +what to say. However, since I had said in our early intercourse with +my Hammersmith friends that I had known Epping Forest, I thought a +hasty generalisation might be better in avoiding complications than a +downright lie; so I said - + +"I have been in this country before; and I have been on the Thames in +those days." + +"O," said the old man, eagerly, "so you have been in this country +before. Now really, don't you FIND it (apart from all theory, you +know) much changed for the worse?" + +"No, not at all," said I; "I find it much changed for the better." + +"Ah," quoth he, "I fear that you have been prejudiced by some theory +or another. However, of course the time when you were here before +must have been so near our own days that the deterioration might not +be very great: as then we were, of course, still living under the +same customs as we are now. I was thinking of earlier days than +that." + +"In short," said Clara, "you have THEORIES about the change which has +taken place." + +"I have facts as well," said he. "Look here! from this hill you can +see just four little houses, including this one. Well, I know for +certain that in old times, even in the summer, when the leaves were +thickest, you could see from the same place six quite big and fine +houses; and higher up the water, garden joined garden right up to +Windsor; and there were big houses in all the gardens. Ah! England +was an important place in those days." + +I was getting nettled, and said: "What you mean is that you de- +cockneyised the place, and sent the damned flunkies packing, and that +everybody can live comfortably and happily, and not a few damned +thieves only, who were centres of vulgarity and corruption wherever +they were, and who, as to this lovely river, destroyed its beauty +morally, and had almost destroyed it physically, when they were +thrown out of it." + +There was silence after this outburst, which for the life of me I +could not help, remembering how I had suffered from cockneyism and +its cause on those same waters of old time. But at last the old man +said, quite coolly: + +"My dear guest, I really don't know what you mean by either cockneys, +or flunkies, or thieves, or damned; or how only a few people could +live happily and comfortably in a wealthy country. All I can see is +that you are angry, and I fear with me: so if you like we will +change the subject." + +I thought this kind and hospitable in him, considering his obstinacy +about his theory; and hastened to say that I did not mean to be +angry, only emphatic. He bowed gravely, and I thought the storm was +over, when suddenly Ellen broke in: + +"Grandfather, our guest is reticent from courtesy; but really what he +has in his mind to say to you ought to be said; so as I know pretty +well what it is, I will say it for him: for as you know, I have been +taught these things by people who--" + +"Yes," said the old man, "by the sage of Bloomsbury, and others." + +"O," said Dick, "so you know my old kinsman Hammond?" + +"Yes," said she, "and other people too, as my grandfather says, and +they have taught me things: and this is the upshot of it. We live +in a little house now, not because we have nothing grander to do than +working in the fields, but because we please; for if we liked, we +could go and live in a big house amongst pleasant companions." + +Grumbled the old man: "Just so! As if I would live amongst those +conceited fellows; all of them looking down upon me!" + +She smiled on him kindly, but went on as if he had not spoken. "In +the past times, when those big houses of which grandfather speaks +were so plenty, we MUST have lived in a cottage whether we had liked +it or not; and the said cottage, instead of having in it everything +we want, would have been bare and empty. We should not have got +enough to eat; our clothes would have been ugly to look at, dirty and +frowsy. You, grandfather, have done no hard work for years now, but +wander about and read your books and have nothing to worry you; and +as for me, I work hard when I like it, because I like it, and think +it does me good, and knits up my muscles, and makes me prettier to +look at, and healthier and happier. But in those past days you, +grandfather, would have had to work hard after you were old; and +would have been always afraid of having to be shut up in a kind of +prison along with other old men, half-starved and without amusement. +And as for me, I am twenty years old. In those days my middle age +would be beginning now, and in a few years I should be pinched, thin, +and haggard, beset with troubles and miseries, so that no one could +have guessed that I was once a beautiful girl. + +"Is this what you have had in your mind, guest?" said she, the tears +in her eyes at thought of the past miseries of people like herself. + +"Yes," said I, much moved; "that and more. Often--in my country I +have seen that wretched change you have spoken of, from the fresh +handsome country lass to the poor draggle-tailed country woman." + +The old man sat silent for a little, but presently recovered himself +and took comfort in his old phrase of "Well, you like it so, do you?" + +"Yes," said Ellen, "I love life better than death." + +"O, you do, do you?" said he. "Well, for my part I like reading a +good old book with plenty of fun in it, like Thackeray's 'Vanity +Fair.' Why don't you write books like that now? Ask that question +of your Bloomsbury sage." + +Seeing Dick's cheeks reddening a little at this sally, and noting +that silence followed, I thought I had better do something. So I +said: "I am only the guest, friends; but I know you want to show me +your river at its best, so don't you think we had better be moving +presently, as it is certainly going to be a hot day?" + + + +CHAPTER XXIV: UP THE THAMES: THE SECOND DAY + + + +They were not slow to take my hint; and indeed, as to the mere time +of day, it was best for us to be off, as it was past seven o'clock, +and the day promised to be very hot. So we got up and went down to +our boat--Ellen thoughtful and abstracted; the old man very kind and +courteous, as if to make up for his crabbedness of opinion. Clara +was cheerful and natural, but a little subdued, I thought; and she at +least was not sorry to be gone, and often looked shyly and timidly at +Ellen and her strange wild beauty. So we got into the boat, Dick +saying as he took his place, "Well, it IS a fine day!" and the old +man answering "What! you like that, do you?" once more; and presently +Dick was sending the bows swiftly through the slow weed-checked +stream. I turned round as we got into mid-stream, and waving my hand +to our hosts, saw Ellen leaning on the old man's shoulder, and +caressing his healthy apple-red cheek, and quite a keen pang smote me +as I thought how I should never see the beautiful girl again. +Presently I insisted on taking the sculls, and I rowed a good deal +that day; which no doubt accounts for the fact that we got very late +to the place which Dick had aimed at. Clara was particularly +affectionate to Dick, as I noticed from the rowing thwart; but as for +him, he was as frankly kind and merry as ever; and I was glad to see +it, as a man of his temperament could not have taken her caresses +cheerfully and without embarrassment if he had been at all entangled +by the fairy of our last night's abode. + +I need say little about the lovely reaches of the river here. I duly +noted that absence of cockney villas which the old man had lamented; +and I saw with pleasure that my old enemies the "Gothic" cast-iron +bridges had been replaced by handsome oak and stone ones. Also the +banks of the forest that we passed through had lost their courtly +game-keeperish trimness, and were as wild and beautiful as need he, +though the trees were clearly well seen to. I thought it best, in +order to get the most direct information, to play the innocent about +Eton and Windsor; but Dick volunteered his knowledge to me as we lay +in Datchet lock about the first. Quoth he: + +"Up yonder are some beautiful old buildings, which were built for a +great college or teaching-place by one of the mediaeval kings--Edward +the Sixth, I think" (I smiled to myself at his rather natural +blunder). "He meant poor people's sons to be taught there what +knowledge was going in his days; but it was a matter of course that +in the times of which you seem to know so much they spoilt whatever +good there was in the founder's intentions. My old kinsman says that +they treated them in a very simple way, and instead of teaching poor +men's sons to know something, they taught rich men's sons to know +nothing. It seems from what he says that it was a place for the +'aristocracy' (if you know what that word means; I have been told its +meaning) to get rid of the company of their male children for a great +part of the year. I daresay old Hammond would give you plenty of +information in detail about it." + +"What is it used for now?" said I. + +"Well," said he, "the buildings were a good deal spoilt by the last +few generations of aristocrats, who seem to have had a great hatred +against beautiful old buildings, and indeed all records of past +history; but it is still a delightful place. Of course, we cannot +use it quite as the founder intended, since our ideas about teaching +young people are so changed from the ideas of his time; so it is used +now as a dwelling for people engaged in learning; and folk from round +about come and get taught things that they want to learn; and there +is a great library there of the best books. So that I don't think +that the old dead king would be much hurt if he were to come to life +and see what we are doing there." + +"Well," said Clara, laughing, "I think he would miss the boys." + +"Not always, my dear," said Dick, "for there are often plenty of boys +there, who come to get taught; and also," said he, smiling, "to learn +boating and swimming. I wish we could stop there: but perhaps we +had better do that coming down the water." + +The lock-gates opened as he spoke, and out we went, and on. And as +for Windsor, he said nothing till I lay on my oars (for I was +sculling then) in Clewer reach, and looking up, said, "What is all +that building up there?" + +Said he: "There, I thought I would wait till you asked, yourself. +That is Windsor Castle: that also I thought I would keep for you +till we come down the water. It looks fine from here, doesn't it? +But a great deal of it has been built or skinned in the time of the +Degradation, and we wouldn't pull the buildings down, since they were +there; just as with the buildings of the Dung-Market. You know, of +course, that it was the palace of our old mediaeval kings, and was +used later on for the same purpose by the parliamentary commercial +sham-kings, as my old kinsman calls them.'' + +"Yes," said I, "I know all that. What is it used for now?" + +"A great many people live there," said he, "as, with all drawbacks, +it is a pleasant place; there is also a well-arranged store of +antiquities of various kinds that have seemed worth keeping--a +museum, it would have been called in the times you understand so +well." + +I drew my sculls through the water at that last word, and pulled as +if I were fleeing from those times which I understood so well; and we +were soon going up the once sorely be-cockneyed reaches of the river +about Maidenhead, which now looked as pleasant and enjoyable as the +up-river reaches. + +The morning was now getting on, the morning of a jewel of a summer +day; one of those days which, if they were commoner in these islands, +would make our climate the best of all climates, without dispute. A +light wind blew from the west; the little clouds that had arisen at +about our breakfast time had seemed to get higher and higher in the +heavens; and in spite of the burning sun we no more longed for rain +than we feared it. Burning as the sun was, there was a fresh feeling +in the air that almost set us a-longing for the rest of the hot +afternoon, and the stretch of blossoming wheat seen from the shadow +of the boughs. No one unburdened with very heavy anxieties could +have felt otherwise than happy that morning: and it must be said +that whatever anxieties might lie beneath the surface of things, we +didn't seem to come across any of them. + +We passed by several fields where haymaking was going on, but Dick, +and especially Clara, were so jealous of our up-river festival that +they would not allow me to have much to say to them. I could only +notice that the people in the fields looked strong and handsome, both +men and women, and that so far from there being any appearance of +sordidness about their attire, they seemed to be dressed specially +for the occasion,--lightly, of course, but gaily and with plenty of +adornment. + +Both on this day as well as yesterday we had, as you may think, met +and passed and been passed by many craft of one kind and another. +The most part of these were being rowed like ourselves, or were +sailing, in the sort of way that sailing is managed on the upper +reaches of the river; but every now and then we came on barges, laden +with hay or other country produce, or carrying bricks, lime, timber, +and the like, and these were going on their way without any means of +propulsion visible to me--just a man at the tiller, with often a +friend or two laughing and talking with him. Dick, seeing on one +occasion this day, that I was looking rather hard on one of these, +said: "That is one of our force-barges; it is quite as easy to work +vehicles by force by water as by land." + +I understood pretty well that these "force vehicles" had taken the +place of our old steam-power carrying; but I took good care not to +ask any questions about them, as I knew well enough both that I +should never be able to understand how they were worked, and that in +attempting to do so I should betray myself, or get into some +complication impossible to explain; so I merely said, "Yes, of +course, I understand." + +We went ashore at Bisham, where the remains of the old Abbey and the +Elizabethan house that had been added to them yet remained, none the +worse for many years of careful and appreciative habitation. The +folk of the place, however, were mostly in the fields that day, both +men and women; so we met only two old men there, and a younger one +who had stayed at home to get on with some literary work, which I +imagine we considerably interrupted. Yet I also think that the hard- +working man who received us was not very sorry for the interruption. +Anyhow, he kept on pressing us to stay over and over again, till at +last we did not get away till the cool of the evening. + +However, that mattered little to us; the nights were light, for the +moon was shining in her third quarter, and it was all one to Dick +whether he sculled or sat quiet in the boat: so we went away a great +pace. The evening sun shone bright on the remains of the old +buildings at Medmenham; close beside which arose an irregular pile of +building which Dick told us was a very pleasant house; and there were +plenty of houses visible on the wide meadows opposite, under the +hill; for, as it seems that the beauty of Hurley had compelled people +to build and live there a good deal. The sun very low down showed us +Henley little altered in outward aspect from what I remembered it. +Actual daylight failed us as we passed through the lovely reaches of +Wargrave and Shiplake; but the moon rose behind us presently. I +should like to have seen with my eyes what success the new order of +things had had in getting rid of the sprawling mess with which +commercialism had littered the banks of the wide stream about Reading +and Caversham: certainly everything smelt too deliciously in the +early night for there to be any of the old careless sordidness of so- +called manufacture; and in answer to my question as to what sort of a +place Reading was, Dick answered: + +"O, a nice town enough in its way; mostly rebuilt within the last +hundred years; and there are a good many houses, as you can see by +the lights just down under the hills yonder. In fact, it is one of +the most populous places on the Thames round about here. Keep up +your spirits, guest! we are close to our journey's end for the night. +I ought to ask your pardon for not stopping at one of the houses here +or higher up; but a friend, who is living in a very pleasant house in +the Maple-Durham meads, particularly wanted me and Clara to come and +see him on our way up the Thames; and I thought you wouldn't mind +this bit of night travelling." + +He need not have adjured me to keep up my spirits, which were as high +as possible; though the strangeness and excitement of the happy and +quiet life which I saw everywhere around me was, it is true, a little +wearing off, yet a deep content, as different as possible from +languid acquiescence, was taking its place, and I was, as it were, +really new-born. + +We landed presently just where I remembered the river making an elbow +to the north towards the ancient house of the Blunts; with the wide +meadows spreading on the right-hand side, and on the left the long +line of beautiful old trees overhanging the water. As we got out of +the boat, I said to Dick - + +"Is it the old house we are going to?" + +"No," he said, "though that is standing still in green old age, and +is well inhabited. I see, by the way, that you know your Thames +well. But my friend Walter Allen, who asked me to stop here, lives +in a house, not very big, which has been built here lately, because +these meadows are so much liked, especially in summer, that there was +getting to be rather too much of tenting on the open field; so the +parishes here about, who rather objected to that, built three houses +between this and Caversham, and quite a large one at Basildon, a +little higher up. Look, yonder are the lights of Walter Allen's +house!" + +So we walked over the grass of the meadows under a flood of +moonlight, and soon came to the house, which was low and built round +a quadrangle big enough to get plenty of sunshine in it. Walter +Allen, Dick's friend, was leaning against the jamb of the doorway +waiting for us, and took us into the hall without overplus of words. +There were not many people in it, as some of the dwellers there were +away at the haymaking in the neighbourhood, and some, as Walter told +us, were wandering about the meadow enjoying the beautiful moonlit +night. Dick's friend looked to be a man of about forty; tall, black- +haired, very kind-looking and thoughtful; but rather to my surprise +there was a shade of melancholy on his face, and he seemed a little +abstracted and inattentive to our chat, in spite of obvious efforts +to listen. + +Dick looked on him from time to time, and seemed troubled; and at +last he said: "I say, old fellow, if there is anything the matter +which we didn't know of when you wrote to me, don't you think you had +better tell us about it at once? Or else we shall think we have come +here at an unlucky time, and are not quite wanted." + +Walter turned red, and seemed to have some difficulty in restraining +his tears, but said at last: "Of course everybody here is very glad +to see you, Dick, and your friends; but it is true that we are not at +our best, in spite of the fine weather and the glorious hay-crop. We +have had a death here." + +Said Dick: "Well, you should get over that, neighbour: such things +must be." + +"Yes," Walter said, "but this was a death by violence, and it seems +likely to lead to at least one more; and somehow it makes us feel +rather shy of one another; and to say the truth, that is one reason +why there are so few of us present to-night." + +"Tell us the story, Walter," said Dick; "perhaps telling it will help +you to shake off your sadness." + +Said Walter: "Well, I will; and I will make it short enough, though +I daresay it might be spun out into a long one, as used to be done +with such subjects in the old novels. There is a very charming girl +here whom we all like, and whom some of us do more than like; and she +very naturally liked one of us better than anybody else. And another +of us (I won't name him) got fairly bitten with love-madness, and +used to go about making himself as unpleasant as he could--not of +malice prepense, of course; so that the girl, who liked him well +enough at first, though she didn't love him, began fairly to dislike +him. Of course, those of us who knew him best--myself amongst +others--advised him to go away, as he was making matters worse and +worse for himself every day. Well, he wouldn't take our advice (that +also, I suppose, was a matter of course), so we had to tell him that +he MUST go, or the inevitable sending to Coventry would follow; for +his individual trouble had so overmastered him that we felt that WE +must go if he did not. + +"He took that better than we expected, when something or other--an +interview with the girl, I think, and some hot words with the +successful lover following close upon it, threw him quite off his +balance; and he got hold of an axe and fell upon his rival when there +was no one by; and in the struggle that followed the man attacked, +hit him an unlucky blow and killed him. And now the slayer in his +turn is so upset that he is like to kill himself; and if he does, the +girl will do as much, I fear. And all this we could no more help +than the earthquake of the year before last." + +"It is very unhappy," said Dick; "but since the man is dead, and +cannot be brought to life again, and since the slayer had no malice +in him, I cannot for the life of me see why he shouldn't get over it +before long. Besides, it was the right man that was killed and not +the wrong. Why should a man brood over a mere accident for ever? +And the girl?" + +"As to her," said Walter, "the whole thing seems to have inspired her +with terror rather than grief. What you say about the man is true, +or it should be; but then, you see, the excitement and jealousy that +was the prelude to this tragedy had made an evil and feverish element +round about him, from which he does not seem to be able to escape. +However, we have advised him to go away--in fact, to cross the seas; +but he is in such a state that I do not think he CAN go unless +someone TAKES him, and I think it will fall to my lot to do so; which +is scarcely a cheerful outlook for me." + +"O, you will find a certain kind of interest in it," said Dick. "And +of course he MUST soon look upon the affair from a reasonable point +of view sooner or later." + +"Well, at any rate," quoth Walter, "now that I have eased my mind by +making you uncomfortable, let us have an end of the subject for the +present. Are you going to take your guest to Oxford?" + +"Why, of course we must pass through it," said Dick, smiling, "as we +are going into the upper waters: but I thought that we wouldn't stop +there, or we shall be belated as to the haymaking up our way. So +Oxford and my learned lecture on it, all got at second-hand from my +old kinsman, must wait till we come down the water a fortnight +hence." + +I listened to this story with much surprise, and could not help +wondering at first that the man who had slain the other had not been +put in custody till it could be proved that he killed his rival in +self-defence only. However, the more I thought of it, the plainer it +grew to me that no amount of examination of witnesses, who had +witnessed nothing but the ill-blood between the two rivals, would +have done anything to clear up the case. I could not help thinking, +also, that the remorse of this homicide gave point to what old +Hammond had said to me about the way in which this strange people +dealt with what I had been used to hear called crimes. Truly, the +remorse was exaggerated; but it was quite clear that the slayer took +the whole consequences of the act upon himself, and did not expect +society to whitewash him by punishing him. I had no fear any longer +that "the sacredness of human life" was likely to suffer amongst my +friends from the absence of gallows and prison. + + + +CHAPTER XXV: THE THIRD DAY ON THE THAMES + + + +As we went down to the boat next morning, Walter could not quite keep +off the subject of last night, though he was more hopeful than he had +been then, and seemed to think that if the unlucky homicide could not +be got to go over-sea, he might at any rate go and live somewhere in +the neighbourhood pretty much by himself; at any rate, that was what +he himself had proposed. To Dick, and I must say to me also, this +seemed a strange remedy; and Dick said as much. Quoth he: + +"Friend Walter, don't set the man brooding on the tragedy by letting +him live alone. That will only strengthen his idea that he has +committed a crime, and you will have him killing himself in good +earnest." + +Said Clara: "I don't know. If I may say what I think of it, it is +that he had better have his fill of gloom now, and, so to say, wake +up presently to see how little need there has been for it; and then +he will live happily afterwards. As for his killing himself, you +need not be afraid of that; for, from all you tell me, he is really +very much in love with the woman; and to speak plainly, until his +love is satisfied, he will not only stick to life as tightly as he +can, but will also make the most of every event of his life--will, so +to say, hug himself up in it; and I think that this is the real +explanation of his taking the whole matter with such an excess of +tragedy." + +Walter looked thoughtful, and said: "Well, you may be right; and +perhaps we should have treated it all more lightly: but you see, +guest" (turning to me), "such things happen so seldom, that when they +do happen, we cannot help being much taken up with it. For the rest, +we are all inclined, to excuse our poor friend for making us so +unhappy, on the ground that he does it out of an exaggerated respect +for human life and its happiness. Well, I will say no more about it; +only this: will you give me a cast up stream, as I want to look +after a lonely habitation for the poor fellow, since he will have it +so, and I hear that there is one which would suit us very well on the +downs beyond Streatley; so if you will put me ashore there I will +walk up the hill and look to it." + +"Is the house in question empty?" said I. + +"No," said Walter, "but the man who lives there will go out of it, of +course, when he hears that we want it. You see, we think that the +fresh air of the downs and the very emptiness of the landscape will +do our friend good." + +"Yes," said Clara, smiling, "and he will not be so far from his +beloved that they cannot easily meet if they have a mind to--as they +certainly will." + +This talk had brought us down to the boat, and we were presently +afloat on the beautiful broad stream, Dick driving the prow swiftly +through the windless water of the early summer morning, for it was +not yet six o'clock. We were at the lock in a very little time; and +as we lay rising and rising on the in-coming water, I could not help +wondering that my old friend the pound-lock, and that of the very +simplest and most rural kind, should hold its place there; so I said: + +"I have been wondering, as we passed lock after lock, that you +people, so prosperous as you are, and especially since you are so +anxious for pleasant work to do, have not invented something which +would get rid of this clumsy business of going up-stairs by means of +these rude contrivances." + +Dick laughed. "My dear friend," said he, "as long as water has the +clumsy habit of running down hill, I fear we must humour it by going +up-stairs when we have our faces turned from the sea. And really I +don't see why you should fall foul of Maple-Durham lock, which I +think a very pretty place." + +There was no doubt about the latter assertion, I thought, as I looked +up at the overhanging boughs of the great trees, with the sun coming +glittering through the leaves, and listened to the song of the summer +blackbirds as it mingled with the sound of the backwater near us. So +not being able to say why I wanted the locks away--which, indeed, I +didn't do at all--I held my peace. But Walter said - + +"You see, guest, this is not an age of inventions. The last epoch +did all that for us, and we are now content to use such of its +inventions as we find handy, and leaving those alone which we don't +want. I believe, as a matter of fact, that some time ago (I can't +give you a date) some elaborate machinery was used for the locks, +though people did not go so far as try to make the water run up hill. +However, it was troublesome, I suppose, and the simple hatches, and +the gates, with a big counterpoising beam, were found to answer every +purpose, and were easily mended when wanted with material always to +hand: so here they are, as you see." + +"Besides," said Dick, "this kind of lock is pretty, as you can see; +and I can't help thinking that your machine-lock, winding up like a +watch, would have been ugly and would have spoiled the look of the +river: and that is surely reason enough for keeping such locks as +these. Good-bye, old fellow!" said he to the lock, as he pushed us +out through the now open gates by a vigorous stroke of the boat-hook. +"May you live long, and have your green old age renewed for ever!" + +On we went; and the water had the familiar aspect to me of the days +before Pangbourne had been thoroughly cocknified, as I have seen it. +It (Pangbourne) was distinctly a village still--i.e., a definite +group of houses, and as pretty as might be. The beech-woods still +covered the hill that rose above Basildon; but the flat fields +beneath them were much more populous than I remembered them, as there +were five large houses in sight, very carefully designed so as not to +hurt the character of the country. Down on the green lip of the +river, just where the water turns toward the Goring and Streatley +reaches, were half a dozen girls playing about on the grass. They +hailed us as we were about passing them, as they noted that we were +travellers, and we stopped a minute to talk with them. They had been +bathing, and were light clad and bare-footed, and were bound for the +meadows on the Berkshire side, where the haymaking had begun, and +were passing the time merrily enough till the Berkshire folk came in +their punt to fetch them. At first nothing would content them but we +must go with them into the hay-field, and breakfast with them; but +Dick put forward his theory of beginning the hay-harvest higher up +the water, and not spoiling my pleasure therein by giving me a taste +of it elsewhere, and they gave way, though unwillingly. In revenge +they asked me a great many questions about the country I came from +and the manners of life there, which I found rather puzzling to +answer; and doubtless what answers I did give were puzzling enough to +them. I noticed both with these pretty girls and with everybody else +we met, that in default of serious news, such as we had heard at +Maple-Durham, they were eager to discuss all the little details of +life: the weather, the hay-crop, the last new house, the plenty or +lack of such and such birds, and so on; and they talked of these +things not in a fatuous and conventional way, but as taking, I say, +real interest in them. Moreover, I found that the women knew as much +about all these things as the men: could name a flower, and knew its +qualities; could tell you the habitat of such and such birds and +fish, and the like. + +It is almost strange what a difference this intelligence made in my +estimate of the country life of that day; for it used to be said in +past times, and on the whole truly, that outside their daily work +country people knew little of the country, and at least could tell +you nothing about it; while here were these people as eager about all +the goings on in the fields and woods and downs as if they had been +Cockneys newly escaped from the tyranny of bricks and mortar. + +I may mention as a detail worth noticing that not only did there seem +to be a great many more birds about of the non-predatory kinds, but +their enemies the birds of prey were also commoner. A kite hung over +our heads as we passed Medmenham yesterday; magpies were quite common +in the hedgerows; I saw several sparrow-hawks, and I think a merlin; +and now just as we were passing the pretty bridge which had taken the +place of Basildon railway-bridge, a couple of ravens croaked above +our boat, as they sailed off to the higher ground of the downs. I +concluded from all this that the days of the gamekeeper were over, +and did not even need to ask Dick a question about it. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI: THE OBSTINATE REFUSERS + + + +Before we parted from these girls we saw two sturdy young men and a +woman putting off from the Berkshire shore, and then Dick bethought +him of a little banter of the girls, and asked them how it was that +there was nobody of the male kind to go with them across the water, +and where their boats were gone to. Said one, the youngest of the +party: "O, they have got the big punt to lead stone from up the +water." + +"Who do you mean by 'they,' dear child?" said Dick. + +Said an older girl, laughing: "You had better go and see them. Look +there," and she pointed northwest, "don't you see building going on +there?" + +"Yes," said Dick, "and I am rather surprised at this time of the +year; why are they not haymaking with you?" + +The girls all laughed at this, and before their laugh was over, the +Berkshire boat had run on to the grass and the girls stepped in +lightly, still sniggering, while the new comers gave us the sele of +the day. But before they were under way again, the tall girl said: + +"Excuse us for laughing, dear neighbours, but we have had some +friendly bickering with the builders up yonder, and as we have no +time to tell you the story, you had better go and ask them: they +will be glad to see you--if you don't hinder their work." + +They all laughed again at that, and waved us a pretty farewell as the +punters set them over toward the other shore, and left us standing on +the bank beside our boat. + +"Let us go and see them," said Clara; "that is, if you are not in a +hurry to get to Streatley, Walter?" + +"O no," said Walter, "I shall be glad of the excuse to have a little +more of your company." + +So we left the boat moored there, and went on up the slow slope of +the hill; but I said to Dick on the way, being somewhat mystified: +"What was all that laughing about? what was the joke!" + +"I can guess pretty well," said Dick; "some of them up there have got +a piece of work which interests them, and they won't go to the +haymaking, which doesn't matter at all, because there are plenty of +people to do such easy-hard work as that; only, since haymaking is a +regular festival, the neighbours find it amusing to jeer good- +humouredly at them." + +"I see," said I, "much as if in Dickens's time some young people were +so wrapped up in their work that they wouldn't keep Christmas." + +"Just so," said Dick, "only these people need not be young either." + +"But what did you mean by easy-hard work?" said I. + +Quoth Dick: "Did I say that? I mean work that tries the muscles and +hardens them and sends you pleasantly weary to bed, but which isn't +trying in other ways: doesn't harass you in short. Such work is +always pleasant if you don't overdo it. Only, mind you, good mowing +requires some little skill. I'm a pretty good mower." + +This talk brought us up to the house that was a-building, not a large +one, which stood at the end of a beautiful orchard surrounded by an +old stone wall. "O yes, I see," said Dick; "I remember, a beautiful +place for a house: but a starveling of a nineteenth century house +stood there: I am glad they are rebuilding: it's all stone, too, +though it need not have been in this part of the country: my word, +though, they are making a neat job of it: but I wouldn't have made +it all ashlar." + +Walter and Clara were already talking to a tall man clad in his +mason's blouse, who looked about forty, but was I daresay older, who +had his mallet and chisel in hand; there were at work in the shed and +on the scaffold about half a dozen men and two women, blouse-clad +like the carles, while a very pretty woman who was not in the work +but was dressed in an elegant suit of blue linen came sauntering up +to us with her knitting in her hand. She welcomed us and said, +smiling: "So you are come up from the water to see the Obstinate +Refusers: where are you going haymaking, neighbours?" + +"O, right up above Oxford," said Dick; "it is rather a late country. +But what share have you got with the Refusers, pretty neighbour?" + +Said she, with a laugh: "O, I am the lucky one who doesn't want to +work; though sometimes I get it, for I serve as model to Mistress +Philippa there when she wants one: she is our head carver; come and +see her." + +She led us up to the door of the unfinished house, where a rather +little woman was working with mallet and chisel on the wall near by. +She seemed very intent on what she was doing, and did not turn round +when we came up; but a taller woman, quite a girl she seemed, who was +at work near by, had already knocked off, and was standing looking +from Clara to Dick with delighted eyes. None of the others paid much +heed to us. + +The blue-clad girl laid her hand on the carver's shoulder and said: +"Now Philippa, if you gobble up your work like that, you will soon +have none to do; and what will become of you then?" + +The carver turned round hurriedly and showed us the face of a woman +of forty (or so she seemed), and said rather pettishly, but in a +sweet voice: + +"Don't talk nonsense, Kate, and don't interrupt me if you can help +it." She stopped short when she saw us, then went on with the kind +smile of welcome which never failed us. "Thank you for coming to see +us, neighbours; but I am sure that you won't think me unkind if I go +on with my work, especially when I tell you that I was ill and unable +to do anything all through April and May; and this open-air and the +sun and the work together, and my feeling well again too, make a mere +delight of every hour to me; and excuse me, I must go on." + +She fell to work accordingly on a carving in low relief of flowers +and figures, but talked on amidst her mallet strokes: "You see, we +all think this the prettiest place for a house up and down these +reaches; and the site has been so long encumbered with an unworthy +one, that we masons were determined to pay off fate and destiny for +once, and build the prettiest house we could compass here--and so-- +and so--" + +Here she lapsed into mere carving, but the tall foreman came up and +said: "Yes, neighbours, that is it: so it is going to be all ashlar +because we want to carve a kind of a wreath of flowers and figures +all round it; and we have been much hindered by one thing or other-- +Philippa's illness amongst others,--and though we could have managed +our wreath without her--" + +"Could you, though?" grumbled the last-named from the face of the +wall. + +"Well, at any rate, she is our best carver, and it would not have +been kind to begin the carving without her. So you see," said he, +looking at Dick and me, "we really couldn't go haymaking, could we, +neighbours? But you see, we are getting on so fast now with this +splendid weather, that I think we may well spare a week or ten days +at wheat-harvest; and won't we go at that work then! Come down then +to the acres that lie north and by west here at our backs and you +shall see good harvesters, neighbours. + +"Hurrah, for a good brag!" called a voice from the scaffold above us; +"our foreman thinks that an easier job than putting one stone on +another!" + +There was a general laugh at this sally, in which the tall foreman +joined; and with that we saw a lad bringing out a little table into +the shadow of the stone-shed, which he set down there, and then going +back, came out again with the inevitable big wickered flask and tall +glasses, whereon the foreman led us up to due seats on blocks of +stone, and said: + +"Well, neighbours, drink to my brag coming true, or I shall think you +don't believe me! Up there!" said he, hailing the scaffold, "are you +coming down for a glass?" Three of the workmen came running down the +ladder as men with good "building legs" will do; but the others +didn't answer, except the joker (if he must so be called), who called +out without turning round: "Excuse me, neighbours for not getting +down. I must get on: my work is not superintending, like the +gaffer's yonder; but, you fellows, send us up a glass to drink the +haymakers' health." Of course, Philippa would not turn away from her +beloved work; but the other woman carver came; she turned out to be +Philippa's daughter, but was a tall strong girl, black-haired and +gipsey-like of face and curiously solemn of manner. The rest +gathered round us and clinked glasses, and the men on the scaffold +turned about and drank to our healths; but the busy little woman by +the door would have none of it all, but only shrugged her shoulders +when her daughter came up to her and touched her. + +So we shook hands and turned our backs on the Obstinate Refusers, +went down the slope to our boat, and before we had gone many steps +heard the full tune of tinkling trowels mingle with the humming of +the bees and the singing of the larks above the little plain of +Basildon. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII: THE UPPER WATERS + + + +We set Walter ashore on the Berkshire side, amidst all the beauties +of Streatley, and so went our ways into what once would have been the +deeper country under the foot-hills of the White Horse; and though +the contrast between half-cocknified and wholly unsophisticated +country existed no longer, a feeling of exultation rose within me (as +it used to do) at sight of the familiar and still unchanged hills of +the Berkshire range. + +We stopped at Wallingford for our mid-day meal; of course, all signs +of squalor and poverty had disappeared from the streets of the +ancient town, and many ugly houses had been taken down and many +pretty new ones built, but I thought it curious, that the town still +looked like the old place I remembered so well; for indeed it looked +like that ought to have looked. + +At dinner we fell in with an old, but very bright and intelligent +man, who seemed in a country way to be another edition of old +Hammond. He had an extraordinary detailed knowledge of the ancient +history of the country-side from the time of Alfred to the days of +the Parliamentary Wars, many events of which, as you may know, were +enacted round about Wallingford. But, what was more interesting to +us, he had detailed record of the period of the change to the present +state of things, and told us a great deal about it, and especially of +that exodus of the people from the town to the country, and the +gradual recovery by the town-bred people on one side, and the +country-bred people on the other, of those arts of life which they +had each lost; which loss, as he told us, had at one time gone so far +that not only was it impossible to find a carpenter or a smith in a +village or small country town, but that people in such places had +even forgotten how to bake bread, and that at Wallingford, for +instance, the bread came down with the newspapers by an early train +from London, worked in some way, the explanation of which I could not +understand. He told us also that the townspeople who came into the +country used to pick up the agricultural arts by carefully watching +the way in which the machines worked, gathering an idea of handicraft +from machinery; because at that time almost everything in and about +the fields was done by elaborate machines used quite unintelligently +by the labourers. On the other hand, the old men amongst the +labourers managed to teach the younger ones gradually a little +artizanship, such as the use of the saw and the plane, the work of +the smithy, and so forth; for once more, by that time it was as much +as--or rather, more than--a man could do to fix an ash pole to a rake +by handiwork; so that it would take a machine worth a thousand +pounds, a group of workmen, and half a day's travelling, to do five +shillings' worth of work. He showed us, among other things, an +account of a certain village council who were working hard at all +this business; and the record of their intense earnestness in getting +to the bottom of some matter which in time past would have been +thought quite trivial, as, for example, the due proportions of alkali +and oil for soap-making for the village wash, or the exact heat of +the water into which a leg of mutton should be plunged for boiling-- +all this joined to the utter absence of anything like party feeling, +which even in a village assembly would certainly have made its +appearance in an earlier epoch, was very amusing, and at the same +time instructive. + +This old man, whose name was Henry Morsom, took us, after our meal +and a rest, into a biggish hall which contained a large collection of +articles of manufacture and art from the last days of the machine +period to that day; and he went over them with us, and explained them +with great care. They also were very interesting, showing the +transition from the makeshift work of the machines (which was at +about its worst a little after the Civil War before told of) into the +first years of the new handicraft period. Of course, there was much +overlapping of the periods: and at first the new handwork came in +very slowly. + +"You must remember," said the old antiquary, "that the handicraft was +not the result of what used to be called material necessity: on the +contrary, by that time the machines had been so much improved that +almost all necessary work might have been done by them: and indeed +many people at that time, and before it, used to think that machinery +would entirely supersede handicraft; which certainly, on the face of +it, seemed more than likely. But there was another opinion, far less +logical, prevalent amongst the rich people before the days of +freedom, which did not die out at once after that epoch had begun. +This opinion, which from all I can learn seemed as natural then, as +it seems absurd now, was, that while the ordinary daily work of the +world would be done entirely by automatic machinery, the energies of +the more intelligent part of mankind would be set free to follow the +higher forms of the arts, as well as science and the study of +history. It was strange, was it not, that they should thus ignore +that aspiration after complete equality which we now recognise as the +bond of all happy human society?" + +I did not answer, but thought the more. Dick looked thoughtful, and +said: + +"Strange, neighbour? Well, I don't know. I have often heard my old +kinsman say the one aim of all people before our time was to avoid +work, or at least they thought it was; so of course the work which +their daily life forced them to do, seemed more like work than that +which they seemed to choose for themselves." + +"True enough," said Morsom. "Anyhow, they soon began to find out +their mistake, and that only slaves and slaveholders could live +solely by setting machines going." + +Clara broke in here, flushing a little as she spoke: "Was not their +mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been +living?--a life which was always looking upon everything, except +mankind, animate and inanimate--'nature,' as people used to call it-- +as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people +thinking in this way, that they should try to make 'nature' their +slave, since they thought 'nature' was something outside them." + +"Surely," said Morsom; "and they were puzzled as to what to do, till +they found the feeling against a mechanical life, which had begun +before the Great Change amongst people who had leisure to think of +such things, was spreading insensibly; till at last under the guise +of pleasure that was not supposed to be work, work that was pleasure +began to push out the mechanical toil, which they had once hoped at +the best to reduce to narrow limits indeed, but never to get rid of; +and which, moreover, they found they could not limit as they had +hoped to do." + +"When did this new revolution gather head?" said I. + +"In the half-century that followed the Great Change," said Morsom, +"it began to be noteworthy; machine after machine was quietly dropped +under the excuse that the machines could not produce works of art, +and that works of art were more and more called for. Look here," he +said, "here are some of the works of that time--rough and unskilful +in handiwork, but solid and showing some sense of pleasure in the +making." + +"They are very curious," said I, taking up a piece of pottery from +amongst the specimens which the antiquary was showing us; "not a bit +like the work of either savages or barbarians, and yet with what +would once have been called a hatred of civilisation impressed upon +them." + +"Yes," said Morsom, "you must not look for delicacy there: in that +period you could only have got that from a man who was practically a +slave. But now, you see," said he, leading me on a little, "we have +learned the trick of handicraft, and have added the utmost refinement +of workmanship to the freedom of fancy and imagination." + +I looked, and wondered indeed at the deftness and abundance of beauty +of the work of men who had at last learned to accept life itself as a +pleasure, and the satisfaction of the common needs of mankind and the +preparation for them, as work fit for the best of the race. I mused +silently; but at last I said - + +"What is to come after this?" + +The old man laughed. "I don't know," said he; "we will meet it when +it comes." + +"Meanwhile," quoth Dick, "we have got to meet the rest of our day's +journey; so out into the street and down to the strand! Will you +come a turn with us, neighbour? Our friend is greedy of your +stories." + +"I will go as far as Oxford with you," said he; "I want a book or two +out of the Bodleian Library. I suppose you will sleep in the old +city?" + +"No," said Dick, "we are going higher up; the hay is waiting us +there, you know." + +Morsom nodded, and we all went into the street together, and got into +the boat a little above the town bridge. But just as Dick was +getting the sculls into the rowlocks, the bows of another boat came +thrusting through the low arch. Even at first sight it was a gay +little craft indeed--bright green, and painted over with elegantly +drawn flowers. As it cleared the arch, a figure as bright and gay- +clad as the boat rose up in it; a slim girl dressed in light blue +silk that fluttered in the draughty wind of the bridge. I thought I +knew the figure, and sure enough, as she turned her head to us, and +showed her beautiful face, I saw with joy that it was none other than +the fairy godmother from the abundant garden on Runnymede--Ellen, to +wit. + +We all stopped to receive her. Dick rose in the boat and cried out a +genial good morrow; I tried to be as genial as Dick, but failed; +Clara waved a delicate hand to her; and Morsom nodded and looked on +with interest. As to Ellen, the beautiful brown of her face was +deepened by a flush, as she brought the gunwale of her boat alongside +ours, and said: + +"You see, neighbours, I had some doubt if you would all three come +back past Runnymede, or if you did, whether you would stop there; and +besides, I am not sure whether we--my father and I--shall not be away +in a week or two, for he wants to see a brother of his in the north +country, and I should not like him to go without me. So I thought I +might never see you again, and that seemed uncomfortable to me, and-- +and so I came after you." + +"Well," said Dick, "I am sure we are all very glad of that; although +you may be sure that as for Clara and me, we should have made a point +of coming to see you, and of coming the second time, if we had found +you away the first. But, dear neighbour, there you are alone in the +boat, and you have been sculling pretty hard I should think, and +might find a little quiet sitting pleasant; so we had better part our +company into two." + +"Yes," said Ellen, "I thought you would do that, so I have brought a +rudder for my boat: will you help me to ship it, please?" + +And she went aft in her boat and pushed along our side till she had +brought the stern close to Dick's hand. He knelt down in our boat +and she in hers, and the usual fumbling took place over hanging the +rudder on its hooks; for, as you may imagine, no change had taken +place in the arrangement of such an unimportant matter as the rudder +of a pleasure-boat. As the two beautiful young faces bent over the +rudder, they seemed to me to be very close together, and though it +only lasted a moment, a sort of pang shot through me as I looked on. +Clara sat in her place and did not look round, but presently she +said, with just the least stiffness in her tone: + +"How shall we divide? Won't you go into Ellen's boat, Dick, since, +without offence to our guest, you are the better sculler?" + +Dick stood up and laid his hand on her shoulder, and said: "No, no; +let Guest try what he can do--he ought to be getting into training +now. Besides, we are in no hurry: we are not going far above +Oxford; and even if we are benighted, we shall have the moon, which +will give us nothing worse of a night than a greyer day." + +"Besides," said I, "I may manage to do a little more with my sculling +than merely keeping the boat from drifting down stream." + +They all laughed at this, as if it had a been very good joke; and I +thought that Ellen's laugh, even amongst the others, was one of the +pleasantest sounds I had ever heard. + +To be short, I got into the new-come boat, not a little elated, and +taking the sculls, set to work to show off a little. For--must I say +it?--I felt as if even that happy world were made the happier for my +being so near this strange girl; although I must say that of all the +persons I had seen in that world renewed, she was the most unfamiliar +to me, the most unlike what I could have thought of. Clara, for +instance, beautiful and bright as she was, was not unlike a VERY +pleasant and unaffected young lady; and the other girls also seemed +nothing more than specimens of very much improved types which I had +known in other times. But this girl was not only beautiful with a +beauty quite different from that of "a young lady," but was in all +ways so strangely interesting; so that I kept wondering what she +would say or do next to surprise and please me. Not, indeed, that +there was anything startling in what she actually said or did; but it +was all done in a new way, and always with that indefinable interest +and pleasure of life, which I had noticed more or less in everybody, +but which in her was more marked and more charming than in anyone +else that I had seen. + +We were soon under way and going at a fair pace through the beautiful +reaches of the river, between Bensington and Dorchester. It was now +about the middle of the afternoon, warm rather than hot, and quite +windless; the clouds high up and light, pearly white, and gleaming, +softened the sun's burning, but did not hide the pale blue in most +places, though they seemed to give it height and consistency; the +sky, in short, looked really like a vault, as poets have sometimes +called it, and not like mere limitless air, but a vault so vast and +full of light that it did not in any way oppress the spirits. It was +the sort of afternoon that Tennyson must have been thinking about, +when he said of the Lotos-Eaters' land that it was a land where it +was always afternoon. + +Ellen leaned back in the stern and seemed to enjoy herself +thoroughly. I could see that she was really looking at things and +let nothing escape her, and as I watched her, an uncomfortable +feeling that she had been a little touched by love of the deft, +ready, and handsome Dick, and that she had been constrained to follow +us because of it, faded out of my mind; since if it had been so, she +surely could not have been so excitedly pleased, even with the +beautiful scenes we were passing through. For some time she did not +say much, but at last, as we had passed under Shillingford Bridge +(new built, but somewhat on its old lines), she bade me hold the boat +while she had a good look at the landscape through the graceful arch. +Then she turned about to me and said: + +"I do not know whether to be sorry or glad that this is the first +time that I have been in these reaches. It is true that it is a +great pleasure to see all this for the first time; but if I had had a +year or two of memory of it, how sweetly it would all have mingled +with my life, waking or dreaming! I am so glad Dick has been pulling +slowly, so as to linger out the time here. How do you feel about +your first visit to these waters?" + +I do not suppose she meant a trap for me, but anyhow I fell into it, +and said: "My first visit! It is not my first visit by many a time. +I know these reaches well; indeed, I may say that I know every yard +of the Thames from Hammersmith to Cricklade." + +I saw the complications that might follow, as her eyes fixed mine +with a curious look in them, that I had seen before at Runnymede, +when I had said something which made it difficult for others to +understand my present position amongst these people. I reddened, and +said, in order to cover my mistake: "I wonder you have never been up +so high as this, since you live on the Thames, and moreover row so +well that it would be no great labour to you. Let alone," quoth I, +insinuatingly, "that anybody would be glad to row you." + +She laughed, clearly not at my compliment (as I am sure she need not +have done, since it was a very commonplace fact), but at something +which was stirring in her mind; and she still looked at me kindly, +but with the above-said keen look in her eyes, and then she said: + +"Well, perhaps it is strange, though I have a good deal to do at +home, what with looking after my father, and dealing with two or +three young men who have taken a special liking to me, and all of +whom I cannot please at once. But you, dear neighbour; it seems to +me stranger that you should know the upper river, than that I should +not know it; for, as I understand, you have only been in England a +few days. But perhaps you mean that you have read about it in books, +and seen pictures of it?--though that does not come to much, either." + +"Truly," said I. "Besides, I have not read any books about the +Thames: it was one of the minor stupidities of our time that no one +thought fit to write a decent book about what may fairly be called +our only English river." + +The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I saw that I had made +another mistake; and I felt really annoyed with myself, as I did not +want to go into a long explanation just then, or begin another series +of Odyssean lies. Somehow, Ellen seemed to see this, and she took no +advantage of my slip; her piercing look changed into one of mere +frank kindness, and she said: + +"Well, anyhow I am glad that I am travelling these waters with you, +since you know our river so well, and I know little of it past +Pangbourne, for you can tell me all I want to know about it." She +paused a minute, and then said: "Yet you must understand that the +part I do know, I know as thoroughly as you do. I should be sorry +for you to think that I am careless of a thing so beautiful and +interesting as the Thames." + +She said this quite earnestly, and with an air of affectionate appeal +to me which pleased me very much; but I could see that she was only +keeping her doubts about me for another time. + +Presently we came to Day's Lock, where Dick and his two sitters had +waited for us. He would have me go ashore, as if to show me +something which I had never seen before; and nothing loth I followed +him, Ellen by my side, to the well-remembered Dykes, and the long +church beyond them, which was still used for various purposes by the +good folk of Dorchester: where, by the way, the village guest-house +still had the sign of the Fleur-de-luce which it used to bear in the +days when hospitality had to be bought and sold. This time, however, +I made no sign of all this being familiar to me: though as we sat +for a while on the mound of the Dykes looking up at Sinodun and its +clear-cut trench, and its sister mamelon of Whittenham, I felt +somewhat uncomfortable under Ellen's serious attentive look, which +almost drew from me the cry, "How little anything is changed here!" + +We stopped again at Abingdon, which, like Wallingford, was in a way +both old and new to me, since it had been lifted out of its +nineteenth-century degradation, and otherwise was as little altered +as might be. + +Sunset was in the sky as we skirted Oxford by Oseney; we stopped a +minute or two hard by the ancient castle to put Henry Morsom ashore. +It was a matter of course that so far as they could be seen from the +river, I missed none of the towers and spires of that once don- +beridden city; but the meadows all round, which, when I had last +passed through them, were getting daily more and more squalid, more +and more impressed with the seal of the "stir and intellectual life +of the nineteenth century," were no longer intellectual, but had once +again become as beautiful as they should be, and the little hill of +Hinksey, with two or three very pretty stone houses new-grown on it +(I use the word advisedly; for they seemed to belong to it) looked +down happily on the full streams and waving grass, grey now, but for +the sunset, with its fast-ripening seeds. + +The railway having disappeared, and therewith the various level +bridges over the streams of Thames, we were soon through Medley Lock +and in the wide water that washes Port Meadow, with its numerous +population of geese nowise diminished; and I thought with interest +how its name and use had survived from the older imperfect communal +period, through the time of the confused struggle and tyranny of the +rights of property, into the present rest and happiness of complete +Communism. + +I was taken ashore again at Godstow, to see the remains of the old +nunnery, pretty nearly in the same condition as I had remembered +them; and from the high bridge over the cut close by, I could see, +even in the twilight, how beautiful the little village with its grey +stone houses had become; for we had now come into the stone-country, +in which every house must be either built, walls and roof, of grey +stone or be a blot on the landscape. + +We still rowed on after this, Ellen taking the sculls in my boat; we +passed a weir a little higher up, and about three miles beyond it +came by moonlight again to a little town, where we slept at a house +thinly inhabited, as its folk were mostly tented in the hay-fields. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII: THE LITTLE RIVER + + + +We started before six o'clock the next morning, as we were still +twenty-five miles from our resting place, and Dick wanted to be there +before dusk. The journey was pleasant, though to those who do not +know the upper Thames, there is little to say about it. Ellen and I +were once more together in her boat, though Dick, for fairness' sake, +was for having me in his, and letting the two women scull the green +toy. Ellen, however, would not allow this, but claimed me as the +interesting person of the company. "After having come so far," said +she, "I will not be put off with a companion who will be always +thinking of somebody else than me: the guest is the only person who +can amuse me properly. I mean that really," said she, turning to me, +"and have not said it merely as a pretty saying." + +Clara blushed and looked very happy at all this; for I think up to +this time she had been rather frightened of Ellen. As for me I felt +young again, and strange hopes of my youth were mingling with the +pleasure of the present; almost destroying it, and quickening it into +something like pain. + +As we passed through the short and winding reaches of the now quickly +lessening stream, Ellen said: "How pleasant this little river is to +me, who am used to a great wide wash of water; it almost seems as if +we shall have to stop at every reach-end. I expect before I get home +this evening I shall have realised what a little country England is, +since we can so soon get to the end of its biggest river." + +"It is not big," said I, "but it is pretty." + +"Yes," she said, "and don't you find it difficult to imagine the +times when this little pretty country was treated by its folk as if +it had been an ugly characterless waste, with no delicate beauty to +be guarded, with no heed taken of the ever fresh pleasure of the +recurring seasons, and changeful weather, and diverse quality of the +soil, and so forth? How could people be so cruel to themselves?" + +"And to each other," said I. Then a sudden resolution took hold of +me, and I said: "Dear neighbour, I may as well tell you at once that +I find it easier to imagine all that ugly past than you do, because I +myself have been part of it. I see both that you have divined +something of this in me; and also I think you will believe me when I +tell you of it, so that I am going to hide nothing from you at all." + +She was silent a little, and then she said: "My friend, you have +guessed right about me; and to tell you the truth I have followed you +up from Runnymede in order that I might ask you many questions, and +because I saw that you were not one of us; and that interested and +pleased me, and I wanted to make you as happy as you could be. To +say the truth, there was a risk in it," said she, blushing--"I mean +as to Dick and Clara; for I must tell you, since we are going to be +such close friends, that even amongst us, where there are so many +beautiful women, I have often troubled men's minds disastrously. +That is one reason why I was living alone with my father in the +cottage at Runnymede. But it did not answer on that score; for of +course people came there, as the place is not a desert, and they +seemed to find me all the more interesting for living alone like +that, and fell to making stories of me to themselves--like I know you +did, my friend. Well, let that pass. This evening, or to-morrow +morning, I shall make a proposal to you to do something which would +please me very much, and I think would not hurt you." + +I broke in eagerly, saying that I would do anything in the world for +her; for indeed, in spite of my years and the too obvious signs of +them (though that feeling of renewed youth was not a mere passing +sensation, I think)--in spite of my years, I say, I felt altogether +too happy in the company of this delightful girl, and was prepared to +take her confidences for more than they meant perhaps. + +She laughed now, but looked very kindly on me. "Well," she said, +"meantime for the present we will let it be; for I must look at this +new country that we are passing through. See how the river has +changed character again: it is broad now, and the reaches are long +and very slow-running. And look, there is a ferry!" + +I told her the name of it, as I slowed off to put the ferry-chain +over our heads; and on we went passing by a bank clad with oak trees +on our left hand, till the stream narrowed again and deepened, and we +rowed on between walls of tall reeds, whose population of reed +sparrows and warblers were delightfully restless, twittering and +chuckling as the wash of the boats stirred the reeds from the water +upwards in the still, hot morning. + +She smiled with pleasure, and her lazy enjoyment of the new scene +seemed to bring out her beauty doubly as she leaned back amidst the +cushions, though she was far from languid; her idleness being the +idleness of a person, strong and well-knit both in body and mind, +deliberately resting. + +"Look!" she said, springing up suddenly from her place without any +obvious effort, and balancing herself with exquisite grace and ease; +"look at the beautiful old bridge ahead!" + +"I need scarcely look at that," said I, not turning my head away from +her beauty. "I know what it is; though" (with a smile) "we used not +to call it the Old Bridge time agone." + +She looked down upon me kindly, and said, "How well we get on now you +are no longer on your guard against me!" + +And she stood looking thoughtfully at me still, till she had to sit +down as we passed under the middle one of the row of little pointed +arches of the oldest bridge across the Thames. + +"O the beautiful fields!" she said; "I had no idea of the charm of a +very small river like this. The smallness of the scale of +everything, the short reaches, and the speedy change of the banks, +give one a feeling of going somewhere, of coming to something +strange, a feeling of adventure which I have not felt in bigger +waters." + +I looked up at her delightedly; for her voice, saying the very thing +which I was thinking, was like a caress to me. She caught my eye and +her cheeks reddened under their tan, and she said simply: + +"I must tell you, my friend, that when my father leaves the Thames +this summer he will take me away to a place near the Roman wall in +Cumberland; so that this voyage of mine is farewell to the south; of +course with my goodwill in a way; and yet I am sorry for it. I +hadn't the heart to tell Dick yesterday that we were as good as gone +from the Thames-side; but somehow to you I must needs tell it." + +She stopped and seemed very thoughtful for awhile, and then said +smiling: + +"I must say that I don't like moving about from one home to another; +one gets so pleasantly used to all the detail of the life about one; +it fits so harmoniously and happily into one's own life, that +beginning again, even in a small way, is a kind of pain. But I +daresay in the country which you come from, you would think this +petty and unadventurous, and would think the worse of me for it." + +She smiled at me caressingly as she spoke, and I made haste to +answer: "O, no, indeed; again you echo my very thoughts. But I +hardly expected to hear you speak so. I gathered from all I have +heard that there was a great deal of changing of abode amongst you in +this country." + +"Well," she said, "of course people are free to move about; but +except for pleasure-parties, especially in harvest and hay-time, like +this of ours, I don't think they do so much. I admit that I also +have other moods than that of stay-at-home, as I hinted just now, and +I should like to go with you all through the west country--thinking +of nothing," concluded she smiling. + +"I should have plenty to think of," said I. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX: A RESTING-PLACE ON THE UPPER THAMES + + + +Presently at a place where the river flowed round a headland of the +meadows, we stopped a while for rest and victuals, and settled +ourselves on a beautiful bank which almost reached the dignity of a +hill-side: the wide meadows spread before us, and already the scythe +was busy amidst the hay. One change I noticed amidst the quiet +beauty of the fields--to wit, that they were planted with trees here +and there, often fruit-trees, and that there was none of the +niggardly begrudging of space to a handsome tree which I remembered +too well; and though the willows were often polled (or shrowded, as +they call it in that country-side), this was done with some regard to +beauty: I mean that there was no polling of rows on rows so as to +destroy the pleasantness of half a mile of country, but a thoughtful +sequence in the cutting, that prevented a sudden bareness anywhere. +To be short, the fields were everywhere treated as a garden made for +the pleasure as well as the livelihood of all, as old Hammond told me +was the case. + +On this bank or bent of the hill, then, we had our mid-day meal; +somewhat early for dinner, if that mattered, but we had been stirring +early: the slender stream of the Thames winding below us between the +garden of a country I have been telling of; a furlong from us was a +beautiful little islet begrown with graceful trees; on the slopes +westward of us was a wood of varied growth overhanging the narrow +meadow on the south side of the river; while to the north was a wide +stretch of mead rising very gradually from the river's edge. A +delicate spire of an ancient building rose up from out of the trees +in the middle distance, with a few grey houses clustered about it; +while nearer to us, in fact not half a furlong from the water, was a +quite modern stone house--a wide quadrangle of one story, the +buildings that made it being quite low. There was no garden between +it and the river, nothing but a row of pear-trees still quite young +and slender; and though there did not seem to be much ornament about +it, it had a sort of natural elegance, like that of the trees +themselves. + +As we sat looking down on all this in the sweet June day, rather +happy than merry, Ellen, who sat next me, her hand clasped about one +knee, leaned sideways to me, and said in a low voice which Dick and +Clara might have noted if they had not been busy in happy wordless +love-making: "Friend, in your country were the houses of your field- +labourers anything like that?" + +I said: "Well, at any rate the houses of our rich men were not; they +were mere blots upon the face of the land." + +"I find that hard to understand," she said. "I can see why the +workmen, who were so oppressed, should not have been able to live in +beautiful houses; for it takes time and leisure, and minds not over- +burdened with care, to make beautiful dwellings; and I quite +understand that these poor people were not allowed to live in such a +way as to have these (to us) necessary good things. But why the rich +men, who had the time and the leisure and the materials for building, +as it would be in this case, should not have housed themselves well, +I do not understand as yet. I know what you are meaning to say to +me," she said, looking me full in the eyes and blushing, "to wit that +their houses and all belonging to them were generally ugly and base, +unless they chanced to be ancient like yonder remnant of our +forefathers' work" (pointing to the spire); "that they were--let me +see; what is the word?" + +"Vulgar," said I. "We used to say," said I, "that the ugliness and +vulgarity of the rich men's dwellings was a necessary reflection from +the sordidness and bareness of life which they forced upon the poor +people." + +She knit her brows as in thought; then turned a brightened face on +me, as if she had caught the idea, and said: "Yes, friend, I see +what you mean. We have sometimes--those of us who look into these +things--talked this very matter over; because, to say the truth, we +have plenty of record of the so-called arts of the time before +Equality of Life; and there are not wanting people who say that the +state of that society was not the cause of all that ugliness; that +they were ugly in their life because they liked to be, and could have +had beautiful things about them if they had chosen; just as a man or +body of men now may, if they please, make things more or less +beautiful--Stop! I know what you are going to say." + +"Do you?" said I, smiling, yet with a beating heart. + +"Yes," she said; "you are answering me, teaching me, in some way or +another, although you have not spoken the words aloud. You were +going to say that in times of inequality it was an essential +condition of the life of these rich men that they should not +themselves make what they wanted for the adornment of their lives, +but should force those to make them whom they forced to live pinched +and sordid lives; and that as a necessary consequence the sordidness +and pinching, the ugly barrenness of those ruined lives, were worked +up into the adornment of the lives of the rich, and art died out +amongst men? Was that what you would say, my friend?" + +"Yes, yes," I said, looking at her eagerly; for she had risen and was +standing on the edge of the bent, the light wind stirring her dainty +raiment, one hand laid on her bosom, the other arm stretched downward +and clenched in her earnestness. + +"It is true," she said, "it is true! We have proved it true!" + +I think amidst my--something more than interest in her, and +admiration for her, I was beginning to wonder how it would all end. +I had a glimmering of fear of what might follow; of anxiety as to the +remedy which this new age might offer for the missing of something +one might set one's heart on. But now Dick rose to his feet and +cried out in his hearty manner: "Neighbour Ellen, are you +quarrelling with the guest, or are you worrying him to tell you +things which he cannot properly explain to our ignorance?" + +"Neither, dear neighbour," she said. "I was so far from quarrelling +with him that I think I have been making him good friends both with +himself and me. Is it so, dear guest?" she said, looking down at me +with a delightful smile of confidence in being understood. + +"Indeed it is," said I. + +"Well, moreover," she said, "I must say for him that he has explained +himself to me very well indeed, so that I quite understand him." + +"All right," quoth Dick. "When I first set eyes on you at Runnymede +I knew that there was something wonderful in your keenness of wits. +I don't say that as a mere pretty speech to please you," said he +quickly, "but because it is true; and it made me want to see more of +you. But, come, we ought to be going; for we are not half way, and +we ought to be in well before sunset." + +And therewith he took Clara's hand, and led her down the bent. But +Ellen stood thoughtfully looking down for a little, and as I took her +hand to follow Dick, she turned round to me and said: + +"You might tell me a great deal and make many things clear to me, if +you would." + +"Yes," said I, "I am pretty well fit for that,--and for nothing else- +-an old man like me." + +She did not notice the bitterness which, whether I liked it or not, +was in my voice as I spoke, but went on: "It is not so much for +myself; I should be quite content to dream about past times, and if I +could not idealise them, yet at least idealise some of the people who +lived in them. But I think sometimes people are too careless of the +history of the past--too apt to leave it in the hands of old learned +men like Hammond. Who knows? Happy as we are, times may alter; we +may be bitten with some impulse towards change, and many things may +seem too wonderful for us to resist, too exciting not to catch at, if +we do not know that they are but phases of what has been before; and +withal ruinous, deceitful, and sordid." + +As we went slowly down toward the boats she said again: "Not for +myself alone, dear friend; I shall have children; perhaps before the +end a good many;--I hope so. And though of course I cannot force any +special kind of knowledge upon them, yet, my Friend, I cannot help +thinking that just as they might be like me in body, so I might +impress upon them some part of my ways of thinking; that is, indeed, +some of the essential part of myself; that part which was not mere +moods, created by the matters and events round about me. What do you +think?" + +Of one thing I was sure, that her beauty and kindness and eagerness +combined, forced me to think as she did, when she was not earnestly +laying herself open to receive my thoughts. I said, what at the time +was true, that I thought it most important; and presently stood +entranced by the wonder of her grace as she stepped into the light +boat, and held out her hand to me. And so on we went up the Thames +still--or whither? + + + +CHAPTER XXX: THE JOURNEY'S END + + + +On we went. In spite of my new-born excitement about Ellen, and my +gathering fear of where it would land me, I could not help taking +abundant interest in the condition of the river and its banks; all +the more as she never seemed weary of the changing picture, but +looked at every yard of flowery bank and gurgling eddy with the same +kind of affectionate interest which I myself once had so fully, as I +used to think, and perhaps had not altogether lost even in this +strangely changed society with all its wonders. Ellen seemed +delighted with my pleasure at this, that, or the other piece of +carefulness in dealing with the river: the nursing of pretty +corners; the ingenuity in dealing with difficulties of water- +engineering, so that the most obviously useful works looked beautiful +and natural also. All this, I say, pleased me hugely, and she was +pleased at my pleasure--but rather puzzled too. + +"You seem astonished," she said, just after we had passed a mill {2} +which spanned all the stream save the water-way for traffic, but +which was as beautiful in its way as a Gothic cathedral--"You seem +astonished at this being so pleasant to look at." + +"Yes," I said, "in a way I am; though I don't see why it should not +be." + +"Ah!" she said, looking at me admiringly, yet with a lurking smile in +her face, "you know all about the history of the past. Were they not +always careful about this little stream which now adds so much +pleasantness to the country side? It would always be easy to manage +this little river. Ah! I forgot, though," she said, as her eye +caught mine, "in the days we are thinking of pleasure was wholly +neglected in such matters. But how did they manage the river in the +days that you--" Lived in she was going to say; but correcting +herself, said--"in the days of which you have record?" + +"They MISmanaged it," quoth I. "Up to the first half of the +nineteenth century, when it was still more or less of a highway for +the country people, some care was taken of the river and its banks; +and though I don't suppose anyone troubled himself about its aspect, +yet it was trim and beautiful. But when the railways--of which no +doubt you have heard--came into power, they would not allow the +people of the country to use either the natural or artificial +waterways, of which latter there were a great many. I suppose when +we get higher up we shall see one of these; a very important one, +which one of these railways entirely closed to the public, so that +they might force people to send their goods by their private road, +and so tax them as heavily as they could." + +Ellen laughed heartily. "Well," she said, "that is not stated +clearly enough in our history-books, and it is worth knowing. But +certainly the people of those days must have been a curiously lazy +set. We are not either fidgety or quarrelsome now, but if any one +tried such a piece of folly on us, we should use the said waterways, +whoever gaidsaid us: surely that would be simple enough. However, I +remember other cases of this stupidity: when I was on the Rhine two +years ago, I remember they showed us ruins of old castles, which, +according to what we heard, must have been made for pretty much the +same purpose as the railways were. But I am interrupting your +history of the river: pray go on." + +"It is both short and stupid enough," said I. "The river having lost +its practical or commercial value--that is, being of no use to make +money of--" + +She nodded. "I understand what that queer phrase means," said she. +"Go on!" + +"Well, it was utterly neglected, till at last it became a nuisance--" + +"Yes," quoth Ellen, "I understand: like the railways and the robber +knights. Yes?" + +"So then they turned the makeshift business on to it, and handed it +over to a body up in London, who from time to time, in order to show +that they had something to do, did some damage here and there,--cut +down trees, destroying the banks thereby; dredged the river (where it +was not needed always), and threw the dredgings on the fields so as +to spoil them; and so forth. But for the most part they practised +'masterly inactivity,' as it was then called--that is, they drew +their salaries, and let things alone." + +"Drew their salaries," she said. "I know that means that they were +allowed to take an extra lot of other people's goods for doing +nothing. And if that had been all, it really might have been worth +while to let them do so, if you couldn't find any other way of +keeping them quiet; but it seems to me that being so paid, they could +not help doing something, and that something was bound to be +mischief,--because," said she, kindling with sudden anger, "the whole +business was founded on lies and false pretensions. I don't mean +only these river-guardians, but all these master-people I have read +of." + +"Yes," said I, "how happy you are to have got out of the parsimony of +oppression!" + +"Why do you sigh?" she said, kindly and somewhat anxiously. "You +seem to think that it will not last?" + +"It will last for you," quoth I. + +"But why not for you?" said she. "Surely it is for all the world; +and if your country is somewhat backward, it will come into line +before long. Or," she said quickly, "are you thinking that you must +soon go back again? I will make my proposal which I told you of at +once, and so perhaps put an end to your anxiety. I was going to +propose that you should live with us where we are going. I feel +quite old friends with you, and should be sorry to lose you." Then +she smiled on me, and said: "Do you know, I begin to suspect you of +wanting to nurse a sham sorrow, like the ridiculous characters in +some of those queer old novels that I have come across now and then." + +I really had almost begun to suspect it myself, but I refused to +admit so much; so I sighed no more, but fell to giving my delightful +companion what little pieces of history I knew about the river and +its borderlands; and the time passed pleasantly enough; and between +the two of us (she was a better sculler than I was, and seemed quite +tireless) we kept up fairly well with Dick, hot as the afternoon was, +and swallowed up the way at a great rate. At last we passed under +another ancient bridge; and through meadows bordered at first with +huge elm-trees mingled with sweet chestnut of younger but very +elegant growth; and the meadows widened out so much that it seemed as +if the trees must now be on the bents only, or about the houses, +except for the growth of willows on the immediate banks; so that the +wide stretch of grass was little broken here. Dick got very much +excited now, and often stood up in the boat to cry out to us that +this was such and such a field, and so forth; and we caught fire at +his enthusiasm for the hay-field and its harvest, and pulled our +best. + +At last as we were passing through a reach of the river where on the +side of the towing-path was a highish bank with a thick whispering +bed of reeds before it, and on the other side a higher bank, clothed +with willows that dipped into the stream and crowned by ancient elm- +trees, we saw bright figures coming along close to the bank, as if +they were looking for something; as, indeed, they were, and we--that +is, Dick and his company--were what they were looking for. Dick lay +on his oars, and we followed his example. He gave a joyous shout to +the people on the bank, which was echoed back from it in many voices, +deep and sweetly shrill; for there were above a dozen persons, both +men, women, and children. A tall handsome woman, with black wavy +hair and deep-set grey eyes, came forward on the bank and waved her +hand gracefully to us, and said: + +"Dick, my friend, we have almost had to wait for you! What excuse +have you to make for your slavish punctuality? Why didn't you take +us by surprise, and come yesterday?" + +"O," said Dick, with an almost imperceptible jerk of his head toward +our boat, "we didn't want to come too quick up the water; there is so +much to see for those who have not been up here before." + +"True, true," said the stately lady, for stately is the word that +must be used for her; "and we want them to get to know the wet way +from the east thoroughly well, since they must often use it now. But +come ashore at once, Dick, and you, dear neighbours; there is a break +in the reeds and a good landing-place just round the corner. We can +carry up your things, or send some of the lads after them." + +"No, no," said Dick; "it is easier going by water, though it is but a +step. Besides, I want to bring my friend here to the proper place. +We will go on to the Ford; and you can talk to us from the bank as we +paddle along." + +He pulled his sculls through the water, and on we went, turning a +sharp angle and going north a little. Presently we saw before us a +bank of elm-trees, which told us of a house amidst them, though I +looked in vain for the grey walls that I expected to see there. As +we went, the folk on the bank talked indeed, mingling their kind +voices with the cuckoo's song, the sweet strong whistle of the +blackbirds, and the ceaseless note of the corn-crake as he crept +through the long grass of the mowing-field; whence came waves of +fragrance from the flowering clover amidst of the ripe grass. + +In a few minutes we had passed through a deep eddying pool into the +sharp stream that ran from the ford, and beached our craft on a tiny +strand of limestone-gravel, and stepped ashore into the arms of our +up-river friends, our journey done. + +I disentangled myself from the merry throng, and mounting on the +cart-road that ran along the river some feet above the water, I +looked round about me. The river came down through a wide meadow on +my left, which was grey now with the ripened seeding grasses; the +gleaming water was lost presently by a turn of the bank, but over the +meadow I could see the mingled gables of a building where I knew the +lock must be, and which now seemed to combine a mill with it. A low +wooded ridge bounded the river-plain to the south and south-east, +whence we had come, and a few low houses lay about its feet and up +its slope. I turned a little to my right, and through the hawthorn +sprays and long shoots of the wild roses could see the flat country +spreading out far away under the sun of the calm evening, till +something that might be called hills with a look of sheep-pastures +about them bounded it with a soft blue line. Before me, the elm- +boughs still hid most of what houses there might be in this river- +side dwelling of men; but to the right of the cart-road a few grey +buildings of the simplest kind showed here and there. + +There I stood in a dreamy mood, and rubbed my eyes as if I were not +wholly awake, and half expected to see the gay-clad company of +beautiful men and women change to two or three spindle-legged back- +bowed men and haggard, hollow-eyed, ill-favoured women, who once wore +down the soil of this land with their heavy hopeless feet, from day +to day, and season to season, and year to year. But no change came +as yet, and my heart swelled with joy as I thought of all the +beautiful grey villages, from the river to the plain and the plain to +the uplands, which I could picture to myself so well, all peopled now +with this happy and lovely folk, who had cast away riches and +attained to wealth. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI: AN OLD HOUSE AMONGST NEW FOLK + + + +As I stood there Ellen detached herself from our happy friends who +still stood on the little strand and came up to me. She took me by +the hand, and said softly, "Take me on to the house at once; we need +not wait for the others: I had rather not." + +I had a mind to say that I did not know the way thither, and that the +river-side dwellers should lead; but almost without my will my feet +moved on along the road they knew. The raised way led us into a +little field bounded by a backwater of the river on one side; on the +right hand we could see a cluster of small houses and barns, new and +old, and before us a grey stone barn and a wall partly overgrown with +ivy, over which a few grey gables showed. The village road ended in +the shallow of the aforesaid backwater. We crossed the road, and +again almost without my will my hand raised the latch of a door in +the wall, and we stood presently on a stone path which led up to the +old house to which fate in the shape of Dick had so strangely brought +me in this new world of men. My companion gave a sigh of pleased +surprise and enjoyment; nor did I wonder, for the garden between the +wall and the house was redolent of the June flowers, and the roses +were rolling over one another with that delicious superabundance of +small well-tended gardens which at first sight takes away all thought +from the beholder save that of beauty. The blackbirds were singing +their loudest, the doves were cooing on the roof-ridge, the rooks in +the high elm-trees beyond were garrulous among the young leaves, and +the swifts wheeled whining about the gables. And the house itself +was a fit guardian for all the beauty of this heart of summer. + +Once again Ellen echoed my thoughts as she said: + +"Yes, friend, this is what I came out for to see; this many-gabled +old house built by the simple country-folk of the long-past times, +regardless of all the turmoil that was going on in cities and courts, +is lovely still amidst all the beauty which these latter days have +created; and I do not wonder at our friends tending it carefully and +making much of it. It seems to me as if it had waited for these +happy days, and held in it the gathered crumbs of happiness of the +confused and turbulent past." + +She led me up close to the house, and laid her shapely sun-browned +hand and arm on the lichened wall as if to embrace it, and cried out, +"O me! O me! How I love the earth, and the seasons, and weather, +and all things that deal with it, and all that grows out of it,--as +this has done!" + +I could not answer her, or say a word. Her exultation and pleasure +were so keen and exquisite, and her beauty, so delicate, yet so +interfused with energy, expressed it so fully, that any added word +would have been commonplace and futile. I dreaded lest the others +should come in suddenly and break the spell she had cast about me; +but we stood there a while by the corner of the big gable of the +house, and no one came. I heard the merry voices some way off +presently, and knew that they were going along the river to the great +meadow on the other side of the house and garden. + +We drew back a little, and looked up at the house: the door and the +windows were open to the fragrant sun-cured air; from the upper +window-sills hung festoons of flowers in honour of the festival, as +if the others shared in the love for the old house. + +"Come in," said Ellen. "I hope nothing will spoil it inside; but I +don't think it will. Come! we must go back presently to the others. +They have gone on to the tents; for surely they must have tents +pitched for the haymakers--the house would not hold a tithe of the +folk, I am sure." + +She led me on to the door, murmuring little above her breath as she +did so, "The earth and the growth of it and the life of it! If I +could but say or show how I love it!" + +We went in, and found no soul in any room as we wandered from room to +room,--from the rose-covered porch to the strange and quaint garrets +amongst the great timbers of the roof, where of old time the tillers +and herdsmen of the manor slept, but which a-nights seemed now, by +the small size of the beds, and the litter of useless and disregarded +matters--bunches of dying flowers, feathers of birds, shells of +starling's eggs, caddis worms in mugs, and the like--seemed to be +inhabited for the time by children. + +Everywhere there was but little furniture, and that only the most +necessary, and of the simplest forms. The extravagant love of +ornament which I had noted in this people elsewhere seemed here to +have given place to the feeling that the house itself and its +associations was the ornament of the country life amidst which it had +been left stranded from old times, and that to re-ornament it would +but take away its use as a piece of natural beauty. + +We sat down at last in a room over the wall which Ellen had caressed, +and which was still hung with old tapestry, originally of no artistic +value, but now faded into pleasant grey tones which harmonised +thoroughly well with the quiet of the place, and which would have +been ill supplanted by brighter and more striking decoration. + +I asked a few random questions of Ellen as we sat there, but scarcely +listened to her answers, and presently became silent, and then scarce +conscious of anything, but that I was there in that old room, the +doves crooning from the roofs of the barn and dovecot beyond the +window opposite to me. + +My thought returned to me after what I think was but a minute or two, +but which, as in a vivid dream, seemed as if it had lasted a long +time, when I saw Ellen sitting, looking all the fuller of life and +pleasure and desire from the contrast with the grey faded tapestry +with its futile design, which was now only bearable because it had +grown so faint and feeble. + +She looked at me kindly, but as if she read me through and through. +She said: "You have begun again your never-ending contrast between +the past and this present. Is it not so?" + +"True," said I. "I was thinking of what you, with your capacity and +intelligence, joined to your love of pleasure, and your impatience of +unreasonable restraint--of what you would have been in that past. +And even now, when all is won and has been for a long time, my heart +is sickened with thinking of all the waste of life that has gone on +for so many years." + +"So many centuries," she said, "so many ages!" + +"True," I said; "too true," and sat silent again. + +She rose up and said: "Come, I must not let you go off into a dream +again so soon. If we must lose you, I want you to see all that you +can see first before you go back again." + +"Lose me?" I said--"go back again? Am I not to go up to the North +with you? What do you mean?" + +She smiled somewhat sadly, and said: "Not yet; we will not talk of +that yet. Only, what were you thinking of just now?" + +I said falteringly: "I was saying to myself, The past, the present? +Should she not have said the contrast of the present with the future: +of blind despair with hope?" + +"I knew it," she said. Then she caught my hand and said excitedly, +"Come, while there is yet time! Come!" And she led me out of the +room; and as we were going downstairs and out of the house into the +garden by a little side door which opened out of a curious lobby, she +said in a calm voice, as if she wished me to forget her sudden +nervousness: "Come! we ought to join the others before they come +here looking for us. And let me tell you, my friend, that I can see +you are too apt to fall into mere dreamy musing: no doubt because +you are not yet used to our life of repose amidst of energy; of work +which is pleasure and pleasure which is work." + +She paused a little, and as we came out into the lovely garden again, +she said: "My friend, you were saying that you wondered what I +should have been if I had lived in those past days of turmoil and +oppression. Well, I think I have studied the history of them to know +pretty well. I should have been one of the poor, for my father when +he was working was a mere tiller of the soil. Well, I could not have +borne that; therefore my beauty and cleverness and brightness" (she +spoke with no blush or simper of false shame) "would have been sold +to rich men, and my life would have been wasted indeed; for I know +enough of that to know that I should have had no choice, no power of +will over my life; and that I should never have bought pleasure from +the rich men, or even opportunity of action, whereby I might have won +some true excitement. I should have wrecked and wasted in one way or +another, either by penury or by luxury. Is it not so?" + +"Indeed it is," said I. + +She was going to say something else, when a little gate in the fence, +which led into a small elm-shaded field, was opened, and Dick came +with hasty cheerfulness up the garden path, and was presently +standing between us, a hand laid on the shoulder of each. He said: +"Well, neighbours, I thought you two would like to see the old house +quietly without a crowd in it. Isn't it a jewel of a house after its +kind? Well, come along, for it is getting towards dinner-time. +Perhaps you, guest, would like a swim before we sit down to what I +fancy will be a pretty long feast?" + +"Yes," I said, "I should like that." + +"Well, good-bye for the present, neighbour Ellen," said Dick. "Here +comes Clara to take care of you, as I fancy she is more at home +amongst our friends here." + +Clara came out of the fields as he spoke; and with one look at Ellen +I turned and went with Dick, doubting, if I must say the truth, +whether I should see her again. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII: THE FEAST'S BEGINNING--THE END + + + +Dick brought me at once into the little field which, as I had seen +from the garden, was covered with gaily-coloured tents arranged in +orderly lanes, about which were sitting and lying on the grass some +fifty or sixty men, women, and children, all of them in the height of +good temper and enjoyment--with their holiday mood on, so to say. + +"You are thinking that we don't make a great show as to numbers," +said Dick; "but you must remember that we shall have more to-morrow; +because in this haymaking work there is room for a great many people +who are not over-skilled in country matters: and there are many who +lead sedentary lives, whom it would be unkind to deprive of their +pleasure in the hay-field--scientific men and close students +generally: so that the skilled workmen, outside those who are wanted +as mowers, and foremen of the haymaking, stand aside, and take a +little downright rest, which you know is good for them, whether they +like it or not: or else they go to other countrysides, as I am doing +here. You see, the scientific men and historians, and students +generally, will not be wanted till we are fairly in the midst of the +tedding, which of course will not be till the day after to-morrow." +With that he brought me out of the little field on to a kind of +causeway above the river-side meadow, and thence turning to the left +on to a path through the mowing grass, which was thick and very tall, +led on till we came to the river above the weir and its mill. There +we had a delightful swim in the broad piece of water above the lock, +where the river looked much bigger than its natural size from its +being dammed up by the weir. + +"Now we are in a fit mood for dinner," said Dick, when we had dressed +and were going through the grass again; "and certainly of all the +cheerful meals in the year, this one of haysel is the cheerfullest; +not even excepting the corn-harvest feast; for then the year is +beginning to fail, and one cannot help having a feeling behind all +the gaiety, of the coming of the dark days, and the shorn fields and +empty gardens; and the spring is almost too far off to look forward +to. It is, then, in the autumn, when one almost believes in death." + +"How strangely you talk," said I, "of such a constantly recurring and +consequently commonplace matter as the sequence of the seasons." And +indeed these people were like children about such things, and had +what seemed to me a quite exaggerated interest in the weather, a fine +day, a dark night, or a brilliant one, and the like. + +"Strangely?" said he. "Is it strange to sympathise with the year and +its gains and losses?" + +"At any rate," said I, "if you look upon the course of the year as a +beautiful and interesting drama, which is what I think you do, you +should be as much pleased and interested with the winter and its +trouble and pain as with this wonderful summer luxury." + +"And am I not?" said Dick, rather warmly; "only I can't look upon it +as if I were sitting in a theatre seeing the play going on before me, +myself taking no part of it. It is difficult," said he, smiling +good-humouredly, "for a non-literary man like me to explain myself +properly, like that dear girl Ellen would; but I mean that I am part +of it all, and feel the pain as well as the pleasure in my own +person. It is not done for me by somebody else, merely that I may +eat and drink and sleep; but I myself do my share of it." + +In his way also, as Ellen in hers, I could see that Dick had that +passionate love of the earth which was common to but few people at +least, in the days I knew; in which the prevailing feeling amongst +intellectual persons was a kind of sour distaste for the changing +drama of the year, for the life of earth and its dealings with men. +Indeed, in those days it was thought poetic and imaginative to look +upon life as a thing to be borne, rather than enjoyed. + +So I mused till Dick's laugh brought me back into the Oxfordshire +hay-fields. "One thing seems strange to me," said he--"that I must +needs trouble myself about the winter and its scantiness, in the +midst of the summer abundance. If it hadn't happened to me before, I +should have thought it was your doing, guest; that you had thrown a +kind of evil charm over me. Now, you know," said he, suddenly, +"that's only a joke, so you mustn't take it to heart." + +"All right," said I; "I don't." Yet I did feel somewhat uneasy at +his words, after all. + +We crossed the causeway this time, and did not turn back to the +house, but went along a path beside a field of wheat now almost ready +to blossom. I said: + +"We do not dine in the house or garden, then?--as indeed I did not +expect to do. Where do we meet, then? For I can see that the houses +are mostly very small." + +"Yes," said Dick, "you are right, they are small in this country- +side: there are so many good old houses left, that people dwell a +good deal in such small detached houses. As to our dinner, we are +going to have our feast in the church. I wish, for your sake, it +were as big and handsome as that of the old Roman town to the west, +or the forest town to the north; {3} but, however, it will hold us +all; and though it is a little thing, it is beautiful in its way." + +This was somewhat new to me, this dinner in a church, and I thought +of the church-ales of the Middle Ages; but I said nothing, and +presently we came out into the road which ran through the village. +Dick looked up and down it, and seeing only two straggling groups +before us, said: "It seems as if we must be somewhat late; they are +all gone on; and they will be sure to make a point of waiting for +you, as the guest of guests, since you come from so far." + +He hastened as he spoke, and I kept up with him, and presently we +came to a little avenue of lime-trees which led us straight to the +church porch, from whose open door came the sound of cheerful voices +and laughter, and varied merriment. + +"Yes," said Dick, "it's the coolest place for one thing, this hot +evening. Come along; they will be glad to see you." + +Indeed, in spite of my bath, I felt the weather more sultry and +oppressive than on any day of our journey yet. + +We went into the church, which was a simple little building with one +little aisle divided from the nave by three round arches, a chancel, +and a rather roomy transept for so small a building, the windows +mostly of the graceful Oxfordshire fourteenth century type. There +was no modern architectural decoration in it; it looked, indeed, as +if none had been attempted since the Puritans whitewashed the +mediaeval saints and histories on the wall. It was, however, gaily +dressed up for this latter-day festival, with festoons of flowers +from arch to arch, and great pitchers of flowers standing about on +the floor; while under the west window hung two cross scythes, their +blades polished white, and gleaming from out of the flowers that +wreathed them. But its best ornament was the crowd of handsome, +happy-looking men and women that were set down to table, and who, +with their bright faces and rich hair over their gay holiday raiment, +looked, as the Persian poet puts it, like a bed of tulips in the sun. +Though the church was a small one, there was plenty of room; for a +small church makes a biggish house; and on this evening there was no +need to set cross tables along the transepts; though doubtless these +would be wanted next day, when the learned men of whom Dick has been +speaking should be come to take their more humble part in the +haymaking. + +I stood on the threshold with the expectant smile on my face of a man +who is going to take part in a festivity which he is really prepared +to enjoy. Dick, standing by me was looking round the company with an +air of proprietorship in them, I thought. Opposite me sat Clara and +Ellen, with Dick's place open between them: they were smiling, but +their beautiful faces were each turned towards the neighbours on +either side, who were talking to them, and they did not seem to see +me. I turned to Dick, expecting him to lead me forward, and he +turned his face to me; but strange to say, though it was as smiling +and cheerful as ever, it made no response to my glance--nay, he +seemed to take no heed at all of my presence, and I noticed that none +of the company looked at me. A pang shot through me, as of some +disaster long expected and suddenly realised. Dick moved on a little +without a word to me. I was not three yards from the two women who, +though they had been my companions for such a short time, had really, +as I thought, become my friends. Clara's face was turned full upon +me now, but she also did not seem to see me, though I know I was +trying to catch her eye with an appealing look. I turned to Ellen, +and she DID seem to recognise me for an instant; but her bright face +turned sad directly, and she shook her head with a mournful look, and +the next moment all consciousness of my presence had faded from her +face. + +I felt lonely and sick at heart past the power of words to describe. +I hung about a minute longer, and then turned and went out of the +porch again and through the lime-avenue into the road, while the +blackbirds sang their strongest from the bushes about me in the hot +June evening. + +Once more without any conscious effort of will I set my face toward +the old house by the ford, but as I turned round the corner which led +to the remains of the village cross, I came upon a figure strangely +contrasting with the joyous, beautiful people I had left behind in +the church. It was a man who looked old, but whom I knew from habit, +now half forgotten, was really not much more than fifty. His face +was rugged, and grimed rather than dirty; his eyes dull and bleared; +his body bent, his calves thin and spindly, his feet dragging and +limping. His clothing was a mixture of dirt and rags long over- +familiar to me. As I passed him he touched his hat with some real +goodwill and courtesy, and much servility. + +Inexpressibly shocked, I hurried past him and hastened along the road +that led to the river and the lower end of the village; but suddenly +I saw as it were a black cloud rolling along to meet me, like a +nightmare of my childish days; and for a while I was conscious of +nothing else than being in the dark, and whether I was walking, or +sitting, or lying down, I could not tell. + +* * * + +I lay in my bed in my house at dingy Hammersmith thinking about it +all; and trying to consider if I was overwhelmed with despair at +finding I had been dreaming a dream; and strange to say, I found that +I was not so despairing. + +Or indeed WAS it a dream? If so, why was I so conscious all along +that I was really seeing all that new life from the outside, still +wrapped up in the prejudices, the anxieties, the distrust of this +time of doubt and struggle? + +All along, though those friends were so real to me, I had been +feeling as if I had no business amongst them: as though the time +would come when they would reject me, and say, as Ellen's last +mournful look seemed to say, "No, it will not do; you cannot be of +us; you belong so entirely to the unhappiness of the past that our +happiness even would weary you. Go back again, now you have seen us, +and your outward eyes have learned that in spite of all the +infallible maxims of your day there is yet a time of rest in store +for the world, when mastery has changed into fellowship--but not +before. Go back again, then, and while you live you will see all +round you people engaged in making others live lives which are not +their own, while they themselves care nothing for their own real +lives--men who hate life though they fear death. Go back and be the +happier for having seen us, for having added a little hope to your +struggle. Go on living while you may, striving, with whatsoever pain +and labour needs must be, to build up little by little the new day of +fellowship, and rest, and happiness." + +Yes, surely! and if others can see it as I have seen it, then it may +be called a vision rather than a dream. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} "Elegant," I mean, as a Persian pattern is elegant; not like a +rich "elegant" lady out for a morning call. I should rather call +that genteel. + +{2} I should have said that all along the Thames there were +abundance of mills used for various purposes; none of which were in +any degree unsightly, and many strikingly beautiful; and the gardens +about them marvels of loveliness. + +{3} Cirencester and Burford he must have meant. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of News from Nowhere, by William Morris + diff --git a/old/nwsnw10.zip b/old/nwsnw10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa7717d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nwsnw10.zip |