This etext was transcribed by Les Bowler BY THE SAME AUTHOR IN A NORTH COUNTRY VILLAGE THE STORY OF DAN A DAUGHTER OF THE SOIL MAIME O’ THE CORNER FRIEZE AND FUSTIAN AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS MISS ERIN THE DUENNA OF A GENIUS YEOMAN FLEETWOOD FIANDER’S WIDOW THE MANOR FARM CHRISTIAN THAL LYCHGATE HALL DORSET DEAR WILD WHEAT SIMPLE ANNALS STEPPING WESTWARD BY M. E. FRANCIS (MRS FRANCIS BLUNDELL) * * * * * METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON * * * * * _First Published in 1907_ * * * * * TO MY DEAR FRIEND ELINOR, LADY D’OYLY KNOWN AND BELOVED BY DORSET FOLK OF ALL GRADES, AND ALL AGES * * * * * “_Write me as one who loves his fellow-men_.” CONTENTS PAGE TRANTER SALLY 1 “LWONESOME LIZZIE” 17 JESS DOMENY ON STRIKE 47 “JARGE’S LITTLE ’OOMAN” 70 ANN-CAR’LINE 86 ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS 105 HOW NED BLANCHARD EMIGRATED 120 FARMER BARNES’ DILEMMA 150 THE MISSUS’S CHAIR 172 THE RULES O’ THE HOUSE 187 LADY LUCY 209 A PRISONER OF WAR 244 THROUGH THE COTTAGE WINDOW 257 APRIL FOOLS 277 TRANTER SALLY THE wayside hedgerow, gay with its autumn tints, stretched its undulating length beside the rather stony lane that wound upwards from the high road, and lost itself amid a multiplicity of sheep-tracks on the down. It was one of those mild days that here in the south country cheat the fancy with their likeness, not merely to spring, but to summer. The sky was blue and cloudless; the birds were singing; the banks were still starred with many flowers: crane’s-bill, mallow and scabious. Here and there the gorse was blooming afresh, and new blossoms of guelder-rose surmounted, incongruously enough, twigs with claret-coloured leaves that dropped at a touch. Here, indeed, the finger of autumn had left its trace, and all along the hedge were tokens of its magic. Such miracles of colour as the conjurer had wrought this year are rarely to be seen: such goldens and ambers, such scarlets and crimsons; stretching away beyond the hedge were fields still silvery with night-dews, and woods shining with the incomparable burnish of the season.