|
Prev
| Next
| Contents
CHAPTER LXI
THEREFORE HE SEEKS COMFORT
It was for poor Annie's sake that I had spoken my mind
to her husband so freely, and even harshly. For we all
knew she would break her heart, if Tom took to evil
ways again. And the right mode of preventing this was,
not to coax, and flatter, and make a hero of him (which
he did for himself, quite sufficiently), but to set
before him the folly of the thing, and the ruin to his
own interests. They would both be vexed with me, of
course, for having left them so hastily, and especially
just before dinner-time; but that would soon wear off;
and most likely they would come to see mother, and tell
her that I was hard to manage, and they could feel for
her about it.
Now with a certain yearning, I know not what, for
softness, and for one who could understand me--for
simple as a child though being, I found few to do that
last, at any rate in my love-time--I relied upon
Kickum's strength to take me round by Dulverton. It
would make the journey some eight miles longer, but
what was that to a brisk young horse, even with my
weight upon him?
And having left Squire Faggus and Annie much sooner
than had been intended, I had plenty of time before me,
and too much, ere a prospect of dinner. Therefore I
struck to the right, across the hills, for Dulverton.
Pretty Ruth was in the main street of the town, with a
basket in her hand, going home from the market.
'Why, Cousin Ruth, you are grown, I exclaimed; 'I do
believe you are, Ruth. And you were almost too tall,
already.'
At this the little thing was so pleased, that she
smiled through her blushes beautifully, and must needs
come to shake hands with me; though I signed to her not
to do it, because of my horse's temper. But scarcely
was her hand in mine, when Kickums turned like an eel
upon her, and caught her by the left arm with his
teeth, so that she screamed with agony. I saw the
white of his vicious eye, and struck him there with all
my force, with my left hand over her right arm, and he
never used that eye again; none the less he kept his
hold on her. Then I smote him again on the jaw, and
caught the little maid up by her right hand, and laid
her on the saddle in front of me; while the horse being
giddy and staggered with blows, and foiled of his
spite, ran backward. Ruth's wits were gone; and she
lay before me, in such a helpless and senseless way
that I could have killed vile Kickums. I struck the
spurs into him past the rowels, and away he went at
full gallop; while I had enough to do to hold on, with
the little girl lying in front of me. But I called to
the men who were flocking around, to send up a surgeon,
as quick as could be, to Master Reuben Huckaback's.
The moment I brought my right arm to bear, the vicious
horse had no chance with me; and if ever a horse was
well paid for spite, Kickums had his change that day.
The bridle would almost have held a whale and I drew on
it so that his lower jaw was well-nigh broken from him;
while with both spurs I tore his flanks, and he learned
a little lesson. There are times when a man is more
vicious than any horse may vie with. Therefore by the
time we had reached Uncle Reuben's house at the top of
the hill, the bad horse was only too happy to stop;
every string of his body was trembling, and his head
hanging down with impotence. I leaped from his back at
once, and carried the maiden into her own sweet room.
Now Cousin Ruth was recovering softly from her fright
and faintness; and the volley of the wind from
galloping so had made her little ears quite pink, and
shaken her locks all round her. But any one who might
wish to see a comely sight and a moving one, need only
have looked at Ruth Huckaback, when she learned (and
imagined yet more than it was) the manner of her little
ride with me. Her hair was of a hazel-brown, and full
of waving readiness; and with no concealment of the
trick, she spread it over her eyes and face. Being so
delighted with her, and so glad to see her safe, I
kissed her through the thick of it, as a cousin has a
right to do; yea, and ought to do, with gravity.
'Darling,' I said; 'he has bitten you dreadfully: show
me your poor arm, dear.'
She pulled up her sleeve in the simplest manner, rather
to look at it herself, than to show me where the wound
was. Her sleeve was of dark blue Taunton staple; and
her white arm shone, coming out of it, as round and
plump and velvety, as a stalk of asparagus, newly
fetched out of the ground. But above the curved soft
elbow, where no room was for one cross word (according
to our proverb),* three sad gashes, edged with crimson,
spoiled the flow of the pearly flesh. My presence of
mind was lost altogether; and I raised the poor sore
arm to my lips, both to stop the bleeding and to take
the venom out, having heard how wise it was, and
thinking of my mother. But Ruth, to my great
amazement, drew away from me in bitter haste, as if I
had been inserting instead of extracting poison. For
the bite of a horse is most venomous; especially when
he sheds his teeth; and far more to be feared than the
bite of a dog, or even of a cat. And in my haste I had
forgotten that Ruth might not know a word about this,
and might doubt about my meaning, and the warmth of my
osculation. But knowing her danger, I durst not heed
her childishness, or her feelings.
* (A maid with an elbow sharp, or knee,
Hath cross words two, out of every three.)
'Don't be a fool, Cousin Ruth,' I said, catching her so
that she could not move; 'the poison is soaking into
you. Do you think that I do it for pleasure?'
The spread of shame on her face was such, when she saw
her own misunderstanding, that I was ashamed to look at
her; and occupied myself with drawing all the risk of
glanders forth from the white limb, hanging helpless
now, and left entirely to my will. Before I was quite
sure of having wholly exhausted suction, and when I had
made the holes in her arm look like the gills of a
lamprey, in came the doctor, partly drunk, and in haste
to get through his business.
'Ha, ha! I see,' he cried; 'bite of a horse, they tell
me. Very poisonous; must be burned away. Sally, the
iron in the fire. If you have a fire, this weather.'
'Crave your pardon, good sir,' I said; for poor little
Ruth was fainting again at his savage orders: 'but my
cousin's arm shall not be burned; it is a great deal
too pretty, and I have sucked all the poison out.
Look, sir, how clean and fresh it is.'
'Bless my heart! And so it is! No need at all for
cauterising. The epidermis will close over, and the
cutis and the pellis. John Ridd, you ought to have
studied medicine, with your healing powers. Half my
virtue lies in touch. A clean and wholesome body, sir;
I have taught you the Latin grammar. I leave you in
excellent hands, my dear, and they wait for me at
shovel-board. Bread and water poultice cold, to be
renewed, tribus horis. John Ridd, I was at school with
you, and you beat me very lamentably, when I tried to
fight with you. You remember me not? It is likely
enough: I am forced to take strong waters, John, from
infirmity of the liver. Attend to my directions; and I
will call again in the morning.'
And in that melancholy plight, caring nothing for
business, went one of the cleverest fellows ever known
at Tiverton. He could write Latin verses a great deal
faster than I could ever write English prose, and
nothing seemed too great for him. We thought that he
would go to Oxford and astonish every one, and write in
the style of Buchanan; but he fell all abroad very
lamentably; and now, when I met him again, was come
down to push-pin and shovel-board, with a wager of
spirits pending.
When Master Huckaback came home, he looked at me very
sulkily; not only because of my refusal to become a
slave to the gold-digging, but also because he regarded
me as the cause of a savage broil between Simon Carfax
and the men who had cheated him as to his Gwenny.
However, when Uncle Ben saw Ruth, and knew what had
befallen her, and she with tears in her eyes declared
that she owed her life to Cousin Ridd, the old man
became very gracious to me; for if he loved any one on
earth, it was his little granddaughter.
I could not stay very long, because, my horse being
quite unfit to travel from the injuries which his
violence and vice had brought upon him, there was
nothing for me but to go on foot, as none of Uncle
Ben's horses could take me to Plover's Barrows, without
downright cruelty: and though there would be a
harvest-moon, Ruth agreed with me that I must not keep
my mother waiting, with no idea where I might be, until
a late hour of the night. I told Ruth all about our
Annie, and her noble furniture; and the little maid was
very lively (although her wounds were paining her so,
that half her laughter came 'on the wrong side of her
mouth,' as we rather coarsely express it); especially
she laughed about Annie's new-fangled closet for
clothes, or standing-press, as she called it. This had
frightened me so that I would not come without my stick
to look at it; for the front was inlaid with two fiery
dragons, and a glass which distorted everything, making
even Annie look hideous; and when it was opened, a
woman's skeleton, all in white, revealed itself, in the
midst of three standing women. 'It is only to keep my
best frocks in shape,' Annie had explained to me;
'hanging them up does ruin them so. But I own that I
was afraid of it, John, until I had got all my best
clothes there, and then I became very fond of it. But
even now it frightens me sometimes in the moonlight.'
Having made poor Ruth a little cheerful, with a full
account of all Annie's frocks, material, pattern, and
fashion (of which I had taken a list for my mother, and
for Lizzie, lest they should cry out at man's stupidity
about anything of real interest), I proceeded to tell
her about my own troubles, and the sudden departure of
Lorna; concluding with all the show of indifference
which my pride could muster, that now I never should
see her again, and must do my best to forget her, as
being so far above me. I had not intended to speak of
this, but Ruth's face was so kind and earnest, that I
could not stop myself.
'You must not talk like that, Cousin Ridd,' she said,
in a low and gentle tone, and turning away her eyes
from me; 'no lady can be above a man, who is pure, and
brave, and gentle. And if her heart be worth having,
she will never let you give her up, for her grandeur,
and her nobility.'
She pronounced those last few words, as I thought, with
a little bitterness, unperceived by herself perhaps,
for it was not in her appearance. But I, attaching
great importance to a maiden's opinion about a maiden
(because she might judge from experience), would have
led her further into that subject. But she declined to
follow, having now no more to say in a matter so
removed from her. Then I asked her full and straight,
and looking at her in such a manner that she could not
look away, without appearing vanquished by feelings of
her own--which thing was very vile of me; but all men
are so selfish,--
'Dear cousin, tell me, once for all, what is your
advice to me?'
'My advice to you,' she answered bravely, with her dark
eyes full of pride, and instead of flinching, foiling
me,--'is to do what every man must do, if he would win
fair maiden. Since she cannot send you token, neither
is free to return to you, follow her, pay your court to
her; show that you will not be forgotten; and perhaps
she will look down--I mean, she will relent to you.'
'She has nothing to relent about. I have never vexed
nor injured her. My thoughts have never strayed from her.
There is no one to compare with her.'
'Then keep her in that same mind about you. See now, I
can advise no more. My arm is swelling painfully, in
spite of all your goodness, and bitter task of
surgeonship. I shall have another poultice on, and go
to bed, I think, Cousin Ridd, if you will not hold me
ungrateful. I am so sorry for your long walk. Surely
it might be avoided. Give my love to dear Lizzie: oh,
the room is going round so.'
And she fainted into the arms of Sally, who was come
just in time to fetch her: no doubt she had been
suffering agony all the time she talked to me. Leaving
word that I would come again to inquire for her, and
fetch Kickums home, so soon as the harvest permitted
me, I gave directions about the horse, and striding
away from the ancient town, was soon upon the
moorlands.
Now, through the whole of that long walk--the latter
part of which was led by starlight, till the moon
arose--I dwelt, in my young and foolish way, upon the
ordering of our steps by a Power beyond us. But as I
could not bring my mind to any clearness upon this
matter, and the stars shed no light upon it, but rather
confused me with wondering how their Lord could attend
to them all, and yet to a puny fool like me, it came to
pass that my thoughts on the subject were not worth
ink, if I knew them.
But it is perhaps worth ink to relate, so far as I can
do so, mother's delight at my return, when she had
almost abandoned hope, and concluded that I was gone to
London, in disgust at her behaviour. And now she was
looking up the lane, at the rise of the harvest-moon,
in despair, as she said afterwards. But if she had
despaired in truth, what use to look at all? Yet
according to the epigram made by a good Blundellite,--
Despair was never yet so deep
In sinking as in seeming;
Despair is hope just dropped asleep
For better chance of dreaming.
And mother's dream was a happy one, when she knew my
step at a furlong distant; for the night was of those
that carry sound thrice as far as day can. She
recovered herself, when she was sure, and even made up
her mind to scold me, and felt as if she could do it.
But when she was in my arms, into which she threw
herself, and I by the light of the moon descried the
silver gleam on one side of her head (now spreading
since Annie's departure), bless my heart and yours
therewith, no room was left for scolding. She hugged
me, and she clung to me; and I looked at her, with duty
made tenfold, and discharged by love. We said nothing
to one another; but all was right between us.
Even Lizzie behaved very well, so far as her nature
admitted; not even saying a nasty thing all the time
she was getting my supper ready, with a weak imitation
of Annie. She knew that the gift of cooking was not
vouchsafed by God to her; but sometimes she would do
her best, by intellect to win it. Whereas it is no
more to be won by intellect than is divine poetry. An
amount of strong quick heart is needful, and the
understanding must second it, in the one art as in the
other. Now my fare was very choice for the next three
days or more; yet not turned out like Annie's. They
could do a thing well enough on the fire; but they
could not put it on table so; nor even have plates all
piping hot. This was Annie's special gift; born in
her, and ready to cool with her; like a plate borne
away from the fireplace. I sighed sometimes about
Lorna, and they thought it was about the plates. And
mother would stand and look at me, as much as to say,
'No pleasing him'; and Lizzie would jerk up one
shoulder, and cry, 'He had better have Lorna to cook
for him'; while the whole truth was that I wanted not
to be plagued about any cookery; but just to have
something good and quiet, and then smoke and think
about Lorna.
Nevertheless the time went on, with one change and
another; and we gathered all our harvest in; and Parson
Bowden thanked God for it, both in church and out of
it; for his tithes would be very goodly. The
unmatched cold of the previous winter, and general fear
of scarcity, and our own talk about our ruin, had sent
prices up to a grand high pitch; and we did our best to
keep them there. For nine Englishmen out of every ten
believe that a bitter winter must breed a sour summer,
and explain away topmost prices. While according to my
experience, more often it would be otherwise, except
for the public thinking so. However, I have said too
much; and if any farmer reads my book, he will vow that
I wrote it for nothing else except to rob his family.
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|
