The miller took off his hat in token of respect.
The pastor’s eye had been upon Oliver for some time. He now asked whether he meant to make his new cups plain, like all the rest, or to try to ornament them. Mildred assured him that Oliver had carved a beading round the two last bowls that he had cut.
“I think you might attempt something far prettier than beading,” said the pastor; “particularly with so many patterns before your eyes to work by.”
He was looking up at the little recess above the door of the house, near which they were standing. This recess, in which there had formerly been an image, was surrounded with carved stone-work.
“I see some foliage there which would answer your purpose, Oliver, if you could make a model from it. Let us look closer.”
And Pastor Dendel fixed a short ladder against the house wall, and went up, with Oliver before him. They were so busy selecting the figures that Oliver thought he could copy, and drawing them upon paper, and then setting about modelling them in clay, that the Redfurns did not prevent their being happy for this day, at least. Mr Linacre, too, was hard at work all day, grinding, that the pastor’s manure might be served to-morrow; and he found hard work as good for an anxious mind as those who have tried generally find it to be.