She watched very anxiously, and so did Stead, while relieving
Whitefoot of her panniers and giving her a rub down before turning
her out to get her supper.
It was not long however before Kenton and Jeph both appeared, the one
looking sad, the other sulky. "Too late," Jeph muttered, "and father
won't let me go to see the sport."
"Sport, d'ye call it?" said Kenton. "Aye, Stead, you may well gape
at what we have seen--our good parson with his feet tied to his
stirrups on a sorry nag, being hauled off to town like a common
thief!"
"Oh!" broke from the children, and Patience ventured to ask, "But
what for, father?"
"They best know who did it," said the Churchwarden. "Something they
said of a scandalous minister, as though his had not ever been a
godly life and preaching. These be strange times, children, and for
the life of me, I know not what it all means. How now, Jeph, what
art idling there for? There's the waggon to be loaded for to-morrow
with the faggots I promised Mistress Lightfoot."
Jeph moved away, murmuring something about fetching up the cows, to
which his father replied, "That was Steadfast's work, and it was not
time yet.
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