e very different from the lank, white-faced
mannikins all finger-ends for a bit of machinery; aren't they, Ducie?
And I would far rather see Steve counting his flocks on the fells than
his spinning-jennys in a mill. Father was troubled about the railway
coming to Ambleside, and I do think a factory in Sandal-Side would make
him heart-sick."

"Then Steve shall never build one while Sandal lives. Do you think I
would have the squire made heart-sick if I could make him heart-whole?
Not for all the woollen yarn in England. Tell him Ducie said so. The
squire and I are old, old friends. Why, we pulled primroses together in
the very meadow Steve thought of building in! I'm not the woman to put a
mill before a friend, oh, no! And in the long end I think you are right,
Charlotte. A man had better work among sheep than among human beings.
They are a deal more peaceable and easy to get on with. It is not so
very hard for a shepherd to be a good man."

"You speak as I like to hear you, Ducie; but I must be going, for a deal
falls to my oversight now." And she rose quickly from the tea-table,
and as she tied on her bonnet, began to sing,--

"'God bless the sheep upon the fells!
Oh, do you hear the tinkling bells
Of sheep that wander on the fells?

The tinkling bells the silence fills,
Sings cheerily the soul that wills;
God bless the shepherd on the hills!

God bless the sheep! Their tinkling bells
Make music over all the fells;
By _force_ and _gill_ and _tarn_ it swells,
And this is what their music tells:
God bless the sheep upon the fells.'"

The melody was wild and simple, a little plaintive also; and Charlotte
sang it with a low, sweet monotony that recalled, one knew not how or
why, the cool fragrance of the hillside, and the scent of wild flowers
by running water.

Then she went slowly home, Ducie walking to the pine-wood with her.
There was a vague unrest and fear at her heart, she knew not why; for
who can tell whence spring their thoughts, or what mover first starts
them from their secret lodging-place? A sadness she could not fight
down took possession of her; and it annoyed her the more, because she
found every one pleasantly excited over a box of presents that had just
arrived from India for Sophia. She knew that her depression would be
interpreted by some as envy and jealousy, and she resented the false
position it put her in; and yet she found