Silas the good.pdf

In a life of 95 years, my Uncle

Silas found

time

to try

most

things, and there was a time when he became a gravedigger.

The churchyard at Solbrook stands a long way outside the

village on a little hill above the river valley. And there, dressed in a

blue

shirt

and

old brown

trousers,

my Uncle

Silas used

to dig

perhaps one grave a month.

He worked

all day there

at the blue-brown

clay, with

no one

f(lr company

except

birds picking

the worms

out of the thrown-

lip earth.

Small and ugly, he looked

like a stone

figure

that had

II1'lpped off the roof of the little church,

someone

who

had lived

tl)() long and might

go on living and digging

the graves of others

IIlr ever.

I II' was digging

a grave there

once

on the south

side of the

\ Illlrtllyard

on a sweet, hot day in May, the grass already long and

.1""11, with

golden

flowers

rising

everywhere

among

the

1',I.I\'I'Stlllll'S.

IIv 11Iidd:ly he was fairly well down

with

the

grave, and had

11\\'.1 Ills I)():mls to the sides. The

spring

had been

very dry and

,tld, I'lit IlllW, ill the shelter

of the

grave, in the

strong

sun, it

lib'

11lidsl1mmer. It was

so good

that

Silas sat in the

"",,\llt'd

11111111111

"I II\(, grave

and

had

his dinner,

eating

his bread

and

IW,II, .111.1w,lsliillg it down

with the cold tea he always carried

1,,'1111'Alil-r eating, he began

to feel sleepy, and finally he

,I Ill""

W,,"1 I" "I,'('p

1111'1'1',

:l( the bottom

of the grave, with his wet, ugly

"'"llili

1.'"II

If', "IWlt ;llId the beer

bottle

in one hand

resting

hli ~lll"

III' 1101.1"'('11 ,I',I('('p I()r 15 or 20 minutes

when

he woke

'1111 1,1\\-

~I'IIII'''"I' ',l.lllllillg ;It the top of the grave, looking

down

•• hllll

'\1 11'~t III' 1III1IIglit it was a woman,

Then

he saw his

to her. 'Try it, madam.

Try it if you don't believe

me.'

mistake. It was a female. He was too surprised

10 s,ly ,llIylltillP., ,llId

'Thank

you. Not

out of that bottle.'

the female

stood looking

down

at him, very allgry ,II SllllWIllillg,

'All right.

I've got a cup,' Silas said. He looked

in his dinner

making

holes in the grass with a large umbrella.

She W;ISvery Idl'

basket and found

a metal cup. He filled it with

tea and held it up

and thin, with

a round,

unattractive

face. She seemed

to h;lVl' a

pair of men's boots on below her thick, black skirt.

He did not have time to take another

to her. 'Try it, madam.

Try it. It won't

hurt you.'

look before

she attacked

'Well!' she said, and she reached

down

for the cup. She took

and touched

it with

her thin lips. 'Well, it's certainly

some sort of

him. She waved her umbrella

and shouted,

criticizing

his laziness,

tea.'

Just

stupidity and disrespect.

She shook

her head from side to side and stamped

one of her

ordinary

tea,

madam,'

Silas said. 'Made

this

mornmg.

feet.

Finally

she

demanded

to know,

her

thin

neck

stretching

You're not drinking

it. Take a good

drink.'

down

at him,

why

he was drinking

beer

down

there

on holy

She took

a real drink

then, washing

it round

her mouth.

ground,

in a place of rest for the dead.

'Good, isn't it?' Silas said.

'Yes,' she said, 'it's very nice.'

'Drink

Now

at the best of times

it was difficult

for my Uncle

Silas,

with

his

full red

lips, red

eyes and

nose,

not

look

it up,' he said. 'Have

a little

more.

I suppose

you've

drunken

sailor.

But

there

was only

one

thing

that

drank

walked a long way?'

'Yes,' she said, 'I'm

when

he was working,

and that was cold (:1',1. Itwas

1rue that the

afraid

I have. All the

way from

Bedford.

tea always had a little

alcohol

ill it, but I'Vl'll so, il was Illainly

Rather

further

than I thought.

I'm not as young

as I used to be.'

'Nonsense,'

Silas said. 'Young?

You look

twenty.'

took

his

cold tea.

Silas let till' It'llIale lalk IiII' allllllsi

liw

Illillllll'S, ,lIld Ihell he

coat and spread

it on the new

earth

above

the grave. 'Sit down

I'aisl'd

his

hal

alld

s,lid, '( ;ood

,llll'IIIlHlIl,

Illall.llll. 1\I'l'II't the

and rest yourself,

madam.

Sit down

and look at the flowers.'

lIowns

lIice?'

Rather

to his surprise,

she sat down.

She took

another

drink

'Nol

salislil'd

wilh

y"lll

dISll'SIH'IIIIII Iwll,IV\lllll'

Oil holy

of the tea and said, 'I think

I'll unpin

my hat.' She took

off her hat

12.1'11111111:

Sltl' said, 'YllII'n' dlllllk.

tlllll'

and held it on her knees.

'Young?'

Ill' sIdd. 'I \vlsil I W,IS.'

'Nil, 111,111,1111:

Silas said. 'Madam,

you're

just

a chicken.

Wait

until

'Ilen!'

shl' S,IIl!. 't :lllIldll'l

Villi II'lIVl'thl' IH'I'I ,dlillt' 111'1('Ill' all

you "te as old

as I am, and

then

you

can begin

to talk.

I can

plan's?'

Silas 1Il'Id lip till' IWI'I hlllth', 'MIIIIIIIII,' hi' s.tld, '",It,ll's

remember

the Crimean

War!'*

'Really?'

she said. 'You

must

have

had

a full and interesting

III here

life.'

'Yes, madam.'

She smiled

wOllldll'1 h,1I111it l1y,It wllllldll',

hili III Villi'

'II is n'sllllilsihlt,

ftl' thl' '11111III thllmtllllis

lit IIlIIIIl'S ,III Ilvn

hllgl.llld!' sill' S,lld,

'( :old Il'a: Sd.ls s,lld,

SIll'

weakly, for the first time. 'I am sorry

I spoke

as I

ny III .11I Ill'! 11I1t1 .hllllt1t'lt 1\1,11' 1\1111 't 'Illd

*Crimean War: a war (1853-56) between Russia on one side and Turkey,

Britain, France and Sardinia on the other.

!-law"

1I',i1'

'Yes, 11Iad,11I1( '111~ 11',1.'~11'1. ntl.IUllllllll

hllHh· '"111 hl'ld II lip

did. It upset me to think of anyone drinkin~ in thiN plal'l':

'That's all right, madam,' Silas said. 'I havcn't touched

summer tea with only a little alcohol in it, and I had a winter tea

with nearly a cupful in it. The weather had been cold up to that

day, and I hadn't changed from winter to summer tea.'

They sat there for about another half an hour, drinking the

cold tea, and during that time there was nothing she did not hear

about my Uncle Silas's life: not only how he had left the beer and

was trying to give up the bad language, but how he had given up

the ladies and the horses and the doubtful

a drop of

alcohol for years. I used to. I've not always been as good:

Old Silas reached up to her with the bottle and said, '/ lave

some more, madam,' and she held out the cup until it was full

again. 'Thank you,' she said. She looked quite pleasant now,

softened by the tea and the smell of flowers and the sun on her

head. Somehow

she stopped

looking

like a female and became

stories and the lying

woman.

'Uut you're a better man now?' she said.

'Ycs, madam,' Silas said, with a slight shake of his head, as ifhe

were a man in real sorrow. 'Yes, madatl1, I'm a better man now.'

'It was :1 long fight against the drink?'

'A long fight, madam? Ycs, it was a very long fight.' He raised

his hat a little.

'How long?' she said.

'Well, madam,' said Silas, settling back in the grave, where he

had been sitting all that time, 'I was born in hungry times. Bad

times, madam, very bad times. The food and the water were bad.

Very

and everything else that a man can give up.

As he finally climbed up out of the grave to shake hands with

her and say good afternoon,

she must have believed that he was a

very pure and religious man.

Except that her face was very red, she walked away as proudly

as she had come. That was the last he ever saw of her. But that

afternoon, on the 2.45 train out of Solbrook, there was a woman

with a large umbrella in one hand and a bunch of golden flowers

in the other. In the warm,

crowded

train there

was a smell of

something

stronger

than cold tea. The woman

appeared

to be a

little excited, and to everyone's embarrassment

she talked a great

bad.

There

was

disease

too.

had

beer,

madam.

deal.

Her subject was someone she had met that afternoon.

'A good man,' she told them. 'A good man.'

Everybody

had beer. The

babies

had beer.

I've been

fighting

against it for 80 years and more.'

'And now you've beaten it?'

'Yes, madam,' said my Uncle Silas, who had drunk more in 80

years than there is water in the Thames. 'I've heaten it.' He held

up the beer bottle. 'Nothing

but cold tea. You'll have some more

cold tea, madam, won't you?'

'It's very kind of you,' shl' said.

So Silas poured out anothl'l' Clip ofllH' cold lea and she sat on

the graveside and drank it in ,11(' slinshillC.,Ill'l'lllnillg :111 the time

nlore and more hulna n.

'And

it wasn't Slll'prisill~.· as Silas told nil' aflnwanls.

'It was

still my

winter

tea tha'

w(' w('n'

dlinkin~.

Vou Sl'l', I had a

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