So he worked very hard, and Patience
was capable of a good deal more than in her earlier days. Stead,
helpless as he was, did not require constant attendance, and knew too
well how much was on his sister's hands to trouble her when he could
possibly help doing so. Thus they rubbed on; though it was a
terrible winter, and they often had to break in on the hoard which
was to have built the house, sometimes for needments for the patient,
sometimes to hire help when there was work beyond the strength of
Patience and Ben, who indeed was too slender to do all that Stead had
done.
Ben did not shine in going to market. He was not big enough to hold
his own against rude lads, and once came home crying with his donkey
beaten and his eggs broken; moreover, he was apt to linger at stalls
of books and broadsheets. As soon as Patience could venture to leave
her brother, she was forced to go to market herself; and there was a
staidness and sobriety about her demeanour that kept all impertinence
at a distance. Poor Patience, she was not at all the laughing rustic
beauty that Emlyn would have been at market.
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