The record-union., 1894-05-19

! for their gOOQneSS.-Wlll give us d CHdHCo
| to earn it. Besides. want to see Kent
| Just once, if-only as a hop-picker!' she
concluded determinedly.
/ "You are the bravest sister man ever
had," exclaimed Pelham rapturously.
"Gor bli me-" she's hevery inch a
queen" murmured Hetty rapturously.
"A queen?" added Ike scornfully atthe
inadequateness of the title. Strike me
| lucky, she's a hempress, hout an 'noutE =
Bright and early The next morning Ike,
| Hetty and their van, drawn by their Won
derful donkey, Bolivar" resplendent
in the newly polished coronets of his Sec
ond- hand harness. were in waiting IN the
historic precincts of Cheyne how.
The Pelhams had stored their remain
ing belongings with their landlady leav-
ing instructions to forward any letters
that might arrive during their absence TO
Maidstone, the metropolis OF the kentlsh
i hop country, and, having provided SIN
gle change OF garments, with some neces-
sary additions OF food to the already gen.
erous coster supply, were ready 1or tne
! extraordinary journey into Kent.
While busy about the van with the
final preparations. Ike with genuine feel
ing confided to Pelham that all provlS-
ions against 1.-The ladies' " wants had
been looked to- For" he said, with al
most a tinge of bitterness i'll his argu-
ment, WAITS the use o. leavin' out th'
a woman, leastwise Hetty, wat she's
used ter on houtin', an plenty hof it, n
no fear she'll make folks 'arppy Were she
Didesv'
With this generous outlook before
them, Hetty and Mercy were comfort
ably ensconced in the van, and Ike and
Pelham, walking beside the demure Boil
| var, the pilgrimage to the hop gardens OF
Kent was begun.
| Their way led over the Thames out
through Southwark with its Tabard Inn,
where Chaucer's fancy grouped quaint
company-his knight, prloress, yeomen,
triar, monk, merchant, sergeant OF law,
clerk, haberdasher, weaver, dyer, miller,
reeve, goodwite of Bath and What-not OF
that ilk--at the beginning of the Canter-
bury springtime pilgrimages; through
! little FoOtS Cray with its picturesque
| Ursula Lodge, retreat for six ancient
maiden ladies'; into Eynestord embow-
cred in apple orchards and doing drone-
fully beneath the gray ruins OF its flinty
Norman castle curiouSly studded with
Roman bricks; and at last after two
days time they came to sweet old Alling-
ton-where Sir Thomas Wyatt, through
| his passion for the Kentish beauty,
| Queen Anne Boleyn, wrote almost the
earliest and some OF the sweetest love
songs in the English tongue-the green
! depths of whose forests throobed with
the endless melody Of birds, and from
whose gentle hills the hop-gardens of
! Kent stretch away to the south and the
east like impenetrable masses ofshadows,
towards ancient Canterbury and the sea.
Nor were they alone in their Pilgrim
| age. From every highway, by-path and
! lane, leading, as it seemed, from every
contiguous shire and centering about
| Maidstone, tloated low clouds of dust.
| These half hid and half disclosed masses
of oncoming pilgrim bands. They came
not in hundreds but in thousands. They
| came in vans, in carts and on foot. Thou
sands of gypsies were among their num-
ber. Every railway train which halted
at every station in the entire district, left
scores or hundreds from the London
| slums; and these set out with fierce hal
loas upon the crowded roads in mad rae
ings for favorite gardens and masters.
From the hillside where their van had
| halted for the night they could see for
miles and miles the wild tnrongs thicken.
The hedges were alive with them.
! Every spring or stream or we'll was
seized upon as by armies in their pesti-
lential, all-consuming long marches.
They crowded from the hedges into field
corners. They broke into the meadows
and wallowed in the aftermath. Wave
like they beat up against the farmhouses
and fought like beasts for sheds ana half
sheltered spots beneath division walls, or
for hollows beneath the highways. Far
as the eye could reach, it seemed that
writhing, wriggling, ungovernable count
! less thousands of frantic humans were
wedged in upon each other simply tor
savage outlawry and destruction.
AS the night came down the valley
scene and sound were more impressive
still. Hundreds of fickering campfires
were lighted in the plain below. No
human was visible, but the mutterings of
this unmarshalled army of labor were
| than
their unmasked ranks by day. Hoarse
halloas, laughter from which all lnno-
cence had forever flown, cries of drunken
men and shrieking women mingled in
horrible discord and t1oated blastingly
over this sweetest of English wales.
But late, late at night one by one the
valley fires grew dim, and one by one
the blessed stars, as il shuddering and
shrinking from the beStial scenes below,
swung their trembling lanterns in the
sky. And not until then could at least
two of the occupants of the van at old
Allington's forest side, realize that the
air was full of odorous thyme, that the
subtle musk of ten thousand hop gar
dens brought the sweetest of all repose;
and that in no other land beneath the
stars do labor and night invite the tired
and unfortunate to such wondrously life
giving and ever dreamless sleep as
among the beauteOuS hop gardens OF
ancient Kent.
The next Monday morning found the
Pelhams, Ike and Hetty vigorously at
work in the hop gardens of the farms at
tached to large Gemesne in the outskirts
of Aylesford, a charming hamlet which
climbs Il pretty hillside to an ancient
church few miles north of Maidstone,
on the gently winding Midway stream.
TO the hop-pickers i'll general the place
was simply known as 1.-The Hail." 1t
was historic place, no doubt, for the bat
tlemented turrets of huge structure
showed loftily above the park trees OF the
demesne. But to those who annually
came and toiled, it's chief interest lay in
the fact that fair prices were paid for hop
gathering and that the overseerS were
careful in selecting pickers from among
rural village folk rather than from the
vile rabble of the London slums.
That the Pelhams were thus fortunate
was due to the genius and diplomacy of
Chaffinch Ike, who swore a great coster
oath to Hetty that "afore he'd let th'
hempress mix with th' reg'lar Lunnon
mob as goes 'oppin',' he would "chuck
'er on th' wan, an run away 'ome agin."
SO he would; and so the four, who were
provided with a ''bin" to themselves,
found their surroundings far more pleas
ant than falls to the lot of most who
scramble among the odorous hop-fields of
Kent.
At the close of the first day George and
Mercy Pelham returned to their van,
which stood beside the ancient Aylesford
church, with sore limbs and bleeding
hands, But there was compensatiDg
magic in the hearty outdoor life: exhila-
ration in very striving of the labor; ella
tion in the merry rivalry, and wondrous
human interest in the bright. quaint
groups about them.
Then there were the strange signals for
bringing the pickers together, morning
and afternoon: the conch-shell horns, the