loved it and allowed no interference from anybody, Michael alone excepted.
But he cared not much for money and was well content to let his wife hold
the purse; yet when he did occasionally demand an account, it was always
forthcoming to the uttermost farthing, and he fully believed what other
people told him that Thomasin could make a sixpenny-piece go further than
any other woman in Newlyn.

Mother and son presently departed; while Mr. Chirgwin took off his coat,
lighted his pipe, and walked with Joan round about the orchard. He foretold
great things for the plums, now in full flower; he poked the pigs with his
stick and spoke encouragingly of their future also. Then he discussed
Joan's prospects and gladdened her heart by telling her the past must be
let alone and need never be reverted to again.

"Mary's gettin' over it tu," he said, "least-ways I think she is. Her knaws
wheer to look for comfort, bless her. Us must all keep friendly for life's
not long enough to do 'nough good in, I allus says, let alone the doin' o'
bad."

Then he discussed Joe Noy, and Joan was startled to find, when she came to
think seriously upon the subject, that though but a week and three days had
passed since she bid her lover "good-by," yet the picture of him in her
mind already grew a trifle dim, and the prospect of his absence for a year
held not the least sorrow in it for her.

Presently, after looking to his horse, Uncle Thomas hinted at forty winks,
if the same would be quite convenient, and Joan, settling him with some
approach to comfort upon n little horsehair sofa in the parlor, turned her
attention to the making of saffron cakes for tea.