Now that Easter was at home in her mother's cottage, the meetings, which had become irregular on account of Widow Evans' failing health, began again with renewed vigour. Every Sunday a large class was held in the cottage, and Easter started a singing-class, taught by herself, which attracted all the young folks of the place to it. There was a slow, but quite a perceptible change in the little village. Even the farmers and their wives would sometimes condescend to be present at the service when some preacher from town was coming, for the old rector was growing more and more careless of his duties, and the conviction was spreading that there was need of some change. There was a rumour that the duke had been asked to grant land for the purpose of building a chapel, and that he was willing to do it if the majority of the parishioners wished it. The rector said nothing against it, but Christmas Williams, as churchwarden, opposed it with unflagging vehemence. The scheme, if ever indeed there had been one, must have fallen through for want of funds; but the mere rumour of it helped to widen the breach between him and his daughter. In the meanwhile Chrissie was growing as fast as a healthy child grows who is always out in the open air, braving all kinds of weather, and only kept indoors by sleep. He was a lovely baby, and a bold, bonny little boy, restless, daring, and resolute; a favourite with all the neighbours, as Easter herself had been in her motherless childhood. Chrissie was free of every house in the village: there was no door closed to him except his grandfather's, and a seat at every table was ready for Easter's child. His mother, busy with making both ends meet, hardly knew how to put a stop to the boy's vagrant life. As soon as he was old enough to dress himself, he would be up and away at the earliest dawn, rambling about the fields and hedgerows, climbing the trees, or helping to bring in the cows to be milked from the meadows, where they had passed the short, cool, summer nights. Chrissie seemed to be everywhere, and to know everything that passed in the neighbourhood. Many an hour of silent prayer while she was at work, and many an hour of wakeful anxiety during the night, did Easter pass. So long, however, as Chrissie did not fall into any evil ways, she was wise enough to leave him free. He was truthful and affectionate, and, on the whole, obedient; and no child could be more apt to learn and remember the little lessons she tried to teach him whenever she had time.