So Long At the Fair Read Online Free

yourself a husband first.’
    ‘Why? Aggie Tarrant’s got a baby and she doesn’t have a husband. And Esther Strange, too. She hasn’t got a husband and she’s got two little ’uns.’
    ‘ And she’s as big as a barn.’
    Abbie laughed. ‘Anyway, although a baby would be nice I don’t think I’d want to do what’s necessary in order to get one.’
    Jane shook her head. ‘Oh, no. Me neither.’
    The previous summer the two girls, on walking to White’s farm near Flaxdown to buy butter, had come to an enclosure where a stallion was about to mate with a mare. The farmer and some of his men were there, overseeing the process. Abbie’s brother Eddie, who worked at the farm, had been in attendance too. Neither he nor the others had been aware of the girls’ presence, and Abbie and Jane had stood watching, fascinated, as the stallion, hugely aroused, had mounted the mare and gripped her neck with his strong teeth. Being country girls they had witnessed the mating of various animals, but that time with the horses had made a strong impression on their blossoming awareness. When the act was over – so quickly – the horses had been led away. It was then that Eddie had turned and seen the girls.
    ‘What you doin’ ’ere?’ he had asked.
    ‘We came to get some butter for Jane’s mam,’ Abbie replied, then, ‘I hate it when they do that,’ she added.
    ‘What you on about?’
    ‘The stallion and the mare. The way he treats her. Doing that and biting her like that. I’m surprised she stands there and puts up with it.’
    Eddie reddened slightly. ‘Well – she’ve got to, ain’t she? If she wants a foal she don’t ’ave no choice.’
    And suddenly realization had come. Those other matings they had witnessed, they had been a part of the process of life, had been necessary for life to begin.
    On the way back to the village she and Jane had discussed the matter. ‘And people, too,’ Jane had said, though not really believing it. ‘Men and women do it. I suppose they’ve got to.’
    ‘I s’pose so,’ Abbie agreed. Then she had added, laughing, ‘Though whoever done it to Esther Strange must have needed good strong teeth!’
    They had shrieked with laughter all the way home.
    Now, sitting beside the stream, Abbie took up the piece of newspaper that had wrapped her sandwiches and began to fashion from it a little boat, the way Eddie had taught her. Thinking of the meeting ahead with the prospective employer, she said, ‘Oh, I wish we didn’t have to go away.’ Then she went on with a sigh, ‘Course, if we were rich we wouldn’t have to bother about working for other people.’
    ‘If you want to be rich, then you must marry a rich man,’ Jane said.
    Having finished one paper boat, Abbie took up the sheet of newspaper that Jane had discarded and began to make a second. ‘I told you, I’m not getting married at all.’
    ‘You will when the time comes. All girls do if they get the chance. You’ll probably get wed before I do.’
    ‘I shan’t.’
    The second paper boat was finished, and Abbie plucked a buttercup from the grass and stuck its stem into a fold of the paper of one of them. Into the other boat she stuck the stem of the ragged robin.
    ‘Here you are – here’s yourn.’ She handed the boat with the ragged robin to Jane. ‘Come on – let’s sail ’em in the water.’
    On the bank of the brook they hoisted up their skirts once again, then reached out with the little paper boats. Jane turned her head, looking along the stream to where, some distance ahead, a weeping willow hung its branches over the water. ‘Whoever’s boat gets to that willow first will marry a rich man,’ she said.
    ‘No,’ Abbie said, ‘there’s no rich men for the likes of us.’
    ‘All right then . . .’ Jane pondered briefly. ‘The first one to get to the willow will be the first to get married – for richer or poorer.’
    Abbie laughed. ‘All right.’
    They lowered the boats into the current,