Mockery Gap Read Free

noticed some sheep lying down at a distance, and so imbued was she with the learned discoveries in the matter of old transformations made by Mr. Roddy, the president of the club, that for a moment Miss Ogle believed the sheep to be a muster of ancient stones.
    The sheep, however, were good enough to express themselves as moderns by rousing and scattering at the loud barking of the shepherd’s dog.
    Miss Ogle was glad she hadn’t spoken, andturned quickly to the sea and pointed at some thing—in order to put herself right with the learned as well as with nature—that, if it wasn’t a whale, must be a stone.
    The object that Miss Ogle was pointing at appeared to be the one thing that pushed itself out of all the garish prettiness of the spring day, and was something that was consciously itself.
    This was a black rock.
    ‘Look‚’ said Miss Ogle, unable to contain her ideas any longer, ‘there’s a petrified cow in the sea; please, Mr. Roddy, do get it up one day and put it in your museum.’
    Miss Ogle had gone a little away from the others when she made this remark, and those who heard her speak merely supposed that she was exclaiming about the beautiful view. But however wrong Miss Ogle had been about the sheep, she was right this time, for the rock that she had pointed to was called ‘The Blind Cow.’ For the simple Mockery minds who lived in the near neighbourhood of the cow had always supposed, and the story was handed down from one generation to another, that a cow which had lost its sight had walked out upon a hot midsummer day upon the sands, as cows will do sometimes. But this one being blind, and thinking that it was merely crossing a little river to reach green meadows upon the other side, swam out of its depthand was drowned. And so the rock came by its name.
    But however important to our story Miss Ogle’s discovery had been, none of the assembled company noticed it, because each was wondering what kind of learned remark would be first uttered, and whether Mr. James Tarr or Mr. Roddy would be the first to utter it. Meanwhile, and until the learned thing came, the company stood about and gazed at the distant sea a little disparagingly, as though they said, ‘If only we had gone on driving in the car, we might have been still listening to conversation that certainly would have been of more interest than the sound of distant waves.’ For the car drive upon such an occasion as the present would provide exactly the proper whirl and swing to loose the pretty tongues of scandal, that would wag merrily, although Squire Roddy, the senior member and head of the party, would look sadly at his new gloves and allow five minutes to pass without saying one single word.
    During the drive the merry tongues had settled upon two families, the Pinks and the Pattimores, who lived in Mockery village, that was likely to be visited amongst other places where old things might be found.
    ‘I for one wouldn’t put up with such treatment ,’ Miss Ogle had said sternly to Mr. Gollop, who was at the moment deeply wonder ing whether Miss Ogle’s income was really as high as it was said to be, so that if he married her they could afford a pretty servant.
    ‘No,’ said Miss Ogle, as the car swayed a little to the side of the road, ‘if my husband treated me as Mr. Pattimore does his wife—I should leave him.’
    ‘But it’s Mr. Pattimore’s open opinion‚’ said Mr. Roddy harmlessly, ‘and one that is founded upon the Scriptures, that married people should live as though they were not married.’
    ‘But she’s so nice‚’ said Miss Ogle, looking at Mr. Gollop, ‘and he’s not fit to be a clergyman.’
    ‘Why not?’ inquired Mr. James Tarr, who always liked to put people to rights; ‘for I do not understand why a man who happens to believe in chastity shouldn’t be a clergyman.’
    ‘But the clergy have such clever families,’ said Miss Ogle.
    Mr. James Tarr stared hard at a church they were passing. ‘They