When Leonard had
gone upstairs, Mr. Benson went immediately to Ruth, and said--
"Ruth! Leonard is just gone up to bed," secure in the instinct
which made her silently rise, and go up to the boy--certain, too,
that they would each be the other's best comforter, and that God
would strengthen each through the other. Now, for the first time,
he had leisure to think of himself; and to go over all the events
of the day. The half-hour of solitude in his study, that he had
before his sister's return, was of inestimable value; he had
leisure to put events in their true places, as to importance and
eternal significance. Miss Faith came in laden with farm produce.
Her kind entertainers had brought her in their shandry to the
opening of the court in which the Chapel-house stood; but she was
so heavily burdened with eggs, mushrooms, and plums, that, when
her brother opened the door, she was almost breathless.
"Oh, Thurstan! take this basket--it is such a weight? Oh, Sally,
is that you? Here are some magnum-bonums which we must preserve
to-morrow. There are guinea-fowl eggs in that basket."
Mr. Benson let her unburden her body, and her mind too, by giving
charges to Sally respecting her housekeeping treasures, before he
said a word; but when she returned into the study, to tell him
the small pieces of intelligence respecting her day at the farm,
she stood aghast.
"Why, Thurstan, dear! What's the matter? Is your back hurting
you?"
He smiled to reassure her; but it was a sickly and forced smile.
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