"Yes, yes, dear Edmund! We are all safe. Good Tirzah came to warn us. Make haste! They are at the farm. We shall be at Mrs Pearson's. She," (pointing to Tirzah) "sent to fetch Sophy from school. She'll be there. Here are the children all safe." "Papa, papa," cried little Mary, feeling his silver-laced collar, and stroking his face as he kissed her. And from that time she was comforted though he had to leave her again at once. She had felt a father's arm. "Tirzah Todd!" exclaimed Captain Carbonel, "I shall never forget what you have done for us. Never!" Tirzah curtsied, but said, "You'll be good to my man, sir?" It was but a moment's halt ere Captain Carbonel rode on to overtake the rest of the troop, who, on hearing that the outrage was really taking place, were riding on rapidly. Mrs Carbonel had not far to go before reaching the hospitable farm, where Mrs Pearson came out to receive her with many a "Dear, dear!" and "Dear heart!" and entreaty that she and the dear children would make themselves at home. But Sophy was not there, and had not been heard of, and Mrs Carbonel, in her anxiety, could not rest on the sofa in the parlour, after she had persuaded little Mary into eating her long-delayed dinner of some mutton hastily minced for her, and had seen her safely asleep and cuddling a kitten. Mrs Pearson was only too happy to have the baby to occupy her long-disused wicker cradle, and Tirzah had rushed off to the scene of action as soon as she had seen the lady safely housed. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. THE MACHINE. "In bursts of outrage spread your judgment wide, And to your wrath cry out, `Be thou our guide.'" _Wordsworth_. Sophy was endeavouring to make the children remember who Joseph was, and thinking them unusually stupid, idle, and talkative, when, without ceremony, the door was banged open, and in tramped Hoglah Todd, with the baby in her arms, her sun-bonnet on her neck, and her black hair sticking wildly out. "Please, ma'am," she began, "Jack Swing is up a-breaking the machine, and mother says you are to go to Farmer Pearson's to be safe out of the way!" "Hoggie Todd," began Mrs Thorpe, "that's not the way to come into school," but she could not finish, for voices broke out above the regulation school hush: "Yes, yes, father said," and "Our Jem said," and it ended in "Jack Swing's a-coming to break up the machine." Only one or two said, "Mother said as how it was a shame, and they'd get into trouble." "Your mother sent you?" said Sophy to Hoglah. "Yes, ma'am. She's gone up herself to tell madam, and take she to Pearson's, and her said you'd better go there, back ways, or else stay here with governess till 'twas quieted down." "Hark! They are holloaing."