CHAPTER XIII.
_A brief summary of those twelve months we spent at Elche._
The surprising activity with which we attacked our domestic business atElche lasted about two days and a half,--Dawson labouring at his shed, Iat the cultivation of the garden, and Moll quitting her cooking andhousehold affairs, as occasion permitted, to lend a helping hand firstto her father and then to me. And as man, when this fever of enterpriseis upon him, must for ever be seeking to add to his cares, we persuadedDon Sanchez to let us have two she-goats to stall in the shed andconsume our waste herbage, that we might have milk and get butter, whichthey do in these parts by shaking the cream in a skin bag (a method thatseems simple enough till you have been shaking the bag for twentyminutes in vain on a sultry morning) without cost. But the novelty ofthe thing wearing off, our eagerness rapidly subsided, and so about thethird day (as I say), the heat being prodigious, we toiled with nospirit at all.
Dawson was the first to speak his mind. Says he, coming to me whilst Iwas still sweating over my shovel:
"I've done it, but hang me if I do more. There's a good piece of workworth thirty shillings of any man's money, but who'll give me a thank yefor it when we leave here next year?"
And then he can find nothing better to do than fall a-commenting on mylabours, 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 jobbefore it was quarter done, etc., all which was mighty discouraging andthe more unpleasant because I felt there was a good deal of truth inwhat he said.
Consequently, I felt a certain malicious enjoyment the next morning uponfinding that the goats had burst out one side of his famous shed, andgot loose into the garden, which enabled me to wonder that two suchfeeble creatures could undo such a good thirty shillings' worth of work,etc. But ere I was done galling him, I myself was mortified exceedinglyto find these mischievous brutes had torn up all the plants I had set bythe trees in the shade as worthy of cultivation, which gave Jack achance for jibing at me. But that which embittered us as much asanything was to have Moll holding her sides for laughter at our attemptsto catch these two devilish goats, which to our cost we found were notso feeble, after all; for getting one up in a corner, she raises herselfup on her hind legs and brings her skull down with such a smack on myknee 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 forwardto lay hold of her, lay him sprawling in our little stream of water. Nordo I think we should ever have captured them, but that, giving over ourendeavours from sheer fatigue, they of their own accord sauntered intothe shed for shelter from the sun, where Moll clapt to the door uponthem, and set her back against the gap in the side, until her fathercame with a hammer and some stout nails to secure the planks. So for therest of that day Jack and I lay on our backs in the shade, doingnothing, but exceedingly sore one against the other for thesemischances.
But our heart burnings ended not there; for coming in to supper atsundown, 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, waslittle enough to our satisfaction, as Dawson told her in pretty roundterms, asking her what she was good for if not to give us a meal fit forChristians, etc., and stating very explicitly what he would have herprepare for our dinner next day. Moll takes her upbraiding very humbly(which was ever a bad sign), and promises to be more careful of ourcomfort in the future. And so ended that day.
The next morning Dawson and I make no attempt at work, but afterbreakfast, by common accord, stretch us out under the palms to meditate;and there about half past ten, Don Sanchez, coming round to pay us avisit, finds us both sound asleep. A sudden exclamation from him arousedus, and as we stumbled to our feet, staring about us, we perceived Mollcoming from the house, but so disfigured with smuts of charcoal all overher 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, Senor, 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), "andanything else that my means may afford. You will do well to write me alist of your requirements; but observe," adds he, turning on his heel,"we may have to stay here another twelvemonth, if my economies are notsufficient by the end of the first year to take us hence."
This hint brought us to our senses very quickly, and overtaking him erehe reached our garden gate, Dawson and I assured the Don we had no needof any servant, and would be careful that Moll henceforth did no menialoffice; 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 thehouse, and I with that part which concerned the custody and care of thegoats, the cultivation of pot-herbs and with such instruction of Moll inthe Italian tongue as I could command. But to tell the truth, we neitherof us did one stroke of work beyond what was absolutely necessary, andespecially Dawson, being past everything for indolence, did so order hispart that from having two dishes of flesh a day, we came, ere long, togetting but one mess a week; he forcing himself and us to be contentwith dates and bread for our repasts, rather than give himself thetrouble of boiling a pot. Beyond browsing my goats, drawing their milk(the making of butter I quickly renounced), and watering my garden nightand morn (which is done by throwing water from the little streambroadcast with a shovel on either side), I did no more than Dawson, butjoined him in yawning the day away, for which my sole excuse is thegreat heat of this region, which doth beget most slothful humours inthose matured in cooler climes.
With Moll, however, the case was otherwise; for she, being young and ofan exceeding vivacious, active disposition, must for ever be doing ofsomething, and lucky for us when it was not some mischievous trick atour expense--as letting the goats loose, shaking lemons down on ourheads as we lay asleep beneath it, and the like. Being greatly smittenwith the appearance of the Moorish women (who, though they are notpermitted to wander about at will like our women, are yet suffered tofetch water from the public fountains), she surprised us one morning bycoming forth dressed in their mode. And this dress, which seems to benought 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 inthe manner of the old Greeks, became her surprisingly; and we noticedthen for the first time that her arms were rounder and fuller than whenwe had last seen them bare. Then, to get the graceful, noble bearing ofthe Moors, she practised day after day carrying a pitcher of water onher head as they do, until she could do this with perfect ease andsureness. In this habit the Don, who was mightily pleased with herlooks, took her to the house of his friend and employer, Sidi ben Ahmed,where she ingratiated herself so greatly with the women of his householdthat they would have her come to them again the next day, and after thatthe next,--indeed, thenceforth she spent far more of her time with thesenew friends than with us. And here, from the necessity of making herselfunderstood, together with an excellent memory and a natural aptitude,she learned to speak the Moorish tongue in a marvellously short space oftime. Dawson and I were frequently asked to accompany Moll, and we wenttwice to this house, which, though nothing at all to look at outside,was very magnificently furnished within, and the entertainment mostnoble. But Lord! 'twas the most tedious, wearisome business for us, whocould make out never a word of the civil speeches offered us without theaid 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 usvast pleasure to see how Moll carried herself with this company, talkingas freely as they, yet holding herself with the dignity of an equal, anddelighting all by her vivacity and sly, pretty ways.
"SHE PRACT
ISED DAY AFTER DAY BY CARRYING A PITCHER OFWATER ON HER HEAD."]
I think no country in Europe can be richer than this Elche in fruits andvegetation, more beautiful in its surrounding aspects of plain andmountain, more blessed with constant, glorious sunlight; and the effectof these charms upon the quick, receptive spirit of our Molly was like agentle May upon a nightingale, so that the days were all too short forher enjoyment, and she must need vent her happiness in song; but on usthey made no more impression than on two owls in a tower, nay, ifanything they did add to that weariness which arose from our lack ofoccupation. For here was no contrast in our lives, one day being as likeanother as two peas in a pod, and having no sort of adversities to givesavour to our ease, we found existence the most flat, insipid, dullthing possible. I remember how, on Christmas day, Dawson did cry outagainst the warm sunshine as a thing contrary to nature, wishing hemight stand up to his knees in snow in a whistling wind, and taking upthe crock Moll had filled with roses (which here bloom more fully in thedepth of winter than with us in the height of summer), he flung it outof the door with a curse for an unchristian thing to have in the houseon such a day.
As soon as the year had turned, we began to count the days to ourdeparture, and thenceforth we could think of nought but what we would dowith our fortune when we got it; and, the evenings being long, we wouldset the bag of wine betwixt us after our supper of dates, and sit therefor hours discussing our several projects. Moll being with us (for inthese parts no womankind may be abroad after sundown), she would takepart in these debates with as much gusto as we. For though she was notwearied of her life here as we were, yet she was possessed of a verystirring spirit of adventure, and her quick imagination furnishedendless visions of lively pleasures and sumptuous living. We agreed thatwe would live together, and share everything in common as one family,but not in such an outlandish spot as Chislehurst. That estate we wouldhave nothing to do with; but, selling it at once, have in its place twohouses,--one city house in the Cheap, and a country house not furtherfrom town than Bednal Green, or Clerkenwell at the outside, to the endthat when we were fatigued with the pleasures of the town, we might, byan easy journey, resort to the tranquillity of rural life, Dawsondeclaring what wines he would have laid down in our cellars, I whatbooks should furnish our library, and Moll what dresses she would wear(not less than one for every month of the year), what coaches and horseswe should keep, what liveries our servants should wear, whatentertainments we would give, and so forth. Don Sanchez was not excludedfrom our deliberations; indeed, he encouraged us greatly by approving ofall our plans, only stipulating that we would guard one room for him ineach of our houses, that he might feel at home in our society wheneverhe chanced to be in our neighbourhood. In all these arguments, there wasnever one word of question from any of us as to the honesty of ourdesign. We had settled that, once and for all, before starting on thisexpedition; and since then, little by little, we had come to regard theGodwin estate as a natural gift, as freely to be taken as a blackberryfrom the hedge. Nay, I believe Dawson and I would have contested ourright 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 likedus to call it) nigh at an end, Dawson one night put the question to DonSanchez, which had kept us fluttering in painful suspense these past sixmonths, whether he had saved sufficient by his labours, to enable us toreturn to England ere long.
"Yes," says he, gravely, at which we did all heave one long sigh ofrelief, "I learn that a convoy of English ships is about to sail fromAlicante in the beginning of July, and if we are happy enough to find afavourable opportunity, we will certainly embark in one of them."
"Pray, Senor," says I, "what may that opportunity be; for 'tis but twodays' march hence to Alicante, and we may do it with a light foot inone."
"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 puttingus aboard an English ship under a flag of truce as redeemed slaves fromBarbary."
"Pirates!" cry we, in a low breath.
"What, Senor!" adds Dawson, "are we to trust ourselves to the mercy andhonesty of Barbary pirates on the open sea?"
"I would rather trust to their honesty," answers the Don, dropping hisvoice that he might not be heard by Moll, who was leading home thegoats, "than to the mercy of an English judge, if we should be broughtto trial with insufficient evidence to support our story."
Jack and I stared at each other aghast at this talk of trial, which hadnever 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 madesearching enquiry into Moll's claim, act she her part never so well. Wecannot refuse to give him the name of the ship that brought us home,and, learning that we embarked at Alicante, jealous suspicion may leadhim to seek further information there; with what result?"
"Why, we may be blown with a vengeance, if he come ferreting so nigh asthat," 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 aperil to my Moll. But, do tell me plainly, Senor, granting these piratesbe the most honest thieves in the world, is there no other risk tofear?"
The Don hunched his shoulders.
"Life itself is a game," says he, "in which the meanest stroke may notbe won without some risk; but, played as I direct, the odds are in ourfavour. Picked up at sea from an Algerine boat, who shall deny our storywhen the evidence against us lies there" (laying his hand out towardsthe south), "where no man in England dare venture to seek it?"
"Why, to be sure," says Dawson; "that way all hangs together to anicety. For only a wizard could dream of coming hither for our undoing."
"For the rest," continues the Don, thoughtfully, "there is little tofear. Judith Godwin has eyes the colour of Moll's, and in all else Simonmust 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 childwhen 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 affectionand admiration, nodding towards Moll, "see how she has changed in thislittle while. I should not know her for the raw, half-starved spindle ofa thing she was when I saw her first playing in the barn at TottenhamCross."
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, hadslipped my observation somewhat. She was no longer a gaunt, ungainlychild, but a young woman, well proportioned, with a rounded cheek andchin, brown tinted by the sun, and, to my mind, more beautiful than anyof their vaunted Moorish women. But, indeed, in this country all thingsdo mature quickly; and 'twas less surprising in her case because hergrowth had been checked before by privation and hardship, whereas sinceour coming hither it had been aided by easy circumstances and goodliving.