To obtain some of the things he specially wanted, Tanquerel had so
arranged the lots that he must sacrifice others, and these little
matters rankled in his mind and obscured his purview.

There was a good deal of unhappy wrangling, but in the end Mrs. Hamon
and Nance found themselves with a large cornfield, one for pasture, and
one for mixed crops, potatoes, beans and so on, besides rights of
grazing and gorse-cutting on a certain stretch of cliff common.

They had also a pony and two cows, and two pigs and a couple of dozen
hens and a cock--quite enough to keep Nance busy; and to them also fell
an adequate share of the byres and barns, and the free use of the well.

Tom, however, still looked upon them as interlopers, and grudged them
every stick and stone, and hoof and claw. If they had never come into
the family all would have been his. Whatever they had they had snatched
out of his mouth.

If it had not been for Philip Tanquerel the alterations agreed on would
never have been completed. He got down the carpenter and mason from
Sark, stood over them, day by day, till the work was done, and then
referred them to Tom for payment--and a pleasant and lively time they
had in getting it.

The conditions resulting from all this were just such as have prevailed
in hundreds of similar cases, such as are almost inevitable from the
minute divisions and sub-divisions of small properties. When ill-feeling
has prevailed beforehand it is by no means likely to be lessened by the
unavoidable friction of such a distribution.