Village Affairs Read Online Free PDF

must have come to something. Say what you mean.'
    The child looked bewildered.
    'I did, miss. Our seeds never come—'
    'Your seeds did not come up,'
I said, with emphasis.
    'That's what I said.'
    'You did not say that,' I began, and was about to embark, for the thousandth time, on an elementary grammar lesson, when Mr Willet intervened. He had been listening to the exchange.
    'Your mum's seeds never come up,' he said forcefully, 'because she used that plaguey compost muck out of a bag. She wants to mix her own, tell her, with a nice bit of soft earth and dung and a sprinkle of sharp sand. Tell her they'll never come to nothing in that boughten stuff.'
    I gave up, and turned to the marking of the register.

    It came as no surprise to the good people of Fairacre when they heard that a week or two after the visit of the police to the Coggs' house Arthur Coggs was to appear in Court charged, together with others, with stealing a quantity of lead roofing, the property of H. A. Mawne Esq.
    At the time of the theft,
The Caxley Chronicle
had given some prominence to the affair, enlarging upon Mr Mawne's distinction as an ornithologist, and reminding its readers that
the gentleman had frequently contributed nature notes to the paper's columns. News must have been thin that week for not only was Mr Mawne given an excessive amount of type, but a photograph was also included, taken by one of the younger staff against the background of the depleted summer house.
    Even the kindest readers were at a loss to find something nice to say about the likeness, and the subject himself said it looked to him like an explosion in a pickle factory, adding tolerantly that maybe he really looked like that and had never realised.
    'There's three other chaps,' Mr Willet told me. 'Two of 'em is Bryants—that gipsy lot—and the third's a real bad 'un from Bent. I bet he was the ringleader, and that poor fool of an Arthur Coggs told him about the roof here. I still reckons we ought to keep watch on the church, but the Vicar says we must trust our brothers.'
    'He's a good man,' I commented.
    'A sight too good, if you ask me.' 'There's brothers and brothers,' I told him. 'I wouldn't want any of them four for brothers, and I wouldn't trust them no further than that coke-pile, idle thieving lot.'
    'We don't know that they're guilty yet,' I pointed out.
    'I do,' said Mr Willet, picking up his screwdriver.

    I overheard a conversation in the playground as I strolled round holding my mug of tea. It was a glorious May morning. The rooks cawed from the elm trees as they went back and forth feeding their hungry nestlings, and the children were sitting on the playground bench, or had propped themselves against the school wall, legs outstretched, as they enjoyed the sunshine.

    Joseph Coggs sat between Ernest and Patrick all three oblivious of the condition of their trouser seats in the dust.
    'Saw your dad in the paper,' said Ernest.
    'Ah' grunted Joseph.
    'Bin pinchin', ain't he?' said Patrick.
    'Dunno.'
    'That's what the paper said.'
    Joseph scratched a bite on his leg and said nothing.
    'That's what the copper come about,' said Ernest to Patrick.
    'Is he in prison?' asked Patrick conversationally of Joseph.
    'No,' shouted Joseph, scrambling to his feet. His face was red, and he looked tearful. He rushed away towards the boys' lavatories, obviously craving privacy, and I approached his questioners.
    They gazed up at me innocently.
    'You should stand up when ladies speak to you,' I told
them, not for the first time. They rose languidly.
    'And don't let me hear you upsetting Joseph with questions about his father. It's none of your business and it's unkind anyway.'
    'Yes, miss,' they replied, trying to look suitably chastened.
    One or two of the other children hovered nearby, listening to my brief homily, and I was conscious of meaning glances being exchanged. It was difficult to be critical. After all, the Arthur Coggs affair was the main subject of spicy