The Wild Cherry Tree

Halibut Jones

Halibut Jones lay stretched at full length on top of a dry ditch, staring through the breathless August air at great sprays of blackberries gleaming on the hedgerow above. It had been a very good season for blackberries, a very hot season, and some of the berries were as fat and bloomed as grapes.

Very high up for gathering, though, Halibut thought, too high to reach without a good long hook. Everything had grown so tall and lush in the long hot summer, after the heavy rains of spring. You couldn’t have it all ways, of course. What was good for one thing was bad for another. It was very bad for mushrooms. You had to go traipsing a long way to find a button or two: hardly worth the candle. It was very bad for fishing too. You couldn’t find the worms and the elderberries were hardly ready yet. The rivers needed a good long flush-out before anything would come on the feed and you didn’t even get much with night-lines.

Halibut had legs and a rump like a cart horse. He was tall with it too, well over six feet, and his belly ballooned over his thick leather belt like a tight umbrella. His hands were toad-brown and vast. Each finger was like the crabby neck of a tortoise. His mouth was a big beery pouch, red and heavy but wearily loose, so that most of the time it was hardly ever shut.

By contrast his eyes, though big, were very soft. They were also very blue and as they held the blackberries in deep contemplation they had a gentle, dreamy air. It would, he thought, soon be dinner-time and the hand that rubbed a bead or two of sweat off his nose was slightly weary too. Altogether it was stifling weather for moving about very much.

A few years ago he would have been at the blackberries like a whippet at a hare. He would have been up at the first crack of light and not done till dark. But nowadays nobody wanted them. The shops turned them down; people wanted the cultivated sort. It was the same with mushrooms. It was all cultivated nowadays, or frozen, or tinned. You couldn’t make yourself an honest bob or two like you used to do in the old days.

The thought of money made him remember Miss Parkinson. He had promised several times to clip Miss Parkinson’s privet hedge but somehow or other something always kept cropping up. It was a bad time of year for clipping hedges anyway. It would be better in the autumn, when it was cooler, after a good rain or two.

Miss Parkinson lived alone in a big bay-windowed house of Edwardian brick with a vast garden of decaying fruit trees and untidy hedges of gigantic size. She was great at making elderberry wine and bottling fruit and preserves and lemon curd and drying flowers for winter. She felt, like Halibut, that things were not as they used to be. The synthetic curse of modern times lay thick on everything. There was everywhere a sad drift from Nature.

It slowly occurred to Halibut that Miss Parkinson might not think unkindly, perhaps, towards a pound or two of blackberries. He could at least try out the land. He might even talk her into the price of a tin of gentles and then, in the evening perhaps, nab a trout or two. It was hardly the weather for trout, he knew, but it might be worth a go.

Presently he got slowly to his feet and stood unsteadily swaying from side to side on the edge of the ditch, very much like a boxer rising from a heavy count. The sun blistered his eyes. For a moment or two he seemed about to relapse but finally he heaved on his belt, hitched up his trousers and started to walk down the lane.

It was only five minutes’ walk to Miss Parkinson’s big rambling house but in the heat of mid-morning it seemed like a mile. Once he was sorely tempted to have a breather by sitting on the brick coping of a narrow stone bridge that spanned the little river at the foot of the lane but he somehow managed to resist it and dragged himself on.

‘Ah! Mr Jones. Splendid man. I’d absolutely given you up for lost. I was afraid you’d never come and see me again. I had the shears sharpened, you’ll be glad to know. I trust everything’s all right with you?’

Miss Parkinson tended to suck at her teeth. She was like a fat rosy apple fresh from the oven, all puffed and warm and juicy. Even in the heat she was wearing green corduroy breeches, with robust home-knitted stockings of a brown-cow shade. Her grey wispy hair stood out like tufts of untidy feathers from a large barley-coloured sunhat tied under her chin with a piece of picture cord.

Halibut wiped his brow with the back of his hand and gave something like a sigh. Miss Parkinson said she was positive the hedge had grown a good foot or more since his last promise to come and deal with it. At the mere mention of the hedge Halibut, his dreamy eyes wandering across the sun-baked untidiness of the garden, looked as if he’d swallowed something slightly distasteful.

‘But anyway here you are. That’s the main thing. I don’t know how you feel but I had an idea one ought to be utterly ruthless with it. Cut it practically to ground level. What do you say?’

Halibut looked pained and dubious and scratched his head and said he’d had the screws. That’s why he hadn’t been near. It had played him up something chronic, like billy-o. In any case it wasn’t the weather for hedge-cutting. It was too early yet and too dry. She didn’t want to have the hedge die on her, did she?

‘Die? But privet’s utterly indestructible. You couldn’t kill it with a flame gun.’

‘You cut that now and it’ll be dead afore the month’s out. Never breathe.’

Miss Parkinson said she was sorry he thought it inadvisable but perhaps now that he was here he might do some other job? Such as cutting the thistles in the orchard? They stood there like so many soldiers.

‘And spread all that seed?’ Halibut said. ‘You don’t want that seed spread everywheres.’

No, he started to tell her now, what he’d really come about was blackberries. He knew where he could get some real corkers, beauties, big as grapes. Only he’d have to get himself a good long hook made. They were so high up the hedge.

‘I’m not sure I can do with blackberries. It’s elderberries I really want. I could do with masses.’

Ah! he told her, it was too early yet for elderberries. They would be another three weeks or more. He wiped his forehead again on the back of his hand and let his tongue run wearily across his lips. He didn’t suppose by any chance she could do with a couple of trout? That’s if he could get them.

‘Oh! my dear man. How gorgeous if you could. I’ve got Miss Jordan coming to supper tomorrow and they would be the very thing. I put up some pots of a special gooseberry sauce last month and it would go with them marvellously.’

Nothing like the real home-made stuff, Halibut said. He wondered what was in some of the muck they sold nowadays. The bread was no cop, the bacon was as salt as old Harry and you couldn’t tell what was in the jam. Turnips and clover seed, he shouldn’t wonder. Yes: he was glad she kept on with the real old-fashioned stuff.

‘Well, what about the trout? You really think you might?’

Well, there was a bit of a problem there. Fust, he was clean out of hooks and then he wasn’t sure if his line was all that good. Then he’d have to get the gentles.

‘Gentles? Oh! yes, you mean those awful maggots. I thought you caught trout on flies?’

‘Not where I go. They’re real maggot eaters up there. Run a nice weight too.’

Halibut gave a long, dry, harsh cough. It sounded very bad and as the cough went on his neck turned an alarming cockerel red. Miss Parkinson looked suddenly alarmed too and said the cough sounded really dreadful and was he sure he hadn’t picked up some sort of bug?

‘Just the dry weather. Allus gits me like this. Can’t take it too hot.’ He coughed harshly again and this time with a groan. ‘Feel I’ll fetch me heart up sometimes.’

It had been rather trying, the weather, in some ways, Miss Parkinson admitted. A good rain would freshen the air. Wouldn’t he like a drink of some sort? A cup of tea? Or a good long lime-juice with plenty of ice?

‘The tea,’ Halibut said, ‘would only make me hotter. Very nice of you –’

‘Stupid of me. I know what I’ll give you. Of course. I’ve started to brew a home-made beer. Oh! it’s the proper thing. You buy a sort of do-it-yourself pack. Hops and everything. I find it rather good.’

Halibut started to say that he’d bet anything it was better than the bottled muck you got nowadays, considering the price you paid, but Miss Parkinson stopped him by urging him to sit down for a minute or two while she went to fetch the beer. She didn’t care a bit for that cough of his.

With another groan Halibut agreed that perhaps it wasn’t at all a bad idea and let his big horse-strong frame positively collapse into Miss Parkinson’s wheelbarrow.

When she came back, five minutes later, carrying a big glass jug of beer and two glasses, the first thing she said was:

‘Oh! Mr Jones, I’ve just remembered something. I’m always meaning to ask you. Why do they call you Halibut?’

‘Real name’s Albert. Couldn’t say it properly when I was a kid. Would pronounce it Allibut.’

‘How interesting. It sort of suits you.’

Miss Parkinson gave him a glass and filled it with beer and then poured out a glass for herself. Halibut thanked her and then held the glass up to the light and said he thought it looked very nice and clear. It had a fair head on it too.

‘Oh! I really find it rather good. Say it as shouldn’t. It’s immensely refreshing.’

Halibut took a good long drink and said he rather thought so too. It was almost in the real old-fashioned class. His cough had gone completely now and he was able in clear tones to praise once again Miss Parkinson’s great talent in going in for the good old honest stuff. You couldn’t beat Nature.

‘I’m sure you’re right. It’s what I call this synthetic curse that’s got hold of everything. Actually, I now make practically everything I eat and drink. Butter, cheese, bread. Meat doesn’t worry me. It’s not worth eating. Oh! would you care for some bread and cheese? The bread’s the real wholemeal.’

Halibut thanked her and said he really wouldn’t mind if he did. While she had gone into the house again he took off his jacket and helped himself to another short tot of beer. With the jacket rolled up as a cushion he found it pretty comfortable in the barrow. The beer was pretty fair too and in any case it was no weather for moving about very much.

‘I cut you off a good big crusty bit. Now that I will say is good. You’ll not get a better chunk of bread anywhere. Do you prefer hard cheese or soft? I actually brought you a bit of both.’

Beer in one hand and bread and cheese in the other Halibut relaxed with a look of almost benign indifference as to the qualities of hard and soft cheese. They were both very good; she was right about the bread too and once again he told her warmly that you couldn’t beat Nature.

‘Coming back to the trout,’ she said. ‘It would be absolutely splendid if you could manage it. It would be a marvellous treat and I’ll make it well worth your while.’

Well, Halibut said, he was coming to that. He really hadn’t got the price of the hooks and the gentles. He hadn’t been able to do much in the way of work lately because of the screws and one thing and another and he was wondering how she felt about the chances of a bit of dead horse?

‘Dead horse? Oh! yes, I see. If it means getting the trout, of course. You’d work it off on the hedge, I suppose?’

Oh! yes, on the hedge. He’d work it off on the hedge. In no time. As soon as the weather got right for it.

‘And you’d like what? How much, I mean?’

Well, Halibut said, looking at the beer with fresh and even fonder appraisal, he thought the hedge would be about a three quid job. Especially if she wanted it cut so low.

‘I see,’ Miss Parkinson said. ‘But you won’t leave it too long, I hope. There’s burning all the clippings to be done and so on. I’d like it all thoroughly cleaned up.’

Have to wait till it got damper and cooler, Halibut said. Been too many fires this summer, what with this new caper of burning the stubbles and all that. She didn’t want the place a-fire, did she?

‘Far from it. Oh! by the way, I don’t know why I should think of it now, but you did say you might bring me pigeons. I saw a marvellous recipe for pâté that I wanted to try out. I did give you a little something for cartridges.’

Halibut looked at Miss Parkinson almost sadly. His dreamy blue eyes were not only apologetic but moist. No: he hadn’t forgotten about the pigeons. But gospel truth, what with the screws and everything he hadn’t been able to save enough for a new licence for the gun. Besides, there weren’t all that lot of pigeons about now. The big shoots had thinned them out something cruel.

‘What a pity. I hear it’s a wonderful year for partridges, though.’

Well, she’d heard wrong then, Halibut told her. They’d died like flies in the wet spring. And what hadn’t died in the spring had got roasted alive in the damn stubble fires.

‘How wretched. I’m awfully fond of a good young partridge. They were splendid you brought me last year.’

It was a bit better for pheasants, though, Halibut suddenly told her, almost with cheerfulness. They got a bit better chance, being raised as chicks. Still, it wasn’t a fat lot of good thinking about pheasants if he hadn’t got a licence for the gun, any more than it was thinking about trout if he hadn’t got the hooks. That was where a bit of dead horse would help. It would get him sort of started again.

‘I know that Miss Jordan’s positively crying out for someone to get her potatoes up. I could mention it to her tomorrow.’

One job at a time, Halibut said. He was fair rushed off his feet as it was. For one thing he’d promised to clean out a ditch for Miss McIntyre –

‘You promised who? You promised to work for that old b-b-b-biddy! That Scotch so-and-so – that piece of old haggis!’

Well, you had to be fair, Halibut started to say.

‘Fair, my foot. I’m – well, I must say I’m surprised, I’m shocked. I hadn’t the faintest idea you ever worked for that whisky-guzzler.’

Well, you had to go where the money was, Halibut said. She’d raised him up from five to seven bob an hour –

‘It’s treason!’ Miss Parkinson said. ‘It’s lower than kidnapping! It’s downright treachery.’

Well, there it was. You couldn’t very well look a gift horse in the mouth, could you?

‘Her breath would probably strike you dead if you did!’

Halibut started to say that sometimes he felt proper sorry for the old