The Carpenter's Daughter

Nettie comforts her Mother.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
BY THE AUTHORS OF THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD, ETC. ETC.
WITH COLOURED FRONTISPIECE.
LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE.
BY THE AUTHORS OF THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD. Price ONE SHILLING each, with coloured Frontispiece THE TWO SCHOOLGIRLS. THE CARPENTER'S DAUGHTER. THE PRINCE IN DISGUISE. GERTRUDE AND HER BIBLE. MARTHA AND RACHEL. THE WIDOW AND HER DAUGHTER. THE LITTLE BLACK HEN. THE ROSE IN THE DESERT. GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS.
London: Savill, Edwards & Co., Printers, Chandos Street.
Down in a little hollow, with the sides grown full of wild thorn, alder bushes, and stunted cedars, ran the stream of a clear spring. It ran over a bed of pebbly stones, showing every one as if there had been no water there, so clear it was; and it ran with a sweet soft murmur or gurgle over the stones, as if singing to itself and the bushes as it ran.
On one side of the little stream a worn foot path took its course among the bushes; and down this path one summer's afternoon came a woman and a girl. They had pails to fill at the spring; the woman had a large wooden one, and the girl a light tin pail; and they drew the water with a little tin dipper, for it was not deep enough to let a pail be used for that. The pails were filled in silence, only the spring always was singing; and the woman and the girl turned and went up the path again. After getting up the bank, which was only a few feet, the path still went gently rising through a wild bit of ground, full of trees and low bushes; and not far off, through the trees, there came a gleam of bright light from the window of a house, on which the setting sun was shining. Half way to the house the girl and the woman stopped to rest; for water is heavy, and the tin pail which was so light before it was filled, had made the little girl's figure bend over to one side like a willow branch all the way from the spring. They stopped to rest, and even the woman had a very weary, jaded look.