A winter sunset sparkled like cowslip wine on the wet roofs of Odiam. It slipped between the curtains of the room where Reuben watched beside his dead father, and made a golden pool in the dusk.
Joseph Backfield had been dead twelve hours. His wife had gone, worn out with her grief, to rest on the narrow unaccustomed bed which had been put up in the next room when he grew too ill to have her at his side. Reuben knew that Harry1 was with her—Harry would be sitting at her head, his arm under the pillow, ready for that miserable2 first waking, when remembering and forgetting would be fused into one pain. Reuben knew that they did not need him, that they had all they wanted in each other—now, as during the nights and days of illness, when he had never felt as if he had any real link with those three, his father and mother and Harry.
This evening he sat very still beside the dead. Only once he drew down the sheet from his father's face and gazed at the calm features, already wearing that strange sculpt3 look which is the gift of death. The peaceful lips, the folded hands, seemed part of an embracing restfulness. Reuben's heart warmed with a love in which was little grief. He thought of his father's life—calm, kindly4, comfortable, ambitionless. He had[Pg 23] been happy; having wanted little he had attained5 it and had died enjoying it.
Reuben recalled the last five years—they had been fat years. One by one small comforts, small luxuries, had been added to the house, as the farm throve modestly, fulfilling itself within the narrow boundaries its master had appointed. And all the time that mocking furious crest6 of Boarzell had broken the sky in the south—telling of beauty unseized, might unconquered, pride untamed.
So now was it strange that clashing with his sorrow, and his regretful love for one who, if he had never truly loved him, had always treated him with generosity7 and kindness, there should be a soaring sense of freedom and relief?—a consciousness of standing8 on the edge of a boundless9 plain after years of confinement10 within walls? For Reuben was master now. Odiam was his—and the future of Odiam. He could follow his own will, he could take up that challenge which Boarzell Moor11 had flung him five years ago, when he fought and was flogged because he loved the red gaping12 clay between the gorse-stumps.
His plans of conquest were more definite now. He had been forming them for five years, and he could not deny that during his father's illness he had shaped them with a certain finality. The road was clear before him, and to a slight extent fate had been propitious13, keeping open a way which might well have been blocked before he began to tread it. Reuben had never been able to settle what he should do if the Squire14's first project were fulfilled and the Moor sold in building plots. House property entered with difficulty into his imagination, and he coveted15 only Boarzell virgin16 of tool and brick. Luckily for him, Bardon's scheme had completely failed. The position of the common was bad for houses, windy and exposed in days when the deepest hollows were the most eligible17 building[Pg 24] sites; the neighbourhood was both unfashionable and unfruitful, therefore not likely to attract either people of means or people without them. Also there were grave difficulties about a water supply. So Boarzell remained desolate18, except for the yearly jostle of the Fair, and rumour19 said that Bardon would be only too glad to sell it or any piece of it to whoever would buy.
If Sir Peter had been alive he would probably have given the common back to the people, but Sir Miles was more far-sighted, also of prouder stuff. Such a policy would give the impression of weakness, and there was always a chance of selling the land piecemeal20. Reuben's ambition was to buy a few acres at the end of that year, letting the Squire know of his plan to buy more—this would encourage him to keep Boarzell inclosed, and would act as a check on any weak generosity.
There was no reason why this ambition should not be fulfilled, for now that he himself was at the head of affairs it would be possible to save money. Reuben's lips straightened—of late they had grown fuller, but also sterner in that occasional straightening, which changed the expression of his mouth from half-ripened sensuality to a full maturity21 of resolve. Now he was resolved—there should be changes at Odiam. He must give up that old easy, "comfortable" life on which his father had set such store. A ghost seemed to whisper in the room, as if the voice of the dead man once more declared his gospel—"I've no ambitions, so I'm a happy man. I d?an't want nothing I haven't got, and so I haven't got nothing I d?an't want."
Yes—there was no denying his father had been happy. But what a happiness! Even there by his side Reuben despised it. He, Reuben, would never be happy till he had torn up that gorse and lopped those firs from the top of Boarzell. In a kind of vision he saw the Moor with wheatfields rolling up to the crest, he smelt22 the baking of glumes in brown sunlight, the dusty savour of[Pg 25] the harvest-laden earth. He heard the thud of horses' hoofs23 and the lumber24 of waggon-wheels, the shouts of numberless farm-hands. That sinister25 waste, profitless now to every man, should be a source of wonder and wealth and fame. "Odiam—the biggest farm in Sussex. Backfield made it. He bought Boarzell Moor acre by acre and fought it inch by inch, and now there's nothing like it in the south." ...
He sprang up and went to the window, pulling back the curtain. The sun had gone, and the sky was a grey pool rimmed26 with gold and smoke. Boarzell, his dreamland, stood like a dark cloud against it, shaggy and waste. There in the dimness it looked unconquerable. Suppose he should be able to wring27 enough money from the grudging28 earth to buy that wilderness29, would he ever be able to subdue30 it, make it bear crops? He remembered words from the Bible which he had heard read in church—"Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? or bore his jaw31 through with a thorn? Will he make a covenant32 with thee? Wilt33 thou take him for a servant for ever?"
He brought his fist down heavily on the sill. He was just as confident, just as resolute34 as before, but now for the first time he realised all that the battle would mean. He could fight this cruel, tough thing only by being cruel and tough himself. He must be ruthless as the wind that blustered35 over it, hard as the stones that covered it, wiry as the gorse-roots that twisted in its marl. He must be all this if he was even to start the fight. To begin with, he would have to make his mother and Harry accept the new state of things. They must realise that the old soft life was over, that they would have to work, pull from the shoulder, sacrifice a hundred things to help fulfil his great ambition. He must not spare them—he must not spare anyone; he would not spare them, any more than he would spare himself.
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1
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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2
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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3
sculpt
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| n.雕刻，雕塑，雕刻品，雕塑品 | |
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4
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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5
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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6
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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7
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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8
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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9
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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10
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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11
moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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12
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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13
propitious
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| adj.吉利的；顺利的 | |
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14
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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15
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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18
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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20
piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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23
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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25
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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26
rimmed
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| adj.有边缘的，有框的v.沿…边缘滚动；给…镶边 | |
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wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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28
grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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29
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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30
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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31
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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32
covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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33
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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34
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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35
blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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