第54章 TRADITION OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FOUR(2)

'The flocks my father had charge of fed all about the downs near our house,overlooking the sea and shore each way for miles.In winter and early spring father was up a deal at nights,watching and tending the lambing.Often he'd go to bed early,and turn out at twelve or one;and on the other hand,he'd sometimes stay up till twelve or one,and then turn in to bed.As soon as I was old enough I used to help him,mostly in the way of keeping an eye upon the ewes while he was gone home to rest.This is what I was doing in a particular month in either the year four or five--I can't certainly fix which,but it was long before I was took away from the sheepkeeping to be bound prentice to a trade.Every night at that time I was at the fold,about half a mile,or it may be a little more,from our cottage,and no living thing at all with me but the ewes and young lambs.Afeard?No;I was never afeard of being alone at these times;for I had been reared in such an out-step place that the lack o'human beings at night made me less fearful than the sight of 'em.

Directly I saw a man's shape after dark in a lonely place I was frightened out of my senses.

'One day in that month we were surprised by a visit from my uncle Job,the sergeant in the Sixty-first foot,then in camp on the downs above King George's watering-place,several miles to the west yonder.

Uncle Job dropped in about dusk,and went up with my father to the fold for an hour or two.Then he came home,had a drop to drink from the tub of sperrits that the smugglers kept us in for housing their liquor when they'd made a run,and for burning 'em off when there was danger.After that he stretched himself out on the settle to sleep.

I went to bed:at one o'clock father came home,and waking me to go and take his place,according to custom,went to bed himself.On my way out of the house I passed Uncle Job on the settle.He opened his eyes,and upon my telling him where I was going he said it was a shame that such a youngster as I should go up there all alone;and when he had fastened up his stock and waist-belt he set off along with me,taking a drop from the sperrit-tub in a little flat bottle that stood in the corner-cupboard.

'By and by we drew up to the fold,saw that all was right,and then,to keep ourselves warm,curled up in a heap of straw that lay inside the thatched hurdles we had set up to break the stroke of the wind when there was any.To-night,however,there was none.It was one of those very still nights when,if you stand on the high hills anywhere within two or three miles of the sea,you can hear the rise and fall of the tide along the shore,coming and going every few moments like a sort of great snore of the sleeping world.Over the lower ground there was a bit of a mist,but on the hill where we lay the air was clear,and the moon,then in her last quarter,flung a fairly good light on the grass and scattered straw.

'While we lay there Uncle Job amused me by telling me strange stories of the wars he had served in and the wownds he had got.He had already fought the French in the Low Countries,and hoped to fight 'em again.His stories lasted so long that at last I was hardly sure that I was not a soldier myself,and had seen such service as he told of.The wonders of his tales quite bewildered my mind,till I fell asleep and dreamed of battle,smoke,and flying soldiers,all of a kind with the doings he had been bringing up to me.

'How long my nap lasted I am not prepared to say.But some faint sounds over and above the rustle of the ewes in the straw,the bleat of the lambs,and the tinkle of the sheep-bell brought me to my waking senses.Uncle Job was still beside me;but he too had fallen asleep.I looked out from the straw,and saw what it was that had aroused me.Two men,in boat-cloaks,cocked hats,and swords,stood by the hurdles about twenty yards off.

'I turned my ear thitherward to catch what they were saying,but though I heard every word o't,not one did I understand.They spoke in a tongue that was not ours--in French,as I afterward found.But if I could not gain the meaning of a word,I was shrewd boy enough to find out a deal of the talkers'business.By the light o'the moon Icould see that one of 'em carried a roll of paper in his hand,while every moment he spoke quick to his comrade,and pointed right and left with the other hand to spots along the shore.There was no doubt that he was explaining to the second gentleman the shapes and features of the coast.What happened soon after made this still clearer to me.