CHAPTER VI.
The vagrant having got his dog, proceeds to hunt fortune with it,
leaving behind him a trap to catch rats.--What the trap does catch
is "just like his luck."
Sir Isaac, to designate him by his new name, improved much upon
acquaintance. He was still in the ductile season of youth, and took
to learning as an amusement to himself. His last master, a stupid sot,
had not gained his affections; and perhaps even the old soldier, though
gratefully remembered and mourned, had not stolen into his innermost
heart, as Waife and Sophy gently contrived to do. In short, in a very
few days he became perfectly accustomed and extremely attached to them.
When Waife had ascertained the extent of his accomplishments, and added
somewhat to their range in matters which cost no great trouble, he
applied himself to the task of composing a little drama which might bring
them all into more interesting play, and in which though Sophy and
himself were performers the dog had the premier role. And as soon as
this was done, and the dog's performances thus ranged into methodical
order and sequence, he resolved to set off to a considerable town at some
distance, and to which Mr. Rugge was no visitor.
His bill at the cottage made but slight inroad into his pecuniary
resources; for in the intervals of leisure from his instructions to Sir
Isaac, Waife had performed various little services to the lone widow with
whom they lodged, which Mrs. Saunders (such was her name) insisted upon
regarding as money's worth. He had repaired and regulated to a minute an
old clock which had taken no note of time for the last three years; he
had mended all the broken crockery by some cement of his own invention,
and for which she got him the materials. And here his ingenuity was
remarkable, for when there was only a fragment to be found of a cup and a
fragment or two of a saucer, he united them both into some pretty form,
which, if not useful, at all events looked well on a shelf. He bound, in
smart showy papers, sundry tattered old books which had belonged to his
landlady's defunct husband, a Scotch gardener, and which she displayed on
a side table, under the japan tea-tray. More than all, he was of service
to her in her vocation; for Mrs. Saunders eked out a small pension--which
she derived from the affectionate providence of her Scotch husband, in
insuring his life in her favour--by the rearing and sale of poultry; and
Waife saved her the expense of a carpenter by the construction of a new
coop, elevated above the reach of the rats, who had hitherto made sad
ravage amongst the chickens; while he confided to her certain secrets in
the improvement of breed and the cheaper processes of fattening, which
excited her gratitude no less than her wonder. "The fact is," said
Gentleman Waife, "that my life has known makeshifts. Once, in a foreign
country, I kept poultry, upon the principle that the poultry should keep
me."
Strange it was to notice such versatility of invention, such readiness of
resource, such familiarity with divers nooks and crannies in the
practical experience of life, in a man now so hard put to it for a
livelihood. There are persons, however, who might have a good stock of
talent, if they did not turn it all into small change. And you, reader,
know as well as I do, that when a sovereign or a shilling is once broken
into, the change scatters and dispends itself in a way quite
unaccountable. Still coppers are useful in household bills; and when
Waife was really at a pinch, somehow or other, by hook or by crook, he
scraped together intellectual halfpence enough to pay his way.
Mrs. Saunders grew quite fond of her lodgers. Waife she regarded as a
prodigy of genius; Sophy was the prettiest and best of children. Sir
Isaac, she took for granted, was worthy of his owners. But the Comedian
did not confide to her his dog's learning, nor the use to which he
designed to put it. And in still greater precaution, when he took his
leave, he extracted from Mrs. Saunders a solemn promise that she would
set no one on his track in case of impertinent inquiries.
"You see before you," said he, "a man who has enemies, such as rats are
to your chickens: chickens despise rats when raised, as yours are now,
above the reach of claws and teeth. Some day or other I may so raise a
coop for that little one: I am too old for coops. Meanwhile, if a rat
comes sneaking here after us, send it off the wrong way, with a flea in
its ear."
Mrs. Saunders promised, between tears and laughter; blessed Waife, kissed
Sophy, patted Sir Isaac, and stood long at her threshold watching the
three, as the early sun lit their forms receding in the narrow green
lane,--dewdrops sparkling on the hedgerows, and the skylark springing
upward from the young corn.
Then she slowly turned indoors, and her home seemed very solitary. We
can accustom ourselves to loneliness, but we should beware of infringing
the custom. Once admit two or three faces seated at your hearthside, or
gazing out from your windows on the laughing sun, and when they are gone,
they carry off the glow from your grate and the sunbeam from your panes.
Poor Mrs. Saunders! in vain she sought to rouse herself, to put the rooms
to rights, to attend to the chickens to distract her thoughts. The one-
eyed cripple, the little girl, the shaggy-faced dog, still haunted her;
and when at noon she dined all alone off the remnants of the last night's
social supper, the very click of the renovated clock seemed to say,
"Gone, gone;" and muttering, "Ah! gone," she reclined back on her chair,
and indulged herself in a good womanlike cry. From this luxury she was
startled by a knock at the door. "Could they have come back?" No; the
door opened, and a genteel young man, in a black coat and white
neckcloth, stepped in.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am--your name 's Saunders--sell poultry?"
"At your service, sir. Spring chickens?" Poor people, whatever their
grief, must sell their chickens, if they have any to sell.
"Thank you, ma'am; not at this moment. The fact is, that I call to make
some inquiries Have not you lodgers here?"
Lodgers! at that word the expanding soul of Mrs. Saunders reclosed
hermetically; the last warning of Waife revibrated in her ears this white
neckclothed gentleman, was he not a rat?
"No, sir, I ha'n't no lodgers."
"But you have had some lately, eh? a crippled elderly man and a little
girl."
"Don't know anything about them; leastways," said Mrs. Saunders, suddenly
remembering that she was told less to deny facts than to send inquirers
upon wrong directions," leastways, at this blessed time. Pray, sir, what
makes you ask?"
"Why, I was instructed to come down to ------, and find out where this
person, one William Waife, had gone. Arrived yesterday, ma'am. All I
could hear is, that a person answering to his description left the place
several days ago, and had been seen by a boy, who was tending sheep, to
come down the lane to your house, and you were supposed to have lodgers
(you take lodgers sometimes, I think, ma'am), because you had been buying
some trifling articles of food not in your usual way of custom.
Circumstantial evidence, ma'am: you can have no motive to conceal the
truth."
"I should think not indeed, sir," retorted Mrs. Saunders, whom the
ominous words "circumstantial evidence" set doubly on her guard. "I did
see a gentleman such as you mention, and a pretty young lady, about ten
days agone, or so, and they did lodge here a night or two, but they are
gone to--"
"Yes, ma'am,--gone where?"
"Lunnon."
"Really--very likely. By the train or on foot?"
"On foot, I s'pose."
"Thank you, ma'am. If you should see them again, or hear where they are,
oblige me by conveying this card to Mr. Waife. My employer, ma'am, Mr.
Gotobed, Craven Street, Strand,--eminent solicitor. He has something of
importance to communciate to Mr. Waife."
"Yes, sir,--a lawyer; I understand." And as of all ratlike animals in
the world Mrs. Saunders had the ignorance to deem a lawyer was the most
emphatically devouring, she congratulated herself with her whole heart on
the white lies she had told in favour of the intended victims.
The black-coated gentleman having thus obeyed his instructions and
attained his object, nodded, went his way, and regained the fly which he
had left at the turnstile. "Back to the inn," cried he, "quick: I must
be in time for the three o'clock train to London."
And thus terminated the result of the great barrister's first
instructions to his eminent solicitor to discover a lame man and a little
girl. No inquiry, on the whole, could have been more skilfully
conducted. Mr. Gotobed sends his head clerk; the head clerk employs the
policeman of the village; gets upon the right track; comes to the right
house; and is altogether in the wrong,--in a manner highly creditable to
his researches.
"In London, of course: all people of that kind come back to London," said
Mr. Gotobed. "Give me the heads in writing, that I may report to my
distinguished client. Most satisfactory. That young man will push his
way,--businesslike and methodical."
