The Settlers at Home | Page 6

than that. I am afraid it is the Redfurns. This is just the way they settle themselves--in just that sort of tent--when they come to fowl, all autumn."
"If I catch that Roger," said Ailwin, "I'll--." And she clenched her hand, as if she meant to do terrible things, if she caught Roger.
"I will go and call father, shall I?" said Mildred, her teeth chattering, as she stood in the hot sun.
She was turning to go up the garden, when a laugh from George made her look back again. She saw a head covered with an otter-skin cap,--the face looking very cross and threatening, peeping over the hedge,--which was so high above the marsh, that the person must have climbed the bank on purpose to look into the garden. There was no mistaking the face. It was certainly Roger Redfurn--the plague of the settlers, who, with his uncle, Stephen Redfurn, was always doing all the mischief he could to everybody who had, as he said, trespassed on the marshes. Nobody liked to see the Redfurns sitting down in the neighbourhood; and still less, skulking about the premises. Mildred flew towards the mill; while Ailwin, who never stopped to consider what was wise, and might not, perhaps, have hit upon wisdom if she had, took up a stone, and told Roger he had better be gone, for that he had no friends here. Roger seemed to have just come from some orchard; for he pulled a hard apple out of his pocket, aimed it at Ailwin's head, and struck her such a blow on the nose as made her eyes water. While she was wiping her eyes with her apron, and trying to see again, Roger coaxed the child to bring him his apple again, and disappeared.
When Mildred reached the mill, she found Pastor Dendel there, talking with her father about sending some manure to his land. The pastor was so busy, that he only gave her a nod; and she had therefore time to recover herself, instead of frightening everybody with her looks and her news at once. Oliver could not stay in the house while the pastor was at the mill: so he stood behind him, chipping away at the rough part of his work. Mildred whispered to him that the Redfurns were close at hand. She saw Oliver turn very red, though he told her not to be frightened. Perhaps the pastor perceived this too, when he turned round, for he said--
"What is the matter, children? Mildred, what have you been doing, that you are so out of breath? Have you been running all the way from Lincoln spire?"
"No, sir; not running--but--"
"The Redfurns are come, sir," cried Oliver. "Father, the Redfurns are come."
"Roger has been peeping over the hedge into the garden," cried Mildred, sinking into tears.
The miller looked grave, and said here was an end of all peace, for some time to come.
"Are you all at the mercy of a boy like Roger Redfurn," asked the pastor, "so that you look as if a plague had come with this fresh breeze?"
"And his uncle, sir."
"And his aunt," added Mildred.
"You know what Stephen Redfurn is, sir," observed Mr Linacre. "Roger beats even him for mischief. And we are at their mercy, sir. There is not a magistrate, as you know, that will hear a complaint from one of us against the country-people. We get nothing but trouble, and expense, and ridicule, by making complaints. We know this beforehand; for the triumph is always on the other side."
"It is hard," said the pastor: "but still,--here is only a man, a woman, and a boy. Cannot you defend yourselves against them?"
"No, sir; because they are not an honourable enemy," replied Mr Linacre. "If Stephen would fight it out with me on even ground, we would see who would beat: and I dare say my boy there, though none of the roughest, would stand up against Roger. But such fair trials do not suit them, sir. People who creep through drains, to do us mischief, and hide in the reeds when we are up and awake, and come in among us only when we are asleep, are a foe that may easily ruin any honest man, who cannot get protection from the law. They houghed my cow, two years ago, sir."
"And they mixed all mother's feathers, for the whole year," exclaimed Mildred.
"And they blinded my dog," cried Oliver;--"put out its eyes."
"Oh! What 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,