"
"That would have been hard on Master Woodley. I am only glad they
are not melted. But how is it with all my old friends, Harry? Poor
Sir George writ me that old clerk North died of grief of the rifling
of the church; and that John Kenton had been killed by some
stragglers. What became of his children?"
"That eldest lad went off to the Parliament army, and came swaggering
here in his buff coat and boots like my Lord Protector himself, they
say he has got a castle and lands in Ireland. Men must be scarce,
say I, if they have had to make a gentleman of Jeph Kenton."
"And the rest?"
"Well, sir, I'm afraid that poor lad, Stead, is in poor plight. You
mind, he was always a still, steady, hard-working lad, and when his
father was killed, and his house burnt, and his brother ran away, the
way he and his sister turned to was just wonderful. They went to
live in an old hut in the gulley down there, and they have made the
place so tidy as it does your heart good to look at it. They bred up
the young ones, and the younger girl is well married to one of the
Squire's folks, and everyone respected them.
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