The thread of friendship might be joined afresh at any time, only just now it was broken; and Philip was glad of it.

Before going to Haytersbank he sought each time for some little present with which to make his coming welcome.

And now he wished even more than ever that Sylvia had cared for learning; if she had he could have taken her many a pretty ballad, or story-book, such as were then in vogue.

He did try her with the translation of the _Sorrows of Werther_, so popular at the time that it had a place in all pedlars' baskets, with Law's _Serious Call_, the _Pilgrim's Progress_, Klopstock's _Messiah_, and _Paradise Lost_.

But she could not read it for herself; and after turning the leaves languidly over, and smiling a little at the picture of Charlotte cutting bread and butter in a left-handed manner, she put it aside on the shelf by the _Complete Farrier_; and there Philip saw it, upside down and untouched, the next time he came to the farm.
Many a time during that summer did he turn to the few verses in Genesis in which Jacob's twice seven years' service for Rachel is related, and try and take fresh heart from the reward which came to the patriarch's constancy at last.