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The Boston-Library Society.
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To be returned in five weeks. A fine of one cent
will be incurred for each day this volume is detained
beyond that time.
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RIBSTONE
PIPPINS
A Go untry T a I e
By MAXWELL GRAY
Author of "The Silence
of Dean Maitland"
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS
PUBLISHERS MDCCCXCVIII
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M
••• • • •••
• •• • •
•• • • • • •
• • •• ••• •
• •• ••• ••
• •• ••••••••
••• ••• ••
• •••••• • ,
Copyright, 1898, by Habpkr & B bothers.
All righto rettrnd.
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'Oft did the harvest to their tickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ;
How jocund did they drive their team afield,
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke t*
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EIBSTONE PIPPINS
CHAPTER I
"My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are hung with thick-set fruit."
The sun was gone, but the glory
lingered. The broad and ruddy disc
of a hunter's moon was just showing
above the level rim of a sea stained
and transfused with lilac, gold, and soft
rose-reflections from the west, where a
large, liquid star shone in a lake of
the exquisite clear green of sunset. It
was the lovely moment when the af-
1
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KIB8T0NB PIPPINS
terglow broadens and brightens to that
extent, spreading purple and violet
waves even beyond the zenith, that it
seems as if a second and more glorious
day were rising in the west, in spite of
the mysterious shadows deepening and
darkening on the dim earth, an after-
glow of ethereal splendour, like the
idealised memory of a loved life in a
bereaved heart.
A vague mass against the bright sky
was a cottage ; a latticed window and
a half -opened door were ruddy with
hearth-light, which was reflected from
shining myrtle leaves ; scents of mign-
onnette, ripe fruit, and late roses filled
the garden, mingled with pungency of
burning furze. The dark outline of a
thatched cottage, prolonged by the line
of a low stone -wall, broken here and
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EIBBTONB PIPPINS 3
there by trees, was traced on this glow-
ing sky ; in the gap made by the wick-
et showed the head and shoulders of
a man, with arms folded on the gate
and one foot crossed behind the other.
He was looking across the road, that
gleamed white in the dusk, and across
the green hill-slopes, that met in a wide
V, to a sea and sky that were purpling
as if with wine in the sunset, save
where, far along the confused levels
merged in the offing, they were burn-
ing with ruddy gold. So still the fig-
ure was, it might have been carved;
so vague in the dusk, it seemed a shad-
ow or dream of a labouring-man, rest-
ing from toil in evening peace.
The silence was sweet, the faint
sounds through it sweeter: low mur-
mur of sea on the shore, soft boom of
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4 EIBSTONE PIPPINS
breakers on the reef, the momentary
twitter of a wakened bird, tinkle of
sheep-bells, sound of slow footsteps on
the road when a labourer passed with
a drowsy good -night, rustle of small
creatures through dry bents and twigs,
stamp and clink of stalled horses in the
farm-stables below, the click of a gate-
latch in the distance, and faint twang-
ing of a concertina at a cottage door ;
but always, through every other sound
or silence, the perpetual muffled roll of
the slumberous sea.
But now a streak of silver shim-
mered over the dark garden and myr-
tle-covered cottage, an apple-tree cast
leafy shadows, a late hollyhock dis-
closed its flowered spire, a long pale-
green marrow was visible among its
broad leaves, ripe apples gleamed in
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 5
the mysterious glamour, and the figure
leaning on the gate turned to look east-
ward, where the broad and burning disc
of the moon rose above the darkening
sea, making that tremulous gold path-
way over the waves that has such a
weird, irresistible attraction, and more
than anything rouses dormant feelings
of the innate poetry and charm of
things. Jacob Hardinge was so roused
and touched by the sight of this path
of magical gold dancing over the live
and breathing sea to that calm and
dream-like orb ; the blood — the young,
clean, healthy blood of a temperate,
clean -living labourer — leaped in his
strong pulses ; he sighed ; his large ha-
zel eyes shone with spiritual light ; his
bronzed face became earnest and pen-
sive.
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6 BIBSTONE PIPPINS
"Jacob," called a woman's voice
from the cottage — "Jacob, bain't ee
never comen' in ? What be ee at F
"Tes ter'ble pleasant out-doors," he
replied, dreamily. "What do ee want?"
" Yuzz and fire-'ood," was the concise
answer, falling on ears filled with the
charmed murmur of sea -waves and
breaking surf.
The heart beneath the coarse white
smock throbbed to the calm soft
rhythm of the quiet sea and thrilled
to the dance of golden moonbeams;
dewy scents of fresh earth and crushed
thymy down-turf, salt, live sea-breath,
rich fruit- and flower -odours passed
into the unlettered peasant's soul; the
immensity of moonlit sky arching
above, immensity of starry space all
round, the noble sweep of downs, and
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 7
mystery of deepening earth - shadows,
absorbed him. He was merged in, and
made part of, the all; the all was
happy, holy, calm, and beautiful. But
a motionless shadow, vaguely outlined
against the bright sky, as a labour-
ing man resting, grieving, or praying,
was all he seemed to be; all he
could say of the passion and poesy
within him, "Tes ter'ble pleasant out-
doors."
"Jacob," repeated the strained fe-
male voice from within, "be ee gwine
to bide out -doors all night long?
Where's that ar vuzzen o' mine, laazy
Larrence of ee ?"
"Ay, ay, Grammer," he replied,
turning slowly and striding along the
beaten earth -path beneath the leaf-
shadows, the full deep content within
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8 BIBSTONE PIPPINS
him finding expression at last in a low,
mellow whistle.
The furze faggot was pronged out of
the lean-to, its bonds hacked apart, and
its branches sundered, all to the tune of
" My love's like the red, red rose," and a
goodly heap of fuel came into the cot-
tage to the same tune.
" ' Oh, my love's like the melody
That's sweetly played in tune/ "
he sang as he fed the hearth-fire.
" And what naame do she answer to,
Jake?" asked the grandmother. "Do
she be called Alisbeth ?"
"You be a wise ooman, Grammer,"
was the evasive answer. "Can ee tell
fortunes and caast births ?"
" I can chearm wearts, I 'low. And
I've a zin a young chap make a vool of
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RIBSTONB PIPPINS 9
hisself avore thee was barn or thought
on. Zure enough, Jake, thee'st come
to coorten-time, and 'tain't only hright
to make a vool o' theeself. Thee vather
done it avore ee, and his vather, poor
man, avore en. Thee 'mences like thee
grandvather, poor buoy."
" Can I hae they apples, Grammer ?"
was the apparently irrelevant rejoinder.
" I dunnow but ee med so well hae
'em, Jake. Thee be bound to hae sum-
mat to goo a coorten with. Thee grand-
f er, he bringed me inions. Doan't ee goo
and pick up no trash, my dear. Gram-
mer can do vor ee, and thee can taake
thee time and pick the best stick out of
vaggot."
"What do ee think of Alisbeth?"
Jacob asked, his face averted, as he
stooped to pile the furze in a corner.
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10 RIBSTONE PIPPINS
"I 'lowed 'twas Alisbeth all along.
Well there ! Thee wun't bide a bachelor,
at thee time o' life. If 'twarn't she
'twould be another."
"Thee hasn't nothen to zay agen
her?" he asked, looking a little anxiously
into the plump old face set in its smooth
bands of gray hair and surrounding
white cap-frill.
It was a wholesome, kind old face,
the browned cheeks streaked with red,
like a ripe russet apple, with shrewd,
dark -brown eyes, aquiline nose, firm
chin, and mouth not yet fallen in.
The thin lips tightened a little, a
frown drew the brows together, as
Grammer Hardinge paused in her oc-
cupation of turning pork in a frying-
pan set over a trevet on the hearth, the
fork suspended in her hand, and the
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EIBSTONE PIPPINS 11
flames dancing over her bent, strong
figure and white -capped head. The
moment was fateful, heavy with impor-
tant issues. The tall, shining clock in
the corner whirred its warning, struck
its seven strokes, and subsided into its
steady tick-tock again, while the grand-
mother paused and the grandson wait-
ed, his eyes gleaming dark and anxious
under the shadow of his soft felt hat,
and his heart thumping heavily against
his chest, the vision of a fresh young
face, with wavy chestnut hair and
laughing gray eyes, coming between,
him and the shrewd old face in the
firelight.
" Tick - tock — tick - tock," said the
steady old clock that had ticked all
Jacob's moments away till these, the
most momentous of them; the furze-
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12 BEBSTONE PIPPINS
fire crackled, the fat frizzled ; but Gram-
mer, like a cottage Lachesis or home-
spun Sibyl, still paused, her fateful fork
suspended in air, though the potatoes
and pork sadly wanted turning, and
Jacob knew it.
44 Maids," was the well-weighed sibyl-
line utterance that came at last, 44 is
maids. And matterimony is a ter'ble
long laane, Jacob. I've a-buried two
husbands, and med a-buried dree, onny
the laast tumbled over cliff and was
drowned the night avore the wedden.
Thee's took wi' the lust o' the eyes,
poor buoy. Why hadn't thee a-looked
to the heart?"
44 Thee casn't zaay aught agen her,
can ee now?" pleaded Jacob. 44 Thee's
knowed her, a little titty thing no big-
ger than zix-penneth o' hapence."
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BIB8T0NE PIPPINS 18
"I hain't never yeard nothen agen
her, as I knows on," was the slow and
rather dubious reply, "without 'twas
she's so mis'able good-looking. Thee
's ter'ble zet upon good looks, wheth-
er 'tes a cow or a ooman, Jacob. The
hreddest apple, and the brightest hack-
led hen vor ee. I'm ter'ble afeard thee
onny looks outzide athout consideren'
of the innards. ' Vaavour is desateful/
is hwrote in the Bible, do ee mind ? A
ooman that veareth the Lard is what ee
wants. The prettiest cat ain't always
the best mouser, and the vinest cow
doan't yield the moast milk."
" But the brightest hackled hen lays
the moast eggs, Grammer," retorted
Jacob, hitting the weak spot in her
armour; "and I'll war'nt you never
knowed a better apple than a Kibstone,
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14 RIBSTONE PIPPINS
or a better smellen vlower than a hroase.
Why, they Glory die Johns blows pretty
nigh all the year hround !"
"Oh, g'long wi' thee Glory die
Johns! Anybody med downarg any-
body wi' the taaties hreaddied to a turn,
an' the pork a spilen in the pan," said
Grammer, sharply. "Vetch me the
dish, wull ee, avore I tumbles down
about house. Poor wold Grammer's
noase is out a jint. Muck her off to
Church Lytten, poor wold heart of her;
hred-chaked maaids is all we thinks
upon nowadays. Wold boans is best
underground, I 'lows."
"Goo an with ee, Grammer? Thee
hasn't no call to maake a zet out about
nothen. Set down and ate thee vittles,
wull ee ? Whatever be ee maaken such
a chearm about ?"
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 15
They were now seated at table, both
doing ample justice to Grammer's cook-
ery and both wearing countenances of
perfect content.
" 'Tain't onny natural to goo a-coort-
en," observed Grammer, tranquilly.
"Now ee be cairter, thee med hae a
cottage, ef ee'd a mind to. But I 'lows
ee'd so soon bide long wi' wold Gram-
mer, Jake."
" 'Lows I'd zooner."
" How wold be ee ? Vour an' twenty
year old, come Christmas, bain't ee? Do
she vaavour ee, Jake? When did ee
vust caast eyes on the maid ?"
" Lard love ee, Giammer ! One
ooman cain't know everythink. You
be purely plimmed out wi' knowledge
ahready. She gied me a laylock vlower
Whitsuntide. She've a ben long wi'
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16 BEBST0NE PIPPINS
these here Suttons, two year, an' she've
a-putt money in bank. She'd a ben in
her vust plaace now, onny she was
fo'ced to come hoam and bide dree
months when her mother was down in
the faver. 'Tes a praper good maaid,
Grammer."
"Ah, they be all prapper good maaids
when the young chaps comes along. A
turnen down o' their eyes, and a maaken
o' niminy-piminy mouths, and a-looken
like dyen ducks in a thunder-starm. I
hreckon I knows the goens on o'
maaids, Jake."
" Ay, Grammer, thee's ben a maaid
theeself in thee time, I 'lows, an' thee's
rared up two bilens o' maaids. Thee'd
ought to know 'em prett' nigh droo
and droo. Did they all bide two
and dree years in their
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BEBSTONB PIPPINS 17
and tend vathers and mothers in fa-
ver?"
"I've arrared up some ter'ble zaacy
buoys, I 'lows, whatever I done by
maids," retorted Grammer. "Thee's
to hae these here sticks o' vurniture,
mind. Doan't ee goo zellen o' Gram-
mer^ zettle and things, wull ee ? That
there earner cupboard ben in our vam-
ily this hunderd year. I minds en and
I minds wold clack ever zence I wer
the tittiest little maaid, avore ever I
could chipper no zense. Whenever ee
zees that ar clack and that ar earner cup-
board, thee'll mind poor wold Grammer.
Vurry like thee'll tell the young uns
about the wold gal. I minds my vather
whenever I years en strike. Ay, Jake,
whenever ee looks at he or hears en
strike, he'll mind ee of Grammer."
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18 EIBSTONE PIPPINS
"There's no call to mind ee now,
Grammer, while there ee be, a-chammen
of vried taaties and pork. And there
med ee be this twenty year to come,
plaze the Lard !"
" There, taake and goo long to bed
with ee, do, zaft zaaderen of poor wold
Grannie, the girt lousteren buoy!
Doan't ee vorget the tay, Jake, nit
the boughten caake, vrom Opert, wull
ee ?" was the pleased rejoinder. " Not
that I ever known two oomen bide
quiet under one hroof itt athout one
was a bed-Iyer and t'other one dumb,"
she added, thoughtfully.
" You med live and learn, Grammer,
wold as ee be," was his parting shot, as
he climbed the cupboard-stair.
The labouring man's sleep is sweet :
Jacob Hardinge's curly head scarcely
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BIBST0NB PIPPINS 19
touched the coarse pillow, on which the
moon traced a diamonded lattice, before
he was caught down in deep, still gulfs
of dreamless sleep, whence Grammer
had some difficulty in rousing him at
cock-crow, before the darkness began
to thin or the east to lose its solemn
pallor.
The grass was so thickly beaded with
dew it was hard to say whether it was
really dew or hoar-frost in the gray of
early dawn, when the carters unlatched
the stables, and set to combing and
brushing and dressing the horses, es-
pecially the picked team that was to
draw the huge waggon standing in the
yard, ready laden with sacks of wool.
The harness was already cleaned and
polished to its utmost brightness;
through the misty dawn flickered mov-
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30 BIBSTONB PIPPINS
ing lanterns, and sounded the hiss that
seems necessary to bring out the sat-
in shine of horses' coats, the gruff
"Whups!" and "Ways!" and "Stand-
stills!" of the stablemen, the snort and
stamp, the shake and whinny of the
horses, and the clank of halter and har-
ness. But when the day had broken
behind clouds of red and golden mist,
the Titanic antics of the watering were
ended, and the shining steeds began to
break their fast, their appearance, with
plaited manes and tails decked with
coloured ribbons, amply repaid the la-
bour of their grooms and was not dis-
tasteful to the horses themselves. Then
the carters' own toilets and breakfasts
'had to be gone through, parcels to be
collected, and messages and commis-
sions stored in memories.
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BIBST0NE PIPPINS 21
Hardinge's time was very unevenly
divided between his dressing and break-
fast ; the latter being, to Grammer's se-
cret amusement, greatly stinted for the
sake of unusually serious ablutions, a
clean white smock, a bright-blue neck-
erchief, and a carefully cocked felt hat,
with a bunch of budded myrtle and red
carnation in the band. The last thing
was to give one more polish to the
beautiful apples streaked with red and
gold, each as large as a breakfast-cup,
and tie them in a blue -checked hand-
kerchief. There were eleven. Eleven is
a bad number, associated with treach-
ery. Dared he snatch a twelfth from
the tree as he passed? No; Grammer's
eye was upon him, and Grammer's voice
was calling her commissions and mes-
sages after him.
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22 RIBSTONE PIPPINS
Now the team is put to the waggon,
the bells are fitted to the collars — five
under each scarlet-bossed canopy, shak-
ing music over each proud and happy-
horse ; the fanner is giving orders, and
the farmer's wife and daughters look-
ing over the garden- wall ; the last pails
of milk are being carried across the
yard, and the soft - eyed cows, stepping
daintily over the straw among clucking
hens and strutting cocks, the boy serv-
ing pigs, the girl scattering grain for
the ducks, the ploughmen going afield
with their teams, the man with the
milk-pails, and the maid dipping water
from the well-pail, are all looking at the
splendid team in bell -harness. The
yard-gate is opened, the leader passing
through at a sign of the whip, when
suddenly the mistf olds, wrapping every-
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EIBSTONB PIPPINS 23
thing in dim glamour and moving
like smoke from the bodies of horses
and cows, turn bright gold, are stricken
asunder as by an unseen magician's
wand, rise and roll away in clouds of
rose and silver, disclosing bright hues of
yellow and red barn-roof, red of cows,
yellow of straw, golden -green of sere
lime leaves, glitter of brass and glow
of red fringes and bosses, and the
horses, nodding their heads to the bell-
music, wind through the gate into the
lane with the heavy waggon creaking
ponderously behind them.
Away and away rolled the rosy mist,
brighter and brighter shone the mellow
autumn sun on turf and hedge -row,
stubble-field and red berries, the blue
of the zenith grew soft and pale. The
hearts of the carters waxed glad as
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24 BIBSTONE PIPPINS
they stepped briskly by their team up
the hill-side in the still, sea-sweet morn-
ing air, and yellow -bearded Moses
Snow broke into his favorite song :
" ' Oh, the waggoner's life is a jolly life,
Yo ho, Igh oh !
He cares not a straft for the world and his
wife,
Yo ho, Igh oh I
He's up and away at the break of day
Athirt the downs to the roaren towns,
Yo ho !
He's up and away at the break o' day,
And from marnen till night it es his delight
To go, yo ho !
To go wi' the dancen bells.
So Igh oh ! On we go !
With a crick and a crack and a louster O!
To the zound o' the dancen bells !'
"So Igh oh! On we go!"'
chorused Hardinge and Ben Brunt, Har-
dinge holding on to the body horse,
the splendid stallion, Thunder, which
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 25
almost pulled the sedate thiller, Charlie,
off his sturdy legs in his exuberant
strength and joy.
"'Tes praper wearm, harses hrokes
ahready," Moses said, when they stop-
ped to breathe the horses on the brow
of the hill, whence a broad blue stretch
of sea burst upon their sight. Har-
dinge's cottage peeped above a fold of
green down ; the morning sun was full
upon it, steeping the gold-brown thatch
in yellow light, and throwing up the
rich colour of thick-set apple-trees, and
of climbing fuchsia and myrtle. That
speck of white was Grammer's cap ; she
was watching the waggon climb the hill
and wishing her "zaacy buoy" good
luck to his wooing. He had deduced full
acquiescence and approval from her
communications of the previous night,
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26 EIBSTONB PIPPINS
especially from her remark upon the im-
possibility of two women living to-
gether in amity, and, even had he had
any doubt upon the subject, her last
parting speech that morning would
have laid it to rest :
" Grammer's prett' nigh weared out,
Jake," she said, " but the wold gal ain't
nooways done for itt. Young uns must
hae their turn, I hreckon; and wold
uns can bide by the vire and hrest their
boans."
Grammer had not heard all about the
courting. About that Sunday after-
noon, for instance, when the pair walked
home from church together, and stopped
just here, and Jacob took courage to
point out the cottage and say it was his
grandmother's house, and her furniture,
and that she was always to live with
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 27
him, and that he feared that might be a
hindrance to his marriage. Did Eliza-
beth suppose that any girl would care to
keep house in that way ? The gray eyes
had softened and a warmer colour flush-
ed the cheeks with the reply that such
a thing was possible, if people made up
their minds to it. The apples then in
bloom were now ripe fruit. When she
saw them she would remember the pink
blossom of Whitsuntide, and his promise
to bring her the finest of the fruit.
" Hreckon 'twull be dark night avore
we goos over Culveredge Down," Moses
said. " Moon's vull. Bide still, Churree !
Wold Churree's mis'able idle to-day.
Eddn't one o' Oodford's gals at sarvice
out Estridge way, Jake?"
Moses Snow was sitting on the thill,
dangling his legs ; Hardinge was leaning
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28 1HBST0NE PIPPINS
against Thunder ; Ben Brunt, lounging
on the grassy bank facing them, took
the word from Jake's mouth.
"Zure enough," he replied; "that
young vaggot, Bess."
" Vaggot !" cried Jacob — " who be ee
a-vaggoten of now, Ben ?"
"I be a-vaggoten of young Bess
Oodf ord," returned Ben, tranquilly. " A
randy bit o' traade as ever I yeared of."
Jacob, still leaning against Thunder,
with one arm on the horse's great neck,
looked at the lad across floating films
of sunny gossamer for some seconds in
silence.
"Ef ever you zays that there agen,
Ben Brunt," he observed, slowly, when
at last he spoke, " I'll knack ee down."
" Goo 'long with ee, ye girt zotes,"
growled Moses, who was a bearded man
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 29
of thirty ; " we shain't maake no vail
wi' this yere job ef ee vails out ahready.
Putt on the shoe, Ben."
Ben contented himself with a deri-
sive laugh as he picked himself off the
bank arid rolled slowly to the back of
the waggon; Moses let himself down
from the thill, and Jacob, still looking
" pretty sure" at Ben, straightened him-
self, turned, and let off a couple of cracks
like pistol-shots with his heavy cart-
whip, and the great waggon began to
roll down-hill, Ben, whether from that
discretion which is deemed the better
part of valour, or to arrest the too rapid
descent of the waggon, sitting on the
tail-board and going backwards.
" ' So Igh oh I On we go ! •
With a crick and a crack and a louster O !
To the zound o* the dancen bells !' "
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roared Moses and Ben, but Jacob could
not bring himself to join in, and spoke
no unnecessary word for three miles.
The sea spread away to the south be-
fore them far below, calm, sunny, and
slightly veiled by the soft autumnal
haze filling every dimple, dell, and hill-
fold with blue bloom; the cumulus
cloud-masses piled on the horizon were
touched with opal, golden peace was
over gray downs, shining stubble-fields,
corn-ricks, red-roofed farms, and mellow-
ing woods. Purple dogwood, blackber-
ries, and honeysuckle, with pink flower
and crimson fruit on the same spray,
brightened sere hedges ; harebells hove
red from invisible stems over flowers of
thyme, marjoram, and myriad others
that embroider the turf of chalky slopes
in autumn; here and there rose great
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• BIBSTONE PEPPIN8 81
spikes of yellow-flowered mullein among
purple thistle and knapweed, yellow rag-
wort and hawkweed; here and there
the rarer chicory showed azure wheels
by the roadside. Here a little lonely
hamlet nestled in a fold of the downs,
and here a village of gray stone and
brown thatch, gorgeous with autumn
flowers and fruit, straggled about an
ivied tower sheltered by yellowing, sea-
blown elms.
Men turned in fields and women
came to cottage doors at the sound of
the waggon bells ; here was a greeting,
there a message, and there a parcel.
Now the team had to be breathed on a
steep hill, then the iron shoe must be
thrown before the wheel in a sharp de-
scent, now the wool-sacks were danger-
ously brushed by overhanging boughs,
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now a rutty lane threw the load to one
side and now to the other, and now that
" idle " horse, Cherry, indulged in some
ponderous antic, then the fiery Thunder
had to be curbed.and soothed, and some-
times the iron hoofs slipped up till the
horses slid on their haunches, and the
men threw their own weight against
the wheels till they recovered.
Up hill and down dale, over open
road, between steep, wooded banks,
through clear streams, that ran laugh-
ing across the road, by farm, village,
and mansion, the waggon creaked and
groaned to its pleasant accompaniment
of bells; and now they turned their
backs on the sea and went inland
through a long valley between downs,
smiling and sunny. But there was no
more singing ; the spring was gone from
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 88
the men's steps and they were glad to
drink from the puncheons they had
brought, and munch the apples filling
their pockets.
It was within a mile or two of Old-
port that the nearest approach to a
catastrophe occurred. In winding up a
steep incline, a wheel got on the bank,
and the load, already jolted to a peril-
ous extent, shifted so seriously that the
wagon only just righted itself, nearly
lifting the thill-horse off his legs.
" Prett' nigh capsized then, maates,"
said Moses, wiping his beaded brow and
looking at the panting, reeking horses.
"'Twas Thunder kep' us hright zide
uppermost. Onhatch Churree, Ben,
wold harse is blowed. They be all
a-drillen with wet."
" Wold cairt's all to one side. 'Lows
3
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she's a-gwine to cocksettle," observed
Ben, slowly contemplating the leaning
load, with his hands in his pockets.
" Then whatever do ee stand a-gaaken
an' a-gloaten there vor?" cried Jacob.
" Taake and lend a hand, will ee. This
yer rooap's gied out, and the whole
load '11 be down 'bout house ef ee doan't
look shearp and trig en up. Come on,
Moses. Thunder's hatched on to geate
and t'others is hatched on to he. They'll
bide. We shain't hreach Estridge avore
the devil's dancen hours. Come on,
maates, wull ee ?"
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CHAPTER II
"I can make no marriage present,
Little can I give my wife,
Love will make our cottage pleasant,
And I love thee more than life."
The load having been shifted back
into position, a spare rope produced in
place of the parted one, and the horses
again put to, all at the expense of heavy
groans from Ben, growls from Moses,
reproaches from Jacob, much exertion
from all three, with half an hour's de-
lay, the waggon rolled on its way
through the last village, not without
halting at a wayside inn, and Oldport
church tower came in sight.
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Then Jacob's heart leaped up, and he
began to sing :
" 'Oh, the pretty maids of Opert in their vine
new frawcks,
Do laftugh to scarn the laftbourers in their
clane white smawcks;
But the la&bourer is true,
He will tile all day vor you,
Ef hes dewbit and hes brefkass and hes nam-
met you will taake
To the yields, where he's a laftbouren all day
long vor your sa&ke,
And wull cheer en up o' evenens when hes
boans do aacbe,
And a cometh hoam to you
Droo sun and vrost and dew.'"
And Moses and Ben bore the chorus :
i
" ' And a cometh hoam to you
Droo sun and vrost and dew.'"
"'Tes a mis'able vine song, Jake,"
Moses observed, " and here be Opert ;
but where be the pretty maids?"
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 87
"I likes a song wiv a good core-
house," Ben averred :
"•So, Ighoh! On we go!'"
There could be no more singing so
near the town. Thunder whickered and
whinnied with such excitement that
Jacob's hand was seldom off his neck.
The lash -horse, Cherry, demoralized
by Thunder's example and the sight
and sound of so many of his kind,
shook his bells with inconvenient en-
ergy ; but Diamond, the next to fore,
was fortunately of a temperament so
well balanced, and conduct so discreet,
as to keep both Cherry and the
mercurial fore -horse, young Farmer,
comparatively tranquil. Cries of " Thun-
derr-rah I" " Churr-ree-ah !" " V-armerr-
rah !" were constantly heard ; but Dia-
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88 BIBSTONE PIPPINS
mond, and Charlie the thill-horse, like
well-conducted members of Parliament,
were never named during the eventful
progress through the town to the quay,
a progress marked only by a brush with a
four -horse coach, the driver of which
made what the French call " injurious "
remarks to the gallant three, who took
care to pay him in kind, to the joy and
delight of the populace.
At the quay the team was " onhatch-
ed," rubbed down, and supplied with a
nose-bag and bucket of water apiece,
while the men applied themselves to the
victual -bag and puncheon each had
brought. But Hardinge contented him-
self with a long draught of cold tea that
Grammer had put in his little wooden
barrel, and a hunch of bread-and-cheese
in his pocket, that he broke and ate as
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 89
he walked through the sunny streets,
instead of resting during the dinner-
hour on the quay.
"Whatever's come to wold Jake?"
asked Ben, as he sat in the Three
Tuns by the water -side, with his el-
bows on the table and a mug of ale
before him. " Traipsen about as though
a'd a -come in to fair. A must be
purely twickered out wiv het and doust
and drouth and all."
"Hreckon wold chap's come to hes
zenses," replied Moses from the opposite
side of the table over another mug;
" a's putt on hes coorten cap."
" How do ee know ?" asked inexperi-
enced Ben, who was only eighteen.
"A zets mumchance by the hour. A
doesn't show to his vittles no zense.
A quiddles over hes cloase, and a
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40 BIBSTONE PIPPINS
shaaves worky days," was the profound
reply.
"And a goos jackassen 'bout town
when a med bide still and hrest," added
Ben, thoughtfully. " Lard, what a zote
this here Keewpid do maake of a honest
wold chap !"
" G'long wf thee Keewpids, thee girt
zote," retorted Moses, " 'tes Vanus, thee
manes."
" I never yeard tell of he, as I knows
on," said Ben. " I mane the little chap
wi 5 nar a mossel o' cloase, onny a pair o'
goose -wings, and a bowanarrows in
valentine pictures. They caas en
Keewpid, and a shoots vokes' hearts
droo and droo."
" Oh, g'long ! 'tes Vanus, I tell ee. I
wish a'd shoot thee jaas droo and droo."
Jacob, in the meanwhile, totally un-
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BEBSTONB PIPPINS 41
conscious of the disputation to which
his emotions gave rise, strode heavi-
ly through the principal street with a
light heart and a bewildered brain, ex-
amining window after window with
great perplexity and total oblivion of
Grammer's tea and boughten cake. He
stood long before the confectioner's
tempting window, his hat pushed to
one side, and his curly hair mercilessly
twisted and pulled. "What was inside
the picture - boxes ? Did Bessie like
cakes or jam-tarts best ? But, after all,
there was a lack of delicacy in two pres-
ents of eatables. Then came the book-
shop. Story-books were too difficult
and hazardous, prayer- and hymn-books
too serious. Then the jeweller's. That
was indeed tempting but inadmissible,
even if not too dear. A silver watch-
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48 EIBSTONB PIPPINS
chain was seductive. It was almost im-
possible to pass that watch-chain ; it had
to be returned to again and again. It
was to be remembered as suitable for a
more advanced stage of proceedings —
that is, supposing she had a watch. The
fancy -shop was enough to turn any-
honest man's brain, so glittering and so
incomprehensible were the things dis-
played there. A penknife might do;
but no, there is ill-luck in a given
knife; scissors are as bad. Finally,
he brought up before a draper's window
filled with gay ribbons and laces and
all sorts of feminine fal-lals, and, look-
ing at the town-clock, on the dial of
which the hands seemed to be turning
with intolerable quickness, hardened
his heart, set his teeth, and doggedly
plunged in.
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RIBST0NE PIPPINS 43
It was one of the very best, most
West - End - like shops in Oldport, and
the appearance of a fine, brown-faced
young carter in it was as unusual as
it was incongruous. Deeply conscious
of his own inappropriateness, Jacob
stood in the middle of the large en-
trance and glanced dubiously round at
the numerous departments, through
avenues of many-coloured drapery, laces,
ribbons, and flowers ; then, after a little
hesitation, he clumped heavily up to a
counter bestrewn with fascinating in-
utilities, and presided over by a still
more fascinating damsel in black, whose
smiling countenance invited his con-
fidence.
" What may I have the pleasure of
showing you ?" asked this elegant young
person, scarcely subduing a titter as her
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bright eyes ran over his comely face
and strong frame. Then she recognized
something above ridicule in the hazel
eyes and manly carriage, and acknowl-
edged that prey, not to be despised in
the absence of larger game, was before
her.
" I want zomething," he said, slowly,
as if trying to bring his speech down to
the level of townsfolk's understanding —
" I want zomething to gie zomebody."
"Quite so," she replied, in dulcet
tones. " Now, do you know," she added,
with a smiling and confidential air, " I
felt sure that you were wanting a pres-
ent the moment I saw you come in ?"
" However did ye know that, miss ?"
he returned, with astonishment and in-
creasing confidence, to the delight of
some men at other counters, whom Ja-
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 45
cob had avoided, partly from an in-
stinct that assured him of more sym-
pathy in a feminine than a masculine
breast, and partly from a countryman's
aversion to finicking townsers immersed
in ribbons and ignorant of field lore.
" Well, you see," continued the bright-
eyed damsel, leaning over the counter
upon her elbows, and looking up into
Jacob's face with a pleasant smile, "I
noticed your eyes, and they — told a
tale."
The eyes fell ; he blushed through all
his sun-burn right up under his curls.
" I understand men's ways," the siren
continued, with a meek voice and demure
air. " I have a brother of my own," she
added, shooting a glance at a man be-
hind a side-counter, who instantly buried
his face in his handkerchief, while in-
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nocent Jacob remarked on the singular
coincidence that he had a sister, upon
which the man with the handkerchief,
having nothing particular to do at the
slack hour between the forenoon and
the afternoon, beckoned to another,
equally disengaged, and the two stole
nearer to Jacob's counter and listened
behind a pillar formed of stuff for
gowns.
"How very singular," laughed the
shop-girl; "quite — ha, ha! — a bond of
sympathy — hish, hish! — between us —
hi, hi!"
" Ho, ho !" laughed Jacob, he had not
a notion why, beyond a vague instinct
of civility. Then the girl went off in a
little storm of titters to fetch merchan-
dise to tempt him with, while the honest
carter congratulated himself on finding
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BTB8T0NE PIPPINS 47
such a knowledgable young lady, and
so easy to get on with. .
" These are some of our latest novel-
ties," she said, returning with boxes of
ribbons and handkerchiefs. " Now this
— is a very sweet thing. But, of course,
it depends upon the young lady."
" Et es not vor a laady," he explain-
ed, " 'tes vor a respectable young ooman,
daughter of a laabouren man. She es
in sarvice wi' gentry out Estridge way.
She eddn't one o' they as likes to go
garbed up vine."
" You have scarcely — ah — got as far
as the wedding- gown, I suppose?" she
inquired, with a sort of tender respect
for his feelings that went to his heart.
" That's just where 'tes," he explained ;
" I 'ain't got no vurrer than picken of a
vlower vor er itt. I bent one to be near
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48 RIBSTONB PIPPINS
nit scrimpy, but I be feared to buy zum-
mat to maake her think to herself, ' Od !
darn his impidence !' "
" A very beautiful feeling ! "What a
fortunate girl to have such a thoughtful
sweetheart !"
" And a dunno what maaids like. You
med hae some young chap after you,
miss, I allow. Now what would ee like
yesself from a chap — from a gentleman,
as you'd a gien a vlower to athout get-
ten vurrer on ?" he asked, fixing a deep,
solemn gaze upon her, and priding him-
self upon the artfulness of his question.
" Well !— he, he !— really !— ha, ha !—
a most embarrassing question — ha, ha !
I may say that I have had — hi, hi ! —
several nice presents from gentlemen —
ah — one can't accept them aU,jo\x see."
A curious gurgle and spfutter from
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 49
behind the pillar of new autumn gowns
caused Jacob to look round for a mo-
ment, and called a passing frown to the
lady's agreeable visage.
"Oye! That's just where 'tes," he
added, "you cain't hae 'em all. But
athout he gied* ee a goold hring, or a
silk gown, you wouldn't zay , ' Od ! darn
the chap's impidence !' would ee now ?"
"Ah — really! how very droll you
agriculturists are ! Shish, hish ! No. I
should never say that — hi, hi !"
"Nor ee wuddent think it nother?"
he asked, earnestly. " Well, there ! this
yer is mis' able pretty, to be sure," he
added, cautiously passing his big brown
hand under a dainty silk neckerchief.
" Do ee think, now, it med be too vine
vor the likes o' she? — a stiddy young
ooman in service ?"
4
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The serious, direct gaze of the clear
brown eyes was almost too much for
the coquettish little bundle of affecta-
tions ; she blushed, dropped her eyelids,
tossed her head, and played off a whole
arsenal of little tricks and attractions
upon the single-hearted carter, who was
as insensible to them as a haystack. "To
confess the truth, Mr. — "
" My naame's Jacob Hardinge, and I
be never caaed Mr. — I be cairter
to Vearmer Barton out "Westway," he
explained.
"Dear me! Then those beautiful bell-
horses are yours. I heard them go by
just now."
"Iss. They be ourn. "We come in
's marnen wi' a load o' 'ool, an' we be
gwine over Estridge wi' a load o' ile-
caake this afternoon. 'Tes a smartish
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EIB8T0NE PIPPIN8 51
team. Two on 'em got prizes at Show
laast zummer."
" How very interesting ! I shall look
out for your bells — ah — Jacob, when
you return. Ah ! how somebody's heart
must go pit-a-pat at the sound of those
bells ! ~Now, how would you like one
of these little shawls? See! they are
really elegant," throwing one over her
shoulders with a conquering air, and
turning her back to him. " Is she tall ?"
she asked, turning her head gracefully
over her shoulder to speak.
" Not vurry tall. But ter'ble slim and
weath. That there's too vine vur she,
miss, I allow."
" "Well, how about the handkerchief
— ha, ha ! — Jacob ? Shall it be the red
or the blue ?" gracefully discarding the
shawl and turning round again.
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" Darned ef I knows which colour the
maaid likes best !" he ejaculated, with
knitted brows. " Maaids is ter'ble quid-
dlen over colours."
" Naturally. You see, we poor girls
like to make the best of ourselves — hi,
hi! — our faces are our fortunes, and
gentlemen are so particular. Now, is
she fair or dark? What complexion?
Anything — hish, hish ! — like mine ?"
. "Her vaace," replied Jacob, slowly
and solemnly, " be the zaame colour as a
apple-tfree when he es vully blowed all
over en. Her mouth be the zaame colour
as a apple-tree when the hred knaps is
all over en avore the vlower openeth.
The maaid hath shinen gray eyes, and
her hair be the zaame colour as a bay
harse, zaame as wold Cherrlie, our
thill-harse."
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 68
" Indeed ! Mr. — I mean Jacob. How
very beautiful your sweetheart must
be!"
" She eddn't not vurry beautiful," he
corrected, gravely, " but 'tes a comely
maaid and well-spoke."
" I think the pale blue would be the
most becoming. I'll put it up for you,"
she said, decisively, and with a sudden
dryness. " Three and six. Thank you."
" I be main bounden to ee, miss," he
• said, taking his parcel and wondering at
the sudden chill in her manner as she
turned abruptly from him to a lady just
alighted from a carriage waiting at the
door, who looked with some astonish-
ment at the s mock -f rocked customer
walking out of the smart shop.
How wonderful and delightful it was!
To think that he should actually have
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gone into that bewilderingly fine shop,
and brought away a beautiful present
for Bessie Woodford ! And what good
luck to have found, instead of some
clumsy male, that kind and friendly
young lady, and to have availed himself
of her sympathy and knowledge of her
sex. Having a brother, too, made her
enter so pleasantly into his feelings. He
had always supposed smart young ladies
in shops to be proud and stand-offish.
"We should never judge others, especial-
ly before we know them.
But the town-clock had not been con-
siderate enough to wait while the pur-
chase was effected ; on the contrary, it
had ticked on with such ruthless speed
that the dinner- hour was past, and it
was necessary, after the briefest survey
of the sheeny, pale-blue neckerchief in
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EIBSTONB PIPPINS 55
the sunshine, to set off at a long swing-
ing trot for the quay, at which he ar-
rived breathless and " all of a swim," as
the French have it, to find Moses and
Ben hard at work unloading the wool,
and inclined to be grumpy at being left
in the lurch.
"'Tes what we've a got to putt up
wiv," Ben said, sorrowfully. "We
maakes allowances vor ee, Jake. 'Tain't
onny natural at thee time o' life."
"Whatever's come to the buoy?"
asked Jacob, in astonishment, in a brief
pause between unloading and reloading
the waggon, during which Ben sat on a
rail by the water's edge, dangling his
legs. " What lurry a talks !"
" Coorten ain't come to en itt," Moses
explained. " Hreckon one at a time es
enough."
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"Ded ee vind her oomen on like,
Jake?" inquired Ben, with tender in-
terest, " ded the maaid hearken to thee
zighs ? I zims mis' able zaf t mezelf , pure-
ly vor thinken ont."
" I 'lows you'll zoon veel zafter, Ben
Brunt, and hae zummat to zigh vor,
athout you stops yer jaa," returned
Jacob. " Come on, maates, be ye gwine
to bide footeren about here till Christ-
mas time? 'Tes prett' nigh time to
hatch on."
" Zure enough," retorted Ben, " that's
what this yere coorten leads to, hatchen
on. 'Tain't zo easy to hatch off agen,
Jake. When do ee hreckon to goo to
church long wi' her ?"
" Doan't ee be too hash, Jake," added
Moses, solemnly. "'Lows thee eddn't
to be sneezed at. Thee's a smartish
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EIBSTONB PIPPINS 57
looken chap a Zundays. Hae a look at
'em all hround vust."
" Ef you hev a mind to zet yollupen
there like a passel o' wold oomen,
maates, there ee med zet and yollup,"
Jacob returned, tranquilly. "I be
gwine to load up."
As he spoke he strode slowly past
Ben, who looked, sitting hunched up on
the rail, his hands in his pockets, his
good-tempered, beardless face framed
in straight, lint -white hair, and his
eyes blinking in the sun beneath their
white eyelashes, like an enormous toad.
As Jacob passed, he suddenly put
out one hand, caught Ben by the
throat off his guard, and pushed him
backwards heels over head above the
water, where he held him, amid roars
of laughter from the men loading
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and unloading vessels at the quay-
side.
" Beest gwine to work, or beest gwine
to act ?" he asked of the helpless Ben,
who durst not give so much as a wrig-
gle under pain of dropping into the dark
water below.
"Or beest gwine to cocksettle into
hriver ?" added Moses, hugely delighted.
" Doan't ee do vor me, Jake ?" implor-
ed Ben. " Think o' the wife and vamly
I med hae to leave widders ef I be
spared. Aow ! aow !" he cried, just in
time to be pulled back, " I be gwine to
work zo zoon as I be hright-zide upper-
moast." Which he did, after receiving a
couple of flat-handed bangs in the rear
that sent him rolling into the waggon,
shaking with laughter and merry as a
grig-
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They had reached Oldport at noon ;
by the time they had reloaded the
waggon with oil -cake from a vessel
at the quay-side, the clocks were strik-
ing three. The sun was shining hotter
than ever through the stirless autumn
air, as with " Hoot !" and " Whup !" and
" Hitherr !" and naming of " Thunderr-
rah!" " Churree-ah !" and "Vearmerr-
rah !" the five, having been hatched on
to the comparatively light waggon,
started off beneath their canopies more
sedately than in the morning, spill-
ing merry little clashes of music as they
went.
The dangers and excitement of the
streets passed, there were still the perils
of comparatively crowded roads to claim
all the attention and care of the three
waggoners; just as they were creak-
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ing under the railway bridge, a train
must needs come thupdering over it, to
the great amazement and distraction of
the team. Farmer and Thunder bolted
in their terror, but, luckily, they both
bolted in the same direction, which was
up a very steep hill; the virtuous Dia-
mond and Cherry, with Farmer darting
ahead and Thunder pressing them be-
hind, had no option but to do likewise ;
while poor Charlie, the wheeler, found
himself literally carried up the hill,
waggon and all. Jacob, who never left
Thunder's leading -rein in the town,
simply hung on to him, while Ben,
who was behind, with Moses running at
the fore, had much ado to overtake
them, and averred that no mortal team
had ever gone up a hill at such a rate ;
all agreed that such a bolt down-hill, or
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BEBSTONE PIPPINS 61
even on a level, would have ended in a
" nation girt smash."
The road ascended with more or less
steepness, broken by a few slight de-
scents, for miles, and many a halt was
necessary. They had entered Old-
port from the west and left it towards
the east ; thus the afternoon sunbeams
smote full upon their backs all the
way, and were also reflected from the
hill upon them, and they began to feel
dejpayses from the singular circum-
stance that they no longer knew the
names of the fields they were pass-
ing, and were even ignorant of the
names of some of the farms. There
was no more singing; their heavy
boots struck the dusty road with drag-
ging steps.
Sunset was near, and "nammet-"
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4& gngri>yx jh'kr
t:u^ past- vrhetz lite asoenr cndfd or
fc& <^i% o^ttil ot^t viidL a 2irrr troease
Cfcsife. wj^oc/sae aad reVTiara^zzg, borae
froea tb«: krra! bar-d of sea in ti*e east,
a^/ss a fertile plain lyii^ benreea tiro
eLaJk ridges ; and here, by the roadside.
at the edge of the down, lonely and
wind- Mown, they found '-The Trav-
ellers Jiest," to the inmate of which
the waggon-bells made welcome music.
Here, of course, they stopped to refresh
themselves, refilled their puncheons,
mended a little matter that had been
wrenched in that marvellous bolt up-
hill, and were made welcome by, and
exchanged news with, the innkeeper
and a few customers, after which they
went on their way rejoicing.
There was now nothing but the long
white road on the ridge of the downs all
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 63
the way to Estridge; not a house of any
description, except where the downs
broke a little, two miles from the sea, and
a sleepy old village was niched into the
break. It was pleasant travelling ; some-
times level, sometimes up and down, al-
ways with the fine plain spread out to
sea and hills on their right, and either a
wind-shorn thorn-hedge, with peeps of
wooded country and glimpses of sea, on
the left, or green down-slope and the
same country open ; over all was a de-
licate blue haze.
Larks were singing and sheep-bells
tinkling in the golden peace of the
closing afternoon; a great wave of
joy rose and rushed into Jacob's heart,
and he began to sing to the bell -mu-
sic for pure gladness and fulness of
heart:
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64 BEBSTONB PIPPINS
"Oh, the pretty maids of Opert in their vine
new frawcks
Should not laflugh to scarn the la&b'ren lads in
clane white smawcks ;
Vor the laftb'ren lad es true,
He wull tile all day vor you,
Ef you wull mind the childern and the wold
yokes vor hes sa&ke,
And wash hes cloase and clane hes hearth, and
pies vor he wull baftke,
And a good girt vire of evenens a blaftzen bright
wull maftke,
When a cometh hoam to you,
Droo the vrost wiv vingers blue."
And Moses and Ben chorused :
"When a cometh hoam to you,
Droo the vrost wiv vingers blue."
"Oh, ye pretty maids of Opert in your vine new
frawcks,
Do not laftugh to scarn the laftb'ren lads in
clane white smawcks ;
Vor the laftbourer es true,
He would tile and ceare vor you,
A Zatterdays hes wa&ges hoam to you wull
vaithful taftke
And wull not bide out-doors o' nights, a drink-
en vor your sa&ke,
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KEBSTONE PIPPINS 65
But wull herten up and cheer ee when your
hert and boans do a&che,
And a cometh hoam to you,
Droo sun and hrain and dew."
"And a cometh hoam to you,
Droo sun and hrain and dew,"
chorused the three.
The bells clashed in mellow harmony ;
straight before them, through the pink
and lilac mist on the eastern horizon, the
broad, red -gold edge of the moon rose
above the sea -rim, and, looking back,
they saw the western hills purple-black
against the lucid after -glow over the
sunken sun.
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Ill
"Oh, who will o'er the downs with me,
Oh, who will with me ride ?
Oh, who will up and follow me
To win a lovely bride ?"
Slipping behind the waggon in the
thyme -scented dusk, Jacob took one
last affectionate glance at the blue-silk
neckerchief, bluer and brighter than
ever in the magic light of after sunset.
She would surely like it; she would
fasten it round her soft young throat
and love to think that her sweetheart
had chosen and given it her. Her sweet-
heart? Oh, yes! he was growing very
bold and confident under the intoxica-
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EIBSTONB PIPPINS 67
tion of cooling moonlit air and glamour
of mixing lights. She little knew he
was coming over the downs with singing
and music, and a heart laden with love,
to fulfil the promise of Whitsunday and
bring the ripened fruit of those sweet
applo-blossoms. "Was she thinking of
him, while she sat sewing or went about
her housework? Every stroke of the
iron hooves on the white road, and every
little clash of horso-bells, brought them
nearer to each other; when that broad
red moon had paled and climbed the
starry blue steep above the hills, the
waggon would reach Estridge. And
then?
" Gie I a yapple ?" coaxed a familiar
voice in his ear.
Jacob started, and laid the silk ker-
chief upon the apples in the check
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68 BIB8T0NE PIPPINS
wrapper, whereby it acquired a power-
ful fruity perfume. " I'll gie thee a towse
in the chaps, thee girt larrapen Lar-
rance!" was his disobliging response.
" Goo an, and bide 'longside o' Thunder,
wullee?"
"Wouldn't she hae thee yapples,
Jake?" continued the unabashed Ben.
" Then I'll war'nt she wun't hae thee,
nother,
" 'This pretty maid o* Opert in her vine new
frawck!'"
Suppose she would not have him?
Well, she was a woman ; therefore, as
King Eichard argued in like case, to be
wooed, consequently, to be won ; corn is
not ripened for harvest, much less cut
and carried, in a day.
But what was Grammer doing all this
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 69
time at home ? He had forgotten her
commissions ; his heart smote him for
the neglect, though there would be ample
time on the return journey. She had
no " girt zaacy buoy," to cook for and
scold to-night ; she was sitting down to
her cup of tea all alone. Dear old
Grammer! She had lavished two genera-
tions of child-love upon him. His father
had gone for a soldier and died in India,
and when the news of his death came
home, his mother, perilously near her
groaning-time, gave birth to her father-
less boy and died of the anguish. So
Grandmother took the girl and the baby-
boy, and reared them, gaining their
bread and her own in the sweat of her
brow.
Grammer, too, had had her young
days. How strange that seemed! A
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70 KIB8TONE PIPPINS
labouring lad had made love to her,
his heavy step had set her heart beating
long, so long ago. It was time for her to
rest and be cared for in her turn. Bessie
would help make her old age happy ; it
would be a cheerful home. The two
women would be company for each
other, and, when the little folk came,
Grammer could sit in the chimney-
corner and mind them till they were old
enough to mind her, and it was time for
her to go to her long home. There were
the garden and the pig already ; perhaps
they might get a bit of pasture near their
cottage, and buy a cow or two. Or find
a little " bargan " of a few acres close
by, and then, with fowls and pigs and
garden-stuff, an acre of hay, and a cart-
shed knocked up by himself at odd mo-
ments, why not pick up a horse cheap
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 71
at market and set up as carrier to Old-
port, carrying their own stuff as well as
that of the neighbours round ? Another
carrier on that road would do no harm ;
the Westway folk had to go a couple of
miles to find a carrier. Horse-tending
was his proper work ; he loved horses.
It was rumoured that Thunder had killed
a man ; there were times when not a
man on the place would face him except
Hardinge; he could always subdue or
manage the fiery creature. He loved
the magnificent horse like an own child ;
he led him to shows and fairs, showed
off his paces and his points, and rejoiced
in his value and docility.
And now the western hills, the sea,
and the undulating plain dotted with
farms, villages, and church - towers,
with here a copse, here a plantation,
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72 EIB8T0NB PIPPINS
and there a cluster of ricks, 'were all
spread out in the magical, dreamy light
of the moon ; the haze cleared off, stars
sparkled, the horse-bells clashed a clearer
music on the still night air.
There was a weird, unearthly charm in
this melody moving along the crest of the
lonely downs in shimmering moonlight.
No other sound but that of bells, wag-
gon-wheels, and steps of men and horses
broke the charmed stillness, except
when the light scurry of a flock of
frightened sheep, and the tinkle of their
bells, were heard, or a distant rumble
grew and died away, as a flying curl
of white smoke rolling above the sinu-
ous black line of a train flashed swiftly
across the lowland and was gone. It
was a beautiful and wonderful thing to
be moving thus on the lonely height,
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 78
with the world lying below on either
hand in the silvered shadows, a calm-
ing, dreamlike joy.
They halted on the brows of hills to
breathe the team, and halted on down-
ward slopes to put on drags, else they
seemed to go on and on forever with
the clashing bell-music lulling them in
a pleasant, drowsy dream, beneath the
stars and moon, above the silent silver-
steeped earth. They passed no house
and met no soul, the horses almost slum-
bered as they went, the men grew more
and more silent, Ben's pranks and
Moses's singing had ceased, Farmer took
his own way, which glimmered white
and plain before him; it seemed like
the phantom of a waggon drawn by
phantom horses, followed by phantom
waggoners, lulled by fairy music.
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Passion and hope, etherealized to re-
ligious fervour, grew in Jacob's heart
as he moved along, with wide eyes and
uplifted soul, seeing, yet not seeing, the
beauty of the night, the play of shadow
and shine in moon-thrilled copses, the
singular steady brightness of a white-
spired tower full-lighted by the moon,
thrown up by masses of foliage, and
then lost by a bend of the road; the
sport of hares on sheltered uplands, the
glimmer of distant sea, and here and
there a warm glow pierced by spires on
the horizon showing a sea -coast town.
Moses thought of the brother who died
young, happy, and full of simple faith,
and of the little child who came and
went, leaving a great ache and yearn-
ing behind. Ben — thoughtless, care-
less Ben — thought of heaven, full of
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EIBSTONE PIPPINS 75
shining streets and fields of light, and
tried to make up his mind about the
approaching Confirmation. He also per-
ceived and loved the possibility of fall-
ing in love. The horses probably thought
of hay, buckets of water, and nice straw-
littered stables.
So that when a silly sheep, feeding
on the top of a shadowed bank on one
side of the road, suddenly bethought
himself of the propriety of joining the
flock nibbling the turf -slope on the
other side, there was a simultaneous
yeU of waggoners, shying of horses, and
jangling of bells, as that foolish white
animal tumbled ghost-like through the
shades and across the bright moonlight
exactly in front of Farmer's nose.
Thunder made a caracole so gigan-
tic that the steady and long-suffering
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76 BEB8T0NE PIPPINS
Charlie was almost thrown over the off-
thill — a stout bit of timber that creaked
ominously but did not split in the shock;
the great waggon was jolted and jerked
from side to side, Thunder was over the
turfed edge of the road, and, but for the
lucky circumstance that Farmer's terrors
impelled him, with Diamond and Cherry
at his heels, to the opposite embanked
side, and thus partly neutralized the
strain of Thunder on Charlie and the
waggon, team and waggon and all must
have gone tumbling down the green slope
with disquieting results. As it was, the
off fore-wheel went on the low turf edge,
and stuck at an angle that would have
upset a higher load. But the oil-cake lay
level with the over-rods and the tilted
waggon stood.
Then there were Whups and Koits
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 77
and Hoots and Thunderr - rahs and
Vearmerr-rahs and Churree-ahs, with
a general shamefaced feeling that the
men had shied worse than the team, and,
after a stiff struggle between Hardinge
and Thunder, a skirmish between Snow
and Farmer, and much verbal remon-
strance and patting and soothing from
the three, the team fell into proper line,
the wheel was got off the bank, the
bell-chimes resumed their even rhythm,
and the waggon rolled ponderously on,
at a somewhat quickened pace.
" I never yeard ee maake sich a lous-
ter avore, Moses," observed Ben, who
had jumped higher and screamed loud-
er than anybody, though unseen by the
others, being the hindmost. " Ded ee low
wold Bogie was aater ee ?"
"No vear," returned Moses; "a
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78 RIBSTONE PIPPINS
wouldn't come anighst me, wi' Ben
Brunt behind for en, let alone Jake."
"Wold cairt she swochelted as though
she was drunk," continued Ben; "she
prett' nigh lumpered over bank this
time, I hreckon."
" Mis'able good job thee was long wi'
we, Ben," replied Moses, " else I hreckon
wold cairt and the whole bwilen would
a ben down 'bout house. But ee be that
cliver and knowledgable, nobody cain't
get upzides with ee, not wold Bogie his-
self."
" Ben, he's that valiant, nothen gies
he a steart," added Jacob.
" I 'lows thee's no call to jaa, Jake,"
replied Ben. " Whatever maade ee rare
and scraich as though 'twas pig-killen
day ? Did ee 'low the wold moon had
tumbled out o' sky ?"
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RIBSTONB PIPPINS 79
" 'Twasn't that, Ben. What gied I
sich a steart was hearen you blaren be-
hind me. I 'lowed ee was gone queer."
"Goo an' wi' ye! I never blared.
'Twas wold Thunder a whickeren."
"Ef Thunder couldn't whicker tun-
abler than you blared, ee'd bust his-
self wi' tryen, that a would !" retorted
Jacob.
"So Igh oh! On we go!"
Moses trolled out :
"With a crick and a crack and a louster O 1
To the zound o* the dancen bells !
Oh, the waggoner-boy hath a life of joy,
Yo ho, Igh oh !
His team is his wife, 'tea the pride of his life,
Yo ho, Igh oh !
He loveth to stride by the fore harse's side,
With a crack o' the whip doth he steer the
gurt ship,
Yo ho!
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80 EIBSTONB PIPPINS
And the harses rejoice at the sound of his
voice,
For by day and by night it es their delight
To go, yo ho !
To go with the zwingen bells !
So Igh oh ! On we go 1
Wiv a crick and a crack and a louster O 1
To the tune o' the zwingen bells."
sang the waggoners so blithely and so
lustily that cottagers in the valley below
heard and wondered, hares and rabbits
skittered away into the furze, and birds
stirred in the copses.
Now they wound along beneath a
high bank topped by a wind-bent, leaf-
less thorn -hedge, and embossed with
many late flowers; here and there in
the bright moonlight a tall mullein
reared its spire of yellow blossom, crim-
son-centred, above pale broad leaves,
and now the level band of sea, so long
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 81
their horizon, widened and shone in the
moonshine, with audible waves, on their
right. Now they were immediately
above it, now they turned and left it
behind, rolling on with muffled mu-
sic through a narrow lane, overshad-
owed by stunted ash and maple, yet
sufficiently splashed by moonlight to
make lanterns unnecessary, and there,
straight before them, showed the broad,
dark roof of a pine-tree on a back-
ground of dark -blue sea. Leaving this
behind, they turned to the right, and
came out once more on the open down,
with sea beyond woods and fields on
either hand. The sea crept closer on
each side as they travelled on, dipping
into a fold that held Barling village and
mounting again beyond it on an arti-
ficially scarped and fortified slope, and
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83 BIBSTONB PIPPINS
saw the few scattered lights of another
village just under Culveredge down, that
ended in chalk cliffs rising sheer from
the sea.
They turned aside, before reaching
Estridge, to enter a farm -yard shad-
owed by elms. No sooner had the yard
gate clicked than lanterns were seen
approaching and surrounding them.
The bell-music died into faint, irregular
droppings; Thunder whinnied with joy
because he snuffed stables, whence he
was answered in tones of equine wel-
come ; Charlie put down his tired head
and closed his great meek eyes in bliss-
ful anticipation of fodder and a sta-
tionary position for some hours to come ;
and Farmer deliberately turned to face
his fellow-labourers in the certainty of
being unhooked from them.
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 83
The lanterns, accompanied by gruff
monosyllables as their holders exam-
ined the team, circled slowly round the
travellers ; a fan of light from the open
farm-house door fell across the gar-
den and yard; female forms bearing
mugs fluttered through the shadow and
shine of the moon -barred court; the
three waggoners' heads bent silently
over these mugs, straightened, and bent
back, with the mugs uppermost ; there
was a pause of refreshing silence, fol-
lowed by inquiries for acquaintances,
and the delivery of messages and small
parcels.
One of the mug -bearers had blue
eyes, fair hair, and plump carnation
cheeks; she looked so pleasant and
pleased when Ben Brunt gave her back
the mug he had just emptied, as she
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84 BIBSTONB PIPPINS
stood in a streak of moonlight, that he
sighed and thought it a pity she lived
so far off, and wondered if she walked
with anybody on Sundays.
"Hain't I zin ee avore?" he asked, to
give himself an excuse to look at her
again. " 'Tes Emily Dore, eddn't it V 9
"Oh no; quite a mistake," with a
smile and a bashful air.
" Then 'tes a picture of ee I've a zeen.
Tou walks out with a young chap by
the naame o' Smith, doan't ee ?"
" Certainly not. Smith indeed !" with
a toss of the head.
" Then whatever do he be called ?"
"It's like your impudence to talk
about my young man, a boy like you!"
" Well, there ! 'tes liker my impudence
than anybody else's, I 'lows, Miss Zaacy.
Churree-ah ! Bide still, wull ee ?"
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BtBSTONB PIPPINS 85
Thunder had to be stabled in the vil-
lage, whither Hardinge led him without
delay, leaving the steed to his corn and
his reflections, while he washed his
hands and face in a bucket, combed his
hair, cocked his hat, and, taking the
bundle of apples in his hand, made off
at a long, swinging trot through the
village street, paved, but grass -grown,
just as the belfry -clock was chiming
the three-quarters before nine. Though
gentlefolk sit up late, and would proba-
bly still be afoot, it was reassuring,
at that dissipated hour, to catch the
ruddy gleam of lighted windows through
the trees that surrounded the old-fash-
ioned house set back from the street in
a walled garden.
The kitchen window was open and
uncurtained; bright light streamed upon
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86 EIBSTONE PIPPINS
the laurels and bays outside, and par-
tially lit the arch of walnut boughs
under which he passed, with a heart
throbbing in blissful anticipation and a
head so whirling with excitement that
he was constrained to draw into the
heavy shadow by the back door to com-
pose himself and consider what words
were fit to be produced at first sight
of the sweet face.
At last the words and the self-com-
mand were there. He rang the bell,
and waited, throbbing and flushed but
self-contained and full of happy antici-
pation of the wonder and joy that
would light her face when she saw him.
The door opened quickly, so quickly
that, in a calmer moment, it might
have been assumed that some one was
on the other side waiting for the bell
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EIBSTONB PIPPINS 87
to ring. The light fell full on Jacob's
radiant face, it glittered in his clear,
shining eyes, but threw the face of
her who opened into shadow. Yet he
knew, even before his glance fell on the
neat figure in its white cap and apron,
lighted from above and behind by a
pendent lamp, that it was not Bessie,
and this knowledge was at once cooling
and embarrassing.
" Good - evenen," he said, touching
his hat, and the girl, in a voice un-
known to him, replied, "Good -even-
ing."
" Plaze to excuse comen so laate," he
continued ; " we come long with a wag-
gon from Westway."
" Don't mention it. Westway's a long
ride."
"I be come to zee a young ooman
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liven here, Alisbeth Oodford by
naame."
"Then I'm sorry for you," the girl
replied. "Might you be her brother?
She lived out your way."
"No ; no relation, zo to zay. An old
friend by the naame of Hardinge, wull
ee plase to tell her."
The "girl looked him curiously in the
face, with a somewhat acid smile on her
full, high-coloured visage, while a secret,
unspeakable hatred of her gathered in
his heart and mingled with an agony as
of dread.
" I'm afraid, Mr. Hardinge," she re-
plied, slowly, and with evident relish,
"you'll have to step a goodish bit fur-
ther if you want to see your sweetheart
to-night."
"What do ee mane?" he asked, sul-
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 89
lenly. "Who's talken of sweethearts?
I want to see Alisbeth Oodford? Ed-
den't she at hoam ?"
The girl's smile broadened and her
eyes glittered ; such satisfaction as de-
graded the faces of Roman women,
when thumbs were turned down, and
the wounded, naked swordsmen, quiver-
ing on the arena before them, vainly
and dumbly implored their lives with
agonized glances, shed a lurid gleam
upon her features.
"What! haven't you heard?" she
drawled, unwilling to bring this spec-
tacle of a man's bleeding heart and dying
hope to an end. " Dear, dear ! Well,
anybody can but feel for you, though you
mayn't have thought of anything more
than passing the time. We all know
what young men are. Law now! Hasn't
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anybody heard out Westway ? To think
of that, now, to be sure !"
The man's comely, healthy face went
ghastly white in patches under the sun-
burned bronze; his lips tightened, his
teeth set, and his eyes sank as the aw-
ful, awful fear grew and drank the life
from his heart ; his very youth withered
and went under the searching anguish.
" Young ooman," he said, at last, in a
deep, sullen voice, " what do ee mane ?
Spake out, and ha' done, wull ee ? Where
do Alisbeth Oodford bide now, as lived
housemaid here somewhile avore hear-
vest?"
"Well, reelly!" with a self-con-
scious simper and down -cast eyes,
" 'tisn't hardly right for honest girls to
speak of; but — since you seems anxious
about it — I expect she's trapesing along
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EIBSTONE PIPPINS 91
Portsmouth Hard this time of night —
they mostly do — when a girl goes off
long with a soldier."
" You darned, lyen Jezebel !"
"Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! I'll call mas-
ter, that I will !" she whimpered, shrink-
ing back as the tortured man strode
heavily towards her. "It ain't my fault
Lisbeth's gone to the bad. She was al-
ways after sojers, and that's why Missus
gave her the sack — a nasty, fast young
faggot. Boo-ooh-ooh ! I'm sure 'twas
bad enough to be in service long with
such a character, without being pitched
into as though anybody had lost their
own good name."
Hardinge staggered heavily back,
shamed by his own sudden violence,
and ground his teeth for some mo-
ments in silence.
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" Spake out," he growled at last. " If
you be a-riggen of me out, spake the
truth, and I wun't do ee no hearm.
But ef what you ben a-zaying is Gospel
true, zay it out shart, and zay no more.
When did she goo ? And who did she
goo along with ?"
"You do frighten anybody, to be
sure," the girl returned, drying her eyes.
"She went off yesterday four weeks,
long with a gunner from the fort."
"Whereto?"
" Well, to be sure, she didn't leave her
address behind her, she only left her
good name."
"Name of this here gunner?" he
continued, with a threatening flame in
his eyes.
" Hopkins. A tall, fine man, with red-
dish hair — "
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 93
" That'll do. Good-evenen to ee," he
interrupted, and the girl had scarcely
closed her loose red mouth, before he
had turned and was swallowed up in
the blackness bordering upon the gravel
drive, where the trees were thick within
the boundary wall. But she could hear
the dull thud of his heavy steps, first
on the moist path and then out on
the high-road, and the click of the gate
as it swung to behind him and latched
itself. Then she heard the belfry clock,
striking the last of nine strokes. She
stood, as if spellbound, the unfinished
sentence forming itself on her closed
lips, and listened till the slow, even
footsteps died away in the distance, and
then, with a loud, defiant laugh, she
went in and shut the door with a bang.
Jacob plodded back to the village
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inn where he was to sleep that night,
with head bent down and teeth set,
slowly and steadily, like a man striding
over a ridged wet field in the face of
driving tempest. The blue bundle of
apples swung unnoticed from his hand,
his curly hair dripped with sweat of
anguish, his eyes were wild. But
he did not forget to rack Thunder up
comfortably for the night.
When he reached the stable, he passed
a few words with the ostler, shorten-
ing the latter's chat with a premature
Good-night.
" We come a long way to-day, maate,"
he explained, " and I be properly twick-
ered out."
When the ostler had left him, after
showing the loft above the ladder
where he was to lie that night, and
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hanging a lantern on a nail in the wall,
Thunder curved his noble head round
and whickered affectionately to him.
Then it seemed to the poor lad as if
something melted and broke in his
heavy heart, and he fell, with a thick,
stifled sob, on the horse's shoulder, hid-
ing his face in his neck. Presently he '
pulled himself up, stroked the great
horse, and became aware of the blue
handkerchief of apples resting on a step
of the ladder in the light of the dim
lantern. He took one of the finest, all
gold and crimson and fragrance, and
gave it to the horse, who munched and
crunched it with eager pleasure.
"You and me ben maates this two
year, Thunder," he said, smoothing the
creature's satiny shoulder. " You vurry
nigh done vor me, wold chap, time and
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agen. You med zo well ha' vinished the
job while ee was about it, I hreckon."
At this Thunder curved his great neck
and rubbed his soft nose on Jacob's
shoulder, making the halter-ring rattle,
and the latter added, " The zooner thee
doos vor Jake Hardinge the better, I
'lows, zo long as ee makes a clane job
of it."
Meanwhile Thunder's great soft eyes
were directed to the blue bundle on
the ladder -step; but, failing to arouse
Jacob's attention to it, he gave a snort
of displeasure, and trod heavily on the
foot of his friend, who knew very well
that he was not a horse to be trifled
with, and promptly fetched him a second
apple. "A craafty wold beggar!" he
muttered, reflecting, as is not unusual
under similar circumstances, that the
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RIBSTONE PIPPIN8 97
process of being done for, however de-
sirable, could very well be deferred to
a more convenient moment. Then,
climbing wearily up the ladder and
flinging himself face downwards on the
fresh hay spread for him, he fell sound
asleep, " blissfully havened till the mor-
row day."
After all, sleep is sleep; the hours
when one would fain lie awake for
pure happiness are few and fleeting,
even in the most blissful lives. And
if the happy find sleep a sweet thing,
in misery it is indeed a hiding-place, a
shelter, and a balm. Poets have lavished
honeyed praises upon sleep, but never
too honeyed, called it soft names, but
never too soft; the very sound of it
falls hushingly on the senses; he is
never quite bankrupt of solace who has
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not lost his sleep — murdered it, like
Macbeth, slain it by sin and folly, or
had it stolen by pain. Beloved and
gentle, it is man's first and last and
life-long friend. It stills his earliest cry
at sight of this sorrowful world, cradles
his infancy in kindest arms, and cur-
tains the travail of life away from him
till he have strength to face it ; with vel-
vet footfall it follows his labour and
nightly carries his spirit far into realms
of glamour and marvel; it is his ten-
derest nurse, his best medicine in sick-
ness, always his truest friend, counsel-
lor, and benefactor. Finally, it pillows
his age, and with noiseless touch draws
the curtain a second time between him
and the troubled world. It is a holy
thing, mystic and marvellous in its nat-
ure and beneficence. Death itself is no
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 99
greater leveller than sleep, that makes
all men equal—high and low, rich and
poor, joyful and sorrowful. But the
waking! that is indeed with a differ-
ence.
Cocks crowed, horses stamped in their
stalls, cows lowed, and cracking of
whips was heard in the dim dawn, but
Jacob, flung at random on his heap of
hay, slept on, as devoid of life, to all in-
tents and purposes, as those whose dust
is being transmuted into the turf above
them. But the blessed truce with pain
had to be broken, and the ostler's rough
shaking and shouting, and the starting
awake in an unfamiliar place, brought
the agony back with the shock that
seems a daily repetition of grief.
" I hreckon thee had a stiffish glass
laast night," the ostler grumbled.
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" I hreckon I'd just zo much as I'd a
mind to," Jacob replied, getting up and
shaking the hay off.
"I 'lows thee'd a biggish mind,
then."
" Prett' nigh zo big as thee jaa."
It was just such a scene in the misty
morning as on the day before, only an
immense black gulf yawned between to-
day and yesterday. There was groom-
ing and feeding and watering of horses;
but not the Titanic gambols of the pre-
ceding day when the team was fresh.
The journey had taken the nonsense out
of the horses, Moses averred, when the
waggon had been loaded with hurdles
wattled from hazel-copses fringing the
downs, the team " hatched on," and the
waggon creaked out into the lane in the
sunshine to the music of its bells, fol-
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BIBST0NE PIPPINS 101
lowed by the eyes of the farm-folk, in-
doors and out.
"Solgh oh! On we go!'*
Moses began, when they were clear of
the farm, and the hills and vales lay
fresh and fair before them in soft gla-
mour of morning sunshine, fragrant
with the wholesome earth -scent made
by drying dews and pungent smell of
burning weeds, the blue fume of which
rolled slowly up from hill -side and
hollow like altar smoke.
But nobody chorused the song. Ben
, Brunt plodded heavily along in un-
wonted taciturnity, doing as he was
bid without a murmur or an antic, his
boy's heart like a lump of lead with-
in him. It was not only that the blue-
eyed girl was left behind and would
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probably be seen no more ; it was some-
thing that changed the colour of every-
thing and made the sunshine paler. He
had madly desired and asked a kiss;
the sting was, he had had it ; the maiden
had been too kind. A good sound box
on the ear was what, his better nature
whispered to him, would- have been
good for them both. There was no
harm, only a kiss; it was the cheapness
of it that poisoned things, touched a
lower chord, kindled the baser nature,
and stirred the lad with confused, un-
named trouble. He did not reason upon
it, he only felt a dreary irritation, the
cheap kiss burned on his mouth with
mingled rapture and repulsion, and
would not be forgotten for miles, till
the pure down- air and morning sweet-
ness, the bell -chimes and the natural
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EIBSTONE PIPPINS 103
joy of living and moving, brought him
back to the frolic, good-tempered boy-
hood that lingers so long in rustic
youth. Then he forgot his fatal dis-
covery, that womankind was made of
poorer stuff than he had been led to be-
lieve.
" Whatever maade ee hike off athout
ar a zupper laast night, Jake?" he
asked.
"I 'lows 'twas the zaame raison as
maade ee bide, Ben."
" G'long wi' ee ! What was 't then ?"
"I'd a mind to V
" 'Twas a mis'able bad mind made ee
shab off vrom that ar zupper, Jake, a
ter'ble vine zupper. There was coald
hroast griskin stuffed wi' inions — I 'lows
I'd a goodish dollop of that; there was
coald haam and apple - stucklen and
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viggy pudden, and hroast taaties, and
hrid cheese — dedn't I tuck in ! To tole
it all down, zo much small beer as ee'd
a mind to, and ee med hae haaf a pint
o' strong beer. Ef that wasn't the head
goo ! that ar haaf pint maade anybody's
noase hum. 'Twas hearvest ale. Wold
Moses, he glutched it down middlen
shearp. Heartened th' wold chap up
mis'ble, darned ef a dedn't zet up and
zing em a zong. Vearmer Jones he
laaughed, and he was yor zingen of a
zong too. I 'lows we was middlen peart
laast night, the whole bilen of us."
" Zure enough," Moses corroborated,
as they breathed the team across a hill.
" Ben's a middlen trencher-man. There
eddn't a many can come anighst e'n
when the scran bag's out. I 'lows a
maade Vearmer Jones's vittles vly, laast
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 105
night. Missus she looked pretty zure
at en. She 'lowed she'd zooner veed en
once a day than twice."
" Goo an wi' ye ! She never 'lowed
nothen o' the zart. ' Mis'ble nice buoy,
that ar Ben,} I yeard her zaay. ' He've
a got such a vine open countenance.' "
" Ay, Ben, thee countenance is open
enough when there's vittles avore it,
whatever it med be when vokes is a
zaayen p' their prayers."
"Oh! G'long!" chuckled Ben. "I
was voced to hae zupper vor two,
Jake and mezelf, along o' Jake michen.
Whatever's come to wold Jake?" he
added, in an undertone, when they had
reached the brow of the hill and paused
again. " A's entirely mumchanced, and
so downhearted as a ooman buryen of
her baby."
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" That's come to he as comes to many
a zon o' Adam," responded Moses,
solemnly. "A's vound out what oomen
volks es maade of."
" What be they maade of athout 'tes
flesh and blood saame as we? How
ded he vind out ?"
"Thee've a vine open countenance,
Ben, but thee never zeen Jake was aater
Lisbeth Oodford."
"The deuce a was!" cried Ben. "Then
that's what maade en so mis'ble thirt-
over. "We all got our troubles, Mose,
but darned ef this yer eddn't the head
goo !"
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CHAPTER IV
"Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,
Thou shalt not escape calumny."
The day was as fair as on yestermorn,
lark and red -breast sang as cheerily,
the blue calm sea was as sweet to eye
and fancy, but the sunlight cast their
shadows before instead of behind them.
On these breezy heights, scented with
thyme and salt sea-breath, where the
glamour and stillness of last night's
moon had lain with such ethereal po-
tency, the golden sun seemed cold,
strange, and far-off, the places they had
passed at night were unrecognizable by
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day. The bell-music, usually so gay
and cheery, seemed laden with inex-
pressible heart -break; the tones were
not the same, the very rhythm had
changed under some spirit of anguish
imprisoned in the metal throats.
Across the soft blue sky and opales-
cent cloud-piles on the horizon, across
shining plain, yellowing woods, and
breezy sea, a veil as of crape had been
drawn. Not that Hardinge saw the
sweet vision of autumn fields spread out
before him ; his mental gaze was filled
with far different things. No coun-
try-morning freshness, but night scenes
in a great seaport town, scenes of min-
gled brightness and squalor, of sinister
pleasure and ignoble delight, rose before
him — scenes touched, nevertheless, by
the grandeur of national consciousness,
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 109
mingled with the taste of sea- air, the
stateliness of great war-ships, of beauti-
ful, victorious timber - bastions of the
past, and vague impressive outlines of
the armoured vessels of to-day. The
boom of guns, cry of lonely bugles, sound
of plashing oars and lapping water,
were blended with the shriek of steam-
whistles, roar of trains, clatter of cabs,
oaths and laughter of seamen and sol-
diers, yelling of newspaper urchins, and
raucous voices of miserable beings who
once were women. Over all streamed
brilliance of electric light and ruddy
glow of gas, on which a pure pale moon
and shining stars, sailing aloof, looked
down as if ashamed.
It was Portsmouth Hard, between
eight and nine at night. He had
been there once to fetch Thunder, and
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remembered it very well; the curious
intoxication of novel scenes, the taste
of an unfamiliar atmosphere — com-
posed of tar and sea, fish and oranges,
liquor and tobacco, all potently blended
with mud and frowsiness, but all out-
savoured by tar and sea -salt. The
wonder of jewelry blazing in shop-win-
dows, the wonder of dancing lights on
the harbour waters, the bustle and hurry,
the uniforms and small-arms, the pleas-
ure of the strange pageant mingled
with the pain of feeling lost, incongru-
ous, and out of place there.
But those women — some tipsy, some
on the arms of tipsy sailors — bold,
gaudy, over -dressed — some powdered
and painted, some battered, bruised, and
barefaced !
Some women, indeed, were modest
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 111
and neatly dressed ; these were chiefly
careworn, with children and soldier-
husbands ; a few were in cabs and car-
riages, with flowers and jewels and
shining raiment, to match the uni-
forms and gold lace by their side.
Among the motley crowd surging to
and fro on the pavement of the Hard
appeared the sweet face he loved and
honoured, the bloom faded, the eyes
wistful and weary, but never with
flaunting carriage, bold look, and hard
laugh. Nay, she seemed even to shrink
from the fine tail gunner with reddish
hair at her side; she did not hang on his
arm or look up in his face ; she could
not love him ; she shrank from all in the
surging crowd with a lost and lonely
air— his flower could not bloom in that
tainted atmosphere.
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It was when he was lingering on the
bustling Hard — a lonely, displaced rustic,
with the scent of fields upon him, and
the cleanness and health of out -door
life in his glance — that the mystery and
marvel of the sea had fallen upon him
and the strange glamour of war and fas-
cination of peril had taken him. Then
the memory that he was a soldier's son
strongly stirred in him; then the long-
ing for distant lands, chance, change, and
peril became urgent ; he was dazzled by
the glory of the wide, unknown world ;
he considered how he might leave his
quiet life and prove his manhood by
bearing arms for old England. But not
the thought of poor old Grammer alone
had given him power to conquer this de-
sire and subdue the fever of longing for
the sea and peril. No ; though that inci-
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dent occurred two years ago, before the
lilac blossom had been given or anything
asked or promised, it was the thought
of that same sweet flower-face, now
withering in the garish lights of the
Hard, that had restrained him and
given him power to curb desires so
seemly and natural to English youth.
The foreign words carved on the sol-
diers' monument on the Common had
been explained to him.
" Sweet and seemly it is to die for
our native land." Long and long they
rang in his ears with a strong, deep
fascination, like Bible words. Often,
even now, they drew his heart with
siren charm; often, even now, he was
divided within himself and half -be-
wildered by them ; but the lilac given
last spring was a counter -charm, po-
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tent to exorcise the spell. Sweet and
seemly to die for our native land?
Yes ; but that was long ago, before the
fatal journey to Estridge ; now nothing,
not even patriotism and heroic death,
could ever be as sweet and seemly as be-
fore. Keverence was slain, trust in the
purity of woman lost. For what face
was showing in the hard lights on Ports-
mouth Hard ?
Soon after mid-day the waggon reach-
ed Oldport, in the bustle and hurry of a
market-day; all the busy faces in the
streets had something repellent for
Jacob; all seemed conscious of some
agony and shame newly born into the
world ; some were oppressed by it, some
gloating over it, some grieving, all in-
tolerable in the strong light of noon-
day.
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But there was little time for brood-
ing, the streets being so thronged ; the
horses were excited by the stir, all ears
pricked and turned, all necks arched —
all except those of the long-suffering
Charlie, who was conscious only of be-
ing between the thills, with that pro-
vokingly active Thunder prancing in
front of him, and the waggon lum-
bering behind, and the strong desire
for dinner that stirred his equine
frame.
" Thee'st a cup too low, Jake," said
the good Moses, when the team were
unhooked and feeding in the Plough
yard. " Hae a pint o' strong beer long
wf me fur the good o' the house. Cheer
up, maate. Ef there wasn't no downs
there wouldn't never be no ups, I 'lows.
Oi, that's how this yer world do wag,
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zure enough! Here's looken towards
ee, Jake !"
" Thankee kindly, and the zaame to
theezelf, Moses/' replied Jacob with a
great relieved sigh, as he swallowed
the humming October not unwill-
ingly.
" Yew ! how suant and zweet this yer
traade do vlow down anybody's keck-
horn !" observed Moses, pensively con-
templating his half -emptied mug, and
smacking his lips. " The Lard hev zent a
zight o' trouble into this yer world vur
the zins o' the likes o' we ; but he've a
zent zome mis'able good ale long wi'
't, I hreckon. Glutch et down, Jake,
noo heel-taps ! Here's to ee agen ! May
ee never want a vriend nit dibs to stand
en a drink !"
" The zaame to theezelf and many of
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BIB8T0NE PIPPINS 117
'em," replied Jacob, with pardonable
preoccupation.
"That ar maid o' ourn's a craafty
young vaggot," Moses continued. " Vust
thing when I goos hoam 'twull be,
' Dad, did ee mind my nrissums?' — kmish-
uns, she manes — ' Where's my change,
Dad V zaame as her mother. I be voced
to gie her a ha'penny change and zom-
mat boughten, too. That's what comes
o' been' a vamly man."
Grammer's commissions were care-
fully executed this time and a little sur-
prise procured for her as well. The
shop-windows had lost all their fascina-
tion to-day ; there was no temptation to
loiter. The young lady who sold the
kerchief had looked out at the sound of
the waggon - bells. "There goes my
handsome carter!" she exclaimed, laugh-
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ing and pretending to blow a kiss
through the ribbons and laces in the
window. Jacob, looked up, saw her and
touched his hat as he passed, stolid look-
ing and ashamed.
The commissions took time; just at the
last, with the team put to and chiming
through the town, there was a long wait
for a delayed order, so that the after-
noon was far advanced when they clear-
ed the town, rolling on in the track
of the westering sun, that was all glori-
ous in storm-cloud edged with fire and
interspaced by lakes and inlets of molten
gold. The dust whirled in gusts, the
wind sprinkled the bell melody fitfully,
sere leaves showered down from shud-
dering branches and danced to and fro,
singly and in squadrons; flocks of star-
lings were tossed hither and thither in
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the blast, the woods groaned, even while
their gold and crimson flamed up in the
stormy sun -gleams; late roses bent,
scattering their last petals on the wind-
gusts; there was in nature that chill
menace which is a challenge, evoking
defiance and bracing to action, or a
tyranny crushing, and beating down
hope, according to mood and tempera-
ment. It stirred up the team to step
out briskly and bravely; the bracing
chill, and the knowledge that their heads
were now turned homewards, made
Farmer and Thunder over -cheerful,
what their friends called idle, so that
even the excellent Diamond threw his
mighty heels about, to the joy and
amusement of Cherry and scandal of
the much-burdened Charlie, whose sole
aim in life was to escape from the shafts
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with the least possible expenditure of
energy. There was naming of horses,
and "Bide -stills" and "Ways" and
" Whoas" and "Hitherrs," ending in a
mighty scrimmage, turmoil, and clatter,
as Farmer danced ponderously down-
hill, with the rest thundering pell-mell
behind, the waggon swaying and bump-
ing along upon them, and the much-
enduring Charlie sitting on his own
heels and tobogganing unwillingly at
the tail of Thunder, whose exasperat-
ing energy sometimes drove the poor
thill-horse to the verge of distraction.
Fortunately the road was clear, with
a rise in front, so that "wold cairt"
soon righted herself, and was borne
up-hill with more speed than was quite
convenient to the horses, a dispensa-
tion the unoffending Charlie felt to
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be particularly hard upon his virtuous
bones.
"Ef you goos downalong smearter
than we've a mind to, I 'lows you'll hae
to goo upalong smearter than you've a
mind to," Moses slowly observed to the
five, as the whole eight, biped and quad-
ruped, breathed on the brow of the hill;
and a simultaneous droop of five maned
heads and sweep of five bell-peals seem-
ed to give unanimous assent to the prop-
osition.
This last adventure was not without
scathe; a shoe had become loose and
some iron-work in the waggon broken in
the violent jerking, so that, as evening
was closing in with a scud of driving
rain, they were glad to see the glimmer
of firelight from the windows of a lone-
ly inn hard by a forge on the wayside.
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There was a good half -hour's work,
very cheery with the stithy fire aglow
and the sound of bellows and ham-
mer-clink. News had to be exchanged,
and strong, weather - browned faces,
lit up by red flame leaping in the
shadows, shone with other light, while
tale and jest went round and pewter
mugs were tipped up, before the wag-
gon was on its way again in the dark-
ness of driving mist scarcely thinned by
a clouded moon.
As they fared musically on through
the mirk, striking sparks from the road
and singing from time to time, a sound
struck through the bell-melody, filling
Hardinge with such agitation that he
came nigh to trembling.
" What's what ?" returned Ben, in an-
swer to his question, when the waggon
y Google
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was stopped to take the drag off the
wheel. "Bells and wind, that's all I
hears. Whup! Whup! Hitherr!
" ' So Igh oh ! On we go !
Wi' a crick and a crack — ' "
The song died down the wind ; they
issued from a deep cutting in the chalk
and rolled along an embankment, from
the sloping sides of which fields and
woods spread away to the sea, when the
sound rose again, filling Jacob with un-
thinkable dread. It was surely a human
cry, feeble and strained, yet the word
"Help!" seemed to come in it. He was
about to call for a halt when Thunder
started and lurched across the road
with a jerk that took even the impassive
Charlie with infectious excitement, and
for some moments there was nothing
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but confusion of jangled bells, clatter-
ing hoofs, creaking timbers, and shout-
ing voices.
But when calm had been restored,
Hardinge insisted on stopping. He
had caught sight of a dark object just
on the grassy border of the embanked
road in a dim light that was only just
not darkness, and knew it for the cause
of Thunder's start.
" Goo an wi' ye !" retorted Ben, " 'tes
onny wold Bogie."
"I tell ee 'tes a man or a ooman,"
Jacob asserted. " Bide long with Thun-
der, wull ee ? I be gwine to zee."
"Bide where ee be, Jake," shouted
Moses ; " t'eden't nothen onny a bit of
scrile !"
So he said, very valorously; but
secretly he inclined to the supernat-
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BIBST0NE PIPPINS 135
ural view advanced by Ben. Thick
wood rising up the embankments over-
shadowed the road on each side, be-
ginning above the clear grassy space
where the dark object lay. This bit
of road was dark and lonesome to a
ghostly degree ; boughs creaked in the
wind, sere leaves rustled and shivered
as if in pain or fear. Moses was most
desirous of leaving it behind and reach-
ing the friendly lights of the next vil-
lage. Hardinge hastened with long
strides to the spot, untroubled by super-
natural fears that might have overcome
him in any mood but that of this blank
desolation, which annihilated all feeling
but susceptibility to others' suffering,
and stooped down in the obscurity by
the long, dark, motionless object, whence
issued a faint and feeble moan.
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" Who be ye and what's the matter ?"
he asked; but there was no response.
Feeling gently along the prostrate form,
he perceived the draperies of a woman's
garments.
"Cheer up," he said, gently, "'tes
vriends. Where be ee hurt?" The
utter silence that followed filled him
with horror and dread ; it was evident
that the poor forlorn creature, roused
to hope by the sound of the bells, had
sent forth all her strength in cries for
help, and was now either swooning or
dead. He pulled off the thick pilot coat,
worn over his smock-frock in the damp
night -chill, and covered her with it;
then, hastening back, overtook the wag-
gon, calling out that it was a woman
fallen senseless by the roadside. The
others were incredulous, oppressed by
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the loneliness and heavy shadows of
overarching tree-tops, and still inclined
to the supernatural view. Vague, in-
herited dread of witches and of spec-
tres simulating suffering and luring hon-
est men to destruction flitted through
the brains of Moses and Ben.
" 'Tes nothen to we. A traipsen vag-
got of a wench in liquor, or a good-vur-
nothen lurdan dree sheets in the wind,"
Moses growled, when Hardinge urged
taking the woman into the waggon.
Ben shivered, remembering a spectre
said to haunt the lower copse, and aver-
red that the horses and waggon were
more than enough to manage, and that,
as Thunder had shied at the mere pres-
ence by the road, the whole team would
probably bolt with the burden in the
waggon.
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"Goo ahn, ye girt cowards!" cried
Jacob. "A ooman, I tell ee, whatever
else she med be. Nigh her groanen
time vor all we knows. Her boans med
be broke, yew!" While he spoke, he
was making a clear space for a couch
in the waggon with spare sacks and
bundles, and lighting another lantern.
"What be ee gwine at?" grumbled
Moses, seeing him loosen one of the
hurdles.
"Gwine to carr her on hurdle and
hyste her in waggon," he replied.
"Come ahn, Ben; thee med bide long
wf team, Moses, ef ee be afeard."
The taunt fetched Moses ; he tied up
the team to the rails fencing the em-
bankment. This he did with a rapidity
quickened by a firm determination not
to be left alone in a place so obviously
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 129
uncanny, a determination that he Eng-
lished to himself as a noble desire to
share to the utmost the peril to which
the folly of his mates was conducting
them. Then with reckless valour he
seized the lantern — the best protection,
as is universally acknowledged, against
ghosts and other powers of darkness —
while Jacob took the hurdle, his own
puncheon, and some empty sacks, and
strode swiftly back on his charitable
errand — as swiftly, that is to say, as his
encumbrances permitted. Moses and
Ben clumped after him with great alac-
rity, Ben provided with a stout cart-
whip, that he carried butt end upwards,
ready for action.
They reached the spot in time to
stumble over the hurdle and find Har-
dinge on his knees by the body, which
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they dimly discerned to be that of a
woman, with a bundle beside her and
Jacob's coat over her; the face was
turned away in the helpless droop of
the swooning head. Moses, making
the sign of the cross, which Ben did
likewise, firmly grasping his whip at
the same time, turned the light of the
lantern on the face, that Jacob might
see to put the puncheon, or little keg,
he had uncorked, to the lips.
The three carters bent over her, their
rough, masculine faces lit up by the lan-
tern, the light of which revealed to
them nothing more terrible than the
white, thin face and closed, long-fringed
eyelids of a woman, young, comely, and
suffering. At sight of her the tense,
affrighted features of Moses and Ben
relaxed and those of Jacob quivered
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EIBSTONE PIPPINS 131
with horror and pain; he started vio-
lently back like a stricken animal, spill-
ing some drops from the puncheon in
his clenched hand. Moses and Ben turn-
ed their eyes, with half -ashamed curios-
ity, from the motionless form of the
woman to Hardinge, whose head was
held quiveringly back, with the singular,
painful shudder of a horse struck in
the face and expecting another blow.
For a moment — only for a moment —
scarcely long enough for the other two
to mutter to themselves the name Eliza-
beth Woodford.
Then he bent forward over the pros-
trate girl, his face ghastly with the
pallor under its brown, and once more
put the little barrel to the closed lips.
Moses, telling Ben to hold the lantern,
then raised the limp head gently in one
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182 BIBSTONB PIPPINS
hand and parted the lips with the oth-
er, while Hardinge poured a little water
between them, and Ben, like a statue,
held the light and looked on with an
awed gaze.
"I 'lows this here's a bad job," Moses
observed, after a while. Jacob poured a
little more water between the lips, and
then the delicate young face in Moses'
hand lost its absolute whiteness, the
transparent eyelids unclosed, two fright-
ened, pained gray eyes gazed up in the
three carters' solemn faces, and a faint
moan was heard.
" Doan't ee be afeard," said Moses ;
" we be gwirie to putt ee in cairt and
carr ee long."
" Home, home !" she moaned, feebly,
and then, looking up in Hardinge's face,
a flush went over hers, her eyes closed
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BIBSTONE PIPPIN8 188
again with a contented sigh, and her
head turned, like a child's, on the pil-
low of Moses' rough-coated arm.
With marvellous care and gentleness
they lifted the slight, light figure on to
the hurdle, and Moses and Jacob car- .
ried it between them, accompanied by
Ben with the lantern and whip, and wel-
comed by a long whicker from Thunder,
and confused pealing of bells from the
five horses, growing fidgety with wait-
ing unattended in the darkness, and laid
it in the waggon.
Hardinge touched the slender form
without emotion, scarcely remember-
ing that twenty- four hours ago the
mere thought of seeing her had stirred
his pulses with an agitation beyond
control. A rose blooming on its stem
touches the senses deliciously, moving
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184 MBSTONE PIPPINS
the soul within ; but the same flower,
dropped and trampled in the mire, has
no more charm than the mire itself.
He touched her gently from fear of
hurting her, just as Moses did. Yet
it was strange to him that he could
so calmly touch what had been Eliza-
beth.
As they laid her there, one of the
beautiful apples, escaped from the bun-
dle, rolled out on the road, and the huge,
broad felloe of the hind wheel passing
over it, crushed and ground it into the
flinty dust.
Hardinge plodded on at Thunder's
side through the dark, with the bells
clashing out their pleasant, irregular
cadence, thinking that she might even
now be dead, and thinking that it would
be best so. If she had died innocent,
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RIBSTONB PIPPINS 135
if he were following her now to an
honoured grave, what heartbreak, what
desolation, but how infinitely better
than this ! The bells, usually so gay
and heartsome, were jangled knells ; the
burden in the waggon was sadder and
more solemn than any coffin ; they
were bearing it to the burial of her
youth and bloom, peace and innocence;
whether that he had so carefully placed
on the rough couch still breathed the
breath of life or not was of little mo-
ment, since the soul within it was slain,
and the Elizabeth he loved was no
more.
Misty rain drove in their faces as the
three carters trudged on in silence;
Ben's spirits sank lower and lower,
until he sought relief in dolorously
chanting :
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" ' Zo vair art thou, my only low,
Zo deep in low am I,
And I wull low thee still, my dear,
Till all the zeas hrun dry-igh-igh-igh.
O my low's like the hred, hred hroase.'"
Jacob's love was gone, and yet the seas
were not run dry.
They stopped at Malbourne, at the
Sun, where Moses was for leaving the
young woman. " How do ee know her
vather '11 taake her in ?" he objected.
"A cain't taake her in athout she's
there," Jacob argued.
" Found the young ooman fainted on
the road, Snow? Dear heart alive!"
said the landlady, examining the patient,
who appeared to be dozing. " I shouldn't
wonder now if some nice hot soup and
a taste of spirits med bring her round.
Best take her home. Look here ! She's
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RIB8T0NB PIPPINS 187
out her head falling on a stone. She'll
be all right to-morrow, poor thing!"
The wound was quickly washed,
and bound up, some warm soup admin-
istered, and the patient in due time
taken to her home. Hardinge staid by
the horses the whole time, and left the
other two to lift her out and carry her
in to her parents, who were surprised
and distressed beyond measure at her
plight, not having heard that she had
left her situation.
Next day the doctor's gig was seen
outside Woodford's cottage, and the
next and the next, but Hardinge was
never seen there, though Moses and
Ben brought tidings that the maid was
terrible bad, at death's door.
Three days later Jacob received a
letter written thus :
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138 EIBSTONB PIPPINS
"BSTBIDGH, Oct 20.
"Mr. Harding:
" Sir,— I rite this hoping It finds you Well has
it Leaves me i have the onner to inform you
kindly hall you was tolled fryDay nite was lyes.
Throo jellusy she wood Not do know such thing
been. Stiddy bewty is vane hand Makes sum
mad witch the Kitchen winder Hopen i cooed
year All was that jelluss Hand Spitfull off her
she Aint much two boste off Hand fond of millitry
pardon, the Libberty hand Hemane with luv Too
hall Kind fiends ewer obedient Humble well
Wisher has Object. To lice
" no Name she wood Bee that mad Hand doo
Lather a pore fallow sirvant offal sow Nott lett
out i rote."
This missive, the result of much un-
usual labour, embellished by many
smudges, blots, and erasures, was not
easy to decipher by a stable -lantern's
light, and, even when slowly spelled out
and pronounced in an undertone, re-
quired some cogitation before the full
purport of it penetrated to the brain of
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RIBSTONE PIPPINS 189
the recipient. But when, after the third
spelling and puzzling, the thing became
clear, Hardinge trembled exceedingly,
and cold drops fell over his face. All
lies ! All ! What then was the truth ?
Elizabeth was certainly dying ; she #had
as certainly been picked up senseless by
the roadside. How had she come to
that pass ? The poor lad groaned aloud
in his agony. "Oh, Lord!" he cried,
with joined hands, " forgive me ! What
hev I done? Oh, Lord! what sholl I do?"
He stumbled home through the rainy,
windy night, and, plunging into the
cosey cottage, where his grandmother
sat by the fire with supper spread on
the table near, burst out with :
" Grammer, what do ee know about
Alisbeth Oodford?" the first allusion
he had made to her since the journey.
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140 BIBSTONE PIPPINS
" Lard love the buoy ! There ain't
nothen to know. The pore maid's goen
vaast, everybody med know that much.
She's gied over. She've a got informa-
tion in the chest, and two dacters, I've
a yeard em zaay."
" Thee've a yeard nothen bad of her,
hev ee now, Grammer?"
" I 'lows two dacters and information
in the chest is vurry nigh bad enough
vur one maid," Grammer returned, with
dignity.
Jacob looked hard at her, so hard
that she was offended.
" Whatever be ee a gaapen at, thee
girt larrapen gaak ?" she asked, with in-
dignation.
" Lies !" returned Jacob, sorrowfully.
"All lies! AUlies!"
" I'll gie thee a clout in the chaps,
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BIB8T0NB PIPPINS 141
thee girt good-vur-nothen, a zaacen of
thee Grammer, and a callen of her a
liar !" cried the old lady, looking round
for an instrument of chastisement, while
Jacob vanished up the cupboard stair,
soon returning with something that he
put in his pocket.
" Thee hasn't no call to be cagged,"
he said, emerging from the staircase. " I
be mis'ble hearled up wi' lies vokes
tells. I wasn't thinken of ee nooways.
Dooan't ee be miffy, Grammer. There
isn't no call."
He was soon out in the wet night,
striding along in the face of the wind,
head bent down and teeth set. Along
the lane, across a ridged fallow, over
two hedges, into the village, with the
agonizing dread of being too late.
The Woodfords' cottage lay dark be-
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142 EIBSTONE PIPPINS
neath two lindens that were groaning
with writhen branches and swaying
trunks in the wild wind above it. A
red glow showed like a reproachful
glance in the window by the door, an-
other, beneath the thatched eaves above,
was like a gleam of hope ; its feeble ra-
diance quivered on the thin sere leaves
and wet boughs of the storm- shaken
trees, vaguely comforting him.
He stepped quickly up the wet garden
path and knocked on the door with his
knuckles, sick with fear. Elizabeth's
father was sitting over the fire, stirring
something in a saucepan ; he was visi-
ble through the rain-blurred window;
he turned his head at the sound of the
plashing steps, rather than the knock,
and bid Hardinge come in. He stepped
in, accordingly, carefully shutting . the
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EIBSTONB PIPPINS 143
door behind him, and stood dripping
wet on the flagged floor.
"She's a gooen vaast," the haggard
father said to the new-comer, and wiped
his eyes by drawing his shirt - sleeved
arm across his face. At the same mo-
ment a woman's quick step was heard
overhead, and a smothered "Who's
there ?" was asked from the top of the
stairs.
" Jacob Hardinge," Jacob replied from
the foot of the stairs, and was bidden
to come up, which he did, after shaking
some of the wet from his garments,
trembling, and trying to step softly.
"Moast too laate," whispered the
mother, as the fresh, brown-eyed face,
shining with wet and cold, appeared in
the dim room, and two or three women
neighbours and a young man, Elizabeth's
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144 BIBST0NE PIPPINS
brother, moved back from the bed.
"Wherever hev ee ben all this while,
Jake Hardinge, and my poor maid a
callen of ee night and day ? She's all
lost-like now."
" She's a-gwine off easy, poor thing,"
said one of the women. The clergyman
standing at the bed's head bent to mur-
mur something in the ear of the sick
girl, who lay back, propped up high on
pillows, with half -closed eyes, flushed
face, and short, quick breath.
"Elizabeth," Jacob said, in a clear,
deep voice, stepping softly towards the
bed. She made no reply; her fixed
eyes showed no knowledge of anything
around her. For a few minutes there
was silence, broken only by the sound
of rain and wind in the moaning trees
and pelted window-panes and the pain-
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BIBSTONB PIPPINS 145
ful breath of the ebbing life ; then the
agony clutching at the young man's
heart overbore everything, and with a
loud and bitter cry he fell forwards
heavily across the bed, which shook be-
neath him.
Of course Elizabeth ought to have
died then and there, under such a severe
shock ; but, partly owing to the inbred
perversity of her sex, and partly to the
inherited curiosity that proved so fatal
in the case of Mother Eve, she opened
her half-shut eyes, from which the world
was fast receding and fading, and with
an effort shook off the deadly apathy
weighing upon her weak and fevered
brain, to inquire into the cause of this
sudden tumult; and lo! prostrate and
weeping at her feet, there was her own
true-love, at sight of whom a smile pass-
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ed over her wasted features, a soft light
came into her fever -brilliant eyes, her
fluttering pulse calmed, and her breath
came more easily.
" Jacob," she said, in a faint, gasping
voice, which roused him to look up,
"are — the apples — ripe?"
He took that he had brought from
his pocket and put it into her hand ; she
gave a sigh of comparative ease, smiled,
and slept.
Later on the mother told him how
Elizabeth had been taken ill while at
service and had been sent home. How
she had grown so much worse during the
journey when the disease had declared
itself that she had been taken to the
infirmary. There, unwilling to cause
her friends anxiety, she had remained
without communicating with any one
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BIBSTONE PIPPINS 147
* until she became convalescent and was
discharged. Whereupon, ignorant of
her natural weakness after long illness
and confinement, she had started in the
morning, intending to walk the seven or
eight miles home. How she had been
surprised after a few minutes to find
her limbs giving way, how she had
fainted and recovered, rested, struggled
on, fainted and recovered and toiled on
again, all day, until, in the early dusk,
she fell and struck her head, were by de-
grees related. For those calumnies reach-
ing all across the country to Westway,
her singular beauty and charm and the
jealousy of an evil fellow-servant were
sufficient foundation.
So when the time of singing birds
came round again, when young leaves
fluttered in tenderest green upon linden
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boughs, oak-trees came out in gold and
ruddy-brown bravery, and thrift on cliff-
edges showed pink against seas of azure
bloom, a bride and bridegroom walked
down the "Woodfords' garden path, un-
der lilacs in full blow, and then through
Grammer Uardinge's garden, under the
Eibstone Pippin apple-blossoms. And
at the wedding-supper the three carters
sang their waggon-song, and Jacob his
" Pretty Maids of Oldport."
"And a cometh hoam to you,
Droo sun and vrost and dew."
THE END
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By JAMES LANE ALLEN
A KENTUCKY CARDINAL. Illustrated by Albert
E. Stkbneb. Square 32mo, Cloth, Ornamental,
$1 00; Half Calf, $2 00.
The portrayal of nature alone would give the book
high rank, but the story sets the poem to music. — Chi-
cago Times.
AFTERMATH. Part Second of "A Kentucky Car-
dinal." Square 32mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 00';
Half Calf, $2 00.
A slender stream of tender and delicate imagining,
filtered through prose which is almost poetry.— New
York Observer.
FLUTE AND VIOLIN, and Other Kentucky Tales
and Romances. Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, Or-
namental, $1 SO; Silk Binding, $2 26.
The stories of this volume are fiction of high artistic
value— fiction to be read and remembered as something
rare, fine, and deeply touching.— New York Independent
THE BLUE -GRASS REGION OF KENTUCKY,
and Other Kentucky Articles. Illustrated. 8vo,
Cloth, $2 50.
We are indebted to Mr. James Lane Allen for the first
adequate treatment of an interesting subject— adequate
both in respect of knowledge and of literary skill — in
the book entitled "The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky."
— New York Sun
NEW YORK AND LONDON:
HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers
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By THOMAS HARDY
UNIFORM EDITION:
The Well-Beloved.
Judx the Obscure.
Illustrated.
Under the Greenwood-
Tree.
Wessez Tales.
Desperate Remedies.
A Laodicean.
The Hand ofEthelberta.
The Woodlanders.
The Trumpet-Major.
Far from the Madding
Crowd.
The Mator of Caster-
bridge.
A Pair of Blue Eyes.
Two on a Tower.
Return of the Native.
Tess of the D'Urber-
yilles. Illustrated.
Crown, 8vo, Cloth, $1 50 each.
Lira's Little Ironies. A Set of Tales ; with some
Colloquial Sketches entitled A Few Crusted
Characters. Post 8 vo, Cloth, Ornamental,$l 25.
A Group of Noble Dames. Illustrated. 12 mo,
Cloth, Ornamental, $1 25; Post 8vo, Paper,
75 cents.
The Woodlanders. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents.
Fellow- Townsmen. 32mo, Paper, 20 cents.
NEW TORE AND LONDON:
HARPER & BROTHERS, Pubushbbb
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