further lent her the broom till she could make another, for all the
country brooms of that time were home-made with the heather and the
birch. She had likewise brought a barley cake, on which and on the
milk the pair made their breakfast, Goody providing for the little
ones.

"We must use it up," said Patience, "for we have got no churn."

"And we could not get into the town to sell the butter if we had,"
returned her brother. "We had better take it up to some one in the
village who might give us something for it, bread or cheese maybe."

"I would like to make my own butter," sighed Patience, whose mother's
cleanly habits had made her famous for it.

"So you shall some day, Patty," said her brother, "but there's no
getting into Bristol to buy one or to sell butter now. Hark! they
are beginning again," as the growl of a heavy piece of cannon shook
the ground.

"I wonder where our Jeph is," said the little girl sadly. "How could
he like to go among all those cruel fighting men? You won't go,
Stead?"

"No, indeed, I have got something else to do."

The children were hard at work all the time. They cleared out the
inside of their hovel, which had a floor of what was called lime ash,
trodden hard, and not much cracked. Probably other hermits in
earlier times had made the place habitable before the expelled monk