The day stays dry, though great lilac clouds pillow the sky and the wind remains insistent. Gwen drives the tractor over the soft ground, the spikes of the spinner churning through the soil, pulling up the plants and throwing out potatoes in their wake.

Tom slipped from Bobby’s back into Jack’s welcoming arms as soon as the wagon had cleared the margin. The horse and cart now stand at the field’s edge, a layer of dirt-encrusted potatoes spread across the cart’s floor.

Ted walks behind the whirling spinner, sweeping aside the bushy stalks with his pitchfork, while Jack and Tom stoop to gather the potatoes into their wicker baskets. Tom is soon staggering under the weight of his load and begs Jack to help him – he is too small to unload the basket into the wagon alone. Jack makes him wait until his own basket is laden, then together they pick their way across the field to the cart.

Jack upends his basket first. The potatoes pound against the wagon’s wooden floor, rolling off each other until they settle, like water finding its natural level. He lifts the boy up and Tom copies him, grunting with effort as his pickings tumble onto the rest. If either of them are aware of Ted’s steady regard as he pauses for a moment, they show no sign of it. By the time they have returned to the furrows, the farmer is on the move again, sweeping the prongs of his pitchfork through the uprooted plants.

They walk back to the house for lunch, Tom squatting to pick yellow hawksbit flowers from the verge before racing to catch them up. When Jack swings him up into a piggyback, he kicks his feet as if riding a horse, steering him nearer to Gwen, and when he is close enough he leans over to tuck a flower behind her ear, jiggling on Jack’s back with glee. Gwen laughs, her grubby fingers straying to the delicate petals, though she is careful not to dislodge the bloom, and there is humour in Jack’s voice as he tells her it looks very fetching. Ted smiles despite himself as he watches the unfolding scene, but he is unable to hold the expression for long and his focus soon returns to the undulating lane before him.

They finish lifting the crop just before milking time, and Gwen is pleased with the bountiful harvest. She drives the tractor back to the farm, while Tom, Ted and Jack climb up onto the wagon, heavy now with potatoes. Jack flicks the reins and Bobby walks on, dragging the cart from the field and out into the lane. Tom is tired from the day’s labours. Sandwiched between the two men, his head sags towards Ted. The farmer lifts his arm so the boy can better rest against him, before tenderly draping it back around his narrow shoulders.