I
never heard of a fresh achievement there without remembering how the
funeral psalm ends with -
'Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us,
O prosper Thou our handiwork.'
And Emily? Her drooping after the loss of her friend was sad, but
it would have been sadder but for the spirit Ellen had infused. We
found the herbs to heal our woe round our pathway, though the first
joyousness of life had departed. The reports Mr. Henderson and the
Hillside curate brought from Oxford were great excitements to us,
and we thought and puzzled over church doctrine, and tried to impart
it to our scholars. We I say, for Henderson had made me take a
lads' class, which has been the chief interest of my life. Even the
roughest were good to their helpless teacher, and some men, as gray-
headed as myself, still come every Sunday to read with Mr. Edward,
and are among the most faithful friends of my life.
CHAPTER XXXV--GRIFF'S BIRD
'Shall such mean little creatures pretend to the fashion?
Cousin Turkey Cock, well may you be in a passion.'
The Peacock at Home.
It was not till the second Christmas after dear Ellen Fordyce's
death that my eldest brother brought his wife and child to Chantry
House, after an urgent letter to Lady Peacock from my mother, who
yearned for a sight of Griffith's boy.
I do not wish to dwell on that visit.
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