I remember at the sheep-shearing he did not say
very much."
"He did not say very much because he never thought that Steve was in
earnest. Father does not like changes, and you know how land-owners
regard traders. And I'm sure you wouldn't even one of our shepherd-lads
with a man that minds a loom. The brave fellows, travelling the
mountain-tops in the fiercest storms to fold the sheep, or seek some
stray or weakly lamb, are very different from the lank, white-faced
mannikins all finger-ends for a bit of machinery; aren't they, Ducie?
And I would far rather see Steve counting his flocks on the fells than
his spinning-jennys in a mill. Father was troubled about the railway
coming to Ambleside, and I do think a factory in Sandal-Side would make
him heart-sick."
"Then Steve shall never build one while Sandal lives. Do you think I
would have the squire made heart-sick if I could make him heart-whole?
Not for all the woollen yarn in England. Tell him Ducie said so. The
squire and I are old, old friends. Why, we pulled primroses together in
the very meadow Steve thought of building in! I'm not the woman to put a
mill before a friend, oh, no! And in the long end I think you are right,
Charlotte. A man had better work among sheep than among human beings.
They are a deal more peaceable and easy to get on with. It is not so
very hard for a shepherd to be a good man."
"You speak as I like to hear you, Ducie; but I must be going, for a deal
falls to my oversight now.
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