LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2371, 8 November 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

FARMER TUBE'S REVENGE. ‘ Well, wife, what are yow goin' to give ua for dinner ?’ asked Farmer Tubbs of his better half, as he leaned back in his Windsor chair a very snbstantial breakfast, the last traces of which he was just removing from his full lips with the back of his hand. ‘ Nivver yow mind, Thomas,’ she retorted sharply. She was a quick little brown-eyed woman, neat as a new pin, as even her moat formidable critics acknowledged. ‘Nivver yow mind, Thomas; that’s nothin’ to yow. ’ ‘Oo ay; nothing’ to me, is it ? Well, I shan’t get too fat on that, shall 1?’ said he as he rose with a low, rich, chuckling laugh, that was resumed at intervals for the next five minutes, while he patted his kine, rubbed the pigs, and slyly administered to his favorite pony Daisy the slice of bread that he had surreptitiously brought away from the breakfast table for him.

He knew that his dinner was safe enough, and bis little joke was threadbare. Tom Tubbs loved his joke, but invention was not his forte, and when no novelty presented itself to his imagination he could nse his old jokes over again with perfect contentment and full enjoyment. This morning, when what Mrs Tubbs was going to provide was rothing to her husband, she had his favorite dinner to cook—a duok and green peas, preceded by a hard dumpling, and followed by a currant and raspberry tart and a custard—and she had to keep a look-out on the servant, who, as Mrs Tubbs would say, ‘ if my eyes are off her for a moment, goes and does summat wrong, or falls a-staria’ at nothin’ that waoant that it would rile yow in yowr beat Sunday go to.meetiu’ dress to see her.’ Everything was done to a turn, and to the minute, and Mrs Tnbbs, with her kitchen apron thrown off, her face bright as the morning, with clean collar and caffs, was in a state to have served the banquet to a lord. Bat Farmer Tubbs had not come home. He had gone down to the water meadows and had not returned Whon the Intimation was brought to Mrs Tnbbs—who was a great disciplinarian—she pressed her lips a little tighter, and sent her darning needle with increased vigor into the stockings ; but the said nothing. When the little clock chimed the quarter-past one, however, her backbone grew stiffer and her lips began to move. ‘Now, really, Thomas,’ she said, apostrophising the absent farmer, ‘yow don’t deserve to have a good dinner, that yow don’t. And I shouldn’t wonder if, when you come home, you’ve been spilin’ yowr appetite wi’ eating raw turnouts or some such nastiness. But any sort of appetite Is good enough when yonr wittles is dried up, or flabby j only if I’d ha’ know’d the duck was gooin’ to be spiled 1’ this way, it shouldn’t ha’ been killed ; that’s all.’ Bnt the darning went on, and the dnok, under Martha’s superintendence, accommodated itself to circumstances as best It could ; and Farmer Tnbb’a armchair stood yawning at the end of the table. • Martha, run up to the front bedroom and look if yow oan see yowr master cornin’, and mind you don’t put them dirty hands— I don’t want to look at ’em to know they are dirty —don’t you put ’em on the curtains, ’ called out Mrs Tubbs, Every step that Martha made on the stairs sounded like twenty; that was Martha’s way. A gentle sonled good girl, but given to splatter over whatever she put her hand to. Unlike the sleeping princess, her breathings were heard in chambers far apart, but there was something so unusually heavy in her breathing on this occasion, something so like a smothered cry, that Mrs Tubbs, listening and talking to herself, as was her wont, said—

1 What have you been doin’ now, I wonder. Bukkon summat, I warr’nt; fer, fer an active willin’ gal, yon are the clumsiest 1’ yowr finger that ever I come across. Ah,’she went on as Martha delayed, 'you don’t like to come and tell me what yow ha’ done, I’ll go bail. And I don’t wonder at It. But yow’ll ha to do it, my gal, and you may as well come at once. ’ But Martha did not come ; her long drawn breathings were heard still, but there was no movement.

1 Come along, Martha, ’ called Mrs Tubbs ; *if yow can’t sea him, it’s no use waitin’ ; come along, and get on wi’ yowr work.’ There was no response, and Mrs Tnbbs’ fears were strongly excited. She had an old Worcester punch-bowl, which she knew to bo of great money value, and which was of far more than money value to her. It was filled with dry rose leaves and placed in a spare bedroom, and now the thought flashed on her mind that Martha had broken this bowl and dared not come to make confession. I don’t suppose she had ever heard of Othello, but with her, as with him, • once to be In doubt was once to be resolved.’ Hastening to the chamber, her first glanoe was at the bowl, which stood in the nsual place, intact; but, to her horror and dismay, there stood Martha at the window, each blank hand clutched Into a spotless dimity curtain, and so intent on what she saw out of the window that Mrs Tnbbs’ approach was unheeded. She was seriously displeased, and it was characteristic of her that when she was so her manner lost its asperity and her rebuke was grave and dignified, ‘ I thought I could ha’ trusted yow better,’ she said ; • come away from the window, Martha.’

Martha took no heed; bat as her mistress moved across the room she clutched the curtains and drew them over the window, exclaiming— ‘Don’t look, missis! don’t look I’

Firmly, but gently, Mn Tubbs put her aside, and drew back the soiled curtains ; and what she saw, as she looked out, blanched her face with dread. Over the home-field came six men, bearing a something covered up, ou a gate. • Oh, missis, misses, come away !’ cried the poor girl; ‘ don’t look at it, missis; it’ll kill ye.’ ‘Foolish child !’ said Mrs Tubbs ; * don’t yow be feared for me. If I don't know all, how can I do what’s wanted? Go now, get out two or three blankets and take ’em down to the parlor and put ’em on the sofy ; see that there’s plenty of hot water, and tell Jim to take Ualsy and ride as quick as he can and ask Dr. Laver to come. Toll him to wait a moment at the side gate to see if I have any message to send. Steady and quick, there’s a good girl. All this was said with white lips and colourless face, but with a voice in which there was no tremor. The men with their burden were hesitating ; she saw it, divined the reason, and moved out swiftly that there might be no delay in breaking the news to her. It was little they had to telL Farmer

Tubba had been found in the water-meadows, apparently lifeless, with a severe wound on tho back of his head. After the drat awkward pause the men were voluble enough. They had no doubt that the master had been murdered ; but Mrs Tubbs ascertained that the heart still beat, though faintly. Swiftly, noiselessly, and without hurry, she buckled to her work. Martha, In awed wonder, repressing, out of respect to her mistress, a violent inolinati'-n to hysterics, stumbled about with wild and blundering good-will, moaning to herself in solitary places as much and as often as she could. The mon drank their beer in the yard, and conversed In hoarse whispers; speculating about tho "coroner's quest,” the motive of the murder, and other high matters; and slowly the breath of life rolled once more through tho nostrils of the wounded man ; and still _by his side watched and tended, with mute lips, with vigilant eye, with ever-ready hand, the good wife, tha very sunlight of whose being lay there hovering between life and death. Farmer Tubbs did not die. Dr. Laver was quickly In attendance, and his verdict, waited for with hungry eyes and ears, was such as to give hope, if not to Inspire Jconlidense. Slowly consciousness came back, but Dr. Laver strictly forbade all questioning for a time, and curiosity had nothing to feed on but what the village constable was willing to disclose as the result of his investigations; and this was little enough, the only additional item being that a spud had been found with clotted blood and hair upon It. Tho doctor had no hesitation in saying that tho wound could not have been tho result of a fall, and, in the long lush grass where ho was found, there was nothing that could have accounted for even a slight wound. No one was known to bear him a grudge ; he was popular with all classes in tho village ; hia men were tho envy of all in their own rank, lor farmer Tubbs was kindly and generous almost to a fault, homely and familiar, and though firm in all hia business affairs, he was never harsh. Bobbery could not have been the motive, for his watch and chain were still in hia fob, and the money in his pocket was untouched.

The mystery was not cleared up when, with returning strength, hia wife began to question him. He had just waked up one day from a long and healthy sleep, with a brighter and healthier look on hia face than she had seen since he was brought home.

‘ Yow feel better now, don’t yow, Thomas ?’ asked the bright-eyed little woman, who never left him. ‘ Ah, mother, that ay do; ay’ll soon be purely agen now.’ ‘Du yow feel strong enough to talk a bit ?’ she asked.

* Ay, old gal,’ he said with a faint smile ; *ay can talk a little bit, not much, _ Ay ain’t much at talkin’; that ain’t my line ; ay leave that to the wimtnen. ’ ‘Tell me how it happened. Who done it ?’ * Done what ?’ ho asked.

« Half murdered you,’ she replied curtly. ‘Who?’ he said; ‘why nobody. Yow wlmmen is alius trying’ to make out some fine story or another. Yow msra’t make a fuss about a little thing. _ I hurt myself a failin’, I suppose.’ •That's all nonsense, Thomas, and yon know it. There ain’t nothing for yow to hurt yowrse'f agen doon i’ the water meadows.’

‘ Oo ay ; and how do yow think It happened then V said ho. ‘ Why, some villain struck yow, Thomas, and it’s no use you bein’ so soft-hearted as to try to screen him, for if he’s above ground 111 have him,” she said with energy, -so you may as well tell me all about it.’ ‘Ay can’t tell yow nothing more, mother,’ he replied ; let’nn bide, let’un bide. Yow moyther me, clavering about It. It makes my head queer. ’ Mrs Tubbs was afraid of a relapse, if he were at all excited, and this hint was enough to tie her tongue for the present With a little dissatisfied grunt she dropped the subject, only to resume it again with gathered energy and determination when she could do so with safety. But returning strength did not render the farmer more communicative. He would not allow others to question him. His wife’s remonstrances ha endured, but he did not respond to them. •Thomas.’ she said one evening, when he had got down-stairs again, and the motion of her tongue was not impeded by fear of bringing about a relapse, ‘ I nivver have worried yow about little things, nor yet about big ones neither, to my knowln’, bnt yow are that aggravating about this tryin’ to murder yow that I can’t be quiet under it. I haven’t nivver kept no secret from yow, and yow didn’t ought to keep none from me. If it’s sntbin’ that shouldn’t go no fnrder, now needn’t fear my blabbin’, I can hold my tongue as well as a man, and the men are most ways quiet because their ideas are slow and they’ve got nothin’ to say. But how yow came by that wound I mean to know, and I will. ’ ‘Yow’ve alius been a good wife to me, Mary,’ he said slowly ; ‘no man nivver had a better, and he needn’t want one. And I’ve nivver kept nothin’ from yow, onlesa it was somebody else’a secret more’n mine ; and I nivver will. It wouldn’t do yow no good to know any more about this silly affair, but I couldn’t tell you If it would; so there. *

This was the nearest approach ho had made to confessing that there was a secret. It was something gained, and Mrs Tubbs was not the woman to leave the opportunity unimproved. ‘ His secret more’n yours ? Yes ? I’ll war. r’nt he’ll keep the secret safe enough, and he deserves to be banged for it. I know what a soft forglvin’ feller yon are, Thomas, and I don’t say nnthun’ agen forgiveness in a general way. If yon don’t care for yowraelf, yow might think suthin’ o’ mo’—here the voice quavered a little— ‘ and ov other folks. There’s a lot of murderin’ and robbin’ about, and yow should help to put it down, Why the very time as yow was well-nigh killed i* the meadow, there was a house broke Into at Oakstead In broad daylight, and a mm—old Leggat it was; you mind him P—beaten a’most to death. Howsomever, they’ve caught him, and I hope he’ll get hanged for it, if the man dies, as it’s like be will.’

‘Ay, ay,’ said he, glad to tarn tho conversation from his own case; ‘so they’ve collared ’nn, have they. Who was It ?’ * Nobody yow know; a feller named Ephraim Biggies, or some such name; a shire man, I guess. There’s the whole account on it in the paiper, ef yow like to read it.’

His hand trembled as he took the paper, for ho had been, it seemed, excited by the conversation, though he had spoken so quietly. He held the paper now upside down, and without attempting to read It ; bat when the careful housewife left him to attend to her domestic affairs, he sobbed out, * Oh, John, John; you hev broken my heart,’ and with tearful eyes began to study the details of the crime. It was but a brief Item o£ police news, and as follows : ' The Murderous Assault and Burglary at Oakstead.—Ephraim Biggies, a tramp, was charged on remand with having, on the 23id ultimo, broken into the dwelling-house of Simon Leggat, at Oakstead, with stealing five pounds nine shillings a watch, and other articles, and with violently assaulting the said Simon Leggat. This brutal assault, of which we published a full account at the time. It will bo remembered was committed between the hours of 1 and 2 p.m. on the 23rd nltimo. The prisoner was found on the following day sleeping in a barn at Cokey Green, with blood on his clothes and hands. None of the missing property was found upon him, though it is alleged that he was seen in the neighborhood of Leggat’a cottage on the day preceding the assault. Leggat still lies in a very critical state, and the Magistrates granted a further remand till Wednesday next. Tho prisoner, who looked very haggard and listless, denied that he was guilty, though be said he had deserved anything that might happen to him.’

Farmer Tubbs slowly spelt out this paragraph ; rend it and re read it till he know it by heart. It was about ono o’clock on the 23rd of July that he had met with bis mysterious accident; and fall twenty miles away, almost at the same moment, as it seemed, this outrage had been committed. The coincidence appeared to puzzle him ; his pipe went out, and yet he sat there with it In hia month for a good hour, apparently unconscious of tho tact. After tea Mrs Tubbs got out the draught-board as nsnal, and though he generally gave her two and beat her easily, they now played even, and he was huffed over and over again. ‘I can’t plaay to night,’ he said, ‘my head’s muddled. I’ll just take a walk round the garden, and then I’ll toddle np the wooden hill.’

( To he continued.)