into two romping schoolboys, who, rolling and leaping along, came running
down the white sand-path and, at last, disappeared in the bend behind the
gable-end.

Then, for another long while, nothing more, nothing but sand, green and
sunshine.

Later, 'twas three labourers, who came stepping up briskly, with their
gear over their shoulders. Half-way up the path, they jumped across the
ditch and went to work in the field. They toiled on, without looking up
or round, toiled on till I got tired of watching and tired of those three
stooping men and of seeing that gleaming steel flicker in the sun and go
in and out of the earth.

When now 'twas mid-day and fiercely hot in my loft, my three labourers
sat down behind a tree and ate their noonday meal.

I went to the loft-door and devoured my second crust of bread and took a
fresh gulp of water.

Very calmly, without thinking, lame with the heat and with that old-man's
feeling still inside me, I went and sat at the window.

The three men worked on, always, without stopping.

And that went on, went on, until the evening! When 'twas nearly dark,
they gathered up their tools, jumped over the ditch, walked down the path
the way they had come and disappeared behind the gable-end.

Now it became deadly.