or intentional
cruelty when they early and sternly disciplined their young charges to
the same laborious life. The duties of the children were manifold.
Jim herded McAravey's two or three cows, or acted as scarecrow in the
little patch of corn, each precious grain of which was grudged to the
passing birds. Elsie scoured the house, and carried out milk to one or
two somewhat distant neighbours. But the most arduous labour of the
children was one that they shared together. When the weather
suited--after a stormy night, or when there was a spring tide--they
would stand for hours on the beach, often wet to the waists, dragging
the tempest-tossed sea-weed to the shore with large wooden rakes. This
occupation was not merely arduous but dangerous. More than once had
little Jim, who was of lighter build than the girl, been fairly dragged
off his feet by the force of the receding wave, as it wrestled with him
for the possession of the mass of floating weed which he had hooked in
his rake. The weed thus drawn to shore was subsequently sorted, the
greater part being used for manure, while the rest was burned in one of
those rough kilns that abound along the coast, and reduced to kelp,
which is used in the manufacture of soap and glass, and from which
iodine is extracted. Thus, almost from infancy, the children had been
inured to labour, and alas! for them the sunny hours of idle rambling
amid the tangled foliage of the glen were few and far between. Neither
child had received any education. The only school was nearly four
miles off, up on the open moorland. It was only in summer that the
children could possibly attend, and even then their visits were
infrequent and irregular. On all religious subjects their young minds
were dark as night. Even a few days at school had taught them that
such things as reading and writing existed, and Jim especially had
developed in him vague ideas as to the power and wealth that might be
obtained if once he could master these mysterious subjects. But
religion was only known to them as being provocative of party quarrels
and domestic disagreements. Harsh and brief as was the general style
of intercourse between Mr. and Mrs. McAravey, there was no absolute
anger or violence about it, except when allusion was made to the
difference that through life had separated husband and wife. Even then
it seemed strange to the children that such fierce feelings and such
ill words should be excited