For the treatment that Thora
received at her home was becoming day by day more severe.
With Tom she of course had no pursuits in common; he treated her
with harshness, and as much as possible she avoided him. Even Mrs.
Kinlay seemed to regard her with very scant affection, and as the
girl grew in years her position at the farm became that of a
servant rather than of a daughter. As for Carver Kinlay himself, he
seldom spoke a gentle word to body or beast, and Thora had no
exception from his severity. His continued ill treatment of her
was, however, the more difficult to endure, since from simple abuse
it often extended to actual brutality. She could never understand
why her father and mother were so unkind to her, and to hear a few
words of sympathy was always comforting.
One day late in the autumn I was tending our sheep on the banks
above the cliffs of Gaulton, lying on the soft green turf with my
hands under my chin, looking dreamily across the sea towards the
blue outline of hills on the Scotch coast. I had just finished
reading the last pages of Robinson Crusoe, and the book had fallen
from my hand. Like my sheep, I was languid with the heat of the
noonday sun, and the sight of the ships and the whirling seagulls
was refreshing to me. The sound of the waves down below on the
rocks was soothing.
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