That autumn he had sown catch-crops of Italian rye grass, which gave the stock a good early winter feed. He had grown sharper in his dealings with the land, he knew how to take it at a disadvantage, snatch out a few roots. Every inch of the farm was now at work, for every blade of grass now counted. He had even dug up the garden, casting aside rose-bushes, sweet-peas, and dahlias for dull rows of drum-head cabbages, potatoes, kale, and beans. And manure ... there was manure everywhere, lying under the very parlour windows, sending up its effluvium on the foggy winter air till it crept into even the close-shut bedroom, making Naomi conscious of Reuben in her dreams.

She was inclined to be sulky in those days. She disliked the smell of manure, she disliked being made to dream of Reuben, towards whom she now felt a vague hostility. What business had he to go and saddle her with another child? Surely she had enough—four boys and a girl. What business had he to make her languid and delicate just when she needed all her health for the ailing Fanny? He was so unsympathetic about Fanny, too, one really might think he did not care what the poor little creature suffered.

Naomi began to complain about him to the neighbours. She joined in those wifely discussions, wherein every woman plaintively abused her own man, and rose at once in fury if another woman ventured to do so.

"Backfield he scarcely takes any notice of me now—always thinking about his farm. Talks of nothing but hops and oats. Would you believe it, Mrs. Ditch, but he hardly ever looks at this dear little Fanny. He cares for his boys right enough, because when they\'re grown up they\'ll be able to work for him, but he justabout neglects his girlie—that\'s what he does, he neglects her. The other night, there she was crying and sobbing her little heart out, and he wouldn\'t let me send for the doctor. Says he can\'t afford to have the doctor here for nothing. Nothing, indeed!..."

So Naomi would maunder to her acquaintance; with Reuben she confined herself to hints and innuendoes. Sometimes she complained to Mrs. Backfield, but her husband\'s mother was unsympathetic.

"You d?an\'t know when you\'re in luck," she said as she thumped the dough—"nothing to do but bath and dress the children, and yet you grumble. If you had to work like me—"

"I don\'t know why you do it. Make Backfield get a girl to help you."

"And pay eight shillings a month when he wants the money so badly! No, if a woman can\'t work fur her son, I d?an\'t see much good in her. Some women"—rather venomously—"even work fur their husbands."

"You know well enough he won\'t let me work for him."

"I never said as you ought to work fur him—all I said wur as you shouldn\'t ought to grumble."

A loud wail from Fanny in her cradle drove the retort from Naomi\'s lips. She sprang from the arm-chair where she had been resting, and ran heavily across the room to the baby\'s side.

"What\'s the matter, my darling? Come to mother, little Miss Fanny. Oh, I know something\'s wrong with her, or she wouldn\'t cry so. She\'s got such a sweet temper really."

She picked the child out of the cradle, and began to walk up and down the room, rocking it in her arms. Fanny\'s wails grew louder, more long-drawn, and more plaintive.

Reuben came in, and his brows contracted when he saw what his wife was doing. There was a slight moisture on her forehead, and she strained the child violently to her breast.

"Come, Naomi, put her down. It\'s bad for you to carry her about like this."

"Oh, Reuben, I\'m sure she\'s ill. Can\'t we send Beatup over for the doctor?"

"No, we can\'t. There\'s naun the matter wud her really. She\'s always crying."

Naomi faced him almost spitefully.

"If one of the boys had hurt his little finger you\'d have doctor in at once. It\'s only because it\'s Fanny. You don\'t love her, you——"

"Now none o\' that, missus," ............