preached against love of money he felt pricked at the heart, though it
had not been the gain in itself that he aimed at. And when he had to go
to the mill, the sight of the comfortable great kitchen, with the
open hearth, glowing fire, seats on either side, tall settle, and the
flitches of bacon on the rafters, seemed to reproach him additionally.
The difficulties there had been staved off by the old miller himself
marrying a stout, motherly widow, who had a real delight in the charge
of a baby.

"For," said Master Luck, "Andrew and I could agree on no one for him."

Moreover, Stead ceased to grunt contemptuously when Patience, with Goody
Grace to back her, declared that Ben was too young and slight for farm
work.

The boy was allowed to trudge his daily three miles to school, and there
his progress was the wonder and delight of his slower-witted brother and
sister.

CHAPTER XX. EMLYN'S SERVICE.

"Oh, blind mine eye that would not trace,
And deaf mine ear that would not heed
The mocking smile upon her face,
The mocking voice of greed."
LEWIS CARROLL.

When Lady-day came round, Steadfast found to his delight and surprise a
little figure dancing out to meet him from Mrs. Lightfoot's.

"There, Master Stead. Are not you glad to see me, or be you too
dumbfounded to get out a word, like good old Jenny?" stroking the
donkey's cars. "Posies of primroses! How sweet they be! You must spare
me one."

"As many as you will, sweetheart. They be all for you, whether given or
sold. And you've got a holiday for Lady-day."

"Have a care! I got my ears boxed for such a Popish word. 'Tis but
quarter day, you know, being that, hang, draw, and quarter is more
to the present folks' mind than ladies or saints. I have changed my
service, you must know, as poor Dick used to sing:--

"Have a new master, be a new man."

"You have not heard from your own folk," cried Stead, this being what he
most dreaded.

"Nay. But I can away no more with Dame Sloggett, and Cross-patch Rachel,
white seam and salmon, and plain collars. So I bade her farewell at the
end of the year, and I've got a new mistress."

Stead stood with open mouth. To change service at the end of a year was
barely creditable in those days, and to do so without consultation with
home was unkind and alarming.

"There now, don't be crooked about it. I had not time to come out and
tell you and