soil could be carried up the barren and steep bank, to make a little plot
of garden ground. But within, the work went on so heartily that, when
Stephen returned from the pit, half an hour earlier than usual,--for he
had no long walk of two miles now,--he found his grandfather settled in
the chimney corner, apparently unconscious of any removal, while both
Martha and little Nan seemed in some measure reconciled to their change
of dwelling. Moreover, Miss Anne was waiting to greet him kindly.

'Stephen,' she said, 'Martha has found the three notes in your
grandfather's pocket all safe. You had better take them with you to the
clergyman at Danesford, and do what he advises you with them. And now you
are come to live at Botfield, you can manage to go to church every
Sunday; even little Nan can go; and there is a night-school at Longville,
where you can learn to write as well as read. It will not be all loss, my
boy.'

The opportunity for going to Danesford was not long in coming, for Black
Thompson and Cole, who were the chief colliers in the pit, chose to take
a 'play-day' with the rest of their comrades; and the boys and girls
employed at the works were obliged to play also, though it involved the
forfeiture of their day's wages--always a serious loss to Stephen. This
time, however, he heard the news gladly; and, carefully securing the
three notes by pinning them inside his pocket, he set out for his ten
miles walk across the tableland to the other side of the mountains, where
Danesford lay. His nearest way led straight by Fern's Hollow, and he saw
that already upon the old site the foundation was laid for a new house
containing three rooms. In everything else the aspect of the place
remained unchanged; there still hung the creaking wicket, where little
Nan had been wont to look for his coming home, until she could run with
outstretched arms to meet him. The beehives stood yet beneath the hedge,