‘Why, Martha will be quite an heiress!’ said Mr. Lockwood.  ’So she is provided for, and grandfather.  And what do you intend to do with yourself, Stephen, till you come back here?’

‘I’m strong enough to go back to the pit,’ replied Stephen bravely, though inwardly he shrank from it; but how else could the rent of Fern’s Hollow be laid by for Martha?  ’Now Miss Anne has raised the wages, I should get eight shillings a week, and more as I grow older.  I shall do for myself very nicely, thank you, sir; and maybe I could lodge with grandfather at Mrs. Thompson’s.’

‘No,’ said Miss Anne, in her gentle voice, the sweetest voice in the world to Stephen, now little Nan’s was silent; ’Stephen is my dear friend, and he must let me act the part of a friend towards him.  I wish to send him to live with a good man whom I know, the manager of one of the great works at Netley, where he may learn everything that will be necessary to become my bailiff.  I shall want a true, trustworthy agent to look after my interests here, and in a few years Stephen will be old enough to do this for me.  He shall attend a good school for a few hours daily, to gain a fitting education; and then what servant could I find more faithful, more true, and more loving than my dear friend Stephen?  He can come back here then, if he chooses, and perhaps have Martha for his housekeeper, in their old home at Fern’s Hollow.’

‘Oh, Miss Anne!’ cried Stephen, ’I cannot bear it!  May I really be your servant all my life?’ and the boy’s voice was lost in sobs.

‘Come, Stephen,’ said the lord of the manor, ’I want you to show us some of your old haunts on the hills.  If Miss Anne had not formed a better plan, I should have proposed making you my gamekeeper; for Jones has been telling me about the grouse last year.  By the way, if I had thought it would be any pleasure to you, I should have dismissed him from my service for his share in this business; but I knew you would be for begging him in again, so I only told him pretty strongly what a sneak I thought him.’

They went out then across the uplands, a sunny ramble, to all Stephen’s favourite places.  And it happened that when they reached the solitary yew-tree near which Snip was buried, all the rest strolled on, and left Stephen and Miss Anne alone.  Before them, down at the foot of the mountains, there stretched a wide plain many miles across, beautiful with woods and streams; and on the far horizon there hung a light cloud that was always to be seen there, the index of those great works where Stephen was to dwell for some years.  Near to them they could discern, in the clear atmosphere, the spires and towers of the county town, where Black Thompson, who had tempted him on these hills, was now imprisoned for many years; and below, though hidden from their sight, was Botfield and the cinder-hill cabin.  A band of bilberry-gatherers was coming down the hill with songs and shouts of laughter; and the frightened flocks of sheep stood motionless on the hillocks, ready to flee away in a moment at their approach.  Both Miss Anne and Stephen felt a crowd of thoughts, sorrowful and happy, come thronging to their minds.