Thank God, Stephen Fern did begin to know it _by heart_!
It was not a bad day in the pit. All the colliers, men and boys, were
more gentle than usual with the fatherless lad; and even Black Thompson,
his master since his father's illness, who was in general a fierce bully
to everybody about him, spoke as mildly as he could to Stephen. Yet all
the day Stephen longed for his release in the evening, thinking how much
work there wanted doing in the garden, and how he and Martha must be busy
in it till nightfall. The clanking of the chain which drew him up to the
light of day sounded like music to him; but little did he guess that an
enemy was lying in wait for him at the mouth of the pit. 'Hillo!' cried a
voice down the shaft as they were nearing the top; 'one of you chaps have
got to carry a sack o' coals one mile.'
The voice belonged to Tim Cole, who was the terror of the pit-bank, from
his love of mischief and his insatiable desire for fighting. He was
looking down the shaft now, with a grin and a laugh upon his red face,
round which his shaggy red hair hung like a rough mane. There were only
two other boys besides Stephen in the skip, and as their fathers were
with them it might be dangerous to meddle with them; so Tim fixed upon
Stephen as his prey.
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