Chapter VIII: A Wanderer Still

“My mother is still asleep, I suppose,” said Aaron, the next morning, when followed by Anna as he was going forth. “I do not wonder; for I was drowsy enough to have slept on till noon, if I had not had this errand of my father’s to do at the Custom-house. I will take care that the certificate gets to his hands; and then you will soon see him. You shall have news of the pottery from time to time, Anna. Farewell.”

“What do you mean, Aaron? Now, do answer me. Are you not coming back?”

“O, yes; I shall look in upon you now and then at odd times. I may chance to enter when you are all asleep, or to drop in for a basin of soup on a winter day. You do not want me, you know. The rope-walk is Malet’s; and my father will take care of the farm.”

“No, no, Aaron. Nothing will prosper with us if you go out again with those law-breakers on the sea. We shall never be happy if you live by breaking the laws. God will never prosper us.”

“How can you say that, Anna, when I have prospered already as I never thought to prosper? The worst that can happen to me is to have my tobacco seized now and then. I assure you that is all; for I am only a trader. It is no part of my business to meet the coast-guard, and get murdered. They can only seize my goods; and that signifies little with tobacco, which costs me next to nothing, and brings me a fine profit from England, though I sell it far below the legal price there. Such a loss now and then is no punishment compared with the having spies set upon my honest business, as I had in London.”

“I thought that when we came back here, all would be right,” said his weeping sister.

“And so it is. I am getting rich; and I love the sea and the freedom I have upon it. You ought to be glad that I have found a way of life that I like, and left one that I hated.”

Anna only shook her head and wept the more; and then Stephen came groping out; and, guided by Aaron’s voice, approached also to say farewell.

“O, do not go yet,” cried she to Aaron. “When will you come back? When will your conscience be touched about your way of life, about living by cheating the state?”

“Whenever the state shows a little more regard to the consciences of the king’s subjects than it does now. What I do, I have been taught; and you know how, Anna. I shall come back to live by the land whenever they cut off my living by sea. Whenever the English un-tax corn and wine and tobacco, I shall come and be a Jersey farmer, and you shall milk my cows, unless——”

Stephen seized the occasion for a joke about the brown maidens of France, into whose company Aaron’s wild occupations sometimes brought him, and about the damsels of the neighbouring islets, who had learned to know the stroke of his oar from all others, as soon as its flash could be seen in the sunshine. Aaron laughed; and laughing, bade his sister again farewell.

She could not even smile. Little did she once think that it could ever make her sad to see Aaron merry; but as little did she then suppose that Aaron would ever live by a lawless occupation. Sadly did she watch him, leading away his companion till both were quite out of sight; and disconsolately did she then sit down in the porch, and grieve over the temptation which drew her brother away from the blossoming valley where his days might have proceeded, as they had begun, in innocence and plenty.

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ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

_TAXATION._

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No. V.

THE
SCHOLARS OF ARNESIDE.

=A Tale.=

BY

HARRIET MARTINEAU.

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LONDON:
CHARLES FOX, 67, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

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831.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,
Duke Street, Lambeth.

THE
SCHOLARS OF ARNESIDE.

=A Tale.=

BY

HARRIET MARTINEAU.

---------------------

LONDON:
CHARLES FOX, 67, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

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834.