DIFFICULTIES, DUMPS AND DIMPLES. 163 



end of the house, the only available candle in her hand, 

 and leave the dumfoundered men speechless in the dark 

 and this not once, but often ! For the sake of peace, they 

 submitted till she was safely gone, when they brought out 

 a hidden store of sticks, with which they relighted the fire 

 after they thought her asleep, and by which they continued 

 their labours for hours, till they were completed, under the 

 red light of gleaming fir-wood from the moss, or of a 

 candle hoarded for the emergency. Sometimes, however, 

 she would insist on their going to bed, and John would 

 either have to retire with Charles to his room off the 

 kitchen, or go outside to wait. When silence reigned and 

 the light was extinguished in her apartment, they would 

 softly emerge from the bedroom, or Charles would give 

 John the signal to enter, in order to prosecute their for- 

 bidden studies. On occasions, they would adjourn to the 

 greenhouse to seek a few hours' peace. But space would 

 fail to tell a tithe of the petty persecutions to which 

 Charles individually, and the two together, were thus 

 subjected through jealousy and bad temper. 



It was impossible, at that period, to quench the fire of 

 Charles Black's hilarity and light-hearted animal life, which 

 streamed even through the fog and frost, rain and storm 

 of this female Boreas. Happily for him, his spirits were 

 irrepressible, and even astonished the more sedate and 

 solemn weaver, and often drew forth his remonstrances. 

 John's unconscious drollery and quaint, old-fashioned ways 

 were at times too much for his young companion's 

 risibility, and he would laugh so heartily that he had to 

 roll on the floor to relieve his feelings. He was always a 

 boisterous laugher, and John would sagely remark that if 



