LII

During the small hours of the next morning, while it was still dark,

dwellers near the highways were conscious of a disturbance of their

night's rest by rumbling noises, intermittently continuing till

daylight--noises as certain to recur in this particular first week of

the month as the voice of the cuckoo in the third week of the same.

They were the preliminaries of the general removal, the passing of

the empty waggons and teams to fetch the goods of the migrating

families; for it was always by the vehicle of the farmer who required

his services that the hired man was conveyed to his destination.

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That this might be accomplished within the day was the explanation

of the reverberation occurring so soon after midnight, the aim of

the carters being to reach the door of the outgoing households by

six o'clock, when the loading of their movables at once began.

But to Tess and her mother's household no such anxious farmer sent

his team. They were only women; they were not regular labourers;

they were not particularly required anywhere; hence they had to hire

a waggon at their own expense, and got nothing sent gratuitously.

It was a relief to Tess, when she looked out of the window that

morning, to find that though the weather was windy and louring, it

did not rain, and that the waggon had come. A wet Lady-Day was a

spectre which removing families never forgot; damp furniture, damp

bedding, damp clothing accompanied it, and left a train of ills.

Her mother, 'Liza-Lu, and Abraham were also awake, but the younger

children were let sleep on. The four breakfasted by the thin light,

and the "house-ridding" was taken in hand.

It proceeded with some cheerfulness, a friendly neighbour or two

assisting. When the large articles of furniture had been packed in

position, a circular nest was made of the beds and bedding, in which

Joan Durbeyfield and the young children were to sit through the

journey. After loading there was a long delay before the horses were

brought, these having been unharnessed during the ridding; but at

length, about two o'clock, the whole was under way, the cooking-pot

swinging from the axle of the waggon, Mrs Durbeyfield and family

at the top, the matron having in her lap, to prevent injury to its

works, the head of the clock, which, at any exceptional lurch of the

waggon, struck one, or one-and-a-half, in hurt tones. Tess and the

next eldest girl walked alongside till they were out of the village.

They had called on a few neighbours that morning and the previous

evening, and some came to see them off, all wishing them well,

though, in their secret hearts, hardly expecting welfare possible

to such a family, harmless as the Durbeyfields were to all except

themselves. Soon the equipage began to ascend to higher ground,

and the wind grew keener with the change of level and soil.




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