"Is this so?" said the captain sternly, while silence came down on the party, except for the sobs of Jenny Hewlett, who had gone into a dirty pool, and whom Rachel Mole and Betsy Seddon were brushing down vigorously.
"Quite true, sir," returned Pucklechurch. "They young dogs got behind, and played the poor maids this trick."
"Who did?" demanded Mr Harford.
Bessy Linwood spoke up and said it was "all on 'em," but she saw Fred Allen at it.
No doubt, the fun of the thing had been too much for the boys, in their holiday mood of thoughtlessness, and they stood looking sheepish, but Mr Harford was very stern and sharp with them.
"Lads, do you think that, if you could play such a trick, you can be in a fit state to take solemn vows upon you?"
No one spoke up except Fred Allen. "We didn't do 'em no harm," he said.
"No harm! To disturb all good thoughts in their minds and your own, and drive out all serious impressions by this mischievous trick! Now, will any one come forward and say he is sorry?"
Mr Harford waited, but no one stirred. He bade the girls get in again, and Pucklechurch drive them on. He waited again, but no one spoke. Indeed, Allen and another big youth were seen making for a gap in the hedge.
"Will no one say he is sorry for what was an idle trick, but very wrong when you ought to be thinking how you would be giving yourselves up to God?"
They stood like stocks, and Captain Carbonel said, "Has no one the grace to regret a very improper and thoughtless action?"
Still no one moved.
"Then," said the clergyman, "there is no choice left to me. It would be profanation to take persons in such a mood to make vows, and kneel to receive God's grace, which they evidently make light of. Whoever will not come and apologise must go home."
There was no movement among the white round frocks. Boys are like sheep: what one does, the others do, and few are to be found to stand alone. Mr Harford looked anxiously at Johnnie Hewlett and one or two more, from whom he expected better things, but they only looked down, with their hands in their pockets and sullen faces; and Captain Carbonel held up his watch to show that they should all be too late. There was nothing to be done but to return to their seats, and urge the post-boy to hurry on.
The bells of Poppleby church might ring merrily, but the heart of the curate was very heavy with the questions-whether this misfortune could be owing to his not having impressed the lads enough while preparing them, or to his having been too hasty and peremptory in his indignation.
Captain Carbonel said they were such intolerable louts that to disappoint them was all the better, and they would know how to present themselves more seriously another time, but Mr Harford much doubted whether they would ever present themselves again.
"It would just be mockery for them to make the vow," said the captain.
"Ah! they miss the grace," said the curate.
Harriet Allen was crying all through the time of the Confirmation when she perceived that her brother's head was not among the boys. Indeed the only male candidate from Uphill was Will Cox, who had gone with his cousins from Downhill. Most of the boys were glad to have got off making the vow, for, in spite of all Mr Harford's teaching, there were some who still believed that they would take all their god-parents' sins upon them, or, at any rate, that they should feel more bound to take heed to their ways.
Johnnie Hewlett indeed was sorry when he went home to his aunt, and had to tell her why he had not been confirmed after all.
"Oh, Johnnie, Johnnie, you didn't go for to upset the maids?"
"I? No. I was at the bottom of the hill with Harry Coles."
"Then why couldn't you have said so?" He hung his head and twisted his hands. "Oh, Johnnie, what was it? Was it only the going along with the others?"
Still he made no reply, but Judith saw in his face that this was the reason.
"Oh, my boy! To think that you did not feel that God's blessing and grace were worth standing out for against a lot of idle chaps; and now you won't be able to take the Sacrament!"
"Father never would let I," returned the boy.
"Oh, my dear, dear lad, don't you know that you might have got strength, and would get strength, to stand up for yourself, and do what you ought. Oh dear! My hope is gone!" she cried bitterly, and though Johnnie got away from the sight, her distress really found its way into his heart, while he said very little except, "There, there, auntie, never mind. Maybe I'll try again next time."
"You promise me, John Hewlett; even if I'm not here to see?"
"Yes, I promise, aunt," said he, glad to have silenced her regrets, and hoping the fulfilment was a good way off.
The parishioners, especially those who had only sons and not daughters, were very angry. They did not value Confirmation greatly, but that the curate after "making such a work with the poor lads as never was," should have presumed to reject them made them furious. Mr Allen even threatened to write to Dr Fogram, but as he did not know how to address a letter, to what he called "Oxford College," he contented himself with walking off with his belongings to Downhill church every Sunday-that is, when they went anywhere.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. PROGRESS OR NO PROGRESS.
"For some cry quick and some cry slow,
But while the hills remain,
Uphill, too slow, will need the whip,
Downhill, too quick, the chain."
Tennyson.
Several years had passed away, and Mary's Approach had never been made, though the lane had been improved and worn a good deal smoother, and the Duchess and other grandees had found their way along it.
There were other expenses and other interests. Dora was married. A fellow-soldier of Captain Carbonel's had come on a visit, and had carried the bright young sister off to Malta. She was a terrible loss to all the parish, and it would have been worse if Sophia had not grown up to take her place, and to be the great helper in the school and parish, as well as the story-teller and playmate, the ever ready "Aunt Sophy" of the little children.
And these years had made the farm and garden look much prettier and neater altogether. The garden was full of flowers, and roses climbed up the verandah; and the home-field beyond looked quite park-like with iron railings between, so that the pretty gentle Alderney cows could be plainly seen.
The skim-milk afforded by those same cows went in great part to the delicate children in the village, though Mrs Carbonel had every year to fight a battle for it with Master Pucklechurch and his wife, who considered the whole of it as the right of the calves and little pigs, and would hardly allow that the little human Bartons or Morrises were more worth rearing.
There had been a visitation of measles through the village-very bad in the cottages, and at Greenhow the three little children had all been very ill; the second, Dora, died, and the elder one, little Mary, remained exceedingly delicate, screaming herself ill on any alarm or agitation, and needing the most anxious care.
The cottagers had learnt to look to Greenhow and the "Gobblealls" as the safe resource in time of any distress, whether of a child having eaten too many blackberries, or of a man being helpless from "rhumatiz;" a girl needing a recommendation to a service, or "Please, sir, I wants to know if it is allowed for a man to kill my father?" which was the startling preface to George Truman's complaint of a public-house row, in which his father had got a black eye.
Still, there was less fighting among the men and much less among the women, since Nanny Barton and Betsy Seddon had lodged counter-accusations after a great quarrel over the well, when Nanny had called Betsy, among other choice epithets, "a sneaking hypercriting old cat of a goody," and Betsy had returned the compliment by terming Nanny "a drunken, trapesing, good-for-nothing jade, as had no call to good water." On which Nanny had torn out a large bunch of Betsy's hair, and Betsy had used her claws to make long scratches on Nanny's cheeks, the scars of which were cherished for the magistrates! It was expected in the village that Betsy would get off, being that she and her husband worked for Captain Gobbleall, and Nanny was known, when "a bit overtaken," to have sauced Miss Sophy. Nevertheless they were equally fined, with the choice of three weeks' imprisonment, and, to every one's surprise, the fines were produced.