Old Stuppeny had made this remark at intervals for the last sixty
years, indeed ever since the day he had first come as a tow-headed boy
to scare sparrows from the fields of Joanna's grandfather; so no one
gave it the attention that should have been its due. Other people aired
their grievances instead.

"I wöan't stand her meddling wud me and my sheep," said Fuller, the
shepherd.

"It's her sheep, come to that," said Martha Tilden the chicken-girl.

Fuller dealt her a consuming glance out of his eyes, which the long
distances of the marsh had made keen as the sea wind.

"She döan't know nothing about sheep, and I've been a looker after sheep
since times when you and her was in your cradles, so I wöan't täake sass
from neither of you."

"She'll meddle wud you, Martha, just as she'll meddle wud the rest of
us," said Broadhurst, the cowman.

"She's meddled wud me for years--I'm used to it. It's you men what's
going to have your time now. Ha! Ha! I'll be pleased watching it."

Martha's short, brightly-coloured face seemed ready to break in two as
she laughed with her mouth wide open.

"When she's had a terrification wud me and said things as she's sorry
for, she'll give me a gownd of hers or a fine hat. Sometimes I think as
I make more out of her tempers than I do out of my good work what she