 CHAPTER XII. A MAN JESTLY POPULAR. Now, although Mr. Faggis was so clever and generous and celebrated, I know not whether, upon the whole, we were rather proud of him as a member of our family or inclined to be ashamed of him. And indeed, I think that the sway of the balance hung upon the company we were in. For instance, with the boys at Brendan, for there is no village at Orr, I was exceeding proud to talk of him, and would freely brag of my cousin Tom. But with the rich parson of the neighborhood, or the justices who came round now and then, and were glad to ride up to a warm farmhouse, or even the well-to-do tradesmen of Porlock, in a word any settled power, which was afraid of losing things, with all of them we were very shy of claiming our kinship to that great outlaw. And sure, I should pity as well as condemn him, though our ways in the world were so different, knowing as I do his story, which knowledge me thinks would often lead us to let alone God's prerogative judgment, and hold by man's privilege pity. Not that I would find excuse for Tom's downright dishonesty, which was beyond doubt a disgrace to him, and no credit to his kinfolk, only that it came about without his meaning any harm, or seeing how he took to wrong, yet gradually knowing it. And now, to save any further trouble, and to meet those who disparage him without allowance for the time or the crosses laid upon him, I will tell the history of him, just as if he were not my cousin, and hoping to be heeded. And I defy any man to say that a word of this is either false, or in any way colored by family. Much cause he had to be harsh with the world, and yet all acknowledged him very pleasant when a man gave up his money. And often and often he paid the toll for the carriage coming after him, because he had emptied their pockets and would not add inconvenience. By trade he had been a blacksmith in the town of Northmoulton in Devonshire, a rough rude place at the end of Exmore, so that many people marveled if such a man was bred there. Not only could he read and write, but he had solid substance, a piece of land worth a hundred pounds, and right of common for two hundred sheep, and a score and a half of beasts lifting up or lying down. And being left an orphan with all these cares upon him, he began to work right early, and made such a fame at the shoeing of horses that the farriers of barram were like to lose their custom. And indeed he won a golden Jacobus for the best-shod nag in the North of Devon, and some say that he never was forgiven. As to that I know no more, except that men are jealous. But whether it were that or not he fell into bitter trouble within a month of his victory when his trade was growing upon him and his sweetheart ready to marry him. For he loved a maid of Southmoulton, a courier's daughter I think she was, and her name was Betsy Paramore, and her father had given consent, and Tom Fagas, wishing to look his best and be clean, of course, had a tailor at work upstairs for him who had come all the way from Exeter. And Betsy's things were ready, too, for which they accused him afterwards, as if he could help that, when suddenly like a thunderbolt a lawyer's writ fell upon him. This was the beginning of a lawsuit with Sir Robert Bamfield, the gentleman of the neighborhood, who tried to oust him from his common and drove his cattle and harassed them. And by that suit of law poor Tom was ruined altogether, for Sir Robert could pay for much swearing, and then all his goods and his farm were sold up and even his smithery taken. But he saddled his horse before they could catch him, and rode away to Southmoulton, looking more like a madman than a good farrier, as the people said who saw him. But when he arrived there, instead of comfort, they showed him the face of the door alone, for the news of his loss was before him, and Master Paramore was a sound, prudent man and a high member of the town council. It is said that they even gave him notice to pay for Betsy's wedding clothes, now that he was too poor to marry her. This may be false, and indeed I doubt it, in the first place because Southmoulton is a busy place for talking, and in the next that I do not think the action would have lain at law, especially as the maid lost nothing but used it all for her wedding next month with Dick Velikot of Makham. All this was very sore upon Tom, and he took it to heart so grievously that he said, as a better man might have said, being loose of mind and property, the world hath prayed on me like a wolf. God helped me now to pray on the world. And ensued that did seem for a while as if Providence were with him, for he took rare toll on the highway, and his name was soon as good as gold anywhere this side of Bristo. He studied his business by night and by day, with three horses all in hard work, until he had made a fine reputation. And then it was competent to him to rest, and he had plenty left for charity. And I ought to say for society too, for he truly loved high society, treating squires and noblemen, who much affected his company, to the very best fair of the hostel. And they say that once the king's justiciaries, being upon circuit, accepted his invitation, declaring merrily that if never true bill had been found against him, mine host should now be qualified to draw one. And so the landlords did, and he always paid them handsomely, so that all of them were kind to him, and contended for his visits. Let it be known in any township that Mr. Fagas was taking his leisure at the inn, and straightway all the men flock thither to drink his health without outlay, and all the women to admire him, while the children were set at the crossroads to give warning of any officers. One of his earliest meetings was with Sir Robert Bampfield himself, who was riding along the Barum Road with only one serving man after him. Tom Fagas put a pistol to his head, being then obliged to be violent, through want of reputation, while the serving man pretended to be a long way around the corner. Then the baronet pulled out his purse, quite trembling in the hurry of his politeness. Tom took the purse and his ring and timepiece, and then handed them back with a very low bow, saying that it was against all usage for him to rob a robber. Then he turned to the unfaithful knave and trounced him right well for his cowardice, and stripped him of all his property. But now Mr. Fagas kept only one horse, lest the government should steal them, and that one was the young mare Winnie. How he came by her he never would tell, but I think she was presented to him by a certain colonel, a lover of sport, and very clever in horse flesh, whose life Tom had saved from some gamblers. When I have added that Fagas as yet had never been guilty of bloodshed, for his eyes and the click of his pistol at first, and now his high reputation made all his wishes respected, and that he never robbed a poor man, neither insulted a woman, but was very good to the church, and of hot patriotic opinions, and full of jest and jollity, I have said as much as is fair for him and shown why he was so popular. Everybody cursed the dunes, who lived apart disdainfully, but all good people liked Mr. Fagas when he had not robbed them, and many a poor, sick man or woman blessed him for other people's money, and all the hustlers, stable boys, and tapsters entirely worshipped him. I have been rather long, and perhaps tedious, in my account of him, lest at any time hereafter his character should be misunderstood and his good name disparaged, whereas he was my second cousin and the lover of my, but let that bide, to the melancholy story. He came again about three months afterwards in the beginning of the springtime, and brought me a beautiful new carbine, having learned my love of such things, and my great desire to shoot straight. But mother would not let me have the gun until he averred upon his honor that he had bought it honestly, and so he had, no doubt, so far as it is honest to buy with money acquired rampantly. Scarce could I stop to make my bullets in the mold which came along with it, but must be off to the quarry hill, and new target I had made there. And he taught me then how to ride bright Winnie, who was grown since I had seen her, but remembered me most kindly. After making much of Annie, who had a wondrous liking for him, and he said he was her godfather, but God knows how he could have been, unless they confirmed him precociously, a way he went, and young Winnie's side shone like a cherry by candlelight. Now I feel that of those boyish days I have little more to tell, because everything went quietly, as the world for the most part does with us. I began to work at the farm in earnest, and tried to help my mother, and when I remembered Lorna Dune it seemed no more than the thought of a dream which I could hardly call to mind. Now who cares to know how many bushels of wheat we grew to the acre, or how the cattle milched till we ate them, or what the turn of the seasons was? But my stupid self seemed like to be the biggest of all the cattle. For having much to look after the sheep, and being always in kind appetite, I grew four inches longer in every year of my farming, and a matter of two inches wider, until there was no man of my size to be seen elsewhere upon Exmoor. Let that pass. What odds to any how tall or wide I be? There is no Dune's door at Plover's Barrow's, and if there were I could never go through it. They vexed me so much about my size, long before I had completed it, girding at me with paltry jokes whose wit was good only to stay at home, that I grew shame faced about the matter, and feared to encounter a looking-glass. But mother was very proud and said she never could have too much of me. The worst of all to make me ashamed of bearing my head so high, a thing I saw no way to help, for I never could hang my chin down, and my back was like a gate post whenever I tried to bend it. The worst of all was our little Eliza, who never could come to a size herself, though she had the wine from the sacrament at Easter and all Hallow Moss, only to be small and skinny, sharp and clever crookedly. Not that her body was out of the straight, being too small for that perhaps, but that her wit was full of corners, jagged and strange and uncomfortable. You never could tell what she might say next, and I like not that kind of women. Now God forgive me for talking so of my own father's daughter, and so much the more by reason that my father could not help it. The right way is to face the matter and then be sorry for everyone. My mother fell grievously on a slide which John Fry had made nigh the apple-room door and hidden with straw from the stable to cover his own great idleness. My father laid John's nose on the ice and kept him warm in spite of it, but it was too late for Eliza. She was born next day with more mind than body, the worst thing that can be fall a man. But Annie, my other sister, was now a fine, fair girl, beautiful to behold. I could look at her by the fireside for an hour together when I was not too sleepy and think of my dear father, and she would do the same thing by me, only wait the between of the blazes. Her hair was done up in a knot behind, but some would fall over her shoulders, and the dancing of the light was sweet to see through a man's eyelashes. There never was a face that showed the light or the shadow of feeling as if the heart were sunned to it more than our dear Annie's did. To look at her carefully, you might think that she was not dwelling on anything, and then she would know you were looking at her, and those eyes would tell all about it. God knows that I try to be simple enough to keep to His meaning in me and not make the worst of His children, yet often have I been put to shame and ready to bite my tongue off after speaking amiss of anybody and letting out my littleness when suddenly my eyes have met the pure soft gaze of Annie. As for the dunes, they were thriving still, and no one to come against them except indeed by word of mouth to which they let no heed whatever. Complaints were made from time to time, both in high and low quarters, as the rank might be if the people robbed, and once or twice in the highest of all to wit the king himself. But His Majesty made a good joke about it, not meaning any harm, I doubt, and was so much pleased with Himself thereupon that He quite forgave the mischief. Moreover, the main authorities were a long way off, and the Chancellor had no cattle on Exmore, and as for my Lord the Chief Justice, some rogue had taken his silver spoons, whereupon his lordship swore that never another man would he hang until he had that one by the neck. Therefore the dunes went on, as they listed, and none saw fit to meddle with them. For the only man who would have dared to come to close quarters with them, that is to say, Tom Faggis, himself was a quarry for the law, if ever it should be unhooded. Moreover, he had transferred his business to the neighborhood of Wantage in the county of Berks, where he found the climate drier, also good towns and commons excellent for galloping, and richer yewamen than ours be, and better roads to rob them on. Some folk, who had wiser attended to their own affairs, said that I, being sizable now and able to shoot not badly, ought to do something against those dunes, and show what I was made of. But for a time I was very bashful, shaking when called upon suddenly, and blushing as deep as a maiden, for my strength was not come upon me, and may have I had grown in front of it. And again, though I loved my father still and would fire at a word about him, I saw not how it would do him good for me to harm his injures. Some races are of a revengeful kind, and will for years pursue their wrong, and sacrifice this world and the next for a moment's foul satisfaction. But me thinks this comes of some black blood, perverted and never purified. And I doubt but men of true English birth are stouter than so to be twisted, though some of the women may take that turn if their own life runs unkindly. Let that pass. I am never good at talking of things beyond me. All I know is that if I had met the dune who had killed my father, I would gladly have thrashed him black and blue, supposing I were able, but would never have fired a gun at him unless he began that game with me, or fell upon more of my family, or were violent among women. And to do them justice, my mother and Annie were equally kind and gentle, but Eliza would flame and grow white with contempt and not trust herself to speak to us. Now a strange thing came to pass that winter when I was twenty-one years old, a very strange thing, which affrighted the rest and made me feel uncomfortable. Not that there was anything in it to do harm to anyone, only that none could explain it except by attributing it to the devil. The weather was very mild and open, and scarcely any snow fell. At any rate, none lay on the ground, even for an hour, in the highest part of Exmor, a thing which I knew not before nor since as long as I can remember. But the nights were wonderfully dark, as though with no stars in the heaven, and all day long the mists were rolling upon the hills and down them as if the whole land were a wash house. The moorland was full of snipes and teal, and curlews flying and crying, and lap wings flapping heavily and ravens hovering round dead sheep. Yet no red shanks nor dottrell, and scarce any golden plovers, of which we have great store generally, but vast lonely birds that cried at night and moved the whole air with their pinions, yet no man ever saw them. It was dismal as well as dangerous now for any man to go fouling, which of late I loved much in the winter, because the fog would come down so thick that the pan of the gun was reeking, and the fowl out of sight air the powder kindled, and then the sound of the peace was so dead that the shooter feared harm and glanced over his shoulder. But the danger, of course, was far less in this than in losing of the track and falling into the mire's or over the brim of a precipice. Nevertheless I must needs go out, being young and very stupid, and feared of being afraid, a fear which a wise man has long cast by, having learned of the manifold dangers which ever and ever encompass us. And beside this folly and wildness of youth, for chance there was something, I know not what, of the joy we have in uncertainty. Mother in fear of my missing home, though for that matter I could smell supper when hungry, through a hundred land yards of fog, my dear mother, who thought of me ten times for one thought about herself, gave orders to ring the great sheep bell which hung above the pigeon coat every ten minutes of the day, and the sound came through the plates of fog, and I was vexed about it like the letters of a copy book. It reminded me, too, of Blundell's bell and the grief to go into school again. But during those two months of fog, for we had it all the winter, the saddest and the heaviest thing was to stand beside the sea, to be upon the beach yourself and see the long waves coming in, to know that they are long waves, but only see a piece of them, and to hear them lifting roundly, swelling over smooth green rocks, plashing down in the hollow corners, but bearing on all the same as ever, soft and sleek and sorrowful, till their little noise is over. One old man who lived at Linmouth, seeking to be buried there, having been more than half over the world, though shy to speak about it, and feigned to come home to his birthplace, this old Will Watcombe, who dwelt by the water, said that our strange winter arose from a thing he called the gulf stream, rushing up channel suddenly. He said it was hot water, almost fit for a man to shave with, and it threw all our cold water out, and ruined the fish in the spawning time, and a cold spring would come after it. I was fond of going to Linmouth on Sunday to hear this old man talk, for sometimes he would discourse with me when nobody else could move him. He told me that this powerful flood set in upon our west so hard sometimes, once in ten years, and sometimes not for fifty, and the Lord only knew the sense of it, but that when it came, therewith came warmth and clouds, and fog, and moisture, and nuts, and fruit, and even shells, and all the tides were thrown abroad. As for nuts he winked a while, and chewed a piece of tobacco, yet did I not comprehend him. Only afterwards I heard that nuts with liquid kernels came, traveling on the gulf stream, for never before was known so much foreign cordial landed upon our coast, floating ashore by mistake in the fog, and what with the tossing in the mist, too much astray to learn its duty. Folk, who were ever too prone to talk, said that Will Watcombe himself knew better than anybody else about this drift of the gulf stream, and the places where it would come ashore, and the caves that took the indraught. But the Wichahalls, our great magistrate, implied that there was no proof of unlawful importation, neither good cause to suspect it at a time of Christian charity. And we knew that it was a foul thing for some quarrymen to say that night after night they had been digging a new cellar at lay manor to hold the little marks of respect found in the caverns at Highwater Weed. Let that be, it is none of my business to speak evil of dignities. Dooley, we common people, joked of the gulp stream, as we called it. But the thing which astonished and frightened us so was not, I do assure you, the landing of foreign spirits, nor the loom of a lager at twilight in the gloom of the winter moonrise. That which made us crouch in by the fire or draw the bedclothes over us and try to think of something else was a strange, mysterious sound. At gray of night when the sun was gone and no red in the west remained, neither were stars forthcoming. Suddenly a wailing voice rose along the valleys and a sound in the air as of people running. It mattered not whether you stood on the moor or crouched behind rocks away from it or down among reedy places. All as one the sound would come, now from the heart of the earth beneath, now overhead bearing down on you, and then there was rushing of something by and melancholy laughter and the hair of a man would stand on end before he could reason properly. God in his mercy knows that I am stupid enough for any man and very slow of impression, nor ever could bring myself to believe that our father would let the evil one get the upper hand of us. But when I had heard that sound three times in the lonely gloom of the evening fog and the cold that followed the lines of air, I was loath to go abroad by night, even so far as the stables, and love the light of a candle moor and the glow of a fire with company. There were many stories about it, of course, all over the breadth of the moorland. But those who had heard it most often declared that it must be the wail of a woman's voice and the rustle of robes fleeing horribly and fiends in the fog going after her. To that, however, I paid no heed when anybody was with me. Only we drew more close together and barred the doors at sunset. End of chapter 12, recording by Michelle Harris. Chapter 13 of Lorna Doon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Michelle Harris. Lorna Doon by R. D. Blackmore. Chapter 13, Master Huckaback Comes In. Mr. Reuben Huckaback, who many good folk in Dulverton will remember long after my time, was my mother's uncle, being indeed her mother's brother. He owned the very best shop in the town and did a fine trade in software, especially when the packhorses came safely in at Christmas time. And we being now his only kindred, except indeed his granddaughter, little Ruth Huckaback, of whom no one took any heed, mother beheld it a Christian duty to keep as well as could be with him, both for love of a nice old man and for the sake of her children. And truly, the Dulverton people said that he was the richest man in their town and could buy up half the county armatures. A, and if it came to that, they would like to see any man at Bampton or Wivell's Comb, and you might say almost Taunton, who could put down Golden Jacobus and Carolus against him. Now this old gentleman, so they called him, according to his money, and I have seen many worse ones, more violent and less wealthy, he must needs come away that time to spend the New Year tide with us, not that he wanted to do it for he hated country life, but because my mother pressing, as mothers will do to a good bag of gold, had wrung a promise from him and the only boast of his life was that never yet had he broken his word, at least since he opened business. Now it pleased God that Christmas time, in spite of all the fogs, to send safe home to Dulverton and what was more, with their loads quite safe, a goodly string of pack horses. Nearly half of their charge was for Uncle Rubin and he knew how to make the most of it. Then, having balanced his debits and credits and set the writs running against defaulters, as behoves a good Christian at Christmas tide, he saddled his horse and rode off towards Oar with a good stout coat upon him and leaving Ruth and his headman plenty to do and little to eat until they should see him again. It had been settled between us that we should expect him soon after noon on the last day of December. For the dunes, being lazy and fond of bed, as the manner is of dishonest folk, the surest way to escape them was to travel before they were up and about, to wit in the forenoon of the day. But herein we reckoned without our host. For being in high festivity, as became good papists, the robbers were too lazy, it seems, to take the trouble of going to bed and forth they rode on the old year morning, not with any view of business, but purely in search of mischief. We had put off our dinner till one o'clock, which to me was a sad foregoing, and there was to be a brave supper at six o'clock upon New Year's Eve and the singers to come with their lanterns and do it outside the parlor window and then have hot cup till their heads should go round after making away with the victuals. For although there was nobody now in our family to be churchwarden of o'er, it was well admitted that we were the people entitled alone to that dignity. And though Nicholas Snow was in office by name, he managed it only by mother's advice and a pretty mess he made of it, so that everyone longed for a rid again as soon as ever I should be old enough. This Nicholas Snow was to come in the evening with his three tall, comely daughters, strapping girls and well-skilled in the dairy, and the story was all over the parish on a stupid conceit of John Fry's that I should have been in love with all three if there had been but one of them. These snows were to come and come they did, partly because Mr. Huckaback liked to see fine young maidens, and partly because none but Nicholas Snow could smoke a pipe now all around our parts except of the very high people whom we durst never invite. And Uncle Ben, as we all knew well, was a great hand at his pipe and would sit for hours over it in our warm chimney corner and never want to say a word unless it were inside him, only he liked to have somebody there over against him smoking. Now when I came in before one o'clock after seeing to the cattle, for the day was thicker than ever and we must keep the cattle close at home if we wish to see any more of them, I fully expected to find Uncle Ben sitting in the fireplace, lifting one cover and then another as his favorite manner was and making sweet mouths over them, for he loved our bacon rarely and they had no good leaks at Dulverton and he was a man who always would see his business done himself. But there instead of my finding him with his quaint dry face pulled out at me and then shut up sharp not to be cheated, who should run out but Betty mux worthy and poke me with a saucepan lid. Get out of that now, Betty, I said in my politest manner, for really, Betty was now becoming a great domestic evil. She would have her own way so and of all things the most distressful was for a man to try to reason. Xaita Press cried Betty again, for she thought it a fine joke to call me that because of my size and my hatred of it. Here be a rare get up anyhow. A rare good dinner, you mean, Betty. Well, I have a rare good appetite. With that I wanted to go and smell it and not to stop for Betty. Troust thee for this yeon rid, but thee must keep it bit langer, I reckon. Her banked coom, Meister Xaita Press. What e-mock of that now? Do you mean to say that Uncle Ben has not arrived yet, Betty? Raved, I now's not about that, whether a half or no. Only I tell thee her banked coom, Rack and them dunzes have gotten. And Betty, who hated Uncle Ben because he never gave her a groat and she was not allowed to dine with him, I am sorry to say that Betty Muxworthy grinned all across and poked me again with the greasy saucepan cover. But I, misliking so to be treated, strode through the kitchen indignantly, for Betty behaved to me even now as if I were only Eliza. Oh, Johnny, Johnny, my mother cried running out of the grand show-parlor where the case of stuffed birds was and peacock feathers and the white hair killed by grandfather. I am so glad you are come at last. There is something sadly amiss, Johnny. Mother had upon her wrist something very wonderful of the nature of fall-all, as we say, and for which she had an inborn turn being of good draper family and polished above the euminary. Nevertheless, I could never bear it, partly because I felt it to be out of place in our good farmhouse, partly because I hate frippery, partly because it seemed to me to have nothing to do with father, and partly because I never could tell the reason of my hating it. And yet the poor soul had put them on not to show her hands off, which were above her station, but simply for her children's sake because Uncle Ben had given them. But another thing I never could bear for man or woman to call me Johnny. Jack or John I cared not which, and that was honest enough and no smallness of me there, I say. Well, mother, what is the matter then? I am sure you need not be angry, Johnny. I only hope it is nothing to grieve about instead of being angry. You are very sweet tempered, I know, John Rid, and perhaps a little too sweet at times. Here she meant the snow girls, and I hanged my head. But what would you say if the people there, she never would call them dunes, had gotten your poor Uncle Rubin, horse and Sunday coat and all? Why, mother, I should be sorry for them. He would set up a shop by the riverside and come away with all their money. That all you have to say, John, and my dinner done to a very turn and the supper all fit to go down, and no worry only to eat and be done with it, and all the new plates come from Wachette with the Wachette blue upon them at the risk of the lives of everybody, and the copy is from good Aunt Jane for stuffing a curlew with onion before he begins to get cold and make a woodcock of him and the way to turn the flap over in the inside of a roasting pig. Well, mother, dear, I'm very sorry, but let us have our dinner. You know we promise not to wait for him after one o'clock, and you only make us hungry. Everything will be spoiled, mother, and what a pity to think of. After that I will go to seek for him in the thick of the fog like a needle in a hay band. That is to say, unless you think, for she looked very grave about it, unless you really think, mother, that I ought to go without dinner. Oh no, John, I never thought that, thank God, bless him for my children's appetites, and what has uncle been to them? So we made a very good dinner indeed, though wishing that he could have some of it and wondering how much to leave for him, and then, as no sound of his horse had been heard, I set out with my gun to look for him. I followed the track on the side of the hill from the farm-yard where the sled-marks are, for we have no wheels upon Exmore yet, nor ever shall, I suppose, though a dunder-headed man tried it last winter and broke his axle piteously and was nigh to break his neck. And after that I went all along on the ridge of the rabbit-cleave with the brook running thin in the bottom, and then down to the lynn stream and leaped it, and so up the hill and the moor beyond. The fog hung close all around me then, when I turned the crest of the highland, and the gorse both before and behind me looked like a man crouching down in ambush. But still there was a good cloud of daylight, being scarce three of the clock yet, and when a lead of red deer came across, I could tell them from sheep even now. I was half inclined to shoot at them, for the children did love venison, but they drooped their heads so and looked so faithful that it seemed hard measure to do it. If one of them had bolted away, no doubt I had let go at him. After that I kept on the track, trudging very stoutly for nigh upon three miles, and my beard, now beginning to grow at some length, was full of great drops and prickly, whereat I was very proud. I had not so much as a dog with me, and the place was unkind and lonesome, and the rolling clouds very desolate, and now if a wild sheep ran across he was scared at me as an enemy, and I for my part could not tell the meaning of the marks on him. We called all this part gibbet more, not being in our parish, but though there were gibbets enough upon it, most part of the bodies was gone for the value of the chains, they said, and the teaching of young chirurgians. But of all this I had little fear, being no more a schoolboy now, but a youth well acquaint with Exmor, and the wise art of the signposts, whereby a man who barred the road now opens it up both ways with his finger bones so far as rogues allow him. My carbine was loaded and freshly primed, and I knew myself to be even now a match in strength for any two men of the size around our neighborhood, except in the glendoon. Gert Jan Ridd, I was called already, and folk grew feared to wrestle with me, though I was tired of hearing about it and often long to be smaller, and most of all upon Sundays when I had to make way up our little church and the maidens tittered at me. The soft white mist came thicker around me as the evening fell, and the peat-ricks here and there, and the furs-hucks of the summertime were all out of shape in the twist of it. By and by I began to doubt where I was or how come there, not having seen a gibbet lately, and then I heard the draught of the wind up a hollow place with rocks to it, and for the first time fear broke out like cold sweat upon me, and yet I knew what a fool I was to fear nothing but a sound, but when I stopped to listen, there was no sound more than a beating noise and that was all inside me. Therefore I went on again, making company of myself and keeping my gun quite ready. Now when I came to an unknown place where a stone was set up end-wise with a faint red cross upon it and a polish from some conflict, I gathered my courage to stop and think, having sped on the way too hotly. Against that stone I set my gun, trying my spirit to leave it so, but keeping with half a hand for it, and then what to do next was the wonder. As for finding Uncle Ben, that was his own business, or at any rate his executors. First I had to find myself, and plentifully would thank God to find myself at home again for the sake of all our family. The volumes of the mist came rolling at me like great logs of wood pillowed out with sleepiness, and between them there was nothing more than waiting for the next one. Then everything went out of sight and glad was I of the stone behind me and view of my own shoes. Then a distant noise went by me as of many horses galloping, and in my fright I set my gun and said, God send me something to shoot at. Yet nothing came and my gun fell back without my will to lower it. But presently while I was thinking what a fool I am, arose as if from below my feet so that the great stone trembled that long lamenting lonesome sound as of an evil spirit not knowing what to do with it. For the moment I stood like a root without either hand or foot to help me, and the hair of my head began to crawl lifting my hat as a snail lifts his house, and my heart like a shuttle went to and fro. But finding no harm to come of it, neither visible form approaching, I wiped my forehead and hoped for the best, and resolved to run every step of the way till I drew our own latch behind me. Yet here again I was disappointed, for no sooner was I come to the crossways by the black pool in the hole, but I heard through the patter of my own feet a rough, low sound very close in the fog as of a hobbled sheep, a coughing. I listened and feared, and yet listened again, though I wanted not to hear it. For being in haste of the homeward road, and all my heart having heels to it, loath I was to stop in the dusk for the sake of an aged weather. Yet partly my love of all animals, and partly my fear of the farmer's disgrace, compelled me to go to the sucker, and the noise was coming nearer. A dry, short wheezing sound it was, barred with coughs and want of breath, but thus I made the meaning of it. Lord, have mercy upon me, O Lord, upon my soul have mercy, and if I cheated Sam Hicks last week, Lord, knowest how well he deserved it, and lied in every stocking's mouth, O Lord, where be I a-going? These words, with many jogs between them, came to me through the darkness, and then a long groan and a choking. I made towards the sound, as nigh as ever I could guess, and presently was met point-blank by the head of a mountain pony. Upon its back lay a man bound down, with his feet on the neck and his head to the tail, and his arms falling down like stirrups. The wild little nag was scared of its life by the unaccustomed burden, and had been tossing and rolling hard in desire to get ease of it. Before the little horse could turn, I caught him, jaded as he was, by his wet and grizzled forelock, and he saw that it was vain to struggle, but strove to bite me none the less, until I smote him upon the nose. Good and worthy sir, I said to the man who was riding so roughly, fear nothing, no harm shall come to thee. Help, good friend, whoever thou art, he gasped, but could not look at me, because his neck was jerk so. God has sent thee, and not to rob me, because it is done already. What, Uncle Ben, I cried, letting go the horse in amazement, that the richest man in Dulverton. Uncle Ben, here in this plight. What, Mr. Reuben Huckaback? An honest hosier and draper, surge and longcloth warehouseman, he groaned from rib to rib, at the sign of the gartered kitten in the loyal town of Dulverton. For God's sake, let me down, good fellow, from this accursed marabone, and a groat of good money will I pay thee, safe in my house to Dulverton. But take notice that the horse's mine, no less than the nag they robbed from me. What, Uncle Ben, does thou not know me, thy dutiful nephew, John Rid? Not to make a long story of it, I cut the thongs that bound him, and set him astride on the little horse, but he was too weak to stay so. Therefore I mounted him on my back, turning the horse into horse steps, and leading the pony by the cords, which I fastened around his nose, set out for plover's barrows. Uncle Ben went fast asleep on my back, being jaded and shaken beyond his strength, for a man of three score and five, and as soon he felt assured of safety, he would talk no more, and to tell the truth he snored so loudly that I could almost believe that fearful noise in the fog every night came all the way from Dulverton. Now as soon as ever I brought him in, we set him up in the chimney corner, comfortable and handsome, and it was no little delight to me to get him off my back, for like his fortune Uncle Ben was of a good round figure. He gave his long coat a shake or two, and he stamped about in the kitchen until he was sure of his whereabouts, and then he fell asleep again until supper should be ready. He shall marry Ruth, he said, by and by to himself, and not to me. He shall marry Ruth for this, and have my little savings soon as they be worth the having, very little is yet, very little indeed, and ever so much gone to-day along of them rascal robbers. My mother made a dreadful stir, of course, about Uncle Ben being in such a plight as this, so I left him to her care in Annie's, and soon they fed him rarely, while I went out to see to the comfort of the captured pony, and in truth he was worth the catching, and served us very well afterwards, though Uncle Ben was inclined to claim him for his business at Dulverton, where they have carts and that like, but I said, you shall have him, sir, and welcome, if you will only ride him home, as first I found you riding him, and with that he dropped it. A very strange old man he was, short in his manner, though long of body, glad to do the contrary things to what anyone expected of him, and always looking sharp at people as if he feared to be cheated. This surprised me much at first because it showed his ignorance of what we farmers are, an upright race, as you may find, scarcely ever cheating indeed, except upon market day, and even then no more than may be helped by reason of buyers expecting it. Now our simple ways were a puzzle to him, as I told him very often, but he only laughed and rubbed his mouth with the back of his dry shining hand, and I think he shortly began to languish for want of someone to higgle with. I had a great mind to give him the pony because he thought himself cheated in that case, only he would conclude that I did it with some view to a legacy. Of course the dunes and nobody else had robbed good Uncle Ruben, and then they grew sportive and took his horse, an especially sober nag, and bound the master upon the wild one for a little change, as they told him. For two or three hours they had fine enjoyment chasing him through the fog, and making much sport of his groanings, and then waxing hungry they went their way and left him to opportunity. Now Mr. Huckaback, growing able to walk in a few days' time, became thereupon impatient, and could not be brought to understand why he should have been robbed at all. "'I have never deserved it,' he said to himself, "'not knowing much of Providence, "'except with a small P to it. "'I have never deserved it, "'and will not stand it in the name "'of our Lord the King, not I.' "'At other times he would burst forth thus. "'Three score years and five have I lived "'an honest and laborious life, "'yet never was I robbed before, "'and now to be robbed in my old age, "'to be robbed for the first time now. "'Thereupon, of course, we would tell him "'how truly thankful he ought to be "'for never having been robbed before, "'in spite of living so long in this world, "'and that he was taking a very ungrateful, "'not to say ungracious view, "'and thus repining and feeling aggrieved, "'when anyone else would have knelt "'and thanked God for enjoying so long in immunity. "'But say what we would, it was all as one. "'Uncle Ben stuck fast to it, "'that he had nothing to thank God for.' End of chapter 13, recording by Michelle Harris. Chapter 14 of Lorna Dune. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Michelle Harris. Lorna Dune by R. D. Blackmore. Chapter 14, A Motion Which Ends in a Mull. Instead of minding his new year pudding, Master Huckaback carried on so about his mighty grievance that at last we began to think there must be something in it after all. Especially as he assured us that choice and costly presence for the young people of our household were among the goods divested. But Mother told him her children had plenty and wanted no gold and silver, and little Eliza spoke up and said, "'You can give us the pretty things, Uncle Ben, "'when we come in the summer to see you.'" Our Mother reproved Eliza for this, although it was the heel of her own foot. And then to satisfy our uncle, she promised to call Farmer Nicholas Snow to be of our counsel that evening. And if the young maidens would kindly come without taking thought to smooth themselves, why it would be all the merrier, and who knew but what Uncle Huckaback might bless the day of his robbery, et cetera, et cetera, and thorough, good, honest girls they were, fit helpmates either for shop or farm, all of which was meant for me, but I stuck to my platter and answered not. In the evening, Farmer Snow came up, leading his daughters after him, like fillies trimmed for a fair, and Uncle Ben, who had not seen them on the night of his mishap, because word had been sent to stop them, was mightily pleased and very pleasant, according to his town bread ways. The damsels had seen good company and soon got over their fear of his wealth, and played him a number of merry pranks, which made our Mother quite jealous for Annie, who was always shy and diffident. However, when the hot cup was done, and before the mulled wine was ready, we packed all the maidens in the parlor and turned the key upon them, and then we drew near to the kitchen fire to hear Uncle Ben's proposal. Farmer Snow sat up in the corner, caring little to bear about anything, but smoking slowly and nodding backward like a sheepdog dreaming. Mother was in the settle, of course, knitting hard as usual, and Uncle Ben took to a three-legged stool, as if all but that had been thieved from him. Howsoever, he kept his breath from speech, giving privilege, as was due, to Mother. "'Master Snow, you are well assured,' said Mother, coloring like the furs as it took the flame and fell over, that our kinsmen here hath received rough harm on his peaceful journey from Dulverton. The times are bad as we all know well, and there is no sign of bettering them, and if I could see our Lord the King, I might say things to move him. Nevertheless, I have had so much of my own account to vex for, "'You're flying out of the subject, Sarah,' said Uncle Ben, seeing tears in her eyes and tired of that matter. "'Zettled the preliminaries,' spoke Farmer Snow, on appeal from us. Verse zettled the preliminaries, and then us knows what be driving at. "'Perliminaries be damned, sir,' cried Uncle Ben, losing his temper. "'What preliminaries were there when I was robbed, I should like to know, robbed in this parish as I can prove to the eternal disgrace of oar and the scandal of all England? And I hold this parish to answer for it, sir. This parish shall make it good, being a nest of foul thieves as it is. I, farmers and yeoman and all of you, I will beggar every man in this parish if they be not beggars already. I, and sell your old church up before your eyes, but what I will have back my Tarleton, timepiece, saddle, and dovetailed nag. Mother looked at me, and I looked at Farmer Snow, and we all were sorry for Master Huckaback, putting our hands up one to another that nobody should browbeat him, because we all knew what our parish was, and none the worse for strong language, however rich the man might be. But Uncle Ben took it in a different way. He thought that we were all afraid of him, and that oar parish was but as moab or edam, for him to cast his shoe over. Nephew Jack, he cried, looking at me when I was thinking what to say, and finding only emptiness. You are a heavy lout, sir, a bumpkin, a clodhopper, and I shall leave you nothing unless it be my boots to grease. Well, Uncle, I made answer. I will grease your boots all the same for that so long as you be our guest, sir. Now that answer, made without a thought, stood me for 2,000 pounds, as you shall see, by and by, perhaps. As for the parish, my mother cried, being too hard set to contain herself, the parish can defend itself, and we may leave it to do so. But our Jack is not like that, sir, and I will not have him spoken of. Leave him, indeed. Who wants you to do more than to leave him alone, sir, as he might have done you the other night, and as no one else would have dared to do, and after that, to think so meanly of me and my children? Hoity-toity, Sarah, your children, I suppose, are the same as other peoples. That they are not and never will be, and you ought to know it, Uncle Rubin, if anyone in the world ought, other peoples' children. Well, well, Uncle Rubin answered. I know very little of children, except my little Ruth, and she is nothing wonderful. I never said that my children were wonderful, Uncle Ben, nor did I ever think it, but as for being good, here Mother fetched out her handkerchief, being overcome by our goodness, and I told her, with my hand in my mouth, not to notice him, though he might be worth 10,000 times 10,000 pounds. But farmer Snow came forward now, for he had some sense sometimes, and he thought it was high time for him to say a word for the parish. Meister Huckaback, he began, pointing with his pipe at him, the end that was done in ceiling wax. Touching of what was placed there about this here parish, and no other, mind me, no other parish but these, I used the freedom, sir, for to tell thee, that thee be a liar. Then farmer Nicholas Snow folded his arms across with the bowl of his pipe on the upper one, and gave me a nod, and then one to Mother, to testify how he had done his duty, and wrecked not what might come of it. However, he got little thanks from us, for the parish was nothing at all to my mother, compared with her children's interests, and I thought it hard that an uncle of mine, and an old man too, should be called a liar, by a visitor at our fireplace. For we, in our rude part of the world, counted it one of the worst disgraces that could befall a man, to receive the lie from anyone. But Uncle Ben, as it seems, was used to it in the way of trade, just as people of fashion are, by a style of courtesy. Therefore the old man only looked with pity at farmer Nicholas, and with a sort of sorrow too, reflecting how much he might have made in a bargain with such a customer, so ignorant and hot-headed. Now let us bandy words no more, said Mother, very sweetly. Nothing is easier than sharp words, except to wish them unspoken, as I do many and many's the time, when I think of my good husband. But now let us hear from Uncle Rubin what he would have us do to remove this disgrace from amongst us, and to satisfy him of his goods. I care not for my goods, woman, Master Huckaback answered grandly, although they were of large value, about them I say nothing, but what I demand is this, the punishment of those scoundrels. Zober, man, Zober, cried farmer Nicholas, we be too nigh badgery would to spake like that of they doomses. Pack of cowards, said Uncle Rubin, looking first at the door, however, much chance I see of getting redress from the valor of this ex-moor, and you, Master Snow, the very man whom I look to, to raise the country, and take the lead as churchwarden, why my youngest shopman would match his L against you, pack of cowards, cried Uncle Ben, rising and shaking his lapits at us, don't pretend to answer me, shake you all off, that I do, nothing more to do with you. We knew it useless to answer him and conveyed our knowledge to one another without anything to vex him. However, when the mulled wine was come and a good deal of it gone, the season being epiphany, Uncle Rubin began to think that he might have been too hard with us. Moreover, he was beginning now to respect Farmer Nicholas bravely because of the way he had smoked his pipes and the little noise made over them. And Lizzie and Annie were doing their best, for now we had let the girls out, to wake more lightsome uproar. Also, young Faith Snow was toward to keep the old men's cups afloat and handle them to their liking. So at the close of our entertainment, when the girls were gone away to fetch and light their lathorns, over which they made rare noise, blowing each the others out for counting of the sparks to come, Master Huckaback stood up without much aid from the crock-saw and looked at mother and all of us. Let no one leave this place, said he, until I have said what I want to say, for saving of ill-will among us and growth of cheer and comfort. Maybe I have carried things too far, even to the bounds of cheerlessness and beyond the bounds of good manners. I will not unsay one word I have said, having never yet done so in my life, but I would alter the manner of it and set it forth in this light. If you folks upon Exmor here are loathe and wary at fighting, yet you are brave at better stuff, the best and kindest I ever knew in the matter of feeding. Here he sat down with tears in his eyes and called for a little mulled bastard. All the maids who were now come back raced to get it for him, but Annie, of course, was foremost. And herein ended the expedition, a perilous and a great one against the dunes of Bagworthy, an enterprise over which we had all talked plainly more than was good for us. For my part, I slept well that night, feeling myself at home again, now that the fighting was put aside and the fear of it turned to the comfort of talking what we would have done. End of Chapter 14, recording by Michelle Harris. Chapter 15 of Lorna Doon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Lorna Doon by R. D. Blackmore. Chapter 15, Master Huckabuck, Fails of Warrant. On the following day, Master Huckabuck with some show of mystery demanded from my mother an escort into a dangerous part of the world to which his business compelled him. My mother made answer to this that he was kindly welcome to take our John Frye with him, at which the good clothier laughed and said that John was nothing like big enough, but another John must serve his turn, not only for his size, but because if he was carried away, no stone would be left unturned upon Exmoor until he should be brought back again. Hereupon my mother grew very pale and found fifty reasons against my going, each of them weightier than the true one, as Eliza, who was jealous of me, managed to whisper to Annie. On the other hand, I was quite resolved, directly the thing was mentioned, to see Uncle Ruben through with it, and it added much to my self-esteem to be the guard of so richer man. Therefore I soon persuaded mother with her head upon my breast to let me go and trust in God, and after that I was greatly vexed to find that this dangerous enterprise was nothing more than a visit to the Baron de Wichelhouse, to lay an information and sewer warrant against the dunes and a posse to execute it. Stupid as I always have been and must ever be no doubt, I could well have told Uncle Ruben that his journey was no wiser than that of the man of Gotham, that he never would get from Hugh de Wichelhouse a warrant against the dunes, moreover, that if he did get one his own wig would be singed with it. But for diverse reasons I held my peace, partly from youth and modesty, partly from desire to see whatever please God I should see and partly from other causes. We rode by way of Brendan Town, Ilford Bridge and Babbrook, to avoid the great hill above Linmouth, and the day being fine and clear again I laughed in my sleeve at Uncle Ruben for all his fine precautions. When we arrived at Lay Manor we were shown very civilly into the hall and refreshed with good ale and coloured head and the back of a Christmas pudding. I had never been under so fine a roof unless it were of a church before and it pleased me greatly to be so kindly and treated by high-born folk. But Uncle Ruben was vexed a little at being set down side by side with a man in a very small way of trade who has come upon some business there and who made bold to drink his health after finishing their horns of ale. Sir, said Uncle Ben looking at him, my health would fare much better if you would pay me three pounds and 12 shillings, which you've owed me these five years back and now we are met at the Justices. The opportunity is good, sir. After that we were called to the Justice Room where the Baron himself was sitting with Colonel Harding, another Justice-series of the King's Peace, to help him. I had seen the Baron de Wichelhouse before and was not at all afraid of him having been at school with his son as he knew and it made him very kind to me and indeed he was kind to everybody and all our people spoke well of him and so much the more because we knew that the house was in decadence. For the first de Wichelhouse had come from Holland where he had been a great nobleman some 150 years ago. Being persecuted for his religion when the Spanish power was everything, he fled to England with all he could save and bought large estates in Devonshire. Since then his descendants had intermarried with ancient county families, Cotwells and Marwoods and Walrines and Welsers of Pilton and Chichester's of Hall and several of the ladies brought them large increase of property and so about 50 years before the time of which I am writing there were few names in the west of England thought more of than de Wichelhouse. But now they had lost a great deal of land and therefore of that which goes with land as surely as fame belongs to earth. I mean big reputation. How they had lost it none could tell except that as the first descendants had a manner of amassing so the later ones were gifted with the power of scattering. Whether this came of good Devonshire blood opening the sluice of low country veins is beyond both my province and my power to inquire. Anyhow all people loved this last strain of de Wichelhouse far more than the name had been liked a hundred years ago. Hugh de Wichelhouse a white haired man of very noble presence with friendly blue eyes and a sweet smooth forehead and aqualine nose quite beautiful as you might expect in a lady of birth and thin lips curving delicately. This gentleman rose as we entered the room while Colonel Harding turned on his chair and struck one spur against the other. I am sure that without knowing ought of either we must have referenced more of the two the one who showed respect to us and yet nine gentlemen out of 10 make this dull mistake when dealing with the class below them. Uncle Reuben made his very best scrape and then walked up to the table trying to look as if he did not know himself to be wealthier than both the gentlemen put together. Of course he was no stranger to them any more than I was and as it proved afterwards Colonel Harding owed him a lump of money upon very good security. Of him Uncle Reuben took no notice but addressed himself to de Wichelhouse. The baron smiled very gently as soon as he learned the cause of this visit and then he replied quite reasonably a warrant against the dunes Master Huckabuck which of the dunes so please you and the Christian names what be they my lord I am not their godfather and most like they never had any but we all know old Sarenza's name so that may be no obstacle Sarenza dune and his sons so be it how many sons Master Huckabuck and what is the name of each one how can I tell you my lord even if I'd known them all as well as my own shop boys nevertheless there were seven of them and that should be no obstacle a warrant against Sarenza dune and seven sons of Sarenza dune Christian names unknown and doubted if they have any so far so good Master Huckabuck I have it all down in writing Sarenza himself was there of course as you have given in evidence no no my lord I never said that I never said if he can prove that he was not there you may be indicted for perjury but as for those seven sons of his of course you can swear they were his sons and not his nephews or grandchildren or even no dunes at all my lord I can swear that they were dunes moreover I can pay for any mistake I make there in need be no obstacle oh yes he can pay he can pay well enough said Colonel Harding shortly I am heartily glad to hear it replied the Baron pleasantly for it proves after all that this robbery if robbery there has been was not so very ruinous sometimes people think they are robbed and then it is very sweet afterwards to find out they have not been so for it adds to their joy in their property now are you quite convinced good sir that these people if there were any stole or took or even borrowed anything at all from you my lord do you think that I was drunk not for a moment Master Huckabuck although excuse might be made for you at this time of the year but how did you know that your visitors were of this particular family because it could be nobody else because in spite of the fog fog cried Colonel Harding sharply fog said the Baron with emphasis ah that explains the whole affair to be sure now I remember the weather has been too thick for a man to see the head of his own horse the dunes if still there be any dunes could never have come abroad that is a sure asemony Master Huckabuck for your good sake I am heartily glad that this charge is miscarried I thoroughly understand it now the fog explains the whole of it go back my good fellow said Colonel Harding and if the day is clear enough you will find all your things where you left them I know from my own experience what it is to be caught in an ex-moor fog Uncle Ruben by this time was so put out that he hardly knew what he was saying my lord, Sir Colonel, is this your justice if I go to London myself for at the King shall know how his commission how a man may be robbed and the justices prove that he ought to be hanged at back of it that in his good shire of Somerset your pardon a moment good sir to which your house interrupted him but I was about having heard your case to mention what need be an obstacle and I fear would prove a fatal one even if satisfactory proof were afforded of a felony the malfacence if any was laid in Somerset but we, two humble servants of his majesty are in commission of his peace for the county of Devon only and therefore could never deal with it and why in the name of God cried Uncle Ruben now carried at last fairly beyond himself why could you not say as much at first and save me all this waste of time and worry of my temper gentlemen you are all in league all of you stick together you think it fair sport for an honest trader who makes no shams as you do to be robbed and well nigh murdered so long as they who did it won the high birthright a felony if a poor sheep steeler to save his children from dying of starvation had dared to look at a two month lamb he would swing on the manor's gallows and all of you cry good riddance but now because good birth and bad manors here poor Uncle Ben not being so strong as before the dunes had played with him began to foam at the mouth a little and his tongue went into the hollow where his short grey whiskers were I forget how he came out of it only I was greatly shocked at beading of the gentry so and mother scarce could see her way when I told her all about it depend upon it you were wrong John was all I could get out of her though what had I done but listen and touch my forelock when called upon John you may take my word for it you have not done as you should have done your father would have been shocked to think of going to Baron de Wittrowhouse and in his own house insulting him and yet it was very brave of you John just like you all over and as none of the manor here dear John I am proud of you for doing it all throughout the homeward road Uncle Ben had been very silent feeling much displeased with himself and still more so with other people but before he went to bed that night he just said to me nephew Jack you have not behaved so badly as the rest to me and because you have no gift of talking I think that I may trust you now mark my words this villain job shall not have ending here I have another card to play you mean sir I suppose that you will go to the justices of this shire Squire Maunder and Sir Richard Blewett or oh I meant nothing of the sort they would only make a laughing stock as those deadensher people did of me no I will go to the king himself for a man who is bigger than the king and to whom I have ready access I will not tell thee his name at present only if that brought before him never will thou forget it that was true enough by the buyers I discovered afterwards for the man he meant was Judge Jeffries and when are you likely to see him sir maybe in the spring maybe not till summer for I cannot go to London on purpose but when my business takes me there only remember my words Jack and when you see the man I mean look straight at him and tell no lie he will make some of your zany squires shake in their shoes I reckon now I have been in this lonely hole far longer than I intended by reason of this outrage yet I will stay here one day more upon a certain condition upon what condition Uncle Ben I grieve that you find it so lonely we will have Farmer Nicholas up again the singers and the fashionable milkmaids I thank you let me be the wenches are too loud for me your nanny is enough nanny is a good child and she shall come and visit me Uncle Ruben would always call her nanny he said that Annie was too fine and Frenchified for us but my condition is this Jack that you shall guide me tomorrow without a word to anyone to a place where I may well describe the dwelling of those scoundrel dooms and learn the best way to get at them when the time shall come can you do this for me I will pay you well boy I promised very readily to do my best to serve him but of course would take no money for it not being so poor as that came to accordingly on the day following I managed to get the men at work on the other side of the farm especially that inquisitive and busybody John Fry who would pry out almost anything for the pleasure of telling his wife and then with Uncle Ruben mounted on my ancient Peggy I made foot for the westward directly after breakfast Uncle Ben refused to go unless I would take a loaded gun and indeed it was always wise to do so in those days of turbulence and nonetheless because of late more than usual of our sheep had left their skins behind them this as I need hardly say was not to be charged to the appetite of the dooms for they always said that they were not butchers although upon that subject might well be two opinions and their practice was to make the shepherds kill and skin and quarter for them and sometimes carry to the doongate the prime among the fatlings for fear of any bruising which spoils the look at table but the worst of it was that ignorant folk unaware of their fastidiousness scored to them the sheep they lost by lower-born marauders and so were afraid to speak of it and the issue of this error was that a farmer with five or six hundred sheep could never command on his wedding day a prime saddle of mutton for dinner to return now to my Uncle Ben and indeed he would not let me go more than three lanyards from him there was very little said between us along the lane and across the hill although the day was pleasant I could see that he was half a miss with his mind about the business and not so full of security as an elderly man should keep himself therefore out I spake and said Uncle Ruben have no fear I know every inch of the ground sir and there is no danger nias fear boy whoever thought of fear it is the last thing that came across me pretty things these prim roses at once I thought of Lawnar Dune the little maid of six years back and how my fancy went with her could Lawnar ever think of me was I not a light gone by only fit for loach sticking had I ever seen a face fit to think of near her the sudden flash the quickness the bright desire to know one's heart and not withhold her own from it the soft withdrawal of rich arms the withdrawal of rich eyes the longing to love somebody anybody anything not in brood with wickedness my uncle interrupted me misliking so much silence now with the naked woods falling over us for we were come to bag-worthy forest the blackest and the loneliest place of all that keep the sun out even now in winter time with most of the wood unriddled and the rest of it pinched brown hung around us like a cloak containing little comfort I kept quite close to Peggy's head and Peggy kept quite close to me and pricked her ears at everything however we saw nothing there except a few old owls and hawks and a magpie sitting all alone until we came to the bank of the hill where the pony could not climb it Uncle Ben was very loath to get off because the pony seemed company and he thought he could gallop away on her if the worst came to the worst but I persuaded him that now he must go to the end of it therefore he made Peggy fast in a place where he could find her and speaking cheerfully as if there was nothing to be afraid of he took his staff and I my gun to climb the thicker scent there was now no path of any kind which added to our courage all at lessened of our comfort because it proved that the robbers were not in the habit of passing there and we knew that we could not go astray so long as we breasted the hill before us in as much as it formed the rampart or side fence of Glendon but in truth I used the right word there for the manner of our ascent for the ground came forth so steep against us and with all so woody that to make any way we must throw ourselves forward and labour as at a breast plow rough and loamy rungs of oak root bulged here and there above our heads briars needs must speak with us using more of tooth than tongue and sometimes bulks of rugged stone like great sheep stood across us at last though very loath to do it I was forced to leave my gun behind because I required one hand to drag myself at the difficulty and one to help Uncle Ruben and so at last we gained the top and looked forth the edge of the forest where the ground was very stony and like the crest of a quarry and no more trees between us and the brink of cliff below 300 yards below it might be all strong slope and glittery and now far the first time I was amazed at the appearance of the dunes stronghold and understood its nature for when I'd been even in the valley and climbed the cliffs to escape from it about seven years ago I was no more than a stripling boy noting little as boys do except for their present purpose and even that soon done with but now what with the fame of the dunes and my own recollections and Uncle Ben's insistence all my attention was brought forth and the end was simple astonishment the chine of Highland whereon we stood curved to the right and left of us keeping about the same elevation and crowned with trees and brushwood at about half a mile in front of us but looking as if we could throw a stone to strike any man upon it another crest just like our own bowed round to meet it but failed by reason of two narrow clefts of which we could only see the brink one of these clefts was the dune gate with a portcullis of rock above it and the other was the chasm by which I had once made entrance betwixt them where the hills fell back as in a perfect oval traversed by the winding water lay a bright green valley rimmed with sheer black rock and seeming to a sunken bodily from the bleak rough heights above it looked as if no frost could enter neither wind go ruffling only spring and hope and comfort breathed to one another even now the rays of sunshine dwelt and fell back on one another whenever the clouds lifted and the pale blue glimpse of the growing day seemed to find young encouragement but for all that uncle Reuben was none the worse nor better he looked down into glendoon first and sniffed as if he were smelling it like a sample of goods from a wholesale house and then he looked at the hills over yonder and then he stared at me see what a pack of fools they be of course I do uncle Ben all rogues are fools was my first copy beginning of the alphabet pack of stuff lad though true enough and very good for young people but see you not how this great dune valley may be taken in half an hour yes to be sure I do uncle if they like to give it up I mean three culverines in yonder hill and three on the top of this one and we have them under a pestle ah I have seen the wars my lad from Kynton up to Naysby and I might have been a general now if they had taken my advice but I was not attending to him being drawn away on a sudden by a sight which never struck the sharp eyes of our general for I had long ago described that little opening in the cliff through which I made my exit as before related on the other side of the valley no bigger than a rabbit hole it seemed from where we stood and yet of all the scene before me that from my remembrance perhaps had the most attraction now gazing at it with full thought of all that it had cost me I saw a little figure come and pause and pass into it something very light and white nimble smooth and elegant gone almost before I knew that anyone had been there and yet my heart came to my ribs and all my blood was in my face and pride within me fought with shame and vanity with self-contempt for those seven years were gone and I from my boyhood come to manhood and all must have forgotten me and I had half forgotten at that moment once for all I felt that I was face to face with fate however poor it might be wheel or woe in launa dune end of chapter 15 recording by rachel linton bristol uk chapter 16 of launa dune by richard d blackmore this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org read by chloe winters august 2008 launa dune by rd blackmore chapter 16 launa growing formidable having reconnoitred thus the position of the enemy master huggerback on the homeward road cross examined me in a manner not at all desirable for he had noted my confusion and eager gaze at something unseen by him in the valley and thereupon he made up his mind to know everything about it in this however he partly failed for although I was no hand at fence and would not tell him a falsehood I managed so to hold my peace that he put himself upon the wrong track and continued thereon with many vents of his shrewdness and experience and some chuckles at my simplicity thus much however he learned all right that I had been in the dune valley several years before and might be brought upon strong inducement to venture there again but as to the mode of my getting in that things I saw and my thoughts upon them he not only failed to learn the truth but certified himself into an obstinacy of error from which no after-knowledge was able to deliver him and this he did not only because I happened to say very little but for as much as he disbelieved half of the truth I told him through his own two great sagacity upon one point however he succeeded more easily than he expected vis in making me promise to visit the place again as soon as occasion offered and hold my own counsel about it but I could not help smiling at one thing that according to his point of view my own counsel meant my own and master ribbon huckabacks now he being gone as he went next day to his favorite town of delverton and leaving behind him shadowy promise of the mountains he would do for me my spirit began to burn and pant for something to go on with and nothing showed a braver hope of movement and adventure than a lonely visit to glandoone by way of the perilous passage discovered in my boyhood therefore I waited for nothing more than the slow arrival of new small clothes made by a good tailor at pollock for I was wishful to look my best and when they were come and approved I started regardless of the expense and forgetting like a fool how badly they would take the water what with urging of the tailor and my own misgivings the time was now come round again to the high day of st valentine when all our maids were full of lovers and all the lad looked foolish and none of them more sheepish or innocent than I myself albeit twenty one years old and not afraid of men much but terrified of women at least if they were calmly and what of all things scared me most was the thought of my own size and knowledge of my strength which came like knots upon me daily in honest truth I tell this thing which often since hath puzzled me when I came to mix with men more I was to that degree ashamed of my thickness and my stature in the presence of a woman that I would not put a trunk of wood on the fire in the kitchen but let Annie scold me well with a smile to follow and with her own plump hands lift up a little log and fuel it many a time I longed to be no bigger than John Fry was whom now when insolent I took with my left hand by the waste stuff and set him on my hat and gave him little chance to tread it until he spoke of his family and requested to come down again now taking for good omen this that I was a seven-year valentine though much too big for a cupidon I chose a seven foot staff of ash and fixed a loach fork in it to look as I had looked before and leaving word upon matters of business out of the back door I went and so through the little orchard and down the brawling Lindbrook not being now so much afraid I struck across the thicket land between the meeting waters and came upon the bag-worthy stream near the great black whirlpool nothing amazed me so much as to find how shallow the stream now looked to me although the pool was still as black and greedy as it used to be and still the great rocky slide was dark and difficult to climb though the water which once had taken my knees was satisfied now with my ankles after some labor I reached the top and halted to look about me well before trusting to broad daylight the winter as I said before had been a very mild one and now the spring was toward so that bank and bush were touched with it the valley into which I gazed was fair with early promise having shelter from the wind and taking all the sunshine the willow bushes over the stream hung as if they were angling with tassled floats of gold and silver bursting like a bean pod between them came water laughing like a maid at her own dancing and spread with that young blue which never lives beyond the April and on either bank the meadow ruffled as the breeze came by opening through new tuft of green daisy bud or selendine or a shy glimpse now and then of the lovelorn primrose though I am so blank of wit or perhaps for that same reason these little things come and dwell with me and I am happy about them and long for nothing better I feel with every blade of grass as if it had a history and make a child of every bud as though new and loved me and being so they seem to tell me of my own delusions how I am no more than they except in self-importance while I was forgetting much of many things that harm one and letting of my thoughts go wild to sounds and sights of nature a sweeter note than thrush or oozle ever would a maiden floated on the valley breeze at the quiet turn of sundown the words were of an ancient song fit to laugh or cry at love and if there be one come my love to be my love is for the one loving unto me not for me the show love of a gilded bliss only thou must know love what my value is if in all the earth love thou hast none but me this shall be my worth love to be cheap to thee but if so thou ever strivest to be free to be my endeavour to be dear to thee so shall I have plea love is thy heart and breath clinging still to thee love in the doom of death all this I took in with great eagerness not for the sake of the meaning which is no doubt an allegory but for the power and richness and softness of the singing which seemed to me better than we ever had even in our church but all the time I kept myself in a black niche of the rock where the fall of the water began lest the sweet singer aspiring me should be alarmed and flee away but presently I ventured to look forth where a bush was and then I beheld the loveliest sight one glimpse of which was enough to make me kneel in the coldest water by the side of the stream she was coming to me even among the prim roses as if she loved them all and every flower looked the brighter as her eyes were on them I could not see what her face was my heart so awoken trembled only that her hair was flowing from a wreath of white violets and the grace of a coming was like the appearance of the first windflower the pale gleam over the western cliffs through a shadow of light behind her is if the sun were lingering never do I see that light from the closing of the west even in these my aged days without thinking of her army if it comes to that what do I see of earth or heaven without thinking of her the tremulous thrill of a song was hanging on her open lips and she glanced around as if the birds were accustomed to make answer to me it was a thing of terror to behold such beauty and feel myself the while to be so very low and common but scarcely knowing what I did as if a rope were drawing me I came from the dark mouth of the chasm and stood afraid to look at her she was turning to fly not knowing me and frightened perhaps of my stature when I fell on the grass as I fell before her seven years ago on that day and I just said launa dune she knew me at once from my manner and ways and a smile broke through her trembling as sunshine comes through aspen leaves and being so clever she saw of course that she needed not to fear me oh indeed she cried with the faint of anger because she had shown a cowardice and yet in a heart she was laughing oh if you please who are you sir and how do you know my name I am john ridd I answered the boy who gave you those beautiful fish when you were only a little thing seven years ago today yes the poor boy who was frightened so and applied to hide here in the water and do you remember how kind you were and saved my life by your quickness and went away riding upon a great man's shoulder as if you had never seen me and yet looked back through the wood trees oh yes I remember everything because it was so rare to see any except I mean because I happen to remember but you seem not to remember sir how perilous this place is for she had kept her eyes upon me large eyes of a softness a brightness and a dignity which made me feel as if I must forever love and yet forever know myself unworthy unless themselves should fill with love which is the spring of all things and so I could not answer her but was overcome with thinking and feeling and confusion neither could I look again only waited for the melody which made every word like a poem to me the melody of her voice but she had not the least idea of what was going on with me any more than I myself had I think master ridd you cannot know she said with her eyes taken from me what the dangers of this place are and the nature of the people yes I know enough of that and I am frightened greatly all the time when I do not look at you she was too young to answer me in the style some maidens would have used the manner I mean which now we call from a foreign word coquettish and more than that she was trembling with real fear of violence lest strong hands might be laid on me and a miserable end of it and to tell the truth I grew afraid perhaps from a kind of sympathy and because I knew that evil comes more readily than good to us therefore without more ado or taking any advantage although I would have been glad at heart if needs had been to kiss her without any thought of rudeness it struck me that I better go and have no more to say to her until next time of coming so would she look the more for me and think the more about me and not grow weary of my words and the want of change there is in me for of course I knew what a churl I was compared to her birth and appearance but meanwhile I might improve myself and learn a musical instrument the wind hath a draw after flying straw is a saying we have in Devoncher made per adventure by someone who had seen the ways of women Mistress Lorna I will depart mark you I thought that a powerful word in fear of causing disquiet if any rogue shot me it would grieve you I make a bold to say it and it would be the death of mother few mothers have such a son as me try to think of me now and then and I will bring you some new laid eggs for our young blue hen is beginning I thank you heartily said Lorna but you need not come to see me you can put them in my little bower where I am almost always I mean with a daily I repair to read and to be away from them only show me where it is thrice a day I will come and stop nay master rid I would never show thee never because of peril only that so happens it thou hast found the way already and she smiled with the light that made me care to cry out for no other way except to a dear heart but only to myself I cried for anything at all having enough of man in me to be bashful with young maidens so I touched her white hand softly when she gave it to me and fancing that she had sighed was touched at heart about it and resolved to yield her all my goods although my mother was living and then grew angry with myself for a mile or more of walking to think she would condescend so and then for the rest of the homeward road was mad with every man in the world who would dare to think of having her end of chapter 16 recorded by Chloe Winters August 2008 Chapter 17 of Lorna Dune this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lorna Dune by R. D. Blackmore Chapter 17 John is clearly bewitched to forget one's luck of life to forget the cuck of care and withering of young fingers not to feel or not to be moved by all the change of thought and heart from large young heat to the sinewy lines and dry bones of old age this is what I have to do ever I can make you know even as a dream is known how I loved my Lorna I myself can never know never can conceive or treat it as a thing of reason never can behold myself dwelling in the midst of it and thinks that this was I neither can I wander far from perpetual thought of it perhaps I have two ferries of pigs ready for the Chapman perhaps I have ten stones of wool waiting for the factor it is all the same I look at both and what I say to myself is this which would Lorna choose of them of course I am a fool for this any man may call me so and I will not quarrel with him unless he gets my secret of course I fetch my wit if it be worth the fetching back again to business but there my heart is and must be and all he like to try can cheat me except upon parish matters that week I could do little more than dream and dream and rove about seeking by perpetual change to find the way back to myself I cared not for the people round me neither took delight in victuals but made believe to eat and drink and blushed at any questions and being called the master now head farmer and chief yeoman it irked me much that anyone should take advantage of me yet everybody did so as soon as ever it was known that my wits were gone moon raking for that was the way they looked at it not being able to comprehend the greatness and the loftiness neither do I blame them much for the wisest thing is to laugh at people when we cannot understand them I for my part took no notice but in my heart despised them as beings of a lesser nature who never had seen Lorna yet I was vexed and rubbed myself when John Fry spread all over the farm and even at the shooing forge that a mad dog had come and bitten me from the other side of my lawn this seems little to me now and so it might to anyone but at the time it worked me up to a fever of indignity to make a mad dog of Lorna to compare all my imaginings which were strange I do assure you the faculty not being up to work to count the raising of my soul no more than hydrophobia all this acted on me so that I gave John Fry the soundest threshing that ever a sheaf of good corn deserved or a bundle of tears was blessed with afterwards he went home too tired to tell his wife the meaning of it but it proved of service to both of them and an example to their children now the climate of this country is so far as I can make of it to throw no man into its dreams and if he throw himself so far to pluck him back by change of weather and the need of looking after things lest we should be like the Southerns for whom the sky does everything and men sit under a wall and watch both food and fruit come beckoning their sky is a mother to them but ours a good stepmother to us fearing to hurt by indulgence and knowing that severity and change of mood are wholesome the spring being now too forward a check to it was needful and in the early part of March there came a change of weather all the young growth was arrested by a dry wind from the east which made both face and fingers burn when a man was doing ditching the lilacs and the wood-binds just crowding forth in little taffes close curdling their blossom were ruffled back like a sleeve turned up and nicked with brown at the corners in the hedges any man unless his eyes were very dull could see the mischief doing the russet of the young elm bloom was feigned to be in scale again but having pushed forth there must be and turned to a tawny color the hangars of the hazel too having shed their dust to make the nuts did not spread their little combs and dry them as they ought to do but shriveled at the base and fell as if a knife had cut them and more than all to notice was at least about the hedges the shuddering of everything and the shivering sound among them toward the feeble sun such as we make to a poor fireplace when several doors are open sometimes I put my face to warm against the soft rough maple stem which feels like the foot of a red deer but the pitiless east wind came through all and took and shook the caged hedge aburk till its knees were knocking together and nothing could be shelter then would anyone having blood and trying to keep at home with it run to a sturdy tree and hope to eat his food behind it and look for a little sun to calm and warm his feet in the shelter and if it did he might strike his breast and try to think he was warmer but when a man came home at night after a long day's labor knowing that the days increased and so his care should multiply still he found enough of light to show him what the day had done against him in his garden every ridge of new turned earth looked like an old man's muscles honeycombed and standing out void of spring and powdery every plant that had rejoiced in passing such a winter now was cowering turned away unfit to meet the consequence flowing sap had stopped its course fluted lines showed wounds of food and if you pinch the top most spray there was no rebound or firmness we think a good deal in a quiet way when people ask us about them of some fine upstanding pair trees grafted by my grandfather who had been very greatly respected and he got those graphs by sheltering a poor Italian soldier in the time of James the first a man who never could do enough to show his grateful memories how he came to our place is a very difficult story which I never understood rightly having heard it from my mother at any rate there the pair trees were and there they are to this very day and I wish everyone could taste their fruit old as they are and rugged now these fine trees had taken advantage of the west winds and the moisture and the promise of the springtime so as to fill the tips of the sprayboard and the rails all up the branches with a crowd of eager blossom not that they were yet in bloom nor even showing whiteness only that some of the coins were opening at the side of the cup which pinched them and there you might count perhaps a dozen knobs like very little buttons but grooved and lined and huddling close to make room for one another and among these buds were gray green blades scarce bigger than a hair almost yet curving so as if their purpose was to shield the blossom other of the spur points standing on the older wood where the sap was not so eager had not burst their tunic yet but were flayed and flaked with light casting off the husk of brown in three-cornered patches as I have seen as Scotchman's played or as his legs shows through it these buds at a distance looked as if the sky had been raining cream upon them now all this fair delight to the eyes and good promise to the palette was mired and baffled by the wind and cutting of the night frosts the opening coins were struck with brown in between the butt and buds and on the scapes that shielded them while the foot part of the cover hung like rags peeled back and quivering and there the little stalk of each which might have been a pair God willing had a ring around its base and sought a chance to drop and die the others which had not opened cone but only prepared to do it were a little better off but still very brown and uncured and shriveling in doubt of health and neither pert nor lusty now this I have not told because I know the way to do it for that I do not neither yet have seen a man who did know it is wonderful how we look at things and never think to notice them and I am as bad as anybody unless the thing to be observed is a dog or a horse or a maiden and the last of those three I look at somehow without knowing that I take notice and greatly afraid to do it only I knew afterwards when the time of life was in me not indeed what the maiden was like but how she differed from others yet I have spoken about the spring and the failure of fair promise because I took it to my heart as token of what would come to me in the biting of my years and hope and even then being much possessed and full of a foolish melancholy I felt a sad delight at being doomed to blight and loneliness not but that I managed still when mother was urgent upon me to eat my share of victuals and cuff a man for laziness and see that a plowshare made no leaps and sleep of a night without dreaming and my mother half believing in her fondness and affection that what the parish said was true about a mad dog having bitten me and yet arguing that it must be false because God would have prevented him my mother gave me little rest when I was in the room with her not that she worried me with questions nor openly regarded me with any unusual meaning but that I knew she was watching slightly whenever I took a spoon up and every hour or so she managed to place a pan of water by me quite as if by accident and sometimes even to spill a little upon my shoe or coat sleeve but Betty Muxworthy was the worst for having no fear about my health she made a villainous joke of it and used to rush into the kitchen barking like a dog and panting exclaiming that I had bitten her and just as she would have on me if it cost her a twelve months wages and she always took care to do this thing just when I had crossed my legs in the corner after supper and leaned my head against the oven to begin to think of Lorna however in all things there is comfort if we do not look too hard for it and now I had much satisfaction in my uncouth state from laboring by the hour together at the hedging and the ditching meeting the bitter wind face to face feeling my strength increase and hoping that someone would be proud of it in the rustling rush of every gust in the graceful bend of every tree even in the lords and ladies clumped in the scoops of the hedgerow and most of all in the soft primrose rung by the wind but stealing back and smiling when the wrath was passed in all of these and many others there was aching ecstasy delicious pang of Lorna but however cold the weather was and however hard the wind blew one thing more than all the rest worried and perplexed me this was that I could not settle turn and twist as I might how soon I ought to go again upon a visit to Glendon for I liked not at all the falseness of it albeit against murderers and the creeping out of sight and hiding and feeling as a spy might and even more than this I feared how Lorna might regard it whether I might seem to her a prone and blunt intruder a country youth not skilled in manners as among the quality even when they rob us for I was not sure myself but that it might be very bad manners to go again too early without an invitation and my hands and face were chapped so badly by the bitter wind that Lorna might count them unsightly things and wish to see no more of them however I could not bring myself to consult anyone upon this point at least in our own neighborhood nor even to speak of it near home but the east wind holding through the month my hands and face growing worse and worse ended having occurred to me by this time that possibly Lorna might have chapped if she came abroad at all and so might like to talk about them and show her little hands to me I resolved to take another opinion so far as might be upon this matter without discursing the circumstances now the wisest person in all our parts was reckoned to be a certain wise woman well known all over Exmore by the name of mother Melgium her real name was Maple Durum as I learned long afterwards and she came of an ancient family but neither of Devon nor Somerset nevertheless she was quiet at home with our proper modes of divination and knowing that we liked them best as each man does his own religion she would always practice them for the people of the country and all the while she would let us know that she kept a higher and nobler mode for those who looked down upon this one not having been bred and born to it mother Melgium had two houses or rather she had none at all but two homes were in to find her according to the time of year in summer she lived in a pleasant cave facing the cool side of the hill far inland near Hawkeridge and close above Tar Steps a wonderful crossing of Baal River made as everybody knows by Satan for a wager but throughout the winter she found sea air agreeable and a place where things could be had on credit and more occasion of talking not but what she could have credit for everyone was afraid of her in the neighborhood of Tar Steps only there was no one handy owning things worth taking therefore at the fall of the leaf when the woods grew damp and irksome the wise woman always set her face to the warmer cliffs of the channel where shelter was and dry fern bedding and folk to be seen in the distance from a bank upon which the sun shone and there as I knew from our John Fryer who had been to her about rheumatism and sheep possessed with an evil spirit and warts on the hand of his son young John anyone who chose might find her towards the close of a winter day gathering sticks and brown fern for fuel and talking to herself the while in a hollow stretch behind the cliffs which foreigners who come and go without seeing much of Exmo have called the valley of rocks this valley or Goyal as we term it being small for a valley lies to the west of linton about a mile from the town perhaps and away towards lay menor our home folk always call it the Danes or the Deans which is no more they tell me than a hollow place even as the word den is however let that pass for I know very little about it but the place itself is a pretty one though nothing to frighten anybody unless he has lived in a galley pot it is a green rough sided hollow bending at the middle touch this stone at either crest and dotted here and there with slabs in and out the brambles on the right hand is an upward crag called by some the castle easy enough to scale and giving great view of the channel facing this from the inland side in the elbow of the valley a queer old pile of rock arises bold behind one another and quite enough to affright a man if it only were ten times larger this is called the devil's cheese ring or the devil's cheese knife which mean the same thing as our fathers were used to eat their cheese from a scoop and perhaps in old time the utmost rock which has fallen away since I knew it was like to such an implement if satan eat cheese untoasted but all the middle of this valley was a place to rest in to sit and think that troubles were not if we would not make them to know the sea outside the hills but never to behold it only by the sound of waves to pity sailors laboring then to watch the sheltered sun coming warmly round the turn like a guest expected full of gentle glow and gladness casting shadow far away is a thing to hug itself and awakening life from due and hope from every spreading bud and then to fall asleep and dream that the fern was all asparagus alas I was too young in those days much to care for creature comforts or to let pure pallet have things that would improve it anything went down with me as it does with most of us too late we know the good from bad the knowledge is no pleasure then being memories medicine rather than the wine of hope now mother melgium kept her winter in this veil of rocks sheltering from the wind and rain within the devil's cheese ring which added greatly to her fame because all else for miles around were afraid to go near it after dark or even on a gloomy day under eaves of lack and rock she had a winding passage which none that I ever knew of just entered by herself and to this place I went to seek her in spite of all misgivings upon a Sunday in Lenten season when the sheep were folded our parson as if he had known my intent had preached a beautiful sermon about the witch of Endor and the perils of them that met all wantonly with the unseen powers and therein he referred especially to the strange noise in the neighborhood and up braided us for want of faith and many other backslidings we listen to him very earnestly for we like to hear from our bettors about things that are beyond us and to be roused up now and then like sheep with a good dog after them who can pull some wool without biting nevertheless we could not see how our want of faith could have made that noise especially at night time notwithstanding which we believed it and hoped to do a little better and so we all came home from church and most of the people dined with us as they always do on Sundays because of the distance to go home with only words inside them the parson who always sat next to mother was afraid that he might have vexed us and would not have the best piece of meat according to his custom but soon we put him at his ease and showed him we were proud of him and then he made no more to do but accepted the best of the sirloin end of chapter 17 read by landi in sydney australia september 2008