Men saw their churches ablaze with the wildfire in the windows after dark ; they saw their cattle scatterin ' an ' no man scarin ' ; their sheep flockin ' an ' no man drivin ' ; their horses latherin ' an ' no man leadin ' ; they saw the liddle low green lights more than ever in the dik-sides ; they heard the liddle feet patterin ' more than ever round the houses ; an ' night an ' day , day an ' night , 't was all as though they were bein ' creeped up on , an ' hinted at by Some One or other that could n't rightly shape their trouble . Oh , I lay they sweated ! Man an ' maid , woman an ' child , their nature done 'em no service all the weeks while the Marsh was swarvin ' up with Pharisees . But they was Flesh an ' Blood , an ' Marsh men before all . They reckoned the signs sinnified trouble for the Marsh . Or that the sea ` ud rear up against Dymchurch Wall an ' they 'd be drownded like Old Winchelsea ; or that the Plague was comin ' . So they looked for the meanin ' in the sea or in the clouds -- far an ' high up . They never thought to look near an ' knee-high , where they could see naught . ` Now there was a poor widow at Dymchurch under the Wall , which , lacking man or property , she had the more time for feeling ; and she come to feel there was a Trouble outside her doorstep bigger an ' heavier than aught she 'd ever carried over it . She had two sons -- one born blind , an ' t ` other struck dumb through fallin ' off the Wall when he was liddle . They was men grown , but not wage-earnin ' , an ' she worked for 'em , keepin ' bees and answerin ' Questions . ' ` What sort of questions ? ' said Dan . ` Like where lost things might be found , an ' what to put about a crooked baby 's neck , an ' how to join parted sweethearts . She felt the Trouble on the Marsh same as eels feel thunder . She was a wise woman . ' ` My woman was won ` erful weather-tender , too , ' said Hobden . ` I 've seen her brish sparks like off an anvil out of her hair in thunderstorms . But she never laid out to answer Questions . ' ` This woman was a Seeker , like , an ' Seekers they sometimes find .
One XXXXX , while she lay abed , hot an ' achin ' , there come a Dream an ' tapped at her window , an ' `` Widow Whitgift , '' it said , `` Widow Whitgift ! ''
Pharisees Plague Winchelsea answerin leadin night scatterin swarvin thunderstorms weeks