Tales of the Ridings by Frederic Moorman
Author:Frederic Moorman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: reference, yorkshire, dialect, accent, folklore, story, stories, north, of england
ISBN: 9781781667750
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-06-19T00:00:00+00:00
"IT MUN BE SO"
I met her on her way through the path-fields to the cowshed; she was gathering, in the fading light of an October evening, the belated stars of the grass of Parnassus, and strapped to her shoulders was the "budget," shaped to the contour of the back, and into which the milk was poured from the pails. It was a heavy load for a girl of twelve, but she was used to it, and did not grumble. Her father was dead, all the day-tale men had been called up, and her mother, she assured me, "was that thrang wi' t' hens an' t' cauves, shoo'd no time for milkin' cows."
In the village she was subjected to a good deal of ridicule. The children made fun of her on her way home from school, and called her "daft Lizzie"; the old folks, when they heard her muttering to herself, would shrug their shoulders and pass the remark that she was "nobbut a hauf-rocked 'un" - an insult peculiarly galling to her mother.
"A hauf-rocked 'un!" she would exclaim. "Nay, I rocked her misel i' t' creddle while my shackles fair worked. Shoo taks after her dad, that's what's wrang wi' Lizzie. A feckless gowk was Watmough; he couldn't frame to do owt but play t' fiddle i' t' sky-parlour, or sit ower t' fire eatin' fat-shives."
Lizzie's daftness was not a serious matter; it consisted partly in a certain dreaminess, which brought a yonderly look into her eyes, and made her inattentive to what was going on around her, and partly in that habit of talking to herself which has already been referred to. I had won her confidence and friendship from the time when I rescued her "pricky-back urchin" from being kicked to death by the farm boys, who declared that hedgehogs always made their way into the byres and milked the cows. Since then we had had many talks together, but this was the first time that I had accompanied her when she went to milk.
Milking in summer-time, when the cows are out at grass, is pleasant enough, but it is different of a winter evening. Then one gropes one's way by the light of the stable lantern through the rain-sodden fields to the cowshed, the reeking atmosphere of which often makes one feel faint as one plunges into it from out of the frosty air. But Lizzie liked the work at all seasons, and was never so much at ease as when she was firmly planted on her stool, her curly head butting into a cow's ribs, and the warm milk swishing rhythmically into her pail. There were three cows in the byre, and she had called them after her aunts. Eliza, like her namesake, was "contrairy," and had to have her hind legs hobbled lest she should kick over the pail. Molly and Anne were docile beasts that chewed the cud with bovine complacency. It was Lizzie's habit to tell the cows stories as she milked, making them up as she went along; but to-day she found a better listener in myself.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Evelina by Fanny Burney(26531)
Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney(26105)
Twilight of the Idols With the Antichrist and Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche(18312)
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan(4632)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky(4420)
Dune 01 Dune by Frank Herbert(4192)
Double Down (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 11) by Jeff Kinney(3941)
Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung(3855)
Walking by Henry David Thoreau(3699)
Separate Beds by LaVyrle Spencer(3637)
FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE by Isaac Asimov(3443)
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges(3373)
The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith(3317)
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins(3237)
Mystery at School by Laura Lee Hope(3213)
120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade(2947)
Some Prefer Nettles by Tanizaki Junichiro(2771)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry(2743)
My Ántonia by Willa Cather(2626)
