sort of a voyage? &c.

'Many is the time we have thought of him when the wind was blowing so
hard; the old quince-tree is blown down, Paul, that on the right-hand
of the great pear-tree; it was blown down last Monday week, and it was
that night that I asked the minister to pray in an especial manner for
all them that went down in ships upon the great deep, and he said then,
that Mr Holdsworth might be already landed; but I said, even if the
prayer did not fit him, it was sure to be fitting somebody out at sea,
who would need the Lord's care. Both Phillis and I thought he would be
a month on the seas.' Phillis began to speak, but her voice did not
come rightly at first. It was a little higher pitched than usual, when
she said,--

'We thought he would be a month if he went in a sailing-vessel, or
perhaps longer. I suppose he went in a steamer?'

'Old Obadiah Grimshaw was more than six weeks in getting to America,'
observed cousin Holman.

'I presume he cannot as yet tell how he likes his new work?' asked the
minister.

'No! he is but just landed; it is but one page long. I'll read it to
you, shall I?--

'"Dear Paul,--We are safe on shore, after a rough passage. Thought you
would like to hear this, but homeward-bound steamer is making signals
for letters. Will write again soon. It seems a year since I left
Hornby. Longer since I was at the farm. I have got my nosegay safe.
Remember me to the Holmans.--Yours, E. H."'

'That's not much, certainly,' said the minister. 'But it's a comfort to
know he's on land these blowy nights.'

Phillis said nothing. She kept her head bent down over her work; but I
don't think she put a stitch in, while I was reading the letter. I
wondered if she understood what nosegay was meant; but I could not
tell. When next she lifted up her face, there were two spots of
brilliant colour on the cheeks that had been so pale before. After I
had spent an hour or two there, I was bound to return back to Hornby. I
told them I did not know when I could come again, as we--by which I
mean the company--had undertaken the Hensleydale line; that branch for
which poor Holdsworth was surveying when he caught his fever.

'But you'll have a holiday at Christmas,' said my cousin. 'Surely
they'll not be such heathens as to work you then?'

'Perhaps the lad will be going home,' said the minister, as if to
mitigate his wife's urgency; but for all that, I believe he wanted me
to come. Phillis fixed her eyes o