was gone, while more of her "keep,"
as Sally called it, was thrown upon the Bensons. Mr Benson received
about eighty pounds a year for his salary as minister. Of this, he
knew that twenty pounds came from Mr Bradshaw; and when the old man
appointed to collect the pew-rents brought him the quarterly amount,
and he found no diminution in them, he inquired how it was, and
learnt that, although Mr Bradshaw had expressed to the collector his
determination never to come to chapel again, he had added, that of
course his pew-rent should be paid all the same. But this Mr Benson
could not suffer; and the old man was commissioned to return the
money to Mr Bradshaw, as being what his deserted minister could not
receive.

Mr and Miss Benson had about thirty or forty pounds coming in
annually from a sum which, in happier days, Mr Bradshaw had invested
in Canal shares for them. Altogether their income did not fall much
short of a hundred a year, and they lived in the Chapel-house free of
rent. So Ruth's small earnings were but very little in actual hard
commercial account, though in another sense they were much; and Miss
Benson always received them with quiet simplicity. By degrees, Mr
Benson absorbed some of Ruth's time in a gracious and natural way. He
employed her mind in all the kind offices he was accustomed to render
to the poor around him. And as much of the peace and ornament of life
as they gained now, was gained on a firm basis of truth. If Ruth
began low down to find her place in the world, at any rate there was
no flaw in the foundation.

Leonard was still their great anxiety. At times the question seemed
to be, could he live through all this trial of the elasticity of
childhood? And then they knew how precious a blessing--how true a
pillar of fire, he was to his mother; and how black the night, and
how dreary the wilderness would be, when he was not. The child and
the mother were each messengers of God--angels to each other.

They had long gaps between the pieces of intelligence respecting
the Bradshaws. Mr Bradshaw had at length purchased the house at
Abermouth, and they were much there. The way in which the Bensons
heard most frequently of the family of their former friends, was
through Mr Farquhar. He called on Mr Benson about a month after the
latter had met Jemima in the street. Mr Farquhar was not in the habit
of paying calls on any one; and though he had always entertained and
evinced the most kind and friendl