آتش

CHAPTER THREE

The Fire

Two months later, Gabriel Oak was at the market in the town of Casterbridge. It was now the month of February.

Oak was at the hiring fair. He wanted to work as a farm manager. But he had been unlucky. No one had hired him. During the morning, he saw a regiment of soldiers leaving the town.

‘Should I become a soldier?’ Gabriel thought. ‘The army would pay me each month. It would give me food, clothes and somewhere to live.’

The next day, Gabriel decided to go to another village which was ten miles on the other side of Weatherbury. He would try to find work there. Perhaps someone would hire him as a shepherd. Gabriel bought a shepherd’s crook and then he started walking.

‘Is Bathsheba still living in Weatherbury?’ he thought.

After he had walked three or four miles, Gabriel saw a wagon standing beneath some trees. There was no horse with the wagon, but there was a large pile of hay on the top of it.

‘I’m tired and that hay will make a good, soft bed,’ Gabriel thought. He climbed into the wagon and covered himself with hay. He was asleep after only a few minutes.

When Gabriel woke up again, it was dark and the wagon was moving. He could hear men’s voices.

‘She’s not married and she’s a very handsome woman,’ said one man. ‘But she knows that she’s pretty.’

The other man gave a short laugh. ‘I’m much too shy to look at her,’ he said. ‘Tell me, Billy Smallbury, does she pay her workers well?’

‘I don’t know, Joe Poorgrass.’

‘Are these men talking about Bathsheba?’ thought Gabriel. ‘No. The woman they’re speaking about is the owner of a farm.’

Gabriel looked at the road they were travelling on. He guessed that the wagon was near Weatherbury now. He jumped down onto the road and climbed over a gate into a field. The two men in the wagon did not see him.

Gabriel had to find a place to sleep for the rest of the night. He began walking. After a few minutes, he saw a strange light about half a mile away. Gabriel watched the light growing bigger and brighter. Something was burning!

Gabriel ran towards the fire and saw that a rick of straw was burning. The powerful flames were reaching across to another rick - a rick of wheat. And past this, there were more wheat-ricks. All the wheat from the farm’s fields was kept in these ricks and soon they would be burnt.

Farm workers were running around the farmyard. People were shouting, ‘Fire, fire!’ But nobody seemed to know what to do. Nobody knew how to put out the flames.

‘Quickly! Get a rick-cloth!’ shouted Gabriel. ‘Make it wet and hang it between the straw-rick and the wheat-rick. The cloth might stop the flames reaching across to the other ricks!’

Some of the men did this. They found a rick-cloth and put it into a pond to make it wet. Then they pulled the wet cloth up onto two tall poles between the ricks.

‘Get a ladder!’ shouted Gabriel. ‘And some buckets of water. Hurry!’

‘The ladder that was against the straw-rick was burnt,’ shouted a man.

Gabriel quickly climbed to the top of the wheat-rick. He used his hands and feet to pull himself up. Gabriel began to beat the flames which were on the stalks of wheat with his shepherd’s crook. He was trying to put out the flames.

Billy Smallbury - one of the men who had been driving the wagon - had found another ladder. He put it against the wheat-rick and climbed- up onto the rick with a bucket of water. He poured the water over Oak’s face and clothes to stop the flames burning him.

On the ground, groups of farm workers tried to stop the fire, but they could not do very much.

A dark-haired young woman sat on a horse, away from the heat and smoke. She watched the workers moving around the ricks. Another young woman, one of her maids, stood next to her.

‘Who’s that man on the rick, Maryann?’ asked the young woman.

‘He’s a shepherd, I think, ma’am,’ said the maid.

‘Who does he work for?’ asked the woman on the horse.

‘I don’t know, ma’am,’ replied Maryann. ‘Nobody knows. I’ve asked many people. He’s a stranger.’

The young woman on the horse called to one of the men.

‘Jan Coggan! Are the wheat-ricks safe?’

‘They’re safe now, ma’am,’ replied Coggan. ‘Thanks to the shepherd.’

‘Maryann, go and thank the shepherd for me,’ said the woman on the horse.

After about ten minutes, Gabriel Oak climbed down to the ground and Maryann went across to him.

‘The farmer wants to thank you,’ she told Oak.

‘Where is he?’ asked Oak. Perhaps there was work for a shepherd here.

‘It’s not a “he”, it’s a “she”,’ said Maryann.

‘A woman farmer?’

‘Yes, and a rich one, too!’ said a villager who was near them. ‘Her uncle died a few months ago, and now this farm is hers. She has business in every bank in Casterbridge.’

Oak walked across to the woman on the horse. The flames had burned small holes in his clothes. His face was dirty from the smoke. He took off his hat, and spoke politely. ‘Do you want a shepherd, miss?’ he asked.

And then he saw the young woman’s face more clearly. It was Bathsheba Everdene.

She did not reply, so Oak asked the question again. This time there was sadness in his voice. ‘Do you want a shepherd, miss?’

Bathsheba Everdene had almost forgotten Oak’s proposal of marriage. But she remembered it now - two months later. She felt a little sorry for Gabriel. But she was pleased for herself. She saw that Gabriel was now a poor man and she had been luckier.

‘Yes,’ she said, kindly. ‘I do want to hire a shepherd.’

‘He’s the right man, ma’am,’ said one of the farm workers.

‘Yes, he is!’ said a second man.

‘Speak to my farm manager, Mr Penny ways,’ Bathsheba said to Gabriel. Then she turned her horse and rode away.

Gabriel spoke to Mr Pennyways about his new work as a shepherd. Then he followed the farm workers towards the village. He needed to find a place to live. As he walked, Gabriel thought about Bathsheba. She was not the young girl that he remembered. She was a farm owner now.

Gabriel reached an old tree. Beside the tree, there was a churchyard which was surrounded by old trees. Suddenly he saw a young woman standing beneath one of the trees.

‘Is this the right way to the village?’ he asked her.

‘Yes,’ she replied with a sweet, low voice. ‘Are you a stranger in Weatherbury?’

‘Yes,’ said Gabriel. ‘I’m the new shepherd. I’ve just arrived.’

‘You’re only a shepherd? Oh, I thought that you were a farmer.’ She spoke quietly and sadly. ‘Please don’t tell anyone in the village that you’ve seen me. I don’t want them to know about me.’

Gabriel felt sorry for the sad young woman. He gave her a little money before he went on.