Thus Margaret entirely overlooked the fact of the great Presence promised wherever two or three should be gathered in the name of Jesus.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Livesey was not contented to take her own way; she began to throw stumbling-blocks in her husband's path. She would not walk with him, and was resolved he should not leave her to walk alone on the new and better way he had chosen.
Did Adam arrange to go to church in the morning, he was asked how he could be so unreasonable.
"How can I do my work and look after the two little 'uns?" she would say. "You know, Adam, they're just at the age when they oughtn't to be left for a minute. I like to have a nice dinner for you all on Sunday, and here you'd go off and leave me to do by myself, with these two up to all sorts of mischief."
Adam would yield with a sigh, and resolve to stay at home or go out with his youngest pair.
Adam was now better provided with books, and amongst those which Margaret had brought was a fine old copy of the "Pilgrim's Progress," with quaint pictures. Situated as he was, Adam could hardly have possessed a volume better suited to his wants.
It was, however, difficult to find a quiet spot in which to read. He would fain have read it aloud, but Margaret protested against this.
"I read that old book years and years ago. I don't want to hear it again," she said.
If Adam brightened at this, and began to speak about the trials and victories of the pilgrim, he soon found that if Margaret had read the book, its contents had long been forgotten.
So it was with others. Let the man try to interest his wife by reading aloud, and she would reply, perhaps with a good-humoured laugh, "It's no good, Adam. I'm not fond o' reading, like you. I shall be asleep in a few minutes if you begin, and no wonder, when I'm afoot nearly all my time. Talk to me, and I shall have to answer."