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John Halifax, Gentleman

By DINAH MARIA MULOCK Condensation by BASIL KING THOUGH a boy of sixteen, I was too ill and crippled to walk. Owing to the rain, my father pushed my hand carriage under an archway. Taking shelter there we found a handsome boy of thirteen, well built, strong, and looking more than his age.

Fearing to lose time from work in his tannery, my father engaged this boy to push me home when the rain ceased. Arrived at our house, I asked him in for a meal. After his dinner in the kitchen he joined me in the dining-room, telling me something of his history. His name was John Halifax, an orphan, without home, relatives, or money, and so obliged to roam the country looking for work. His one treasure was a Greek Testament, on the fly-leaf of which was written the name of Guy Halifax. In addition there were the entries of the marriage of Guy Halifax, gentleman, to Muriel Joyce, spinster, in the year 1779; of the birth of John Halifax in 1780; and of the death of Guy Halifax in 1781. Being unable to write, the lad asked me to make the additional entry, "Muriel Halifax, died January 1, 1791."

Never having had a companion, I took to this boy as a friend, inducing my father, Abel Fletcher, to give him work in the tanyard. It was humble work, at a pittance a week, and the boy took such care of himself as he could, sleeping in or on a pile of tanbark, and eating no more than enough to keep him alive. Faithful and industrious, however, he won his master's confidence, being gradually promoted to better posts, though still earning no more than a bare maintenance.

Those were the days of hard times incidental to the Napoleonic wars, with scarcity both of work and food. As I was helpless, it meant much to my father to have growing up under his eye a lad to whom his masters interests were his own. In a measure John Halifax took my place in the tannery, and during the labor riots from which my father suffered, as did most employers of the time, my friend was always on hand to soothe the workmen and protect my father's property.

In proportion as Abel Fletcher grew old and infirm a greater measure of responsibility fell on the younger man's shoulders. By the time he was twenty-one my father was willing to take him into partnership, promoting him thus from the standing of a waif, which was that which he held in the eyes of our conservative fellow-townsmen in Norton Bury, in Gloucestershire, to that of solid citizen. No young man ever deserved good fortune more. Developing, too, a force of character which could not but be progressive, he more than once found himself at odds with the old Tory elements that had long held our townspeople in submission and contempt.