A Pair of Clogs | Page 3

mother's arms. No, she was erect on
her own small feet, tottering along in the new wooden clogs.

"My word!" exclaimed Tommie, his nose wrinkling with gratification;
"we'll have to call her Little Clogs noo."
It was in this way that Maggie's child became known in the village as
"Little Clogs." Not that it was any distinction to wear clogs in Haworth,
everyone had them; but the baby's feet were so tiny, and she was so
eager to show her new possession, that the clogs were as much noticed
as though never before seen. When she stopped in front of some
acquaintance, lifted her frock with both hands, and gazed seriously first
at her own feet and then up in her friend's face, it was only possible to
exclaim in surprise and admiration:
"Eh! To be sure. What pretty, pretty clogs baby's gotten!"
It was the middle of summer. Baby was just two years old and a month,
and the clogs were still glossy and new, when one morning Maggie
took the child with her down to Keighley as usual. It was stiflingly hot
there, after the cool breeze which blew off the moor on the hillside; the
air was thick with smoke and dust, and, as Maggie turned into the alley
where she was to leave her child, she felt how close and stuffy it was.
"'Tain't good for her here," she thought, with a sigh. "I reckon I must
mak' up my mind to leave her up yonder this hot weather."
But the baby did not seem to mind it. Maggie left her settled in the
open doorway talking cheerfully to one of her little clogs which she had
pulled off. This she filled with sand and emptied, over and over again,
chuckling with satisfaction as a stray sunbeam touched the brass clasps
and turned them into gold. In the distance she could hear the noise of
the town, and presently amongst them there came a new sound--the
beating of a drum. Baby liked music. She threw down the clog, lifted
one finger, and said "Pitty!" turning her head to look into the room. But
no one was there, for the woman of the house had gone into the back
kitchen. The noise continued, and seemed to draw baby towards it: she
got up on her feet, and staggered a little way down the alley, tottering a
good deal, for one foot had the stout little clog on it, and the other
nothing but a crumpled red sock. By degrees, however, after more than
one tumble, she got down to the end of the alley, and stood facing the

bustling street.
It was such a big, noisy world, with such a lot of people and horses and
carts in it, that she was frightened now, put out her arms, and screwed
up her face piteously, and cried, "Mammy, mammy!"
Just then a woman passed with a tambourine in her hand and a bright
coloured handkerchief over her head. She shook the tambourine and
smiled kindly at baby, showing very white teeth.
"Mammy, mammy!" said baby again, and began to sob.
"Don't cry, then, deary, and I'll take you to mammy," said the woman.
She looked quickly up the alley, no one in sight. No one in the crowded
street noticed her. She stooped, raised the child in her arms, wrapped a
shawl round her, and walked swiftly away. And that evening, when
Maggie came to fetch her little lass, she was not there; the only trace of
her was one small clog, half full of sand, on the door-step!
The woman with the tambourine hurried along, keeping the child's head
covered with her shawl, at her heels a dirty-white poodle followed
closely. The street was bustling and crowded, for it was past twelve
o'clock, and the workpeople were streaming out of the factories to go to
their dinners. If Maggie had passed the woman, she would surely have
felt that the bundle in her arms was her own little lass, even if she had
not seen one small clogged foot escaping from under the shawl. Baby
was quiet now, except for a short gasping sob now and then, for she
thought she was being taken to mammy.
On and on went the woman through the town, past the railway-station,
and at last reached a lonely country road; by that time, lulled by the
rapid, even movement and the darkness, baby had forgotten her
troubles, and was fast asleep. She slept almost without stirring for a
whole hour, and then, feeling the light on her eyes, she blinked her long
lashes, rubbed them with her fists, and stretched out her fat legs.
Next she looked up into mammy's face, as she thought, expecting the
smile which always waited for her there;