Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor

f young grass and mould, and a little girl kneeling at my side was

as I opened my eyes and looked at her; '

, I wandered with my hazy eyes down the black shower of her hair, as to my jaded gaze it seemed; and where it fell on the turf, among it (like an early star) was the first primrose of the season. And since that day I think of her, through all the rough storms of my life, when I see an early p

, being conscious of my country-brogue, lest she should cease to like me. But she clapped her hands, an

ry right to ask me; 'and how did you come here,

id; 'they are loaches for my mother.

But how your feet are bleeding! oh, I must tie them up for you.

ich enough to buy all this great meadow, if

I cannot bear to see your feet. Oh, please to

oose-grease to them. But how you are looking at me! I never saw

ging her head so that I could see only her forehead and eyelashes; 'if y

ore. Young and harmless as she was, her name alone made guilt of her. Nevertheless I could not help lo

never done any harm. I will give you all my fish Lorna, an

eemed to be a very odd thing, when I came to think of it, because I hated kissing so, as all honest boys must do. But she touched m

ed, and I gazed at my legs and was sorry. For although she was not at all a proud child (at any rate in her countenance), yet I knew that she was by birth a thousand years in front of me. They might have taken and framed me, or (which would be mor

ouched with wet where she had tended me so, behold her dress was pretty enough for the queen of all the angels. The colours were bright and rich indeed, and the substance very sumptuous, yet simple and free from tinsel stuff, and matching most harmoniously. All from her waist to her neck was white, plaited in close like a

such a little girl, eight years old or thereabouts, she turned to the stream in a

ing. But she did not call me back at all, as I had made sure she would do; moreover, I knew that to try the descent was almost cert

y did you ever come here? Do you know what they

y hard; or me, at least.

d bury us here by the water; and the wate

hould they

l us both in a moment. Yes, I like you very much'-for I was teasing her to say it-'very much indeed, and I will call you Joh

ever saw any one like you, and I must come back again to-morrow, and so must you, to see me; and I will bring you such

og. There is not a dog in the valley.

they are, Lorna! And I will bring you the lovel

o terror. She shrank to me, and looked up at me, with such a power of weakness, that I at once made up my mind to save her or to die with her. A

ll. I can carry you easily; an

ll tell you what to do. They are only lookin

rged the meadow, about fifty yards away from us. I

y will see me crossing

way out from the top of it; they would kill me i

and unready. But I drew her behind the withy-bushes, and close down to the water, where it was quiet and shelving deep, ere it came to the lip of the chasm. Here they could not see either of us from the upp

other side of the water, not bearing any fire-arms, but looking lax and jovial, as if they were come from riding and a dinner

o me, with her soft cheek on my rough one, and her little heart beating against

t to do. I must get into the w

e meadow there. But how bitt

o it, sooner than I could tell h

as she crept away with a childish twist hiding her white front f

I, being in the channel of it, could see every ripple, and twig, and rush, and glazing of twilight above it, as bright as in a picture; so that to my ignorance there seemed no chance at all but what the men must find me. For all this

hose beauty and whose kindliness had made me yearn to be with her. And then I knew that for her sake I was bound to be brave and hide myself. She w

gazed awhile at her fairness and her innocence. Then he caught her up in his arms, and kisse

ed to his comrades; 'fast asleep, by God, and hearty! Now I have first claim t

hair fetched out, like a cloud by the wind behind her. This way of her going vexed me so, that I leaped upright in the water, and must have been spied by some of them, but for their haste to the wine-bottle. Of their little queen th

est and most fierce of them, turned and put up a hand to me, and

to have more to say to her. Her voice to me was so different from all I had ever heard before, as might be a sweet s

or mother's fagot. Then as daylight sank below the forget-me-not of stars, with a

managed to crawl from the bank to the ni

land-yards of distance; nevertheless, I entered well, and held o

k who shall love to read this history. For hearing a noise in front of me, and like a coward not knowing where, but afraid to turn round or think of it, I felt myself going down

cross with vaults of rock, and carrying no image, neither showing ma

and the faint light heaving wavily on the silence of this gulf,

voice (for she could call any robin), and gathering quick warm comfort, sprang up the steep way towards the starlight. Climbing back, as the