The Herd Boy and His Hermit | Page 5

Charlotte Mary Yonge
Hal, who
gazed eagerly, though in a shamefaced way, at the guest as he set down
a bowl of ewe milk. She was a well-grown girl of ten, slender, and
bearing herself like one high bred and well trained in deportment; and
her face was delicately tinted on an olive skin, with fine marked
eyebrows, and dark bright eyes, and her little hunting dress of green,
and the hood, set on far back, became the dark locks that curled in rings
beneath.
She saw a slender lad, dark-haired and dark-eyed, ruddy and
embrowned by mountain sun and air; and the bow with which he bent
before her had something of the rustic lout, and there was a certain
shyness over him that hindered him from addressing her.
'So, shepherd,' she said, 'when wilt thou take me back to Greystone?'
'Father will fix that,' interposed the housewife; 'meanwhile, ye had best
eat your porridge. Here is Father, in good time with the cows' milk.'
The rugged broad-shouldered shepherd made his salutation duly to the

young lady, and uttered the information that there was a black cloud,
like snow, coming up over the fells to the south-west.
'But I must fare back to Greystone!' said the damsel. 'They will be in a
mighty coil what has become of me.'
'They would be in a worse coil if they found your bones under a snow
wreath.'
Hal went to the door and spied out, as if the tidings were rather pleasant
to him than otherwise. The goodwife shivered, and reached out to close
the shutter, and there being no glass to the windows, all the light that
came in was through the chinks.
'It would serve them right for not minding me better,' said the maiden
composedly. 'Nay, it is as merry here as at Greystone, with Sister
Margaret picking out one's broidery, and Father Cuthbert making one
pore over his crabbed parchments.'
'Oh, does this Father teach Latin?' exclaimed Hal with eager interest.
'Of course he doth! The Mother at York promised I should learn
whatever became a damsel of high degree,' said the girl, drawing
herself up.
'I would he would teach me!' sighed the boy.
'Better break thy fast and mind thy sheep,' said the old woman, as if she
feared his getting on dangerous ground; and placing the bowl of
porridge on the rough table, she added, 'Say the Benedicite, lad, and fall
to.' Then, as he uttered the blessing, she asked the guest whether she
preferred ewes' milk or cows' milk, a luxury no one else was allowed,
all eating their porridge contentedly with a pinch of salt, Hob showing
scant courtesy, the less since his guest's rank had been made known.
By the time they had finished, snowflakes--an early autumn storm--
were drifting against the shutter, and a black cloud was lowering over
the hills. Hob foretold a heavy fall of snow, and called on Hal to help
him and Piers fold the flock more securely, sleepy Watch and his old
long-haired collie mother rising at the same call. Lady Anne sprang up
at the same time, insisting that she must go and help to feed the poor
sheep, but she was withheld, much against her will, by Mother Dolly,
though she persisted that snow was nothing to her, and it was a fine jest
to be out of the reach of the Sisters, who mewed her up in a cell, like a
messan dog. However, she was much amused by watching, and
thinking she assisted in, Mother Dolly's preparations for ewe milk

cheese-making; and by-and-by Hal came in, shaking the snow off the
sheepskin he had worn over his leathern coat. Hob had sent him in, as
the weather was too bad for him, and he and Anne crouched on
opposite sides of the wide hearth as he dried and warmed himself, and
cosseted the cat which Anne had tried to caress, but which showed a
decided preference for the older friend.
'Our Baudrons at Greystone loves me better than that,' said Anne. 'She
will come to me sooner than even to Sister Scholastica!'
'My Tib came with us when we came here. Ay, Tib! purr thy best!' as
he held his fingers over her, and she rubbed her smooth head against
him.
'Can she leap? Baudrons leaps like a horse in the tilt-yard.'
'Cannot she! There, my lady pussy, show what thou canst do to please
the demoiselle,' and he held his arms forward with clasped hands, so
that the grey cat might spring over them, and Lady Anne cried out with
delight.
Again and again the performance was repeated, and pussy was induced
to dance after a string dangled before her, to roll over and play in
apparent ecstasy with a flake of wool, as if
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