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"That's what I'm used to!" He thought with a shudder of the rest of the family going down to supper in the basement dining-room that time-honored, semi-subterranean dungeon. "I'm glad, I'm sure, that they are going to have their new dining-room above-ground; for their own sakes, that is to say not that it will matter the least to me!"
The next afternoon was closing in dull and cloudy, and there were signs of a dark and bad night to come just the sort of day wild hunters come out early in. This was why the grunt sounded then that heralded the appearance of our ratel above-ground, and he himself appeared, emerging at his very own slow trot from his hole.
All the previous week things had been much as usual: inferior food, and very little of it; divine weather; "bridge" in the afternoons; and one day exactly like another. Since the departure of the big gun during the previous month, we had left our bomb-proofs and lived above-ground.
What should it be but the story of One who gave Himself for the whole world, who binds men into a unity because of His common relation to them all, and through whom the great proclamation can be made: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Brother Quartus' message, like some tiny flower above-ground which tells of a spreading root beneath, is a modest witness to that mighty revolution, and presupposes the preaching of a Saviour in whom he and his unseen friends in Rome are one.
They turned off the main road, past a black patch of common-garden, where sooty cabbage stumps stood shameless. No one thought to be ashamed. No one was ashamed of it all. 'It is like a country in an underworld, said Gudrun. 'The colliers bring it above-ground with them, shovel it up. Ursula, it's marvellous, it's really marvellous it's really wonderful, another world.
They look cleanly and healthy in spite of their burrowing life, but are fox-like in character as in manners, and bear a reputation for dishonesty. A little after mid-day we descried afar off the village of Kaleebah, which is built above-ground, and occupies a most commanding position on a bold mountain-top. It remained in sight ahead a long time, cheating us with an appearance of nearness.
Desperately bold at last, the persecuted animals bolted above-ground the terrier accounted for one, the keeper for another; Rawdon, from flurry and excitement, missed his rat, but on the other hand he half-murdered a ferret. But the greatest day of all was that on which Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's hounds met upon the lawn at Queen's Crawley. That was a famous sight for little Rawdon.
Do the honors of the place a little better. If you look so glum, you'll make all these outside folks think you envy their life above-ground." "Never mind me, Jack," answered Harry. "You are jolly enough for two, I'm sure; that's enough." "I'll be hanged if I don't feel your melancholy creeping over me though!" exclaimed Jack.
Above-ground, also, everything lay in ruins, while here all was intact. As the light of the torches moved slowly along the vaulted and stuccoed ceilings, it showed the delicate lines of a profusion of little reliefs and ornaments, fresh as if cast and coloured yesterday.
An' who is it, I should like to know, as you're bound t' help and comfort i' the world more nor your own flesh and blood an' me th' only aunt you've got above-ground, an' am brought to the brink o' the grave welly every winter as comes, an' there's the child as sits beside you 'ull break her little heart when you go, an' the grandfather not been dead a twelvemonth, an' your uncle 'ull miss you so as never was a-lighting his pipe an' waiting on him, an' now I can trust you wi' the butter, an' have had all the trouble o' teaching you, and there's all the sewing to be done, an' I must have a strange gell out o' Treddles'on to do it an' all because you must go back to that bare heap o' stones as the very crows fly over an' won't stop at."
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