J. Cole
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Emma Gellibrand >> J. Cole
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[Illustration: "'WHO ARE YOU, MY CHILD?' I SAID'--Page 3
(_Frontispiece_)]
J. COLE
BY
EMMA GELLIBRAND
J. COLE.
"HONNERD MADAM,
"Wich i hav seed in the paper a page Boy wanted, and begs to say J.
Cole is over thertene, and I can clene plate, wich my brutther is
under a butler and lernd me, and I can wate, and no how to clene
winders and boots. J. Cole opes you will let me cum. I arsks 8 and
all found. if you do my washin I will take sevven. J. Cole will serve
you well and opes to giv sattisfaxshun. i can cum tomorrer.
J. COLE.
"P.S.--He is not verry torl but growin. My brutther is a verry good
hite. i am sharp and can rede and rite and can hadd figgers if you
like."
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER I.
I had advertised for a page-boy, and having puzzled through some
dozens of answers, more or less illegible and impossible to
understand, had come to the last one of the packet, of which the
above is an exact copy.
The epistle was enclosed in a clumsy envelope, evidently home-made,
with the aid of scissors and gum, and was written on a half-sheet of
letter-paper, in a large hand, with many blots and smears, on
pencilled lines.
There was something quaint and straightforward in the letter, in
spite of the utter ignorance of grammar and spelling; and while I
smiled at the evident pride in the "brutther" who was a "verry good
hite," and the offer to take less wages if "I would do his washin," I
found myself wondering what sort of waif upon the sea of life was
this not very tall person, over thirteen, who "would serve me well."
I had many letters to answer and several appointments to make, and
had scarcely made up my mind whether or not to trouble to write to my
accomplished correspondent, who was "sharp, and could rede and rite,
and hadd figgers," when, a shadow falling on the ground by me as I
sat by the open window, I looked up, and saw, standing opposite my
chair, a boy,--the very smallest boy, with the very largest blue eyes
I ever saw. The clothes on his little limbs were evidently meant for
somebody almost double his size, but they were clean and tidy.
In one hand he held a bundle, tied in a red handkerchief, and in the
other a bunch of wild-flowers that bore signs of having travelled far
in the heat of the sun, their blossoms hanging down, dusty and
fading, and their petals dropping one by one on the ground.
"Who are you, my child?" I said, "and what do you want?"
At my question the boy placed his flowers on my table, and, pulling
off his cap, made a queer movement with his feet, as though he were
trying to step backwards with both at once, and said, in a voice so
deep that it quite startled me, so strangely did it seem to belong to
the size of the clothes, and not the wearer,--
"Please'm, it's J. Cole; and I've come to live with yer. I've brought
all my clothes, and every think."
For the moment I felt a little bewildered, so impossible did it seem
that the small specimen of humanity before me was actually intending
to enter anybody's service; he looked so childish and wistful, and
yet with a certain honesty of purpose shining out of those big, wide-
open eyes, that interested me in him, and made me want to know more
of him.
"You are very small to go into service," I said, "and I am afraid you
could not do the work I should require; besides, you should have
waited to hear from me, and then have come to see me, if I wanted you
to do so."
"Yes, I know I'm not very big," said the boy, nervously fidgeting
with his bundle; "leastways not in hite; but my arms is that long,
they'll reach ever so 'igh above my 'ed, and as for bein' strong, you
should jest see me lift my father's big market basket when it's
loaded with 'taters, or wotever is for market, and I hope you'll not
be angry because I come to-day; but Dick--that's my brutther Dick--he
says, 'You foller my advice, Joe,' he says, 'and go arter this 'ere
place, and don't let no grass grow under your feet. I knows what it is
goin' arter places; there's such lots a fitin' after 'em, that if you lets
so much as a hour go afore yer looks 'em up, there's them as slips in
fust gets it; and wen yer goes to the door they opens it and sez, "It
ain't no use, boy, we're sooted;" and then where are yer, I'd like to
know? So,' sez he, 'Joe, you look sharp and go, and maybe you'll get
it.' So I come, mum, and please, that's all."
"But about your character, my boy," I said. "You must have somebody
to speak for you, and say you are honest, and what you are able to
do. I always want a good character with my servants; the last page-
boy I had brought three years' good character from his former
situation."
"Lor!" said Joe, with a serious look, "did he stay three years in a
place afore he came to you? Wotever did he leave them people for,
where he were so comfortable? If I stay with you three years, you
won't catch me a leavin' yer, and goin' somewheres else. Wot a muff
that chap was!"
I explained that it did not always depend on whether a servant wanted
to stay or not, but whether it suited the employers to keep him.
"'Praps he did somethin', and they giv' 'im the sack," murmured Joe;
"he was a flat!"
"But about this character of yours," I said; "if I decide to give you
a trial, although I am almost sure you are too small, and won't do,
where am I to go for your character? Will the people where your
brother lives speak for you?"
"Oh, yes!" cried the little fellow, his cheeks flushing; "I know
Dick'll ask 'em to give me a caricter. Miss Edith, I often cleaned
'er boots. Once she come 'ome in the mud, and was a-goin' out agin
directly; and they was lace-ups, and a orful bother to do up even;
and she come into the stable-yard with 'er dog, and sez: 'Dick, will
you chain Tiger up, and this little boy may clean my boots if he
likes, on my feet?' So I cleaned 'em, and she giv' me sixpence; and
after that, when the boots come down in the mornin', I got Dick
always to let me clean them little boots, and I kep 'em clean in the
insides, like the lady's maid she told me not to put my 'ands inside
'em if they was black. Miss Edith, she'll giv me a caricter, if Dick
asks 'er."
Just then the visitors' bell rang; and I sent my would-be page into
the kitchen to wait until I could speak to him again, and told him to
ask the cook to give him something to eat.
"Here are your flowers," I said; "take them with you."
He looked at me, and then, as if ashamed of having offered them,
gathered them up in his hands, and with the corner of the red
handkerchief wiped some few leaves and dust-marks off my table, then
saying in a low voice, "I didn't know you 'ad beauties of yer own,
like them in the glass pots, but I'll giv' 'em to the cook." So
saying, he went away into the kitchen, and my visitors came in, and
by and by some more friends arrived.
The weather was very warm, and we sat chattering and enjoying the
shade of the trees by the open French window. Presently, somebody
being thirsty, I suggested lemonade and ice, and I offered
strawberries, and (if possible) cream; though my mind misgave me as
to the latter delicacy, for we had several times been obliged to do
without some of our luxuries if they entailed "_fetching_," as we had
no boy to run errands quickly on an emergency and be useful. However,
I rang the bell; and when the housemaid, whose temper, since she had
been what is curiously termed in servants'-hall language "single-
handed," was most trying, entered, I said, "Make some lemonade, Mary,
and ask cook to gather some strawberries quickly, and bring them,
with some cream."
Mary looked at me as who should say, "Well, I'm sure! and who's to do
it all? You'll have to wait a bit." And I know we should have to
wait, and therefore resigned myself to do so patiently, keeping up
the ball of gossip, and wondering if a little music later on would
perhaps while away the time.
Much to my amazement, in less than a quarter of an hour Mary entered
with the tray, all being prepared; and directly I looked at the
strawberry-bowl I detected a novel feature in the table decoration. A
practised hand had evidently been at work; but whose? Mary was far
too matter-of-fact a person. Food, plates, knives and forks, glasses,
and a cruet-stand were all she ever thought necessary; and even for a
centre vase of flowers I had to ask, and often to insist, during the
time she was single-handed.
But here was my strawberry-bowl, a pretty one, even when unadorned,
with its pure white porcelain stem, intwined with a wreath of blue
convolvulus, and then a spray of white, the petals just peeping over
the edge of the bowl, and resting near the luscious red fruit; the
cream-jug, also white, had twining flowers of blue, and round the
lemonade-jug, of glass, was a wreath of yellow blossoms.
"How exquisite!" exclaimed we all. "What fairy could have bestowed
such a treat to our eyes and delight to our sense of the beautiful?"
I supposed some friend of the cook's or Mary's had been taking
lessons in the art of decoration, and had given us a specimen.
Soon after, my friends having gone, I thought of J. Cole waiting to
be dismissed, and sent for him.
Cook came in, and with a preliminary "Ahem!" which I knew of old
meant, "I have an idea of my own, and I mean to get it carried out,"
said, "Oh, if you please 'm, if I might be so bold, did you think
serious of engagin' the boy that's waitin' in the kitchen?"
"Why do you ask, Cook? "I said.
"Well, ma'am," she replied, trying to hide a laugh, "of course it's
not for me to presume; but, if I might say a word for him, I think
he's the very handiest and the sharpest one we've ever had in this
house, and we've had a many, as you know. Why, if you'd only have
seen him when Mary come in in her tantrums at 'aving to get the tray
single-handed, and begun a-grumblin' and a-bangin' things about, as
is her way, being of a quick temper, though, as I tells her, too slow
a-movin' of herself. As I were a-sayin', you should have seen that
boy. If he didn't up and leave his bread and butter and mug of milk,
as he was a-enjoyin' of as 'arty as you like, and, 'Look 'ere,' says
he, 'giv' me the jug. I'll make some fine drink with lemons. I see
Dick do it often up at his place. Giv' me the squeezer. Wait till I
washes my 'ands. I won't be a minnit.' Then in he rushes into the
scullery, washes his hands, runs back again in a jiffy. 'Got any snow
sugar? I mean all done fine like snow.' I gave it him; and, sure
enough, his little hands moved that quick, he had made the lemonade
before Mary would have squeezed a lemon. 'Where do yer buy the
cream?' he says next. 'I'll run and get it while you picks the
strawberries.' Perhaps it wasn't right, me a trustin' him, being a
stranger, but he was that quick I couldn't say no. Up he takes the
jug, and was off; and when I come in from the garden with the
strawberries, if he hadn't been and put all them flowers on the
things. He begs my pardon for interfering like, and says, 'I 'ope
you'll excuse me a-doin' of it, but the woman at the milk-shop said I
might 'ave 'em; and I see the butler where Dick lives wind the
flowers about like that, and 'ave 'elped 'im often; and, please, I
paid for the cream, because I'd got two bob of my own, Dick giv' me
on my birthday. Oh, I do 'ope, Mrs. Cook,' he says, 'that the lady'll
take me; I 'll serve 'er well, I will, indeed;' and then he begins to
cry and tremble, poor little chap, for he'd been running about a lot,
and never eaten or drank what I gave him, because he wanted to help,
and it was hot in the kitchen, I suppose, and he felt faint like, but
there he is, crying; and just now, when the bell rung, which was two
great big boys after the place, he says, 'Oh, please say "We're
sooted," and ask the lady if I may stay.' So, I've taken the liberty,
ma'am," said Cook, "for somehow I like that little chap, and there's
a deal in him, I do believe."
So saying, Cook retired; and, in a moment, J. Cole was standing in
her place, the blue eyes brimming over with tears, and an eager
anxiety as to what his fate would be making his poor little hands
clutch at his coat-sleeves, and his feet shuffle about so nervously,
that I had not the courage to grieve him by a refusal.
"Well, Joseph," I said, "I have decided to give you a month's trial.
I shall write to the gentleman who employs your brother; and if he
speaks well of you, you may stay."
"And may I stay now, please?" he said. "May I stay before you gets
any answer to your letter to say I'm all right? I think you'd better
let me; there ain't no boy; and Mrs. Cook and Mary'll 'ave a lot to
do. I can stay in the stable, if you don't like to let me be in the
house, afore you writes the letter."
"No, Joe," I replied: "you may not be a good, honest boy, but I think
you are; and you shall stay here. Now go back to Mrs. Wilson, and
finish your milk, and eat something more if you can, then have a good
rest and a wash; they will show you where you are to sleep, and at
dinner, this evening, I shall see if you can wait at table."
"Thank you very kindly," said the boy, his whole face beaming with
delight, "and I'll be sure and do everythink I can for you." Then he
went quickly out of the room; for I could see he was quite overcome,
now that the uncertainty was over.
Alone once more, I reasoned with myself, and felt I was doing an
unwise thing. Just at that time my husband was away on business for
some months; and I had no one to advise me, and no one to say me nay
either. My conscience told me my husband would say, "We cannot tell
who this boy is, where he has lived, or who are his associates; he
may be connected with a gang of thieves for what we know to the
contrary. Wait, and have proper references before trusting him in the
house."
And he would be right to say so to me, but not every one listens to
conscience when it points the opposite way to inclination. Well, J.
Cole remained; and when I entered the dining-room, to my solitary
dinner, he was there, with a face shining from soap and water, his
curls evidently soaped too, to make them go tidily on his forehead.
The former page having left his livery jacket and trousers, Mary had
let Joe dress in them, at his earnest request.
She told me afterwards that he had sewn up the clothes in the neatest
manner wherever they could be made smaller; and the effect of the
jacket, which he had stuffed out in the chest with hay, as we
discovered by the perfume, was very droll. He had a great love of
bright colors, and the trousers being large, showed bright red socks;
the jacket sleeves being much too short for the long arms, of which
he was so proud, allowed the wristbands of a vivid blue flannel shirt
to be seen.
I was alone, so could put up with this droll figure at my elbow; but
the seriousness of his face was such a contrast to the comicality of
the rest of him, that I found myself beginning to smile every now and
then, but directly I saw the serious eyes on me, I felt obliged to
become grave at once.
The waiting at table I could not exactly pronounce a success; for,
although Joe's quick eyes detected in an instant if I wanted
anything, his anxiety to be "first in the field," and give Mary no
chance of instructing him in his duties, made him collide against her
more than once in his hasty rushes to the sideboard and back to my
elbow with the dishes, which he generally handed to me long before he
reached me, his long arms enabling him to reach me with his hands
while he was yet some distance from me, and often on the wrong side.
I also noticed when I wanted water he lifted the water-bottle on
high, and poured as though it was something requiring a "head." Mary
nearly caused a catastrophe at that moment by frowning at him, and
saying, sotto voce, "Whatever are you doing? Is that the way to pour
out water? It ain't hale, stoopid!"
Joe's face became scarlet; and to hide his confusion he seized a
dish-cover, and hastily went out of the room with it, returning in a
moment pale and serious as became one who at heart was every inch a
family butler with immense responsibilities.
Joe was quiet and sharp, quick and intelligent; but I could see he
was quite new to waiting at table. To remove a dish was, I could see,
his greatest dread; and it amused me to see the cleverness with which
he managed that Mary should do that part of the duty.
When only my plate and a dish remained to be cleared away, he would
slowly get nearer as I got towards the last morsel, and before Mary
had time, would take my plate, and go quite slowly to the sideboard
with it, leisurely remove the knife and fork, watching meanwhile in
the mirror if Mary was about to take the dish away; if not he would
take something outside, or bring a decanter, and ask if I wanted
wine.
I was, however, pleased to find him no more awkward, as I feared he
would have been, and when, having swept the grate and placed my
solitary wineglass and dessert-plate on the table, he retired, softly
closing the door after him, I felt I should make something of J.
Cole, and hoped his character would be good.
CHAPTER II.
The next morning a tastefully arranged vase of flowers in the centre
of the breakfast-table, and one magnificent rose and bud by my plate,
were silent but eloquent appeals to my interest on behalf of my
would-be page; and when Joe himself appeared, fresh from an hour's
self-imposed work in my garden, I saw he had become quite one of the
family; for Bogie, my little terrier, usually very snappish to
strangers, and who considered all boys as his natural enemies, was
leaping about his feet, evidently asking for more games, and our old
magpie was perched familiarly on his shoulder.
"Good-morning, Joe," I said. "You are an early riser, I can see, by
the work you have already done in the garden."
"Why, yes," replied Joe, blushing, and touching an imaginary cap;
"I'm used to bein' up. There was ever so much to do of a mornin' at
'ome; and I 'ad to 'elp father afore I could go to be with Dick, and
I was with Dick a'most every mornin' by seven, and a good mile and a
arf to walk to 'is place. Shall I bring in the breakfust, mum? Mary's
told me what to do."
Having given permission, Joe set to work to get through his duties,
this time without any help, and I actually trembled when I saw him
enter with a tray containing all things necessary for my morning
meal, he looked so over-weighted; but he was quite equal to it as far
as landing the tray safely on the sideboard. But, alas! then came the
ordeal; not one thing did poor Joe know where to place, and stood
with the coffeepot in his hand, undecided whether it went before me,
or at the end of the table, or whether he was to pour out my coffee
for me.
I saw he was getting very nervous, so took it from him, and in order
to put him at his ease, I remarked,--
"I think, perhaps, I had better show you, Joe, just for once, how I
like my breakfast served, for every one has little ways of their own,
you know; and you will try to do it my way when you know how I like
it, won't you?"
Thereupon I arranged the dishes, etc., for him, and his big eyes
followed my every movement. The blinds wanted pulling down a little
presently, and then I began to realize one of the drawbacks in having
such a very small boy as page. Joe saw the sun's rays were nearly
blinding me, and wanted to shut them out; but on attempting to reach
the tassel attached to the cord, it was hopelessly beyond his reach.
In vain were the long arms stretched to their utmost, till the
sleeves of the ex-page's jacket retreated almost to Joe's elbows, but
no use.
I watched, curious to see what he would do.
"Please 'm, might I fetch an 'all chair?" said Joe; "I'm afraid I'm
not big enuf to reach the tossle, but I won't pull 'em up so 'igh to-
morrow."
I gave permission, and carefully the chair was steered among my
tables and china pots. Then Joe mounted, and by means of rising on
the tips of his toes he was able to accomplish the task of lowering
the blinds.
I noticed at that time that Joe wore bright red socks, and I little
thought what a shock those bright-colored hose were to give me later
on under different circumstances.
That evening I had satisfactory letters regarding Joe's character,
and by degrees he became used to his new home, and we to him. His
quaint sayings and wonderful love of the truth, added to extreme
cleanliness, made him welcome in the somewhat exclusive circle in
which my housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, reigned supreme.
Many a hearty burst of laughter came to me from the open kitchen-
window across the garden in the leisure hour, when, the servants' tea
being over, they sat at work, while Joe amused them with his stories
and reminiscences of the sayings and doings of his wonderful brother
Dick.
This same Dick was evidently the one being Joe worshipped on earth,
and to keep his promises to Dick was a sacred duty.
"You don't know our Dick, Mrs. Wilson," said Joe, to the old
housekeeper; "if you did, you'd understand why I no more dare go agen
wot Dick told me, than I dare put my 'and in that 'ere fire. When I
were quite a little chap, I took some big yaller plums once, out of
one of the punnits father was a-packin' for market, and I eat 'em. I
don't know to this hour wot made me take them plums; but I remember
they were such prime big uns, big as eggs they was, and like lumps of
gold, with a sort of blue shade over 'em. Father were very partikler
about not 'avin' the fruit 'andled and takin' the bloom off, and told
me to cover 'em well with leaves. It was a broilin' 'ot day, and I
was tired, 'avin' been stoopin' over the baskits since four in the
morning, and as I put the leaves over the plums I touched 'em; they
felt so lovely and cool, and looked so juicy-like, I felt I must eat
one, and I did; there was just six on 'em, and when I'd bin and eat
one, there seemed such a empty place left in the punnit, that I knew
father'd be sure to see it, so I eat 'em all, and then threw the
punnit to one side. Just then, father comes up and says, "Count them
punnits, Dick! there ought to be forty on 'em. Twenty picked large
for Mr. Moses, and twenty usuals for Marts!'--two of our best
customers they was. Well, Dick, he counts 'em, and soon misses one.
'Thirty-eight, thirty-nine,' he sez, and no more; 'but 'ere's a empty
punnit,' he sez. I was standing near, feelin' awful, and wished I'd
said I'd eat the plums afore Dick begun to count 'em, but I didn't,
and after that I couldn't. 'Joe!' sez Dick, 'I wants yer! 'Ow come
this empty punnit 'ere, along of the others? there's plums bin in it,
I can see, 'cos it's not new. Speak up, youngster!' I looked at
Dick's face, Mrs. Wilson, and his eyes seemed to go right into my
throat, and draw the truth out of me. 'Speak up,' he sez, a-gettin'
cross; 'if you've prigged 'em, say so, and you'll get a good hidin'
from me, for a-doin' of it; but if you tells me a lie, you'll get
such a hidin' for that as 'll make you remember it all your life; so
speak up, say you did it, and take your hidin' like a brick, and if
you didn't prig 'em, say who did, 'cos you must 'av' seen 'em go.'
"I couldn't do nothin', Mrs. Wilson, but keep my 'ed down, and
blubber out, 'Please, Dick, I eat 'em.'
"'Oh, you did, yer young greedy, did yer,' he sez; 'I'm glad yer
didn't tell me a lie. I've got to giv' yer a hidin', Joe; but giv' us
yer 'and, old chap, first, and mind wot I sez to yer: "_Own up to it,
wotever you do_," and take your punishment; it's 'ard to bear, but
when the smart on it's over yer forgets it; but if yer tells a lie to
save yerself, yer feels the smart of _that_ always; yer feels ashamed
of yerself whenever yer thinks of it.' And then Dick give me a
thrashin', he did, but I never 'ollered or made a row, tho' he hit
pretty 'ard. And, Mrs. Wilson, I never could look in Dick's face if I
told a lie, and I never shall tell one, I 'ope, as long as ever I
live. You should just see Dick, Mrs. Wilson, he is a one-er, he is."
"Lor' bless the boy," said Mary, the housemaid; "why, if he isn't a-
cryin' now. Whatever's the matter? One minnit you're makin' us larf
fit to kill ourselves, and then you're nearly makin' us cry with your
Dick, and your great eyes runnin' over like that. Now get away, and
take the dogs their supper, and see if you can't get a bit of color
in your cheeks before you come back."
So off Joe went, and soon the frantic barking in the stable-yard
showed he had begun feeding his four-footed pets.
Time went on; it was a very quiet household just then--my husband
away in America, and my friends most of them enjoying their summer
abroad, or at some seaside place--all scattered here and there until
autumn was over, and then we were to move to town, and spend the
winter season at our house there. I hoped my dear sister and her
girls would then join us, and, best of all, my dear husband be home
to make our circle complete.
Day by day Joe progressed in favor with everybody; his size was
always a trouble, but his extreme good nature made everybody willing
to help him over his difficulties. He invented all sorts of curious
tools for reaching up to high places; and the marvels he would
perform with a long stick and a sort of claw at the end of it were
quite astonishing.