"He's coming up one evening to see this place. Not but he knows it well enough already. He told me that the valley under Harter up along and beyond be nearly always good for a snipe at the season of the year."
"A pity he don't come and lend a hand here, if 'twas only mixing mortar. 'Twould be something for him to do. How any living being can waste his life like that man is a mystery and a shame."
"Always happy too," said Madge. "He've got a very kind heart, David."
"I know that--else he'd have licked me instead of my licking him. Don't think I bear the man any ill-will--far from it. We're real good friends and he's very clever by nature. I'm only sorry he can't find man's work. He've larned a trade now, then why don't he use it?"
The conversation shifted to their house presently and Madge declared her longing to see it grow.
"And what be us to call the place?" she asked.
"I thought of 'Black Tor Cottage,'" he said, "since Black Tor's just above us."
But Madge little liked the name.
"'Black' ban't a comely word for a home," she said. "Think again, David."
He shrugged his shoulders.