In this foolish talking
she lost that true sympathy which she ought to have felt for poor Bess,
and forfeited the blessing which would have been given to her own soul.
But it was very different with Stephen in his lonely work upon the
mountains. There he thought over the crimes and punishment of Black
Thompson, until his heart was filled with an unutterable pity and
fellow-feeling both towards him and his family; and every night, as he
went home from his labour, he turned aside to the cottage, to read to
Bess and her mother some portion of the Scriptures which he had chosen
for their comfort, out of a pocket Bible given to him by Miss Anne.
About a fortnight after these events Stephen received a visitor upon the
uplands, where he was seeking a lamb that had strayed into a dwarf
forest of gorse-bushes, and was bleating piteously in its bewilderment.
A pleasant-sounding voice called 'Stephen Fern!' and when he got free
from the entangling thorns, with the rescued lamb in his arms, who
should be waiting for him but the lord of the manor himself! Stephen
knew his face again in an instant, and dropped the lamb that he might
take off his old cap, while the gentleman smiled at him with a hearty
smile.
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