The Ship of Stars | Page 8

townspeople paused on the
pavement and waved farewells. At the top of the town they overtook
three sailor-boys, with bundles, who climbed up and perched
themselves a-top of the van, on the luggage.
On they went again. There were two horses--a roan and a grey. Taffy
had never before looked down on the back of a horse, and Joby's horses
astonished him; they were so broad behind, and so narrow at the
shoulders. He wanted to ask if the shape were at all common, but felt
shy. He stole a glance at the silver ring in Joby's left ear, and blushed
when Joby turned and caught him.
"Here, catch hold!" said Joby handing him the whip. "Only you mustn't
use it too fierce."

"Thank you."
"I suppose you'll be a scholar, like your father? Can ee spell?"
"Yes."
"Cipher?"
"Yes."
"That's more than I can. I counts upon my fingers. When they be used
up, I begins upon my buttons. I ha'n't got no buttons--visible that
is--'pon my week-a-day clothes; so I keeps the long sums for Sundays,
and adds 'em up and down my weskit during sermon. Don't tell any
person."
"I won't."
"That's right. I don't want it known. Ever see a gipsy?"
"Oh, yes--often."
"Next time you see one you'll know why he wears so many buttons.
You've a lot to learn."
The van zigzagged down one hill and up another, and halted at a
turnpike. An old woman in a pink sun-bonnet bustled out and handed
Joby a pink ticket. A little way beyond they passed the angle of a
mining district, with four or five engine-houses high up like castles on
the hillside, and rows of stamps clattering and working up and down
like ogres' teeth. Next they came to a church town, with a green and a
heap of linen spread to dry (for it was Tuesday), and a flock of geese
that ran and hissed after the van, until Joby took the whip and, leaning
out, looped the gander by the neck and pulled him along in the dust.
The sailor-boys shouted with laughter and struck up a song about a fox
and a goose, which lasted all the way up a long hill and brought them to
a second turnpike, on the edge of the moors. Here lived an old woman
in a blue sun-bonnet; and she handed Joby a yellow-ticket.

"But why does she wear a blue bonnet and give yellow tickets?" Taffy
asked, as they drove on.
Joby considered for a minute. "Ah, you're one to take notice, I see.
That's right, keep your eyes skinned when you travel."
Taffy had to think this out. The country was changing now. They had
left stubble fields and hedges behind, and before them the granite road
stretched like a white ribbon, with moors on either hand, dotted with
peat-ricks and reedy pools and cropping ponies, and rimmed in the
distance with clay-works glistening in the sunny weather.
"What sort of place is Nannizabuloe?"
"I don't go on there. I drop you at Indian Queens."
"But what sort of place is it?"
"Well, I'll tell you what folks say of it:"
'All sea and san's, Out of the world and into St. Ann's.'
"That's what they say, and if I'm wrong you may call me a liar."
"And Squire Moyle?" Taffy persevered. "What kind of man is he?"
Joby turned and eyed him severely. "Look here, sonny. I got my living
to get."
This silenced Taffy for a long while, but he picked up his courage again
by degrees. There was a small window at his back, and he twisted
himself round, and nodded to his mother and grandmother inside the
van. He could not hear what they answered, for the sailor-boys were
singing at the top of their voices:
"I will sing you One, O! What is your One, O? Number One sits all
alone, and ever more shall be-e so."
"They're home 'pon leave," said Joby. The song went on and reached

Number Seven:
"I will sing you Seven, O! What is your Seven, O? Seven be seven stars
in the ship a-sailing round in Heaven, O!"
One of the boys leaned from the roof and twitched Taffy by the hair.
"Hullo, nipper! Did you ever see a ship of stars?" He grinned and
pulled open his sailor's jumper and singlet; and there, on his naked
breast, Taffy saw a ship tattooed, with three masts, and a half-circle of
stars above it, and below it the initials W. P.
"D'ee think my mother'll know me again?" asked the boy, and the other
two began to laugh.
"Yes, I think so," said Taffy gravely; which made them laugh more
than ever.
"But why is he painted like that?" he asked Joby, as they took up