A Final Reckoning | Page 3

the result of intention or
accident, but the jury of his neighbours who sat upon the inquest gave
him the benefit of the doubt, and brought in a verdict of "accidental
death." He was but tenant of the mill and, when all the creditors were
satisfied, there were only a few pounds remaining for the widow.
With these she opened a little shop in Tipping, with a miscellaneous
collection of tinware and cheap ironmongery; cottons, tapes, and small
articles of haberdashery; with toys, sweets, and cakes for the children.
The profits were small, but the squire, who had known her husband,
charged but a nominal rent for the cottage; and this was more than paid
by the fruit trees in the garden, which also supplied her with potatoes
and vegetables, so that she managed to support her boy and herself in
tolerable comfort.
She herself had been the daughter of a tradesman in Lewes, and many
wondered that she did not return to her father, upon her husband's death.
But her home had not been a comfortable one, before her marriage; for
her father had taken a second wife, and she did not get on well with her
stepmother. She thought, therefore, that anything would be better than
returning with her boy to a home where, to the mistress at least, she
would be most unwelcome.
She had, as a girl, received an education which raised her somewhat

above the other villagers of Tipping; and of an evening she was in the
habit of helping Reuben with his lessons, and trying to correct the
broadness of dialect which he picked up from the other boys. She was
an active and bustling woman, managed her little shop well, and kept
the garden, with Reuben's assistance, in excellent order.
Mrs. Ellison had, at her first arrival in the village three years before,
done much to give her a good start, by ordering that all articles of use
for the house, in which she dealt, should be purchased of her; and she
highly approved of the energy and independence of the young widow.
But lately there had been an estrangement between the squire's wife
and the village shopkeeper. Mrs. Ellison, whose husband owned all the
houses in the village, as well as the land surrounding it, was
accustomed to speak her mind very freely to the wives of the villagers.
She was kindness itself, in cases of illness or distress; and her kitchen
supplied soups, jellies, and nourishing food to all who required it; but
in return, Mrs. Ellison expected her lectures on waste, untidiness, and
mismanagement to be listened to with respect and reverence.
She was, then, at once surprised and displeased when, two or three
months before, having spoken sharply to Mrs. Whitney as to the
alleged delinquencies of Reuben, she found herself decidedly, though
not disrespectfully, replied to.
"The other boys are always set against my Reuben," Mrs. Whitney said,
"because he is a stranger in the village, and has no father; and whatever
is done, they throw it on to him. The boy is not a bad boy, ma'm--not in
any way a bad boy. He may get into mischief, like the rest; but he is not
a bit worse than others, not half as bad as some of them, and those who
have told you that he is haven't told you the truth."
Mrs. Ellison had not liked it. She was not accustomed to be answered,
except by excuses and apologies; and Mrs. Whitney's independent
manner of speaking came upon her almost as an act of rebellion, in her
own kingdom. She was too fair, however, to withdraw her custom from
the shop; but from that time she had not, herself, entered it.
Reuben was a source of anxiety to his mother, but this had no reference

to his conduct. She worried over his future. The receipts from the shop
were sufficient for their wants; and indeed the widow was enabled,
from time to time, to lay by a pound against bad times; but she did not
see what she was to do with the boy. Almost all the other lads of the
village, of the same age, were already in the fields; and Mrs. Whitney
felt that she could not much longer keep him idle. The question was,
what was she to do with him? That he should not go into the fields she
was fully determined, and her great wish was to apprentice him to some
trade; but as her father had recently died, she did not see how she was
to set about it.
That evening, at dinner, Mrs. Ellison told the squire of the scene in the
school room.
"White must go," he said, "that is quite evident. I have seen, for some
time, that we