"Stouter, and darker. What black brows he has, Mus' Piper!""Mother?she's used to it, and she's tougher than you, liddle creature.""Stop your ranting and tell me how the hogs got you.""I want to see how he's going to manage," said Reuben. "What'll he do when he comes to the end of this tune?"Now, however, having vital interests at stake, Reuben became an absorbed and truculent Conservative. He never called in at the Cocks without haranguing the company on the benefits of the wheat-tax, and cursing Cobden and Bright. On the occasion of the '42 election, he abandoned important obstetric duties in the cow-stable to Beatup, and rode into Rye to record his vote for the unsuccessful Tory candidate. The neighbourhood was of Whig tendencies, spoon-fed from the Manor, but the Backfields had never submitted to Bardon politics; and now even the fact that the Squire held Reuben's land of promise, failed to influence him.She laughed again. He stooped forward and kissed her forehead, and the laugh died on her lips.