Waters of Strife
Master-sweep Grimes meets a woman who knows more about him than he feels comfortable with.
1863
Master-sweep Grimes meets a woman who knows more about him than he feels comfortable with.
1863
Thomas Grimes, a North-country chimney-sweep, is on his way to an important job with his young apprentice, also called Tom, and (on the far side of the roadside wall) a barefoot Irish peasant woman, who has taken a shine to little Tom. The envious Grimes has gone so far as to wash his face in a nearby stream, which Tom is now desperate to try for himself.
abridged
“THOU come along,” said Grimes; “what dost want with washing thyself? Thou did not drink half a gallon of beer last night, like me.”
“I don’t care for you,” said naughty Tom, and ran down to the stream, and began washing his face.
Grimes was very sulky, because the woman preferred Tom’s company to his; so he dashed at him with horrid words, and tore him up from his knees, and began beating him.
“Are you not ashamed of yourself, Thomas Grimes?” cried the Irishwoman over the wall.
Grimes looked up, startled at her knowing his name; but all he answered was, “No, nor never was yet;” and went on beating Tom.
“True for you. If you ever had been ashamed of yourself, you would have gone over into Vendale long ago.”*
“What do you know about Vendale?” shouted Grimes; but he left off beating Tom.
“I know about Vendale, and about you, too. I know, for instance, what happened in Aldermire Copse, by night, two years ago come Martinmas.”*
Kingsley portrays Vendale as a kind of ideal settlement, which may be found only by tramping across Cumbria and Northumberland in search of it. “And then, whether you have found Vendale or not, you will have found such a country, and such a people, as ought to make you proud of being a British boy.”
Martinmas is the Feast of St Martin of Tours (?-397), a saint much loved in England from Anglo-Saxon times, which falls on November 11th (now a little obscured by Armistice Day, but not inappropriately as St Martin was Roman soldier). The following day, the twelfth, began the forty day fast known as St Martin’s Lent, taking the Church through to Christmas. Consequently, St Martin’s Eve and Day were marked by carnival feasting. The tradition held up long enough for Thomas Grimes to drink himself into selfish folly on that night, two years before the story starts.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did Grimes beat little Tom?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Grimes washed his face in a stream. Tom wanted to do the same. Grimes would not let him.