Shop H.E. Bates Online
ID
b125
Title
"Silas the Good."
Genre
Story
Page Count
6
Word Count
3000
Publisher
Auckland Star
Publication Year
1939
Document Types
Comic Fiction
First-Person Narratives
Character: Uncle Silas

Uncle Silas, working as a grave-digger, drinks a mix of tea and whiskey out of a beer bottle while lying down in the grave for a nap; discovered by an incensed "female," who castigates him for "indolence and irreverence, blasphemy and ignorance," he proceeds to win her over with his "tea" and with reports of his virtuous life.

She departs to her train and "in the warm , crowded carriage there was a smell of something stronger than cold tea, and it was clear to everyone that one of her garments was not in its proper place. She appeared to be a little excited, and to everybody's embarrassment she talked a great deal. Her subject was someone she had met that afternoon. 'A good man' she told them. 'A good man.'"

In the preface to My Uncle Silas, Bates says that this tale is "almost as he himself related it to me" (referring to Bates's great-uncle Joseph Betts, the model for Silas).

Published in: