My Neighbours/Chapter 3
EARTHBRED
III
Earthbred
Because he was diseased with a consumption, Evan Roberts in his thirtieth year left over being a drapery assistant and had himself hired as a milk roundsman.
A few weeks thereafter he said to Mary, the woman whom he had promised to wed: "How now if I had a milk-shop?"
Mary encouraged him, and searched for that which he desired; and it came to be that on a Thursday afternoon they two met at the mouth of Worship Street—the narrow lane that is at the going into Richmond.
"Stand here, Marri," Evan ordered. "Go in will I and have words with the owner. Hap I shall uncover his tricks."
"Very well you are," said Mary. "Don't over-waggle your tongue. Address him in hidden phrases."
Evan entered the shop, and as there was no one therein he made an account of the tea packets and flour bags which were on the shelves. Presently a small, fat woman stood beyond the counter. Evan addressed her in English: "Are you Welsh?"
"That's what people say," the woman answered.
"Glad am I to hear you," Evan returned in Welsh. "Tell me how you was."
"A Cymro bach I see," the woman cried. "How was you?"
"Peeped did I on your name on the sign. Shall I say are Mistress Jinkins?"
"Iss, indeed, man."
"What about affairs these close days?"
"Busy we are. Why for you ask? Trade you do in milk?"
"Blurt did I for nothing," Evan replied.
"No odds, little man. Ach y fy, jealous other milkmen are of us. There's nasty some people are."
"Natty shop you have. Little shop and big traffic, Mistress Jinkins?"
"Quick you are."
"Know you Tom Mathias Tabernacle Street?" Evan inquired.
"Seen him have I in the big meetings at Capel King's Cross."
"Getting on he is, for certain sure. Hundreds of pints he sells. And groceries."
"Pwf," Mrs. Jenkins sneered. "Fulbert you are to believe him. A liar without shame is Twm. And a cheat. Bad sampler he is of the Welsh."
"Speak I do as I hear. More thriving is your concern."
"No boast is in me. But don't we do thirty gallons?"
Evan summoned up surprise into his face, and joy. "Dear me to goodness," he exclaimed. "Take something must I now. Sell you me an egg."
Evan shook the egg at his ear. "She is good," he remarked.
"Weakish is the male," observed Mrs. Jenkins. "Much trouble he has in his inside."
"Poor bach," replied Evan. "Well-well. Fair night for to-day."
"Why for you are in a hurry?"
"Woman fach, for what you do not know that I abide in Wandsworth and the clock is late?"
Jenkins laughed. "Boy pretty sly you are. Come you to Richmond to buy one egg?"
Evan coughed and spat upon the ground, and while he cleaned away his spittle with a foot he said: "Courting business have I on the Thursdays. The wench is in a shop draper."
"How shall I mouth where she is? With Wright?"
"In shop Breach she is." He spoke this in English: "So long."
In that language also did Mrs. Jenkins answer him: "Now we shan't be long."
Narrowing his eyes and crooking his knees, Evan stood before Mary. "Like to find out more would I," he said. "Guess did the old female that I had seen the adfertissment."
"Blockhead you are to bare your mind," Mary admonished him.
"Why for you call me blockhead when there's no blockhead to be?"
"Sorry am I, dear heart. But do you hurry to marry me. You know that things are so and so. The month has shown nothing."
"Shut your head, or I'll change my think altogether."
The next week Evan called at the dairy shop again.
"How was the people?" he cried on the threshold.
Mrs. Jenkins opened the window which was at the back of her, and called out: "The boy from Wales is here, Dai."
Stooping as he moved through way of the door, Dai greeted Evan civilly: "How was you this day?"
"Quite grand," Evan answered.
"What capel do you go?"
"Walham Green, dear man."
"Good preach there was by the Respected Eynon Daviss the last Sabbath morning, shall I ask? Eloquent is Eynon."
"In the night do I go."
"Solemn serious, go you ought in the mornings."
"Proper is your saying," Evan agreed. "Perform I would if I could."
"Biggish is your round, perhaps?" said Dai.
"Iss-iss. No-no." Evan was confused.
"Don't be afraid of your work. Crafty is your manner."
Evan had not anything to say.
"Fortune there is in milk," said Dai. "Study you the size of her. Little she is. Heavy will be my loss. The rent is only fifteen bob a week. And thirty gallons and more do I do. Broke is my health," and Dai laid the palms of his hands on his belly and groaned.
"Here he is to visit his wench," said Mrs. Jenkins.
"You're not married now just?" asked Dai.
"Better in his pockets trousers is a male for a woman," said Mrs. Jenkins.
"Comforting in your pockets trousers is a woman," Dai cried.
"Clap your throat," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Redness you bring to my skin."
Evan retired and considered.
"Tempting is the business," he told Mary. "Fancy do I to know more of her. Come must I still once yet."
"Be not slothful," Mary pleaded. "Already I feel pains, and quickly the months pass."
Then Evan charged her to watch over the shop, and to take a count of the people who went into it. So Mary walked in the street. Mrs. Jenkins saw her and imagined her purpose, and after she had proved her, she and Dai formed a plot whereby many little children and young youths and girls came into the shop. Mary numbered every one, but the number that she gave Evan was three times higher than the proper number. The man was pleased, and he spoke out to Dai. "Tell me the price of the shop," he said.
"Improved has the health," replied Dai. "And not selling I don't think am I."
"Pity that is. Great offer I have."
"Smother your cry. Taken a shop too have I in Petersham. Rachel will look after this."
Mrs. Jenkins spoke to her husband with a low voice: "Witless you are. Let him speak figures."
"As you want if you like then," said Dai.
"A puzzle you demand this one minute," Evan murmured. "Thirty pounds would"
"Light is your head," Dai cried. "More than thirty gallons and a pram. Eighty I want for the shop and stock."
"I stop," Evan pronounced. Thirty-five can I give. No more and no less."
"Cute bargainer you are. Generous am I to give back five pounds for luck cash on spot. Much besides is my counter trade."
"Bring me papers for my eyes to see," said Evan.
Mrs. Jenkins rebuked Evan: "Hoity-toity! Not Welsh you are. Old English boy."
"Tut-tut, Rachel fach," said Dai. "Right you are, and right and wrong is Evan Roberts. Books I should have. Trust I give and trust I take. I have no guile."
"How answer you to thirty-seven?" asked Evan. "No more we've got, drop dead and blind."
He went away and related all to Mary.
"Lose the shop you will," Mary warned him. "And that's remorseful you'll be."
"Like this and that is the feeling," said Evan.
"Go to him," Mary counselled, "and say you will pay forty-five."
"No-no, foolish that is."
They two conferred with each other, and Mary gave to Evan all her money, which was almost twenty pounds; and Evan said to Dai: "I am not doubtful"
"Speak what is in you," Dai urged quickly.
"Test your shop will I for eight weeks as manager. I give you twenty down as earnest and twenty-five at the finish of the weeks if I buy her."
Dai and Rachel weighed that which Evan had proposed. The woman said: "A lawyer will do this"; the man said: "Splendid is the bargain and costly and thievish are old lawyers."
In this sort Dai answered Evan: "Do as you say. But I shall not give money for your work. Act you honestly by me. Did not mam carry me next my brother, who is a big preacher? Lend you will I a bed, and a dish or two and a plate, and a knife to eat food."
At this Mary's joy was abounding. "Put you up the banns," she said.
"Lots of days there is. Wait until I've bought the place."
Mary tightened her inner garments and loosened her outer garments, and every evening she came to the shop to prepare food for Evan, to make his bed, and to minister to him as a woman.
Now the daily custom at the shop was twelve gallons of milk, and the tea packets and flour bags which were on shelves were empty. Evan's anger was awful. He upbraided Mary, and he prayed to be shown how to worst Dai. His prayer was respected: at the end of the second week he gave Dai two pounds more than he had given him the week before.
"Brisk is trade," said Dai.
"I took into stock flour, tea, and four tins of job biscuits," replied Evan. "Am I not your servant?"
"Well done, good and faithful servant."
It was so that Evan bought more than he would sell, and each week he held a little money by fraud; and matches also and bundles of firewood and soap did he buy in Dai's name.
In the middle of the eighth week Dai came down to the shop.
"How goes it?" he asked in English.
"Fine, man. Fine." Changing his language, Evan said: "Keep her will I, and give you the money as I pledged. Take you the sum and sign you the paper bach."
Having acted accordingly, Dai cast his gaze on the shelves and on the floor, and he walked about judging aloud the value of what he saw: "Tea, three-pound-ten; biscuits, four-six; flour, four-five; firewood, five shillings; matches, one-ten; soap, one pound. Bring you these to Petersham. Put you them with the bed and the dishes I kindly lent you."
"For sure me, fulfil my pledge will I," Evan said.
He assembled Dai's belongings and placed them in a cart which he had borrowed; and on the back of the cart he hung a Chinese lantern which had in it a lighted candle. When he arrived at Dai's house, he cried: "Here is your ownings. Unload you them."
Dai examined the inside of the cart. "Mistake there is, Evan. Where's the stock?"
"Did I not pay you for your stock and shop? Forgetful you are."
Dai's wrath was such that neither could he blaspheme God nor invoke His help. Removing the slabber which was gathered in his beard and at his mouth, he shouted: "Put police on you will I."
"Away must I now," said Evan. "Come, take your bed."
"Not touch anything will I. Rachel, witness his roguery. Steal he does from the religious."
Evan drove off, and presently he became uneasy of the evil that might befall him were Dai and Rachel to lay their hands on him; he led his horse into the unfamiliar and hard and steep road which goes up to the Star and Garter, and which therefrom falls into Richmond town. At what time he was at the top he heard the sound of Dai and Rachel running to him, each screaming upon him to stop. Rachel seized the bridle of the horse, and Dai tried to climb over the back of the cart. Evan bent forward and beat the woman with his whip, and she leaped aside. But Dai did not release his clutch, and because the lantern swayed before his face he flung it into the cart.
Evan did not hear any more voices, and misdeeming that he had got the better of his enemies, he turned, and, lo, the bed was in a yellow flame. He strengthened his legs and stretched out his thin upper lip, and pulled at the reins, saying: "Wo, now." But the animal thrust up its head and on a sudden galloped downwards. At the railing which divides two roads it was hindered, and Evan was thrown upon the ground. Men came forward to lift him, and he was dead.