CHAPTER I DESCRIPTION OF FARMER OAK -- AN INCIDENT When Farmer Oak smiled , the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears , his eyes were reduced to chinks , and diverging wrinkles appeared round them , extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun .
His Christian name was Gabriel , and on working days he was a young man of sound judgment , easy motions , proper dress , and general good character .
On Sundays he was a man of misty views , rather given to postponing , and hampered by his best clothes and umbrella : upon the whole , one who felt himself to occupy morally that vast middle space of Laodicean neutrality which lay between the Communion people of the parish and the drunken section , -- that is , he went to church , but yawned privately by the time the con - gegation reached the Nicene creed , - and thought of what there would be for dinner when he meant to be listening to the sermon .
Or , to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion , when his friends and critics were in tantrums , he was considered rather a bad man ; when they were pleased , he was rather a good man ; when they were neither , he was a man whose moral colour was a kind of pepper-and-salt mixture .
Since he lived six times as many working-days as Sundays , Oak 's appearance in his old clothes was most peculiarly his own -- the mental picture formed by his neighbours in imagining him being always dressed in that way .
He wore a low-crowned felt hat , spread out at the base by tight jamming upon the head for security in high winds , and a coat like Dr. Johnson 's ; his lower extremities being encased in ordinary leather leggings and boots emphatically large , affording to each foot a roomy apartment so constructed that any wearer might stand in a river all day long and know nothing of damp -- their maker being a conscientious man who endeavoured to compensate for any weakness in his cut by unstinted dimension and solidity .
Mr. Oak carried about him , by way of watch , - what may be called a small silver clock ; in other words , it was a watch as to shape and intention , and a small clock as to size .
This instrument being several years older than Oak 's grandfather , had the peculiarity of going either too fast or not at all .
The smaller of its hands , too , occasionally slipped round on the pivot , and thus , though the minutes were told with precision , nobody could be quite certain of the hour they belonged to .
The stopping peculiarity of his watch Oak remedied by thumps and shakes , and he escaped any evil consequences from the other two defects by constant comparisons with and observations of the sun and stars , and by pressing his face close to the glass of his neighbours ' windows , till he could discern the hour marked by the green-faced timekeepers within .
It may be mentioned that Oak 's fob being difficult of access , by reason of its somewhat high situation in the waistband of his trousers ( which also lay at a remote height under his waistcoat ) , the watch was as a necessity pulled out by throwing the body to one side , compressing the mouth and face to a mere mass of ruddy flesh on account of the exertion , and drawing up the watch by its chain , like a bucket from a well .
But some thoughtfull persons , who had seen him walking across one of his fields on a certain December morning -- sunny and exceedingly mild -- might have regarded Gabriel Oak in other aspects than these .
In his face one might notice that many of the hues and curves of youth had tarried on to manhood : there even remained in his remoter crannies some relics of the boy .
His height and breadth would have been sufficient to make his presence imposing , had they been exhibited with due consideration .
But there is a way some men have , rural and urban alike , for which the mind is more responsible than flesh and sinew : it is a way of curtail - ing their dimensions by their manner of showing them .
And from a quiet modesty that would have become a vestal which seemed continually to impress upon him that he had no great claim on the world 's room , Oak walked unassumingly and with a faintly perceptible bend , yet distinct from a bowing of the shoulders .
This may be said to be a defect in an individual if he depends for his valuation more upon his appearance than upon his capacity to wear well , which Oak did not .
He had just reached the time of life at which " young " is ceasing to be the prefix of " man " in speaking of one .
He was at the brightest period of masculine growth , for his intellect and his emotions were clearly separated : he had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse , and he had not yet arrived at the stage wherein they become united again , in the character of prejudice , by the influence of a wife and family .
In short , he was twenty-eight , and a bachelor .
The field he was in this morning sloped to a ridge called Norcombe Hill .
Through a spur of this hill ran the highway between Emminster and Chalk - Newton .
Casually glancing over the hedge , Oak saw coming down the incline before him an ornamental spring waggon , painted yellow and gaily marked , drawn by two horses , a waggoner walking alongside bearing a whip perpendicularly .
The waggon was laden with household goods and window plants , and on the apex of the whole sat a woman , " young " and attractive .
Gabriel had not beheld the sight for more than half a minute , when the vehicle was brought to a standstill just beneath his eyes .
" The tailboard of the waggon is gone , Miss. " said the waggoner .
" Then I heard it fall . "
said the girl , in a soft , though not particularly low voice .
" I heard a noise I could not account for when we were coming up the hill . "
" I 'll run back . "
" Do . "
she answered .
The sensible horses stood -- perfectly still , and the waggoner 's steps sank fainter and fainter in the distance .
The girl on the summit of the load sat motionless , surrounded by tables and chairs with their legs upwards , backed by an oak settle , and ornamented in front by pots of geraniums , myrtles , and cactuses , together with a caged canary -- all probably from the windows of the house just vacated .
There was also a cat in a willow basket , from the partly-opened lid of which she gazed with half-closed eyes , and affectionately-surveyed the small birds around .
The handsome girl waited for some time idly in her place , and the only sound heard in the stillness was the hopping of the canary up-and down the perches of its prison .
Then she looked attentively downwards .
It was not at the bird , nor at the cat ; it was at an oblong package tied in paper , and lying between them .
She turned her head to learn if the waggoner were coming .
He was not yet in sight ; and her-eyes crept back to the package , her thoughts seeming to run upon what was inside it .
At length she drew the article into her lap , and untied the paper covering ; a small swing looking-glass was disclosed , in which she proceeded to survey herself attentively .
She parted her lips and smiled .
It was a fine morning , and the sun lighted up to a scarlet glow the crimson jacket she wore , and painted a soft lustre upon her bright face and dark hair .
The myrtles , geraniums , and cactuses packed around her were fresh and green , and at such a leafless season they invested the whole concern of horses , waggon , furniture , and girl with a peculiar vernal charm .
What possessed her to indulge in such a performance in the sight of the sparrows , blackbirds , and unperceived farmer who were alone its spectators , -- whether the smile began as a factitious one , to test her capacity in that art , -- nobody knows ; it ended certainly in a real smile .
She blushed at herself , and seeing her reflection blush , blushed the more .
The change from the customary spot and necessary occasion of such an act -- from the dressing hour in a bedroom to a time of travelling out of doors -- lent to the idle deed a novelty it did not intrinsically possess .
The picture was a delicate one .
Woman 's prescriptive infirmity had stalked into the sunlight , which had clothed it in the freshness of an originality .
A cynical inference was irresistible by Gabriel Oak as he regarded the scene , generous though he fain would have been .
There was no necessity whatever for her looking in the glass .
She did not adjust her hat , or pat her hair , or press a dimple into shape , or do one thing to signify that any such intention had been her motive in taking up the glass .
She simply observed herself as a fair product of Nature in the feminine kind , her thoughts seeming to glide into far-off though likely dramas in which men would play a part -- vistas of probable triumphs -- the smiles being of a phase suggesting that hearts were imagined as lost and won .
Still , this was but conjecture , and the whole series of actions was so idly put forth as to make it rash to assert that intention had any part in them at all .
The waggoner 's steps were heard returning .
She put the glass in the paper , and the whole again into its place .
When the waggon had passed on , Gabriel withdrew from his point of espial , and descending into the road , followed the vehicle to the turnpike-gate some way beyond the bottom of the hill , where the object of his contemplation now halted for the payment of toll .
About twenty steps still remained between him and the gate , when he heard a dispute .
lt was a difference con - cerning twopence between the persons with the waggon and the man at the toll-bar .
" Mis ' ess 's niece is upon the top of the things , and she says that 's enough that I 've offered ye , you great miser , and she wo n't pay any more . "
These were the waggoner 's words .
" Very well ; then mis ' ess 's niece ca n't pass . "
said the turnpike-keeper , closing the gate .
Oak looked from one to the other of the disputants , and fell into a reverie .
There was something in the tone of twopence remarkably insignificant .
Threepence had a definite value as money -- it was an appreciable infringement on a day 's wages , and , as such , a higgling matter ; but twopence -- " Here . "
he said , stepping forward and handing twopence to the gatekeeper ; " let the young woman pass . "
He looked up at her then ; she heard his words , and looked down .
Gabriel 's features adhered throughout their form so exactly to the middle line between the beauty of St. John and the ugliness of Judas Iscariot , as represented in a window of the church he attended , that not a single lineament could be selected and called worthy either of distinction or notoriety .
The redjacketed and dark - haired maiden seemed to think so too , for she carelessly glanced over him , and told her man to drive on .
She might have looked her thanks to Gabriel on a minute scale , but she did not speak them ; more probably she felt none , for in gaining her a passage he had lost her her point , and we know how women take a favour of that kind .
The gatekeeper surveyed the retreating vehicle .
" That 's a handsome maid " he said to Oak " But she has her faults . "
said Gabriel .
" True , farmer . "
" And the greatest of them is -- well , what it is always . "
" Beating people down ?
ay , 't is so . "
" O no . "
" What , then ? "
Gabriel , perhaps a little piqued by the comely traveller 's indifference , glanced back to where he had witnessed her performance over the hedge , and said , " Vanity . "