Adam Bede by George Eliot - A complete eBook in pages (441 / 550)

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Adam Bede by George Eliot
Book, page 441 / 550

witness was a man, a rough peasant. He said:

"My name is John Olding. I am a labourer, and live at Tedd's
Hole, two miles out of Stoniton. A week last Monday, towards one
o'clock in the afternoon, I was going towards Hetton Coppice, and
about a quarter of a mile from the coppice I saw the prisoner, in
a red cloak, sitting under a bit of a haystack not far off the
stile. She got up when she saw me, and seemed as if she'd be
walking on the other way. It was a regular road through the
fields, and nothing very uncommon to see a young woman there, but
I took notice of her because she looked white and scared. I
should have thought she was a beggar-woman, only for her good
clothes. I thought she looked a bit crazy, but it was no business
of mine. I stood and looked back after her, but she went right on
while she was in sight. I had to go to the other side of the
coppice to look after some stakes. There's a road right through
it, and bits of openings here and there, where the trees have been
cut down, and some of 'em not carried away. I didn't go straight
along the road, but turned off towards the middle, and took a
shorter way towards the spot I wanted to get to. I hadn't got far
out of the road into one of the open places before I heard a
strange cry. I thought it didn't come from any animal I knew, but
I wasn't for stopping to look about just then. But it went on,
and seemed so strange to me in that place, I couldn't help
stopping to look. I began to think I might make some money of it,
if it was a new thing. But I had hard work to tell which way it
came from, and for a good while I kept looking up at the boughs.
And then I thought it came from the ground; and there was a lot of
timber-choppings lying about, and loose pieces of turf, and a
trunk or two. And I looked about among them, but could find
nothing, and at last the cry stopped. So I was for giving it up,
and I went on about my business. But when I came back the same
way pretty nigh an hour after, I couldn't help laying down my
stakes to have another look. And just as I was stooping and
laying down the stakes, I saw something odd and round and whitish
lying on the ground under a nut-bush by the side of me. And I
stooped down on hands and knees to pick it up. And I saw it was a
little baby's hand."

At these words a thrill ran through the court. Hetty was visibly

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