"Yo' all know me, and what I can do, and do you think I'm going to let a bit of a boy, wi' his pretence about his larning and studies, bunch me and ca' me a fool and a brute when I know more about t'mine wi' one o' my hands than he does wi' his whole body." Still there was no reply, the men taking up their picks and looking uneasily at the speaker. "Tell 'ee what. I'm a man, I am, and a man o' my word. I said I'd put my mark on him for this job; and I will. Yo' all hear me, don't 'ee? I say I'll put my mark upon him." The big miner, with his fierce blackened face and rolling eyes, looked vindictive enough then to be guilty of any atrocity as he seemed to be seeking for an answer. "Yo' hear me? I say I'll put my mark upon him." "Not thou, lad," said one of his companions at last. "I tell 'ee I will. Never mind when or wheer. And now wheer's the man as'll go and tell him what I say?" No one spoke, and soon after that was heard the regular metallic _chip_--_chip_--_chip_ of the picks in the black wall of coal, Ebenezer Parks muttering to himself the while, and thinking of how he could best revenge himself upon "that boy." CHAPTER FIVE. 'TWIXT FATHER AND SON. When her son went home, Mrs Hexton was sitting up very straight and stern-looking in her chair, with a knitted stocking in one hand, a worsted-threaded needle in the other, and a handkerchief tied over her head to keep off the draught, for the new drawing-room was cold. Mr Hexton was seated in an easy-chair--at least, he was in the easy-chair; but it is not fair to say that he was seated, for he was filling up the chair just as if he had no bones, and making a rather sonorous noise as he breathed. It was past one o'clock, and the servants had gone to bed at ten, soon after which time Mr Hexton had proposed that they should follow, but Mrs Hexton had declared her intention of sitting up for her son. "Why, what nonsense!" her husband had said. "Come along to bed." "You can go, dear," she replied quietly. "I should not be happy if I did not see him safely back. And, besides, he will want a cup of tea and a bit of toast." "And his face washed, and his feet put in warm water, while his mother brushes his hair, and fusses over him," said Mr Hexton pettishly. "For goodness' sake, don't go on petting and coddling the boy like that." Mrs Hexton said nothing--only rose from her chair, and placed the tea-tray and the caddy ready, for they had been brought in the last thing by one of the maids. Then she lifted the bright copper kettle out of the fender and placed it on the hob, where it began to sing a song of its own composition, and she ended by taking up three pairs of her son's stockings to darn.