Now the judge was known to be a very pious man. He would take hold of little dirty urchins in the street when he heard them using bad language and reprimand them. His own people had to pull a long face and assume a virtue if they had it not. And when the postman came round with a petition to get off his Sunday duty, everybody in the district signed it except the judge. He could not forego the pleasure of receiving and reading a few letters and allow the poor postman to go free on a Sunday. I have been greatly amused more than once on going into an Assize Hall and seeing the judge sitting in his chair, looking as grave and solemn as only a judge can look. The clerk of the court read the Queen's proclamation against vice and immorality; solemnly called upon the magistrates and sheriffs of counties to use all their power to suppress all kinds of vice and lewdness, especially Sabbath breaking; and yet the judge could not allow the double rap at his door to cease on a Sunday.
I got on capitally with this lady; we seemed to understand each other at first sight. But do what I would, I could not bring myself to feel the respect due to her, simply because she wore a pair of old and dirty wooden shoes, a short, rough woollen skirt, a great red-patterned kerchief over her shoulders, and a large, stiff, white muslin cap on her head. Altogether she cut such a figure, that I could not fancy she was the wife of a rich merchant and judge. But I found after a while that the ladies of Jersey were exceedingly plain and unassuming. They assisted in house and dairy work; they milked and fed the cows. It was a very common thing to see the farmers' wives and daughters milk cows into one can, and goats into another; then, tying the cans together and slinging them across an old horse's back, they would perch themselves on the top, and set off to town at five o'clock in the morning, to sell the milk from door to door. They returned to breakfast and spent the remainder of the day working in the fields. I saw them, both in Jersey and in France, actually ploughing, sowing, reaping and mowing; and yet these people were rich and had their thousands in the bank. After witnessing how hard the women had to work in Jersey and France, I was not surprised that Napoleon I. said that England was a paradise for women.
I continued in the employ of the judge all the summer. My usual work was to adulterate the wine, brandy, gin, rum, and whisky; and though constantly amongst this firewater, I am thankful to say I did not acquire the taste for any of it. Yet all who worked there could have what they liked. The judge gave carte blanche. I often thought what a paradise this would have been for Jim, how he would have made himself a perfect walking swill-tub; but it would have soon killed him. I watched many strong sturdy fellows from Devon and Cornwall actually kill themselves with the accursed stuff. Not that they were drunkards; nothing of the sort. But because brandy could be purchased at sixpence a bottle, so they would constantly be sipping it. They did not get drunk, but would take a little in winter to keep the cold out, and a little more in summer to keep out the heat; they would soon get "brain fever," or as some people would say, sunstroke, and die ramping mad. I have seen and known this in many cases both of men and women.
CHAPTER V
LIFE IN JERSEY
THE judge had a fleet of ships of his own trading to nearly every corner of the globe, and in the months of September and October several vessels returned from the Newfoundland fishery, laden with codfish, whalebone, sperm oil, and seal, beaver, fox, and other skins. He made me a sort of deputy-clerk, and I had to note down every article with its number and weight. This I did so much to his satisfaction that at Christmas he actually gave me a sovereign as a present over and above my wages; and a few kind and complimentary words that he spoke made me feel as if I had suddenly grown an inch taller. Now I began to feel very pleased and glad I was born.
I began to think myself surpassingly rich, for I had three good suits of clothes, and six golden sovereigns in my pocket, and I thought of poor Jim the ploughman, who used to go to bed early on Saturday night to give his mother the opportunity to wash his one and only ragged shirt, so that he might have it clean on Sunday morning. All this time I had thought greatly about my poor mother, for she had not the slightest idea of what had become of me. I had been away from April until Christmas. I had never up to that time any idea of writing a letter as I had never been to a week-day school, but somehow or other I had acquired the art of writing. Of course I could not realize how very deep her grief must have been, being only a male. We as men love our children, but our love at best cannot be measured or weighed against the deep and constant love of a mother for her child. Now I thought how pleased she would be if I could only just put these six sovereigns into her hands. I thought whether I could manage to go for a week to see her, and return again; but on second thoughts I decided that would not do at all. So at last I wrote a letter, and told my mother that I was well and flourishing, but could not come to see her. If she would come and see me, however, I would send her the funds to pay her passage. She answered my letter by return of post to say that she would come, and so in the course of a few weeks I had the pleasure of meeting her on the pier, as she landed from the Atlantic. The judge gave me as many holidays as I wanted, and so I was able to show my mother about the Island.
The first thing that surprised her was to see the French women wheeling heavy barrows of luggage about, while their lords and masters were swelling about with their gold-laced caps, gingham blouses, patent leather boots, and the everlasting pipe in their mouths.
Mother would gaze at the women in the street, and say, "Well, I have worked hard in my time, but I am very glad I am not a Frenchwoman." She was not surprised, she said, that the Duke of Wellington was able with a handful of Englishmen to go over and thrash them Frenchmen on their own ground.