Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It was the last night of a year the date of which is unknown, in a country that may or may not have been Holland.

It was, at any rate, a flat country, over which the radiance of rising and setting suns might stream for miles and never find so much as a hillock to cover with shadow any part of it. Go where you would, the roar of the sea was never far off; and come upon it where you would, the sea was never blue. Apparently, it resented the fact of any land at all just there. Wherever Nature gave an inch it took an ell, and far inland, among the fields, the canal water tasted brackish, and the masts of tall ships might be seen sticking up oddly out of the green grass. There was land, but land only on sufferance; in half an hour it might go back to be water again if only the sea chose. Meantime people lived in houses that looked like boats set up on end, and they built windmills. It was a fair field indeed for all the winds of heaven. From the north, from the south, from the east, from the west, they rushed across it, finding nothing to check them. The sails went round merrily, and the golden corn turned into dusty flour.

On the night in question, however, there was no wind-the sails hung slack. The rain poured down straight and steadily. The very air seemed to be rotten with damp. As a rule, at this time of year the canals were frozen, and if anything fell it was snow; but the season was warmer than usual. The canals were full-another drop would make them brim over— and still the rain went on.

[ocr errors]

In every mill but one bright lights were shining in the windows. The sound of fiddles shrieked from within, loud laughter echoed, and the thud of feet dancing heavily, though with a right good will. They were dancing and drinking the Old Year out, as the saying is.

In one alone there was no light except the smoky glimmer of an oil-lamp with an uneven wick, no sound but the sighing and yawning of the master of the mill as he sat by the fire, and now and then the wail of a very young child from the room above. His wife had died a week before.

He had never been very fond of her. He enjoyed an odd sense of liberty now that she was gone, yet he missed her, as one misses a familiar annoyance, and he had not got over the bewilderment of the sudden exchange of that stout, bustling, loud-voiced presence for the tiny creature that could not speak. Quickly, unexpectedly, before he knew where he was, a new thing had come to live in his house. He was not an imaginative man; he had made no preparation beforehand. Still less was he prepared for the departure of all that went that same day. His wife was one of those persons whose tiresomeness seems to be a guarantee of long life. It had by no means occurred to him that

« PoprzedniaDalej »