Wessex Tales - Strange, Lively, and Commonplace #260603

Some few years ago a certain farmer was riding through this lane in the gloom of a winter even ing. The farmer's friend, a dairyman, was riding beside him. A few paces in the rear rode the farmer's man. All three were well horsed on strong, round barrelled cobs and to be well horsed was to be in better spirits about Holloway Lane than poor pedestrians could attain to during its passage. But the farmer did not talk much to his friend as he rode along. The enterprise which had brought him there filled his mind for in truth it was important. Not altogether so important was it, perhaps, when estimated by its value to society at large; but if the true measure of a deed be proportionate to the space it occupies in the heart of him who undertakes it, Farmer Charles Darton's business to-night could hold its own with the business of kings.