Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard

by Eleanor Farjeon

  "Well," said Old Gillman stuffing his pipe, "it's been a peaceful time, and now us must just see how things go."

  "They look shipshape enough at the moment," said Martin.

  "Ah," said Old Gillman shaking his head, "that's the lads. They're good lads when you let em alone. But what it'll be now they maids get meddling again us can't foretell. It were bad enough afore, wi' their quarrelsomeness and their shilly-shally. It sends all things to rack and ruin."

  "What does?" said Martin.

  "This here love." Old Gillman refilled his mug. "We'll not talk of it. She were a handy gal afore Robin began unmaking her mind along of his own. Lord! why can't these young things be plain and say what they want, and get it? Wasn't I plain wi' her mother?"

  "Were you?" said Martin.

  "Ah, worse luck!" said Gillman, "and me a happy bachelor as I was. What did I want wi' a minx about the place?" He filled his mug again.

  "What do any of us?" said Martin. "These women are the deuce."

  "They are," said Gillman. "We'll not talk of em."

  "There are a thousand better things to talk of," agreed Martin. "There is Sloe Gin."

  Old Gillman's eye brightened. "Ah!" said Old Gillman, and puffed at his pipe. "Her name," he said, "was Juniper, but as oft as not I'd call her June, for she was like that. A rose in the house, boy. Maybe you think my Jill has her share of looks? She has her mother's leavings, let me tell ye. So you may judge. But what's this Robin to dilly-dally with her daughter, till the gal can't sleep o' nights for wondering will he speak in the morning or will he be mum? And so she becomes worse than no use in kitchen and dairy, and since sickness is catching the maids follow suit. It's all off and on wi' them and their lads. In the morning they will, in the evening they won't. Ah, twas a tarrible life. And all along o' Robin Rue. Young man, the farm, I tell ye, was going to fair rack and ruin."

  "You seem to have found a remedy," said Martin.

  "If they silly maids couldn't make up their minds," said Old Gillman, "there was nothing for it but to turn em out neck and crop till they learned what they wanted. And Robin into the bargain. He's no better than a maid when it comes to taking the bull by the horns. Yet that's the man's part, mark ye. Don't I know? Smockalley she come from, the Rose of Smockalley they called her, for a Rose in June she were. There weren't a lass to match her south of Hagland and north of Roundabout. And the lads would ha' died for her from Picketty to Chiltington. But twas a Billinghurst lad got her, d'ye see?" Old Gillman filled his mug.

  "How did that come about?" asked Martin, filling his.

  "All along o' the Murray River."

  "WHAT'S that!" said Martin Pippin. But Old Gillman thought he said, "What's THAT?"

  " Tis the biggest river in Sussex, young man, and the littlest known, and the fullest of dangers, and the hardest to find; because nobody's ever found it yet but her and me. And she'd sworn to wed none but him as could find it with her. Don't I remember the day! Twas the day the Carrier come, and that was the day o' the week for us folk then. He had a blue wagon, had George, with scarlet wheels and a green awning; and his horse was a red-and-white skewbald and jingled bells on its bridle. A small bandy-legged man was George, wi' a jolly face and a squint, and as he drives up he toots on a tin trumpet wi' red tassels on it. Didn't it bring the crowd running! and didn't the crowd bring HIM to a standstill, some holding old Scarlet Runner by the bridle, and others standing on the very axles. And the hubbub, young man! It was Where's my six yards of dimity?' from one, and Have you my coral necklace?' from another. Where's my bag of comfits? where's my hundreds and thousands?' from the children; and I can't wait for my ivory fan?' My bandanna hanky!' My two ounces of snuff!' My guitar!' My clogs!' My satin dancing-shoes!' My onion-seed!' My new spindle!' My fiddle-bow!' My powder-puff!' And some little un would lisp, I'm sure you've forgotten my blue balloon!' And then they'd cry, one-and-all, in a breath, George! what's the news?' And he'd say, Give a body elbow- room!' and handing the packages right and left would allus have something to tell. But on this day he says, News? There BE no news excepting THE News.' And what's THE News?' cries one-and-all. Why,' says George, that the Rose of Smockalley consents to be wed at last.' The Rose!' they cries, and me the loudest, to whom?' To him,' says George, as can find her the Murray River. For a sailor come by last Tuesday wi' a tale o' the Murray River where he'd been wrecked and seen wonders; and a woman tormented by curiosity will go as far as a man tormented by love. And so she's willing to be wed at last. But she's liker to die a maid.' Then I ups and asks why. And George he says, For that the sailor breathed such perils that the lasses was taken wi' the trembles and the lads with the shudders. For, he says, the river's haunted by spirits, and a mystery at the end of it which none has ever come back from. And no man dares hazard so dark and dangerous an adventure, even for love of the Rose.' That pricks a man's pride to hear, boy, and Shame,' says I, on all West Sussex if that be so. Here be one man as is ready, and here be fifty others. What d'ye say, lads?' But Lord! as I looks from one to another they trickles away like sand through an hourglass, and before we knows it me and George has the road to ourselves. So he says, I must be getting on to Wisboro', but first I'll deliver ye your baggage.' You've no baggage o' mine,' says I. Yes, if you'll excuse me,' says he; and wi' that he parts the green awning and says, There she be.' And there she were, sitting on a barrel o' cider."

  "What was she like to look at?" asked Martin.

  "Yaller hair and gray eyes," said Gillman. "And me a bachelor."

  "It was hopeless," said Martin.

  "It were," said Old Gillman. "And it were the end o' my peace of life. She looks me straight in the eye and she says, Juniper's my name, but I'm June to them as loves me. And June I'll be to you. For I have traveled his rounds wi' this Carrier for a week, and sat behind his curtain while he told men my wishes. And you be the only one of them all as is willing to do a difficult thing for an idle whim, if what is the heart's desire can ever be idle. So I will sit behind the curtain no longer, and if you will let me I will follow you to the ends of Sussex till the Murray River be found, or we be dead.' And I says Jump, lass!' and down she jumps and puts up her mouth." Gillman filled his mug.

  Martin filled his. "Well," said he, "a man must take his bull by the horns. And did you ever succeed in finding the Murray River?"

  "Wi' a child's help. It can only be found by a child's help. Tis the child's river of all Sussex. Any child can help you to it."

  "Yes," said Martin, "and all children know it."

  Old Gillman put down his mug. "Do YOU know it, boy?"

  "I live by it," said Martin Pippin, "when I live anywhere."

  "Do children play in it still?" asked Gillman.

  "None but children," said Martin Pippin. "And above all the child which boys and girls are always rediscovering in each other's hearts, even when they've turned gray in other folks' sight. And at the end of it is a mystery."

  "She were a child to the end," said Old Gillman. "A fair nuisance, so she were. And Jill takes after her."

  "Well, SHE'S off your hands anyhow," said Martin getting up. "She's to be some other body's nuisance now, and your maids have come back to their milking."

  "Ah, have they?" grunted Gillman. "The lads did it better. And they cooked better. And they cleaned better. There is nothing men cannot do better than women."

  "I know it," said Martin Pippin, "but it would be unkind to let on."

  "Then we'll wash our hands of em. But don't go, boy," said Old Gillman. "Talking of Sloe Gin--"

  Martin sat down again.

  They talked of Sloe Gin for a very long time. They did not agree about it. They got out some bottles to see if they could not manage to agree. Martin thought one bottle hadn't enough sugar-candy in it, so they put in some more; and Old Gillman thought another bottle hadn't enough gin in it, so they also put in some more. But they couldn't get it right, though they tried and tried. Old Gillman thought it should be filtered drop by drop seventy times through seven
hundred sheets of blotting-paper, but Martin thought seven hundred times through seventy sheets was better; and Martin thought it should then be kept for seven thousand years, but Old Gillman thought seven years sufficient. But neither of these points had ever been really proved, and was not that day.

  After this, as they couldn't reach an agreement, they changed the subject to rum punch, and argued a good deal as to the right quantities of lemon and sugar and nutmeg; and whether it was or was not improved by the addition of brandy, and how much; and an orange or so, and how many; and a tangerine, if you had it; and a tot of gin, if you had it left. Yet in this case too the most repeated practice proved as inadequate as the most confirmed theory.

  So after a bit Old Gillman said, "This is child's play, boy. After all, there's but one drink for kings and men. Give us a song over our cup, and I'll sing along o' ye."

  "Right," said Martin, "if you can fetch me the only cup worthy to sing over."

  "What cup's that, boy?"

  "What but a kingcup?" said Martin.

  "A king once drank from this," said Gillman, fetching down a goblet as golden as ale. "He looked like a shepherd, and had a fold just across the road, but he was a king for all that. So strike up."

  "After me, then," said Martin; and they pushed the cup between them, and the song too.

  Martin: What shall we drink of when we sup? Gillman: What d'ye say to the King's own cup? Martin: What's the drink? Gillman: What d'ye think? Martin: Farmer, say! Water? Gillman: Nay! Martin: Wine? Gillman: Aye! Martin: Red wine? Gillman: Fie! Martin: White wine? Gillman: No! Martin: Yellow wine? Gillman: Oh! Martin: What in fine, What wine then? Gillman: The only wine That's fit for men Who drink of the King's Cup when they dine, And that is the Old Brown Barley Wine! >From This I'll drink ye high, Point I I'll drink ye low, Don't Know Till the stars run dry Which Of Of their juices oh! Them Was I'll drink ye up, Singing; I'll drink ye down, And No More Till the old moon's cup Did They: Is cracked all round, And the pickled sun Jumps out of his brine, And you cry Done! To the Barley Wine. Come, boy, sup! Come, fill up! Here's King's own drink for the King's own cup!

  What happened after this I really don't know. For I was not there, though I should like to have been.

  I only know that when Martin Pippin stepped out of Gillman's Farm with his lute on his back, Old Gillman was fast asleep on the settle. But Martin had never been wider awake.

  It was late in the afternoon. There was no sign of human life anywhere. In their stables the cows were lowing very badly.

  "Oh, maids, maids, maids!" sighed Martin Pippin. "Rack and ruin, my dears, rack and ruin!"

  And he fetched the milkpails and went into the stalls, and did the milkmaids' business for them. And Joyce's Blossom, and Jennifer's Daisy, and Jessica's Clover stood as still for him as they stand in the shade of the willows on Midsummer Day. And Jane's Nellie whisked her tail over his mouth, but seemed sorry afterwards. And Joscelyn's Lemon kicked the bucket and would not let down her milk till he sang to her, and then she gave in. But little Joan's little Jersey Nancy, with her soft dark eyes, and soft dun sides, and slender legs like a deer's, licked his cheek. And this was Martin's milking-song.

  You Milkmaids in the hedgerows, Get up and milk your kine! The satin Lords and Ladies Are all dressed up so fine, But if you do not skim and churn How can they dine? Get up, you idle Milkmaids, And call in your kine.

  You milkmaids in the hedgerows, You lazy lovely crew, Get up and churn the buttercups And skim the milkweed, do! But the Milkmaids in their country prints And faces washed with dew, They laughed at Lords and Ladies And sang "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" And if you know their reason I'm not so wise as you.

  When he had done, Martin carried the pails to the dairy and turned his back on Gillman's. For his business there was ended. So he went out at the gate and lifted his face to the Downs.

  It was a lovely evening. Half the sky was clear and blue, and the other half full of silky gold clouds--they wanted to be heavy and wet, but the sun was having such fun on the edge of the Downs, somewhere about Duncton, that they had to be gold in spite of themselves.

  * * *

  CONCLUSION

  One evening at the end of the first week in September, Martin Pippin walked along the Roman Road to Adversane. And as he approached he said to himself, "There are many sweet corners in Sussex, but few sweeter than this, and I thank my stars that I have been led to see it once in my life."

  While he was thanking his stars, which were already in the sky waiting for the light to go out and give them a chance, he heard the sound of weeping. It came from the malthouse, which is the most beautiful building in Sussex. So persistent was it that after he had listened to it for six minutes it seemed to Martin that he had been listening to it for six months, and for one moment he believed himself to be sitting in an orchard with his eyes shut, and warm tears from heaven falling on his face. But knowing himself to be too much given to fancies he decided to lay those ghosts by investigation, and he went up to the malthouse and looked inside.

  There he found a young man flooring the barley. As he turned and re-turned it with his spade he wept so copiously above it that he was frequently obliged to pause and wipe away his tears with his arm, for he could no longer see the barley he was spreading. When the maltster had interrupted himself thus for the third occasion, Martin Pippin concluded that it was time to address him.

  "Young master," said Martin, "the bitters that are brewed from your barley will need no adulterating behind the bar, and that's flat."

  The maltster leaned on his spade to reply.

  "There are no waters in all the world," said he, "plentiful enough to adulterate the bitterness of my despair."

  "Then I would preserve these rivers for better sport," said Martin. "And if memory plays me no tricks, your name was once Robin Rue."

  "And Rue it will be to my last hour," said Robin, "for a man can no more escape from his name than from his nature."

  "Men," observed Martin, "have been in this respect worse served than women. And when will Gillian Gillman change her name?"

  "No sooner than I," sighed Robin Rue; "a maid she must die, as I a bachelor. And if she do not outlive me, we shall both be buried before Christmas."

  "Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Martin. And stepping into the malthouse he offered Robin six keys.

  "How will these help us?" said Robin Rue.

  "They are the keys of your lady's Well-House," said Martin Pippin, "and how I have outpaced her I cannot imagine, for she was on the road to you twenty hours ago."

  "This is no news," said Robin. "There she is."

  And he turned his face to the dark of the malthouse, and there, sitting on a barrel, with a slice of the sunset falling through a slit on her corn-colored hair, was Gillian.

  "In love's name," cried Martin Pippin, putting his hands to his head, "what more do you want?"

  "A husband worthy of her," moaned Robin Rue, "and how can I suppose that I am he? Oh, that I were only good enough for her! oh, that she could be happily mated, as after all her sorrows she deserves to be!"

  Then Martin looked down at the patch on his shoe saying, "And tell me now, if you knew Gillian happily wed, would you ask nothing more of life?"

  "Oh, sir," cried Robin Rue, "if I knew any man who could give her all I cannot, I would contrive at least to live long enough to drown my sorrows in the beer brewed from this barley."

  "It is a solace," said Martin, "that must be denied to no man. It seems that I must help you out to the last. And if you will take one glance out of doors, you will see that the working-day is over."

  Robin Rue looked out of doors, saw by the sun that it was so, put down his spade, and went home to supper.

  "Gillian," said Martin Pippin, "the Squire did not come himself to fetch her away because he was a young fool. There was no eighth floret on the grass-blade, so the rime stayed at the seventh. The letter I threw with the Lady-peel was a G. There are apples all round your silver ring because it was once my ring
. I do, you dear, I do, I do. And now I have answered your many questions, answer me one. Why did you sit six months in the Well-House weeping for love?"

  "Oh, Martin," said Gillian softly, "could you tell my friends so much they did not know, and not know this?--girls do not weep for love, they weep for want of it." And she lifted her heavenly eyes, and out of the last of the sunlight looked at him without thinking. And Martin, like a drowning man catching at straws, caught her corn-colored plaits one in either hand, and drawing himself to her by them, whispered, "Do girls do that? But they are so much too good for us, Gillian."

  "I know they are," whispered Gillian, "but if all men were like Robin Rue, what would become of us? Must we be punished for what we can't help?"

  And she put her little finger on his mouth, and he kissed it.

  Then Martin himself sat down on the barrel where there was only room for one; but it was Martin who sat on it. And after a while he said, "You mightn't think it, but I have got a cottage, and there is nothing whatever in it but a table which I made myself, and I think that is enough to begin with. On the way to it we shall pass Hardham, where in the Priory Ruins lives a Hermit who is sometimes in the mood. Beyond Hardham is the sunken bed of the old canal that is a secret not known to everybody; all flowering reeds and plants that love water grow there, and you have to push your way between water-loving trees under which grass and nettles in their season grow taller than children; but at other times, when the pussy- willows bloom with gray and golden bees, the way is clear. Beyond this presently is a little glade, the loveliest in Sussex; in spring it is patterned with primroses, and windflowers shake their fragile bells and show their silver stars above them. Some are pure and colorless, like maidens who know nothing of love, and others are faintly stained with streaks of purple-rose. So exquisite is the beauty of these earthly flowers that it is like a heavenly dream, but it is a dream come true; and you will never pass it in April without longing to turn aside and, kneeling among all that pallid gold and silver, offer up a prayer to the fairies. And I shall always kneel there with you. But beyond this is a land of bracken and undiscovered forests that hides a special secret. And you may run round it on all sides within fifty yards, yet never find it; unless you happen to light upon a land where grass springs under your feet among deep cart-ruts, and blackberry branches scramble on the ground from the flowery sides. The lane is called Shelley's Lane, for a reason too beautiful to be told; since all the most beautiful reasons in the world are kept secrets. And this is why, dear Gillian, the world never knows, and cannot for the life of it imagine, what this man sees in that maid and that maid in this man. The world cannot think why they fell in love with each other. But they have their reason, their beautiful secret, that never gets told to more than one person; and what they see in each other is what they show to each other; and it is the truth. Only they kept it hidden in their hearts until the time came. And though you and I may never know why this lane is called Shelley's, to us both it will always be the greenest lane in Sussex, because it leads to the special secret I spoke of. At the end of it is an old gate, clambered with blue periwinkle, and the gate opens into a garden in the midst of the forest, a garden so gay and so scented, so full of butterflies and bees and flower-borders and grass-plots with fruit- trees on them, that it might be Eden grown tiny. The garden runs down a slope, and is divided from a wild meadow by a brook crossed by a plank, fringed with young hazel and alder and, at the right time, thick-set with primroses. Behind the meadow, in a glimpse of the distance full of soft blue shadows and pale yellow lights, lie the lovely sides of the Downs, rounded and dimpled like human beings, dimpled like babies, rounded like women. The flow of their lines is like the breathing of a sleeper; you can almost see the tranquil heaving of a bosom. All about and around the garden are the trees of the forest. Crouched in one of the hollows is my cottage with the table in it. And the brook at the bottom of the garden is the Murray River."