'He ha'n't spoke to Rhoda Brook for years.' When the milking was done they washed their pails and hung them on a many- forked stand made of the peeled limb of an oak-tree, set upright in the earth, and resembling a colossal antlered horn.

The majority then dispersed in various directions homeward.

The thin woman who had not spoken was joined by a boy of twelve or thereabout, and the twain went away up the field also.
Their course lay apart from that of the others, to a lonely spot high above the water-meads, and not far from the border of Egdon Heath, whose dark countenance was visible in the distance as they drew nigh to their home.
'They've just been saying down in barton that your father brings his young wife home from Anglebury to-morrow,' the woman observed.

'I shall want to send you for a few things to market, and you'll be pretty sure to meet 'em.' 'Yes, mother,' said the boy.

'Is father married then ?' 'Yes.