, and going out and in, like a
bird out of its nest and back; and that was how folks got over-wise, for they
went to school in this shell-less state to those who could teach them more than
their neighbours could learn with their five senses and the parson. And where
did Master Marner get his knowledge of herbs from - and charms too, if he liked
to give them away? Jem Rodney's story was no more than what might have been
expected by anybody who had seen how Marner had cured Sally Oates, and made her
sleep like a baby, when her heart had been beating enough to burst her body, for
two months and more, while she had been under the doctor's care. He might cure
more folks if he would; but he was worth speaking fair, if it was only to keep
him from doing you a mischief.
    It was partly to this vague fear that Marner was indebted for protecting him
from the persecution that his singularities might have drawn upon him, but still
more to the fact that, the old linen-weaver in the neighbouring parish of Tarley
being dead, his handicraft made him a highly welcome settler to the richer
housewives of the district, and even to the more provident cottagers, who had
their little stock of yarn at the year's end. Their sense of his usefulness
would have counteracted any repugnance or suspicion which was not confirmed by a
deficiency in the quality or the tale of the cloth he wove for them. And the
years had rolled on without producing any change in the impressions of the
neighbours concerning Marner, except the change from novelty to habit. At the
end of fifteen years the Raveloe men said just the same things about Silas
Marner as at the beginning: they did not say them quite so often, but they
believed them much more strongly when they did say them. There was only one
important addition which the years had brought: it was, that Master Marner had
laid by a fine sight of money somewhere, and that he could buy up »bigger men«
than himself.
    But while opinion concerning him had remained nearly stationary, and his
daily habits had presented scarcely any visible change, Marner's inward life had
been a history and a metamorphosis, as that of every fervid nature must be when
it has fled, or been condemned to solitude. His life, before he came to Raveloe,
had been filled with the movement, the mental activity, and the close
fellowship, which, in that day as in this, marked the life of an artisan early
incorporated
