But I put my hair
up last Easter, and that makes a difference."

"Why, you were only a child!"

"I was seventeen last week. And--I say, do you know the Bryanite,
over to St. Ann's--Preacher Jacky Pascoe?"

He nodded, remembering the caution given him.

"I got salvation off him. Master and mis'-ess they've got salvation
too; but they take it very quiet. They're very fond of one another;
if you please one, you'll please 'em both. They let me walk over to
prayer-meetin' once a week. But I don't go by Mendarva's shop--
that's where you work--though 'tis the shortest way; because there's
a woman buried in the road there, with a stake through her, and I'm
a terrible coward for ghosts."

She paused as if expecting him to say something; but Taffy was
staring at a "neck" of corn, elaborately plaited, which hung above
the mantel-shelf. And just then Mrs. Joll entered the kitchen.

Taffy--without any reason--had expected to see a middle-aged
housewife. But Mrs. Joll was hardly over thirty; a shapely woman,
with a plain, pleasant face and auburn hair, the wealth of which she
concealed by wearing it drawn straight back from the forehead and
plaited in the severest coil behind. She shook hands.

"You'll like a drink of milk before I show you your room?"

Taffy was grateful for the milk. While he drank it, the voices of
the children outside rose suddenly to shouts of laughter.

"That will be their father come home," said Mrs. Joll, and going to
the side door called to him. "John, put the children down!
Mr. Raymond's son is here."

Mr. Joll, who had been galloping round the farmyard with a small girl
of three on his back, and a boy of six tugging at his coat-tails,
pulled up, and wiped his good-natured face.

"Kindly welcome," said he, coming forward and shaking hands, while
the two children stared at Taffy.

After a minute the boy said, "My name's Bob. Come and play horses,
too."

Farmer Joll looked at Taffy with a shyness that was comic.
"Shall we?"

"Mr. Raymond will be tired enough already," his wife suggested.

"Not a bit," declared Taffy; and hoisting Bob on his back, he set off
furiously prancing after the farmer.

By dinner-time he and the family were fast friends, and after dinner
the farmer took him off to be introduced to Mendarva the Smith.

Mendarva's forge stood on a triangle of turf beside the high-road,
where a cart-track branched off to descend to Joll's Farm in the
valley. And Mendar