Men of Mawm

LIKE an impatient housewife whose activities have been thwarted, and who rises whilst others sleep to make onslaught on her foes with mop and besom, the wind busied itself in th...

THE golden moment passed and did not return. The next morning found Baldwin ill and depressed, with a great craving for the bottle his weak mind had forsworn the night before, a...

THREE hours later Hannah and Jagger were alone, but for a while neither of them had much to say. To watch the changing expression on the woman’s face you would have said that te...

ALAS! for Nancy. Heroics, she discovered, were all very well in their way, but they were only the husks of satisfaction, containing nourishment for neither body nor soul, and le...

WINTER tightened its grip on the moor when the New Year came in. The weather-wise knew it would be so, when night after night a deep halo of gold and brown circled the moon, and...

ALTHOUGH Keturah had been up and busy for the better part of two hours, and Nancy was in the habit of rising at the same time and taking a subordinate share in such household du...

HANNAH was bending over the fire stirring something in a pan when Inman entered the kitchen, and he went straight up to her and laying a hand on her shoulder said:

A MILE away from the village the traveller on the Girston Road may pass a solitary and substantial farm and never know that he is within a field-length of the most alluring and...

PURE is the air on Mawm moor, charged with the virtues of the sea and the strength of the hills! and pure are the streams that fill the runnels and tinkle their accompaniment to...

WHEN Inman entered the kitchen and saw Baldwin seated in his chair upon the hearth—a whipped, miserable dog with no spirit left in him—his anger blazed forth with such sudden fi...

NEVER had an unfortunate business man more alert and resourceful adviser than Baldwin found in Inman at this crisis. Promptly, yet with no lessening of deference—nay, with a gre...

DESPITE frequent tiffs and an occasional battle-royal like that which has just been described, Inman’s influence with his master strengthened as the days went by. However cunnin...

INMAN’S mind took holiday from the work on which his hands were employed that day, and busied itself in shaping a course of action that would meet the requirements of the moment...

THE cottage had its full complement of occupants when Jagger entered, and the noise of his “bass” as he dropped it on the stone floor and pushed it noisily with his foot alongsi...

NANCY’S mood alternated between a strange sense of peacefulness and extreme depression all that evening. Cold as it was she shut herself up in the parlour, away from Baldwin’s s...

THE cottage by the bridge contrasted strongly with Nancy’s home. Two or three gaily coloured mottoes suitable to the season had been tacked to the wall, and a couple of attracti...

DURING these fateful weeks Nancy’s aversion to her husband settled into a milder form of repugnance as she thought she recognised on his part a warmer feeling towards herself. T...

IN hamlets like Mawm, which are familiarised with nothing except the commonplace (for even the natural phenomena which arouse the wonder and admiration of every visitor are just...

A FEEBLE moon lit up the darkness that had fallen rapidly whilst he had been engaged with the master-carpenter, and enabled Inman to find his way without difficulty down the slo...

ALTHOUGH the excitements of a moorland village are ordinarily few in number and mild in quality they are of sturdy habit when they do occur, and too well cared for to die of ina...

“NOT so bad for an old man, Jagger!” said Maniwel, as he passed a rag with a few last caressing touches over the shining surface of a small bookcase:—“I say, not so bad for an o...

INMAN parted company with the policeman at Tom Morton’s door; but his business with the man was concluded in five minutes and he then took a direction which would probably have...

TO one who had no love for them the Yorkshire moors could hardly have been less attractive than on this bleak, damp afternoon in early November, when the air was moist though no...

THERE are some men who take an almost scientific interest in compassing the ruin of others. Along certain channels the current of humane and kindly feeling may flow as with othe...

“BREATHES there a man with soul so dead—?” You would have said that even Baldwin’s dank soul must have fired as he left the Tarn road and struck across the moor to Walker’s farm...

IT was exactly a month later, towards the end of the merry month of May and within a week of Baldwin’s pay-day that news reached Mawm that John Clegg was “wanted” by the police....

THERE were those in Mawm who said that with the death of his child Inman experienced a change of heart, but what really happened was that he seized the occasion when the sympath...

IT was anything but a pleasant night, for a damp mist was clinging to the sides of the hills and condensing on the grey walls of the cottages, which looked as though some invisi...

CHRISTMAS! The weather that ushered in the festive season was false to all the hoary traditions of crisp air and powdery snow, and could hardly have behaved more churlishly. Whe...

BALDWIN woke at the hour custom had made mechanical and lay for a while trying to recollect how he had got to bed. As a matter of fact he had stumbled indoors of his own accord...

WHETHER it was fate or providence that led Maniwel Drake to risk his savings in order to procure for his enemy a few weeks liberty, who shall determine? When men are the sport o...