comparatively few of those who nowadays run down to southend for a breath of fresh air give a thought to the fact that the wide stretch of low country lying between the railroad and the thames, from pitsea to leigh, was at one time, and that not so many centuries back, a mud flat, a continuation of the great line of sand that still, with but a short break here and there, stretches down beyond yarmouth; still less that, were it not for the watchfulness of those who dwell upon it, it would in a short time revert to its original condition, the country lying below the level of higher water.
along the whole face of the river run banks—the work, doubtless, of engineers brought over by dutch william—strong, massive, and stone-faced, as they need be to withstand the rush and fret of the tide and the action of the waves when, as is often the case, the east wind knocks up ridges of short, angry water in sea reach. similarly, the winding creeks are all embanked, but here dams of earth are sufficient to retain within its bounds the sluggish water as it rises and falls. standing on any of these, the farmhouses and little homesteads lie below, their eaves for the most part level with the top of the bank, though there are a few knolls which rise above the level of the tidal water.
the most conspicuous objects are the brown sails of the barges, which seem to stand up in the midst of the brownish-green fields, the hulls being invisible. this cannot be called marsh land, for the ground is intersected by ditches, having sluices through which they discharge their water at low tide. very fertile is the land in some[pg 221] spots, notably in canvey island, where there are great stretches of wheat and broad meadows deep with rich waving grass; but there are other places where the grass is brown and coarse, showing that, though the surface may be hard and dry, water lies not far below. here a few cattle gather a scanty living, and the little homesteads are few and far between. most of the houses are placed near the banks of the creeks. the barges serve as their wagons, and carry their hay up to london and bring down manure and other things required, or carry coal and lime to the wharves of pitsea.
a rare place was this in the old smuggling days, and indeed until quite lately the trade was carried on, though upon a reduced scale. vessels drifting slowly up the river would show a light as they passed a barge at anchor or a bawley hanging to its trawl, a light would be shown in answer, and a moment later a boat would row off to the ship, and a score of tubs or a dozen bales of tobacco be quickly transferred, and before morning the contents would be stowed in underground cellars in some of the little farmhouses on the creeks, or be hidden away in the leigh marshes.
"will bill be in to-night with the barge?" a child asked a woman, as he came down from the bank to a not uncomfortable-looking homestead ten yards from its foot.
"i told you that you are to call him uncle," the woman said sharply, but not unkindly. "i have told you so over and over again, child."
"i generally do now, but one forgets sometimes."
"there is never any saying"—the woman went on in reply to his question—"there is never any saying; it all depends on tide and wind. sometimes they have to anchor and lose a tide, or maybe two. sometimes they get a cargo directly they get into the pool or at rochester; sometimes they wait two or three days. they have been away four days now; they might have been here yesterday, but may not come till to-morrow. one thing is certain, whenever he do come he will want something[pg 222] to eat, and i hope that they will bring it with them, for there is nothing here but bread and bacon."
"and do you think that i shall soon go home again, aunt?"
"there is no saying," the woman said evasively. "you are very comfortable here, aint you?"
"oh, yes! there are the dogs and the ducks and the chickens, and uncle says that he will take me sometimes for a sail with him in the barge."
"yes, i expect it won't be long first. you know, i used to go with him regular till, as i have told you, my little billy fell overboard one night, and we knew nothing of it until he was gone, and i have never liked the barge since. besides, i have plenty to do here. but i am going across to rochester very soon. it's a good place for shopping, and i want groceries and little things for myself and more things for you. i will take you with me, but you will have to promise to be very good and careful."
"i will be careful," the child said confidently, "and you know that uncle said that when spring comes he will teach me to swim; and i shall like that, and if i tumble overboard it won't matter. he says that when i get a few years older i shall go with him regularly, and learn to steer and to manage the sails. i shall like that; but i should like to go back sometimes to see hilda and netta and my grandpapa."
"well, well, my dear, we will see about it; they can't take you at present. i think that they have gone away traveling, and may not be back for a long time. and mind, you know you are not to talk about them. just when you are here with me i don't care; but you know uncle does not like it, and if anyone asks, you must say just what he told you, that your father and mother are dead, and that uncle bill has took you."
"i shan't forget," the boy said. "i never do talk about it before him; it makes him angry. i don't know why, but it does."
"but he is always kind to you, jack?"[pg 223]
"oh, yes, he is very kind, and he often brings me things when he comes back; he brought me my dear little kitten. pussy, where have you hidden yourself? puss! puss!" and in answer a little ball of white fur bounded out from behind a chair, and the child was soon engaged in a game of romps with it.
"it is a shame!" the woman said, as she watched them; "i don't mind the other things, but i never liked this. i wonder who the poor little chap is. by the way he talked when he first came, about his home and his nurse and horses and carriages, his friends must be rich people. bill has never understood why they wanted to get rid of him; but i suppose that he was in somebody's way, and, as he never speaks of his father and mother, but only of those two girls and his grandfather, who seems to have been an invalid, i expect that he must have lost his father and mother before he can remember. well, he will be right enough here; i should miss him dreadful if he were to go away; he seems to have taken the place of my little billy. and bill takes to him, too, wonderfully. he said the other day that when the boy grew up he would buy a barge, a new one of the best kind, and that some day it should be the boy's own. so he won't do so bad, after all."
a stranger would have wondered at the comfort in the interior of the little farmhouse. the land round it was very poor. three horses—which seemed as if they had nothing to do but to nibble the coarse grass—and a couple of cows wandered about on a few acres of land, inclosed by deep water ditches; a score or two of ducks and geese paddled in the mud in the bottom of the creek at low tide, or swam about in the water when it was up; and a patch of garden ground, attended to chiefly by the woman, surrounded the cottage. but all this would have afforded a scanty living indeed, were it not that the master, bill nibson, was the owner of the mary ann barge, an old craft with a somewhat dilapidated sail, which journeyed up and down the river with more or less regularity, laden, for the most part, with manure, hay,[pg 224] lime, bricks, or coal. this he navigated with the aid of a lad of fourteen, a waif, whose mother, a tramp, had died by the roadside one bitter cold night four years before. bill had been summoned on the coroner's jury and had offered to take the boy.
"i can do with him on board the barge," he said; "he is only a little nipper now, but in a year or two he will be useful. the boy i have got wants to go to sea, and i shan't be sorry to get rid of him; he is getting too knowing for me altogether."
as no one else wanted the boy he was handed over to bill, and was now a sharp lad, who, never having been instructed in the niceties of right and wrong, and being especially ignorant that there was any harm in cheating her majesty's customs, was in all things a useful assistant to his master. he had, indeed, very soon imbibed the spirit, not uncommon among the dwellers on the marshes, that if managed without detection, the smuggling of tobacco and spirits was a meritorious action, advantageous to the community at large, and hurting no one except that mysterious and unknown entity, the queen's revenue. he was greatly attached to bill, and took an occasional thrashing as a matter of course; regarding him as having saved him from the workhouse and having put him in a fair way of making a man of himself.
the next day at twelve o'clock the child, playing on the bank, ran in and reported that joshua was coming along the bank, and in a few minutes the boy appeared.
"morning, missis," he said. "master sent me on to say that the barge got into the haven this morning, and that she will come on with the evening tide. he sent me on with this lump of meat, and these rokers he got from a bawley which came in just as we were getting up sail off grain spit. he says he has got a barrel of beer on board, that he will land as he passes. he will be along about nine o'clock. well, jack, how are you?"
"i am all right," the child said, "and so is kitty. i[pg 225] am glad that you are back. how long are you going to stay?"
"i suppose that it will take us a couple of days to unload. master is going as usual to hire a couple of men to get the line out, so i shall be over here by breakfast. he says that i may as well do a job of digging in the garden, as he wants to get some things in before we get frosty nights. have you any message for him, missis?"
"you can tell him he may as well get a dish of eels from one of the dutchmen there. i suppose there is one in the haven?"
"two of them, missis; he will be able to get them, for one of them is the marden, and the skipper has always let master have some, though he won't sell an eel to anyone else."
"is there any business to be done?" the woman asked significantly.
the boy nodded.
"all right; tell him that i will get the horses in."
the child was put to bed upstairs at seven o'clock, although he in vain petitioned to be allowed to stop up until the barge came along. he already knew, however, by experience, that his request was not likely to be granted, as when the barge came along after dark he was always put to bed, the woman telling him that bill didn't like him to be up when he came in, as he wanted to have a talk with her in quiet, and to eat his supper in peace.
an hour after dark the woman went out onto the bank and listened. in a quarter of an hour she heard the rattle of a block in the distance. she went down, stirred up the fire, and put on the kettle, and in twenty minutes the barge came along. the boat, instead of towing behind as usual, was alongside.
"you take her on, joshua," its owner said, as he quietly got into the boat; "run in where the water is deep alongside, a quarter of a mile this side pitsea. i will come along and get on board there as soon as i have finished this job. keep a sharp lookout on the banks; some of the coastguardsmen may be about. if they hail[pg 226] you and ask if i am on board, say i landed as we passed here, to have a cup of tea, and that i shall not be five minutes."
then he pushed the boat to shore. "well, betsy, how are you? i have got twenty kegs here, and five or six hundredweight of tobacco. i will get it up the bank, and you had better stow it away at once; i will lend you a hand as soon as it is all up."
as fast as he could carry the kegs up the banks she slipped slings round them, two at a time, hooked them to a milkmaid's yoke, and went off with them to a shed which served as a stable and cowhouse in the winter. against this was a rick of hay. putting the kegs down she returned for more, and by the time that they were all in the stable her husband had finished his share of the work and had carried the heavy bales of tobacco to the shed. the three horses were already there.
"are you going to take them out at once?"
"no, not until i come back. i must get on board the barge as soon as possible. we will bundle them all in, in case any of those fellows should come along."
three planks were removed from the side of the shed next to the stack, and an opening was seen. some turf was taken up and a trapdoor exposed. the kegs and tobacco were speedily carried down into a large cellar, the trapdoor was closed, and the boards placed securely in position and fastened by six long screws. then they returned to the house. the teapot and cups were on the table, the kettle was boiling, and in two or three minutes they were taking tea. scarcely had they begun their meal when there was a knock at the door. bill got up and opened it, and two coastguards entered.
"we saw there was a light burning, and thought that you might be here, bill. the wind is bitter cold."
"come in and have a cup of tea or a glass of rum, whichever you like best. as you say, the wind is bitter cold, and i thought that i would land and have a cup of tea. i shall catch the barge up before she gets to pitsea."[pg 227]
the coastguardsmen accepted the offer of a cup of tea, glancing furtively round the room as they drank it.
"it is good tea."
"'tis that," bill said, "and it has never paid duty. i got it from an indiaman that was on the nore three weeks ago. she transshipped part of her cargo on my barge and floated next tide. it was one of the best jobs i've had for some time, and stood me in fifty pounds and a pound or two of tea."
"perhaps a chest of it!" one of the men said with a laugh.
"well, well, i am not sure that it was not a chest. i like my cup of tea, and so does betsy; and there is no getting tea like this at stanford."
they chatted for about ten minutes, when bill remarked, "i must be going," and they went out together, and taking his place in his boat he rowed up the creek, while the coastguards continued their walk along the bank.
"he is not a bad 'un, tom," one of them said. "i guess he is like a good many of the others, runs a keg occasionally. however, his place has been searched half a dozen times, and nothing has been found. we have drunk many a glass of ale with him at the 'lobster smack' at hole haven, and i am sure i don't want to catch him unless there is some information to go on. the barge passed us half an hour ago, and i knew that it was no use looking in her, but of course when the boatswain said this afternoon, 'just follow that barge when she gets under way, and see if she goes on to pitsea,' we had to do it; but the boat was late for us where the creek branches off round the island, and before we were across he must have got more than half an hour's start of us. and i am not sorry, tom. we have got to do our duty, but we don't want to be at war with every good fellow on the marshes."
"right you are, dick; besides, they are as slippery as eels. who can tell what they have got under their lime or manure? short of unloading it to the bottom there[pg 228] would be no finding it, if they had anything; and it is a job that i should not care for. besides, there aint no place to empty it on; and we could not go and chuck a cargo overboard unless we were quite certain that we should find something underneath. as you say, i dare say bill runs a keg or two now and then, but i don't suppose that he is worse than his neighbors; i have always suspected that it was he who left a keg of whisky at our door last christmas."
in the meantime bill had overtaken his barge, and they soon had her alongside of the little wharf at pitsea.
"tide is just turning. she will be aground in half an hour," he said. "as soon as you have got these mooring ropes fastened, you had better fry that steak and have your supper. i shall be over by seven o'clock in the morning. if harvey and wilson come alongside before that, tell them they can have the job at the usual price, and can set to work without waiting for me. it will be pretty late before i am in bed to-night."
it was over a mile walk back to his cottage. as soon as he arrived he sat down to a hearty supper which his wife had prepared for him. he then got three pack-saddles out of the cellar, put them on the horses, and fastened four kegs on each horse. tying one behind the other, he started, and in an hour the kegs were stowed in the cellars of four farmers near stanford. it was midnight before he returned home. at half-past six he was down to breakfast.
"well, uncle, how are you?" he asked the child, who was already up.
"i am not your uncle," the boy replied; "you are my uncle."
"ah, well, it's a way of speaking down here. it does not mean that anyone is one's uncle; it is just a way of speaking."
the child nodded. he was learning many things.
"then it is a way of speaking when i call you uncle?"
"no, no! that is different. a child like you would[pg 229] not call anyone uncle unless he was uncle; while a man my age calls anyone uncle."
"that is funny, isn't it?"
"well, i suppose, when you think of it, it is; but, as i said, it is a way we have in this part of the country. well, mother, have you got that fish nearly fried?"
"it will be ready in five minutes. this roker is a very thick one. i put it on as soon as i heard you stirring, and it is not quite ready yet. that was a pretty near escape last night, bill."
"yes; but, you see, they can hardly catch us unless they send men down in the afternoon. they cannot get along from the station without passing two or three creeks; and coming along with the tide, especially when there is a breath of wind to help her, we can do it in half the time. you see, i always get the things out from under the cargo and into the boat as we come along, so that the barge shall not be stopped."
"but they might send down a boat from the thames haven station, bill."
"yes; but then they don't know when the barge is in, or when it is going to start. so we get the best of them in that way. besides, they have a good bit to go along the river face, and they have to cross a dozen deep cuts to get there. no, i have no fear of them, nor of the others either, as far as that goes. i have more than once had a word dropped, meant to put me on my guard, and instead of landing the things here have dropped them in a deep hole in the creek, where i could pick them up the next night i came in. things have changed with us for the better, lass. five years ago we had pretty hard work, with the farm and the old boat, to live at all comfortable; but since i have got into the swim things have changed with us, and i can tell you that i am making money hand over fist. i allow that there is a certain risk in it, but, after all, one likes it all the better for that. if the worst came to the worst they could but confiscate the old barge; if they gave me a heavy fine i could pay it, and if they gave me six months i could work it out, and buy a new[pg 230] barge and half a dozen farms like this on the day i came out."
"but the other would be more serious, bill?"
"well, yes; but i don't see any chance of that being found out. a gent comes to me at a spot we have settled on, say on the road halfway between pitsea and stanford; he hands me a box, sometimes two; i puts them on one of the horses, and rides over here with them; then i stows them away in that secret place off the store, where there aint a shadow of a chance of the sharpest-eyed coastguardsman ever finding them. they would be too delighted to light on the spirits and bacca to think of digging up the floor underneath. there they lie, till i take them down to the marden. they put them into the eel tank, and next morning off she sails."
"but you have had heavy cases brought once or twice?"
"only once—heavy enough to be troublesome. ten cases there was then, each as heavy as a man could lift. it took me three journeys with three horses, and i had to dig a big hole in the garden to bury them till the marden had got rid of her eels, and was ready to sail again. yes, that was a heavy job, and i got a couple of hundred pounds for my share of the business. i should not mind having such a job twice a week. a few months of that, and i could buy the biggest farm on this side of essex—that is to say, if i could make up my mind to cut it and settle down as a farmer."
"you will never do that, bill; but you might settle down in rochester, and buy half a dozen barges, with a tip-top one you would sail yourself. you might have a couple of men and a cabin forward, and a nice roomy place for yourself and me aft; and you could just steer when you liked, or sit down and smoke your pipe and watch her going through the fleet as we worked through the swatchway. that would be more your sort, bill, and mine too. i know you have money enough laid by to get such a barge."
"that is so, betsy. i allow that i could do that. i[pg 231] have been thinking of it for some time, but somehow or other one never works one's self up to the right point to give it all up of a sudden and cut the old place. well, i suppose one of these days i shall do it, if it is only to please you."
"it would please me, you know, bill. i don't see no harm in running the kegs or the bacca—it's what the people about here have been doing for hundreds of years—but i don't like this other business. you don't know what is in the cases, and you don't ask, but there aint much difficulty in guessing. and i don't much like this business of the child. i did not like it at all at first; but when i found that he had no father nor mother as he knew of, and so it was certain that no one was breaking their heart about him, i did not mind it; and i have taken to him, and he has pretty nearly forgotten about his home, and is as contented as if he had been here all his life. i have nothing more to say about him, though it is as certain as eggs is eggs that it has been a bad business. the boy has been cheated out of his money, and if his friends ever find him it is a nice row that we shall get into."
"you need not bother yourself about that," the man said; "he aint more likely to be found here than if he was across the seas in ameriky. we have had him near nine months now, and in another three months, if you were to put him down in front of his own house, he would not know it. everyone about here believes as he is my nevvy, the son of a brother of yours who died down in the midlands, and left him motherless. no one asks any questions about him now, no more than they does about joshua. no, no; we are all right there, missis; and the hundred pounds that we had down with him, and fifty pounds a year till he gets big enough to earn his own grub on the barge, all helps. anyhow, if something should happen to me before i have made up my mind to quit this, you know where the pot of money is hidden. you can settle in rochester, and get him some schooling, and then apprentice him to a barge-owner and start[pg 232] him with a barge of his own as soon as he is out of his time. you bear it in mind that is what i should like done."
"i will mind," she said quietly; "but i am as likely to be carried to the churchyard as you are, and you remember what i should like, and try, bill, if you give up the water yourself, to see that he is with a man as doesn't drink. most of the things we hears of—of barges being run down, and of men falling overboard on a dark night—are just drink, and nothing else. you are not a man as drinks yourself; you take your glass when the barge is in the creek, but i have never seen you the worse for liquor since you courted me fifteen years ago, and i tell you there is not a night when you are out on the barge as i don't thank god that it is so. i says to myself, when the wind is blowing on a dark night, 'he is anchored somewheres under a weather shore, and he is snug asleep in his cabin. there is no fear of his driving along through it and carrying on sail; there is no fear of his stumbling as he goes forward and pitching over'; and no one but myself knows what a comfort it is to me. you bring him up in the same way, bill. you teach him as it is always a good thing to keep from liquor, though a pint with an old mate aint neither here nor there, but that he might almost as well take poison as to drink down in the cabin."
"i will mind, missis; i like the child, and have got it in my mind to bring him up straight, so let us have no more words about it."
