Innocent Birds Read Free

that another pretty one would take her place whose hand he might stroke. And in this hope hewalked—beckoned on by the spirit of the silent woman—holding the half-crown in his hand, and his hand in his trouser pocket, which gave a sort of double chance to the money to get to the Madder inn.
    On the road Mr. Potten saw a vision of happiness : the happiness that lives inside a curtained bar window, where even the flies have a drunken way of walking, and can be watched and smiled at—as friends. But not Mr. Potten alone—who might have had a compact with ‘The Silent Woman’ to help him at his trade—but others, and more thirsty ones even than him, had wandered over those hills to be disappointed. And no very happy matter was it to arrive at Madder with money to spend, and to find the door locked and the wet wind the only quencher of one’s thirst.
    But all this beguiling of the wayfarer was but mere play to ‘The Silent Woman,’ whose real importance lay in its habit of putting to silence for ever the wives of the landlords, and laying eastward their women’s feet, that had trod so many steps—even the very youngest of them—fetching and carrying for the men.

Chapter iii
JOHN PIM
    M R . P IM had not lived long in Madder before it became clear to those who saw him that he shone most of all by means of his cheeks, which were of a high colour even in winter, for in those dull days the wind took the part of the summer sun to keep their colour upon them.
    When Pim spoke it would be in a low tone, and only when he sang his song, ‘In from Spain‚’ a song that Mr. Pim believed he himself belonged to, did the real man appear.
    It was then that his whiskers lived.
    But Mr. Pim’s difference from other people—and his fame arose from this difference—lay in the fact that he had his doubts about some quite ordinary happenings in nature, happenings that most simple-minded people take for granted.
    He was catholic enough and modest enough, however, to approach any one whom he thought ought to know more than he knew for advice respecting these doubts, hoping one day to dissipate them. And so with his song, that one day might become true, and his doubt transformed into belief, we may hope as well as Pim that some day strange events may come.
    Perhaps it was not all chance that Mr. Pimshould have been born in a small hamlet, about two miles from God’s Madder, where there were willow trees, and a little brook to be crossed by the children on their way to school. No doubt destiny arranged that. Destiny also arranged that John should walk to school with Minna Bond, who wore socks, and where they didn’t reach to there was white skin, a little silky. During these walks Minna would confide all her secrets to little John.
    Coming home from school, as was natural, she was more talkative than in going, because she often had some new experience or other, met with in her play there, to tell of.
    ‘I’ve been playing wi’ Jackie and Bert, under they trees, at being married‚’ Minna remarked one afternoon, as they went together down the lane, under the great elm tree, where the missel-thrush built its nest. ‘An’ now I’ve ’ee to walk wi’, an’ at home there be grandfer waiting for a game.’ Minna laughed noisily, as though she saw no end to her enjoyments. She also looked scornfully and in a superior manner at three cows that were feeding in a meadow, and threw a stone at them just to show that she was a girl, while they were mere cows.
    The next day Minna ran out from her cottage with a new idea in her head, her frock unfastened and her socks showing the wrong side.
    The doctor had come in the night, and she had been awakened from a nice dream about beingmarried by frightful screams, and still more awful groans, that came very distinctly through the thin wooden partition into little Minna’s room. Minna had heard of the Day of Judgment: she supposed it was come, and stopped