‘Could I ask him anything about your book, or your difficulties?’

She was silent for a minute or so, and then she made reply,—­

’No!  I think not.  Thank you very much, though.  I can generally puzzle a thing out in time.  And then, perhaps, I remember it better than if some one had helped me.  I’ll put it away now, and you must move off, for I’ve got to make the paste for the pies; we always have a cold dinner on Sabbaths.’

‘But I may stay and help you, mayn’t I?’

’Oh, yes; not that you can help at all, but I like to have you with me.’  I was both flattered and annoyed at this straightforward avowal.  I was pleased that she liked me; but I was young coxcomb enough to have wished to play the lover, and I was quite wise enough to perceive that if she had any idea of the kind in her head she would never have spoken out so frankly.  I comforted myself immediately, however, by finding out that the grapes were sour.  A great tall girl in a pinafore, half a head taller than I was, reading books that I had never heard of, and talking about them too, as of far more interest than any mere personal subjects; that was the last day on which I ever thought of my dear cousin Phillis as the possible mistress of my heart and life.  But we were all the greater friends for this idea being utterly put away and buried out of sight.

Late in the evening the minister came home from Hornby.  He had been calling on the different members of his flock; and unsatisfactory work it had proved to him, it seemed from the fragments that dropped out of his thoughts into his talk.

’I don’t see the men; they are all at their business, their shops, or their warehouses; they ought to be there.  I have no fault to find with them; only if a pastor’s teaching or words of admonition are good for anything, they are needed by the men as much as by the women.’

’Cannot you go and see them in their places of business, and remind them of their Christian privileges and duties, minister?’ asked cousin Holman, who evidently thought that her husband’s words could never be out of place.

‘No!’ said he, shaking his head.  ’I judge them by myself.  If there are clouds in the sky, and I am getting in the hay just ready for loading, and rain sure to come in the night, I should look ill upon brother Robinson if he came into the field to speak about serious things.’

’But, at any rate, father, you do good to the women, and perhaps they repeat what you have said to them to their husbands and children?’

’It is to be hoped they do, for I cannot reach the men directly; but the women are apt to tarry before coming to me, to put on ribbons and gauds; as if they could hear the message I bear to them best in their smart clothes.  Mrs Dobson to-day—­Phillis, I am thankful thou dost not care for the vanities of dress!’ Phillis reddened a little as she said, in a low humble voice,—­

’But I do, father, I’m afraid.  I often wish I could wear pretty-coloured ribbons round my throat like the squire’s daughters.’