32 IN THE- MIDDLE- OF THE- FIE-LOS ) (\ 0 ( ? (' -0, 'j r r-) ... .' I .......... C "t./ r \. ,., ^ .' . t J T lKE a rock in the sea, she was is- L landed by fields, the heavy grass washing about the house and the cattle wading in it as in water. Even their gentle stirrings were a loss when they moved away at evening to the shel- ter of the woods. A rainy day might strike a wet flash from a hay barn on the far side of t'1e river-not even a habitation! And yet she was less lone- ly for him here in Meath than else- where. Anxieties by day, and cares, and at night vague, nanleless fears-these were the stones across the mouth of the tomb. But who understood that? They thought she hugged tight every memory she had of him. What did they know about memory r What was it but an- other name for dry love and barren AI:>. + ! 1 + , --1'f 11 .. 4 ..::;;,- <þ r 'S(" !O' .\. "' $," .," . :: r 1ll1i ... .;:- . r t f . << , .. ''-''A*î . : , ' r < &> longing? They even tried to unload upon her their own smal] purposeless memories "1 imagine I see him every time I look out there," they would say as they glanced nervously over the dark- ening fields when they were leaving. "I think I ought to see him coming through the trees." Oh, for God's sake! she'd think. I'd forgotten him for a minute! It wasn't him she saw when she looked out at th fields this spring morn- ing. It was the ugly tufts of tow and scutch that whitened the tops of the grass and gave it the look of a sea in storm, spattered with broken foam That grass would have to be topped. And how much would that cost? At least Ned, the old herd, knew the man to do it for her. "Bartley Crossen , ". ""' 1 >0,. I ø -' " ,.., .,.. J ,'. \ì ( : Ó · C(<lJ tJ II- : , r / rÞ .. t j!' -L "1\ J:< i , \ i f +"" if. w 'I> "// - I l .." " <t"". "H! e've done it' VTT e've done it' VTT e've discovered a detergent that takes the chore out of washzng and makes all other detergents seem old-fashioned by comparison!" JUNE .3, 1 9 (, 1 is your man, Ma'am Your husband knew him well." She couldn't place him at first Then she remembered. "Oh, yes-that's his hay barn we see, isn't it? Why, of course! I know him well-by sight, I mean." And so she did-splashing past on the road in a big muddy car, the wheels always caked with clay, and the wife in the front seat beside him. "I'll get him to call around and have a word wIth you, Ma'am," said the herd. "Before dark!" she cautioned. But there was no need to tell him. The old man knew how she always tried to be upstaIrs before it got dark, locking herself in to her room, which opened off the room where the chil- dren slept, praying devoutly that she wouldn't have to come down again for anything-above all, not to answer the door. That was what in particular she dreaded. A knock at the door after dark! "Ah, sure, who'd come near you, Ma'am, knowing you're a woman alone with small children that might be wakened and set crying? .L nd, for that matter, where could you be safer than in the middle of the fields, with the in- nocent heasts asleep around you?" If he himself had to come to the house late at night for any reason-to get hot water to stoup the foot of a beast, or to call the vet-he took care to shout out long before he got to the gable. "It's me, Ma'am!" he'd shout. "Coming! Coming!" she'd cry, gratefully, as quick on his words as their echo U n- locking her door, she'd run down and throw open the hall door. No matter what the hour! No matter how black the night! "Go back to your bed now, you, Ma'am," he'd say from the dark- ness, where she could see the swinging yard lamp coming nearer and nearer like the light of a little boat drawing near to a jetty. "I'll put out the lights and let myself out." Relaxed by the thought that there was someone in the house, she would indeed scuttle back into bed, and, what was more, she'd be nearly asleep before she'd hear the door slam. It used to sound like the slam of a door a million miles away. There was no need to worry. He'd see that Crossen came early. I T was well before dark when Cros- sen did drive up to the door The wife was with him, as usual, sitting up in the front seat the way people sat up in the well of little tub traps long ago, theIr knees pressed together, allowing no slump. The herd had come with them, but only he and Crossen got out.