It was down in the hollow by Totease, as unpromising an estate as one could wish, all on a slope, gorse-grown at the top, then a layer of bracken, and at the Totease fence a kind of oozy pulp, where a lavant dribbled in and out of the grass; to Reuben, however, it was a land of milk and honey. He turned up the soil of it with his foot, and blessed the wealden clay. "No flints here," he said; "reckon there's some stiff ground on the hill--but it's only the surface. Heather äun't growing--that's a tedious good sign. I'll have oats here--the best in Peasmarsh." He stood staring at the grass with its dribbles of lavant and spines of rushes. The wind brought the sound of someone singing. At first he scarcely noticed, then gradually the song worked in with his daydream, and ended by rousing him out of it. He strolled across his domain, and marked half a dozen sturdy willows which must come out somehow roots and all. He climbed into the bracken zone, and from thence saw Harry sitting by a gorse thicket some hundred yards off with Naomi Gasson. The wind puffed gently towards him, bringing him the song and the soft peach-smell of the gorse. Harry was a musician already of note among the farms; he had a beautiful voice, and there was very little he could not do with his fiddle, though of late this had been neglected for the claims of work and love. To-day he was singing an old song Reuben knew well--"The Song of Seth's House": "'The blackbird flew out from the eaves of the Manor, The Manor of Seth in the Sussex countrie, And he carried a prayer from the lad of the Manor, A prayer and a tear to his faithless ladie. "'To the lady who lives in the Grange by the water, The water of Iron in the Sussex countrie, The lad of Seth's House prays for comfort and pity-- Have pity, my true love, have pity on me! "'O why when we loved like the swallows in April, Should beauty forget now their nests have grown cold? O why when we kissed 'mid the ewes on the hanger, Should you turn from me now that they winter in fold? "'O why, because sickness hath wasted my body, Should you do me to death with your dark treacherie? O why, because brothers and friends all have left me, Should you leave me too, O my faithless ladie? "'One day when your pride shall have brought you to sorrow, And years of despair and remorse been your fate, Perhaps your cold heart will remember Seth's Manor, And turn to your true love--and find it too late.'" Harry's voice was very loud and clear, with that element of wildness which is a compensation for no training. When he had finished "The Song of Seth's House" he started another, but broke off in the middle of it, and Reuben saw the two heads suddenly droop together, and fuse, the golden hair and the brown.