Location:The Millford road — the Halbrook holding; the stone barn; the hay loft
Date/Time:TC1858.03.24
Must, sweet and close, came down through the loft hatch with the first forkful, and Sera Vahn knew before the hay reached the floor that it was the bottom of the stack.
Bett was up in the loft in the dark with the lamp hung on a nail behind her. She worked the fork in and lifted and swung, and the hay came down in a gray slump instead of a fall, clumped, holding together where the damp had got into it from the stone. It hit the flags by the hatch and lay there. Even from the ladder foot, Sera Vahn could see the white threads in it.
"That's the old stack," Bett said from above. "The good's gone."
"How much of the old?"
The fork went in again. Bett said nothing for a breath, and then the lamp moved, and her boots went the length of the loft and back over the boards, slowly, as she walked the floor below every morning.
