As Adrien was sorrowfully bundling up her father’s clothes to be given to the poor, a knock came upon the door of her cottage. She opened it to find Will Green, the farmer’s eldest son, standing there in his best smock. A squealing piglet struggled to escape from his large, rough hands. With some difficulty, the young farmer tipped his broad-brimmed hat to Adrien, and she hastened to relieve him of his wriggling burden, not without a strong suspicion as to why he might have come.
“Miss Weaver,” the farmer began, “I hope you’ll be so kind as to accept this fine young piglet as a gift, and when your time of mourning is done, will you be allowing me to be a-courting of you? For those strong arms of yours would do mighty well a-helping me on the farm, I’m thinking.”
“I thank you, Master Gree
