Demeter's daughter Author:Eden Phillpotts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III ALISON CLEAVE was a Rowland, and came of yeomen stock. At sixteen years old she had gone into the service of a medical man, and she stopped with D... more »octor Tolchard and his wife until she was eighteen. Then came Aaron Cleave to mend a summerhouse in the doctor's garden. He won her, but her family would have none of the man. In vain she tried to influence her father. Thereupon she ran away with the thatcher and married him. Her parents never forgave her, and when James Rowland died, the legacy of aversion was handed to her brother, who succeeded him. Alison's mother still lived, but she recognized her daughter no more, and refused also to acknowledge her grand-children. In them their parents were blended. They came scattered through a period of fourteen years, and in addition to her living family of five, the mother had borne one other child who died at birth. Things were now at a climax with the Cleaves, but they could look back to periods of far greater comfort. From reasonable prosperity they had sunk toward indigence, and the master's broken leg brought them face to face with poverty and actual destitution. The sons and mother stood between. Both young men worked hard, and both were desirous of better work. The father talked of work, but seldom sought it. Never one who loved labour, his long, enforced idleness had finally broken the habit. He abounded in excellent advice for other people. His wife's nature secretly irked him. Publicly he uttered her praise, but in the ear of familiars admitted that she took lifetoo seriously, and set too high a value upon outward appearance. He felt that she came between him and charity, but knew that the word was death to her. He, however, understood not the meaning of pride. He was ready and willing to accept from any hand, a...« less