quick about it, then," said Mrs Starling, not much
mollified; "there ain't much more haying to do on the home lot, I
guess. Ain't you 'most done, Josiah?"

"How?" said that worthy from the other end of the table. Mrs. Starling
had raised her voice, but Josiah's wits always wanted a knock at the
door before they would come forth to action.

"Hain't you 'most got through haying?"

"Not nigh."

"Why, what's to do?" inquired the mistress, with a new interest.

"There's all this here lot to finish, and all of Savin hill."

"Savin hill ain't but half in grass."

"Jes' so. There ain't a lock of it cut, though."

"If I was a man," said Mrs. Starling, "I believe I could get the better
o' twenty acres o' hay in less time than you take for it. However, I
ain't. Mr. Knowlton, do take one o' those cucumbers. I think there
ain't a green pickle equal to a cucumber--when it's tender and sharp,
as it had ought to be."

"I am sure everything under your hands is as it ought to be," said the
young officer, taking the cucumber. "I know these are. Your haymakers
have a good time," he added as the men rose, and there was a heavy
clangour of boots and grating chairs at the lower end of the table.

"They calculate to have it," said Mrs. Starling. "And all through
Pleasant Valley they do have it. There are no poor folks in the place;
and there ain't many that calls themselves rich; they all expect to be
comfortable; and I guess most of 'em be."

"Just the state of society in which-- There's a sweet little stream
running through your meadow, Miss Diana," said the young officer with a
sudden change of subject. "Where does it go to?"

"It makes a great many turns, through different farms, and then joins
your river--the Yellow River--that runs round Elmfield."

"That's a river; this brook is just what I like. I got tired with my
labours this afternoon, and then I threw myself down by the side of the
water to look at it. I lay there till I had almost forgotten what I was
about."

"Not in your shirt sleeves, just as you was?" inquired Mrs. Starling.
The inquiry drew another laugh from her guest; and he then asked Diana
where the brook came from. If it was pretty, followed up?

"Very pretty!" Diana said. "As soon as you get among the hills and in
the woods with it, it is as pretty as it can be; not a bit like what it
is here; full of rocks and pools and waterfalls; lovely!"

"Any fish?"

"Beautiful trout."

"Miss Diana, can you