Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor

by R. D. Blackmore

  CHAPTER XLV

  A CHANGE LONG NEEDED

  Jeremy Stickles was gone south, ere ever the frost set in, for thepurpose of mustering forces to attack the Doone Glen. But, of course,this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement; for even if mencould have borne the cold, they could scarcely be brought to face theperils of the snow-drifts. And to tell the truth I cared not how longthis weather lasted, so long as we had enough to eat, and could keepourselves from freezing. Not only that I did not want Master Sticklesback again, to make more disturbances; but also that the Doones couldnot come prowling after Lorna while the snow lay piled between us, withthe surface soft and dry. Of course they would very soon discover wheretheir lawful queen was, although the track of sledd and snow-shoes hadbeen quite obliterated by another shower, before the revellers couldhave grown half as drunk as they intended. But Marwood de Whichehalse,who had been snowed up among them (as Gwenny said), after helpingto strip the beacon, that young Squire was almost certain to haverecognised me, and to have told the vile Carver. And it gave me nolittle pleasure to think how mad that Carver must be with me, forrobbing him of the lovely bride whom he was starving into matrimony.However, I was not pleased at all with the prospect of the consequences;but set all hands on to thresh the corn, ere the Doones could come andburn the ricks. For I knew that they could not come yet, inasmuch aseven a forest pony could not traverse the country, much less the heavyhorses needed to carry such men as they were. And hundreds of the forestponies died in this hard weather, some being buried in the snow, andmore of them starved for want of grass.

  Going through this state of things, and laying down the law aboutit (subject to correction), I very soon persuaded Lorna that for thepresent she was safe, and (which made her still more happy) that she wasnot only welcome, but as gladdening to our eyes as the flowers of May.Of course, so far as regarded myself, this was not a hundredth part ofthe real truth; and even as regarded others, I might have said it tentimes over. For Lorna had so won them all, by her kind and gentle ways,and her mode of hearkening to everybody's trouble, and replying withoutwords, as well as by her beauty, and simple grace of all things, thatI could almost wish sometimes the rest would leave her more to me. Butmother could not do enough; and Annie almost worshipped her; and evenLizzie could not keep her bitterness towards her; especially when shefound that Lorna knew as much of books as need be.

  As for John Fry, and Betty, and Molly, they were a perfect plague whenLorna came into the kitchen. For betwixt their curiosity to see alive Doone in the flesh (when certain not to eat them), and their highrespect for birth (with or without honesty), and their intense desire toknow all about Master John's sweetheart (dropped, as they said, from thesnow-clouds), and most of all their admiration of a beauty such as nevereven their angels could have seen--betwixt and between all this, I say,there was no getting the dinner cooked, with Lorna in the kitchen.

  And the worst of it was that Lorna took the strangest of all strangefancies for this very kitchen; and it was hard to keep her out of it.Not that she had any special bent for cooking, as our Annie had; ratherindeed the contrary, for she liked to have her food ready cooked; butthat she loved the look of the place, and the cheerful fire burning, andthe racks of bacon to be seen, and the richness, and the homeliness, andthe pleasant smell of everything. And who knows but what she may haveliked (as the very best of maidens do) to be admired, now and then,between the times of business?

  Therefore if you wanted Lorna (as I was always sure to do, God knowshow many times a day), the very surest place to find her was our ownold kitchen. Not gossiping, I mean, nor loitering, neither seeking intothings, but seeming to be quite at home, as if she had known it from achild, and seeming (to my eyes at least) to light it up, and make lifeand colour out of all the dullness; as I have seen the breaking sun doamong brown shocks of wheat.

  But any one who wished to learn whether girls can change or not, as thethings around them change (while yet their hearts are steadfast, and forever anchored), he should just have seen my Lorna, after a fortnightof our life, and freedom from anxiety. It is possible that mycompany--although I am accounted stupid by folk who do not know myway--may have had something to do with it; but upon this I will not saymuch, lest I lose my character. And indeed, as regards company, I hadall the threshing to see to, and more than half to do myself (though anyone would have thought that even John Fry must work hard this weather),else I could not hope at all to get our corn into such compass that agood gun might protect it.

  But to come back to Lorna again (which I always longed to do, and mustlong for ever), all the change between night and day, all the shiftsof cloud and sun, all the difference between black death and brightsomeliveliness, scarcely may suggest or equal Lorna's transformation. Quickshe had always been and 'peart' (as we say on Exmoor) and gifted with aleap of thought too swift for me to follow; and hence you may find faultwith much, when I report her sayings. But through the whole had alwaysrun, as a black string goes through pearls, something dark and touchedwith shadow, coloured as with an early end.

  But, now, behold! there was none of this! There was no getting her, fora moment, even to be serious. All her bright young wit was flashing,like a newly-awakened flame, and all her high young spirits leaped, asif dancing to its fire. And yet she never spoke a word which gave morepain than pleasure.

  And even in her outward look there was much of difference. Whether itwas our warmth, and freedom, and our harmless love of God, and trustin one another; or whether it were our air, and water, and the pea-fedbacon anyhow my Lorna grew richer and more lovely, more perfect andmore firm of figure, and more light and buoyant, with every passing daythat laid its tribute on her cheeks and lips. I was allowed one kissa day; only one for manners' sake, because she was our visitor; and Imight have it before breakfast, or else when I came to say 'good-night!'according as I decided. And I decided every night, not to take it in themorning, but put it off till the evening time, and have the pleasure tothink about, through all the day of working. But when my darling came upto me in the early daylight, fresher than the daystar, and with no onelooking; only her bright eyes smiling, and sweet lips quite ready, wasit likely I could wait, and think all day about it? For she wore a frockof Annie's, nicely made to fit her, taken in at the waist and curved--Inever could explain it, not being a mantua-maker; but I know how herfigure looked in it, and how it came towards me.

  But this is neither here nor there; and I must on with my story. Thosedays are very sacred to me, and if I speak lightly of them, trustme, 'tis with lip alone; while from heart reproach peeps sadly at theflippant tricks of mind.

  Although it was the longest winter ever known in our parts (never havingceased to freeze for a single night, and scarcely for a single day, fromthe middle of December till the second week in March), to me it was thevery shortest and the most delicious; and verily I do believe it wasthe same to Lorna. But when the Ides of March were come (of which Ido remember something dim from school, and something clear from myfavourite writer) lo, there were increasing signals of a change ofweather.

  One leading feature of that long cold, and a thing remarked by every one(however unobservant) had been the hollow moaning sound ever present inthe air, morning, noon, and night-time, and especially at night, whetherany wind were stirring, or whether it were a perfect calm. Our peoplesaid that it was a witch cursing all the country from the caverns by thesea, and that frost and snow would last until we could catch and drownher. But the land, being thoroughly blocked with snow, and the inshoreparts of the sea with ice (floating in great fields along), MotherMelldrum (if she it were) had the caverns all to herself, for therewas no getting at her. And speaking of the sea reminds me of a thingreported to us, and on good authority; though people might be foundhereafter who would not believe it, unless I told them that from what Imyself beheld of the channel I place perfect faith in it: and this is,that a dozen sailors at the beginning of March crossed the ice, with theaid of poles from Clevedon to Penarth, or wher
e the Holm rocks barredthe flotage.

  But now, about the tenth of March, that miserable moaning noise, whichhad both foregone and accompanied the rigour, died away from out theair; and we, being now so used to it, thought at first that we must bedeaf. And then the fog, which had hung about (even in full sunshine)vanished, and the shrouded hills shone forth with brightness manifold.And now the sky at length began to come to its true manner, which wehad not seen for months, a mixture (if I so may speak) of variousexpressions. Whereas till now from Allhallows-tide, six weeks ere thegreat frost set in, the heavens had worn one heavy mask of ashen graywhen clouded, or else one amethystine tinge with a hazy rim, whencloudless. So it was pleasant to behold, after that monotony, the ficklesky which suits our England, though abused by foreign folk.

  And soon the dappled softening sky gave some earnest of its mood; for abrisk south wind arose, and the blessed rain came driving, cold indeed,yet most refreshing to the skin, all parched with snow, and the eyeballsso long dazzled. Neither was the heart more sluggish in its thankfulnessto God. People had begun to think, and somebody had prophesied, that weshould have no spring this year, no seed-time, and no harvest; for thatthe Lord had sent a judgment on this country of England, and thenation dwelling in it, because of the wickedness of the Court, and theencouragement shown to Papists. And this was proved, they said, by whathad happened in the town of London where, for more than a fortnight,such a chill of darkness lay that no man might behold his neighbour,even across the narrowest street; and where the ice upon the Thames wasmore than four feet thick, and crushing London Bridge in twain. Nowto these prophets I paid no heed, believing not that Providence wouldfreeze us for other people's sins; neither seeing how England could formany generations have enjoyed good sunshine, if Popery meant frost andfogs. Besides, why could not Providence settle the business once forall by freezing the Pope himself; even though (according to our view) hewere destined to extremes of heat, together with all who followed him?

  Not to meddle with that subject, being beyond my judgment, let me tellthe things I saw, and then you must believe me. The wind, of course, Icould not see, not having the powers of a pig; but I could see the ladenbranches of the great oaks moving, hoping to shake off the load packedand saddled on them. And hereby I may note a thing which some one mayexplain perhaps in the after ages, when people come to look at things.This is that in desperate cold all the trees were pulled awry, eventhough the wind had scattered the snow burden from them. Of some sortsthe branches bended downwards, like an archway; of other sorts theboughs curved upwards, like a red deer's frontlet. This I know noreason* for; but am ready to swear that I saw it.

  * The reason is very simple, as all nature's reasons are; though the subject has not yet been investigated thoroughly. In some trees the vascular tissue is more open on the upper side, in others on the under side, of the spreading branches; according to the form of growth, and habit of the sap. Hence in very severe cold, when the vessels (comparatively empty) are constricted, some have more power of contraction on the upper side, and some upon the under.

  Now when the first of the rain began, and the old familiar softnessspread upon the window glass, and ran a little way in channels (thoughfrom the coldness of the glass it froze before reaching the bottom),knowing at once the difference from the short sharp thud of snow, we allran out, and filled our eyes and filled our hearts with gazing. True,the snow was piled up now all in mountains round us; true, the air wasstill so cold that our breath froze on the doorway, and the rain wasturned to ice wherever it struck anything; nevertheless that it was rainthere was no denying, as we watched it across black doorways, and couldsee no sign of white. Mother, who had made up her mind that the farmwas not worth having after all those prophesies, and that all of us muststarve, and holes be scratched in the snow for us, and no use to put upa tombstone (for our church had been shut up long ago) mother fellupon my breast, and sobbed that I was the cleverest fellow ever bornof woman. And this because I had condemned the prophets for a pack offools; not seeing how business could go on, if people stopped to hearkento them.

  Then Lorna came and glorified me, for I had predicted a change ofweather, more to keep their spirits up, than with real hope of it; andthen came Annie blushing shyly, as I looked at her, and said that Winniewould soon have four legs now. This referred to some stupid joke madeby John Fry or somebody, that in this weather a man had no legs, and ahorse had only two.

  But as the rain came down upon us from the southwest wind, and we couldnot have enough of it, even putting our tongues to catch it, as littlechildren might do, and beginning to talk of primroses; the very noblestthing of all was to hear and see the gratitude of the poor beasts yetremaining and the few surviving birds. From the cowhouse lowing came,more than of fifty milking times; moo and moo, and a turn-up noise atthe end of every bellow, as if from the very heart of kine. Then thehorses in the stables, packed as closely as they could stick, at therisk of kicking, to keep the warmth in one another, and their spiritsup by discoursing; these began with one accord to lift up their voices,snorting, snaffling, whinnying, and neighing, and trotting to the doorto know when they should have work again. To whom, as if in answer, camethe feeble bleating of the sheep, what few, by dint of greatest care,had kept their fleeces on their backs, and their four legs under them.

  Neither was it a trifling thing, let whoso will say the contrary, tobehold the ducks and geese marching forth in handsome order from theirbeds of fern and straw. What a goodly noise they kept, what a flappingof their wings, and a jerking of their tails, as they stood right up andtried with a whistling in their throats to imitate a cockscrow! And thenhow daintily they took the wet upon their dusty plumes, and ducked theirshoulders to it, and began to dress themselves, and laid their groovedbills on the snow, and dabbled for more ooziness!

  Lorna had never seen, I dare say, anything like this before, and it wasall that we could do to keep her from rushing forth with only littlelambswool shoes on, and kissing every one of them. 'Oh, the dear things,oh, the dear things!' she kept saying continually, 'how wonderfullyclever they are! Only look at that one with his foot up, giving ordersto the others, John!'

  'And I must give orders to you, my darling,' I answered, gazing on herface, so brilliant with excitement; 'and that is, that you come in atonce, with that worrisome cough of yours; and sit by the fire, and warmyourself.'

  'Oh, no, John! Not for a minute, if you please, good John. I want to seethe snow go away, and the green meadows coming forth. And here comes ourfavourite robin, who has lived in the oven so long, and sang us a songevery morning. I must see what he thinks of it!'

  'You will do nothing of the sort,' I answered very shortly, being onlytoo glad of a cause for having her in my arms again. So I caught her up,and carried her in; and she looked and smiled so sweetly at me insteadof pouting (as I had feared) that I found myself unable to go very fastalong the passage. And I set her there in her favourite place, by thesweet-scented wood-fire; and she paid me porterage without my evenasking her; and for all the beauty of the rain, I was fain to stay withher; until our Annie came to say that my advice was wanted.

  Now my advice was never much, as everybody knew quite well; but that wasthe way they always put it, when they wanted me to work for them. And intruth it was time for me to work; not for others, but myself, and (as Ialways thought) for Lorna. For the rain was now coming down in earnest;and the top of the snow being frozen at last, and glazed as hard as achina cup, by means of the sun and frost afterwards, all the rain ranright away from the steep inclines, and all the outlets being blockedwith ice set up like tables, it threatened to flood everything. Alreadyit was ponding up, like a tide advancing at the threshold of the doorfrom which we had watched the duck-birds; both because great piles ofsnow trended in that direction, in spite of all our scraping, and alsothat the gulley hole, where the water of the shoot went out (I mean whenit was water) now was choked with lumps of ice, as big as a man's body.For the 'shoot,'
as we called our little runnel of everlasting water,never known to freeze before, and always ready for any man either towash his hands, or drink, where it spouted from a trough of bark, setamong white flint-stones; this at last had given in, and its musicceased to lull us, as we lay in bed.

  It was not long before I managed to drain off this threatening flood,by opening the old sluice-hole; but I had much harder work to keep thestables, and the cow-house, and the other sheds, from flooding. For wehave a sapient practice (and I never saw the contrary round about ourparts, I mean), of keeping all rooms underground, so that you step downto them. We say that thus we keep them warmer, both for cattle and formen, in the time of winter, and cooler in the summer-time. This I willnot contradict, though having my own opinion but it seems to me to bea relic of the time when people in the western countries lived in cavesbeneath the ground, and blocked the mouths with neat-skins.

  Let that question still abide, for men who study ancient times to informme, if they will; all I know is, that now we had no blessings for thesystem. If after all their cold and starving, our weak cattle now shouldhave to stand up to their knees in water, it would be certain death tothem; and we had lost enough already to make us poor for a long time;not to speak of our kind love for them. And I do assure you, I lovedsome horses, and even some cows for that matter, as if they had been myblood-relations; knowing as I did their virtues. And some of these werelost to us; and I could not bear to think of them. Therefore I workedhard all night to try and save the rest of them.