About
noon
His dwelling was some miles from our village ; so Benjy , who was half ashamed of his errand , and wholly unable to walk there , had to exercise much ingenuity to get the means of transporting himself and Tom thither without exciting suspicion . However , one fine May morning he managed to borrow the old blind pony of our friend the publican , and Tom persuaded Madam Brown to give him a holiday to spend with old Benjy , and to lend them the Squire 's light cart , stored with bread and cold meat and a bottle of ale . And so the two in high glee started behind old Dobbin , and jogged along the deep-rutted plashy roads , which had not been mended after their winter 's wear , towards the dwelling of the wizard . About noon they passed the gate which opened on to the large common , and old Dobbin toiled slowly up the hill , while Benjy pointed out a little deep dingle on the left , out of which welled a tiny stream . As they crept up the hill the tops of a few birch-trees came in sight , and blue smoke curling up through their delicate light boughs ; and then the little white thatched home and inclosed ground of Farmer Ives , lying cradled in the dingle , with the gay gorse common rising behind and on both sides ; while in front , after traversing a gentle slope , the eye might travel for miles and miles over the rich vale . They now left the main road and struck into a green track over the common marked lightly with wheel and horse-shoe , which led down into the dingle and stopped at the rough gate of Farmer Ives . Here they found the farmer , an iron-gray old man , with a bushy eyebrow and strong aquiline nose , busied in one of his vocations .