An Inland Voyage | Page 9

little man, as well as I can remember; but with a spark of
something human in his soul. He had heard of our little journey, and
came to me at once in envious sympathy. How he longed to travel! he
told me. How he longed to be somewhere else, and see the round world
before he went into the grave! 'Here I am,' said he. 'I drive to the station.
Well. And then I drive back again to the hotel. And so on every day and
all the week round. My God, is that life?' I could not say I thought it
was--for him. He pressed me to tell him where I had been, and where I
hoped to go; and as he listened, I declare the fellow sighed. Might not
this have been a brave African traveller, or gone to the Indies after
Drake? But it is an evil age for the gypsily inclined among men. He
who can sit squarest on a three-legged stool, he it is who has the wealth
and glory.
I wonder if my friend is still driving the omnibus for the Grand Cerf?
Not very likely, I believe; for I think he was on the eve of mutiny when
we passed through, and perhaps our passage determined him for good.
Better a thousand times that he should be a tramp, and mend pots and
pans by the wayside, and sleep under trees, and see the dawn and the
sunset every day above a new horizon. I think I hear you say that it is a
respectable position to drive an omnibus? Very well. What right has he
who likes it not, to keep those who would like it dearly out of this
respectable position? Suppose a dish were not to my taste, and you told
me that it was a favourite amongst the rest of the company, what should
I conclude from that? Not to finish the dish against my stomach, I

suppose.
Respectability is a very good thing in its way, but it does not rise
superior to all considerations. I would not for a moment venture to hint
that it was a matter of taste; but I think I will go as far as this: that if a
position is admittedly unkind, uncomfortable, unnecessary, and
superfluously useless, although it were as respectable as the Church of
England, the sooner a man is out of it, the better for himself, and all
concerned.

ON THE SAMBRE CANALISED

TO QUARTES
About three in the afternoon the whole establishment of the Grand Cerf
accompanied us to the water's edge. The man of the omnibus was there
with haggard eyes. Poor cage-bird! Do I not remember the time when I
myself haunted the station, to watch train after train carry its
complement of freemen into the night, and read the names of distant
places on the time-bills with indescribable longings?
We were not clear of the fortifications before the rain began. The wind
was contrary, and blew in furious gusts; nor were the aspects of nature
any more clement than the doings of the sky. For we passed through a
stretch of blighted country, sparsely covered with brush, but
handsomely enough diversified with factory chimneys. We landed in a
soiled meadow among some pollards, and there smoked a pipe in a
flaw of fair weather. But the wind blew so hard, we could get little else
to smoke. There were no natural objects in the neighbourhood, but
some sordid workshops. A group of children headed by a tall girl stood
and watched us from a little distance all the time we stayed. I heartily
wonder what they thought of us.
At Hautmont, the lock was almost impassable; the landing-place being
steep and high, and the launch at a long distance. Near a dozen grimy
workmen lent us a hand. They refused any reward; and, what is much
better, refused it handsomely, without conveying any sense of insult. 'It
is a way we have in our countryside,' said they. And a very becoming
way it is. In Scotland, where also you will get services for nothing, the
good people reject your money as if you had been trying to corrupt a
voter. When people take the trouble to do dignified acts, it is worth

while to take a little more, and allow the dignity to be common to all
concerned. But in our brave Saxon countries, where we plod threescore
years and ten in the mud, and the wind keeps singing in our ears from
birth to burial, we do our good and bad with a high hand and almost
offensively; and make even our alms a witness-bearing and an act of
war against the wrong.
After Hautmont, the sun came forth again and the wind went