Lorna Doone quotes

… man, not read in foreign languages, as a gentleman might be, nor gifted with long words (even in mine own tongue), save what I may have won from the Bible or Master William Shakespeare, whom, in the face of common opinion, I do value highly.

In short, I am an ignoramus, but pretty well for a yeoman.

My father being of good substance, at least as we reckon in Exmoor, and seized in his own right, from many generations, of one, and that the best and largest, of the three farms into which our parish is divided (or rather the cultured part …

as do the wild beasts of the wood, and the hairy outrangs now brought over, each with a chain upon him. Let that matter be as it will. It is beyond me to unfold, and mayhap of my grandson’s grandson.

All I know is that wheat is better than when I began to sow it.

I did not even care to stroke the nose of my pony Peggy, although she pushed it in through the rails, where a square of broader lattice is, and sniffed at me, and began to crop gently after my fingers.

But whatever lives or dies, business must be attended to; and the principal business of good Christians is, beyond all controversy, to fight with one another.

“Come up, Jack,” said one of the boys, lifting me under the chin; “he hit you, and you hit him, you know.”

A rare ripe scholar he was; and now he hath routed up the Germans in the matter of criticism.

Sure the clever boys and men have most love towards the stupid ones.

“Finish him off, Bob,” cried a big boy, and that I noticed especially, because I thought it unkind of him, after eating of my toffee as he had that afternoon; “finish him off, neck and crop;

But now, at Dulverton, we dined upon the rarest and choicest victuals that ever I did taste.

Even now, at my time of life, to think of it gives me appetite, as once and awhile to think of my first love makes me love all goodness.

Hot mutton pasty was a thing I had often heard of from very wealthy boys and men, who made a dessert of dinner; and to hear them talk of it made my lips smack, and my ribs come inwards.

but that made it all the better when it came to the real presence; and the smell of it was enough to make an empty man thank God for the room there was inside him.

Fifty years have passed me quicker than the taste of that gravy.

It is the manner of all good boys to be careless of apparel, and take no pride in adornment.

Two of them turned round, and one set his carbine at me, but the other said it was but a pixie, and bade him keep his powder.

Little they knew, and less thought I, that the pixie then before them would dance their castle down one day.

John Fry, who in the spring of fright had brought himself down from Smiler’s side, as if he were dipped in oil, now came up to me, all risk being over, cross, and stiff, and aching sorely from his wet couch of heather.

Deep in the quiet valley there, away from noise, and violence, and brawl, save that of the rivulet, any man would have deemed them homes of simple mind and innocence.

Yet not a single house stood there but was the home of murder.

Two men led my mother down a steep and gliddery stairway, like the ladder of a haymow; and thence from the break of the falling water as far as the house of the captain.

“Deary me,” said mother, as he set a chair for her very polite, but she would not sit upon it; “

Saturday morning I was a wife, sir; and Saturday night I was a widow, and my children fatherless.

My husband’s name was John Ridd, sir, as everybody knows; and there was not a finer or better man in Somerset or Devon.

“No longer, indeed, indeed, sir.

Sometimes it seems a twelvemonth, and sometimes it seems an hour.

”

And this I lay down, because some people judging a sausage by the skin, may take in evil part my little glosses of style and glibness, and the mottled nature of my remarks and cracks now and then on the frying-pan.

I assure them I am good inside, and not a bit of rue in me; only queer knots, as of marjoram, and a stupid manner of bursting.

There was not more than a dozen of them, counting a few retainers who still held by Sir Ensor; but soon they grew and multiplied in a manner surprising to think of.

and then, as time went on, they added to their stock by carrying. They carried off many good farmers’ daughters, who were sadly displeased at first; but took to them kindly after awhile, and made a new home in their babies.

For women, as it seems to me, like strong men more than weak ones, feeling that they need some staunchness, something to hold fast by.

And of all the men in our country, although we are of a thickset breed, you scarce could find one in threescore fit to be placed among the Doones, without looking no more than a tailor.

They would all have had to ride home that night, and who could say what might betide them.

Least said soonest mended, because less chance of breaking.

So we buried him quietly—all except my mother, indeed, for she could not keep silence—in the sloping little churchyard of Oare, as meek a place as need be, with the Lynn brook down below it.

… farm, I came down here, with Annie to help (because it was so lonely), and caught well-nigh a basketful of little trout and minnows, with a hook and a bit of worm on it, or a fern-web, or a blowfly, hung from a hazel pulse-stick.

For of all the things I learned at Blundell’s, only two abode with me, and one of these was the knack of fishing, and the other the art of swimming.

And indeed they have a very rude manner of teaching children to swim there; for the big boys take the little boys, and put them through a certain process, which they grimly call “sheep-washing.”

It puzzles me now, that I remember all those young impressions so, because I took no heed of them at the time whatever; and yet they come upon me bright, when nothing else is evident in the gray fog of experience.

I am like an old man gazing at the outside of his spectacles, and seeing, as he rubs the dust, the image of his grandson playing at bo-peep with him.

But let me be of any age, I never could forget that day, and how bitter cold the water was. For I doffed my shoes and hose, and put them into a bag about my neck;

because the water was bitter cold, and my little toes were aching. So on the bank I rubbed them well with a sprout of young sting-nettle, and having skipped about awhile, was kindly inclined to eat a bit.

Now all the turn of all my life hung upon that moment.

But as I sat there munching a crust of Betty Muxworthy’s sweet brown bread, and a bit of cold bacon along with it, and kicking my little red heels against the dry loam to keep them warm, I knew no more than fish under the …

and where it fell on the turf, among it (like an early star) was the first primrose of the season.

And since that day I think of her, through all the rough storms of my life, when I see an early primrose.

Perhaps she liked my countenance, and indeed I know she did, because she said so afterwards; although at the time she was too young to know what made her take to me.

Then I stood up and touched her hand, and tried to make her look at me; but she only turned away the more.

Young and harmless as she was, her name alone made guilt of her.

Nevertheless I could not help looking at her tenderly, and the more when her blushes turned into tears, and her tears to long, low sobs.

She was gone, my little dear (though tall of her age and healthy); and when I got over my thriftless fright, I longed to have more to say to her.

Her voice to me was so different from all I had ever heard before, as might be a sweet silver bell intoned to the small chords of a harp.

But I had no time to think about this, if I hoped to have any supper.

Herein was small encouragement; and at first I was minded to lie down and die; but it seemed to come amiss to me.

God has His time for all of us; but He seems to advertise us when He does not mean to do it.

Moreover, I saw a movement of lights at the head of the valley, as if lanterns were coming after me, and the nimbleness given thereon to my heels was in front of all meditation.

“God makes the wheat grow greener, While farmer be at his dinner.”

And no Devonshire man, or Somerset either (and I belong to both of them), ever thinks of working harder than God likes to see him.

Nevertheless, I worked hard at the gun, and by the time that I had sent all the church-roof gutters, so far as I honestly could cut them, through the red pine-door, I began to long for a better tool that would make less noise and …

… and netting of the woodcocks, and the springles to be minded in the garden and by the hedgerows, where blackbirds hop to the molehills in the white October mornings, and grey birds come to look for snails at the time when the sun is rising.

It is wonderful how time runs away, when all these things and a great many others come in to load him down the hill and prevent him from stopping to look about.

And I for my part can never conceive how people who live in towns and cities, where neither lambs nor birds are (except in some shop windows), nor growing corn, nor meadow-grass, nor even so much as a stick to cut or a stile to …

For although I am now in a place of some authority, I have observed that no one ever listens to me, when I attempt to lay down the law; but all are waiting with open ears until I do enforce it.

And so methinks he who reads a history cares not much for the wisdom or folly of the writer (knowing well that the former is far less than his own, and the latter vastly greater), but hurries to know what the people did, and how they got on about it.

And this I can tell, if anyone can, having been myself in the thick of it.

but he was not more than four-and-twenty, fresh and ruddy looking, with a short nose and keen blue eyes, and a merry waggish jerk about him, as if the world were not in earnest.

Yet he had a sharp, stern way, like the crack of a pistol, if anything misliked him; and we knew (for children see such things) that it was safer to tickle than tackle him.

“Well, young uns, what be gaping at?” He gave pretty Annie a chuck on the chin, and took me all in without winking.

“Good tumble-off, you mean, my boy.

Well, there can be small harm to thee. I am akin to thy family, and know the substance of their skulls.

”

Tom Faggus was a jovial soul, if ever there has been one, not making bones of little things, nor caring to seek evil.

There was about him such a love of genuine human nature, that if a traveller said a good thing, he would give him back his purse again.

It is true that he took people’s money more by force than fraud; and the law (being used to the inverse method) was bitterly moved against him, although he could quote precedent. These things I do not understand;

And I defy any man to say that a word of this is either false, or in any way coloured by family.

Much cause he had to be harsh with the world; and yet all acknowledged him very pleasant, when a man gave up his money.

And often and often he paid the toll for the carriage coming after him, because he had emptied their pockets, and would not add inconvenience.

All this was very sore upon Tom; and he took it to heart so grievously, that he said, as a better man might have said, being loose of mind and property, “

The world hath preyed on me like a wolf. God help me now to prey on the world.

”

Uncle Ben went fast asleep on my back, being jaded and shaken beyond his strength, for a man of threescore and five; and as soon he felt assured of safety he would talk no more.

And to tell the truth he snored so loudly, that I could almost believe that fearful noise in the fog every night came all the way from Dulverton.

Now as soon as ever I brought him in, we set him up in the chimney-corner, comfortable and handsome; and it was no little delight to me to get him off my back;

while Colonel Harding turned on his chair, and struck one spur against the other. I am sure that, without knowing aught of either, we must have reverenced more of the two the one who showed respect to us.

And yet nine gentleman out of ten make this dull mistake when dealing with the class below them!

Uncle Reuben made his very best scrape, and then walked up to the table, trying to look as if he did not know himself to be wealthier than both the gentlemen put together.

“I am heartily glad to hear it,” replied the Baron pleasantly; “for it proves after all that this robbery (if robbery there has been) was not so very ruinous.

Sometimes people think they are robbed, and then it is very sweet afterwards to find that they have not been so; for it adds to their joy in their property.

Now, are you quite convinced, good sir, that these people (if there were any) stole, or took, or even borrowed anything at all from you?”

The pale gleam over the western cliffs threw a shadow of light behind her, as if the sun were lingering.

Never do I see that light from the closing of the west, even in these my aged days, without thinking of her.

Ah me, if it comes to that, what do I see of earth or heaven, without thinking of her?

The pale gleam over the western cliffs threw a shadow of light behind her, as if the sun were lingering. Never do I see that light from the closing of the west, even in these my aged days, without thinking of her.

Ah me, if it comes to that, what do I see of earth or heaven, without thinking of her?

The tremulous thrill of her song was hanging on her open lips; and she glanced around, as if the birds were accustomed to make answer.

“

Yes, I know enough of that; and I am frightened greatly, all the time, when I do not look at you.

”

yet everybody did so as soon as ever it was known that my wits were gone moon-raking. For that was the way they looked at it, not being able to comprehend the greatness and the loftiness.

Neither do I blame them much; for the wisest thing is to laugh at people when we cannot understand them.

I, for my part, took no notice; but in my heart despised them as beings of a lesser nature, who never had seen Lorna.

Now this I have not told because I know the way to do it, for that I do not, neither yet have seen a man who did know.

It is wonderful how we look at things, and never think to notice them; and I am as bad as anybody, unless the thing to be observed is a dog, or a horse, or a maiden.

And the last of those three I look at, somehow, without knowing that I take notice, and greatly afraid to do it, only I knew afterwards (when the time of life was in me), not indeed, what the maiden was like, but how she differed …

Alas, I was too young in those days much to care for creature comforts, or to let pure palate have things that would improve it. Anything went down with me, as it does with most of us.

Too late we know the good from bad; the knowledge is no pleasure then; being memory’s medicine rather than the wine of hope.

Now Mother Melldrum kept her winter in this vale of rocks, sheltering from the wind and rain within the Devil’s Cheese-ring, which added greatly to her fame because all else, for miles around, were afraid to go near it after dark, or even on a …

“It is nothing done by you, Master Ridd,” she answered, very proudly, as if nought I did could matter; “it is only something that comes upon me with the scent of the pure true clover-hay.

Moreover, you have been too kind; and I am not used to kindness.

”

For strength and courage and resource he bears the first repute among us, as might well be expected from the son of the Counsellor. But he differs from his father, in being very hot and savage, and quite free from argument.

The Counsellor, who is my uncle, gives his son the best advice; commending all the virtues, with eloquence and wisdom; yet himself abstaining from them accurately and impartially.

“You must be tired of this story, and the time I take to think, and the weakness of my telling; but my life from day to day shows so little variance.

and of all the traps to be laid therein, pedigrees are the rarest.

There is scarce a man worth a cross of butter, but what you may find a hole in his shield within four generations.

And so I struck our own escutcheon, and it sounded hollow. There is a point—but heed not that;

“ ‘If it be so, it is in truth the very highest honour and would heal ten holes in our escutcheon. What noble family but springs from a captain among robbers?

Trade alone can spoil our blood; robbery purifies it. The robbery of one age is the chivalry of the next.

We may start anew, and vie with even the nobility of France, if we can once enrol but half the Doones upon our lineage.’

“ ‘

The sky is having a smoke, I see, and dropping sparks, and grumbling.

I should have thought these Exmoor hills too small to gather thunder.’

“

I was young then. I am older now; older by ten years, in thought, although it is not a twelvemonth since.

If that black deed were done again, I could follow, and could combat it, could throw weak arms on the murderer, and strive to be murdered also. I am now at home with violence; and no dark death surprises me.

I am older now; older by ten years, in thought, although it is not a twelvemonth since. If that black deed were done again, I could follow, and could combat it, could throw weak arms on the murderer, and strive to be murdered also.

I am now at home with violence; and no dark death surprises me.

“But, being as I was that night, the horror overcame me. The crash of thunder overhead, the last despairing look, the death-piece framed with blaze of lightning—my young heart was so affrighted that I could not gasp.

“In faith, then, I will leave my horse in your hands, and be off for it.

Half the pleasure of the mouth is in the nose beforehand.

But stay, almost I forgot my business, in the hurry which thy tongue hath spread through my lately despairing belly.

Now be that matter as you please—for the point is not worth arguing—certain it is that my appearance was better than it had been before.

For being in the best clothes, one tries to look and to act (so far as may be) up to the quality of them.

Not only for the fear of soiling them, but that they enlarge a man’s perception of his value. And it strikes me that our sins arise, partly from disdain of others, but mainly from contempt of self, both working the despite of God.

For being in the best clothes, one tries to look and to act (so far as may be) up to the quality of them. Not only for the fear of soiling them, but that they enlarge a man’s perception of his value.

And it strikes me that our sins arise, partly from disdain of others, but mainly from contempt of self, both working the despite of God.

But men of mind may not be measured by such paltry rule as this.

“Ruin is what I shall have, boy, if you drag me before that devil. He will strike me from the bar at once, and starve me, and all my family. Here, lad, good lad, take these two guineas.

Thou hast despoiled the spoiler.

Never again will I trust mine eyes for knowledge of a greenhorn.”

“To be sure, to be sure, my son. You have a clerk as much as I have. There it is. Now I pray thee, take to the study of the law.

Possession is nine points of it, which thou hast of me. Self-possession is the tenth, and that thou hast more than the other nine.

”

here he made a glance at Spank, which was worth at least ten pounds to me; “be thou here again tomorrow, and before any other case is taken, I will see justice done to thee.

Now be off boy; thy name is Ridd, and we are well rid of thee.

”

“Enough, good John, enough!

Knowest thou not that modesty is the maidenhood of virtue, lost even by her own approval?

Now hast thou ever heard or thought that De Whichehalse is in league with the Doones of Bagworthy?”

“That will do, John. Go thy way.

Not men, nor women neither, are better than they need be.

”

God have mercy on me, John! The things I see are manifold; and so is my regard of them. What use to insist on this, or make a special point of that, or hold by something said of old, when a different mood was on?

I tell thee, Jack, all men are liars; and he is the least one who presses not too hard on them for lying.

”

For I was ready to kiss his hand, to think that any man in London (the meanest and most suspicious place, upon all God’s earth) should trust me with five pounds, without even a receipt for it!

It overcame me so that I sobbed; for, after all, though big in body, I am but a child at heart.

It was not the five pounds that moved me, but the way of giving it; and after so much bitter talk, the great trust in my goodness.

It overcame me so that I sobbed; for, after all, though big in body, I am but a child at heart.

It was not the five pounds that moved me, but the way of giving it; and after so much bitter talk, the great trust in my goodness.

if only I had said the word.

But nay; I have contempt for a man whose heart is like a shirt-stud (such as I saw in London cards), fitted into one today, sitting bravely on the breast; plucked out on the morrow morn, and the place that knew it, gone.

Now, what did I do but take my chance; reckless whether anyone heeded me or not, only craving Lorna’s heed, and time for ten words to her.

“Come away from this bright place,” she answered, trembling in her turn; “I am watched and spied of late. Come beneath the shadows, John.”

I would have leaped into the valley of the shadow of death (as described by the late John Bunyan), only to hear her call me “John”; though Apollyon were lurking there, and Despair should lock me in.

She stole across the silent grass; but I strode hotly after her; fear was all beyond me now, except the fear of losing her.

and if in spring it were a sight, what was it in summer glory? But although my mind had notice of its fairness and its wonder, not a heed my heart took of it, neither dwelt it in my presence more than flowing water.

All that in my presence dwelt, all that in my heart was felt, was the maiden moving gently, and afraid to look at me.

For now the power of my love was abiding on her, new to her, unknown to her; not a thing to speak about, nor even to think clearly; only just to feel and wonder, with a pain of sweetness.

“In truth, I know not why you should. Only I hoped that you did, Lorna.

Either love me not at all, or as I love you forever.

”

especially when I have made the signal, and for some two months or more you have never even answered it!

If you like me so ferociously, why do you leave me for other people to do just as they like with me?

”

fiercest cattle I would play with, making them go backward, and afraid of hurting them, like John Fry with his terrier; even rooted trees seemed to me but as sticks I could smite down, except for my love of everything.

The love of all things was upon me, and a softness to them all, and a sense of having something even such as they had.

Then the golden harvest came, waving on the broad hillside, and nestling in the quiet nooks scooped from out the fringe of wood.

I was glad enough to accept the ladle full of fried batatas, and to make the best of things, which is generally done by letting men have their own way. Therefore I managed to dine with them, although it was so early.

For according to all that I can find, in a long life and a varied one, twelve o’clock is the real time for a man to have his dinner.

Then the sun is at his noon, calling halt to look around, and then the plants and leaves are turning, each with a little leisure time, before the work of the afternoon.

“Nothing at all,” said our Annie shortly. And indeed it was truth enough for a woman.

Not that I dare to believe that women are such liars as men say; only that I mean they often see things round the corner, and know not which is which of it.

And indeed I never have known a woman (though right enough in their meaning) purely and perfectly true and transparent, except only my Lorna; and even so, I might not have loved her, if she had been ugly.

“

Ah well! I don’t know,

” for I wanted more assurance of it. “Maidens are such wondrous things!”

while that grey suffusion, which is the blush of green life, spread its damask chastity. Even then my soul was lifted, worried though my mind was: who can see such large kind doings, and not be ashamed of human grief?

Not only unashamed of grief, but much abashed with joy, was I, when I saw my Lorna coming, purer than the morning dew, than the sun more bright and clear.

That which made me love her so, that which lifted my heart to her, as the Spring wind lifts the clouds, was the gayness of her nature, and its inborn playfulness.

“That will not do for me,” I said; “

I will not have reluctant liking, nor assent for pity’s sake; which only means endurance.

I must have all love, or none, I must have your heart of hearts; even as you have mine, Lorna.”

“Darling, you have won it all.

I shall never be my own again. I am yours, my own one, forever and forever.

”

not only because I was grieved by the gross injustice of it, and frightened mother with her own words (repeated deeply after her); but rather because it is not well, when people repent of hasty speech, to enter it against them.

That is said to be the angels’ business; and I doubt if they can attend to it much, without doing injury to themselves.

However, by the afternoon, when the sun began to go down upon us, our mother sat on the garden bench, with her head on my great otter-skin waistcoat (which was waterproof), and her right arm round our Annie’s waist, and scarcely knowing which of us …

for in good truth she had no self, only as it came home to her, by no very distant road, but by way of her children.

A better mother never lived; and can I, after searching all things, add another word to that?

And indeed poor Lizzie was not so very bad; but behaved (on the whole) very well for her. She was much to be pitied, poor thing, and great allowances made for her, as belonging to a well-grown family, and a very comely one;

Now, while we sat on the garden bench, under the great ash-tree, we left dear mother to take her own way, and talk at her own pleasure.

Children almost always are more wide-awake than their parents.

The fathers and the mothers laugh; but the young ones have the best of them. And now both Annie knew, and I, that we had gotten the best of mother;

But I will bind you to me, you dearest, with the very poorest and plainest thing that ever you set eyes on. I could give you fifty fairer ones, but they would not be honest; and

I love you for your honesty, and nothing else of course, John; so don’t you be conceited.

Look at it, what a queer old thing! There are some ancient marks upon it, very grotesque and wonderful; it looks like a cat in a tree almost, but never mind what it looks like. This old ring must have been a giant’s;

“

There be some people fit to plot, and others to be plotted against, and others to unravel plots, which is the highest gift of all.

This last hath fallen to my share, and a very thankless gift it is, although a rare and choice one. Much of peril too attends it; daring courage and great coolness are as needful for the work as ready wit and spotless honour.

“Right, John, thou art right as usual. Let the King go his own gait.

He hath too many mistresses to be ever England’s master.

Nobody need fear him, for he is not like his father: he will have his own way, ’tis true, but without stopping other folk of theirs: and well he knows what women are, for he never asks them questions.

Jeremy Stickles may have much to do about the Duke of Monmouth. The Whigs having failed of Exclusion, and having been punished bitterly for the blood they shed, are ripe for any violence. And the turn of the balance is now to them.

Seesaw is the fashion of England always; and the Whigs will soon be the top-sawyers.

”

“Thou art a hopeless ass, John.

Better to sew with a chestnut than to teach thee the constitution.

Let it be so, let it be. I have seen a boy of five years old more apt at politics than thou. Nay, look not offended, lad. It is my fault for being over-deep to thee. I should have considered thy intellect.”

“It would have been better, if I had, to thee,” he replied with much compassion; “thy hat is nearly off thy head with the swelling of brain I have given thee.

Blows, blows, are thy business, Jack.

There thou art in thine element. And, haply, this business will bring thee plenty even for thy great head to take.

… in full memory of his kindness and faithfulness in London, I asked his pardon many times for my foolish anger with him, and offered to undergo any penalty he would lay upon me, he only said it was no matter, there was nothing to forgive.

When people say that, the truth often is that they can forgive nothing.

So for the present a breach was made between Master Jeremy and myself, which to me seemed no great loss, inasmuch as it relieved me from any privity to his dealings, for which I had small liking.

Rudely rolling these ideas in my heavy head and brain I resolved to let the morrow put them into form and order, but not contradict them.

And then, as my constitution willed (being like that of England), I slept, and there was no stopping me.

Ha, ha! Yes, yes! Few young men are so free from exceptionable entanglements. Two guineas is my charge, sir: and a rare good will for the money. Very prudent of you, sir. Does you credit in every way.

Well, well; we all must die; and often the young before the old.

”

Master Jeremy, being full of London and Norwich experience, fell into the error of supposing that we clods and yokels were the simplest of the simple, and could be cheated at his good pleasure.

Now this is not so: when once we suspect that people have that idea of us, we indulge them in it to the top of their bent, and grieve that they should come out of it, as they do at last in amazement, with less money than before, and the laugh now set against them.

Ever since I had offended Jeremy, by threatening him (as before related) in case of his meddling with my affairs, he had more and more allied himself with simple-minded John, as he was pleased to call him. John Fry was everything:

Deeply each beyond other, pluming, stooping, glancing, glistening, weaving softest pillow lace, coying to the wind and water, when their fleeting image danced, or by which their beauty moved—

God has made no lovelier thing; and only He takes heed of them.

It was time to go home to supper now, and I felt very friendly towards it, having been hard at work for some hours, with only the voice of the little rill, and some hares and a pheasant for company.

Then the three men came to the gap in the hedge, where I had been in and out so often; and stood up, and looked in over.

It is all very well for a man to boast that, in all his life, he has never been frightened, and believes that he never could be so.

There may be men of that nature—I will not dare to deny it; only I have never known them. The fright I was now in was horrible, and all my bones seemed to creep inside me;

and could scarce keep still for trembling—I heard them trampling outside the gap, uncertain which track they should follow. And in that fearful moment, with my soul almost looking out of my body, expecting notice to quit it, what do you think I did?

I counted the threads in a spider’s web, and the flies he had lately eaten, as their skeletons shook in the twilight.

“We shall see him better in there,” said Carver, in his horrible gruff voice, like the creaking of the gallows chain; “sit there, behind holly hedge, lads, while he cometh down yonder hill; and then our good evening to him;

But after awhile you might get used to the dullness of being safe in your beds, and not losing your sisters and sweethearts.

Surely, on the whole, it is as pleasant not to be robbed as to be robbed.

”

He laughed in a very unseemly manner; while I descried nothing to laugh about.

For we always like to see our way; and a sudden change upsets us.

And unless it were in the loss of the farm, or the death of the King, or of Betty Muxworthy, there was nothing that could so unsettle our minds as the loss of the Doones of Bagworthy.

For, according to our old saying, the three learned professions live by roguery on the three parts of a man.

The doctor mauls our bodies; the parson starves our souls, but the lawyer must be the adroitest knave, for he has to ensnare our minds.

Therefore he takes a careful delight in covering his traps and engines with a spread of dead-leaf words, whereof himself knows little more than half the way to spell them.

… and falling, to boot, without either order or reason, that seeing no good for a man to do (since neither of them was Lorna), I even went out into the courtyard, and smoked a pipe, and wondered what on earth is the meaning of women.

Now in this I was wrong and unreasonable (as all women will acknowledge); but sometimes a man is so put out, by the way they take on about nothing, that he really cannot help thinking, for at least a minute, that women are a mistake forever, and hence are forever mistaken.

Nevertheless I could not see that any of these great thoughts and ideas applied at all to my Lorna; but that she was a different being; not woman enough to do anything bad, yet enough of a woman for man to adore.

while the children, robed in white, swung their smoking censers slowly over the cold and twilight grave; and after seeing all, to ask, with a shudder unexpressed, “Is this the end that God intended for a man so proud and strong?”

Not a tear was shed upon him, except from the sweetest of all sweet eyes; not a sigh pursued him home.

Except in hot anger, his life had been cold, and bitter, and distant; and now a week had exhausted all the sorrow of those around him, a grief flowing less from affection than fear. Aged men will show his tombstone;

… made up my mind, if it only pleased God not to send the snow till the morning, that every sheep, and horse, and cow, ay, and even the poultry, should be brought in snug, and with plenty to eat, and fodder enough to roast them.

Alas what use of man’s resolves, when they come a day too late; even if they may avail a little, when they are most punctual!

In the bitter morning I arose, to follow out my purpose, knowing the time from the force of habit, although the room was so dark and gray. An odd white light was on the rafters, such as I never had seen before;

With some trouble, and great care, lest the ancient frame should yield, I spread the lattice open; and saw at once that not a moment must be lost, to save our stock.

All the earth was flat with snow, all the air was thick with snow; more than this no man could see, for all the world was snowing.

I shut the window and dressed in haste; and when I entered the kitchen, not even Betty, the earliest of all early birds, was there. I raked the ashes together a little, just to see a spark of warmth;

… all this from her, a mere chit of a girl as she was, unfit to make a snowball even, or to fry snow pancakes, I looked down on her with amazement, and began to wish a little that I had given more time to books.

But God shapes all our fitness, and gives each man his meaning, even as he guides the wavering lines of snow descending.

Our Eliza was meant for books; our dear Annie for loving and cooking; I, John Ridd, for sheep, and wrestling, and the thought of Lorna; and mother to love all three of us, and to make the best of her children.

So his love is a crystal Goddess, set upon an obelisk; and whoever will not bow the knee (yet without glancing at her), the lover makes it a sacred rite either to kick or to stick him.

I am not speaking of me and Lorna, but of common people.

Then (if you come to think again) lo!—or I will not say lo! for no one can behold it—only feel, or but remember, what a real mother is. Ever loving, ever soft, ever turning sin to goodness, vices into virtues;

… every page I try to do (though God knows it is hard enough), I had felt through all this weather, though my life was Lorna’s, something of a satisfaction in so doing duty to my kindest and best of mothers, and to none but her.

For (if you come to think of it) a man’s young love is very pleasant, very sweet, and tickling; and takes him through the core of heart; without his knowing how or why.

Then he dwells upon it sideways, without people looking, and builds up all sorts of fancies, growing hot with working so at his own imaginings. So his love is a crystal Goddess, set upon an obelisk;

Then (if you come to think again) lo!—or I will not say lo! for no one can behold it—only feel, or but remember, what a real mother is.

Ever loving, ever soft, ever turning sin to goodness, vices into virtues; blind to all nine-tenths of wrong; through a telescope beholding (though herself so nigh to them) faintest decimal of promise, even in her vilest child.

Ready to thank God again, as when her babe was born to her; leaping (as at kingdom-come) at a wandering syllable of Gospel for her lost one.

Moor and highland, field and common, cliff and vale, and watercourse, over all the rolling folds of misty white were flung. There was nothing square or jagged left, there was nothing perpendicular; all the rugged lines were eased, and all the breaches smoothly filled.

Curves, and mounds, and rounded heavings, took the place of rock and stump; and all the country looked as if a woman’s hand had been on it.

Through the sparkling breadth of white, which seemed to glance my eyes away, and outside the humps of laden trees, bowing their backs like a woodman, I contrived to get along, half-sliding and half-walking, in places where a plain-shodden man must have sunk, and waited …

“Maning enough, and bad maning too,” the Cornish girl made answer. “

Us be shut in here, and starving, and durstn’t let anybody in upon us. I wish thou wer’t good to ate, young man: I could manage most of thee.

”

“

Slowly! No, John, quickly. I hate him so intensely, that less than a week would kill me.

”

Now I knew that all her love was mine, every bit as much as mine was hers; yet I must have her to show it, dwelling upon every proof, lengthening out all certainty.

Perhaps the jealous heart is loath to own a life worth twice its own.

Be that as it may, I know that we thawed the window nicely.

With this I folded her in my arms; and she looked frightened at me; not having perceived her danger; and then I told Gwenny over again what I had told her mistress: but she only nodded her head and said, “

Young man, go and teach thy grandmother.

”

Upon the former subject my anxiety was wasted, for Lorna neither saw a thing, nor even opened her heavy eyes.

And as to what mother would think of her, she was certain not to think at all, until she had cried over her.

And so indeed it came to pass. Even at this length of time, I can hardly tell it, although so bright before my mind, because it moves my heart so. The sled was at the open door, with only Lorna in it;

and she told me they all were liars, as she had found out long ago; and the only thing to believe in was an honest man, when found.

Thereupon I could have kissed her as a sort of tribute, liking to be appreciated; yet the peas upon her lips made me think about it; and thought is fatal to action.

So I went to see my dear.

lying on the slope of rock, and burned up in hot summers. But with us, hot summers are things known by tradition only (as this great winter may be); we generally have more moisture, especially in July, than we well know what to do with.

I have known a fog for a fortnight at the summer solstice, and farmers talking in church about it when they ought to be praying.

But it always contrives to come right in the end, as other visitations do, if we take them as true visits, and receive them kindly.

And I am not sure but what she ceased to like poor Lorna from that day; and if so, I was quite paid out, as I well deserved, for my bit of satire.

For it strikes me that of all human dealings, satire is the very lowest, and most mean and common. It is the equivalent in words of what bullying is in deeds; and no more bespeaks a clever man, than the other does a brave one.

These two wretched tricks exalt a fool in his own low esteem, but never in his neighbour’s; for the deep common sense of our nature tells that no man of a genial heart, or of any spread of mind, can take pride in either.

and I praised her for her courage, in not having run away, when she was so unable; and my darling was pleased with this, and smiled upon me for saying it; though she knew right well that, in this matter, my judgment was not impartial.

But you may take this as a general rule, that a woman likes praise from the man whom she loves, and cannot stop always to balance it.

Now expecting a sharp attack that night—when Jeremy Stickles the more expected, after the words of Carver, which seemed to be meant to mislead us—we prepared a great quantity of knuckles of pork, and a ham in full cut, and a fillet of hung mutton.

Six of our men had let go at the Doones, by Jeremy Stickles’ order, as the villains came swaggering down in the moonlight ready for rape or murder. Two of them fell, and the rest hung back, to think at their leisure what this was.

They were not used to this sort of thing: it was neither just nor courteous.

Being unable any longer to contain myself, as I thought of Lorna’s excitement at all this noise of firing, I came across the yard, expecting whether they would shoot at me. However, no one shot at me;

“Now, Carver Doone, take warning,” I said to him, very soberly; “you have shown yourself a fool by your contempt of me.

I may not be your match in craft; but I am in manhood. You are a despicable villain. Lie low in your native muck.

”

that is to say as follows. First, the very hot and passionate, who were only contemptible; second, the cold and indifferent, who were simply odious; and third, the mixture of the other two, who had the bad qualities of both.

As for reason, none of them had it; it was like a sealed book to them, which if they ever tried to open, they began at the back of the cover.

Now I did not like to hear such things; and to me they appeared to be insolent, as well as narrow-minded.

“He is a worthy man,” she said, being used to talk in the service time, and my mother was obliged to cough: “

I like him very much indeed: but I wish he would let me put his things the right way on his shoulders.

”

But, to tell the truth, I could not ride hard, being held at every turn, and often without any turn at all, by the beauty of things around me.

These things grow upon a man if once he stops to notice them.

It wanted yet two hours to noon, when I came to Master Huckaback’s door, and struck the panels smartly.

Ruth herself came and let me in, blushing very heartily; for which colour I praised her health, and my praises heightened it. That little thing had lovely eyes, and could be trusted thoroughly.

I do like an obstinate little woman, when she is sure that she is right.

And indeed if love had never sped me straight to the heart of Lorna (compared to whom, Ruth was no more than the thief is to the candle), who knows but what I might have yielded to the law of nature, that thorough trimmer of …

“My dear child, I prolong your suspense.

Curiosity is the most powerful of all feminine instincts; and therefore the most delightful, when not prematurely satisfied.

However, if you must have my strong realities, here they are. Your father slew dear John’s father, and dear John’s father slew yours.”

And even if it were proved to me, all I can say is this, if my John will have me, I am his forever.”

This long speech was too much for her; she had overrated her strength about it, and the sustenance of irony.

So at last she fell into my arms, which had long been waiting for her; and there she lay with no other sound, except a gurgling in her throat.

“pretty pet, not a word of it is true, upon that old liar’s oath; and if every word were true, poor chick, you should have our John all the more for it.

You and John were made by God and meant for one another, whatever falls between you.

Little lamb, look up and speak: here is your own John and I; and the devil take the Counsellor.”

“

Because her nature is larger, my son, when she truly loves; although her mind be smaller.

Now, if I can ease you from this secret burden, will you bear, with strength and courage, the other which I plant on you?”

“this belongs to me, mind; and the credit, ay, and the premium, and the right of discount, are altogether mine. It would have taken you fifty years to put two and two together so, as I did, like a clap of thunder.

Ah, God has given some men brains; and others have good farms and money, and a certain skill in the lower beasts.

Each must use his special talent. You work your farm: I work my brains. In the end, my lad, I shall beat you.”

I do not even want your promise. As sure as I hold this glass, and drink your health and love in another drop (forced on me by pathetic words), so surely will you be bound to me, until I do release you. Tush!

I know men well by this time: a mere look of trust from one is worth another’s ten thousand oaths.

”

… of the Devonshire officers (Captains Pyke and Dallan) now took command of the men who were left, and ordered all to go home again, commending much the bravery which had been displayed on all sides, and the loyalty to the King, and the English constitution.

This last word always seems to me to settle everything when said, because nobody understands it, and yet all can puzzle their neighbours.

So the Devonshire men, having beans to sow (which they ought to have done on Good Friday) went home; and our Somerset friends only stayed for two days more to backbite them.

No flower that I have ever seen, either in shifting of light and shade, or in the pearly morning, may vie with a fair young woman’s face when tender thought and quick emotion vary, enrich, and beautify it.

Thus my Lorna hearkened softly, almost without word or gesture, yet with sighs and glances telling, and the pressure of my hand, how each word was moving her.

nevertheless I felt how much the world would have to do with it; and that the best and truest people cannot shake themselves quite free. However, for the moment, I was very proud and showed it.

And herein differs fact from fancy, things as they befall us from things as we would have them, human ends from human hopes; that the first are moved by a thousand and the last on two wheels only, which (being named) are desire and fear.

Hope of course is nothing more than desire with a telescope, magnifying distant matters, overlooking near ones; opening one eye on the objects, closing the other to all objections.

And herein differs fact from fancy, things as they befall us from things as we would have them, human ends from human hopes; that the first are moved by a thousand and the last on two wheels only, which (being named) are desire and fear.

Hope of course is nothing more than desire with a telescope, magnifying distant matters, overlooking near ones; opening one eye on the objects, closing the other to all objections.

And if hope be the future tense of desire, the future of fear is religion—at least with too many of us.

but this, instead of healing matters, led to fiercer conflict. I never could quite understand all the ins and outs of it; which none but a lawyer may go through, and keep his head at the end of it.

The motives of mankind are plainer than the motions they produce.

Especially when charity (such as found among us) sits to judge the former, and is never weary of it; while reason does not care to trace the latter complications, except for fee or title.

But they had never slain any man above the rank of yeoman; and folk even said that my father was the highest of their victims; for the death of Lorna’s mother and brother was never set to their account.

Pure pleasure it is to any man, to reflect upon all these things. How truly we discern clear justice, and how well we deal it.

If any poor man steals a sheep, having ten children starving, and regarding it as mountain game (as a rich man does a hare), to the gallows with him.

Pure pleasure it is to any man, to reflect upon all these things. How truly we discern clear justice, and how well we deal it.

If any poor man steals a sheep, having ten children starving, and regarding it as mountain game (as a rich man does a hare), to the gallows with him.

If a man of rank beats down a door, smites the owner upon the head, and honours the wife with attention, it is a thing to be grateful for, and to slouch smitten head the lower.

Yet even the worms come up sometimes, after a good soft shower of rain, and hold discourse with one another; whereas these men, and the horses let down, come above ground never.

And the changing of the sky is half the change our nature calls for.

Earth we have, and all its produce (moving from the first appearance, and the hope with infants’ eyes, through the bloom of beauty’s promise, to the rich and ripe fulfilment, and the falling back to rest);

Do we look at earth with hope? Yes, for victuals only. Do we look at sea with hope? Yes, that we may escape it.

At the sky alone (though questioned with the doubts of sunshine, or scattered with uncertain stars), at the sky alone we look with pure hope and with memory.

Hence it always hurt my feelings when I got into that bucket, with my small-clothes turned up over, and a kerchief round my hat.

“Come along, you little Vick,” I said, for so we called her; “I have a message to you, Gwenny, from the Lord in heaven.”

“Don’t ’ee talk about He,” she answered; “Her have long forgatten me.”

“That He has never done, you stupid. Come, and see who is in the cowhouse.”

Gwenny knew; she knew in a moment. Looking into my eyes, she knew; and hanging back from me to sigh, she knew it even better.

She had not much elegance of emotion, being flat and square all over; but none the less for that her heart came quick, and her words came slowly.

“Oh, Jan, you are too good to cheat me. Is it joke you are putting upon me?”

But trusting in my practice and study of the art, I resolved to try a back with him; and when my arms were round him once, the giant was but a farthingale put into the vice of a blacksmith.

The man had no bones; his frame sank in, and I was afraid of crushing him. He lay on his back, and smiled at me; and I begged his pardon.

Now this affair made a noise at the time, and redounded so much to my credit, that I was deeply grieved at it, because deserving none. For I do like a good strife and struggle; and the doubt makes the joy of victory;

Now this affair made a noise at the time, and redounded so much to my credit, that I was deeply grieved at it, because deserving none.

For I do like a good strife and struggle; and the doubt makes the joy of victory; whereas in this case, I might as well have been sent for a match with a haymow.

However, I got my hundred pounds, and made up my mind to spend every farthing in presents for mother and Lorna.

And yet your mother is your best friend. Who can ever fill her place?”

Thinking of her future absence, mother turned away and cried; and the box-iron singed the blanket.

“Now,” said I, being wild by this time; “Lizzie, you have a little sense; will you tell me where is Lorna?”

Some people cannot understand that tears should come from pleasure; but whether from pleasure or from sorrow (mixed as they are in the twisted strings of a man’s heart, or a woman’s), great tears fell from my stupid eyes, even on the blots of Lorna’s.

“No doubt it is all over,” my mind said to me bitterly; “trust me, all shall yet be right,” my heart replied very sweetly.

And if the whole truth must be told, I did expect that sort of thing, and thought what a plague it would be to me; yet not getting it, was vexed, as if by some new injury.

For mother was a special creature (as I suppose we all are), being the warmest of the warm, when fired at the proper corner; and yet, if taken at the wrong point, you would say she was incombustible.

Hence it came to pass that I had no one even to speak to, about Lorna and my grievances; for Captain Stickles was now gone southward;

Not a man who had struck a blow for the King, or for his poor father, or even said a good word for him, in the time of his adversity, but expected at least a baronetcy, and a grant of estates to support it.

Many have called King Charles ungrateful: and he may have been so. But some indulgence is due to a man, with entries few on the credit side, and a terrible column of debits.

“Have no fear for the chair,” I said, for it creaked under me very fearfully, having legs not so large as my finger; “if the chair breaks, Annie, your fear should be, lest the tortoiseshell run into me.

Now, on the other hand, all was good.

The open palm of spring was laid upon the yielding of the hills; and each particular valley seemed to be the glove for a finger.

And although the sun was low, and dipping in the western clouds, the gray light of the sea came up, and took, and taking, told the special tone of everything.

All this lay upon my heart, without a word of thinking, spreading light and shadow there, and the soft delight of sadness.

Nevertheless, I would it were the savage snow around me, and the piping of the restless winds, and the death of everything. For in those days I had Lorna.

Then I thought of promise fair; such as glowed around me, where the red rocks held the sun, when he was departed; and the distant crags endeavoured to retain his memory.

and the distant crags endeavoured to retain his memory. But as evening spread across them, shading with a silent fold, all the colour stole away; all remembrance waned and died.

“So it has been with love,” I thought, “and with simple truth and warmth. The maid has chosen the glittering stars, instead of the plain daylight.”

Nevertheless I would not give in, although in deep despondency (especially when I passed the place where my dear father had fought in vain), and I tried to see things right and then judge aright about them.

and having received my promise, Annie told me (as was only fair) how she had procured that paper. It was both a clever and courageous act; and would have seemed to me, at first sight, far beyond Annie’s power.

But none may gauge a woman’s power, when her love and faith are moved.

The first thing Annie had done was this: she made herself look ugly. This was not an easy thing; but she had learned a great deal from her husband, upon the subject of disguises.

Therefore, seeing things to be bad, and his master involved in trouble, what did this horse do but start for the ease and comfort of Plover’s Barrows, and the plentiful ration of oats abiding in his own manger.

For this I do not blame him. It is the manner of mankind.

But I could not help being very uneasy at the thought of my mother’s discomfort and worry, when she should spy this good horse coming home, without any master, or rider, and I almost hoped that he might be caught (although he was worth at …

we hang the good folk without it, which saves them much anxiety. But quicken thy step, good John; I have influence with Lord Churchill, and we must contrive to see him, ere the foreigner falls to work again.

Lord Churchill is a man of sense, and imprisons nothing but his money.

”

“Then to London thou must go, my son.

There is no such thing as trial here: we hang the good folk without it, which saves them much anxiety.

But quicken thy step, good John; I have influence with Lord Churchill, and we must contrive to see him, ere the foreigner falls to work again. Lord Churchill is a man of sense, and imprisons nothing but his money.”

“Why should you trouble yourself about it, Master Ramsack?” I replied: “let them all go their own ways: and let us all look up to them, whether they come by hook or crook.”

“Not at all, not at all, my lad. That is not the way to regard it. We look up at the wellborn men, and sideways at the baseborn.”

“Then we are all baseborn ourselves. I will look up to no man, except for what himself has done.”

“Not at all, not at all, my lad. That is not the way to regard it. We look up at the wellborn men, and sideways at the baseborn.”

“Then we are all baseborn ourselves. I will look up to no man, except for what himself has done.”

“Come, Master Ridd, you might be lashed from Newgate to Tyburn and back again, once a week, for a twelvemonth, if some people heard you. Keep your tongue more close, young man; or here you lodge no longer;

yet even that was sweet and graceful, when my Lorna did it. But the colour of her pure clear cheeks was nearly as deep as that of my own, when she went on for the religious work.

And the shining of her eyes was owing to an unpaid debt of tears.

Upon the whole I was satisfied. Lorna had seen me, and had not (according to the phrase of the high world then) even tried to “cut” me.

And then I felt how coarse I was; how apt to think strong thoughts, and so on; without brains to bear me out: even as a hen’s egg, laid without enough of lime, and looking only a poor jelly.

Nevertheless, I waited on; as my usual manner is. For to be beaten, while running away, is ten times worse than to face it out, and take it, and have done with it.

So at least I have always found, because of reproach of conscience: and all the things those clever people carried on inside, at large, made me long for our Parson Bowden that he might know how to act.

“I am behaving.” I replied, “to the very best of my ability. There is no other man in the world could hold you so, without kissing you.”

“Then why don’t you do it, John?” asked Lorna, looking up at me, with a flash of her old fun.

Now this matter, proverbially, is not for discussion, and repetition. Enough that we said nothing more than, “Oh, John, how glad I am!” and “Lorna, Lorna Lorna!” for about five minutes.

“I would take you with fifty Gwennies,” said I, “although every one of them hated me, which I do not believe this little maid does, in the bottom of her heart.”

“No one can possibly hate you, John,” she answered very softly; and I was better pleased with this, than if she had called me the most noble and glorious man in the kingdom.

After this, we spoke of ourselves and the way people would regard us, supposing that when Lorna came to be her own free mistress (as she must do in the course of time) she were to throw her rank aside, and refuse her title, and …

For now, in turn, and elegance, and richness, and variety, there was nothing to compare with her face, unless it were her figure. Therefore I gave in, and said—

“Darling, do just what you please. Only make no rogue of me.”

For that she gave me the simplest, kindest, and sweetest of all kisses; and I went down the great stairs grandly, thinking of nothing else but that.

It is the pet scheme of his life. I am to grow more beautiful, and more highly taught, and graceful; until it pleases Alan to come back, and demand me. Can you understand this matter, John? Or do you think my uncle mad?”

“Lorna, I should be mad myself, to call any other man mad, for hoping.”

“Then will you tell me what to do? It makes me very sorrowful. For I know that Alan Brandir lies below the sod in Doone-valley.”

This astonished and amazed me to such extent of loss of mind, that when I got up I looked about, and thought what the Snowes would think of it. And I said to the King, without forms of speech—

“Sir, I am very much obliged. But what be I to do with it?”

for even De Whichehalse could not show a bearing so magnificent. But the heralds said that it looked a mere signboard, without a good motto under it; and the motto must have my name in it.

They offered me first, “Ridd non ridendus”; but I said, “for God’s sake, gentlemen, let me forget my Latin.”

Then they proposed, “Ridd readeth riddles”: but I begged them not to set down such a lie; for no Ridd ever had made, or made out, such a thing as a riddle, since Exmoor itself began.

lo, we crawl, in flocks together upon the hot ground that stings us, even as the black grubs crowd upon the harried nettle!

Surely we are too much given to follow the tracks of each other.

However, for a moralist, I never set up, and never shall, while common sense abides with me. Such a man must be very wretched in this pure dearth of morality; like a fisherman where no fish be;

Enough that I resolved to go; and as Lorna could not come with me, it was even worse than stopping. Nearly everybody vowed that I was a great fool indeed, to neglect so rudely—which was the proper word, they said—the pushing of my fortunes.

But I answered that to push was rude, and I left it to people who had no room; and thought that my fortune must be heavy, if it would not move without pushing.

Lorna cried when I came away (which gave me great satisfaction), and she sent a whole trunkful of things for mother and Annie, and even Lizzie.

Then I told them that I had no wits for ordering of an armament, although I could find fault enough with the one which had not succeeded. But they would hearken to none of this.

All they said was “Try to lead us; and we will try not to run away.”

This seemed to me to be common sense, and good stuff, instead of mere bragging; moreover, I myself was moved by the bitter wrongs of Margery, having known her at the Sunday-school, ere ever I went to Tiverton;

I myself was to and fro among the children continually; for if I love anything in the world, foremost I love children.

They warm, and yet they cool our hearts, as we think of what we were, and what in young clothes we hoped to be; and how many things have come across.

And to see our motives moving in the little things that know not what their aim or object is, must almost or ought at least, to lead us home, and soften us. For either end of life is home; both source and issue being God.

and how many things have come across. And to see our motives moving in the little things that know not what their aim or object is, must almost or ought at least, to lead us home, and soften us.

For either end of life is home; both source and issue being God.

Nevertheless, I must confess that the children were a plague sometimes. They never could have enough of me—being a hundred to one, you might say—but I had more than enough of them; and yet was not contented.

We waited a very long time, with the moon marching up heaven steadfastly, and the white fog trembling in chords and columns, like a silver harp of the meadows.

And then the moon drew up the fogs, and scarfed herself in white with them; and so being proud, gleamed upon the water, like a bride at her looking-glass

; and yet there was no sound of either John Fry, or his blunderbuss.

But the finest sight of all was to see those haughty men striding down the causeway darkly, reckless of their end, but resolute to have two lives for everyone.

A finer dozen of young men could not have been found in the world perhaps, nor a braver, nor a viler one.

Seeing how few there were of them, I was very loath to fire, although I covered the leader, who appeared to be dashing Charley; for they were at easy distance now, brightly shone by the firelight, yet ignorant where to look for us.

and took his seisin of right upon him, being himself a powerful man; and begged a word aside with him.

What they said aside, I know not; all I know is that without weapon, each man killed the other.

And Margery Badcock came, and wept, and hung upon her poor husband; and died, that summer, of heart-disease.