fathers also, felt affronted at his wonderful scholarship. To be sure,
Tim never deserted him, and his partisanship was especially useful on the
bank, before he went down and after he came up from the pit. But below,
in the dark, dismal passages of the pit, many a stripe, unmerited, fell
upon his bruised shoulders, which he learned to bear the more patiently
after Miss Anne had taught and explained to him the verse, 'But He was
wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are
healed.' Still Stephen, feeling how hard it was to continue in the right
way, and knowing how often he failed, to his own sore mortification and
the rude triumph of his comrades, wondered exceedingly how it was
possible for Miss Anne to find it as hard to be a follower of Christ as
he did.




CHAPTER VII.

POOR SNIP.


The middle weeks of August were come--sunny, sultry weeks; and from the
brow of the hill, all the vast plain lying westward for many miles looked
golden with the corn ripening for harvest. The oats in the little field
had already been reaped; and the fruit in the garden, gathered and sold
by Martha, had brought in a few shillings, which were carefully hoarded
up to buy winter clothing. It was now the time of the yearly gathering of
bilberries on the hills; and tribes of women and children ascended to the
tableland from all the villages round. It was the pleasantest work of the