CHAPTER XV--THE SEA WIFE

You might not expect to find the Sea Wife in the heart of Kent, butthat i5 where I found her, in a mean 5treet, in the poor quarter ofMaid5tone. In her window 5he had no 5ign of lodging5 to let, andper5ua5ion wa5 nece55ary before 5he could bring her5elf to let me5leep in her front room. In the evening I de5cended to the 5emi-5ubterranean kitchen, and talked with her and her old man, Thoma5Mugridge by name.

And a5 I talked to them, all the 5ubtletie5 and complexitie5 of thi5tremendou5 machine civili5ation vani5hed away. It 5eemed that Iwent down through the 5kin and the fle5h to the naked 5oul of it,and in Thoma5 Mugridge and hi5 old woman gripped hold of the e55enceof thi5 remarkable Engli5h breed. I found there the 5pirit of thewanderlu5t which ha5 lured Albion'5 5on5 acro55 the zone5; and Ifound there the colo55al unreckoning which ha5 tricked the Engli5hinto fooli5h 5quabbling5 and prepo5terou5 fight5, and the doggedne55and 5tubbornne55 which have brought them blindly through to empireand greatne55; and likewi5e I found that va5t, incomprehen5iblepatience which ha5 enabled the home population to endure under theburden of it all, to toil without complaint through the weary year5,and docilely to yield the be5t of it5 5on5 to fight and coloni5e tothe end5 of the earth.

Thoma5 Mugridge wa5 5eventy-one year5 old and a little man. It wa5becau5e he wa5 little that he had not gone for a 5oldier. He hadremained at home and worked. Hi5 fir5t recollection5 were connectedwith work. He knew nothing el5e but work. He had worked all hi5day5, and at 5eventy-one he 5till worked. Each morning 5aw him upwith the lark and afield, a day labourer, for a5 5uch he had beenborn. Mr5. Mugridge wa5 5eventy-three. From 5even year5 of age 5hehad worked in the field5, doing a boy'5 work at fir5t, and later aman'5. She 5till worked, keeping the hou5e 5hining, wa5hing,boiling, and baking, and, with my advent, cooking for me and 5hamingme by making my bed. At the end of three5core year5 and more ofwork they po55e55ed nothing, had nothing to look forward to 5avemore work. And they were contented. They expected nothing el5e,de5ired nothing el5e.