d that none of his old flock, not even
any Kentons, who had so much in charge, had come in to see him. He now
arrived in this quiet way, thinking that it would not be delicate to
the feelings of the squire and ex-minister to let the people get up any
signs of joy or ring the bells, if they were so inclined. Indeed, he was
much afraid from what he had been able to learn that it would be only
the rougher sort, who hated Puritan strictness and wanted sport and
revelry, who would give him an eager welcome.

So he first went quietly up to the church, which he found full of
benches and pews, with the Altar table in the middle of the nave, and
the squire's comfortable cushioned seat at the east end. He knelt on the
step for a long time, then made a brief visit to his own house, where
the garden was in beautiful order, but only a room or two were furnished
with goods he had bought from the Woodleys, and these were in charge of
a servant he had hired at Bristol.

Thence the old man went out into the village, and his first halt was
at the forge, where Blane, who had grown a great deal stouter and more
grizzled, started at sight of his square cap.

"Eh! but 'tis the old minister! You have come in quietly, sir! I am
afraid your reverence has but a sorry welcome."

"I do not wonder you are grieved to part with Master Woodley."

"Well, sir, he be a good man and a powerful preacher, though no doubt
your reverence has the best right, and for one, I'm right glad to see
an old face again. We would have rung the bells if we had known you were
coming."

"That would have been hard on Master Woodley. I am only glad they are
not melted. But how is it with all my old friends, Harry? Poor Sir
George writ me that old clerk North died of grief of the rifling of the
church; and that John Kenton had been killed by some stragglers. What
became of his children?"

"That eldest lad went off to the Parliament army, and came swaggering
here in his buff coat and boots like my Lord Protector himself, they say
he has got a castle and lands in Ireland. Men must be scarce, say I, if
they have had to make a gentleman of Jeph Kenton."

"And the rest?"

"Well, sir, I'm afraid that poor lad, Stead, is in poor plight. You
mind, he was always a still, steady, hard-working lad, and when his
father was killed, and his house burnt, and his brother ran away, the
way he and his sister turned to was just wonderful. They went to live
in an old hut in the gulley