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The household rose early He was out digging by six o'clock

in the ht And

Ursula was usually in the garden with hih not near at

hand

At Eastertime one year, she helped him to set potatoes It

was the first time she had ever helped him The occasion

remained as a picture, one of her earliest one out soon after dawn A cold as blowing He had his

old trousers tucked into his boots, he wore no coat nor

waistcoat, his shirt-sleeves fluttered in the wind, his face was

ruddy and intent, in a kind of sleep When he was at work he

neither heard nor saw A long, thinstill a youth,

with a line of black moustache above his thick mouth, and his

fine hair blown on his forehead, he worked away at the earth in

the grey first light, alone His solitariness drew the child

like a spell

The wind careen fields Ursula ran up

and watched hi in at one side of his ready

earth, stride across, and push it in the other side, pulling the

line taut and clear upon the clods intervening Then with a

sharp cutting noise the bright spade carip into the new, soft earth

He struck his spade upright and straightened himself

"Do you want to help me?" he said

She looked up at him from out of her little woollen