The Settlers at Home | Page 7

will they do next?" said Mildred, looking up through her
tears at the pastor.
"Worse things than even these have been done to some of the people in
my village," replied the pastor: "and they have been borne, Mildred,
without tears."
Mildred made haste to wipe her eyes.
"And what do you think, my dears, of the life our Protestant brethren
are leading now, in some parts of the world?"
"Father came away from France because he was ill-used for being a
Protestant," said Oliver.
"The pastor knows all about that, my boy," observed Mr Linacre.
"Yes, I do," said the pastor. "I know that you suffered worse things
there than here; and I know that things worse than either are at present
endured by our brethren in Piedmont. You have a warm house over
your heads; and you live in sunshine and plenty. They are driven from
their villages, with fire and sword--forced to shelter among the
snow-drifts, and pent up in caves till they rush out starving, to implore
mercy of their scoffing persecutors. Could you bear this, children?"
"They suffer these things for their religion," observed Oliver. "They
feel that they are martyrs."
"Do you think there is comfort in that thought,--in the pride of
martyrdom,--to the son who sees his aged parents perish by the
wayside,--to the mother whose infant is dashed against the rock before
her eyes?"
"How do they bear it all, then?"

"They keep one another in mind that it is God's will, my dears; and that
obedient children can, if they try, bear all that God sees fit to lay upon
them. So they praise His name with a strong heart, though their voices
be weak. Morning and night, those mountains echo with hymns; though
death, in one form or another, is about the sufferers on every side.
"My dear," said Mr Linacre, "let us make no more complaints about the
Redfurns. I am ashamed, when I think of our brethren abroad, that we
ever let Stephen and Roger put us up to anger. You will see no more
tears here, sir, I hope."
"Mildred will not quite promise that," said the pastor, smiling kindly on
the little girl. "Make no promises, my dear, that a little girl like you
may be tempted to break. Only try to forgive all people who tease and
injure you; and remember that nothing more ever happens than God
permits,--though He does not yet see fit to let us know why."
"I would only just ask this, sir," said Mr Linacre. "Is there anything
going forward just now which particularly encourages our enemies to
attack us?"
"The parliament have a committee sitting at Lincoln, at present; and the
king's cause seems to be low in these parts. We are thus at the mercy of
such as choose to consider us king's men: but there is a higher and truer
mercy always about us."
The miller took off his hat in token of respect.
The pastor's eye had been upon Oliver for some time. He now asked
whether he meant to make his new cups plain, like all the rest, or to try
to ornament them. Mildred assured him that Oliver had carved a
beading round the two last bowls that he had cut.
"I think you might attempt something far prettier than beading," said
the pastor; "particularly with so many patterns before your eyes to work
by."
He was looking up at the little recess above the door of the house, near

which they were standing. This recess, in which there had formerly
been an image, was surrounded with carved stone-work.
"I see some foliage there which would answer your purpose, Oliver, if
you could make a model from it. Let us look closer."
And Pastor Dendel fixed a short ladder against the house wall, and
went up, with Oliver before him. They were so busy selecting the
figures that Oliver thought he could copy, and drawing them upon
paper, and then setting about modelling them in clay, that the Redfurns
did not prevent their being happy for this day, at least. Mr Linacre, too,
was hard at work all day, grinding, that the pastor's manure might be
served to-morrow; and he found hard work as good for an anxious
mind as those who have tried generally find it to be.
CHAPTER TWO.
NEIGHBOURLY OFFICES.
When Mrs Linacre was told in the evening of the arrival of the
disagreeable neighbours who were in the marsh, she was sorry; but
when she had gone round the premises with her husband at night, and
found all safe, and no tokens of any intrusion, she was disposed to hope
that the Redfurns would, this time, keep to their fishing and fowling,
and make no disturbance. Oliver and Mildred crept down to