Simply and beautifully father and son kissed.
A moment the eyes of each rested in the other's.
Then it was over.
No one of us is entirely inhuman.
Something of the spirit of the scene enacted in the study had conveyed itself even to Alf awaiting in the road outside, Ern's bag at his feet.
He was blinking when his brother, blowing his nose, joined him.
Ern glanced at the green rampart of the Downs rising like a wall at the end of the road, and huge Shadow Coombe where the lambs were folded in March and where once he had passed a night in the shepherd's hut.
Ern waved to them and Beech-hangar beyond.
"Good-bye, old Downs!" he called. "You and me been good old pals!"
Then they set off for the bus at Billing's Corner, neither speaking, neither wishing to, Alf carrying his brother's bag. Both youths were slight and colt-like, yet with loose unshackled limbs; Ern rather smart, Alf distinctly shabby.