Pomona

“ The fame of Pomona's fruits came to the ear of Vertumnus and he was suddenly possessed of a great desire to share the orchard and its care with her. He sent messengers in the form of the birds to plead his cause with Pomona, but she was just as cruel to him as she had been to the family of Pan and to her own sisters. She had made up her mind that she would never share her orchard with any one in the world. ”

“ Lady Julia Majendie had a little fixed smile on her lips.
The farm-servants were all watching at the windows to see the great ladies get into their coach, to see it wheel about with the four horses clattering and curveting. Pomona and Lord Blantyre were alone. She stood, her back against the wall, her head held high—not in pride, for Pomona knew no pride, but with the natural carriage of her perfect strength and balance. Her eyes looked forth, grieving yet untearful, her mouth was set into lines of patient endurance. He regarded her darkly. ”

“ He appeared with a pruning hook and a ladder as if he were a vine dresser ready and willing to climb up into her trees and help her gather the harvest. But Pomona scorned his services. Then Vertumnus trudged along as a discharged soldier in need of alms, and again with a fishing rod and a string of fish to exchange for only one apple. Each time that Vertumnus came disguised to Pomona he found her more beautiful and her orchard a place of greater plenty than ever; but the richer her harvest the deeper was her greed. She refused to share even a half of one of her apples. ”

“ I asked.
"Oh, that's the other fellow," said Pomona. "He's no harm." And then, as the tramp made a movement as if he would try to come down and make a rush for safety during the absence of the dog, she called out: "Here, boy! here, boy!" and in an instant Lord Edward was again raging at his post at the foot of the apple-tree, followed, as before, by Euphemia and Pomona. ”

“ I said.
"Pleased, sir?" replied Pomona; "they're tickled to death."
"But how do you like having strangers telling you what to do?" asked Euphemia.
"Oh, well," said Pomona, "he's no stranger, and she's real pleasant, and if it gives you a good camp out, I don't mind." ”

“ Pomona had a temple at Rome, and a regular priest, who offered sacrifices to her divinity for the preservation of fruit: she is generally represented sitting on a basket, full of flowers and fruit, holding a bough in one hand, and apples in the other.
Vertumnus is represented under the figure of a young man, crowned with various plants, bearing in his left hand fruits, and in his right a horn of abundance.
The Goddess Pomona is often confounded with Autumn, Ceres with Summer, and Flora with Spring. ”

“ If Pomona carried any savours beyond those of lavender and the herbs she loved, it was of good, sweet apples and fragrant, burnt sugar. But she stood in her humiliation, and felt herself more unfit for all the high company than the beasts of her farmyard.
"You must not take it unkindly, child," said Lady Julia, with her cruel little laugh and her soft voice; "but my Lord Blantyre, you see, hath ever a great distaste of all that is homely and uncomely. He hath suffered extraordinarily in that respect of late. We must humour him." ”

“ She straightened herself to look out across the valley at the eastern sky; all sights of nature were beautiful to her and gave her a joy that, yet, she had never learned to put into words, hardly into thoughts. Now, as she stood gazing, some one came along the road that skirted the orchard, and, catching sight of her, halted and became lost in contemplation of her, even as she of the sunrise pageant.
As evidently as Pomona, in her homespun skirt and bodice, belonged to the farmhouse, so did he to the great castle near by. ”

“ He was dressed, from head to foot, in a suit of clothes belonging to Pomona's baby; the glowing fuzz on his head was brushed and made as smooth as possible, while his little muslin sleeves were tied up with blue ribbon.
I stood speechless at the sight.
“Don't he look nice?” said Euphemia, standing him up on her knees. “It shows what good clothes will do. I'm glad I helped Pomona make up so many. He's getting ever so fond of me, ze itty Patsy, watsy! See how strong he is! He can almost stand on his legs! Look how he laughs! He's just as cunning as he can be. ”

“ Although chiefly worshipped in the country, Pomona had a special priest at Rome, the flamen Pomonalis, and a sacred grove near Ostia, called the Pomonal. She was represented as a beautiful maiden, with fruits in her bosom and a pruning-knife in her hand. ”

“ Where did you tell them we were?"
"They didn't say how long they was goin' to stay," answered Pomona. "I told them you had gone to be with some friends in the country, and that I didn't know whether you'd be home to-night or not."
"How could you tell them such a falsehood?" cried Euphemia.
"That was no falsehood," said Pomona; "it was as true as truth. If you're not your own friends, I don't know who is. And I wasn't a-goin' to tell the boarder where you was till I found out whether you wanted me to do it or not. And so I left 'em and run over to old John's, and then down here." ”

“ Pomona frequently went into Kensington Gardens, and laid traps for opera singers who might be sojourning in London. She would take Little Kensington into the gardens, and, placing her carefully in the corner of a bench, would retire to a short distance and pretend to be absorbed in a book, while her sharp eyes kept up the watch for a long-haired tenor, or a beautifully dressed soprano, who should suddenly rush out from the bushes and seize the child. ”

“ So you see what good comes of mating two beings--the vine and the elm-tree. But you, my dear, refuse to be mated, refuse to be wedded, refuse even to know one who might be a sweetheart for you! Listen! Consent to having an old woman like me make a match for you!"
Pomona was so surprised to have someone talk to her in this strain that she sank down on the grass beside the old woman. "Be wise and choose Vertumnus! I know the lad well--I know him as well as I know myself! He is a lad who does not wander idly through the world. He has wide spaces to live in, and he dwells near at hand! ”

“ It was a golden day of joy in the lonely farmhouse.
On the fourth morning, however, he wakened to a mood of seriousness, not to say ill-temper. His first words were to request writing paper and a quill, ink and the great seal that hung on his watch chain.
Pomona stood by while he wrote; helped him with paper and wax. She saw into how deep a frown his brows were contracted, and her heart seemed altogether to fail her. She expected the end; it was coming swiftly, and not as she expected it.
“May I trespass on your kindness so far as to send a horseman with this letter to the castle?” ”

“ And with them was a very fine lady—a stranger to any of the farm, a little lady with dark hair in ringlets, and high plumes to a great hat, and a dress that shone with as many pale colours as a pigeon's breast. She sniffed, and "Oh!" cried she in very high, loud tones, pressing a vinaigrette to her nose, "can my poor brother be in such a place, "and yet alive?"
"Hush, madam!" said Lord Majendie somewhat testily, for Pomona stood in the door. "I am sure we owe naught but gratitude to this young woman." ”

“ Witch:
Vertumnus, now if you are wise,
You’ll not forget to wear disguise.
Vertumnus:
In disguise I’ll journey, you understand,
To seek again Pomona’s hand. Scene III
[Pomona’s home in the woods. Pomona seated by spinning wheel. A knock is heard, enter Vertumnus as ploughman.]
Vertumnus: Fair Pomona, I can not help but sing today; I come to tell you of all the beauties of spring. If you will come with me to the fields you will see new life returning everywhere. In every [59] little blade of grass upspringing, in every mellow bird note, there is nature’s call. ”

“ Thus selfish is maternal love.
Pomona bore up better under the loss than did Jonas. Neither of them gave up the search for a day; but Jonas, haggard and worn, wandered aimlessly about the city, visiting every place into which he imagined a child might have wandered, or might have been taken, searching even to the crypt in the Guildhall and the Tower of London. Pomona's mind worked quite as actively as her husband's body. She took great care of "Little Kensington," as she called the strange child from the place where she had been found; and therefore could not go about as Jonas did. ”

“ I said, “or even the child of one of us, by a former marriage, it would be a different thing; but to give yourself up so entirely to Pomona's baby, seems, to me, unreasonable. Indeed, I never heard of any case exactly like it. It is reversing all the usages of society for the mistress to take care of the servant's baby.”
“The usages of society are not worth much, sometimes,” said Euphemia, “and you must remember that Pomona is a very different kind of a person from an ordinary servant. ”

“ It appeared to be accepted as a foregone conclusion by Euphemia and Pomona that the latter, with her husband and child, should accompany us; but of this I could not, at first, see the propriety.
"We shall not want servants on a trip like that," I said; "and although I like Jonas and Pomona very much, they are not exactly the people I should prefer as travelling companions."
"If you think you are going to leave Pomona behind," said Euphemia, "you are vastly mistaken. Oceans and continents are free to her, and she will follow us at a distance if we don't let her go with us. ”

“ From the first, I felt inclined to order Pomona, if she could not attain the power of silent perusal, to cease from reading altogether; but Euphemia would not hear to this.
“Poor thing!” said she; “it would be cruel to take from her her only recreation. And she says she can't read any other way. You needn't listen if you don't want to.” ”

“ As she sat down on the little oaken stool, where he could see her, the light fell on her face, and from behind her the fire shot ruddily in her crown of hair.
“I remember you now,” said he, lifting himself on his elbow. “You stood in the sunrise gathering apples for preserve; you are the nymph of the orchard.”
He fell back, with a sigh of satisfaction. “And your name is Pomona,” said he.
The girl, her capable, work-marked hands lying folded on her knee, sat in absolute stillness; but her heart was beating stormily under the folds of her kerchief. ”

“ CHAPTER V. POMONA PRODUCES A PARTIAL REVOLUTION IN RUDDER GRANGE.
Euphemia began to take a great deal of comfort in her girl. Every evening she had some new instance to relate of Pomona's inventive abilities and aptness in adapting herself to the peculiarities of our method of housekeeping.
“Only to think!” said she, one afternoon, “Pomona has just done another VERY smart thing. You know what a trouble it has always been for us to carry all our waste water upstairs, and throw it over the bulwarks. Well, she has remedied all that. ”

“ We discussed the matter very anxiously, and finally concluded that under the circumstances, and considering what Pomona had said about our whereabouts, it would be well for us to stay where we were and for Pomona to take charge of the visitors. If they returned to the city that evening, she was to give them a good supper before they went, sending John to the store for what was needed. If they stayed all night, she could get breakfast for them.
“We can write,” said Euphemia, “and invite them to come and spend some days with us, when we are at home and everything is all right. ”

“ She sat much in the orchard the spring that I was born.”
“Ay,” he mused. “So thy mother was book-learned and fanciful!” Then briskly he asked her: “Wouldst thou not like to know my name, Pomona? Unless, indeed, you know it already?”
She shook her head.
“Why, what a woman are you! In spite of apples, no daughter of Eve at all?”
She still shook her head, and, smiling faintly, “To me it could make no difference,” she said.
“Well, now you shall know,” he said, “and take it to your maiden dreams. I am Rupert, Earl of Blantyre.” ”

“ But she felt herself in contact with someone very different from the Poet; with quite another poet who sped Pomona down orchard aisles catching at the weighted boughs for the joy of hearing the thump of falling apples, and turning with a laugh to glance at the shower of ruddy fruit. A lively young person, this Pomona; a spirited and agile being, half-real, half-mythical. A [107] series of quatrains, under the caption “In September,” described the many-named goddess as the unknown poet had observed her in her canoe at night ”

“ True to his character he took many forms to gain Pomona's love. Now he was a ploughman (spring) , now a fisherman (summer) , now a reaper (autumn) .
At last he took the likeness of an old woman (winter) , and went to gossip with Pomona. After sounding her mind and finding her averse to marriage, the woman pleaded for Vertumnus's success.
"Is not he the first to have the fruits which are thy delight? And does he not hold thy gifts in his joyous right hand?"
Ovid: Vertumnus and Pomona. ”

“ Aleshine come, like Pomona, from reality, from two middle-aged women who knew too little of the world outside of their village ever to be surprised at anything which could possibly happen to them elsewhere. ”

“ Then for the third band, came the goddess Pomona, with her Naïads, or water nymphs, which did bring the last offering of fruits. And this goddess was the daughter of Donna Beatrix Pacecho, Comtesse d’Autremont, lady-in-waiting of Queen Eleanor, a child at that time of some nine years old. [150*] She it is that is now wife of the Admiral de Chastillon, he having wedded her as his second wife. ”