The Black Moon Read Online Free PDF

Drake.
     
    Demelza said: `I believe your legs are longer than Sam's!
    'We've all got long legs, sister,' said Sam soberly. `Tis something our mother give us. And you the same, no doubt, if the truth be seen:'
    Ross said: `Have you been offered something to drink? Geneva? Or a cordial?'
    ‘ Thank ye. Sister did ask., But later maybe, a glass of milk. We don't touch spirits ! ’
    'Ah,' said Ross. `Well, sit-down.' He glanced at Demelza And hesitated whether to leave them;, but her lifted eyebrow invited him to stay. So he sat too.
    'Tis not that we mind drink in others,' Drake explained, lightening his brother's tone, `But we bette r prefer; not to take it ourselves.'
    `How is your father?' Ross asked, with a natural association of ideas,
    `The most high God was pleased to taken to Himself last month,' Sam s aid. `Father died well prepared for his meeting wi' his blessed Saviour. We come to tell sister. That and other things.', `Oh,' said Ross. `I'm sorry.' He looked again at Demelza.: to see how this news had affected her, and he saw not at all. 'How - what was amiss?'
    `He died of the pox. He hadn't never had it, and it came sudden and he was buried within the week.'
    Ross decided that the elder brother's voice, though fervent, was not charged with emotion. Filial love had been a duty, not a choice.
    `We all had it when we was young,', said Drake. `It marked us but little. Did you have it, sister?'
    `Nay,' said Demelza, `but I nursed you through it, Three of you at one time, and Father stone drunk every night'
    There was a pause. Sam sighed, `Well, give him his due, those days has been past these purty, many year. Not since he wed again did he ever touch liquor.'
    `And Step-Mother Nellie?' said Demelza. `She is well?'
    'Bravish. Luke,' is wed and from home. William and John and Bobby have followed father and would be down min e, but the mine is closed. The re's rare poverty in Illuggan.'
    `Not merely in Illuggan,' said Ross.
    `True 'nough, brother,' agreed Sam. `Round Illuggan and Camborne way, when I were a little tacker there was upwards of five-and-forty engines working. Day and night. Day and night. Now there's four. Dolcoath's gone, and North Downs, Wheal Towan, Poldice, Wheal Damsel, Wheal Unity. I could read ye a list so long as my arm! '
    `And what do you do?' asked Ross.
    'I'm a tributer like the rest,' said Sam. `When I can lease a pitch. But the Lord in his great mercy have seen fit to afflict me too.: Drake here were apprenticed to a wheelwright for seven year. He d'work on and off., but most lately there has been naught for he neither.'
    Ross began to suspect the purpose of their visit but refrained from saying so. `You are both of the Methodist connexion?' he asked.
    Sam nodded his head. `We both; have a new spirit and walk in the path of Christ, following his statutes.'
    `I thought you w ere the one that hadn't seen the light,' Demelza said. Yes ago, when Father came once asking me to go home, he said all were converted but you, Samuel.'
    Sam looked embarrassed, ran a hand over his lined young face. `That is so, sister. You've a rare memory. I lived without God amidst innumerable sins and provocations for upwards of twenty year. I existed in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.- But at last God pardoned all my sins and set my soul at liberty.'`
    `And now;' said Drake, `Sa m, has found salvation more stronger than the rest of us.'
    Ross glanced at the other boy. There was a suggestion of irony in the tone but none in the pale composed face - This one had a look of Demelza; the colouring, the eyes, the clarity of skin. Perhaps too in a sense of humour. `You're not so sure for yourself?' he asked.
    Drake smiled. `Upo n times I d' fall from grace.'
    `Don't we all,' said Ross.
    `You're of the connexion too, brother?' Sam said eagerly.
    'No, no,' Ross said., 'It was meant as a general comment on life, no more.'
    Jeremy ran back and pulled at his mother's skirt. `Can I go now, Mama?' he asked,, `Can I