describes setting-day at the mine, etcetera.
that very evening, while maggot was smoking his pipe by the fireside, his son zackey referred to the bunch of copper which penrose had discovered in the mine. after a short conversation, maggot senior went to the wounded man to talk about it.
“’twas a keenly lode, did ’ee say?” asked maggot, after he had inquired as to the health of his friend.
“yes, and as i shall not be able to work there again,” said penrose sadly, “i would advise you to try it. zackey is entitled to get the benefit of the discovery, for he was with me at the time, and, but for his aid, dear boy, i should have been suffocated.”
maggot said no more on that occasion about the mine, being a man of few words, but, after conversing a short time with the wounded man, and ascertaining that no hope was held out to him of the recovery of his sight, he went his way to the forge to work and meditate.
setting-day came—being the first saturday in the month, and no work was done on that day in botallack, for the men were all above ground to have their “pitches” for the next month fixed, and to receive their wages—setting-day being also pay day.
some time before the business of the day commenced, the miners began to assemble in considerable numbers in the neighbourhood of the account-house. very different was their appearance on that occasion from the rusty-red fellows who were wont to toil in the dark chambers far down in the depths below the spot where they stood. their underground dresses were laid aside, and they now appeared in the costume of well-off tradesmen. there was a free-and-easy swing about the movements of most of these men that must have been the result of their occupation, which brings every muscle of the body into play, and does not—as is too much the case in some trades—over-tax the powers of a certain set of muscles to the detriment of others.
some there were, however, even among the young men, whose hollow cheeks and bloodless lips, accompanied with a short cough, told of evil resulting from bad air and frequent chills; while, on the other hand, a few old men were to be seen with bright eyes and ruddy cheeks which indicated constitutions of iron. not a few were mere lads, whose broad shoulders and deep chests and resolute wills enabled them to claim the title, and do the work, of men.
there were some among them, both young and old, who showed traces of having suffered in their dangerous employment. several were minus an eye, and one or two were nearly blind, owing to blast-holes exploding in their faces. one man in particular, a tall and very powerful fellow, had a visage which was quite blue, and one of his eyes was closed—the blue colour resulting from unburnt grains of powder having been blown into his flesh. he had been tattooed, in fact, by a summary and effective process. this man’s family history was peculiar. his father, also a miner, had lived in a lonely cottage on a moor near st. just, and worked in balaswidden mine. one night he was carried home and laid at his wife’s feet, dead—almost dashed to pieces by a fall. not long afterwards the son was carried to the same cottage with his right eye destroyed. some time later a brother dislocated his foot twice within the year in the mine; and a few months after that another brother fell from a beam, descended about twenty-four feet perpendicularly, where he struck the side of the mine with his head, and had six or seven of his teeth knocked out; glancing off to one side, he fell twenty feet more on the hard rock, where he was picked up insensible. this man recovered, however, under the careful nursing of his oft and sorely tried mother.
maggot was present on this setting-day, with a new cap and a new blue cloth coat, looking altogether a surprisingly respectable character. a good deal of undertoned chaffing commenced when he appeared.
“hallo!” exclaimed one, “goin’ to become an honest man, maggot?”
“thinkin’ ’bout it,” replied the smith, with a good-humoured smile.
“why, if i didn’t knaw that the old wuman’s alive,” said another, “i’d say he was agoin’ to get married again!”
“never fear,” exclaimed a third, “maggot’s far too ’cute a cunger to be caught twice.”
“i say, my dear man,” asked another, “have ’ee bin takin’ a waalk ’pon the clifts lately?”
“iss, aw iss,” replied the smith with much gravity.
“did ’ee find any more daws ’pon clift?” asked the other, with a leer.
there was a general laugh at this, but maggot replied with good-humour,—“no, billy, no—took ’em all away last time. but i’m towld there’s some more eggs in the nest, so thee’ll have a chance some day, booy.”
“i hope the daws ain’t the worse of their ducking?” asked billy, with an expression of anxious interest.
“aw, my dear,” said maggot, looking very sad, and shaking his head slowly, “didn’t ’ee hear the noos?”
“no, not i.”
“they did catch the noo complaint the doctor do spaik of—bronkeetis i think it is—and although i did tie ’em up wi’ flannel round their necks, an’ water-gruel, besides ’ot bottles to their feet, they’re all gone dead. i mean to have ’em buried on monday. will ’ee come to the berryin, billy?”
“p’raps i will,” replied billy, “but see that the gravedigger do berry ’em deep, else he’ll catch a blowin’ up like the gravedigger did in cambourne last week.”
“what was that, booy? let us hear about it, billy,” exclaimed several voices.
“well, this is the way of it,” said billy: “the owld gravedigger in cambourne was standin’ about, after mittin’ was over, a-readin’ of the tombstones, for he’d got a good edjication, had owld tom. his name was tom—the same man as put a straw rope to the bell which the cows did eat away, so that he cudn’t ring the people to mittin’. well, when he was studdyin’ the morials on the stones out comes captain rowe. he was wan o’ the churchwardens, or somethin’ o’ that sort, but i don’t knaw nothin’ ’bout the church, so i ain’t sure—an’ he calls owld tom into the vestry.
“‘now look here, tom,’ says the captain, very stern, ‘they tell me thee ’rt gettin’ lazy, tom, an’ that thee do dig the graves only four fut deep. now, tom, i was over to st. just t’other day to a berryin’, and i see that they do dig their graves six fut or more deeper than you do. that won’t do, tom, i tell ’ee. what’s the meanin’ of it?’
“this came somewhat suddent on owld tom, but he wor noways put out.
“‘well, you do see, cap’n rowe,’ says he, ‘i do it apurpose, for i do look at the thing in two lights.’”
“‘how so?’ asked the captain.
“‘why, the people of st. just only think of the berryin’, but i do think of the resurrection; the consekince is that they do dig too deep, an’ afore the st. just folk are well out of their graves, ours will be a braave way up to heaven!’”
the laugh with which this anecdote was received had scarcely subsided when the upper half of one of the account-house windows opened, and the fine-looking head and shoulders of old mr cornish appeared.
the manager laid an open book on the window-sill, and from this elevated position, as from a pulpit, he read out the names, positions, etcetera, of the various “pitches” that were to be “sett” for the following month. one of the mine captains stood at his elbow to give any required information—he and his three brother captains being the men who had gone all over the mine during the previous month, examined the work, measured what had been done by each man or “pare” of men, knew the capabilities of all the miners, and fixed the portion that ought to be offered to each for acceptance or refusal.
the men assembled in a cluster round the window, and looked up while mr cornish read off as follows:—
“john thomas’s pitch at back of the hundred and five. by two men. to extend from the end of tram-hole, four fathom west, and from back of level, five fathom above.”
for the enlightenment of the reader, we may paraphrase the above sentence thus:—
“the pitch or portion of rock wrought last month by john thomas is now offered anew—in the first place, to john thomas himself if he chooses to continue working it at our rate of pay, or, if he declines, to any other man who pleases to offer for it. the pitch is in the back (or roof) of the level, which lies one hundred and five fathoms deep. it must be wrought by two men, and must be excavated lengthwise to an extent of four fathoms in a westerly direction from a spot called the tram-hole. in an upward direction, it may be excavated from the roof of the level to an extent of five fathoms.”
john thomas, being present, at once offered “ten shillings,” by which he meant that, knowing the labour to be undergone, and the probable value of the ore that would have to be excavated, he thought it worth while to continue at that piece of work, or that “pitch,” if the manager would give him ten shillings for every twenty shillings’ worth of mineral sent to the surface by him; but the captain also knew the ground and the labour that would be required, and his estimate was that eight shillings would be quite sufficient remuneration, a fact which was announced by mr cornish simply uttering the words, “at eight shillings.”
“put her down, s’pose,” said john thomas after a moment’s consideration.
perhaps john knew that eight shillings was really sufficient, although he wanted ten. at all events he knew that it was against the rules to dispute the point at that time, as it delayed business; that if he did not accept the offer, another man might do so; and that he might not get so good a pitch if he were to change.
the pitch was therefore sett to john thomas, and another read off:— “jim hocking’s pitch at back of the hundred and ten. by one man. to extend,” etcetera.
“won’t have nothin’ to do with her,” said jim hocking.
jim had evidently found the work too hard, and was dissatisfied with the remuneration, so he declined, resolving to try his chance in a more promising part of the mine.
“will any one offer for this pitch?” inquired mr cornish.
eight and six shillings were sums immediately named by men who thought the pitch looked more promising than jim did.
“any one offer more for this pitch?” asked the manager, taking up a pebble from a little pile that lay at his elbow, and casting it into the air.
while that pebble was in its flight, any one might offer for the pitch, but the instant it touched the ground, the bargain was held to be concluded with the last bidder.
a man named oats, who had been in a hesitating state of mind, here exclaimed “five shillings” (that is, offered to work the pitch for five shillings on every twenty shillings’ worth sent to grass); next instant the stone fell, and the pitch was sett to oats.
poor james penrose’s pitch was the next sett.
“james penrose’s late pitch,” read the manager, giving the details of it in terms somewhat similar to those already sett, and stating that the required “pare,” or force to be put on it, was two men and a boy.
“put me down for it,” said maggot.
“have you got your pare?” asked mr cornish.
“iss, sur.”
“their names?”
“david trevarrow and my son zackey.”
