Annie had never liked him; she merely avoided him.
When the minister had gone, Mrs.Morel looked at her cloth.
"A fine mess!" she said.
"Dos't think I'm goin' to sit wi' my arms danglin', cos tha's got a parson for tea wi' thee ?" he bawled.
They were both angry, but she said nothing.

The baby began to cry, and Mrs.Morel, picking up a saucepan from the hearth, accidentally knocked Annie on the head, whereupon the girl began to whine, and Morel to shout at her.

In the midst of this pandemonium, William looked up at the big glazed text over the mantelpiece and read distinctly: "God Bless Our Home!" Whereupon Mrs.Morel, trying to soothe the baby, jumped up, rushed at him, boxed his ears, saying: "What are YOU putting in for ?" And then she sat down and laughed, till tears ran over her cheeks, while William kicked the stool he had been sitting on, and Morel growled: "I canna see what there is so much to laugh at." One evening, directly after the parson's visit, feeling unable to bear herself after another display from her husband, she took Annie and the baby and went out.

Morel had kicked William, and the mother would never forgive him.
She went over the sheep-bridge and across a corner of the meadow to the cricket-ground.

The meadows seemed one space of ripe, evening light, whispering with the distant mill-race.