They kindled him and made him glow to his work, whereas his mother's influence was to make him quietly determined, patient, dogged, unwearied.
He soon was friends with the boys, whose rudeness was only superficial.
They had all, when they could trust themselves, a strange gentleness and lovableness.
"Will you come with me on to the fallow ?" asked Edgar, rather hesitatingly.
Paul went joyfully, and spent the afternoon helping to hoe or to single turnips with his friend.

He used to lie with the three brothers in the hay piled up in the barn and tell them about Nottingham and about Jordan's.

In return, they taught him to milk, and let him do little jobs--chopping hay or pulping turnips--just as much as he liked.

At midsummer he worked all through hay-harvest with them, and then he loved them.

The family was so cut off from the world actually.