Facing Death; Or, The Hero of the Vaughan Pit: A Tale of the Coal Mines Read online

  CHAPTER III.

  THE RESOLUTION.

  An artist sitting in the shade under a tree, painting a bit of rusticgate and a lane bright with many honeysuckles. Presently he is consciousof a movement behind him, and looking round, sees a sturdily built boyof some ten years of age, with an old bull-dog lying at his feet, andanother standing by his side, watching him.

  "Well, lad, what are you doing?"

  "Nowt!" said the boy promptly.

  "I mean," the artist said with a smile, "have you anything to do? ifnot, I will give you sixpence to sit still on that gate for a quarter ofan hour. I want a figure."

  The boy nodded, took his seat without a word, and remained perfectlyquiet while the artist sketched him in.

  "That will do for the present," the artist said. "You can come and sitdown here and look at me at work if you like; but if you have nothing todo for an hour, don't go away, as I shall want you again presently.Here is the sixpence; you will have another if you'll wait. What's yourname?" he went on, as the boy threw himself down on the grass, with hishead propped up on his elbows.

  "Bull-dog," the lad said promptly; and then colouring up, added "atleast they call me Bull-dog, but my right name be Jack Simpson."

  "And why do they call you Bull-dog, Jack?"

  The artist had a sympathetic voice and spoke in tones of interest, andthe lad answered frankly:

  "Mother--that is, my real mother--she died when I were a little kid, andJuno here, she had pups at the time--not that one, she's Flora, threeyears old she be--and they used to pretend she suckled me. It bain'tlikely, be it?" he asked, as if after all he was not quite sure about ithimself. "Schoolmaster says as how it's writ that there was once twolittle rum'uns, suckled by a wolf, but he can't say for sure that it'strue. Mother says it's all a lie, she fed me from a bottle. But theycalled me Bull-dog from that, and because Juno and me always went abouttogether; and now they call me so because," and he laughed, "I take agood lot of licking before I gives in."

  "You've been to school, I suppose, Jack?"

  "Yes, I've had five years schooling," the boy said carelessly.

  "And do you like it?"

  "I liked it well enough; I learnt pretty easy, and so 'scaped manyhidings. Dad says it was cos my mother were a schoolmaster's daughterafore she married my father, and so learning's in the blood, and comesnatural. But I'm done with school now, and am going down the pit nextweek."

  "What are you going to do there? You are too young for work."

  "Oh, I sha'n't have no work to do int' pit, not hard work--just to openand shut a door when the tubs go through."

  "You mean the coal-waggons?"

  "Ay, the tubs," the boy said. "Then in a year or two I shall get to be abutty, that ull be better pay; then I shall help dad in his stall, andat last I shall be on full wages."

  "And after that?" the artist asked.

  The lad looked puzzled.

  "What will you look forward to after that?"

  "I don't know that there's nowt else," the boy said, "except perhapssome day I might, perhaps--but it ain't likely--but I might get to be aviewer."

  "But why don't you make up your mind to be something better still,Jack--a manager?"

  "What!" exclaimed the boy incredulously; "a manager, like Fenton, wholives in that big house on the hill! Why, he's a gentleman."

  "Jack," the artist said, stopping in his work now, and speaking veryearnestly, "there is not a lad of your age in the land, brought up as aminer, or a mechanic, or an artisan, who may not, if he sets it beforehim, and gives his whole mind to it, end by being a rich man and agentleman. If a lad from the first makes up his mind to three things--towork, to save, and to learn--he can rise in the world. You won't be ableto save out of what you get at first, but you can learn when your workis done. You can read and study of an evening. Then when you get betterwages, save something; when, at twenty-one or so, you get man's wages,live on less than half, and lay by the rest. Don't marry till you'rethirty; keep away from the public-house; work, study steadily andintelligently; and by the time you are thirty you will have a thousandpounds laid by, and be fit to take a manager's place."

  "Do'st mean that, sir?" the boy asked quickly.

  "I do, Jack. My case is something like it. My father was a villageschoolmaster. I went when about twelve years old to a pottery atBurslem. My father told me pretty well what I have told you. Idetermined to try hard at any rate. I worked in every spare hour toimprove myself generally, and I went three evenings a week to the artschool. I liked it, and the master told me if I stuck to it I might be apainter some day. I did stick to it, and at twenty could paint wellenough to go into that branch of pottery. I stuck to it, and atfive-and-twenty was getting as high pay as any one in Burslem, exceptone or two foreign artists. I am thirty now. I still paint at times onchina, but I am now getting well known as an artist, and am, I hope, agentleman."

  "I'll do it," the boy said, rising slowly to his feet and coming closeto the artist. "I'll do it, sir. They call me Bull-dog, and I'll stickto it."

  "Very well," the artist said, holding out his hand; "that's a bargain,Jack. Now, give me your name and address; here are mine. It's the 1st ofJune to-day. Now perhaps it will help you a little if I write to you onthe 1st of June every year; and you shall answer me, telling me how youare getting on, and whether I can in any way give you help or advice. IfI don't get an answer from you, I shall suppose that you have got tiredof it and have given it up."

  "Don't you never go to suppose that, sir," the boy said earnestly. "Ifthou doesn't get an answer thou'llt know that I've been killed, asfather was, in a fall or an explosion. Thank you, sir." And the boywalked quietly off, with the old bull-dog lazily waddling behind him.

  "There are the makings of a man in that boy," the artist said tohimself. "I wish though I had finished his figure before we began totalk about his plans for the future. I shall be very proud of that boyif he ever makes a name for himself."

  That evening Jack sat on a low stool and gazed into the fire so steadilyand silently that Bill Haden, albeit not given to observe his moods,asked:

  "What ail'st, lad? What be'st thinkin' o'?"

  Jack's thoughts were so deep that it took him some time to shake themoff and to turn upon his stool.

  "Oi'm thinking o' getting larning."

  "Thinking o' getting larning!" the miner repeated in astonishment, "why,'ee be just a dun o' getting larning. 'Ee ha' been at it for the lastfoive year, lad, and noo thou'st going to be done wi' it and to work inthe pit."

  "Oi'm a going to work in the pit, dad, and oi'm a gwine to get larningtoo. Oi've made oop my mind, and oi'm gwine to do it."

  "But bain't 'ee got larning?" the miner said. "Thou canst read and writefoine, which is more nor I can do and what dost want more?"

  "Oi'm a going to get larning," Jack said again, steadily repeating theformula, "and oi'm gwine soom day to be a manager."

  Bill Haden stared at the boy and then burst into a fit of laughter."Well, this bangs a'."

  Mrs. Haden was as surprised but more sympathetic.

  "Bless the boy, what hast got in your head now?"

  Jack showed not the slightest sign of discomfiture at his father'slaughter.

  "I met a chap to-day," he said in answer to Mrs. Haden, "as told I thatif I made up my moind to work and joost stuck to 't, I could surely makea man o' myself, and might even roise soom day to be a manager; and I'ma going to do it."

  "Doant 'ee say a word to check the boy, Bill," Mrs. Haden said to herhusband, as he was about to burst out into jeering remarks. "I tell 'ee,what Jack says he sticks to, and you oughter know that by this time.What the man, whos'ever he might be, said, was right, Jack," she wenton, turning to the boy. "Larning is a great thing. So far you ain'tshowed any turn for larning, Jack, as I ever see'd, but if you get ityou may raise yourself to be an overman or a viewer, though I doan't saya manager; that seems too far away altogether. If you stick to what yousay you may do it, Jack. I can't help you in larnin
g, for I ain't gotnone myself, but if I can help you in any other way I 'ull, and so 'ullfeyther, though he does laugh a bit."

  "He be roight enough to laugh," Jack said, "for I hain't had any turnthat way, I doant know as I ha' now, but I'm a going to try, and iftrying can do it," he said in his steady tones, "oi'll do it. I think Iha' got some o' the bull-dog strain in me, and I'll hoult on to it asBess would hoult on to a man's throat if she pinned him."

  "I know you will, my lad," Mrs. Haden said, while her husband, lightinghis pipe and turning to go out, said:

  "It matters nowt to me one way or t'other, but moind, lad, larning or nolarning, thou'st got to go into the pit next week and arn your living."

  "Jack," Mrs. Haden said presently, "dost know, I wouldn't do nowt wi'this new fancy o' thine, not till arter thou'st a been to work i' thepit for a while; a week or two will make no differ to 'ee, and thoudoan't know yet how tired ye'll be when ye coom oop nor how thou'ltlong for the air and play wi' lads o' thy own age. I believe, Jack,quite believe that thou be'st in arnest on it, and I know well that whenthou dost begin thou'lt stick to 't. But it were better to wait tillthou know'st what 'tis thou art undertaking."

  Jack felt that there was a good deal in what his mother said. "Verywell, mother. 'Twant make no differ to me, but oi'll do as th' asks me."