THREE:"Lard, boy!and why should you care if they d?an't?"
THREE:"Lard, boy!and why should you care if they d?an't?"
THREE:
THREE:"Oh," moaned his brother, "oh!oh!"
THREE:That was how the Rev. Roger Ades started his ministrations at Odiam. At first Reuben was disgusted. He had never before had truck with Dissenters, whom he considered low-class and unfit for anyone above a tenant farmer. He was outraged by the thought of the pastor's almost daily visits, accompanied by loud singing of hymns in Albert's bedroom. However, he did not actually forbid him the house, for Pete had brought him there, and Reuben never treated Pete exactly as he treated his other sons. Pete was the only member of his family who had so far not disgraced Odiamexcept the two little boys, who were too youngand he was always careful to do nothing that might unsettle him and drive him into his brother's treacherous ways.[Pg 373] So the pastor of Ebenezer came unchecked, and doubtless his ministrations were appreciated, for as time went by the intervals between them grew shorter and shorter, till at last Mr. Ades was more often in the house than out of it."I dursn't nowit's no useyou're a hard man."
THREE:"If that child takes after his father," said Holgrave, "he will have pride enough.""How much? why, two shillings a pound," said Mrs. Backfield, rather surprised.
THREE:"Not a foot nearer, Master Calverley, for all the gold in England. Why, you are standing just where the poor lady and her babe were buried!"But though Reuben bore the brunt of the new enterprise, he had no intention of sparing others their part. All that he by any exertions could do himself he did, but the things which inevitably he could not compass, because he had only two hands, one back, one head, and seven days a week to work in, must be done by others. He showed himself unexpectedly stiff, and Mrs. Backfield and Harry found themselves obeying him as if he were not the son of the one and only a year older than the other. As a matter of fact, custom gave Reuben authority, in spite of his years. He was the master, the eldest son inheriting his father's lordship with his father's farm. Mrs. Backfield and Harry would have been censured by public opinion if they had set themselves against him.
THREE:"F?ather's after our land," said Tilly, and shuddered.
THREE:"Oh, certainly, certainly. You surely wouldn't think of doing that, Backfield. I promise you the full value of the cow."