loved.

His quiet, thoughtful ways had earned his father's trust, though he
was much slower of speech and less ready than his elder brother, and
looked heavy both in countenance and figure beside Jeph, who was
tall, slim, and full of activity and animation. He had often made
his mother uneasy by wild talk about going to sea, and by consorting
with the sailors at Bristol, which was their nearest town, though on
the other side of the Avon, and in a different county.

It was there that the Elmwood people did their marketing, often
leaving their donkeys hobbled on their own side of the river, being
ferried over and carrying the goods themselves the latter part of the
way.




CHAPTER III.

KIRK RAPINE.



"When impious men held sway and wasted Church and shrine."
LORD SELBORNE.


Patience, in her tight little white cap, sat spinning by the door,
rocking the cradle with her foot, while Rusha sometimes built what