CHAPTER II. "But whate'er you are, That in this desert inaccessible, Under the shade of melancholy boughs, Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time; If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church; If ever from your eye-lids wiped a tear, Ir was one of those evenings that tempt the birds to loiter on bough and spray to sing a few notes of their early summer songs, and yet, notwithstanding the deep, dark shadows cast by the lingering sun-set, and the gentle waving of the green, fresh-robed trees, there was a chilling air which made the hearth more welcome than a wander on the hill, through lane, or mist-robed valley. In his lonely and confined domain, Mike Crouch sat before a handful of dying embers. His elbows rested on his knees, and his chin upon his hands; and in this posture he appeared to be buried in profound reflection. “I wonder,” he at length said, “whether that razor-grinding, scissor-sharpening, knifewhetting, old prig, Peter Parkins, will really try to take a spoke out o' my wheel, or whether it's only cheek?" At this stage of the soliloquy, the earthstopper paused, and seemed to be puzzled in untying this knotty point. "There's no doubt," continued he, "that I've set his hackles up, and not without cause -that I must confess. But what care I?" said Mike, snapping his finger and thumb. "It was my humour, and I enjoyed it. A dog worries a cat or a rat-what for? It's his sport, and so 'twas mine, to mangle that mouldy old sinner. I hate him! and always did. It's as natural for rogue to hate rogue, as it is for fish to swim. A fox won't share his chicken or rabbit with the vixen that whelped him; and a rogue has the same liking for the swag in his grab. Share and share alike may do well enough where honesty's concerned; but it won't do when you come to prigging." Mike again stopped, and permitted a long check before he resumed the train of his consideration. he, "Even if his will be good and strong," said "I don't see what harm he could do me. Supposing he splits in that little matter concerning Tom, and tells how and who spread the net-where's his proof? I'll say it's a lie, and, word against word, I know who'll come off best in that bout. There's been no neighbours' eyes nor ears to witness our meetings. The kennel's not a place for clapper-tongued gossips. No, no," and then Mike rubbed his hands with glee, and chuckled with inward satisfaction. "If the cross-grained varmint was believed,' said the earth-stopper, losing some of his levity, "I should get the sack to a certainty, and then ́ it would be all up with my patchwork. But-" and Mike's large, white, and even teeth, snapped together loudly as he spoke, and he clinched his fists with savage earnestness, "if he does turn over my barrow o' luck, I'll spill the last drop of blood in his skin, if I'm hanged on the highest gibbet that was ever raised." With this fierce resolve, the earth-stopper rose from his lowly seat, and strode-it took but two steps of his long, spider legs-up and down the room, not unlike the restless move ments of some wild animal confined in a cage. "What's that?" said he, quickly stopping in his walk, and listening, like a startled hare with pricked ears, to some sound without. There was a slight pull at the faggot forming the entrance to the kennel, and then, as the feeble effort to remove it seemed to fail, Mike sent the bundle of sered sticks rolling before the sturdy kick he bestowed upon it. "Now then!" cried he, thrusting his head. and shoulders out. "Man, woman, child, ghost, or devil, come in, and let's know your errand." The earth-stopper's roughness of bearing, however, became greatly changed as he saw, much to his astonishment, the slight form of a female figure dressed in black standing within a few feet of him; and his first thought was, that he might have been too hasty in "summoning spirits from the vasty deep." "Pardon me if I'm an intruder," said a weak and plaintive voice. "But I was in formed that Mr. Lawrence's earth-stopper, Mike Crouch, lived here." "Your servant, ma'am," replied Mike, respectfully. "I'm the Squire's stopper, and that's the name I go by in these parts." |