The sound of Mytton's blows on the back of the patient, plodding creature always gave pain to Amy's kindly heart. She would never have willingly inflicted pain on any of God's creatures, least of all upon one that had long and faithfully served her. The children went out to meet their father, all but Amy, who was so feeble that to rise unaided from the chair upon which she was seated was an effort almost beyond her strength. The poor girl could tell from the tone of Mytton's voice before he entered the cottage that he was out of temper, and inclined to quarrel with all the world. "Take the beast out of the cart, boys; he's not worth the thistles that he crops! I don't believe I could get five shillings for the lazy brute if I sold him to-morrow. And there was Sir Marmaduke, with his two spanking bays," continued Mytton, as he crossed the threshold of his humble little dwelling, "whirling along the highway, covering me with his dust, and nigh driving over cart, donkey, and all; a fellow whose grandfather was a manufacturer, and spun all his money out of sheep's wool!" Mytton threw himself down on a seat, pulled off his felt cap, and wiped his heated brow with his hand; a handkerchief was a thing of which he did not boast the possession. "Did you buy the print for me, father?" cried May, who had followed Mytton into the cottage. "No," the man answered sharply. "Oh! You forgot it!" exclaimed May, in a tone of disappointment. "I didn't forget it, I was in the shop, the fellow behind the counter was just going to serve me, when a fine open carriage pulls up at the door, and Sir Marmaduke flings the horses' reins to his liveried lackey and gets out. Of course, I had to stand back to let the fine gentleman pass, I whose ancestor kept a coach-and-six, when he, maybe, was a-running barefoot behind it!" Mytton looked unutterable scorn as he spoke. "He'd come to ask after the yellow satin he'd ordered for his drawing-room curtains; yellow satin, forsooth! Every yard of it costing as much as I'd earn in a week by my labour! I didn't choose to stand there waiting till a sneak of a shopman had done bowing and fawning and smiling to the great man, whose fortune had sprung up like a mushroom, so I turned on my heel and went out. I'm as good a man as Sir Marmaduke any day, for all his swaggering pride!" Any one who had seen the sneer on the lip of the peasant might have guessed, and would have guessed truly, that there was more of pride under his blue smock, than swelled the heart of the wealthiest peer in the land. In a savage spirit of discontent, Mytton cut a thick hunch of bread from the loaf which Amy had spread ready for him, and a slice from the piece of stale cheese. There was no grace said before dinner by Mytton, indeed thanksgiving would have keen a mockery from one who looked upon himself as wronged, because he had been born in a station as lowly as that which the Lord of Heaven, when He came to visit earth, had chosen for His own.