<49<4
ALAN
SILLITOE
the same pa ttern he had forced on his wife - whom he had long
sinee broken in, but who still loved him as well as feared him.
His sons did no better in that h e expec ted the same standards from
them that he had lived by himself, though setting them for his sons
was one way of not having to live by them as thoroughly as others
were expected to, since they were doing it for him.
His three sons, who also became qualified farriers, had to saw
logs on the horse by the pigsty and chop them in to sticks, fetch
buckets of wa ter with a yoke from the well up the slope behind the
garden three hundred yards away, feed the pigs and clean out the
sty. They didn't take well to this, though the only form of rebellion
open to them was a stubborn so rt of idleness when work-orders fell
too thick and fast.
On Sunday morning the brass candlesticks and ornaments were
taken from the fireplace shelf and , together with the horseshoes that
were unhooked from inside the cabinet, spread over the table and
polished by Ivy and Emily, his two daughters still with the family.
Polishing the brasses and the table "silver" was made into a ritual
because it had to be done. Ritual was easier th an just plain work.
The house was kept up to a good standa rd for Burton, and in that
sense for the famil y as well, though one felt tha t they would have
felt happier doing it if he had been a little less tyra nnical.
But he was a blacksmith, and all visible metal had to shine and
look presentable, had to be worshipped by polish and work. When–
ever his married daughters came to the house he would not let them
help in this. Neither could the men do it.
It
was a job solely for the
unma rried girls.
Burton believed that, since he worked, everybody should work.
He was the one who et me working as a child , whereas my own
father had not been able to succeed in it.
It
offended the sight of
Burton's good eye to see anyonc idle, even a child , so tha t from
being a specta tor of his own labor in the ga rden. I was soon hauling
a barrmv , weeding, digging, getting ill cLal or chopping yv ood , clean–
ing out the pigeon coops or running errands.
""'ork was a virtue, the only one. E\'en the s: raight way he stood
when he wasn't working proclaimed it. .-\nd while the better half
of me agreed with him, it must have been the other half tha t led me
to become a writer.
