when others went to bed in hay , fern , or feather , close in the inglenook they laid their heads together , old tom and muddy-feet , swapping all the tidings from barrow-downs to tower hills : of walkings and of ridings ; of wheat-ear and barley-corn , of sowing and of reaping ; queer tales from bree , and talk at smithy , mill , and cheaping ; rumours in whispering trees , south-wind in the larches , tall watchers by the ford , shadows on the marches .