year; and Martha, who had never missed the bilberry season since she
could remember, was not likely to miss it now. Even little Nan could help
to pick the berries, and she and Martha were out on the hillsides all the
livelong summer day. Their dwelling on the spot gave them a good
advantage over those who lived down in Botfield; and each day, before any
of the others could reach the best bilberry-wires, they had already
picked a quart of the small purple berries, fresh and cool with the dew
of the morning. Only the poor old grandfather had to be left at home
alone, with his dinner put ready for him, which he was apt to eat up long
before the proper dinner-hour came; and then he had to wait until Stephen
returned from his work, or Martha and little Nan were driven home by the
August thunderstorms. Martha was wonderfully successful this year, and
gained more money by selling her bilberries than she thought necessary to
show to Stephen; though, on his part, he always brought her every penny
of his wages.

Ever since their father's funeral there had been a subject of dispute
between the brother and sister. Martha was bent upon enclosing the green
dell, with its clear, cool little pond; and to this end she spent all the
time she could spare in raising a rough fence of stones and peat round
it. But Stephen would not consent to it; and neither argument, scolding,
nor coaxing could turn him. He always answered that he had promised the
master that he would not trespass on the manor; and he must stand to his
word, whatever they might lose by it; though, indeed, he saw no harm in
making green fields out of the waste land. Martha, on her side,
maintained her right as the eldest to act as she judged best; and,
moreover, urged the example of her thrifty grandmother, who had planned
this very enclosure, and whose pattern she was determined to follow. But
before long the dispute was ended, and the subject of it became a matter
of heart-troubling wonder, for several labourers from the master's farm