“There can be no harm in leaving it till the spring.  He’d hate going away from here.”

“I don’t think so.  The young welcome a change of environment.  There is nothing more healthy for their minds as a rule than to travel about.  However, we will get him used to the idea of going and think about it again in the spring.”

So the subject was left, and when the suggestion of departing from Bridetown came to Abel, he belied the prophecy of Mr. Churchouse and declared a strong objection to the thought of going.  His mother influenced him in this.

During the autumn he had a misfortune, for, with two other members of the ‘Red Hand,’ he was caught stealing apples at the time of cider-making.  Three strokes of a birch rod fell on each revolutionary, and not Ernest Churchouse nor his mother could console Abel for this reverse.  He gleaned his sole comfort at a dangerous source, and while the kindly ignored the event and the unkindly dwelt upon it, only Levi Baggs applauded Abel and preached privi-conspiracy and rebellion.  Raymond Ironsyde was much perturbed at the adventure, but his friend Waldron held the event desirable.  As a Justice of the Peace, it was Arthur who prescribed the punishment and trusted in it.

Thus he, too, incurred Abel’s enmity.  The company of the ‘Red Hand’ was disbanded to meet no more, and if his fellow sufferers gained by their chastisement, it was certain that Sabina’s son did not.  Insensate law fits the punishment to the crime rather than to the criminal, as though a doctor should only treat disease, without thought of the patient enduring it.

Neither did Abel’s mother take the reverse with philosophy.  She resented it as cruel cowardice; but it reminded her of the advantages to be gained by leaving her old home.

Then fell an unexpected disaster and Mr. Churchouse was called to suffer a dangerous attack of bronchitis.

The illness seemed to banish all other considerations from Sabina’s mind and, while the issue remained in doubt, she planned various courses of action.  Incidentally, she saw more of Estelle and Miss Ironsyde than of late, for Mr. Churchouse, whose first pleasure on earth was now Estelle, craved her presence during convalescence, as Raymond in like case had done; and Miss Ironsyde also drove to see him on several occasions.  The event filled all with concern, for Ernest had a trick to make friends and, what is more rare, an art to keep them.  Many beyond his own circle were relieved and thankful when he weathered danger and began to build up again with the lengthening days of the new year.

Abel had been very solicitous on his behalf, and he praised the child to Jenny and Estelle, when they came to drink tea with him on a day in early spring.

“I believe there are great possibilities in him and, when I am stronger, I shall resume my attack on Sabina to go away,” he said.  “The boy’s mind is being poisoned and we might prevent it.”