Chapter 1 of Sylvia's Lovers On the north-eastern shores of England there is a town called Monkshaven, containing at the present day about 15,000 inhabitants. There were, however, but half the number at the end of the last century, and it was at that period that the events narrated in the following pages occurred. Monkshaven was a name not unknown in the history of England, and traditions of its having been the landing place of a throneless queen were current in the town. At that time there had been a fortified castle on the heights above it, the side of which was now occupied by a deserted manor house, and at an even earlier date than the arrival of the queen and co-evil, with the most ancient remains of the castle, a great monastery had stood on those cliffs, overlooking the vast ocean that blended with the distant sky. Monkshaven itself was built by the site of the D, just where the river falls into the German ocean. The principal street of the town ran parallel to the stream, and smaller lanes branched out of this, and straggled up the sides of the steep hill, between which and the river the houses were pent in. There was a bridge across the D, and consequently a bridge street running at right angles to the high street, and on the south side of the stream there were a few houses of more pretension, around which lay gardens and fields. It was on this side of the town that the local aristocracy lived, and two were the great people of this small town, not the younger branches of the county families that held hereditary state in their manor houses on the white bleak moors, that shut in Monkshaven, almost as effectually on the landside, as ever the waters did on the seaboard. No, these old families kept aloof from the unsavory, yet adventurous trade, which brought wealth to generation after generation of certain families in Monkshaven. The magnates of Monkshaven were those who had the largest number of ships engaged in the whaling trade. Something like the following was the course of life with the Monkshaven lad of this class. He was apprenticed as a sailor to one of the great ship owners, to his own father possibly, along with twenty other boys, or it might be even more. During the summer months he and his fellow apprentices made voyages to the Greenland Seas, returning with their cargoes in the early autumn, and employing the winter months in watching the preparation of the oil from the blubber in the marching sheds, and learning navigation from some quaint but experienced teacher, half schoolmaster, half sailor, who seasoned his instructions by stirring narrations of the wild adventures of his youth. The house of the ship owner to whom he was apprenticed was his home, and that of his companions, during the adult season between October and March. The domestic position of these boys varied according to the premium paid. Some took rank with the sons of the family, others were considered as little better than servants. Yet once on board an equality-prevade, in which, if any claimed superiority, it was the bravest and brightest. After a certain number of voyages the Mankshaven lad would rise by degrees to be captain, and as such would have a share in the venture. All these profits, as well as all his savings, would go towards building a whaling vessel of his own, if he was not so fortunate as to be the child of a ship owner. At the time of which I write there was but little division of labour in the Mankshaven whale fishery. The same man might be the owner of six or seven ships, any of which he himself was fitted by education and experience to command. In the master of his core of apprentices, each of whom paid a pretty sufficient premium, and the proprietor of the mulching sheds into which his cargos of blubber and grey-bone were conveyed to be fitted for sale. It was no wonder that large fortunes were acquired by the ship owners, nor that their houses on the south side of the river Dee were stately mansions, full of handsome and substantial furniture. It was also not surprising that the whole town had an amphibious appearance, to a degree unusual even in the sea port. Everyone depended on the whale fishery, and almost every male inhabitant had been, or hoped to be, a sailor. Down by the river the smell was almost intolerable to any but Mankshaven people during certain seasons of the year, but in these unsavory states the old man and children lounge for hours, almost as if they reveled in the odors of train oil. This is perhaps enough of a description of the town itself. I have said that the country for miles all around was moorland. High above the level of the sea towered the purple crags, whose summits were crowned with greenshore that stood down the sides of the score a little way in grassy veins. Here and there a brook forced its way from the heights down to the sea, making its channel into a valley more or less broad in long process of time. And in the moorland hollows, as in these valleys, trees and unnerved grew and flourished, so that while on the bare swells of the high land you shivered at the waste desolation of the scenery, when you dropped into these wooded bottoms you were charmed with the nestling shelter which they gave. But above and around these rare and fertile mails there were moors for many a mile. Here and there bleak enough, with the red freestone cropping out above the scanty urbage. Then perhaps there was a brown tract of peed and bark, uncertain footing for the pedestrian who tried to make a shortcut to his destination. Then on the highest sandy soil there was the purple lynn, a common species of heather, growing a beautiful wild exurience. Tufts of fine elastic grass were occasionally to be found, on which the little black-faced sheep browsed. But either this candy food or their goat-like agility kept them in a lean condition that did not promise much for the butcher, nor yet was their wool of a quality fine enough to make them profitable in that way to their owners. In such districts there is little population at the present day. There was much less in the last century, before agriculture was sufficiently scientific to have a chance of contending with such natural disqualifications as the moors presented, and when there were no facilities of rail routes to bring sportsmen from a distance to enjoy the shooting season and make an annual demand for accommodation. There were old stone halls in the valleys. There were bare farmhouses to be seen on the moors at long distances apart, with small stacks of coarse poor hay and almost larger stacks of turf for winter fuel in their farm yards.  All the fences were turf banks, with loose stones piled into walls at the top of these. There was comparative fertility and luxuriance down below in the rare green dates. The Noah meadows stretching along the Brookside seemed as though the cows could really satisfy their hunger in the deep-wrenched grass, whereas, on the higher lands, the scanty urbage was hardly worse the fatigue of moving about in search of it. Even in these bottoms, the piping sea winds, following the current of the stream, stunted and cut low any trees. But still, there was rich thick underwood tangled and tied together with brambles and bryorose and honeysuckle, and if the farmer in these comparatively happy valleys had had wife or daughter who cared for gardening, many a flower would have grown in the western or southern side of the rough stone house. But at that time, gardening was not a popular art in any part of England, in the north it is not yet. Noble men and gentlemen may have beautiful gardens, but farmers and day laborers care little for them north of the trend, which is all I can answer for. A few berry bushes, a black carpentry or two, the leaves to be used in heightening the flavor of tea, the food is medicinal for coals and sore throats, a potato ground, and this was not so common at the close of the last century as it is now. A cabbage bed, a bush of sage and balm and thyme and marjoram, was possibly a roast tree and old man growing in the midst, a little plot of small strong-course onions and perhaps some marigolds, the petals of which flavored the salt beef broth. Such plans made up a well-finished garden to farmhouse at the time and place to which my story belongs. But for 20 miles inland there was no forgetting the sea, nor the sea trade. Refused shellfish, seaweed, the offal of the mounting houses were the staple menu of the district. Great ghastly way jaws, bleached bare and white were the arches of the gateposts to many a field or moon and stretch. Out of every family of several sons, however agricultural their position might be, one had gone to sea, and the mother looked wistfully seaward at the changes of the keen piping moon and winds. The holiday rambles were to the coast. No one cared to go in and to see art, unless indeed it might be to the great annual horse fairs held where the dreary lane broke into habitation and cultivation. Somehow in this country sea, thoughts followed the thinker far inland, whereas in most other parts of the island, at five miles from the ocean, he has all but forgotten the existence of such an element as salt water. The great green and trade of the coasting towns was the main and primary cause of this, no doubt. But there was also a dread and an irritation in everyone's mind at the time of which I ride, in connection with the neighboring sea. Since the termination of the American war, there had been nothing to call for any unusual energy in manning the navy, and the grounds required by government for this purpose diminished was every year of peace. In 1792 this ground touched its minimum for many years. In 1793 the proceedings of the French had set Europe on fire, and the English were raging with anti-Galican excitement, fermented into action by every expedient of the crown and its ministers. We had our ships, but where were our men? The Admiralty had, however, a ready remedy at hand, was ample precedent for its use, and was common, if not statute, law to sanction its application. They issued press warrants calling upon the civil powers throughout the country to support their officers in the discharge of their duty. The sea coast was divided into districts, under the charge of a captain in the navy, who again delegated sub-districts to the tenants, and in this manner all homeward bound vessels were watched and waited for. All ports were under supervision, and in a day, if need be, a large number of men could be added to the forces of His Majesty's navy. But if the Admiralty became urgent in their demands, they were also willing to be as cupolas. Landsmen, if able-bodied, might soon be trained into good sailors. In once at the hold of the tender, which always awaited the success of the operations of the press king, it was difficult for such prisoners to bring evidence of the nature of their former occupations, especially when none had leisure to listen to such evidence, or were willing to believe it if they did listen, or would act upon it for the release of the captive, if they had by possibility both listened and believed. Men were kidnapped, literally disappeared, and nothing was ever heard of them again. The street of a busy town was not safe from such press gang captures, as Lord Thurlow could have told, after a certain walk he took about this time in Tower Hill, when he, the Attorney General of England, was impressed, when the Admiralty had its own peculiar ways of getting rid of ties and besiegers and petitioners. Nor yet were lonely inland dwellers more secure. Many a rustic went to a statute fair or mob, and never came home to tell of his hiring. Many a stout young farmer vanished from his place by the hearse of his father, and was no more heard of by mother or lover. So great was the press for men to serve in the navy during the early years of the war with France, and after every great naval victory of that war. The servants of the Admiralty lay in wait for all merchant men and traders. There were many instances of vessels returning home after long absence, and laden with which cargo, being boarded within a day's distance of land, and so many men pressed and carried off that the ship with her cargo became unmanageable from the loss of her crew, drifted out again into the wide wide ocean, and were sometimes found in the helpless guidance of one or two infirm or ignorant sailors. Sometimes such vessels were never heard of more. The men thus pressed were taken from the near grasp of parents or wives, and were often deprived of the hard earnings of years, which remained in the hands of the masters of the merchant men in which they had served, subject to all the chances of honesty or dishonesty, life or death. Now all this tyranny, for I can use no other word, is marvelous to us. We cannot imagine how it is that a nation submitted to it for so long, even under any warlike enthusiasm, any panic of invasion, any amount of loyal subservience to the governing powers. When we read of the military being called in to assist the civil power in backing up the press gang of parties of soldiers patrolling the streets, and sentries with screwed bayonets plated every door while the press gang entered and searched each hole in corner of the trailing, when we hear of churches being surrounded during divine service by troops, while the press gang stood ready at the door to seize men as they came out from attending public worship, and take these instances as many types of what was constantly going on in different forms. We do not wonder at Lord Mayes and other civic authorities in large towns, complaining that a stop was put to business by the danger which the tradesmen and their servants incurred in leaving their houses and going into the streets, infested by press gangs. Whether it was that living in closer neighborhood to the metropolis, the center of politics and news inspired the inhabitants of the southern counties with a strong feeling of that kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations, or whether it was that the chances of capture were so much greater at all the southern ports that the merchant sailors became enured to the danger, or whether it was that serving in the navy to those familiar with such towns as Portsmouth and Flemish had an attraction to most men from the dash and brilliancy of the adventurous employment, it is certain that the southerners took the oppression of press ones more submissively than the wild northeastern people. For with them the chances of profit beyond their wages in the whaling or greenland trade extended to the lowest description of sailor, he might rise by daring and saving to be a ship owner himself. Numbers around him had done so and this very fact made the distinction between class and class less apparent and the common ventures and dangers the universal interest fell in one pursuit, but the inhabitants of that line of coast together was a strong tie, the severance of which by any violent extraneous measure gave rise to passionate anger and thirst for vengeance. A Yorkshire man once said to me my county folk are all alike their first thought is how to resist why? I myself if I hear men say it is a fine day catch myself trying to find out that it is no such thing it is so in thought it is so in word it is so indeed. So you may imagine the press king had no easy time of it on the Yorkshire coast in other places they inspired fear but here rage and hatred the Lord Mayor of York was warned on 20th January 1777 by an anonymous letter that if those men were not sent from the city honor before the following Tuesday his lordship's own dwelling and the mansion house also should be burned to the ground perhaps something of the feeling that prevailed on the subject was owned to the fact which I have noticed in other places similarly situated where the landed possessions of gentlemen of ancient family but limited income surround the center of any kind of profitable trade or manufacture there's a sort of latent ill will on the part of the squares to the tradesmen be a manufacturer, merchant or ship owner in whose hands is held the power of money-making which no hereditary pride or a gentlemanly love of doing nothing prevents him from using this a world to be sure is mostly of a negative kind its most common form of manifestations is an absence of speech or action a sort of torpid and gentile ignoring all unpleasant neighbors but really the way fisheries of Mankshaven had become so pertinently and obtrusively prosperous of late years at the time of which I arrived the Mankshaven ship owners were growing so wealthy and consequential at the squires who lived at home at ease in the old stone manor houses scattered up and down the surrounding moorland felt that the check upon the Mankshaven trade likely to be inflicted by the press gang was wisely ordained by the higher powers how high they placed these powers I will not venture to say to event overhaste in getting rich which was a scriptural fault they also thought that they were only doing their duty and backing up the admiralty warrants for all the civil power at their disposal whenever they were called upon and whenever they could do so without taking too much trouble in affairs which did not after all much concern themselves there was just another motive in the minds of some prominent parents of many daughters the captains and lieutenants employed on the service were most agreeable veterans brought up to a gentile profession at the least they were very pleasant visitors when they had a day to spare who knew what might come of it indeed these brave officers were not unpopular in Mankshaven itself except at the time when they were brought into actual collision with the people they had the frank manners of their profession they were known to have served in those engagements the very narrative of which at this day will warm the heart of a quaker and they themselves did not come prominently forward in the dirty work which nevertheless was permitted and quietly sanctioned by them so while few Mankshaven people passed the low public house over which the navy blue flag streamed is a sign that it was the rendezvous of the press king without spitting towards it in sign of opponents yet perhaps the very same persons would give some rough token of respect to Lieutenant Atkinson if they met him in high street touching the heads was an unknown gesture in those parts but they would move their heads in a draw familiar kind of way neither work nor not but meant all the same to imply friendly regard the ship owners too invited him to an occasional dinner or supple all the time looking forward to the chances of his turning out an active enemy and not by any means inclined to give him the run of the house however many unmarried daughters might grace their table still as he could tell a rattling story drink hard and was seldom too busy to come at a short notice he got on better than anyone could have expected with the Mankshaven folk and the principal share of the odium of his business fell on his subordinates who were one and all regarded in the light of mean kidnappers and spies vermin as the common people esteemed them and as such they were ready at the first provocation to hunt and to worry them and little cared the press king for this whatever else they were they were brave and daring they had law to beck them therefore their business was lawful they were serving the king and country they were using all the faculties and that is always pleasant there was plenty of scope for the glory and triumph of outwitting plenty of adventure in their life it was a lawful and loyal employment requiring sense readiness courage and besides it called out that strange love of the chase inherent in every man fourteen or fifteen miles at sea lay the aurora good man of war and to her were conveyed the living cargos of several tenders which were stationed at likely places along the sea coast one the lively lady might be seen from the cliffs above monk's haven not so far away but hidden by the angle of the high lands from the constant side of the townspeople and there was always the rendezvous house as the public house with the navy blue flag was called their boats for the crew of the lively lady to lounge about and there to offer drink to unburied parsers by at present this was all that the press king had done at monk's haven end of chapter one chapter two of sylvia's lovers this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org sylvia's lovers by elizabeth gaskell chapter two home from greenland one hot day early in october of the year 1796 two girls set off from their country homes to monk's haven to sell their butter and eggs for they were both farmers daughters though rather in different circumstances for molly corny was one of a large family of children and had to rough it accordingly sylvia robson was an only child and was much made of in more people's estimation than mary's by her elderly parents they had each purchases to make after their sales were affected as sales of butter and eggs were affected in those days by the market women sitting on the steps of the great old mutilated cross till a certain hour in the afternoon after which if all their goods were not disposed of they took them unwillingly to the shops and sold them at lower price but good housewives did not despise coming themselves to the butter cross and smelling and depreciating the articles they wanted kept up a perpetual struggle of words trying often in vain to beat down prices a housekeeper of the last century would have thought that she did not know her business if she had not gone through this preliminary process and the farmers wives and daughters treated it all as a matter of course replying with a good deal of independent humor to the customer who once having discovered where good butter and fresh eggs were to be sold came time after time to depreciate the articles she always ended in taking there was leisure for all this kind of work in those days molly had tied a knot in her pink spotted handkerchief for each of the various purchases she had to make dull but important articles needed for the week's consumption at home if she forgot any one of them she knew she was sure of a good rating from her mother the number of them made her pocket handkerchief look like one of the nine tails of a cat but not a single thing was for herself nor indeed for any one individual of her numerous family there was neither much thought nor much money to spend for any but collective wants in the corny family it was different with sylvia she was going to choose her first cloak not to have an old one of her mothers that had gone down through two sisters died for the fourth time and molly would have been glad had even this chance been hers but to buy a brand new duffel cloak all for herself with not even an elder authority to curb her as to price only molly to give her admiring counsel and as much sympathy as was consistent with a little patient envy of sylvia's happier circumstances every now and then they wandered off from the one grand subject of thought but sylvia with unconscious art soon brought the conversation round to the fresh consideration of the respective merits of gray and scarlet these girls were walking barefoot and carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands during the first part of their way but as they were drawing near monk's haven they stopped and turned aside along a footpath that led from the main road down to the banks of the d there were great stones in the river about here round which the waters gathered and eddied and formed deep pools molly sat down on the grassy bank to wash her feet but sylvia more active or perhaps lighter hearted with the notion of the cloak in the distance placed her basket on a gravelly bit of shore and giving a long spring seated herself on a stone almost in the middle of the stream then she began dipping her little rosy toes in the cool rushing water and whisking them out with childish glee be quiet woody sylvia thou splashing all over and my father's none to be so keen and giving me a new cloak as thine is seemingly sylvia was quiet not to say penitent in a moment she drew up her feet instantly and as if to take herself out of temptation she turned away from molly to that side of her stony seat on which the current ran shallow and broken by pebbles but once disturbed in her play her thoughts reverted to the great subject of the cloak she was now as still as a minute before she had been full of frolic and gambling life she had tucked herself up on the stone as if it had been a cushion and she a little sultana molly was deliberately washing her feet and drawing on her stockings when she heard a sudden sigh and her companion turned round so as to face her and said i wish mother hadn't spoken up for to gray why sylvia thou were saying as we talked to brow as she did not but bid they think twice before settling on scarlet i but mother's words are scarce and way heavy fair there's like a me and we talk a deal of rubble but mother's words are like a tajune stone she puts a deal of meaning in him and then said sylvia as if she was put out by the suggestion she bid me ask cousin philip for his opinion i hate a man as has gotten an opinion on such like things well we shall never get to monk's haven this day either for to sell our eggs and stuff or to buy thy cloak if we're sitting here much longer to suns for to slanting low so come along lass and let's be going but if i put on my stockings and shoe and here and jump back in your wet gravel as not be fit to be seen said sylvia in a pathetic tone of bewilderment that was funnily childlike she stood up her bare feet curved round the curving surface of the stone her slight figure balancing as if in act spring thou knows they'll have to just jump back barefoot and wash thy feet to fresh without making all that ado thou shouldst have done it at first like me and all other sensible folk but thou'st getting no gumption molly's mouth was stopped by sylvia's hand she was already on the riverbank by her friend's side now do not lecture me i'm none for a sermon hung on every peg of words i'm going to have a new cloak lass and i cannot heed thee if thou dost lecture thou shalt have all the gumption and i'll have my cloak it may be doubted whether molly thought this an equal division each girl wore tightly fitted stockings knit by her own hands of the blue worsted common in that country they had on neat high heeled black leather shoes coming well over the instep and fastened as well as ornamented with bright steel buckles they did not walk so lightly and freely now as they did before they were shod but their steps were still springy with the buoyancy of early youth for neither of them was 20 indeed i believe sylvia was not more than 17 at this time they clamored up this deep grassy path with brambles catching at their kilted petticoats through the copswood till they regained the high road and then they settled themselves as they called it that is to say they took off their black felt hats and tied up their clustering hair afresh they shook off every speck of wayside dust straightening the little shawls or large neckerchiefs call them what you will that were spread over their shoulders pinned below the throat and confined at the waist by their apron strings and then putting on their hats again and picking up their baskets they prepared to walk decorously into the town of monks haven the next turn of the road showed them the red peaked roofs of the closely packed houses lying almost directly below the hill on which they were the full autumn sun brought out the ruddy color of the tiled gables and deepened the shadows in the narrow streets the narrow harbor at the mouth of the river was crowded with small vessels of all descriptions making an intricate forest of masts beyond lay the sea like a flat pavement of sapphire scarcely a ripple varying its sunny surface that stretched out leagues away till it blended with the softened azure of the sky on this blue trackless water floated scores of white sailed fishing boats apparently motionless unless you measured their progress by some landmark but still in silent and distant as they seemed the consciousness that they were men on board each going forth into the great deep added unspeakably to the interest felt in watching them close to the bar of the river d a larger vessel lay to silvia who had only recently come into the neighborhood looked at this with the same quiet interest as she did all the others but molly as soon as her eye caught the build of it cried out aloud she's a wehler she's a wehler home from the greenland seas the first this season god bless her and she turned round and shook both silvia's hands in the fullness of her excitement silvia's color rose and her eyes sparkled out of sympathy is to sure she asked breathless in her turn for those she did not know by the aspect of the different ships on what trade they were bound yet she was well aware of the paramount interest attached to wailing vessels three o'clock and it's not high water till five said molly if we show up we can sell our eggs and be down to the stage before she comes into port be sharp lass and down the long steep hill they went at a pace that was almost a run a run they dared not make it and as it was the rate at which they walked would have caused destruction among eggs less carefully packed when the descent was ended there was yet the long narrow street before them bending and swerving from the straight line as it followed the course of the river the girls felt as if they should never come to the marketplace which was situated at the crossing of bridge street and high street there the old stone cross was raised by the monks long ago now worn and mutilated no one esteemed it as a holy symbol but only as the butter cross where market women clustered on wednesday and once the town crier made all his proclamations of household sales things lost or found beginning with oh yes oh yes oh yes and ending with god bless the king and the lord of this manna and a very brisk amen before he went on his way and took off the livery coat the colors of which marked him as a servant of the bernabes the family who held men orial rights over muck's haven of course the much frequented space surrounding the butter cross was the favorite center for shops and on this day a fine market day just when good housewives began to look over their winter store of blankets and flannels and discover their needs be times these shops ought to have had plenty of customers but they were empty and have even quieter aspect than their everyday won't the three-legged creepy stools that were hired out at a penny an hour to such market women as came too late to find room on the steps were unoccupied knocked over here and there as if people had passed by in haste molly took an all at a glance and interpreted the signs though she had no time to explain their meaning and her consequent course of action to sylvia but darted into a corner shop to where this is coming home there's one lying outside to bar this was put in the form of an assertion but the tone was that of eager cross questioning i said a lame man mending fishing nets behind a rough deal counter she's come back early and she's brought good news to others as i've here to say time was i should have been on the stage throwing up my cap with the best of them but now it pleases the lord to keep me at home and set me to mind other folks's gear see the winch there's a vast of folk and if there's skips of things with me while they're away down to a key side leave me your eggs and be off with you for to see to fun for maybe you'll live to be pulsed yet and then you'll be frightened over spilled milk and that you didn't take all your chances when you was young i well they're out to hear in my moralities i better find a lameter like missen to preach to for it's not everybody has to look to clergy has of saying to say out whether folks likes it or not he put the baskets carefully away with much of such talk as this addressed to himself while he did so then he sighed once or twice and then he took the better course and began to sing over his tarry work molly and sylvia were far along the states by the time he got to this point of cheerfulness they ran on regardless of stitches and pains in the side on along the riverbank to where the concourse of people was gathered there was no great length of way between the butter cross and the harbor in five minutes the breathless girls were close together in the best place they could get for seeing on the outside of the crowd and in a short a time longer they were pressed inwards by fresh arrivals into the very midst of the throng all eyes were directed to the ship beating her anchor just outside the bar not a quarter of a mile away the custom house officer was just gone aboard of her to receive the captain's report of his cargo and make due examination the men who had taken him out on his boat were rowing back to the shore and brought small fragments of news when they had landed a little distance from the crowd which moved as one man to hear what was to be told sylvia took a hard grasp of the hand of the older and more experienced molly and listened open mouth to the answer she was extracting from a gruff old sailor she happened to find near her what ship is she to resolution of monk saven said he indignantly as if any goose might have known that and a good resolution and a blessed ship she's been to me piped out an old woman close at mary's elbow she's brought me home we a lad or he shouted to yon boatman to bid him tell me he was well tell peggy christensen says he my name is margaret christensen tell peggy christensen as her son hezekiah is come back safe and sound the lord's name be praised and me a widow has never thought to see my lad again it seemed as if everybody relied on everyone else's sympathy in that hour of great joy i ask pardon but if you'd give me just a bit elbow room for a minute like i'd hold my baby up so that he might see daddy's ship and happen a master might see him he's four month old last tuesday sent night and his father's never clapped dying on him yet and he went to through and another just break in bless him one or two of the better end of the monk's haven inhabitants stood a little before molly and sylvia and as they moved in compliance with the young mother's request they overheard some of the information these ship owners had received from the boatman hain says they'll send the manifest of the cargo ashore in 20 minutes as soon as fishburn has looked over the casks only eight whales according to what he says no one can tell said the other till the manifest comes to hand i'm afraid he's right but he brings a good report of the good fortune she's off sin tab's head with something like 15 whales to her share we shall see how much is true when she comes in that'll be by the afternoon tide tomorrow that's my cousin's ship said molly to sylvia he's specter near on board the good fortune an old man touched her as she spoke i humbly make my manners mrs but i'm stone blind the lads aboard the on vessel outside to bar and my old woman is bedfast will she belong think he and make into harbour because if so be as she were i just make my way back and speak a word or two to my mrs who'll be boiling or into some make a mischief now she knows he's so near may i be so bold as to axe if the crooked negro is covered yet molly stood on tiptoe to try and see the black stone thus named but sylvia stooping and peeping through the glimpses afforded between the arms of the moving people saw it first and told the blind old man it was still above water a watched pot he says never boils i reckon it's day in a vast a water to cover that stone today anyhow i'll have time to go home and rate my mrs for a word in her sin as i'll be bound she's done for all as a bade or not but to keep easy and content we'd better be off to said molly as an opening was made through the press to let out the groping old man aches and butters yet to sell and that cloaks to be bought well i suppose we had said sylvia rather regretfully for though all the way into mung's haven her head had been full of the purchase of this cloak yet she was of that impressible nature that takes the tone of feeling from those surrounding and though she knew no one on board the resolution she was just as anxious for the moment to see her come into harbour as anyone in the crowd who had a dear relation on board so she turned reluctantly to follow the more prudent molly along the key back to the butter cross it was a pretty scene though it was too familiar to the eyes of all who then saw it for them to notice its beauty the sun was low enough in the west to turn the mist that filled the distant valley of the river into golden haze above on either bank of the d there lay the moorland heights swelling one behind the other the nearer russet brown with the tints of the fading bracken the more distant gray and dim against the rich autumnal sky the red and fluted tiles of the gabled houses rose in crowded irregularity on one side of the river while the newer suburb was built in more orderly and less picturesque fashion on the opposite cliff the river itself was swelled and chafing with the incoming tide till its vexed waters rushed over the very feet of the watching crowd on the staves as the great sea waves encroached more and more every minute the key side was unsaberly ornamented with glittering fish scales for the halls of fish were cleansed in the open air and no sanitary arrangements existed for sweeping away any of the relics of this operation the fresh salt breeze was bringing up the lashing leaping tide from the blue sea beyond the bar behind the returning girls there rocked the white sailed ship as if she were all alive with eagerness for her anchors to be heaved how impatient her crew of beating hearts were for that moment how those on land sickened at the suspense may be imagined when you remember that for six long summer months those sailors had been as if dead from all news of those they loved shut up in terrible dreary arctic seas from the hungry sight of sweethearts and friends wives and mothers no one knew what might have happened the crowd on shore grew silent and solemn before the dread of the possible news of death that might toll in upon their hearts with this up rushing tide the whalers went out into the greenland seas full of strong hopeful men but the whalers never returned as they sailed forth on land there are deaths among two or three hundred men to be mourned over in every half year space of time whose bones had been left to blacken on the gray and terrible icebergs who lay still until the sea should give up its dead who were those who should come back to mong's haven never know never more many a heart swelled with passionate unspoken fear as the first whaler lay off the bar on her return voyage molly and sylvia had left the crowd in this hushed suspense but fifty yards along the stave they passed five or six girls with flushed faces and careless attire who had mounted a pile of timber placed there to season for shipbuilding from which as from the steps of the ladder or staircase they could command the harbor they were wild and free in their gestures and held each other by the hand and swayed from side to side stamping their feet in time as they sang we'll may the keel row the keel row the keel row well may the keel row that my lad is in what foot are you going off now they called out to our two girls she'll be in in ten minutes and without waiting for the answer which never came they resumed their song old sailor stood about in little groups too proud to show their interest in the adventures they could no longer share but quite unable to keep up any semblance of talk on indifferent subjects the town seemed very quiet and deserted as molly and sylvia entered the dark irregular bridge street and the marketplace was as empty of people as before but the skeps and baskets and three legged stools were all cleared away markets over for today said molly corny in disappointed surprise we must make the best on it and sell to the hucksters and a hard bargain they'll be for driving i doubt mother will be vexed she and sylvia went to the corner shop to reclaim their baskets the man had his joke at them for their delay aye aye lasses as has sweethearts to come in home don't care much what price they get for butter and eggs i dare say now there's someone in yon ship that'd give as much as a shilling a pound for this butter if only he knowed who churned it this was to sylvia as he handed back her property the fancy free sylvia reddened pouted tossed back her head and hardly deigned a farewell word of thanks or civility to the lame man she was at an age to be affronted by any jokes on such a subject molly took the joke without disclaimer and without a fence she rather liked the unfounded idea of her having a sweetheart and was rather surprised to think how devoid of foundation the notion was if she could have a new cloak as sylvia was going to have then indeed there might be a chance until some such good luck it was as well to laugh and blush as if the surmise of her having a lover was not very far from the truth and so she replied in something of the same strain as the lame netmaker to his joke about the butter he'll need it all and more too to grease his tongue if ever he reckons to win me for his wife when they were out of the shop sylvia said in a coaxing tone molly who is it whose tongue need greasing just tell me and i'll never tell she was so much an earnest that molly was perplexed she did not quite like saying that she had alluded to no one in particular only to a possible sweetheart so she began to think what young man had made the most civil speeches to her in her life the list was not a long one to go over for her father was not so well off as to make her sought after for her money and her face was rather of the homeliest but she suddenly remembered her cousin the specter near who had given her two large shells and taken a kiss from her half willing lips before he went to see the last time so she smiled a little and then said well i don't know it's ill talking to these things a four one has made up one's mind and perhaps if charlie can raid behaves his son i might be brought to listen charlie can raid who's he young specter near cousin of mine as i was talking on and do you think he cares for you as sylvia in a low tender tone as if touching on a great mystery molly only said be quiet with you and sylvia could not make out whether she cut the conversation so short because she was offended or because they had come to the shop where they had to sell their butter and eggs now sylvia if thou lead me that basket i'll make as good a bargain as ever i can on him and thou can be off to choose this grand new cloak as is to be a four gets any darker where is to go into mother said i'd better go to fosters answered sylvia with a shade of annoyance in her face father said just anywhere fosters is to best place thou can't try anywhere afterwards albeit fosters in five minutes for i reckon we munch hasten a bit now it'll be near five o'clock sylvia hung her head and looked very demure as she walked off by herself to foster shop in the marketplace end of chapter two chapter three of sylvia's lovers this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org sylvia's lovers by elizabeth gaskell chapter three buying a new cloak foster shop was the shop of monks haven it was kept by two quaker brothers who were now old men and their father had kept it before them probably his father before that people remembered it as an old-fashioned dwelling house with a sort of supplementary shop with unglazed windows projecting from the lower story these openings had long been filled with panes of glass that at the present day would be accounted very small but which 70 years ago were much admired for their size i can best make you understand the appearance of the place by bidding you think of the long openings in a butcher's shop and then to fill them up in your imagination with pains about eight inches by six in a heavy wooden frame there was one of these windows on each side of the door place which was kept partially closed through the day by a low gate about a yard high half the shop was appropriated to grocery the other half to drapery and a little nursery the good old brothers gave all their known customers a kindly welcome shaking hands with many of them and asking after all their families and domestic circumstances before proceeding to business they would not for the world have had any sign of festivity at christmas and scrupulously kept their shop open at that holy festival ready themselves to serve sooner than tax the consciences of any of their assistance only nobody ever came but on new year's day they had a great cake and wine ready in the parlor behind the shop of which all who came in to buy anything were asked to partake yet though scrupulous in most things it did not go against the consciences of these good brothers to purchase smuggled articles there was a back way from the riverside up a covered entry to the yard door of the fosters and a peculiar kind of knock at this door always brought out either john or jeremiah or if not them their shopman philip heppern and the same cake and wine that the excise officer's wife might just have been tasting was brought out in the back parlor to treat the smuggler there was a little locking of doors and drawing of the green silk curtain that was supposed to shut out the shop but really all this was done much for form's sake everybody in monks haven smuggled who could and everyone wore smuggled goods who could and great reliance was placed on the excise officer's neighborly feelings the story went that john and jeremiah foster were so rich that they could buy up all the new town across the bridge they had certainly begun to have a kind of primitive bank in connection with their shop receiving and taking care of such money as people did not wish to retain in their houses for fear of burglars no one asked them for interest on the money thus deposited nor did they give any but on the other hand if any of their customers on whose character they could depend wanted a little advance the fosters after due inquiries made and in some cases due security given were not unwilling to lend a moderate sum without charging a penny for the use of their money all the articles they sold were as good as they knew how to choose and for them they expected and obtained ready money it was said that they only kept on the shop for their amusement others averred that there was some plan of a marriage running in the brother's heads a marriage between william culson mr. Jeremiah's wife's nephew mr. Jeremiah was a widower and hester rose whose mother was some kind of distant relation and who served in the shop along with william colson and philip heppern again this was denied by those who averred that colson was no blood relation and that if the fosters had intended to do anything considerable for hester they would never have allowed her and her mother to live in such a sparing way eking out their small income by having colson and heppern for lodgers no john and Jeremiah would leave all their money to some hospital or to some charitable institution but of course there was a reply to this when are there not many sides to an argument about a possibility concerning which no facts are known part of the reply turned on this the old gentleman had probably some deep plan in their heads in permitting their cousin to take colson and heppern as lodgers the one a kind of nephew the other though so young the head man in the shop if either of them took a fancy to hester how agreeably matters could be arranged all this time hester is patiently waiting to serve sylvia who was standing before her a little shy a little perplexed and distracted by the sight of so many pretty things hester was a tall young woman sparely yet largely formed of a grave aspect which made her look older than she really was her thick brown hair was smoothly taken off her broad forehead and put in a very orderly fashion under her linen cap her face was a little square and her complexion salo though the texture of her skin was fine her gray eyes were very pleasant because they looked at you so honestly and kindly her mouth was slightly compressed as most habit who are in the habit of restraining their feelings but when she spoke you did not perceive this and her rare smile slowly breaking forth showed her white even teeth and when accompanied as it generally was by a sudden uplifting of her soft eyes it made her countenance very winning she was dressed in stuff of sober colors both in accordance with her own taste and an unasked compliance with the religious customs of the fosters but hester herself was not a friend sylvia standing opposite not looking at hester but gazing at the ribbons in the shop window as if hardly conscious that anyone awaited the expression of her wishes was a great contrast ready to smile or to pout or to show her feelings in any way with a character as undeveloped as a child's affectionate willful naughty tiresome charming anything in fact at present that the chances of an hour called out hester thought her customer the prettiest creature ever seen in the moment she had for admiration before sylvia turned round and recalled to herself began oh i beg your pardon miss i was thinking what may the price of yon crimson ribbon be hester said nothing but went to examine the shop mark oh i did not mean that i wanted any i only want some stuff for a cloak thank you miss but i am very sorry some duffel please hester silently replaced the ribbon and went in search of the duffel while she was gone sylvia was addressed by the very person she most wished to avoid and whose absence she had rejoiced over on first entering the shop her cousin philip heppern he was a serious-looking young man tall but with a slight stoop in his shoulders brought on by his occupation he had thick hair standing off from his forehead in a peculiar but not unpleasing manner a long face with a slightly aquiline nose dark eyes and a long upper lip which gave a disagreeable aspect to a face that might otherwise have been good-looking good day sylvie he said what are you wanting how are all at home let me help you sylvia pursed up her red lips and did not look at him as she replied i'm very well and so is mother pethers got a touch of room it is and there's a young woman getting what i want she turned a little away from him when she had ended this sentence as if it had comprised all she could possibly have to say to him but he exclaimed you won't know how to choose and seating himself on the counter he swung himself over after the fashion of shop men sylvia took no notice of him but pretended to be counting over her money what do you want sylvie asked he at last annoyed at her silence i don't like to be called sylvie my name is sylvia and i'm wanting duffel for a cloak if you must know hester now returned with a shop boy helping her to drag along the great roles of scarlet and gray cloth not that said philip kicking the red duffel with his foot and speaking to the lad it's the gray you want is it not sylvie he used the name he had had the cousin's right to call her by since childhood without remembering her words on the subject not five minutes before but she did and was vexed please miss it is the scarlet duffel i want don't let him take it away hester looked up at both their countenances a little wondering what was their position with regard to each other for this then was the beautiful little cousin about whom philip had talked to her mother as sadly spoiled and shamefully ignorant a lovely little dunce and so forth hester had pictured sylvia robson somehow was very different from what she was younger more stupid not half so bright and charming for though she was now both pouting and cross it was evident that this was not her accustomed mood sylvia devoted her attention to the red cloth pushing aside the gray philip hatburn was vexed at his advice being slighted and yet he urged it afresh this is a respectable quiet looking article that will go well with any color you never will be so foolish as to take what will mark with every drop of rain i'm sorry you sell such good-for-nothing things replied sylvia conscious of her advantage and relaxing a little as a little as she possibly could of her gravity hester came in now he means to say that this cloth will lose its first brightness in wet or damp but it will always be a good article and the color will stand a deal of wear mr. foster would not have it in his shop else philip did not like that even a reasonable peacemaking interpreter should come between him and sylvia so he held his tongue in indignant silence hester went on to be sure this gray is the closer make and would wear the longest i don't care said sylvia still rejecting the dull gray i like this best eight yards if you please miss a cloak takes nine yards at least said philip decisively mother told me eight said sylvia secretly conscious that her mother would have preferred the more sober color and feeling that as she had had her own way in that respect she was bound to keep to the direction she had received as to the quantity but indeed she would not have yielded to philip and anything that she could help there was a sound of children's feet running up the street from the riverside shouting with excitement at the noise sylvia forgot her cloak and her little spirit of vexation and ran to the half door of the shop philip followed because she went hester looked on with passive kindly interest as soon as she had completed her duty of measuring one of those girls whom sylvia had seen as she and molly left the crowd on the key came quickly up the street her face which was handsome enough as to feature was whitened with excess of passionate emotion her dress untidy and flying her movements heavy she belonged to the lowest class of seaport inhabitants as she came near sylvia saw that the tears were streaming down her cheeks quite unconsciously to herself she recognized sylvia's face full of interest as it was and stopped her clumsy run to speak to the pretty sympathetic creature she's or to bar she's or to bar i'm bound to tell mother she caught at sylvia's hand and shook it and went on breathless and gasping sylvia how came you to know that girl asked philip sternly she's not one for you to be shaking hands with she's known all down to keyside as new castle best i can't help it said sylvia half inclined to cry at his manner even more than his words when folk are glad i can't help being glad too and i just put out my hand and she put out hers to think a yarn ship coming at last and if you'd been down see an altar folk looking and looking their eyes out as if they feared they should die before she came in and brought home the lads they loved you'd have shaken hands with that last two and no great harm done i never set eye on upon her till half an hour ago on two states and maybe i'll never see her again hester was still behind the counter but had moved so as to be near the window so she heard what they were saying and now put in her word she can't be altogether bad for she thought to tell in her mother first thing according to what she said sylvia gave hester a quick grateful look but hester had resumed her gaze out of the window and did not see the glance and now molly corny joined them hastily bursting into the shop hey she said harken how they're crying and shouting down onto key to gangs among them like today of judgment hark no one spoke no one breathed i had almost said no heartbeat for listening not long in an instant there rose the sharp simultaneous cry of many people in rage and despair in articulate at that distance it was yet an intelligible curse and the roll and the roar and the irregular tramp came nearer and nearer they're taking him to randy vows said molly eh i wish i'd king george here just to tell him my mind the girl clenched her hands and set her teeth it's terrible hard said hester there's mothers and wives looking out for him as if they were stars dropped out a lift but can we do nothing for him cried sylvia let us go into the thick of it and do a bit of help i can't stand quiet and see it half crying she pushed forwards to the door but philip held her back sylvie you must not don't be silly it's the law and no one can do ought against it least of all women in lasses by this time the vanguard of the crowd came pressing up bridge street past the windows of fosters shop it consisted of wild half amphibious boys slowly moving backwards as they were compelled by the pressure of the coming multitude to go on and yet anxious to defy and annoy the gang by insults and curses half choked with their indignant passion doubling their fists in the very faces of the gang who came on with measured movement armed to the teeth their faces showing white with repressed and determined energy against the bronzed countenances of the half dozen sailors who were all they had thought it wise to pick out of the wailers crew this being the first time an admiralty warrant had been used in monkshaven for many years not since the close of the american war in fact one of the men was addressing to his townspeople in a high pitched voice an exhortation which few could hear for pressing around this nucleus of cruel wrong where women crying aloud throwing up their arms in imprecation showering down abuse as hearty and rapid as if they had been a greek chorus their wild famished eyes were strained on faces they might not kiss their cheeks were flushed to purple with anger or else livid with impotent craving for revenge some of them look scarce human and yet an hour ago these lips now tightly drawn back so as to show the teeth with an unconscious action of an enraged wild animal had been soft and gracious with the smile of hope eyes that were fiery and bloodshot now had been loving and bright hearts never to recover from the sense of injustice and cruelty had been trustful and glad only one short hour ago there were men there too sullen and silent brooding on remedial revenge but not many the greater proportion of this class being away in the absent whalers the stormy multitude swelled into the marketplace and formed a solid crowd there while the press gangs steadily forced their way onto high street and onto the rendezvous a low deep growl went up from the dense mass as some had to wait for space to follow the others now and then going up as a lion's growl goes up into a shriek of rage a woman forced her way from the bridge she lived some little way in the country and had been late in hearing of the return of the whaler after her six months absence and on rushing down to the key side she had been told by a score of busy sympathizing voices that her husband was kidnapped for the service of the government she had need pause in the marketplace the outlet of which was crammed up then she gave tongue for the first time in such a fearful shriek you could hardly catch the words she said jamie jamie will they not let you to me these were the last words sylvia heard before her own hysterical burst of tears called everyone's attention to her she had been very busy about household work in the morning and much agitated by all she had seen and heard since coming to monkshaven and so it ended in this malian hester took her through the shop into the parlor beyond john fosters parlor for jeremiah the elder brother lived in a house of his own on the other side of the water it was a low comfortable room with great beams running across the ceiling and papered with the same paper as the walls a piece of elegant luxury which took molly's fancy mightily this parlor looked out on the dark courtyard in which there grew two or three poplars straining upwards to the light and through an open door between the backs of two houses could be seen a glimpse of the dancing heaving river with such ships or fishing cobbles as happened to be moored in the waters above the bridge they placed sylvia on the broad old-fashioned sofa and gave her water to drink and tried to still her sobbing and choking they lost her hat and copiously splashed her face and clustering chestnut hair till at length she came to herself restored but dripping wet she sat up and looked at them smoothing back her tangled curls off her brow as if to clear both her eyes and her intellect where am i oh i know thank you it was very silly but somehow it seems so sad and here she was nearly going off again but hester said i it were sad my poor lass if i may call you so for i don't rightly know your name but it's best not to think on it for we can do no make a good and it'll maybe set you off again your philip hepburn's cousin i reckon and you buy did haters bank farm yes she's sylvia robson put in molly not seeing that hester's purpose was to make sylvia speak and so to divert her attention from the subject which had set her off into hysterics and we came in for market continued molly and for to buy to new cloak as her father's going to give her and for sure i thought we was in lux way when we saw to first whaler and never dreaming as to press game it'd be so marred she too began to cry but her little whimper was stopped by the sound of the opening door behind her it was philip asking hester by a silent gesture if he might come in sylvia turned her face round from the light and shut her eyes her cousin came close up to her on tiptoe and looked anxiously at what he could see of her averted face then he passed his hand so slightly over her hair that he could scarcely be said to touch it and murmured poor lassie it's a pity she came today for it's a long walk in this heat but sylvia started to her feet almost pushing him along her quick and senses heard an approaching step through the courtyard before any of the others were aware of the sound in a minute afterwards the glass door at one corner of the parlor was opened from the outside and mr john stood looking in with some surprise at the group collected in his usually empty parlor it's my cousin said philip rending a little she came with a friend to market and to make purchases and she's got a turn with seeing the press gang go past carrying some of the crew of the whaler to the randy vows i i said mr john quickly passing into the shop on tiptoe as if he were afraid he were intruding in his own premises and beckoning philip to follow him there out of strife cometh strife i guess something of the sort was up from what i heard into bridge as i came across for brother jeremiah's here he softly shut the door between the parlor and the shop it bareth hard on expectant women and children nor is it to be wondered at that they being unconverted raged together poor creatures like the very heathen philip he said coming nearer to his head young man keep nicolas and henry at work in the were room upstairs till this riot be over for it would grieve me if they were misled into violence philip hesitated speak out man always ease an uneasy heart and never let it get hide bound i had thought to convoy my cousin and the other young woman home for the town is like to be rough and it's getting dark and thou shalt my lads at the good old man and i myself would try and restrain the natural inclinations of nicolas and henry but when he went in to find the shop boys with a gentle homily on his lips those to whom it should have been addressed were absent in consequence of the riotous state of things all the other shops in the marketplace had put their shutters up and nicolas and henry in the absence of their superiors had followed the example of their neighbors and as business was over they had hardly waited to put the goods away but had hurried off to help their townsmen in any struggle that might ensue there was no remedy for it but mr. john looked rather discomfited the state of the counters and of the disarranged goods was such also as would have irritated any man as orderly but less sweet tempered all he said on the subject was the old adam the old adam but he shook his head long after he had finished speaking whereas william colson he next asked oh i remember he was not to come back from york until the night closed in philip and his master arranged the shop in the exact order the old man loved then he recollected the wishes of his subordinate and turned round and said now go with thy cousin and her friend hester is here and old hannah i myself will take hester home if need be but for the present i think she had best tarry here as it isn't many steps to her mother's house and we may need her help if any of those poor creatures fall into suffering with their violence with this mr john knocked at the door of the parlor and waited for permission to enter with old-fashioned courtesy he told the two strangers how glad he was that his room has had been of service to them that he would never have made so bold as to pass through if he had been aware how it was occupied and then going to a corner cupboard high up in the wall he pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked his little store of wine and cake and spirits and insisted that they should eat and drink while waiting for philip who was taking some last measures for the security of the shop during the night silvia declined everything with less courtesy than she ought to have shown to the offers of the hospitable old man molly took wine and cake leaving a good half of both according to the code of manners in that part of the country and also because silvia was continually urging her to make haste for the latter disliked the idea of her cousins esteeming it necessary to accompany them home and wanted to escape from him by setting off before he returned but any such plans were frustrated by philips coming back into the parlor full of grave content which brimmed over from his eyes with the parcel of silvia's obnoxious red duffel under his arm anticipating so keenly the pleasure awaiting him in the walk that he was almost surprised by the gravity of his companions as they prepared for it silvia was a little penitent for her rejection of mr john's hospitality now she found out how unavailing for its purpose such rejection had been and tried to make up by a modest sweetness of farewell which quite won his heart and made him praise her up to hester in a way to which she observant of all could not bring herself to fully respond what business had the pretty little creature to reject kindly meant hospitality in the petish way she did thought hester and oh what business had she to be so ungrateful and to try and thwart philip in his thoughtful wish of escorting them through the streets of the rough riotous town what did it all mean end of chapter three chapter four of silvia's lovers this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by cape mckenzie silvia's lovers by elizabeth gaskell chapter four philip heppern the coast on that part of the island to which this story refers is bordered by rocks and cliffs the inland country immediately adjacent to the coast is level flat and bleak it is only where the long stretch of dyke enclosed fields terminates abruptly in a sheer descent and the stranger sees the ocean creeping up the sands far below him that he is aware on how great an elevation he has been here and there as i've said a cleft in the level land thus running out into the sea and steep promontories occurs what they would call a chime in the isle of white but instead of the soft south wind stealing up the woody ravine as it does there the eastern breeze comes piping shrill and clear along these northern chasms keeping the trees that venture to grow on the sides down to the mere height of scrubby brushwood the descent to the shore through these bottoms is in most cases very abrupt too much so for a cartway or even a bridle path but people can pass up and down without difficulty by the help of a few rude steps you hear in there out of the rock sixty or seventy years ago not to speak of much later times the farmers who owned or hired the land which lay directly on the summit of these cliffs were smugglers to the extent of their power only partially checked by the coast guard distributed a pretty nearly equal interspaces of eight miles all along the northeast and seaboard still sea rack was a good manure and there was no law against carrying it up in great ozio baskets for the purpose of tillage and many a secret thing was lodged in hidden crevices in the rocks till the farmer sent trusty people down to the shore for a good supply of sand and seaweed for his land one of the farms on the cliff had lately been taken by silvia's father he was a man who had roamed about a good deal been sailor smuggler horse dealer and farmer in turns a sort of fellow possessed by a spirit of adventure and love of change which did him and his own family more harm than anybody else he was just the kind of man that all his neighbors found fault with and all his neighbors liked late in life for such an impudent man as he was one of a class who generally wed trusting to chance and look for the provision for a family farmer robson married a woman who's only one to practical wisdom consisted in taking him for a husband she was philip hepburns aunt and had had the charge of him until she married from her widowed brother's house he it was who had let her know when haters bank farm had been to let esteeming it a likely piece of land for his uncle to settle down upon after a somewhat unprosperous career of horse dealing the farmhouse lay in the shelter of a very slight green hollow scarcely scooped out of the pasture field by which it was surrounded the short crisp turf came creeping up to the very door and windows without any attempt at a yard or garden or any near enclosure of the buildings than the stone dike that formed the boundary of the field itself the buildings were long and low in order to avoid the rough violence of the wind swept over that wild bleak spot both in winter and summer it was well for the inhabitants of that house that coal was extremely cheap otherwise a southerner might have imagined that they could never have survived the cutting of the bitter gales that piped all round and seemed to seek out every crevice for admission into the house but the interior was warm enough when once you had mounted the long bleak lane full of round rough stones enough to lame any horse unaccustomed to such roads and had crossed the field by the little dry hard footpath which tacked about so was to keep from directly facing the prevailing wind mrs. robson was a cumberland woman and as such was a cleaner housewife than the farmer's wives of that northeastern coast and was often shocked at their ways showing it more by her looks than by her words for she was not a great talker this fastidiousness in such matters made her own house extremely comfortable but did not tend to render her popular among her neighbors indeed bell robson peaked herself on her housekeeping generally and once indoors in the gray bare stone house there were plenty of comforts to be had besides cleanliness and warmth the great rack of clappbread hung overhead and bell robson's preference of this kind of oak cake over the leavened and partly sour kind used in yorkshire was another source of her unpopularity flitches of bacon and hands that is shoulders of cured pork the legs or hands being sold as fetching a better price abounded and for any visitor who could stay neither cream nor finest wheat and flour was wanting for turf cakes and singing hinnies with which it is the delight of the northern housewives to regale the honored guest as he sips their high-priced tea sweetened with dainty sugar this night farmer robson was fidgeting in and out of his house climbing the little eminence in the field and coming down disappointed in a state of fretful impatience his quiet taciturn wife was a little put out by sylvia's non-appearance too but she showed her anxiety by being shorter than usual and her replies to his perpetual wonders as to where the last could have been tarrying and by knitting away with extra diligence I have a vast of mind to go down to muck saving myself and see after it child it's well on for seven no danil said his wife they're best not the leg has been painingly this week past and they're not up to such a walk I'll rouse kester and send him off if i think there's need on it I'll no more kester roused who's to go field be times after sheep in morn if he's card up to neat he'd missed last and found a public house I reckon said daniel querrously I'm not fader kester replied bell he's a good and for no fucking dark if I'd rather I'll put on me udden cloak and I'll just go at the end of the lane if that'll have a night that milk and sees it doesn't boil over she can a stomach if it's bishop to us a little before mrs robson however had put away her knitting voices were heard at a good distance down the lane but coming near at every moment and once more daniel climbed the little brow to look and to listen it's our eight said he hobbling quickly down they were fidgetless so we're getting ready to go search for a I'll tactfully bet it's phillip epburn's voice conveying her own just as I said he would and oh a sin bell did not answer as she might have done that this probability of phillips bringing sylvia home had been her own suggestion set aside by her husband as utterly unlikely another minute and the countenances of both parents imperceptedly and unconsciously relaxed into pleasure as sylvia came in she looked very rosy from the walk and the october air which began to be frosty in the evenings there was a little cloud over her face at first but it was quickly dispersed as she met the loving eyes of home phillip who followed her had an excited but not altogether pleased look about him he received a hearty greeting from daniel and a quiet one from his aunt tack off that panna milk mrs and set on kettle milk may do for winches but phillip and me is for a dropper good olens and water this cold night I'm almost chilted at Mara we're looking out for thee lass for mother was in a peck of troubles about thy non-coin on at daylight and to keep arching in out brow-ed this was entirely untrue and bell knew it to be so but her husband did not he had persuaded himself now as he'd done often before that what he had in reality done for his own pleasure or satisfaction he had done in order to gratify someone else the town was rough with a riot between the press gang and the wailing folk and I thought I'd best see sylvia home aye aye lod always welcome if it's only as an excuse for liquor but wailers sayster why is it wailers in there was not a sight yesterday when I went down shore silly days from us yet cursed old press gangs again doing its devil's work his face changed as he ended his speech and showed a steady passion of old hatred aye mrs you may look I won't pick and choose my words neither for you nor for nobody when I speak of that down gang I'm not ashamed of my words they're true and I'm ready to prove them where's my forefinger aye and I was good a top joint of a thumb as if a man had I wish I kept him in spirits as they don't things that potter career is just a short last what flesh and bone I made wayward to get free aye ups we hatch it when I saw as I was faster bored than man I was standing out for see it weren't time at war with America and I could miss some of the thought I'd be murdered in my own language so I ups we hatch it and I says to Bill Watson says aye now my lad if they'll do me a kindness I'll pay the bat never fear and they'll be glad enough to get shut on us and send us to old England again just come down with a will now mrs if I can't sit still and listen to me said a potter in after pans and whatnot said he's speaking crossly to his wife who had heard the story scores of times and it must be confessed was making some noise and preparing bread and milk for Sylvia supper Bell did not say a word in reply but Sylvia tapped his shoulder with a pretty little authoritative air it's for me Feather I'm just keen set for me supper once let me get quickly sit down to it and fill it there to his glass of grog and you'll never have such listeners in your life the mother's mind will be eased too aye there's a willful wench said the proud father giving her a great slap on her back well set they down to that bitch wall and big kite with a for I want to finish my tail to fill it but perhaps I've told it to your for said he turning round to question headburn headburn could not say that he had not heard it he peaked himself on his truthfulness but instead of frankly and directly owning this he tried to frame a formal little speech which would soothe Daniel's mortified vanity and of course it had the directly opposite effect Daniel resented being treated like a child and yet turned his back on Philip with all the willfulness of one Sylvia did not care for her cousin but hated the discomfort of having her father displeased so she took up her tale of adventure and told her father and mother of her afternoon's proceedings Daniel pretended not to listen at first and made ostentatious noises with his spoon and glass but by and by he got quite warm and excited about the doings of the press gang and scolded both Philip and Sylvia for not having looked more particular as to what was the termination of the riot I've been whaling myself said he and I veered tails as whalers were knifed and I ginned gang a taste of my wickle if I'd been coched up just as I'd set my foot ashore I don't know said Philip but at war with french and we shouldn't like to be beaten yet if our numbers are not equal to theirs we stand a strong chance of it not a bit on so be damned said Daniel Robison bringing down his fist with such violence on the round deal table that the glasses and earthenware shook again you'd not strike a child or a woman for sure yet it'd be like it if we didn't give the Frenchies some advantages if we took them with equal numbers it's not fair play and that's one place where shoe pinches it's not fair play two ways it's not fair play to catch up men has had no call at fighting as another man's bidding though they've no objection to fight a bit on their own account and we just landed all keen after bread instead of biscuit and flesh meat instead of junk and beds instead of hammocks I make no sentiment side for I were neg giving up such carnal mindedness and poses it's not fair to catch them up and put them in a stifling hole all lined with metal for fear they shall wiggle their way out and send them off to sea for years and years to come and again it's not fair play to french four of them is rightly matched with what was and if we go and fight them four to four it's like as if you fell to beat in silver they'll little billy croxton as isn't breached and that's my mind misses where's pipe Philip did not smoke so took his turn at talking a chance he sold them hand with Daniel unless the latter had his pipe between his lips so after Daniel had filled it and used Sylvia's little finger as a stopper to run down the tobacco a habit of hitch to which she was so accustomed that she laid her hand on the table by him as naturally as she would have fetched him a spittoon when he banged on to smoke Philip arranged his arguments and began I'm for fair play with the French as much as any man as long as we can be sure of beating them but I say make sure of that and then give them every advantage now I reckon government is not sure as yet for either papers it set us off the ship's it channel I've got their proper compliment and men and all I say is let government judge a bit for us and if they say they're rampant for want of men why we must make it up somehow John and Jeremiah Foster paying taxes and militia men pays in person and if sailors cannot pay in taxes and will not pay in person why they must be made to pay and that's what press gangs for I reckon for my part when I read it away those French chaps are going on and thankful to be given by King George and a British Constitution Daniel took his pipe out of his mouth at this and when did I say a word against King George and the Constitution I only accent to government as I judge best and that's what I call representation when I give my vote to Mr. Chumley to go up to Parliament House I as good as said now you go up there sir and tell him what I Daniel Robson think right and what I Daniel Robson wish to have done else I'd be damned if I give my vote to him or any other man and if you think I won't Seth Robson as is my own brother son and mate to a Collier to be coched up by a press gang and ten to one his wages all unpaid if you think I've sent up Mr. Chumley to speak up for that piece of work no I he took up his pipe again shook out the ashes puffed into it a spark and shut his eyes preparatory to listening but asking pardon laws is made for the good of the nation not for your good or mine Daniel could not stand this he laid down his pipe opened his eyes stared straight at Philip before speaking in order to enforce his words and then said slowly nation here nation more I'm a man and you're another but nations no way if Mr. Chumley talked to me in that fashion he'd look long for another vote from me I can make out King George Mr. Pitt you and me but nation nation go hang Philip who sometimes pursued an argument longer than was politic for himself especially when he felt sure of being on the conquering side did not see that Daniel Robson was passing out of the indifference of conscious wisdom into that state of anger which ensues when a question becomes personal in some unspoken way Robson had contested this subject once or twice before and had the remembrance of former disputes to add to his present vehemence so it was well for the harmony of the evening that Bell and Sylvia returned from the kitchen to sit in the house place they had been to wash up the pans and basins used for supper Sylvia had privately shown off her cloak and got over her mother's shake of the head at its color with a coaxing kiss at the end of which her mother had adjusted her cap with her dear there they're doing withy but had no more heart to show her disapprobation and now they came back to their usual occupations until it should please their visitor to go then they would rake the fire and be off to bed for neither Sylvia's spinning nor Bell's knitting was worth candlelight and morning hours are precious in a dairy people speak of the way in which harp playing sets off a graceful figure spinning is almost as becoming an employment a woman stands at the great wool wheel one arm extended the other holding the thread her head thrown back to take in all the scope of her occupation or if it is the lesser spinning wheel for flax and it was this that Sylvia moved forwards tonight the pretty sound of the buzzing whirring motion the attitude of the spinner foot and hand alike engaged in the business the bunch of gay colored ribbon that ties the bundle of flax on the rock all make it into a picturesque piece of domestic business they may rival harp playing any day for the amount of softness and grace which it calls out Sylvia's cheeks were rather flushed by the warmth of the room after the frosty air the blue ribbon with which she had thought it necessary to tie back her hair before putting on her hat to go to market had got rather loose and allowed her disarranged curls to stray in a manner which would have annoyed her extremely if she had been upstairs to look at herself in the glass but although they were not set in the exact fashion in which Sylvia esteemed us correct they looked very pretty and luxuriant her little foot placed on the travel was still encased in its smartly buckled shoe not slightly to her discomfort as she was unaccustomed to be shot in walking far only as Philip had accompanied them home now the she nor Molly had liked to go barefoot her round mottled arm and ruddy taper hand drew out the flax with nimble agile motion keeping time to the movement of the wheel all this Philip could see the greater part of her face was lost to him as she half averted it with a shy dislike to the way in which she knew from past experience that cousin Philip always stared at her and avert it as she would she heard with silent petulance the harsh screech of Philip's chair as he heavily dragged it on the stone floor sitting on it all the while and felt that he was moving round so was to look at her as much as was in his power without absolutely turning his back on either her father or mother she got herself ready for the first opportunity of contradiction or opposition well wench and asked to bought this grand new cloak yes father it's a scarlet one aye aye and what does mother say oh mother's content said Sylvia a little doubting in her heart but determined to defy Philip at all hazards mother will put up with it if it doesn't a spot will be near a fact i'm thinking said bell quietly i wanted Sylvia to take the grey said Philip and that shows the red it's so much gear and folk can see me the father off father likes to see me at first turn at lane don't you further and i'll never turn out when it's bound for terrain but she'll never get a spot near it mommy i reckoned it worked away bad weather said bell least ways that were the pretext for coaxing further out of it she said it in a kindly tone though the words became a prudent rather than a fond mother but Sylvia understood her better than Daniel did as it appeared or the tongue mother she never spoke a pretext at all he did not rightly know what a pretext was bell was a touch better educated than her husband but he did not acknowledge this and made a particular point of differing from her whenever she used a word beyond his comprehension she's a good lass at times and if she liked to wear a yellow orange cloak she should have it is philippia stands up for laws and press gangs i'll set him to find as a lure against police in our lass and she are only one that doesn't think on that mother bell did think of that often often than her husband perhaps for she remembered every day and many times a day the little one that had been born and had died while its father was away on some long voyage but it was not her way to make replies Sylvia who had more insight into her mother's heart than Daniel broke in with a new subject oh ask for philipp he's been preaching up laws all way home i said no but let molly hold her own rassa could have told the tale about sucks and less and things phillips face flushed not because of the smuggling everyone did that only it was considered polite to ignore it but he was annoyed to perceive how quickly his little cousin had discovered that his practice did not agree with his preaching and vexed to see how delighted she was to bring out the fact he had some little idea too that his uncle might make use of his practice as an argument against the preaching he had lately been indulging in in opposition to daniel but daniel was too far gone in his hollands and water to do more than enunciate his own opinions which he did with hesitating and laboured distinctness in the following sentence what i think and says this laws is made for to keep some folks from arming others press gangs and course guards harm me in business and keep me from getting what i want therefore what i think and say is this mr chumley should put down press gangs and course guards if that they aren't in reason i ask you to tell me what is and if mr chumley don't do what i ask him you may go whistle for my vote you may at this period in his conversation bell robson interfered not in the least from any feeling of disgust or annoyance or dread of what he might see or do if he went on drinking but simply as a matter of health silvia too was in no way annoyed not only with her father but with every man whom she knew accepting her cousin philip was it a matter of course to drink till the ideas became confused so she simply put her wheel aside as preparatory to going to bed when her mother said in a more decided tone than that which she had used on any other occasion but this and similar ones come mister you've had as much as is good for you let her be let be said he clutching at the bottle of spirits but perhaps rather more good-humoured with what he had drunk than he was before he jerked a little more into his glass before his wife carried it off and locked it up in the cupboard putting the key in her pocket and then he said winking up philip hey my man never gear woman whip and do you you see what brings a man to before all that i've bought for chumley and damp press gang he had to shout out the last after philip for headburn really anxious to please his aunt and disliking drinking habits himself by constitution was already at the door and setting out on his return home thinking it must be confessed far more of the character of sylvia shake of the hand than of the parting words of either his uncle or aunt end of chapter four chapter five of sylvia's lovers this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org sylvia's lovers by elizabeth gaskell chapter five story of the press gang for a few days after the evening mentioned in the last chapter the weather was dull not in quick sudden showers did the rain come down but in constant drizzle blotting out all color from the surrounding landscape and filling the air with fine gray mist until people breathed more water than air at such times the consciousness of the nearness of the vast unseen sea acted as a dreary depression to the spirits but besides acting on the nerves of the excitable such weather affected the sensitive or ailing in material ways daniel robson's fit of rheumatism incapacitated him from stirring abroad and to a man of his active habits and somewhat inactive mind this was a great hardship he was not ill-tempered naturally but this state of confinement made him more ill-tempered than he had ever been before in his life he sat in the chimney corner abusing the weather and doubting the wisdom or desirableness of all his wife's soft fit to do in the usual daily household matters the chimney corner was really a corner at haters bank there were two projecting walls on each side of the fireplace running about six feet into the room and a stout wooden settle was placed against one of these while opposite was the circular backed master's chair the seat of which was composed of a square piece of wood judiciously hollowed out and placed with one corner to the front here in full view of all the operations going on over the fire sat daniel robson for four live long days advising and directing his wife in all such minor matters as the boiling of potatoes the making of porridge all the work on which she specially peaked herself and on which she would have taken advice no not from the most skilled housewife in all the three writings but somehow she managed to keep her tongue quiet from telling him as she would have done any woman and any other man to mind his own business or she would pin a dishclout to his tail she even checked sylvia when the latter proposed as much for fun as for anything else that his ignorant direction should be followed and the consequences brought before his eyes and his nose nah nah said bell the father's father and we won't respect him but it's dray work having a man in the house nursing the fire in such weather too and not a soul coming near us not even to fall out with him for thee and me must not do that for the bible's sake dear and a good stand-up wordy quarrel would do him a power of good stir his blood like i wish philip would turn up bell sighed for in these four days she had experienced somewhat of madame demand to non's difficulty and with fewer resources to meet it of trying to amuse a man who was not amusable for bell good and sensible as she was was not a woman of resources sylvia's plan undutiful as it was in her mother's eyes would have done daniel more good even though it might have made him angry then his wife's quiet careful monotony of action which however it might conduce to her husband's comfort when he was absent did not amuse him when present sylvia scouted the notion of cousin philip coming into their household in the character of an amusing or entertaining person till she nearly made her mother angry at her ridicule of the good steady young fellow to whom bell looked up as the pattern of all that early manhood should be but the moment sylvia saw she had been giving her mother pain she left off her willful little jokes and kissed her and told her she would manage all famously and ran out of the back kitchen in which mother and daughter had been scrubbing the churn and all the wooden implements of butter making bell looked at the pretty figure of her little daughter as running past with her apron thrown over her head she darkened the window beneath which her mother was doing her work she paused just for a moment and then said almost unawares to herself bless the loss before resuming her scouring of what already looked almost snow white sylvia scampered across the rough farmyard in the wedding drizzling rain to the place where she expected to find kester but he was not there so she had to retrace her steps to the cow house and making her way up a rough kind of ladder staircase fixed straight against the wall she surprised kester as he sat in the wool loft looking over the fleeces reserved for the home spinning by popping her bright face swathed round with her blue wool and apron up through the trap door and thus her head the only visible part she addressed the farm servant who was almost like one of the family kester fathers just tiring himself with weariness and vexation sitting by the fireside with his hands up for him and not to do and mother and me can't think on art as i'll rouse him up to a bit of a laugh or art more cheerful than a scolding now kester them and just be off and find harry donkin the tailor and bring him here it's getting on for martiness and he'll be coming his rounds and he may as well come here first his last and fathers clothes want a deal amending up and harry's always full of his news and anyhow he'll do for father to scold and be a new person too and that's somewhat for all on us now go like a good old kester as you are kester looked at her with loving faithful admiration he had set himself his day's work in his master's absence and was very desirous of finishing it but somehow he never dreamed of resisting sylvia so he only stated the case tools of aster mocking it and i thought as i'd fettled it and do it up but i reckon i'm undo your bidden there's a good old kester said she smiling and nodding her muffled head at him then she dipped down out of his sight then rose up again he had never taken his slow moony eyes from the spot where she had disappeared to say now kester be wary and deep thou tell harry donkin not to let on as we've sent for him but just to come in as if he were on his round and took us first and he won't ask father if there's any work for him to do and i'll answer for it he'll have a welcome and a half now be deep and fous mind thee ask deep and fous you know we're simple folk but what can i do with donkin be as fous as me as happening may be go away with thee if donkin be Solomon thou might be the queen of sheba and i's bound for to say she outwitted him at last kester laughed so long at the idea of his being the queen of sheba that sylvia was back by her mother's side before the catcher nation ended that night just as sylvia was preparing to go to bed in her little closet of a room she heard some shot rattling at her window she opened the little casement and saw kester standing below he recommended where he left off with a laugh he's been to queen as taking donkin on to each side and he'll come in tomorrow just for miscus and ask for work like as if twer a favor toad felly were a bit cross grained at starton for he were working at farmer crosskies up to other side of town where they put a strike and a half a mount into the beer when most folk put no but a strike and made him ill to convince but he'll come never fear the honest fellow never said a word of the shilling he had paid out of his own pocket to forward sylvia's wishes and to persuade the tailor to leave the good beer all his anxiety now was to know if he had been missed and if it was likely that a scolding awaited him in the morning towed master didn't set up his back because i didn't come into supper he questioned a bit as to what thou were about but mother didn't know and i held my peace mother carried their supper into loft for thee i'll gang after then from like a pair of bellows without to wind just two flat sides would now be tweaked the next morning sylvia's face was a little redder than usual when harry donkin's bow legs were seen circling down the path to the house door here's donkin for sure exclaimed bell when she caught sight of him a minute after her daughter well i just call that lucky for he'll be company for thee while sylvia and me has to turn to cheeses this was too original a remark for a wife to make in daniel's opinion on this special morning when his rheumatism was twinging him more than usual so he replied with severity that's all two women know about it with them it's company company company and they think a man's no better than their cells i'd have you to know i've a vasta thoughts in myself as i'm no unwilling to lay out for the benefit of every man i've never gotten time for meditation sinna were married least way sinna left to see a board ship would never a woman we in leagues a hail and upon to mast head in special a could then i'd better tell donkin as we've no work for him said sylvia instinctively managing her father by agreeing with him instead of reasoning with or contradicting him now there you go wrenching himself around for fear sylvia should carry her meekly made threat into execution oh as his limb hurt him come in harry come in and talk a bit of sense to me for i've been shut up with women these four days and i'm a most natural by this time i was bound for it they'll find you some work if just not but to save their own fingers so harry took off his coat and seated himself professional wise on the hastily cleared dresser so that he might have all the light afforded by the long low casement window then he blew in his thimble sucked his finger so that they might adhere tightly together and looked about for a subject for opening conversation while sylvia and her mother might be heard opening and shutting drawers and box lids before they could find the articles that needed repair or that were required to mend each other women's well enough for their ways said daniel in a philosophizing tone but demand may have too much on him now there's me leg fast these four days and i'll make free to say to you i'd rather a deal of been loading dung into wettest weather and i reckon it's the being would not but women as tires me so they talk so foolish it gets into bones like now thou knowest thou art not called much of a man or other but bless you tonight the part summit to be thankful for after not all women and yet you seen they were for sending you away in a foolishness well missus and who's to pay for to fettle in of all them clothes as bell came down with their arms full she was going to answer her husband meekly and literally according to her want but sylvia already detecting the increased cheerfulness of his tone called out from behind her mother i am father i'm going for to sell my new cloak as about thursday for the amending on your old coats and waistcoats hark until her said daniel chuckling she's a true wench three days sin non so full as she at a new cloak that she's now faint to sell i harry a feather won't pay you for making all those clothes as good as new i'll sell my new red cloak sooner than you shall go unpaid i reckon it's a bargain said harry casting sharp professional eyes on the heat before him and singling out the best article as to texture for examination and comment they're all again these metal buttons said he silk weavers has been petitioning ministers to make a law to favor silk buttons and i did hear tell as there were informers going about spy and after metal buttons and is how they could haul you before a justice for wearing on our wedding them and i'll wear them to meddion day or i'll wear none at all there for making such a pack of laws they'll be for meddling with my fashion asleep in next and taxing me for every snora give they've been after two winters and after the little and after the very salt in it it's dearer by off and more nor it were when i were a boy there are metal some set of folks lawmakers is and i'll never believe king george has ought to do it but mark my words i will wed with brass buttons and brass buttons i'll wear to my death and if they murder me about it i'll wear brass buttons in me coffin by this time harry had arranged a certain course of action with mrs robson conducting the consultation and agreement by signs his thread was flying fast already and the mother and daughter felt more free to pursue their own business than they had done for several days for it was a good sign that daniel had taken his pipe out of the square hollow in the fireside wall where he usually kept it and was preparing to diversify his remarks with satisfying interludes of puffing while lucky this very back he had a run for it it came ashore sewed up neatly enough a woman stays as was wife to a fishing smack down at to bay yonder she were a lean thing as ever you saw when she went for to see her husband aboard the vessel but she come back lusty or by a deal and with many a thing on her here and there beside bachy and that were in to face at a coast guard and yon tender and all but she made as though she were tipsy and so they did not but curse her and get out on her way speaking of tender there's been a piece of work in mulkshaven this week with the press gang said harry aye aye our last was telling about it but lord bless ye there's no getting to rights on a story out on a woman though i will say this for our silvie she's as bright a last as ever a man looked at now the truth was that daniel had not liked to demean himself at the time when silvia came back so full of what she had seen at munkshaven by evincing any curiosity on the subject he had then thought that the next day he would find some business that should take him down to the town when he could learn all that was to be learned without flattering his women kind by asking questions as if anything they might say could interest him he had a strong notion of being a kind of domestic jupiter it's made a deal of work amongst haven folk had gotten to think not of the tender she lay so still and a lieutenant paid such a good price for all he wanted for the ship but a thursday to resolution first whaler back this season came in port and to press gang showed their teeth and carried off four as good able-bodied seamen as ivara made trousers for and to place were all up like a nesta wasps when you set your foot into midst they were samad they were ready for to fight the very paving stones i wish i'd been there i just wish i had i've a score for to reckon up with a press gang and the old man lifted up his right hand his hand on which the forefinger and thumb were maimed and useless partly in denunciation and partly as a witness of what he had endured to escape from the service abhorred because it was forced his face became a totally different countenance with the expression of settled and unrelenting indignation which his words called out go on man go on said daniel impatient with donken for the little delay occasioned by the necessity of arranging his work more fully i i all in good time for a long tale to tell yet and i'm on of someone to iron me out my seams and look me out my bits but there's none here fit for my purpose dang by bits here sylvie sylvie come and be tayla's man and let the chap get settled sharp for i'm famed to hear his story sylvia took her directions and placed her irons in the fire and ran upstairs for the bundle which had been put aside by her careful mother for occasions like the present it consisted of small pieces of various colored cloth cut out of old coats and waist goods and similar garments when the hole had become too much worn for use yet when part had been good enough to be treasured by a thrifty housewife daniel grew angry before donken had selected his patterns and settled the work to his own mind well said he at last i'm out be a young man ago on a woo and by two pains thou's taken for to match my old clothes i don't care if they're patched with scarlet i tell thee so as thou'd work away at thy tail with thy tongue same time as thou works at thy needle with thy fingers then as i was saying all monks even were like a nest of wasps flying hither and thither and making such a buzzing and a talking as never were and each way is sting out ready for to vent his venom rage and revenge and women crying and sobbing into streets when lord help us a saturday came a worst time than ever for all friday there had been a kind of expectation and dismay about a good fortune as temeruners had said was off cent abs head of thursday when to resolution came in and there was wives and maids with husbands and sweethearts aboard to good fortune ready to throw their eyes out on their heads with gazing gazing norards or to see as were all one haze of blankness with a rain and when the afternoon tide come in and never a line on her to be seen folk were uncertain as to whether she were holding off for fear the tender as were out to sight to or what were her make a going on and to poor wet draggled women folk came up to town some slowly crying as if their hearts was sick and others just bent their heads to the wind and went straight to their homes no they're looking nor speaking to anyone but barred their doors and stiffened their cells up for a night awaiting saturday morning you'll mind saturday morning it was stormy and gusty downright dirty weather there stood to folk again by daylight a watch in and a strain in and by that tide the good fortune come or the bar but excise men had sent back her news by to boat as took them there they did a deal of oil and a vast a blubber but for all that her flag was drooping in the rain half mast high for mourning and sorrow and they did a dead man aboard a dead man as was living in strong last sunrise and there was another as lay between life and death and there was seven more I should have been there as weren't but was carried off by the gang the frigate as we know her tell on as lion of hardlepool got tidings for to tender as captured a seaman a thursday and the aurora as they cod her made off for to norward and nine legs off sandab's head the resolution thinks she were she seeded to frigate and knowed by her build she were a man of war and guessed she were bound on king's kidnapping I seen the wounded man missel with me own eyes and he'll live he'll live never a man died yet with such a strong purpose of vengeance in him he could barely speak for he were badly shocked but his color come and went as to master's mate and the captain told me and some others how the aurora fired at him and how the innocent whale are hoisted her colors but before they were fairly run up another shot come close in the shrouds and then the greenland ship being a twin word bore down on the frigate but as they knew she were an old fox and bent on mischief kin raid that's he who lies at dine only he'll known die as bound the specter near bade the men go down between decks and fasten the hatches well and eat stand guard he and captain and out master's mate being left up to deck for to give a welcome just skin deep to the boat's crew from the aurora as they could see coming towards them or the water with a regular man oars roan dammum said daniel in soliloquy and under his breath silvia stood poising her iron and listening eagerly afraid to give donken the hot iron for fear of interrupting the narrative unwilling to put it into the fire again because that action would perchance remind him of his work which now the taylor had forgotten so eager was he in telling his story well they come on over to water with great bounds and up the sides they come like locusts all armed men and the captain says he saw kin raid hide away his wailing knife under some tarpaulin and he knew he meant mischief and he would knew morris stopped him with a word nor he would have stopped him from killing a whale and when the auroras men were aboard one of them runs to the helm and at that the captain says he felt as if his wife were pissed before his face but says he i'd be thought me on the men as we're shut up below hatches and i remembered the folk at monks haven as we're looking out for us even then and i said to myself i would speak fair as long as i could more by token of the wailing knife as i could seek linton right under the black tarpaulin so he spoke quite fair and civil though he'd see they was nearing the aurora and the aurora was nearing them then the navy captain hailed him through the trumpet we're great rough blast and says he order your men to come out on deck and the captain of the whaler says his men cried up from under the hatches as they'd never begin up without bloodshed and he sees kin raid take out his pistol and look well to the priming so he says to the navy captain we are protected greenland men and you have no right to meddle with us but the navy captain only bellows the moor order your men to come on deck if they won't obey you and you have lost the command of your vessel i reckon you're in a state of mutiny and you may come aboard to aurora and such men as are willing to follow you and i'll fire into the rest you see that were the depth of the man he were for pretending and pretexting as the captain couldn't manage his own ship and as he'd help him but our greenland captain were known so poor spirited and says he she's full of oil and i wear your consequences if you fire into her and anyhow pirate or no pirate for the word pirate stuck in his gizzard i'm an honest monk saven man and i come for a land where there's great icebergs and many a deadly danger but never a press game thank god and that's what you are i reckon them's the words he told me but whether he spoke him out subhold at the time as not so sure they were in his mind for to speak only maybe prudence got the better on him for he said he prayed in his heart to bring his cargo saved to the owners come what might well to rora's men aboard the good fortune cried out might they fire down the hatches and bring the men out that away and then the specter near he speaks and he says he stands or the hatches and he has two good pistols and some at besides and he don't care for his life being a bachelor but all below are married men you see and he'll put an end to the first two chaps as come near the hatches and they say he picked off two is made for to come near and then just as he was stupid for the whale and knife and it's as big as a sickle teach folks as don't know a wailing knife cried daniel i were a greenland man myself they shot him through the side and dizzyed him and kicked him aside for dead and fired down the hatches and killed one man in disabled two and then the rest cried for quarter for life is sweet in a board a king's ship and the rora carried him off wounded men enable men and all leaving king raid for dead as wasn't dead and darling for dead as was dead and the captain and masters mate as were too old for work and the captain as love skin raid like a brother poured rum down his throat and bandaged him up and is sent for the first doctor in monk's haven for to get the slugs out but they say there's never such a harpooner in the greenland seas and i can speak from my own scene is a fine young fellow where he lies there all stark and one for weakness and loss of blood but darly's dead as a doornail and there'll be such a variant of him as never was seen a foreign monk save and come sunday and now give us iron winch and let's lose no more time of talking it's no one loss of time said daniel moving himself heavily in his chair to feel how helpless he was once more if i were as young as once i were nay lad if i had nay these sore rheumatics now i reckon as to presking it find out as to shouldn't do such things for nothing bless the man it's worn or in my youth into mararchy war and then toward bad enough and kin raid as sylvia drawing the long breath after the effort of realizing it all her cheeks had flushed up and her eyes had glittered during the progress of the tale oh he'll do he'll not die life stuff is in immediate he'll be malikoni's cousin i reckon said sylvia be thinking her with a blush of malikoni's implication that he was more than a cousin to her and immediately longing to go off and see mali and hear all the little details which women do not think it beneath them to give to women from that time sylvia's little heart was bent on this purpose but it was not one to be openly avowed even to herself she only wanted sadly to see mali and she almost believed herself that it was to consult her about the fashion of her cloak which donken was to cut out and which she was to make under his directions at any rate this was the reason she gave to her mother when the day's work was done and a fine gleam came out upon the pale and watery sky towards evening end of chapter five