The burning sun on the fells had sucked him up ; but the damp heat of the woody crag sucked him up still more ; and the perspiration ran out of the ends of his fingers and toes , and washed him cleaner than he had been for a whole year . But , of course , he dirtied everything , terribly as he went . There has been a great black smudge all down the crag ever since . And there have been more black beetles in Vendale since than ever were known before ; all , of course , owing to Tom 's having blacked the original papa of them all , just as he was setting off to be married , with a sky-blue coat and scarlet leggins , as smart as a gardener 's dog with a polyanthus in his mouth . At last he got to the bottom . But , behold , it was not the bottom -- as people usually find when they are coming down a mountain . For at the foot of the crag were heaps and heaps of fallen limestone of every size from that of your head to that of a stage-waggon , with holes between them full of sweet heath-fern ; and before Tom got through them , he was out in the bright sunshine again ; and then he felt , once for all and suddenly , as people generally do , that he was b-e-a-t , beat . You must expect to be beat a few times in your life , little man , if you live such a life as a man ought to live , let you be as strong and healthy as you may : and when you are , you will find it a very ugly feeling . I hope that that day you may have a stout staunch friend by you who is not beat ; for , if you have not , you had best lie where you are , and wait for better times , as poor Tom did . He could not get on . The sun was burning , and yet he felt chill all over . He was quite empty , and yet he felt quite sick . There was but two hundred yards of smooth pasture between him and the cottage , and yet he could not walk down it . He could hear the stream murmuring only one field beyond it , and yet it seemed to him as if it was a hundred miles off . He lay down on the grass till the beetles ran over him , and the flies settled on his nose . I do n't know when he would have got up again , if the gnats and the midges had not taken compassion on him . But the gnats blew their trumpets so loud in his ear , and the midges nibbled so at his hands and face wherever they could find a place free from soot , that at last he woke up , and stumbled away , down over a low wall , and into a narrow road , and up to the cottage-door . And a neat pretty cottage it was , with clipped yew hedges all round the garden , and yews inside too , cut into peacocks and trumpets and teapots and all kinds of queer shapes . And out of the open door came a noise like that of the frogs on the Great-A , when they know that it is going to be scorching hot to-morrow -- and how they know that I do n't know , and you do n't know , and nobody knows . He came slowly up to the open door , which was all hung round with clematis and roses ; and then peeped in , half afraid .
And there sat XXXXX the empty fireplace , which was filled with a pot of sweet herbs , the nicest old woman that ever was seen , in her red petticoat , and short dimity bedgown , and clean white cap , with a black silk handkerchief over it , tied under her chin .
as by down for from of since that till to