The Wild Swan

May Turner was a retired school teacher. For forty years she had lived and laboured in a smoky industrial town. In old age she betook herself to the village of Upcott, near Beremouth, where she shared a cottage with her friend, Alice Budden. They kept bees, made themselves useful at the Village Institute, and won medals for the best cottage garden in the district.Busy with her spray or secateurs, May pretended not to hear the admiring comments of passers-by. But they pleased her, all the same. It was agreeable to be praised for something, and her life work had been taken entirely for granted. Her children were now scattered all over the world; if any of them had turned into prize blooms, no medals had ever been pinned upon May’s neat shirt waist. She was now merely remembered as a vague, reassuring figure with a sharp nose and a brisk manner, who had presided over their infancy. Flowers were more rewarding.