The wisest thing to be done was to put everything in order for a sudden
call, and then sit down and patiently abide the result. This decision
being put into effect, the excited crowd began to thin, and before
long, with the exception of those who could render assistance, very few
lookers-on remained. Joan had lingered till the last, and then, urged
by the possibility that many of her house-comforts might be needed, she
hurried home to join Eve, who had gone before her.

With their minds running upon all the varied accidents of a fight, the
girls, without exchanging a word of their separate fears, got ready
what each fancied might prove the best remedy, until, nothing more
being left to do, they sat down, one on each side of the fire, and
counted the minutes by which time dragged out this weary watching into
hours.

"Couldn't 'ee say a few hymns or somethin', Eve?" Joan said at length,
with a hope of breaking this dreadful monotony.

Eve shook her head.

"No?" said Joan disappointedly. "I thought you might ha' knowed o'
some." Then, after another pause, struck by a happier suggestion, she
said, "S'pose us was to get down the big Bible and read a bit, eh? What
do 'ee say?"

But Eve only shook her head again. "No," she said, in a hard, dry
voice: "I couldn't read the Bible now."

"Couldn't 'ee?" sighed Joan. "Then, after all, it don't seem that