Fen

“ For though a boy—a hearty boy in his teens—living say anywhere, can, as a rule, eat, in the exception of boys of the old fen-land, where the eastern breezes blow right off the German Ocean, they were troubled with an appetite which was startling, and might have been condemned but for the fact that it resulted in their growing into magnificent specimens of humanity, six feet high not being considered particularly tall. ”

“ Only the will-o'-wisps that danced fitfully and pallid at night over the treacherous bogs, and the poisonous miasma exhaled from the noxious beds of rotting sedge; only the myriad wild-fowl made the wilderness strange and eerie.
Guthlac was the prime romancist of the Fens, [Pg 198] but others nearly contemporary with him did not altogether lack imagination and inventive powers; as where one of the old monkish chroniclers gravely states that the Fen-folk were born with yellow bellies, like frogs, and were provided with webbed feet to fit them for their watery surroundings. ”

“ A Fenland road is one thing among others peculiar to the Fens. It is a very good illustration of eternity, and goes on, flat and unbending, with a semi-stagnant ditch on either side, as far as eye can reach in the vast solitary expanse, empty save for an occasional ash-tree or group of Lombardy poplars, with perhaps a hillock rising in the distance crowned by a church and a village. ”

“ What have they got to do with it?” cried Squire Winthorpe. “You boys don’t make so much noise. I can’t hear myself speak.”
“Do you hear, Tom, howd thy row, or I’ll send thee home,” said the farmer; “recollect where you be.”
“Yes, father,” said, the lad.
“It wasn’t Tom; it was me,” said Dick quietly.
“Then hold your tongue, sir,” cried the squire. “Now look here, Master Tallington. If a big drain is cut right through the low fen, it will carry off all the water; and where now there’s nothing but peat, we can get acres and acres of good dry land that will graze beasts or grow corn.” ”

“ No one can hear us,” continued the lad eagerly. “Do give me a fencing lesson, Master Leoni. I remember how Saint Simon once said that you were the finest swordsman about the Court.”
“Did he say that?” said the doctor quietly.
“To be sure he did,” cried the lad, drawing his sword and putting himself on guard.—“Come on.”
“Better not now,” said the doctor. “We may awaken the King.” ”

“ Fenn's happiest efforts, and deserves to be read and re-read by every school-boy in the land. We are not exaggerating when we say that Quicksilver has nothing to equal it this season."—Teacher's Aid.
Dick o' the Fens: A Romance of the Great East Swamp. By G. Manville Fenn. With 12 full-page Illustrations by Frank Dadd. Crown 8vo, cloth elegant, olivine edges, 6s.
"We conscientiously believe that boys will find it capital reading. ”

“ There was a heavy dull pulsation in her brain, as she passed on with her father out into the sunshine once again, deafening her to the words he spoke from time to time, while the mountain side seemed to swim around before her and the purple heather to rise and fall in waves till the gap was reached. That pathway to the mine chasm with all its host of terrible recollections brought her back to the present with a shock, and she walked down it clinging to her father’s arm. ”

“ Fenn turned to go. As he closed the door and began to feel his way along the dark passage, he heard the key turn in the lock behind him. The man could not, he felt, have been very badly hurt if he were able to get across the room so quickly. The thought relieved him somewhat. Nobody likes to have the maiming even of the most complete stranger on his mind. ”

“ Then, after a great deal of snubbing from the old gentleman, I was rewarded by a sweet smile of thanks from the lady as I prevailed upon the Don to take my chaise and come on. Got them in at last, after a great deal of ceremonious fencing, and they drove off, but only to stop directly. Old gentleman leaps out, drags sweet girl after him, and goes raging off; and all, I suppose, because he had seen my name upon my leather writing-case; while, for explanation, I have the young lady’s handkerchief, bearing the sweet name of Isa Gernon. ”

“ Just come, have you, sir?”
“Oh, yes, father, just come,” said the young man, with an offensive grin.
“You heard more than you said, sir,” said the Squire, “so we may as well have a few words at once.”
“No, no, no, my dear; pray, pray don’t quarrel with Claud now; I’m sure he wants to do everything that is right.”
“Be quiet, Maria,” cried the Squire, angrily.
“All right, mother; I’m not going to quarrel,” said the son.
“Of course not I only want Claud to understand his position. Look here, sir, you are at an age when a bo—, when a man doesn’t understand the value of money.”
“Oh, I say, guv’nor! ”

“ You know why the old man excluded you.”
“Yes. I had the misfortune to offend him, Horace,” said the visitor with a sigh.
“And now what about Mrs Berens?”
“Ah, yes; a very simple matter. You are a great friend of hers?”
“I am her doctor.”
“Yes, yes,” said the other, with an unpleasant chuckle, which made North long to kick him; “but if report is true, you are going to marry the handsome widow.”
“Then report is not true,” said North angrily. “Now to business.” ”

“ Fenno. "What do you say to a meeting at my office—all of us?"
"You will need all," Pease answered.
"We can settle everything," went on Fenno in his heavy voice. "We will have it all in writing—I'll have a stenographer on hand."
A stenographer! Judith started with eagerness, and Mr. Fenno turned to her. "What do you say?" he asked. "Will you help us?"
Her eyes sparkled. "Gladly!" she cried.
"Good!" he said bluffly. "Nine o'clock at my office. Pease, have everybody there, except Mather, at three; George at half-past." Pease nodded, and Mr. Fenno smote him on the shoulder. "Come, cheer up, man! ”

“ Fenja, one of the two giantesses who turned the stones of the mill Grotti for King Fródi, 162-169, 174.
Fenris-Wolf or Fenrir, 24, 39, 42-45, 50, 78-81, 83, 84, 101, 113, 114.
Fensalir, Frigg's abode, 45, 71, 129. ”

“ You smell a rose through a fence:
If two should smell it, what matter? ”

“ Ride at any fence hard enough, and the chances are you'll get over. The harder you ride the heavier the fall, if you get a fall; but the greater the chance of your getting over. ”

“ The only fence against the world, is, a thorough knowledge of it, into which a young gentleman should be enter'd by degrees, as he can bear it; and the earlier the better, so he be in safe and skilful hands to guide him. ”

“ He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours." ”

“ "What in the world, Wimsey, are you doing in this Morgue?" demanded Captain Fentiman, flinging aside the "Evening Banner" with the air of a man released from an irksome duty. ”

“ Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms,
Sure to the swain; the circling fence shut up;
And instant Winter's utmost rage defy'd. ”

“ What say you to young Master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May: he will 60 carry’t, he will carry’t; ’tis in his buttons; he will carry’t. ”

“ All day wings beat above it hazy with speed; long flights of cranes glimmer in the twilight. By night one wakes to hear the clanging geese go over. One wishes for, but gets no nearer speech from those the reedy fens have swallowed up. ”

“ Nobody shall see what it is. And look here: you keep me alive and well, and you shall have anything you want, doctor. Parson’s master in the church, but I’m master outside, and in the tombs, and in the old Candlish morslem. Like to see in it, doctor?”
“Pah! not I. See enough of the miserable breed alive without seeing them dead. Good morning.”
He remounted his horse, and rode out of the village by the main road, to draw rein at a pretty ivy-covered villa, whose well-kept garden and general aspect betokened wealth and some refinement.
“Mrs Berens at home?” ”

“ That seemed to him to be all that he could do, till it occurred to him that the room felt hot and stuffy, so he threw open the window, fastening back the casement, and stood gazing out at a great rugged old Scotch fir not many feet away, one apparently of great age, and which cut off a part of the view over the undulating greenery of the forest.
Quite satisfied now, and with a sigh of relief, the boy went out to the landing, carefully locked the door and pocketed the key.
“Let ’em think,” he muttered with a grim smile upon his lips, “it’s a curiosity I found in the woods.” ”

“ "I can repeat the very words you were saying. 'Three foggy mornings and one rainy day Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.' Think of it, talk like that at such a time! What had how long it takes a birch to rot To do with what was in the darkened parlour. You couldn't care! The nearest friends can go With anyone to death, comes so far short They might as well not try to go at all. ”

“ I can breathe freely now. I must tell my brother Henry that the road to his Court is a disgrace, and travellers’ lives not safe. Now, in my kingdom of beautiful France every road to the capital from the seaports is— Why are you looking at me like that, Saint Simon?”
“Well, sir,” said the young man bluntly, “I was thinking about two or three cases where people have been waylaid and plundered and—”
“Yes, yes, yes,” said the King impatiently; “I think that there was a case or two, but surely we are better than this. Well, Denis, boy; how’s the bad arm?” ”

“ Sometimes we shall be thirsty.”
“And then we’ll lie down on the bank of a river and drink,” cried Phil, clapping his hands.
“To be sure—drink the beautiful clear water. We can sleep, too, in the fir woods. The soft fir needles make a beautiful aromatic bed.”
“What’s aromatic?” said Phil, with his eyes sparkling.
“Sweet-scented and spicy.”
“I shall like that,” cried the boy; “only won’t the fir needles prick when we undress?”
“But we shan’t undress, my boy.”
“What fun! Father will laugh when I tell him by and by. But you don’t say a word about what we are to eat, Dr Martin?” ”

“ The lonely road seemed well fitted for contemplation, and the thoughts which passed through his breast were many, but none so serious as those which oppressed him when, tired with his long journey, he approached the palings which skirted the park of Merland Castle, stopping at length, in spite of himself, to look over at the nearest point to the house, and gaze long and earnestly at the windows, when suddenly a wild, appealing cry for help smote his ear. ”

“ Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through the dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart,—its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life. ”

“ We’re not dressed up now, and we look like any one else.”
“I hope not,” said Andrew, drawing himself up.
Frank laughed, and his companion looked nettled.
“It is nothing to laugh at. Do you suppose I want to be taken for one of the mob?”
“Of course I don’t. But, I say, look. I saw a fish rise with a regular flop. That must be a carp. They are fond of leaping out of the water with a splash. I say, this isn’t a lake, is it? Looks like a river.” ”

“ I said as I regularly gloated over the lovely bird with its orange plumage and soft wheel-like crest of feathers from beak to nape. “This must go in your net, Pete; but you must carry it very carefully.”
“I will, Master Nat. Going back now?”
“Back? No,” I cried. “We must follow up that other one. I saw which way it flew. Uncle will be in ecstasies at our having found a place where they come.”
“Will he, sir? Thought it was golden-green birds with long tails. Quizzals. That one’s got hardly any tail at all.”
“He wants these too,” I said, closing the breech of my gun. “Come along.” ”

“ Every now and then, though, the lad’s progress was hindered by the throbbing of his wound, and the giddy, faint sensation which followed; and twice over, when his forehead turned damp, he threw himself down amongst the ferns to lie for a few minutes on the cool moist earth, with the result each time that the sensation of swimming and sickness passed off.
Then he rose again, and plodded on, getting nearer and nearer to home; but the darkness increased till it became hard work to avoid the stones which lay about, and his way beneath the trees near the river grew solemn and gloomy in the extreme. ”

“ The lark burst forth with one of its sweetest strains as it heard its master’s voice, and then, rising, the curate left the attic, closing the door after him slowly, and peering through the narrowing slit to look upon the cripple eagerly devouring a page of the work he had brought.
The Frenchwoman was upon the first landing, and saluted the curate with a sinister meaning smile as he passed her and thoughtfully descended.
“But he is mean, I tell you,” cried ma mère angrily, as she once more stood beside her son. “What does he give us but words—words which are worth nothing? ”

“ an I thought he had been valiant, and so cunning in fence, I'd have seen him damned ere I'd have challenged him. ”

“ Have the pony if you like.”
“Yes, take her, boy,” said the doctor. “She is getting too fat with good living. No; I forgot she was to be taken to the blacksmith’s to be shod this afternoon.”
“All right, uncle, I’ll walk over,” cried Vane, “I shall enjoy it.”
“Well, it will not do you any harm. Go across the rough land at the edge of the forest. You may find a few ferns worth bringing for the greenhouse. And pray try for a few fungi.” ”

“ The heat was great and it was rather exhausting toil, but at every turn the beauties of the place were quite startling to Mark in their novelty. Over the clear sun-spangled stream drooped the loveliest of ferns, whose fronds were like the most delicate lace; while by way of contrast other ferns clung to the boles of trees, that were dark-green and forked like the horns of some huge stag; great masses and clusters, six or seven feet long, hung here and there pendent from the old stumps. ”