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It seemed a wonderfully short journey, and she saw the spire of Lenham church in the distance before she had said one word to Peter, or he had broken silence except to speak to his horse. This did not disturb her, for she was used to his ways now, and she made up her mind that she would put off any attempt at conversation until their return.
"Anyhow," she said to herself as she stood with her eyes fixed on None-so-pretty after Ben had done his story, "if he is common he's kind." Her reflections were disturbed by Ben's voice making another remark, which came from the side of a large red cow named Cherry: "There's not a better lot of coos, nor richer milk than what they give, this side Lenham." Lilac made no answer.
There was so much that he did not know: all about hay-harvest, and her butter-making, about Lenham fete, and her cousins, and, finally, all about None-so-pretty and Peter. "I do think," she added, "as how I like him best of any of 'em, for all they say he's so common." "Common or uncommon, they'd do badly without him," muttered Joshua.
I didn't go to Lenham finishing school to learn that." "I can't find out what it was you did learn there," growled her father, "except to look down on everything useful. I'll not have Agnetta sent there, I know. Not if I had the money, I wouldn't.
In the big field beyond the orchard where the grass had stood so tall and waved its flowery heads so proudly, it was now lying low on the ground in the bright hot sun. The sky was cloudless, and the farmer's brow had cleared a little too, for he had a splendid crop and every chance of getting it in well. "To-morrow's Lenham fete," said Agnetta to Lilac one evening.
"I wonder," she said, "if I could make shift to get into the cart but if I did I couldn't never get in and out at the shops." She looked appealingly at her elder daughter. "The cart's going in with the butter," she added. But Bella was not inclined to take the hint. "You don't catch me driving into Lenham with the cart full of butter and eggs and such," she said. "Whatever'd Charlie say?
The colt would not be sold and None-so-pretty would have to go in his place. She returned to the farm more than ever impressed by Peter's power. Quiet, dull Peter who seemed hardly able to put two sentences together, and had never an answer ready for his sisters' sharp speeches. That evening when Bella and Agnetta returned from Lenham, Lilac was at the gate.
I declare I hate going into Lenham for fear of meeting that chap." Peter had begun to toss the hay near him with his pitchfork. He did not look at his father or change his expression, but he said again: "Knowing what we do, we hadn't ought to sell him." The farmer struck his stirrup-iron so hard with his stick that even the steady grey pony was startled.
The concert would be unusually good this year, everyone said, and each performer felt as anxious about his or her part as if its success depended on that alone. Mr Buckle, next to his own recitation, relied a good deal on the introduction of a friend of his from Lenham, who had promised to perform on the banjo and sing a comic song if possible.
And here they were at Lenham, rattling over the round stones with which the marketplace was paved. It was full of stalls, crowded together so closely that there was scarcely room for all the people passing up and down between them. They struggled along, jostling each other, pushing their way with great baskets on their arms, and making a confusion of noises.
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