A Mother's Gift Read Online Free PDF Page B

sometimes. Kitty seemed to read her thoughts.
    ‘It’s the drink changes him, Katie,’ she said. ‘He gets a black devil on his shoulder. An’ then, it’s not surprising he’s had such bad moods this rotten year, is it? By, I’ll be glad when it’s a new year. But there’s many a worse man than my Noah, believe me.’
    ‘Then why tell him to go for a pint?’ Katie couldn’t resist asking.
    ‘It’s not for you to question your elders, cheeky monkey,’ said Kitty, her tone changing. ‘A man has a right to a pint, especially when he’s working.’
    He hasn’t been working yet, thought Katie, but she didn’t say it. It would be all right, she knew it. Any road, he’d only taken sixpence. He was starting back shift on Monday.
    Down at the Working Men’s Club and Institute, Noah walked in with his head up and rapped his knuckles on the counter, what was known locally as a ready money knock.
    ‘I’ll have a pint of the best, Les,’ he called to the steward who was sitting at the other end of the bar, reading the Auckland Chronicle. There were two or three men in the bar, no more and they were sitting playing dominoes at a table by the door.
    ‘Not till you pay your slate, you won’t,’ said Les, not even looking up. ‘Not unless you have the tuppence ha’penny. To pay for it.’
    Noah loosened the white scarf around his neck and pushed his cap to the back of his head. Then he felt in the top pocket of his waistcoat and pulled out a sixpence. ‘There you are then, Les,’ he said. ‘There a tanner. Mind I want thrupence ha’penny change an’ all.’ He looked round at the domino players and grinned broadly.
    ‘What’s happened Noah, you come into a fortune?’ asked one, then hopefully, ‘You going to buy us all a pint then?’
    ‘Nay I’m not, I cannot,’ Noah admitted. He picked up the foaming glass which Les had put before him and took a deep, deep swallow. ‘By, but it’s bloody nectar, it is,’ he said reverently. He put down the glass and picked up his change, putting it carefully back into his waistcoat pocket before he turned back to the men sitting at the table.
    ‘Nay, lads,’ he said, ‘I’ve not come into a fortune but it’s nearly as good. I’ve been taken on at the pit. I join the safety men on Monday’s back shift.’
    ‘Yer what? You never!’
    ‘Aye, I have and I do,’ said Noah earnestly, remembering his own incredulity as he stood in the mine office earlier.
    He could picture the scene perfectly, he knew he always would. ‘Hamilton’s lackey, you know, the boss’s agent, he asked for me special like. It’s because of the experience and knowledge I ’ave of Winton Colliery.’ He turned back to the bar and took another swig from his glass of beer. At that moment he was as happy as anyone in the land.

Chapter Four
     
    ‘BY HECK, KATIE,’ said Billy Wright, ‘you shouldn’t be doing that. It’s too hard for a lass.’
    Katie stopped shovelling coal through the coal hole to the coal house and leaned on her shovel, glad of a breather. She rubbed the back of her hand across her forehead, leaving a coaly smudge.
    ‘I can manage,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want to leave it for Grandda when he come in from work, it will be dark.’
    ‘I’ll do it for you,’ said Billy, ‘here, give us hold of the shovel.’
    Katie hesitated. She was on her dinner hour from school and there wasn’t much of it left. ‘We cannot pay you,’ she said.
    ‘Did I ask you to? Howay, man!’
    Billy took the shovel from her and began throwing in the coal, lifting a shovelful with an easy swing and making the coal piled on the pavement disappear rapidly.
    Katie watched for a minute before saying something about getting washed ready for school and going inside.
    ‘Who’s that, then?’ Her grandmother looked up from the pot pie she was preparing for when Noah got in from the back shift.
    ‘Billy Wright.’
    ‘Aye, he’s a good lad,’ Kitty observed. She spooned meat into the