One of Lifes Slaves | Page 5

and he could be so craftily
cunning and refractory, long before he could speak. She declared that
he was positively malicious, so drowsy and quiet as he would be until
she had just fallen asleep, when he would begin to shout as loud as a
watchman.
But every one who knew anything about the Holmans, said that if they
had not been fortunate in getting the boy, he had at any rate been
fortunate in having found his way to them. There were not two
opinions as to what an orderly woman Mrs. Holman was, and how
strict in the fulfilment of her duty. Tall, thin and neat in her person,
even her small, liver-coloured face, with the pale blue expressionless
eyes, told you at once that she was not the woman to allow herself to be
carried away by rash impetuosity.

And on the few occasions in the year that Barbara visited the boy--it
was not so easy for her to come now that the Veyergangs lived in their
country house all the year round--she could see for herself how
well-cared-for and clean he was, and how strictly he was kept. From
the time she got there to the time she left, she heard nothing except how
difficult it was to straighten out all the tinsmith's dents, all that had
been wrongly and improperly dealt with from the very first, especially
his obstinate temper! Now he really could walk quite a good way, but
he would do nothing but crawl, and so quickly, that no sooner had she,
Mrs. Holman, taken her eyes off him than he might be anywhere, either
at the saucepans and pots, or in the water-bucket, or else at the
plummets on the bell. And he upset things, and got himself in a mess,
wherever he went; yesterday the cat's food lay all over the floor! So
now she had hung the birch-rod low down on the wall, so that it might
be before his eyes; for it was necessary to frighten him, and vigilance
and punishment must positively be used. And Barbara must know
herself, that it wasn't so easy to manage other people's children, and
especially such a stray creature, come into the world in such a manner!
It was all just, as Barbara was obliged to acknowledge to herself, from
beginning to end, however much it might sting her, and therefore she
was always in a hurry to get away again.
It cannot be denied that she learnt something from it too, namely, what
she, on her side, might have reason and right to say to Mrs. Veyergang
about all the toil she had had with her two, if they ever had a difference.
But the same spirit of disobedience remained in the boy as he grew
older. It was impossible to cure him of it, for all that Mrs. Holman
could do, and Holman had to help too sometimes. This did not happen,
however, until his wife had duly impressed on him the moral necessity
of taking upon himself his share of the duties of the house.
Holman was a silent man with a pair of quiet, shining eyes. He went
and came, morning and evening, rubbed and dried his shoes, and stood
hesitating at the door with some tool or other, or the tail of a block in
his hand, before he went in. What he might think of his married life
there was little opportunity of seeing in his face. One thing was

certain--a wife like Mrs. Holman was a treasure, which could not be
sufficiently prized; and if there was not quite so much left of Holman,
if, in fact, he had become--with all reverence be it said--something of a
fool, yet every one was sensible that in that union it must be so, if the
balance was to be kept. Any one who had only seen or spoken to Mrs.
Holman once, understood it immediately, but what was not so easy to
understand was that, after all, it was Holman who made the blocks
down in the workshop, by which the household lived.
It was still more remarkable that he had sometimes been met in the
gateway in an irresponsible condition, such as no one would have
expected in a man so happily married as he was.
After the miracle of Mrs. Holman's having a little girl herself had
happened--after that great and important change in the household, it
was deliberated whether it would not be better to rid the room of other
people's progeny. But then it was good regular money to have, and in
time the boy could be made use of at the cradle.
It was the lightest work in the world--just made for a little boy, sitting
and rocking the cradle with his foot--nothing but