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"Jan, go and help Joseph with the horses," she ordered. "I'll help you, Gabriel. I want to talk to you."

The shears were sharpened on a stone which was turned by a wheel, which was itself turned by a handle. Bathsheba could not manage the handle, so she held the shears while Gabriel turned the handle. "You aren't holding them right, miss," he told her. "Let me show you how He let go of the handle," and put his large hands round hers, to hold the shears. "Like that," he said, continuing to hold her hands for a peculiarly long time.

Because Bathsheba was not at all in love with Farmer Boldwood, she was able to consider his proposal of marriage calmly. It was an offer which many women of good family in the area would have been delighted to accept. He was serious, respectable and rich. If she had wanted a husband, she could not have found a good reason for refusing to marry him. But she was still enjoying her new position as mistress of a farm and house, and although she respected and liked him, she did not want to marry him However she was honest enough to feel that, as she had begun the courting by sending him the valentine, she ought not to refuse him now. There was only one person whose opinion she trusted more than her own, and that person was Gabriel Oak. So the next day she decided to ask his advice. She found him with Jan Coggan, sharpening the shears which would be used to shear the sheep.

"What a foolish thing to say! I want you to contradict it, Gabriel."

"That's enough," said Bathsheba. "I don't want my hands held! Turn the handle!" They went on sharpening the shears. "Gabriel, what do the men think about me and Mr Boldwood?"

"They say you'll marry him before the end of the year, miss."

"Well, Bathsheba!" said Gabriel, staring at her in surprise.

"Miss Everdene, you mean," she said.

"Well, if Mr Boldwood really asked you to marry him, I'm not going to contradict that, just to please you."

"I can say that, if you wish, Miss Everdene. I could also give my opinion of the way you've behaved."

He continued with his work. Bathsheba knew that he would always give his honest opinion, even if she asked him whether she should marry another man, and there was nobody else she could trust. "Well, what is your opinion of my behaviour?" she asked.

"I said I wanted you just to say it wasn't true that I was going to marry him," she said, less confidently.

"No good, respectable woman would behave like that," he replied. "You should never have sent him that valentine."

Bathsheba blushed angrily. "Luckily I don't care about your opinion! Why do you think I'm not good or respectable, I wonder? Because I didn't agree to marry you, perhaps!"

"Or wishing it, I suppose," she said, expecting him to protest that he still loved her.

"Or wishing It," repeated Gabriel calmly.

"Not at all." said Gabriel quietly. "I've long ago stopped thinking about that."

Bathsheba would not have minded being spoken to angrily by Gabriel for her thoughtlessness, if only he had told her he loved her. But his cold words of blame annoyed her greatly.

"All right, I will," said Gabriel calmly. "In fact I would rather go at once."

"I cannot allow any man to accuse me of bad behaviour!" she cried. "So you will leave the farm at the end of the week!"

"Very well, Miss Everdene." And so be took his shears and walked quietly away.

"Go at once then!" she replied angrily. "Don't let me see your face any more."

It was only twenty-four hours after Gabriel had left the farm that three men came running to report a disaster to Bathsheba.

"And got into a field of young clover!" said Laban Tall.

"Sixty of your sheep --" said Joseph Poorgrass, breathless.

"Someone must make a hole in the sheep's side," explained Billy, "with a special tool. Then the air comes out, and the sheep will survive."

"Have broken through the gate said Billy, also breathless.

"There's only one way of saving them," said Laban.

"Oh, what can I do, what can I do?" cried Bathsheba.

"Oh you fools!" cried Bathsheba. "Go straight to the field and get them out!" She rushed towards the clover field, followed by the men. Her sheep were all lying down, their stomachs badly swollen. Joseph, Billy and Laban carried the sheep back into their own field, where the poor creatures lay helplessly without moving.

"They're eating the clover, and they're all swollen up!"

"Only one man in the area can do it," said Joseph.

"Can you do it? Can I do it?" she asked wildly. "No, ma'am If it isn't done very carefully, the sheep will die Most shepherds can't even do it."

"They'll all die if someone doesn't do something!"

"Who is he? Let's get him!" said his mistress.

"It's Gabriel Oak. Ah, he's a clever man!" replied Joseph. "That's right, he certainly is," agreed the other two. "How dare you say his name to me!" she said angrily.

"No, ma'am," answered Laban. "When his sheep ate some clover the other day, and were swollen just like these, he sent for Cabriel at once, and Gabriel saved their lives."

"What about Farmer Boldwood? Perhaps he can do it?"

One of the sheep jumped high in the air, fell heavily and did not move. It was dead. Bathsheba knew she must swallow her pride, and called to Laban, who was waiting at the gate.

"I don't care! Don't just stand there! Go and find someone!" cried Bathsheba. The men ran off, without any clear idea where they were going, and Bathsheba was left alone with her dying sheep. "Never will I send for him, never!" she promised herself.

"Take a horse, and go and find Gabriel," she ordered. "Give him a message from me, that he must return at once."

Bathsheba and her men waited miserably in the field. Several more sheep jumped wildly into the air, their stomachs horribly swollen and their muscles stiff, then died. At last a rider could be seen across the fields. But it was not Gabriel, it was Laban.

"He says he won't come unless you ask him politely," Laban reported to Bathsheba.

"What!" said the young woman, opening her eyes wide. Joseph Poorgrass hid behind a tree in case she became violent. "How dare he answer me like that!" Another sheep fell dead. The men looked very serious, and did not offer their opinion. Bathsheba's eyes filled with tears, and she did not try to hide her anger and her injured pride.

"Don't cry about it, miss," suggested Billy sympathetically. "Why not ask Gabriel in a gentler way? I'm sure he'll come then."

Gabriel, do not desert me!

She blushed a little as she wrote this, and gave the letter to Laban, who rode off again to find Gabriel.

"Oh, he's cruel to me!" said Bathsheba, drying her eyes. "But I'll beg him, yes, I'll have to!" She wrote a few words quickly on a piece of paper, and at the last moment added at the bottom:

When Gabriel arrived, Bathsheba knew from his expression which words in her note had made him come. He went straight to work on the swollen sheep, and managed to save almost all of them When he had finished, Bathsheba came to speak to him.

But he was not happy for long Farmer Boldwood arrived at the door of the barn, and spoke to Bathsheba. They stepped outside into the bright sunlight to carry on their conversation. Gabriel could not hear what they were saying, but noticed that Bathsheba was blushing. He continued shearing, feeling suddenly very sad. Bathsheba went back to the house, and returned a short while later in her new green riding dress. She and Boldwood were obviously going for a ride together. As Gabriel's concentration was broken for a moment, his shears cut the sheep's skin. Bathsheba, at the door of the barn, noticed the animal jump, and saw the blood.

A few days later the sheep-shearing began. The sheep were shorn every year at the beginning of June, and their wool was sold. The shearing was always done in the great barn, which had stood on the farm for four centuries. Today the sunshine poured in on the shearers. Bathsheba was watching them carefully to make sure that the sheep were not injured, and that all the wool was cut off Gabriel was the most experienced shearer. He loved being watched by Bathsheba, and felt warm with pride when she congratulated him on his speed.

"I will," said Gabriel. And she smiled at him again.

"Gabriel, will you stay on with me?" she asked, smiling.

"Oh Gabriel!" she said. "Be more careful!" Gabriel knew she was aware that she herself had indirectly caused the poor sheep's wound. But he bravely hid his hurt feelings, and watched Boldwood and Bathsheba ride away, feeling as sure as the other workers that the couple would soon be married.