Harvest

r features and a delicately humorous mouth. His stoop and his slouching gait, the gray locks also, which straggled from under his broad hat, showed him an old man-probably very near his

look of one whose country nerves had never known the touch of worry or long sicknes

hich by its own "sun-time" had only reached half-past four in the afternoon, though the clock in the village church had already struck h

, looking at a crop of oats through

had better 'a read the prayer for rain lasst Sunday,

lf-smiling eyes glancing from side

in' about 'em. But it's the sins o' the Garmins I be thinkin' of. If it hadn'

mber as ever is," put in Batts. "It's the sins o' the Garmin

k his head

believe a word ee said. 'Yis,' I says, 'if you want this war to stop, I'm

burst into a c

!' Did you say

enced a

one o' speakin' your min

you hear, Batts, as

d an animated loo

id Batts, astonished

a man. It'

he women go ridin' astride an' hay-balin', an' steam-ploughin', an' the Lord knows w

laughter crossed

ey n

ltiks now to me of a night. I don't mind her, now the childer be all gone. But

e same tone of pleasant rumination. "It isn't in natur. We warn't g

d from one old

," said Halsey, lighting his pipe with old hands that shook.

to hustle-bustle me like you're doin',' say my missus sharp-like to a Labour chap as coom round lasst week,

Batts?" asked Halsey, with an

dly, "shan't try. But now about

say as she's nice-lookin', an' Muster Shentsone ee said as she

a sound o

broad nostrils which seemed to spread over h

ter Shenstone says, since she was at college; and ee t

aid the other, cuttingly. "Notions

s. Yo'd better by a long way go by the folk as k

ed. It's Hobson's choice, as you mig

hy the Wages Board for Brookshire had fixed thirty-three shillings as a weekly minimum, and a nine-hours' day! Prices were high, but they would go down some day; and wages would not go down. The old men could not have told exactly why this confidence lay so deep in them; but there it was, and it seemed to give a strange new stability and even dignity to life. Their

d men were now too tired to talk; till just as they came in sight of th

ain. Batts did the same. The glance was momentary. But both men had the same impression of a pleasant-faced young woman sitting erect behind Jonathan Webb, the decrepit dr

witched a little, but though his thoughts were ironical, he said nothing. It was generally admitted by the older people that Mrs. Batts had been through ma

hese high chalk downs with their hanging woods, and within a mile or so of the straggling village she had just driven through. At last, after much wandering, she was to find a home-a real hom

e stretch of newly-ploughed land rising towards a bluff of grassy down-land on the horizon. The ploughed land itself had been down up to a few months before this date; thin pasture for a few sheep, through many generations. She thought with eagerness of the crops she was going to ma

farmhouse and buildings had been allowed to fall into such a state. Mr. Wellin had not wanted the house, since he was only working the land temporarily in addition to his own

now temporarily hers, had promised to stay behind that evening to meet her at the farm. She only meant to insist on

it!" she thought discontentedly. And then she remembered how as a child-in far-away Sussex-she used to press her face into the lime-blossom in her uncle's garden-passionately, greedily, trying to get from it a greater

as a kind of parable in it

hree thousand pounds that Uncle Robert had so opportunely left her. She had never realized that money could make so much difference; and she thought gratefully of the elderly bachelor, her mother's brother, who had u

he builder's men who had been at work on the Great End repairs. They all looked at her curiously, and Rachel Henderson looked back at them-steadily, without shyness

farm lands, too, had been so long unlet, till old Wellin, the farm's nearest neighbour, having made a good deal of money, had rented the land from Colonel Shepherd, to add to his own. The farm buildin

object. It stood high and the air about it blew keen and fresh. The chalk hill curved picturesquely round it, and the friendly woods ran down behind to keep it company. Rachel Henderson, in pursuit of that campaign she was always now waging against a natural optimism, tried to make herself imagine it in winter-the leafless trees,

seen him once before, on her first hurried visit, when, after getting a rough estimate from him of the repairs nece

-beaten cheek. Miss Henderson again noticed the observant curiosity in the old man's eyes. Everybody, indeed, seemed to look at her with the same express

g to do anything of this kind. Two of the men that began work last week have been called up, and there's another been just 'ticed away fr

work would have to be done. If Colonel Shepherd couldn't find the wages

g hustled, still less to persons who were ready to pay rather than be kept waiting

of the farm. To the left was a long row of open cow-sheds, then cow-houses and barns, the stables,

and of far less dignity than the fine old barn on which it looked. It abutted at one end

pped up to the hou

contentedly; "and those men don't

le, he said, shamefacedly, and he unlocked the

said, "that the living

there'll be

ree. Both windows were large and seemed to take up most of the wall on either side of the small room. The effect was peculiarly comfortless, as though no one liv

which was the living room with the two windows, while on the other were the kitchen and scullery. Upstairs there were two good-sized bedrooms with a small third ro

deep Indian-red drugget in the sitting-room, with pigeon-blue walls, and she thought complacently of the bits of old furniture she had been collecting, which were stored in a friend's flat in town. An old dresser, a grandfather's clock, some bits of brass, two arm-chairs, an old oak table-it would all look very nice when it was done, and would cost little. Then the bedrooms. She had brought with her some rolls o

he presently recognized the same qualities of honesty and good temper in her; and took to her. Insensibly their tone to each other grew friendly. Though he was temporarily in the landlord's employ, he had been for some years in the service of the Wellin family. Half-consciously he contrasted Miss Henderson's manner to him with theirs. In his own view he had been worse treated than an ordinary farm labourer throughout his farming life, though he had more education, and was expected naturally to have more brains and foresight than the labourer. He was

chin, with their soft, blunted lines, seemed to promise laughter and easy ways. She was very lightly and roundly made; and everything about her, her step, her sunburn, her freckles, her evident muscular strength, spoke of open-air life and physical exercise.

think we've been through everything. I'll take over one cart, and Mrs. Wellin must remov

Mrs. Wellin out consider

ed up with old iron like that. It's worth noth

and said nothing. The old long habit of considering the Wellin interest first, be

moved back to

ey are slow-coaches! I must get in the week after next

enderson's partner in the farm, specially to look after t

re's no picking and choosing now. If they were eighty I should have to take them! till the harvest's got

ngs n

ding at the gate, and looking over the fields. "Miss Leighton and I me

wheat-field, ablaze under the level go

ueer business, Mr. Hasting

w, you see, Mi

be very common. Why sho

wned a

g he had offended her. "I've nothing against it myself.

ed at hi

t a son in

one's be

t ye

last

tings went on, "for two or three months. He was head woodman before the war on Lord Radley's property." He point

d a startled face upon him. "You do

over them these last weeks. They're splendid timber, you know. There's been a timber camp the

s staring at the woods, which shone in the glow now steadily creeping up the

ust have the wood," he

the war. But it

ld have taken the farm,"

ought to tell you. But it was re

about the farm," she said abruptly, "esp

the farm," he said consolingly.

d not quite recover its cheerf

gs. I'll lock up the house, if you

arted with a more cheerful aspect than when he arrived. The hopefulness and spring of youth had long since left him, and he had dreaded the new experience of this first meeting with a woman-farmer, from whom he desired employment simply because he was ve

She went with a face on which the cloud still rested to look at the well

of the water, which, owing to the long drought, was very low. Hastings had told her that the well was extremely deep--150 feet at leas

an evening wind was gustily blowing through the cart-shed, playing with some old guano sacks that had been left there, and whistling round the corner

g she carried on her wrist. She took it out, and the small object sparkled a little as she held it poised for a moment-as tho

n raised hersel

to herself, with a straight

red was "done with"; of scenes and persons, that is, which she was determined to f