Listen to Susan Hill read The Boy on the Hillside:
[audioboo url=”https://audioboo.fm/boos/1816403-susan-hill-reads-the-boy-on-the-hillside”][/audioboo]
The boy, Seth, stirred in his sleep. ‘Cold…’ He had pushed the blanket off, with his tossing and turning about. ‘Here, here.’ The man seated on the ground nearest to him rearranged Seth’s covering, pulling it up and tucking it under him until he was swaddled like a baby. His head rested on an old fleece. There were five men and the boy out on this first night of bitter weather. Until now it had been wild winds and huge clouds grey as boulders rolling across the sky and the sheep huddled wherever they could shelter from the gale, but later that day the clouds had shredded into skeins, becoming thinner and paler until they vanished and the sky was quite clear. The boy mumbled and stirred again. There had been a fuss about him coming at all. ‘It’s too soon… he’s a child.’ Words were all Seth’s mother had to beat her husband with and she knew that words had no power.
The boy, Seth, stirred in his sleep. ‘Cold…’ He had pushed the blanket off, with his tossing and turning about. ‘Here, here.’ The man seated on the ground nearest to him rearranged Seth’s covering, pulling it up and tucking it under him until he was swaddled like a baby. His head rested on an old fleece. There were five men and the boy out on this first night of bitter weather. Until now it had been wild winds and huge clouds grey as boulders rolling across the sky and the sheep huddled wherever they could shelter from the gale, but later that day the clouds had shredded into skeins, becoming thinner and paler until they vanished and the sky was quite clear. The boy mumbled and stirred again. There had been a fuss about him coming at all. ‘It’s too soon… he’s a child.’ Words were all Seth’s mother had to beat her husband with and she knew that words had no power.
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