CHAPTER II: UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE
The point in Yalbury Wood which abutted on the end of Geoffrey Day'spremises was closed with an ancient tree, horizontally of enormousextent, though having no great pretensions to height. Many hundreds ofbirds had been born amidst the boughs of this single tree; tribes ofrabbits and hares had nibbled at its bark from year to year; quaint tuftsof fungi had sprung from the cavities of its forks; and countlessfamilies of moles and earthworms had crept about its roots. Beneath andbeyond its shade spread a carefully-tended grass-plot, its purpose beingto supply a healthy exercise-ground for young chickens and pheasants; thehens, their mothers, being enclosed in coops placed upon the same greenflooring.
All these encumbrances were now removed, and as the afternoon advanced,the guests gathered on the spot, where music, dancing, and the singing ofsongs went forward with great spirit throughout the evening. Thepropriety of every one was intense by reason of the influence of Fancy,who, as an additional precaution in this direction, had strictly chargedher father and the tranter to carefully avoid saying 'thee' and 'thou' intheir conversation, on the plea that those ancient words sounded so veryhumiliating to persons of newer taste; also that they were never to beseen drawing the back of the hand across the mouth after drinking--alocal English custom of extraordinary antiquity, but stated by Fancy tobe decidedly dying out among the better classes of society.
In addition to the local musicians present, a man who had a thoroughknowledge of the tambourine was invited from the village of TantrumClangley,--a place long celebrated for the skill of its inhabitants asperformers on instruments of percussion. These important members of theassembly were relegated to a height of two or three feet from the ground,upon a temporary erection of planks supported by barrels. Whilst thedancing progressed the older persons sat in a group under the trunk ofthe tree,--the space being allotted to them somewhat grudgingly by theyoung ones, who were greedy of pirouetting room,--and fortified by atable against the heels of the dancers. Here the gaffers and gammers,whose dancing days were over, told stories of great impressiveness, andat intervals surveyed the advancing and retiring couples from the sameretreat, as people on shore might be supposed to survey a navalengagement in the bay beyond; returning again to their tales when thepause was over. Those of the whirling throng, who, during the restsbetween each figure, turned their eyes in the direction of these seatedones, were only able to discover, on account of the music and bustle,that a very striking circumstance was in course of narration--denoted byan emphatic sweep of the hand, snapping of the fingers, close of thelips, and fixed look into the centre of the listener's eye for the spaceof a quarter of a minute, which raised in that listener such areciprocating working of face as to sometimes make the distant dancershalf wish to know what such an interesting tale could refer to.
Fancy caused her looks to wear as much matronly expression as wasobtainable out of six hours' experience as a wife, in order that thecontrast between her own state of life and that of the unmarried youngwomen present might be duly impressed upon the company: occasionallystealing glances of admiration at her left hand, but this quiteprivately; for her ostensible bearing concerning the matter was intendedto show that, though she undoubtedly occupied the most wondrous positionin the eyes of the world that had ever been attained, she was almostunconscious of the circumstance, and that the somewhat prominent positionin which that wonderfully-emblazoned left hand was continually found tobe placed, when handing cups and saucers, knives, forks, and glasses, wasquite the result of accident. As to wishing to excite envy in the bosomsof her maiden companions, by the exhibition of the shining ring, everyone was to know it was quite foreign to the dignity of such anexperienced married woman. Dick's imagination in the meantime was farless capable of drawing so much wontedness from his new condition. Hehad been for two or three hours trying to feel himself merely a newly-married man, but had been able to get no further in the attempt than torealize that he was Dick Dewy, the tranter's son, at a party given byLord Wessex's head man-in-charge, on the outlying Yalbury estate, dancingand chatting with Fancy Day.
Five country dances, including 'Haste to the Wedding,' two reels, andthree fragments of horn-pipes, brought them to the time for supper,which, on account of the dampness of the grass from the immaturity of thesummer season, was spread indoors. At the conclusion of the meal Dickwent out to put the horse in; and Fancy, with the elder half of the fourbridesmaids, retired upstairs to dress for the journey to Dick's newcottage near Mellstock.
"How long will you be putting on your bonnet, Fancy?" Dick inquired atthe foot of the staircase. Being now a man of business and married, hewas strong on the importance of time, and doubled the emphasis of hiswords in conversing, and added vigour to his nods.
"Only a minute."
"How long is that?"
"Well, dear, five."
"Ah, sonnies!" said the tranter, as Dick retired, "'tis a talent of thefemale race that low numbers should stand for high, more especially inmatters of waiting, matters of age, and matters of money."
"True, true, upon my body," said Geoffrey.
"Ye spak with feeling, Geoffrey, seemingly."
"Anybody that d'know my experience might guess that."
"What's she doing now, Geoffrey?"
"Claning out all the upstairs drawers and cupboards, and dusting thesecond-best chainey--a thing that's only done once a year. 'If there'swork to be done I must do it,' says she, 'wedding or no.'"
"'Tis my belief she's a very good woman at bottom."
"She's terrible deep, then."
Mrs. Penny turned round. "Well, 'tis humps and hollers with the best ofus; but still and for all that, Dick and Fancy stand as fair a chance ofhaving a bit of sunsheen as any married pair in the land."
"Ay, there's no gainsaying it."
Mrs. Dewy came up, talking to one person and looking at another. "Happy,yes," she said. "'Tis always so when a couple is so exactly in tune withone another as Dick and she."
"When they be'n't too poor to have time to sing," said grandfather James.
"I tell ye, neighbours, when the pinch comes," said the tranter: "whenthe oldest daughter's boots be only a size less than her mother's, andthe rest o' the flock close behind her. A sharp time for a man that, mysonnies; a very sharp time! Chanticleer's comb is a-cut then, 'abelieve."
"That's about the form o't," said Mr. Penny. "That'll put the stuns upona man, when you must measure mother and daughter's lasts to tell 'emapart."
"You've no cause to complain, Reuben, of such a close-coming flock," saidMrs. Dewy; "for ours was a straggling lot enough, God knows!"
"I d'know it, I d'know it," said the tranter. "You be a well-enoughwoman, Ann."
Mrs. Dewy put her mouth in the form of a smile, and put it back againwithout smiling.
"And if they come together, they go together," said Mrs. Penny, whosefamily had been the reverse of the tranter's; "and a little money willmake either fate tolerable. And money can be made by our young couple, Iknow."
"Yes, that it can!" said the impulsive voice of Leaf, who had hithertohumbly admired the proceedings from a corner. "It can be done--allthat's wanted is a few pounds to begin with. That's all! I know a storyabout it!"
"Let's hear thy story, Leaf," said the tranter. "I never knew you wereclever enough to tell a story. Silence, all of ye! Mr. Leaf will tell astory."
"Tell your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William in the tone of aschoolmaster.
"Once," said the delighted Leaf, in an uncertain voice, "there was a manwho lived in a house! Well, this man went thinking and thinking nightand day. At last, he said to himself, as I might, 'If I had only tenpound, I'd make a fortune.' At last by hook or by crook, behold he gotthe ten pounds!"
"Only think of that!" said Nat Callcome satirically.
"Silence!" said the tranter.
"Well, now comes the interesting part of the story! In a little time hemade that ten pounds twenty. Then a little t
ime after that he doubledit, and made it forty. Well, he went on, and a good while after that hemade it eighty, and on to a hundred. Well, by-and-by he made it twohundred! Well, you'd never believe it, but--he went on and made it fourhundred! He went on, and what did he do? Why, he made it eight hundred!Yes, he did," continued Leaf, in the highest pitch of excitement,bringing down his fist upon his knee with such force that he quiveredwith the pain; "yes, and he went on and made it A THOUSAND!"
"Hear, hear!" said the tranter. "Better than the history of England, mysonnies!"
"Thank you for your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William; andthen Leaf gradually sank into nothingness again.
Amid a medley of laughter, old shoes, and elder-wine, Dick and his bridetook their departure, side by side in the excellent new spring-cart whichthe young tranter now possessed. The moon was just over the full,rendering any light from lamps or their own beauties quite unnecessary tothe pair. They drove slowly along Yalbury Bottom, where the road passedbetween two copses. Dick was talking to his companion.
"Fancy," he said, "why we are so happy is because there is such fullconfidence between us. Ever since that time you confessed to that littleflirtation with Shiner by the river (which was really no flirtation atall), I have thought how artless and good you must be to tell me o' sucha trifling thing, and to be so frightened about it as you were. It haswon me to tell you my every deed and word since then. We'll have nosecrets from each other, darling, will we ever?--no secret at all."
"None from to-day," said Fancy. "Hark! what's that?"
From a neighbouring thicket was suddenly heard to issue in a loud,musical, and liquid voice--
"Tippiwit! swe-e-et! ki-ki-ki! Come hither, come hither, come hither!"
"O, 'tis the nightingale," murmured she, and thought of a secret shewould never tell.
Footnotes:
{1} This, a local expression, must be a corruption of something lessquestionable.
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