menu_book Chapter 6

chapter six of in a north country village by m e francis this librivox recording is in the public domain the gillifers there is perhaps nothing of which the inhabitants of thornleigh are more proud than the stocks which adorn their village green some time ago the elders among them could even remember the days when poachers and tramps and drunkards used to be confined in them and pelted by the youth of the neighbourhood with cabbages and rotten eggs but it is long since the stocks as an institution were used in thornleigh and for years no one but old jack rutherford jillifer jack as he was called ever sat on the queer old bench which former generations had polished till it gleamed again he found it a convenient resting-place sometimes while he munched his bag in for it was in the neighbourhood of his work and moreover a sunny and cheerful spot when jack was not digging a grave for anybody or ringing the church bell or cutting wall-flowers he earned his living by mending the roads that is to say in summer he swept up the dust and in winter he scooped the water out of the puddles with his shovel and sometimes he found an old shoe or two or a brimless hat which came in handy for filling up the ruts or if he chanced upon a very bad piece

he scratched up a few stones out of a more level portion and laid them in the deepest holes the thornley people did not like paying rates and jack never had anything to mend the roads with therefore the local board thought he did very well as it was and so did jack himself and the squire who was chairman laughed when he found himself nearly bounced out of his dog cart and said it was good for the liver to be jolted a bit jack's home was quite at the further end of the village a one-storied red cottage so old that the walls formed all kinds of curious curves and angles and every variety of moss and lichen appeared to flourish on the thatch the small paned windows were almost filled up with scarlet geraniums and the tiny garden without was bright with sweet williams and stocks and old-fashioned moss and cabbage roses the sweet cool delicious little monthly rose too bloomed gayly there nearly all the year round but the pride of jack's heart and the chief source of his income was the little field of wallflowers or as they are called in thornleigh

gillifers which lay at the back of his house wallflowers of every shade from brightest yellow to deepest chocolate brown rows and rows of them poor old jack's back ached as he waded among them when they were in season his clasp-knife crunching through their leafy stalks the basket on his arm growing fuller and heavier till at last it could hold no more and jack straightening himself and sighing would slouch over to marjorie turning out the sweet-smelling heap on the table where she sat bunching them for market they were sweet the scent of them used to hang over the entire village every one knew jack's gillifer field it was quite a feature in the place neighbours passing to and fro and farmers driving by would point out the gillifers to each other till at last the cottage itself and even the old couple to whom it belonged came to be known by that name marjorie indeed considered as an individual and not as her husband's better half could not have claimed any special title but collectively they were called the gillifers and gillifer jack was as well known in the neighbourhood of thornleigh as the stocks themselves marjorie was the most motherly of wives and was accustomed to devote much of her time and thoughts to the education of jack and certainly as she said emphatically many a time if he did not know his duty it would not be for want of hearing about it

as a rule jack obeyed her in all things even to taking off his clogs before he crossed his own threshold and to wearing one of his wife's aprons on sundays to preserve his best clothes but unfortunately in one or two points he fell short of her ideal there was his pipe to begin with in spite of everything marjorie could say he would persist in wearing his brass on baccy and many a sly whiff did he enjoy seated on a corner of the stocks after a furtive glance round to make sure that his missus was not in sight there were occasions too few and far between for as a rule jack was as sober a man as a woman need be tied to when he was known to be a little overtaken at christmas time perhaps a neighbour would treat him to a glass which immediately affected his head or rather his legs and on club day oh club day was as margery said a snare jack of course ribbon in coat and wand in hand marched round the country with the other members of the thornley and little upton mutual benefit club the band playing merrily and the big banner with the squire's arms on one side and a picture of the good samaritan on the other streaming in the breeze

and of course everybody had beer and of course poor jack marjorie had bethought herself and unbethought herself often about this club it was undoubtedly a good thing to belong to it if jack were sick she could draw ten shillings a week from the club funds till he was able to resume work again and when he died the club would hand over quite a nice little sum towards his funeral on the other hand besides his subscription he was obliged to contribute like all the other members towards the annual dinner at the thornley arms and having paid for his share of the good cheer it was only fair that he should partake of it marjorie's just and economical soul rebelled at the idea of sacrificing his rights and yet it was always the same story on this particular day every year jack forgot himself and during the remaining three hundred and sixty-four marjorie reminded him of his slip at last she made up her mind to take a decisive step and renouncing with a struggle the value of that annual two and sixpence resolved to keep her husband at home in future when other folk went pleasuring

accordingly when jack woke up one club day morning he found no shining suit of broadcloth laid out by his bed no wand no beribboned hat only his working clothes lying in a heap just as he had taken them off hullo he cried cheerfully what's gone wi your membry missus to-day's club day wi is my sunday clothes i know what day it is well enough returned marjorie from the adjoining kitchen but you are going to none of their clubs to-day so you'll not need your good clothes get into t'other's now and come to your breakfast it's late enough i'm not going to the club repeated jack in amazement and what am i not going to the club for me as has walked this thirty year what should ye not go for cried marjorie shrilly and then came a bang and clatter of crockery as she prepared for battle d'ye mean to tell me you've forgot while she reminded him at length and in vigorous language of his misdemeanours of last year and the years preceding it jack hunted about for his clothes but the cupboard was locked and marjorie had the key in her pocket

what was to be done was he to give up without a murmur the one pleasure of his life the outing to which for as long as he could remember he had looked forward from year's end to year's end be considered a backslider by his fellow members and become the laughing-stock of the countryside it was not to be borne just as marjorie was working up with great animation to this time five year ago the inner door was partially opened and jack's wrinkled face flaming with anger was thrust through the chink i mun ha my claws woman and over yon key and lets ha no more to do i'll ha them or else go with it t'other ones i tell ye plain i'm going so it bides wi you whether i'm to go decent or no john rutherford you're out o your senses i doubt exclaimed marjorie pretty doings indeed for you to be barging at your wife that gate get on wi them cloves and give over saucing me for shame of ye you don't go to your club to-day and ye needn't look for it your sunday suit shall bide i th cupboard and as for gorn in th t'others i reckon ye know better nor make a sight o yoursell at this time o day and are the children shouting after ye in th lane

jack banged the door to again and lost the remainder of his wife's speech he sat down on the side of the bed trembling with rage but for once in his life determined he was not going to be put off with marjorie's nonsense and would go to the club clothes or no clothes if it was only to shame her after a moment or two he rose and began to assume his ordinary gear with a solemn face and a sore heart things was come to a pretty pass indeed when he john rutherford the oldest member of the club was forced to attend the meeting in such togs as these he thought of how marjorie herself had hitherto always helped him to array himself with becoming splendour how she had brushed his coat and fastened his cravat and tied on his ribbons with wifely pride and care and now she served him like this he looked so subdued when he at length came into the kitchen that the woman's heart smote her in the midst of her elation at what she took to be her victory sit thee down she said gently pushing forward a chair nay i'll not sit me down marjorie rutherford said jillifer jack and i want none of your coffee

i'm going to the club folks'll soon know the kind of wife i've got i'm going to shame ye for once that's what i'm going to do i'm going to shame ye he thrust his feet into the great clogs which lay in the chimney corner and shambled out of the house marjorie listening vaguely to the clump clump of his step till it was lost in the distance she was too much astonished at first to realise the full meaning of her husband's threat but after a time it dawned upon her that before nightfall the history of their quarrel would be known all over the place and that probably most of the neighbours would be weak-minded enough to take jack's part when her morning's work was over and she had cleaned her and donned a fresh apron she sallied forth to retail her wrongs to a few of her special cronies and was wounded with the coolness with which her explanations were received jack had evidently the public sympathy on his side indeed marjorie's conduct was looked on as a grave breach of village etiquette evening came and with it most of the merry-makers cheerful solemn or quarrelsome according to the amount of beer each had consumed during the day

but no shabby figure in corduroys and clogs found its way to the gillifers and at last anxious and angry marjorie went out to look for her husband as she crossed the green behold there was jack outstretched beside the stocks with his head resting on the bench sound asleep so fast asleep indeed that he did not hear his wife shouting in his ear nor seemed disturbed when she shook and pummeled him finding all her efforts useless she drew herself up and looked at him with wrathful scorn if some folks could only see him now they would own that she had been right to try to keep him out of harm's way if she had a way every one in the village should come and see for themselves the kind of a husband she had laying there dead drunk against the stocks as in old days a man would be clapped into fast enough for misbehaving same as him it would serve him right to pop him in now give him a good lesson it would and let the neighbours know his goings on marjorie had a good mind she stopped suddenly and began pushing and hauling at jack's prostrate form

she was a vigorous woman for a time of life and soon got him into the requisite position a momentary compunction struck her as she moved away after she had finished a task and she looked back several times the old figure looked so forlorn propped up against the bench the white head hanging forward the feet with their knitted socks of blue yarn and their huge clogs insecurely balanced on the toes protruding stiffly from either hole but she would not allow herself to be softened it was for his good after all and he deserved a lesson it was quite dark when jack came to himself feeling cold and stiff and ill at ease a lantern was flashing in his eyes and quite a number of faces were bending over him w-what's to do he murmured confusedly wher iver have i got to he felt the grasp beneath his hands and was astonished to find he could not move his legs i've had a stroke i doubt he said to himself his consciousness returning with a sudden keen throb of anguish and fear i munna had a stroke he repeated aloud where's our margery wherever am i

nay lad said some one ye haven't had no stroke ye're i the stocks that's where ye are reet enough it's your missus as has served ye a bit of a trick chimed in another voice and then there came a laugh eh she's a graidly one is margery o jillifers she clap ye into the stocks owd lad when ye was fuddled and left ye to ye lone to get sober well twas a shame remarked another speaker if it hadn't a been for me i doubt she'd a left ye here for the neat i only wish i'd a lit on ye before and we should a gotten ye out a bit sooner they had released him by this time and helped him to rise poor old jillifer jack he felt as if he were the victim of a nightmare with the light flaring in his eyes the crowd of faces surrounding him one or two laughing the others wearing a look of pity quite as humiliating to the independent old fellow and what was it they were saying my missis put me of the stocks he muttered after a moment or two staring blankly from one to the other

she put me the stocks ah marjorie as has been wed to me this five-and-thirty year did ye say she put me the stocks ah joe white-sized tommy saw her didn't ye tommy he was frightened to tell us he says eh but ye should ha told us tommy why poor owd jack there might ha been dead afore morning jack pulled himself together with a sort of shiver and pushing through his friends set off walking hurriedly in the opposite direction to the village owd on owd chap yon's not the way ome cried one of the men running after him i'm not going ome said jack i'll niver go ome no more ye can tell her so i'll niver set eyes on her again he would listen to no remonstrances and shaking off the hands which sought to detain him struck out again and presently disappeared into the darkness he walked on doggedly for hours though his limbs shook and his head felt dizzy and queer and was thoroughly exhausted when at last in the cold grey dawn he made out the undefined shape of a shed in a field near the road

i mun lay me down a bit he said to himself or else i'll drop down eh to think i should come to this sleepin i the field same as a tramp he thought of the warm feather bed at home and the pile of blankets and the flannel lined patchwork quilt marjorie no doubt was tucked up quite comfortably while he was outside in the cold dew perhaps she thought he was still in the stocks very like she did he mused and a big sob rose up in his throat oh that she should have served him so marjorie his missus there was not much sleep for jack but he dozed a little from time to time and rose up at last aching in every limb after pursuing his march for some hours he found himself in a big manufacturing town through the streets of which he shuffled jostled at every step by the passers-by, and feeling puzzled and not a little alarmed.

It was lucky for him that with all his timidity and simplicity he retained a certain amount of shrewdness, and did not manage his affairs so badly as might have been expected on the whole. He engaged a room in a quiet back street, and after knocking about for a day or two, till his little stock of money got low, was fortunate enough to obtain employment, not very remunerative employment,

but still sufficient to pay for his food and lodging, and to keep him supplied with shag. He was so quiet and good-natured, so regular in his goings and comings, and so easily pleased,

that the good people of the house grew quite fond of him. He had his own place in a corner by the fire in the little parlour behind the shop, and here of an evening he would smoke a pipe with the master of the house, while the missus retired upstairs to put the children to bed. It was long before Jack could get out of the way of hastily pocketing his pipe

and assuming an air of elaborate unconsciousness when the good woman reappeared. It seemed such a strange thing that she did not source him for smoking. But indeed, so many things were strange to Jack nowadays that he lived in a state of bewilderment. That no one should barge at him for making a clatter with his clogs

or for getting his clothes dirty or for spilling his tea, that his pipe should be tolerated, and that he should be actually invited to partake of an occasional mild brew of whisky and water, were perpetual marvels to him. The presence of the children, too, of which there were half a dozen or so generally tumbling about on the floor, helped further to astonish and puzzle his poor old brain. Yet oddly enough, it was when they had retired for the night, and Jack and his host sat tranquilly

smoking, that our friend felt least at ease. He would stare at the stolid face opposite to him, as if wondering how it came to be there, and then take his pipe from between his lips, and glance round the room with a sigh. "'Eh!' he would say to himself. "'It's quiet here. Eh! It's... it's awful quiet.'

Then he would think of the little kitchen at home, and of Marjorie's active figure bustling about, and of a sharp voice. it was more natural like all the same and a man didn't feel so strange and lonesome if only his missus hadn't served him such a trick no man would stand that and jack's meditations generally ended in a glow of anger and resentment the month swore away christmas had come and gone and spring had arrived and one day it chanced that jack on returning from work met a girl in the street selling wall-flowers the sight of the great basket full of brown and yellow and amber blossoms the familiar scent the touch of the velvety bunches as she brushed past were too much for him he leaned for a moment against a lamp-post trembling

fine wall flowers penny a bunch shouted the girl paying little heed to this tall grey old labourer she was now out of sight and jack heaving a deep sigh walked slowly homewards so they were in season again he wondered how the missus was getting on she'd never be able to cut them not she and if she hired a man to do it what would become of her profit she'd have to get some one all the same and jack did not half like the idea of any outsider hacking at his wall-flowers they'd spoil the plants among them most like he himself had always been so careful never to break or injure them to avoid bruising the roots to economise the buds all that evening he thought of his field of jillyflowers and of the whole life and of marjorie he felt a certain pity for marjorie she'd never make nothing out of them that she wouldn't happen by this time she was sorry enough for having drove her husband away from her she'd never make no hand o they gillyflowers it ud really be almost worth a man's while to step up thornlyway and see how she was getting on that night he dreamt of his gillyfers and next day as he went to his work he still thought of them and fancied he smelt them

and sometimes he even stretched out his hand as though to take hold of them and at last the gillyfers drew him countrywards and he found himself walking rapidly in the direction of his home his face wore a very sheepish expression as he approached thornley the neighbours would laugh at him he reckoned and marjorie how would she receive him he had not quite made up his mind as to what he should say to marjorie but he knew that he was very tired of being away from home he approached his house by a circuitous route not wishing to meet any of his former friends and being most anxious to avoid the neighbourhood of the stocks he insensibly quickened his pace when the familiar odour of the wall-flowers first greeted his nostrils and his heart was thumping and his eyes full of tears as he passed through the little gate and in at his door a woman was standing in the kitchen superintending something in a small saucepan on the fire not marjorie as the first glance told him at the second he recognised with some alarm the portly figure red face and squinting eyes of a very different person mrs nancy

who was charwoman washerwoman manager of the shop on ordinary occasions but whose real vocation lay in what she termed from the administration of cinder tea to a baby to the adroit chucking away of a feather pillow from under the head of a dying man to hasten his departure when his agony appeared unduly prolonged there was no branch of her craft in which she was not an adept most of the infants of the village had begun life and all the moribunds had become corpses under her superintendence occasionally indeed the former had been unhandsome enough to upset her calculations and defraud her of a lawful dues but the latter rarely disappointed her from the moment when fixing her swivel eye upon their blanching countenances she had first informed them they were sadly worsening to that in which when the patients were tall and the stairs narrow she had cheerfully recommended their removal to a room on the ground floor it being a dale o trouble to get a coffin out at winder they had ever justified her confidence and submitted to her decrees jack's heart sank as he saw her and pausing abruptly he thrust forward his shaggy head and inquired tremulously if the missus were ill

god bless us ejaculated mrs frith it's never you jack rutherford well it's time you come back to look arter your poor wife as has been deeing all the winter you're no but just in time too for she's sinking fast and the way she've took on about you it'd melt a stone it would only a two three minutes ago she says to me when she was choosing the sheet how to wind her in here she says to think as it won't be me as i'll have the laying out o my poor owd man i've allus said as one o them sheets there ud be for him and for t'other for me she says an to think as it's me as has to go first and niver knowin where he is nor what's come to him an happen she says it'll be the parish as'll lay him in his coffin wi no but some cotton rag or other to lap him in eh she did take on jack's jaw had dropped and his face had turned an ashy grey colour she's she's deeing he asked in an awe-stricken whisper and what else could ye expect responded nancy fixing him with one eye while the other gazed steadily out of the window you going off and leaving her to fend for hersell and she a lone woman and getting on in years and fretting

eh she did fret she never looked up arter ye left and comin on christmas she took to her bed and there she's been mostly iver since ah ye'd best go into her ye'll not have her so long jack staggered across the kitchen and opened the inner door closing it after him and standing for a moment without speaking just within the room where his wife lay she was very still and her face looked strangely drawn and white as it rested on the pillow she turned her head as he entered and gazed at him fixedly jack gave a queer little one-sided nod and cleared his throat well missis he said jack she exclaimed with a faint cry i thought i was dreaming it's niver our jack ay said he approaching hastily i'm i'm and then he broke off and sat down suddenly on the bed eh missis he murmured under his breath eh poor owd lass Two great tears leaped out on his wrinkled cheeks,

but Marjorie stretched out a feeble hand and laughed a thin, quavering laugh. "'So you're back?' she said. "'I'm pleased to see you. Eh, I'm pleased. Eh, I am pleased. And yet I doubt we will not be so long together. Doctor says I'm going along raw, Jack.'

Jack looked at her, and the big babyish tears rolled slowly down his cheeks, and fell with a splash on Marjorie's hand. I'll be a deal comfortabler now ye come, went on the latter feebly. Ye'll see to things, won't ye, and there'll be no need to have Nancy fidgeting about, and waiting for the breath to go out of my body.

Ye can get her to come to lay me out, you know. I were talking to her about it, and settling about coughing and that. "'Ye might's well get Billy Rufford to make it. "'Me and his mother was awful thick while she lived, poor soul. "'He'd do it as well as anyone, I reckon.

"'Ah, happen he would,' agreed Jack dolefully, but interested too. "'I've no such liking for plain deal. "'It's awful common,' resumed Marjorie. "'But I should like pitch pine. "'Eh, I've an awful fancy for pitch pine.

Do you think Billy'd make it out of pitch pine, Jack? I'll see as he does, quavered Jack, wiping his eyes with his coat cuff. Thank ye, said his wife meekly. Eh, I'm glad ye're back, Jack. I'm glad to see ye, and I'll be sorry to leave ye.

Ye was allus a good man to me, Jack. She awful bad, said the poor old fellow to himself, overwhelmed at this new tone. Doctor's reet, she's going She don't speak, nor yet look like our Marjorie She mun be going fast

But he said nothing aloud Only sat there staring at her with woebegone eyes And holding her thin hand in his Presently Nancy Frith appeared Carrying the posset which he had been concocting in the kitchen

And immediately flew at Jack for sitting on the bed Just look at the way you've messed all the sheets with your dusty clothes and feather-bed all pushed to one side, and your wife almost smothered. You munna sit there. Nay, he can bide, interrupted Marjorie fretfully.

I can do wi' him. He's no need to move. Jack shook his head afresh over this unusual tolerance, and Nancy fairly gasped. A further surprise awaited her, however, when Marjorie informed her peremptorily that she had no further need of her services, as her husband would do for her in future.

He'll let you know when I'm gone, she added tranquilly, and ye can look in and do all as is wanted then. Mrs. Frith did not at all approve of this arrangement, but had no choice but to comply, and accordingly took herself off in some dudgeon.

Then Marjorie heaved a sigh of deep satisfaction. Ye can see to me, can't ye? she said. but it's a comfort to have your own folks about you again i'll see to you said jack and then silence fell between the two the old woman dozed a little and her husband sat on the bed and looked at her ejaculating eh missus occasionally in a dolorous whisper it was quite dark when marjorie spoke again so suddenly as to startle him i doubt i shouldn't ha put ye in the stocks she observed i reckon ye did it for my good returned jack huskily

ah assented margery i meant it for your good and i niver meant to leave you there for th neet what happen i didn't aught ha done it i'm glad as i can tell you so i've bethought myself many a time as happen i were a bit hard on you sometimes and you were awful patient nay growled jack through the darkness there was niver no call for patience i didn't axe no better missis nor what you've allus been "'I were, reight enough. Have I to fetch a candle now?' He stumbled out of the room and gave vent to his feelings in the kitchen, sobbing and rubbing his eyes as if he were seven years old instead of seventy.

For the next two or three days he scarcely stirred from his wife's bedside, and his ministrations, clumsy and awkward as they were, seemed to be acceptable to the invalid. She quite revived as she directed and admonished him, and now and then there crept a shade of sharpness into her voice, which filled Jack's heart with rapture.

The mere fact of having someone to look after and keep in order seemed to give her a stronger grasp of life. And as the days passed, and the doctor saw that she was still holding out, he began to think there might be a chance for the old woman. One day, when Jack was seating himself by the bedside,

according to his custom, after having tidied the room and given Marjorie her breakfast, she pulled back the checked curtain at the head of the bed and looked at him sharply. Isn't gillyflowers a blow now?

Ah, said Jack, a deal of them. Well, just you go out and cut them then. We can't afford to let them go to waste. I wonder at you. That I do.

and doctor to pay and so much money going out how aloth to leave ye pleaded jack well i can do without ye well enough

responded his wife tartly jack went to work without more ado but being uneasy in his mind returned so often to inquire how marjorie found herself now

and if she was pretty comfortable that after the tenth visit or so she lost patience be off wi ye she cried and don't come moider in me again

i'd rather have your room nor your company ye owd dunderhead jack closed the door and went out again chuckling and rubbing his hands owd dunderhead he repeated that sounds more like our margery same as owd times that is i reckon she'll do now he whistled as he stooped over his gillifers and often paused to laugh to himself and nod in the direction of the house winking and looking very knowing ow dunderhead he would mutter from time to time in high glee ah i reckon she's turned th corner his prophecy was realised and in less than a week the doctor was amazed on looking in to find his patient sitting up in the bed bunching gillifers and rating her husband soundly chapter six