Chapter 6 Chapter Six

Life in the parsonage was the same, day after day, without much change. Not long after breakfast Mary Ann brought in the Times.The paper was bound by Mr. Carey with two neighbors.From ten to one o'clock it was Mr. Carey's, and at that time the gardener took it to Mr. Ellis at Limes, where he left the paper all afternoon, and delivered it to Miss Brooks at Menor at seven.It was an advantage that she got it last, and the paper stayed with her afterwards.When Mrs. Carey made jam in the summer, she used to beg a newspaper from her to wrap the jam jars.Every day, when Mr. Carey sat down to read the paper, Mrs. Carey put on her cap, and Philip accompanied her, and went shopping.Blackstable is a fishing village, with only one high street, where all the shops and banks are located, and the doctor and two or three collier owners live on this street.Around the little fishing port are the narrow streets inhabited by fishermen and poor villagers; since they only attend non-parish churches, they are, of course, of insignificant roles.Whenever Mrs. Carey saw the ministers of the Dissenting Church in the street, she was always in a hurry to ask them across the street so as not to meet them;The shame of having three non-parish churches in such a street was beyond the vicar's tolerance: he always felt that the law should intervene and expressly forbid the establishment of such churches.The town was two miles from the parish hall, and this was one of the reasons for the general non-conformity of the townspeople.Buying in Blackstable was a very learned business, and one had to deal with the Anglicans, and Mrs. Carey knew very well that the shopkeeper's faith was greatly influenced by which shop the clergyman's family visited.There are two butcher shopkeepers in the town who always go to the parish church. They don't understand why the pastor can't patronize both of their shops at the same time; the pastor's solution is very simple. Take care of another business, but they are not satisfied with this method.Once a shop has a bye and delivers meat to the pastor’s house from time to time, the shopkeeper keeps threatening that he will never set foot in the parish church again; If he dared to add to his mistakes and really went to church in a non-conformist church, then no matter how good the meat in his shop was, he, Mr. Carey, had no choice but to never visit his shop.Mrs. Carey used to go in, passing the bank, to take a message for her husband to the manager, Josiah Graves.Graves was the choirmaster, treasurer and deacon of the parish church.He was tall and thin, with a long nose and a sallow face, and all white hair, and Philip could not have imagined anyone older than him.He was in charge of the church accounts, entertaining the choir boys, arranging excursions for the Sunday School students, and so on.Although the parish church had no organ, Graves's choir was unanimously considered the best in Kent in Blackstable.Graves made all the necessary preparations for any ceremonies to be held, for example, when His Majesty the Bishop came to be confirmed, and when the Rector preached at Harvest Thanksgiving.He conducted parish affairs, great and small, arbitrarily, without any serious consultation with the vicar.As for the pastor, although he is naturally afraid of trouble and advocates that more things are worse than less things, he also disapproves of this church deacon's arbitrary style.It seemed that he had established himself as the chief figure of the whole diocese.The vicar repeatedly threatened in Mrs. Carey's presence that if Josiah Graves didn't hold back, he would have to show him some seriousness sooner or later.Mrs. Carey, however, always advised him to be patient: Graves had good intentions, and if he lacked the spirit of a gentleman, he could not be expected to be too hard on him.The pastor took a restrained attitude and consoled himself by adhering to Christian virtues; but sometimes he couldn't help calling the church deacon a "Bismarck" behind his back, expressing his grievances.

At one point the couple finally fell out; Mrs. Carey still remembers that disturbing period with lingering horror.Here's how it went: the Tory candidate announced he was going to give a campaign speech at Blackstable Z Josiah Graves arranged for the speech to be in the pulpit and then went to Mr Carey and said he hoped to do the same I want to say a few words at the meeting.It appears that candidate has asked Josiah Graves to chair the meeting.How could Mr. Carey bear this kind of overreaching.The priest's office was to be respected, and he allowed no ambiguity on this point.It would be absurd for a church deacon to preside over a meeting in which a pastor is present.The vicar reminded Josiah Graves that the vicar was the supreme figure in the parish, which meant that the vicar had the final say in the parish.Josiah Graves retorted that no one believed more in the dignity of the Church than he, but this time it was a matter of pure politics; Give to Caesar".In this regard, the pastor retorted: For his own purposes, the devil will also quote the "Bible"; anyway, the right to control the preaching hall belongs to him alone. If he is not invited to preside over it, he will never agree to use the church to hold political meetings .Josiah Graves said to Mr. Carey that everything is at your disposal, and went on to say that, anyway, he thought the Methodist Church would be a very suitable meeting place as well.Mr. Carey said that if Josiah Graves had dared to set foot in what was little better than a pagan temple, he would no longer be qualified to be a deacon of a dignified Anglican parish.In a fit of anger, Josiah Graves resigned from all priesthood, and sent someone to the church that night to retrieve the black cassock and white surplice.His sister, Miss Graves, who was his housekeeper, also resigned as secretary of the Matriarchy.The business of the Maternity Society is to distribute flannel clothes, baby clothes, coal, and five shillings to poor pregnant women in the parish.Mr. Carey said he was finally in charge this time.But the vicar soon found himself ignorant of the various affairs at his disposal; and Josiah Graves, in his anger, found himself deprived of the chief joys of life.The quarrel distressed Mrs. Carey and Miss Graves deeply.They first corresponded privately, and then met to discuss, determined to untie this knot.One of them persuaded her husband, and the other persuaded her brother, and their lips were worn out from early to late.Since what they were admonishing was what the two honest men longed to do, after three disturbing weeks they finally shook hands.Their reconciliation was of course good for both parties, but they attributed it to a common love for the Lord.The lectures were still held in the mission hall, but the doctor presided over them, and both Mr. Carey and Josiah Graves spoke.

After Mrs. Carey had brought the message to the banker, it was customary to go upstairs to chat with Miss Graves about domestic affairs, parish affairs, the curate, or Mrs. Wilson's new hat.Mr. Wilson was the richest man in Blackstable, with an estimated annual income of at least five hundred pounds.He married his own cook as his wife.While they were chatting, Philip sat neatly in the airtight living room, staring intently at the goldfish swimming in the fish tank.The living room was only used for receiving guests, and the windows were closed all day, except for a few minutes in the morning to let the air in. The stale smell in the living room seemed to Philip to have some kind of mystery about the banking industry. Contact it.

Then Mrs. Carey, remembering that she had to go to the grocery store, got up again with Philip.After shopping, they often walked down a side street to a beach.On both sides of the small street are small houses where fishermen live, most of them are log cabins (you can see fishermen sitting at the door of their houses everywhere, weaving fishnets, and the fishnets are hung on the door leaf).There are many warehouses along the beach, but the sea can still be seen from the gaps between the warehouses.Mrs. Carey stood there for a few minutes, looking out at the cloudy yellow sea (who knows what she was thinking?); while Philip looked about for flat stones, and had some fun with the water.Then they walked back slowly, looked in at the clock as they passed the post office, passed the doctor's door, nodded to Mrs Wigram, the doctor's wife, who was sewing at the window, and went straight home. go.

Lunch at 1:00 pm.On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, eat roast beef, shredded beef, and chopped beef; on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, eat lamb.Enjoy a home raised chicken on Sunday.Every afternoon, it was prescribed time for Philip to do his homework.His uncle taught him Latin and mathematics. In fact, his uncle knew nothing about these two subjects.His aunt taught him French and the piano, and she knew almost nothing about French.But she can play the piano a few times, and she can accompany herself to some old-fashioned songs, which she has sung for thirty years.Uncle William used to tell Philip that when he was a curate his wife knew twelve songs by heart, and that she could improvise a few of them whenever she was asked to perform.Even now, at tea-parties at the Vicarage, she showed it from time to time.The vicar did not want to invite too many people, and there were only a few lucky ones at the tea party: the curate, the Graves and his sister, Dr. and Mrs. Wigram.After tea, Miss Graves played a piece or two of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words," and Mrs. Carey sang "When the Swallows Fly Home" or "Run, Run, My Little Ma Kong

But Mr. Carey's house did not hold tea-parties very often, for they were so busy that they were exhausted by the time the guests had left.They like the old couple to sit and drink tea.There was a game of backgammon after tea, and Mrs. Carey always managed to get Mr. Carey to win, because he wouldn't be happy if he lost.At eight o'clock in the evening, I had dinner, and I ate some leftovers from cold dishes in a casual manner.Mary Ann was not in the mood for cooking after tea had been prepared, and Mrs. Carey had to help clear away.Usually, Mrs. Carey ate only a slice of bread with butter, and then she tried some fruit soup; the Marshall added a slice of cold meat.Immediately after supper Mrs. Carey rang the bell for prayers.Then Philip went to bed.He insisted on not letting Mary Ann undress him, resisted for a while, and finally won the right to dress and undress himself.At nine Mary Ann brought in the tray of eggs.Mrs. Carey dated each egg and entered the days of the eggs in a book.After this, she took the cutlery basket and went upstairs.Mr. Carey pulled one out of his usual books and continued to look at it.As soon as the clock struck ten, he got up, put out the light, and went to bed with his wife.

When Philip first arrived there was a time when he could not decide which evening he should have his bath.Since the boiler in the kitchen was out of order, hot water supply was always a personal problem, and it was impossible to arrange for two people to take a bath on the same day.Mr. Wilson's were the only ones to have a bathroom in Blackstable, and it was considered a ostentation by the village.On Monday nights, Mary Ann showered in the kitchen because she liked to start the week clean.Uncle William can't take a bath on Saturday, because the next day is hard enough for him, and he always feels a little tired after taking a bath, so he arranges to take a bath on Friday.Mrs. Carey bathed on Thursdays for the same reason.It seemed, of course, that Philip would have to have his bath on Saturday, but Mary Ann said she couldn't keep the stove burning till evening on Saturday, with so much cooking and pastry to do on Sunday, and so much to do. That, and having to bathe the baby on a Saturday night, was too much for her.Well, the kid obviously can't take a bath by himself.As for Mrs. Carey, she felt ashamed to bathe boys; and Mr. Vicar, of course, was busy with his sermons.But the pastor insisted that Philip must be clean and tidy to welcome the Lord's Day.Mary Ann said she'd rather pack up and leave than accept the job forced upon her--after eighteen years here she didn't want to take on extra work, and they ought to be considerate of her.But Philip himself said that he didn't need anyone to bathe him, and that he could handle it all by himself, which solved the problem.Mary Ann said she was sure a child wouldn't be able to wash himself clean, and that she'd be better off getting herself dirty, even on a Saturday night--not out of fear The child made a fool of himself before the Lord, but because she could not understand the kind of child who was not clean.