july 14th.
we are not wholly without the pleasures of the town in barbury green. once or twice in a summer, late on a saturday afternoon, a procession of red and yellow vans drives into a field near the centre of the village. by the time the vans are unpacked all the children in the community are surrounding the gate of entrance. there is rifle-shooting, there is fortune-telling, there are games of pitch and toss, and swings, and french bagatelle; and, to crown all, a wonderful orchestrion that goes by steam. the water is boiled for the public’s tea, and at the same time thrilling strains of melody are flung into the air. there is at present only one tune in the orchestrion’s repertory, but it is a very good tune; though after hearing it three hundred and seven times in a single afternoon, it pursues one, sleeping and waking, for the next week. phœbe and i took the square baby and went in to this diversified entertainment. there was a small crowd of children at the entrance, but as none of them seemed to be provided with pennies, and i felt in a fairy godmother mood, i offered them the freedom of the place at my expense.
i never purchased more radiant good-will for less money, but the combined effect of the well-boiled tea and the boiling orchestrion produced many village nightmares, so the mothers told me at chapel next morning.
* * * * *
i have many friends in barbury green, and often have a pleasant chat with the draper, and the watchmaker, and the chemist.
the freedom of the place at my expense
the last house on the principal street is rather an ugly one, with especially nice window curtains. as i was taking my daily walk to the post-office (an entirely unfruitful expedition thus far, as nobody has taken the pains to write to me) i saw a nursemaid coming out of the gate, wheeling a baby in a perambulator. she was going placidly away from the green when, far in the distance, she espied a man walking rapidly toward us, a heavy gladstone bag in one hand. she gazed fixedly for a moment, her eyes brightening and her cheeks flushing with pleasure,—whoever it was, it was an unexpected arrival;—then she retraced her steps and, running up the garden-path, opened the front door and held an excited colloquy with somebody; a slender somebody in a nice print gown and neatly-dressed hair, who came to the gate and peeped beyond the hedge several times, drawing back between peeps with smiles and heightened colour. she did not run down the road, even when she had satisfied herself of the identity of the traveller; perhaps that would not have been good form in an english village, for there were houses on the opposite side of the way. she waited until he opened the gate, the nursemaid took the bag and looked discreetly into the hedge, then the mistress slipped her hand through the traveller’s arm and walked up the path as if she had nothing else in the world to wish for. the nurse had a part in the joy, for she lifted the baby out of the perambulator and showed proudly how much he had grown.
it was a dear little scene, and i, a passer-by, had shared in it and felt better for it. i think their content was no less because part of it had enriched my life, for happiness, like mercy, is twice blessed; it blesses those who are most intimately associated in it, and it blesses all those who see it, hear it, feel it, touch it, or breathe the same atmosphere. a laughing, crowing baby in a house, one cheerful woman singing about her work, a boy whistling at the plough, a romance just suspected, with its miracle of two hearts melting into one—the wind’s always in the west when you have any of these wonder-workers in your neighbourhood.
i have talks too, sometimes, with the old parson, who lives in a quaint house with “parva domus magna quies” cut into the stone over the doorway. he is not a preaching parson, but a retired one, almost the nicest kind, i often think.
he has been married thirty years, he tells me; thirty years, spent in the one little house with the bricks painted red and grey alternately, and the scarlet holly-hocks growing under the windows. i am sure they have been sweet, true, kind years, and that his heart must be a quiet, peaceful place just like his house and garden.
“i was only eleven years old when i fell in love with my wife,” he told me as we sat on the seat under the lime-tree; he puffing cosily at his pipe, i plaiting grasses for a hatband.
puffing cosily at his pipe
“it was just before sunday-school. her mother had dressed her all in white muslin like a fairy, but she had stepped on the edge of a puddle, and some of the muddy water had bespattered her frock. a circle of children had surrounded her, and some of the motherly little girls were on their knees rubbing at the spots anxiously, while one of them wiped away the tears that were running down her pretty cheeks. i looked! it was fatal! i did not look again, but i was smitten to the very heart! i did not speak to her for six years, but when i did, it was all right with both of us, thank god! and i’ve been in love with her ever since, when she behaves herself!”
that is the way they speak of love in barbury green, and oh! how much sweeter and more wholesome it is than the language of the town! who would not be a goose girl, “to win the secret of the weed’s plain heart”? it seems to me that in society we are always gazing at magic-lantern shows, but here we rest our tired eyes with looking at the stars.
