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Bealby Chapter 6 - Bealby and the Tramp Part One · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Chapter six of Bilby a Holiday. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Kelly Taylor Bilby a Holiday by H. G. Wells,
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Speaker 1: Chapter six, Bilby and the Tramp, Part one sub chapter one.
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Speaker 1: Bilby was loath to leave the caravan party, even when,
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Speaker 1: by his own gross negligence, it had ceased to be
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Speaker 1: a caravan party. He made off regretfully along the crest
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Speaker 1: of the hills, through low bushes of yew and box
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Speaker 1: until the clamor of the disaster was no longer in
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Speaker 1: his ears. Then he halted for a time and stood
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Speaker 1: sorrowing and listening, And then turned up by a fence
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Speaker 1: along the border of a plantation, and so came into
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Speaker 1: a little overhung road. His ideas of his immediate future
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Speaker 1: were vague in the extreme. He was a receptive expectation.
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Speaker 1: Since his departure from the Gardener's cottage circumstances had handed
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Speaker 1: him on. They had been interesting, but unstable circumstances. He
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Speaker 1: supposed they would still hand him on, so far as
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Speaker 1: he had any definitive view about his intentions. It was
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Speaker 1: that he was running away to see, and that he
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Speaker 1: was getting hungry. It was also he presently discovered getting
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Speaker 1: very dark, very gently and steadily, and the overhung road.
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Speaker 1: After some tortuosities expired, suddenly upon the bosom of a great, gray,
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Speaker 1: empty common with some distant mysterious hedges. It seemed high
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Speaker 1: time to Bilbe that something happened of a comforting nature.
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Speaker 1: Always hitherto some thing or some one had come to
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Speaker 1: his help when the world grew dark and cold, and
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Speaker 1: had given him supper, or put him or sent him
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Speaker 1: to bed. Even when he had passed a night in
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Speaker 1: the intersises of Chantz, he had known that there was
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Speaker 1: a bed at quite a little distance under the stairs.
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Speaker 1: If only that loud voice at and shouted curses whenever
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Speaker 1: he moved, he would have gone to it. But as
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Speaker 1: he went across this common in the gloaming, it became
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Speaker 1: apparent that this amiable routine was to be broken. For
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Speaker 1: the first time, he realized that the world could be
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Speaker 1: a homeless world, and it had become very still, disagreeably still,
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Speaker 1: and full of ambiguous shadows. That common was not only
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Speaker 1: an unsheltered place, he felt, but an unfriendly place, and
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Speaker 1: he hurried to a gate at the further end. He
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Speaker 1: kept glancing to the right and to the left. It
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Speaker 1: would be pleasanter when he got through that gate and
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Speaker 1: shut it after him. In England there are no gray
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Speaker 1: wolves yet at time one thinks of wolves, gray wolves
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Speaker 1: the color of twilight, and running noiselessly, almost noiselessly, at
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Speaker 1: the side of their prey, for quite a long time
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Speaker 1: before they close in on it. In England, I say
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Speaker 1: there are no gray wolves. Wolves were extinguished in the
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Speaker 1: reign of Edward the Third, it was in the histories,
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Speaker 1: and since then no free wolf has trod the soil
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Speaker 1: of England, only menagerie captives. Of course, there may be
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Speaker 1: escaped wolves. Now the gate sharp and throw it and
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Speaker 1: slam it behind you, and a little brisk run and
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Speaker 1: so into this plantation that slopes down the hill. This
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Speaker 1: is the sort of path vague, but it must be
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Speaker 1: a path. Let us hope it is a path. What
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Speaker 1: was that among the trees? It stopped, surely it stopped
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Speaker 1: as Bilby stopped, pump pump. Of course that was one's heart.
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Speaker 1: Nothing there just fancy. Wolves live in the open. They
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Speaker 1: do not come into the woods like this, And besides,
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Speaker 1: there are no wolves. And if one shouts, even if
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Speaker 1: it is but a phantom voice one produces, they go away.
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Speaker 1: They are cowardly things, really such as there aren't. And
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Speaker 1: yet there is the power of the human eye, which
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Speaker 1: is why they stalk you and watch you and evade you.
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Speaker 1: When you look, and creep and creep and creep behind
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Speaker 1: you turn sharply nothing. How this stuff rustled under the
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Speaker 1: thin eat in woods at twilight, with innumerable things darting
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Speaker 1: from trees and eyes washing you everywhere. It would be
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Speaker 1: pleasanter if one could walk without making quite such a row. Presently, surely,
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Speaker 1: Bilby told himself he would come out onto the high
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Speaker 1: road and meet some other people and say good night.
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Speaker 1: As they passed, jolly other people, they would be answering
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Speaker 1: good night. He was now going at a moistening trot.
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Speaker 1: It was getting darker, and he stumbled against things. When
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Speaker 1: you tumble down, wolves leap, Not of course, that there
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Speaker 1: are any wolves. It was stupid to keep thinking of
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Speaker 1: wolves this way. Think of something else. Think of things
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Speaker 1: beginning with be beautiful things, boys, beads, butterflies, bears, the
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Speaker 1: mines stuck at bears, are there such things as long
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Speaker 1: gray bears? Oh, almost endless, noiseless bears. It grew darker,
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Speaker 1: until at last the trees were black. The night was
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Speaker 1: swallowing up the flying Bilby, and he had a preposterous
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Speaker 1: persuasion that it had teeth, and it would begin at
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Speaker 1: the back of his legs. Subchapter two. Hi cried Bilby, weakly,
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Speaker 1: hailing the glow of the fire out of the darkness
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Speaker 1: of the woods above. The man by the fire peered
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Speaker 1: at the sound. He had been listening to the stumbling
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Speaker 1: footsteps for some time, and he answered nothing. In another minute,
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Speaker 1: Bilby had struggled through the hedge into the visible world
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Speaker 1: and stood regarding the man by the fire. The phantom
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Speaker 1: wolves had fled beyond cyrus, but Bilby's face was pale
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Speaker 1: still from the terrors of the pursuit, and altogether he
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Speaker 1: looked a smallish sort of small boy, woolst said the
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Speaker 1: man by the fire couldn't find my way, said Bilby,
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Speaker 1: any one whit you? No, the man reflected, tired, bit
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Speaker 1: hum shut down by the fire and rest yourself. I
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Speaker 1: won't hurt you, he added, as Bilby hesitated. So far
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Speaker 1: in his limited experience, Bilby had never seen a human
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Speaker 1: countenance lit from behind by a flickering red flame. The
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Speaker 1: effect he found remarkable, rather than pleasing. It gave this
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Speaker 1: stranger the most active and unstable countenance Bilby had ever seen.
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Speaker 1: The nose seemed to be in active oscillation between Pug
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Speaker 1: and Roman. The eyes jumped out of black caves and
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Speaker 1: then went back into them. The more permanent features appeared
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Speaker 1: to be a vast triangle of neck and chin. The
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Speaker 1: tramp would have impressed Bilby as altogether inhuman if he
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Speaker 1: had not been for the smell of cooking. He diffused.
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Speaker 1: There were onions in it, and turnips and pepper, mouth
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Speaker 1: watering constituents testimonials to virtue. He was making a stew
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Speaker 1: in an old can that he had slung on a
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Speaker 1: cross stick over a brisk fire of twigs that he
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Speaker 1: was constantly replenishing. I WoT ut you, dawn you, he repeated.
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Speaker 1: Come and sit down on leads here for a bit
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Speaker 1: and tell me all about it. Bilby did as he
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Speaker 1: was desired. I got lost, he said, too exhausted to
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Speaker 1: tell a good story. The tramp, examined more closely, became
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Speaker 1: less pyrotechnic. He had a large loose mouth, a confused,
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Speaker 1: massive nose, much long fair hair, a broad chin, with
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Speaker 1: a promising beard, and spots, a lot of spots. His
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Speaker 1: eyes looked out of deep sockets, and they were sharp
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Speaker 1: little eyes. He was a lean man. His hands were
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Speaker 1: large and long, and they kept on with the feeding
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Speaker 1: of the fire as he sat and talked to Bilby.
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Speaker 1: Once or twice he leanked forward and smelt the pot judiciously.
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Speaker 1: But all the time his little eyes watched Bilby very closely.
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Speaker 1: Lose your collar, said the tramp. Bilby felt for his collar.
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Speaker 1: I took it off, he said. Come for over there,
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Speaker 1: said Bilby. Where over there? What place? Don't know the
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Speaker 1: name of it? Then it ain't your room. No, you've
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Speaker 1: run away, said the man. Perhaps I have, said Bilby.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps you have, why, perhaps you have? What's the good
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Speaker 1: of telling lies about it? Where you start Monday? Said Bilby.
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Speaker 1: The tramp reflected, had a bottle enough of it? The no,
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Speaker 1: said Bilby truthfully? Like some soup? Yes, how much I
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Speaker 1: could do with a lot, said Bilby. Ah, yeah, I
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Speaker 1: didn't ain't that. I mean how much for some How
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Speaker 1: much will you pay for a nice, a nice off
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Speaker 1: kind of soup? Ain't a darned charity, see tappence, said Bilby.
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Speaker 1: The tramp shook his head slowly side to side and
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Speaker 1: took out a battered iron spoon he was using to
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Speaker 1: stir the stuff, and tasted the soup lusciously. It was
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Speaker 1: jolly good soup, and there was potatoes in it. Threepence,
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Speaker 1: said Bilby. How much you got, asked the tramp. Bilby
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Speaker 1: hesitated perceptibly. Sixpence, he said, weakly. It's sixpence, said the tramp.
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Speaker 1: By up, how big a can? Asked Bilby. The tramp
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Speaker 1: felt about in the darkness behind him and produced an
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Speaker 1: empty can with a jagged mouth that had once contained
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Speaker 1: the label witness I quote. I do not justify deep
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Speaker 1: sea salmon, but he said, and this chunk of bread.
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Speaker 1: Right enough, you will do it, said Bilby. Do I
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Speaker 1: look like a swindle? Cried the tramp, and suddenly a
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Speaker 1: lump of abundant hair fell over one eye. In a
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Speaker 1: singularly threatening manner, Bilby handed over the sixpence without further
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Speaker 1: further discussion. I'll troat you fairly, you see, said the tramp.
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Speaker 1: After that, he spat on the pocketed sixpence and did
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Speaker 1: as much he decided that the soup was ready to
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Speaker 1: be served, and served it with care. Bilby began at once,
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Speaker 1: there's next three onion, said the tramp, throwing one over.
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Speaker 1: It didn't course me much, and I gives it to
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Speaker 1: you fu nothing, that's all right, Eh, there's else. Bilby
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Speaker 1: consumed his soup and bread meekly, with one eye upon
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Speaker 1: his host. He would, he decided, eat all he could,
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Speaker 1: and then sit awhile, and then get this tramp to
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Speaker 1: tell him the way to anywhere else. And the tramp
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Speaker 1: wiped the soup out of his can with goblets of
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Speaker 1: bread very earnestly, and meditated sagely on Bilby, you'd better
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Speaker 1: palin' with me mighty for a bit, he said, at last.
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Speaker 1: You can't go nowhere else, not to night. Couldn't I
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Speaker 1: walk perhaps to a town or something? These woods eat sife.
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Speaker 1: O't you mean ever? Hear tell of a gorilla, sort
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Speaker 1: of a big black monkey thing. Yes, said Bilby faintly.
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Speaker 1: There's been one lootble oh a week or more. Fact.
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Speaker 1: And if you wasn't a grown up man quite and
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Speaker 1: going along in the dark, well he might say something
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Speaker 1: to you. Of course, he wouldn't do nothing, whether there
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Speaker 1: was a fire or a man, but a little chap
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Speaker 1: like you. I wouldn't like to let you do it. Truth,
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Speaker 1: I wouldn't. It's risky. Course, I don't want to keep
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Speaker 1: you there it is. You can go if you like,
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Speaker 1: but i'd rather you wouldn't. Honest, where'd he come from?
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Speaker 1: Asked Bilby. Nagerie said the tramp, every near bit through
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Speaker 1: the fist of a chap to try to stop him,
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Speaker 1: said the tramp. Bilby, after wagne Tramp and Gorilla, very
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Speaker 1: carefully in his mind, decided he would and drew closer
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Speaker 1: to the fire, but not too close, and the conversation deepened.
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Speaker 1: Sub Chapter three. It was a long and rambling conversation,
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Speaker 1: and the tramp displayed himself at times as quite an
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Speaker 1: amiable person. It was a discourse varied by interrogations, and
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Speaker 1: as a thread of departure and return. It dealt with
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Speaker 1: life of the road, with life at large and life,
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Speaker 1: and with matters of must and may. Sometimes, and more
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Speaker 1: particularly at first, Bilby felt as though a ferocious beast
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Speaker 1: lurked in the tramp and peeped out through the fallen
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Speaker 1: hank of hair, and might leap out upon him. And
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Speaker 1: sometimes he felt the tramp was large and fine, and
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Speaker 1: gay and amusing, more particularly when he lifted his voice
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Speaker 1: and his bristling chin. And ever and again the talker
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Speaker 1: became a nasty creature and a disgusting creature, and his
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Speaker 1: red lip face was an ugly, creeping approach that made
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Speaker 1: Bilby recoil. And then again he was strong and wise,
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Speaker 1: and so the unstable needle of a boy's moral compass
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Speaker 1: spins the tramp use strange terms. He spoke, of the
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Speaker 1: deputy and the doss house, and of the spike and
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Speaker 1: patting the hoof, and of screevers and tarts and coppers narks.
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Speaker 1: To these words, Bilby attached such meanings as he could,
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Speaker 1: And so the things of which the tramp talked floated
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Speaker 1: unsurely into his mind, and again and again he had
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Speaker 1: to readjust and revise his interpretations. And through these dim
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Speaker 1: and fluctuating veils, a new side of life dawned upon
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Speaker 1: his consciousness, a side that was strange and lawless, and
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Speaker 1: dirty in every way, dirty and dreadful and attractive. That
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Speaker 1: was the queer thing about it, that attraction. It had humor,
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Speaker 1: for all its squalor and repulsiveness. It was lit by
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Speaker 1: defiance and laughter, bitter laughter perhaps, but laughter. It had
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Speaker 1: gayety that mister Mergelson, for example, did not possess. It
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Speaker 1: had a penetration like the penetrating quality of onions or
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Speaker 1: acids or asafiotia. That made the memory of mister Darling insipid.
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Speaker 1: The tramp as soon from the outset that Bilby had
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Speaker 1: done something and run away, and some mysterious etiquette preventing
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Speaker 1: his asking directly what was the nature of his affair,
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Speaker 1: But he made a number of insidious soundings, and he
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Speaker 1: assumed that Bilby was taking to the life of the road,
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Speaker 1: and that until goog cause to the contrary appeared, they
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Speaker 1: were to remain together. It's a tough life, he said,
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Speaker 1: but it was its points, and you've got a toughest
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Speaker 1: look about you. He talked of the roads and the
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Speaker 1: quality of roads and countryside. This was a good country side.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't overdone, and there was no great hostility to
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Speaker 1: wanderers and sleeping out some roads the London to Brighton,
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Speaker 1: for example, if a chap struck a match, somebody came running.
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Speaker 1: But here unless you went pulling the haystacks about too much,
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Speaker 1: they left you alone, and they weren't such dead nuts
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Speaker 1: on the pheasants, and one had a chance of an
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Speaker 1: empty cow shed. If I've spotted in a shed or
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Speaker 1: anything with a roof to it, I start out, said
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Speaker 1: the tramp, even if it's raining cats and dogs. Otherwise
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Speaker 1: it's the dorshouse or the spike. It's the rain that's
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Speaker 1: the worst thing. Getting wet. You haven't been wet yet,
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Speaker 1: not if you've only started Monday wet with a chilly
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Speaker 1: wind to drive it, Gore, I've been blown out of
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Speaker 1: the holly hedge. You would think there would be protection
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Speaker 1: in a holly hedge. Spike's the last thing, said the tramp.
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Speaker 1: I'd rather go bear gutted to the dorshouse anyway, Gore,
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Speaker 1: You've not had your first taste to the spike yet.
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Speaker 1: But it wasn't heaven in the dosshouses. He spoke of
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Speaker 1: several of the landland ladies in strange but it would
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Speaker 1: seem unflattering terms. And there's always the blame washing going
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Speaker 1: on in the doorshouse, always washing. They are. One chap's
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Speaker 1: wohing he sucks, and another's washing his shirt, making a
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Speaker 1: steam dry in it. Disgusting card saying what they want
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Speaker 1: with it at all barn, they get dirty again. He's
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Speaker 1: discoursed of spikes, that is to say, of workhouses and
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Speaker 1: of masters. And then he said, with revolting yet alluring adjuctus,
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Speaker 1: there's the bath. That's the worst side of it, said
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Speaker 1: the tramp. However, it doesn't always rhine, and if it
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Speaker 1: doesn't rhine, well you can keep yourself dry. He came
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Speaker 1: back to the pleasanter aspects of the nomadic life. He
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Speaker 1: was all for the outdoor style. Aren't we comfortable here?
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Speaker 1: He said? He sketched out the simple larcenies that are
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Speaker 1: contributed and given zest to the evening's meal. But it
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Speaker 1: seemed there were also doss houses that had the agreeable side.
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Speaker 1: Never bid in one, he said, but where have you
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Speaker 1: been sleeping since Monday? Bilb described the caravan in phrases
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Speaker 1: that seemed thin and anemic to his ears. You in it, lucky,
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Speaker 1: said the tramp. If a chap's kid a strikes all
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Speaker 1: sorts of luck of that sort. Now, if I had
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Speaker 1: come up against three ladies traveling in a van, think that,
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Speaker 1: it asked me in gnaw it He dwelt with manifest
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Speaker 1: envy on the situation, and the possibilities of the situation
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Speaker 1: for some time. You ain't dangerous, he said, that's where
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Speaker 1: you game. He consoled himself by anecdotes of remarkable good
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Speaker 1: fortunes of a kindred description. Apparently he sometimes traveled in
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Speaker 1: the company of a lady named Izzy Burners, a fair
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Speaker 1: scortchier been a regular slap of circus actress, and there
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Speaker 1: was also good old Susan. It was a little difficult
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Speaker 1: for Bilby to see the point of some of these
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Speaker 1: flashes by a tendency on the part of the tramp.
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Speaker 1: While his thoughts turned on these manners to adopt a
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Speaker 1: staccato style of speech punctuated by brief, darkly significant guffaws.
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Speaker 1: There grew in the mind of Bilby a vision of
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Speaker 1: the Doss House as a large, crowded place, lit by
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Speaker 1: a great central fire, with much cooking afoot, much jawing
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Speaker 1: and disputing going on, And then May and Izzy sail.
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Speaker 1: Then the fire sank. The darkness of the woods seemed
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Speaker 1: to creak nearer. The moonlight pierced the trees only in
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Speaker 1: long beams that seemed to point steadfastly at unseen things.
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Speaker 1: It made patches of ashen light that looked like watching faces.
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Speaker 1: Under the tramp's direction, Bilby skirmished around to get sticks
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Speaker 1: and fed the fire until the darkness and thoughts of
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Speaker 1: possible gorilla were driven back for some yards, and the
24:35
Speaker 1: tramp pronounced the blaze a fair treat. He had made
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Speaker 1: a kind of bed of leaves, which now he invited
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Speaker 1: Bilby to extend and share. And lying feet to the fire,
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Speaker 1: he continued his discourse. He talked of stealing and cheating
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Speaker 1: by various endearing names. He made these enterprises seem adventurous
24:59
Speaker 1: and facetious. There walls, it seemed a peculiar sort of
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Speaker 1: happy find one came upon, called a flat that it
25:08
Speaker 1: was not only entertaining, but obligatory to swindle. He made
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Speaker 1: fraud seem so smart and bright at times that Bilby
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Speaker 1: found it difficult to keep a firm grasp on the
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Speaker 1: fact that it was fraud. Bilby lay upon the leaves
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Speaker 1: close up to the prone body of the tramp, and
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Speaker 1: his mind and his standards became confused. The tramp's body
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Speaker 1: was a dark but protecting ridge on one side of him.
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Speaker 1: He could not see the fire beyond his toes, but
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Speaker 1: its flickerings were reflected by the tree stems about them,
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Speaker 1: and made perplexing, sudden movements that at times caused his
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Speaker 1: attention and made him raise his head to watch them
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Speaker 1: against the terrors of the night. The tramp had become humanity,
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Speaker 1: the species, the moral vasis. His voice was full of consolation.
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Speaker 1: His topics made one forget the watchful, silent circumambient. Bilby's
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Speaker 1: first distrusts faded. He began to think the tramp a fine, brotherly,
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Speaker 1: generous fellow. He was growing accustomed to a faint something,
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Speaker 1: shall I call it, an old factory bar that had
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Speaker 1: hitherto kept them apart. The monologue ceased to devote itself
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Speaker 1: to the elucidation of Bilby. The tramp was lying on
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Speaker 1: his back, with his fingers interlaced beneath his head, and
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Speaker 1: talking not so much to his companion as to the
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Speaker 1: stars in the universe at large. His theme was no
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Speaker 1: longer the wandering life simply, but the wandering life as
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Speaker 1: he had led it, and the spiritedness with which he
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Speaker 1: had led it, and the real and admirable quality of himself.
27:03
Speaker 1: It was that soliloquy of consolation which is the secret
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Speaker 1: preservative of innumerable lives. He wanted to make it perfectly
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Speaker 1: clear that he was a tramp by choice. He also
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Speaker 1: wanted to make it clear that he was a tramp
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Speaker 1: and no better because of the wicked folly of those
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Speaker 1: he had trusted, and the evil devices of enemies. In
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Speaker 1: the world that contained those figures of spirit Isveelt Perners
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Speaker 1: and Susan. There was also, it seemed a bad and
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Speaker 1: spiritless person, the tramp's wife, who had done him many
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Speaker 1: passive injuries. It was clear she did not appreciate her blessings.
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Speaker 1: She had been much to blame. Anybody's opinion is better
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Speaker 1: than her husband, said the tramp. Always as Ben Bilby
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Speaker 1: had a sudden memory of mister Darling saying exactly the
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Speaker 1: same thing of his mother. She's the sort, said the tramp.
28:07
Speaker 1: What would rather go to a meeting than a musical?
28:12
Speaker 1: She'd rather drop a shilling down a crack than spend
28:15
Speaker 1: it on anything detant. If there was a choice of
28:19
Speaker 1: jobs going, she'd i switch at the lowest pie and
28:24
Speaker 1: the longest hours, and she'd choose that she'd feel safer.
28:29
Speaker 1: She was worn scared. When there wasn't anything else to do,
28:33
Speaker 1: she'd stop at home and scrub the floors. Goe. It
28:37
Speaker 1: might a chap want to put a darn pail over
28:40
Speaker 1: her head so she'd get enough of it. I don't
28:46
Speaker 1: hold with all this crawling through life and saying please,
28:51
Speaker 1: said the tramp. I say, it's my world just as
28:56
Speaker 1: much as it's your world. You may have your horses
29:00
Speaker 1: and carriages, your houses and country places, and all that.
29:06
Speaker 1: You may think God set me to run a bout
29:09
Speaker 1: and work for you, But I don't say, bill, be Saul.
29:15
Speaker 1: I seek my satisfactions just as you seek your satisfactions.
29:20
Speaker 1: And if you want to get me to work, you
29:23
Speaker 1: jolly well got to make me. I don't choose to work.
29:28
Speaker 1: I choose to keep on my own and a bit loose,
29:32
Speaker 1: and take my chance where I find it. You gotta
29:35
Speaker 1: take your chances in this world. Sometimes they come back,
29:40
Speaker 1: and sometimes they come good, and very often you can't
29:44
Speaker 1: tell which it is when they have come. Then he
29:48
Speaker 1: fell questioning Bilby again, and then he talked of the
29:51
Speaker 1: immediate future. He was beating for the seaside, always something doing.
29:57
Speaker 1: He said, you gotta keep your eye out for the cops.
30:02
Speaker 1: Those seasaw's benches they're aught for on tramps. They give
30:07
Speaker 1: y'all muck for begging as soon as look at yo,
30:10
Speaker 1: but there's flats droppin sixpences as fick as flies on
30:14
Speaker 1: a sore horse. You warn't there for all sorts o jobs.
30:19
Speaker 1: You're just a chap for it. Mighty saw it soon
30:22
Speaker 1: as I set eyes on you, he had projects. Finally,
30:27
Speaker 1: he became more personal and very flattering. Now you an me,
30:33
Speaker 1: he said, suddenly, shifting himself quite close to Bilby. We're
30:38
Speaker 1: goin to be downright piles. I took a liking to you.
30:43
Speaker 1: Me an you are going to pile it together. See.
30:48
Speaker 1: He breathed into Bilby's face and laid a hand on
30:51
Speaker 1: his knee and squeezed it, and Bilby, on the whole
30:56
Speaker 1: felt honored by his protection. Sub Chapter four. In the
31:04
Speaker 1: unsympathetic light of a bright and pushful morning, the tramp
31:09
Speaker 1: was shorn of much of his overnight glamor. It became
31:14
Speaker 1: manifest that he was not merely offensively unshaven, but extravagantly dirty.
31:21
Speaker 1: It was not ordinary rural dirt. During the last few days.
31:26
Speaker 1: He must have had dealings of an intimate nature with coal.
31:30
Speaker 1: He was taciturn and intractable. He declared that this sleeping
31:34
Speaker 1: out would be the death of him, and the breakfast
31:37
Speaker 1: was only too manifestly wanting. In the comforts of a
31:40
Speaker 1: refined home, he seemed a little less embittered. After breakfast
31:46
Speaker 1: he became even faintly genial, but he remained unpleasing. A
31:51
Speaker 1: distaste for the tramp rose in Bilby's mind, and he
31:55
Speaker 1: walked on behind his guide and friend. He revolved schemes
32:00
Speaker 1: of an obtrusive detachment. Far be it from me to
32:05
Speaker 1: accuse Bilby of ingratitude, But it is true that that
32:09
Speaker 1: same disinclination which made him a disloyal assistant to mister Merkleson,
32:15
Speaker 1: was now affecting his comradeship with the tramp, and he
32:19
Speaker 1: was deceitful. He allowed the tramp to build projects in
32:25
Speaker 1: the confidence of his continued adhesion. He did not warn
32:29
Speaker 1: him of the defection he meditated. But on the other hand,
32:34
Speaker 1: Bilby had acquired from his mother an effective horror of stealing,
32:39
Speaker 1: and one must admit, since the tramp admitted it, the
32:43
Speaker 1: man stole and another little matter had at the same
32:49
Speaker 1: time estrange Bilby from the tramp and linked the two
32:53
Speaker 1: of them together. The attentive reader will know that Bilby
32:58
Speaker 1: had exactly two shillings and twopence half penny. When he
33:03
Speaker 1: came down out of the woods to the fireside, he
33:06
Speaker 1: had missus Bull's half crown and the balance of Madeline
33:12
Speaker 1: Phillips's theater's shilling minus sixpence half penny for the collar,
33:17
Speaker 1: and sixpence he had given the tramp for the soup
33:20
Speaker 1: over night. But all this balance was now in the
33:24
Speaker 1: pocket of the tramp. Money talks, and the tramp had
33:29
Speaker 1: heard it. He had not taken it away from Bilby,
33:33
Speaker 1: but obtained it in this manner way to our pals,
33:37
Speaker 1: he said, and one of us have better be treasurer.
33:41
Speaker 1: That's me. I know the ropes better, So hand over
33:45
Speaker 1: what you got there, mighty. And after he had pointed
33:49
Speaker 1: out that a refusal might lead to Bilby's visceration, the
33:53
Speaker 1: transfer occurred. Bilby was searched kindly but firmly. It's It
34:00
Speaker 1: seemed to the tramp that this trouble had blown over completely.
34:04
Speaker 1: Little did he suspect the rebellious and treacherous thoughts that
34:08
Speaker 1: seethed in the head of his companion. Little did he
34:12
Speaker 1: suppose that his personal appearance, his manners, his ethical flavor,
34:17
Speaker 1: nay even his physical flavor, were being judged in a
34:23
Speaker 1: spirit entirely unamiable. It seemed to him that he had
34:31
Speaker 1: obtained youthful and subservient companionship, companionship that would be equally
34:37
Speaker 1: agreeable and useful. He had adopted a course that he
34:41
Speaker 1: imagined would submit ties between them. He reckoned, not with ingratitude.
34:47
Speaker 1: If any one ask you who I am, call me uncle,
34:51
Speaker 1: he said. He walked along a little in advance, sticking
34:55
Speaker 1: his toes out right and left in a peculiar wide
34:58
Speaker 1: pace that characterized his walk and revolving schemes for happiness
35:03
Speaker 1: and profit for the day to begin with great drafts
35:07
Speaker 1: of beer, then tobacco later, perhaps a little bread and
35:11
Speaker 1: cheese for Bilby. You can't come in here, he said,
35:14
Speaker 1: at the first public house. You'll underage me. Boy. It
35:19
Speaker 1: ain't my doing, matey, it's Herbert Samuel. You blame him.
35:25
Speaker 1: He don't object to you going to work for any
35:28
Speaker 1: other mister Samuel. There may be a bar or anything
35:31
Speaker 1: of that sort. That's good for you, that is, but
35:35
Speaker 1: he's most particular. You don't go into a public house,
35:39
Speaker 1: so you just wait about outside here. I'll have my
35:44
Speaker 1: eye on you. You're going to spend my money, said Bilby.
35:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to ration the party, said the trap. You
35:57
Speaker 1: you've got no right to spend my money, said Bilb.
36:01
Speaker 1: I I ain't. I'll get you some ascid drops, said
36:06
Speaker 1: the tramp, in tones of remonstrance. I'll tell you, blind
36:11
Speaker 1: you it's Herbert Samuel. I can't help it. I can't
36:15
Speaker 1: fight against the law. You haven't any right to spend
36:20
Speaker 1: my money, said Bilb. Don't cut it up, frosty. How
36:27
Speaker 1: can I help it. I'll tell a policeman. You give
36:32
Speaker 1: me back my money and let me go. The tramp
36:36
Speaker 1: considered the social atmosphere. It did not contain a policeman.
36:44
Speaker 1: It contained nothing but a peaceful, kindly corner of public house,
36:49
Speaker 1: a sleeping dog in the back of an elderly man digging.
36:54
Speaker 1: The tramp approached Bilby in a confidential manner. Oh's gonna
37:00
Speaker 1: believe you, he said, And besides, how did you come
37:05
Speaker 1: by it? Moreover, I ain't gonna spend your money. I
37:13
Speaker 1: got money on my arm, eh say, And suddenly, before
37:17
Speaker 1: the dazzled eyes of Bilby, he held and instantly withdrew
37:22
Speaker 1: three shillings and two coppers that seemed familiar. He had
37:27
Speaker 1: a shilling of his own. Bilby waited outside. The tramp
37:34
Speaker 1: emerged in a highly genial mood, with acid drops and
37:38
Speaker 1: a short clay pipe going strong ere, he said to Bilby,
37:43
Speaker 1: with just the faintest flavor of magnificence over the teeth,
37:47
Speaker 1: held pipe and hand it over. Not only the acid dripes,
37:51
Speaker 1: but a virgin short clay bill, he said, proffering the tobacco.
37:57
Speaker 1: It's yours just as much it's mine. Better not let
38:01
Speaker 1: Herbert Samuel see ye, though that's all he's got a
38:05
Speaker 1: laura about it. Bilby held his pipe in his clenched hand.
38:11
Speaker 1: He had already smoked once. He remembered it quite vividly still,
38:16
Speaker 1: although it had happened six months ago. Yet he hated
38:20
Speaker 1: not using the tobacco now. He said, I'll smoke it later.
38:28
Speaker 1: The tramp replaced the screw of the red Virginia in
38:31
Speaker 1: his pocket with the air of one who has done
38:34
Speaker 1: the gentlemanly thing. They went on their way, an ill
38:38
Speaker 1: assorted couple all day. Bilby chafed at the tie and
38:43
Speaker 1: saw the security in the tramp's pocket vanish. They lunched
38:47
Speaker 1: on bread and cheese, and then the tramp had a
38:51
Speaker 1: good sustaining drink of beer for both of them, and
38:54
Speaker 1: after that they came to a common where it seemed
38:57
Speaker 1: agreeable to repose, And after a due meed of repose,
39:02
Speaker 1: in a secluded hollow among the gorse, the tramp produced
39:06
Speaker 1: a pack of exceedingly greasy card and taught Bilby to
39:10
Speaker 1: play Uker. Apparently the tramp had no distinctive pockets in
39:15
Speaker 1: his tail coat. The whole lining was one capricious pocket.
39:20
Speaker 1: Various knobs and bulges indicated his cooking tin, his feeding tin,
39:25
Speaker 1: a turnip, and other unknown properties. At first they played
39:30
Speaker 1: for love, and then they played for the balance in
39:33
Speaker 1: the tramp's pocket, and by the time Bilby had learnt
39:37
Speaker 1: Uker thoroughly, the balance belonged to the tramp, but he
39:42
Speaker 1: was very generous about it, and said they would go
39:45
Speaker 1: on sharing, just as they had done. And then he
39:48
Speaker 1: became confidential. He scratched about in the bagginess of his
39:52
Speaker 1: garment and drew out a little dark blade of stuff
39:57
Speaker 1: like a flint implement, regarded it grave for a moment,
40:01
Speaker 1: and then held it out to Bilby. Guess what this is, Bilby,
40:06
Speaker 1: Smell it. It smelt very nasty, one familiar smell. Indeed,
40:12
Speaker 1: there was with a paradoxical sanitary quality about it that
40:16
Speaker 1: he could not quite identify. But that was a mere
40:20
Speaker 1: basis for a complex reek of acquisitions. What is it,
40:26
Speaker 1: said Bilby? Soap? But what's it for? I thought you'd
40:33
Speaker 1: asked that. What's sop? Usually for washing? Said Bilby, guessing wildly.
40:41
Speaker 1: The tramp shook his head, miking up foam. He corrected,
40:46
Speaker 1: that's what I has my fits with. See I shoves
40:51
Speaker 1: a bit me my mouth, and I goes down and
40:54
Speaker 1: rolls about, making a moaning sound. Why and give him
41:00
Speaker 1: the orphan neat Brandy, It isn't always a sirt. Nothing's
41:06
Speaker 1: absolutely a sert. I've had some letdowns. Once I was
41:11
Speaker 1: bit by a nasty little dog that brought me to
41:15
Speaker 1: pretty quick, and once I had an old gentleman go
41:18
Speaker 1: through my pockets. Poor Chap says he very likely he's
41:24
Speaker 1: did to let's see if he's got anything. I got
41:28
Speaker 1: all sorts of things. I didn't want him prying about,
41:33
Speaker 1: but I didn't come too sharp enough to stop him.
41:37
Speaker 1: Got me in trouble that did. It's an old lay,
41:41
Speaker 1: said the tramp, But it's astonishing how it will go
41:45
Speaker 1: in a quiet village sort of a musicism, or dropping
41:49
Speaker 1: suddenly in front of a bicycle party, lost of them.
41:53
Speaker 1: Old trips are the best tricks, and there ain't many
41:57
Speaker 1: of them. Billy Bridget don't know. That's where you're lucky
42:00
Speaker 1: to abb me, matey. Billy Bridget's an odd man to starve.
42:04
Speaker 1: And I know the roach. I know what you can
42:08
Speaker 1: do and what you can't do. And I've got a
42:11
Speaker 1: feeling for a policeman, same as some people have for cats.
42:15
Speaker 1: I'd know one was hidden in a room. He expanded
42:21
Speaker 1: into anecdotes and the story of various encounters in which
42:24
Speaker 1: he shone. It was amusing, and it took Bilby on
42:29
Speaker 1: his weak side, wasn't he the champion dodger of the
42:32
Speaker 1: Chelseam playground? The tide of talk ebbed Well said the
42:38
Speaker 1: tramp time we was up and doing. They went along
42:43
Speaker 1: shady lanes and across an open park, and they skirted
42:47
Speaker 1: a breezy common from which they could see the sea.
42:51
Speaker 1: And among other things that the tramp said, was this
42:55
Speaker 1: time we began to forage a bit. He turned his
43:00
Speaker 1: large observant nose to the right of him, and the
43:04
Speaker 1: left end of sub chapter four