Chapter XXIII,

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1523, 21 June 1873, Page 4

Chapter XXIII,

It was a godly and an ancient cxistom in Market Basing, that on a certain Sunday afternoon in the year, the rcßSpdrefPshould have a- ""church parade" i "{tll'"td 'fch'emselves," followed by a bun. Of late years, an addition had been made to this festival by setting apart a weekday in the summer for a school feast and treat. It was generally a dreary, affair 'enough. The boys and girls were marshalled, and marched to some field not far off, where they were turned loose previous to the tea and told to play. As the Market Basing boys saw no novelty in a field— unlike the Londoner, to whom a bird's nest is a new discovery, and a field-mouse the most remarkable of wild animals — these feasts, although preceded by cake and followed by tea, had no great charms. Perhaps they were overweighted by hymns. Now, Dick, pursuing that career of social usefulness already hinted at, had succeeded, in a very few weeks, in alienating the affections of all the spiritual leaders of the town. The way was this. First, he refused to belong to the chapel any more, and declined to pay for a pew in the church, on the reasonable ground that he did not intend to go to either. They came to him — Market Basing was regularly whipped and diiven to religion, if not to godliness — to give money to their pet society, which, they said, called alike for the support of church and chapel, for providing Humble Breakfasts and flannel in winter the Deserving Poor. This was explained to mean, not the industrious poor, nor the sober poor, bat the poor who attended some place of worship. Dick said that going to church did not of itself prove a man to be religious, artfully instancing himself as a case in a point ; and refused to give. Then the secretaries of London socities, finding out tkat there was another man who had money to give, and was shown already to be of liberal disposition, sent him begging letters through the curates.- They all got much the same answer. The missionary societies wore dismissed because, as Dick told them, he had seen missionaries with his own eyes. That noble institution in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which exists for the double purpose of maintaining a large staff; and converting the Jews, was refused on the ground of no results commensurable with the expense. He offered, indeed, a large sum for a successful mission among the professions — espescially the bar— in England. And he iashly proposed a very handsome prize — no less than a thousand pounds — to anybody who would succeed, in converting " him, "

Rev. Potiphar Denias, a needy vessel, volunteered ; bmt Dick declined to hear him, because he didn't want to know what Mr Demas had to say. Now, this seemed discourteous to the reverend gentleman. All which might have been counterbalanced by his many virtues. For it was notorious that he had given a pension to old Saunderson, the ruined cashier of Melliship's bank; also that he had withdrawn the Mortiboy claims on the Melliship estate : this was almost as if the Americans were to withdraw their Alabama claims, because there was no knowing how they might end. Besides which, it made an immediate difference of four shillings in the pound. Further, sundry aged persons who had spent a long life in cursing the name of Mortiboy, took to praising it altogether, because Dick was helping them all. And the liberality, towards his clerks with which he inaugurated his reign was almost enough of itself to make him popular. But then came that really dreadful business about the old women. This, although he was gaining a golden name by making restitution for his father's ill deeds — like Solomon repairing the breaches which his father David had made — was enough to make all religious and right-minded people tremble in their shoes. Everybody knows that humility in the aged poor is the main virtue which they are expected' to display. In the church at Market Basing was a broad middle aisle, down which was ranged a row of wooden benches, backless, cushionless, hard and unpromising. On them sat, Sunday after Sunday, at these services, constant, never-flagging, all the old women in the parish. It was a gruesome assemblage : toothless, rheumatic, afiiiected with divers pains and infirmities, they yet struggled, Sunday after Sunday, to the " free seats," so called by a bitter mockery, because those who sat in them had no other choice but to go. On their regular attendence depended not so much their daily bread, which the workhouse might have given them, but their daily comforts ; their tea and sugar ; their wine if they were ill — and they always were ill; their blankets and their coals. Now, will it be believed that Dick, instigated by Ghrimes, who held the revolutionary maxim that religion, if it is to be real, ought not to be made a condition of charity, actually found out the names of these old trots, and made a weekly dole among them, without any condition whatever 1 It was so. He really did it. After two or three Sundays the free seats were empty, all the old women having gone to the different conventicles, where they got their religion, hot and hot, as they liked it ; where thej' sat in comfortable pews, like the rest of the folk ; and where they were, treated as if, in the house of God, all men are alike and equal. When the curates called, they were cheeky ; when they threatened, the misguided old ladies laughed: when they blustered, these backsliders, relying on their Dick, cracked their aged fingers in the young men's faces. • "He is a very dreadful man," said the rector. " What shall we do with him?" He called. He explained the clanger which befel these ignorant though elderly persons in frequenting an uncovenanted place of worship ; but he spoke todeaf ears. Dick understood him not. It was the time of the annual school feast. Dick was sitting in that exasperating Californian dress in the little bank parlor, consecrated to black cloth and respectability. His legs were on window sill, his mouth had a cigar in the it, his face was beaming with jollity, his heart was as light as a child's. All this was very bad. Foiled in his first attempt, the rector made a second. " There is another matter, Mr Mortiboy, on which I would speak with you." •'. Speak, Mr Lightwood," said Dick. " Don't ask me for any money for the missionaries." " I will not," said good old Mr Lightwood, mournfully. "I fear it would be of little use." Dick pulled his beard and grinned. Why this universal tendency of mankind to laugh when, from a position of strength they are about to do something disagreeable ] "It is not about any of our societies, Mr Mortiboy. But I would fain hope that you will not refuse a trifle to our children's school feast. We give them games, races, aud so forth. With tea and cake. We are very short of funds." "Do you 1" cried Dick. " Look here, sir. What would you say if I cflereel to stand the whole thing — pay for the burst myself— grub, liquids, and prizes?" The rector was dumbfoundercd. It had hitherto been one of his annual difficulties to raise the money .-for his little " fete, " for St. Giles's parish was very Urge, and the parishoniers generally poor. And here was a man offering to pay for everything ! Then Dick, who could never be a wholly submissive son of the Church, must needs put in a condition which spoiled it. "All the children, mind. None of your Church. children only." "It has always been confined to our own children, Mr Mortiboy. The Dissenters have their — ahem ! — their — their — treat at another time." " Very well, then. Here is my offer. I will pay for supper, or dinner, or whatever you call it, to as many Market Basing children as like to come. I don't care wether they are Jews or Christians. That is their look-out, not mine, Take my offer, Mr Lightwood,

If you refuse, by Jove, I'll have a day of my own, and choose your day We'll see who gets most youngsters. I you accept, you shall say grace, and do all the pious part yourself. Come let us oblige each other. lam really sorry to refuse you so often ; and here is a chance." What was to be done with this dreadful man 1 If you crossed him, he was capable of ruining everything ; and to yield to him was to give up half your diginity. But concession meant happiness to the children ; and the good old clergymen, who could not possibly understand the attitude of mind of his new parishioner — seeing only perverrity, where half was experience and half ignorance — yielded at once and gracefully. Dick immediately assumed the whole conduct of the affair. Without making any reference to church or chapel, he issued handbills stating that sport?, to which all the children in the place were invited, would be held on the following Wednesday, in his own paddock at Derngate. Then followed a goodly list of prizes to be run for, jumped for, wrestled for, and in other ways offered to public competition. And it became known that preparations were making on the most liberal scale. There wa3 to be a dinner at one. a tea at five, and a supper at eight. There were to be firewoi'ks. Above all, the races and the prizes. Dick had no notion of doing a thing by halves. He got an itinerant circus from a neighbouring fair, a wild beast show, a Punch and Judy, swing-boats, a round-about, and a performing monkey. Then he hh'ed a magic lantern, and erected a tent where it was to be seen all day. Then he hired donkeys for races, got hundreds of coloured lamps from town, built an enormous marquee where any number of . children might sit down to dinner, and sent out messengers to ascertain how many children might be expected. This was the happiest period in Dick's life. The possessor of a princely income, the owner an of enormous fortune, he had but to lift his hand, and misery seemed to vanish. Justice, the propagation of prudential motives, religion, natural retribution for broken laws, all these are advanced ideas, of which Dick had but small conception. Grace Heathcofce described the day in one of her letters to Kate — those . letters which were almost the . only pleasure the poor girl had at thid time : — "As for the day, my dear, it was wonderful. I felt iiiclined to defend the climate of England at the point of the sword — I mean the needle. Dick, of course, threw California in my teeth. As we drove down the road in the waggonette, the grand old trees in the park were rustling in their lovely July foliage like a great lady in her court dress. The simile was suggested to me by mamma, who wore her green silk. Lucy and I were dressed alike — in white muslin. I had pink ribbons, anci she wore blue ; and round my neck was the locket with F.s portrait in it, which you sent me — you good, kind, thoughtful Kate ! Mamma does not like to see it ; but you know my rebellious disposition. And'papa took it in hisfingers, and then pinched my cheek, as much as to say that he highly approved of my conduct. Oh ! I know the dear old man's heart. I talk to him out in the fields, and find out all his little secrets. Men, my dear Kate, even ii they are our own deal' father, are all as simple as— what shall I say ? — as Frank and papa. "We got into Market Basing at twelve. The town was just exactly like market day, only without the smell of vegetables. It felt like Christmas Day in the summer. You know the paddock ? It is not very big, but it was big enough. The front of the lawn of Derngate — poor old Uncle Mortiboy inside, not knowing what was going on ! — was covered with a great marquee. The paddock had a racecourse marked around it, and a platform, and posts between, which were festooned with coloured lamps. All the children, in their Sunday best, were gathering, about the place, waiting to be admitted. "As we drove up, Dick came out; with a cigar between his teeth, of course, and the crowd gave a great cheer. Mamma said it seemed as if it was meant for ws ; and so we all got out of the waggonette, trying to look like princesses ; and Dick helped us, and they all cftfeerecl again. Really, I felt "almost" like Royalty; which, my clear Kate, must be a state of life demanding a great strain upon the nerves, and a constant worry to know whether your bonnet is right. "'Are we looking mir best, Dick V I asked, anxious to know. " ' Your very best,' he said. " I take it as a compliment to my boys and girls.' " I wish that woman Mary, our old servant, had not been staaiding close by. She gave me a 100k — such -a look as I never saw her have before — as if I- was doing her some mortal injury ; and then turned away, and I saw her no more all day. I declare there's always something. If ever I felt haj)py in my life - except one day when Frank told me he loved me — it was last Wednesday ; and that woman really spoiled at least an hour of the day for me, because she , made me feel so uncomfortable. I wish she would go away. "As one o'clock struck, the band — did I tell you there was a band 1 A real band, Kate, the militia band from the Stores— struck up, and Dick in five minutes had all the boys aud girls in to dkmer,