Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
things around them change (while yet their hearts are steadfast, and for
ever anchored), he should just have seen my Lorna, after a fortnight
of our life, and freedom from anxiety. It is possible that my
company--although I am accounted stupid by folk who do not know my
way--may have had something to do with it; but upon this I will not say
much, lest I lose my character. And indeed, as regards company, I had
all the threshing to see to, and more than half to do myself (though any
one would have thought that even John Fry must work hard this weather),
else I could not hope at all to get our corn into such compass that a
good gun might protect it.
But to come back to Lorna again (which I always longed to do, and must
long for ever), all the change between night and day, all the shifts
of cloud and sun, all the difference between black death and brightsome
liveliness, scarcely may suggest or equal Lorna's transformation. Quick
she had always been and “peart” (as we say on Exmoor) and gifted with a
leap of thought too swift for me to follow; and hence you may find fault
with much, when I report her sayings. But through the whole had always
run, as a black string goes through pearls, something dark and touched
with shadow, coloured as with an early end.
But, now, behold! there was none of this! There was no getting her, for
a moment, even to be serious. All her bright young wit was flashing,
like a newly-awakened flame, and all her high young spirits leaped, as
if dancing to its fire. And yet she never spoke a word which gave more
pain than pleasure.
And even in her outward look there was much of difference. Whether it
was our warmth, and freedom, and our harmless love of God, and trust
in one another; or whether it were our air, and water, and the pea-fed
bacon; anyhow my Lorna grew richer and more lovely, more perfect and
more firm of figure, and more light and buoyant, with every passing day
that laid its tribute on her cheeks and lips. I was allowed one kiss
a day; only one for manners' sake, because she was our visitor; and I
might have it before breakfast, or else when I came to say “good-night!”
according as I decided. And I decided every night, not to take it in the
morning, but put it off till the evening time, and have the pleasure to
think about, through all the day of working. But when my darling came up
to me in the early daylight, fresher than the daystar, and with no one
looking; only her bright eyes smiling, and sweet lips quite ready, was
it likely I could wait, and think all day about it? For she wore a frock
of Annie's, nicely made to fit her, taken in at the waist and curved--I
never could explain it, not being a mantua-maker; but I know how her
figure looked in it, and how it came towards me.
But this is neither here nor there; and I must on with my story. Those
days are very sacred to me, and if I speak lightly of them, trust
me, 'tis with lip alone; while from heart reproach peeps sadly at the
flippant tricks of mind.
Although it was the longest winter ever known in our parts (never having
ceased to freeze for a single night, and scarcely for a single day, from
the middle of December till the second week in March), to me it was the
very shortest and the most delicious; and verily I do believe it was
the same to Lorna. But when the Ides of March were come (of which I
do remember something dim from school, and something clear from my
favourite writer) lo, there were increasing signals of a change of
weather.
One leading feature of that long cold, and a thing remarked by every one
(however unobservant) had been the hollow moaning sound ever present in
the air, morning, noon, and night-time, and especially at night, whether
any wind were stirring, or whether it were a perfect calm. Our people
said that it was a witch cursing all the country from the caverns by the
sea, and that frost and snow would last until we could catch and drown
her. But the land, being thoroughly blocked with snow, and the inshore
parts of the sea with ice (floating in great fields along), Mother
Melldrum (if she it were) had the caverns all to herself, for there
was no getting at her. And speaking of the sea reminds me of a thing
reported to us, and on good authority; though people might be found
hereafter who would not believe it, unless I told them that from what I
myself beheld of the channel I place perfect faith in it: and this is,
that a dozen sailors at the beginning of March crossed the ice, with the
aid of poles from Clevedon to Penarth, or where the Holm rocks barred
the flotage.
But now, about the tenth of March, that miserable moaning noise, which
had both foregone and accompanied the rigour, died away from out the
air; and we, being now so used to it, thought at first that we must be
deaf. And then the fog, which had hung about (even in full sunshine)
vanished, and the shrouded hills shone forth with brightness manifold.
And now the sky at length began to come to its true manner, which we
had not seen for months, a mixture (if I so may speak) of various
expressions. Whereas till now from Allhallows-tide, six weeks ere the
great frost set in, the heavens had worn one heavy mask of ashen gray
when clouded, or else one amethystine tinge with a hazy rim, when
cloudless. So it was pleasant to behold, after that monotony, the fickle
sky which suits our England, though abused by foreign folk.
And soon the dappled softening sky gave some earnest of its mood; for a
brisk south wind arose, and the blessed rain came driving, cold indeed,
yet most refreshing to the skin, all parched with snow, and the eyeballs
so long dazzled. Neither was the heart more sluggish in its thankfulness
to God. People had begun to think, and somebody had prophesied, that we
should have no spring this year, no seed-time, and no harvest; for that
the Lord had sent a judgment on this country of England, and the
nation dwelling in it, because of the wickedness of the Court, and the
encouragement shown to Papists. And this was proved, they said, by what
had happened in the town of London; where, for more than a fortnight,
such a chill of darkness lay that no man might behold his neighbour,
even across the narrowest street; and where the ice upon the Thames was
more than four feet thick, and crushing London Bridge in twain. Now
to these prophets I paid no heed, believing not that Providence would
freeze us for other people's sins; neither seeing how England could for
many generations have enjoyed good sunshine, if Popery meant frost and
fogs. Besides, why could not Providence settle the business once for
all by freezing the Pope himself; even though (according to our view) he
were destined to extremes of heat, together with all who followed him?
Not to meddle with that subject, being beyond my judgment, let me tell
the things I saw, and then you must believe me. The wind, of course, I
could not see, not having the powers of a pig; but I could see the laden
branches of the great oaks moving, hoping to shake off the load packed
and saddled on them. And hereby I may note a thing which some one may
explain perhaps in the after ages, when people come to look at things.
This is that in desperate cold all the trees were pulled awry, even
though the wind had scattered the snow burden from them. Of some sorts
the branches bended downwards, like an archway; of other sorts the
boughs curved upwards, like a red deer's frontlet. This I know no
reason* for; but am ready to swear that I saw it.
* The reason is very simple, as all nature's reasons are;
though the subject has not yet been investigated thoroughly.
In some trees the vascular tissue is more open on the upper
side, in others on the under side, of the spreading
branches; according to the form of growth, and habit of the
sap. Hence in very severe cold, when the vessels
(comparatively empty) are constricted, some have more power
of contraction on the upper side, and some upon the under.
Ed. L.D.
Now when the first of the rain began, and the old familiar softness
spread upon the window glass, and ran a little way in channels (though
from the coldness of the glass it froze before reaching the bottom),
knowing at once the difference from the short sharp thud of snow, we all
ran out, and filled our eyes and filled our hearts with gazing. True,
the snow was piled up now all in mountains round us; true, the air was
still so cold that our breath froze on the doorway, and the rain was
turned to ice wherever it struck anything; nevertheless that it was rain
there was no denying, as we watched it across black doorways, and could
see no sign of white. Mother, who had made up her mind that the farm
was not worth having after all those prophesies, and that all of us must
starve, and holes be scratched in the snow for us, and no use to put up
a tombstone (for our church had been shut up long ago) mother fell
upon my breast, and sobbed that I was the cleverest fellow ever born
of woman. And this because I had condemned the prophets for a pack of
fools; not seeing how business could go on, if people stopped to hearken
to them.
Then Lorna came and glorified me, for I had predicted a change of
weather, more to keep their spirits up, than with real hope of it; and
then came Annie blushing shyly, as I looked at her, and said that Winnie
would soon have four legs now. This referred to some stupid joke made
by John Fry or somebody, that in this weather a man had no legs, and a
horse had only two.
But as the rain came down upon us from the southwest wind, and we could
not have enough of it, even putting our tongues to catch it, as little
children might do, and beginning to talk of primroses; the very noblest
thing of all was to hear and see the gratitude of the poor beasts yet
remaining and the few surviving birds. From the cowhouse lowing came,
more than of fifty milking times; moo and moo, and a turn-up noise at
the end of every bellow, as if from the very heart of kine. Then the
horses in the stables, packed as closely as they could stick, at the
risk of kicking, to keep the warmth in one another, and their spirits
up by discoursing; these began with one accord to lift up their voices,
snorting, snaffling, whinnying, and neighing, and trotting to the door
to know when they should have work again. To whom, as if in answer, came
the feeble bleating of the sheep, what few, by dint of greatest care,
had kept their fleeces on their backs, and their four legs under them.
Neither was it a trifling thing, let whoso will say the contrary, to
behold the ducks and geese marching forth in handsome order from their
beds of fern and straw. What a goodly noise they kept, what a flapping
of their wings, and a jerking of their tails, as they stood right up and
tried with a whistling in their throats to imitate a cockscrow! And then
how daintily they took the wet upon their dusty plumes, and ducked their
shoulders to it, and began to dress themselves, and laid their grooved
bills on the snow, and dabbled for more ooziness!
Lorna had never seen, I dare say, anything like this before, and it was
all that we could do to keep her from rushing forth with only little
lambswool shoes on, and kissing every one of them. “Oh, the dear things,
oh, the dear things!” she kept saying continually, “how wonderfully
clever they are! Only look at that one with his foot up, giving orders
to the others, John!”
“And I must give orders to you, my darling,” I answered, gazing on her
face, so brilliant with excitement; “and that is, that you come in at
once, with that worrisome cough of yours; and sit by the fire, and warm
yourself.”
“Oh, no, John! Not for a minute, if you please, good John. I want to see