Narcissus, though eighteen months the younger, was the taller; a pale-faced girl, too colourless and thin, and too much disposed to stoop, for good looks. She had light-tinted hair, and rather listless eyes, suiting her listless manner.
But Josiah Plunkett admired his girls with all his heart—both of them in different ways; and Marigold the most, because of her likeness to his first wife. He might be rough in speech, and not too mannerly in manners; yet he really was a loving father, and he did not believe there were any two girls in the world equal to his Marigold and Narcissus. He was ready to back them any day against all the young women in the neighbourhood, for sense and niceness. So he often told his wife; but at the present moment he was too hungry for compliments.
"Not a scrap of victuals for me to eat! See, Marigold, what's to be done? I've got no time to lose. There's a lot of carpentering yet in the schoolroom, and I've promised Mr. Heavitree I'll get it all done to-night."
"Why, father, you said you wouldn't come back to dinner."
"That's what I've been telling of him! And then to be expecting a reg'lar spread, waiting for him on the chance!" complained Mrs. Plunkett.
"Well, if I didn't mean, I've changed my mind; and now I've got to eat. A cup o' tea ain't enough for my inside, without there's some'at more substantial to be washed down."
"Father, you wouldn't mind two nice fresh eggs! They've got a lot next door; and they'll lend me half a-loaf. Eggs don't take long to boil. We're out of cheese, but there's butter."
"Well, well, I shouldn't wonder if I could make shift with the eggs. Get three when you're about it, my girl; and be quick."
Marigold vanished swiftly, and soon came back, eggs in hand, nice big brown ones, appetising in look. The neighbours kept fowls in their little back garden, and had often an abundance of eggs to use or sell.
Why do not English working-men and their wives oftener keep fowls? The outlay and trouble are not great, and it would be well worth their while. Enormous quantities of eggs come to England from abroad; and the money which pours out of England to pay for all those foreign eggs might just as well be poured into English pockets for English eggs, if only fowls were more plentifully kept. Of course, people need to learn how to manage their fowls, how to feed them economically, and how to balance the good and bad times of the year, so as on the whole to be gainers.