This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
By George Meredith
I woke very early, though I had taken kindly to my pillow, as I found bymy having an arm round my companion's neck, and her fingers intertwistedwith mine. For awhile I lay looking at her eyes, which had everyimaginable light and signification in them; they advised me to lie quiet,they laughed at my wonder, they said, 'Dear little fellow!' they flashedas from under a cloud, darkened, flashed out of it, seemed to dip inwater and shine, and were sometimes like a view into a forest, sometimesintensely sunny, never quite still. I trusted her, and could have sleptagain, but the sight of the tent stupefied me; I fancied the sky hadfallen, and gasped for air; my head was extremely dizzy too; not one ideain it was kept from wheeling. This confusion of my head flew to my legswhen, imitating her, I rose to go forth. In a fit of horror I thought,'I 've forgotten how to walk!'
Summoning my manful resolution, I made the attempt to step across thechildren swaddled in matting and straw and old gowns or petticoats. Thenecessity for doing it with a rush seized me after the first step. Ipitched over one little bundle, right on to the figure of a sleepingwoman. All she did was to turn round, murmuring, 'Naughty Jackie.'My companion pulled me along gravely, and once in the air, with a goodbreath of it in my chest, I felt tall and strong, and knew what hadoccurred. The tent where I had slept struck me as more curious than myown circumstances. I lifted my face to the sky; it was just sunrise,beautiful; bits of long and curling cloud brushed any way close on theblue, and rosy and white, deliciously cool; the grass was all grey, ourdell in shadow, and the tops of the trees burning, a few birdstwittering.
I sucked a blade of grass.
'I wish it was all water here,' I said.
'Come and have a drink and a bathe,' said my companion.
We went down the dell and over a juniper slope, reminding me of my day atJohn Salter's house and the last of dear Heriot. Rather to my shame, mycompanion beat me at running; she was very swift, and my legs were stiff.
'Can you swim?' she asked me.
'I can row, and swim, and fence, and ride, and fire a pistol,' I said.
'Oh, dear,' said she, after eyeing me enviously. I could see that I hadchecked a recital of her accomplishments.
We arrived at a clear stream in a gentleman's park, where grass rolledsmooth as sea-water on a fine day, and cows and horses were feeding.
'I can catch that horse and mount him,' she said.
I was astonished.
'Straddle?'
She nodded down for 'Yes.'
'No saddle?'
She nodded level for 'No.'
My respect for her returned. But she could not swim.
'Only up to my knees,' she confessed.
'Have a look at me,' said I; and I stripped and shot into the water,happy as a fish, and thinking ho