The Broad Highway

"The Bull" is a plain, square, whitewashed building, with a

sloping roof, and before the door an open portico, wherein are

set two seats on which one may sit of a sunny afternoon with a

mug of ale at one's elbow and watch the winding road, the

thatched cottages bowered in roses, or the quiver of distant

trees where the red, conical roof of some oast-house makes a

vivid note of color amid the green. Or one may close one's eyes

and hark to the chirp of the swallows under the eaves, the

distant lowing of cows, or the clink of hammers from the smithy

across the way.

And presently, as we sat there drowsing in the sun, to us came

one from the "tap," a bullet-headed fellow, small of eye, and

nose, but great of jaw, albeit he was become somewhat fat and

fleshy--who, having nodded to me, sat him down beside the

Ancient, and addressed him as follows: "Black Jarge be 'took' again, Gaffer!"

"Ah! I knowed 'twould come soon or late, Simon," said the

Ancient, shaking his head, "I knowed as 'e'd never last the month

out."

"Seemed goin' on all quiet and reg'lar, though," said the

bullet-headed man, whom I discovered to be the landlord of "The

Bull"--"seemed nice and quiet, and nothin' out o' the way, when,

'bout an hour ago it were, 'e ups and heaves Sam out into the road."

"Ah!" said the old man, nodding his head again, "to be sure, I've

noticed, Simon, as 'tis generally about the twentieth o' the

month as Jarge gets 'took.'"

"'E 've got a wonderful 'ead, 'ave the Gaffer!" said Simon,

turning to me.

"Yes," said I, "but who is Black George; how comes he to be

'taken,' and by what?"

"Gaffer," said the Innkeeper, "you tell un."

"Why, then," began the Ancient, nothing loth, "Black Jarge be a

gert, big, strong man--the biggest, gertest, and strongest in the

South Country, d'ye see (a'most as fine a man as I were in my

time), and, off and on, gets took wi' tearin's and rages, at

which times 'e don't mind who 'e 'its--"

"No--nor Wheer!" added the Innkeeper.

"Oh, 'e be a bad man, be Black Jarge when 'e's took, for 'e 'ave

a knack, d'ye see, of takin' 'old o' the one nighest to un, and

a-heavin' of un over 'is 'ead'."