THE RAINY SEASON COMES TO AN END, BUT BY MY DELAY WE ARE BALKED OF
RETURNING INTO THE BARAQUAN.
Having decided to dwell on that lake for some months to come, we set
about making our cavern habitable. First of all we shifted our acutis
into a separate cave hard by our abode, where they were very well
housed; and thither also we carried all the dry leaves and rubbish, that
we might have our floor sweet and clean, and afford no harbor for
insects or worms. Then I parted off a fair corner to serve as a chamber
for my lady by setting up a hurdle which I made of suitable wands, bound
together with lianes, and clothing it on both sides with palmetto
leaves, overlapping each other and pinned to the hurdle with
thorn-stickles. To get these materials I made several voyages in the
canoe amongst the wooded slopes that were partly under water; and in
these excursions I found a good store of cassavy, and many other things
that would be useful to us. When I had finished this partition to my own
satisfaction and my dear lady's admiration (for she missed no occasion
to encourage me with her approval), I hung up her sleeping-net and set
one of the mat coverlets, which I had taken care to dry, ready to her
hand. I would have had her use the other as a carpet to her feet, for I
could have slept without it as well as the Ingas do; but she would by no
means hear of this, so that I was forced to forego the happiness of
yielding it to her use.
And while I was about this business my dear comrade was not idle--no,
not for one moment. For she herself made several expeditions in the
canoe alone, getting herbs for her conies, who were so appreciative of
her gentle interest that they came to eat from her hand, and did (after
a while) sit of a row at the mouth of their cave straining their necks
to catch sight of her coming; and storing up in that cave such nuts and
sticks as would serve for fuel when dry. And admirable it was to see
with what skill she navigated the canoe, and how resolute, bold, and
masterful she showed herself in carrying out her purpose--no matter
what. Yet I was heartily pleased when these journeys were done, for all
the time of her absence I was in a flutter of fear, going every other
minute to spy out from the cavern if I could see her, and counting upon
mishaps that might come to her.
Amongst other things, she brought home certain heads of broom, with
which she brushed the walls and floor, so that not a speck of dust was
to be seen. And all the time we were thus working together she kept up a
lively gossip with me, save when we had naught to talk about, and those
intervals we filled up by singing together certain simple songs that
Cornish children sing, so that we had not a dull hour all day, and were
for the best part as merry as any grigs.
And lest any one should be disposed to think ill of her (as that she
forgot the dignity of her birth and breeding, and the delicacy of her
sex in wearing the garb of a boy, and laying her hand with light heart
to rough toil), I would urge this--that, in my humble thinking, she did
infinitely more to maintain her character for nobility and true
womanhood in making the best of her position with this cheerful, helpful
spirit, than if she had left all labor to me, and sat her down to bewail
and bemoan the cruel usage of fortune. For a surety she did increase my
respect thereby, and I know no man who would not hold her sex in greater
veneration for the addition she made to its virtues.
I lay awake the best part of that night scheming improvements of our
dwelling-place. "As my hurdle is such a success," says I to myself, "I
will make another as soon as possible, and part off a corner for my own
sleeping-place, which will be more seemly and becoming than lying here
on the floor of our parlor like a tom cat. And while I am about it I may
as well make a third to shut off that nook against the entrance, which
will serve my lady very commodiously for a kitchen. And there might I
set up a shelf for her vessels; and also with stones I can fashion a
fire-place, with a back chimney to carry off the smoke. The flat stone
there, if I can raise it up a bit, will answer very well as a dresser to
grind cassavy upon; but I must hunt up some sort of slate to dry it upon
over the fire, and likewise for baking the cakes when my lady has made
them. More gourds I must get for certain, that my dear lady may ever
have store of fresh water to her hand; and this I shall do well to fetch
from one of the fountains ere she rises in the morning, that she may not
have to ask for it or fetch it herself, which else she were like enough
to do. It will not be amiss, neither, if I look about pretty soon for
some convenient screened-off pool of sparkling water, where she may
bathe freely. And now for our living-room, which will be square and neat
when I have cut off the other two sides as I design, we must have some
sort of table and benches. Polished oak have we none, but stones in
plenty; and a fair stone set up straight and level must be our table; a
stone also will serve me well enough for a seat, but my lady shall have
a chair if it cost me a fortnight to make one. In the mean time she
can't be left a-standing; so a stone she must have for the present, but
I will make a mat of rushes to cover it, which I may do in an hour. And
while I am cutting these rushes I may as well get enough over and above
to strew the floor of her chamber, for I can not abide the idea of her
tender feet encountering the cold, hard rock. As for her chair, I may
fashion the frame with stout sticks of a proper kind, bound together
with lianes crosswise, like the letter X, and it shall have a back and
elbows if my ingenuity carry me such length, and the seat and back I may
make of rushes woven together. If I can find rushes of divers colors to
plait with a pleasing device, so much the better; and by working this
secretly before she rises of a morning, I may give it to her as a
surprise for a birthday gift next Monday se'nnight, which must needs
give her pleasure, however poor be the merits of my workmanship." And
being got upon this theme I could not get away from it, but continued to
revolve this chair in my mind till I fell asleep.
I have no space to give an account of our life day by day, though I fain
would--for who can tire of narrating the history of happy hours? And so
briefly I must tell that I carried out all I designed that night I lay
awake, and more besides, for every day discovered new necessities, and
we begrudged no labor that ministered to our common comfort. When it was
fine we went a-hunting of waterfowl, of which there was abundance, and
other times of game in those woods that lay high and dry; and herein did
my lady show herself as deft and skillful as in all else to which she
lent her hand, bringing down her quarry with an arrow as surely as ever
I did, so that there was no lack of contentment on either side. And when
the day was foul we stayed within our cavern--I fashioning arrows or
such like, and Lady Biddy at her needle. I say her needle, for out of
thorns we contrived to make things that answered this purpose; and for
stuff she had the skins of animals, which she shaped, with incredible
ingenuity, into excellent socks for our feet, in place of shoes, which
were now pretty nigh worn out. Nor did we lack amusement for our leisure
hours, for my admirable lady being an excellent player of checks, she
taught me this game, marking our dining-table out in squares for a
check-board, and using divers-shaped nuts, ground flat at one end, for
men. Also I tried to devise an instrument of music in the shape of a
dulcimer; but this I succeeded worse in than anything else, for we could
get no agreeable notes out of it, nor any sound that was worthy to mate
with my dear lady's voice. But it gave us amusement, for all that, and
many a hearty laugh.
In this way the winter, as I must call it, though there was never a
chilly day, passed away; and in those months there was not for me a
single wretched hour, save when the thought forced itself upon me that
it must come to an end. As suddenly as the rain had set in, it ceased,
and every cloud vanished from the sky as if by enchantment. In
twenty-four hours the water sank as many inches, and as many more in the
next day. With the return of the sun the birds burst into song,
hallooing and whistling from morn till night. Lady Biddy went quietly
about her duties and said nothing; nor did I; yet all day long a voice
seemed to be saying in my ears, "You must go, Benet--you must go!" Even
when I slept, the same words were repeated in my dreams. Yet I could not
have the courage to tell Lady Biddy our time had come. But on the third
evening, as we were standing by the mouth of our cavern, that bird we
had heard before in the mountains gave tongue to his strange call. And
my lady, clasping her hands, cried:
"Falmouth bells!--Falmouth bells!"
"Yes," says I, touched by the plaintive joy in her voice, "they are
calling us. We must go." So the next morning we rowed over to the gap in
the mountains to see if the waters were suitable for our departure yet
awhile; and there we found a great bar of refuse brought down by the
winter flood and no water flowing into the lake; nor was there
sufficient depth to float our canoe. This proved to me that we ought to
have gone the moment I saw the water sinking, but for shame I dared not
admit the truth.
"In a few days," says I, "the plain will be dry, and we shall be able to
march well enough to the Baraquan."
"We must leave our canoe behind us, musn't we, Benet?" says my lady
quietly.
"Ay, but what of that?" says I, shortly; "can not we make another?"
"Yes," says she; but not a word of reproach passed her lips, though she
must have seen that I was to blame not to have started while there was
yet water to float us back to the river. And so we returned to the cave
without a word, for I was in a despicably bad temper, because I knew I
was in fault for not going when my conscience bade me. This ill-humor
possessed me all day, though frequently my lady essayed to return to our
customary free and cordial understanding; only when night came and I lay
awake I felt remorse and grief for my wicked delay in the first place,
and my foolish perversity after. "Fool," says I to myself bitterly, "not
content with robbing your dear lady of freedom, you have marred a day
she would have rendered happy. It may be the last she will ever care to
lighten for you."
I could not rest for the torment of my self-reproach. Getting out of my
net I went softly in the dark to her kitchen, and passed my hand over
the things she was wont to use.
"Here," says I to myself, touching her dresser--"here have we stood side
by side grinding our cassavy, mirthful and light-hearted. Why were we so
happy and content? Because I had none but good intent towards her;
because she was confident in me. Will she ever have faith in me again,
knowing I have let slip her chance to escape? Can we ever more be happy
together?"
Before daybreak I rowed over to the gap, and thence as soon as it was
light I perceived that vast plain green as far as the eye could reach
with the young shoots of reeds, laid bare by the further sinking of the
water; but for some distance round and about the gap and extending by
the hill, where the water had flowed in from the Baraquan, was a great
bed of yellow mud, neither firm enough for the foot nor liquid enough
for the canoe. Seeing, therefore, that no escape was possible until this
mud grew hard (if ever it should), I went back very desolate to the
cavern. And there was our morning meal spread on fair fresh leaves,
which Lady Biddy employed for a table-cloth, and that dear creature
waiting to greet me with a cheerful bright countenance, as if she had
naught to reproach me with, though I marked a shade of anxiety beneath
her sweet smile.
I told her where I had been, and, putting as good a face on it as well I
could, added that we must wait a few days for the ground to harden ere
we started again upon our journey. "But," thinks I, "'twill never
harden, for surely from those hills there must dribble streams that flow
into the lake; and here must my dear patient lady linger another whole
year." And with this reflection, despite all my efforts to seem easy and
hopeful, I fell into a despondent mood.