 46 Squire Faggis makes some lucky hits. Through that season of bitter frost, the red deer of the forest having nothing to feed upon and no shelter to rest in had grown accustomed to our ricks of corn and hay and clover. There we might see a hundred of them, almost any morning, come for warmth and food and comfort, and scarce willing to move away. And many of them were so tame that they quietly presented themselves at our back door, and stood there with their coats quite stiff and their flanks drawn in and panting, and icicles sometimes on their chins, and their great eyes fastened wistfully upon any merciful person, craving for a bit of food and a drink of water. I suppose that they had not sense enough to chew the snow and melt it, at any rate all the springs being frozen and rivers hidden out of sight, these poor things suffered even more from thirst than they did from hunger. But now there was no fear of thirst, and more chance indeed of drowning, for a heavy gale of wind arose with violent rain from the south-west, which lasted almost a day of pause for three nights and two days. At first the rain made no impression on the bulk of snow, but ran from every sloping surface, and froze on every flat one, through the coldness of the earth, and so it became impossible for any man to keep his legs without the help of a shodden staff. After a good while, however, the air growing very much warmer, this state of things began to change, and a worse one to succeed it. But now the snow came thundering down from roof and rock and ivid tree, and floods began to roar and foam in every trough and gully. The drift, which had been so white and fair, looked yellow and smirched and muddy, and lost their graceful curves, and moulded lines and airiness. But the strangest sight of all to me was in the bed of streams and brooks, and especially of the Linn River. It was worth going miles to behold such a thing, for a man might never have the chance again. Last drifts of snow had filled the valley, and piled above the river-course fifty feet high in many places, and in some as much as a hundred. These had frozen over the top, and glanced the rain away from them, and being sustained by rock and tree, spanned the water mightily. But meanwhile the waxing flood, swollen from every moorland hollow, and from every starting crag, had dashed away all icy fetters, and was rolling gloriously. The white fantastic arches and long tunnels freaked and fretted, and between perlucid pillars jagged with nodding architraves, the red impetuous torrent rushed in the brown, firm world and flashed. I was half inclined to jump in and swim through such glorious scenery, for nothing used to please me more than swimming in a flooded river. But I thought of the rocks, and I thought of the cramp, and more than all of Launa, and so between one thing and another I let it roll on without me. It was now high time to work very hard, both to make up for the farm-work lost during the months of frost and snow, and also to be ready for a great and vicious attack from the dunes who would burn us in our beds at the earliest opportunity. Of farm-work there was little yet for even the most zealous man to begin to lay his hand to, because when the ground appeared through the crust of bubbled snow, as at last it did, though not as my Launa had expected at the first few drops of rain, it was all so soaked and sodden, and as we call it, moxie, that the metal-withered in any way was to do more harm than good. Nevertheless there was yard-work and house-work, and tendons of stock enough to save any man from idleness. As for Launa she would come out, there was no keeping her in the house. She had taken up some peculiar notion that we were doing more for her than she had any right to, and that she must earn her living by the hard work of her hands. It was quite in vain to tell her that she was expected to do nothing, and far worse than vain, for it made her cry sadly, if any one assured her that she could do no good at all. She even began upon mother's garden, before the snow was clean gone from it, and sowed a beautiful roll of peas, every one of which the mice ate. But though it was very pretty to watch her working for her very life, as if the maintenance of the household hung upon her labours, yet her was grieved for many reasons, and so was mother also. In the first place she was too fair and dainty for this rough, rude work, and though it made her cheeks so bright, it surely must be bad for her to get her little feet so wet. Moreover we could not bear the idea that she should labour for her keep, and again, which was the worst of all things, mother's garden lay exposed to a dark deceitful coppers, where a man might lurk and watch all the fair gardener's doings. It was true that none could get at her sense, while the brook which ran between poured so great a torrent. Still the distance was but little for a gun to carry, if any one could be brutal enough to point a gun at Lornell. I thought that none could be found to do it, but mother, having more experience, was not so certain of mankind. Now in spite of the floods and the sloughs being out and the state of the roads most perilous, Squire Fathers came at last, riding his famous strawberry mare. There was a greater dew between him and Annie as you may well suppose after some four months of parting, and so he left them alone awhile, to coddle over their raptures. But when they were tired of that, or at least had time enough to be so, mother and I went in to know what news Tom had brought with him. Though he did not seem to want us yet, he made himself agreeable, and so he sent Annie to cook the dinner, while her sweetheart should tell us everything. Tom Fathers had very good news to tell, and he told it with such force of expression as made us laugh very heartily. He had taken up his purchase from old Sir Roger Bassett of a nice bit of land to the south of the moors and in the parish of Molland. When the lawyers knew thoroughly who he was and how he had made his money, they behaved uncommonly well to him, and showed great sympathy with his pursuits. He put them up to a thing or two, and they poked him in the ribs and laughed and said that he was quite a boy, but of the right sort, nonetheless. And so they made old Squire Bassett pay the bill for both sides, and all he got for three hundred acres was a hundred and twenty pounds, though Tom had paid five hundred. But lawyers know that this must be so in spite of all their endeavours, and the old gentleman, who now expected to find a bill for him to pay, almost thought himself a rogue for getting anything out of them. It is true that the land was poor and wild, and the soil exceeding shallow, lying on the slope of rock and burned up in hot summers. But with us hot summers are things known by tradition only, as this great winter may be. We generally have more moisture, especially in July, than we well know what to do with. I have known a fog for a fortnight at the summer solstice, and farmers talking in church about it when they ought to be praying. But it always can try us to come right in the end, as other visitations do if we take them as true visits and receive them kindly. Now this farm of Squire Faggess, as he truly now had a right to be called, was of the very finest pasture when it got good store of rain, and Tom, who had ridden the Devonshire Rudge with many a reeking jacket, knew right well that he might trust the climate for that matter. The herbage was of the very sweetest and the shortest and the closest, having perhaps from ten to eighteen inches of wholesome soil between it and the solid rock. Tom saw at once what it was fit for, the breeding of fine cattle. Being such a hand as he was at making the most of everything, both his own and other people's, although so free and scattering when the humour lay upon him, he had actually turned to his own advantage that extraordinary weather, which had so impoverished everyone around him. Before he taught his Winnie, he knew his meaning as well as any child could, and obeyed not only his word of mouth, but every glance he gave her, to go forth in the snowy evenings when horses are seeking everywhere, be they wild or tame, for fodder and for shelter, and to Winnie to the forest ponies miles away from home perhaps, and lead them all with rare appetite and promise of abundance to her master's homestead. He showed good Winnie in such a manner that she could not sink in the snow, and he clad her over the loins with the sheepskin, dyed to her own colour, which the wild horses never tired of coming up and sniffing out, taking it for a special gift and proof of inspiration. And Winnie never came home at night without at least a score of ponies totting shyly after her, tossing their heads and their tails in turn, and making believed to be very wild, although hard-pinched by Furman. Of course Tom would get them all into his pound in about five minutes, for he himself could neigh in a manner which went to the heart of the wildest horse. And then he fed them well, and turned them into his great cuttle-pen to abide their time for breaking when the snow and frost should be over. He had gotten more than three hundred now in this sagacious manner, and he said it was the finest sight to see their mode of carrying on. How they would snort and stamp and fume and prick their ears and rush backwards and lash themselves with their long rough tails and shake their jagged mains and scream and fall upon one another if a strange man came and nigh them. But as for feeding time, Tom said it was better than fifty plays to watch them and the tricks they were up to, to cheat their feeders in one another. I asked him how on earth he had managed to get for her in such impassable weather for such a herd of horses, but he said that they lived upon straw and sawdust, and he knew that I did not believe him any more than about his star shavings. And this was just the thing he loved, to mystify honest people, and be a great deal too gnawing. However, I made judge him harshly, because I myself tell everything. I asked him what he meant to do with all that enormous slot of horses, and why he had not exerted his wits to catch the red deer as well. He said that the latter would have been against the laws of venery and might have brought him into trouble, but as for disposing of his stud it would give him little difficulty. He would break them when the spring weather came on, and deal with them as they required, and keep the handsomest for breeding. The rest he would dispatch to London, where he knew plenty of horse-dealers, and he doubted not that they would fetch him as much as ten pounds apiece all round, being now in great demand. I told him I wished that he might get it, but as it proved afterwards he did. Then he pressed us both on another point, the time for his marriage to Annie, and mother looked at me to say when, and I looked back at mother. However, knowing something of the world and unable to make any further objections by reason of his prosperity, I said that we must even deal as the fashionable people did, and allow the maid herself to settle when she would leave home and all. And this I spoke with a very bad grace, being perhaps of an ancient caste and over-fond of honesty, I mean, of course, among lower people. But Tom paid little heed to this, knowing the world a great deal better than ever I could pretend to do, and being ready to take a thing upon which he had set his mind whether it came with a good grace or whether it came with a bad one. And seeing that it would be awkward to provoke my anger, he left the room before more words to submit himself to Annie. Upon this I went in search of Lorna, to tell her of our cousin's arrival, and to ask whether she would think fit to see him or to dine by herself that day, for she should do exactly as it pleased her in everything while remaining still our guest. But I rather wished that she might choose not to sit in Tom's company, though she might be introduced to him, not but what he could behave quite as well as I could, and much better as regarded elegance and assurance, only that his honesty had not been as one might desire. But Lorna had some curiosity to know what this famous man was like, and declared that she would by all means have the pleasure of dining with him if he did not object to her company, on the ground of the dunes' dishonesty. Moreover, she said that it would seem a most foolish air on her part, and one which would cause the greatest pain to Annie, who had been so good to her, if she should refuse to sit at a table with a man who held the king's pardon, and was now a pattern of honesty. Against this I had not a word to say, and could not help acknowledging in my heart that she was right, as well as wise, in her decision. And afterwards I discovered that mother would have been much displeased if she had decided otherwise. Accordingly she churned away with one of her very sweetest smiles, whose beauty none can describe, saying that she must not meet a man of such fashion and renown in her common gardening frock, but must try to look as nice as she could if only in honour of dear Annie. And truth to tell, when she came to dinner, everything about her was the neatest and the prettiest that can possibly be imagined. She contrived to match the colours so to suit one another and her own, and yet with a certain delicate harmony of contrast, and the shape of everything was so nice, that when she came into the room with a crown of winning modesty upon the consciousness of beauty, I was quite as proud as if the Queen of England entered. My mother could not help remarking that she knew that it was not menly. How, like a princess, Lorna looked, now she had her best things on. But two things caught Squire Fager's eyes after he had made a most gallant bow, and had received the most graceful curtsy. And he kept his bright, bold gaze upon them, first on one, and then on the other, until my darling was hot with blushes, and I was ready to knock him down, if he had not been our visitor. But here again I should have been wrong, as I was apt to be in those days, for Tom intended no harm whatever, and his gaze was of pure curiosity to any herself as fexed with it. The two objects of his close regard were first, and most worthily, Lorna's face, and secondly, the ancient necklace restored to her by Sir Anso Doon. Now wishing to save my darling's comfort, and to keep things quiet, I shouted out that dinner was ready so that half the parish could hear me, upon which my mother laughed, and chid me, and dispatched her guests before her. And a very good dinner we made, I remember, and a very happy one, attending to the women first as now is the manner of eating, except among the workmen. With them, of course, it is needful that the man who has his hours fixed should be served first, and make the utmost of his time for feeding, while the women may go on as much as ever they please afterwards. But with us who are not bound to time there is no such reason to be quoted, and the women being the weaker vessels should be the first to begin to fill, and so we always deranged it. Now though our Annie was a graceful maid, and Lizzie a very learned one, you should have seen how differently Lorna managed her dining. She never took more than about a quarter of a mouthful at a time, and she never appeared to be chewing that, although she must have done so. Indeed, she appeared to dine as if it were a matter of no consequence, and as if she could think of other things more than of her business. All this, and her own manner of eating, I described to Eliza once when I wanted to vex her for something very spiteful that she had said, and I never succeeded so well before, for the girl was quite outrageous having her own perception of it, which made my observation ten times as bitter to her. And I am not sure but what she ceased to like poor Lorna from that day, and if so I was quite paid out as I well deserved for my bit of satire. For it strikes me that of all human dealings, satire is the very lowest and most mean and common. It is the equivalent in words for what bullying is, in deeds, when no more bespeaks a clever man than the other does a brave one. These two wretched tricks exult a fool in his own low esteem but never in his neighbours, for the deep common sense of our nature tells that no man of a genial heart or of any spread of mind can take pride in either. And though a good man may commit the one fault or the other now and then by way of outlet, he is sure to have compunction soon and to scorn himself more than the sufferer. Now when the young maidens were gone, for we had quite a high dinner of fat in that day, with Betty Moxworthy waiting and Granny Carfax at the gravy, and only Mother and Tom and I remained at the white-deal table with brandy and schnapps and hot water-jugs, Squire Fager said quite suddenly and perhaps on purpose to take us aback in case of our hiding anything. What do you know of the history of that beautiful maiden, good Mother? Not half so much as my son does, Mother answered with a soft smile at me, and when John does not choose to tell a thing, wild horses will not pull it out of him. That is not at all like me, Mother, I replied rather sadly. You know almost every word about Launa quite as well as I do. Almost every word, I believe, John, for you never tell a falsehood, but the few unknown may be of all the most important to me. To this I made no answer for fear of going beyond the truth or else of making mischief. Not that I had or wished to have any mystery with Mother, Mother was there in purest truth, any mystery in the matter to the utmost of my knowledge, and the only things that I had kept back, solely for Mother's comfort, with the death of poor Lord Alan Brandier, if indeed he were dead, and the connection of Marwood de Wickerhozer with the dealings of the dunes and the threats of Carver Dune against my own prosperity, and maybe one or two little things harrowing more than edifying. Come, come, said Master Fathers, smiling very pleasantly, you too understand each other if any two on earth do. Ah, if I had only had a Mother, how different I might have been. And without his side, in the tone which always overcame Mother upon that subject, and had something to do with his getting any, and then he produced his pretty box full of rolled tobacco, and offered me one, as I now had joined the goodly company of smokers. So I took it, and watched what he did with his own, lest I might go wrong with mine. But when our cylinders were both lighted, and I enjoying mine wonderfully, and astonishing Mother by my skill, Tom Fathers told us that he was sure he had seen my launder's face before, many and many years ago, when she was quite a little child. But he could not remember where it was, or anything more about it at present, though he would try to do so afterwards. He could not be mistaken, he said, for he had noticed her eyes especially, and had never seen such eyes before, neither again until this day. I asked him if he had ever ventured into the Dune Valley, but he shook his head, and replied that he valued his life a deal too much for that. Then we put it to him, whether anything might assist his memory. But he said that he knew not of ought to do so, unless it were another glass of schnapps. This being provided, he grew very wise, and told us clearly and candidly, that we were both very foolish. For he said that we were keeping launder at the risk not only of our stock, and the house above our heads, but also of our precious lives, and after all, what she worth it, although so very beautiful. Upon which I told him, with indignation, that her beauty was the least part of her goodness, and that I would thank him for his opinion when I had requested it. Bravo, ah John Red, he answered. Fools will be fools till the end of the chapter, and I might be as big a one if I were in thy shoes, John. Nevertheless, in the name of God, don't let that helpless child go about, with the thing worth half the county on her. She is worth all the county herself, said I, and all England put together, but she has nothing worth half a rick of hay upon her, for the ring I gave her cost only. And here I stopped, for mother was looking, and I never would tell her how much it had cost me, though she had tried fifty times to find out. Tush, the ring, Tom Faggis cried, is a contempt that moved me. I would never have stopped a man for that. But the necklace, ye great oath, the necklace is worth all your farm put together, and your uncle bends fortune to the back of it, I and all the town of Dolberton. What, said I, that common glass thing which she has had from her childhood? Glass, indeed, they are the finest brilliance ever I set eyes on, and I have handled a good many. Surely, cried mother, now flushing as red as Tom's own cheeks with excitement, you must be wrong as a young mistress would herself have known it. I was greatly pleased with my mother for calling Launa the young mistress. It was not done for the sake of her diamonds, whether they were glass or not. But because she felt, as I had done, that Tom Faggis, a man of no birth, whatever, was speaking beyond his mark in calling a lady like Launa a helpless child, as well as in his general tone which displayed no deference. He might have been used to the quality in the way of stopping their coaches, or roosting at hotels with them. But he never had met a high lady before in equality and upon virtue, and we both felt that he ought to have known it, and to have thanked us for the opportunity, in a word, to have behaved a great deal more humbly than he had even tried to do. Trust me, answered Tom, and his loftiest manner which Annie said was so noble, but which seemed to me rather flashy. Trust me, good mother, and simple John, for knowing brilliance when I see them. I would have stopped an eight-horse coach with four caribind outriders for such a booty as that. But alas, those days are over. Those were days worth living in. Ah, I never shall know the like again. How fine it was by moonlight! Master Faggis began my mother with a manner of some dignity, such as she could sometimes use by right of her integrity and thorough kindness to everyone. That is not the tone in which you have hitherto spoken to me about your former pursuits in life. I fear that the spirits—but here she stopped, because the spirits were her own, and Tom was our visitor. What I mean, Master Faggis, is this. You have won my daughter's heart, somehow, and you won my consent to the matter, through your honest sorrow and manly undertaking to lead a different life, and touch no property but your own. Annie is my eldest daughter and the child of a most upright man. I love her best of all on earth next to my boy John here. His mother gave me a mighty squeeze to be sure that she would have me at least, and I will not risk my Annie's life with the man who yearns for the highway. Having made this very long speech for her, mother came home upon my shoulder, and wept so that but for heeding her, I would have taken Tom by the nose and thrown him, and when he after him, over our farmyard-gate. For I am violent when roused, and freely hereby acknowledge it, that even my enemies will own that it takes a great deal to rouse me. But I do consider the grief and tears when justly caused, of my dearest friend, to be a great deal to rouse me. CHAPTER 47 JEREMY IN DANGER Nothing very long abides, as the greatest of all writers, in whose extent I am forever lost in raptured wonder, and yet forever quite at home as if his heart were mine, although his brain so different, in a word, as Mr. William Shakespeare, in every one of his works insists, with a humoured melancholy. And if my journey to London led to nothing else of advancement, it took me a hundred years in front of what I might else have been by the most simple accident. Two women were scolding one another across the road, very violently, both from upstairs windows, and I, in my hurry for quiet life, and not knowing what might come down upon me, quickened my step for the nearest corner. But suddenly something fell in my head, and at first I was afraid to look, especially as it weighed heavily. But hearing no breakage of wear, and only the other scald laughing heartily, I turned me around, and despite a book, which one had cast at the other, hoping to break her window. So I took the book, and tended it at the door of the house from which it had fallen, but the watchman came along just then, and the man at the door declared that it never came from their house, and begged me to so know more. This I promised readily, never wishing to make mischief, and I said, Good sir, now take the book, I will go on to my business. But he answered that he would do no such thing, for the book alone, being held so hard, would convict his people of a lewd assault, and he begged me, if I would do a good turn, to put the book under my coat, and go. And so I did, in part at least, for I did not put the book under my coat, but went along with it openly, looking for any to challenge it. Now this book, so acquired, has been not only the joy of my younger days, and main delight of my manhood, but also the comfort, and even the hope, of my now declining years. In a word, it is next to my Bible to me, and written in equal English, and if you aspire any goodness whatever in my own loose style of writing, you must not thank me, John Rid, for it, but the writer who holds the champions belt in wit, as I once did in wrestling. Now, as nothing very long abides, it cannot be expected that a woman's anger should last very long, if she be at all of the proper sort. And my mother, being one of the very best, could not long retain her wrath against the squire Phagas, especially when she came to reflect upon any suggestion, how natural, and one might say how inevitable it was, that a young man, fond of adventure and change, and winning good profits by jeopardy, should not settle down without some regrets to a fixed abode and a life of sameness, however safe and respectable. And even as any put the case, Tom deserved the greater credit for vanquishing so nobly these yearnings of his nature, and it seemed very hard to upbraid him considering how good his motives were. Neither could any understand how mother could reconcile it with her knowledge of the Bible, and the one sheep that was lost, and the hundredth piece of silver, and the man that went down to Jericho. Whether any's logic was good and sound, I am sure I cannot tell, but it seemed to me that she ought have left the Jericho traveller alone in as much as he rather fell among Tom Phagas's than resembled them. However, her reasoning was too much for mother to hold out against, and Tom was replaced, and more than that, being regarded now as an injured man. But how my mother contrived to know, that because she had been too hard upon Tom, he must be right about the necklace, is a point which I never could clearly perceive, though no doubt she could explain it. To prove herself right in that conclusion, she went herself to fetch Lorna that the trinket might be examined before the day grew dark. My dialing came in with a very quick glance and smile at my cigarro, for I was having the third by this time to keep things in amity, and I waved it towards her, as much as to say, you see that I can do it. And then mother led her up to the light, for Tom to examine her necklace. On the shapely curve of her neck it hung, like dew drops upon a white hyacinth, and I was vexed that Tom should have the chance to see it there. But even if she had read my thoughts, or outrun them with her own, Lorna turned away, and softly took the jewels from the place which so much adorned them. And as she turned away, they sparkled through the rich dark waves of hair. Then she laid the glittering circlates in my mother's hands, and Tom Fuggers took it eagerly, and bore it to the window. Don't you go out of sight, I said, you cannot resist such things as those if they be what you think them. Jack, I shall have to chance thee yet. I am now a man of honour, and entitled to the duelo. What will you take for it, Mistress Lorna, at a hazard say now? I am not accustomed to sell things, sir, replied Lorna, he did not like him much, else he would have answered sportively. What is it worth, in your opinion? Do you think it is worth five pounds now? Oh, no! I never had so much money as that in all my life. It is very bright, and very pretty, but it cannot be worth five pounds, I am sure. What a chance for a bargain! Oh, if it were not for any, I could make my fortune. But, sir, I would not sell it to you, not for twenty times five pounds. My grandfather was so kind about it, and I think it belonged to my mother. There are twenty-five rose diamonds in it, and twenty-five large brilliance that cannot be matched in London. How say you, Mistress Lorna, to a hundred thousand pounds? My darling's eyes so flashed at this, brighter than any diamond, that I said to myself, Well, all have faults, and now I have found out Lorna's, she is fond of money. And then I sighed rather heavily, for of all faults this seems to me one of the worst in a woman. But even before my sigh was finished, I had caused to condemn myself, for Lorna took the necklace very quietly from the hand of Squire Fagus, who had not half done with admiring it, and she went up to my mother, with the sweetest smile I ever saw. Dear kind mother, I am so glad, she said in a whisper, coaxing mother out of sight of all but me. Now you will have it, won't you, dear? And I shall be so happy, for a thousandth part of your kindness to me no jewels in the world can match. I cannot lay before you the grace with which she did it, all the air of seeking favour rather than conferring it, and the high-bred fear of giving offence, which is of all fears the noblest. Mother knew not what to say. Of course, she would never dream of taking such a gift as that, and yet she saw how sadly Lorna would be disappointed. Therefore mother did from habit, which she almost always did, she called me to help her. But knowing that my eyes were full, for anything noble moves me so, quite as rashly as things pitiful, I pretended not to hear my mother, but to see a wild cat in the dairy. Therefore I cannot tell what mother said and reply to Lorna, for when I came back quite eager to let my love know how I worshipped her and how deeply I was ashamed of myself, for meanly wronging her in my heart, behold Tom Fagus had gotten again the necklace which had such charms for him, and was delivering all around but especially to Annie who was wondering at his learning, a dissertation on precious stones and his sentiments about those in his hand. He said that the work was very ancient, but undoubtedly very good. The cutting of every line was true, and every angle was in its place. And this, he said, made all the difference in the lustre of a stone, and therefore in its value. For if the facets were ill-matched, and the points of light so ever little out of perfect harmony, all the lustre of the jewel would be loose and wavering, and the central fire dulled, instead of answering as it should to all possibilities of gaze, and overpowering any ire intent on its deep mysteries. We laughed at the squire's dissertation, for how should he know all these things, being nothing better, and indeed much worse, than a mere Northmoulton blacksmith? And he took our laughter with much good nature, having Annie to squeeze his hand and convey her grief at our ignorance. But he said that of one thing he was quite certain, and therein I believed him. To wit, that a trinket of this kind never could have belonged to any ignoble family, but to one of the very highest and most wealthy in England. And looking at Lorna, I felt that she must have come from a higher source than the very best of diamonds. Tom Fager said that the necklace was made he would answer for it in Amsterdam two or three hundred years ago, long before London Jewelers had begun to meddle with diamonds. And on the gold clasp he found some letters, done in some inverted way, the meaning of which was beyond him. Also a bearing of some kind, which he believed was a mountain cat. And there upon he declared that now he had earned another glass of snaps, and would Mistress Lorna mix it for him. I was amazed at his impudence, and Annie, who thought this her business, did not look best pleased, and I hoped that Lorna would tell him at once to go and do it for himself. But instead of that she rose to do it for the soft humility which went direct to the heart of Tom, and he leaped up with a curse at himself and took the hot water from her, and would not allow her to do anything except to put the sugar in, and then he bowed to her grandly. I knew what Lorna was thinking of. She was thinking all the time that her necklace had been taken by the dunes with violence upon some great robbery, and that Squire Fager's knew it, that he would not show his knowledge, and that this was perhaps the reason why Mother had refused it so. We said no more about the necklace for a long time afterwards, neither did my darling wear it, now that she knew its value, but did not know its history. She came to me the very next day, trying to look cheerful, and begged me if I loved her, never mind how little, to take charge of it again, as I once had done before, and not even to let her know in what place I stored it. I told her that this last request I could not comply with, but having been round her neck so often it was now a sacred thing, more than a million pounds could be. Therefore it should dwell for the present in the neighbourhood of my heart, and so could not be far from her. At this she smiled her own sweet smile and touched my forehead with her lips, and wished that she could only learn how to deserve such love as mine. Tom Fager took his good departure, which was a kind farewell to me, on the very day I am speaking of, the day after his arrival. Tom was a thoroughly upright man, according to his own standard, and you might rely upon him always up to a certain point, I mean, to be there or thereabouts. But sometimes things were too many for Tom, especially with ardent spirits, and then he judged, perhaps too much, with only himself for the jury. At any rate, I would trust him fully for candour and for honesty, in almost every case in which he himself could have no interest. And so we got on very well together, and he thought me a fool, and I tried my best not to think anything worse of him. Scarcely was Tom clean out of sight, and any's tears not dry yet, for she always made a point of crying upon his departure, when in came Master Jeremy Stickles, splashed with mud from head to foot, and not in the very best of humours, though happy to get back again. Cursed those fellows, he cried with a stamp which sent the water hissing from his boot upon the embers. A pretty plight you may call this, for his Majesty's commissioner to return to his headquarters in. Any, my dear, for he was always very affable with any. Will you help me office my overalls, and then turn your pretty hand to the gridiron? Not a blessed morsel have I touched for more than twenty-four hours. Surely, then, you must be quite starving, sir, my sister replied, with the greatest zeal, for she did love a man with an appetite. How glad I am that the fire is clear! But Lizzie, who happened to be there, said with her peculiar smile. Master Stickles must be used to it, for he never comes back without telling us that. Hush! cried Annie, quite shocked at her. How would you like to be used to it? Now, Betty, be quick with the things for me. Pork or mutton or deersmeets, sir, we have some cured since the autumn. Oh, deersmeets, by all means, Jeremiah Stickles answered. I have tasted none since I left you, though dreaming of it often. Well, this is better than being chased over the moors for one's life, John. All the way from Land Aker Bridge I have ridden a race for my precious life, at the peril of my limbs and neck. Three great dunes galloping after me, and a good job for me that they were so big, or they must have overtaken me. Just go and see to my horse, John, that's an excellent lad. He deserves a good turn this day for me, and I will render it to him. However, he left me to do it while he made himself comfortable, and in truth the horse required care. He was blown so that he could hardly stand and plastered with mud, and steaming so that the stable was quite full of it. But the time I had put the poor fellow to rights, his master had finished dinner, and was in a more pleasant humour, having even offered to kiss any out of pure gratitude, as he said, but any answered with spirit, that gratitude must not be shown by increasing the obligation. Jeremy made reply to this, that his only ways to be grateful then was to tell us his story, and so did at greater length than I can hear repeat it, for it does not bear particularly upon Lawner's fortunes. It appears that as he was riding towards us from the town of South Malton in Devonshire, he found the road very soft and heavy, and the floods out in all directions, but met with no other difficulty until he came to Landacre Bridge. He had only a single trooper with him, a man not of the militia, but of the king's army, whom Jeremy had brought from Exeter. As these two descended towards the bridge, they observed that both the Kensford water and the riverbile were pouring down in mighty floods from the melting of the snow. So great indeed was the torrent, after they united, that only the parapets of the bridge could be seen above the water, and the road across either bank being covered and very deep on the hither side. The trooper did not like the look of it, and proposed to ride back again, and round by way of Simon's bath, where the stream is smaller. But Stickles would not have it so, and, dashing into the river, swam his horse for the bridge, and gained it with some little trouble. And there he found the water not more than up to his horse's knees, perhaps. On the crown of the bridge he turned his horse to watch the trooper's passage and to help him with directions, when suddenly he saw him fall headlong into the torrent, and heard the report of a gun from behind, and felt a shock to his own body, such as lifted him out of the saddle. Turning round he beheld three men, risen up from behind the hedge on one side of his onward road, two of them ready to load again, and one with his gun unfired, waiting to get good aim at him. Then Jeremy did a gallant sing, for which I doubt whether I should have had the presence of mind in the danger. He saw that to swim his horse back again would be almost certain death, as affording such a target, where even a wound must be fatal. Therefore he struck the spurs into the nag, and rode through the water straight at the man who was pointing the long gun at him. If the horse had been carried off his legs there must have been an end of Jeremy, for the other men were getting ready to have another shot at him. But luckily the horse gulped right on without any need for swimming, being himself excited, no doubt, by all he had seen and heard of it. And Jeremy lay almost flat on his neck, so as to give little space for good aim, with the mane tossing wildly in front of him. Now if that young fellow with the gun had his brains as ready as his flint was, he would have shot the horse at once, and then had stickles at his mercy. But instead of that he let fly at the man and missed him altogether, being scared perhaps by the pistol which Jeremy showed him the mouth of. And galloping by at full speed Master Stickles tried to leave his mark behind him, for he changed the aim of his pistol to the biggest man who was loading his gun and cursing like ten cannons. But the pistol missed fire, no doubt from the flood which had gurgled in over the holsters, and Jeremy seeing three horses tethered at a gate just up the hill, knew that he had not yet escaped but had more of danger behind him. He tried his other great pistol at one of the horses tethered there, so as to lessen, if possible, the number of his pursuers. But the powder again failed him, and he durst not stop to cut the bridles, hearing the men coming up the hill. So he even made the most of his start, thinking God that his weight was light, compared at least to what theirs was. And another thing he had noticed which gave him some hope of escaping, to wit, that the horses of the dunes, although very handsome animals, were suffering still from the bitter effects of the late-long frost and the scarcity of fodder. If they do not catch me up or shoot me in the course of the first two miles, I may see my home again. This was what he said to himself as he turned to mark what they were about, from the brow of the steep hill. He saw the flooded valley shining with the breadth of water, and the troopers' horse on the other side shaking his drenched flanks and neighing, and half way down the hill he saw the three dunes mounting hastily. And then he knew that his only chance lay in the stoutness of his steed. The horse was in pretty good condition, and the rider knew him thoroughly, and how to make the most of him, and though they had travelled some miles that day through very heavy ground, the bath and the river had washed the mud off, and been some refreshment. Therefore, Stickles encouraged his nag, and put him into a good, hard gallop, heading away towards Whiticum. At first he had thought of turning to the right and making off for Whitipool a mile or so down the valley, but his good sense told him that no one there would dare to protect him against the dunes, so he resolved to go in his way, yet faster than he had intended. The three villains came after him, with all the speed they could muster, making sure from the badness of the road that he must stick fast there long, and so be at their mercy. And this was Jeremy's chiefest fear, for the ground being soft and thoroughly rotten after so much frost and snow, the poor horse had terrible work of it, with no time to pick the way, and even more good luck than skill was needed to keep him from foundering. How Jeremy prayed for an X-more fog, such as he had often sworn at, that he might turn aside and lurk while his pursuers went past him. But no fog came, nor even a storm to damp the priming of their guns, neither was wood or copper snire nor any place to hide in, only hills and moor and valleys, with flying shadows over them, and great banks of snow in the corners. At one time poor Stickles was quite in despair, for after leaping a little brook which crosses the track at Newland, he stuck fast in a dancing bog as we call them upon X-more. The horse had broken through the crust of moss and sedge and marriage-weed, and could do nothing but wallow and sink with the black waters spurting over him. And Jeremy, struggling with all his might, saw the three villains now topping the crest, less than a furlong behind him, and heard them shout in their savage delight. With the calmness of despair he yet resolved to have one more try for it, and scrambling over the horse's head gained firm land and tugged at the bridle. The poor nag replied with all his power to the call upon his courage, and reared his forefeet out of the slough and with straining eyeballs gazed at him. Now, Sir Jeremy, now my fine fellow, lifting him with the bridle and the brave beast gathered the role of his loyant and spring for his quagmire haunches. One more spring, and he was on earth again instead of being under it, and Jeremy leapt on his back and stooped for he knew that they would fire. Two bullets whistled over him, as the horse, mad with fright, dashed forward, and in five minutes more he had come to the X, and the pursuers had fallen behind him. The X, though a much smaller stream than the Baal, now ran in a foaming torrent, unbridged, and too wide for leaping. But Jeremy's horse took the water well, and both he and his rider were lightened as well as comforted by it. And as they passed towards Luckett Hill, and struck upon the founts of Lynn, the horses of the three pursuers began to tire under them. Then Jeremy Stickles knew that if he could only escape the sloths he was safe for the present, and so he stood up in his stirrups and gave them a loud halloo, as if there had been so many foxes. Their only answer was to fire the remaining charred at him, but the distance was too great for any aim from horseback, and the dropping bullet idly ploughed the sword upon one side of him. He acknowledged it with a wave of his heart, and laid one thumb to his nose, in the manner fashionable in London for expression of contempt. However, they followed him yet further, hoping to make him pay out dearly, if he should only miss the track or fall upon the wrasses. But the neighbourhood of our Lynn's stream is not so very boggy, and the king's messenger now knew his way as well as any of his pursuers did, and so he arrived at Plover's Barrows, thankful, and in rare appetite. But was the poor soldier drowned, asked Annie, and she never went to look for him? Oh, how very dreadful! Shot or drowned, I know not which. Thank God it was only a trooper. But they shall pay for it, as dearly as if it had been a captain. And how was it that you were struck by a bullet, and only shaken in your saddle? Had you a coat of mail-on, or a millenie's chain armour, now a master-stickle's had you? No, Mistress Lizzie, we do not wear things of that kind nowadays. You are apt, I perceive, at romances. But I happen to have a little flat bottle of the best stoneware slung beneath my saddle-cloak, and filled with the very best odour de vie from the George Hotel at South Moulton. The brand of it now is upon my back. Oh, the murderous scoundrels! What a brave spirit they have spilled! You had better set to us, thank God, said I, that they have not spilled a braver one. Every man must defend himself. It was only right in Jeremy Stickles, and of the simplest common sense, that he would not tell, before our girls, what the result of his journey was. But he led me aside in the course of the evening, and told me all about it, saying that I knew, as well as he did, that it was not woman's business. This, I took, as it was meant, for a gentle caution, that launder whom he had not seen as yet, must not be informed of any of his doings. Herein I quite agreed with him, not only for his furtherance, but because I always think that women, of whatever mine, are best when least their meddle with things that appertain to men. Master Stickles complained that the weather had been against him bitterly, closing all the roads around him, even as it had done with us. It had taken him eight days, he said, to get from Exeter to Plymouth, whether he found that most of the troops had been drafted off from Exeter. When all were told, there was but a battalion of one of the King's horse regiments and two companies of foot soldiers, and their commanders had orders later than the date of Jeremiah's commission, on no account to quit the southern coast in March inland. Therefore, although they would gladly have come for a brush with their celebrated dunes, it was more than they durst attempt in the face of their instructions. However, they spared him a single trooper as a companion of the road, and approved to the justices of the county and their lord lieutenant, that he had their approval. To these authorities Master Stickles now was forced to address himself, although he would rather have had one trooper than a scour from the very best trained bands. For these trained bands had afforded very good soldiers in the time of the Civil Wars, and for some years afterwards, but now their discipline was gone, and the younger generation had seen no real fighting. Each would have his own opinion, and would want to argue it, and if he were not allowed he went about his duty in such a temper as to prove that his own way was the best. Neither was this the worst of it, for Jeremy made no doubt but what, if he could only get the militia to hold out in force, he might manage with the help of his own men to force the stronghold of the enemy. But the truth was that the officers, knowing how hard it would be to collect their men at that time of the year, and in that state of the weather, began with one accord to make every possible excuse, and especially they pressed this point, that Bagwethy was not in their county, the Devonshire people affirming vehemently that it lay in the Shire of Somerset, and the Somerset Shire folk averring, even with implications, that it lay in Devonshire. Now I believe the truth to be that the boundary of the two counties, as well as of Orr and Brendan Parishes, is defined by the Bagwethy River, so that the disputants on both sides were both right and wrong. Upon this, Master Stickle suggested, and as I thought very sensibly, that the two counties should unite, and equally contribute to the extirpation of this pest, which shamed and injured them both alike. But hence arose another difficulty. For the men of Devons said they would march when Somerset had taken the field, and the sons of Somerset replied that indeed they were quite ready, but what were their cousins of Devonshire doing? And so it came to pass that the king's commissioner returned without any army, whatever, but with promise of two hundred men when the roads should be more passable. And meanwhile what were we to do, abandoned as we were, to the mercies of the dunes with only our own hands to help us? And herein I grieved at my own folly in having let Tom Fathers go, whose wit and courage would have been worth at least half a dozen men to us. Upon this matter I held long counsel with my good friend Stickles, telling him all about Lorna's presence, and what I knew of her history. He agreed with me that we could not hope to escape and attack from the outlaws, and the more especially now that they knew himself to be returned to us. Also he praised me for my forethought in having threshed out all our corn, and hidden the produce in such a manner that they were not likely to find it. Furthermore he recommended that all the entrances to the house should at once be strengthened, and a watch must be maintained at night, and he thought it wiser that I should go, late as it was, to Linnmouth, if a horse could pass the valley, and fetch every one of his mounted troopers who might now be quartered there. Also, if any men of courage, though capable only of handling a pitchfork, could be found in the neighbourhood, I was to try to summon them. But our district is so thinly peopled that I had little faith in this. However, my errand was given me, and I set forth upon it, for John Fryer was afraid of the waters. Knowing how fiercely the floods were out, I resolved to travel the higher road by Cozgate and through Countessbury. Therefore I swam my horse through the Linn at the ford below our house, where sometimes you may step across, and then scalloped up and along the hills. I could see all the inland valleys ribboned with broad waters, and in every winding crook the banks of snow that fed them, while on my right the turbid sea was flaked with April showers. But when I descended the hill towards Linnmouth, I feared that my journey was all in vain. For the East Linn, which is our river, was ramping and roaring frightfully, lashing whole trunks of trees on the rocks and rending them and grinding them, and into it rushed from the opposite side a torrent even madder, upsetting what it came to aid, shattering wave with boiling billow and scattering wroth with fury. It was certain death to attempt the passage, and the little wooden footbridge had been carried away long ago. And the men I was seeking must be, of course, on the other side of this deluge, for on my side there was not a single house. I followed the bank of the flood to the beach, some two or three hundred yards below, and there had the luck to see real what-come on the opposite side, corking an old boat. Though I could not make him hear a word from the deafening roar of the torrent, I got him to understand at last that I wanted to cross over. Upon this he fetched another man, and the two of them launched a boat, and paddling well out to sea, fetched round the mouth of the frantic river. The other man proved to be Stickel's chief mate, and so he went back and fetched his comrades, bringing their weapons but leaving their horses behind. As it happened there were but four of them, however, to have even these was a help, and I started again at full speed for my home, for the men must follow a foot, and cross our river high up on the moorland. This took them a long way round, and the track was rather bad to find, and the sky already darkening, so that I arrived at Plover's Barrow's more than two hours before them. But they had done a sagacious thing which is well worth the delay, for by hoisting their flag upon the hill they fetched the two watchmen from the foreland, and added them to their number. It was lucky that I came home so soon, for I found the house in a great commotion, and all the women trembling. When I asked what the matter was, Lorna, who seemed the most self-possessed, answered that it was all her fault, for she alone had frightened them. And this in the following manner. She had stolen out to the garden towards dusk, to watch some favourite hyacinths, just pushing up like a baby's teeth, and just attracting the fatal notice of a great house-snale at night-time. Lorna at last had discovered the glutton, and was bearing him off in triumph to the tribunal of the ducks, when she described two glittering eyes glaring at her steadfastly from the elder-bush beyond the stream. The elder was smoothing its wrinkled leaves, being at least two months behind time, and among them this calm, cruel face appeared, and she knew it was the face of Carver Dune. The maiden, although so used to terror, as she told me once before, lost all presence of mind hereat, and could neither shriek nor fly, but only gaze as if bewitched. Then Carver Dune, with his deadly smile, gloating upon her horror, lifted his long gun, and pointed full at Lorna's heart. In vain she strove to turn away. Fright had stricken her stiff as stone. With the inborn love of life, she tried to cover the vital part, wherein the winged death must lodge, for she knew Carver's certain aim. But her hands hung numb and heavy, in nothing but her eyes was life. With no sign of pity in his face, no quiver of relenting, but a well-pleased grin at all the charming palsy of his victim, Carver Dune lowered inch by inch the muzzle of his gun. When it pointed to the ground between her delicate arched insteps, he pulled the trigger, and the bullet flung the mould all over her. It was a refinement of bullying for which I swore to God that night upon my knees in secret, that I would smite down Carver Dune, or as he should smite me down. Base, beast, what largest humanity, or what dreams of divinity could make a man put up with this? My darling, the loveliest and most harmless in the world of maidens, fell away on a bank of grass, and wept at her own cowardice, and trembled, and wondered where I was, and what I would think of this. Good God, what could I think of it? She overrated my slow nature to admit the question. While she leaned there, quite unable yet to save herself, Carver came to the brink of the flood, which alone was between them, and then he stroked his jack-black beard, and waited for Lorna to begin. Very likely he thought that she would thank him for his kindness to her, but she was now recovering the power of her nimble limbs, and ready to be off like hope and wonder at her own cowardice. I have spared you this time, he said, in his deep calm voice, only because it suits my plans, and I never yield to temper. But unless you come back tomorrow, pure, and with all you took away, and teach me to destroy that fool who has destroyed himself for you, your death is here, your death is here, where it has long been waiting. Although his gun was empty, he struck the breach of it with his finger, and then he turned away, not daining even once to look back again, and Lorna saw his giant figures striding across the Meadowland, as if the Rids were nobodies, and he the proper owner. Both mother and Ile were greatly hurt at hearing of this insolence, for we had owned that Meadow from a time of the Great Alfred, and even when that good king lay in the Isle of Othelny, he had a rid along with him. Now I spoke to Lorna gently, seeing how much she had been tried, and I praised her for her courage in not having run away when she was so unable, and my darling was pleased with this, and smiled upon me for saying it, though she knew right well that in this matter my judgment was not impartial. But you may take this as a general rule, that a woman likes praise from the man whom she loves, and cannot stop always the balances. Now expecting a sharp attack that night, when Jeremy Stickles the more expected after the words of Carver, which seemed to be meant to mislead us, we prepared a great quantity of knuckles of pork and a ham in full cut and a fillet of hung mutton, for we would almost surrender rather than keep our garrison hungry, and all our men were exceedingly brave and counted their rounds of the house in half-pints. Before the maidens went to bed, Lorna made a remark which seemed to me a very clever one, and then I wondered how on earth it had never occurred to me before. But first she had done a thing which I could not in the least approve of, for she had gone up to my mother and thrown herself in her arms and begged to be allowed to return to Glen Dune. My child, are you unhappy here? Mother asked her very gently, for she had begun to regard her now as a daughter of her own. Oh no, too happy, by far too happy Mrs. Ridd. I never knew rest or peace before, or met with real kindness. But I cannot be so ungrateful, I cannot be so wicked as to bring you all into deadly peril for my sake alone. Let me go, you must not pay this great price for my happiness. Dear child, we are paying no price at all, replied my mother, embracing her. We are not threatened for your sake only. Ask John, he will tell you. He knows every bit of that politics, and this is a political matter. Dear mother was rather proud in her heart, as well as terribly frightened, at the importance now accruing to Plover's Barrow's farm, and she often declared that it would be as famous in history as the Rye House or the Mealtob, or even the Great Black Box in which she was a firm believer. And even my knowledge of politics could not move her upon that matter. Such things had happened before, she would say, shaking her head with its wisdom, and why might they not happen again? Women would be women, and men would be men to the end of the chapter, and if she had been in Lucy Water's place, she would keep it quiet as she had done. And then she would look around for fear, lest either of her daughters had heard her. But now, can you give me any reason why it may not have been so? You are so fearfully positive, John, just as men always are. No way, I used to say, I can give you no reason why it may not have been so, mother. But the question is, if it was so or not, rather than what it might have been. And I think it is pretty good proof against it that what nine men of every town in England would only too gladly believe, if true, is nevertheless kept dark from them. There you are, John, mother would reply, all about men, and not a single word about women. If you had any argument at all, you would own that marriage is a question upon which women are the best judges. Oh, I would groan in my spirit and go, leaving my dearest mother quite sure that now at last she must have convinced me. But if mother had known that Jeremy Stickles was working against the black box and its issue, I doubt whether he would have fared so well even though he was a visitor. However, she knew that something was doing and something of importance, and she trusted in God for the rest of it. Only she used to tell me very seriously of an evening. The very least they can give you, dear John, is a coat of arms. Be sure you take nothing less, dear, and the farm can well support it. But lo! I have left Lorna ever so long anxious to consult me upon political matters. She came to me, and her eyes alone asked a hundred questions, which I rather had answered upon her lips than troubled her pretty ears with them. Therefore I told her nothing at all, save that the attack, if any should be, would not be made on her account, and that if she should hear by any chance a trifle of noise in the night, she was to wrap the clothes around her and shut her beautiful eyes again. On no account whatever she did was she to go to the window. She liked my expression about her eyes, and promised to do the very best she could, and then she crept so very close that our needs must have her closer, with her hair to my breast, and she asked, Can't you keep out of this fight, John? My own one, I answered, gazing through the long black lashes at the depths of radiant love. I believe there will be nothing, but what there is I must see out. Shall I tell you what I think, John? It is only a fancy of mine, perhaps it is not worth telling. Let us have a dear by all means, you know so much about their ways. What I believe is this, John, you know how high the rivers are, higher than ever they were before, and twice as high you have told me. I believe that Glen Dune is flooded, and all the houses under water. You little witch, I answered, what a fool I must be not to think of it! Of course it is, it must be! The torrent from all the bag-worthy forests and all the valleys above it, and the great drifts in the Glen itself, never could have outlet down my famous waterslide. The valley must be under water, twenty feet at least. Well, if ever there was a fool, I am here for not having thought of it. I remember once before, said Lorna, reckoning on her fingers, when there was heavy rain all through the autumn and winter, fire were at maybe six years ago. The river came down with such a rush that the water was two feet deep in our rooms, and we all had to camp by the cliff-edge. But you think that the floods are higher now, I believe I heard you say, John. I don't think about it, my treasure, I answered. You may trust me for understanding floods, after our work at Tiverton, and I know that the deluge in all our valleys is such, that no living man can remember, neither will ever behold again. Consider three months of snow, snow, snow, and a fortnight of rain on the top of it, and ought to be drained in a few days away, and great barricades of ice still in the rivers blocking them up and ponding them. You may take my word for it, Mistress Lorna, that your pretty bower is six feet deep. Well, my bower has served its time, said Lorna, blushing as she remembered all that had happened there. And my bower now is here, John. But I am so sorry to think of all the poor women flooded out of their houses and sheltering in the snowdrifts. However, there is one good of it. They cannot send many men against us with all this trouble upon them. You are right, I replied, how clever you are. And that is why there were only three to cut off Master Stickles. And now we shall beat them, I make no doubt, even if they come at all. And I defy them to fire the house, the thatch is too wet for burning. We sent all the women to bed quite early, except Guiney Carfax and our old Betty. These two were allowed to stay up, because they might be useful to us if they could keep from quarrelling. For my part I had little fear, after what Lorna had told me, as to the result of the combat. It was not likely that the dunes could bring more than eight or ten men against us, while their homes were in such danger, and to meet these we had eight good men, including Jeremy, and myself, all well armed and resolute, besides our three farm servants, and the parish clerk and the shoemaker. These five could not be trusted much for any valiant conduct, although they spoke very confidently over their cans of cider. Neither were their weapons fitted for much execution, unless it were at close quarters, which they would be likely to avoid. Bill Dads had a sickle. James Slocum a flail. The cobbler had borrowed the Constable's staff, for the Constable would not attend, because there was no warrant. And the parish clerk had brought his pitch-pipe, which was enough to break any man's head. But John Fry, of course, had his blunderbuss loaded with tin tucks and marbles, and more likely to kill the man who discharged it than any other person. But we knew that John had it only for show, and to describe its qualities. Now it was my great desire, and my chiefest hope, to come across Carver Dune that night, and settle the score between us. Not by any shot in the dark, but by a conflict man to man. And yet, since I came to full-grown power, I had never met any one whom I could not play T. Toten with. But now at last I had found a man whose strength was not to be laughed at. I could guess it in his face, I could tell it in his arms, I could see it in his stride and gait, which more than all the rest betray the substance of a man. And being so well used to wrestling and to judge antagonists, I felt that here, if anywhere, I had found my match. Therefore I was not content to abide within the house, or go the rounds with the troopers, but betook myself to the rickyard, knowing that the dunes were likely to begin their onset there. For they had a pleasant custom, when they visited farmhouses, of lighting themselves towards picking up anything they wanted, or stabbing the inhabitants, by first creating a blaze in the rickyard. And though our ricks were all now of mere straw, except indeed too of prime clover hay, and although on the top they were so wet, that no firebrands might hurt them, I was both unwilling to have them burned, and fearful that they might kindle if well roused up with fire upon the windward side. By the by, these dunes had got the worst of this pleasant trick one time. For happening to fire the ricks of a lonely farm called Yeenworthy, not far above Glenthorn, they approached the house to get people's goods, and to enjoy their terror. The master of the farm was lately dead, and had left inside the clock-case, loaded, the great long gun, wherewith he had used to sport at the ducks and the geese on the shore. Now Widow Fisher took out this gun, and not caring much what became of her, for she had loved her husband dearly. She laid it upon the windowsill, which looked upon the rickyard, and she backed up the butt with the chest of oak jaws, and she opened the window a little back, and let the muzzle out on the slope. Presently five or six fine young dunes came dancing a reel as their manner was, betwixt her and the flaming rick, upon which she pulled the trigger with all the force of her thumb, and a quarter of a pound of duck-shot went out with a blaze on the dancers. He may suppose what their dancing was, and their reeling now changed to staggering, and their music none of the sweetest. One of them fell into the rick, and was burned, and buried in a ditch next day. But the others were set upon their horses, and carried home on a path of blood. And strange to say, they never avenged this very dreadful injury, but having heard that a woman had fired this desperate shot among them, they said that she ought to be a dune, and inquired how old she was. Now I had not been so very long waiting in our mow-yard, with my best gun ready, and a big club by me, before a heaviness of sleep began to creep upon me. The flow of water was in my ears, and in my eyes a hazy spreading, and upon my brain a closure, as a cobbler sows a vamp up. So I leaned back in the clover-rick, and the dust of the seed, and the smell came round me without any trouble, and I dozed about lawn I just once or twice, and what she had said about new-mown hay. And then back went my head, and my chin went up, and if ever a man was blessed with slumber, down it came upon me. And away went I into it. Now this was very vile of me, and against all good resolutions, even such as I would have sworn to an hour ago or less. But if you had been in the water as I had, I, and had long fight with it after a good day's work, and then great anxiety afterwards, and brain-work, which is not fair for me, and upon that a stout supper, may help you would not be so hard on my sleep, though you felt at your duty to wake me. END OF CHAPTER 49 Maiden's sentinels are best. It was not likely that the outlaws would attack our premises until some time after the moon was risen, because it would be too dangerous to cross the flooded valleys in the darkness of the night. And, but for this consideration, I must have striven harder against the stealthy approach of slumber. But even so it was very foolish to abandon watch, especially in such as I, who sleep like any door-mouse. Moreover, I had chosen the very worst place in the world for such employment, with a goodly chance of awakening in a bed of solid fire. And so it might have been, nay, it must have been, but for Lorna's vigilance. Her light hand upon my arm awoke me, not too readily, and leaping up I seized my club, and prepared to knock down somebody. "'Who's that?' I cried. "'Stand back, I say, and let me have a fair chance at you.' "'Are you going to knock me down, dear John?' replied the voice I loved so well. I'm sure I should never get up again after one blow from you, John. "'My darling, is it you?' I cried, and breaking all your orders. Come back into the house at once, and nothing on your head, dear. How could I sleep while at any moment you might be killed beneath my window? And now is the time of real danger, for men can see to travel. I saw at once the truth of this. The moon was high and clearly lighting all the watered valleys. To sleep any longer might be death, not only to myself, but all. "'The man on guard at the back of the house is fast asleep,' she continued. "'Gwenny, who let me out and came with me, has heard him snoring for two hours. I think the women ought to be the watch, because they have had no travelling. Where do you suppose little Gwenny is?' "'Surely not gone to Glen Dune, I was not sure, however, for I could believe almost anything of the Cornish maidens' hardy-hood.' "'No,' replied Lorna, although she wanted even to do that, but of course I would not hear of it, on account of the swollen waters. But she is perched on yonder tree, which commands the borough valley. She says that they are almost sure to cross the streamlet there, and now it is so wide and large that she can trace it in the moonlight half a mile beyond her. If they cross she is sure to see them, and in good time to let us know.' "'What a shame,' I cried, that the men should sleep and the maidens be the soldiers. I will sit in that tree myself and send little Gwenny back to you. Go to bed, my best and dearest. I will take good care not to sleep again.' "'Please not to send me away, dear John,' she answered very mournfully. You and I have been together through perils worse than this. I shall only be more timid and more miserable indoors.' "'I cannot let you stay here,' I said. It is altogether impossible. Do you suppose that I can fight with you among the bullets, Lorna? If this is the way you mean to take it, we had better go both to the Apple Room and lock ourselves in, and hide under the tiles and let them burn all the rest of the premises.' At this idea Lorna laughed as I could see by the moonlight, and then she said, "'You are right, John. I should only do more harm than good, and of all things I hate fighting most and disobedience next to it. Therefore I will go indoors, although I cannot go to bed. But promise me one thing, dearest John. You will keep yourself out of the way, now, won't you, as much as you can, for my sake?' "'Of that you may be quite certain, Lorna. I will shoot them all through the hay-ricks.' "'That is right, dear,' she answered, never doubting but what I could do it. And then they cannot see you, you know. But don't think of climbing that tree, John. It is a great deal too dangerous. It is all very well for Gweny. She has no bones to break.' "'None worth breaking, you mean, I suppose. Very well, I will not climb the tree, for I should defeat my own purpose, I fear, being such a conspicuous object. Now go indoors, darling, without more words. The more you linger, the more I shall keep you.' She laughed her own bright laugh at this, and only said, "'God keep you, love.' And then away she tripped across the yard, with the step I love to watch so. And thereupon I shouldered arms, and resolved to tramp till morning, for I was vexed at my own neglect, and that Lorna should have to write it. But before I had been long on duty, making the round of the ricks and stables, and hailing Gweny now and then from the bottom of her tree, a short, wide figure stole towards me, in and out the shadows. And I saw that it was no other than the little maid herself, and that she bore some tidings. "'Ten onum, cross the water, Daniela,' said Gweny, putting her hand to her mouth, and seeming to regard it as good news rather than otherwise. "'Be I'll graping up by the hedgerow now. I could chuck dreonum from the bar of the gate, if so be I had your goon, young man.' "'There is no time to lose, Gweny. Run to the house, and fetch master's tickles, and all the men, while I stay here and watch the rickyard. "'Perhaps I was wrong in heeding the ricks at such a time as that, especially as only the clover was of much importance. But it seemed to me, like a sort of triumph, that they should be even able to boast of having fired our murky yard. Therefore I stood in a nick of the clover, whence we had cut some trusses, with my club in hand, and gun close by.' The robbers rode into our yard, as coolly as if they had been invited, having lifted the gate from the hinges first, on account of its being fastened. Then they actually opened our stable doors, and turned our honest horses out, and put their own rogues in the place of them. At this my breath was quite taken away, for we think so much of our horses. By this time I could see our troopers waiting in the shadow of the house, round the corner from where the dunes were, and expecting the order to fire. But Jeremy's tickles very wisely kept them in readiness, until the enemy should advance upon them. Two of you lazy fellows go. It was the deep voice of Carvedune, and make us a light to cut their throats by. Only one thing, once again, if any man touches Lorna, I will stab him where he stands. She belongs to me. There are two other young damsels here, whom you may take away if you please, and the mother I hear is still comely. Now, for our rights, we have borne too long the insolence of these yokels. Kill every man and every child, and burn the cursed place down. As he spoke thus blasphemously, I set my gun against his breast, and by the light buckled from his belt I saw the little sight of brass gleaming alike upon either side, and the sleek round barrel glimmering. The aim was sure as death itself. If I only drew the trigger, which went very lightly, Carvedune would breathe no more. And yet, will you believe me, I could not pull the trigger. Would to God that I had done so. For I never had taken human life, neither done bodily harm to man, beyond the little bruises and the trifling aches and pains, which follow a good and honest bout in the wrestling ring. Therefore I dropped my carbine, and grasped again my club, which seemed a more straightforward implements. Presently two young men came towards me, bearing brands of resined hemp, kindled from Carvedune's lamp. The foremost of them set his torch to the rick within a yard of me, and smote concealing me from him. I struck him with a backhanded blow on the elbow as he bent it, and I heard the bone of his arm break, as clearly as ever I heard a twig snap. With a roar of pain he fell on the ground, and his torch dropped there and singed him. The other men stood amazed at this, not having yet gained sight of me, till I caught his firebrand from his hand, and struck it into his countenance. With that he leapt at me, but I caught him, in a manner learned from early wrestling, and snapped his collarbone as I laid him upon the top of his comrade. This little success so encouraged me that I was half inclined to advance and challenge Carvedune to meet me, but I bore in mind that he would be apt to shoot me without ceremony, and what is the utmost of human strength against the power of powder. Moreover I remembered my promise to Sweet Lorna, and who would be left to defend her if the rogues got rid of me. While I was hesitating thus, for I always continued to hesitate, except in actual conflict, a blaze of fire lit up the house, and brown smoke hung around it. Six of our men had let go at the dunes by Jeremystical's order, as the villains came swaggering down in the moonlight, ready for rape or murder. Two of them fell, and the rest hung back, to think at their leisure what this was. They were not used to this sort of thing, it was neither just nor courteous. Being unable any longer to contain myself, as I thought of Lorna's excitement at all this noise of firing, I came across the yard expecting whether they would shoot at me. However no one shot at me, and I went up to Carvedune whom I knew by his size in the moonlight, and I took him by the beard, and said, Do you call yourself a man? For a moment he was so astonished that he could not answer. None had ever dared, I suppose, to look at him in that way, and he saw that he had met his equal, or perhaps his master. And then he tried a pistol at me, but I was too quick for him. Now Carvedune, take warning, I said to him very soberly. You have shown yourself a fool by your contempt of me. I may not be your match in craft, but I am in manhood. You are a despicable villain. Lie low in your native muck. And with that word I laid him flat upon his back in our straw-yard, by a trick of the inner hill, which he could not have resisted, though his strength had been twice as great as mine, unless he were a wrestler. Seeing him down, the others ran, though one of them made a shot at me, and some of them got their horses before our men came up, and some went away without them. And among these last was Captain Carvedune, who arose while I was feeling myself, for I had a little wound, and strode away with a train of curses enough to poison the light of the moon. We gained six very good horses by this attempted repine, as well as two young prisoners whom I had smitten by the clover-rick, and two dead dunes were left behind, whom, as we buried them in their church-yard without any service over them, I, for my part, was most thankful that I had not killed. For to have the life of a fellow man laid upon one's conscience, deservedly his death, or deservedly not, is to my sense of right and wrong the heaviest of all burdens, and the one that wears most deeply inwards, with the dwelling of the mind on this few and on that of it. I was inclined to pursue the enemy, and try to capture more of them, but Jeremy Stickles would not allow it, for he said that all the advantage would be upon their side if we went hurrying after them, with only the moon to guide us. And who could tell about what there might be another band of them ready to fall upon the house and burn it, and seize the women if we left them untrotected? And when he put the case thus, I was glad enough to abide by his decision. And one thing was quite certain, that the dunes had never before received so rude a shock and so violent a blow to their supremacy, since first they had built up their power and become the lords of Exmoor. I knew that Carver Dune would gnash those mighty teeth of his, and curse them and around him for the blunder, which was in truth his own, of overconfidence and carelessness. And at the same time, all the rest would feel that such a thing had never happened while old Sir Ensoor was alive, and that it was caused by nothing short of gross mismanagement. I scarcely know who made the greatest fuss about my little wound, mother, or Annie, or Launa. I was heartily ashamed to be so treated like a milk-soap, but most unluckily it had been impossible to hide it, for the ball had cut along my temple just above the eyebrow, and being fired so near at hand the powder too had scarred me. Therefore it seemed a great deal worse than it really was, and the sponging and the plastering and the sobbing and the moaning made me quite ashamed to look Master Stickles in the face. However, at last I persuaded them that I had no intention of giving up the ghost that night, and then they all fell too, and thanked God with an emphasis quite unknown in church. And hereupon Master Stickles said in his free and easy manner, for no one courted his observation, that I was the luckiest of all mortals in having a mother and a sister and a sweetheart to make much of me. For his part, he said, he was just as well off in not having any to care for him. For now he might go and get short or stabbed or knocked on the head at his pleasure without anyone being offended. I made bold upon this to ask him what was become of his wife, for I had heard him speak of having one. He said that he neither knew nor cared, and perhaps I should be like him some day. That Launa should hear such sentiments was very grievous to me. But she looked at me with a smile which proved her contempt for all such ideas, and lest anything still more unfit might be said, I dismissed the question. But Master Stickles told me afterwards, when there was no one with us, to have no faith in any woman, whatever she might seem to be. For he assured me that now he possessed very large experience for so small a matter, being thoroughly acquainted with women of every class, from ladies of the highest blood to benaribus and peasants' wives, and that they all might be divided into three heads and no more, that is to say, as follows. First, the very hot and passionate who were only contemptible. Second, the cold and indifferent who were simply odious, and third, the mixture of the other two who had the bad qualities of both. As for reason, none of them had it. It was like a sealed book to them, which if they ever tried to open they began at the back of the cover. Now I did not like to hear such things, and to me they appeared to be insolent as well as narrow-minded. For if you came to that, why not men as well as women be divided into the same three classes, and be pronounced upon by women, as beings even more devoid than their gentle judges of reason? Moreover, I knew both from my own sense, and from the greatest of all great poets, that there are, and always have been, plenty of women, good and gentle, warm-hearted, loving and lovable, very keen, moreover, at seeing the right, be it by reason or otherwise. And upon the whole I prefer them much to the people of my own sex, as goodness of heart is more important than to show good reason for having it. And so I said to Jeremy, you have been ill-treated, perhaps, mustesticles by some woman or other? Ah, that have I, he replied with an oath, and the last on earth he should serve me so, the woman who was my wife, a woman whom I never struck, never wronged in any way, never even let her know that I like another better. And yet, when I was at Berwick last, with the regiment on guard there against those vile moss-troopers, what does that woman do but fly in the face of all authority, and of my a special business, by running away herself with the biggest of all moss-troopers? Not that I cared a groat about her, and I wished the full well rid of her. But the insolence of the thing was such that everybody laughed at me, and back I went to London, losing a far better and safer job than this, and all through her. Come, let's have another onion. Master Stickel's view of the matter was so entirely unromantic, that I scarcely wondered at Mr. Stickel's for having run away from him to an adventurous moss-trooper. For nine women out of ten must have some kind of romance or other to make their lives endurable, and when their love has lost this attractive element, this soft dew-fog is such it be, their love itself is up to languish, unless its bloom be well replaced by the budding hopes of children. Now, Master Stickel's neither had nor wished to have any children. Without waiting for any warrant, only saying something about Captain Sin Flagante de Licto, if that be the way to spell it, Stickel sent our prisoners off, bound and looking miserable, to the jail at Taunton. I was desirous to let them go free, if they would promise amendment, but although I had taken them, and surely, therefore, had every right to let them go again, Master Stickel said not so. He assured me that it was a matter of public apology, and, of course, not knowing what he meant, I could not contradict him, but thought that surely my private rights ought to be respected. For if I throw a man in wrestling, I expect to get his stakes, and if I take a man prisoner, why he ought in common justice to belong to me, and I have a good right to let him go if I think proper to do so. However, Master Stickel said that I was quite benighted, and knew nothing of the Constitution, which was the very thing I knew beyond any man in our parish. Nevertheless, it was not for me to contradict a commissioner, and therefore I let my prisoners go, and wished them a happy deliverance. Stickel's replied with a merry grin, that if ever they got it, it would be a jail deliverance, and the bliss of dancing, and he laid his hand to his throat in a manner which seemed to me most uncurteous. However, his foresight proved too correct, for both those poor fellows were executed soon after the next assizes. Lorna had done her very best to earn another chance for them, even going down on her knees to that common Jeremy, and pleading with great tears for them. However, although much moved by her, he vowed that he durst do nothing else. To set them free was more than his own life was worth, for all the country knew by this time, that two captive dunes were roped to the cider-press at Plover's Barrow's. And he bound the broken arm of the one whom I had knocked down with the club, and I myself supported it, and then she washed and rubbed with lard the face of the other poor fellow, which the torch had injured, and I fetched back his collarbone to the best of my ability. For before any surgeon could arrive, they were off with a well-armed escort. That day we were reinforced so strongly from the stations along the coast, even as far as mine-head, that we not only feared no further attack, but even talked of assaulting Glen Dune without waiting for the train-burns. However, I thought that it would be mean to take advantage of the enemy in the thick of the floods and confusion, and several of the others thought so too, and did not like fighting in water. Therefore it was resolved to wait and keep a watch upon the valley, and let the floods go down again. Lorna Dune by R. D. Blackmore Chapter 50 A Merry Meeting A Sad One Now the business I had most at heart, as everyone knows by this time, was to marry Lorna as soon as might be if she had no objection, and then to work the farm so well as to nourish all our family. And herein I saw no difficulty, for any would soon be off our hands, and somebody might come and take a fancy to little Lizzie, who was growing up very nicely now, though not so fine as any. Moreover, we were almost sure to have great store of hay and corn after so much snow, if there be any truth in the old saying, a foot deep of rain will kill hay and grain, but three feet of snow will make them come mow. And although it was too true that we had lost a many cattle, yet even so we had not lost money, for the few remaining fetched such prices as were never known before. And though we grumbled with all our hearts, and really believed at one time that starvation was upon us, I doubt whether on the whole we were not the fatter and the richer and the wiser for that winter. And I might have said the happier, except for the sorrow which we felt at the failures among our neighbours. The snows lost every sheep they had, and nine out of ten horned cattle, and poor Jasper Kevy would have been forced to throw up the lease of his farm, and perhaps go to prison, but for the help we gave him. However my dear mother would have it that Lorna was too young as yet to think of being married, and indeed I myself was compelled to admit that her form was becoming more perfect and lovely, though I had not thought it possible. And another difficulty was, that as we had all been protestants from the time of Queen Elizabeth, the maiden must be converted first, and taught to hate all papists. Now Lorna had not the smallest idea of ever being converted. She said that she loved me truly, but wanted not to convert me, and if I loved her equally, why should I wish to convert her? With this I was tolerably content, not seeing so very much difference between a creed and a credo, and believing God to be our Father in Latin as well as English. Moreover my darling knew but little of the popish ways, whether excellent or otherwise, in as much as the dunes, though they stole their houses, or at least to join his work, had never been tempted enough by the devil to steal either church or chapel. Lorna came to our little church when Parson Bowden reappeared after the snow was over, and she said that all was very nice, and very like what she had seen in the time of her Aunt Sabina, when they went far away to the little chapel with a shilling in their gloves. It made the tears come into her eyes by the force of memory, when Parson Bowden did the things not so gracefully nor so well, yet with pleasant imitation of her old priests' sacred rites. He is a worthy man, she said, being used to talk in the service time, and my mother was obliged to cough. I like him very much indeed, but I wish he would let me put his things the right way on his shoulders. Everybody in our parish, who could walk at all, or hire a boy in a wheelbarrow, I and half the folk from Countessbury, Brendan, and even Linmouth, was and were to be found that Sunday in our little church of Oire. People who would not come anire us when the dunes were threatening with carbine and with fire-brand flocked in their very best clothes to see a lady dune go to church. Now all this came of that vile John Friar, I knew it as well as possible, his tongue was worse than the clacker of a charity school bell, or the ladle in the frying-pan when the bees are swarming. However Lorna was not troubled, partly because of her natural dignity and gentleness, partly because she never dreamed that the people were come to look at her. But when we came to the psalms of the day, with some vague sense of being stared at more than ought to be, she dropped the heavy black lace fringing of the velvet hat she wore, and concealed from the congregation all except her bright red lips and the oval snow-drift of her chin. I touched her hand, and she pressed mine, and we felt that we were close together, and God saw no harm in it. As for Parson Bowden, as worthy a man as ever lived, and one who could shoot flying, he scarcely knew what he was doing without the clerk to help him. He had borne it very well, indeed, when I returned from London. But to see a live dune in his church, and a lady dune, and a lovely dune, moreover, one engaged to me, upon whom he almost looked as the squire of his parish, although not rightly in Armagh, and to feel that this lovely dune was a papist, and therefore of higher religion, as all our parson's think, and that she knew exactly how he ought to do all the service of which he himself knew little. I wished to express my firm belief that all these things together turned Parson Bowden's head a little, and made him look to me for orders. My mother, the very best of women, was, as I could well perceive, a little annoyed and vexed with things. For this particular occasion she had procured from Doverton by special message to Ruth Huckerbach, whereof more and on, a head dressed with a feather never seen before upon Exmoor, to the best of every one's knowledge. It came from a bird called a flaming something, a flaming o, or a flaming a, I will not be positive, but I can assure you that it did flame. And dear mother had no other thought but that all the congregation would neither see nor think of any other mortal thing, or immortal even, to the very end of the sermon. Herein she was so disappointed that no sooner did she get home, but upstairs she went at speed, not even stopping at the mirror in our little parlour, and flung the whole thing into a cupboard, as I knew by the bang of the door, having eased the lock for her lately. Lorna saw there was something wrong, and she looked at Annie and Lizzie, as more likely to understand it, with her former timid glance, which I knew so well, and which had first enslaved me. I know not what Ayles' mother, said Annie, he looked very beautiful, with lilac-loot-string ribbons which I saw the snow-girls envying, but she has not attended to one of the prayers, nor said our men all the morning. Never fear, darling Lorna, it is nothing about you. It is something about our John, I am sure, for she never worries herself very much about anybody but him. And here Annie made a look at me, such as I had had five hundred of. You keep your opinions to yourself, I replied, because I knew the dear, and her little bits of jealousy. It happens that you were quite wrong this time. Lorna, come with me, my darling. Oh, yes, Lorna, go with him, quite Lizzie, dropping her lip in a way which you must see to know its meaning. John wants nobody now but you, and none can find fault with his taste, dear. You little fool, I should think not, I answered very rudely, for betwixt a lot of them, my Lorna's eyelashes were quivering. Now, dearest angel, come with me, and snap your hands at the whole of them. My angel did come, with a sigh, and then with a smile, when we were alone, but without any unangelic attempt at snapping her sweet white fingers. These little things are enough to show that while everyone so admired Lorna, and so kindly took to her, still there would, just now and then, be petty and poultry flashes of jealousy concerning her, and perhaps it could not be otherwise among so many women. However, we were always doubly kind to her afterwards, and although her mind was so sensitive and quick that she must have suffered, she never allowed us to perceive it, nor lowered herself by resenting it. Possibly I may have mentioned that little Ruth Huckabuck had been asked and had even promised to spend her Christmas with us, and this was the more desirable because she had left us through some offence or sorrow about things said of her. Now, my dear mother, being the kindest and best-hearted of all women, could not bear that poor dear Ruth, who would someday have such a fortune, should be entirely lost to us. It is our duty, my dear children, she said, more than once about it, to forgive and forget as freely as we hope to have it done to us. If dear little Ruth has not behaved quite as we might have expected, great allowance should be made for a girl with so much money. Designing people get hold of her, and flatter her and coax her to obtain a base influence over her, so that when she falls among simple folk who speak the honest truth of her, no wonder the poor child is vexed and gives herself heirs and so on. Ruth can be very useful to us in a number of little ways, and I consider it quite a duty to pardon her freak of petulance. Now, one of the little ways in which Ruth had been very useful was the purchase of the scarlet feathers of the flaming bird, and now that the house was quite safe from attack and the mark on my forehead was healing, I was begged over and over again to go and see Ruth and make all things straight and pay for the gorgeous plumage. This last I was very desirous to do, that I might know the price of it, having made a small bet on the subject with any, and having held counsel with myself whether or not it were possible to get something of the kind for Lorna of still more distinguished appearance. Of course, she could not wear scarlet as yet, even if I had wished it, but I believed that people of fashion often wore purple for mourning. Purple, too, was the royal color, and Lorna was by right a queen. Therefore, I was quite resolved to ransack Uncle Ruben's stores in search of some bright purple bird if nature had kindly provided one. All this, however, I kept to myself, intending to trust Ruth Huckaback, and no one else in the matter. And so, one beautiful spring morning when all the earth was kissed with scent and all the air caressed with song, up the lane I stoutly rode, well armed and well provided. Now, though it is part of my life to heed, it is no part of my tale to tell how the wheat was coming on. I reckon that you, who read this story, after I am dead and gone, and before that none shall read it, will say, Tush, what is his wheat to us? We are not wheat, we are human beings, and all we care for is human doings. This may be very good argument, and in the main I believe that it is so. Nevertheless, if a man is to tell only what he thought and did, and not what came around him, he must not mention his own clothes, which his father and mother bought for him. And more than my own clothes to me, I, and as much as my own skin, are the works of nature round about, whereof a man is the smallest. And now I will tell you, although most likely only to be laughed at, because I cannot put it in the style of Mr. Dryden, whom, to compare to Shakespeare, but if once I begin upon that you will never hear the last of me, nevertheless I will tell you this, not wishing to be rude, but only just because I know it, the more a man can sling his arms, so to say, round nature's neck, the more he can upon her bosom, like an infant, lie and suck, the more that man shall earn the love and trust of all his fellow men. In this matter is no jealousy, when the man is dead, because thereafter all others know how much of the milk he had, and he can suck no longer, and they value him accordingly for the nourishment he is to them. Even as when we keep a roaster of the sucking pigs, we choose and praise at table most the favourite of its mother. Fifty times have I seen this, and smiled, and praised our people's taste, and offered them more of the vitals. Now here am I upon Shakespeare, who died of his own fruition at the age of fifty-two, yet lived more than fifty thousand men within his little span of life, when all the while I ought to be riding as hard as I can to Doverton, but to tell the truth I could not ride hard, being held at every turn, and often without any turn at all, by the beauty of things around me. These things grow upon a man if once he stops to notice them. It wanted yet two hours to noon when I came to Master Huckabuck's door and struck the panels smartly. Knowing nothing of their manners, only that people in a town could not be expected to entertain as we do in farmhouses, having moreover, keen expectation of Master Huckabuck's avarice, I had brought some stuff to eat made by any and packed by Lorna, and requiring no thinking about it. Ruth herself came and let me in, blushing very heartily, for which colour I praised her health, and my praises heightened it. That little thing had lovely eyes, and could be trusted thoroughly. I do like an obstinate little woman, when she is sure that she is right. And indeed, if love had never sped me straight to the heart of Lorna, compared to whom, Ruth was no more than the thief is to the candle, who knows that what I might have yielded to the law of nature, that thorough trimmer of balances, and verified the proverb that the giant loves the dwarf. I take the privilege, Mistress Ruth, of saluting you according to kinship and the ordering of the cannons, and therewith I bust her well, and put my arm around her waist, being so terribly restricted in the matter of Lorna and knowing the use of practice. Not that I had any warmth, all that was darling Lorna's, only out of pure gallantry and my knowledge of London fashions. Ruth blushed as such a pitch at this, and looked up at me with such a gleam as if I must have my own way, that all of my love of kissing sunk, and I felt that I was wronging her. Only my mother had told me, when the girls were out of the way, to do all I could to please darling Ruth, and I had gone about it accordingly. Now, Ruth has yet had never heard a word about dear Lorna, and when she led me into the kitchen, where everything looked beautiful, and told me not to mind for a moment about the scrubbing of my boots, because she would be only too glad to clean it all up after me, and told me how glad she was to see me, blushing more at every word and recalling some of them, and stooping down for pots and pans when I looked at her too rudely. All these things came upon me so, without any legal notice, that I could only look at Ruth, and think how very good she was, and how bright her handles were, and wonder if I had wronged her. Once or twice I began, this I say upon my honour, to endeavour to explain exactly how we were at Plover's Barrows, how we all had been bound to fight and had defeated the enemy, keeping their queen amongst us. But Ruth would make some great mistake between Lorna and Guenny Carfax, and gave me no chance to set her a right, and cared about nothing much except some news of Sally Snow. What could I do with this little thing? All my sense of modesty and value for my dinner were against my overpressing all the graceful hints I had given about Lorna. Ruth was just a girl of that sort who would not believe one word except from her own seeing, not so much from any doubt, as from the practice of using eyes which have been in business. I asked cousin Ruth, as we used to call her, though the cousinship was distant, what was the calm of Uncle Ben, and how it was that we never heard anything oval from him now. She replied that she had they knew what to make of a grandfather's manner of carrying on for the last half year or more. He was apt to leave his home, she said, at any hour of the day or night, going none new with her and returning no one might say when. And his dress, in her opinion, was enough to frighten a hodman or a scavenger of the roads, instead of the decent suit of cursey, or of sabbathoe skins such as had won the respect and reverence of his fellow townsmen. But the worst of all things was, as she confessed with tears in her eyes, that the poor old gentleman had something weighing heavily on his mind. It will shorten his days, cousin Ruth, she said, for she never would call me cousin John. He has no enjoyment of anything that he eats or drinks, not even in counting his money, as he used to do all Sunday. Indeed, no pleasure in anything, unless it be smoking his pipe, and thinking and staring at bits of brown stone which he pulls every now and then out of his pockets. And the business he used to take such pride in is now left almost entirely to the foreman and to me. And what will become of you, dear Ruth, if anything happens to the old man? I am sure I know not, she answered simply, and I cannot bear to think of it. It must depend, I suppose, upon dear grandfather's pleasure about me. It must rather depend, said I, though having no business to say it, upon your own good pleasure, Ruth, for all the world will pay court to you. That is the very thing which I never could endure. I have begged, dear grandfather, to leave no chance of that. When he has threatened me with poverty as he does sometimes, I have always met him truly, with the answer that I feared one thing a great deal worse than poverty, namely, to be an heiress. But I cannot make him believe it, only think how strange, cousin Ruth, I cannot make him believe it. It is not strange at all, I answered, considering how he values money. Neither would anyone else believe you, except by looking into your true and very pretty eyes, dear. Now I beg that no one will suspect for a single moment, either that I did not mean exactly what I said or meant a single atom more, or would not have said the same if Lorna had been standing by. What I had always liked in Ruth was the calm, straightforward gaze and beauty of her large brown eyes. Indeed, I had spoken of them to Lorna, as the only ones to be compared, though not for more than a moment, to her own for truth and light, but never for depth and softness. But now the little maiden dropped them and turned away without reply. I will go and see to my horse, I said. The boy that has taken him seemed surprised that he is having no horns on his forehead. Perhaps he will lead him into the shop and feed him upon broadcloth. Oh, he is such a stupid boy! Ruth answered with great sympathy. How quick of you to observe that now, and you call yourself slow, John Ridd! I never did see such a stupid boy. Sometimes he spoils my temper. But you must be back in half an hour at the latest, Cousin Ridd. You see, I remember what you are, when once you get among horses or cows or things of that sort. Things of that sort? Well done, Ruth! One would think you were quite a cockney. Uncle Rubin did not come home to his dinner, and his granddaughter said she had strictest orders never to expect him. Therefore we had none to dine with us, except the foreman of the shop, a worthy man, named Thomas Cochrum, fifty years of age or so. He seemed to me to have strong intentions of his own about little Ruth, and on that account to regard me with the wholly undue malevolence. And perhaps, in order to justify him, I may have been more attentive to her than otherwise need have been. At any rate, Ruth and I were pleasant, and he the very opposite. My dear cousin Ruth, I said, on purpose to vex Master Cochrum, because he eyed us so heavily, and squinted so unluckily. We have long been looking for you at our plover's barrow's farm. You remember how you used to love hunting for eggs in the morning, and hiding up in the toilet with Lizzie, for me to seek you among the hay when the sun was down. Ah, Master Cochrum, those are the things young people find their pleasure in—not in selling a yard of surge and giving Tuppern's half-bony change, and writing settled at the bottom with a pencil that has blackened their teeth. Now, Master Cochrum, you ought to come as far as our good farm at once, and eat two new-laid eggs for breakfast, and be made to look quite young again. Our good Annie would cook for you, and you should have the hot new milk and the pope's eye from the mutton, and every foot of you would become a yard in about a fortnight. And hereupon I spread my chest to show him an example. Ruth could not keep her countenance, but I saw that she thought it wrong of me, and would scold me if ever I gave her the chance of taking those little liberties. However, he deserved it all, according to my young ideas, for his great impertinence in aiming at my cousin. But what I said was far less grievous to a man of honest mind than little Ruth's own behaviour. I could hardly have believed that so thoroughly true a girl, and one so proud and upright, could have got rid of any man so cleverly as she got rid of Master Thomas Cochrum. She gave him not even a glass of wine, but commended to his notice with a sweet and thoughtful gravity, some invoice which must be corrected before her dear grandfather should return, and to amend which three great ledgers must be searched from first to last. Thomas Cochrum winked at me with the worst of his two wrong eyes, as much as to say, I understand it, but I cannot help myself—only you look out, if ever—and before he had finished winking the door was shut behind him. Then Ruth said to me in the simplest manner, You have ridden far today, cousin Ruth, and have far to ride to get home again. What will dear Aunt Ruth say if we send you away without nourishment? All the keys are in my keeping, and dear grandfather has the finest wine, not to be matched in the west of England, as I have heard good judges say, though I know not wine from cider. Do you like the wine of a porto, of the wine of Zerries? I know not one from the other, fair cousin, except by the colour, I answered. But the sound of a porto is nobler and richer. Suppose we try a wine of a porto. The good little creature went and fetched a black bottle of an ancient cast, covered with dust and cobwebs. These I was anxious to shake aside, and indeed I thought that the wine would be better for being roused up a little. Ruth, however, would not hear a single word to that purport, and seeing that she knew more about it, I left her to manage it. And the result was very fine indeed. To wit, a sparkling rosy liquor, dancing with little flakes of light, and centred like new violets. With this I was so pleased and gay, and Ruth so glad to see me gay, that we quite forgot how the time went on, and though my fair cousin would not be persuaded to take a second glass herself, she kept on filling mine so fast that it was never empty, though I did my best to keep it so. What is a little drop like this to a man of your size and strength, cousin Ridd? She said, with her cheeks just brushed with rose, which made her look very beautiful. I have heard you say that your head is so thick, or rather so clear you ought to say, that no liquor ever moves it. That is right enough, I answered, what a witch you must be, dear Ruth, to have remembered that now. Oh, I remember every word I have ever heard you say, cousin Ridd, because your voice is so deep you know, and you talk so little. Now it is useless to say no, these bottles hold almost nothing. Dear grandfather will not come home, I fear, until long after you are gone. What will Aunt Ridd think of me, I am sure. You are all so dreadfully hospitable. Now, not another no, cousin Ridd, we must have another bottle. Well, must is must, I answered, with a certain resignation, I cannot bear bad manners, dear, and how old are you next birthday? Eighteen, dear John, said Ruth, coming over with the empty bottle, and I was pleased at her calling me John, and had a great mind to kiss her. However, I thought of my lawness suddenly, and of the anger I should feel if a man went on with her so. Therefore, I lay back in my chair to wait for the other bottle. Do you remember how we danced that night, I asked, while she was opening it, and how you were afraid of me first, because I looked so tall, dear? Yes, and so very broad, cousin Ridd, I thought that you would eat me, but I have come to know since then how very kind and good you are. And will you come and dance again at my wedding, cousin Ruth? She nearly let the bottle fall, the last of which she was sweeping carefully into a vessel of bright glass, and then she raised her hand again and finished it judiciously. And after that she took the window, to see that all her work was clear, and then she poured me out of glass and said with very pale cheeks, but else no sign of meaning about her. What did you ask me, cousin Ridd? Nothing of any importance, Ruth, only we are so fond of you. I mean to be married as soon as I can. Will you come and help us? To be sure I will, cousin Ridd. Unless—unless, dear grandfather cannot spare me from the business. She went away, and her breast was heaving like a reek of under-carried hay, and she stood at the window long, trying to make yawns of size. For my part I knew not what to do, and yet I could think about it as I never could with Lorna, with whom I was always in a whirl from the power of my love. So I thought some time about it, and perceived that it was the manliest way just to tell her everything, except that I feared she liked me. But it seemed to me unaccountable, that she did not even ask the name of my intended wife. Perhaps she thought that it must be Sally, or perhaps she feared to trust her voice. Come and sit by me, dear Ruth, and listen to a long, long story, how things have come about with me. No, thank you, cousin Ridd, she answered. At least I mean that I shall be happy, that I shall be ready to hear you—to listen to you, I mean, of course, but I would rather stay where I am, and have the air, or rather be able to watch for dear grandfather coming home. He is so kind and good to me. What should I do without him? Then I told her how, for years and years I had been attached to Lorna, and all the dangers and difficulties which had so long beset us, and how I hoped that these were passing, and no other might come between us except on the score of religion, upon which point I trusted soon to overcome my mother's objections. And then I told her how poor and helpless and alone in the world my Lorna was, and how sad all her youth had been, until I brought her away at last, and many other little things I mentioned which there is no need for me again to dwell upon. Ruth heard it all without a word, and without once looking at me, and only by her attitude could I guess that she was weeping. Then when all my tale was told, she asked in a low and gentle voice, but still without showing her face to me. And does she love you, cousin Ruth? Does she say that she loves you with all her heart? Certainly she does, I answered. Do you think it impossible for one like her to do so? She said no more, but crossed the room before I had time to look at her, and came behind my chair, and kissed me gently on the forehead. I hope you may be very happy with, I mean in your new life, she whispered very softly, as happy as you deserve to be, and as happy as you can make others be. Now, how I have been neglecting you, I am quite ashamed of myself for thinking only of grandfather, and it makes me so low-spirited. You have told me a very nice romance, and I have never even helped you to a glass of wine. Here, pour it for yourself, dear cousin. I shall be back again directly. Ruth thought she was out of the door in a moment, and when she came back, you would not have thought that a tear had dimmed those large, bright eyes, or wandered down those pale, clear cheeks. Only her hands were cold and trembling, and she made me help myself. Uncle Rubin did not appear at all, and Ruth, who had promised to come and see us, and stay for a fortnight at our house, if her grandfather could spare her, now discovered before I left that she must not think of doing so. Perhaps she was right in deciding thus. At any rate, it had now become improper for me to press her, and yet I now desired tenfold that she should consent to come, thinking that Lorna herself would work the speediest cure of her passing whim. For such, I tried to persuade myself, was the nature of Ruth's regard for me, and upon looking back, I could not charge myself with any misconduct towards the Little Maiden. I had never sought her company, I had never trifled with her, at least until that very day, and, being so engrossed with my own love, I had scarcely even thought of her. And the Maiden would never have thought of me except as a clumsy yokel, but for my mothers and sisters meddling, and their wily suggestions. I believe they had told the Little Soul that I was deeply in love with her, although they both stoutly denied it. But who can place trust in a woman's word, when it comes to a question of much-making?