speak to
you again!"

Sam hopped into the wood-shed, and began to move the dasher up and down
with exceeding moderation. When the wagon drove up to the door, he
listened with a sick heart to hear if anything was said about the stray
horse. Not a word was spoken on the subject. Even the silence frightened
him.

He had never worked so industriously as when Chester entered the shed;
and, as the latter passed by without looking at him, he felt certain
that retribution was at hand. He listened at the kitchen door, and
trembled at every word that was spoken, thinking the next would be
something about his unpardonable offence. But his agony was destined
still to be prolonged.

"They an't going to say nothing about it till my foot gets well,"
thought he; "then they'll jest about kill me."

Mrs. Royden had been considerably fretted in getting dinner and her
fault-finding had worried poor Hepsy almost to distraction, when the
arrival of the clergyman lent quite a different aspect to affairs. He
drew the attention of the young children, who had been very much in
their mother's way, and dropped a few soft words of wisdom from his
lips, which could be taken in a general sense, or understood by Mrs.
Royden as applying to her own annoyances in particular. Soon the table
was ready, and the entire household, excepting Sam and Hepsy, gathered
around it. The former, supposed to be churning, having been warned by
Mrs. Royden that he could have no dinner until he had "fetched the
butter," was listening to hear if there was any conversation about the
horse; and the poor deformed girl, who had preferred to wait and take
care of the baby, was shedding solitary tears from the depths of her
unhappy heart.

After dinner, Father Brighthopes was sitting on the shaded grass in the
yard, relating pleasant stories to the children, when an athletic young
man made his appearance at the gate, leading a handsome sorrel horse.

"Hillo, Mark!" cried James, "have you been trading again?"

"Is your father at home?" asked the man with the horse.

James answered in the affirmative, and the other led his animal into the
yard, making him dance around him as he approached the little group
under the cherry-tree.

Even with hunger in prospective, Sam could not apply himself to the
churn when he thought there was any fun going on out-doors. He hobbled
out, and took his seat on the grass.

All the children were praising Mark's new horse, which he took esp