She sat rocking herself to and fro by the side of the bed, while the footsteps below went in and out; she had been in sorrow too long to have any violent burst of deep grief now; the furrows were well worn in her cheeks, and the tears flowed quietly, if incessantly, all the day long.  But when the winter’s night drew on, and the neighbours had gone away to their homes, she stole to the window, and gazed out, long and wistfully, over the dark grey moors.  She did not hear her son’s voice, as he spoke to her from the door, nor his footstep as he drew nearer.  She started when he touched her.

“Mother! come down to us.  There’s no one but Will and me.  Dearest mother, we do so want you.”  The poor lad’s voice trembled, and he began to cry.  It appeared to require an effort on Mrs. Leigh’s part to tear herself away from the window, but with a sigh she complied with his request.

The two boys (for though Will was nearly twenty-one, she still thought of him as a lad) had done everything in their power to make the house-place comfortable for her.  She herself, in the old days before her sorrow, had never made a brighter fire or a cleaner hearth, ready for her husband’s return home, than now awaited her.  The tea-things were all put out, and the kettle was boiling; and the boys had calmed their grief down into a kind of sober cheerfulness.  They paid her every attention they could think of, but received little notice on her part; she did not resist, she rather submitted to all their arrangements; but they did not seem to touch her heart.

When tea was ended—­it was merely the form of tea that had been gone through—­Will moved the things away to the dresser.  His mother leant back languidly in her chair.

“Mother, shall Tom read you a chapter?  He’s a better scholar than I.”

“Ay, lad!” said she, almost eagerly.  “That’s it.  Read me the Prodigal Son.  Ay, ay, lad.  Thank thee.”

Tom found the chapter, and read it in the high-pitched voice which is customary in village schools.  His mother bent forward, her lips parted, her eyes dilated; her whole body instinct with eager attention.  Will sat with his head depressed and hung down.  He knew why that chapter had been chosen; and to him it recalled the family’s disgrace.  When the reading was ended, he still hung down his head in gloomy silence.  But her face was brighter than it had been before for the day.  Her eyes looked dreamy, as if she saw a vision; and by-and-by she pulled the Bible towards her, and, putting her finger underneath each word, began to read them aloud in a low voice to herself; she read again the words of bitter sorrow and deep humiliation; but most of all, she paused and brightened over the father’s tender reception of the repentant prodigal.

So passed the Christmas evening in the Upclose Farm.