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Updated: June 9, 2025
"Look 'ere, Tummas," rejoined the verger, speaking slowly and emphatically "Passon, 'e be a rare good man, m'appen no better man anywheres, an' what he's goin' to say to us this blessed Sunday is all settled-like. He's been thinkin' it out all the week. He knows what's what.
Shut out even from the tame drama of village life, Tummas, born with an abnormal desire for action and a feverish curiosity, had hungered and thirsted for the story in any form whatsoever. He caught at fragments of happenings, and colored and dissected them for the satisfying of unfed cravings. The vanished man had been the one touch of pictorial form and color in his ten years of existence.
"The last part's true all right," Tembarom owned, "but there's some mistakes in the first part. I wasn't born in the workhouse, and though I've been hungry enough, I never starved to death if that's what `clemmed' means." Tummas looked at once disappointed and somewhat incredulous. "That's th' road they tell it i' th' village," he argued. "Well, let them tell it that way if they like it best.
With another friendly pat on the groom's shoulder, and a cheery smile, Bainton passed out, and left the rest of the company in the 'Mother Huff' tap-room solemnly gazing upon one another. "He speaks straight, he do," said Farmer Thorpe, "An' he ain't no canter, he's just plain Tummas, an' wot he sez he means."
I suppose he must be dead long before this, and 'Tummas, too, poor fellow; for I didn't see anything of them among the prisoners yesterday. I never trusted those Senecas; but Wilkins was so cocksure of them that he wouldn't listen to a word against them. Wonder what he'll say now. I wouldn't be here at this moment, though, if it hadn't been for that fellow, 'Zebra, as Bullen called him.
"He's noan gentry, but he's th' reet mak'. I I dunnot believe as him as was killed has coom back." "Neither do I," Palliser answered, with amiable tolerance. "The American gentleman had better come back himself and disprove it. When you used to talk about the Klondike, he never said anything to make you feel as if he doubted that the other man was dead?" "Not him," answered Tummas. "Eh!
Tummas led the way through a more intricate range of passages than Jeanie had yet threaded, and ushered her into an apartment which was darkened by the closing of most of the window-shutters, and in which was a bed with the curtains partly drawn. "Here is the young woman, sir," said Tummas.
It fell open at a map of North America as if through long habit. "Sit thee down," he ordered. Tembarom had stood watching them both. "I guess you'd better not do that," he suggested to Tummas. "Why not? " said the boy, sharply. "She's th' wench he was goin' to marry. It's th' same as if he'd married her. If she wur his widder, she'd want to talk about him. Widders allus wants to talk.
Singular as the phrasing was, Tembarom knew what he meant, and that he was thinking of the oddity of chance. Tummas had obviously heard of "poor Jem" and had felt an interest in him. "You're talking about Jem Temple Barholm I guess," he said.
This time there was a greater delay in complying with the gentle hint; but the Hell-cats getting obstreperous, the tea was at length furnished and divided among the women. This gracious office devolved on the wife of Tummas who soon found herself assisted by a spontaneous committee of which the comely dame was the most prominent and active member.
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