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"Having thus arranged my dwelling and carpeted it with clean straw,
I retired, for I saw the figure of a man at a distance,
and I remembered too well my treatment the night before
to trust myself in his power. I had first, however, provided
for my sustenance for that day by a loaf of coarse bread,
which I purloined, and a cup with which I could drink more conveniently
than from my hand of the pure water which flowed by my retreat.
The floor was a little raised, so that it was kept perfectly dry,
and by its vicinity to the chimney of the cottage it was tolerably warm.
"Being thus provided, I resolved to reside in this hovel
until something should occur which might alter my determination.
It was indeed a paradise compared to the bleak forest,
my former residence, the rain-dropping branches, and dank earth.
I ate my breakfast with pleasure and was about to remove a plank
to procure myself a little water when I heard a step,
and looking through a small chink, I beheld a young creature,
with a pail on her head, passing before my hovel. The girl was young
and of gentle demeanour, unlike what I have since found cottagers
and farmhouse servants to be. Yet she was meanly dressed,
a coarse blue petticoat and a linen jacket being her only garb;
her fair hair was plaited but not adorned: she looked patient yet sad.
I lost sight of her, and in about a quarter of an hour she returned
bearing the pail, which was now partly filled with milk.
As she walked along, seemingly incommoded by the burden,
a young man met her, whose countenance expressed a deeper despondence.
Uttering a few sounds with an air of melancholy, he took the pail
from her head and bore it to the cottage himself. She followed,
and they disappeared. Presently I saw the young man again,
with some tools in his hand, cross the field behind the cottage;
and the girl was also busied, sometimes in the house and sometimes
in the yard.
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