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Updated: June 14, 2025
I felt sorry for Ike, and my sympathies were against Old Brownsmith, who seemed to be treating him rather hardly, especially when he said shortly: "Did you fasten off that hind rope?" "Yes, master, I did fasten off that hind rope," growled Ike. "Then, now you're out o' breath with talking, go and get your sleep. Don't start later than twelve."
"`Warn't my fault, I says; but he shook his head, and took me in, and there sat Old Brownsmith's brother's wife, with a white face and red eyes as if she had been crying, and Old Brownsmith himself.
"Yes, to be sure," said Old Brownsmith. "Go and tell Mrs Dodley you want your clean clothes, my boy; and tell her my brother Solomon's going to have a bit with us." "And see whether your boy has given my horse his oats, will you?" said Brother Solomon.
Then of a night I used to transfer the writing on the slate to a book, and tell Old Brownsmith what I had put down, reading the items over and summing up the quantities and the amounts they fetched when the salesmen's accounts came from Covent Garden.
He nodded, and I had just made up my mind that I would not complain about Shock, when there was a loud thump of the knocker, and directly after I heard the door open, a heavy step in the passage, the door closed, and then the sound of old Brownsmith wiping his shoes on the big mat.
Old Brownsmith had a sharp knife in his hand, and I was holding the whetstone and a thin-bladed saw that he used to cut through the thicker branches. "Now look here, Grant. Here's this plum-tree, and if you look at it you will see that there are two kinds of wood in it." "Two kinds of wood, sir?" "Yes. Can't you tell the difference?"
Farther on a wagon with "Brownsmith" in yellow letters on a great red band; and this I passed to go up to the house. But the door was closed, and it was evident that every one was busy in the garden preparing the night's load for market.
I said, coming down the ladder, "I think that will heal up now, like the poor swineherd's leg. It's as smooth as smooth." "Let me look," said a voice behind me; and I started with surprise to find myself face to face with a man who seemed to be Old Brownsmith when he was, if not Young Brownsmith, just about what he would have been at forty.
While I picked and filled and emptied my basket I began to reason with myself and to think that after all Mr Brownsmith would not be so very angry with me if I went to him boldly and told the truth.
"You ain't going to cut then?" "No," I said firmly. "Then look here," said Ike; "suppose I take the broken ladder up into the shed, and hang it up, and bring another. When the ganger finds it he'll think it was Shock broke it, and then you'll be all right, eh? What do you say to that?" "That I wouldn't be such a coward," I said stoutly. "I shall tell Mr Brownsmith myself."
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