CHAPTER XXXIII
IN THE SUN--A HARBINGER
A week passed, and there were no tidings of Bathsheba; nor was thereany explanation of her Gilpin's rig.
Then a note came for Maryann, stating that the business which hadcalled her mistress to Bath still detained her there; but that shehoped to return in the course of another week.
Another week passed. The oat-harvest began, and all the men werea-field under a monochromatic Lammas sky, amid the trembling airand short shadows of noon. Indoors nothing was to be heard savethe droning of blue-bottle flies; out-of-doors the whetting ofscythes and the hiss of tressy oat-ears rubbing together as theirperpendicular stalks of amber-yellow fell heavily to each swath.Every drop of moisture not in the men's bottles and flagons in theform of cider was raining as perspiration from their foreheads andcheeks. Drought was everywhere else.
They were about to withdraw for a while into the charitable shadeof a tree in the fence, when Coggan saw a figure in a blue coat andbrass buttons running to them across the field.
"I wonder who that is?" he said.
"I hope nothing is wrong about mistress," said Maryann, who with someother women was tying the bundles (oats being always sheafed on thisfarm), "but an unlucky token came to me indoors this morning. Iwent to unlock the door and dropped the key, and it fell upon thestone floor and broke into two pieces. Breaking a key is a dreadfulbodement. I wish mis'ess was home."
"'Tis Cain Ball," said Gabriel, pausing from whetting his reaphook.
Oak was not bound by his agreement to assist in the corn-field; butthe harvest month is an anxious time for a farmer, and the corn wasBathsheba's, so he lent a hand.
"He's dressed up in his best clothes," said Matthew Moon. "He hevbeen away from home for a few days, since he's had that felon uponhis finger; for 'a said, since I can't work I'll have a hollerday."
"A good time for one--a' excellent time," said Joseph Poorgrass,straightening his back; for he, like some of the others, had a wayof resting a while from his labour on such hot days for reasonspreternaturally small; of which Cain Ball's advent on a week-day inhis Sunday-clothes was one of the first magnitude. "Twas a bad legallowed me to read the _Pilgrim's Progress_, and Mark Clark learntAll-Fours in a whitlow."
"Ay, and my father put his arm out of joint to have time to gocourting," said Jan Coggan, in an eclipsing tone, wiping his facewith his shirt-sleeve and thrusting back his hat upon the nape ofhis neck.
By this time Cainy was nearing the group of harvesters, and wasperceived to be carrying a large slice of bread and ham in one hand,from which he took mouthfuls as he ran, the other being wrapped in abandage. When he came close, his mouth assumed the bell shape, andhe began to cough violently.
"Now, Cainy!" said Gabriel, sternly. "How many more times must Itell you to keep from running so fast when you be eating? You'llchoke yourself some day, that's what you'll do, Cain Ball."
"Hok-hok-hok!" replied Cain. "A crumb of my victuals went thewrong way--hok-hok! That's what 'tis, Mister Oak! And I've beenvisiting to Bath because I had a felon on my thumb; yes, and I'veseen--ahok-hok!"
Directly Cain mentioned Bath, they all threw down their hooks andforks and drew round him. Unfortunately the erratic crumb did notimprove his narrative powers, and a supplementary hindrance was thatof a sneeze, jerking from his pocket his rather large watch, whichdangled in front of the young man pendulum-wise.
"Yes," he continued, directing his thoughts to Bath and letting hiseyes follow, "I've seed the world at last--yes--and I've seed ourmis'ess--ahok-hok-hok!"
"Bother the boy!" said Gabriel. "Something is always going the wrongway down your throat, so that you can't tell what's necessary to betold."
"Ahok! there! Please, Mister Oak, a gnat have just fleed into mystomach and brought the cough on again!"
"Yes, that's just it. Your mouth is always open, you young rascal!"
"'Tis terrible bad to have a gnat fly down yer throat, pore boy!"said Matthew Moon.
"Well, at Bath you saw--" prompted Gabriel.
"I saw our mistress," continued the junior shepherd, "and a sojer,walking along. And bymeby they got closer and closer, and then theywent arm-in-crook, like courting complete--hok-hok! like courtingcomplete--hok!--courting complete--" Losing the thread of hisnarrative at this point simultaneously with his loss of breath, theirinformant looked up and down the field apparently for some clue toit. "Well, I see our mis'ess and a soldier--a-ha-a-wk!"
"Damn the boy!" said Gabriel.
"'Tis only my manner, Mister Oak, if ye'll excuse it," said CainBall, looking reproachfully at Oak, with eyes drenched in their owndew.
"Here's some cider for him--that'll cure his throat," said JanCoggan, lifting a flagon of cider, pulling out the cork, and applyingthe hole to Cainy's mouth; Joseph Poorgrass in the meantime beginningto think apprehensively of the serious consequences that would followCainy Ball's strangulation in his cough, and the history of his Bathadventures dying with him.
"For my poor self, I always say 'please God' afore I do anything,"said Joseph, in an unboastful voice; "and so should you, Cain Ball.'Tis a great safeguard, and might perhaps save you from being chokedto death some day."
Mr. Coggan poured the liquor with unstinted liberality at thesuffering Cain's circular mouth; half of it running down the side ofthe flagon, and half of what reached his mouth running down outsidehis throat, and half of what ran in going the wrong way, and beingcoughed and sneezed around the persons of the gathered reapers in theform of a cider fog, which for a moment hung in the sunny air like asmall exhalation.
"There's a great clumsy sneeze! Why can't ye have better manners,you young dog!" said Coggan, withdrawing the flagon.
"The cider went up my nose!" cried Cainy, as soon as he could speak;"and now 'tis gone down my neck, and into my poor dumb felon, andover my shiny buttons and all my best cloze!"
"The poor lad's cough is terrible unfortunate," said Matthew Moon."And a great history on hand, too. Bump his back, shepherd."
"'Tis my nater," mourned Cain. "Mother says I always was soexcitable when my feelings were worked up to a point!"
"True, true," said Joseph Poorgrass. "The Balls were always a veryexcitable family. I knowed the boy's grandfather--a truly nervousand modest man, even to genteel refinery. 'Twas blush, blush withhim, almost as much as 'tis with me--not but that 'tis a fault inme!"
"Not at all, Master Poorgrass," said Coggan. "'Tis a very noblequality in ye."
"Heh-heh! well, I wish to noise nothing abroad--nothing at all,"murmured Poorgrass, diffidently. "But we be born to things--that'strue. Yet I would rather my trifle were hid; though, perhaps, a highnater is a little high, and at my birth all things were possible tomy Maker, and he may have begrudged no gifts.... But under yourbushel, Joseph! under your bushel with 'ee! A strange desire,neighbours, this desire to hide, and no praise due. Yet there is aSermon on the Mount with a calendar of the blessed at the head, andcertain meek men may be named therein."
"Cainy's grandfather was a very clever man," said Matthew Moon."Invented a' apple-tree out of his own head, which is called by hisname to this day--the Early Ball. You know 'em, Jan? A Quarrendengrafted on a Tom Putt, and a Rathe-ripe upon top o' that again. 'Tistrew 'a used to bide about in a public-house wi' a 'ooman in a way hehad no business to by rights, but there--'a were a clever man in thesense of the term."
"Now then," said Gabriel, impatiently, "what did you see, Cain?"
"I seed our mis'ess go into a sort of a park place, where there'sseats, and shrubs and flowers, arm-in-crook with a sojer," continuedCainy, firmly, and with a dim sense that his words were veryeffective as regarded Gabriel's emotions. "And I think the sojerwas Sergeant Troy. And they sat there together for more thanhalf-an-hour, talking moving things, and she once was crying a'mostto death. And when they came out her eyes were shining and she wasas white as a lily; and they looked into one another's faces, asfar-gone friendly as a man and woman can be."
/> Gabriel's features seemed to get thinner. "Well, what did you seebesides?"
"Oh, all sorts."
"White as a lily? You are sure 'twas she?"
"Yes."
"Well, what besides?"
"Great glass windows to the shops, and great clouds in the sky, fullof rain, and old wooden trees in the country round."
"You stun-poll! What will ye say next?" said Coggan.
"Let en alone," interposed Joseph Poorgrass. "The boy's meaning isthat the sky and the earth in the kingdom of Bath is not altogetherdifferent from ours here. 'Tis for our good to gain knowledge ofstrange cities, and as such the boy's words should be suffered, soto speak it."
"And the people of Bath," continued Cain, "never need to light theirfires except as a luxury, for the water springs up out of the earthready boiled for use."
"'Tis true as the light," testified Matthew Moon. "I've heard othernavigators say the same thing."
"They drink nothing else there," said Cain, "and seem to enjoy it, tosee how they swaller it down."
"Well, it seems a barbarian practice enough to us, but I daresay thenatives think nothing o' it," said Matthew.
"And don't victuals spring up as well as drink?" asked Coggan,twirling his eye.
"No--I own to a blot there in Bath--a true blot. God didn't provide'em with victuals as well as drink, and 'twas a drawback I couldn'tget over at all."
"Well, 'tis a curious place, to say the least," observed Moon "andit must be a curious people that live therein."
"Miss Everdene and the soldier were walking about together, you say?"said Gabriel, returning to the group.
"Ay, and she wore a beautiful gold-colour silk gown, trimmed withblack lace, that would have stood alone 'ithout legs inside ifrequired. 'Twas a very winsome sight; and her hair was brushedsplendid. And when the sun shone upon the bright gown and his redcoat--my! how handsome they looked. You could see 'em all thelength of the street."
"And what then?" murmured Gabriel.
"And then I went into Griffin's to hae my boots hobbed, and then Iwent to Riggs's batty-cake shop, and asked 'em for a penneth of thecheapest and nicest stales, that were all but blue-mouldy, but notquite. And whilst I was chawing 'em down I walked on and seed aclock with a face as big as a baking trendle--"
"But that's nothing to do with mistress!"
"I'm coming to that, if you'll leave me alone, Mister Oak!"remonstrated Cainy. "If you excites me, perhaps you'll bring on mycough, and then I shan't be able to tell ye nothing."
"Yes--let him tell it his own way," said Coggan.
Gabriel settled into a despairing attitude of patience, and Cainywent on:--
"And there were great large houses, and more people all the week longthan at Weatherbury club-walking on White Tuesdays. And I went togrand churches and chapels. And how the parson would pray! Yes; hewould kneel down and put up his hands together, and make the holygold rings on his fingers gleam and twinkle in yer eyes, that he'dearned by praying so excellent well!--Ah yes, I wish I lived there."
"Our poor Parson Thirdly can't get no money to buy such rings," saidMatthew Moon, thoughtfully. "And as good a man as ever walked. Idon't believe poor Thirdly have a single one, even of humblest tinor copper. Such a great ornament as they'd be to him on a dullafternoon, when he's up in the pulpit lighted by the wax candles!But 'tis impossible, poor man. Ah, to think how unequal things be."
"Perhaps he's made of different stuff than to wear 'em," saidGabriel, grimly. "Well, that's enough of this. Go on, Cainy--quick."
"Oh--and the new style of parsons wear moustaches and long beards,"continued the illustrious traveller, "and look like Moses and Aaroncomplete, and make we fokes in the congregation feel all over likethe children of Israel."
"A very right feeling--very," said Joseph Poorgrass.
"And there's two religions going on in the nation now--High Churchand High Chapel. And, thinks I, I'll play fair; so I went to HighChurch in the morning, and High Chapel in the afternoon."
"A right and proper boy," said Joseph Poorgrass.
"Well, at High Church they pray singing, and worship all the coloursof the rainbow; and at High Chapel they pray preaching, and worshipdrab and whitewash only. And then--I didn't see no more of MissEverdene at all."
"Why didn't you say so afore, then?" exclaimed Oak, with muchdisappointment.
"Ah," said Matthew Moon, "she'll wish her cake dough if so be she'sover intimate with that man."
"She's not over intimate with him," said Gabriel, indignantly.
"She would know better," said Coggan. "Our mis'ess has too muchsense under they knots of black hair to do such a mad thing."
"You see, he's not a coarse, ignorant man, for he was well broughtup," said Matthew, dubiously. "'Twas only wildness that made him asoldier, and maids rather like your man of sin."
"Now, Cain Ball," said Gabriel restlessly, "can you swear in the mostawful form that the woman you saw was Miss Everdene?"
"Cain Ball, you be no longer a babe and suckling," said Joseph in thesepulchral tone the circumstances demanded, "and you know what takingan oath is. 'Tis a horrible testament mind ye, which you say andseal with your blood-stone, and the prophet Matthew tells us that onwhomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder. Now, beforeall the work-folk here assembled, can you swear to your words as theshepherd asks ye?"
"Please no, Mister Oak!" said Cainy, looking from one to the otherwith great uneasiness at the spiritual magnitude of the position. "Idon't mind saying 'tis true, but I don't like to say 'tis damn true,if that's what you mane."
"Cain, Cain, how can you!" asked Joseph sternly. "You be asked toswear in a holy manner, and you swear like wicked Shimei, the son ofGera, who cursed as he came. Young man, fie!"
"No, I don't! 'Tis you want to squander a pore boy's soul, JosephPoorgrass--that's what 'tis!" said Cain, beginning to cry. "All Imane is that in common truth 'twas Miss Everdene and Sergeant Troy,but in the horrible so-help-me truth that ye want to make of itperhaps 'twas somebody else!"
"There's no getting at the rights of it," said Gabriel, turning tohis work.
"Cain Ball, you'll come to a bit of bread!" groaned Joseph Poorgrass.
Then the reapers' hooks were flourished again, and the old soundswent on. Gabriel, without making any pretence of being lively, didnothing to show that he was particularly dull. However, Coggan knewpretty nearly how the land lay, and when they were in a nook togetherhe said--
"Don't take on about her, Gabriel. What difference does it makewhose sweetheart she is, since she can't be yours?"
"That's the very thing I say to myself," said Gabriel.