He
has been very good to us, and we have fared well. Come in, Jeph, and
see, and have something to eat! I am glad you are come home at
last."
Jephthah graciously consented to enter the low hut. He had to bend
his tall figure and take off his steeple-crowned hat before he could
enter at the low doorway, and then they saw his closely cropped head.
Patience tarried a moment to ask Rusha what had become of Emlyn.
"She is hiding in the cow shed," was the answer. "She ran off as
soon as she saw Jeph coming, and said he was a crop-eared villain."
This was not bad news, and they all entered the hut, where the fire
was made up, and one of Patience's rush candles placed on the table
with a kind of screen of plaited rushes to protect it from the worst
of the draught. Jeph had grown quite into a man in the eyes of his
brothers and sisters. He looked plump and well fed, and his clothes
were good and fresh, and his armour bright, a contrast to Steadfast's
smock, stained with weather and soil, and his rough leathern
leggings, although Patience did her best, and his shirt was
scrupulously clean every Sunday morning.
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