"So the man imitated the river again and worked in the ground, until he
found tin and copper; and the river went on roaring just as it does now.
You see, my children, there would have been no river if there had been
no raindrops; and without the river no tors and cleaves, no vuzzy-bushes
and golden blossoms, no ferns or pink heather, no buildings, no mortals,
and no pixies. Dartymore would have remained a cold grey mountain of
granite, and the piece of jelly would never have become a primitive man
if it hadn't rained."
"But what is the rain doing now?" cried the little round-eyed ones.
"Just the same, my pretties. Making the river flow on and on. And the
river is making the cleave deeper, and Ger Tor higher, just as it has
always been doing. Only it works so slowly that we don't notice any
change. Now you must run away to bed, for it is quite late, and you are
gaping like young chickens. Come and kiss your old granny, my dearies,
and trot away and have your dew-baths. And when you are tucked up in the
pink heather don't be afraid of the black cloud and the raindrops, for
they won't harm little pisky boys and maids if they're good. They are
too busy wearing away the granite, and cutting the cleaves deeper, and
making the mountains higher and our dear old Tavyland stronger and
fresher. There, that's all for to-night, my impets. I'll tell ye another
story to-morrow."
"Funny old thing, G'an'mother," whispered the little round-eyed ones,
while they washed their pink toes in the dew. "She'm old and dafty."
That's the story of river Tavy and its cleave; not all of it by any
means, but the pixy grandmother did not know any more. Nobody knows all
of it, except that Someone who sent the wind, which swept up the cloud,
which brought the rain, which wetted the piece of jelly, which shivered
on the top of the big grey mountain of Dartmoor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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