employer of labour for many and many a mile round, and the most
generous as well as the most exact paymaster, and though people
asserted that there was no reasonable explanation for it,
nevertheless it annually happened that the hand-sown, hand-reaped
crops of Briar Farm were finer and richer in grain and quality,
and of much better value than the machine-sown, machine-reaped
crops of any other farm in the county or for that matter in the
three counties adjoining. He stood now for a minute or two
watching Innocent as she looked carefully over his smock frock to
see if there were any buttons missing or anything to be done
requiring the services of her quick needle and thread,--then as
she folded it and put it aside on a chair he said with a thrill of
compassion in his voice:

"Poor little child, thou hast eaten no supper! I saw thee playing
with the bread and touching no morsel. Art not well?"

She looked up at him and tried to smile, but tears came into her
eyes despite her efforts to keep them back.

"Dear Dad, I am only anxious," she murmured, tremulously. "You,
too, have had nothing. Shall I fetch you a glass of the old wine?
It will do you good."

He still bent his brows thoughtfully upon her.

"Presently--presently--not now," he answered. "Come and sit by me
at the window and I'll tell you--I'll tell you what you must know.
But see you, child, if you are going to cry or fret, you will be
no help to me and I'll just hold my peace!"