I heard all these cries mingled together, and mixed up with the busy hands and faces, I seemed to see the row of houses, the clear sky, the waters of the dam, and Gentles the grinder leaning against a door and looking on.
I was being lifted amidst shouts and laughter, and I knew that the next moment I should be in the dam, when there was a tremendous splash, and some drops of water sprinkled my face.
Then there was the rattle of the handle of a bucket, and another splash heard above all the yelling and shouting of the boys. There was the hollow sound of a pail banged against something hard, and mingled with cries, shouts, laughter, and ejaculations of pain I felt myself fall upon the path, to be kicked and trampled on by someone contending, for there were slaps, and thuds, and blows, the panting and hissing of breath; and then the clanging of bells near and bells far, buzzing in ears, the rush and scuffling of feet, with shouts of derision, defiance, and laughter, and then, last of all, a curious cloud of mist seemed to close me in like the fog on the Dome Tor, and out of this a shrill angry voice cried:
“Ah, ye may shout, but some on ye got it. Go and dry yourselves at the furnace, you cowardly young shacks. Hey, bud I wish I’d hed holt o’ yon stick!”
“Yon stick!” I felt must be mine; but my head was aching, and I seemed to go to sleep.
“I wish you’d be quiet,” I remember saying. “Let me be.”
“Fetch some more watter, mester,” said a pleasant voice, and a rough hand was laid upon my forehead, but only to be taken away again, and that which had vexed and irritated we went on again, and in a dreamy way I knew it was a sponge that was being passed over my face.
“I fetched Mester Tom one wi’ bottom o’ the boocket, and I got one kick at Tom, and when the two boys come home to-night they’ll get such a leathering as they never hed before.”
“Nay, let ’em be,” said a familiar voice.
“Let ’em be! D’ye think I’m going to hev my bairns grow up such shacks? Nay, that I wean’t, so yo’ may like it or no. I’d be shamed o’ my sen to stand by and let that pack o’ boys half kill the young gentleman like that.”