CHAPTER XIV. CHRISTMAS. "Slee, sla, slud, Stuck in the mud, O! it is pretty to wade through a flood, Come, wheel round, The dirt we have found, Would be an estate at a farthing a pound." LILY's illness, interrupted her teaching at the village school for many weeks, and she was in no great haste to resume it. Alethea Weston seemed to enjoy doing all that was required, and Lily left it in her hands, glad to shut her eyes as much as possible to the disheartening state the parish had been in ever since her former indiscretion. The approach of Christmas however made it necessary for her to exert herself a little more, and her interest in parish matters revived as she distributed the clothing club goods, and in private conference with each good dame, learnt the wants of her family. But it was sad to miss several names struck out of the list for non-attendance at Church, and when Mrs. Eden came for her child's clothing, Lily remarked that the articles she chose were, empty room at the Old Court, laboured assiduously to find the secret of perpetual motion. A few days before Christmas, Rachel Harvey again took leave of Beechcroft, with a promise that she would make them another visit when Eleanor came home. Before she went, she gave Emily a useful caution, telling her it was not right to trust her keys out of her own possession. It was what Miss Mohun never would have done, she had never once committed them even to Rachel. "With due deference to Eleanor," said Emily, with her winning smile, "we must allow that that was being over cautious.” Rachel smiled, but her lecture was not averted by the compliment. "It might have been very well since you have known me, Miss Emily, but I do not know what would have come of it, if I had been too much trusted, when I was a giddy young thing like Esther; that girl comes of a bad lot, and if any thing is to be made of her, it is by keeping temptation out of her way, and not letting her be with that mother of her's." Rachel had rather injured the effect of her advice by behaving too like a mistress during her visit; Emily had more than once wished that old servants were not privileged people, and she was more offended than convinced by the re monstrance. CHAPTER XIV. CHRISTMAS. "Slee, sla, slud, Stuck in the mud, O! it is pretty to wade through a flood, Come, wheel round, The dirt we have found, Would be an estate at a farthing a pound." LILY's illness, interrupted her teaching at the village school for many weeks, and she was in no great haste to resume it. Alethea Weston seemed to enjoy doing all that was required, and Lily left it in her hands, glad to shut her eyes as much as possible to the disheartening state the parish had been in ever since her former indiscretion. The approach of Christmas however made it necessary for her to exert herself a little more, and her interest in parish matters revived as she distributed the clothing club goods, and in private conference with each good dame, learnt the wants of her family. But it was sad to miss several names struck out of the list for non-attendance at Church, and when Mrs. Eden came for her child's clothing, Lily remarked that the articles she chose were, unlike those of former years, the cheapest and coarsest she could find. St. Thomas's day was marked by the custom, called at Beechcroft, "gooding." Each mother of a family came to all the principal houses in the parish to receive sixpence, towards providing a Christmas dinner, and it was Lily's business to dispense this dole at the New Court. With a long list of names and a heap of silver before her, she sat at the oaken table by the open chimney in the hall, returning a nod or a smiling greeting to the thanks of the women as they came one by one to receive the little silver coins, and warm themselves by the glowing wood fire. Pleasant as the task was at first, it ended painfully. Agnes Eden appeared, in order to claim the double portion allotted to her mother, as a widow. This was the first time that Mrs. Eden had asked for the gooding-money, and Lily knew that it was a sign that she must be in great distress. Agnes made her had little curtsey, and crept away again as soon as she received her shilling; but Mrs. Grey, who was Mrs. Eden's neighbour, had not quite settled her penny club affairs, and remained a little longer. An unassuming and highly principled person was Mrs. Grey, and Lily enjoyed a talk with her, while she was waiting for the purple stuff frock which Jane was measuring off for Kezia. They spoke of the children, and of a few other little matters, and presently something was said about Mrs. Eden; Lily asked if the blacksmith helped her. 66 "O! no, Miss Lilias, he will do nothing for her, while she sends her child to school and to Church. He will not speak to her even. Not a bit of butter nor a morsel of bacon has been in her house since Michaelmas, and what she would have done if it was not for Mr. Devereux and Mrs. Weston, I cannot think." Lilias, much shocked by this account of the distress into which she and Jane had been the means of bringing the widow, reported it to her father and to the Rector; entreating the former to excuse her rent, which he willingly promised to do, and also desired his daughters to give her a blanket, and tell her to come to the house whenever any broth was to be given away. Mr. Devereux, who already knew of her troubles, and allowed her a small sum weekly, now told his cousins how much the Greys had assisted her. Andrew Grey had dug up and housed her winter's store of potatoes, he had sought work for her, and little Agnes often shared the meals of his children. The Greys had a large family, very young, so that all that they did for her was the fruit of self-denial. Innumerable were the kindnesses which they performed unknown to any but the widow and her child. More by a hundred times did they assist her than the thoughtless girls who had occasioned her sufferings, though Lily was not the only one who felt that nothing was too much for them to do. Nothing perhaps would have been too much except to bear her in mind and steadily aid her in little things, but Lily took no account of little things, talked away her feelings, and thus all her grand resolutions produced almost nothing. Lord |