better be spared, as that faithful man,
Hold-the-Faith Jenkins, will exhort the men this night. I came up by
Elmwood to learn tidings of you. Ha, Stead! Thou art grown, my lad. May
you be as much grown in grace."

"You are grown, too," said Patience, almost timidly. "What a man you
are, Jeph! Here, Rusha, you mind Jeph, and here is little Benoni."

"You have reared that child, then," said Jeph, as the boy clung to his
sister's skirts, "and you have kept things together, Stead, as I hardly
deemed you would do, when I had the call to the higher service." It was
an odd sort of call, but there was no need to go into that matter, and
Stead answered gravely, "Yes, I thank God. He has been very good to us,
and we have fared well. Come in, Jeph, and see, and have something to
eat! I am glad you are come home at last."

Jephthah graciously consented to enter the low hut. He had to bend his
tall figure and take off his steeple-crowned hat before he could enter
at the low doorway, and then they saw his closely cropped head.

Patience tarried a moment to ask Rusha what had become of Emlyn.

"She is hiding in the cow shed," was the answer. "She ran off as soon as
she saw Jeph coming, and said he was a crop-eared villain."

This was not bad news, and they all entered the hut, where the fire was
made up, and one of Patience's rush candles placed on the table with
a kind of screen of plaited rushes to protect it from the worst of the
draught. Jeph had grown quite into a man in the eyes of his brothers
and sisters. He looked plump and well fed, and his clothes were good and
fresh, and his armour bright, a contrast to Steadfast's smock, stained
with weather and soil, and his rough leathern leggings, although
Patience did her best, and his shirt was scrupulously clean every Sunday
morning.

The soldier was evidently highly satisfied. "So, children, you have done
better than I could have hoped. This hovel is weather-tight and quite
fit to harbour you. You have done well to keep together, and it is well
said that he who leaves all in the hands of a good Providence shall have
his reward."

Jeph's words were even more sacred than these, and considerably overawed
Patience, who, as he sat before her there in his buff coat and belt,
laying down the law in pious language, was almost persuaded to believe
that their present comfort and prosperity (such as it was) was owing to
the faith which he said had led to his desertion of his family,