He always answered that he had promised the master that he would not trespass on the manor; and he must stand to his word, whatever they might lose by it; though, indeed, he saw no harm in making green fields out of the waste land.

Martha, on her side, maintained her right as the eldest to act as she judged best; and, moreover, urged the example of her thrifty grandmother, who had planned this very enclosure, and whose pattern she was determined to follow.

But before long the dispute was ended, and the subject of it became a matter of heart-troubling wonder, for several labourers from the master's farm began to fence in the very same ground, as well as to prepare the turf behind Fern's Hollow for the planting of young trees; and neither Stephen nor Martha could hide from the other that these labours made them feel exceedingly uneasy.
'I say, Stephen,' said one of the hedgers, as he was going down from his work one evening, and met the tired boy coming up from his, 'I'm afeared there's some mischief brewing.

There's master, and Mr.Thomas, and Mr.
Jones the gamekeeper, been talking with thy grandfather nigh upon an hour.

There'll be a upshot some day, I know; and Jones, he said summat about leaving a keepsake for thee.' 'What could it be, William ?' asked Stephen anxiously.
'How should I know ?' said the man, with some reluctance.