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From this habit of his he was generally known among the working-classes of Crossbourne by the nickname of "Tommy Tracts," or "Tracks," as it was usually pronounced an epithet first given in scorn, but afterwards generally used without any unkindly feeling.
So, snatching up the little Bible, she placed it deep down under the clothes of the baby's cradle. The Crossbourne station was not in the town itself, but on the outskirts, about a quarter of a mile distant from the Town Hall. Nevertheless, the town was creeping up to it in the form of a suburb, which would ere long reach the station gates.
It could also be approached by a much less frequented track, which passed along sequestered lanes out of the main road from the town of Foxleigh, the nearest town to Crossbourne by rail, and brought the traveller to it, after a walk of six miles from Foxleigh, through the overhanging wooded ground which has been mentioned as rising up in the rear of the old ruins.
As for the inhabitants of Crossbourne generally, some were glad, with a spice of caution in their gladness; some shook their heads and smiled, meaning thereby to let all men know that, in case Foster should not persevere in his new career, they, at any rate, had never been over- sanguine as to the genuineness of his reformation; some simply looked grave; while the profligate and the profane gnashed their teeth with envy hatred, and malice, and exchanged vehement asseverations of "how they'd pay off the sneaking humbug of a deserter, and no mistake."
On this outer door was painted in white letters, "Surgery." "Do you mend broken bones, Tommy Tracks?" asked a working-man of not very temperate or moral habits soon after this word had been painted on the door. "If you do, I think we may perhaps give you a job before long, as it'll be Crossbourne Wakes next Sunday week."
The marvel, indeed, to Foster and his friends was how ignorance, bigotry, priestcraft, and tyranny could venture to hold up their heads in Crossbourne after his club had continued its meeting regularly for the last two years.
I couldn't help thinking what a convenience them buttons must be; for if he didn't mind you, you could lay hold on him by one of 'em, and if that'd come off there'd be lots more to take to. `Young man, says I, `is your master at home? He'd got his chin rather high in the air, and didn't seem best pleased with the way in which I spoke to him. `Who do you mean by my master? says he. `Dr Prosser, says I; `I hope he's your master, for certainly you don't seem fit to be your own. He stares very hard at me, and then he says, `All right. So I gets out, and sees to Miss Philips and her boxes; and the doctor were very kind, and talked to me about Crossbourne, and so did the missus.
You'll remember, Thomas, he was concerned in that housebreaking job four years ago, and the police have been after him ever since." "To be sure, Jim, I remember him fast enough; he's not a man one's likely to forget. I suppose a more thorough scoundrel never set foot in Crossbourne. It was a wonderful thing how he managed to escape and keep out of prison after that burglary business.
The Lord's been very gracious to us so far in this business, and I don't doubt but he'll bring good out of this evil." So they made a litter of boughs and stray pieces of plank, and set out across the fields for Crossbourne. "Stay a bit, Jim," whispered Bradly to James Barnes; "lend me your lantern. Go forward now, and I'll join you in a minute."
And thus, as each leans in a measure on the other, being in entire sympathy as they are on highest things, the force of their united action on the hearts and lives of others is powerful indeed. Such was the case in Crossbourne.
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