The river had stolen from the higher tracts and brought in particles

to the vale all this horizontal land; and now, exhausted, aged, and

attenuated, lay serpentining along through the midst of its former

spoils. Not quite sure of her direction, Tess stood still upon the hemmed

expanse of verdant flatness, like a fly on a billiard-table of

indefinite length, and of no more consequence to the surroundings

than that fly. The sole effect of her presence upon the placid

valley so far had been to excite the mind of a solitary heron, which,

after descending to the ground not far from her path, stood with neck

erect, looking at her. Suddenly there arose from all parts of the lowland a prolonged and

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repeated call--"Waow! waow! waow!"

From the furthest east to the furthest west the cries spread as if by

contagion, accompanied in some cases by the barking of a dog. It was

not the expression of the valley's consciousness that beautiful Tess

had arrived, but the ordinary announcement of milking-time--half-past

four o'clock, when the dairymen set about getting in the cows.

The red and white herd nearest at hand, which had been phlegmatically

waiting for the call, now trooped towards the steading in the

background, their great bags of milk swinging under them as they

walked. Tess followed slowly in their rear, and entered the barton

by the open gate through which they had entered before her. Long

thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted

with vivid green moss, and their eaves supported by wooden posts

rubbed to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows

and calves of bygone years, now passed to an oblivion almost

inconceivable in its profundity. Between the post were ranged

the milchers, each exhibiting herself at the present moment to a

whimsical eye in the rear as a circle on two stalks, down the centre

of which a switch moved pendulum-wise; while the sun, lowering itself

behind this patient row, threw their shadows accurately inwards upon

the wall. Thus it threw shadows of these obscure and homely figures

every evening with as much care over each contour as if it had been

the profile of a court beauty on a palace wall; copied them as

diligently as it had copied Olympian shapes on marble façades long

ago, or the outline of Alexander, Caesar, and the Pharaohs.

They were the less restful cows that were stalled. Those that would

stand still of their own will were milked in the middle of the yard,

where many of such better behaved ones stood waiting now--all prime

milchers, such as were seldom seen out of this valley, and not always

within it; nourished by the succulent feed which the water-meads

supplied at this prime season of the year. Those of them that were

spotted with white reflected the sunshine in dazzling brilliancy,

and the polished brass knobs of their horns glittered with something

of military display. Their large-veined udders hung ponderous as

sandbags, the teats sticking out like the legs of a gipsy's crock;

and as each animal lingered for her turn to arrive the milk oozed

forth and fell in drops to the ground.




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