ark of my esteem for you, and my old servant your mother. Mr. Danesford
intends to make a gift to you of the pasture and plantation, which were
an encroachment upon the manor. And now I want you to take my advice
into the bargain. Jackson wants to come here, and offers a rent of L20 a
year for the place. Will you let him have it till you are old enough to
manage it properly yourself, Stephen?'

'Yes, if you please, sir,' replied Stephen, in some perplexity; for he
and Martha had quite concluded that, they should come and live there
again themselves.

'Jackson will make a tidy little farm of it for you,' continued Mr.
Lockwood. 'My daughter proposes taking Martha into her service, and
putting her into the way of learning dairy-work, and many other things
of which she is now ignorant. Are you willing, Martha?'

'Oh yes, sir!' said Martha, with a look of admiration at young Mrs.
Danesford.

'In this case, Stephen,' Mr. Lockwood went on, 'you will have a yearly
income of L20, and we would like to hear what you will do with it?'

'There's grandfather,' said Stephen diffidently.

'Right, my boy!' cried Mr. Lockwood, with a smile of satisfaction;
'well, Miss Anne thinks he would be very comfortable with Mrs. Thompson,
and she would be glad of a little money with him. But he cannot live
much longer, Stephen; he is very aged, and the doctor thinks he will
hardly get over the autumn. So we had better settle what shall be done
after grandfather is gone.'

'Sir,' said Stephen, 'I think Martha should have some good of
grandmother's work, if she is only a girl. So hadn't the rent better be
saved up for her till I'm old enough to come and manage the farm
myself?'

Every face in the room glowed with approbation of Stephen's suggestion;
and Martha flushed crimson at the very thought of possessing so much
money; and visions of future greatness, more than her grandmother had
foreseen, passed before her mind.

'Why, Martha will be quite an heiress!' said Mr. Lockwood. 'So she is
provided for, and grandfather. And what do you intend to do with
yourself, Stephen, till you come back here?'

'I'm strong enough to go back to the pit,' replied Stephen bravely,
though inwardly he shrank from it; but how else could the rent of Fern's
Hollow be laid by for Martha? 'Now Miss Anne has raised the wages, I
should get eight shillings a week, and more as I grow older. I shall do
for myself very nicely, thank you, sir; and maybe I could lodge