Tatterdemalion

eful Fourth of August he had

she with a queer compassion in her heart, and one or the other would reply

m dairy, would turn her dark taciturn head, with still plentiful black hair, towards his face which, for all its tan, was so weirdly remini

year in, year out, from dawn till dark, with the cattle and their calves, the sheep, the horses and the wild moor ponies; except when hay or corn harvest, or any exceptionally exacting festival absorbed him for the moment. From shyness he never went into the bar of the Inn, and so had missed the greater part of village education. He could of course read no papers, a map was to him but a mystic mass of marks and colours; he had never seen the sea, never a ship; no water broader than the parish streams; until the war had never met anything more like a soldier than the constabl

it were. There was something proud and sturdy in the little man, even in the look of him, for all that he was 'poor old Tom,' who brought a smile to the lips of all. He was passionate, too, if rubbed up the wrong way; but it needed the malevolence and ingenuity of human beings to annoy him-with his beasts he never lost his temper, so that they had perfect confidence in him. He resembled indeed herdsmen of the Alps, whom one may see in dumb communion with their creatures up in those high solitudes; for he too dwelt in a high solitude cut off from real fellowship with men and women by lack of knowledge, and by the supercilious pity in them. Living in such a remote world his talk-when he did say something-had ever the surprising quality attaching to the thoughts of those by whom the normal p

ary age ready to serve if called on, he heard of it, and stopped munching to say in his abrupt

be 'ardly fair-they'd

with motherliness, answered:

ittle cowman would notice such a thing as that no one could ever have said, devoid as he was of the vocabulary of beauty, but like all the world his heart must have felt warm

d time. It was unpleasant to think of them more than could be helped. Once in a way a youth went off and ''listed,' but though the parish had given more perhaps than the average, a good fe

own-clad men and a recruiting band drew up before the Inn. Here were clustered the farmers, the innkeeper, the grey-haired postman; by the Church gate and before the schoolyard were knots of girls and children, schoolmistress, schoolmaster, parson; and down on the lower green a group of likely youths, an old labourer or two, and apart from human beings as was his wont, the lit

the group of likely youths. These wavered a little, were silent, sniggered, stood their ground-the khaki-clad figures passed among them. Hackneyed words, jests, the touch of flattery, changing swiftly to chaff-all the customary performance, hollow and pathetic; a

the band struck up: 'It's a

n the dust above the road and the distant blare of Tipperary had dispersed and died, he walked back to the farm dotting from one to other of his short feet. All that afternoon and evening he spoke no word; but the flush seemed to have settled in his face for good and all. He milked some cows, but

Tom?" All he c

goin'." She milked

le to nothing, leaving his jobs half

o go." Even the beasts

er having consulted with

all. I'll drive 'ee down Monday. Us

e was restless as ever all thro

bye to anyone, not even to his beasts, he sat staring straight before him, square, and jolti

the recruiting station. He got d

y asked him, "what

l Mar

, square figure of such an obvious la

better take county regiment.

d he answered:

ved him to wish to join that outlandish corps? Who shall say? There was the w

as put before the reading board. His eyes were splendid; little that passed in hedgerows or t

he answ

d, you're

L

g officer's sleeve, his face was tw

know 'is

so reminiscent of a withered baby, and the little blue eyes staring out under the

right, my lad, b

ht out. An hour later he sat again beside the farmer on

t within him. That evening he ate his tea, and next day settled down again among his beasts. But whenever, now, the w

'nt got

t seemed to him He could not understand that they had spared him. Why! He

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