Chapter XVIII

Two days later the fell behind the Ghyll was a scene of unusual animation. It was the day of the shearing. The sheep, visibly whiter and more fleecy for a washing of some days before, had been gathered into stone folds. Clippers were seated on creels ranged about a turf fire, over which a pot of tar hung from a triangle of boughs. Boy "catchers" brought up the sheep, one by one, and girl "helpers" carried away the fleeces, hot and odorous, and hung them over the open barn doors. As the sheep were stripped, they were tugged to the fire and branded from the bubbling tar with the smet mark of the Ritsons. The metallic click of the shears was in the air, and over all was the blue sky and the brilliant sunshine.

In a white overall, stained with patches of tar and some streaks of blood, smudged with soap and scraps of the clinging wool, Parson Christian moved among the shearers, applying plentiful doses of salve from a huge can to the snips made in the skin of the sheep by the accidents of the shears.

"We might have waited for the maister afore shearing--eh?" said Reuben, from one of the creels.

"He'll be here before we finish, please the Lord," answered the parson.

"Is it to-day you're to gang for him?"

"Yes, this afternoon."

"A daub on this leg, parson, where she kicked--deuced take her!... It's like you'll bring him home in a car?"

"Ay; Randal Alston has loaned me his mare."

"Why, man, what a upshot we'll have, for sure--bacon pie and veal and haggis, and top stannin pie and puddings, I reckon.... Just a hand to her leg, parson, while I strip the coat and waistcoat off this black-faced herdwick.... Is the mistress to come home, too?"

"Nay, Reuben, Mrs. Ritson has gone back to where she came from."

"Weel, it's no'but naturable, after all that's happent.... Easy now ... be quiet, wilta ... dusta want another snip, eh?... And young Mistress Greta--it's like she'll be mistress now?"

"It's very likely she'll come to the Ghyll with her husband, Reuben."

"God bless her! And there's been no luck on the land since he left it--and everything a fault, too.... There, she's stripped. Away with her, Natt, man, and de'il tak' her."

In the afternoon a vast crowd of men, women and children had gathered once more about the old town-hall at Keswick. They laughed and bantered and sung. Presently the door of the hall was thrown open, and two men came out. One was Paul Ritson, no longer clad as a convict; the other was Parson Christian. The people hailed them with a mighty shout, lifted them into a gig that was drawn up in the market-place, took out the horses and crowded into the shafts. Then they set off with a great cheer through the town and the country road, the dust rising in clouds behind them.

They took the road to the west of the valley, and as they passed under the wood, an old man, much bent, was easing a smoking fire in the charcoal pit. He paused and raised himself, his iron rod in his hand, and lifted his heavy eyes toward the clamorous company. The gig flew past with its shouts, its cheers, and its noisy laughter, and the old man turned silently back to his work.

When they came near to the vicarage, Paul leaped from the carriage over the heads of the men who pulled it, vaulted the gate, and bounded into the house. There was one who waited for him there, and in an instant she was locked close in his arms. "At last!" he whispered. Her heart overflowed; she dropped her fair young head on his heaving breast, and wept sweet tears.

Parson Christian came rolling up the path surrounded by a tumultuous throng. Foremost and lustiest were the blacksmith and the miller, and close behind came the landlord and the postman. All were shouting as if their brassy throats might crack.

There was high revel at the Ghyll that evening. First came the feasting in the old kitchen: huge rounds of beef, quarters of lamb, pease, and sweet puddings and pies. Then came the dancing in the barn, lighted by candles in cloven sticks, and lanterns of turnips that were scooped out hollow.

But at the vicarage Paul and Greta sat alone in silence and with clasped hands. Parson Christian came in and out at intervals, gossiping cheerily of the odds and ends of daily life, as if its even tenor had never been disturbed. They supped together, and sat on till midnight; and then the old Christian took down his green tome and wrote:

"June 30.--So Paul being to return home after his long absence, I
spent the forenoon on the fell shearing, and earned a stone of wool
and a windle of rye. In the afternoon I set forward toward Keswick,
wherefor Randal Alston had loaned me his mare and gig. At the Flying
Horse I lighted not, but stood while I drank a pot of ale with John
Proudfoot and Richard Parkinson and a neighbor that comes to-morrow
to thatch the low barn for me. Then direct to Keswick, where there
was a great concourse, and a hearty welcome, and much rejoicings
that warmed me and came nigh to break me withal. Got son Paul at
last, and would have driven direct home, but the good folk were not
minded that it should be so, and naught would do but that they must
loose the mare and run in the shafts. So we reached home about six,
and found all well, and my love Greta, after long waiting in her
closet, very busy with Paul, who had run in ahead of me. So I went
out again and foddered and watered the mare, for Peter is sometimes a
sad fatch and will not always give a horse what is worth its trouble
in the eating. And being thrang this evening a-mending the heels of
my old clock boots with lath nails, whereof I bought a pennyworth at
Thomas Seed's shop in the market-place, I saw little of Paul, but
left him to Greta. Then supped, and read a psalm and prayed in my
family, and sat till full midnight. So I retire to my lodging-room,
at peace with all the world, and commend my all to God. The Lord
forgive the sins of me and mine that we have committed in these our
days of trial. Blessed be God who has wrought our victory, and
overcome our enemies and brought us out more than conquerors.

Amen."

Parson Christian had put down the pen, and was sprinkling the writing with sand from a pepper-castor, when Brother Peter came in with candles in his hand and a letter under his abridged arm. "Laal Tom o' Dint gave me this for thee," he said to Paul, and dropped the letter on to his knees. "I was sa thrang with all their bodderments, that I don't know as I didna forget it."

Parson Christian returned the green-clad book to its shelf, took up his candle, bid good-night, and went to bed.

Brother Peter shambled out, and then Paul and Greta were left alone.

Paul opened the letter. It was inclosed in a sheet of paper that bore the stamp of the Convent of St. Margaret, and these words only, "Sent on by Sister Grace." Paul began to read the letter aloud, Greta looking over his shoulder. But as he proceeded his voice faltered, and then he stopped. Then, in silence, the eyes of both traversed the written words. They ran:

"Mother, I have wronged you deeply, and yours is a wrong that may
never be repaired. The past does not return, and what is done is done
with. It is not allowed to us to raze out the sins and the sufferings
of the days that are gone; they stand and will endure. I am not so
bad a man as perhaps I seem; but of what avail is it to defend myself
now? and who would believe me? My life has been one long error, and
the threads of my fate have been tangled. Have I not passed before
our little world for a stern and callous man? Yet the blight of my
soul has been passion. Yearning for love where love could never be
returned, I am the ruins of what I might have been. If I did wrong
knowingly, it was not until passion mastered me; if I saw things as
they did not exist, it was because passion made me blind. Mother, if
there is One above to watch and judge our little lives, surely He
sees this, and reckons the circumstances with the deed.

"Tell her that I wish her peace. If I were a man used to pray,
perhaps I would ask Heaven to bless her. But my heart is barren of
prayer. And what, after all, boots my praying? I have given her back
at last to the love of a noble man. And now my wasted life is done,
and this is the end--a sorry end!

"Mother, I shall not live to suffer the earthly punishment of my
crime. Never fear--my hand shall not be lifted against myself. Be
sure of that, whatever else may seem doubtful. But very soon this
passionate and rebellious soul will stand for judgment before its
awaiting God.

"Farewell, my mother, farewell!"