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a house would really drive him mad, but it was her land and she wanted to live up there beside the road.
    Some day next week she intended to take the plans over to a builder in Ross and discuss things with him. She could not go local because it would be all over the village and the neighbourhood, and that was the last thing she wanted. Everything had to be right before she broke the news to the rest of them. That should be interesting! When she heard movements in the kitchen, she rolled up her plan and pushed it into the deep drawer of the sideboard.
    Peter and Davy were seated around the table and Jack was making tea at the cooker.
    “I’ll do that,” she told him, taking the teapot and goingout to the scullery to rinse it.
    “We’re having a great run of good weather,” Jack said with satisfaction as he sat at the table. “We’ll be able to save the river meadow tomorrow, with God’s help.”
    “Must be saying your prayers right,” Davy told him.
    “It wouldn’t do you any harm to say a few more, lad,” Jack retorted.
    “Nobody knows what goes on between a man and his God,” Davy proclaimed with a mischievous grin on his face, raising pious eyes to heaven.
    “There’s not very much going on in your case, and you sitting on the gallery steps last Sunday telling yarns during mass,” Jack declared.
    “Well, Davy Shine, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Peter scolded.
    “Weren’t you with him!” Jack exclaimed. “Two pagans, enough to bring the rain down and the river meadows not saved yet.”
    “Jack, is it the fear of the rain or the love of God that takes you to mass?” Peter wanted to know.
    “That’s enough old guff out of you now, young fellow. As Davy said, what goes on between a man and his God is his own business.”
    “I’m honoured to be quoted.” Davy sighed in mock appreciation.
    “What a lot of rubbish you three talk,” Martha told them sharply as she poured out the tea. “Are the river meadows ready for saving?”
    “First thing tomorrow morning, we’ll get going,” Jack told her.
    “The Conways might come over to help,” Peter laughed.
    “The Conways are no joke, my lad,” she told him sharply.
    “Well, they’re jokes of farmers,” Peter declared. “Thatplace over there is falling down around them and they’re years behind the times. That’s what happens if you don’t keep up to date.”
    “Did you hear the forecast, Martha?” Jack interrupted hurriedly.
    “No,” she told him sharply. She knew what he was at all right, trying to head Peter off so that he would not cause an argument, but she was well able to manage Peter without help from Jack. That was the problem with Jack, he thought that he knew the best way to handle everything.
    “It isn’t equipment that the Conways are lacking,” she told Peter, “it’s know-how. It’s not much good having up-to-date equipment if you don’t know what to do with it.”
    “But could you imagine the great job that could be done if you had the know-how and the equipment?” he asked her.
    “Well, they have neither,” she told him.
    “That’s right,” he agreed, “and we have only one side of the equation here, because we have the know-how but no equipment.”
    “There is good farming being done here at the moment,” she told him. She could see that Jack, having tried to divert the argument, was now going to keep out of it, and of course Davy Shine was hoping that Peter would get the better of her.
    “But we’re slipping,” he told her. “The Nolans are away ahead of us in the saving of their hay, but of course with the tractor they get things done a lot faster.”
    “But they don’t have as much help as we do,” she told him, “so maybe you think that we could do without Davy if we got a tractor and cut down on overheads.”
    She could see Davy’s face turn a deep red as he looked atPeter in consternation. Jack looked out the window as if the view were something that he had never seen before. But