A Song of Sixpence Read Online Free PDF Page B

about to consent, then made an airy gesture of negation.
    â€˜You’re too young to be bothering about that sort of nonsense.’
    â€˜But I do bother, Terry. There’s all sorts of things I don’t understand. Especially why we never see any of our relations.’
    He glanced at me sideways. Couldn’t he sense my anxiety for news of the unknown members of my tribe?
    â€˜Don’t any of your mother’s folks come to see you either then?’
    â€˜No, Terry. At least only one of Mother’s brothers. The one at the University, the youngest one, called Stephen. And then only once in a very long while.’
    There was a pause.
    â€˜Well, man,’ Terence said at last, pontifically. ‘There’s a certain situation, I will admit. And as you’re bound to be told one of these days, there’s no harm in giving you a slant on it now.’
    He lay back, puffing at his cigarette, while I waited intently, then he suddenly began.
    â€˜First of all,’ he spoke impressively, almost accusingly, ‘if it hadn’t been for the Caledonian Railway Company you wouldn’t be sitting here today. In fact you would never have existed.’
    This unexpected statement staggered me. I gazed at him fearfully.
    â€˜You see,’ he went on, ‘every evening when Uncle Con came back from his work in Winton he had to change trains at Levenford to take the Caley local to Lochbridge, where he was living at that time. But for that he’d never even have set eyes on vour mother.’
    This contingency seemed so incredible that my alarm deepened. Pleasantly conscious of my riveted attention, Terry resumed with easy nonchalance.
    â€˜Usually Con would go into the waiting-room with the Winton Herald —for the Caley train was always late. But one of these evenings he found something, or rather someone, better to look at.’
    â€˜Mother!’ I gasped.
    â€˜Not yet, man. Don’t rush me. At the moment she’s just Grace Wallace and sweet seventeen.’ He frowned reprovingly. ‘She came regularly, carrying a music case, to meet her brother, a schoolboy, coming back on the Caley train from the Drinton Academy.’ He paused. ‘Now Conor, your father to be, always had, if you’ll excuse me, an eye for a pretty girl. Yet this was different. Although he wanted to speak he was afraid he’d offend her. But one evening he up and did. And at that moment, man,’ Terry exclaimed sensationally, ‘ as they looked into each other’s eyes, the damage was done!’
    â€˜What damage, Terry?’ I whispered faintly.
    â€˜Her parents were dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterians, true blue, couldn’t have been stricter, and she was the apple of her old man’s eye, who, to make it worse, had a Scotch pedigree that went right back to the original William Wallace, if you ever heard of him. So here was a lovely girl, well thought of in the town, helped her mother in the house, sang like an angel in the church choir, never put a foot wrong.’ Terry shook his head sorrowfully. ‘When they found out she was going steady with all upstart Irish R.C., blood-brother to a publican and, God help us, a priest, hell’s bells, man, did they raise the roof. Prayers and tears. For weeks there was the devil to pay while they tried every mortal thing to keep them apart. It couldn’t be done, man. In the end, with never a word, and although Con hadn’t a fiver to bless himself with, they just up and off to the registry office. She knew her folks would never speak to her again and Con knew he’d be the bad boy of his lot for not getting tied up in chapel, but never mind, they got spliced.’
    â€˜Oh, I’m glad they did, Terry,’ I cried fervently, for I had followed his recital breathlessly.
    Terry burst out laughing.
    â€˜At least they got you here on the right side of the blanket, caper.’
    For a moment he sat studying me, as