Harriet Martineau

“ She went on quickly enough while she was upon the slope, in the full moonlight, and with the blaze of Ailwin’s fire not far off on her right hand. But she felt the difference when she entered the shade of the trees. It was rather chilly there, and very silent. There was only a rustle in the grass and brambles about her feet, as if she disturbed some small animals hidden there. When she thought she was far enough away from her party not to be heard by them, she began to call softly, hoping that Roger might presently answer, so that she should not have to go much further into the darkness. ”

“ Nothing should make him step into a boat without her. Poor Mildred had fancied, bewildered as she was this morning, that if Oliver knew of what she had done about George, he would think himself justified in leaving her to perish on the hill; and yet she could not help telling him. Her mind was relieved, for the present, and she let him go.
He found Roger where he first looked for him,—near the mummy. The poor lad was too ill to stand; but he lay on the slimy bank, poking and grubbing, with a stick and with his fingers, as deep in the soft soil as he could penetrate. ”

“ Mildred looked behind her, every few minutes, while she worked in the garden, to see whether Roger was not there, and at every rustle that the birds made among the trees on the Red-hill,—the eminence behind the house,—she fancied that some one was hidden there. Oliver let his tools and his alabaster lie hidden, much as he longed to be at work with them. Mildred had lost her greatest treasure,—the white hen. He must take care of his greatest treasure. ”

“ When once this rope was well fastened, Oliver was content to rest himself on the grass beside Geordie, and let the strong Ailwin and little Mildred work as they wished. It surprised him, well as he knew Ailwin, to see the loads she could carry, bringing a good-sized mattress up the bank as easily as he could have carried a pillow. She wrung the wet out of the long piece of home-spun, and spread it out in the sun, to dry as much as it could before dark, and seemed to think no more of it than Mildred did of washing her doll’s petticoat. ”

“ Stephen and Roger were off, like their own wild-ducks,—over the garden hedge, and out of sight. Neighbour Gool declared that if they were once fairly among the reeds in the marsh, it would be sheer waste of time to search for them; for they could dodge and live in the water, in a way that honest people that lived on proper hard ground could not follow. Here was the woman; and yonder was the tent. Revenge might be taken that way, better than by ducking in the ponds after the man and boy. Suppose they took the woman to prison, and made a great fire in the carr, of the tent and everything in it! ”

“ She turned so giddy in a moment that she could not see Ailwin, and so sick that she could not speak to her.
“So you have heard, Mildred,—you have heard, I see by your being so white. Oliver says she has been dead ever so many hours. I say, if we had gone the first thing, instead of staring and poking about yon tumble-down house, we might have saved her. I shall never milk her again,—not a drop!—nor any other either, so far as I see; for there is no saying that we shall ever get away. Here I have not a drop of milk to give you, my dear, though you are as white as the wall.” ”

“ There is no other place. Roger is very unkind: but floods and falling houses are unkinder still. Come, Ailwin, help me with the raft. We must carry away what we can before dark. There will be no house standing to-morrow morning, I am afraid.”
“Sleep on the ground!” exclaimed Ailwin. “Without a roof to cover us! My poor grandfather little thought I should ever come to that.”
“If you will move the beds, you need not sleep on the bare ground,” said Oliver. “Now, Ailwin, don’t you begin to cry. Pray don’t. You are a grown-up woman, and Mildred and I are only children. ”

“ Where is Roger? What is he fit for? Is he awake?”
“Awake! Yes, indeed,” whispered Ailwin, coming close up to the children. “There is more mischief about that boy than you think for. He is now on the stairs, with more mice, and rats, and spiders, and creeping things about him than I ever saw before in all my days. We are like to be devoured as we stand on our feet; to say nothing of what is to become of us if we lie down.”
Mildred looked at her brother in great terror.
“We must get rid of them, if they really do us hurt,” said Oliver, decidedly, though with an anxious look. ”

“ The Red-hill would not be swept away. He could live as he was for a long time to come; till some some steps should be taken for repairing the damage of the flood; till some explorers should arrive in a boat; which he had no doubt would happen soon. It was not about his own safety that Roger was anxious; but it frightened him to think of being entirely alone in such a place as this, with the bodies of all whom he knew best lying under the waters on every side of him. If he could have Oliver with him to speak to, or even little George, it would make all the difference to him. ”

“ Now, Mildred, listen to me,—to the little I can say—for you know I cannot, in this place, stay and talk with you as we should both like, and as we might have done at home. I think you were almost always very kind to Geordie; and I am sure he loved you very dearly. But I have heard mother say that the worst part of losing dear friends is that we have to blame ourselves, more or less, for our behaviour to them,—even to those we loved the very most. So I will not flatter you, dear: though I don’t at all wonder at your being tired of hearing Geordie cry that day. ”

“ I am sure, I wish you were there.”
“Very fine,” said Roger. “He knows I thrashed him; and he does not want any more of it. But I’ll thrash him as long as I live; I tell you that.”
“Oliver does not know about my coming—he is asleep in the tent,” protested Mildred. “Nobody knows of my coming. I don’t believe Oliver would have let me come, if he had known it. Only go and look yourself; and you will see how he lies asleep on the grass. We know you can beat him in fighting, because you are so much bigger; and that is why I cannot bear that he should fight. ”

“ Roger was quite in spirits and good humour. It may seem strange that a boy who was so lazy the day before, as to wish that hares ran about ready roasted, should work so hard this day at so severe a job as making a raft. But it was natural enough. There is nothing interesting to a dull and discontented person, all alone, in preparing a meal for his own self to eat: but there is something animating in planning a clever job, which can be set about immediately—a ready and willing companion being at hand to help, and to talk with. ”

“ As it was, she swayed upon her seat, and was very nearly gone, while the heavy stone slid in, and raised a splash which wetted her from head to foot, and left her trembling in every limb. She had fancied, once or twice before, that the wall shook under her: she was now persuaded that it was all shaking, and would soon be carried quite away. She screamed out to Oliver to come and save her. She must have called very loud; for Ailwin, with George in her arms, was out on the staircase in a moment. ”

“ Ailwin stared at Oliver. It had struck her, and Mildred too, that Oliver seemed to have grown many years older since the flood came. He was no taller, and no stronger;—indeed he seemed to-day to be growing weaker with fatigue; but he was not the timid boy he had always appeared before. He spoke like a man; and there was the spirit of a man in his eyes. It was not a singular instance. There have been other cases in which a timid boy has been made a man of, on a sudden, by having to protect, from danger or in sorrow, some weaker than himself. Roger felt something of the truth ”

“ Your mother is watched, it is my belief, every time she dips her cup; and I in the mill, and you in the garden. There is no hope of keeping anything from our enemies.”
Seeing Oliver look about him uneasily, Mr Linacre reproached himself for having said anything to alarm his timid boy: so he added what he himself always found the most comforting thought, when he felt disturbed at living among unkind neighbours.
“Let them watch us, Oliver. We do nothing that we need be ashamed of. The whole world is welcome to know how we live,—all we do, from year’s end to year’s end.” ”

“ Oliver knew what Mildred was thinking of when he said,—
“We must not dream of getting away on our raft, dear. It would upset in the currents twenty times, between this place and the hills.”
“Well, what of that?” said Roger. “Who wants to get to the hills? We have got all we want for a good while here. We can take our pleasure, and live as free as wild-ducks in a pond that nobody comes near.” ”

“ He was vexed, and said Ailwin was always stupid.
“So she is,” replied Mildred; “but it does not signify now. Look how the water is pouring out of the parlour-window. The meal and grain must have been wet through long ago. Is not that a pretty waterfall? A waterfall from our parlour-window, down upon the tulip-bed! How very odd!”
“If one could think how to feed these poor animals,” said Oliver,—“and the fowls! If there was anything here that one could get for them! One might cut a little grass for the cow;—but there is nothing else.” ”

“ When Roger examined the red precipice from which he looked down upon the rushing stream, he perceived that not a yard of Linacres’ garden could now be in existence. That garden, with its flourishing vegetables, its rare, gay, sweet flowers, and its laden fruit trees,—that garden which he and Stephen could not help admiring, while they told everybody that it had no business in the middle of their carr,—that garden, its earth and its plants, was all spread in ruins over the marsh ”

“ But such fair trials do not suit them, sir. People who creep through drains, to do us mischief, and hide in the reeds when we are up and awake, and come in among us only when we are asleep, are a foe that may easily ruin any honest man, who cannot get protection from the law. They houghed my cow, two years ago, sir.”
“And they mixed all mother’s feathers, for the whole year,” exclaimed Mildred.
“And they blinded my dog,” cried Oliver;—“put out its eyes.”
“Oh! What will they do next?” said Mildred, looking up through her tears at the pastor. ”

“ Oliver was desperate on hearing this. He ran out to see whether he could not, by any means, get into the mill, to set the sails agoing: but there were Stephen and Roger, carrying water, which they threw over all the gypsum that was ground,—floating away as much as they could of it, and utterly spoiling the rest, by turning it into a plaster.
“Did you ever see the like?” cried Ailwin. “And there is nothing master is so particular about as keeping that stuff dry. See the woman, too! How I’d like to tug the hair off her head! She looks badly, poor creature, too.” ”

“ You ought to take care of us, instead of beginning to cry.”
“That is pretty true,” said Ailwin: “but I little thought ever to sleep without a roof over my head.”
“Come, come, there are the trees,” said Oliver. “They are something of a roof, while the leaves are on.”
“And there is all that cloth,” said Mildred; “that immensely long piece of cloth. Would not that make a tent, somehow?”
“Capital!” cried Oliver. “How well we shall be off with a cloth tent! It seems as if that cloth was sent on purpose. It is so spoiled already, that we can hardly do it any harm. ”

“ Further off, a conspicuous object was the elegant crocketed spire of one of the beautiful Lincolnshire churches, standing high, as if inviting those who were dismayed to come and save themselves in the air from the dangers of the waters. Oliver wondered whether any sufferers were now watching the sunrise from the long ridge of the church-roof, or from the windows of the spire. ”

“ Come, you woman,” said he to Nan Redfurn, “make no faces about going to prison, for I am about to give you a ride there.”
“She looks very ill,” thought Oliver,—“not fit to be jolted on a horse.”
“You’ll get no magistrate to send me to prison,” said the woman. “The justices are with the parliament, every one. You will only have to bring me back, and be sorry you caught me, when you see what comes of it.”
“Cannot we take care of her here till father comes home?” said Oliver, seeing that neighbour Gool looked perplexed, and as if he believed what the woman said. ”