第10章

'I see nothing more,' said Brother Francis, 'and there is nothing more to see, except the curlpaper bill of the theatre, which was opened and shut last week (the manager's family played all the parts), and the short, square, chinky omnibus that goes to the railway, and leads too rattling a life over the stones to hold together long.O yes! Now, I see two men with their hands in their pockets and their backs towards me.'

'Brother Francis, brother Francis,' cried Thomas Idle, 'what do you make out from the turret, of the expression of the two men with their hands in their pockets and their backs towards you?'

'They are mysterious men,' said Brother Francis, 'with inscrutable backs.They keep their backs towards me with persistency.If one turns an inch in any direction, the other turns an inch in the same direction, and no more. They turn very stiffly, on a very little pivot, in the middle of themarket-place.Their appearance is partly of a mining, partly of a ploughing, partly of a stable, character.They are looking at nothing - very hard.Their backs are slouched, and their legs are curved with much standing about.Their pockets are loose and dog's-eared, on account of their hands being always in them.They stand to be rained upon, without any movement of impatience or dissatisfaction, and they keep so close together that an elbow of each jostles an elbow of the other, but they never speak.They spit at times, but speak not.I see it growing darker and darker, and still I see them, sole visible population of the place, standing to be rained upon with their backs towards me, and looking at nothing very hard.'

'Brother Francis, brother Francis,' cried Thomas Idle, 'before you draw down the blind of the turret and come in to have your head scorched by the hot gas, see if you can, and impart to me, something of the expression of those two amazing men.'

'The murky shadows,' said Francis Goodchild, 'are gathering fast; and the wings of evening, and the wings of coal, are folding over Wigton.Still, they look at nothing very hard, with their backs towards me.Ah! Now, they turn, and I see - '

'Brother Francis, brother Francis,' cried Thomas Idle, 'tell me quickly what you see of the two men of Wigton!'

'I see,' said Francis Goodchild, 'that they have no expression at all.And now the town goes to sleep, undazzled by the large unlighted lamp in the market-place; and let no man wake it.'

At the close of the next day's journey, Mr.Thomas Idle's ankle became much swollen and inflamed.There are reasons which will presently explain themselves for not publicly indicating the exact direction in which that journey lay, or the place in which it ended.It was a long day's shaking of Thomas Idle over the rough roads, and a long day's getting out and going on before the horses, and fagging up hills, and scouring down hills, on the part of Mr.Goodchild, who in the fatigues of such labours congratulated himself on attaining a high point of idleness.It was at a little town, still in Cumberland, that they halted for the night - a very little town, with the purple and brown moor close upon its one street; a curiouslittle ancient market-cross set up in the midst of it; and the town itself looking much as if it were a collection of great stones piled on end by the Druids long ago, which a few recluse people had since hollowed out for habitations.

'Is there a doctor here?' asked Mr.Goodchild, on his knee, of the motherly landlady of the little Inn: stopping in his examination of Mr.Idle's ankle, with the aid of a candle.

'Ey, my word!' said the landlady, glancing doubtfully at the ankle for herself; 'there's Doctor Speddie.'

'Is he a good Doctor?'

'Ey!' said the landlady, 'I ca' him so.A' cooms efther nae doctor that I ken. Mair nor which, a's just THE doctor heer.'

'Do you think he is at home?'

Her reply was, 'Gang awa', Jock, and bring him.'

Jock, a white-headed boy, who, under pretence of stirring up some bay salt in a basin of water for the laving of this unfortunate ankle, had greatly enjoyed himself for the last ten minutes in splashing the carpet, set off promptly.A very few minutes had elapsed when he showed the Doctor in, by tumbling against the door before him and bursting it open with his head.

'Gently, Jock, gently,' said the Doctor as he advanced with a quiet step.'Gentlemen, a good evening.I am sorry that my presence is required here.A slight accident, I hope? A slip and a fall? Yes, yes, yes.Carrock, indeed?Hah!Does that pain you, sir? No doubt, it does. It is the great connecting ligament here, you see, that has been badly strained.Time and rest, sir! They are often the recipe in greater cases,' with a slight sigh, 'and often the recipe in small.I can send a lotion to relieve you, but we must leave the cure to time and rest.'

This he said, holding Idle's foot on his knee between his two hands, as he sat over against him.He had touched it tenderly and skilfully in explanation of what he said, and, when his careful examination was completed, softly returned it to its former horizontal position on a chair.