Boarzell Fair was in many ways a mark of the passage of the years and a commentary on history. Not only did the atmosphere and persons of it change very much[Pg 351] as the nineteenth century changed, but the side-shows were so many lights cast on popular opinion, politics, and progress.
ONE:"Bob dudn't seem to know. She allus wur a delicate-looking woman.""To Hailes.But when all is ready, I must go up the lane yonder," pointing to the right"'tis but a step, and fetch Stephen Holgraveand the poor fellow shall go with us to see his mother buried as she ought to be."
Reuben struggled untiringlyhe tried manure as in his first enterprising days, and a horrible stink of guano told traffic on the road it was passing through Odiam territory. Spades and ploughshares and harrows scored and pulped the earth. Sometimes with breaking back and aching head, the sweat streaming over his skin, he would lift himself stiffly from the plough-handles, and shake his fist at the desert round him. He had never had such a tussle before, and put it down to the fact that he was now for the first time on the high ground, on the hard and sterile scab of the marl, where it seemed as if only gorse would grow. He felt as if now for the first time he was fighting against odds, his earlier struggles were tame compared with this."I'm never going to do another str?ake of wark on your farm as long as I live. Salvation's got me."