The Little Millstones

the long version

Chessie had never really been on good terms with her brother Gavin, who had emigrated to New Zealand some years before. But when his wife died she realised that she must go to him, to help him look after his children. What she found alarmed her. Gavin's graceless existence and his meanness had alienated him from the other farmers and Chcssie's only reward was the affection shown to her by the children. Little did she realise that they were to become the millstones round her neck, halting her for long enough to look around and see what she had been unable to see before... .