Joseph’s Speech

'What do you want?' he shouted. 'The master's down in the fold [sheep pen]. Go round the end of the barn if you want to speak to him.'

'Is there nobody inside to open the door?' I hallooed, responsively.

'There's nobody but the mistress, and she'll not open it for you if you make your frightening din [noise] till night.'

'Why? Cannot you tell her whom I am, eh, Joseph?'

'Not me. I'll not have anything to do with it,' muttered the head, vanishing.

The former, when he had deposited his burden, took a critical survey of the room, and in cracked tones grated out 'I wonder how you can stand there in idleness and worse, when all of them have gone out! But you're a nobody, and it's no use talking—you'll never mend your evil ways, but go straight to the Devil, like your mother before you!'

"'The master just recently buried, and the Sabbath not over, and the sound of the gospel still in your ears, and you dare be larking about [having fun]! Shame on you! sit down, bad children! there are good books enough if you'll read them: sit down, and think of your souls!"

'"Master Hindley!" shouted our chaplain. "Master, come here! Miss Cathy's torn the back off The Helmet of Salvation [religious book], and Heathcliff's kicked his feet into the first part of The Broad Way to Destruction [another book]! It's frightening that you let them go on this way. Ech! the old man would have flogged them properly—but he's gone!"

'And hasn't that nobody [useless person] come in from the field by now? What is he up to? great idle sight!' demanded the old man, looking round for Heathcliff.

'That lad gets worse and worse!' observed he on re-entering. 'He's left the gate fully open, and Miss's pony has trodden down two fields of corn, and blundered through, right over into the meadow! However, the master will complain badly in the morning, and he'll do well. He is patience itself with such careless, worthless creatures—patience itself, he is! But he'll not be so always—you'll see, all of you! You mustn't upset him for nothing!'

'Have you found Heathcliff, you ass?' interrupted Catherine. 'Have you been looking for him, as I ordered?'

'I would much rather look for the horse,' he replied. 'It would make more sense. But I can look for neither horse nor man on a night like this—as black as the chimney! and Heathcliff's not the kind of boy to come at my whistle—it's likely he will be less hard of hearing with you!'

'No, no, he's not at Gimmerton,' said Joseph. 'I expect he's at the bottom of a bog. This visitation [storm] wasn't for nothing, and I would advise you to watch out, Miss—you might be the next. Thank Heaven for all! It all works out for good for those that are chosen [by God], and picked out from the rubbish! You know what the Scripture says.'

'Running after the lads as usual!' croaked Joseph, catching an opportunity from our hesitation to thrust in his evil tongue. 'If I were you, master, I'd just slam the doors in their faces, all of them, simple as that! Never a day goes by when you're away, but that son of Linton comes sneaking here; and Miss Nelly, she's a fine one! she sits there watching for you in the kitchen; and as you come in at one door, he's out at the other; and then our grand lady goes a-courting herself! It's fine behaviour, lurking in the fields, after twelve at night, with that foul, frightening devil of a gypsy, Heathcliff! They think I'm blind; but I'm not: nothing of the sort!—I saw young Linton both coming and going, and I saw you' [directing his discourse to me], 'you good for nothing, slovenly witch! run up and into the house, the minute you heard the master's horse coming up the road.'

"Nelly," he said, "we shall have a coroner's inquest soon, at our place. One of them almost got his finger cut off with stopping the other from sticking himself like a calf. That's the master, you know, that is so set on going to the Grand Assizes [courts]. He's not worried about the bench of judges, neither Paul, nor Peter, nor John, nor Matthew, not any of them. He doesn't care—he longs to set his defiant face against them! And that bonny lad Heathcliff, you know, he's a rare one. He can grin and laugh as well as anybody at a right devil's jest. Does he never say anything of his fine living amongst us when he goes to the Grange? This is the way it is: up at sundown, dice, brandy, closed shutters, and candlelight till next day at noon: then the fool goes cursing and raving to his chamber, making decent folk put their fingers in their ears for the very shame; and the knave, he can count his money, and eat and sleep, and off to his neighbour's to gossip with his wife. Of course, he tells Catherine how her father's gold runs into his pocket, and her father's son gallops down the road to ruin, while he goes ahead to open the gates!"

'Good Lord!' he muttered, sitting down, and stroking his ribbed stockings from the knee to the ankle, 'If there's to be fresh orders—just when I was getting used to two masters—if I'm to have a mistress set over my head, it's time to be going. I didn't think I would see the day when I would have to leave the old place—but I suspect it's not far off!'

'There!' he ejaculated. 'Hareton, you won't be drinking your porridge tonight; there'll be nothing but lumps as big as my fist. There again! I'd throw in the bowl and all, if I were you! There, skim the milk off, and then you'll be done with it. Bang, bang. It's a surprise the bottom hasn't been knocked out!'

'Oh, it's Master Heathcliff's that you're wanting?' cried he, as if making a new discovery. 'Couldn't you have said so at once? and then I would have told you, without all this fuss, that that is one you can't see—he always keeps it locked, and nobody ever middles with it but himself.'

'Ech! ech!' exclaimed Joseph. 'Well done, Miss Cathy! well done, Miss Cathy! Howsoever, the master will just tumble over them broken pots and then we'll hear something; we'll hear how it's to be. Good-for-nothing fool! you deserve starving from now to Christmas for throwing the precious gifts of God underfoot with your frightening rages! But I'll be mistaken if you show that spirit long. Will Heathcliff allow such fancy ways, do you think? I just wish he'd catch you in that temper. I just wish he would.'

'There's room for both you and your pride now, I should think, in the house. It's empty: you may have it all to yourself, and him who always makes a third in such bad company [the Devil]!'

'I'd rather he'd gone himself for the doctor! I would have taken care of the master better than him—and he wasn't dead when I left, nothing of the sort!'

'No!' said Joseph, giving a thud with his prop on the floor, and assuming an authoritative air. 'No! that means nothing. Heathcliff takes no account of the mother, nor you neither; but he'll have his lad and I must take him—so now you know!'

'Cannot eat it?' repeated he, peering in Linton's face, and subduing his voice to a whisper, for fear of being overheard. 'But Master Hareton never ate anything else when he was a little one; and what was good enough for him is good enough for you, I think.'

'What!' answered Joseph, 'that dainty chap says he cannot eat them. But I suppose it's to be expected! His mother was just the same—we were almost too dirty to sow the corn for making her bread.'

'No!' he snarled, or rather screamed through his nose. 'No! you must go back where you came from.'

'"I was sure he'd teach you a lesson! He's a grand lad! He's getting the right spirit in him! He knows—yes, he knows, as well as I do who should be the master yonder—Ech, ech, ech! He made you shift properly! Ech, ech, ech!"

'I'd rather, by half, have them swearing in my ears from morning to night, than have to listen to you!' said the tenant of the kitchen, in answer to an unheard speech of Nelly's. 'It's a blazing shame that I cannot open the blessed Book [Bible] but you set up those glories to Satan, and all the frightening wickedness that ever were born into the world! Oh! you're a real good-for-nothing, and she's another; and that poor lad will be lost between you. Poor lad!' he added with a groan; 'he's bewitched: I'm certain of it. Oh, Lord, judge them, for there's neither law nor justice among our rulers!'

'Take these in to the master, lad,' he said, 'and stay there. I'm going up to my own room. This place is neither decent nor proper for us: we must move out and search for another.'

'Any books that you leave, I shall take into the house,' said Joseph, 'and it'll be unlikely if you find them again; so, you may please yourself!'

'I must have my wages and I must go! I had aimed to die where I'd served for sixty years; and I thought I'd carry my books up into the garret, and all my bits of stuff, and they should have the kitchen to themselves for the sake of quietness. It was hard to give up my own hearthstone [fireside seat], but I thought I could do that! But no, she's taken my garden from me, and by the heart, master, I cannot stand it! You may accept the yoke [oppressive power] if you will—I'm not used to it, and an old man doesn't soon get used to new burdens. I'd rather earn my food and drink as a labourer on the road!'

'It's not Nelly!' answered Joseph. 'I wouldn't move for Nelly—nasty good-for-nothing as she is. Thank God! She cannot steal the soul from nobody! She was never so handsome, but that anybody would look at her without winking [not staring at her beauty]. It's that frightening, graceless girl that's bewitched our lad, with her bold eyes and her forward ways—till—No! if nearly bursts my heart! He's forgotten all I've done for him, and taught him, and gone and pulled up a whole row of the grandest currant-trees in the garden!' and here he lamented outright; unmanned by a sense of his bitter injuries, and Earnshaw's ingratitude and dangerous condition.

'The Devils's carried off his soul,' he cried, 'and he may have his carcass into the bargain for all I care! Ech! what a wicked one he looks, grinning at death!' and the old sinner grinned in mockery.