The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-09-12
sour Joe;" A Tale OF the West
Riding.
IN FOUR cHApTERs.-cHApTER l..


See ALL nor be afraid" Arnold.
Benjamin Brierley was self-made
made, and prided himself upon the cir
cumstance. al warn't born wi silver
spoon i my mouth. When 1 were lad
/ selled papers i Bradford Market, and
Pm proud o. it. I'd no parents to advise
me, and l niver he'd days schooling,
but / were determined to git on, and l
did git on. All know l learned mesen,
and all Z money l hev earned mesen I;
and look at me now There's many a
swell as thinks hissen summat extra, wi
his fine schoolin', as l could buy and sell
to-day"
He was delivering this little Grafton to
his sister-in-law, Miss Martha Thrale, a
shrewd, handsome Yorkshire woman,
who had kept Benjamin's house ever
since the death of her sister, twenty years
previous. She was accustomed to hear
1t, yet when he said pompously, "Aud
look at me now !" she lifted her head a
moment from her work and looked at him,
She saw a very stout, bsld-hesded man,
with keen gray eyes, and legs planted we'll
apart on the handsome Brierley hearth
rug. He stood with his back to the fire,
and his hands clasped beneath his coat
tails. This coat was of cloth of his own
manufacture, and of good substantial
make, with set as Incorporating and
Questionable as its wearer. A solid,
stolid, upright, downright man, with
plenty of sinew, breadth, and bone.
"Some folks 'ud think thou hast done
well to thysen, Ben"
81 hev. I've niver wanted either friends
or enemies, and one sort hes happen
helped me 80 much as tother; and I'd
like our Joe to do just as I've done"
"Thou might manage, I sud think, to
bring up son that 'ud show there could
be somebody better nor thee"
Ben looked sngrily at her, $50 Joe
hes been irving to get round thee, has he ?
Moo, then, just hear what say. I'll hev
none o. his romaucing books, He'll be a
sight better among t. wool bags nor spoil
ing good paper wi bad poetry. There's
no more poetry i Joe's head nor there is
i Bradshaw's Railway Guide. I'll not hev
it there. anyhow"
at think our Joe sud be let follow out
his inclinations. livery bird flies best wi
its own feathers"
"I'se capped to hear thee, Martha /
WHATEVER are we getting to ? I'll hev no
poetry, and fiddling, and French i my
house. French, indeed wonder who
educates them foreign creatures? 1
couldn't max sense O. word that French
man said"
"And he didn't understand thee"
al sneak good Yorkshire" replied Ben,
"and that's the best English going. Joe's
mother wer allays reading poetry. T. lad
might hev done we'll but for heving bee
i her bonnet"
at think thou bed better say naught
O. Joe's mother, Brierley. Thou knew
little about her. Thou wer that throng
maxim money that thy home was nobbut
place to eat and sleep in when t. engine
stopped. And thou knows just as little
about thy son."
al know III hev no high flown ideas
put into his head by parcel O. women
and school-masters. Say no more, Mar
tina; don't want to hear thee talk thou
vert telling him a. kinds O. lies about
fairy folk, and such like, afore he he'd his
first breaches on, and thou knows it -
and Benjamin looked reproachfully into
Martha's face. The look on that face
was something new to him. In twenty
wears he had never seen anything like it.
1t meant rebellion on his own hearthstone.
If thunderbolt had fallen at his feet it
could scarcely have amazed him more.
zone wad think, Ben" she said ssrcas.
tically, that in maxim thy own fortune
thou considered thou he'd done some great
and good action, emitting thee to the love
and gratitude O. thy fellow.creatures. l
don't believe thew think so, lad.'
al hev made 100000"
"That's nothing, if thou puts it again
real goodness and learning"
Nothing" gasped Benjamin, horri-
fed at the calm indifference of the
statement"
al wer watching our big Cochin China
cock this morning." continued Martha !;
"hs'd gotten his greedy crop we'll stuffed,
and he stood Growing on his dung-hill
like good 'un; and I've no doubt he felt
contempt for the lark that was singing
away up in the clouds. Poor senseless
bird 1t couldn't crow, and it hedn't a
dunP-hill to crow on; and therefore in
Mr.. Cochin's opinion, it he'd nothing that
was worth his while Growing about"
At this point in the conversation Mr..
Joe Brierley entered the room. He was a
handsome young fellow. without doubt I;
one of those tall, blonde Englishmen whose
magnificent physique and perfect health
are promissory note for any amount of
probable success. He had been to various
schools, and under various teachers, had
learnt many things, whose very names
suggested nothing at all to the unlettered
Benjamin. Indeed, the father had rather
tolerated than acquiesced in some of his
studies but when Joe quoted Pliny with
an air of "that settles the matter" or
rolled out couplet of musical though
likely imperfect Greek as an illustration,
the old man knew himself to be in dark
and unknown territory, and answered only
with doubtful, contemptuous humph %
With much good reason, then, he felt
that as regarded his only sons bringing
up he had been bamboozled by parcel
o'women and school-masters." He had
given strict orders in the boys earliest
childhood that he should hear no fairy
tales and to say that his aunt and nurse
strictly disobeyed those orders is only to
say that they were women, In fact, Mar.
tina Thrale had, one Sunday night, in his
very presence, told the lad the story of a
wonderful giant-killer; and when he said
"Now, Martha, hev done wi such non