_A brief summary of those twelve months we spent at Elche._
The surprising activity with which we attacked our domestic business at
Elche lasted about two days and a half,--Dawson labouring at his shed, I
at the cultivation of the garden, and Moll quitting her cooking and
household affairs, as occasion permitted, to lend a helping hand first
to her father and then to me. And as man, when this fever of enterprise
is upon him, must for ever be seeking to add to his cares, we persuaded
Don Sanchez to let us have two she-goats to stall in the shed and
consume our waste herbage, that we might have milk and get butter, which
they do in these parts by shaking the cream in a skin bag (a method that
seems simple enough till you have been shaking the bag for twenty
minutes in vain on a sultry morning) without cost. But the novelty of
the thing wearing off, our eagerness rapidly subsided, and so about the
third day (as I say), the heat being prodigious, we toiled with no
spirit at all.
Dawson was the first to speak his mind. Says he, coming to me whilst I
was still sweating over my shovel:
"I've done it, but hang me if I do more. There's a good piece of work
worth thirty shillings of any man's money, but who'll give me a thank ye
for it when we leave here next year?"
And then he can find nothing better to do than fall a-commenting on my
labours, saying there was but precious little to show for my efforts,
that had he been in my place he would have ordered matters otherwise,
and begun digging t'other end, wagering that I should give up my job
before it was quarter done, etc., all which was mighty discouraging and
the more unpleasant because I felt there was a good deal of truth in
what he said.
Consequently, I felt a certain malicious enjoyment the next morning upon
finding that the goats had burst out one side of his famous shed, and
got loose into the garden, which enabled me to wonder that two such
feeble creatures could undo such a good thirty shillings' worth of work,
etc. But ere I was done galling him, I myself was mortified exceedingly
to find these mischievous brutes had torn up all the plants I had set by
the trees in the shade as worthy of cultivation, which gave Jack a
chance for jibing at me. But that which embittered us as much as
anything was to have Moll holding her sides for laughter at our attempts
to catch these two devilish goats, which to our cost we found were not
so feeble, after all; for getting one up in a corner, she raises herself
up on her hind legs and brings her skull down with such a smack on my
knee that I truly thought she had broke my cramp-bone, whilst t'other,
taking Dawson in the ankles with her horns, as he was reaching forward
to lay hold of her, lay him sprawling in our little stream of water. Nor
do I think we should ever have captured them, but that, giving over our
endeavours from sheer fatigue, they of their own accord sauntered into
the shed for shelter from the sun, where Moll clapt to the door upon
them, and set her back against the gap in the side, until her father
came with a hammer and some stout nails to secure the planks. So for the
rest of that day Jack and I lay on our backs in the shade, doing
nothing, but exceedingly sore one against the other for these
mischances.
But our heart burnings ended not there; for coming in to supper at
sundown, Moll has nothing to offer us but dry bread and a dish of dates,
which, though it be the common supper of the Moors in this place, was
little enough to our satisfaction, as Dawson told her in pretty round
terms, asking her what she was good for if not to give us a meal fit for
Christians, etc., and stating very explicitly what he would have her
prepare for our dinner next day. Moll takes her upbraiding very humbly
(which was ever a bad sign), and promises to be more careful of our
comfort in the future. And so ended that day.
The next morning Dawson and I make no attempt at work, but after
breakfast, by common accord, stretch us out under the palms to meditate;
and there about half past ten, Don Sanchez, coming round to pay us a
visit, finds us both sound asleep. A sudden exclamation from him aroused
us, and as we stumbled to our feet, staring about us, we perceived Moll
coming from the house, but so disfigured with smuts of charcoal all over
her face and hands, we scarce knew her.
"God's mercy!" cries the Don. "What on earth have you been doing,
child?"
To which Moll replies with a curtsey:
"I am learning to be a cook-wench, Señor, at my father's desire."
"You are here," answers the Don, with a frown, "to learn to be a lady.
If a cook-wench is necessary, you shall have one" (this to us), "and
anything else that my means may afford. You will do well to write me a
list of your requirements; but observe," adds he, turning on his heel,
"we may have to stay here another twelvemonth, if my economies are not
sufficient by the end of the first year to take us hence."
This hint brought us to our senses very quickly, and overtaking him ere
he reached our garden gate, Dawson and I assured the Don we had no need
of any servant, and would be careful that Moll henceforth did no menial
office; that we would tax his generosity no more than we could help,
etc., to our great humiliation when we came to reflect on our conduct.
Thenceforth Dawson charged himself with the internal economy of the
house, and I with that part which concerned the custody and care of the
goats, the cultivation of pot-herbs and with such instruction of Moll in
the Italian tongue as I could command. But to tell the truth, we neither
of us did one stroke of work beyond what was absolutely necessary, and
especially Dawson, being past everything for indolence, did so order his
part that from having two dishes of flesh a day, we came, ere long, to
getting but one mess a week; he forcing himself and us to be content
with dates and bread for our repasts, rather than give himself the
trouble of boiling a pot. Beyond browsing my goats, drawing their milk
(the making of butter I quickly renounced), and watering my garden night
and morn (which is done by throwing water from the little stream
broadcast with a shovel on either side), I did no more than Dawson, but
joined him in yawning the day away, for which my sole excuse is the
great heat of this region, which doth beget most slothful humours in
those matured in cooler climes.
With Moll, however, the case was otherwise; for she, being young and of
an exceeding vivacious, active disposition, must for ever be doing of
something, and lucky for us when it was not some mischievous trick at
our expense--as letting the goats loose, shaking lemons down on our
heads as we lay asleep beneath it, and the like. Being greatly smitten
with the appearance of the Moorish women (who, though they are not
permitted to wander about at will like our women, are yet suffered to
fetch water from the public fountains), she surprised us one morning by
coming forth dressed in their mode. And this dress, which seems to be
nought but a long sheet wound loosely twice or thrice about the body,
buckled on the shoulder, with holes for the arms to be put through in
the manner of the old Greeks, became her surprisingly; and we noticed
then for the first time that her arms were rounder and fuller than when
we had last seen them bare. Then, to get the graceful, noble bearing of
the Moors, she practised day after day carrying a pitcher of water on
her head as they do, until she could do this with perfect ease and
sureness. In this habit the Don, who was mightily pleased with her
looks, took her to the house of his friend and employer, Sidi ben Ahmed,
where she ingratiated herself so greatly with the women of his household
that they would have her come to them again the next day, and after that
the next,--indeed, thenceforth she spent far more of her time with these
new friends than with us. And here, from the necessity of making herself
understood, together with an excellent memory and a natural aptitude,
she learned to speak the Moorish tongue in a marvellously short space of
time. Dawson and I were frequently asked to accompany Moll, and we went
twice to this house, which, though nothing at all to look at outside,
was very magnificently furnished within, and the entertainment most
noble. But Lord! 'twas the most tedious, wearisome business for us, who
could make out never a word of the civil speeches offered us without the
aid of Don Sanchez and Moll, and then could think of no witty response,
but could only sit there grinning like Gog and Magog. Still, it gave us
vast pleasure to see how Moll carried herself with this company, talking
as freely as they, yet holding herself with the dignity of an equal, and
delighting all by her vivacity and sly, pretty ways.
[Illustration: "SHE PRACTISED DAY AFTER DAY BY CARRYING A PITCHER OF
WATER ON HER HEAD."]
I think no country in Europe can be richer than this Elche in fruits and
vegetation, more beautiful in its surrounding aspects of plain and
mountain, more blessed with constant, glorious sunlight; and the effect
of these charms upon the quick, receptive spirit of our Molly was like a
gentle May upon a nightingale, so that the days were all too short for
her enjoyment, and she must need vent her happiness in song; but on us
they made no more impression than on two owls in a tower, nay, if
anything they did add to that weariness which arose from our lack of
occupation. For here was no contrast in our lives, one day being as like
another as two peas in a pod, and having no sort of adversities to give
savour to our ease, we found existence the most flat, insipid, dull
thing possible. I remember how, on Christmas day, Dawson did cry out
against the warm sunshine as a thing contrary to nature, wishing he
might stand up to his knees in snow in a whistling wind, and taking up
the crock Moll had filled with roses (which here bloom more fully in the
depth of winter than with us in the height of summer), he flung it out
of the door with a curse for an unchristian thing to have in the house
on such a day.
As soon as the year had turned, we began to count the days to our
departure, and thenceforth we could think of nought but what we would do
with our fortune when we got it; and, the evenings being long, we would
set the bag of wine betwixt us after our supper of dates, and sit there
for hours discussing our several projects. Moll being with us (for in
these parts no womankind may be abroad after sundown), she would take
part in these debates with as much gusto as we. For though she was not
wearied of her life here as we were, yet she was possessed of a very
stirring spirit of adventure, and her quick imagination furnished
endless visions of lively pleasures and sumptuous living. We agreed that
we would live together, and share everything in common as one family,
but not in such an outlandish spot as Chislehurst. That estate we would
have nothing to do with; but, selling it at once, have in its place two
houses,--one city house in the Cheap, and a country house not further
from town than Bednal Green, or Clerkenwell at the outside, to the end
that when we were fatigued with the pleasures of the town, we might, by
an easy journey, resort to the tranquillity of rural life, Dawson
declaring what wines he would have laid down in our cellars, I what
books should furnish our library, and Moll what dresses she would wear
(not less than one for every month of the year), what coaches and horses
we should keep, what liveries our servants should wear, what
entertainments we would give, and so forth. Don Sanchez was not excluded
from our deliberations; indeed, he encouraged us greatly by approving of
all our plans, only stipulating that we would guard one room for him in
each of our houses, that he might feel at home in our society whenever
he chanced to be in our neighbourhood. In all these arguments, there was
never one word of question from any of us as to the honesty of our
design. We had settled that, once and for all, before starting on this
expedition; and since then, little by little, we had come to regard the
Godwin estate as a natural gift, as freely to be taken as a blackberry
from the hedge. Nay, I believe Dawson and I would have contested our
right to it by reason of the pains we were taking to possess it.
And now, being in the month of June, and our year of exile (as it liked
us to call it) nigh at an end, Dawson one night put the question to Don
Sanchez, which had kept us fluttering in painful suspense these past six
months, whether he had saved sufficient by his labours, to enable us to
return to England ere long.
"Yes," says he, gravely, at which we did all heave one long sigh of
relief, "I learn that a convoy of English ships is about to sail from
Alicante in the beginning of July, and if we are happy enough to find a
favourable opportunity, we will certainly embark in one of them."
"Pray, Señor," says I, "what may that opportunity be; for 'tis but two
days' march hence to Alicante, and we may do it with a light foot in
one."
"The opportunity I speak of," answers he, "is the arrival, from Algeria,
of a company of pirates, whose good service I hope to engage in putting
us aboard an English ship under a flag of truce as redeemed slaves from
Barbary."
"Pirates!" cry we, in a low breath.
"What, Señor!" adds Dawson, "are we to trust ourselves to the mercy and
honesty of Barbary pirates on the open sea?"
"I would rather trust to their honesty," answers the Don, dropping his
voice that he might not be heard by Moll, who was leading home the
goats, "than to the mercy of an English judge, if we should be brought
to trial with insufficient evidence to support our story."
Jack and I stared at each other aghast at this talk of trial, which had
never once entered into our reckoning of probabilities.
"If I know aught of my fellow-men," continues the Don, surely and slow,
"that grasping steward will not yield up his trust before he has made
searching enquiry into Moll's claim, act she her part never so well. We
cannot refuse to give him the name of the ship that brought us home,
and, learning that we embarked at Alicante, jealous suspicion may lead
him to seek further information there; with what result?"
"Why, we may be blown with a vengeance, if he come ferreting so nigh as
that," says Dawson, "and we are like to rot in gaol for our pains."
"You may choose to run that risk; I will not," says the Don.
"Nor I either," says Dawson, "and God forgive me for overlooking such a
peril to my Moll. But, do tell me plainly, Señor, granting these pirates
be the most honest thieves in the world, is there no other risk to
fear?"
The Don hunched his shoulders.
"Life itself is a game," says he, "in which the meanest stroke may not
be won without some risk; but, played as I direct, the odds are in our
favour. Picked up at sea from an Algerine boat, who shall deny our story
when the evidence against us lies there" (laying his hand out towards
the south), "where no man in England dare venture to seek it?"
"Why, to be sure," says Dawson; "that way all hangs together to a
nicety. For only a wizard could dream of coming hither for our undoing."
"For the rest," continues the Don, thoughtfully, "there is little to
fear. Judith Godwin has eyes the colour of Moll's, and in all else Simon
must expect to find a change since he last saw his master's daughter.
They were in Italy three years. That would make Judith a lisping child
when she left England. He must look to find her altered. Why," adds he,
in a more gentle voice, as if moved by some inner feeling of affection
and admiration, nodding towards Moll, "see how she has changed in this
little while. I should not know her for the raw, half-starved spindle of
a thing she was when I saw her first playing in the barn at Tottenham
Cross."
Looking at her now (browsing the goats amongst my most cherished herbs),
I was struck also by this fact, which, living with her day by day, had
slipped my observation somewhat. She was no longer a gaunt, ungainly
child, but a young woman, well proportioned, with a rounded cheek and
chin, brown tinted by the sun, and, to my mind, more beautiful than any
of their vaunted Moorish women. But, indeed, in this country all things
do mature quickly; and 'twas less surprising in her case because her
growth had been checked before by privation and hardship, whereas since
our coming hither it had been aided by easy circumstances and good
living.