CHAPTER LXI
THEREFORE HE SEEKS COMFORT
It was for poor Annie's sake that I had spoken my mind to her husband sofreely, and even harshly. For we all knew she would break her heart, ifTom took to evil ways again. And the right mode of preventing thiswas, not to coax, and flatter, and make a hero of him (which he did forhimself, quite sufficiently), but to set before him the folly of thething, and the ruin to his own interests. They would both be vexed withme, of course, for having left them so hastily, and especially justbefore dinner-time; but that would soon wear off; and most likely theywould come to see mother, and tell her that I was hard to manage, andthey could feel for her about it.
Now with a certain yearning, I know not what, for softness, and for onewho could understand me--for simple as a child though being, I foundfew to do that last, at any rate in my love-time--I relied upon Kickum'sstrength to take me round by Dulverton. It would make the journey someeight miles longer, but what was that to a brisk young horse, even withmy weight upon him?
And having left Squire Faggus and Annie much sooner than had beenintended, I had plenty of time before me, and too much, ere a prospectof dinner. Therefore I struck to the right, across the hills, forDulverton.
Pretty Ruth was in the main street of the town, with a basket in herhand, going home from the market.
'Why, Cousin Ruth, you are grown, I exclaimed; 'I do believe you are,Ruth. And you were almost too tall, already.'
At this the little thing was so pleased, that she smiled through herblushes beautifully, and must needs come to shake hands with me; thoughI signed to her not to do it, because of my horse's temper. But scarcelywas her hand in mine, when Kickums turned like an eel upon her, andcaught her by the left arm with his teeth, so that she screamed withagony. I saw the white of his vicious eye, and struck him there with allmy force, with my left hand over her right arm, and he never used thateye again; none the less he kept his hold on her. Then I smote him againon the jaw, and caught the little maid up by her right hand, and laidher on the saddle in front of me; while the horse being giddy andstaggered with blows, and foiled of his spite, ran backward. Ruth's witswere gone; and she lay before me, in such a helpless and senseless waythat I could have killed vile Kickums. I struck the spurs into him pastthe rowels, and away he went at full gallop; while I had enough to do tohold on, with the little girl lying in front of me. But I called to themen who were flocking around, to send up a surgeon, as quick as couldbe, to Master Reuben Huckaback's.
The moment I brought my right arm to bear, the vicious horse had nochance with me; and if ever a horse was well paid for spite, Kickumshad his change that day. The bridle would almost have held a whale andI drew on it so that his lower jaw was well-nigh broken from him; whilewith both spurs I tore his flanks, and he learned a little lesson.There are times when a man is more vicious than any horse may vie with.Therefore by the time we had reached Uncle Reuben's house at the top ofthe hill, the bad horse was only too happy to stop; every string of hisbody was trembling, and his head hanging down with impotence. I leapedfrom his back at once, and carried the maiden into her own sweet room.
Now Cousin Ruth was recovering softly from her fright and faintness; andthe volley of the wind from galloping so had made her little ears quitepink, and shaken her locks all round her. But any one who might wishto see a comely sight and a moving one, need only have looked at RuthHuckaback, when she learned (and imagined yet more than it was) themanner of her little ride with me. Her hair was of a hazel-brown, andfull of waving readiness; and with no concealment of the trick, shespread it over her eyes and face. Being so delighted with her, and soglad to see her safe, I kissed her through the thick of it, as a cousinhas a right to do; yea, and ought to do, with gravity.
'Darling,' I said; 'he has bitten you dreadfully: show me your poor arm,dear.'
She pulled up her sleeve in the simplest manner, rather to look at itherself, than to show me where the wound was. Her sleeve was of darkblue Taunton staple; and her white arm shone, coming out of it, as roundand plump and velvety, as a stalk of asparagus, newly fetched out of theground. But above the curved soft elbow, where no room was for one crossword (according to our proverb),* three sad gashes, edged with crimson,spoiled the flow of the pearly flesh. My presence of mind was lostaltogether; and I raised the poor sore arm to my lips, both to stop thebleeding and to take the venom out, having heard how wise it was, andthinking of my mother. But Ruth, to my great amazement, drew away fromme in bitter haste, as if I had been inserting instead of extractingpoison. For the bite of a horse is most venomous; especially when hesheds his teeth; and far more to be feared than the bite of a dog, oreven of a cat. And in my haste I had forgotten that Ruth might not knowa word about this, and might doubt about my meaning, and the warmthof my osculation. But knowing her danger, I durst not heed herchildishness, or her feelings.
* A maid with an elbow sharp, or knee, Hath cross words two, out of every three.
'Don't be a fool, Cousin Ruth,' I said, catching her so that she couldnot move; 'the poison is soaking into you. Do you think that I do it forpleasure?'
The spread of shame on her face was such, when she saw her ownmisunderstanding, that I was ashamed to look at her; and occupied myselfwith drawing all the risk of glanders forth from the white limb, hanginghelpless now, and left entirely to my will. Before I was quite sure ofhaving wholly exhausted suction, and when I had made the holes in herarm look like the gills of a lamprey, in came the doctor, partly drunk,and in haste to get through his business.
'Ha, ha! I see,' he cried; 'bite of a horse, they tell me. Verypoisonous; must be burned away. Sally, the iron in the fire. If you havea fire, this weather.'
'Crave your pardon, good sir,' I said; for poor little Ruth was faintingagain at his savage orders: 'but my cousin's arm shall not be burned; itis a great deal too pretty, and I have sucked all the poison out. Look,sir, how clean and fresh it is.'
'Bless my heart! And so it is! No need at all for cauterising. Theepidermis will close over, and the cutis and the pellis. John Ridd, youought to have studied medicine, with your healing powers. Half my virtuelies in touch. A clean and wholesome body, sir; I have taught you theLatin grammar. I leave you in excellent hands, my dear, and they waitfor me at shovel-board. Bread and water poultice cold, to be renewed,tribus horis. John Ridd, I was at school with you, and you beat me verylamentably, when I tried to fight with you. You remember me not? It islikely enough: I am forced to take strong waters, John, from infirmityof the liver. Attend to my directions; and I will call again in themorning.'
And in that melancholy plight, caring nothing for business, went oneof the cleverest fellows ever known at Tiverton. He could write Latinverses a great deal faster than I could ever write English prose, andnothing seemed too great for him. We thought that he would go to Oxfordand astonish every one, and write in the style of Buchanan; but he fellall abroad very lamentably; and now, when I met him again, was come downto push-pin and shovel-board, with a wager of spirits pending.
When Master Huckaback came home, he looked at me very sulkily; not onlybecause of my refusal to become a slave to the gold-digging, but alsobecause he regarded me as the cause of a savage broil between SimonCarfax and the men who had cheated him as to his Gwenny. However, whenUncle Ben saw Ruth, and knew what had befallen her, and she with tearsin her eyes declared that she owed her life to Cousin Ridd, the old manbecame very gracious to me; for if he loved any one on earth, it was hislittle granddaughter.
I could not stay very long, because, my horse being quite unfit totravel from the injuries which his violence and vice had brought uponhim, there was nothing for me but to go on foot, as none of Uncle Ben'shorses could take me to Plover's Barrows, without downright cruelty: andthough there would be a harvest-moon, Ruth agreed with me that I mustnot keep my mother waiting, with no idea where I might be, until alate hour of the night. I told Ruth all about our Annie, and her noblefurniture; and the little maid was very lively (although her wounds we
repaining her so, that half her laughter came 'on the wrong side of hermouth,' as we rather coarsely express it); especially she laughed aboutAnnie's new-fangled closet for clothes, or standing-press, as she calledit. This had frightened me so that I would not come without my stick tolook at it; for the front was inlaid with two fiery dragons, and a glasswhich distorted everything, making even Annie look hideous; and when itwas opened, a woman's skeleton, all in white, revealed itself, in themidst of three standing women. 'It is only to keep my best frocks inshape,' Annie had explained to me; 'hanging them up does ruin them so.But I own that I was afraid of it, John, until I had got all my bestclothes there, and then I became very fond of it. But even now itfrightens me sometimes in the moonlight.'
Having made poor Ruth a little cheerful, with a full account of allAnnie's frocks, material, pattern, and fashion (of which I had taken alist for my mother, and for Lizzie, lest they should cry out at man'sstupidity about anything of real interest), I proceeded to tell herabout my own troubles, and the sudden departure of Lorna; concludingwith all the show of indifference which my pride could muster, thatnow I never should see her again, and must do my best to forget her, asbeing so far above me. I had not intended to speak of this, but Ruth'sface was so kind and earnest, that I could not stop myself.
'You must not talk like that, Cousin Ridd,' she said, in a low andgentle tone, and turning away her eyes from me; 'no lady can be abovea man, who is pure, and brave, and gentle. And if her heart be worthhaving, she will never let you give her up, for her grandeur, and hernobility.'
She pronounced those last few words, as I thought, with a littlebitterness, unperceived by herself perhaps, for it was not in herappearance. But I, attaching great importance to a maiden's opinionabout a maiden (because she might judge from experience), would have ledher further into that subject. But she declined to follow, having now nomore to say in a matter so removed from her. Then I asked her full andstraight, and looking at her in such a manner that she could not lookaway, without appearing vanquished by feelings of her own--which thingwas very vile of me; but all men are so selfish,--
'Dear cousin, tell me, once for all, what is your advice to me?'
'My advice to you,' she answered bravely, with her dark eyes full ofpride, and instead of flinching, foiling me,--'is to do what every manmust do, if he would win fair maiden. Since she cannot send you token,neither is free to return to you, follow her, pay your court to her;show that you will not be forgotten; and perhaps she will look down--Imean, she will relent to you.'
'She has nothing to relent about. I have never vexed nor injured her.My thoughts have never strayed from her. There is no one to compare withher.'
'Then keep her in that same mind about you. See now, I can advise nomore. My arm is swelling painfully, in spite of all your goodness, andbitter task of surgeonship. I shall have another poultice on, and go tobed, I think, Cousin Ridd, if you will not hold me ungrateful. I am sosorry for your long walk. Surely it might be avoided. Give my love todear Lizzie: oh, the room is going round so.'
And she fainted into the arms of Sally, who was come just in time tofetch her: no doubt she had been suffering agony all the time she talkedto me. Leaving word that I would come again to inquire for her,and fetch Kickums home, so soon as the harvest permitted me, I gavedirections about the horse, and striding away from the ancient town, wassoon upon the moorlands.
Now, through the whole of that long walk--the latter part of which wasled by starlight, till the moon arose--I dwelt, in my young and foolishway, upon the ordering of our steps by a Power beyond us. But as I couldnot bring my mind to any clearness upon this matter, and the stars shedno light upon it, but rather confused me with wondering how their Lordcould attend to them all, and yet to a puny fool like me, it came topass that my thoughts on the subject were not worth ink, if I knew them.
But it is perhaps worth ink to relate, so far as I can do so, mother'sdelight at my return, when she had almost abandoned hope, and concludedthat I was gone to London, in disgust at her behaviour. And now she waslooking up the lane, at the rise of the harvest-moon, in despair, as shesaid afterwards. But if she had despaired in truth, what use to look atall? Yet according to the epigram made by a good Blundellite,--
Despair was never yet so deep In sinking as in seeming; Despair is hopejust dropped asleep For better chance of dreaming.
And mother's dream was a happy one, when she knew my step at a furlongdistant; for the night was of those that carry sound thrice as far asday can. She recovered herself, when she was sure, and even made up hermind to scold me, and felt as if she could do it. But when she was inmy arms, into which she threw herself, and I by the light of the moondescried the silver gleam on one side of her head (now spreading sinceAnnie's departure), bless my heart and yours therewith, no room was leftfor scolding. She hugged me, and she clung to me; and I looked at her,with duty made tenfold, and discharged by love. We said nothing to oneanother; but all was right between us.
Even Lizzie behaved very well, so far as her nature admitted; not evensaying a nasty thing all the time she was getting my supper ready, witha weak imitation of Annie. She knew that the gift of cooking was notvouchsafed by God to her; but sometimes she would do her best, byintellect to win it. Whereas it is no more to be won by intellect thanis divine poetry. An amount of strong quick heart is needful, and theunderstanding must second it, in the one art as in the other. Now myfare was very choice for the next three days or more; yet not turned outlike Annie's. They could do a thing well enough on the fire; but theycould not put it on table so; nor even have plates all piping hot. Thiswas Annie's special gift; born in her, and ready to cool with her; likea plate borne away from the fireplace. I sighed sometimes about Lorna,and they thought it was about the plates. And mother would stand andlook at me, as much as to say, 'No pleasing him'; and Lizzie would jerkup one shoulder, and cry, 'He had better have Lorna to cook for him';while the whole truth was that I wanted not to be plagued about anycookery; but just to have something good and quiet, and then smoke andthink about Lorna.
Nevertheless the time went on, with one change and another; and wegathered all our harvest in; and Parson Bowden thanked God for it,both in church and out of it; for his tithes would be very goodly. Theunmatched cold of the previous winter, and general fear of scarcity, andour own talk about our ruin, had sent prices up to a grand high pitch;and we did our best to keep them there. For nine Englishmen out of everyten believe that a bitter winter must breed a sour summer, and explainaway topmost prices. While according to my experience, more often itwould be otherwise, except for the public thinking so. However, I havesaid too much; and if any farmer reads my book, he will vow that I wroteit for nothing else except to rob his family.
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor Page 61