Involuntarily, Reuben held his breath, listening, hungering for the sound of children's voices on the still air.

Nothing--but a few intermittent bird notes and the eternal hurry of water from the moorland to the plain.
There was a step on the road, and a man passed whistling.
'Jim Wigson!' shouted Hannah, 'is that yo, Jim ?' The man opened the yard gate, and came through to them.

Jim was the eldest son of the neighbouring farmer, whose girls were Louie's only companions.

He was a full-blooded swaggering youth, with whom David was generally on bad terms.

David despised him for an oaf who could neither read nor write, and hated him for a bully.
He grinned when Hannah asked him questions about the truants.
'Why, they're gone to Edale, th' yoong rascots, I'll uphowd yo! There's a parcel o' gipsies there tellin fortunes, an lots o' foak ha gone ower there to-day.