Don't thee swear to seeing anybody.' 'But I did see every one of them,' Stephen answered; 'and Tim knew all their voices; and there'll be lots to tell who came up in the last skip.' 'There's nobody in Botfield will swear agen them,' pleaded Bess.

'Whose place is it to know who came up in the last skip, or who was at the fire last night?
Oh, Stephen, the Bible says we're to do good to them that hate us.

And if father's hated thee, thee canst save him now.' 'Ay,' said Tim, 'Bess is right; there's not a mother's son in Botfield to swear agen them for the master's sake.

If he didn't see them, nor Miss Anne, why need we know?
I'll soon baffle the justice, I promise ye.
It's a rare chance to forgive Black Thompson, anyhow.' 'Bess and Tim,' answered Stephen, in great distress, 'I can't do it.

It isn't that I bear a grudge against thy father--I've almost forgotten that he ever did anything to me.