It's cracked up to be grounds for a whole lot more crusty work that can't be fenced in without a sinking feeling, at least until things get terra firmed up.
And then too, Colomban could tell them how he had been treated, carefully looked after, his washing and mending done, nursed in illness, considered as one of the family-loved, in fact!
Sometimes I'd get a bit of tinkering to do, —I'm a pretty fair tinker, —or an errand to run, or a pigstye to clean out; sometimes I did—oh, I hardly know what.