104 IDLEHURST : 



gnarled fist on the breast of his ragged gabardine. 

 " When I was a boy, they'd tell us we wasn't to knock 

 off till we could see to count three stars a-shinin' ; 

 but, bless you, the chaps nowadays, they'd rather go 

 by their watches. They're a shacklin' lot, that's what 

 they are ! Now, my boys, I reckon they sees a good 

 many stars afore they've done some jobs, and it don't 

 look as if it had done 'em much 'arm." 



Here Mrs. Avery interrupted us with preparations 

 for tea. She is a short, black-haired woman, some 

 ten years younger than the master, a little hard-faced, 

 and keeps on guard with the world. She rules the 

 house nobly, with painful cleanliness and plenteous- 

 ness of all manner of store, seconded by the eldest 

 son's wife, a plain girl with a face of immovable 

 goodness and the spirit of work in her strong 

 shoulders and red wrists a girl after the mother's 

 own heart, grappled to her soul by the silent 

 communion of righteous, unrelenting labour week 

 to week about the dairy and the henhouse and the 

 drying-ground. While Mrs. Avery stirred up the 

 stick fire and measured out the tea, she spoke about 

 the third son Albert, very much as though he were 

 a boy at school. " Jus' like a pookin' cow 'e's bin all 

 day. D'y' 'ear, father? All along o' somethin' 

 Steve Wickens was a-tellin' him las' Sat'dy down 



