"
"I heard that you ran away with Steve's father."
"Yes, I did."
"That your father and mother opposed your marriage very much."
"Yes, that also is true."
"That he was a handsome lad, called Matt Pattison, your father's head
shepherd."
"Was that all?"
"That it killed your mother."
"No, that is untrue. Mother died from an inflammation brought on by
taking cold. I was no-ways to blame for her death. I was to blame for
running away from my home and duty, and I took in full all the sorrowful
wage I earned. Steve's father did not live to see his son; and when I
heard of mother's death, I determined to go back to father, and stay
with him always if he would let me. I got to Sandal village in the
evening, and stayed with Nancy Bell all night. In the morning I went up
the fell; it was a wet, cold morning, with gusts of wind driving the
showers like a solid sheet eastward. We had a hard fight up the breast
of the mountain; and the house looked bleak and desolate, for the men
were all in the barn threshing, and the women in the kitchen at the
butter-troughs. I stood in the porch to catch my breath, and take my
plaid from around the child; and I heard father in a loud, solemn voice
saying the Collect,--father always spoke in that way when he was saying
the Confession or the Collect,--and I knew very well that he would be
standing at that east window, with his prayer-book open on the sill.
Pages:
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153