n inch. I am six years old. I am big enough now to take
care of _you_, if there's a crowd or the horses plunge and kick. Ned says
it will be a brave show.'

'I will go down to church with you, Ambrose,' his mother said, 'and if I
can secure a safe place I will wait for a part of the sports, but you must
not fret if I do not stay to see the sports end, for I am tired, Ambrose,
and I would fain have rest on Sunday.'

The child looked wistfully into his mother's face.

'I'll be a very good boy, mother. I _have_ been a good boy,' he said, 'and
you will tell Mr Sidney that I didn't plague you, and tell Master Humphrey
too. He said I was a plague to you, and I hate him for saying it.'

'Hush, Ambrose, Master Ratcliffe will be a good friend to you, if--'

'If what? if _I_ am good?

'I meant, if ever you had no mother to care for you.'

'No mother!' the child repeated, only dimly catching her meaning. 'No
mother!' and there was a sudden change in his voice, which told of
something that was partly fear and partly incredulity. 'No mother! but you
said we should always have each other. I have you, and you have me. You
said I must not leave you, and,' with vehemence, 'you _sha'n't_ leave me.'

'Ambrose, God's will must be done, let us trust him.'

But the boy's serious mood passed, and he was now capering about and
singing as he went in a joyous monotone as he went to find Ned in the
farmyard.

'I am to see the sports on the morrow. I'm to see the sports on the green.'

The words reached other ears than Ned's. His grandmother came out of the
bakehouse, where she had been storing piles of loaves on a high shelf,
which had just been taken from the oven, and called out,--

'Sports on the Lord's Day, what does the child say? No one who eats my
bread shall see that day profaned. The wrath of the Almighty will fall on
their heads, whoever they be, mind that, Mary Gifford, mind that! Ay, I
know what you will say, that the Queen lends her countenance to them, and
your grand folk in the great house, but as sure as you live, Mary Gifford,
a curse will fall on your head if you let that child witness this
wickedness.'

Mary took refuge in silence, but her stepmother's words sounded in her ears
like a knell.

For herself she would willingly have dispensed with games and sports on
Sundays. Her sympathies were with those who, taking the just view of the
seventh day, believed that God had ordained it for the refreshment both of
bod