CHAPTER II.
It was broad day when Abigail awoke. On arousing herself, shefound that the dame, whom she had left so disordered, lookednow less feverish, and was locked in repose. Apparently muchgratified by a glance at her aspect, she rose to her feet;and proceeded, with the stealthy step which she had all alongmaintained, but which was not so noiseless as she supposed, tomake her egress from the chamber.
On reaching the passage without, she softly closed the doorof the chamber, and descended straight to the kitchen. There,preparatory to other household arrangements, she shortly kindleda fire, and set everything in order for an early breakfast.
Various and arduous were the duties that she had to discharge.To scrub here, and sweep there--to rub this, and wash that,employed her continually; and a not very encouraging feature inher performance, on a close examination, was, that it appeared tohave little effect, and that, after undergoing a very extensiveprocess of cleansing, everything appeared to be quite as dirty asat first.
But she was clearly not aware that her industry was sounprofitable. A much more important idea, indeed--and even a moresingular one--engaged her attention. She felt convinced that shewas bewitched!
Several things, it must be owned, had gone wrong during themorning. In the first place, she had had some difficulty,beyond what she could reasonably have looked for, in kindling afire; secondly, she had afterwards cut her hand; and thirdly,in washing the earthenware, she had nearly broken a drinking-mug.Now, philosophers have discovered, among other great andmysterious truths, that there can be no effect without acause; and though Abigail was not well read in philosophy,or in anything else (being unable to read at all), her shrewdmind acquired this information instinctively. She thus becamesensible, on consideration, that her unlucky mishaps were notspontaneous, but were the effect and issue of some unseen cause.
What could it be? Some people would have thought, on asuperficial review of the subject, that her difficulty inkindling the fire arose from the fact of its being carelesslylaid; that she had cut her hand through having misguided theknife; and that she had nearly broken the drinking-mug, which washer crowning mishap, because she had had but a slight hold ofit. But Abigail was not so simple. She knew, from experience, ateacher not to be slighted, that the prevailing influence was ofa higher origin; and she hastened to search around for some traceof its presence.
A brief investigation distinctly elicited its malignant source.It lay on the shelf of a neighbouring cupboard, in one corner;and presented to her doubting eyes, on their very first glance,the fragment of an onion!
Who has not heard what a tide of misfortune the retention of thisesculent, in a broken state, will bring on a household? Abigailknew its evil effects but too well. But how to counteract them,without some way injuring herself (which she feared that herpersonal interposition would do), was a matter which she was notso promptly or easily resolved on.
At last, she determined to seek Zedekiah; and endeavour, by alittle excusable cajolery, and the exercise of those arts whichare the chief attribute of her sex, and of which Zedekiah was animpassioned admirer, to prevail on him to remove the infectiousvegetable. Although he had not yet appeared in the kitchen, shedoubted not that he was up; and the stable, over which he slept,seemed to her to be the place where she was most likely to findhim.
Zedekiah had, indeed, been up for some time, and, as shesupposed, was really engaged in the stable. But far otherthoughts than his horses engrossed his attention--more melancholyfunctions than a groom’s, or even a clerk’s, claimed hisadministration.
The great aim of his ambition had at length been attained, and,in a few days more, he was to officiate at a funeral, not as anhumble follower, but in the honourable capacity of chief mourner.How to qualify himself for this distinguished post was a matterwhich had pressed on his consideration the whole of the previousnight. On rising in the morning, his first thought, in pursuingthe melancholy theme, prompted him to enact the contemplatedobsequies at home, and thus prepare himself for his part by arehearsal. Accordingly, he caught up a spade, and proceeded, withmuch jocularity of aspect, to dig a hole in the stable-yard,in the form of a grave. This preliminary measure achieved, hisnext step was to provide a coffin and pall; and an old broom,with a tattered horse-cloth, which lay in one corner of thestable, furnished him with both those auxiliaries. But here hewas brought to a stand: he had provided the funeral furniture;his arrangements for interment, as far as referred to personalparticulars, were complete; but there was no mournful bearer tocarry the broom to its grave!
While Zedekiah was meditating on the deficiency, the grave butimpassioned Abigail, marked with the grime of her avocations,made her appearance in the stable. Here was a bearer for himevery way suitable. Zedekiah, transported with joy, greeted hereagerly, and at once explained to her how he was situated. Butit required all his rhetoric, supported by his entreaties, toremove her objection to undertake the office he proposed to her;and it was not till he consented, in requital, to aid her in thematter of the onion, which she considered far more weighty andimportant, that he was able to win her to his purpose.
Her compliance once gained, the broom and horse-cloth, arrangedin due form, were raised to her shoulder, and she set out for thegrave. Zedekiah followed, “with solemn step and slow,” and with adirty napkin, as a substitute for a handkerchief, raised to hislugubrious visage.
A funereal pace being maintained, the mournful processionprogressed but slowly; but as the grave, though on the extremeconfines of the yard, was no great distance from the stable, itshortly arrived thither. As it drew up at the brink of the grave,Zedekiah’s grief became excessive; and several minutes moreelapsed, to the manifest irritation of Abigail, before he couldfinally resolve himself to consign the poor broom to its lasthome. Then, having stripped it of the horse-cloth, he lifted itcarefully from Abigail’s shoulder, and lowered it into the grave.
The solemn moment of final separation had now arrived; andZedekiah, to all appearance, felt it severely. But after onepassionate outburst, his composure gradually returned; and heproceeded, in a whining tone, and with a stern expression ofcountenance, to utter his last farewell, in these words:--
“Ashes to ashes, And dust to dust! If death don’t keep thee, The devil must!”
The funeral thus despatched, the afflicted chief mourner,pursuant to the arrangement already set forth, was obligedto tear himself away from the grave, and enter on the designenforced on him by Abigail. Resolved to carry that design intoexecution, he forthwith accompanied Abigail, who was heartilyweary of mourning, and glad to escape, to the kitchen, andprepared to order himself as she should direct.
But both he and Abigail were unexpectedly interrupted in theirproject. As the latter was deliberating, according to her customon such occasions, how they could best proceed, they wereconfounded by the entrance of Shedlock.
His face was as pale as death; his eyes were almost starting fromtheir sockets; and he appeared, at first sight, to be hardly ableto stand. His two domestics gazed on him with a feeling of awe;and the communication that he was about to make to them, andwhich we shall have to record hereafter, was not calculated tocompose them.