The Settlers at Home | Page 3

diligently when no customers appeared, and now and then
casting a glance over the Levels to the spot where her husband's mill
rose in the midst of the green fields, and where she almost fancied
sometimes that she could see the children sitting on the mill-steps, or
working in the garden. When customers appeared, she was always
ready in a moment to serve them; and her smile cheered those who
were sick, and pleased those who came merely from curiosity. She
slipped the halfpence she received into a pocket beneath her apron; and
sometimes the pocket was such a heavy one to carry three miles home,
that she just stepped aside to the village shop at Haxey, or into a
farm-house where the people would be going to market next day, to get
her copper exchanged for silver. Since the times had become so
troubled as they were now, however, she had avoided showing her
money anywhere on the road. Her husband's advice was that she should
give up attending the spring altogether; but she gained so much money
by it, and it was so likely that somebody would step into her place there
as soon as she gave it up, so that she would not be able to regain her

office when quieter times should come, that she entreated him to allow
her to go on while she had no fears. She took the heavy gold ear-rings
out of her ears, wore a plainer cap, and left her large silver watch at
home; so that she looked like a poor woman whom no needy soldier or
bold thief would think of robbing. She guessed by the sun what was the
right time for locking up her glasses and going home; and she
commonly met her husband, coming to fetch her, before she had got
half-way.
The three children were sure to be perched on the top of the quarry
bank, or on the mill-steps, or out on the roof of the house, at the top of
the winding staircase. Little George himself, though only two years old,
knew the very moment when he should shout and clap his hands, to
make his mother wave her handkerchief from the turn of the road.
Oliver and Mildred did not exactly feel that the days were too long
while their mother was away, for they had plenty to do; but they felt
that the best part of the day was the hour between her return and their
going to bed: and, unlike people generally, they liked winter better than
summer, because at that season their mother never left them, except to
go to the shop, or the market at Haxey.
Though Oliver was only eleven, and Mildred nine, they were not too
young to have a great deal to do. Oliver was really useful as a gardener;
and many a good dish of vegetables of his growing came to table in the
course of the year. Mildred had to take care of the child almost all day;
she often prepared the cabbage, and cut the bacon for Ailwin to broil.
She could also do what Ailwin could not,--she could sew a little; and
now and then there was an apron or a handkerchief ready to be shown
when Mrs Linacre came home in the evening. If she met with any
difficulty in her job, the maid could not help her, but her father
sometimes could; and it was curious to see Mildred mounting the mill
when she was at any loss, and her father wiping the white plaster off his
hands, and taking the needle or the scissors in his great fingers, rather
than that his little girl should not be able to surprise her mother with a
finished piece of work. Then, both Oliver and Mildred had to learn
their catechism, to say to Pastor Dendel on Sunday; and always a copy
or an exercise on hand, to be ready to show him when he should call;

and some book to finish that he had lent them to read, and that others of
his flock would be ready for when they had done.
Besides all this, there was an occupation which both boy and girl
thought more of than of all others together. Among the loads of
gypsum that came to the mill, there were often pieces of the best
kind,--lumps of real, fine alabaster. Alabaster is so soft as to be easily
worked. Even a finger-nail will make a mark upon it. Everybody knows
how beautiful vases and little statues, well wrought in alabaster, look
on a mantelpiece, or a drawing-room table. Oliver had seen such in
France, where they are very common: and his father had carried one or
two ornaments of this kind into Holland, when he had to leave