Ferns Hollow | Page 8

New Farm, 'Queer book that; and
a queer chap too!'
CHAPTER IV.
THREATENING CLOUDS.
Little Nan would be waiting for him, as well as his supper, and Stephen
forgot his weariness as he bounded along the soft turf, to the great
discomfiture of the brown-faced sheep, quite as anxious for their supper
as he was for his.
Stephen heard far off Snip's sharp, impatient bark, and it made him
quicken his steps still more, until, coming within sight of his own
Hollow, he stopped suddenly, and his heart beat even more vehemently
than when he was running up the hillside.
There was, however, nothing very terrible in the scene. The hut was
safe, and the sun was shining brightly upon the garden, and little Nan
was standing as usual at the wicket. Only in the oat-field, with their
faces looking across the green, stood two men in close conversation.
These men were both of them old, and rather thin and shrivelled in
figure; their features bore great resemblance to each other, the eyes
being small and sunken, with many wrinkles round them, and both
mouths much fallen in. You would have said at once they were brothers;
and if you drew near enough to hear their conversation, you would have
found your guess was right.
'Brother Thomas,' said the thinnest and sharpest-looking, 'I intend to
enclose as far as we can see from this point. That southern bank will be
a first-rate place for young animals. I shall build a house, with three
rooms above and below, besides a small dairy; and I shall plant a
fir-wood behind it to keep off the east winds. The lime and bricks from
my own works will not cost me much more than the expense of
bringing them up here.'
'And a very pretty little hill-farm you'll make of it, James,' replied
Thomas Wyley admiringly. 'I should not wonder now if you got £20 a

year rent for it.'
'I shall get £25 in a few years,' said the other one: 'just think of the run
for ponies on the hill, to say nothing of sheep. A young, hard-working
man could make a very tidy living up here; and we shall have a
respectable house, instead of a pauper's family.'
'It will be a benefit to the neighbourhood,' observed Thomas Wyley.
The latter speaker, who was a degree pleasanter-looking than his
brother, was the relieving officer of the large union to which Botfield
belonged; and, in consequence, all poor persons who had grown too old,
or were in any way unable to work, were compelled to apply to him for
the help which the laws of our country provide for such cases. James
Wyley, the elder brother, was the owner of Botfield works, and the
master of all the people employed in them, besides being the agent of
the lord of the manor. So both these men possessed great authority over
the poor; and they used the power to oppress them and grind them
down to the utmost. It was therefore no wonder that Stephen stopped
instantly when he saw their well-known figures standing at the corner
of his oat-field; nor that he should come on slowly after he had
recovered his courage, pondering in his own mind what they were
come up to Fern's Hollow for, and how he should answer them if they
should want him to give up the old hut.
'Good evening, my lad,' said James Wyley, smiling a slow, reluctant
smile, as Stephen drew near to them with his cap in his hand. 'So you
buried your father yesterday, I hear. Poor fellow! there was not a better
collier at Botfield than James Fern.'
'Never troubled his parish for a sixpence,' added Thomas Wyley.
'Thank you, master,' said Stephen, the tears starting to his eyes, so
unexpected was this gentle greeting to him; 'I'll try to be like father.'
'Well, my boy,' said Thomas Wyley, 'we are come up here on purpose
to give you our advice, as you are such a mere lad. I've been thinking
what can be done for you. There's your grandfather, a poor, simple,

helpless old man, and the little girl--why, of course we shall have to
receive them into the House; and I'll see there is no difficulty made
about it. Then we intend to get your sister into some right good service.'
'I should not mind taking her into my own house,' said the master, Mr.
James Wyley; 'she would soon learn under my niece Anne. So you will
be set free to get your own living without encumbrance; you are
earning your six shillings now, and that will keep you well.'
'Please, sir,' answered Stephen, 'we mean to live all together as we've
been used; and I couldn't let grandfather and little