R. D. Blackmore - Lorna Doone

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It was no time to linger now; I fastened my shoes in a moment, and
caught up my own darling with her head upon my shoulder, where she
whispered faintly; and telling Gwenny to follow me, or else I would come
back for her, if she could not walk the snow, I ran the whole distance
to my sledd, caring not who might follow me. Then by the time I had set
up Lorna, beautiful and smiling, with the seal-skin cloak all over her,
sturdy Gwenny came along, having trudged in the track of my snow-shoes,
although with two bags on her back. I set her in beside her mistress,
to support her, and keep warm; and then with one look back at the glen,
which had been so long my home of heart, I hung behind the sledd, and
launched it down the steep and dangerous way.

Though the cliffs were black above us, and the road unseen in front, and
a great white grave of snow might at a single word come down, Lorna was
as calm and happy as an infant in its bed. She knew that I was with her;
and when I told her not to speak, she touched my hand in silence. Gwenny
was in a much greater fright, having never seen such a thing before,
neither knowing what it is to yield to pure love's confidence. I could
hardly keep her quiet, without making a noise myself. With my staff from
rock to rock, and my weight thrown backward, I broke the sledd's too
rapid way, and brought my grown love safely out, by the selfsame road
which first had led me to her girlish fancy, and my boyish slavery.

Unpursued, yet looking back as if some one must be after us, we skirted
round the black whirling pool, and gained the meadows beyond it. Here
there was hard collar work, the track being all uphill and rough; and
Gwenny wanted to jump out, to lighten the sledd and to push behind. But
I would not hear of it; because it was now so deadly cold, and I feared
that Lorna might get frozen, without having Gwenny to keep her warm. And
after all, it was the sweetest labour I had ever known in all my
life, to be sure that I was pulling Lorna, and pulling her to our own
farmhouse.

Gwenny's nose was touched with frost, before we had gone much farther,
because she would not keep it quiet and snug beneath the sealskin. And
here I had to stop in the moonlight (which was very dangerous) and rub
it with a clove of snow, as Eliza had taught me; and Gwenny scolding
all the time, as if myself had frozen it. Lorna was now so far oppressed
with all the troubles of the evening, and the joy that followed them, as
well as by the piercing cold and difficulty of breathing, that she lay
quite motionless, like fairest wax in the moonlight--when we stole a
glance at her, beneath the dark folds of the cloak; and I thought that
she was falling into the heavy snow-sleep, whence there is no awaking.

Therefore, I drew my traces tight, and set my whole strength to the
business; and we slipped along at a merry pace, although with many
joltings, which must have sent my darling out into the cold snowdrifts
but for the short strong arm of Gwenny. And so in about an hour's time,
in spite of many hindrances, we came home to the old courtyard, and all
the dogs saluted us. My heart was quivering, and my cheeks as hot as
the Doones' bonfire, with wondering both what Lorna would think of
our farm-yard, and what my mother would think of her. Upon the former
subject my anxiety was wasted, for Lorna neither saw a thing, nor even
opened her heavy eyes. And as to what mother would think of her, she was
certain not to think at all, until she had cried over her.

And so indeed it came to pass. Even at this length of time, I can hardly
tell it, although so bright before my mind, because it moves my heart
so. The sledd was at the open door, with only Lorna in it; for Gwenny
Carfax had jumped out, and hung back in the clearing, giving any reason
rather than the only true one--that she would not be intruding. At the
door were all our people; first, of course, Betty Muxworthy, teaching
me how to draw the sledd, as if she had been born in it, and flourishing
with a great broom, wherever a speck of snow lay. Then dear Annie,
and old Molly (who was very quiet, and counted almost for nobody), and
behind them, mother, looking as if she wanted to come first, but
doubted how the manners lay. In the distance Lizzie stood, fearful of
encouraging, but unable to keep out of it.

Betty was going to poke her broom right in under the sealskin cloak,
where Lorna lay unconscious, and where her precious breath hung frozen,
like a silver cobweb; but I caught up Betty's broom, and flung it clean
away over the corn chamber; and then I put the others by, and fetched my
mother forward.

"You shall see her first," I said: "is she not your daughter? Hold the
light there, Annie."

Dear mother's hands were quick and trembling, as she opened the shining
folds; and there she saw my Lorna sleeping, with her black hair all
dishevelled, and she bent and kissed her forehead, and only said, "God
bless her, John!" And then she was taken with violent weeping, and I was
forced to hold her.

"Us may tich of her now, I rackon," said Betty in her most jealous way;
"Annie, tak her by the head, and I'll tak her by the toesen. No taime
to stand here like girt gawks. Don'ee tak on zo, missus. Ther be vainer
vish in the zea--Lor, but, her be a booty!"

With this, they carried her into the house, Betty chattering all the
while, and going on now about Lorna's hands, and the others crowding
round her, so that I thought I was not wanted among so many women, and
should only get the worst of it, and perhaps do harm to my darling.
Therefore I went and brought Gwenny in, and gave her a potful of
bacon and peas, and an iron spoon to eat it with, which she did right
heartily.

Then I asked her how she could have been such a fool as to let those two
vile fellows enter the house where Lorna was; and she accounted for it
so naturally, that I could only blame myself. For my agreement had been
to give one loud knock (if you happen to remember) and after that two
little knocks. Well these two drunken rogues had come; and one, being
very drunk indeed, had given a great thump; and then nothing more to
do with it; and the other, being three-quarters drunk, had followed his
leader (as one might say) but feebly, and making two of it. Whereupon up
jumped Lorna, and declared that her John was there.

All this Gwenny told me shortly, between the whiles of eating, and even
while she licked the spoon; and then there came a message for me that my
love was sensible, and was seeking all around for me. Then I told Gwenny
to hold her tongue (whatever she did among us), and not to trust to
women's words; and she told me they all were liars, as she had found
out long ago; and the only thing to believe in was an honest man, when
found. Thereupon I could have kissed her as a sort of tribute, liking to
be appreciated; yet the peas upon her lips made me think about it; and
thought is fatal to action. So I went to see my dear.

That sight I shall not forget; till my dying head falls back, and my
breast can lift no more. I know not whether I were then more blessed,
or harrowed by it. For in the settle was my Lorna, propped with
pillows round her, and her clear hands spread sometimes to the blazing
fireplace. In her eyes no knowledge was of anything around her, neither
in her neck the sense of leaning towards anything. Only both her lovely
hands were entreating something, to spare her, or to love her; and the
lines of supplication quivered in her sad white face.

[Illustration: 387.jpg For in the settle was my Lorna]

"All go away, except my mother," I said very quietly, but so that I
would be obeyed; and everybody knew it. Then mother came to me alone;
and she said, "The frost is in her brain; I have heard of this before,
John." "Mother, I will have it out," was all that I could answer her;
"leave her to me altogether; only you sit there and watch." For I felt
that Lorna knew me, and no other soul but me; and that if not interfered
with, she would soon come home to me. Therefore I sat gently by her,
leaving nature, as it were, to her own good time and will. And presently
the glance that watched me, as at distance and in doubt, began to
flutter and to brighten, and to deepen into kindness, then to beam with
trust and love, and then with gathering tears to falter, and in shame
to turn away. But the small entreating hands found their way, as if by
instinct, to my great projecting palms; and trembled there, and rested
there.

For a little while we lingered thus, neither wishing to move away,
neither caring to look beyond the presence of the other; both alike so
full of hope, and comfort, and true happiness; if only the world would
let us be. And then a little sob disturbed us, and mother tried to make
believe that she was only coughing. But Lorna, guessing who she was,
jumped up so very rashly that she almost set her frock on fire from the
great ash log; and away she ran to the old oak chair, where mother was
by the clock-case pretending to be knitting, and she took the work from
mother's hands, and laid them both upon her head, kneeling humbly, and
looking up.

"God bless you, my fair mistress!" said mother, bending nearer, and then
as Lorna's gaze prevailed, "God bless you, my sweet child!"

And so she went to mother's heart by the very nearest road, even as she
had come to mine; I mean the road of pity, smoothed by grace, and youth,
and gentleness.

CHAPTER XLV

A CHANGE LONG NEEDED

[Illustration: 389.jpg Marwood Whichehalse]

Jeremy Stickles was gone south, ere ever the frost set in, for the
purpose of mustering forces to attack the Doone Glen. But, of course,
this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement; for even if men
could have borne the cold, they could scarcely be brought to face the
perils of the snow-drifts. And to tell the truth I cared not how long
this weather lasted, so long as we had enough to eat, and could keep
ourselves from freezing. Not only that I did not want Master Stickles
back again, to make more disturbances; but also that the Doones could
not come prowling after Lorna while the snow lay piled between us, with
the surface soft and dry. Of course they would very soon discover where
their lawful queen was, although the track of sledd and snow-shoes had
been quite obliterated by another shower, before the revellers could
have grown half as drunk as they intended. But Marwood de Whichehalse,
who had been snowed up among them (as Gwenny said), after helping
to strip the beacon, that young Squire was almost certain to have
recognised me, and to have told the vile Carver. And it gave me no
little pleasure to think how mad that Carver must be with me, for
robbing him of the lovely bride whom he was starving into matrimony.
However, I was not pleased at all with the prospect of the consequences;
but set all hands on to thresh the corn, ere the Doones could come and
burn the ricks. For I knew that they could not come yet, inasmuch as
even a forest pony could not traverse the country, much less the heavy
horses needed to carry such men as they were. And hundreds of the forest
ponies died in this hard weather, some being buried in the snow, and
more of them starved for want of grass.

Going through this state of things, and laying down the law about
it (subject to correction), I very soon persuaded Lorna that for the
present she was safe, and (which made her still more happy) that she was
not only welcome, but as gladdening to our eyes as the flowers of May.
Of course, so far as regarded myself, this was not a hundredth part of
the real truth; and even as regarded others, I might have said it ten
times over. For Lorna had so won them all, by her kind and gentle ways,
and her mode of hearkening to everybody's trouble, and replying without
words, as well as by her beauty, and simple grace of all things, that
I could almost wish sometimes the rest would leave her more to me. But
mother could not do enough; and Annie almost worshipped her; and even
Lizzie could not keep her bitterness towards her; especially when she
found that Lorna knew as much of books as need be.

As for John Fry, and Betty, and Molly, they were a perfect plague when
Lorna came into the kitchen. For betwixt their curiosity to see a
live Doone in the flesh (when certain not to eat them), and their high
respect for birth (with or without honesty), and their intense desire to
know all about Master John's sweetheart (dropped, as they said, from the
snow-clouds), and most of all their admiration of a beauty such as never
even their angels could have seen--betwixt and between all this, I say,
there was no getting the dinner cooked, with Lorna in the kitchen.

And the worst of it was that Lorna took the strangest of all strange
fancies for this very kitchen; and it was hard to keep her out of it.
Not that she had any special bent for cooking, as our Annie had; rather
indeed the contrary, for she liked to have her food ready cooked; but
that she loved the look of the place, and the cheerful fire burning, and
the racks of bacon to be seen, and the richness, and the homeliness, and
the pleasant smell of everything. And who knows but what she may have
liked (as the very best of maidens do) to be admired, now and then,
between the times of business?

Therefore if you wanted Lorna (as I was always sure to do, God knows
how many times a day), the very surest place to find her was our own
old kitchen. Not gossiping, I mean, nor loitering, neither seeking into
things, but seeming to be quite at home, as if she had known it from a
child, and seeming (to my eyes at least) to light it up, and make life
and colour out of all the dullness; as I have seen the breaking sun do
among brown shocks of wheat.

But any one who wished to learn whether girls can change or not, as the
things around them change (while yet their hearts are steadfast, and for
ever anchored), he should just have seen my Lorna, after a fortnight
of our life, and freedom from anxiety. It is possible that my
company--although I am accounted stupid by folk who do not know my
way--may have had something to do with it; but upon this I will not say
much, lest I lose my character. And indeed, as regards company, I had
all the threshing to see to, and more than half to do myself (though any
one would have thought that even John Fry must work hard this weather),
else I could not hope at all to get our corn into such compass that a
good gun might protect it.

But to come back to Lorna again (which I always longed to do, and must
long for ever), all the change between night and day, all the shifts
of cloud and sun, all the difference between black death and brightsome
liveliness, scarcely may suggest or equal Lorna's transformation. Quick
she had always been and "peart" (as we say on Exmoor) and gifted with a
leap of thought too swift for me to follow; and hence you may find fault
with much, when I report her sayings. But through the whole had always
run, as a black string goes through pearls, something dark and touched
with shadow, coloured as with an early end.

But, now, behold! there was none of this! There was no getting her, for
a moment, even to be serious. All her bright young wit was flashing,
like a newly-awakened flame, and all her high young spirits leaped, as
if dancing to its fire. And yet she never spoke a word which gave more
pain than pleasure.

And even in her outward look there was much of difference. Whether it
was our warmth, and freedom, and our harmless love of God, and trust
in one another; or whether it were our air, and water, and the pea-fed
bacon; anyhow my Lorna grew richer and more lovely, more perfect and
more firm of figure, and more light and buoyant, with every passing day
that laid its tribute on her cheeks and lips. I was allowed one kiss
a day; only one for manners' sake, because she was our visitor; and I
might have it before breakfast, or else when I came to say "good-night!"
according as I decided. And I decided every night, not to take it in the
morning, but put it off till the evening time, and have the pleasure to
think about, through all the day of working. But when my darling came up
to me in the early daylight, fresher than the daystar, and with no one
looking; only her bright eyes smiling, and sweet lips quite ready, was
it likely I could wait, and think all day about it? For she wore a frock
of Annie's, nicely made to fit her, taken in at the waist and curved--I
never could explain it, not being a mantua-maker; but I know how her
figure looked in it, and how it came towards me.

But this is neither here nor there; and I must on with my story. Those
days are very sacred to me, and if I speak lightly of them, trust
me, 'tis with lip alone; while from heart reproach peeps sadly at the
flippant tricks of mind.

Although it was the longest winter ever known in our parts (never having
ceased to freeze for a single night, and scarcely for a single day, from
the middle of December till the second week in March), to me it was the
very shortest and the most delicious; and verily I do believe it was
the same to Lorna. But when the Ides of March were come (of which I
do remember something dim from school, and something clear from my
favourite writer) lo, there were increasing signals of a change of
weather.

One leading feature of that long cold, and a thing remarked by every one
(however unobservant) had been the hollow moaning sound ever present in
the air, morning, noon, and night-time, and especially at night, whether
any wind were stirring, or whether it were a perfect calm. Our people
said that it was a witch cursing all the country from the caverns by the
sea, and that frost and snow would last until we could catch and drown
her. But the land, being thoroughly blocked with snow, and the inshore
parts of the sea with ice (floating in great fields along), Mother
Melldrum (if she it were) had the caverns all to herself, for there
was no getting at her. And speaking of the sea reminds me of a thing
reported to us, and on good authority; though people might be found
hereafter who would not believe it, unless I told them that from what I
myself beheld of the channel I place perfect faith in it: and this is,
that a dozen sailors at the beginning of March crossed the ice, with the
aid of poles from Clevedon to Penarth, or where the Holm rocks barred
the flotage.

But now, about the tenth of March, that miserable moaning noise, which
had both foregone and accompanied the rigour, died away from out the
air; and we, being now so used to it, thought at first that we must be
deaf. And then the fog, which had hung about (even in full sunshine)
vanished, and the shrouded hills shone forth with brightness manifold.
And now the sky at length began to come to its true manner, which we
had not seen for months, a mixture (if I so may speak) of various
expressions. Whereas till now from Allhallows-tide, six weeks ere the
great frost set in, the heavens had worn one heavy mask of ashen gray
when clouded, or else one amethystine tinge with a hazy rim, when
cloudless. So it was pleasant to behold, after that monotony, the fickle
sky which suits our England, though abused by foreign folk.

And soon the dappled softening sky gave some earnest of its mood; for a
brisk south wind arose, and the blessed rain came driving, cold indeed,
yet most refreshing to the skin, all parched with snow, and the eyeballs
so long dazzled. Neither was the heart more sluggish in its thankfulness
to God. People had begun to think, and somebody had prophesied, that we
should have no spring this year, no seed-time, and no harvest; for that
the Lord had sent a judgment on this country of England, and the
nation dwelling in it, because of the wickedness of the Court, and the
encouragement shown to Papists. And this was proved, they said, by what
had happened in the town of London; where, for more than a fortnight,
such a chill of darkness lay that no man might behold his neighbour,
even across the narrowest street; and where the ice upon the Thames was
more than four feet thick, and crushing London Bridge in twain. Now
to these prophets I paid no heed, believing not that Providence would
freeze us for other people's sins; neither seeing how England could for
many generations have enjoyed good sunshine, if Popery meant frost and
fogs. Besides, why could not Providence settle the business once for
all by freezing the Pope himself; even though (according to our view) he
were destined to extremes of heat, together with all who followed him?

Not to meddle with that subject, being beyond my judgment, let me tell
the things I saw, and then you must believe me. The wind, of course, I
could not see, not having the powers of a pig; but I could see the laden
branches of the great oaks moving, hoping to shake off the load packed
and saddled on them. And hereby I may note a thing which some one may
explain perhaps in the after ages, when people come to look at things.
This is that in desperate cold all the trees were pulled awry, even
though the wind had scattered the snow burden from them. Of some sorts
the branches bended downwards, like an archway; of other sorts the
boughs curved upwards, like a red deer's frontlet. This I know no
reason* for; but am ready to swear that I saw it.

* The reason is very simple, as all nature's reasons are;
though the subject has not yet been investigated thoroughly.
In some trees the vascular tissue is more open on the upper
side, in others on the under side, of the spreading
branches; according to the form of growth, and habit of the
sap. Hence in very severe cold, when the vessels
(comparatively empty) are constricted, some have more power
of contraction on the upper side, and some upon the under.
Ed. L.D.

Now when the first of the rain began, and the old familiar softness
spread upon the window glass, and ran a little way in channels (though
from the coldness of the glass it froze before reaching the bottom),
knowing at once the difference from the short sharp thud of snow, we all
ran out, and filled our eyes and filled our hearts with gazing. True,
the snow was piled up now all in mountains round us; true, the air was
still so cold that our breath froze on the doorway, and the rain was
turned to ice wherever it struck anything; nevertheless that it was rain
there was no denying, as we watched it across black doorways, and could
see no sign of white. Mother, who had made up her mind that the farm
was not worth having after all those prophesies, and that all of us must
starve, and holes be scratched in the snow for us, and no use to put up
a tombstone (for our church had been shut up long ago) mother fell
upon my breast, and sobbed that I was the cleverest fellow ever born
of woman. And this because I had condemned the prophets for a pack of
fools; not seeing how business could go on, if people stopped to hearken
to them.

Then Lorna came and glorified me, for I had predicted a change of
weather, more to keep their spirits up, than with real hope of it; and
then came Annie blushing shyly, as I looked at her, and said that Winnie
would soon have four legs now. This referred to some stupid joke made
by John Fry or somebody, that in this weather a man had no legs, and a
horse had only two.

But as the rain came down upon us from the southwest wind, and we could
not have enough of it, even putting our tongues to catch it, as little
children might do, and beginning to talk of primroses; the very noblest
thing of all was to hear and see the gratitude of the poor beasts yet
remaining and the few surviving birds. From the cowhouse lowing came,
more than of fifty milking times; moo and moo, and a turn-up noise at
the end of every bellow, as if from the very heart of kine. Then the
horses in the stables, packed as closely as they could stick, at the
risk of kicking, to keep the warmth in one another, and their spirits
up by discoursing; these began with one accord to lift up their voices,
snorting, snaffling, whinnying, and neighing, and trotting to the door
to know when they should have work again. To whom, as if in answer, came
the feeble bleating of the sheep, what few, by dint of greatest care,
had kept their fleeces on their backs, and their four legs under them.

Neither was it a trifling thing, let whoso will say the contrary, to
behold the ducks and geese marching forth in handsome order from their
beds of fern and straw. What a goodly noise they kept, what a flapping
of their wings, and a jerking of their tails, as they stood right up and
tried with a whistling in their throats to imitate a cockscrow! And then
how daintily they took the wet upon their dusty plumes, and ducked their
shoulders to it, and began to dress themselves, and laid their grooved
bills on the snow, and dabbled for more ooziness!

Lorna had never seen, I dare say, anything like this before, and it was
all that we could do to keep her from rushing forth with only little
lambswool shoes on, and kissing every one of them. "Oh, the dear things,
oh, the dear things!" she kept saying continually, "how wonderfully
clever they are! Only look at that one with his foot up, giving orders
to the others, John!"