It would be no very easy task to describe how unhappy Stephen was when,
from day to day, he saw Martha's pleasant sisterly ways change into a
rude and careless harshness, and her thrifty, cleanly habits give place
to the dirty extravagance of the collier-folk at Botfield. But who could
tell how he suffered in his warm, tender-hearted nature, when he came
home at night, and found the poor old grandfather neglected, and left
desolate in his blindness; and little Nan herself severely punished by
Martha's unkindness and quick temper? Not that Martha became bad
suddenly, or was always unkind and neglectful; there were times when
she was her old self again, when she would listen patiently enough to
Stephen's remonstrances and Miss Anne's gentle teaching; but yet Stephen
could never feel sure, when he was at his dismal toil underground, that
all things were going on right in his home overhead. Often and often, as
he looked up to Fern's Hollow, where the new red-brick house was now to
be seen plainly, like a city set on a hill, he longed to be back again,
and counted the months and weeks until the spring should bring home the
good clergyman to Danesford.
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