The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot [rocket ebook reader txt] 📗

“scrazing” the tops of mahogany tables over which better folks than themselves had had to⁠—suffer a waste of tissue through evaporation. She was not scrubbing indiscriminately, for there would be further dirt of the same atrocious kind made by people who had still to fetch away their purchases; but she was bent on bringing the parlour, where that “pipe-smoking pig,” the bailiff, had sat, to such an appearance of scant comfort as could be given to it by cleanliness and the few articles of furniture bought in for the family. Her mistress and the young folks should have their tea in it that night, Kezia was determined.

It was between five and six o’clock, near the usual teatime, when she came upstairs and said that Master Tom was wanted. The person who wanted him was in the kitchen, and in the first moments, by the imperfect fire and candle light, Tom had not even an indefinite sense of any acquaintance with the rather broad-set but active figure, perhaps two years older than himself, that looked at him with a pair of blue eyes set in a disc of freckles, and pulled some curly red locks with a strong intention of respect. A low-crowned oilskin-covered hat, and a certain shiny deposit of dirt on the rest of the costume, as of tablets prepared for writing upon, suggested a calling that had to do with boats; but this did not help Tom’s memory.

“Sarvant, Master Tom,” said he of the red locks, with a smile which seemed to break through a self-imposed air of melancholy. “You don’t know me again, I doubt,” he went on, as Tom continued to look at him inquiringly; “but I’d like to talk to you by yourself a bit, please.”

“There’s a fire i’ the parlour, Master Tom,” said Kezia, who objected to leaving the kitchen in the crisis of toasting.

“Come this way, then,” said Tom, wondering if this young fellow belonged to Guest & Co.’s Wharf, for his imagination ran continually toward that particular spot; and uncle Deane might any time be sending for him to say that there was a situation at liberty.

The bright fire in the parlour was the only light that showed the few chairs, the bureau, the carpetless floor, and the one table⁠—no, not the one table; there was a second table, in a corner, with a large Bible and a few other books upon it. It was this new strange bareness that Tom felt first, before he thought of looking again at the face which was also lit up by the fire, and which stole a half-shy, questioning glance at him as the entirely strange voice said:

“Why! you don’t remember Bob, then, as you gen the pocketknife to, Mr. Tom?”

The rough-handled pocketknife was taken out in the same moment, and the largest blade opened by way of irresistible demonstration.

“What! Bob Jakin?” said Tom, not with any cordial delight, for he felt a little ashamed of that early intimacy symbolised by the pocketknife, and was not at all sure that Bob’s motives for recalling it were entirely admirable.

“Ay, ay, Bob Jakin, if Jakin it must be, ’cause there’s so many Bobs as you went arter the squerrils with, that day as I plumped right down from the bough, and bruised my shins a good un⁠—but I got the squerril tight for all that, an’ a scratter it was. An’ this littlish blade’s broke, you see, but I wouldn’t hev a new un put in, ’cause they might be cheatin’ me an’ givin’ me another knife instid, for there isn’t such a blade i’ the country⁠—it’s got used to my hand, like. An’ there was niver nobody else gen me nothin’ but what I got by my own sharpness, only you, Mr. Tom; if it wasn’t Bill Fawks as gen me the terrier pup istid o’ drowndin’t it, an’ I had to jaw him a good un afore he’d give it me.”

Bob spoke with a sharp and rather treble volubility, and got through his long speech with surprising despatch, giving the blade of his knife an affectionate rub on his sleeve when he had finished.

“Well, Bob,” said Tom, with a slight air of patronage, the foregoing reminscences having disposed him to be as friendly as was becoming, though there was no part of his acquaintance with Bob that he remembered better than the cause of their parting quarrel; “is there anything I can do for you?”

“Why, no, Mr. Tom,” answered Bob, shutting up his knife with a click and returning it to his pocket, where he seemed to be feeling for something else. “I shouldn’t ha’ come back upon you now ye’re i’ trouble, an’ folks say as the master, as I used to frighten the birds for, an’ he flogged me a bit for fun when he catched me eatin’ the turnip, as they say he’ll niver lift up his head no more⁠—I shouldn’t ha’ come now to ax you to gi’ me another knife ’cause you gen me one afore. If a chap gives me one black eye, that’s enough for me; I shan’t ax him for another afore I sarve him out; an’ a good turn’s worth as much as a bad un, anyhow. I shall niver grow down’ards again, Mr. Tom, an’ you war the little chap as I liked the best when I war a little chap, for all you leathered me, and wouldn’t look at me again. There’s Dick Brumby, there, I could leather him as much as I’d a mind; but lors! you get tired o’ leatherin’ a chap when you can niver make him see what you want him to shy at. I’n seen chaps as ’ud stand starin’ at a bough till their eyes shot out, afore they’d see as a bird’s tail warn’t a leaf. It’s poor work goin’ wi’ such raff. But you war allays a rare un at shying, Mr. Tom, an’ I could trusten to you for droppin’ down wi’ your stick in the nick o’ time at a