"
"Oh, I'm so glad!"
"Charlotte Sandal says 'she's so glad.' Now then, if thou loses ground,
I wouldn't give a ha'penny for thee."
Then the women who were folding the fleeces on tables under the other
two sycamores lifted their eyes, and glanced at Steve; and some of the
elder ones sent him a merry jibe, and some of the younger ones, smiles,
that made his brown handsome face deepen in color; but he was far too
earnest in his work to spare a moment for a reply. By and by, the squire
put down his pipe, and sat watching with his hands upon his knees. And a
stray child crept up to Charlotte, and climbed upon her lap, and went to
sleep there, and the wind flecked these four representatives of four
generations all over with wavering shadows; and Ducie came backwards and
forwards, and finally carried the sleeping child into the house; and
Stephen, busy as he was, saw every thing that went on in the group under
the top sycamore.
Even before sundown, the last batch of sheep were fleeced and
_smitten_,[Smitten. Marked with the cipher of the owner in a
mixture mostly of tar.] and turned on to the hillside; and Charlotte,
leaning over the wall, watched them wander contentedly up the fell,
with their lambs trotting beside them. Grandfather and the squire had
gone into the house; Ducie was calling her from the open door; she knew
it was tea-time, and she was young and healthy and hungry enough to be
glad of it.
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