"I can't explain myself," she answered, "but it seems a right kind of beginning, and I think God's blessing will be upon it."
"We will hope so, at any rate. Yes, we will hope so."
And then silence fell again.
CHAPTER XXXV
FAILURE OR FORTUNE
Farmer Jenkins was grimly contemptuous. He hated miners. "They were always messing up things," sinking pits, covering the hillsides with heaps of rubbish, erecting noisy and unsightly machinery, cutting watercourses through fruitful fields, breaking down fences, and, generally speaking, destroying the peace and quietness of a neighbourhood.
He told Ralph to his face that he considered he was a fool.
"Possibly you are right, Mr. Jenkins," Ralph said, with a laugh.
"Ay, and you'll laugh t'other side of your face afore you've done with it."