Miss
Benson, too, had her little, neat-tippeted maidens sitting with
her in the parlour; and she was far more particular in keeping
them to their reading and spelling than her brother was with his
boys. Sally, too, put in her word of instruction from the
kitchen, helping, as she fancied, though her assistance was often
rather malapropos; for instance, she called out, to a little fat,
stupid, roly-poly girl, to whom Miss Benson was busy explaining
the meaning of the word quadruped--
"Quadruped, a thing wi' four legs, Jenny; a chair is a quadruped,
child!"
But Miss Benson had a deaf manner sometimes when her patience was
not too severely tried, and she put it on now. Ruth sat on a low
hassock, and coaxed the least of the little creatures to her, and
showed it pictures till it fell asleep in her arms, and sent a
thrill through her, at the thought of the tiny darling who would
lie on her breast before long, and whom she would have to cherish
and to shelter from the storms of the world.
And then she remembered, that she was once white and sinless as
the wee lassie who lay in her arms; and she knew that she had
gone astray. By-and-by the children trooped away, and Miss Benson
summoned her to put on her things for chapel.
The chapel was up a narrow street, or rather cul-de-sac, close
by. It stood on the outskirts of the town, almost in fields. It
was built about the time of Matthew and Philip Henry, when the
Dissenters were afraid of attracting attention or observation,
and hid their places of worship in obscure and out-of-the-way
parts of the towns in which they were built.
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