i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

Kate went on kneading lumps of dough into loaves and putting them into tins.

"There's hardly any coal left. Rate. And Rosie and Florrie and Jimmy got a sackful of lovely cinders yesterday, nearly six bucketfuls...."

"I've told you you're not going 1' Kate turned sharply on Annie as the back door opened.

"And don't ask again."

"And why not, may I ask?" queried Mrs. Mullen, coming in.

"It's going to do her no harm, Kate, going getting a few cinders."

Kate sighed.

"She's not going, Mrs. Mullen."

' "Tisn't any disgrace, Kate. They like it; it's a sort of game to them. And when they sit round the fire at night, it's their fire."

"It's no use talking ... she's not going."

"You make me sick, Kate, so you do. You can't bring her up in cotton wool, not round these doors you can't.... And you can't bum the candle at both ends, either."

Kate gave her a sharp glance.

"Ah!" went on Mrs. Mullen; 'thinks nobody knows; but you can't sneak out of the house at midnight and come back in the small hours of the morn in', without anybody hearing you. You weren't back at three this mornin', for I listened for you. Now, don't you think it's better to let the child go and pick in the daylight than you to sit on the tip among a lot of men in the dead of the night? "

Kate arranged the loaf tins along the fender and covered them with a doth.

"They are mostly women who are there, the few men are old," she said.

It's a disgrace that you should go at all," said Mrs. Mullen.

"But not that Annie should go?" questioned Kate sharply.

"No, that's different; she's only a hairn. Anyway, why doesn't that big lazy hulk do some picking? He's not working half his time. What's up with him?" Mrs. Mullen felt she knew, without asking, what was up with Tim Hannigan. He was puzzled, as she was herself. He, of course, would know about Kate and the doctor being thick, and wondered why, consequently, money wasn't more plentiful. She wondered herself. She couldn't, somehow, understand it. It was usual to be in funds, under the circumstances, but Kate certainly wasn't. Hannigan, she thought, was suspecting Kate of withholding her money from the house, and was playing up, making his bad leg an excuse for staying off work.

"Leave the house without a fire for a few days, he'll soon get a sack on his back then," she finished.

"There's my mother's fire to be kept going, and bread to bake, and food to cook. I'd rather freeze than ask him ... you know that."

"Aye, lass, I know," said Mrs. Mullen flatly. She patted Kate's arm.

"It's a hell of a life.... What makes me mad," she suddenly started,

'is that lot o'er there," she indicated the houses opposite, 'getting pit coal for practically nowt and selling it for tuppence and tuppence ha' penny a pail, and not a roundie in it. The lot I got yesterday was all slack. Daylight robbers 1' Three faces suddenly appeared at the kitchen window.

"Is Annie coming?"

Mrs. Mullen opened the door: "No, she's not. Get yersclves away."

"Aw ... w!" They stood, shapeless bundles of old coats and scarves, each carrying a bucket and a riker, and Rosie with an empty sack slung over her back.

"Aw... wl Why not?"

"She's got chilblains," said Mrs. Mullen.

"Off you go now, and get a nice lot. And if we get a good fire going we'll have panhacklety tonight and ask Santa Claus to come and have a tuck in."

"Ooh I Panhacklety and Santa Claus!" the younger ones cried, banging their buckets together.

They went off down the yard, yelling, "At the cross, at the cross, where the Kaiser lost his horse and the eagle on his hat flew away...."

But Rosie followed more slowly, turning to the window to look at Annie, standing wistfully there.

"You're a fool, you know, but I suppose you know your own business best."

Mrs. Mullen opened the stair door: "Anything you want taking up?" she asked.

"No thanks," said Kate.

"She's had her wash and her breakfast. And, Mrs. Mullen ... you won't mention the tip?"

"Now what d'you take me for, a numbskull?" Mrs. Mullen gave a toss of her head and went upstairs.

Kate turned to Annie: "Look out and see if the postman's coming," she said, glancing at the clock.

It was a quarter to ten. Surely he hadn't been. ,. He'd be late, it was Christmas Eve. Oh, there must be a letter this morning; he couldn't have gone to France without letting her know . if he were still in England, he would have written. Over a week now and no letter; when every other day had brought a letter from him. What was wrong?

Annie returned: "I can't see him, Kate.... Do you want me to go any messages?" she asked.

"Yes, you'd better go and get some things." Kate sat down and wrote out a list of groceries, pausing as she did so to consider whether the money would run to all she was putting down. She thought of the case of groceries which had come every Christmas from the Tolmaches and she experienced again that deep sense of personal loss for the very dear people who had provided them. It seemed impossible to believe that she would visit the house in Westoe no more, that the three people who had given her new life now lay, side by side, in the earth.

The brother and sister had seemed to wither away after Rex had died and Kate had left them. They had died in the previous summer within a month of each other, Bernard going first. In his will Bernard had left Kate twenty153

five pounds