ky, contrary way. Only I was thinking of
Will's thousand pounds. Newtake will suck it out of his pocket quicker
than Cranmere sucks up a Spring shower."

"Well, I'm more hopeful. He knows the value of money; an' Phoebe will
help him when she comes up. The months slip by so quickly. By the time
I've got the cobwebs out of the farm an' made the auld rooms
water-sweet, I dare say theer'll be talk of his wife joining him."

"You going up! This is the first I've heard of it."

"I meant to tell 'e to-day. Mother is willing and I'm awnly tu glad. A
man's a poor left-handed thing 'bout a house. I'd do more 'n that for
Will."

"Pity he doesn't think and do something for you. Surely a little of this
money--?"

"Doan't 'e touch on that, Clem. Us had a braave talk 'pon it, for he
wanted to make over two hundred pound to me, but I wouldn't dream of it,
and you wouldn't have liked me tu. You 'm the last to envy another's
fair fortune."

"I do envy any man fortune. Why should I starve, waiting for you, and--?"

"Hush!" she said, as though she had spoken to a little child. "I won't
hear no wild words to-day in all this gude gold sunshine."

"God damn everything!" he burst out. "What a poor, impotent wretch He's
made me--a thing to bruise its useless hands beating the door that will
never open! It maddens me--especially when all the world's happy, like
to-day--all happy but me. And you so loyal and true! What a fool you
are to stick to me and let me curse you all your life!"

"Doan't 'e, doan't 'e, Clem," said Chris wearily. She was growing well
accustomed to these ebullitions. "Doan't grudge Will his awn. Our turn
will come, an' perhaps sooner than we think for. Look round 'pon the
sweet fresh airth an' budding flowers. Spring do put heart into a body.
We 'm young yet, and I'll wait for 'e if 't is till the crack o' doom."

"Life's such a cursed short thing at best--just a stormy day between two
nights, one as long as past time, the other all eternity. Have you seen
a mole come up from the ground, wallow helplessly a moment or two, half
blind in the daylight, then sink back into the earth, leaving only a
mound? That's our life, yours and mine; and Fate grudges that even these
few poor hours, which make the sum of it, should be spent together.
Think how long a man and woman can live side by side at best. Yet every
Sunday of your life you go to church and babble about a watchful, loving
Maker!"

"I doan't know, Clem. You an'