The Return of the Native

om of th

h, as he ascended the barrow, had been heavily laden with furze-faggots, carried upon the shoulder by means of a long stake sharpened at each end for impaling t

ared like a bush on legs till he had thrown them down. The party had marched in trail, like

loosening the bramble bonds which held the faggots together. Others, again, while this was in progress, lifted their eyes and swept the vast expanse of country commanded by their position, now lying nearly obliterated by shade. In the valleys of the heath nothing save

n a dense atmosphere, so that bundles of pale strawlike beams radiated around them in the shape of a fan. Some were large and near, glowing scarlet-red from the shade, like wounds in a black hide. Some were Maenades, with winy faces and blown hair. These tinctured the silent bosom of the clouds above them and lit up their ephemeral caves, which se

and female-with its own gold livery, and even overlaid the dark turf around with a lively luminousness, which softened off into obscurity where the barrow rounded downwards out of sight. It showed the barrow to be the segment of a globe, as perfect as on the day when it was t

ee nothing of the deeps beyond its influence. Occasionally, it is true, a more vigorous flare than usual from their faggots sent darting lights like aides-de-camp down the inclines to some distant bush, pool, or patch of white sand, kindling these to replies of the same colour, till all wa

disturbed in the barrow beneath their tread. The flames from funeral piles long ago kindled there had shone down upon the lowlands as these were shining now. Festival fires to Thor and Woden had followed on the same ground and duly had th

ughout Nature. It indicates a spontaneous, Promethean rebelliousness against that fiat that this recurrent season shall brin

ade and flakes of light upon the countenances of the group changed shape and position endlessly. All was unstable; quivering as leaves, evanescent as lightning. Shadowy eye-sockets, deep as those of a death's head, suddenly turned into pits of lustre: a lantern-jaw was cavernous, then it was shining; wrinkles were emphasized to ravines, or obliterated entirely by a changed r

or stake, he tossed the outlying scraps of fuel into the conflagration, looking at the midst of the pile, occasionally lifting his eyes to measure the height of the flame, or to follow the great sparks which rose with it and sailed away into darkness. The beaming sight, and the penetrating

ll'd down′ hi

by two′,

, I'll′ go shr

shalt wend

oon′, quoth E

n his bend′

e'er′ the quee

there-of′

tanding man of middle age, who kept each corner of his crescent-shaped mouth rigorously drawn back into h

and of such a old man as you," he said to the wrinkled reveller. "Dostn't wish th

fer Cantle, stopp

I say? There's a hole in thy p

a little wind go a long ways I should seem no yo

a dim light in the direction of the distant highway, but considerably apart from where the reddleman was at th

Cantle is that, or he's nothing. Yet 'tis a gay

home to-night. By this time the

or us to go and wish

ll,

t, or 'twould be very unlike me-th

t on′ a fri′

put on′

to′ Queen E

r and′ his

d like to have all that's under that young man's hair. Well, then, I spoke to her in my well-known merry way, and she said, 'O that what's shaped so venerable should

k she had you,

countenance slightly flagging. "

hat Clym is coming home a' Christmas-to make a new arran

s now. I can tell 'ee lots about the married couple. Yes, this morning at six o'clock they went up the country to do the job, and neither vell nor mark have been seen of 'em sin

since last fall, when her aunt forbad the banns. How long ha

ntle smartly, likewise turning to

leather gloves of a furze-cutter, his legs, by reason of that occupation, being sheathed in bulging leggings as stiff as the Philistine's greaves of brass. "That's why they went away to be married, I coun

that be so, though I only guess as much, to be sure," said Grandfe

day," said Fairway, "which was

emphatically. "I ha'n't been there to-year; and

is so terrible far to get there; and when you do get there 'tis such a mortal poor chance tha

not see it as such, it fairly made my blood run cold to hear her. Yes, it is a curious thing; but it made my blood run cold, for I was close at her elbow." The sp

ve things happen to 'ee t

sn't Mis'ess Yeobright a-standing up,' I said to myself. Yes, neighbours, though I was in the temple of prayer that's what I said. 'Tis against my consc

d, neighbo

iteration. "And the next thing I heard was, 'I forbid the banns,' from her. 'I'll speak to you after the service,' said the parson, in quite a homely way-yes, turning all at once into a common man no holier than you or I. Ah, her face was p

s into the fire, not because these deeds were urgent, but

arnest voice-that of Olly Dowden, a woman who lived by making heath brooms, or besoms. Her nature was t

e married him just th

airway resumed, with an unheeding air, to show that his words were n

stays creaked like shoes whenever she stooped or turned. "'Tis well to call the neighbours together and to hae a good

lling round. "I hardly blame Thomasin Yeobright and neighbour Wildeve for doing it quiet, if I must own it. A wed

ay to being one in a jig, knowing all the time that y

o, if 'tis no further on than the first or second chiel. And this is not naming the songs you've got to sing… For my part I like a good hearty funeral as well as anything. You've

was going too far to dance then, I

aid man can feel safe at after th

such a mean way," said Susan Nunsuch, the wide woman, who preferred the original subject. "'Tis worse

e was brought up to better things than keeping the Quiet Woman. An engineer-that's what the man was, as we kno

that couldn't use to make a round O to save their bones from the pit can write their names now without a sputter of the

polish the world have been

chimed in Grandfer Cantle brightly, "I didn't know no more what the world was like than

couple married just afore we were and there stood they father's cross with arms stretched out like a great banging scarecrow. What a terrible black cross that was-thy father's very likeness in en! To save my soul I couldn't help laughing when I zid en, though all the time I was as hot as dog-days, what with the marrying, and what with the woman a-hanging to me, and what

mers. A pretty maid too she is. A young woman with a hom

s shoulder the singular heart-shaped spade of large dimensions used in that species o

ave had him if he'd asked

bour, that no woman at all wo

," said the

" said

aid Grandf

of such a man. But only once, mind." He gave his throat a thorough rake round, as if it were the dut

he poor fellow have been like, Mast

an, nor a dumb man, nor a blin

these parts?"

I name no name… Come, keep th

or?" said a boy from amid the smoke and shades on th

ce was heard to repl

I didn't know you were here," said Fairway, w

wrist and ankle beyond his clothes, advanced a step or two by his own will, and was push

or, Christian?" said

the

at

o woman wi

over Christian's whole surface and a great deal more; Grandfer Ca

"D'ye think 'twill hurt me? I shall always say I don't

" said Mr. Fairway. "I didn't mean you at all. There's another i

can I?" He turned upon them his painfully circula

u spoke, for I felt there were two poor fellows where I had thought only one

aske

e. Well, and what did the last one say to ye? Not

wisted, slim-looking maphrotight f

rotight fool,' is rather a hard way of saying No. But even that might be overcome by time and patie

tatie-digging,

a boy. Still th

eat book of the Judgment that they keep in church vestry; bu

A

n, to save her life, excep

d. Hey, neighbours,

aid Grandfer Cantl

ever a boy was born to her, because of the saying, 'No moon, no man,' which made her afeard ev

oy never comes to anything that's born at new moon. A bad job for thee, Chri

en you were born?" said Christian, with

Mr. Fairway replied, w

ed Christian, in the same shattered recitative. "'Tis said I be only the rames

d yet his mother cried for scores of hours when 'a was a bo

said Fairway. "Wethers must live their

n? Ought I to be afeared

d couples but to single sleepers that a ghost shows himself whe

bed alone. But you will-ah, you will, I know, Timothy; and I shall dream all night o't! A very strange

But I think it ghostly enough-what I wa

it like?-n

be white; but this is as if

letting it expand his body, and Hum

of a song to-night afore we go to bed-being their wedding-day? When folks are just married 'tis as well to look glad o't, since looking sorry won't unjoin 'em. I am no drinker, as we know, but when the womenfolk and youngsters have gone home we can d

ding up here in the wind, and I haven't seen the colour of drink since nammet-time today. 'Tis said that the last brew at the Woman is

hings very careless for an o

Klk! I'll sing the 'Jovial Crew,' or any other song, when a we

'd o′ver his le

′ look loo

, he said′, bu

thou′ shou

e Lord. What's the good of Thomasin's cousin Clym a-coming home after the deed's don

is mother a little time, as she mus

-no, not at all," said Grandfer Cantle. "I a

The clear, kingly effulgence that had characterized the majority expressed a heath and furze country like their own, which in one direction extended an unlimited number of miles; the rapid flares and extinctions at other points of the compass showed the lightest of fuel-straw, beanstalks, and the usual waste from arable land. The most enduring of all-steady unaltering eyes like Planets-signified wood, such as hazel-branches, thorn-faggot

a direction precisely opposite to that of the little window in the vale below. Its nearness

re had become sunken and dim it attracted more; some even of the wood fires mor

emingly. I can see a fellow of some sort walking round

stone there,"

I!" said Gra

t fire is not much less than a mile

but not furze," sa

e the old captain's house at Mistover. Such a queer mortal as that man is! To have a little fire inside your own bank and ditch, that n

ay, and is quite tired out," said Grandf

ford good fuel like tha

r," said Fairway. "Not that a body

living up there by herself, and su

Humphrey the furze-cutter; "especially w

let her bonfire burn an't will. Ou

him with his hare eyes. "Don't ye think we'd better get home-along, neighbours

nd," said th

pt up by night except in towns. It should be by

ig-hey, my honey?-before 'tis quite too dark to see how well-favoured you be still, though

she had become aware of his intention. The site of the fire was now merely a circle of ashes flecked with red embers and sparks, the furze having burnt completely away. Once within the circle he whirled her round and round in a dance. She was a woman noisily constructed; in addition to her encl

und with him, her feet playing like drumsticks among the sparks. "My ankles were all in a fever be

ed object among the rest; and in half a minute all that could be seen on Rainbarrow was a whirling of dark shapes amid a boiling confusion of sparks, which leapt around the dancers as high as their waists. The chief noises were women's shrill cries, men's laughter, Susan's stays and pattens, Olly

said one of the

ristian, hastily cl

all lessened

Christian, that I h

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, bless th

ue. What is it?

ied a voice fro

-o-o!" sa

ight's, of Blooms-End?" came to them in the same voice,

, as 'tis getting late?" said Christian. "Not run away

ze, and make a blaze, so that we ca

raiment, and red from top to toe. "Is there a track

ng the path

horses and a van

ck is rough, but if you've got a light your horses may pick along

. I stepped on in front to make sure of the way, as

s sake, I thought, whatever fiery mommet is this come to trouble us? No slight to your looks, reddleman, for ye bain't bad-looking in the groundwo

d Susan Nunsuch, "for I had a dre

ad handkerchief over his head he'd look for all the w

said the young reddleman, smiling

m their sight d

before," said Humphrey. "But where, or

roved to be a well-known and respected widow of the neighbourhood, of a standing which can only be expressed by the word g

; the solitude exhaled from the heath was concentrated in this face that had risen from it. The air with which she looked at the heathmen betokened a certain unconcern at their presence, or at what might be their opinions of her for walking in that lonely spot

id, bring her own tone into a company. Her normal manner among the heathfolk had that reticence which results from the consciousness of superior communicative power. But the e

y. "Mis'ess Yeobright, not ten minutes ago

he want?

dn't t

pose; what it can be I am

ing home at Christmas, ma'am," said Sam, the tur

ve he is comi

fellow by this ti

now," she rep

hitherto maintained. "Mind you don't get lost. Egdon Heth is a bad place to get lost in, and the winds do hu

aid Mrs. Yeobright. "What m

est make, I was scared a little, that's all. Oftentimes if you could see how terrible

rds the fire, where Grandfer Cantle, with some want of originality, w

ed of ye. A reverent old patriarch man as you be-sev

ristian despondingly. "I wouldn't live with him a

welcome Mis'ess Yeobright, and you the venerabl

s Yeobright, that I forget how I'm looked up to by the rest of 'em. My spirits must be wonderful good, yo

oad, towards my niece's new home, who is returning tonight with her husband; and seeing the bonfire and hearing Olly's

'm just thinking of

back to get his van. We heard that your niece and her husband were coming straight home as so

deed," said M

h the furze than you can go with long c

-are you r

ning from your niece's window, see.

of the valley which Fairway had pointed ou