She led us up to the door of the unfinished house, where a rather
little woman was working with mallet and chisel on the wall near by.
She seemed very intent on what she was doing, and did not turn round
when we came up; but a taller woman, quite a girl she seemed, who was
at work near by, had already knocked off, and was standing looking
from Clara to Dick with delighted eyes. None of the others paid much
heed to us.

The blue-clad girl laid her hand on the carver's shoulder and said:
"Now Philippa, if you gobble up your work like that, you will soon
have none to do; and what will become of you then?"

The carver turned round hurriedly and showed us the face of a woman
of forty (or so she seemed), and said rather pettishly, but in a
sweet voice:

"Don't talk nonsense, Kate, and don't interrupt me if you can help
it." She stopped short when she saw us, then went on with the kind
smile of welcome which never failed us. "Thank you for coming to see
us, neighbours; but I am sure that you won't think me unkind if I go
on with my work, especially when I tell you that I was ill and unable
to do anything all through April and May; and this open-air and the
sun and the work together, and my feeling well again too, make a mere
delight of every hour to me; and excuse me, I must go on."

She fell to work accordingly on a carving in low relief of flowers
and figures, but talked on amidst her mallet strokes: "You see, we
all think this the prettiest place for a house up and down these
reaches; and the site has been so long encumbered with an unworthy
one, that we masons were determined to pay off fate and destiny for