THE PLOWING MATCH
When Ewan got back home there was Dan sitting before the fire in the old
hall, his legs stretched out before him, his hands thrust deep in his
pockets, his head low in his breast, and his whole mien indicative of a
crushed and broken spirit. He glanced up furtively as Ewan entered, and
then back with a stony stare to the fire. If Ewan had then given him one
word of cheer, God knows what tragic consequences would have been spared
to them both. But Ewan had saved Dan from the penalty of his crime at
the cost of truth and his self-esteem.
"Dan," he said, "you and I must part--we can be friends no longer."
He spoke with a strong effort, and the words seemed to choke him. Dan
shambled to his feet; he appeared to collect his thoughts for a moment,
like one who had fainted and returns to consciousness.
"Mind--I don't turn you out of the house," said Ewan, "only if we are to
share this place together we must be strangers."
A hard smile broke out on Dan's face. He seemed to be trying to speak,
but not a word would come. He twisted slowly on his heel, and lifted the
latch of the door that led to the inner part of the house.
"One thing more," said Ewan, speaking quickly, and in a tremulous voice,
"I will ask you to look upon yourself as a stranger to my sister also."
Dan stopped and turned about. Over the forced smile his hard face told
of a great struggle for self-command. He said nothing, and after a
moment he went out, drawing his breath audibly.
Then straightway Ewan flung himself into the chair from which Dan had
risen, and his slight frame shook with suppressed sobs. After some
minutes the sense of his own degradation diminished, and left room for a
just idea of Dan's abject humiliation. "I have gone too far," he
thought; "I will make amends." He had risen to follow Dan, when another
thought trod heavily on the heels of the first. "Leave him alone, it
will be best for himself--leave him alone, for his own sake." And so,
with the madness of wrath fermenting in his own brain, he left it to
ferment in Dan's brain as well.
Now, when Dan found himself left alone he tried to carry off his
humiliation by a brave show of unconcern. He stayed on at the old
Ballamona, but he never bothered himself--not he, forsooth--to talk to
folks who passed him on the stairs without a word of greeting, or met in
the hall without a glance of recognition.
It chanced just then that, in view of a threatened invasion, the
authorities were getting up a corps of volunteers, known as the Manx
Fencibles, and that they called on the captains of the parishes to
establish companies. Dan threw himself into this enterprise with
uncommon vigor, took drills himself, acquired a competent knowledge of
the rudiments in a twinkling, and forthwith set himself to band together
the young fellows of his parish. It was just the sort of activity that
Dan wanted at the moment, and in following it up the "Three Legs" saw
him something oftener than before, and there the fellows of the baser
sort drank and laughed with him, addressing him sometimes as captain,
but oftener as Dan, never troubling themselves a ha'p'orth to put a
handle to his name.
This was a turn of events which Ewan could not understand. "I have been
mistaken in the man," he thought; "there's no heart left in him."
Toward the middle of December Jarvis Kerruish arrived at Ballamona, and
forthwith established himself there in a position that would have been
proper to the Deemster's heir. He was a young man of medium height and
size, closely resembling the Deemster in face and figure. His dress was
English: he wore a close-fitting undercoat with tails, and over it a
loose cloak mounted with a brass buckle at the throat; he had a beaver
hat of the shape of a sugar-loaf; and boots that fitted to his legs like
gloves. His manner was expansive, and he betrayed a complete
unconsciousness of the sinister bar of his birth, and of the false
position he had taken up in the Deemster's house. He showed no desire to
visit the cottage at the Cross Vein; and he spoke of the poor with
condescension. When he met with Ewan he displayed no uneasiness, and
Ewan on his part gave no sign of resentment. Mona, on the other hand,
betrayed an instinctive repulsion, and in less than a week from his
coming their relations had reached an extraordinary crisis, which
involved Ewan and Dan and herself in terrible consequences. This is what
occurred:
On the day before Christmas Day there was to be a plowing match in a
meadow over the Head, and Ewan stood pledged by an old promise to act as
judge. The day came, and it was a heavy day, with snow-clouds hanging
overhead, and misty vapors floating down from the hills and up from the
Curraghs, and hiding them. At ten in the morning Mona muffled herself in
a great cloak, and went over to the meadow with Ewan. There a crowd had
already gathered, strong men in blue pilots, old men in sheepskin coats,
women with their short blue camblet gowns tucked over their linen caps,
boys and girls on every side, all coming and going like shadows in the
mist. At one end of the meadow several pairs of horses stood yoked to
plows, and a few lads were in charge of them. On Ewan's arrival there
was a general movement among a group of men standing together, and a
respectful salutation to the parson. The names were called over of the
plowmen who had entered for the prize--a pound note and a cup--and last
of all, there was a show of hands for the election of six men to form a
jury.
Then the stretch was staked out. The prize was to the plowman who would
make the stretch up and down the meadow in the shortest time, cutting
the furrows straightest, cleanest, and of the most regular depth.
When all was ready, Ewan took up his station where the first furrow
would be cut into the field, with Mona at his side, and the six jurors
about him. The first plowman to bring up his plow was a brawny young
fellow with a tanned face. The plowman had brought up his horses in
front of the stake, and had laid hands on his plow-handles, and was
measuring the stretch with his eye for a landmark to sight by, when
Jarvis Kerruish came into the meadow, and walked through the crowd, and
took up a place by Mona's side. There were audible comments, and some
racy exclamations as he pushed through the crowd, not lifting an eye to
any face; but he showed complete indifference, and began to talk to Mona
in a loud, measured tone.
"Ah! this is very gratifying," he was saying, "to see the peasantry
engaged in manly sports--useful sports--is, I confess, very gratifying
to me."
"My gough!" said a voice from one side.
"Hurroo!" said a voice from the other side.
"Lawk-a-day!" came from behind, in a shrill female treble. "Did ye ever
see a grub turn butterfly?"
Jarvis seemed not to hear. "Now there _are_ sports--" he began; but the
plowman was shouting to his horses, "Steady, steady," the plow was
dipping into the succulent grass, the first swish of the upturned soil
was in the air, and Jarvis's wise words were lost.
All eyes were on the bent back of the plowman plodding on in the mist.
"He cuts like a razor," said one of the spectators. "He bears his hand
too much on," said another. "Do better yourself next spell," said a
third.
When the horses reached the far end of the stretch the plowman whipped
them round like the turn of a wheel, and in another moment he was
toiling back, steadily, firmly, his hand rigid, and his face set hard.
When he got back to where Ewan, with his watch in his hand, stood
surrounded by the jurors, he was covered with sweat. "Good, very
good--six minutes ten seconds," said Ewan, and there were some plaudits
from the people looking on, and some banter of the competitors who came
up to follow.
Jarvis Kerruish, at Mona's elbow, was beginning again, "I confess that
it has always been my personal opinion--" but in the bustle of another
pair of horses whipped up to the stake no one seemed to be aware that he
was speaking.
Five plowmen came in succession, but all were behind the first in time
and cut a less regular furrow. So Ewan and the jurors announced that the
prize was to the stranger. Then as Ewan twisted about, his adjudication
finished, to where Mona stood with Jarvis by her side, there was a
general rush of competitors and spectators to a corner of the meadow,
where, from a little square cart, the buirdly stranger who was victor
proceeded to serve out glasses of ale from a small barrel.
While this was going on, and there was some laughter and shouting and
singing, there came a loud "Hello," as of many voices from a little
distance, and then the beat of many irregular feet, and one of the lads
in the crowd, who had jumped to the top of the broad turf hedge,
shouted, "It's the capt'n--it's Mastha Dan."
In another half-minute, Dan and some fifty or sixty of the scum of the
parish came tumbling into the meadow on all sides--over the hedge, over
the gate, and tearing through the gaps in the gorse. They were the corps
that Dan had banded together toward the Manx Fencibles, but the only
regimentals they yet wore were a leather belt, and the only implement of
war they yet carried was the small dagger that was fitted into the belt.
That morning they had been drilling, and after drill they had set off to
see the plowing match, and on the way they had passed the "Three Legs,"
and being exceeding dry, they had drawn up in front thereof, and every
man had been served with a glass, which had been duly scored off to the
captain's account.
Dan saw Mona with Ewan as he vaulted the gate, but he gave no sign of
recognition, and in a moment he was in the thick of the throng at the
side of the cart, hearing all about the match, and making loud comments
upon it in his broadest homespun.
"What!" he said, "and you've let yourselves be bate by a craythur like
that. Hurroo!"
He strode up to the stranger's furrow, cocked his eye along it, and then
glanced at the stranger's horses.
"Och, I'll go bail I'll bate it with a yoke of oxen."
At that there was a movement of the crowd around him, and some cheering,
just to egg on the rupture that was imminent.
The big stranger heard all, and strode through the people with a face
like a thunder-cloud.
"Who says he'll bate it with a yoke of oxen?" he asked.
"That's just what I'm afther saying, my fine fellow. Have you anything
agen it?"
In half a minute a wager had been laid of a pound a side that Dan, with
a pair of oxen, would beat the stranger with a pair of horses in two
stretches out of three.
"Davy! Davy!" shouted Dan, and in a twinkling there was Davy Fayle,
looking queer enough in his guernsey, and his long boots, and his
sea-cap, and withal his belt and his dagger. Davy was sent for a pair of
oxen to where they were leading manure, not far away. He went off like a
shot, and in ten minutes he was back in the meadow, driving the oxen
before him.
Now, these oxen had been a gift of the Bishop to Dan. They were old, and
had grown wise with their years. For fifteen years they had worked on
the glebe at Bishop's Court, and they knew the dinner hour as well as if
they could have taken the altitude of the sun. When the dinner bell rang
at the Court at twelve o'clock, the oxen would stop short, no matter
where they were or what they were doing, and not another budge would
they make until they had been unyoked and led off for their midday mash.
It was now only a few minutes short of twelve, but no one took note of
that circumstance, and the oxen were yoked to a plow.
"Same judge and jury," said the stranger, but Ewan excused himself.
"Aw, what matter about a judge," said Dan, from his plow-handles; "let
the jury be judge as well."
Ewan and Mona looked on in silence for some moments. Ewan could scarce
contain himself. There was Dan, stripped to his red flannel shirt, his
face tanned and glowing, his whole body radiant with fresh life and
health, and he was shouting and laughing as if there had never been a
shadow to darken his days.
"Look at him," whispered Ewan, with emotion, in Mona's ear. "Look! this
good-nature that seems so good to others is almost enough to make me
hate him."
Mona was startled, and turned to glance into Ewan's face.
"Come, let us go," said Ewan, with head aside.
"Not yet," said Mona.
Then Jarvis Kerruish, who had stepped aside for a moment, returned and
said:
"Will you take a wager with me, Mona--a pair of gloves?"
"Very well," she answered.
"Who do you bet on?"
"Oh, on the stranger," said Mona, coloring slightly, and laughing a
little.
"How lucky," said Jarvis, "I bet on the captain."
"I can stand it no longer," whispered Ewan, "will you come?" But Mona's
eyes were riveted on the group about the oxen. She did not hear, and
Ewan turned away, and walked out of the meadow.
Then there was a shout, and the oxen started with Dan behind them. On
they went through the hard, tough ground, tranquilly, steadily, with
measured pace, tearing through roots of trees that lay in their way as
if nothing could stop them in their great strength.
When the oxen got back after the first stretch the time was called--five
minutes thirty seconds--and there was a great cheer, and Mona's pale
face was triumphant.
The stranger brought up his horses, and set off again, straining every
muscle. He did his stretch in six minutes four seconds, and another
cheer--but it was a cheer for Dan--went up after the figures were
called.
Then Dan whipped round his oxen once more, and brought them up to the
stake. The excitement among the people was now very great. Mona clutched
her cloak convulsively, and held her breath. Jarvis was watching her
closely, and she knew that his cold eyes were on her face.
"One would almost imagine that you were anxious to lose your bet," he
said. She made no answer. When the oxen started again her lips closed
tightly, as if she was in pain.
On the oxen went, and made the first half of the stretch without a
hitch, and, with the blade of the plow lifted, they were wheeling over
the furrow end, when a bell rang across the Curragh--it was the bell for
the midday meal at Bishop's Court--and instantly they came to a dead
stand. Dan called to them, but they did not budge; then his whip fell
heavily across their snouts, and they snorted, but stirred not an inch.
The people were in a tumult, and shouted with fifty voices at once.
Dan's passion mastered him. He brought his whip down over the flanks and
across the eyes and noses of the oxen; they winced under the blows that
rained down on them, and then shot away across the meadow, tearing up
the furrows they had made.
Then there was a cry of vexation and anger from the people, and Dan, who
had let go his reins, strode back to the stake. "I've lost," said Dan,
with a muttered oath at the oxen.
All this time Jarvis Kerruish had kept his eye steadily fixed on Mona's
twitching face. "You've won, Mona," he said, in a cold voice and with an
icy smile.
"I must go. Where is Ewan?" she said, tremulously, and before Jarvis was
aware she had gone over the grass.
Dan had heard when Ewan declined to act as judge, he had seen when Ewan
left the meadow, and, though he did not look, he knew when Mona was no
longer there. His face was set hard, and it glowed red under his
sunburned skin.
"Davy, bring them up," he said; and Davy Fayle led back the oxen to the
front of the stake.
Then Dan unyoked them, took out the long swinging tree that divided
them--a heavy wooden bar clamped with iron--and they stood free and
began to nibble the grass under their feet.
"Look out!" he shouted, and he swung the bar over his shoulder.
The crowd receded and left an open space in which Dan stood alone with
the oxen, his great limbs holding the ground like their own hoofs, his
muscles standing out like bulbs on his bare arms.
"What is he going to do--kill them?" said one.
"Look out!" Dan shouted again, and in another moment there was the swish
of the bar through the air. Then down the bar came on the forehead of
one of the oxen, and it reeled, and its legs gave way, and it fell dead.
The bar was raised again, and again it fell, and the second of the oxen
reeled like the first and fell dead beside its old yoke-fellow.
A cry of horror ran through the crowd, but heeding it not at all, Dan
threw on his coat and buckled his belt about him, and strode through the
people and out at the gate.