Indeed this was Charnock's trouble; when a job got difficult, he did not stay with it.
Festing crossed the fall back-set, where the loam from the frost-split clods stuck to his boots, passed the sod stable, noting that one end was falling down, and was met on the veranda by Charnock's dogs.

They sprang upon him with welcoming barks, and pushing through them, he entered the untidy living-room.

Charnock sat at a table strewn with papers that looked like bills, and there was a smear of ink on his chin.
"Hallo!" he said.

"Sit down and take a smoke while I get through with these." Festing pulled a chair into his favorite corner by the stove and looked about when he had lighted his pipe.

The room was comfortless and bare, with cracked, board walls, from which beads of resin exuded.