Which I thought a
strange answer. When I went on to hint at his inclination for Grace
Pascoe, he confused me by asking, with a look very straight and
good-natured, if the girl had ever spoken to me on the matter; to
which I was forced to answer that she had not. So he smiled, and I
could not further press him.
'Yet in my mind they would have made a good match; for the girl too
was passing well-featured, and this Luke had notable gifts. He could
read and write. The farmer spoke well of him, saying, "He has
rewarded me many times over. Since his coming, thanks to the Lord,
my farm prospers: and in particular he has a wonderful way with the
beasts. Cattle or sheep, fowls, dogs, the wild things even, come to
him almost without a call." He had also (the farmer told me) a
wonderful knack of taking clay or mud and moulding it with his hands
to the likeness of living creatures, of all sorts and sizes. In the
kitchen by the great fire he would work at these images by hours
together, to the marvel of everyone: but when the image was made,
after a little while he always destroyed it; nor was it ever begged
by anyone for a gift, there being a belief that, being fashioned by
more than a man's skill, such things could only bring ill-luck to the
possessors of them.
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