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diff --git a/16853.txt b/16853.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2862946 --- /dev/null +++ b/16853.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4663 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fern's Hollow, by Hesba Stretton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Fern's Hollow + +Author: Hesba Stretton + +Release Date: October 10, 2005 [EBook #16853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FERN'S HOLLOW *** + + + + +Produced by Joel Erickson, Christine Gehring, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + FERN'S HOLLOW + + By HESBA STRETTON + +Author of 'Jessica's First Prayer,' 'Alone in London' 'Pilgrim Street,' +'Little Meg's Children' etc. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAP. + + +I. THE HUT IN THE HOLLOW +II. THE DYING FATHER +III. STEPHEN'S FIRST VICTORY +IV. THREATENING CLOUDS +V. MISS ANNE +VI. THE RED GRAVEL PIT +VII. POOR SNIP +VIII. STEPHEN AND THE GAMEKEEPER +IX. HOMELESS +X. THE CABIN ON THE CINDER-HILL +XI. STEPHEN AND THE RECTOR +XII. VISIT OF BLACK BESS +XIII. THE OLD SHAFT +XIV. A BROTHER'S GRIEF +XV. RENEWED CONFLICT +XVI. SOFTENING THOUGHTS +XVII. A NEW CALLING +XVIII. THE PANTRY WINDOW +XIX. FIRE! FIRE! +XX. STEPHEN'S TESTIMONY +XXI. FORGIVENESS +XXII. THE MASTER'S DEATHBED +XXIII. THE HOME RESTORED + + + + +FERN'S HOLLOW + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE HUT IN THE HOLLOW. + + +Just upon the border of Wales, but within one of the English counties, +there is a cluster of hills, rising one above the other in gradual +slopes, until the summits form a long, broad tableland, many miles +across. This tableland is not so flat that all of it can be seen at once, +but here and there are little dells, shaped like deep basins, which the +country folk call hollows; and every now and then there is a rock or +hillock covered with yellow gorse bushes, from the top of which can be +seen the wide, outspread plains, where hundreds of sheep and ponies are +feeding, which belong to the farmers and cottagers dwelling in the valley +below. Besides the chief valley, which divides the mountains into two +groups, and which is broad enough for a village to be built in, there are +long, narrow glens, stretching up into the very heart of the tableland, +and draining away the waters which gather there by the melting of snow in +the winter and the rain of thunderstorms in summer. Down every glen flows +a noisy mountain stream, dashing along its rocky course with so many tiny +waterfalls and impatient splashes, that the gurgling and bubbling of +brooks come up even into the quietness of the tableland and mingle with +the singing of the birds and the humming of the bees among the heather. +There are not many paths across the hills, except the narrow sheep-walks +worn by the tiny feet of the sheep as they follow one another in long, +single lines, winding in and out through the clumps of gorse; and few +people care to explore the solitary plains, except the shepherds who have +the charge of the flocks, and tribes of village children who go up every +summer to gather the fruit of the wild and hardy bilberry wires. + +The whole of this broad tableland, as well as the hills, are common +pasture for the inhabitants of the valleys, who have an equal right to +keep sheep and ponies on the uplands with the lord of the manor. But the +property of the soil belongs to the latter, and he only has the power of +enclosing the waste so as to make fields and plant woods upon it, +provided always that he leaves a sufficient portion for the use of the +villagers. In times gone by, however, when the lord of the manor and his +agent were not very watchful, it was the practice of poor persons, who +did not care how uncomfortably they lived, to seek out some distant +hollow, or the farthest and most hidden side of a hillock, and there +build themselves such a low, small hut, as should escape the notice of +any passer-by, should they chance to go that way. Little by little, +making low fences which looked like the surrounding gorse bushes, they +enclosed small portions of the waste land, or, as it is called, +encroached upon the common; and if they were able to keep their +encroachment without having their hedges broken down, or if the lord of +the manor neglected to demand rent for it for the space of twenty years, +their fields and gardens became securely and legally their own. Because +of this right, therefore, are to be found here and there little farms of +three or four fields a-piece, looking like islands, with the wide, open +common around them; and some miles away over the breezy uplands there is +even a little hamlet of these poor cottages, all belonging to the people +who dwell in them. + +Many years ago, even many years before my story begins, a poor woman--who +was far worse off than a widow, for her husband had just been sentenced +to transportation for twenty-one years--strayed down to these mountains +upon her sorrowful way home to her native place. She had her only child +with her, a boy five years of age; and from some reason or other, perhaps +because she could not bear to go home in shame and disgrace, she sought +out a very lonely hiding-place among the hills, and with her own hands +reared rough walls of turf and stones, until she had formed such a rude +hut as would just give shelter to her and her boy. There they lived, +uncared for and solitary, until the husband came back, after suffering +his twenty-one years' punishment, and entered into a little spot of land +entirely his own. Then, with the assistance of his son, a strong, +full-grown young man, he rebuilt the cottage, though upon a scale not +much larger or much more commodious than his wife's old hut. + +Like other groups of mountains, the highest and largest are those near +the centre, and from them the land descends in lower and lower levels, +with smaller hills and smoother valleys, until at length it sinks into +the plain. Then they are almost like children's hills and valleys; the +slopes are not too steep for very little feet to climb, and the rippling +brooks are not in so much hurry to rush on to the distant river, but that +boys and girls at play can stop them for a little time with slight banks +of mud and stones. In just such a smooth, sloping dell, down in a soft +green basin, called Fern's Hollow, was the hiding-place where the +convict's sad wife had found an unmolested shelter. + +This dwelling, the second one raised by the returned convict and his son, +is built just below the brow of the hill, so that the back of the hut is +formed of the hill itself, and only the sides and front are real walls. +These walls are made of rubble, or loose, unhewn stones, piled together +with a kind of mortar, which is little more than clay baked hard in the +heat of the sun. The chimney is a bit of old stove-pipe, scarcely rising +above the top of the hill behind; and, but for the smoke, we could look +down the pipe, as through the tube of a telescope, upon the family +sitting round the hearth within. The thatch, overgrown with moss, appears +as a continuation of the slope of the hill itself, and might almost +deceive the simple sheep grazing around it. Instead of a window there is +only a square hole, covered by a shutter when the light is not urgently +needed; and the door is so much too small for its sill and lintels as to +leave large chinks, through which adventurous bees and beetles may find +their way within. You may see at a glance that there is but one room, and +that there can be no up-stairs to the hut, except that upper storey of +the broad, open common behind it, where the birds sleep softly in their +cosy nests. Before the house is a garden; and beyond that a small field +sown with silver oats, which are dancing and glistening in the breeze and +sunshine; while before the garden wicket, but not enclosed from the +common, is a warm, sunny valley, in the very middle of which a slender +thread of a brook widens into a lovely little basin of a pool, clear and +cold, the very place for the hill ponies to come and drink. + +Looking steadily up this pleasant valley from the threshold of the +cottage, we can just see a fine, light film of white smoke against the +blue sky. Two miles away, right down off the mountains, there is a small +coal-field and a quarry of limestone. In a distant part of the country +there are large tracts of land where coal and iron pits are sunk on every +side, and their desolate and barren pit-banks extend for miles round, +while a heavy cloud of smoke hangs always in the air. But here, just at +the foot of these mountains, there is one little seam of coal, as if +placed for the express use of these people, living so far away from the +larger coal-fields. The Botfield lime and coal works cover only a few +acres of the surface; but underground there are long passages bored +beneath the pleasant pastures and the yellow cornfields. From the +mountains, Botfield looks rather like a great blot upon the fair +landscape, with its blackened engine-house and banks of coal-dust, its +long range of limekilns, sultry and quivering in the summer sunshine, and +its heavy, groaning water-wheel, which pumps up the water from the pits +below. But the colliers do not think it so, nor their wives in the +scattered village beyond; they do not consider the lime and coal works a +blot, for their living depends upon them, and they may rightly say, 'As +for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it +were fire.' + +Even Stephen Fern, who would a thousand times rather work out on the free +hillside than in the dark passages underground, does not think it a pity +that the Botfield pit has been discovered at the foot of the mountains. +It is nearly seven o'clock in the evening, and he is coming over the brow +of the green dell, with his long shadow stretching down it. A very long +shadow it is for so small a figure to cast, for if we wait a minute or +two till Stephen draws nearer, we shall see that he is no strong, large +man, but a slight, thin, stooping boy, bending rather wearily under a +sack of coals, which he is carrying on his shoulders, and pausing now and +then to wipe his heated forehead with the sleeve of his collier's flannel +jacket. When he lifts up the latch of his home we will enter with him, +and see the inside of the hut at Fern's Hollow. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE DYING FATHER. + + +Stephen stepped over the threshold into a low, dark room, which was +filled with smoke, from a sudden gust of the wind as it swept over the +roof of the hut. On one side of the grate, which was made of some +half-hoops of iron fastened into the rock, there was a very aged man, +childish and blind with years, who was crouching towards the fire, and +talking and chuckling to himself. A girl, about a year older than +Stephen, sat in a rocking-chair, and swung to and fro as she knitted away +fast and diligently at a thick grey stocking. In the corner nearest to +the fireplace there stood a pallet-bed, hardly raised above the earthen +floor, to which Stephen hastened immediately, with an anxious look at the +thin, white face of his father lying upon the pillow. Beside the sick man +there lay a little child fast asleep, with her hand clasping one of her +father's fingers; and though James Fern was shaking and trembling with a +violent fit of coughing from the sudden gust of smoke, he took care not +to loose the hold of those tiny fingers. + +'Poor little Nan!' he whispered to Stephen, as soon as he could speak. +'I've been thinking all day of her and thee, lad, till I'm nigh +heart-broken.' + +'Do you feel worse, father?' asked Stephen anxiously. + +'I'm drawing nearer the end,' answered James Fern,--'nearer the end every +hour; and I don't know for certain what the end will be. I'm repenting; +but I can't undo the mischief I've done; I must leave that behind me. +If I'd been anything like a decent father, I should have left you +comfortable, instead of poor beggars. And what is to become of my poor +lass here? See how fast she clips my hand, as if she was afeared I was +going to leave her! Oh, Stephen, my lad, what will you all do?' + +'Father,' said Stephen, in a quiet and firm voice, 'I'm getting six +shillings a week wages, and we can live on very little. We haven't got +any rent to pay, and only ourselves and grandfather to keep, and Martha +is as good as a woman grown. We'll manage, father, and take care of +little Nan.' + +'Stephen and I are not bad, father,' added Martha, speaking up proudly; +'I am not like Black Bess of Botfield. Mother always told me I was to do +my duty; and I always do it. I can wash, and sew, and iron, and bake, and +knit. Why, often and often we've had no more than Stephen's earnings, +when you've been to the Red Lion on reckoning nights.' + +'Hush, hush, Martha!' whispered Stephen. + +'No, it's true,' groaned the dying father; 'God Almighty, have mercy on +me! Stephen, hearken to me, and thee too, Martha, while I tell you about +this place, and what you are to do when I'm gone.' + +He paused for a minute or two, looking earnestly at the crouching old man +in the chimney-corner. + +'Grandfather's quite simple,' he said, 'and he's dark, too, and doesn't +know what any one is saying. But I know thee'lt be good to him, Stephen. +Hearken, children: your poor old grandfather was once in jail, and was +sent across the seas, for a thief.' + +'Father!' cried Stephen, in a tone of deep distress; and he turned +quickly to the old man, remembering how often he had sat upon his knees +by the winter fire, and how many summer days he had rambled with him over +the uplands after the sheep. His grandfather had been far kinder to him +than his own father; and his heart swelled with anger as he went and laid +his arm round the bending neck of the old man, who looked up in his face +and laughed heartily. + +'Come back, Stephen; it's true,' gasped James Fern. 'Poor mother and me +came here, where nobody knew us, while he was away for more than twenty +years; and she built a hut for-us to live in till he came back. I was a +little lad then, but as soon as I was big enough she made me learn to +read and write, that I might send letters to him beyond the seas and none +of the neighbours know. She'd often make me read to her about a poor +fellow who had left home and gone to a far country, and when he came home +again, how his father saw him a long way off. Well, she was just like +that when she'd heard that he was landed in England; she did nought but +sit over the bent of the hill yonder, peering along the road to Botfield; +and one evening at sundown she saw something, little more than a speck +upon the turf, and she'd a feeling come over her that it was he, and she +fainted for real joy. After all, we weren't much happier when we were +settled down like. Grandfather had learned to tend sheep out yonder, and +I worked at Botfield; but we never laid by money to build a brick house, +as poor mother always wanted us. She died a month or so afore I was +married to your mother.' + +James Fern was silent again for some minutes, leaning back upon his +pillow, with his eyes closed, and his thoughts gone back to the old +times. + +'If I'd only been like mother, you'd have been a hill-farmer now, Steve,' +he continued, in a tone of regret; 'she plotted out in her own mind to +take in the green before us, for rearing young lambs, and ducks, and +goslings. But I was like that poor lad that wasted all his substance in +riotous living; and I've let thee and thy sister grow up without even the +learning I could have given thee; and learning is light carriage. But, +lad, remember this house is thy own, and never part with it; never give +it up, for it is thy right. Maybe they'll want to turn thee out, because +thee art a boy; but I've lived in it nigh upon forty years, and I've +written it all down upon this piece of paper, and that the place is +thine, Stephen.' + +'I'll never give it up, father,' said Stephen, in his steady voice. + +'Stephen,' continued his father, 'the master has set his heart upon it to +make it a hill-farm; and thou'lt have hard work to hold thy own against +him. Thou must frame thy words well when he speaks to thee about it, for +he's a cunning man. And there's another paper, which the parson at +Danesford has in his keeping, to certify that mother built this house and +dwelt in it all the days of her life, more than thirty years; if there's +any mischief worked against thee, go to him for it. And now, Stephen, +wash thyself, and get thy supper, and then let's hear thee read thy +chapter.' + +Stephen carried his basin of potatoes to the door-sill and sat there, +with his back turned to the dismal hut and his dying father, and his face +looking out upon the green hills. He had always been a grave and +thoughtful boy; and he had much to think of now. The deep sense of new +duties and obligations that had come upon him with his father's words, +made him feel that his boyhood had passed away. He looked round upon the +garden, and the field, and the hut, with the keen eye of an owner; and he +wondered at the neglected state into which they had fallen since his +father's illness. There could be no more play-time for him; no +bird's-nesting among the gorse-bushes; no rabbit-bunting with Snip, the +little white terrier that was sharing his supper. If little Nan and his +grandfather were to be provided for, he must be a man, with a man's +thoughtfulness, doing man's work. There seemed enough work for him to do +in the field and garden alone, without his twelve hours' toil in the +coal-pit; but his weekly wages would now be more necessary than ever. He +must get up early, and go to bed late, and labour without a moment's +rest, doing his utmost from one day to another, with no one to help him, +or stand for a little while in his place. For a few minutes his brave +spirit sank within him, and all the landscape swam before his eyes; while +Snip took advantage of his master's inattention to put his nose into the +basin, and help himself to the largest share of the potatoes. + +'I mean to be like grandmother,' said Martha's clear, sharp voice, +close beside him, and he saw his sister looking eagerly round her. 'I +shall fence the green in, and have lambs and sheep to turn out on the +hillside, and I'll rear young goslings and ducks for market; and we'll +have a brick house, with two rooms in it, as well as a shed for the coal. +And nobody shall put upon us, or touch our rights, Stephen, or they shall +have the length of my tongue.' + +'Martha,' said Stephen earnestly, 'do you see how a shower is raining +down on the master's fields at Botfield; and they've been scorched up for +want of water?' + +'Yes, surely,' answered Martha; 'and what of that?' + +'I'm thinking,' continued Stephen, rather shyly, 'of that verse in my +chapter: "He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth +rain on the just and the unjust." What sort of a man is the master, +Martha?' + +'He's a bad, unjust, niggardly old miser,' replied Martha. + +'And if God sends him rain, and takes care of him,' Stephen said, 'how +much more care will He take of us, if we are good, and try to do His +commandments!' + +'I should think,' said Martha, but in a softer tone, 'I should really +think He would give us the green, and the lambs, and the new house, and +everything; for both of us are good, Stephen.' + +'I don't know,' replied Stephen; 'if I could read all the Bible, perhaps +it would tell us. But now I must go in and read my chapter to father.' + +Martha went back to her rocking-chair and knitting, while Stephen reached +down from a shelf an old Bible, covered with green baize, and, having +carefully looked that his hard hands were quite clean, he opened it with +the greatest reverence. James Fern had only begun to teach the boy to +read a few months before, when he felt the first fatal symptoms of his +illness; and Stephen, with his few opportunities for learning, had only +mastered one chapter, the fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, which +his father had chosen for him to begin with. The sick man lay still with +closed eyes, but listening attentively to every word, and correcting his +son whenever he made any mistake. When it was finished, James Fern read a +few verses aloud himself, with low voice and frequent pauses to regain +his strength; and very soon afterwards the whole family were in a deep +sleep, except himself. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +STEPHEN'S FIRST VICTORY. + + +James Fern did not live many more days, and he was buried the Sunday +following his death. All the colliers and pitmen from Botfield walked +with the funeral of their old comrade and made a great burial of it. The +parish church was two miles on the other side of Botfield, and four miles +from Fern's Hollow; so James Fern and his family had never, as he called +it, 'troubled' the church with their attendance. All the household, even +to little Nan, went with their father's corpse, to bury it in the strange +and distant churchyard. Stephen felt as if he was in some long and +painful dream, as he sat in the cart, with his feet resting upon his +father's coffin, with his grandfather on a chair at the head, nodding +and laughing at every jolt on the rough road, and Martha holding a +handkerchief up to her face, and carrying a large umbrella over herself +and little Nan, to keep the dust off their new black bonnets. The boy, +grave as he was, could hardly think; he felt in too great a maze for +that. The church, too, which he had never entered before, seemed grand +and cold and immense, with its lofty arches, and a roof so high that it +made him giddy to look up to it. Now and then he heard a few sentences of +the burial service sounding out grandly in the clergyman's strange, deep +voice; but they were not words he was familiar with, and he could not +understand their meaning. At the open grave only, the clergyman said 'Our +Father,' which his father had taught him during his illness; and while +his tears rolled down his cheeks for the first time that day, Stephen +repeated over and over again to himself, 'Our Father! our Father!' + +Stephen would have liked to stay in the church for the evening service, +for which the bells were already ringing; but this did not at all suit +the tastes of his father's old comrades. They made haste to crowd into +a public-house, where they sat and drank, and forced Stephen to drink +too, in order to 'drown his grief.' It was still a painful dream to him; +and more and more, as the long hours passed on, he wondered how he came +there, and what all the people about him were doing. It was quite dark +before they started homewards, and the poor old grandfather was no longer +able to sit up in his chair, but lay helplessly at the bottom of the +cart. Even Martha was fast asleep, and leaned her head upon Stephen's +shoulder, without any regard for her new black bonnet. The cart was now +crowded with as many of the people as could get into it, who sang and +shouted along the quiet Sunday road; and, as they insisted upon stopping +at every public-house they came to, it was very late before they reached +the lane leading up to Fern's Hollow. The grandfather was half dragged +and half carried along by two of the men, followed by Stephen bearing +sleepy little Nan in his arms, and by Martha, who had wakened up in a +temper between crying and scolding. The long, strange, painful dream of +father's funeral was not over yet, and Stephen was still trying to think +in a stupid, drowsy fashion, when he fell heavily asleep on the bed +beside his grandfather. + +He awoke by habit very early in the morning, and aroused himself with +a great effort against dropping asleep again. He could realize and +understand his position better now. Father was dead; and there was no +one to earn bread for them all but himself. At this thought he sprang +up instantly, though his head was aching in a manner he had never felt +before. With some difficulty he awoke Martha to get his breakfast and +put up his dinner in a basket which he carried with him to the pit. She +also complained bitterly of her head aching, and moved about with a +listlessness very different to her usual activity. 'I only wish I knew +what was right,' said Stephen to himself; 'they told us we ought to show +respect for father, but I don't think he'd like this. Perhaps if I could +read the Bible all through, that would tell me everything.' + +This thought reminded Stephen that he had promised his father to read his +chapter every day of his life till he knew how to read more; and, +carrying the old Bible to his favourite seat on the door-sill, a very +pleasant place in the cool, fresh summer morning, he read the verses +aloud, slowly and carefully, rather repeating than reading them, for he +knew his chapter better by heart than by the printed letters in the book. +Thank God, Stephen Fern did begin to know it _by heart_! + +It was not a bad day in the pit. All the colliers, men and boys, were +more gentle than usual with the fatherless lad; and even Black Thompson, +his master since his father's illness, who was in general a fierce bully +to everybody about him, spoke as mildly as he could to Stephen. Yet all +the day Stephen longed for his release in the evening, thinking how much +work there wanted doing in the garden, and how he and Martha must be busy +in it till nightfall. The clanking of the chain which drew him up to the +light of day sounded like music to him; but little did he guess that an +enemy was lying in wait for him at the mouth of the pit. 'Hillo!' cried a +voice down the shaft as they were nearing the top; 'one of you chaps have +got to carry a sack o' coals one mile.' + +The voice belonged to Tim Cole, who was the terror of the pit-bank, from +his love of mischief and his insatiable desire for fighting. He was +looking down the shaft now, with a grin and a laugh upon his red face, +round which his shaggy red hair hung like a rough mane. There were only +two other boys besides Stephen in the skip, and as their fathers were +with them it might be dangerous to meddle with them; so Tim fixed upon +Stephen as his prey. + +'Thee has got to carry these coals, Steve,' he said, his eyes dancing +with delight. + +'I won't,' replied Stephen. + +'Thee shalt,' cried Tim, with an oath. + +'I won't,' Stephen repeated stedfastly. + +'Then we'll fight for it,' said Tim, clenching his fists and squaring his +arms, while the men and boys formed a ring round the two lads, and one +and another spoke encouragingly to Stephen, who was somewhat slighter and +younger than Tim. He had beaten Tim once before, but that was months ago; +yet the blood rushed into Stephen's face, and he set his lips together +firmly. Up yonder, just within the range of his sight, was Fern's Hollow, +with its neglected garden, and his supper waiting for him; and here was +the heavy sack of coals to be carried for a mile, or the choice of +fighting with Tim. + +'I wish I knew what I ought to do,' he said, speaking aloud, though +speaking to himself. + +'Ay, ay, lad,' cried Black Thompson; 'it's a shame to make thee fight, +and thy father not cold in the graveyard yet. I say, Tim, what is it thee +wants?' + +'These coals,' answered Tim doggedly, 'are to be carried to the New Farm; +and if Stevie Fern won't take them one mile, he must fight me afore he +goes off this bank.' + +'Now, lads, I'll judge between ye this time,' said Black Thompson. +'Stevie shall carry them to the end of Red Lane, and cut across the hill +home: that's not much out of the way; and if Tim makes him go one step +farther, I'll lick thee myself to-morrow, lad, I promise thee.' + +Stephen hoisted the sack upon his shoulders in silence, and strode away +with a swelling heart, in which a tumult of anger and perplexity was +raging. 'If I had only a commandment about these things!' he thought. He +was not quite certain whether it would not have been best and wisest to +fight with Tim and have it out; especially as Tim was all the time +taunting him for being a coward. But his father had read much to him +during the last three months; and though he could not remember any +particular commandment, he felt sure that the Bible did not encourage +fighting or drunkenness. Suddenly, and before they reached the end of Red +Lane, a light burst upon Stephen's mind. + +'I say, Tim,' he said, speaking to him for the first time, 'it's four +miles to the New Farm, and I'll go with thee a mile farther than Red +Lane.' + +'Eh!' cried Tim; 'and get Black Thompson to lick me to-morrow?' + +'No,' said Stephen earnestly, 'I'll not tell Black Thompson; and if he +hears talk of it, I'll say I did it of my own mind. Come thy ways, Tim; +let's be sharp, for I've my potatoes to hoe when I get home to-night.' + +The boys walked briskly on for a few minutes, past the end of Red Lane, +though Stephen cast a wistful glance up it, and gave an impatient jerk to +the load upon his shoulders. Tim had been walking beside him in silent +reflection; but at last he came to a sudden halt. + +'I can't make it out,' he said. 'What art thee up to, Stephen? Tell me +out plain, or I'll fight thee here, if Black Thompson does lick me for +it.' + +'Why, I've been learning to read,' answered Stephen, with some pride, +'and of course I know things I didn't used to know, and what thee doesn't +know now.' + +'And what's that to do with it?' inquired Tim. + +'My chapter says that if any man forces me to go one mile, I am to go +two,' replied Stephen; 'it doesn't say why exactly, but I'm going to try +what good it will be to me to do everything that my book tells me.' + +'It's a queer book,' said Tim, after a pause. 'Does it say a chap may +make another chap do his work for him?' + +'No,' Stephen answered; 'but it says we are to love our enemies, and do +good to them that hate us, that we may be the children of our Father +which is in heaven--that is God, Tim. So that is why I am going a mile +farther with thee.' + +'I don't hate thee,' said Tim uneasily, 'but I do love fighting; I'd +liever thee'd fight than come another mile. Don't thee come any farther, +I've been bone lazy all day, and thee's been at work. And I say, Stevie, +I'll help thee with the potatoes to-morrow, to make up for this bout.' + +Stephen thanked him, and accepted his offer heartily. The load was +quickly transferred to Tim's broad back, and the boys parted in more +good-will than they had ever felt before; Stephen strengthened by this +favourable result in his resolution to put in practice all he knew of +the Bible; and Tim deep in thought, as was evident from his muttering +every now and then on his way to the New Farm, 'Queer book that; and +a queer chap too!' + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THREATENING CLOUDS. + + +Little Nan would be waiting for him, as well as his supper, and Stephen +forgot his weariness as he bounded along the soft turf, to the great +discomfiture of the brown-faced sheep, quite as anxious for their supper +as he was for his. + +Stephen heard far off Snip's sharp, impatient bark, and it made him +quicken his steps still more, until, coming within sight of his own +Hollow, he stopped suddenly, and his heart beat even more vehemently than +when he was running up the hillside. + +There was, however, nothing very terrible in the scene. The hut was safe, +and the sun was shining brightly upon the garden, and little Nan was +standing as usual at the wicket. Only in the oat-field, with their faces +looking across the green, stood two men in close conversation. These men +were both of them old, and rather thin and shrivelled in figure; their +features bore great resemblance to each other, the eyes being small and +sunken, with many wrinkles round them, and both mouths much fallen in. +You would have said at once they were brothers; and if you drew near +enough to hear their conversation, you would have found your guess was +right. + +'Brother Thomas,' said the thinnest and sharpest-looking, 'I intend to +enclose as far as we can see from this point. That southern bank will be +a first-rate place for young animals. I shall build a house, with three +rooms above and below, besides a small dairy; and I shall plant a +fir-wood behind it to keep off the east winds. The lime and bricks from +my own works will not cost me much more than the expense of bringing +them up here.' + +'And a very pretty little hill-farm you'll make of it, James,' replied +Thomas Wyley admiringly. 'I should not wonder now if you got L20 a year +rent for it.' + +'I shall get L25 in a few years,' said the other one: 'just think of +the run for ponies on the hill, to say nothing of sheep. A young, +hard-working man could make a very tidy living up here; and we shall +have a respectable house, instead of a pauper's family.' + +'It will be a benefit to the neighbourhood,' observed Thomas Wyley. + +The latter speaker, who was a degree pleasanter-looking than his brother, +was the relieving officer of the large union to which Botfield belonged; +and, in consequence, all poor persons who had grown too old, or were in +any way unable to work, were compelled to apply to him for the help which +the laws of our country provide for such cases. James Wyley, the elder +brother, was the owner of Botfield works, and the master of all the +people employed in them, besides being the agent of the lord of the +manor. So both these men possessed great authority over the poor; and +they used the power to oppress them and grind them down to the utmost. +It was therefore no wonder that Stephen stopped instantly when he saw +their well-known figures standing at the corner of his oat-field; nor +that he should come on slowly after he had recovered his courage, +pondering in his own mind what they were come up to Fern's Hollow for, +and how he should answer them if they should want him to give up the old +hut. + +'Good evening, my lad,' said James Wyley, smiling a slow, reluctant +smile, as Stephen drew near to them with his cap in his hand. 'So you +buried your father yesterday, I hear. Poor fellow! there was not a better +collier at Botfield than James Fern.' + +'Never troubled his parish for a sixpence,' added Thomas Wyley. + +'Thank you, master,' said Stephen, the tears starting to his eyes, so +unexpected was this gentle greeting to him; 'I'll try to be like father.' + +'Well, my boy,' said Thomas Wyley, 'we are come up here on purpose to +give you our advice, as you are such a mere lad. I've been thinking what +can be done for you. There's your grandfather, a poor, simple, helpless +old man, and the little girl--why, of course we shall have to receive +them into the House; and I'll see there is no difficulty made about it. +Then we intend to get your sister into some right good service.' + +'I should not mind taking her into my own house,' said the master, Mr. +James Wyley; 'she would soon learn under my niece Anne. So you will be +set free to get your own living without encumbrance; you are earning your +six shillings now, and that will keep you well.' + +'Please, sir,' answered Stephen, 'we mean to live all together as we've +been used; and I couldn't let grandfather and little Nan come upon the +parish. Martha must stay at home to mind them; and I'll work my fingers +to the bone for them all, sir. Many thanks all the same to you for coming +up here to see after us.' + +'Very fine indeed, my little fellow,' said Thomas Wyley; 'but you don't +understand what you are talking about. It is my place to see after the +poor, and I cannot leave you in charge of such a very old man and such +a child as this, No, no; they must be taken care of; and they'll be made +right comfortable in the House.' + +'Father said,' replied Stephen, 'that I was never to let grandfather +and little Nan come upon the parish. I get my wages, and we've no rent +to pay; and the potatoes and oats will help us; and Martha can pick +bilberries on the hill, and carry bundles of firing to the village; and +we'll do well enough without the parish. Many thanks all the same to you, +sir.' + +'Hark ye, my lad,' said the master impatiently. 'I want to buy your old +hut and field from you. I'll give ye a ten-pound note for it; a whole ten +pounds. Why, a fortune for you!' + +'Father said,' repeated Stephen, 'I was never to give up Fern's Hollow; +and I gave him a sure promise for that, and to take care of little Nan as +long as ever I lived.' + +'Fern's Hollow is none of yours,' cried the master, in a rage; 'you've +just been a family of paupers and squatters, living up here by poaching +and thieving. I'll unearth you, I promise ye; you have been a disgrace to +the manor long enough. So it is ten pounds or nothing for your old hole; +and you may take your choice.' + +'Please, sir,' said Stephen firmly, 'the place is ours, and I'm never to +part with it. I'll never poach, and I'll never trespass on the manor; but +I can't sell the old house, sir.' + +'Now, just listen to me, young Fern,' said Thomas Wyley; 'you'll be +compelled to give up Fern's Hollow in right of the lord of the manor; and +then if you come to the House for relief, mark my words, I'll send your +grandfather off to Bristol, for that's his parish, and you'll never see +him again; and I'll give orders for you never to see little Nan; and I'll +apprentice you and your other sister in different places. So you had +better be reasonable, and take our advice while you can be made +comfortable.' + +'Please, sir, I can't go against my promise,' answered Stephen, with a +sob. + +'What's the use of wasting one's breath?' said the master; 'this place +I want, and this place I'll have; and we'll see if this young jail-bird +will stand in my way. Ah, my fine fellow, it's no such secret where your +grandfather spent twenty-one years of his life; and you'll have a sup of +the same broth some day. You don't keep a dog like that yelping cur for +nothing; and I'll tell the gamekeeper to have his eye upon you.' + +Stephen stood motionless, watching them down the narrow path which led to +Botfield, until a rabbit started from beneath the hedge, and Snip, with a +sharp, short bark of excitement, gave it chase in the direction of the +two men. The master paused, and, looking back, shook his stick +threateningly at the motionless figure of the boy; while Thomas Wyley +threw a stone at the dog, which sent him back, yelping piteously, to his +young master's feet. Stephen clenched his hands, and bit his lips till +the blood started, but he did not move till the last glimpse of his foes +had passed away from the hillside. Martha had hidden herself in the hut +while they were present, for she had never spoken to the dreaded master; +but she could overhear their loud and angry speeches, and now she came +out and joined Stephen. + +'Well, I'd have more spirit than to cry,' she said, as Stephen brushed +his eyes with his sleeve; 'I'd never have spoken so gingerly to them, the +wizen-faced old rascals. The place is ours, and they can't turn us out. +It's no use to be cowed by them, Stephen.' + +'They can turn me off the works,' answered Stephen sadly. + +'And whatever shall we do then?' asked Martha, in alarm. 'Still I reckon +you'll say we are to love those old wretches.' + +'The Book says so,' replied Stephen. + +'Well, I won't set up to try to do it for one,' continued Martha +decisively; 'it's not nature; it's being over good by half. I'm willing +to do my duty by you and grandfather and little Nan; but that goes beyond +me. If you'd just give way, Stevie, and give them a good rating, you'd +feel better after it.' + +'I don't know that,' he answered, walking gloomily towards the door. He +felt so much passion and anger within him, that it did seem as if it +would be a relief to utter some of the terrible oaths which he heard +frequently in the pit, and which had been familiar enough in his own +mouth a few months ago. But now other words, familiar from daily reading, +the words that he had repeated to Tim so short a time before, were being +whispered, as it seemed, close by his ear: 'Love your enemies; bless them +that curse you; do good to them that hate you; pray for them that +despitefully use you, and persecute you.' There was a deadly conflict +going on in the boy's soul; and Martha's angry words were helping the +tempter. He sat down despondently on the door-sill, and hid his face in +his hands, while he listened to his sister's taunts against his want of +spirit, and her fears that he would give up their home for his new +notions. + +He was about to answer her at last with the passion she was trying to +provoke, when a soft little cheek was pressed against his downcast head, +and little Nan lisped in her broken words, 'Me sleepy, Stevie; me say +"Our Father," and go to bed.' + +The child knelt down before him, and laid her folded hands upon his knee, +as she had done every evening since his father died, while he said the +prayer, and she repeated it slowly after him. He felt as though he was +praying for himself. A feeling of deep earnestness came over him; and, +though his voice faltered as he said softly, 'Forgive us our trespasses, +as we forgive them that trespass against us,' it seemed as if there was +a spirit in his heart agreeing to the words, and giving him power to say +them. He did not know then that 'the Spirit itself maketh intercession +for us with groanings which cannot be uttered;' but while he prayed with +little Nan, he received great comfort and strength, though he was +ignorant of the source from whence they came. When the child's prayers +were ended, he roused himself cheerfully to action; and as long as the +lingering twilight lasted, both Stephen and Martha were busily at work in +the garden. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MISS ANNE. + + +'So thee's the only master here,' said Tim when he came up the hill next +evening, according to his promise, to help Stephen in his garden. + +'And I'm the missis,' chimed in Martha, 'but I can't say how long it may +be afore we have to pack off;' and she gave Tim a very long account of +the master's visit the day before, finishing her description of Stephen's +conduct in a tone of mingled reproach and admiration: 'And he never said +a single curse at them!' + +'Not when they were out of hearing?' exclaimed Tim. + +'I couldn't,' answered Stephen; 'I knew what I ought to do then, if I +wasn't quite sure about fighting thee, Tim. My chapter says, "Swear not +at all;" and "Let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for +whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."' + +'What's the meaning of that?' asked Tim, opening his eyes widely. + +'Father said it meant I was to stand to my word like a man, but not swear +about it. If I said Ay, to mean ay; and if I said No, to mean no, and +stick to it.' + +'There'd be no room for telling lies, I reckon,' said Tim reflectively. + +'Of course not,' replied Stephen. + +'That 'ud never answer down yonder,' said Tim, nodding towards the +distant village. 'I tell thee what, lad, I'll come and quarter with thee, +and help thee to be master. It 'ud be prime. Only maybe the victuals +wouldn't suit me. Last Sunday, afore thy father's buryin', we'd a dinner +of duck and green peas, and leg of lamb, and custard pudden, and ale. +Martha doesn't get a dinner like that for thee, I reckon.' + +'No,' answered Stephen shortly. + +'Maybe it wouldn't suit. But what more is there in thy book?' asked +Tim, whose curiosity was aroused; and Stephen, proud of his new +accomplishment,--a rare one in those days among his own class,--would not +lose the opportunity given him by Tim's inquiry for the display of his +learning. He brought out his Bible with alacrity, and read his chapter in +a loud, clear, sing-song tone, while Tim overlooked him, with his red +face growing redder, and his eyebrows arched in amazement; and Martha, +leaning against the door-post, glanced triumphantly at his wonder. +Already, though his father had been dead only a week, Stephen began +to miscall many of the harder words; but his hearers were not critical, +and the performance gave unbounded satisfaction. + +'That beats me!' cried Tim. 'What a headpiece thee must have, Stephen! +But what does it all mean, lad? Is it all English like?' + +'How can I know?' answered Stephen, somewhat sadly; 'there's nobody to +learn me now; and it's very hard. There's the Pharisees, Tim, and Raca; I +don't know who they are.' + +The conversation was stopped by Martha suddenly starting bolt upright, +and dropping two or three hurried curtseys. The boys looked up from their +book quickly, and saw a young lady passing through the wicket and coming +up the garden walk, with a smile upon her pleasant face as she met their +gaze. + +'My boys,' she said, in a soft, kindly voice, 'I've been sitting on the +bank yonder, behind your cottage; and I heard one of you reading a +chapter in the Bible. Which of you was it?' + +'It was him,' cried Tim and Martha together, pointing at Stephen. + +'And you said you had no one to teach you,' continued the lady. 'Now +would you learn well, if I promised to teach you?' + +Stephen looked up speechlessly into the smiling face before him. He had +never read of the angels, and scarcely knew that there were such beings; +but he felt as if this fair and sweet-looking lady, with her gentle +voice, and the kindly eyes meeting his own, was altogether of a different +order to themselves. + +'I am Mr. Wyley's niece,' she added, 'and I am come to live at Botfield +for a while. Could you manage to come down to Mr. Wyley's house sometimes +for a lesson?' + +'Please, ma'am,' said Martha, who was not at all afraid of speaking to +any lady, though she dare not face the master, 'he wants to turn us out +of our house; and he hates Stephen, because he won't give it up: so he +wouldn't let you teach him anything.' + +'Then you are Stephen Fern?' said the lady; 'I heard my uncle talking +about you. Your father was buried at Longville church on Sunday. I saw +the funeral leave the churchyard, and I looked for some of you to come in +to the evening service. Now, Stephen, do you tell me all about your +reason for not letting my uncle buy your cottage.' + +Then Stephen, with some hesitation, and a good deal of assistance from +Martha, told the whole history of his grandmother's settlement upon the +solitary hillside, only withholding the fact of his grandfather's +transportation, because Tim was listening eagerly to every word. Miss +Anne listened, too, with deep attention; and once or twice the tears rose +to her eyes as she heard of the weary labours and watchings of the +desolate woman; and when Stephen repeated his resolution to work hard +and constantly for the maintenance of his grandfather and little Nan-- + +'Yes, I will be your friend,' she said, reaching out her hand to him when +he had finished, 'even if my uncle is your enemy. God has not given me +much power, but what I have I will use for you; and you must go on +striving to do right, Stephen.' + +'I can't read much,' replied Stephen anxiously, 'and Martha can't read at +all; but I hope we shall all get safe to heaven!' + +'Knowing how to read will not take us to heaven,' said Miss Anne, +smiling, 'but doing the will of God from the heart; and the will of God +is that we should believe in the Lord Jesus, and follow in His steps.' + +'Yes, ma'am,' answered Stephen; 'my chapter says, "Whosoever shall break +one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called +the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach +them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."' + +'Stephen, you know your chapter well,' said Miss Anne. + +'I don't know anything else,' he answered; 'so I am always studying at +that in my head, up here and down in the pit.' + +'He's always mighty solid over his work, ma'am,' said Tim, pulling the +front lock of his red hair, as he spoke to the young lady. + +'Stephen, do you know that you have a namesake in the Bible?' asked Miss +Anne. + +'No, sure!' exclaimed Stephen eagerly. + +'It was the name of a man who had many enemies, only because he loved the +Lord Jesus; and at last they hated him so much as to kill him. He was the +very first person who ever suffered death for the Lord's sake. Give me +your Bible, and I will read to you how he died.' + +Miss Anne's voice was very low and soft, like sweet music, as she read +these verses: 'And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, +Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud +voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, +he fell asleep.' + +Stephen listened breathlessly, and his face glowed with intense interest; +but he was not a boy of ready speech, and, before he could utter a word, +Tim burst in before him with a question, 'Please, is there a Tim in the +Bible?' he asked. + +'Yes,' answered Miss Anne, smiling again; 'he was a young man who knew +the Bible from his youth.' + +'That ain't me, however,' said Tim in a despondent tone. + +'There is nothing now to prevent you beginning to know it,' continued +Miss Anne. 'Listen: as Stephen cannot come to me at Botfield, you shall +meet me in the Red Gravel Pit at nine o'clock on a Sunday morning as long +as the summer lasts, and I will teach you all. Bring little Nan with you, +Stephen.' + +Down the same narrow green pathway trodden by the feet of Stephen's angry +master and his brother the evening before, they now watched the little +light figure of the young lady, as she slowly vanished out of their +sight. When the gleaming of her dress was quite lost, Stephen rubbed his +eyes for a moment, and then turned to Martha and Tim. + +'Is she a real woman, dost think?' he asked. + +'A real woman!' repeated Martha rather scornfully; 'of course she is; and +it's a real silk gown she had on, I can tell thee. Spirits don't go about +in silk gowns and broad daylight, never as I heard tell of, lad.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE RED GRAVEL PIT. + + +At the entrance of the lane leading down to the works at Botfield there +stood a small square building, which was used as the weighing-house for +the coal and lime fetched from the pits, and as the pay-office on the +reckoning Saturday, which came once a fortnight. Upon the Saturday +evening after his interview with the master, Stephen loitered in the lane +with a very heavy heart, afraid of facing Mr. Wyley, lest he should +receive the sentence of dismission from the pit. He did not know what he +could turn his hand to if he should be discharged from what had been his +work since he was eight years old; for even if he could get a place in +one of the farmhouses about as waggoner's boy, he would not earn more +than three shillings a week; and how very little that would do towards +providing food for the three mouths at home! Fearful of knowing the +worst, he lingered about the office until all the other workmen had been +in and come out again jingling their wages. + +But the master and his brother Thomas had been taking counsel together +about the matter. Mr. Wyley was for turning the boy off at once, and +reducing him to the utmost straits of poverty; but his more prudent +brother was opposed to this plan. + +'Look here, brother James,' he said; 'if we drive the young scamp to +desperation, there's no telling what he will do. Ten to one if he does +not go and tell a string of lies to some of the farmers about here, or +perhaps to the parson at Longville, and they may make an unpleasant +disturbance. Nobody knows and nobody cares about him as it is; but he is +a determined young fellow, or I'm mistaken. Better keep him at work under +your own eye, and make the place too hot for him by degrees. Before long +you will catch him poaching with his dog, and if he is let off for a time +or two because of his youth, and goes at it again, we can make out a +pretty case of juvenile depravity, without any character from his +employer, you know; and so he will be sent out of the way, and boarded at +the expense of the country for a few years or so.' + +'Well,' said the master, 'I'll try him once again. If he'd go out +quietly, nobody else has any claim upon the cottage; and I want to set to +work there quickly.' + +So when Stephen entered the office with trembling limbs and a very pale +face under its dusky covering, it happened that he met with a very +different reception to what he expected. The master sat behind a small +counter, upon which lay Stephen's twelve shillings, the only little heap +of money left; and as he gathered them nervously into his hand, he +wondered if this would be the last time. But his master's face was not +more threatening than usual; and he muttered his 'Thank you, sir,' and +was turning away with a feeling of great relief, when Mr. Wyley's harsh +voice brought him back again, trembling more than ever. + +'Have you thought any more of my offer, Fern?' he asked. 'I shouldn't +mind, as you are an orphan, and have two sisters depending upon you, if I +made the ten pounds into fifteen; and you may leave the money at interest +with me till you are older.' + +'And I've been thinking, Stephen,' added Thomas Wyley, who sat at a high +desk checking the accounts, 'that, as you seem set against being +separated, instead of taking your grandfather into the House, I'd get him +two shillings a week allowed him out of it; and that would pay the rent +of a nice two-roomed cottage down in Botfield, close to your work. Come, +that would make all of you comfortable.' + +'You should bear in mind, Stephen,' said the master, 'that the place does +not of right belong to you at all; and the lord of the manor is coming to +shoot over the estate in September; and then I shall have orders to +remove you by force. So you had better take our offer.' + +'Please, sir,' said Stephen, bowing respectfully, 'don't be angered with +me, but I can't go from what I said afore. Father told me never to give +up Fern's Hollow; and maybe he'd hear tell of it in heaven if I broke my +word to him. I can't do it, sir.' + +'Well, wilful will have his way,' said Mr. Thomas, nodding at the master; +and as neither of them addressed Stephen again, he left the office, +amazed to find that he was not forbidden to return to work on the +following Monday. + +The Red Gravel Pit, where Miss Anne had promised to meet her scholars on +Sunday morning, was a quarry cut out of the side of one of the hills, +from which the stones were taken for making and mending the roads in the +neighbourhood. The quarry had been hollowed out into a kind of enclosed +circle, only entered by the road through which the waggons passed. All +along the edge of the red rocks high overhead there was a coppice of +green hazel-bushes and young oaks, where the boys had spent many a Sunday +searching for wild nuts, and hunting the squirrels from tree to tree. +Stephen and Tim met half an hour earlier than the time appointed by Miss +Anne, and by dint of great perseverance and strength rolled together five +large stones, under the shadow of an oak tree; and placed four of them in +a row before the largest one, as Tim had once seen the children sitting +in the village school at Longville, when he had taken a donkey-load of +coals for the schoolmaster. Martha came in good time with little Nan, +both in their new black bonnets and clean cotton shawls; and all were +seated orderly in a row when Miss Anne entered the Red Gravel Pit by the +waggon road. + +I need not describe to you how Miss Anne heard Stephen read his chapter, +and taught Tim and Martha, and even little Nan herself, the first few +letters of the alphabet; after which she made them all repeat a verse of +a hymn, and, when they could say it correctly, sang it with them over and +over again, in her sweet and clear voice, until Stephen felt almost +choked with a sob of pure gladness, that would every now and then rise to +his lips. Tim sang loudly and lustily, getting out of tune very often. +But little Nan was a marvel to hear, so soft and sweet were her childish +tones, so that Miss Anne bade her sing the verse alone, which she did +perfectly. Martha, too, was full of admiration of the lady's lilac silk +dress and the white ribbon on her bonnet. + +That was the first of many pleasant Sunday mornings in the Red Gravel +Pit. When the novelty was worn away, Martha discovered that she had too +much to do at home to be able to leave it so early in the day; and Tim +sometimes overslept himself on a Sunday, when most of his comrades spent +the whole morning in bed. But Stephen and little Nan were always there, +and their teacher never failed to meet them. Nor did Miss Anne confine +her care of the orphan children to a Sunday morning only. Sometimes she +would mount the hill during the long summer evenings, and pay their +little household a visit, giving Martha many quiet hints about her +management and her outlay of Stephen's wages; hints which Martha did not +always receive as graciously as they were given. Miss Anne would read +also to the blind old grandfather, choosing very simple and easy portions +of the Bible, especially about the lost sheep being found, as that +pleased the old shepherd, and he could fully understand its meaning. In +general, Miss Anne was very cheerful, and she would laugh merrily at +times; but now and then her face looked pale and sad, and her voice was +very mournful while she talked and sang with them. Once, even, when she +bade Stephen 'good evening,' an exceedingly sorrowful expression passed +across her face, and she said to him, 'I find it quite as hard work to +serve God really and truly as you do, Stephen. There is only one Helper +for both of us; and we can only do all things through Christ which +strengtheneth us.' + +But Stephen could not believe that good, gentle Miss Anne found it as +hard to be a Christian as he did. Everything seemed against him at the +works. The short indulgence from hard words and hard blows granted him +after his father's death was followed by what appeared to be a very +tempest of oppression. It was very soon understood that the master had +a private grudge against the boy; and though the workpeople were ground +down and wronged in a hundred ways by him, so as to fill them with hatred +and revenge, they were not the less willing to take advantage of his +spite against Stephen. His work underground, which had always been +distasteful to him compared with a shepherd's life on the hills, was now +made more toilsome and dangerous than ever, while Black Thompson followed +him everywhere and all day long with oaths and blows. Stephen's evident +superiority over the other boys was of course very much against him; for +he had never been much associated with them, as his distant home had +separated him from them excepting during the busy hours of labour. Now, +when, through his own self-satisfaction and Tim's loud praises, his +accomplishments became known, it is no wonder that a storm of envy and +jealousy raged round him; for not only the boys themselves, but their +fathers also, felt affronted at his wonderful scholarship. To be sure, +Tim never deserted him, and his partisanship was especially useful on the +bank, before he went down and after he came up from the pit. But below, +in the dark, dismal passages of the pit, many a stripe, unmerited, fell +upon his bruised shoulders, which he learned to bear the more patiently +after Miss Anne had taught and explained to him the verse, 'But He was +wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the +chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are +healed.' Still Stephen, feeling how hard it was to continue in the right +way, and knowing how often he failed, to his own sore mortification and +the rude triumph of his comrades, wondered exceedingly how it was +possible for Miss Anne to find it as hard to be a follower of Christ as +he did. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +POOR SNIP. + + +The middle weeks of August were come--sunny, sultry weeks; and from the +brow of the hill, all the vast plain lying westward for many miles looked +golden with the corn ripening for harvest. The oats in the little field +had already been reaped; and the fruit in the garden, gathered and sold +by Martha, had brought in a few shillings, which were carefully hoarded +up to buy winter clothing. It was now the time of the yearly gathering of +bilberries on the hills; and tribes of women and children ascended to the +tableland from all the villages round. It was the pleasantest work of the +year; and Martha, who had never missed the bilberry season since she +could remember, was not likely to miss it now. Even little Nan could help +to pick the berries, and she and Martha were out on the hillsides all the +livelong summer day. Their dwelling on the spot gave them a good +advantage over those who lived down in Botfield; and each day, before any +of the others could reach the best bilberry-wires, they had already +picked a quart of the small purple berries, fresh and cool with the dew +of the morning. Only the poor old grandfather had to be left at home +alone, with his dinner put ready for him, which he was apt to eat up long +before the proper dinner-hour came; and then he had to wait until Stephen +returned from his work, or Martha and little Nan were driven home by the +August thunderstorms. Martha was wonderfully successful this year, and +gained more money by selling her bilberries than she thought necessary to +show to Stephen; though, on his part, he always brought her every penny +of his wages. + +Ever since their father's funeral there had been a subject of dispute +between the brother and sister. Martha was bent upon enclosing the green +dell, with its clear, cool little pond; and to this end she spent all the +time she could spare in raising a rough fence of stones and peat round +it. But Stephen would not consent to it; and neither argument, scolding, +nor coaxing could turn him. He always answered that he had promised the +master that he would not trespass on the manor; and he must stand to his +word, whatever they might lose by it; though, indeed, he saw no harm in +making green fields out of the waste land. Martha, on her side, +maintained her right as the eldest to act as she judged best; and, +moreover, urged the example of her thrifty grandmother, who had planned +this very enclosure, and whose pattern she was determined to follow. But +before long the dispute was ended, and the subject of it became a matter +of heart-troubling wonder, for several labourers from the master's farm +began to fence in the very same ground, as well as to prepare the turf +behind Fern's Hollow for the planting of young trees; and neither Stephen +nor Martha could hide from the other that these labours made them feel +exceedingly uneasy. + +'I say, Stephen,' said one of the hedgers, as he was going down from his +work one evening, and met the tired boy coming up from his, 'I'm afeared +there's some mischief brewing. There's master, and Mr. Thomas, and Mr. +Jones the gamekeeper, been talking with thy grandfather nigh upon an +hour. There'll be a upshot some day, I know; and Jones, he said summat +about leaving a keepsake for thee.' + +'What could it be, William?' asked Stephen anxiously. + +'How should I know?' said the man, with some reluctance. 'Only, lad, +I did hear a gun go off; and I never heard Snip bark again, though I +listened for him. Stephen, Stephen, dunna thee go so mad like!' + +But it was no use shouting after Stephen, as he ran frantically up the +hill. Snip was always basking lazily in the sunshine under the hedge of +the paddock, at the very point where he could catch the first sight of +his young master, after which there was no more idleness or stillness in +him. Stephen could hardly breathe when he found that Snip was not at the +usual place to greet him; but before he reached his home he saw it--the +dead body of his own poor Snip--hung on the post of the wicket through +which he had to pass. He flew to the place; he tore his own hands with +the nails that were driven through Snip's feet; and then, without a +thought of his grandfather or of his own hunger, he bore away the dead +dog in his arms, and wandered far out of sight or sound of the hateful, +cruel world, into one of the most solitary plains upon the uplands. + +Any one passing by might have thought that Stephen was fast asleep in the +last slanting rays of the sun, which shone upon him there some time after +the evening shadows had fallen upon Botfield; but a frenzy of passion, +too strong for any words, had felled him to the ground, where he lay +beside Snip. The gamekeeper, who had so many dogs that he did not care +for any one of them in particular, had killed this one creature that was +dearer to him than anything in the world, except little Nan, and +grandfather, and Martha. And Snip was dead, without remedy; no power on +earth could bring back the departed life. Oh, if he could only punish the +villain who had shot his poor faithful dog! But he was nothing but a poor +boy, very poor, and very helpless and friendless, and people would only +laugh at his trouble. All the world was against him, and he could do +nothing to revenge himself, but to hate everybody! + +'Why, lad! why, Stephen! what ails thee?' said Black Thompson's voice, +close behind him. 'Eh! who's gone and shot Snip? That rascal Jones, I'll +go bail! Is he quite dead, Stephen? Stand up, lad, and let's give a look +at him.' + +The boy rose, and faced Black Thompson and his comrade with eyes that +were bloodshot, though he had not shed a tear, and with lips almost +bitten through by his angry teeth. Both the men handled the dog gently +and carefully, but, after a moment's inspection, Thompson laid it down +again on the turf. + +'It's a shame!' he cried, with an oath that sounded pleasantly in +Stephen's ears; 'it was one of the best little dogs about. I'd take my +vengeance on him for this. In thy place, I couldn't sleep till I'd done +something.' + +'Ay!' said Stephen, with flashing eyes; 'I know where he's keeping a +covey of birds up against game day--nineteen of them. I've seen them +every day, and I could go to the place in the dark.' + +'That's a brave lad!' said Black Thompson; 'he's got his father's pluck +after all, as I've always told thee, Davies, and we'll see him righted. +He's got his eyes in his head, has this lad!' + +'They're down in the leasowe, between the Firspinny and Ragleth Hill,' +continued Stephen; 'and they're just prime, I can tell ye. And I know, +too, what he doesn't know himself. I know to some black game, far away +up the hill. He'd give his two eyes to see them, with their white +wing-feathers; and if he hadn't'-- + +Stephen stopped, with quivering lips, for he could not speak yet of +Snip's murder. + +'Never take on, my lad,' said Black Thompson, clapping him on the back; +'we'll spoil his sport for him. Come thy ways with us; it'll be dark dusk +afore we gain the spinny, and Jones is off to the Whitehurst woods +to-night. We'll have as rare sport as the lord of the manor himself. Thee +art a sharp one. I'd lay a round wager, now, thee knows where all the +sheep of the hillside fold of nights.' + +'Ay, do I,' answered Stephen, walking briskly beside Black Thompson; 'I +know every walk and every fold on the hills; ay, and many of the sheep +themselves. I keep my eyes wide open out of doors, I promise ye.' + +'I'll swear to that,' said Black Thompson, glad to encourage the boy in +his foolish boasting. On their way they passed near to Fern's Hollow, and +Stephen heard little Nan's shrill voice calling his name, as if she were +seeking him weariedly; but when he hesitated for a moment, his heart +yearning to answer her, Black Thompson again patted him on the back, and +bade him never show the white feather, but remember poor dead Snip; at +which his passion for revenge returned, and he pressed on eagerly to the +fir-coppice. + +It was quite dark when they entered the path leading through the wood. No +one spoke now, and they trod cautiously, lest there should be any noise +from their footsteps. The tall black fir-trees towered above them to an +unusual height; and through all the topmost branches there ran a low, +mournful sound, as if every tree was whispering about them, and lamenting +over them. Even the little brook, which in the sunshine rippled so +merrily along the borders of the wood, seemed to be sobbing like a +grieved and tired child in the night-time. Strange rustlings on every +side, and sudden groanings of the withered boughs in some of the pines, +made them start in fear; and once, in a little opening among the trees, +when the stars came out and looked down upon them, Stephen would have +given all he had in the world to be safe at home, with little Nan singing +hymns on his knee, or quietly asleep after the hot and busy day. + +'It's lonesome enough to make a bull-dog afeared,' whispered Davies, in +a frightened tone. But before long they were out of the wood; and in the +glimmer of light that lasts all night through during the summer, Stephen +saw Black Thompson unwind a net, which had been wrapped round his body +under his collier's jacket. More than half the covey of partridges were +bagged; and they had such capital luck, as the men called it, that +Stephen soon entered into the daring spirit of the adventure. It sent +a thrill of excitement through him, in which poor Snip was for the time +forgotten; and when about midnight Black Thompson and Davies said +'Good-night' to him at his cottage door, calling him a brave fellow, and +giving him a fine young leveret, with the promise that he should have his +share of whatever money they received for their spoil, he entered his +dark home, where every one was slumbering peacefully, and, without a +thought of sorrow or repentance, was quickly asleep himself. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +STEPHEN AND THE GAMEKEEPER. + + +Martha's exclamation of surprise and delight at seeing the leveret was +the first sound that Stephen heard in the morning; but he preserved a +sullen silence as to his absence the previous night, and Martha was too +shrewd to press him with questions. They had not been unused to such fare +during their father's lifetime; and it was settled between them that she +should come down from the bilberry-plain early in the afternoon to make a +feast of the leveret by the time of Stephen's return from the pit. + +All day long Stephen found himself treated with marked distinction and +favour by Black Thompson and his comrades, to some of whom he heard him +say, in a loud whisper, that 'Stephen 'ud show himself a chip of the old +block yet.' At dinner they invited him to sit within their circle, where +he laughed and talked with the best of them, and was listened to as if he +were already a man. How different to his usually hurried meal beside the +horses, that worked like himself in the dark, close passages, but did +not, like him, ascend each evening to the grassy fields and the pure air +of the upper earth! Stephen had a true tenderness in his nature towards +these dumb fellow-labourers, and they loved the sound of his voice, and +the kindly patting of his hand; but somehow he felt as if they knew how +he had left his faithful old Snip unburied on the open hillside, where +Black Thompson had found him in his passion the evening before. He was +not sorry for what he had done; he would avenge himself on the gamekeeper +again whenever there was an opportunity. Even now, he promised Black +Thompson, when they were away from the other colliers, to show him the +haunts of the scarce black grouse, which would be so valuable to the +gamekeeper; and he enjoyed Black Thompson's applause. But there was a +sore pang in his heart, as he remembered dead Snip, unburied on the +hillside. + +Supper was ready when he reached home; and what a savoury smell came +through the open door, quite down to the wicket! Of course Snip was not +watching for him; and little Nan also, instead of looking out for him as +usual, was waiting eagerly to be helped; for, as soon as Stephen was seen +over the brow of the hill, Martha poured her dainty stew into a large +brown dish, and she had already portioned out a plateful for the +grandfather. Few words were uttered, for Martha was hot, and rather +testy; and Stephen felt a sullen weight hanging upon his spirits. Only +every now and then the old grandfather, chuckling and mumbling over the +uncommon delicacy, would call Stephen by his father's name of James, and +thank him for his rare supper. + +'Good evening,' said Miss Anne's voice, and as the light from the doorway +was darkened, all the party looked up quickly, and Stephen felt himself +growing hot and cold by turns. 'Your supper smells very nice, Martha; +there has been some good cooking done to-day.' + +'Oh, Miss Anne,' cried Martha, colouring up with excitement and fear, 'it +is a young leveret Mrs. Jones, the gamekeeper's wife, gave me for some +knitting I'd done for her; she said it 'ud be a treat for grandfather. +I've been cooking it all evening, ma'am, and it's very toothsome. If +you'd only just taste a mouthful, it 'ud make me ever so proud.' + +'Thank you, Martha,' said Miss Anne, smiling; 'I am quite hungry with +climbing the hill, and if it is as good as the bread you gave me the +other day, I shall enjoy having my supper with you.' + +Stephen scarcely heard what Miss Anne said to him, while he watched +Martha bustling about to reach out a grand china plate, which was one of +the great treasures of their possessions; and he looked on silently as +she chose the daintiest morsels of the stew; but when she moved the +little table nearer to the door, and laid the plate and knife and fork +upon it, before Miss Anne, he started to his feet, unable to sit still +and see her partake of the food which he had procured in such a manner. + +'Don't touch it! don't taste it, Miss Anne!' he cried excitedly. 'Oh, +please to come out with me to the bent of the hill, and I'll tell you +why. But don't eat any of it!' + +He darted out at the door before Martha could stop him, and ran down the +green path to a place where he was out of sight and hearing of his home, +waiting breathlessly for Miss Anne to overtake him. It was some minutes +before she came, and her face was overcast and troubled; but she listened +in silence, while, without concealment, but with many bitter and +passionate words against the gamekeeper, and excuses for his own conduct, +he confessed to her all the occurrences of the night before. Every moment +his agitation increased under her quiet, mournful look of reproach, +until, as he came to the close, he cried out in a sorrowful but defiant +tone, 'Oh, Miss Anne, I could not bear it!' + +'Do you remember,' she asked, in a low and tender voice, 'how poor Snip +used to follow me down to this very spot, and sit here till I was out of +sight? I was very fond of poor old Snip, Stephen!' Yes, her voice +trembled, and tears were in her eyes. The proud bulwark which Stephen had +been raising against his grief was broken down in a moment. He sank down +on the turf at Miss Anne's feet; and, no longer checking the tears which +had been burning in his eyes all day, he wept and sobbed vehemently, +until his passion had worn away. + +'And now,' said Miss Anne, sitting down beside him, 'I must tell you +that, though I am not surprised, I am very, very grieved, Stephen. If you +knew your Bible more, you would have read this verse in it, "God is +faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; +but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be +able to bear it." Did no way of escape open to you, Stephen?' + +Then Stephen remembered how he had heard dear little Nan calling +piteously to him as he passed Fern's Hollow with Black Thompson; and how +his heart yearned to go to her, though he had resisted and conquered this +saving impulse. + +'You do not know much,' continued Miss Anne, 'but if you had followed out +all you do know, instead of poaching with Black Thompson that you might +revenge yourself for Snip being killed, you would have been praying for +them that persecute you. The Bible says that not a sparrow falls to the +ground without our Father. So God knew that poor Snip was shot.' + +'But why did He not hinder it?' asked Stephen, speaking low and +indistinctly. + +'Stephen,' said Miss Anne earnestly, 'suppose that I lived in a very +grand palace, where there were many things that you had never seen, and I +wanted little Nan to come and live with me, not as a servant, but as my +dear child; would it be unkind of me to send her first to a school, where +she could learn how to read the books, and understand the pictures, and +play the music she would find in my palace? Even if the lessons were +often hard, and some of her schoolfellows were cruel and unkind to her, +would it not be better for her to bear it for a little while, until she +was made ready to live with me as my own child?' + +The young lady paused for a few minutes, while Stephen pictured to +himself the grand palace, and little Nan being made fit to live in it; +and when at last he raised his brown eyes to hers, bright with the +pleasant thought, she went on in a quiet, reverential tone: + +'Perhaps we could not understand any of the things of heaven, so our +Father which is in heaven sends us to school here; we are learning +lessons all our life long. There is not a single trouble that comes to us +but it is to teach us the meaning of something we shall meet with there. +We should not be happy to hear the angels singing a song which we could +not understand, because we had missed our lessons down here.' + +'Oh, Miss Anne,' cried Stephen, 'I feel as if I could bear anything when +I think of that! Only I wish I was as strong as an angel.' + +'Patience is better than strength,' said Miss Anne, in a tone as if she +were speaking to herself: 'patiently to bear the will of God, and +patiently to keep His commandments, is greater and more glorious than the +strength of an angel.' + +'Black Thompson was so kind to me all to-day,' said Stephen, sighing; +'and now he'll be ten times worse if I go back from telling him where the +black game is.' + +'You must do right,' replied Miss Anne, with a glance that brought back +true courage to the boy's heart; 'and remember that "blessed are they +which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom +of heaven." Now, good-night, Stephen. Go and bury poor Snip while there +is daylight, in some quiet place where you can go and think and read and +play sometimes.' + +Stephen returned to the hut for a spade, and then went, with a strange +blending of grief and gladness, to the place where he had left his poor +dog. He chose a solitary yew tree on the hill for the burial ground, and +dug as deep a grave as he could among the far-spreading roots. It was +strange, only such things do happen now and then, that while he was +working away hard and fast, with the dead dog lying by under the trunk of +the yew tree, the gamekeeper himself passed that way. He had been in a +terrible temper all day, for he had discovered the mischief done down in +the fir-coppice, and the loss of his carefully-preserved covey. The sight +of Stephen and dead Snip irritated him; though a feeling of shame crept +over him as he saw how tear-stained the boy's face was. + +'Mr. Jones,' said Stephen, 'I've something to say to you.' + +'Be sharp, then,' replied the gamekeeper, 'and mind what you're about. +I'll not take any impudence from a young rascal like you.' + +'It's no impudence,' answered Stephen; 'only I know to some black game, +and I wanted to tell you about them.' + +'Black game!' he said contemptuously. 'A likely story. There's been none +these half-dozen years.' + +'It's four years since,' answered Stephen; 'I remember, because +grandfather and I saw them the day mother died, when little Nan was born. +I couldn't forget them or mistake them after that. They are at the head +of the Black Valley, where the quaking noise begins. I'm sure I'm right, +sir.' + +'You are not making game of me?' asked Jones, laughing heartily at his +own wit. 'Well, my lad, if this is true, it will be worth something to +me. Hark ye, I'm sorry about your dog, and you shall choose any one of +mine you like, if you'll promise to keep him out of mischief.' + +'I couldn't have another dog in Snip's place,' replied Stephen in a +choked voice; 'at any rate not yet, thank you, sir.' + +'Well,' said the gamekeeper, shouldering his gun, and walking off, 'I'll +be your friend, young Fern, when it does not hurt myself.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOMELESS. + + +Of course Stephen's brief term of favour with Black Thompson was at an +end; but whether Miss Anne had given him a hint that the boy was under +her protection, and had confessed all to her, or because he might be +busy in some deeper scheme of wickedness, he did not display as much +anger as Stephen expected, when he refused to show him the haunts of +the grouse, or go with him again on a poaching expedition. Stephen was +more humble and vigilant than he had been before falling into temptation. +He set a close watch upon himself, lest he should be betrayed into a +self-confident spirit again; and Tim's loud praises sounded less +pleasantly in his ears, so that one evening he told him, with much shame, +into what sin he had been led by his desire to avenge Snip's murder. +Unfortunately, this disclosure so much heightened Tim's estimation of his +character, that from time to time he gave utterance to mysterious hints +of the extraordinary courage and spirit Stephen could manifest when +occasion required. These praises were, however, in some measure balanced +by Martha's taunts and reproaches at home. + +The shooting season had commenced, and the lord of the manor was come, +with a number of his friends, to shoot over the hills and plantations. He +was a frank, pleasant-looking gentleman, but far too grand and high for +Stephen to address, though he gazed wistfully at him whenever he chanced +to meet him on the hills. One afternoon Martha saw him and the master +walking towards Fern's Hollow, where the fencing-in of the green and of +the coppice behind the hut were being finished rapidly; and she crept +with stealthy steps under the hedge of the garden, until she came within +earshot of them; but they were just moving on, and all she heard of the +conversation were these words, from the lord of the manor: 'You shall +have it at any rate you fix, Wyley--at a peppercorn rent, if you please; +but I will not sell a square yard of my land out and out.' How Martha and +Stephen did talk about those words over and over again, and could never +come to any conclusion about them. + +It was about noon on Michaelmas Day, a day which was of no note up at +Fern's Hollow, where there was no rent to be paid, and Martha was busily +hanging out clothes to dry on the gorse bushes before the house, when she +saw a troop of labourers coming over the brow of the hill and crossing +the newly-enclosed pasture. They were armed with mattocks and pickaxes; +but as the peaceful little cottage rose before them, with blind old Fern +basking in the warm sunshine, and little Nan playing quietly about the +door-sill, the men gathered into a little knot, and stood still with an +irresolute and ashamed aspect. + +'They know nothing about it,' said William Morris; 'look at them, as +easy and unconcerned as lambs. I was afeared there'd be a upshot, when +the master were after old Fern so long. I don't half like the job; and +Stephen isn't here. He does look a bit like a man, and we could argy with +him; but that old man, and that girl--they'll take on so.' + +'I say, Martha,' shouted a bolder-hearted man, 'hasn't the master let +thee know thee must turn out to-day? He wants to lay the foundation of a +new house, and get the walls up afore the frost comes on; and we are come +to pick the old place to the ground. He only told us an hour ago, or we'd +have seen thee was ready.' + +'I don't believe thee; thee's only romancing,' said Martha, turning very +pale. 'The old place is our own, and no master has any right to it, save +Stephen.' + +'It's no use wasting breath,' replied William Morris. 'The master says +he's bought the place from thy grandfather, lass; and he agreed to turn +out by noon on Michaelmas Day. Master doesn't want to be hard upon you; +and he says, if you've no place to turn in to, you may go to the old +cabin on the upper cinder-hill, till there's a cottage empty in Botfield; +and we'll help thee to move the things at wunst. We're to get the roof +off and the walls down afore nightfall.' + +'Grandfather and little Nan!' screamed Martha; 'get into the house this +minute! It's no use you men coming up here on this errand. You know +grandfather's simple, and he hasn't sold the house; how could he? He's no +more sense than little Nan. No, no; you must go down to the works, and +hear what Stephen says. You're a pack of rascals, every one of you, and +the master's the biggest; and you'll all have to gnash your teeth over +this business some day, I reckon.' + +By this time the old man and the child were safely within the house; +and Martha, springing quickly from the wicket, where she had kept the +men at bay, followed them in, and barred the door, before any one of +the labourers could thrust his shoulder in to prevent her. They held a +consultation together when they found that no arguments prevailed upon +her to open to them, to which Martha listened disdainfully through the +large chinks, but vouchsafed no answer. + +'Come, come, my lass,' said William Morris soothingly; 'it's lost time +and strength, thee contending with the master. I don't like the business; +but our orders are clear, and we must obey them. Thee let us in, and +we'll carry the things down to the cinder-hill cabin for thee. If thee +won't open the door, we'll be forced to take the thatch off.' + +'I won't,' answered Martha,--'not for the lord of the manor himself. The +house is ours, and I 'ware any of you to touch it. Go down to Stephen and +hear what he'll say. If thee takes the thatch off, thee shan't move me +out.' + +But when the old stove-pipe, through which the last breath of the +household fire had passed, was drawn up, and the blue sky could be seen +through the cloud of dust and dirt with which the hut was filled, choking +the helpless old man and the frightened child, Martha's courage failed +her; and she went out, with little Nan clinging round her, and spoke as +calmly to the invaders as her rising sobs would let her. + +'You know it's grandmother's own house,' she said; 'and the lord of the +manor himself has no right to it. But I'll go down and fetch Stephen, if +you'll only wait.' + +'We daren't wait, Martha,' answered Morris kindly; 'and it's no use, +lass; the master's too many for thee. But thee go down to Stephen; and +we'll move the things safe, as if they were our own, and put them where +they'll not be broken; and we'll take care of little Nan and thy poor old +grandfather. Tell Stephen we're desperately cut up about it ourselves; +but, if we hadn't done it, somebody that has no good-will towards him +would have taken the job. So go thy poor ways with thee, my lass; we are +main sorry for thee and Stephen.' + +The hot, choking smoke from the limekiln was blowing across the works; +and the dusty pit-bank was covered with busy men and boys and girls, +shouting, laughing, singing, and swearing, when Martha arrived at +Botfield. She was rarely seen at the pit, for her thrifty and housewifely +habits kept her busy at Fern's Hollow; and the rough, loud voices of the +banksmen, the regular beat of the engine, the clanking of chains, and the +dust and smoke and heat of the almost strange scene bewildered the +hillside girl. She made her way to the cabin, a little hut built near the +mouth of the shaft for the use of the people employed about the pit; but +before she could see Tim, or fix upon any one to inquire about Stephen +from, a girl of her own age, but with a face sunburnt and blackened from +her rough and unwomanly work, and in an uncouth dress of sackcloth, which +was grimed with coal-dust, came up and peered boldly in her face. + +'Why, it's Miss Fern!' she cried, with a loud laugh; 'Miss Fern, Esq., +of Fern's Hollow, come to learn us poor pit-folk scholarship and manners. +Here, lads! here's Mr. Stephen Fern's fine sister, as knows more nor all +of us put together. Give us a bit of your learning, Miss Fern.' + +'I know a black-bess when I see one,' replied Martha sharply; and all the +boys and girls joined in a ready roar of merriment against Bess Thompson, +whose nickname was the common country name for a beetle. + +'That'll do!' they shouted; 'she knows a black-bess! Thee's got thy +answer, Bess Thompson.' + +'What's brought thee to the pit?' asked Bess fiercely; 'we want no +scatter-witted hill girls here, I can tell ye. So get off the pit-bank, +afore I drive thee off.' + +'What's all this hullabaloo?' inquired Tim, making his appearance at the +cabin door. 'Why, Martha, what brings thee at the pit? Come in here, and +tell me what's up now.' + +Tim listened to Martha's tearful story with great amazement and +indignation; and, after a few minutes' consideration, he told her he had +nothing much to do, and he would get leave to take Stephen's place for +the rest of the day, so as to set him free to go home at once. He left +her standing in the middle of the cabin, for the rough benches round it +looked too black for her to venture to take a seat upon them; and in a +short time he shouted to her from a skep, which was being lowered into +the pit, promising her that Stephen should come up as soon as possible. +It seemed a terribly long time to wait amid that noise and dust, and +every now and then Black Bess relieved her feelings by making hideous +grimaces at her when she passed the cabin door; but Stephen ascended at +last, very stern-looking and silent, for Tim had told him Martha's +business; and he hurried her away from the pit-bank before he would +listen to the detailed account she was longing to give. Even when they +were in the lonely lane leading homewards, and she was talking and +sobbing herself out of breath, he walked on without a word passing his +lips, though his heart was sending up ceaseless prayers to God for help +to bear this trial with patience. Poor old home! There was all the +well-used household furniture carried out and heaped together on the +turf,--chairs and tables and beds,--looking so differently to what they +did when arranged in their proper order. The old man, with his grey head +uncovered, was wandering to and fro in sore bewilderment; and little Nan +had fallen asleep beside the furniture, with the trace of tears upon her +rosy cheeks. But the house was almost gone. The door-sill, where Stephen +had so often seen the sun go down as he rested himself from his labours, +was already taken up; the old grate, round which they had sat all the +winter nights that he had ever known, was pulled out of the rock; and all +the floor was open to the mocking sunshine. It is a mournful thing to see +one's own home in ruins; and a tear or two made a white channel down the +coal-dust on Stephen's cheeks; but he subdued himself, and spoke out to +the labourers like a man. + +'I know it's not your fault,' he said, as they stood round him, making +explanations and excuses; 'but you know grandfather could not sell the +place. I'll get you to help me carry the things down to the cinder-hill +cabin. The sheep and ponies are coming down the hill, and there'll be +rain afore long; and it's not fit for grandfather and little Nan to be +out in it. You'll spare time from the work for that?' + +'Ay, will we!' cried the men heartily; and, submitting kindly to +Stephen's quiet directions, they were soon laden with the household +goods, which were scanty and easily removed. Two or three journeys were +sufficient to take them all; and when the labourers returned for the last +time to their work of destruction, Stephen took little Nan in his arms, +and Martha led away the old man; while the sound of the pickaxes and the +crash of the rough rubble stones of their old home followed their slow +and lingering steps over the new pasture, and down the hillside towards +Botfield. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CABIN ON THE CINDER-HILL. + + +The cinder-hill cabin was situated at the mouth of an old shaft, long out +of use, but said to lead into the same pit as that now worked, the +entrance to which was about a quarter of a mile distant. The cabin was +about the same size as the hut from which the helpless family had been +driven; but the thatch wanted so much mending that Stephen and Martha +were obliged to draw over it one of their patchwork quilts, to shelter +them for the night from the rain which was threatened by the gathering +clouds. The door from the hut at Fern's Hollow was fortunately rather too +large instead of being too small for the doorway; and William Morris +promised to bring them a shutter for the window-place, where there was no +glass. Altogether, the cabin was not very inferior to their old home; +but, instead of the soft green turf and the fragrant air of the hills, +they were surrounded by barren cinder-heaps, upon which nothing would +grow but the yellow coltsfoot and a few weeds, and the wind was blowing +clouds of smoke from the limekilns over and round the dismal cabin. +Stephen, with the profound silence that began to frighten Martha, made +every arrangement he could think of for their comfort during the +quickly-approaching night; and as soon as this was finished, he washed +and dressed himself, as upon a Sunday morning, before going to meet Miss +Anne in the Red Gravel Pit. He was leaving the cabin without speaking, +when little Nan, who had watched everything in childish bewilderment and +dismay, set up a loud, pitiful cry, which he soothed with great +difficulty. + +'Stevie going to live here?' said the little child at last, with a deep +sob. + +'Ay, little Nan,' he answered; 'for a bit, darling. Please God, we'll go +home again some day. But little Nan shall always live with Stevie. +That'll do; won't it?' + +'Ay, Stevie,' sobbed the child; and Stephen, kissing her tenderly, put +her on to Martha's lap, and walked out into the moonlight. The clouds +were hanging heavily in the western sky, but the clearer heavens shone +all the brighter by the contrast. The mountains lay before him, calm and +immovable in the soft light; and he could see the round outline of his +own hollow, at which his heart throbbed for a minute painfully. But there +was a hidden corner at the side of the cabin, and there Stephen knelt +down to pray earnestly before he went farther on his errand, until, calm +and quiet as the hills, and as the moon which seemed to be gazing +lovingly upon them, he went on with a brave and stedfast spirit to the +master's house. + +Botfield Hall was a large, half-timbered farmhouse, with a gabled roof, +part of which was made of thatch and the rest of tiles. It stood quite +alone, at a little distance from the works, on the other side of them to +that where the village was built. The window-casements were framed of +stone; and the outer doors were of thick, solid oak, studded with +large-headed iron nails. The iron ring that served as a rapper on the +back door fell with a loud clang from Stephen's fingers upon the nails, +and startled him with its din, so that he could hardly speak to the +servant who answered his noisy summons. They crossed a kitchen, into +which many doors opened, to a kind of parlour beyond, fitted up with +furniture that looked wonderfully handsome and grand in Stephen's eyes, +and where the master was sitting by a comfortable fire. The impatient +servant pushed him within the door, and closed it behind her, leaving him +standing upon a mat, and shyly stroking his cap round and round, while +the master sat still, and gazed at him steadily with an assumed air of +amazement, though inwardly he was more afraid of the boy than Stephen was +of him. It makes a coward of a man or boy to do anybody an injury. + +'Pray, what business brings you here, young Fern?' he asked in a gruff +voice. + +'Sir,' said Stephen firmly, but without any insolence of manner, 'I want +to know who has turned us out of our own house. Is it the lord of the +manor, or you?' + +'I've bought the place for myself,' answered the master, bringing his +hand down with a heavy blow upon the table before him, as if he would +like to knock Stephen down with the same force. + +'There's nobody to sell it but me,' said the boy. + +'You think so, my lad, do you? Why, if it were your own, you would have +no power over it till you are one-and-twenty. But the place was your +grandfather's, and he has sold it to me for L15. When your grandfather +returned from transportation his wife's hut became his; and his right to +it does not go over to anybody else till he is dead. It never belonged to +your father; and you can have no right to it. If you want to see the deed +of purchase, it is safe here, witnessed by my brother Thomas and Jones +the gamekeeper, and your grandfather's mark put to it. I would show it to +you; but I reckon, with all your learning, you would not make much out of +it.' + +'Sir,' said Stephen, trembling, 'grandfather is quite simple and dark. He +couldn't understand that you were buying the place of him. Besides, he's +never had the money?' + +'What do you mean, you young scoundrel?' cried the master. 'I gave it +into his own hands, and made him put it into his waistcoat pocket for +safety. Simple is he, and dark? He could attend his son's funeral four +miles off only a few months ago; and he can understand my niece Anne's +fine reading, which I cannot understand myself. Ask him for the three +five-pound notes I gave him, if you have not had them already.' + +'How long ago is it?' inquired Stephen. + +'You can't remember!' said the master, laughing: 'well, well, Jones left +you a keepsake at your garden wicket for you to remember the day by.' + +Stephen's face flushed into a wrathful crimson, but he did not speak; and +in a minute or two the master said sharply,-- + +'Come, be off with you, if you've got nothing else to say.' + +'I have got something else to say,' answered Stephen, walking up to the +table and looking steadily into his master's face. 'God sees both of us; +and He knows you have no right to the place, and I have. I believe some +day we'll go back again, though you have pulled the old house down to the +ground. I don't want to make God angry with _me_. But the Bible says He +seeth in secret, and He will reward us openly.' + +The master shrank and turned pale before the keen, composed gaze of the +boy and his manly bearing; but Stephen's heart began to fail him, and, +with trembling limbs and eyes that could scarcely see, he made his way +out of the room, and out of the house, down to the end of the shrubbery. +There he could bear up no longer, and he sat down under the laurels, +shivering with a feeling of despair. The worst was come upon him now, and +he saw no helper. + +'My poor boy,' said Miss Anne's gentle voice, and he felt her hand laid +softly on his shoulder. 'My poor Stephen, I have heard all, and I know +how bitterly hard it is to bear.' + +Stephen answered her only with a low, half-suppressed groan; and then he +sat speechless and motionless, as if his despair had completely paralyzed +him. + +'Listen, Stephen,' she continued, with energy: 'you told me once that the +clergyman at Danesford has some paper belonging to you, about the +cottage. You must go to him, and tell him frankly your whole story. I do +not believe that what my uncle has done would stand in law, and I myself, +if it be necessary, would testify that your grandfather could not +understand such a transaction. But perhaps it could be settled without +going to law, if the clergyman at Danesford would take it in hand; for my +uncle is very wishful to keep a good name in the country. But if not, +Stephen Fern, I promise you faithfully that should Fern's Hollow ever +come into my possession, and I be my uncle's only relative, I will +restore it to you as your rightful inheritance.' + +She spoke so gravely, yet cheeringly, that a bright hope beamed into +Stephen's mind; and when Miss Anne held out her hand to him, as a pledge +of her promise, she felt a warm tear fall upon it. He rose up from the +ground now, and stood out into the moonlight before her, looking up into +her pale face. + +'Stephen,' she said, more solemnly than before, 'do you find it possible +to endure this injury and temptation?' + +'I've been praying for the master,' answered Stephen; but there was a +tone of bitterness in his voice, and his face grew gloomy again. + +'He is a very miserable man,' said Miss Anne, sighing; 'I often hear him +walking up and down his room, and crying aloud in the night-time for God +to have mercy upon him; but he is a slave to the love of riches. Years +ago he might have broken through his chain, but he hugged it closely, and +now it presses upon him very hardly. All his love has been given to +money, till he cannot feel any love to God; and he knows that in a few +years he must leave all he loves for ever, and go into eternity without +it. He will have no rest to-night because of the injury he has done you. +He is a very wretched man, Stephen.' + +'I wouldn't change with him for all his money,' said Stephen pityingly. + +'Stephen,' continued Miss Anne, 'you say you pray for my uncle, and I +believe you do; but do you never feel a kind of spite and hatred against +him in your very prayers? Have you never seemed to enjoy telling our +Father how very evil he is?' + +'Yes,' said the boy, hanging down his head, and wondering how Miss Anne +could possibly know that. + +'Ah, Stephen,' she continued, 'God requires of us something more than +such prayers. He bids us really and truly to love our enemies--love which +He only can know of, because it is He who seeth in secret and into the +inmost secrets of our hearts. I may hear you pray for your enemies, and +see you try to do them good; but He alone can tell whether of a truth you +love them.' + +'I cannot love them as I love you and little Nan,' replied Stephen. + +'Not with the same kind of love,' said Miss Anne; 'in us there is +something for your love to take hold of and feed upon. "But if ye love +them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the +same?" Your affection for us is the kind that sinners can feel; it is of +this earth, and is earthly. But to love our enemies is heavenly; it is +Christ-like, for He died for us while we were _yet_ sinners. Will you try +to do more than pray for my uncle and Black Thompson? Will you try to +love them. Will you try for Christ's sake?' + +'Oh, Miss Anne, how can I?' he asked. + +'It may not be all at once,' she answered tenderly; 'but if you ask God +to help you, His Holy Spirit will work within you. Only set this before +you as your aim, and resist every other feeling that will creep in; +remembering that the Lord Jesus Himself, who died for us, said to us, +"Love your enemies." He can feel for you, for "He was tempted in all +points as we are."' + +As she spoke the last words, they heard the master's voice calling loudly +for Miss Anne, and Stephen watched her run swiftly up the shrubbery and +disappear through the door. There was a great bolting and locking and +barring to be heard within, for it was rumoured that Mr. Wyley kept large +sums of money in his house, and no place in the whole country-side was +more securely fastened up by day or night. But Stephen thought of him +pacing up and down his room through the sleepless night, praying God to +have mercy upon him, yet not willing to give up his sin; and as he turned +away to the poor little cabin on the cinder-hill, there was more pity +than revenge in the boy's heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +STEPHEN AND THE RECTOR. + + +The report of the expulsion of the family from Fern's Hollow spread +through Botfield before morning; and Stephen found an eager cluster of +men, as well as boys and girls, awaiting his appearance on the pit-bank. +There was the steady step and glance of a man about him when he came--a +grave, reserved air, which had an effect upon even the rough colliers. +Black Thompson came forward to shake hands with him, and his example was +followed by many of the others, with hearty expressions of sympathy and +attempts at consolation. + +'It'll be put right some day,' said Stephen; and that was all they could +provoke him to utter. He went down to his work; and, though now and then +the recollection thrilled through him that there was no pleasant Fern's +Hollow for him to return to in the evening, none of his comrades could +betray him into any expression of resentment against his oppressor. + +In the meantime Miss Anne did not forget to visit the cabin, and cheer, +as well as she could, the trouble of poor Martha, whose good and proud +housewifery had kept Fern's Hollow cleaner and tidier than any of the +cottages at Botfield. It was no easy matter to rouse Martha to take any +interest in the miserable cabin where the household furniture had been +hastily heaped in the night before; but when her heart warmed to the +work, in which Miss Anne was taking an active part, she began to feel +something like pleasure in making the new home like the old one, as far +as the interior went. Out of doors, no improvement could be made until +soil could be carried up the barren and steep bank, to make a little plot +of garden ground. But within, the work went on so heartily that, when +Stephen returned from the pit, half an hour earlier than usual,--for he +had no long walk of two miles now,--he found his grandfather settled in +the chimney corner, apparently unconscious of any removal, while both +Martha and little Nan seemed in some measure reconciled to their change +of dwelling. Moreover, Miss Anne was waiting to greet him kindly. + +'Stephen,' she said, 'Martha has found the three notes in your +grandfather's pocket all safe. You had better take them with you to the +clergyman at Danesford, and do what he advises you with them. And now you +are come to live at Botfield, you can manage to go to church every +Sunday; even little Nan can go; and there is a night-school at Longville, +where you can learn to write as well as read. It will not be all loss, my +boy.' + +The opportunity for going to Danesford was not long in coming, for Black +Thompson and Cole, who were the chief colliers in the pit, chose to take +a 'play-day' with the rest of their comrades; and the boys and girls +employed at the works were obliged to play also, though it involved the +forfeiture of their day's wages--always a serious loss to Stephen. This +time, however, he heard the news gladly; and, carefully securing the +three notes by pinning them inside his pocket, he set out for his ten +miles walk across the tableland to the other side of the mountains, where +Danesford lay. His nearest way led straight by Fern's Hollow, and he saw +that already upon the old site the foundation was laid for a new house +containing three rooms. In everything else the aspect of the place +remained unchanged; there still hung the creaking wicket, where little +Nan had been wont to look for his coming home, until she could run with +outstretched arms to meet him. The beehives stood yet beneath the hedge, +and the bees were flying to and fro, seeking out the few flowers of the +autumn upon the hillside. The fern upon the uplands, just behind the +hollow, was beginning to die, and its rich red-brown hue showed that it +was ready to be cut and carried away for fodder; but a squatter from some +other hill-hut had trespassed upon Stephen's old domain. Except this one +man, the whole tableland was deserted; and so silent was it that the +rustle of his own feet through the fading ferns sounded like other +footsteps following him closely. The sheep were not yet driven down into +the valleys, and they and the wild ponies stood and stared boldly at the +solitary boy, without fleeing from his path, as if they had long since +forgotten how the bilberry gatherers had delighted in frightening them. +Stephen was too grave and manlike to startle them into memory of it, and +he plodded on mile after mile with the three notes in his pocket and his +hand closed upon them, pondering deeply with what words he should speak +to the unknown clergyman at Danesford. + +When he reached Danesford, he found it a very quiet, sleepy little +village, with a gleaming river flowing through it placidly, and such +respectable houses and small clean cottages as put to shame the dwellings +at Botfield. So early was it yet, that the village children were only +just going to school; and the biggest boy turned back with Stephen to the +gate of the Rectory. Stephen had never seen so large and grand a mansion, +standing far back from the road, in a park, through which ran a carriage +drive up to a magnificent portico. He stole shyly along a narrow side +path to the back door, and even there was afraid of knocking; but when +his low single rap was answered by a good-tempered-looking girl, not +much older than Martha, his courage revived, and he asked, in a +straightforward and steady manner, if he could see the parson. At which +the servant laughed a little, and, after inquiring his name, said she +would see if Mr. Lockwood could spare time to speak to him. + +Before long the girl returned, and led Stephen through many winding and +twisting passages, more puzzling than the roads in the pit, to a large, +grand room, with windows down to the ground, and looking out upon a +beautiful flower-garden. It was like the palace Miss Anne had spoken of, +for he could not understand half the things that were in the room; only +he saw a fire burning in a low grate, the bars of which shone like +silver, and upon the carpeted hearth beside it was a sofa, where a young +lady was lying, and near to it was a breakfast-table, at which an elderly +gentleman was seated alone. He was a very keen, shrewd-looking man, and +very pleasant to look at when he smiled; and he smiled upon Stephen, as +he stood awe-struck and speechless at his own daring in coming to speak +to such a gentleman, and in such a place as this. + +'So you are Stephen Fern, of Fern's Hollow,' said Mr. Lockwood; 'I +remember christening you, and giving you my own name, thirteen or +fourteen years since, isn't it? Your mother had been my faithful +servant for several years; and she brought you all across the hills +to Danesford to be christened. Is she well--my good Sarah Moore?' + +'Mother died four years ago, sir,' murmured Stephen, unable to say any +more. + +'Poor boy!' said the young lady on the sofa. 'Father, is there anything +we can do for him?' + +'That is what I am going to hear, my child,' replied Mr. Lockwood. +'Stephen has not come over the hills without some errand. Now, my boy, +speak out plainly and boldly, and let me hear what has brought you to +your mother's old master.' + +Thus encouraged, Stephen, with the utmost simplicity and frankness, +though with fewer words than Martha would have put into the narrative, +told Mr. Lockwood the whole history of his life; to which the clergyman +listened with ever-increasing interest, as he noticed how the boy was +telling all the truth, and nothing but the truth, even to his joining +Black Thompson in poaching. When he had finished, Mr. Lockwood went to +a large cabinet in the room, and, bringing out a bundle of old yellow +documents, soon found among them the paper James Fern had spoken of on +his death-bed. It was written by the clergyman living in Longville at the +time of old Martha Fern's death, to certify that she had settled, and +maintained her settlement on the hillside, without paying rent, or having +her fences destroyed, for upwards of twenty years, and that the land was +her own by the usages of the common. + +'I don't know what use it will be,' said Mr. Lockwood, 'but I will take +legal advice upon it; that is, I will tell my lawyer all about it, and +see what we had best do. You may leave the case in my hands, Stephen. But +to-morrow morning we start for the south of France, where my daughter +must live all the winter for the benefit of the warm climate; and I must +go with her, for she is my only treasure now. Can you live in your cabin +till we come home? Will you trust yourself to me, Stephen? I will not see +a son of my old servant wronged.' + +'Please, sir,' said Stephen, 'the cabin is good enough for us, and we are +nearer church and the night-school; only I didn't like to break my word +to father, besides losing the old home: we can stay all winter well. I'll +trust you, sir; but my work is dangersome, and please God I should get +killed, will you do the same for Martha and little Nan?' + +'Ay!' answered Mr. Lockwood, coughing down his emotion at the young boy's +forethought and care for his sisters. 'If it pleases God, my boy, you +will live to make a right good, true-hearted Christian man; but if He +should take you home before me, I'll befriend your sisters as long as I +live. I like your Miss Anne, Stephen; but your master is a terrible +rascal, I fear.' + +'Yes, sir,' said Stephen quietly. + +'You don't say much about him, however,' replied Mr. Lockwood, smiling at +his few words. + +'Please, sir, I am trying to love my enemies,' he answered, with a +feeling of shyness; 'if I was to call him a rascal, or any other bad +word, it 'ud throw me back like, and it's very hard work anyhow. I feel +as if I'd like to do it sometimes.' + +'You are right, Stephen,' said Mr. Lockwood; 'you are wise in keeping +your tongue from evil speaking: for "therewith bless we God, even the +Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude +of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing." You have +taught an old parson a lesson, my boy. You had better leave your money +with me until my lawyer gives us his opinion. Now go home in peace, and +serve your master faithfully; but if you should need a friend before I +return, come here and ask for the clergyman who is going to take my duty. +I will tell him about you, and he will help you until I come home.' + +That afternoon Stephen retraced his lonely path across the hills in great +gladness of heart; and when he came to Fern's Hollow, he leaped lightly +down the bank against which the old stove-pipe had been reared as a +chimney, and stood again on the site of the old hearth, in the midst of +the new walls of red bricks that were being built up. How the master +could remove the new house and restore the old hut was a question of some +perplexity to him; but his confidence in the parson at Danesford was so +perfect, that he did not doubt for a moment that he could call Fern's +Hollow his own again next spring. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +VISIT OF BLACK BESS. + + +Everybody at Botfield was astonished at the change in Stephen's manner; +so cheerful was he, and light-hearted, as if his brief manhood had passed +away, with its burden of cares and anxieties, and his boyish freedom and +gladsomeness had come back again. The secret cause remained undiscovered; +for Martha, fluent in tongue as she was, had enough discretion to keep +her own counsel, and seal up her lips as close as wax, when it was +necessary. The people puzzled themselves in vain; and Black Thompson left +off hinting at revenge to Stephen. Even the master, when the boy passed +him with a respectful bow, in which there was nothing of resentment or +sullenness, wondered how he could so soon forget the great injury he had +suffered. Mr. Wyley would have been better satisfied if the whole family +could have been driven out of the neighbourhood; but there was no knowing +what ugly rumours and inquiries might be set afloat, if the boy went +telling his tale to nobody knows whom. + +Upon the whole, Martha did not very much regret her change of dwelling, +though she made a great virtue of her patience in submitting quietly to +it. To be sure, the cinder-hill was unsightly, and the cabin blackened +with smoke; and it was necessary to lock little Nan and grandfather +safely within the house whenever she went out, lest they should get to +the mouth of the open shaft, where Stephen often amused the child by +throwing stones down it, and listening to their rebound against the +sides. But still Martha had near neighbours; and until now she had hardly +even tasted the luxury of a thorough gossip, which she could enjoy in any +one of the cottages throughout Botfield. Moreover, she could get work for +herself on three days in the week, to help a washerwoman, who gave her +ninepence a day, besides letting little Nan go with her, and have, as she +said, 'the run of her teeth.' She had her admirers, too--young collier +lads, who told her truly enough she was the cleanest, neatest, tidiest +lass in all Botfield. So Martha Fern regarded their residence on the +cinder-hill with more complacency than could have been expected. The only +circumstance which in her secret heart she considered a serious drawback +was her very near neighbourhood to Miss Anne. + +'Stephen,' said Martha one Saturday night, after their work was done, +'I've been thinking how it's only thee that's trying to keep the +commandments. I'm not such a scholar as thee; but I've heard thy chapter +read till it's in my head, as well as if I could read it off book myself. +So I'm thinking I ought to love my enemies as well as thee; and I've +asked Black Bess to come and have a cup of tea with us to-morrow.' + +'Black Bess!' exclaimed Stephen, with a feeling of some displeasure. + +'Ah,' said Martha, 'she's always calling me--a shame to be heard. But +I've quite forgiven her; and to-morrow I'll let her see I can make +pikelets as well as her mother; and we'll have out the three china cups; +only grandfather and little Nan must have common ones. I thought I'd +better tell thee; and then thee'lt make haste home from church in the +afternoon.' + +'Black Bess isn't a good friend for thee,' answered Stephen, who was +better acquainted with the pit-girl's character than was Martha, and felt +troubled at the idea of any companionship between them. + +'But we are to love our enemies,' persisted Martha, 'and do good to them +that hate us. At any rate I asked her, and she said she'd come.' + +'I don't think it means we are to ask our enemies to tea,' said Stephen, +in perplexity. 'If she was badly off, like, and in want of a meal's meat, +it 'ud be another thing; I'd do it gladly. And on a Sunday too! Oh, +Martha, it doesn't seem right.' + +'Oh, nothing's right that I do!' replied Martha pettishly; 'thee'rt +afraid I'll get as good as thee, and then thee cannot crow over me. But +I'll not spend a farthing of thy money, depend upon it. I'm not without +some shillings of my own, I reckon. Thee should let me love my enemies as +well as thee, I think; but thee'lt want to go up to heaven alone next.' + +Stephen said no more, though Martha continued talking peevishly about +Black Bess. She was not at all satisfied in her own mind that she was +doing right; but Bess had met her at a neighbour's house, where she was +boasting of her skill in making pikelets, and she had been drawn out by +her sneers and mocking to give her a kind of challenge to come and taste +them. She wanted now to make herself and Stephen believe that she was +doing it out of love and forgiveness towards poor Bess; but she could not +succeed in the deception. All the Sunday morning she was bustling about, +and sadly chafing the grandfather by making him move hither and thither +out of the way. It was quite a new experience to have any one coming to +tea; and all her hospitable and housekeeping feelings were greatly +excited by the approaching event. + +When Stephen, with tired little Nan riding on his shoulder, returned from +church in the afternoon, they found Bess had arrived, and was sitting in +the warmest corner, close to a very large and blazing fire, which filled +the cabin with light and heat. Bess had dressed herself up in her best +attire, in a bright red stuff gown, and with yellow ribbons tied in her +hair, which had been brought to a degree of smoothness wonderful to +Stephen, who saw her daily on the pit-bank. She had washed her face and +hands with so much care as to leave broad stripes of grime round her neck +and wrists, partly concealed by a necklace and bracelets of glass beads; +and her green apron was marvellously braided in a large pattern. Martha, +in her clean print dress, and white handkerchief pinned round her throat, +was a pleasant contrast to the tawdry girl, who looked wildly at Stephen +as he entered, as if she scarcely knew what to do. + +'Good evening, Bess,' he said, as pleasantly as he could. 'Martha told me +thee was coming to eat some pikelets with her, so I asked Tim to come +too; and after tea we'll have some rare singing. I often hear thee on the +bank, Bess, and thee has a good voice.' + +Bess coloured with pleasure, and evidently tried her best to be amiable +and well-mannered, sitting up nearer and nearer to the fire until her +face shone as red as her dress with the heat. Martha moved triumphantly +about the house, setting the tea-table, upon which she placed the three +china cups, with a gratified glance at the undisguised admiration of +Bess; though three common ones had to be laid beside them, for, as Tim +was coming, Stephen must fare like grandfather and little Nan. As soon as +Tim arrived, she was very busy beating up the batter for the pikelets, +and then baking them over the fire; and very soon the little party were +sitting down to their feast--Bess declaring politely, between each piece +pressed upon her by Martha, that she had never tasted such pikelets, +never! + +At last, when tea was quite finished, and the table carefully lifted back +to a safe corner at the foot of the bed, though Martha prudently replaced +the china cups in the cupboard, Tim and Stephen drew up their stools to +the front of the fire, and a significant glance passed between them. + +'Now then, Stevie,' said Tim, 'thee learn me the new hymn Miss Anne sings +with us; and let's teach Bess to sing too.' + +Bess looked round uneasily, as if she found herself caught in a trap; +but, as Tim burst off loudly into a hymn tune, in which Stephen joined at +the top of his voice, she had no time to make any objection. Martha and +the old grandfather, who had been a capital singer in his day, began to +help; and little Nan mingled her sweet, clear, childish notes with their +stronger tones. It was a long hymn, and, before it was finished, Bess +found herself shyly humming away to the tune, almost as if it had been +the chorus of one of the pit-bank songs. They sang more and more, until +she joined in boldly, and whispered to Martha that she wished she knew +the words, so as to sing with them. But the crowning pleasure of the +evening was when little Nan, sitting on Stephen's knee, with his fingers +stroking her curly hair, sang by herself a new hymn for little children, +which Miss Anne had been teaching her. She could not say the words very +plainly, but her voice was sweet, and she looked so lovely with her tiny +hands softly folded, and her eyes lifted up steadily to Stephen's face, +that at last Black Bess burst out into a loud and long fit of crying, and +wept so bitterly that none of them could comfort her, until the little +child herself, who had been afraid of her before, climbed upon her lap +and laid her arms round her neck. She looked up then, and wiped the tears +from her face with the corner of her fine apron. + +'I had a sister once, just like little Nan,' she said, with a sob, 'and +she minded me of her. Miss Anne told me she was singing somewhere among +the angels, and I thought she'd look like little Nan. But I'm afraid I +shall never go where she is; I'm so bad.' + +'We'll teach thee how to be good,' answered Martha. 'Thee come to me, +Bess, and I'll teach thee the hymns, and the singing, and how to make +pikelets, and keep the house clean on a week-day. I'm going to love my +enemies, and do good to them that hate me; so don't thee be shy-like. +We'll be friends like Stephen and Tim; and weren't they enemies afore +Stephen learned to read?' + +That night, as Stephen lay down to sleep, he said to himself, 'I'm glad +Black Bess came to eat pikelets with Martha. My chapter says, "Whosoever +shall do the commandments, and teach them, the same shall be called great +in the kingdom of heaven." Perhaps Martha and me will be called great in +heaven, if we teach Bess how to do God's commandments.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE OLD SHAFT. + + +Black Bess began to visit the cinder-hill cabin very often. But there +was a fatal mistake, which poor Stephen, in his simplicity and +single-heartedness, was a long time in discovering. Martha herself had +not truly set out on the path of obedience to God's commandments; and it +was not possible that she could teach Bess how to keep them. A Christian +cannot be like a finger-post, which only points the way to a place, but +never goes there itself. She could teach Bess the words of the hymn, and +the tunes they were sung to; but she could tell her nothing of the +feeling of praise and love to the Saviour with which Stephen sang them, +and out of which all true obedience must flow. With her lips she could +say, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' and 'Blessed are the meek,' and +'Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness;' but she +cared for none of these things, and felt none of their blessedness in her +own soul; and Bess very quickly found out that she would far rather talk +about other matters. And because our hearts, which are foolish, and +deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, soon grow weary of +good, but are ever ready to delight in evil, it came to pass that, +instead of Martha teaching poor ignorant Bess how to do God's will, Bess +was leading her into all sorts of folly and wickedness. + +It would be no very easy task to describe how unhappy Stephen was when, +from day to day, he saw Martha's pleasant sisterly ways change into a +rude and careless harshness, and her thrifty, cleanly habits give place +to the dirty extravagance of the collier-folk at Botfield. But who could +tell how he suffered in his warm, tender-hearted nature, when he came +home at night, and found the poor old grandfather neglected, and left +desolate in his blindness; and little Nan herself severely punished by +Martha's unkindness and quick temper? Not that Martha became bad +suddenly, or was always unkind and neglectful; there were times when +she was her old self again, when she would listen patiently enough to +Stephen's remonstrances and Miss Anne's gentle teaching; but yet Stephen +could never feel sure, when he was at his dismal toil underground, that +all things were going on right in his home overhead. Often and often, as +he looked up to Fern's Hollow, where the new red-brick house was now to +be seen plainly, like a city set on a hill, he longed to be back again, +and counted the months and weeks until the spring should bring home the +good clergyman to Danesford. + +One day, during the time allowed to the pit-girls for eating their +dinner, Bess came running over the cinderhills in breathless haste to the +old cabin. Martha had been busy all the morning, and was still standing +at the washing-tub; but she was glad of an excuse for resting herself, +and when Bess sprang over the door-sill, she received her very cordially. + +'Martha! Martha!' cried Bess; 'come away quickly. Here's Andrew the +packman in the lane, with such shawls, Martha! Blue and red and yellow +and green! Only five shillings a-piece; and thee canst pay him a shilling +a week. Come along, and be sharp with thee.' + +'I've got no money to spend,' said Martha sullenly. 'Stephen ought to let +grandfather go into the House, and then we shouldn't be so pinched. What +with buying for him and little Nan, I've hardly a brass farthing in the +world for myself.' + +'I'd not pinch,' Bess answered; 'let Stephen pinch if he will. Why, +all the lads in Botfield are making a mock at thee, calling thee an +old-fashioned piece and Granny Fern. But come and look, anyhow; Andrew +will be gone directly.' + +Bess dragged Martha by the arm to the top of the cinder-hill, where they +could see the pit-girls clustering round the packman in the lane. The +black linen wrapper in which his pack was carried was stretched along +the hedge, and upon it was spread a great show of bright-coloured shawls +and dresses, and the girls were flitting from one to another, closely +examining their quality; while Andrew's wife walked up and down, +exhibiting each shawl by turns upon her shoulders. The temptation was too +strong for Martha; she wiped the soap-suds from her arms upon her apron, +and ran as eagerly down to the lane as Black Bess herself. + +'Eh! here's a clean, tight lass for you!' cried Andrew, comparing Martha +with the begrimed pit-girls about him. 'The best shawl in my pack isn't +good enough for you, my dear. Pick and choose. Just make your own choice, +and I'll accommodate you about the price.' + +'I've got no money,' said Martha. + +'Oh, you and me'll not quarrel about money,' replied Andrew; 'you make +your choice, and I'll wait your time. I'm coming my rounds pretty +regular, and you can put up a shilling or two agen I come, without +letting on to father. But maybe you're married, my dear?' + +'No,' she answered, blushing. + +'It's not far off, I'll be bound,' he continued, 'and with a shawl like +this, now, you'd look like a full-blown rose. Come, I'll not be hard upon +you, as it's the first time you've dealt with me. That shawl's worth ten +shillings if it's worth a farthing, and I'll let you have it for seven +shillings and sixpence; half a crown down, and a shilling a fortnight +till it's paid up.' + +Andrew threw the shawl over her shoulders, and turned her round to the +envying view of the assembled girls, who were not allowed to touch any of +his goods with their soiled hands. Martha softly stroked the bright blue +border, and felt its texture between her fingers; while she deliberated +within herself whether she could not buy it from the fund procured by the +bilberry picking in the autumn. As Stephen had never known the full +amount, she could withdraw the half-crown without his knowledge, and the +sixpence a week she could save out of her own earnings. In ten minutes, +while Andrew was bargaining with some of the others, she came to the +conclusion that she could not possibly do any longer without a new shawl; +so, telling the packman that she would be back again directly, she ran as +swiftly as she could over the cinder-hill homewards. + +In her hurry to accompany Bess to the lane, she had left her cabin door +unfastened, never thinking of the danger of the open pit to her blind +grandfather and the child. Little Nan had been wearying all morning for +a run in the wintry sunshine, out of the close steam of washing in the +small hut; but Martha had not dared to let her run about alone, as she +had been used to do at Fern's Hollow, in their safe garden. After Martha +and Black Bess had left her, the child stood looking wistfully through +the open door for some time; but at last she ventured over the door-sill, +and her tiny feet painfully climbed the frozen bank behind the house, +whence she could see the group of girls in the lane below. Perhaps she +would have found her way down to them, but Martha had been cross with her +all the morning, and the child's little spirit was frightened with her +scolding. She turned back to the cabin, sobbing, for the north wind blew +coldly upon her; and then she must have caught sight of the shaft, where +Stephen had been throwing stones down for her the night before, without a +thought of the little one trying to pursue the dangerous game alone. As +Martha came over the cinder-hill, her eyes fell upon little Nan, rosy, +laughing, screaming with delight as her tiny hands lifted a large stone +high above her curly head, while she bent over the unguarded margin of +the pit. But before Martha could move in her agony of terror, the heavy +stone dropped from her small fingers, and Nan, little Nan, with her rosy, +laughing face, had fallen after it. + +Martha never forgot that moment. As if with a sudden awaking of memory, +there flashed across her mind all the child's simple, winning ways. She +seemed to see her dying mother again, laying the helpless baby in her +arms, and bidding her to be a mother to it. She heard her father's last +charge to take care of little Nan, when he also was passing away. Her own +wicked carelessness and neglect, Stephen's terrible sorrow if little Nan +should be dead, all the woeful consequences of her fault, were stamped +upon her heart with a sudden and very bitter stroke. Those who were +watching her from the lane saw her stand as if transfixed for a moment; +and then a piercing scream, which made every one within hearing start +with terror, rang through the frosty air, as Martha sprang forward to the +mouth of the old pit, and, peering down its dark and narrow depths, could +just discern a little white figure lying motionless at the bottom of the +shaft. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A BROTHER'S GRIEF. + + +In a very short time all the people at work on the surface of the mine +knew that Stephen Fern's little sister was dead--lying dead in the very +pit where he was then labouring for her, with the spirit and strength and +love of a father rather than a brother. Every face was overcast and +grave; and many of the boys and girls were weeping, for little Nan had +endeared herself to them all since she came to live at the cinder-hill +cabin. Tim felt faint and heart-sick, almost wishing he could have +perished in the child's stead, for poor Stephen's sake; but he had to +rouse himself, for one of the banksmen was going to shout the terrible +tidings down the shaft; and if Stephen should be near, instead of being +at work farther in the pit, the words would fall upon him without any +softening or preparation. He implored them to wait until he could run and +tell Miss Anne; but while he was speaking they saw Miss Anne herself +coming towards the pit, her face very pale and sorrowful, for the rumour +had reached the master's house, and she was hastening to meet Stephen, +and comfort him, if that were possible. + +'Oh, Miss Anne!' cried Tim; 'it will kill poor Stephen, if it come upon +him sudden like. I know the way through the old pit to where poor little +Nan has fallen; and I'll go and find her. The roof's dropped in, and only +a boy could creep along. But who's to tell Stevie? Oh, Miss Anne, +couldn't you go down with me, and tell him gently your own self?' + +'Yes, I will go,' said Miss Anne, weeping. + +Underground, in those low, dark, pent-up galleries, lighted only here and +there by a glimmering lamp, the colliers were busy at their labours, +unconscious of all that was happening overhead. Stephen was at work at +some distance from the others, loading a train of small square waggons +with the blocks of coal which he and Black Thompson had picked out of the +earth. He was singing softly to himself the hymns that he and little Nan +had been learning during the summer in the Red Gravel Pit; and he smiled +as he fancied that little Nan was perhaps singing them over as well by +the cabin fire. He did not know, poor boy, that at that moment Tim was +creeping through the winding, blocked-up passages, so long untrodden, to +the bottom of the old shaft; and that when he returned he would be +bearing in his arms a sad, sad burden, upon which his tears would fall +unavailingly. + +Stephen's comrades were all of a sudden very quiet, and their pickaxes no +longer gave dull muffled thumps upon the seam of coal; but he was too +busy to notice how idle and still they were. It was only when Cole spoke +to him, in a tone of extraordinary mildness, that the boy paused in his +rough and toilsome employment. + +'My lad,' said Cole, 'Miss Anne's come down the pit, and she's asking for +thee.' + +'She promised she'd come some day,' cried Stephen, with a thrill of +pleasure and a quicker throbbing of his heart, as he darted along the +narrow paths to the loftier and more open space near the bottom of the +shaft, where Miss Anne was waiting for him. The covered lamps gave too +little light for him to see how pale and sorrow-stricken she looked; but +the solemn tenderness of her voice sank deeply into his heart. + +'Stephen, my dear boy,' she said, 'are you sure that I care for you, and +would not let any trouble come upon you if I could help it?' + +'Yes, surely, Miss Anne,' answered the boy wonderingly. + +'Your Father which is in heaven cares much more for you,' she continued; +'but "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He +receiveth." God is dealing with you as His son, Stephen. Can you bear the +sorrow which is sent by Him?' + +'If the Lord Jesus will help me,' he murmured. + +'He will help you, my poor boy,' said Miss Anne 'Oh, Stephen, Stephen, +how can I tell you? Our little Nan, our precious little child, has fallen +down the old shaft.' + +Stephen reeled giddily, and would have sunk to the ground, but Cole held +him up in his strong arms, while his comrades gathered about him with +tears and sobs, which prevented them uttering any words of consolation. +But he could not have listened to them. He fancied he heard the pattering +of Nan's little feet, and saw her laughing face. But no! he heard instead +the dull and lingering footsteps of Tim, and saw a little lifeless form +folded from sight in Tim's jacket. + +'The little lass 'ud die very easy,' whispered Cole, passing his arm +tighter round Stephen; 'and she's up in heaven among the angels by this +time, I reckon.' + +Stephen drew himself away from Cole's arm, and staggered forward a step +or two to meet Tim; when he took the sad burden from him, and sat down +without a word, pressing it closely to his breast. His perfect silence +touched all about him. Miss Anne hid her face in her hands, and some of +the men groaned aloud. + +'The old pit ought to have been bricked up years ago,' said Cole; 'the +child's death will be upon the master's head.' + +'It'll all go to one reckoning,' muttered Black Thompson. But Stephen +seemed not to hear their words. Still, with the child clasped tightly to +him, he waited for the lowering of the skip, and when it descended, he +seated himself in it without lifting up his head, which was bent over the +dead child. Miss Anne and Tim took their places beside him, and they were +drawn up to the broad, glittering light of day on the surface, where a +crowd of eager bystanders was waiting for Stephen's appearance. + +'Don't speak to me, please,' he murmured, without looking round; and they +made way for him in his deep, silent grief, as he passed on homewards, +followed by Miss Anne. Once she saw him look up to the hills, where, at +Fern's Hollow, the new house stood out conspicuously against the snow; +and when they passed the shaft, he shuddered visibly; but yet he was +silent, and scarcely seemed to know that she was walking beside him. + +The cabin was full of women from Botfield, for Martha had fallen into +violent fits of hysterics, and none of their remedies had any effect in +soothing her. One of them took the dead child from Stephen's arms at the +door, and bade him go away and sit in her cottage till she came to him. +But he turned off towards the hills; and Miss Anne, seeing that she could +say nothing to comfort him just then, watched him strolling along the old +road that led to Fern's Hollow, with his arms folded and his head bent +down, as if he were still carrying that sad burden which he had borne up +from the pit, so closely pressed against his heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +RENEWED CONFLICT. + + +'I'm a murderer, Miss Anne,' said Martha, with a look of settled despair +upon her face, on the evening of the next day. + +She had been sitting all the weary hours since morning with her face +buried in her hands, hearing and heeding no one, until Miss Anne came and +sat down beside her, speaking to her in her own kind and gentle tones. +Upon a table in the corner of the cabin lay the little form of the dead +child, covered with a white cloth. The old grandfather was crouching over +the fire, moaning and laughing by turns; and Stephen was again absent, +rambling upon the snowy uplands. + +'And for murderers there is pardon,' said Miss Anne softly. + +'Oh, I never thought I wanted pardon,' cried Martha; 'I always felt I'd +done my duty better than any of the girls about here. But I've killed +little Nan; and now I remember how cross I used to be when nobody was +nigh, till she grew quite timmer-some of me. Everybody knows I've +murdered her; and now it doesn't signify how bad I am. I shall never get +over that.' + +'Martha,' said Miss Anne, 'you are not so guilty of the child's death as +my uncle, who ought to have had the pit bricked over safely when it was +no longer in use. But you say you never thought you wanted pardon. Surely +you feel your need of it now.' + +'But God will never forgive me now,' replied Martha hopelessly; 'I see +how wicked I have been, but the chance is gone by. God will not forgive +me now; nor Stephen.' + +'We will not talk about Stephen,' said Miss Anne; 'but I will tell you +about God. When He gave His commandments to mankind that they might obey +them, He proclaimed His own name at the same time. Listen to His name, +Martha: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, +and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, +forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." If you would not go to Him +for mercy when you did not feel your need of it, He was keeping it for +you against this time; saving and treasuring it up for you, "that He +might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us, +through Christ Jesus." He is waiting to pardon your iniquity, for +Christ's sake. Do you wish to be forgiven now? Do you feel that you are a +sinful girl, Martha?' + +'I have thought of nothing else all day long,' whispered Martha; 'I have +helped to kill little Nan by my sins.' + +'Yes,' said Miss Anne mournfully; 'if, like Stephen, you had opened your +heart to the gentle teaching of the Holy Spirit, if you had looked to +Jesus, trusted in Him, and followed Him, this grief would not have come +upon you and upon all of us. For Bess would not have persuaded you to +leave your own duties, and little Nan would have been alive still.' + +'Oh, I knew I'd killed her!' cried a voice behind them; and, looking +round, Miss Anne saw that the door had been softly opened, and Bess had +crept in unheard. Her face was swollen with weeping, and she stood +wringing her hands, as she cast a fearful glance at the white-covered +table in the corner. + +'Come here, Bess,' said Miss Anne; and the girl crept to them, and sat +down on the ground at their feet. Miss Anne talked long with them about +little Nan's death, until they shed many tears in true contrition of +heart for their sinfulness; and when they appeared to feel their own +utter helplessness, she explained to them, in such simple and easy +language as Bess could understand, how they could obtain salvation +through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. After which they all knelt down; +and Miss Anne prayed earnestly for the weeping and heart-broken girls, +who, as yet, hardly knew how they could frame any prayers for themselves. + +When Miss Anne left the cabin the night was quite dark but the snow which +lay unmelted on the mountains showed their outlines plainly with a pale +gleaming of light though the sky was overcast with more snow-clouds. Her +heart was full of sadness for Stephen, who was wandering, no one knew +whither, among the snowdrifts on the solitary plains. She knew that he +must be passing through a terrible trial and temptation, but she could do +nothing for him; her voice could not reach him, nor her eye tell him by a +silent look how deeply she felt for him. Yet Miss Anne knew who it is +that possesseth 'the shields of the earth,' and in her earnest +thanksgiving to God for Martha and Bess Thompson, she prayed fervently +that the boy might be shielded and sheltered in his great sorrow, and +that when he was tried he might come forth as gold. + +All the day long, Stephen, instead of going to his work in the pit, had +been rambling, without aim or purpose, over the dreary uplands; here and +there stretching himself upon the wiry heath, where the sun had dried +away the snow, and hiding his face from the light, while he gave way to +an anguish of grief, and broke the deep silence with a loud and very +bitter cry. It was death, sudden death, he was lamenting. Only yesterday +morning little Nan was clinging strongly to his neck, and covering his +face with merry kisses; and every now and then he felt as if he was only +dreaming, and he started down towards home, as though he could not +believe that those tender arms were stiffened and that rosy mouth still +in death. But before he could run many paces the truth was borne in upon +his aching heart that she was surely dead; and never more in this life +would he see and speak to her, or listen to her lisping tongue. Little +Nan, dearest of all earthly things,--perhaps dearer to him in the infancy +of his Christian life than the Saviour Himself,--was removed from him +so far that she was already a stranger, and he knew nothing of her. + +Towards evening he found himself, in his aimless wandering, drawing near +to Fern's Hollow, where she had lived. The outer shell of the new house +was built up, the three rooms above and below, with the little dairy and +coal-shed beside them, and Stephen, even in his misery, was glad of the +shelter of the blank walls from the cutting blast of the north wind; for +he felt that he could not go home to the cabin where the dead child--no +longer darling little Nan--was lying. Poor Stephen! He sat down on a heap +of bricks upon the new hearth, where no household fire had ever been +kindled; and, while the snow-flakes drifted in upon him unheeded, he +buried his face again in his hands, and went on thinking, as he had been +doing all day. He would never care to come back now to Fern's Hollow. +No! he would get away to some far-off country, where he should never more +hear the master's name spoken. Let him keep the place, he thought, and +let it be a curse to him, for he had bought it with a child's blood. If +the law gave him back Fern's Hollow, it would not avenge little Nan's +death; and he had no power. But the master was a murderer; and Stephen +knelt down on the desolate hearth, where no prayer had ever been uttered, +and prayed God that the sin and punishment of murder might rest upon his +enemy. + +Was it consolation that filled Stephen's heart when he rose from his +knees? It seemed as if his spirit had grown suddenly harder, and in some +measure stronger. He did not feel afraid now of going down to the cabin, +where the little lifeless corpse was stretched out; and he strode away +down the hill with rapid steps. When the thought of Martha, and his +grandfather, and Miss Anne crossed his mind, it was with no gentle, +tender emotion, but with a strange feeling that he no longer cared for +them. All his love was gone with little Nan. Only the thought of the +master, and the terrible reckoning that lay before him, sent a thrill +through his heart. 'I shall be there at the judgment,' he muttered half +aloud, looking up to the cold, cloudy sky, almost as if he expected to +see the sign of the coming of the Lord. But there was no sign there; and, +after gazing for a minute or two, he turned in the direction of the +cabin, where he could see a glimmer of the light within through the +chinks of the door and shutter. + +Bess and Martha were still sitting hand in hand as Miss Anne had left +them; but they both started up as Stephen entered, pale and ghastly from +his long conflict with grief and temptation on the hills. He was come +home conquered, though he did not know it; and the expression of his face +was one of hatred and vengeance, instead of sorrow and love. He bade +Black Bess to be off out of his sight in a voice so changed and harsh, +that both the girls were frightened, and Martha stole away tremblingly +with her. He was alone then, with his sleeping grandfather on the bed, +and the dead child lying in the corner, from which he carefully averted +his eyes; when there came a quiet tap at the door, and, before he could +answer, it was slowly opened, and the master stepped into the cabin. He +stood before the boy, looking into his white face in silence, and when he +spoke his voice was very husky and low. + +'My lad,' he said, 'I'm very sorry for you; and I'll have the pit bricked +over at once. It had slipped my memory, Stephen; but Martha knew of it, +and she ought to have taken better care of the child. It is no fault of +mine; or it is only partly my fault, at any rate. But, whether or no, I'm +come to tell you I'm willing to bear the expenses of the funeral in +reason; and here's a sovereign for you besides, my lad.' + +The master held out a glittering sovereign in his hand, but Stephen +pushed it away, and, seizing his arm firmly, drew him, reluctant as he +was, to the white-covered table in the corner. There was no look of pain +upon the pale, placid little features before them; but there was an awful +stillness, and all the light of life was gone out of the open eyes, which +were fixed into an upward gaze. The Bible, which Stephen had not looked +for that morning, had been used instead of a cushion, and the motionless +head lay upon it. + +'That was little Nan yesterday,' said Stephen hoarsely; 'she is gone to +tell God all about you. You robbed us of our own home; and you've been +the death of little Nan. God's curse will be upon you. It's no use my +cursing; I can do nothing; but God can punish you better than me. A while +ago I thought I'd get away to some other country where I'd never hear of +you; but I'll wait now, if I'm almost clemmed to death, till I see what +God will do at you. Take your money. You've robbed me of all I love, but +I won't take from you what you love. I'll only wait here till I see what +God can do.' + +He loosed his grasp then, and opened the door wide. The master muttered a +few words indistinctly, but he did not linger in the cabin beside that +awful little corpse. The night had already deepened into intense +darkness; and Stephen, standing at the door to listen, thought, with a +quick tingling through all his veins, that perhaps the master would +himself fall down the open pit. But no, he passed on securely; and +Martha, coming in shortly afterwards, ventured to remark that she had +just brushed against the master in the lane, and wondered where he was +going to at that time of night. + +Miss Anne came to see Stephen the next day; but, though he seemed to +listen to her respectfully, she felt that she had lost her influence over +him; and she could do nothing for him but intercede with God that the +Holy Spirit, who only can enter into our inmost souls and waken there +every memory, would in His own good time recall to Stephen's heart all +the lessons of love and forgiveness he had been learning, and enable him +to overcome the evil spirit that had gained the mastery over him. + +All the people in Botfield wished to attend little Nan's funeral, but +Stephen would not consent to it. At first he said only Tim and himself +should accompany the tiny coffin to the churchyard at Longville; but +Martha implored so earnestly to go with them, that he was compelled to +relent. The coffin was placed in a little cart, drawn by one of the +hill-ponies, and led slowly by Tim; while Stephen and Martha walked +behind, the latter weeping many humble and repentant tears, as she +thought sorrowfully of little Nan; but Stephen with a set and gloomy +face, and a heart that pondered only upon the calamities that should +overtake his enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SOFTENING THOUGHTS. + + +But God had not forsaken Stephen; though, for a little time, He had left +him to the working of his own sinful nature, that he might know of a +certainty that in himself there dwelt no good thing. God looks down from +heaven upon all our bitter conflicts; and He weighs, as a just Judge, all +the events that happen on earth. From the servant to whom He has given +but one talent, He does not demand the same service as from him who has +ten talents. Stephen's heavenly Father knew exactly how much +understanding and strength he possessed, for He Himself had given those +good gifts to the boy, and He knew in what measure He had bestowed them. +When the right time was come, 'He sent from above, He took him, He +brought him out of many waters. He brought him forth also into a large +place; He delivered him, because He delighted in him.' + +After the great tribulation of those days Stephen fell into a long and +severe illness. For many weeks he was delirious and unconscious, neither +knowing what he said nor who was taking care of him. When Miss Anne sat +beside him, soothing him, as she sometimes could do, with singing, he +would talk of being in heaven, and listening to little Nan among the +angels. Bess shared many of Martha's weary hours of watching: and so +deeply had the child's death affected them, that now all their thoughts +and talk were about the things that Miss Anne diligently taught them +concerning Jesus and His salvation. It was not much they knew; but as in +former times a very small subject was sufficient for a long gossip, so +now the little knowledge of the Scriptures that was lodged in either of +their minds became the theme of fluent, if not very learned conversation. +Sometimes Stephen, as if their words caught some floating memory, would +murmur out a verse or two in his delirious ramblings, or sing part of a +hymn. Tim, also, who came for an hour or two every evening, was always +ready to read the few chapters he had learned, and to give the girls his +interpretation of them. + +There was no pressing want in the little household, though their +bread-winner was unable to work. The miners made up Stephen's wages among +themselves at every reckoning, for Stephen had won their sincere +respect, though they had often been tempted to ill-treat him. Miss Anne +came every day with dainties from the master's house, without meeting +with any reproof or opposition, though the name of Stephen Fern never +crossed Mr. Wyley's lips. Still he used to listen attentively whenever +the doctor called upon Miss Anne, to give her his opinion how the poor +boy was going on. + +When Stephen was recovering, his mind was too weak for any of the violent +passions that had preceded his illness. Moreover, the bounty of his +comrades, and the humble kindness of Martha and Bess, came like healing +to his soul; for very often the tenderness of others will seem to atone +for the injuries of our enemies, and at least soften our vehement desire +for revenge. Yet, in a quiet, listless sort of way, Stephen still longed +for God to prove His wrath against the master's wrong-doing. It appeared +so strange to hear that all this time nothing had befallen him, that he +was still strong and healthy, and becoming more and more wealthy every +day. Like Asaph, the psalmist, when he considered the prosperity of the +wicked, Stephen was inclined to say, 'How doth God know? and is there +knowledge with the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly that prosper +in the earth; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart +in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I +been plagued, and chastened every morning.' + +'Why does God let these things be?' he inquired of Miss Anne one day, +after he was well enough to rise from his bed and sit by the fire. He was +very white and thin, and his eyes looked large and shining in their +sunken sockets; but they gazed earnestly into his teacher's face, as if +he was craving to have this difficulty solved. + +'You have asked me a hard question,' said Miss Anne; 'we cannot +understand God's way, for "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so +are His ways than our ways." But shall we try to find out a reason why +God let these things be for little Nan's sake?' + +'Yes,' said Stephen, turning away his eyes from her face. + +'Our Lord Jesus Christ had one disciple, called John, whom He loved more +than the rest; and before John died he was permitted to see heaven, and +to write down many of the things shown to him, that we also might know of +them. He beheld a holy city, whose builder and maker is God, and having +the glory of God. It was built, as it were, of pure gold, and the walls +were of all manner of precious stones; the gates of the city were of +pearl, and the streets of gold, as clear and transparent as glass. There +was no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of +God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. He saw, too, the +throne of God, and above it there was a rainbow of emerald, which was a +sign of His covenant with the people upon earth. And round about the +throne, nearer than the angels, there were seats, upon which men who had +been ransomed from this world of sin and sorrow were sitting in white +robes, and with crowns upon their heads. There came a pure river of water +of life out of the throne, and on each side of the river, in the streets +of the city, there was a tree of life, the leaves of which are for the +healing of all nations. Before the throne stood a great multitude, which +no man could number, clothed in white robes, and with palms in their +hands. And as John listened, he heard a sound like the voice of many +waters; then, as it became clearer, it seemed like the voice of a great +thunder; but at last it rang down into his opened ears as the voice of +many harpers, singing a new song with their harps. And he heard a great +voice out of heaven, proclaiming the covenant of God with men: "Behold, +the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they +shall be His people; and God Himself shall be with them, and be their +God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall +be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any +more pain." The disciple whom Jesus loved saw many other things which he +was commanded to seal up; but these things were written for our comfort.' + +'And little Nan is there,' murmured Stephen, as the tears rolled down his +cheeks. + +'Our Lord says of little children, "I say unto you, That in heaven their +angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven,"' +continued Miss Anne. 'Stephen, do you wish her to be back again in this +sorrowful world, with Martha and you for companions, instead of the +angels?' + +'Oh no!' sobbed Stephen. + +'And now, why has God sent so many troubles to you, my poor Stephen? As +I told you before, we cannot understand His ways yet. But do not you see +that sorrow has made you very different to the other boys about you? Have +you not gained much wisdom that they do not possess? And would you change +your lot with any one of them? Would you even be as you were yourself +twelve months ago, before these afflictions came? We are sent into this +world for something more than food and clothing, and work and play. Our +souls must live, and they are dead if they are not brought into +submission to God's will. Even our own Lord and Saviour, "though He were +a son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." How +much more do we need to suffer before we learn obedience to the will of +God! + +'Then there is Martha,' continued Miss Anne, after a pause; 'she and Bess +are both brought to repentance by the death of our little child. Surely I +need not excuse God's dealings to you any more, Stephen.' + +'But there comes no judgment upon the master,' said Stephen in a low +voice. + +A flush of pain passed over Miss Anne's face as she met Stephen's eager +gaze, and saw something of the working of his heart in his flashing eye. + +'Our God will suffer no sin to go unpunished for ever,' she answered +solemnly. '"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Listen, +Stephen: when our Lord spoke those "blessings" in your chapter, He +implied that on the opposite side there were curses corresponding to +them. But He did not leave this matter uncertain; I will read them to you +from another chapter: "But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have +received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall +hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and lament."' + +'That is the master,' said Stephen, his face glowing with satisfaction, +'for he is rich and full, and he laughs now!' + +'Yes, who can tell but that these woes will fall upon my uncle,' said +Miss Anne, and her head drooped low, and Stephen saw the tears streaming +down her cheeks; 'all my prayers and love for him may be lost. His soul, +which is as precious and immortal as ours, may perish for ever!' + +Stephen looked at her bitter weeping with a longing desire to say +something to comfort her, but he could not speak a word: for her grief +was caused by the thought of the very vengeance he was wishing for. He +turned away his head uneasily, and gazed deep down into the glowing +embers of the fire. + +'Not my prayers and love only,' continued Miss Anne, 'but our Saviour's +also; all His griefs and sorrows may prove unavailing, as far as my uncle +is concerned. Perhaps He will say of him, "I have laboured in vain, I +have spent My strength for nought, and in vain." O my Saviour! because I +love Thee, I would have every immortal soul saved for Thy eternal glory.' + +'And so would I, Miss Anne,' cried the boy, sinking on his knees. 'Oh, +Miss Anne, pray to Jesus that I may love all my enemies for His sake.' + +When Miss Anne's prayer was ended, she left Stephen alone to the deep but +gentler thoughts that were filling his mind. He understood now, with a +clearness that he had never had before, that 'love is of God; and every +one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.' He must love his +enemies because they were precious, as he himself had been, in all their +sin and rebellion, to their Father in heaven. Not only did God send rain +and sunshine upon the evil and unjust, but He had so loved them as to +give His only begotten Son to die for them; and if they perished, so far +it made the cross of Christ of none effect. Henceforth the bitterness of +revenge died out of his heart; and whenever he bent his knees in prayer, +he offered up the dying petition of his namesake, the martyr Stephen, in +behalf of all his enemies, but especially of his master: 'Lord, lay not +this sin to their charge.' + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A NEW CALLING. + + +Stephen's recovery went on so slowly, that the doctor who attended him +said it would not be fit for him to resume his underground labour for +some months to come, if he were ever able to do so; and advised him to +seek some out-door employment. His old comrades began to find the weekly +subscription to make up his wages rather a tax upon their own earnings; +and Stephen himself was unwilling to be a burden upon them any longer. +As soon, therefore, as he was strong enough to bear the journey, he +resolved to cross the hills again to Danesford, to see when Mr. Lockwood +was coming home, and what help the clergyman left in charge of his duty +could give to him. Tim brought his father's donkey for him to ride, and +went with him across the uplands. The hard frosts and the snow were +over, for it was past the middle of March; but the house at Fern's +Hollow remained in precisely the same state as when little Nan died; not +a stroke of work had been done at it, and a profound silence brooded +over the place. Perhaps the master had lost all pleasure in his +ill-gotten possession! + +So changed was Stephen, though Danesford looked exactly the same, so +tall had he grown during his illness, and so white was his formerly +brown face, that the big boy who had shown him the way to the rectory +did not know him again in the least. Probably Mr. Lockwood and his +daughter would not have recognised him; but they were still lingering in +a warmer climate, until the east winds had quite finished their course. +The strange clergyman, however, was exceedingly kind to both the boys, +and promised to send a full and faithful account to Mr. Lockwood of all +the circumstances they narrated to him; for Tim told of many things +which Stephen passed over. They had done right in coming to him, he +said; and he gave Stephen enough money to supply the immediate +necessities of his family, at the same time bidding him apply for more +if he needed any; for he knew that a boy of his principle and character +would never live upon other people's charity whenever he could work for +himself. + +How refreshing and strengthening it was upon the tableland that spring +afternoon! The red leaf-buds of the bilberry-wires were just bursting +forth, and the clumps of gorse were tinged with the first golden +flowers. Every kind of moss was there carpeting the ground with a bright +fresh green from the moisture of the spring showers. As for the birds, +they seemed absolutely in a frenzy of enjoyment, and seemed to forget +that they had their nests to build as they flew from bush to bush, +singing merrily in the sunshine. + +Tim wrapped a cloak round Stephen; and then they faced the breeze gaily, +as it swept to meet them with a pure breath over miles of heath and +budding flowers. No wonder that Stephen's heart rose within him with a +rekindled gladness and gratitude; while Tim became almost as wild as the +birds. But Stephen began to feel a little tired as they neared Fern's +Hollow, though they were still two miles from the cinder-hill cabin. + +'Home, home!' he said, rather mournfully, pointing to the new house. +'Tim, I remember I used to feel in myself as if that was to be my own +home for ever. I didn't think that God only meant it to be mine for a +little while, even if I kept it till I died. And when I thought I was +going to die, it seemed as if it didn't signify what kind of a place +we'd lived in, or what troubles had happened to us. Yesterday, Tim, Miss +Anne showed me a verse about us being strangers and pilgrims upon the +earth.' + +'Perhaps we are pilgrims,' replied Tim, 'but we aren't much strangers on +these hills.' + +'It means,' said Stephen, 'that we are no more at home here than a +stranger is when he is passing through Botfield. I'm willing now never +to go back to Fern's Hollow, if God pleases. Not that little Nan is +gone; but because I'm sure God will do what is best with me, and we're +to have no continuing city here. I think I shouldn't feel a bit angry if +I saw other people living there.' + +'Hillo! what's that?' cried Tim. + +Surely it could not be smoke from the top of the new chimney? Yes; a +thin, clear blue column of smoke was curling briskly up into the air, +and then floating off in a banner over the hillside. Somebody was there, +that was certain; and the first fire had been lighted on the +hearthstone. There was a sharp pang in Stephen's heart, and he cast down +his eyes for a moment, but then he looked up to the sky above him with a +smile; while Tim set up a loud shout, and urged the donkey to a canter. + +'It's Martha!' he cried; 'I saw her gown peeping round the corner of the +wall. I'll lay a wager it's her print gown. Come thy ways; we'll make +sure afore we pass.' + +It was Martha waiting for them at the old wicket, and Bess was just +within the doorway. They were come so far to meet the travellers, and +had even prepared tea for them in the new kitchen, having cleared away +some of the bricks and mortar, and raised benches with the pieces of +planks left about. Tea was just ready for Stephen's refreshment, and he +felt that he was in the greatest need of it; so they sat down to it as +soon as Martha had laid out the provisions, among which was a cake sent +by Miss Anne. The fire of wood-chips blazed brightly, and gave out a +pleasant heat; and every one of the little party felt a quiet enjoyment, +though there were many tender thoughts of little Nan. + +'We may be pilgrims,' said Tim reflectively, over a slice of cake, 'but +there's lots of pleasant things sent us by the way.' + +They were still at tea when the gamekeeper, who was passing by, and who +guessed from the smoke from the chimney, and the donkey grazing in the +new pasture, that some gipsies had taken possession of Fern's Hollow, +came to look through the unglazed window. He had not seen Stephen since +his illness, and there was something in his wasted face and figure which +touched even him. + +'I'm sorry to see thee looking so badly, my lad,' he said; 'I must speak +to my missis to send you something nourishing, for I've not forgotten +you, Stephen. If ever there comes a time when I can speak up about any +business of yours without hurting myself, you may depend upon me; but I +don't like making enemies, and the Bible says we must live peaceably +with all men. I heard talk of you wanting some out-door work for a +while; and there's my wife's brother is wanting a shepherd's boy. He'd +take you at my recommendation, and I'd be glad to speak a word for you. +Would that do for you?' + +Stephen accepted the offer gladly; and when the gamekeeper was gone, +they sang a hymn together, so blotting out by an offering of praise the +evil prayer which he had uttered upon that hearth on the night of his +desolation and strong conflict. Pleasant was the way home to the old +cabin in the twilight; pleasant the hearty 'Good-night' of Tim and Bess; +but most pleasant of all was the calm sense of truth, and the submissive +will with which Stephen resigned himself to the providence of God. + +The work of a shepherd was far more to Stephen's taste than his +dangerous toil as a collier. From his earliest years he had been +accustomed to wander with his grandfather over the extensive +sheep-walks, seeking out any strayed lambs, or diligently gathering food +for the sick ones of the flock. To be sure, he could only earn little +more than half his former wages, and his time for returning from his +work would always be uncertain, and often very late. But then, sorrowful +consideration! there was no little Nan to provide for now, nor to fill +up his leisure hours at home. Martha was earning money for herself; and +as yet the master had demanded no rent for their miserable cabin; so his +earnings as a shepherd's boy would do until Mr. Lockwood came back. +Still upon the mountains he would be exposed to the bleak winds and +heavy storms of the spring; while underground the temperature had always +been the same. No wonder that Miss Anne, when she looked at the boy's +wasted and enfeebled frame, listened with unconcealed anxiety to his new +project for gaining his livelihood; and so often as the spring showers +swept in swift torrents across the sky, lifted up her eyes wistfully to +the unsheltered mountains, as she pictured Stephen at the mercy of the +pitiless storm. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE PANTRY WINDOW. + + +Stephen had been engaged in his new calling for about a fortnight, and +was coming home, after a long and toilsome day among the flocks, two +hours after sunset, with a keen east wind bringing the tears into his +eyes, when a few paces from his cabin door a tall dark figure sprang up +from a hollow in the cinder-hill, and laid a heavy hand upon his +shoulder. It was just light enough to discern the gloomy features of +Black Thompson; and Stephen inquired fearlessly what he wanted with him. + +'I thought thee'd never be coming,' said Black Thompson impatiently. +'Lad, hast thee forgotten thy rights and thy wrongs, that thou comes to +yonder wretched kennel whistling as if all the land belonged to thee? +Where's thy promise to thy father, that thee'd never give up thy rights? +Jackson the butcher has taken Fern's Hollow, and it's to be finished up +in a week or two; and thee'lt see thy own place go into the hands of +strangers.' + +'It'll all be put right some day, Thompson, thank you,' said Stephen. + +'Right!' repeated Thompson; 'who's to put wrong things right if we won't +take the trouble ourselves? Is it right for the master to grind us down +in our wages, and raise the rents over our heads, till we can scarcely +get enough to keep us in victuals, just that he may add money to money +to count over of nights? Was it right of him to leave the pit yonder +open, till little Nan was killed in it? Thee has a heavy reckoning to +settle with him, and I'd be wiping off some of the score. If I was in +thy place, I should have little Nan's voice calling me day and night +from the pit, to ask when I was going to revenge her.' + +Black Thompson felt that Stephen trembled under his grasp, and he went +on with greater earnestness. + +'Thee could revenge thyself this very night. Thee could get the worth of +Fern's Hollow without a risk, if thee'd listen to me. It's thy own, lad, +and thy wrongs are heavy--Fern's Hollow stolen from thee, and the little +lass murdered! How canst thee rest, Stephen?' + +'God will repay,' said Stephen in a tremulous tone. + +'Dost think that God sees?' asked Black Thompson scoffingly; 'if He +sees, He doesn't care. What does it matter to Him that poor folks like +us are trodden down and robbed? If He cared, He could strike the master +dead in a moment, and He doesn't. He lets him prosper and prosper, till +nobody can stand afore him. I'd take my own matter in my own hands, and +make sure of vengeance. God doesn't take any notice.' + +'I'm sure God sees,' answered Stephen; 'He is everywhere; and He isn't +blind, or deaf, only we don't understand what He is going to do yet. If +He didn't take any notice of us, He wouldn't make me feel so happy, +spite of everything. Oh, Thompson thee and the men were so kind to me +when I couldn't work, and I've never seen thee to thank thee. I can do +nothing for thee, except I could persuade thee to repent, and be as +happy as I am.' + +'Oh, I'll repent some day,' said Black Thompson, loosing Stephen's arm; +'but I've lots of things to do aforehand, and I reckon they can all be +repented of together. So, lad, it's true what everybody is saying of +thee--thee has forgotten poor little Nan, and thy promise to thy +father!' + +'No, I've never forgotten,' replied Stephen, 'but I'll never try to +revenge myself now. I couldn't if I did try. Besides, I've forgiven the +master; so don't speak to me again about it, Thompson.' + +'Well, lad, be sure I'll never waste my time thinking of thee again,' +said Black Thompson, with an oath; 'thy religion has made a poor, +spiritless, cowardly chap of thee, and I've done with thee altogether.' + +Black Thompson strode away into the darkness, and was quickly out of +hearing, while Stephen stood still and listened to his rapid footsteps, +turning over in his mind what mischief he wished to tempt him to now. +The open shaft was only a few feet from him; but it had been safely +encircled by a high iron railing, instead of being bricked over, as it +had been found of use in the proper ventilation of the pit. From +Thompson and his temptation, Stephen's thoughts went swiftly to little +Nan, and how he had heard her calling to him upon that dreadful night +when he went away with the poachers. Was it possible that he could +forget her for a single day? Was she not still one of his most constant +and most painful thoughts? Yes, he could remember every pretty look of +her face, and every sweet sound of her voice; yet they were saying he +had forgotten her, while the pit was there for him to pass night and +morning--a sorrowful reminder of her dreadful death! A sharp thrill ran +through Stephen's frame as his outstretched hand caught one of the iron +railings, which rattled in its socket; but his very heart stood still +when up from the dark, narrow depths there came a low and stifled cry of +'Stephen! Stephen!' + +He was no coward, though Black Thompson had called him one; but this +voice from the dreaded pit, at that dark and lonely hour, made him +tremble so greatly that he could neither move nor shout aloud for very +fear. He leaned there, holding fast by the railing, with his hearing +made wonderfully acute, and his eyes staring blindly into the dense +blackness beneath him. In another second he detected a faint glimmer, +like a glow-worm deep down in the earth, and the voice, still muffled +and low, came up to him again. + +'It's only me--Tim!' it cried. 'Hush! don't speak, Stephen; don't make +any noise. I'm left down in the pit. They're going to break into the +master's house to-night. They're going to get thee to creep through the +pantry window. If thee won't, Jack Davies is to go. They'll fire the +thatch, if they can't get the door open. Thee go and take care of Miss +Anne, and send Martha to Longville for help. Don't trust anybody at +Botfield.' + +These sentences sounded up into Stephen's ears, one by one, slowly, as +Tim could give his voice its due tone and strength. He recollected +instantly all the long oppression the men had suffered from their +master. In that distant part of the county, where there were extensive +works, the colliers had been striking for larger wages; and some of them +had strolled down to Botfield, bringing with them an increase of +discontent and inquietude, which had taken deep root in the minds of all +the workpeople. It was well known that the master kept large sums of +money in his house, which, as I have told you, was situated among lonely +fields, nearly a mile from Botfield; and no one lived with him, except +Miss Anne, and one maid-servant. It was a very secure building, with +stone casements and strongly barred doors; but if a boy could get +through the pantry window, he could admit the others readily. How long +it would be before the attempt was made Stephen could not tell, but it +was already late, and Black Thompson had left him hurriedly. But at +least it must be an hour or two nearer midnight, and all hopes of rescue +and defence rested upon him and Martha only. + +Martha was sitting by the fire knitting, and Bess Thompson was pinning +on her shawl to go home. Poor Bess! Even in his excitement Stephen felt +for her; but he dared not utter a word till she was gone. But then +Martha could not credit his hurried tidings and directions, until she +had been herself to the shaft to see the feeble gleam of Tim's lamp, and +hear the sound of his voice; for as soon as she rattled the railings he +spoke again. + +'Be sharp!' he cried. 'I'm not afeared; but I can't stay here where +little Nan died. I'll go back to the pit, and wait till morning. Be +sharp!' + +There was no need after that to urge Martha to hasten. After throwing a +shawl over her head, she started off for Longville with the swiftness of +a hare; and was soon past the engine-house, and threading her way +cautiously through Botfield, where she dreaded to be discovered as she +passed the lighted windows, or across the gleam of some open door. Many +of the houses were quite closed up and dark, but in some there was a +voice of talking; and here and there Martha saw a figure stealing like +herself along the deepest shadows. But she escaped without being +noticed; and, once through the village, her path lay along the silent +high-roads straight on to Longville. + +Nor did Stephen linger in the cinder-hill cabin. He ran swiftly over the +pit-banks, and stole along by the limekilns and the blacksmith's shop, +for under the heavy door he could see a little fringe of light. How +loudly the dry cinders cranched under his careful footsteps! Yet, quiet +as the blacksmith's shop was, and soundless as the night without, the +noise did not reach the ears of those who were lurking within, and +Stephen went on in safety. There stood the master's house at last, black +and massive-looking against the dark sky; not a gleam from fire or +candle to be seen below, for every window was closely shuttered; but on +the second storey there shone a lighted casement, which Stephen knew +belonged to the master's chamber. The dog, which came often with Miss +Anne to the cinder-hill cabin, gave one loud bay, and then sprang +playfully upon Stephen, as if to apologize for his mistake in barking at +him. For some minutes the boy stood in deep deliberation, scarcely +daring to knock at the door, lest some of the housebreakers should be +already concealed near the spot, and rush upon him before it was opened, +or else enter with him into the defenceless dwelling. But at length he +gave one very quiet rap with his fingers, and after a minute's pause his +heart bounded with joy as he heard Miss Anne herself asking who was +there. + +'Stephen Fern,' he answered, with his lips close to the keyhole, and +speaking in his lowest tones. + +'What is the matter, Stephen?' she asked. 'I cannot open the door, for +my uncle always takes the keys with him into his own room.' + +'Please to take the light into the pantry for one minute,' he whispered +cautiously, with a fervent hope that Miss Anne would do so without +requiring any further explanations; for he was lost if Black Thompson or +Davies were lying in wait near at hand. Very thankfully he heard Miss +Anne's step across the quarried floor, and in a moment afterwards the +light shone through a low window close by. It was unglazed, with a +screen of open lattice-work over it so as to allow of free ventilation. +It had one thick stone upright in the middle, leaving such a narrow +space as only a boy could creep through. He examined the opening quickly +and carefully while the light remained, and when Miss Anne returned to +the door he whispered again through the keyhole, 'Don't be afraid. It's +me--Stephen; I'm coming in through the pantry window.' + +He knew his danger. He knew if any of the robbers came up they must hear +him removing the wooden lattice which was laid over the opening; and +unless they supposed it to be one of their accomplices at work, he would +be at once in their power, exposed to their ill-treatment, or perhaps +suffer death at their hands. And would Miss Anne within trust to him +instead of alarming the master? If he came down and opened the door, all +the designs of the evil men would be hastened and finished before Martha +could return from Longville. But Stephen did not listen, nor did his +fingers tremble over their work, though there was a rush of thoughts and +fears through his brain. He tore away the lattice as quickly and quietly +as he could, and, with one keen glance round at the dark night, he +thrust his head through the narrow frame. He found it was just possible +to crush through; and, after a minute's struggle, his feet rested upon +the pantry floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +FIRE! FIRE! + + +Anne was standing close to the pantry door, listening to Stephen's +mysterious movements in utter bewilderment, hardly knowing whether she +ought to call her uncle, but not coming to a decision about it until the +boy appeared before her. His first quick action was to secure the door +by fastening a rusty bolt which was on the outside, and then, in a few +hurried sentences, he explained his strange conduct by telling her how +Tim had conveyed to him the design of some of the colliers for breaking +into the master's house. There had been several similar robberies in the +country during the strike for wages, and Miss Anne was greatly alarmed, +while Stephen felt all the tender spirit of a brave man aroused within +him, as she sank faint and trembling upon the nearest seat. + +'Don't be afraid,' he said courageously; 'they shall tear me to pieces +afore they touch you, Miss Anne. I'm stronger than you'd think; but if I +can't take care of thee, God can. Hasn't He sent me here, afore they +come, on purpose? They'd have come upon you unawares, but for God.' + +'You are right, Stephen,' answered Miss Anne. 'He says, "Thou shalt not +be afraid for the terror by night." But what shall we do? How can we +make ourselves safer? I'll try not to be afraid; but we must do all we +can ourselves. Hark! there's a footstep already!' + +Yes, there was a footstep, and not a very stealthy one, approaching the +house, and the dog bounded forward to the full length of his chain, but +he was beaten down with a blow that stunned him. The men were too strong +in numbers, and too secure in the extreme loneliness of the dwelling, to +care about taking many precautions. Miss Anne and Stephen heard Mr. +Wyley cross the floor of his room above, and open his window; but there +was silence again, and the chime of the house clock striking eleven was +the only sound that broke the silence until the casement above was +reclosed, and the master's footfall returned across the room. + +'I must go and tell him,' said Miss Anne; 'perhaps he can secure some of +his money, lest Martha should be stopped on the way, or not come in +time. Stay here and watch, Stephen, and let me know if you hear +anything.' + +She stole up-stairs in the dark, lest those without should see the +glimmer of her candle through the fanlight in the hall; and then she +spoke softly to her uncle through his locked and bolted door. +Down-stairs Stephen listened with his quickened hearing to the footsteps +gathering round the house; and presently the latch of the pantry door +was lifted with a sudden click that made him start and catch his breath; +but Jack Davies could come no further, now the rusty bolt was drawn on +the outside. There was a whispered conversation through the pantry +window, and the sound of some one getting out again; and then Stephen +crept across the dark kitchen into the hall through which Miss Anne had +gone. At the head of the staircase was the door of the master's room, +now standing open; and the light from it served to guide him across the +strange hall, and up the stairs, until he reached the doorway, and could +look in. The chamber had a low and sloping ceiling, and a gable-window +in the roof, which was defended by strong bars. Near this window was an +open cabinet, containing many little drawers and divisions, all of which +were filled with papers; while upon a leaf in the front there lay rolls +of bank notes, and heaps of golden money, which the master had been +counting over. He stood beside his cabinet as if he had just risen from +this occupation, and was leaning upon his chair, panic-stricken at the +tidings Miss Anne had uttered. His grey hair was scattered over his +forehead, instead of being smoothly brushed back; and the long, loose +coat, which hung carelessly around his shrivelled form and stooping +shoulders, made him look far older than he did in the day-time. As +Stephen's eyes rested upon the sunken form and quaking limbs of the aged +man, he felt, for the first time, how helpless and infirm his enemy was, +instead of the rich, full, and prospering master he had always +considered him. + +'Keep off!' cried the old miser, as he caught sight of Stephen on the +threshold; and he raised his withered arm as if to ward him from his +treasures. 'Keep off! Stephen Fern, is it you? You've come to take your +revenge. The robbers and murderers have got in! O God, have pity upon +me!' + +'I'm come to take care of Miss Anne,' said Stephen, 'They've not got in +yet, master. And, please God, help will be here afore long with Martha. +The doors and windows are safe.' + +'Anne, take him away!' implored Mr. Wyley. 'I don't know if it is true, +but take him away. I'm not safe while he's there; they will murder me! +Go, go!' + +Miss Anne led Stephen away; and no sooner were they outside the room, +than the master rushed forward and locked and barred the door securely +behind them. There was a window in the landing, looking over the yard +where the housebreakers were, and they stood at it in silence, straining +their eyes into the darkness. But it did not remain dark long; for a +thin, bright flame burst up from behind the dairy wall, and by its +fitful blaze they could see the figures of four men coming rapidly round +from that corner of the old building. + +'Fire! fire!' they shouted, in wild voices of alarm, and beating the +iron-studded door with heavy sticks. 'Wake up, master! wake up! the +house is on fire!' + +Their only answer was a frantic scream from the servant, who thrust her +head out of her window, and echoed their shouts with piercing cries. But +Stephen and Miss Anne did not move; only Miss Anne laid her hand upon +his arm, and he felt how much she trembled. + +'They're only trying to frighten us,' he said quietly; 'that's only the +wood-stack on fire. They think to frighten us to open the door, by +making believe that the house is on fire. Miss Anne, I'm praying to God +all the while to send Martha in time.' + +'So am I,' she answered, sobbing; 'but oh, Stephen, I am frightened.' + +'Miss Anne,' he said, in a comforting tone, 'that chapter about faith +you've been teaching me, it says something about quenching fire.' + +'"Quenched the violence of fire,"' she murmured; '"out of weakness were +made strong."' + +She hid her face for a minute or two in both her hands; and then she was +strong enough to go to the servant's room, where the terrified girl was +still calling for help. The wild shouts and the deafening clamour at the +door rang through the house; but the blaze was gone down again; and when +Stephen threw open the window just over the heads of the group of men in +the yard below, there was not light enough for him to distinguish their +faces. + +'I'm here,' he said,--'Stephen Fern. I found out what you are up to, and +Martha's gone to Longville for help. She'll be here afore long, and you +can't force the door open. Put out the fire in the wood-stack, and go +home. Maybe if you're not found here you'll get off; for I've seen none +of you, and I can only guess at who you are. Go home, I say.' + +There was a low, deep growl of disappointment, and a hurried +consultation among the men. But whether they would follow Stephen's +counsel, it was not permitted them to choose; for suddenly a strong, +bright flame burst up in a high column, like a beacon, into the midnight +air, and every one gazing upwards saw in a moment that the thatch over +the farthest gable had caught fire. The house itself was now burning, +and the light, blazing full upon their upturned faces, revealed to +Stephen the well-known features of four of his former comrades. The +shout that rang from their lips was one of real alarm now. + +'Stephen, lad, open the door!' cried Black Thompson. 'We thought to +smoke the old fox out of his kennel, but it's took fire in earnest. +We'll not hurt him, nor Miss Anne. Lad! the old house will burn like +tinder.' + +What a glaring light spread through the landing! The face of Miss Anne +coming from the servant's room shone rosy and bright in it, though she +was pale with fear. Through the open window drifted a suffocating smoke +of burning wood and thatch, and the crackling and splitting of the old +roof sounded noisily above their voices; but Miss Anne commanded +herself, and spoke calmly to Stephen. + +'We must open the door to them now,' she said; 'God will protect us from +these wicked men. Uncle! uncle! the house is really on fire, and we want +the keys. Let me in.' + +She knocked loudly at his door, and lifted up her voice to make him +hear, and Stephen shouted; but there was no answer. Without the keys of +the massive locks it would not be possible to open the doors, and he had +them in his own keeping; but he gave no heed to their calls, nor the +vehement screams of the frightened servant. Perhaps he had fallen into a +fit; and they had no means of entering his chamber, so securely had he +fastened himself in with his gold. Stephen and Miss Anne gazed at one +another in the dazzling and ominous light, but no words crossed their +trembling lips. Oh, the horror of their position! And already other +voices were mingled with those of the assailants; and every one was +shouting from without, praying them to open the door, and be saved from +their tremendous peril. + +'I'll not open the door!' said Mr. Wyley from within; 'they will rob and +murder me. They are come to kill me, and I may as well die here. There's +no help.' + +'There is help, dear uncle!' cried Miss Anne; 'there are other people +from Botfield; and help is coming from Longville. Oh, let me in!' + +'No,' said the master, 'they all hate me. They'll kill me, and say it +was done in the fire. I'll not open to anybody.' + +She prayed and expostulated in vain; he cared little for their danger, +so hardened was he by a selfish fear for himself. The fire was gaining +ground quickly, for a brisk wind had sprung up, and the long-seasoned +timber in the old walls burnt like touchwood. The servant lay insensible +on the threshold of the master's chamber; and Miss Anne and Stephen +looked out from a front casement upon the gathering crowd, who implored +them, with frenzied earnestness, to throw open the door. + +'Miss Anne,' cried Stephen, 'you can get through the pantry window; you +are little enough. Oh, be quick, and let me see you safe!' + +'I cannot,' she answered: 'not yet! Not till the last moment. I dare not +leave my uncle and that poor girl. Oh, Stephen, if Martha would but +come!' + +She rested her head against the casement, sobbing, as though her grief +could not be assuaged. Stephen felt heart-sick with his intense longing +for the arrival of help from Longville, as he watched the progress of +the fire; but at last, after what appeared ages of waiting, they heard a +shout in the distance, and saw a little band of horsemen galloping up to +the burning house. + +'They are come from Longville, uncle,' cried Miss Anne. 'You must open +now; there is not a moment to spare. The fire is gaining upon us fast.' + +He had seen their approach himself, and now he opened the doors, and +gave the keys to Miss Anne. He had collected all his papers and notes in +one large bundle, which he had clasped in his arms; and as soon as the +crowd swept in through the open doors, he cried aloud to the constable +from Longville to come and guard him. There was very little time for +saving anything out of the house, for before long the flames gathered +such volume and strength as to drive every one out before them; and as +Stephen stood beside the miserable old man, who was shivering in the +bitter night wind, he beheld his dwelling destroyed as suddenly and +entirely as the hut at Fern's Hollow had been. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +STEPHEN'S TESTIMONY. + + +Mr. Wyley would not stir from the place where he could gaze upon his old +home burning to the ground. He stood rooted to the spot, like one +fascinated and enchained by a power he could not resist, grasping his +precious bundle to his breast, and clinging firmly to the arm of the +Longville doctor, who had been one of those who hastened to his rescue. +Now and then he broke out into a deep cry, which he did not seem to hear +himself; but even the grey dawn of the morning, brightening over the +rounded outlines of the mountains, did not awaken him from his trance of +terror and bewilderment. Miss Anne kept near to him all night, and +Stephen lingered about her, making a seat for her upon the grass, and +taking care that Martha also should be at hand to wait upon her. There +was a great buzzing of people about them, hurrying to and fro; and every +now and then they heard different conjectures as to how the fire began. +But it was not, generally known that the constables from Longville and +Botfield had contrived to arrest Black Thompson and Davies in the midst +of the confusion, and had quietly taken them off to the jail at +Longville. When the daylight grew strong, it shone upon a smouldering +mass of ruins, and heaps of broken furniture piled upon the down-trodden +grass. The master had grown aged in that one night, and he gazed +helplessly about him, as if for some one to direct and guide him. He no +longer refused to quit the place, only he would not trust himself +anywhere near Botfield; and as soon as a carriage could be procured, he +and Miss Anne were driven off to Longville. There was nothing more to +wait for now; and Stephen went quietly home to breakfast in the +cinder-hill cabin. + +It was a good deal later than usual that morning when the engineman at +the works sent down the first skip-load of colliers into the pit. Four +of their number were absent, but that excited no surprise after the +events of the night; and even Bess Thompson supposed her father had gone +off to the public-house with the others. But what was the amazement of +the colliers when they found Tim at the bottom of the shaft, fiercely +hungry after his night's fasting, and as fiercely anxious to hear what +had been taking place overhead. He had the prudence, however, to listen +to their revelations without making any of his own, and would not even +explain how he came to be left behind in the pit. He went up in the +ascending skip, and, escaping from the curiosity of the people on the +bank, he darted as straight as an arrow to Stephen's cabin. + +'I'm nigh clemmed,' were his first words, as he seized the brown loaf +and cut off a slice, which he devoured ravenously. 'It seems like a +year,' he continued; 'thee'lt never catch me being left behind anywhere +again. Eh, Stephen, lad! many a time I shouted for fear I'd never see +daylight again; it's awful down there in the night. Thee hears them as +thee can't see punning agen the coal; and then there comes a downfall +like a clap of thunder. I wasn't so much afeared of little Nan: she +never did any harm when she was alive; and I thought God was too good to +send her out of heaven just to terrify a poor lad like me.' + +'But how did thee get left behind?' asked Martha. + +Then Tim told them how the horse-doctor had gone down to secure one of +the ponies in a large, strong net, in order to bring it to the surface +of the earth for a time; and that he had gone down with him more for his +own amusement than to help him. He had wandered a little way into the +winding galleries of the pit, and came back just as the skip was going +up for the last time but one. Thompson and Davies were deep in +conversation with the men who remained, and, stealing behind them, he +overheard their plot, and their intention of persuading Stephen to join +them. After that he dare not for his very life come forward when the +skip descended, and he watched them go up, leaving him alone for the +night in that dismal place. He had his father's lamp with him, and so +made his way to the bottom of the old shaft, and waited, with what +impatience and anxiety we may imagine, to hear Stephen return from his +work. + +'It was awfully lonesome,' he said, 'and I thought Stephen would never +come, or I'd never make him hear. It wasn't much better after he had +come, only for thinking Miss Anne would be safe. My lamp went out, and I +reckon I said "Our Father" over a hundred times. Besides, I was +wondering what was being done overhead. I'll never be left behind +anywhere again, I can tell ye.' + +'Well,' said Stephen, 'my sheep and lambs don't know about the fire, and +I must be off. They'll want me just as bad as if I'd been in bed all +night.' + +Still he could not help turning aside with Tim just for another glimpse +of the smouldering ruins, looking so black and desolate in the daylight. +But after that he did not loiter a minute, and spent the rest of the +morning in diligent attention to his duties, until, a little before +mid-day, he saw the farmer who employed him riding across the +sheep-walk; and when he ran forward to receive his orders, he bade him +make haste and go home to prepare himself for appearing before the +magistrate, to give his evidence against Black Thompson and his +comrades. + +When Stephen reached the cinder-hill cabin he found Tim there again, and +Bess Thompson waiting to see him. Poor Bess had been crying bitterly, +for by this time it was known that her father and Davies were in jail; +though the others, being young and single men, had fled at once from the +place, and escaped for the present. As soon as Stephen entered, Bess +threw herself on her knees at his feet, and looked up imploringly into +his face. + +'Oh, dear, good Stephen,' she cried, 'thee canst save father! I'll kneel +here till thee has promised to save him. Oh, don't bear any spite agen +him, but forgive him and save him!' + +'Get up, Bess,' said Stephen kindly; 'don't thee kneel down to a fellow +like me. I'll do anything for thy father; I've no spite agen him.' + +'Oh, I knew thee would!' she said; 'thee'lt tell the justice thee never +saw him there till the other folks came up from Botfield. Tim says he +didn't see anybody down in the pit, and he's promised not to swear to +their names. Don't thee swear to seeing anybody.' + +'But I did see every one of them,' Stephen answered; 'and Tim knew all +their voices; and there'll be lots to tell who came up in the last +skip.' + +'There's nobody in Botfield will swear agen them,' pleaded Bess. 'Whose +place is it to know who came up in the last skip, or who was at the fire +last night? Oh, Stephen, the Bible says we're to do good to them that +hate us. And if father's hated thee, thee canst save him now.' + +'Ay,' said Tim, 'Bess is right; there's not a mother's son in Botfield +to swear agen them for the master's sake. If he didn't see them, nor +Miss Anne, why need we know? I'll soon baffle the justice, I promise ye. +It's a rare chance to forgive Black Thompson, anyhow.' + +'Bess and Tim,' answered Stephen, in great distress, 'I can't do it. It +isn't that I bear a grudge against thy father--I've almost forgotten +that he ever did anything to me. But it's not true; it's sure to come +out somehow. Why, I don't even know what I said to Miss Anne last night; +but if I hadn't told a word to anybody, I'd be bound to tell the truth +now.' + +'Only say thee aren't certain,' urged Bess. + +'Nay, lass,' said Stephen, 'I am certain. I'd do anything that was right +for thy sake, and to save thy father; but I can't do this, and it would +be no use if I could. God seeth in secret, and He will reward men +openly. He's begun to reward the master already. We can do nothing for +thy father, but every one of us tell the truth, and pray to God for +him.' + +'Father was good to thee when thou wert ill,' said Bess. + +'Ay, I know it,' he replied; 'but if he was my own father, I could not +tell a lie to get him off. I'd do anything I could. Oh, Bess and Tim, +don't ask me to go agen the right!' + +'It'll break mother's heart,' said Bess, bursting out into a loud +crying. 'We made sure of thee, because thee says so much about having +thy enemies; and we were only afeared of Tim. Thee says we are to do to +another as we'd have them do to us. If thee was in father's place, +thee'd want him to do as I ask thee. Thee doesn't think father wants +thee to swear agen him?' + +'Nay,' answered Stephen, 'the justice and Miss Anne would have me tell +the truth. It seems as if I can't do to everybody as they'd like me; so +I'll abide by telling the truth.' + +There was no time for further discussion, for the constable from +Longville came in to conduct them before the magistrate, to give their +separate evidence concerning the events of the past night. Bess went +with them, weeping all the way beside them, and grieving Stephen's heart +by her tears, though she dared not speak a word in the constable's +presence. But he gave his testimony gravely and truthfully, and Tim and +Martha followed his example; and, in consequence of their joint +evidence, Black Thompson and Davies were fully committed to take their +trial at the next assizes, and were removed that afternoon to the county +jail. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +FORGIVENESS. + + +Bess Thompson started off on her way to her desolate home, almost +heart-broken, and with such a wrathful resentment against Stephen, and +Martha, and Tim, as seemed to blot out all memory of the lessons she had +been learning from Miss Anne since the little child's death. She could +never bear to go near them, or speak to them again, since they had sworn +against her father; and had not he been good to them when Stephen was +ill, often sparing her to watch with Martha, as well as helping to make +up his wages? If this was their religion, she did not care to have it; +for nobody else in Botfield would have done the same. And now she might +as well give up all thoughts of getting to heaven, where little Nan and +her baby sister were; for there would be nobody to care for her, and she +would be obliged to go back to all her old ways. + +These were her bitter thoughts as she walked homewards alone, for +Stephen was gone up to the doctor's house to inquire after the master +and Miss Anne, and the others were waiting for him in Longville. She +heard their voices after a while coming along the turnpike road, and +walking quickly as if to overtake her; so she turned aside into a field, +and hid herself under a hedge that they might pass by. She crouched down +low upon the grass, and covered her red and smarting eyes from the +sunshine with her shawl, and then she listened for their footsteps to +die away in the distance. But she felt an arm stealing round her, and +Martha's voice whispered close in her ear,-- + +'Bess, dear Bess, thee must not hide thyself from us. We love thee, +Bess; and we are sore sorry for thee. Stephen is ever so down-hearted +about thee and thy father. Oh, Bess, thee must have no spite at us.' + +'Bess,' said Stephen, 'thy father owned I was telling the truth, and +said he forgave me for speaking agen him; and he shook hands with me +afore he went; and he said, "Stephen, thee be a friend to my poor lass!" +and I gave him a sure promise that I would.' + +'Nobody'll ever look at me now,' cried Bess; 'nobody'll be friends with +me if father's transported.' + +'We're thy friends,' answered Stephen, 'and thee has a Father in heaven +that cares for thee. Listen, Bess; it will do thee good, and poor old +grandfather no harm now. He was transported beyond the seas once; and no +one casts it up to him now, nor to us; and haven't we got friends? Cheer +up, Bess. Miss Anne says, maybe this very trouble will bring thy father +to repentance. He said he'd repent some time; and maybe this will be the +very time for him. And Miss Anne sends her kind love to thee and thy +mother, and she'll come and see thy mother as soon as she can leave the +master.' + +Thus comforted, poor sorrowful Bess rose from the ground, and walked on +with them to Botfield. Most of the house doors were open, and the women +were standing at them in order to waylay them with inquisitive +questions; but Stephen's grave and steady face, and the presence of +Bess, who walked close beside him, as if there was shelter and +protection there, kept them silent; and they were compelled to satisfy +their curiosity with secondhand reports. Martha went on with Bess to her +own cottage to stay all night with her, and help her to console her +broken-hearted mother. + +Though Martha was truly sorry for Black Thompson's family, she felt her +importance as one of the chief witnesses against him; especially as the +cinder-hill cabin was visited, not only by the gossips of Botfield, but +by more distinguished persons from all the farmhouses around; and her +thrilling narrative of her hazardous journey through Botfield along the +high road was listened to with greedy interest. In this foolish talking +she lost that true sympathy which she ought to have felt for poor Bess, +and forfeited the blessing which would have been given to her own soul. +But it was very different with Stephen in his lonely work upon the +mountains. There he thought over the crimes and punishment of Black +Thompson, until his heart was filled with an unutterable pity and +fellow-feeling both towards him and his family; and every night, as he +went home from his labour, he turned aside to the cottage, to read to +Bess and her mother some portion of the Scriptures which he had chosen +for their comfort, out of a pocket Bible given to him by Miss Anne. + +About a fortnight after these events Stephen received a visitor upon the +uplands, where he was seeking a lamb that had strayed into a dwarf +forest of gorse-bushes, and was bleating piteously in its bewilderment. +A pleasant-sounding voice called 'Stephen Fern!' and when he got free +from the entangling thorns, with the rescued lamb in his arms, who +should be waiting for him but the lord of the manor himself! Stephen +knew his face again in an instant, and dropped the lamb that he might +take off his old cap, while the gentleman smiled at him with a hearty +smile. + +'I am Danesford, of Danesford,' he said gaily; 'and I believe you are +Stephen Fern, of Fern's Hollow. I've brought you a message, my boy. Can +you guess what young lady has sent me over the hills after you?' + +'Miss Anne,' answered Stephen promptly. + +'No; there are other young ladies in the world beside Miss Anne!' +replied Mr. Danesford. 'Have you forgotten Miss Lockwood? She has not +forgotten you; and we are come home ready to give battle to your +enemies, and reinstate you in all your rights. She gives Mr. Lockwood +and me no rest until we have got Fern's Hollow, and everything else, for +you again.' + +'Sir,' said Stephen, and his eyes filled with tears, 'nobody can give me +back little Nan.' + +'No,' answered Mr. Danesford gravely; 'I know how hardly you have been +dealt with, my boy. Tell me truly, is your religion strong enough to +enable you to forgive Mr. Wyley indeed? Is it possible that you can +forgive him from your heart?' + +Stephen was silent, looking down at the heath upon which his feet were +pressed, but seeing none of its purple blossoms. It was a question that +must not be answered rashly, for even that morning he had glanced down +the fatal shaft with a deep yearning after little Nan; and as he passed +the ruins of his master's house, his memory had recalled the destruction +of the old hut with something of a feeling of triumph. + +'Sir,' he said, looking up to him, 'I'm afraid I can't explain myself. +You know it was for my sake that the Lord Jesus was killed, yet His +Father has forgiven me all my sins; and when I think of that, I can +forgive the master even for little Nan's death with all my heart. But I +don't always remember it; and then I feel a little glad at the fire. I +haven't got much religion yet. I don't know everything that's in the +Bible.' + +'Yet I could learn some lessons from you, Stephen,' said Mr. Danesford, +after a pause. 'What do you suppose I should do if anybody tried to take +Danesford Hall from me?' + +'I don't know, sir,' answered Stephen. + +'Nor do I,' he said, smiling; 'at any rate, they should not have it with +my consent. Nor shall anybody take Fern's Hollow from you. I have been +down to Longville about it, but Mr. Wyley is too ill to see me. By the +way, I told Miss Anne I was coming up the hills after you. She wants to +see you, Stephen, as soon as possible after your work is done.' + +Mr. Danesford rode on over the hills, and Stephen walked some way beside +him, to put him into the nearest path for Danesford. After he was gone +he watched earnestly for the evening shadows, and when they stretched +far away across the plains, he hastened down to the cabin, and then on +to Longville, to his appointed interview with Miss Anne. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE MASTER'S DEATHBED. + + +When the master at last consented to leave the sight of his old dwelling +burning into blackened heaps, he seemed to care nothing where he might +be taken. He was without a home, and almost without a friend. It was not +accident merely, but the long-provoked hatred of his people, that had +driven him from the old chambers and the old roof which had sheltered +him for so many years, and where all the habits and memories of his life +centred. Miss Anne had not been long enough at Botfield to form +friendships on her own account, except among the poor and ignorant +people on her uncle's works; and she accepted most thankfully the offer +of the doctor from Longville to give them a refuge in his house. No +sooner had they arrived there than it was discovered that the master was +struck with paralysis, brought on by the shock of the fire, and all the +terrifying circumstances attending it. He was carried at once to a +bedroom, and from that time Miss Anne had been fully occupied in nursing +him. + +He had seemed to be getting better the last day or two, and his power of +speech had returned, though he spoke but rarely; only following Miss +Anne's movements with earnest eyes, and hardly suffering her to leave +him, even for necessary rest and refreshment. All that afternoon he had +been tossing his restless head from side to side, uttering deep, low +groans, and murmuring now and then to himself words which Miss Anne +could not understand. She looked white and ill herself, as if her +strength were nearly exhausted; but after the doctor had been in, and, +feeling the master's pulse, shook his head solemnly, she would not +consent to leave his bedside for any length of time. + +'How long?' she whispered, going with the doctor to the outside of the +door. + +'Not more than twenty-four hours,' was the answer. + +'Will he be conscious all the time?' she asked again. + +'I cannot tell certainly,' replied the doctor, 'but most probably not.' + +Only twenty-four hours! One day of swiftly-passing time, and then the +eternal future! One more sun-setting, and one more sun-rising, and then +everlasting night, or eternal day! For a minute Miss Anne leaned against +the doorway, with a fainting spirit. There was so much to do, and so +short a space for doing anything. All the real business of the whole +life had to be crowded into these few hours, if possible. As she entered +the room, her uncle's eyes met hers with a glance of unspeakable +anguish, and he called her in a trembling tone to her side. + +'I heard,' he whispered. 'Anne, what must be done now?' + +'Oh, uncle,' she said, 'have I not told you often, that "Christ Jesus +came into the world to save sinners"? There is no limit with God; with +him one day is as a thousand years, and He gives you still a day to make +your peace with Him.' + +'There is no peace for my soul with God,' he answered; 'I've been at +enmity with Him all my life; and will He receive me at the last moment? +He is too just, too righteous, Anne. I'll not insult Him by offering Him +my soul now. You asked me once, "What shall it profit a man if he shall +gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mine is lost--lost, and +that without remedy. This gold is a millstone about my neck.' + +'Uncle,' she said, commanding her voice with a great effort, 'the thief +upon the cross beside our Lord had a shorter time than you, for he was +to die at sunset that day; yet he repented and believed in the crucified +Saviour, who was able to pardon him. Christ is still waiting to forgive; +He is stretching out His arms to receive you. Only look at Him with the +same penitence and faith that the dying thief felt.' + +'Nay,' groaned the dying man, 'he could show his faith by confessing Him +before all those who were crucifying the Lord, and it was a glory to the +Saviour to forgive him then. But what glory would it be to pardon me on +this death-bed, where I can do nothing for Him? No; I can do +nothing--nothing! All these years I could have worked for God; but now I +can do nothing!' + +'Uncle,' said Miss Anne, 'our Lord was asked by some, "What shall we do, +that we might work the works of God?" and He answered them, "This is the +work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." Oh, that is all! +Believe on Him, and He will forgive you; and all the angels in heaven +will glorify Him for His mercy.' + +'Anne,' he answered, fixing on her a look of despair, 'I cannot. My +heart is hard and heavy; I remember when it used to feel and care about +these things; but it is dead now, and my soul is lost for ever. Anne, +even if Jesus is willing to pardon me, I cannot believe in forgiveness.' + +Miss Anne sank down by the bedside, unable to answer him, save by a +prayer, half aloud, to God for His mercy to be shown to him, if it were +possible! He lay there, helpless and hopeless, tossing to and fro upon +the pillows. At last he spoke again, in a sharp, clear, energetic tone. + +'Anne, be quick!' he said; 'find me my will among those papers. Perhaps +if I could do something, I might be able to believe.' + +He watched her with impatient eagerness as she turned over the precious +parcel of papers which he had rescued from the fire. There were many +documents and writings belonging to the property he had gathered +together, and it was some time before she could find the will. The +master tried to take it from her, but in vain; his right hand was +powerless. + +'Oh, I forgot!' he cried despairingly; 'this hand is useless, and I +cannot alter it now. God will not let me undo the mischief I have done. +Anne, I have left Fern's Hollow away from you to my brother Thomas, lest +you should restore it to Stephen; and now I can do nothing! Oh, misery, +misery! The robbery and murder of the fatherless children rest upon my +soul. Send quickly, Anne, send for Stephen Fern.' + +Miss Anne sent a messenger to hasten Stephen; and after that the master +lay perfectly still, with closed eyes, as if he were treasuring up the +little strength remaining to him. The last sunset was over, and the +night-lamp was lighted once more; while Miss Anne sat beside him +watching, in an agony of prayer to God. There was no sound to be heard, +for every one in the house knew that the old man was dying, and they +kept a profound quietness throughout all the rooms. He had taken no +notice of anything since he asked for Stephen; but when a light rap was +heard at the door he opened his eyes, and turned his grey head round +anxiously to see whether he was come. + +It was Stephen. He stood within the doorway, not liking to enter +farther, but looking straight forward at the master with a very pale and +sorrowful face, upon which there was no trace of triumph or hatred. Miss +Anne gazed earnestly at him, but she did not speak; she would not place +herself between him and his dying enemy now. + +'Come here, Stephen,' said the master, in a voice of hopeless agony. +'When little Nan was lying dead, you said you would wait, and see what +God could do to me. Come near, and hear, and see. Death is nothing, boy; +it will be only a glory to you to die. But God is letting loose His +terrors upon me; He is mocking at my soul, and laughing at my calamity. +Soon, soon I shall be in eternity, without hope, and without God.' + +'Oh, master, master,' exclaimed Stephen, 'there is a time yet for our +Father to forgive thee! It doesn't take long to forgive! It didn't take +even me long to forgive; and oh, how quickly God can do it if you'll +only ask Him!' + +'Do you forgive me?' asked the master, in astonishment. + +'Ah,' he cried, 'I forgave thee long since, directly after I was ill. It +was God who helped me; and wouldn't He rather forgive thee Himself? Oh, +He loves thee! He taught me how to love thee; and could He do that if He +didn't love thee His own self?' + +'If I could only believe in being forgiven!' said the dying man. + +'Oh, believe it, dear master! See, I am here; I have forgiven thee, and +I do love thee. Little Nan can never come back, and yet I love thee, and +forgive thee from my very heart. Will not Jesus much more forgive thee?' + +'Pray for me, Stephen. Kneel down there, and pray aloud,' he said; and +his eyelids closed feebly, and his restless head lay still, as if he had +no more power to move it. + +'I cannot,' answered Stephen; 'I'm only a poor lad, and I don't know how +to do it up loud. Miss Anne will pray for thee.' + +'If you have forgiven me, pray to God for me,' murmured the master, +opening his eyes again with a look of deep entreaty. Over Stephen's pale +face a smile was kindling, a smile of pure, intense love and faith, and +the light in his pitying eyes met the master's dying gaze with a gleam +of strengthening hope. He clasped the cold hand in both his own, and, +kneeling down beside him, he prayed from his very soul, 'Lord, lay not +this sin to his charge.' + +He could say no more; and Miss Anne, who knelt by him, was silent, +except that one sob burst from her lips. The master stirred no more, but +lay still, with his numb and paralyzed hand in Stephen's clasp; but in a +few minutes he uttered these words, in a tone of mingled entreaty and +assertion, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' + +That was all. An hour or two afterwards it was known throughout +Longville, and the news was on the way to Botfield, that the master of +Botfield works was dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE HOME RESTORED. + + +Three months later in the year, when the new house at Fern's Hollow was +quite finished, with its dairy and coal-shed, and a stable put up at Mr. +Lockwood's desire, a large party assembled within the walls. Martha had +been diligently occupied all the week in a grand cleaning down; and Tim +and Stephen had been equally busy in clearing away the litter left by +the builders, and in restoring the garden to some order. They had been +obliged to contrive some temporary seats for their visitors, for the old +furniture had not yet been brought up from the cinder-hill cabin; and +the only painful thoughts Martha had were the misgiving of its extreme +scantiness in their house with six rooms. The pasture before the cottage +was now securely enclosed, and the wild ponies neighed over the hedge in +vain at the sight of the clear, cool pool where they had been used to +quench their thirst; and behind the house there was a plantation of tiny +fir-trees bending to and fro in the wind, which they were to resist as +they grew larger. Every place was in perfect order; and the front room, +which was almost grand enough for a parlour, was beautifully decorated +with flowers in honour of the expected guests, who had sent word that +they should visit Fern's Hollow that afternoon. + +They could be seen far away from the window of the upper storey, which, +rising above the brow of the hill behind, commanded a wide view of the +mountain plains. They were coming on horseback across the almost +pathless uplands; dear Miss Anne, with Mr. Lockwood riding beside her; +and a little way behind them the lord of the manor and his young wife, +who was no other than Miss Lockwood herself. They greeted Stephen and +Martha with many smiles and words of congratulation; and when they were +seated in the decorated room, with the door and window opened upon the +beautiful landscape, Mr. Lockwood bade them come and sit down with them; +while Tim helped the groom to put up the horses in the stable. + +'My boy,' said Mr. Lockwood, 'our business is finished at last. Mr. +Thomas Wyley will not try his right to Fern's Hollow by law; but we have +agreed to give him the L15 paid to your grandfather, and also to pay to +him all the actual cost of the work done here. Miss Anne and I have had +a quarrel on the subject, but she consents that I shall pay that as a +mark of my esteem for you, and my old servant your mother. Mr. Danesford +intends to make a gift to you of the pasture and plantation, which were +an encroachment upon the manor. And now I want you to take my advice +into the bargain. Jackson wants to come here, and offers a rent of L20 a +year for the place. Will you let him have it till you are old enough to +manage it properly yourself, Stephen?' + +'Yes, if you please, sir,' replied Stephen, in some perplexity; for he +and Martha had quite concluded that, they should come and live there +again themselves. + +'Jackson will make a tidy little farm of it for you,' continued Mr. +Lockwood. 'My daughter proposes taking Martha into her service, and +putting her into the way of learning dairy-work, and many other things +of which she is now ignorant. Are you willing, Martha?' + +'Oh yes, sir!' said Martha, with a look of admiration at young Mrs. +Danesford. + +'In this case, Stephen,' Mr. Lockwood went on, 'you will have a yearly +income of L20, and we would like to hear what you will do with it?' + +'There's grandfather,' said Stephen diffidently. + +'Right, my boy!' cried Mr. Lockwood, with a smile of satisfaction; +'well, Miss Anne thinks he would be very comfortable with Mrs. Thompson, +and she would be glad of a little money with him. But he cannot live +much longer, Stephen; he is very aged, and the doctor thinks he will +hardly get over the autumn. So we had better settle what shall be done +after grandfather is gone.' + +'Sir,' said Stephen, 'I think Martha should have some good of +grandmother's work, if she is only a girl. So hadn't the rent better be +saved up for her till I'm old enough to come and manage the farm +myself?' + +Every face in the room glowed with approbation of Stephen's suggestion; +and Martha flushed crimson at the very thought of possessing so much +money; and visions of future greatness, more than her grandmother had +foreseen, passed before her mind. + +'Why, Martha will be quite an heiress!' said Mr. Lockwood. 'So she is +provided for, and grandfather. And what do you intend to do with +yourself, Stephen, till you come back here?' + +'I'm strong enough to go back to the pit,' replied Stephen bravely, +though inwardly he shrank from it; but how else could the rent of Fern's +Hollow be laid by for Martha? 'Now Miss Anne has raised the wages, I +should get eight shillings a week, and more as I grow older. I shall do +for myself very nicely, thank you, sir; and maybe I could lodge with +grandfather at Mrs. Thompson's.' + +'No,' said Miss Anne, in her gentle voice, the sweetest voice in the +world to Stephen, now little Nan's was silent; 'Stephen is my dear +friend, and he must let me act the part of a friend towards him. I wish +to send him to live with a good man whom I know, the manager of one of +the great works at Netley, where he may learn everything that will be +necessary to become my bailiff. I shall want a true, trustworthy agent +to look after my interests here, and in a few years Stephen will be old +enough to do this for me. He shall attend a good school for a few hours +daily, to gain a fitting education; and then what servant could I find +more faithful, more true, and more loving than my dear friend Stephen? +He can come back here then, if he chooses, and perhaps have Martha for +his housekeeper, in their old home at Fern's Hollow.' + +'Oh, Miss Anne!' cried Stephen, 'I cannot bear it! May I really be your +servant all my life?' and the boy's voice was lost in sobs. + +'Come, Stephen,' said the lord of the manor, 'I want you to show us some +of your old haunts on the hills. If Miss Anne had not formed a better +plan, I should have proposed making you my gamekeeper; for Jones has +been telling me about the grouse last year. By the way, if I had thought +it would be any pleasure to you, I should have dismissed him from my +service for his share in this business; but I knew you would be for +begging him in again, so I only told him pretty strongly what a sneak I +thought him.' + +They went out then across the uplands, a sunny ramble, to all Stephen's +favourite places. And it happened that when they reached the solitary +yew-tree near which Snip was buried, all the rest strolled on, and left +Stephen and Miss Anne alone. Before them, down at the foot of the +mountains, there stretched a wide plain many miles across, beautiful +with woods and streams; and on the far horizon there hung a light cloud +that was always to be seen there, the index of those great works where +Stephen was to dwell for some years. Near to them they could discern, in +the clear atmosphere, the spires and towers of the county town, where +Black Thompson, who had tempted him on these hills, was now imprisoned +for many years; and below, though hidden from their sight, was Botfield +and the cinder-hill cabin. A band of bilberry-gatherers was coming down +the hill with songs and shouts of laughter; and the frightened flocks of +sheep stood motionless on the hillocks, ready to flee away in a moment +at their approach. Both Miss Anne and Stephen felt a crowd of thoughts, +sorrowful and happy, come thronging to their minds. + +'Stephen,' said Miss Anne solemnly, 'our Lord says, "When ye shall have +done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable +servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."' + +'Yes, Miss Anne,' said Stephen, looking up inquiringly into his +teacher's face. + +'My dear boy,' she continued, 'are you taking care to say to yourself, +"I am an unprofitable servant"?' + +'I have not done all those things which are commanded me,' he said +simply and earnestly; 'I've done nothing of myself yet. It's you that +have taught me, Miss Anne; and God has helped me to learn. I'm afeared +partly of going away to Netley; but if you're not there to keep me +right, God is everywhere.' + +'Stephen,' Miss Anne said, 'you have forgiven all your enemies: Tim, who +is now your friend, and the gamekeeper, Black Thompson, and my poor +uncle; when you are saying the Lord's Prayer, do you feel as if you +should be satisfied for our Father to forgive you your trespasses in the +same measure and in the same manner as you have forgiven their +trespasses against you?' + +'Oh no!' cried Stephen, in a tone of some alarm. + +'Tell me why not.' + +'It was a rather hard thing for me,' he said; 'it was very hard at +first, and I had to be persuaded to it; and every now and then I felt as +if I'd take the forgiveness back. I shouldn't like to feel as if our +Father found it a hard thing, or repented of it afterwards.' + +'No,' answered Miss Anne. 'He is a God "ready to pardon;" and when He +has bestowed forgiveness, His "gifts and calling are without +repentance." But there is something more, Stephen. Do you not seem in +your own mind to know them, and remember them most, by their unkindness +and sins towards you? When you think of Black Thompson, is it not more +as one who has been your enemy than one whom you love without any +remembrance of his faults? And you recollect my uncle as him who drove +you away from your own home, and was the cause of little Nan's death. +Their offences are forgiven fully, but not forgotten.' + +'Can I forget?' murmured Stephen. + +'No,' she replied; 'but do you not see that we clothe our enemies with +their faults against us? Should our Father do so, should we stand before +Him bearing in His sight all our sins, would that forgiveness content +us, Stephen?' + +'Oh no!' he cried again. 'Tell me, Miss Anne, what will He do for me +besides forgiving me?' + +'Look, Stephen,' she replied, pointing to the distant sky where the sun +was going down amid purple clouds, and bidding him turn to the grey +horizon where the sun had risen in the morning; 'listen: "As far as the +east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from +us." And again: "He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He +will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the +depths of the sea." And again: "For I will be merciful to their +unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no +more." This is the forgiveness of our Father, Stephen.' + +'Oh, how different to mine!' cried Stephen, hiding his face in his +hands. + +'Yet,' said Miss Anne, 'you may claim the promise made to us by our +Lord: "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will +also forgive you," in a far richer measure, with infinite +long-suffering, and a multitude of tender mercies.' + +'Lord, forgive me, for Jesus Christ's sake!' murmured Stephen. + +But the dusk was gathering, and the others were returning to them under +the old yew-tree, for there was the long ride over the hills to +Danesford, and the time for parting was come. The day was done; and on +the morrow new work must be entered upon. The path of the commandments +had yet to be trodden, step by step, through temptation and conflict, +and weakness and weariness, until the end was reached. + +Stephen felt something of this as he walked home for the last time to +the cinder-hill cabin; and, taking down the old Bible covered with green +baize, read aloud to his grandfather and Martha the chapter his father +had taught him on his death-bed; bending his head in deep and humble +prayer after he had read the last verse: 'Be ye therefore perfect, even +as your Father in heaven is perfect.' + + +THE END. + + + + + * * * * * + + +STORIES BY HESBA STRETTON. + +Cobwebs and Cables. +Half Brothers. +Through a Needle's Eye. +Carola. +Bede's Charity. +David Lloyd's Last Will. +The Children of Cloverley. +Fern's Hollow. +The Fishers of Derby Haven. +Pilgrim Street. +A Thorny Path. +Enoch Roden's Training. +In the Hollow of His Hand. + +_The Religious Tract Society, London_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fern's Hollow, by Hesba Stretton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FERN'S HOLLOW *** + +***** This file should be named 16853.txt or 16853.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/8/5/16853/ + +Produced by Joel Erickson, Christine Gehring, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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