CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
IN THE MARKET.
I could almost have fancied that there was some truth in Ike'sdeclaration about old Basket or Bonyparty, as he called him, forcertainly he seemed to quicken his pace as we drew nearer; and so it wasthat, as we turned into the busy market, and the horse made its way toone particular spot at the south-east corner, Ike triumphantly pointedto the church clock we had just passed.
"What did I tell yer?" he exclaimed with a grim smile of satisfaction onhis countenance; "he picked up them lost ten minutes, and here we are--just four."
What a scene it seemed to me. The whole place packed with laden cart,wagon, and light van. Noise, confusion, and shouting, pleasant smellsand evil smells--flowers and crushed cabbage; here it was peas and mint,there it was strawberries; then a whole wagon announced through thesides of its piled-up baskets that the load was cauliflowers.
For a time I could do nothing but gape and stare around at the bustlingcrowd and the number of men busily carrying great baskets on the top ofporters' knots. Women, too, in caps, ready to put the same great padround forehead and make it rest upon their shoulders, and bear off greatboxes of fruit or baskets of vegetable.
Here I saw a complete stack of bushel baskets being regularly built upfrom the unloading of a wagon, to know by the scent they were earlypeas; a little farther on, some men seemed to be making a bastion forthe defence of the market by means of gabions, which, to add to thefancy, were not filled with sand, but with large round gravel of a palewhitish-yellow, only a closer inspection showed that the contents werenew potatoes.
The strawberries took my attention, though, most, for I felt quite afeeling of sorrow for Old Brownsmith as I saw what seemed to me to besuch a glut of the rich red fruit that I was sure those which we hadbrought up would not sell.
How delicious they smelt in the old-fashioned pottles which we never seenow--long narrow cones, with a cross-handle, over which, when filled, orsupposed to be filled, for a big strawberry would block up the narrowpart of the cone at times, a few leaves were placed, and then a piece ofwhite paper was tied over with a bit of bast. Nowadays deep and shallowpunnets are the order of the day, and a good thing too.
Flowers! There seemed to me enough to last London for a month; and Iwas going, after a look round, to tell Ike that I was afraid we shouldhave to take our load back, when I felt a heavy thump on the back of myhead, which knocked off my cap.
Nothing annoyed me more as a boy than for my cap to be knocked off.Shock knew that, and it had been one of his favourite tricks, so that Iknew, as I thought, whence this piece of annoyance had come, and,picking up the small hard cabbage that had been thrown, I determined toavenge myself by sending it back with a good aim.
True enough there was Master Shock, lying flat on his chest with hischin resting in his hands, and his feet kicking up behind, now going upand down, now patting together, for he had taken off his boots.
Shock was having a good stare over the market from his elevated positionon the top of the baskets; and, taking a good aim as I thought, I threwthe little hard stale cabbage, and then dodged round the side of thecart. I stood aghast directly after, beside a pile of baskets, andwatch a quarrel that had just begun a dozen yards away, where a bigred-faced man was holding a very fluffy white hat in his hand andbrushing it with his arm, and bandying angry words with a rough-lookingyoung market porter, who, with a great flat basket under one arm and hisother through a knot, was speaking menacingly--
"Don't you hit me again."
"Yes, I will, and knock your ugly head off if you do that again," saidthe man with the white hat.
"Do what again?"
"Do what again!--why, throw rotten cabbages at my hat."
"I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't."
"Why, half-a-dozen here saw you do it. You've got hold of the wrongman, my lad, for larks; so now, then!"
I saw him stick on his white hat all on one side, and he looked veryfierce and severe; while I felt covered with shame and confusion, for Iknew that it was my cabbage that had done the mischief.
_Whop_!
That was another right in my ear, and I turned angrily upon Shock,forgetting all about the man with the white hat and the half-conceivedidea of going up to him and telling the truth. But there was Shockstaring about him from a dozen feet above my head, and singing softly,"I've been to Paris and I've been to Dover;" and the cabbage had struckme on the other side, so that unless Shock had learned how to projectdecayed cabbage after the fashion of boomerangs it could not have beenhe.
There was a group of bare-legged boys, though, away to my left--a set ofragged objects who might have passed for Shock's brothers and cousins,only that they were thin and unwholesomely pale, and extremely dirty,while although Shock was often quite as dirty, his seemed to be thewholesome dirt of country earth, and he looked brown, and healthy, andstrong.
Then I became aware of the presence of Ike, who said with a grim smile:
"Don't you heed them, my lad. I see one of 'em chuck it and then turnround. Wait a bit and I shall get a charnce, and I'll drar my whipround one of 'em in a way as'll be a startler."
A quick busy-looking man came bustling up just then, had a chat withIke, and hurried off, carrying away my companion; and as soon as he hadgone a bruised potato struck the side of the cart, and as I changed myposition a damaged stump of a cauliflower struck Basket on the flank,making him start and give himself a shake that rattled all the chains ofthe harness before resettling down to the task of picking the corn outof the chaff in his well-filled nose-bag.
My first idea was to call Shock down from where he was see-sawing hislegs to and fro till his feet looked like two tilt-hammers beating apiece of iron, and then with his help attack the young vagabonds whowere amusing themselves by making me a target for all the market refusethey could find.
Second thoughts are said to be best, and I had sense enough to know thatnothing would be gained by a struggle with the young roughs. So,gaining knowledge from my previous experience, I changed my position soas to get in the front of some sturdy-looking men who were all standingwith their hands in their pockets chinking their money. I had yet tolearn that they were costermongers waiting for prices to come down.
Directly after _whiz_! came something close by my head and struck one ofthe men in the face, with the result that he made a dash at the boys,who darted away in and out among the baskets, whooping and yellingdefiance; but one ran right into the arms of a man in uniform, who gavehim three or four sharp cuts with a cane and sent him howling away.
This episode was hardly over before Ike was back, and he nodded as hesaid:
"He's coming direckly to sell us off."
"Shall you be able to sell the things, then, this morning?"
"Sell 'em! I should just think we shall; well too. There's preciouslittle in the market to-day."
"Little!" I exclaimed. "Why, I thought there would be too much forours to be wanted."
"Bless your young innocence! this is nothing. Bad times for thecosters, my boy; they'll get nothing cheap. Here you, Shock, as you arecome, help with these here ropes; and mind, you two, you look afterthese new ropes and the sacks."
"Look after them!" I said innocently.
"Yes," said Ike with a queer look; "they gets wild and into bad habitsin London--walks away, they does--and when you go and look for 'em,there you finds 'em in marine store-shops in the dirty alleys."
Shock and I set to work helping to unfasten the ropes, which were lacedin and out of the basket-handles, and through the iron stays, andbeneath the hooks placed on purpose about the cart, after which theropes were made into neat bunches by Ike, who passed them from hand toelbow over and over and tied them in the middle, and then in a row tothe ladder of the cart.
The baskets were just set free when the busy-looking man came back alongwith a tall red-nosed fellow. I noticed his red nose because it was thesame colour as a book he held, who
se leather cover was like a badstrawberry. He had a little ink-bottle hanging at his buttonhole and apen in his mouth, and was followed by quite a crowd of keen-looking men.
"Now, Jacob," said the little man, and clapping his hand upon the thinman's shoulder he stepped up on to the top of a pile of barge-baskets,whose lids were tied down with tarred string over the cauliflowers withwhich they were gorged.
Then, as I stared at him, he put his hands on either side of his mouthand seemed to go mad with satisfaction, dancing his body up and down andslowly turning round as he yelled out:
"Strawby's! strawby's! strawby's!" over and over again.
I looked up at Ike, whose face was as if cut out of mahogany, it was sosolid; then I looked round at the people, but there wasn't a smile.Nobody laughed but Shock, who grinned silently till he saw me watchinghim, and then he looked sulky and turned his back.
Just then Ike, who seemed as solemn as a judge, climbed up the wheel andon to the cart with another man following him; and as the crowdincreased about our cart I realised that everything was being sold byauction, for the busy man kept shouting prices quickly higher andhigher, and then giving a tap with a pencil on a basket, enteringsomething in a memorandum-book, while his red-nosed clerk did the same.
I stared to see how quickly it was all done, Ike and the strange manhanding down the baskets, which were seized and carried away by portersto carts standing at a distance; and I wondered how they would ever findout afterwards who had taken them, and get the money paid.
But Ike seemed to be quite satisfied as he trampled about over thebaskets, which were handed rapidly down till from being high up he wasgetting low down, before the busy-looking man began to shout whatsounded to me like, "Flow--wow--wow--wow!" as if he were trying toimitate barking like a dog.
Half the crowd went away now, but a fresh lot of men came up, and firstof all baskets full of flowers were sold, then half-baskets, then somany bunches, as fast as could be.
Again I found myself wondering how the money would be obtained, and Ithought that Old Brownsmith would be sure to be cheated; but Ike lookedquite easy, and instead of there being so many things in the market thatours would not sell, I found that the men around bought them up eagerly,and the baskets grew less in number than ever.
I glanced round once or twice on that busy summer morning, to see thestreet as far as I could grasp packed with carts, and to these a regularthrong of men were carrying baskets, while every here and there barrowswere being piled up with flowers.
All about us too, as far as I could see by climbing up to the ladderover Basket's back, men were shouting away as they sold the contents ofother carts, whose baskets were being handed down to the hungry crowds,who were pushing and struggling and making way for the porters with theheavy baskets on their heads.
By degrees I began to understand that all this enormous quantity ofgarden produce was being bought up by the greengrocers andbarrow-dealers from all over London, and that they would soon be drivingoff east, west, north, and south, to their shops and places of business.
I should have liked to sit perched up there and watching all that wenton, but I had to move to let Ike drag back the baskets; then I had tohelp handing out bunches, till at last the crowd melted away, and thebusy man closed his book with a snap.
"Very good this morning," he shouted to Ike; and then climbing down hewent off with his red-nosed clerk, and the people who were aboutfollowed him.
"Getting warm, mate?" said Ike, grinning at me.
"Yes," I said; "the sun's so hot, and there's no wind here."
"No, my lad; they builds houses to shut it out. Soon be done now. Youand Shock get down and hand up them baskets."
He pointed to a pile that some men had been making, and these I foundall had "Brownsmith, Isleworth," painted upon them, and it dawned uponme now that those which had been carried away would not be returned tillnext journey.
"That's it," said Ike. "Market-gardeners has to give a lot o' trustthat way."
"But do they get the baskets all back again, Ike?" I said.
"To be sure they do, my lad--Oh yes, pretty well."
"But shall we get paid the money for all that's been sold this morning?"
"Why, of course, my lad. That gentleman as sold for us, he's oursalesman; and he pays for it all, and they pay him. Don't you see?"
I said "Yes," but my mind was not very clear about it.
"We're all right there. Work away, Shock, and let's finish loading up,and then we'll have our breakfast. Nice sort o' looking party you are,to take anywhere to feed," he grumbled, as he glanced at Shock, whoseappearance was certainly not much in his favour.
It was much easier work loading with empty baskets, and besides therewas not a full load, so that it was not very long before Ike had themall piled up to his satisfaction and the ropes undone and thrown overand over and laced in and out and hooked and tied and strained to thesides of the cart.
"That's the way we does it, squire," cried Ike; "haul away, Shock, mylad. You've worked well. Old Bonyparty's had the best of it; this ishis rest and feeding time. You might leave him there hours; but as soonas it's time to go home, away he starts, and there's no stopping him.
"That's about it," he said, as he fastened off a rope. "That'll do. Wesha'n't want no more for this lot. Now don't you two leave the cart.I'm going up to Mr Blackton, our salesman, you know, just to see ifhe's anything to say, and then we'll go and have our braxfass. Don'tyou chaps leave the cart."
"I sha'n't go," I said, and I glanced at Shock, who climbed up to thetop of the baskets, and lay down flat on his face, so as to be away fromme as it seemed, but I could see him watching me out of one eye fromtime to time.
"I wonder whether he will ever be different," I thought to myself, as Iwatched the selling of a huge load of beautifully white bunches ofturnips, as regular and clean as could be, when all at once I felt ablow in my back, and looking sharply round, there were several of theragged boys who haunted the market grinning at me.
There was no handy place for me to post myself again so as to stop thethrowing, and I had to content myself with looking at them angrily; butthat did no good, for they separated, getting behind baskets and stacksof baskets, like so many sharpshooters, and from thence laid siege tome, firing shots with bits of market refuse, and anything they couldfind.
I generally managed to dodge the missiles, but the boys were cleverenough to hit me several times, and with my blood boiling, and fingerstingling to pull their ears or punch their dirty heads, I had to standfast and bear it all.
Barelegged, barefooted, and as active as cats, I felt sure that if Ichased one he would dodge in and out and escape me, and as to throwingback at them, I was not going to stoop to do that.
"Dirty young vagabonds!" I said to myself, and I looked at themcontemptuously with as much effect as if I had directed my severe looksat a market basket; and then I went and leaned against the end of thecart, determined to take no notice of them, and wishing that Ike wouldcome back.
The young rascals only grew more impudent though, and came nearer, twoin particular, and one of them, quite a little fellow with a big headand two small dark shiny eyes, over which his shock head of hair keptfalling, ran right in, making charges at me, and striking at me with amuddy little fist, while his companion made pokes with a stick.
This was getting beyond bearing, for I was not a wild beast in a cageunable to get away; but still I determined not to be led into anydisgraceful struggle with the dirty little blackguards.
I was not afraid of them, for I was too angry for that, and nothingwould have given me greater satisfaction than to have come to blows.But that would not do, I knew.
I glanced round and saw that there were plenty of people about, but theywere all too busy with their own affairs to take much notice of me, sothat if I wanted to free myself from the pack of young ruffians I mustact for myself.
The attack went on, and I should have fared worse, only that it soonbecame eviden
t that ammunition was running short; and failing this, theboys began to throw words, while the two most daring kept making rushesat me and then shrank back ready to throw themselves down if I shouldstrike at them.
All at once I thought of Ike's great cart-whip, and in the fullconfidence that I could make it crack as loudly and as well as itsmaster I determined to give it a good whish or two in the air.
It was stuck high up in one of the staples in the front of the cart,and, determined to climb up and reach it down, I turned and raised onefoot to a spoke of the great wheel, when the two foremost boys uttered ayell and made a furious onslaught upon me.
They were too late, for in an instant I had seen the object of theiradvance. There was no doubt about it. They were keeping my attentionfrom what was going on upon the other side, where one of theircompanions had been stealing along under cover of some baskets, and wasjust in the act of untying one of the coils of nearly new rope, whichhad not been required and hung from the ladder.
The young thief had that moment finished, and slipped his arm through,catching sight of me at the same time, and darting off.
I did not stop to think. In one flash I realised that I had been leftin charge of the cart, and had been so poor a sentry that I had allowedthe enemy to get possession of something that I ought to have protected,and thinking of what Ike would say, and later on of Old Brownsmith, Iran off after the thief.