The Daffodil Fields Part 11

Then through the mob of brawlers Michael stepped Straight to where Lion stood. "I come," he said, "To give you back some words which I have kept Safe in my heart till I could see them paid.

You lied about Sue Jones; she died a maid As far as I'm concerned, and there's your lie, Full in your throat, and there, and there, and in your eye.

"And there's for stealing Mary" ... as he struck, He slipped upon a piece of peel and dropped Souse in a puddle of the courtyard muck; Loud laughter followed when he rose up sopped.

Friends rushed to intervene, the fight was stopped.

The two were hurried out by different ways.

Men said, "'Tis stopped for now, but not for many days."

April appeared, the green earth's impulse came, Pushing the singing sap until each bud Trembled with delicate life as soft as flame, Filled by the mighty heart-beat as with blood; Death was at ebb, and Life in br.i.m.m.i.n.g flood.

But little joy in life could Lion see, Striving to gird his will to set his loved one free,

While in his heart a hope still struggled dim That the mad hour would pa.s.s, the darkness break, The fever die, and she return to him, The routed nightmare let the sleeper wake.

"Then we could go abroad," he cried, "and make A new life, soul to soul; oh, love! return."

"Too late," his heart replied. At last he rode to learn.

Bowed, but alive with hope, he topped the pa.s.s, And saw, below, her cottage by the way, White, in a garden green with springing gra.s.s, And smoke against the blue sky going gray.

"G.o.d make us all the happier for to-day,"

He muttered humbly; then, below, he spied, Mary and Michael entering, walking side by side.

Arm within arm, like lovers, like dear lovers Matched by the happy stars and newly wed, Over whose lives a rosy presence hovers.

Lion dismounted, seeing hope was dead.

A child was by the road, he stroked his head, And "Little one," he said, "who lives below There, in the cottage there, where those two people go?"

"They do," the child said, pointing: "Mrs. Gray Lives in the cottage there, and he does, too.

They've been back near a week since being away."

It was but seal to what he inly knew.

He thanked the child and rode. The Spring was blue, Bluer than ever, and the birds were glad; Such rapture in the hedges all the blackbirds had.

He was not dancing to that pipe of the Spring.

He reached The Roughs, and there, within her room, Bowed for a time above her wedding ring, Which had so chained him to unhappy doom; All his dead marriage haunted in the gloom Of that deserted chamber; all her things Lay still as she had left them when her love took wings.

He kept a bitter vigil through the night, Knowing his loss, his ten years' pa.s.sion wasted, His life all blasted, even at its height, His cup of life's fulfilment hardly tasted.

Gray on the budding woods the morning hasted, And looking out he saw the dawn come chill Over the shaking acre pale with daffodil.

Birds were beginning in the meadows; soon The blackbirds and the thrushes with their singing Piped down the withered husk that was the moon, And up the sky the ruddy sun came winging.

Cows plodded past, yokes clanked, the men were bringing Milk from the barton. Someone shouted "Hup, Dog, drive them dangy red ones down away on up."

Some heavy hours went by before he rose.

He went out of the house into the gra.s.s, Down which the wind flowed much as water flows; The daffodils bowed down to let it pa.s.s.

At the brook's edge a boggy bit there was, Right at the field's north corner, near the bridge, Fenced by a ridge of earth; he sat upon the ridge,

Watching the water running to the sea, Watching the bridge, the stile, the path beyond, Where the white violet's sweetness brought the bee.

He paid the price of being overfond.

The water babbled always from the pond Over the pretty shallows, chattering, tinkling, With trembles from the sunlight in its clearness wrinkling.

So gazing, like one stunned, it reached his mind, That the hedge-brambles overhung the brook More than was right, making the selvage blind; The dragging brambles too much flotsam took.

Dully he thought to mend. He fetched a hook, And standing in the shallow stream he slashed, For hours, it seemed; the thorns, the twigs, the dead leaves splashed,

Splashed and were bobbed away across the shallows; Pale gra.s.ses with the sap gone from them fell, Sank, or were carried down beyond the sallows.

The bruised ground-ivy gave out earthy smell.

"I must be dead," he thought, "and this is h.e.l.l."

Fiercely he slashed, till, glancing at the stile, He saw that Michael stood there, watching, with a smile,

His old contemptuous smile of careless ease, As though the world with all its myriad pain Sufficed, but only just sufficed, to please.

Michael was there, the robber come again.

A tumult ran like flame in Lion's brain; Then, looking down, he saw the flowers shake: Gold, trembling daffodils; he turned, he plucked a stake

Out of the hedge that he had come to mend, And flung his hook to Michael, crying, "Take; We two will settle our accounts, my friend, Once and for ever. May the Lord G.o.d make You see your sins in time." He whirled his stake And struck at Michael's head; again he struck; While Michael dodged and laughed, "Why, man, I bring you luck.

"Don't kill a bringer of good news. You fool, Stop it and listen. I have come to say: Lion, for G.o.d's sake, listen and be cool.

You silly hothead, put that stake away.

Listen, I tell you." But he could not stay The anger flaming in that pa.s.sionate soul.

Blows rained upon him thick; they stung; he lost control.

Till, "If you want to fight," he cried, "let be.

Let me get off the bridge and we will fight.

That firm bit by the quag will do for me.

So. Be on guard, and G.o.d defend the right.

You foaming madman, with your h.e.l.l's delight, Smashing a man with stakes before he speaks: On guard. I'll make you humbler for the next few weeks."

The ground was level there; the daffodils Glimmered and danced beneath their cautious feet, Quartering for openings for the blow that kills.

Beyond the bubbling brook a thrush was sweet.

Quickly the footsteps slid; with feint and cheat, The weapons poised and darted and withdrew.

"Now stop it," Michael said, "I want to talk to you."

"We do not stop till one of us is dead,", Said Lion, rushing in. A short blow fell Dizzily, through all guard, on Michael's head.

His hedging-hook slashed blindly but too well: It struck in Lion's side. Then, for a spell, Both, sorely stricken, staggered, while their eyes Dimmed under mists of blood; they fell, they tried to rise,--

Tried hard to rise, but could not, so they lay, Watching the clouds go sailing on the sky, Touched with a redness from the end of day.

There was all April in the blackbird's cry.

And lying there they felt they had to die, Die and go under mould and feel no more April's green fire of life go running in earth's core.

"There was no need to hit me," Michael said; "You quiet thinking fellows lose control.

This fighting business is a foolish trade.

And now we join the grave-worm and the mole.

I tried to stop you. You're a crazy soul; You always were hot-headed. Well, let be: You deep and pa.s.sionate souls have always puzzled me.

"I'm sorry that I struck you. I was. .h.i.t, And lashed out blindly at you; you were mad.

It would be different if you'd stopped a bit.

You are too blind when you are angry, lad.

Oh, I am giddy, Lion; dying, bad, Dying." He raised himself, he sat, his look Grew greedy for the water bubbling in the brook.

And as he watched it, Lion raised his head; Out of a bloodied clump of daffodil.

"Michael," he moaned, "I, too, am dying: dead.

You're nearer to the water. Could you fill Your hat and give me drink? Or would it spill?

Spill, I expect." "I'll try," said Michael, "try-- I may as well die trying, since I have to die."

Slowly he forced his body's failing life Down to the water; there he stooped and filled; And as his back turned Lion drew his knife, And hid it close, while all his being thrilled To see, as Michael came, the water spilled, Nearer and ever nearer, bright, so bright.