H.E. Bates Companion

A girl gives birth to a still-born child in a rural hut, assisted by a mother-in-law preoccupied with other matters. Graham Greene singled out the tale: "[It] depends entirely for its effect on the ugly documentary detail. It is in this story that one finds a sentimental and falsely poetic metaphor which shows how low a fine writer's imagination can drop." In Something Short and Sweet (1937), Penguin Parade I (London: Penguin Books, 1937), Thirty-One Selected Tales (1947).