Love among the Haystacks by DH Lawrence. Part 1.
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When the grass is tall and sweet and full of summer sunshine, it is time to cut it down and make hay — hay that will hold that summer sweetness all through the cold, hungry winter months. But the work must be done quickly, to keep the new hay safe from wind and rain. Every farmer knows this.
Geoffrey and Maurice know it too. They are farmer’s sons, and work hard, building the haystack. But what do these young men think about, while they work under the hot summer sun? They think about a girl, a German girl called Paula, a girl in a yellow dress, a girl with bright eyes and a funny, quick way of talking. They can see her now, up the hill, in the garden of a house next to the hayfield. Maurice has kissed her, but Geoffrey has not, and Geoffrey burns with hate for his brother. He finds words difficult. No woman will ever love him, he thinks, because he cannot find the words to win her love.
But love does not always need words, and who knows what the day or the night will bring? Paula is not the only young woman to visit the hayfield that day…
Chapter 1 | Two brothers
The two large fields lay on a hillside that looked south. Most of the hay was already cut, and in the bright sunlight the fields were now golden green.
Across the hill, half-way up, was a high hedge, and they were building the haystack just above this hedge. It was a tall haystack, a great untidy thing standing high above the hedge, but the hay itself was light and silvery in colour, and looked as soft as a cloud. Not far away was another, finished haystack.
The empty wagon was going downhill, and in the far corner of the bottom field, where the hay was still uncut, the full wagon was just beginning its slow journey up the hill to the haystack. The hay-makers worked on, cutting the tall hay, while the wagon climbed the hill.
The two brothers on top of the haystack were having a moment’s rest, waiting for the full wagon to arrive. They stood up to their knees in the soft hay, while above them the golden sun burned down, and all around them was the hot sweet smell of the silvery hay. The only two things in the world were hay and sun.
Maurice, the younger brother, was a good-looking young man of twenty-one. He was strong, full of life, with a quick bright eye and a ready smile.
‘You thought,’ he said to his brother, ‘you were very clever last night, didn’t you?’ He pushed his fork into the hay, and stared at his brother, with a smile on his face.
‘No. No, I didn’t,’ replied Geoffrey. He turned away, frowning. He was a tall, heavy young man, a year older than Maurice. He was full of strong feelings, but they burned silently inside him. He could never find words to say; he could never look anybody in the eye. He always thought the world was looking at him, and laughing.
‘Oh, you did, I know you did.’ Maurice laughed. ‘It was your turn to sleep in the hayfield last night, but you went and hid yourself, so I had to go in your place.’
‘I didn’t hide myself,’ said Geoffrey angrily. ‘Father sent me to get some wood—’
‘Oh yes, oh yes,’ laughed Maurice. ‘But you don’t know, do you? You don’t know what happened last night, up here in the hayfield.’
He laughed again, and threw himself down on his back in the hay. He put his arms across his face and lay there, smiling and remembering the night before.
Geoffrey leaned on his fork and stared out over the fields. Far away was the city of Nottingham, and between, the country lay under the burning sun, with here and there the smoke from a factory going up into the sky. Geoffrey looked down again into the hayfield, at the wagon slowly climbing the hill to the haystack. ‘Hurry up,’ he thought. ‘Hurry up.’
‘You didn’t think, did you?’ said Maurice. ‘You didn’t think that she would be here with me, did you?’
Geoffrey stared at him, full of hate. Suddenly, he wanted to put his foot down hard on that smiling, good-looking face below him.
‘Can you sing in German?’ asked Maurice. ‘Do you know how to kiss a German girl? Do you know how soft her neck is?’ He laughed excitedly, remembering every moment of the night before.
Geoffrey burned with hate. He wanted to walk away, but he couldn’t. The haystack, high above the field, was a prison holding him and his brother together.
Both brothers were shy of women. Neither of them had a girlfriend; neither of them knew what to say to a woman, or how to win her love. And now Maurice was first in the game, and the older brother did not like it.
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