 Chapter 1 of Far From the Matting Crowd. 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 Leanne Howlett. Far From the Matting Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Chapter 1. Description of Farmer Oak, An Incident. When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears. His eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared around them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun. His Christian name was Gabriel, and on working days he was a young man of sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress, and general good character. On Sundays he was a man of misty views, rather given to postponing and hampered by his best clothes and umbrella, upon the whole, one who felt himself to occupy morally that vast middle space of loudest sea and neutrality which lay between the communion people of the parish and the drunken section. That is, he went to church, but yawned privately by the time the congregation reached the Nassine creed and thought of what there would be for dinner when he meant to be listening to the sermon. Or, to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion, when his friends and critics were in tantrums, he was considered rather a bad man. When they were pleased, he was rather a good man. When they were neither, he was a man whose moral color was a kind of pepper and salt mixture. Since he lived six times as many working days as Sundays, Oak's appearance in his old clothes was most peculiarly his own, the mental picture formed by his neighbors in imagining him being always dressed in that way. He wore a low-crown felt hat, spread out at the base by tight jamming upon the head for security and high winds and a coat like Dr. Johnson's. His lower extremities being encased in ordinary leather leggings and boots emphatically large, affording to each foot a roomy apartment so constructed that any wearer might stand in a river all day long and know nothing of damp. Their maker being a conscientious man who endeavored to compensate for any weakness in his cut by unstinted dimension in solidity. Mr. Oak carried about him by way of watch what may be called a small silver clock. In other words, it was a watch as to shape and intention and a small clock as to size. This instrument, being several years older than Oak's grandfather, had the peculiarity of going either too fast or not at all. The smaller of its hands, too, occasionally slipped around on the pivot and thus, though the minutes were told with precision, nobody could be quite certain of the hour they belonged to. The stopping peculiarity of his watch Oak remedied by thumps and shakes and he escaped any evil consequences from the other two defects by constant comparisons with and observations of the sun and stars and by pressing his face close to the glass of his neighbor's windows till he could discern the hour marked by the green-faced timekeepers within. It may be mentioned that Oak's fob being difficult of access by reason of its somewhat high situation in the waistband of his trousers which also lay at a remote height under his waistcoat, the watch was as a necessity pulled out by throwing the body to one side compressing the mouth and face to a mirror mass of ruddy flesh on account of the exertion required and drawing up the watch by its chain like a bucket from a well. But some thoughtful persons who had seen him walking across one of his fields on a certain December morning, sunny and exceedingly mild, might have regarded Gabriel Oak in other aspects than these. In his face one might notice that many of the hues and curves of youth had tarried onto manhood. There even remained in his remotor cranny some relics of the boy. His height and breadth would have been sufficient to make his presence imposing had they been exhibited with due consideration. But there is a way some men have rural and urban alike for which the mind is more responsible than flesh and sinew. It is a way of curtailing their dimensions by their manner of showing them. And from a quiet modesty that would have become a vestal which seemed continually to impress upon him that he had no great claim on the world's room, Oak walked unassumingly and with a faintly perceptible bend, yet distinct from a bowing of the shoulders. This may be said to be a defect in an individual if he depends for his valuation more upon his appearance than upon his capacity to wear well, which Oak did not. He had just reached the time of life at which young to be the prefix of man in speaking of one. He was at the brightest period of masculine growth for his intellect and his emotions were clearly separated. He had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse, and he had not yet arrived at the stage wherein they become united again in the character of prejudice by the influence of a wife and family. In short, he was twenty-eight and a bachelor. The field he was in this morning sloped to a ridge called Norcom Hill. Through a spur of this hill ran the highway between Eminster and Chalk Newton. Casually glancing over the hedge, Oak saw coming down the incline before him an ornamental spring wagon, painted yellow and gaily marked, drawn by two horses, a wagon or walking alongside bearing a whip perpendicularly. The wagon was laden with household goods and window plants, and on the apex of the hole sat a woman, young and attractive. Gabriel had not beheld the sight for more than half a minute when the vehicle was brought to a standstill just beneath his eyes. The tailboard of the wagon is gone, Miss, said the wagoner. Then I heard it fall, said the girl, in a soft, though not particularly low voice. I heard a noise I could not account for when we were coming up the hill. I'll run back. Do, she answered. The sensible horses stood perfectly still, and the wagoner's steps sank fainter and fainter in the distance. The girl on the summit of the load sat motionless, surrounded by tables and chairs with their legs upwards, backed by an oak settle, and ornamented in front by pots of geraniums, myrtles, and cactuses, together with a caged canary, all probably from the windows of the house just vacated. There was also a cat in a willow basket from the partly-opened lid of which she gazed with half-closed eyes and affectionately surveyed the small birds around. The handsome girl waited for some time idly in her place, and the only sound heard in the stillness was the hopping of the canary up and down the perches of its prison. Then she looked attentively downwards. It was not at the bird nor at the cat. It was in an oblong package tied in paper and lying between them. She turned her head to learn if the wagoner were coming. He was not yet in sight, and her eyes crept back to the package, her thoughts seeming to run upon what was inside it. At length she drew the article into her lap and untied the paper covering. A small swing-looking glass was disclosed in which she proceeded to survey herself attentively. She parted her lips and smiled. It was a fine morning, and the sun lighted up to a scarlet glow the crimson jacket she wore and painted a soft luster upon her bright face and dark hair. The myrtles, geraniums, and cactuses packed around her were fresh and green, and at such a leafless season they invested the whole concern of horses, wagon, furniture, and girl with a peculiar, eternal charm. What possessed her to indulge in such a performance in the sight of the sparrows, blackbirds, and unperceived farmer who were alone at spectators, whether the smile began as a fictitious one to test her capacity in that art, nobody knows. It ended certainly in a real smile. She blushed at herself, and seeing her reflection blushed the more. The change from the customary spot a necessary occasion of such an act, from the dressing hour in a bedroom to a time of traveling out of doors lent to the idle deed and novelty it did not intrinsically possess. The picture was a delicate one. Woman's prescriptive infirmity had stalked into the sunlight, which had clothed it in the freshness of an originality. A cynical inference was irresistible by Gabriel Oak as he regarded the scene, generous though he feign would have been. There was no necessity whatever for her looking in the glass. She did not adjust her hat, her hair, or press a dimple into shape, or do one thing to signify that any such intention had been her motive in taking up the glass. She simply observed herself as a fair product of nature in the feminine kind, her thought seeming to glide into far-off though likely dramas in which men would play a part. This is of probable triumphs, the smiles being of a phase suggesting that hearts were imagined as lost in one. Still, this was but conjecture, and the whole series of actions that he put forth is to make it rash to assert that intention had any part in them at all. The wagoner's steps were heard returning. She put the glass in the paper and the hole again into its place. When the wagon had passed on, Gabriel withdrew from his point of a spiel, and ascending into the road followed the vehicle to the turnpike gate some way beyond the bottom of the hill, where the object of his contemplation now halted for the payment of toll. About twenty steps still remained between him and the gate when he heard a dispute. It was a difference concerning two pints between the persons with the wagon and the man at the toll bar. Mrs. Niece is upon the top of the things, and she says that's enough that I've offered you, you great miser, and she won't pay any more. These were the wagoner's words. Very well, then Mrs. Niece can't pass, said the turnpike keeper, closing the gate. Oak looked from one to the other of the disputants and fell into a reverie. There was nothing in the tone of two pints remarkably insignificant. Three pints had a definite value as money. It was an appreciable infringement on a day's wages, and as such a higgling matter. But two pints, here he said, stepping forward and handing two pints to the gatekeeper, that the young woman pass. He looked up at her then. She heard his words and looked down. Gabriel's features adhered throughout their form so exactly to the middle line between the beauty of St. John and the scarriot as represented in a window of the church he attended, that not a single liniment could be selected and called worthy either of distinction or notoriety. The red-jacketed and dark-haired maiden seemed to think so too, for she carelessly glanced over him and told her man to drive on. She might have looked her thanks to Gabriel on a minute scale, but she did not speak them. More probably she felt none, for in gaining her a passage, he had lost her her point, and we know how women take a favor of that kind. The gatekeeper surveyed the retreating vehicle. That's a handsome maid, he said to Oak. But she has her faults, said Gabriel, true farmer. And the greatest of them is, well, what it is always. Beating people down, eh, to so. Oh no. What then? Gabriel, perhaps a little peaked by the comely travelers in difference, glanced back to where he had witnessed her performance over the hedge and said, vanity. End of Chapter 1 Recording by Leanne Howlett Chapter 2 of Far From the Madding Crowd 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 Simon Evers. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy Chapter 2 Night The Flock An Interior Another Interior It was nearly midnight on the eve of St. Thomas' the shortest day in the year. A desolating wind wandered from the north over the hill where on Oak had watched the yellow wagon and its occupant in the sunshine of a few days earlier. Norcom Hill, not far from Lonely, Tolerdown, was one of the spots which suggested to a passer-by that he is in the presence of a shape approaching the indestructible as nearly as any to be found on earth. It was a featureless convexity of chalk and soil. An ordinary specimen of those smoothly outlined protuberances of the globe which may remain undisturbed on some great day of confusion when far grander heights and dizzy granite precipices toppled down. The hill was covered on its northern side by an ancient and decaying plantation of beaches whose upper verge formed a line over the crest fringing its arched curve against the sky like a mane. Tonight these trees sheltered the southern slope from the keenest blasts which smoked the wood and floundered through it with a sound as of grumbling or gushed over its crowning boughs in a weakened moan. The dry leaves and the ditch simmered and boiled in the same breezes a tongue of air occasionally ferreting out a few and sending them spinning across the grass. A group or two of the latest in date among the dead multitude had remained till this very midwinter time on the twigs which bore them and in falling rattled against the trunks with smart taps. Between this half-wooded half-naked hill and the vague still horizon that its summit indistinctly commanded was a mysterious sheet of fathomless shade the sounds from which suggested that what it concealed bore some reduced resemblance to features here. The thin grasses, more or less coating the hill were touched by the wind in breezes of differing powers and almost of differing natures one rubbing the blades heavily another raking them piercingly another brushing them like a soft broom. The instinctive act of humankind was to stand and listen and learn how the trees on the right and the trees on the left wailed or taunted to each other in the regular antiphanies of a cathedral choir how hedges and other shapes to leeward then caught the note luring it to the tenderest sob and how the hurrying gust then plunged into the south to be heard no more the sky was clear remarkably clear and the twinkling of all the stars seemed to be but throbs of one body timed by a common pulse the north star was directly in the wind's eye and since evening the bear had swung round it outwardly to the east till he was now at a right angle with the meridian a difference of colour in the stars often a red-off then seen in England was really perceptible here the sovereign brilliancy of Sirius pierced to the eye with a steely glitter the star called Capella was yellow Aldebaran and Betelgeuse shone with a fiery red to persons standing alone on a hill during a clear midnight such as this the role of the world eastward is almost a palpable movement the sensation may be caused by the panoramic glide of the stars past earthly objects which is perceptible in a few minutes of stillness or by the better outlook upon space that a hill affords or by the wind or by the solitude but whatever be its origin the impression of riding along is vivid and abiding the poetry of motion is a phrase much in use and to enjoy the epic form of that gratification it is necessary to stand on a hill at a small hour of the night and having first expanded with a sense of difference from the mass of civilized mankind who are dream-wrapped and disregardful of all such proceedings at this time long and quietly watch your stately progress through the stars after such a nocturnal reconnoiter it is hard to get back to earth and to believe that the consciousness of such domestic speeding is derived from a tiny human frame suddenly an unexpected series of sounds began to be heard in this place up against the sky they had a clearness which was to be found nowhere in the wind and a sequence which was to be found nowhere in nature they were the notes of Pharma Oaks's flute the tune was not floating unhindered into the open air it was circled in some way and was altogether too curtailed in power to spread high or wide it came from the direction of a small dark object under the plantation hedge a shepherd's hut now presenting an outline to which an uninitiated person might have been puzzled to attach either meaning or use the image as a whole was that of a small Noah's Ark on a small arrow-rat with outlines and general form of the arch which are followed by toy-makers and by these means are established in men's imaginations among their firmest because earliest impressions to pass as an approximate pattern the hut stood on little wheels which raised its floor about a foot from the ground such shepherd's huts are dragged into the fields when the lambing season comes on to shelter the shepherd in his enforced nightly attendance it was only latterly that people had begun to call Gabriel farmer oak during the twelve months preceding this time he had been enabled by sustained efforts of industry and chronic good spirits to lease the small sheep farm of which Norcom Hill was a portion and stock it with two hundred sheep previously he'd been a bailiff for a short time and earlier still a shepherd only having from his childhood assisted his father in tending the flocks of large proprietors till old Gabriel sank to rest this venture unaided and alone into the paths of farming as master and not as man with an advance of sheep not yet paid for was a critical juncture with Gabriel oak and he recognized his position clearly the first movement in his new progress was the lambing of his use and sheep having been his speciality from his youth he wisely refrained from deputing the task of tending them at this season to a harling or a novice the wind continued to beat about the corners of the hut but the flute playing ceased a rectangular space of light appeared in the side of the hut and in the opening the outline of farmer oak's figure he carried a lantern in his hand and at closing the door behind him came forward and busied himself about this nook of the field for nearly twenty minutes the lantern light appearing and disappearing here and there and brightening him or darkening him as he stood before or behind it oak's emotions though they had a quiet energy were slow and their deliberateness accorded well with his occupation fitness being the basis of beauty nobody could have denied that his steady swings and turns in and about the flock had elements of grace yet although evocation demanded he could do or think a thing with as a mercurial audacious can the men of towns who are more to the man are born his special power morally, physically and mentally was static owing little or nothing to momentum as a rule of the ground here about even by the one starlight only revealed how a portion of what would have been casually called a wild slope had been appropriated by farmer oak for his great purpose this winter detached hurdles thatched with straw were stuck into the ground at various scattered points amid and under which the whitish forms of his meek ews moved and rustled the ring of the sheep bell which had been silent during his absence recommenced in tones that have more melanis than clearness owing to an increasing growth of surrounding wool this continued till oak withdrew again from the flock he returned to the hut bringing in his arms a newborn lamb consisting of four legs large enough for a full grown sheep united by a seemingly inconsiderable membrane about half the substance of the legs collectively which constituted the animal's entire body just at present the little speck of life he placed on a wisp of hay before the small stove where a can of milk was simmering oak extinguished the lantern by blowing into it and then pinching the snuff the cot being lighted by a candle suspended by a twisted wire a rather hard couch formed of a few corn sacks thrown carelessly down in his little habitation and here the young man stretched himself along loosened his woolen cavert and closed his eyes in about the time a person unaccustomed to bodily labour would have decided upon which side to lie farmer oak was asleep the inside of the hut as it now presented itself was cosy and alluring and the scarlet handful of fire in addition to the candle reflecting its own genial colour and the number it could reach flung associations of enjoyment even over utensils and tools in the corners stood the sheep crook and along a shelf at one side were ranged bottles and canisters of the simple preparations pertaining to ovine surgery and physics spirits of wine turpentine, tar, magnesium ginger and cast oil being the chief on a triangular shelf across the corners stood bread, bacon, cheese and a cup for ale or cider which was supplied from a flag beneath beside the provisions lay the flute whose note lately been called forth by the lonely watcher to beguile a tedious hour the house was ventilated by two round holes like the lights of a ship's cabin with wood slides the lamb, revived by the warmth began to bleat and the sound entered Gabriel's ears and brain with an instant meaning as expected sounds will passing from the profoundest sleep to the most alert wakefulness with the same ease that accompanied the reverse operation he looked at his watch found that the hour hand had shifted again put on his hat took the lamb in his arms and carried it into the darkness after placing the little creature with its mother he stood and carefully examined the sky to ascertain the time of night from the altitude of the stars the dog-star and Aldebaran pointing to the restless Pleiades were half way up the southern sky and between them hung Orion which gorgeous consolation never burnt more vividly than now as it soared forth above the rim of the landscape Castor and Pollux with their quiet shy were almost on the Meridian the barren and dooming square of Pegasus was creeping round to the northwest far away through the plantation Vega sparkled like a lamp suspended amid the leafless trees and Cassiopeia's chair stood daintily poised on the uppermost boughs one o'clock said Gabriel being a man not without a frequent consciousness that there was some charm in this life he led he stood still after looking at the sky as a useful instrument and regarded it in an appreciative spirit as a work of art superatively beautiful for a moment he seemed impressed with the speaking loneliness of the scene or rather with the complete abstraction from all its compass of the sights and sounds of man human shapes, interferences troubles and joys were all as if they were not and there seemed to be on the shaded hemisphere of the globe no sentient being save himself he could fancy them all gone round to the sunny side occupied thus with eyes stretched to far oak gradually perceived that what he had previously taken to be a star low down behind the outskirts of the plantation was in reality no such thing it was an artificial light almost close at hand to find themselves utterly alone at night where company is desirable and expected makes some people fearful but a case more trying by far to the nerves is to discover some mysterious companionship when intuition, sensation memory, analogy, testimony probability, induction every kind of evidence in the logician's list have united to persuade consciousness that it is quite in isolation farmer oak went towards the plantation and pushed through its lower bowels to the windy side a dim mass under the slope reminded him that a shed occupied a place here the sight being a cutting into the slope of the hill at its back part the roof was almost level with the ground in front it was formed of board nailed to posts and covered with tar as a preservative through crevices in the roof and side spread streaks and dots of light a combination of which made the radiance that had attracted him oak stepped up behind where leaning down upon the roof from putting his eye close to a hole he could see into the interior clearly the place contained two women and two cows by the side of the latter a steaming brand mash stood in a bucket one of the women was past middle age her companion was apparently young and graceful he could form no decided opinion upon her looks her position being almost beneath his eye so that he saw her in a bird's eye view as Milton's Satan first saw a paradise she wore no bonnet or hat but it enveloped herself in a large cloak which was carelessly flung over her head as a covering there now we'll go home said the elder of the two resting her knuckles upon her hips and looking at their goings on as a whole I do hope Daisy will fetch round again now I'll never be more frightened in my life but I don't mind breaking my rest the young woman whose eyelids were apparently inclined to fall together on the smallish provocation of silence yawned without parting her lips to any inconvenient extent whereupon Gabriel caught the infection and slightly yawned in sympathy I wish we were rich enough to pay a man to do these things she said as we are not we must do them ourselves said the other for you must help me if you stay well my hat is gone however continued the younger it went over the hedge I think the idea of such a slight wind catching it the cow standing erect was of the Devon breed and was encased in a tight warm hide of rich Indian red as absolutely uniform from eyes to tail as if the animal had been dipped in a dye of that colour her long back being mathematically level the other was spotted grey and white beside her oak now noticed a little calf about a day old looking idiotically at the two women which showed that it had not long been accustomed to the phenomenon of eyesight and often turning to the lantern which it apparently mistook for the moon inherited instinct having as yet had little time for correction by experience between the sheep and the cows Luchina had been busy on Norcom Hill lately I think we better send for some old meal but there's no more bran yes aunt and I'll ride over for it as soon as it's light but there's no side saddle I can ride on the other trust me oak upon hearing these remarks became more curious to observe her features but this prospect been denied him by the hoody effect of the cloak and by his aerial position he felt himself drawing upon his fancy for their details in making even horizontal and clear inspections we colour a mould according to the wants within us whatever our eyes bring in had Gabriel been able from the first to get a distinct view of her countenance his estimate of it as very handsome or slightly so would have been as his cell required a divinity at the moment or was readily supplied with one having for some time known for want of a satisfactory form to fill an increasing void within him his position moreover affording the widest scope for his fancy he painted her a beauty by one of those whimsical coincidences in which nature, like a busy mother seems to spare a moment from our unremitting labours to turn and make her children smile the girl now dropped her cloak and forth tumbled ropes of black hair over a red jacket oak knew her instantly as the heroine the yellow wagon, myrtles and looking glass prosely as the woman who owed him two pence they placed the calf beside his mother again took up the lantern and went out the light sinking down the hill till it was no more than a nebula Gabriel Oak returned to his flock End of Chapter 2 Recording by Simon Evers Chapter 3 of Far From the Madding 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 Simon Evers Far From the Madding crowd by Thomas Hardy Chapter 3 A Girl on Horseback Conversation The sluggish day began to break Even its position terrestrally is one of the elements of a new interest and for no particular reason save that the incident of the night had occurred there Oak went again into the plantation lingering amusing here he heard the steps of a horse at the foot of the hill and soon there appeared in view an urban pony with a girl on its back ascending by the path leading past the cattle shed She was the young woman of the night before Gabriel instantly thought of the hat that she had mentioned as having lost in the wind possibly she had come to look for it He hastily scanned the ditch and after walking about ten yards along it found the hat among the leaves Gabriel took it in his hand and returned to his hut Here he ensconced himself and peeped through the loophole in the direction of the rider's approach She came up and looked around then on the other side of the hedge Gabriel was about to advance and restore the missing article when an unexpected performance induced him to suspend the action for the present The path, after passing the cowshed bisected the plantation it was not a bridal path merely a pedestrian's track and the boughs spread horizontally at a height not greater than seven feet above the ground which made it impossible to ride erect beneath them The girl who wore no riding habit looked around for a moment as if to assure herself that all humanity was out of view then dexterously dropped backwards flat upon the pony's back her head over its tail her feet against its shoulders and her eyes to the sky The rapidity of her glide into this position was that of a kingfisher its noiselessness that of a hawk Gabriel's eyes had scarcely been able to follow her The tall, lank pony seemed used to such doings and ambled along unconcerned thus she passed under the level boughs The performer seemed quite at home anywhere between a horse's head and its tail and the necessity for this abnormal attitude having ceased with the passage of the plantation she began to adopt another even more obviously convenient than the first she had no side saddle and it was very apparent that a firm seat upon the smooth leather beneath her was unattainable sideways springing to her accustomed perpendicular like a bio-disappling and satisfying herself that nobody was in sight she seated herself in the manner demanded by the saddle though hardly expected of the woman and trotted off in the direction of tunal mill Oak was amused perhaps a little astonished and hanging up the hat in his hut went again among his ews an hour passed the girl returned properly seated now with a bag of bran in front of her on nearing the cattle shed she was met by a boy bringing a milking pail who held the reins of the pony while she slid off the boy led away the horse leaving the pail with the young woman soon soft spurts alternating with loud spurts came in regular succession from within the shed the obvious signs of a person milking a cow Gabriel took the lost hat in his hand and waited beside the path she would follow in leaving the hill she came the pail in one hand hanging against her knee the left arm was extended as a balance enough of it being shown bare to make Oak wish that the event had happened in the summer when the hole would have been revealed there was a bright air and manner about her now by which she seemed to imply that the desirability of her existence could not be questioned and this rather saucy assumption failed in being offensive because a beholder felt it to be upon the hole true like exceptional emphasis in the tone of a genius that which would have made mediocrity ridiculous was an addition to recognized power it was with some surprise that she saw Gabriel's face rising like the moon behind the hedge the adjustment of the farmer's hazy conceptions of her charms to the portrait of herself she now presented him was much less a diminution than a difference the starting point selected by the judgement was her height she seemed tall but the pail was a small one and the hedge diminutive hence making allowance for error by comparison with these she could have been not above the height to be chosen by women as best all features of consequence were severe and regular it may have been observed by persons who go about the shires with eyes for beauty that in English woman a classically formed face is seldom found to be united with a figure of the same pattern the highly finished features being generally too large for the remainder of the frame that a graceful and proportionate figure of eight heads usually goes off into random facial curves without throwing a nymphian tissue over a milkmaid let it be said that here criticism checked itself as out of place and looked at her proportions with a long consciousness of pleasure from the contours of her figure in its upper part she must have had a beautiful neck and shoulders but since her infancy nobody had ever seen them had she been put into a low dress she would have run and thrust her head into a bush yet she was not a shy girl by any means it was merely her instinct to draw the line dividing the scene from the unseen higher than they do it in towns that the girl's thoughts hovered about her face and form as soon as she caught Oaksie's eyes conning the same page was natural and almost certain the self-consciousness shown would have been vanity if a little more pronounced dignity if a little less rays of male vision seem to have a tickling effect upon virgin faces in rural districts she brushed hers with her hand as if Gabriel had been irritating its pink surface by actual touch and the free air of her previous movements was reduced at the same time to a chastened phase of itself yet it was the man who blushed the maid, not at all I found a hat, said Oak it is mine, said she and from a sense of proportion kept down to a small smile an inclination to laugh distinctly it flew away last night one o'clock this morning well it was, she was surprised how did you know, she said I was here you are Farmer Oak are you not that or thereabouts, I've lately come to this place a large farm she inquired, casting her eyes round and swinging back her hair which was black in the shaded hollows of its mass but it being now an hour past sunrise the rays touched its prominent curves with the colour of their own no not large, about a hundred and speaking of farms the word acres is omitted by the natives an analogy to such old expressions as a stag of ten I wanted my hat this morning, she went on I had to ride to the Tunel Mill yes you had how do you know I saw you where? she inquired a misgiving bringing every muscle of her liniments and frame to a standstill here, going through the plantation and all down the hill, said Farmer Oak with an aspect excessively knowing that he would regard to some matter in his mind as he gazed at a remote point in the direction named and then turned back to meet his colloquist's eyes a perception caused him to withdraw his own eyes from hers as suddenly as if he had been caught in a theft a recollection of the strange antics she had indulged him when passing through the trees was succeeded in the girl by a nettle palpitation and that by a hot face it was a time to see a woman redden who was not given to reddening as a rule not a point in the milkmaid but was of the deepest rose-colour from the maiden's blush through all the rites of the Provence down to the Crimson Tuscany the countenance of oak sequentance quickly graduated whereupon he in considerateness turned away his head the sympathetic man still looked the other way and wondered when she would recover coolness sufficiently to justify him in facing her again he heard what seemed to be the flitting of a dead leaf upon the breeze and looked she had gone away with an air between that of tragedy and comedy Gabriel returned to his work five mornings and evenings passed the young woman came regularly to milk the healthy cow or to attend to the sick one but never allowed her vision to stray in the direction of Oaks's person his want of tact had deeply offended her not by seeing what he could not help but by letting her know that he had seen it for, as without law there is no sin without eyes there is no indecorum and she appeared to feel that Gabriel's ispial had made her an indecreous woman without her own connivance it was food for great regret with him it was also a contra-tour which touched into life a latent heat he had experienced in that direction the acquaintanceship might, however, have ended in a slow forgetting but for an incident which occurred at the end of the same week one afternoon it began to freeze and the frost increased with evening which drew on like a stealthy tightening of bonds it was a time when in cottages the breath of the sleepers freezes to the sheets when round the drawing-room far of a thick-walled mansion the sitter's backs are cold even while their faces are all at low many a small bird went to bed suppolous that night among the bear-bows as the milking-hour drew near Oak kept his usual watch upon the cowshed at last he felt cold and shaking an extra quantity of bedding round the yearling ews he entered the hut and heaped more fuel upon the stove the wind came in at the bottom of the door and to prevent it Oak laid a sack there and wheeled the cot round a little more to the south then the wind spouted in at a ventilating-hole of which there was one on each side of the hut Gabriel had always known that when the fire was lighted and the door closed one of these must be kept open that chosen being always on the side away from the wind closing the slide to Wynwood he turned to open the other on second thoughts the farmer considered that he would first sit down leaving both clothes for a minute or two till the temperature of the hut was a little raised he sat down his head began to ache in an unwonted manner and fancying himself weary by reason of the broken rests of the preceding nights Oak decided to get up, open the slide and then allow himself to fall asleep he fell asleep however without having performed the necessary preliminary how long he remained unconscious Gabriel never knew during the first stages of his return to perception peculiar deeds seemed to be in course of enactment his dog was howling his head was aching fearfully somebody was pulling him about hands were loosening his neckerchief on opening his eyes he found that evening had sunk to dusk in a strange manner of unexpectedness the young girl with the remarkably pleasant lips and white teeth was beside him more than this, astonishingly more his head was upon her lap, his face and neck were disagreeably wet and her fingers were unbuttoning his collar whatever is the matter, said Oak vacantly she seemed to experience mirth but of too insignificant a kind to start enjoyment nothing now, she answered, since you are not dead it is a wonder you were not suffocated in this hut of yours ah, the hut, murmured Gabriel I gave ten pounds for that hut but I'll sell it and sit under thatched hurdles as they did in old times and curl up to sleep in a lock of straw it played me nearly the same trick the other day Gabriel, by way of emphasis, brought down his fist upon the floor it was not exactly the fault of the hut she observed in a tone which showed her to be that novelty among women one who finished her thought before beginning the sentence which was to convey it you should, I think, have considered and not have been so foolish as to leave the slides closed yes, I suppose I should, said Oak, absently he was endeavouring to catch and appreciate the sensation of being thus with her his head upon her dress before the event passed on into the heap of bygone things he wished she knew his impressions but he would have soon have thought of carrying an odour in a net as of attempting to convey the intangibilities of his feeling in the coarse meshes of language so he remained silent she made him sit up and then Oak began wiping his face and shaking himself like a Samson how can I thank him? he said at last, gratefully some of the natural rusty red having returned to his face oh, never mind that, said the girl, smiling and allowing her smile to hold good for Gabriel's next remark whatever that might prove to be how did you find me? I heard your dog howling and scratching at the door of the hut when I came to the milking he was so lucky, Daisy's milking is almost over for the season and I shall not come here after this week or the next the dog saw me and jumped over to me and laid hold of my skirt I came across and looked round the hut the very first thing to see if the slides were closed my uncle has a hut like this one and I have heard him tell his shepherd not to go to sleep without leaving a slide open I opened the door and there you were like dead I threw the milk over you as there was no water forgetting it was warm and no use I wonder if I should have died, Gabriel said in a low voice which was rather meant to travel back to himself than to her oh no, the girl replied she seemed to prefer a less tragic probability to have saved a man from death involved talk that should harmonize with the dignity of the deed and she shunned it I believe you saved my life, miss I don't know your name I know your aunts but not yours I would just as soon not tell it rather not there is no reason either why I should as you probably will never have much to do with me still I should like to know you can inquire at my aunts she will tell you my name is Gabriel Oak and mine isn't you seem fond of yours in speaking it so decisively Gabriel Oak you see it is the only one I shall ever have and I must make the most of it I always think mine sounds odd and disagreeable I should think you might soon get a new one mercy how many opinions you keep about you concerning other people Gabriel Oak well miss excuse the words I thought you would like them but I can't match you I know in mapping out my mind upon my tongue I never was very clever in my inside but I thank you come give me your hand she hesitated somewhat disconcerted at Oak's old-fashioned earnest conclusion to a dialogue lightly carried on very well she said and gave him her hand compressing her lips to demure impassivity he held it but an instant and in his fear of being too demonstrative swerved to the opposite extreme touching her fingers with a lightness of a small hearted person I'm sorry he said the instant after what for letting your hand go so quick you may have it again if you like there it is she gave him her hand again Oak held it longer this time indeed curiously long how soft it is being wintertime too not chapped or rough or anything he said there that's long enough said she there without pulling it away but I suppose you're thinking you would like to kiss it you may if you want to I wasn't thinking of any such thing said Gabriel simply but I will that you won't she snatched back her hand Gabriel felt himself guilty of another want of tact now find out my name she said teasingly and withdrew End of Chapter 3 Recording by Simon Evers Chapter 4 from Far From the Matting Crowd This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer go to LibriVox.org This reading by Patty Brugman Far From the Matting Crowd by Thomas Hardy Chapter 4 Gabriel's Resolve The Visit, The Mistake The only superiority in women that is tolerable to the rival sexes as a rule that of the unconscious kind But a superiority which recognizes itself may sometimes please by suggesting possibilities of capture to the subordinated man This well-favored and comely girl soon made appreciable in roads upon the emotional constitution of young farmer Oak Love being an extremely exacting usur a sense of exorbitant prophet spiritually by an exchange of hearts being at the bottom of pure passions as that of exorbitant prophet bodily or materially is at the bottom of those of lower atmosphere Every morning Oak's feelings were as sensitive as the money market and calculations upon his chances His dog waited for his meals in a way so like that in which Oak waited for the girl's presence that the farmer was quite struck with the resemblance felt at lowering and would not look at the dog However he continued to watch through the hedge for her regular coming and thus his sentiments toward her were deepened without any corresponding effect being produced upon herself Oak had nothing finished and ready to say as yet and not being able to frame love phrases which end where they begin, passionate tales full of sound and fury signifying nothing he said no word at all By making inquiries he found that the girl's name was Bathsheba Everdon and that the cow would go dry in about seven days. He dreaded the eighth day At last the eighth day came the cow had ceased to give milk for that year and Bathsheba Everdon came up the hill no more Gabriel had reached a pitch of existence he never could have anticipated a short time before He liked saying Bathsheba as a private enjoyment instead of whistling turned over his taste to black hair though he had sworn by brown ever since he was a boy isolated himself to the space he filled in the public eye was contemptibly small Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness Marriage transforms a distraction into a support the power of which should be and happily often is a direct proportion to the degree of imbecility at supplants Oak began now to see light in this direction and said to himself I'll make her my wife or upon my soul I shall be good for nothing All this while he was perplexing himself about an errand on which he might consistently visit the cottage of Bathsheba's aunt he found his opportunity in the death of a you mother of a living lamb on a day which had a summer face and a winter constitution a fine January morning when there was just enough blue sky visible to make cheerfully disposed people wish for more and an occasional gleam of silvery sunshine Oak put the lamb into a respectable Sunday basket and stalked across the fields to the house of Mrs. Hearst the aunt George the dog walking behind with the countenance of great concern and a serious turn pastoral affairs seem to be taking Gabriel had watched the blue wood smoke curling from the chimney with strange meditation at evening he had fancifully traced it down the chimney to the spot of its origin seen the hearth and Bathsheba beside it beside it in her outdoor dress for the clothes she had worn on the hill were by association equal with her person included in the compass of his affection they seemed at this early time of his love a necessary ingredient of the sweet mixture called Bathsheba Everden he had made a toilet to the nicely adjusted kind of a nature between the carefully neat and the carelessly or neat of a degree between fine market day and wet Sunday selection he thoroughly cleaned his silver watch chain with whiting put new lacing straps to his boots looked to the brass eyelet holes went to the inmost heart of the plantation for a new walking stick and trimmed it vigorously on his way back took a new handkerchief from the bottom of his clothes box put on the light waistcoat patterned all over with sprigs of an elegant flower uniting the beauties of both rose and lily without the defects of either and used all the hair oil he possessed upon his usually dry sandy and extricably curly hair till he had deepened it to a splendidly novel color between Matt of Guano and Roman cement making it stick to his head like mace around a nutmeg or wet seaweed around a boulder after the ebb nothing disturbed the stillness of the cottage saved the chatter of a knot of sparrows on the eaves one might fancy scandal and rumor to be no less the staple topic of his little coteries on roofs than of those under them it seemed that the omen was an unpiteous one for as the rather untoward commencement of oak's overtures just as he arrived by the garden gate he saw a cat inside going into various arched shapes and fiendish convolutions at the site of his dog George the dog took no notice for he had arrived at an age which also purplish barking was cynically avoided as a waste of breath in fact he never barked even as a sheep except to order when it was done with an absolutely neutral countenance as a sort of combination service which though offensive had to be gone through once now and then to threaten the flock for their own good a voice came from behind some laurel bushes into which the cat had run poor dear did a nasty bit of a dog want to cure it did he poor dear I beg your pardon said oak to the voice but George was walking on behind with the a temper as mild as milk almost before he had ceased speaking oak was seized within this giving as to whose ear was the recipient of his answer nobody appeared and he heard the person retreat among the bushes Gabriel meditated and so deeply that he brought small furrows into his forehead by sheer force of reverie where the issue of interview is as likely to be a vast change for the worse is for the better any initial difference from expectation causes nipping sensations of failure oak went up to the door a little abashed his mental rehearsal and the reality had had no common grounds of opening Bathsheba's aunt was indoors were you tell Mrs. Everdon that somebody would be glad to speak to her said Mr. Oak calling one self merely somebody without being a name is not to be taken as an example of the ill breeding of the rural world it springs for refined modesty of which towns people with their cars and announcements have no notion whatsoever Bathsheba was out the voice had evidently been hers will you come in Mr. Oak oh thank you said Gabriel following her to the fireplace I brought a lamb for Mr. Everdon I thought she might like one to rear girls do she might said Mrs. Hurst musingly though she's only a visitor here if you'll wait a minute Bathsheba will be in yes I will wait said Gabriel sitting down the lamb isn't really the business I came about Mrs. Hurst in short I was going to ask her if she'd like to be married and were you indeed yes because if she would I should be very glad to marry her do you know if she's got any other young man about her at all let me think said Mrs. Hurst poking the fire superfluously yes bless you ever so many young men you see Farmer Oak she's so good looking and an excellent scholar besides she was going to be a governess once you know only she was too wild not that her young men ever come here but Lord in the nature women she must have a dozen that's unfortunate said Farmer Oak contemplating a crack in the stone floor with sorrow I'm only an everyday sort of man and my only chance was in being the first comeer well there's no use in my waiting but that was all I came about so I'll take myself off home along Mrs. Hurst when Gabriel had gone about 200 yards along down he heard a hoi hoi uttered behind him in a piping note of more trouble quality than that in which the exclamation usually embodied itself when shattered across a field he looked around and saw a girl racing after him waving a white handkerchief Oak stood still and the runner drew nearer it was Bathsheba Everdon Gabriel's color deepened hers was already deep not as it appeared from emotion but from running Farmer Oak I she said pausing for a want of breath pulling up in front of him with a slanted face and putting her hand to her side I just called to see you said Gabriel pending her further speech yes I know that she said panting like a robin her face red and moist from her exertions like a peony petal before the sun dries off the dew I didn't know you had come to ask to have me or I should have come in from the garden instantly I ran after to say that my aunt made a mistake in sending you away from courting me Gabriel expanded I'm sorry to have made you run so fast my dear he said with a grateful sense of favors to come wait a bit till you found your breath it was quite a mistake aunts telling you I had a young man already Bathsheba went on I haven't seen a sweetheart at all and I never had one and I thought that is times go with women it was such a pity to send you away thinking I had several really and truly I'm glad to hear that said Farmer Oak smiling one of his long special smiles touching with gladness he held on his hand to take hers which when he had eased her side by pressing it there was prettily extended upon her bosom to still her loud beating heart directly he seized it she put it behind her so that it slipped through his fingers like an eel I have a nice snug little farm said Gabriel with a half a degree less assurance than when he had seized your hand yes you have a man has advanced me to begin with but still it will soon be paid off and though I am only an everyday sort of man I've got on a little since I was a boy Gabriel murdered a little in his tone to show her that it was the complacent form of a great deal he continued when we be married I am quite sure I can work twice as hard as I do now he went forward and stretched out his arm again Bathsheba had overtaken him at a point which stood a low stunted holly bush now laden with red berries seeing his advance take the form of an attitude threatening a possible enclosure if not compression of a person she edged off around the bush why farmer oak she said over the top looking at him with rounded eyes I never said I was going to marry you well that is a tale said oak with dismay to run after anybody like this and then to say you don't want him what I meant to tell you was only this she said equally and she had half conscious of the absurdity of the position she had made for herself but nobody has got me yet as a sweetheart instead of my having a dozen as my aunt said I hate to be thought men's property in that way though possibly I shall be someday why if I'd wanted you I shouldn't have run after you like this it would have been the forwardest thing but there's no harm in hurrying to correct a piece of false news that had been told to you oh no no harm at all but there is such a thing as being too generous in expressing a judgment impulsively and oak added with the more appreciative sense of all the circumstances well I'm not certain it was no harm indeed I hadn't time to think before starting whether I wanted to marry or not for you'd have been gone over the hill comes said Gabriel freshening again think a minute or two I'll wait a while Miss Everdon will you marry me do Bathsheba I love you far more than common I'll try to think she observed rather more timorously if I can think out of doors my mind spreads away so but you can give me a guess then give me time Bathsheba looked thoughtfully into the distance away from the direction in which Gabriel stood I can make you happy he said to the back of her head across the bush she'll have a piano in a year or two farmer's wives are getting to have pianos now and all practice up the flute right away to play with you in the evenings yes I should like that and have one of those little ten pound gigs for market and nice flowers and birds cocks and hens I mean because they are so useful continued Gabriel feeling balanced between poetry and practicality I should like it very much and a frame of cucumbers like a gentleman and lady yes and when the wedding was over we'd have it put in the newspaper list of marriages dearly I should like that and the babies in the births every man jack of them and at home by the fire whenever you look up there I shall be and whenever I look up you wait wait don't be improper her countenance fell and she was silent a while he regarded the red berries between them over and over again to such an extent that Holly seemed in his afterlife to be a cipher signifying a proposal of marriage but Sheba decisively turned to him no it is no use she said I don't want to marry you try I've tried hard all this time I've been thinking for a marriage would be very nice in one sense people would talk about me and think I had won my battle and I should be feel triumphant and all that but a husband well why he'd be there as you say whenever I looked up there he'd be of course he would I that is well what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding husband since a woman can't show off in that way by herself I shan't marry at least yet the terrible wooden story at this criticism of her statement both Sheba made an addition to her dignity by a slight sweep away from him upon my heart and soul I don't know what a maid can say stupider than that said Oak but dearest he continued in a palliative voice don't be like it Oak sighed a deep honest sigh none the less so in that being like the sigh of a pine plantation it was rather noticeable in the disturbance of the atmosphere why won't you have me he appealed creeping round the holly to reach her side I cannot she said retreating but why he persisted standing still at last in despair of ever reaching her and facing over the bush because I don't love you yes but she contracted a yawn to an inoffensive smallness so that it was hardly ill mannered at all I don't love you she said but I love you and as for myself I am content to be liked oh Mr. Oak that's very fine you'd get to despise me never said Mr. Oak so earnestly that he seemed to be coming by the force of his words straight through the bush and into her arms I shall do one thing in this life one thing certain that is love you and long for you and keep wanting you till I die his voice had a genuine pathos now and his large brown hands perceptibly trembled it seems dreadfully wrong not to have you when you feel so much she said with a little distress and looking hopelessly around for some means of escape from her moral dilemma how I wish I hadn't run after you however she seemed to have a short cut for getting back to cheerfulness and set her face to signify arch-ness it wouldn't do Mr. Oak I want somebody to tame me I am too independent and you would never be able to I know Oak cast his eyes down the field in a way implying that it was useless to attempt argument Mr. Oak she said with luminous distinctness and common sense you are better off than I I have hardly a penny in the world I am staying with my aunt for my bare sustenance I am better educated than you and I don't love you a bit that's my side of the case now yours you are a farmer just beginning and you ought in common prudence if you marry at all which you should certainly not think of doing at present to marry a woman with money who would stock a larger farm for you than you have now Gabriel looked at her with a little surprise and much admiration that's the very thing I had been thinking myself he said naively Farmer Oak had one and a half Christian characteristics too many to succeed with Bathsheba its humility and a superfluous moiety of honesty Bathsheba was decidedly disconcerted well then why did you come and disturb me she said almost angrily if not an enlarging red spot rising in each cheek I can't do what I think would be would be right? no, wise you have made an admission now Mr. Oak she exclaimed with even more hauteur and rocking her head distinctly after that do you think I could marry you not if I know it he broken passionately but don't mistake me like that because I am open enough to own what every man in my shoes would have thought of you make your colors come up your face and get crapped with me that about you not being good enough for me is nonsense you speak like a lady all the parish notice it and your uncle at Weatherbury is I've heard a large farmer much larger than I shall ever be may I call in the evening walk along with me on Sundays I don't want you to make up your mind if once if you'd rather not no no I cannot don't press me anymore don't I don't love you so it would be ridiculous she said with a laugh no man likes to see his emotions the sport of America around of skittishness very well said out firmly with the bearing of one who was going to give his days and nights to Ecclesiastes forever then I'll ask no more end of chapter four read by Patty Brugman chapter five from far from the Madden crowd this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer go to LibriVox.org this recording by Patty Brugman far from the Madden crowd by Thomas Hardy chapter five departure of Bathsheba tragedy the news which one day reached Gabriel that Bathsheba Everdon had left the neighborhood had an influence upon him which might have surprised any who never suspected that the more emphatic the renunciation the less absolute its character it may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in some people look upon marriage as a shortcut that way has been known to fail separation which was the means that chance offered to Gabriel Oak by Bathsheba's disappearance though effectual with people of certain humours is apt to idealize at the removed object with others notably those whose affection placid and regular as it may be flows deep and long Oak belonged to the even tempered order of humanity and felt the secret fusion of himself with Bathsheba to be burning with a finer flame now that she was gone that was all his incipient friendship with her aunt had been nipped by the failure of his suit and all that Oak learned of Bathsheba's movements was done indirectly it appeared that she had gone to a place called Weatherbury more than twenty miles off but in what capacity whether as a visitor or permanently he could not discover the and a coat marked in random splotches approximating in colour to white and slady grey but the grey after years of sun and rain had been scorched and washed out of the more prominent locks leaving them a reddish brown as if the blue component of the grey had faded like the indigo from some kind of colour in Turner's pictures in substance it had had rigidly been hair but long contact with sheep seemed to be turning it by degrees and two wool of a poor quality and stable this dog had originally belonged to a shepherd of inferior morals and dreadful temper and the result was that George knew the exact degree of condemnation signified by cursing and squaring of all descriptions better than the wickedest old man in the neighbourhood long experience had so precisely taught the animal the difference between such exclamations as come in and dee ye come in that he knew to a hair's breath the route of trotting back from the used hail that each call involved if a staggerer with the sheep crook was to be escaped though old he was clever and trustworthy still the young dog George's son might possibly have been the image of his mother for there was not much resemblance between him and George he was learning the sheepkeeping business so as to follow on at the flock when the other should die but had got no further than the rudiments as yet still finding an insupperable difficulty in distinguishing between doing a thing well enough and doing it too well so earnest and yet so wrong-headed was this young dog he had no name in particular and answered with perfect readiness to any pleasant interjection that if sent behind the flock to help them on he did it so thoroughly that he would have chased them across the whole country with the greatest pleasure of not called off or reminded when to stop by the example of old George thus much for the dogs on the further side of Norquham Hill was a chalk pit from which chalk had been drawn over adjacent farms two hedges converged upon it in the form of a V but without quite meeting the narrow opening left which was immediately over the brow of the pit was protected by a rough railing one night when farmer Oak had returned to his house believing there would be no further necessity for his attendants on the down he called as usual to the dogs previously to shutting them up in the outhouse until the next morning only one responded old George the other could not be found either in the house, lane or garden Gabriel then remembered that he had left the two dogs on the hill eating a dead lamb a kind of meat he usually kept from them except when other food ran short and concluding that the young one had not finished his meal he went indoors to the luxury of a bed which latterly he had only enjoyed on Sundays it was a still moist night just before dawn he was assisted in waking by the abnormal reverberation of familiar music to the shepherd the note of the sheep bell like the ticking of a clock to other people is a chronic sound that only makes itself noticed by ceasing or altering in some unusual manner from the well known idle tinkle which signifies to the accustomed ear however distant that all is well in the fold in the solemn calm of the awakening mourn that note was heard by Gabriel beating with unusual violence and rapidity this exceptional ringing may be caused in two ways by the rapid feeding of the sheep bearing the bell as when the flock breaks into a new pasture which gives it an intermittent rapidity or by the sheep starting off in a run when the sound has a regular palpitation the experienced ear of oak knew the sound to be now heard because by the running of the flock with great velocity he jumped out of bed dressed, tore down the lane through the foggy dawn and descended the hill the forward use were kept apart from those among which the fall of lambs would be later there being two hundred of the latter class in Gabriel's flock these two hundred seemed to have absolutely vanished from the hill there were fifty with their lambs and closed at the other end as he had left them but the rest forming the bulk of the flock were nowhere Gabriel called at the top of his voice the shepherd's call oi oi oi not a single bleat he went to the hedge a gap had been broken through it and in the gap were the footprints of the sheep rather surprised to find them break fence at the season yet putting it down instantly to their great fondness for Ivy and Wintertime of which a great deal grew in the plantation he followed through the hedge they were not in the plantation he called again the valleys and furthest hills resounded is when the sailors invoked the lost hilias and the mice and shore but no sheep he passed through the trees and along the ridge of the hill on the extreme summit where the ends of the two converging hedges of which we have spoken were stopped short by meeting the brow of the chockpit he saw the younger dog standing against the sky dark and motionless as Napoleon at St. Helena a horrible conviction darted through Oak with the sensation of bodily faintness he advanced at one point the rails were broken through and there he saw the footprints of his youth the dog came up licked his hand and made signs implying that he expected some great reward for signal services rendered Oak looked over the precipice the youths lay dead and dying at the foot a heap of 200 mangled carcasses representing in their condition just now at least 200 more Oak was an intensely humane man indeed his humanity often tore in pieces in apolitic intentions of his which bordered on strategy and carried him on as by gravitation a shadow in his life had always been that his flock ended in mutton that a day came and found every shepherd an errant trader to his defenseless sheep his first feeling now was one of pity for the untimely fate of these gentle youths and their unborn lambs it was a second to remember another phase of the matter the sheep were not insured all the savings of a frugal life had been dispersed at a blow his hopes of being an independent farmer were laid low possibly forever Gabriel's energies patience and industry had been so severely taxed during the years of his life between 18 and 1820 to reach his present stage of progress that no more seemed to be left to him he leaned down upon a rail and covered his face with his hands stoopers however do not last forever and farmer oak recovered from his it was as remarkable as it was characteristic that the one sentence he uttered was in thankfulness thank god I'm not married what would she have done in the poverty now coming upon me oak raised his head and wondering what he could do by the outer margin of the pit was an oval pond and over it hung the attenuated skeleton of a chrome yellow moon which had only a few days to last the morning star dogging her on the left hand the pool glittered like a dead man's eye and as the world awoke a breeze blew breaking and elongating the reflection of the moon without breaking it and turning the image of the star to a phosphoric streak upon the water all this oak saw and remembered as far as could be learned it appeared that the poor young dog still under the impression that since he was kept for running after sheep the more he ran after them the better had at the end of his meal off the dead lamb which may have given him additional energy and spirits collected all the use into a corner driven the timidest creatures through the hedge across the upper field and by main force of worrying had given them momentum enough to break down a portion of the rotten railing and so hurled them over the edge George's son had done his work so thoroughly that he was considered too good a workman to live and was in fact taken and tragically shot at twelve o'clock that same day another instance of the untoward fate which so often attends dogs and other philosophers who follow out a train of reasoning to its logical conclusion and attempt perfectly consistent conduct in a world made up so largely of compromise Gabriel's farm had been stocked by a dealer on the strength of oak's promising look and character who was receiving a percentage from the farmer till such time as the advance should be cleared off oak found that the value of stock plant and implements which were really his own would be about sufficient to pay his debts leaving himself a free man with the clothes he stood up in and nothing more End of Chapter 5 read by Patty Brugman If you want to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Leanne Howlett Far from the Matting Crowd by Thomas Hardy Chapter 6 The Fair, The Journey, The Fire Two months passed away We were brought on to a day in February on which was held the yearly statute or hiring fair in the county town of Castor Bridge At one end of the street stood from two to three hundred Blythe and Hardy laborers waiting upon chance All men of the stamp to whom labor suggest nothing worse than a wrestle with gravitation and pleasure nothing better than a renunciation of the same Among these, carters and wagoners were distinguished by having a piece of whip cord twisted around their hats Thatchers wore a fragment of woven straw Shepherds held their sheep crooks in their hands and thus the situation required was known to the hirers In the crowd was an athletic young fellow of somewhat superior appearance to the rest In fact, his superiority was marked enough to lead several ruddy peasants standing by to speak to him inquiringly as to a farmer and to use sir as a finishing word His answer always was I am looking for a place myself a bailiffs Do you know of anybody who wants one? Gabriel was paler now His eyes were more meditative and his expression was more sad He had passed through an ordeal of wretchedness which had given him more than it had taken away He had sunk from his modest elevation as pastoral king into the very slime pits of sedum but there was left to him a dignified calm he had never before known and that indifference to fate which though it often makes a villain of a man is the basis of his sublimity when it does not and thus the abasement had been exaltation and the loss gained in the morning a regiment of cavalry had left the town and a sergeant and his party had been beating up for recruits through the four streets as the end of the day drew on and he found himself not hired Gabriel almost wished that he had joined them and gone off to serve his country weary of standing in the marketplace and not much minding the kind of work he turned his hand to he decided to offer himself in some other capacity than that of bailiff all the farmers seemed to be wanting shepherds sheep tending was Gabriel's speciality turning down an obscure street and entering an obscure lane he went up to a smith's shop how long would it take you to make a shepherd's crook? twenty minutes how much? two shillings he sat on a bench and the crook was made a stem being given him into the bargain he then went to a ready-made close shop the owner of which had a large rural connection as the crook had absorbed most of Gabriel's money he attempted and carried out an exchange of his overcoat for a shepherd's regulation smockfrock this transaction having been completed he again hurried off to the center of the town and stood on the curb of the pavement as a shepherd crook in hand now that oak had turned himself into a shepherd it seemed that bailiffs were most in demand however two or three farmers noticed him and drew near dialogues followed more or less in the subjoined form where do you come from? norcum that's a long way fifteen miles whose farm were you upon last? my own this reply invariably operated like a rumor of cholera the inquiring farmer would edge away and shake his head dubiously Gabriel, like his dog was too good to be trustworthy and he never made advance beyond this point it is safer to accept any chance that offers itself and extemporize a procedure to fit it than to get a good plan matured and wait for a chance of using it Gabriel wished he had not nailed up his colors as a shepherd but had laid himself out for anything in the whole cycle of labor that was required in the fair it grew dusk some merry men were whistling and singing by the corn exchange Gabriel's hand which had lain for some time idle in his smockfrock pocket touched his flute which he carried there here was an opportunity for putting his dearly bought wisdom into practice he drew out his flute and began to play jockey to the fair in the style of a man who had never known moments sorrow oak could pipe with arcadian sweetness and the sound of the well known notes cheered his own heart as well as those of the loungers he played on with spirit and in half an hour had earned in pence what was a small fortune to a destitute man by making inquiries he learned that there was another fair in Shotsford the next day how far is Shotsford ten miles to the other side of Weatherbury Weatherbury it was where Bathsheba had gone two months before this information was like coming from night into noon how far is it to Weatherbury five or six miles Bathsheba had probably left Weatherbury long before this time but the place had enough interest attaching to it to lead oak to choose Shotsford fair as his next field of inquiry because it lay in the Weatherbury quarter moreover the Weatherbury folk were by no means uninteresting intrinsically if reports spoke truly they were as hardy, merry, thriving wicked a set as any in the whole county oak resolved to sleep at Weatherbury that night on his way to Shotsford and struck out at once into the high road which had been recommended as the direct route to the village in question the road stretched through water meadows traversed by little brooks covering surfaces were braided along their centers and folded in creases at the sides or where the flow was more rapid the stream was pied with spots of white froth which rode on in undisturbed serenity on the higher levels the dead and dry carcasses of leaves tapped the ground as they bowled along helter-skelter upon the shoulders of the wind and little birds in the hedges were rustling their feathers and tucking themselves uncomfortably for the night retaining their places of oak kept moving away if he stopped to look at them he passed by Yalbury Wood where the game birds were rising to their roosts and heard the crack-voiced cock pheasants cook cook and the weasy whistle of the hens by the time he had walked three or four miles every shape in the landscape had assumed a uniform hue of blackness he descended Yalbury Hill and could just discern ahead of him a wagon drawn up under a great overhanging tree by the roadside on coming close he found no horses attached to it the spot being apparently quite deserted the wagon, from its position seemed to have been left there for the night for beyond about half a truss of hay which was heaped in the bottom it was quite empty Gabriel sat down on the shafts of the vehicle and considered his position he calculated that he had walked a very fair proportion of the journey and having been on foot since daybreak he felt tempted to lie down upon the hay and the wagon instead of pushing on and having to pay for a lodging eating his last slices of bread and ham and drinking from the bottle of cider he had taken the precaution to bring with him he got into the lonely wagon here he spread half of the hay as a bed and as well as he could in the darkness pulled the other half over him by way of bed clothes covering himself entirely and feeling physically as comfortable as ever he had been in his life inward melancholy it was impossible like oak introspective far beyond his neighbors to banish quite whilst conning the present untoward page of his history so thinking of his misfortunes amorous and pastoral he fell asleep shepherds enjoying in common with sailors the privilege of being able to summon the god instead of having to wait for him on somewhat suddenly awaking after a sleep of whose length he had no idea oak found that the wagon was in motion he was being carried along the road at a rate rather considerable for a vehicle without springs and under circumstances of physical uneasiness his head being dandled up and down on the bed of the wagon like a kettle drum stick he then distinguished voices and conversation coming from the four part of the wagon his concern at this dilemma which would have been alarm had he been a thriving man but misfortune is a fine opiate to personal terror led him to peer cautiously from the hay and the first sight he beheld was the stars above him Charles's wane was getting towards a right angle with the pole star and Gabriel concluded that must be about nine o'clock in other words that he had slept two hours this small astronomical calculation was made without any positive effort and whilst he was stealthily turning to discover if possible into whose hands he had fallen two figures were dimly visible in front sitting with their legs outside the wagon one of whom was driving he soon found that this was the wagoner and it appeared they had come from Casterbridge Fair like himself a conversation was in progress which continued thus Bea's twill she's a fine handsome body as far as looks be concerned but that's only the skin of the woman and these dandy cattle be as proud as a Lucifer on their insides I so adieu seam Billy Smallbury so adieu seam this utterance was very shaky by nature and more so by circumstance the jolting of the wagon not being without its effects upon the speaker's larynx it came from the man who held the reins she's a very vain female so to said here and there now if so beat is like that I can't look her in the face Lord know not I such a shy man as I be yes she's very vain to said that every night at going to bed she looks in the glass to put on her nightcap properly and not a married woman owe the world and he can play the piano so to said can play so clever that it can make a song tune sound as well as the Marius loose song a man can wish for do you tell of it a happy time for us and I feel quite a new man and how do she pay that I don't know master poor grass on hearing these and other similar remarks a wild thought flashed in the Gabriel's mind might be speaking of Bathsheba there were however no grounds for retaining such a supposition for the wagon though going in the direction of weatherbury might be going beyond it and the woman alluded to seemed to be the mistress of some estate they were now apparently close upon weatherbury and not to alarm the speakers unnecessarily Gabriel slipped out of the wagon unseen he turned to an opening in the hedge which he found to be a gate and mounting there on he sat meditating whether to seek or to ensure a cheaper one by lying under some hay or cornstack the crunching jangle of the wagon died upon his ear he was about to walk on when he noticed on his left hand an unusual light appearing about half a mile distant oak watched it in the glow increased something was on fire Gabriel again mounted the gate and leaping down on the other side upon what he found to be plowed soil made across the field in the exact direction of the fire the blaze enlarging in a double ratio by his approach and its own increase showed him as he drew near the outlines of ricks beside it lighted up to great distinctness a rickyard was the source of the fire his weary face now began to be painted over with a rich orange glow and the whole front of his smock frock and gators was covered with a dancing shadow pattern of thorn twigs the light reaching him through leafless intervening hedge and the metallic curve of his sheep crook shown silver bright in the same abounding rays he came up to the boundary fence and stood to regain breath it seemed as if the spot was unoccupied by a living soul the fire was issuing from a long straw stack which was so far gone as to preclude a possibility of saving it a rick burns differently from a house as the wind blows the fire inwards the portion in flames completely disappears like melting sugar and the outline is lost to the eye however they are a wheat rick well put together will resist combustion for a length of time if it begins on the outside this before Gabriel's eyes was a rick of straw loosely put together and the flames started into it with lightning swiftness it glowed on the windward side rising and falling in intensity like the coal of a cigar then a super incumbent bundle rolled down with a whisking noise flames elongated and bent themselves about with a quiet roar but no banks of smoke went off horizontally at the back like passing clouds and behind these burned hidden pyres illuminating the semi-transparent sheet of smoke to lustrous yellow uniformity individual straws in the foreground were consumed in a creeping movement of ruddy heat as if they were knots of red worms and above shown imaginary fiery faces tongues hanging from lips glaring eyes and other impish forms from which at intervals sparks like birds from a nest oak suddenly ceased from being a mere spectator by discovering the case to be more serious than he had at first imagined a stroll of smoke blew aside and revealed to him a wheat rick in startling juxtaposition with a decaying one and behind this a series of others composing the main corn produce of the farm so that instead of the straw stack standing as he had imagined comparatively isolated there was a regular connection between it and the remaining stacks of the group Gabriel leapt over the hedge and saw that he was not alone the first man he came to was running about in a great hurry as if his thoughts were several yards in advance of his body which they could never drag on fast enough oh man fire fire a good master and a bad servant is fire fire I mean a bad servant and a good master oh mark Clark come and you Billy Smallbury and you Marianne money and you Jan Coggin and Matthew there other figures now appeared behind this shouting man and among the smoke and Gabriel found that far from being alone he was in a great company whose shadows danced merrily up and down timed by the jigging of the flames and not at all by their owners movements the assemblage belonging to that class of society which cast its thoughts into the form of feeling and its feelings into the form of commotion set to work with a remarkable confusion of purpose stop the draw under the wheat Rick cried Gabriel to those nearest to him the corn stood on stone staddles in between these tongues of yellow hue from the burning straw licked and darted playfully if the fire once got under this stack all would be lost get a tarpaulin quick said Gabriel a Rick cloth was brought and they hung it like a curtain across the channel the flames immediately ceased to go under the bottom of the corn stack and stood up vertical stand here with a bucket of water the cloth wet said Gabriel again the flames now driven upwards began to attack the angles of the huge roof covering the wheat stack a ladder cried Gabriel the ladder was against the straw rick and is burnt to a cinder set a specter like form in the smoke oak sees the cut ends of the sheaves as if he were going to engage in the operation of re-drawing and digging in his feet and occasionally sticking in the stem of his sheep crook he clambered up the beatling face he had once sat astride the very apex and began with his crook to beat off the fiery fragments which had lodged thereon shouting to the others to get him a bow and a ladder and some water Billy Smallbury one of the men who had been on the wagon by this time had found a ladder which Mark Clark ascended holding on beside oak upon the thatch the smoke at this corner was stifling and Clark a nimble fellow having been handed a bucket of water bathed oak's face and sprinkled him with a long sabrele now with a long beech bow in one hand in addition to his crook in the other kept sweeping the stack and dislodging all fiery particles on the ground the groups of villages were still occupied and doing all they could to keep down the conflagration which was not much they were all tinged to orange and backed up by shadows a varying pattern round the corner of the largest stack out of the direct rays of the fire stood a pony bearing a young woman on her side was another woman on foot these two seemed to keep it a distance from the fire that the horse might not become restive he's a shepherd said the woman on foot yes he is see how his crook shines as he beats the rick with it and his smock frock is burnt in two holes I declare a fine young shepherd he is too ma'am whose shepherd is he said the equestrian in a clear voice don't know ma'am don't any of the others know nobody at all I've asked him quite a stranger they say the young woman on the pony rode out from the shade and looked anxiously around do you think the barn is safe she said do you think the barn is safe Jan Coggin said the second woman passing on the question to the nearest man in that direction safe now least wise I think so if this rick had gone the barn would have followed is that bold shepherd up there that have done the most good he's sitting on the top of rick with his arms about like a windmill he does work hard said the young woman on horseback looking up at Gabriel through her thick wool and veil I wish he was shepherd here don't any of you know his name never heard the man's name in my life or see his form before the fire began to get worsted in Gabriel's elevated position being no longer required of him he made his if to descend Mary Ann said the girl on horseback go to him as he comes down say that the farmer wishes to thank him for the great service he has done Mary Ann stalked off towards the rick and met Oak at the foot of the ladder she delivered her message where is your master the farmer asked Gabriel kindling with the idea of getting employment that seemed to strike him now tisn't a master tis a mistress shepherd a woman farmer I a believe and a rich one too said a bystander lately a came here from a distance took on her uncle's farm who died suddenly used to measure his money in half pint cups they say now that she is business in every bank in castor bridge and thinks no more of playing pitch and toss sovereign than you and I do pitch half penny not a bit in the world shepherd that she back there upon the pony said Mary Ann with her face covered up in that black cloth with holes in it Oak his features smudged grimy and undiscoverable from the smoke and heat his smock frock burnt into holes and dripping with water the ash stem of his sheep crook charged six inches shorter advanced with the humility stern adversity had thrust upon him to the slight female form in the saddle he lifted his hat with respect and not without gallantry stepping close to her hanging feet he said an hesitating voice do you happen to want a shepherd ma'am she lifted the wool veil tied round her face and looked all astonishment the imperial and his cold-hearted darling Bathsheba Everdeen were face to face Bathsheba did not speak and he mechanically repeated in an abashed and sad voice do you want a shepherd ma'am End of Chapter 6 Recording by Leanne Howlett Chapter 7 Far from the Madden crowd This is a Libravox recording All Libravox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit Libravox.org This reading by Lucy Burgoyne Far from the Madden crowd by Thomas Hardy Chapter 7 Recognition A Timid Girl Bathsheba withdrew into the shade she scarcely knew were the most to be amused at the singularity of the meeting turned at its awkwardness there was a room for a little pity also for a very little exultation the former at his position the latter at her own embarrassed she was not and she remembered Gabrielle's declaration of love to her at Norcombe only to think she had nearly forgotten it Yes, she murmured putting on an air of dignity and turning again to him with a little warmth of cheek I do want a shepherd but he's the very man, ma'am said one of the villagers quietly conviction breeds conviction ay, that ay is said a second decisively the man truly said a third with heartiness he's all there said number four, fervently then will you tell him to speak to the bailiff, said Bathsheba all was practical again now a summer eve and loneliness would have been necessary to give the meeting its proper fullness of romance the bailiff was pointed out to Gabrielle who checking the palpitation within his breast at discovering that this ashtoroth of strange report was only a modification of Venus well-known and admired retired with him to talk over the necessary preliminaries of hiring the fire before them wasted away men, said Bathsheba you shall take a little refreshment after this extra work will you come to the house we could knock in a bit and drop a good deal for air miss, if so be you'd send it to Warren's mulk house, replied the spokesman Bathsheba then rode off into the darkness and the men straggled onto the village in twos and threes oak and the bailiff being left by the rick alone and now, said the bailiff finally, all is settled I think about your coming and I am going home alone good night to you shepherd can you get me a lodging inquire Gabrielle that I can't indeed he said moving past oak as a Christian Edges passed an offertory plate when he does not mean to contribute if you follow on the road to you come to Warren's mulk house where they are all gone to have their snap of victuals I dare say some of them will tell you of a place good night to you shepherd the bailiff who showed this thread of loving his neighbour as himself went up the hill and oak walked on to the village still astonished at the re-encounter with Bathsheba glad of his nearness to her and perplexed at the rapidy with which the unpractised girl of Norcomb had developed into the supervising and cool woman here but some women only require an emergency to make them fit obliged to some extent to forgo dreaming in order to find the way he reached the churchyard and passed round it under the wall where several ancient trees grew there was a wide margin of grass along here and Gabrielle's footsteps were deaden by its softness even at this enduring period of the year when abreast of the trunk which appeared to be the oldest of the old he became aware that a figure was standing behind it Gabrielle did not pause in his walk and in another moment he accidentally kicked a loose stone the noise was enough to disturb the motionless stranger who started and assumed a careless position it was a slim girl rather thinly clad good night to you said Gabrielle good night said the girl to Gabrielle the voice was unexpectedly attractive it was the low and dulcet note suggestive of romance common in descriptions rare in experience I'll thank you to tell me if I'm in the way to Warren's malt house Gabrielle resumed primarily to gain the information indirectly to get more of the music quite right it's at the bottom of the hill and do you know the girl hesitated and then went on do you know how late they keep open the buck's head in she seems to be won by Gabrielle's heartiness as Gabrielle had been won by her modulations I don't know where the buck's head is or anything about it is there going there tonight yes the woman again paused there was no necessity for any continuance of speech and the fact that she did add more seemed to proceed from an unconscious desire to show unconcerned by making a remark which is noticeable in the ingenuous when they are acting by stealth you are not a weatherbury man timorously I am not I am the new shepherd just arrived only a shepherd and you seem almost a farmer by your ways only a shepherd Gabrielle repeated in a dull cadence of finality his thoughts were directed to the past his eyes to the feet of the girl and for the first time she may have perceived the direction of his face for she said coaxingly you won't say anything in the parish about having seen me here will you at least not for a day or two I won't if you wish me not to said oak thank you indeed the other replied I am rather poor and I don't want people to know who is silent and shivered you ought to have a cloak on such a cold night Gabrielle observed I would advise thee to get indoors oh no, would you mind going on and leaving me I thank you much for what you have told me I will go on he said, adding hesitantly since you are not very well off perhaps you would accept this trifle from me only a shilling but it is all I have to spare yes, I will take it said the stranger gratefully she extended her hand Gabrielle his in feeling for each other's palm in the gloom before the money could be passed a minute incident occurred which told much Gabrielle's fingers are lighted on the young woman's wrist it was beating with the throb tragic intensity he had frequently felt the same quick heartbeat in the femoral artery of his limbs when over driven it suggested a consumption too great at the vitality which to judge from her figure and statue was already too little what is the matter nothing but there is no, no, no let your having seen me be a secret very well, I will good night again good night the young girl remained motionless by the tree and Gabrielle descended into the village of Wetherbury all lower long puddle as it was sometimes called he fans it that he had felt himself in the penumbra of a very deep sadness when touching that slight and fragile creature that wisdom lies in moderating married impressions and Gabrielle endeavored to think little of this End of chapter 7