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The Flute by Wilfred Wilson Gibson
Good-NIGHT! he sang out cheerily —
Good-night! — and yet again — Good-night!
And I was gay that night to be
Once more in my clean countryside
Among the windy hills and wide.
Six days of city slush and mud,
Of hooting horn and spattering wheel,
Made me rejoice again to feel
The tingling frost that fires the blood
And sets life burning keen and bright,
And down the ringing road to stride
The eager swinging stride that braces
The straining thews from hip to heel,
To breathe again the wind that sweeps
Across the grassy Northern steeps
From crystal deeps and starry spaces.
And I was glad again to hear
The old man's greeting of good cheer:
For every night for many a year
At that same corner we had met,
Summer and winter, dry and wet;
And though I never once had heard
The old man speak another word,
His cheery greeting at the bend
Seemed like the welcome of a friend.
But as we neared to-night somehow
I felt that he would stop and speak —
Though he went by — and when I turned
I saw him standing in the road,
And looking back with hand to brow,
As if to shade old eyes grown weak
Awaiting the long sleep they'd earned,
Though, as again towards him I strode,
A friendly light within them burned.
And then as I drew nigh he spoke
With shaking head and voice that broke:
I've missed you these last nights , he said,
And I have not so many now
That I can miss friends easily. . . .
Ay, friends grow scarce as you grow old,
And roads are rough and winds are cold,
And when you feel you're growing old
Life doesn't go too merrily.
And then he stood with nodding head
And spoke no more. And so I told
How I had been six days and nights
Exiled from pleasant sounds and sights;
And now, as though my voice had stirred
His heart to speech, he told right out
With quickening eye and quavering word
The things I care to hear about,
The little things that make up life —
How he'd been lonesome since his wife
Had died some thirty years ago;
And how he trudged three mile or so
To reach the farmstead where he worked,
And three mile back to his own door ...
For he lived outby on the moor;
And every day the distance irked
More sorely still his poor old bones,
And all the road seemed strewn with stones
To trip you up when you were old,
When you were old and friends were few;
How, since the farmstead had been sold,
The master and the men were new,
All save himself, and they were young,
And mistress had a raspy tongue;
So often he would hardly speak
A friendly word from week to week
With any soul. Old friends had died
Or else had quit the countryside,
And since his wife was taken he
Had lived alone this thirty year:
And there were few who cared to hear
An old man's jabber ... and too long
He'd kept me standing in the cold
With his long tongue and such a song
About himself! And I would be ...
I put my arm through his and turned
To go upon his way with him;
And once again the warm light burned
In those old eyes so weak and dim,
When with weak piping voice he told
How much it meant to him each night
To change a kindly word with me,
To think that he'd at least one friend
Who'd happen miss him in the end.
Then as we walked he said no more;
And silent in the starry light
Across the wide sweet-smelling bent
Between the grass and stars we went
In quiet friendly company;
And all the way we only heard
A chirrup where some partridge stirred
And ran before us through the grass
To hide his head till we should pass.
At length we reached the cottage door;
But when I stopped and turned to go
His words came tremblingly and slow —
If I would step inside and rest
I'd be right welcome: not a guest
Had crossed his threshold thirty year ...
He'd naught but bread and cheese and beer
To offer me ... but I'd know best ...
He spoke with hand upon the latch,
And, when I answered, opened wide
The cottage door and stepped inside,
And as I followed struck a match
And lit a tallow-dip, and stirred
The banked-up peats into a glow;
And then with shuffling step and slow
He moved about and soon had set
Two mugs of beer and bread and cheese:
And while we made a meal off these
The old man never spoke a word,
But brooding in the ingle-seat
With eyes upon the kindling peat
He seemed awhile to quite forget
He was not sitting by himself
To-night like any other night;
When as in the dim candle-light
I glanced about me, with surprise
I saw on the low rafter-shelf
A flute, nigh hidden in the shade.
And when I asked him if he played
The light came back into his eyes:
Ay, ay, he sometimes played a bit,
But not so often since she died.
And then, as though old memories lit
His poor old heart and made it glad,
He told how he when quite a lad
Had taught himself — and they would play
On penny whistles all the day,
He and the miller's son beside
The millpool, chirping all they knew
Till they could whistle clean and true;
And how, when old enough to earn,
They'd both saved up to buy a flute,
And they had played it turn by turn:
But Jake was dead this long while back. . . .
Ah! If I'd only heard him toot
I'd know what music meant. Ay, ay,
He'd play me something by and by,
Though he was naught to Jake; and now
His breath was scant and fingering slack ...
He used to play to her at night
The melodies that she liked best
While she worked on: she'd never rest
By daylight or by candle-light ...
And then with hand upon his brow
He brooded quiet in his chair
With eyes upon the red peat-glare,
Till with a sigh he roused himself
And reached the flute down from the shelf,
And carrying it outside the door
I saw him take a can and pour
Fresh water through the instrument,
To make it sweet of tone he said.
Then in his seat, so old and bent,
With kindling eyes and swaying head
He played the tunes he used to play
To please his wife before she died.
And as I watched his body sway
In time and tune from side to side —
So happy just to play and please
With old familiar melodies,
His eyes grew brighter and more bright
As though he saw some well-loved sight:
And following his happy gaze
I turned and saw without amaze
A woman standing, young and fair,
With hazel eyes and thick brown hair
Brushed smoothly backward from the brow.
Beside the table that but now
Save for the empty mugs was bare.
Upon it she had spread a sheet
And stood there, ironing a shirt,
Her husband's, as he played to her
Her favourite tunes so old and sweet.
I watched her move with soundless stir
Then stand with listening eyes, and hold
The iron near her glowing cheek,
Lest it, too hot, should do some hurt,
And she, so careful not to burn
The well-darned shirt so worn and old.
Then something seemed to make me turn
To look on the old man again;
And as I looked the playing stopped,
And now I saw that he had dropped
Into his brooding mood once more
With eyes again grown dull and weak.
He seemed the oldest of old men
Who grope through life with sight grown dim,
And even as I looked at him,
Too full of tender awe to speak,
I knew once more the board was bare
And no young woman standing there
With hazel eyes and thick brown hair.
And so at last I rose and took
His hand, and as he clasped mine tight
I saw again that friendly look
Fill his old weary eyes with light
And wish me, without words, good-night:
And in my heart that look glowed bright
Till I reached home across the moor.
And at the corner of the lane
Next night I heard the old voice cry
In greeting as I struggled by,
Head-down against the wind and rain:
And so each night until one day
His master chanced to cross my way;
But when I spoke of him he said
Did I not know the man was dead,
And had been dead a week or so.
One morn he'd not turned up to work,
And never having known him shirk,
And hearing that he lived alone,
He'd thought it best himself to go
And see what ailed, and, coming there,
He found the old man in his chair
Stone-dead beside the cold hearthstone.
It must be full a week or more ...
Ay, just two weeks come Saturday
He'd found him, but he must have died
Overnight — (the night I heard him play!)
And they had found, dropt by his side,
A broken flute upon the floor.
Yet every night his greeting still
At that same corner of the hill,
Summer and winter, wet or dry,
'Neath cloud or moon or cold starlight
Is waiting there to welcome me;
And ever as I hurry by
The old voice sings out cheerily —
Good-night! and yet again — Good-night!
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