'A bird in the tree. What for did you fritten it?'
Reddin was indignant. Seeing Hazel wandering thus so near his own domain, he thought she had come in the hope of seeing him. He also thought that the strangeness of her dress was an effort to attract him.
To the pure all things are pure.
'But you surely wanted to see me? Wasn't that why you came?' he asked.
'No, it wasna. I came to pick the little musherooms as come wi' the warm rain, for there's none like spring musherooms. And I came to see the flowers, and hearken at the birds, and look the nesses.'
'You could have lots of flowers and birds at Undern.'
'There's plenty at the Mountain.'
'Then why did you come here?'
'To be by my lonesome.'
'Snub for me!' he smiled. He liked opposition. 'But look here, Hazel,' he reasoned. 'If you'd come to Undern, I'd make you enjoy life.'