“How long, master, will it be till we hear the sound of the bell again?”

“Say till midsummer.  I do not think it will be longer.  No, I do not.  Let us bear the trial as cheerfully as we can.  I am not going a mile from Hatton, and if any man or woman has a trouble I can lighten, let them come to me.  And our God is not a far-off God.  He is a very present help in time of need.”  With these words John lifted his hat a moment, and as he turned away, Greenwood led the little company out, singing confidently,

    “We thank Him for all that is past,
    We trust Him for all that’s to come.”

John did not go home for some hours.  He went over his books and brought all transactions up to date, and accompanied by Greenwood made a careful inspection of every loom, noted what repairs or alterations were necessary, and hired a sufficient number of boys to oil and dust the looms regularly to keep the mill clean and all the metal work bright and shining.  So it was well on in the afternoon when he turned homeward.  Jane met him at the park gates, and they talked the subject over under the green trees with the scent of the sweetbriar everywhere and the April sunshine over every growing thing.  She was a great help and comfort.  He felt her encouraging smiles and words to be like wine and music, and when they sat down to dinner together, they were a wonder to their household.  They did not speak of the closed mill and they did not look like people who expected a hard and sorrowful time.

“They hev a bit o’ money laid by for theirsens,” said the selfish who judged others out of their own hearts; but the majority answered quickly, “Not they!  Not a farthing!  Hatton hes spent his last shilling to keep Hatton mill going, and how he is going to open it when peace comes caps everyone who can add this and that together.”

The first week of idleness was not the worst.  John and Greenwood found plenty to do among the idle looms, but after all repairs and alterations had been completed, then John felt the stress of hours that had no regular daily task.  For the first time in his life his household saw him irritable.  He spoke impatiently and did not know it until the words were beyond recall.  Jane had at such times a new feeling about her husband.  She began to wonder how she could bear it if he were always “so short and dictatorial.”  She concluded that it must be his mill way.  “But I am not going to have it brought into my house,” she thought.  “Poor John!  He must be suffering to be so still and yet so cross.”

One day she went to Harlow House to see her mother and she spoke to her about John’s crossness.  Then she found that John had Mrs. Harlow’s thorough sympathy.

“Think of the thousands of pounds he has lost, Jane.  For my part I wonder he has a temper of any kind left; and all those families on his hands, as it were.  I am sure it is no wonder he is cross at times.  Your father would not have been to live with at all.”