little sickly Benoni with no one to help her but her little seven
years old sister.

The children's lives had been much less bright since that sad day;
and Steadfast seldom had much time for play. He knew he must get
home as fast as he could to help Patience in milking the cows,
feeding the pigs and poultry, and getting the supper, or some of the
other things that his elder brother Jephthah called wench-work and
would not do.

He could not, however, help looking up at the hole in the side of the
steep cliff, where one might climb up to such a delightful cave, in
which he and Patience had so often played on hot days. It had been
their secret, and a kind of palace to them. They had sat there as
king and queen, had paved it with stones from the brook, and had had
many plans for the sports they would have there this summer, little
thinking that Patience would have been turned into a grave, busy
little housewife, instead of a merry, playful child.

Toby looked up too, and began to bark. There was a rustling in the
bushes below the cave, and Steadfast, at first in dismay to see his
secret delight invaded, beheld between the mountain ash boughs and
ivy, to his great surprise, a square cap and black cassock tucked up,
and then a bit of brown leathern coat, which he knew full well. It
was the Vicar, Master Holworth, and his father John Kenton was
Churchwarden, so it was no wonder to see him and the Parson together,
but what could bring them here--into Steadfast's cave? and with a
dark lantern too! They seemed as surprised, perhaps as vexed as he
was, at the sight of him, but his father said, "'Tis my lad,
Steadfast, I'll answer for him."