He sighed and shifted his position wearily against the paling, as though faint with fatigue.

’You can’t tell me of any place near where I can get something to eat?  I have been working hard since daybreak, and now I am out of my reckoning, and tired and hungry.’  He glanced down at his tools and earth-stained clothes.

He won his wish; the woman, who would not have tarried a moment for selfish pleasure, remained out of generous pity.

‘I’ve the piece mother put up, mebbe it’s big enou’ for we two.’

‘But I could not think of taking your luncheon,’ he exclaimed, with a gallantry that was meant to be impressive, but was quite lost on his practical companion.  She proceeded to open her parcel and examine the contents to see whether or not there was enough for two.  He also examined it critically with his eyes, in some alarm at her prompt response to his appeal, but the thick slices of bread and meat, if not dainty, were clean, and of excellent quality.

She took the largest and thickest bit and thrust it into his hand, very much as a mother would feed her child with the portion she considered its fair share.

’’Ere, ye may ‘ev that, fur I shan’t want it.’

‘You are very kind,’ he said, with a touch of sarcasm too fine for her.

It appeared that, having taken out the food, she thought well to make her own meal, for she went a few steps farther on, and, sitting down on the grass with her back to the paling, began to eat.  A large tuft of weeds grew midway between him and her.  Truly we can foresee consequences but a very little way in our dealings with a fellow-creature, and this man, as he stood munching his bread, uncertain how to proceed in winning favour from the bold beauty, was hardly pleased with the result of his encounter.  His dog went and laid its head upon her knee, and she fed it with crumbs; its master, after watching them a minute, stepped out on the road with the intention of sitting down between them and the weeds.  As he did so he caught sight, as he thought, of a man seated in the very place he intended to occupy.  So strong was the impression that he started and stared; but again, as before, there was no one to be seen.  The sunshine was bright upon all things; the palings were so far apart that he could see everything in the fields behind; there was no one far or near but the ploughman at half a field’s distance, and they two, and the dog.

The woman turned coolly round and looked through the paling, as if she supposed he had seen something behind her.  ‘Was’t a haer?’ she asked, eyeing him with interest; ‘ye ain’t feared o’ the like o’ that?’

‘No, it was not a hare; I did not see a hare.’

‘What was’t ye seed then?’ she asked, looking at him with bold determination.

‘What did I see?’ he repeated vaguely, ‘I saw nothing.’

‘Thought ye looked as if ye’d seed something’,’ she remarked incredulously, and then went on eating and feeding the dog, as indifferent to his presence as she was to the presence of the weeds.