Why conno they leave God Awmighty alone?
He can bring a calvin cow through beawt ony o' their meddlin, I'll uphowd yo!' But still not a word from the lad in front.

Reuben might as well have talked to the wall beside him.

He had grown used to the boy's companionship, and the obstinate silence which David still preserved from hour to hour as they drove their stock homewards made a sensible impression on him.
Inside the house there was a constant, though in general a silent, struggle going on between the boy and Hannah on the subject of Louie.

Louie, after the escapade of Easter Eve, was visited with a sharp attack of inflammatory rheumatism, only just stopping short of rheumatic fever.

Hannah got a doctor, and tended her sufficiently while the worst lasted, partly because she was, after all, no monster, but only a commonly sordid and hard-natured woman, and partly because for a day or two Louie's state set her pondering, perforce, what might be the effect on Mr.Gurney's remittances if the child incontinently died.