In course of time his father died, and Cuthman determined to travel; intense filial piety determined him to take his aged mother with him.

In order to do this he constructed a wheelbarrow couch, which he partly supported by a cord over his shoulders.

Thus united, mother and son fared forth into the cold world; which was, however, warmed for them by the watchful interest taken in Cuthman by a vigilant Providence.

One day, for example, the cord of the barrow broke in a hayfield, where Cuthman, who supplied its place by elder twigs, was the subject of much ridicule among the haymakers.
Immediately a heavy storm broke over the field, destroying the crop; and not only then, but ever afterwards in the same field--possibly to this day--has haymaking been imperilled by a similar storm.

So runs the legend.
The second occasion on which the cord broke and let down Cuthman's mother was at Steyning.