And this went so far at last that I was forced to take two of them and knock their heads together; after which they worked with a better will.
When we met together in the evening round the kitchen chimney-place, after the men had had their supper and their heavy boots were gone, my mother and Eliza would do their very utmost to learn what I was thinking of.

Not that we kept any fire now, after the crock was emptied; but that we loved to see the ashes cooling, and to be together.

At these times Annie would never ask me any crafty questions (as Eliza did), but would sit with her hair untwined, and one hand underneath her chin, sometimes looking softly at me, as much as to say that she knew it all and I was no worse off than she.

But strange to say my mother dreamed not, even for an instant, that it was possible for Annie to be thinking of such a thing.

She was so very good and quiet, and careful of the linen, and clever about the cookery and fowls and bacon-curing, that people used to laugh, and say she would never look at a bachelor until her mother ordered her.