Mistress and Men
- Bathsheba sits with her men at a long table with her money books and a bag of coins.
- Before starting, Bathsheba informs the men that she's fired her bailiff and will be managing everything herself from now on. The men breathe a breath of amazement. A woman handling money? No way!
- She wants to know if anyone has heard anything about Fanny Robin. The men admit that no, they haven't.
- One by one, she asks the men what jobs they do for her and pays them. She also gives out a few extra shillings as a gift since she's the new boss.
- The men suggest that, as the new shepherd, Gabriel Oak will need a young boy to work under him as a helper. They settle on a kid named Cainy Ball.
- Bathsheba and Oak talk business coolly in front of the crowd, as if the two of them have never met before.
- A guy named Smallbury runs in, having just come from Casterbridge. The word is that Fanny Robin has run away with a pack of soldiers because she's been courting one of them. No one knows which soldier it is, though.
- Gabriel knows that Fanny Robin is probably the same girl he met on the road, but he keeps his promise and tells doesn't tell anyone that he saw her.