"Oh, I hear words, words, words! but I heed them not. It is like
eating dust and ashes."

"Nay, thou art but a child, and these things are not for children,"
answered Keziah, indulgently. "And, indeed, they are hard to be
understood, save by the wise and learned. But this much I gather:
When the King came to the throne, all men hoped for better
days--liberty to think each according to his conscience, liberty
each to follow his own priest or pastor, and join without fear in
his own form of worship. The Papists believed that the son of Mary
Stuart would scarce show severity to them. The Puritans were
assured that one bred up by the Presbyterians of Scotland would
surely incline to their ways of worship and thought. But the King
has disappointed both, and has allied himself heart and soul with
the Episcopal faction and the Church of the Establishment; and, not
content with that, is striving to enforce the penal statutes
against all who do not conform as they were never enforced in the
Queen's time. Wherefore, as thou mayest understand, the Papists and the
Puritans alike suffer, and so suffering are something drawn together as
friends, albeit in doctrine they are wide asunder--wider than we from
the Establishment or they from it. But trouble drives even foes to
make common cause sometimes."

Cherry sighed impatiently.

"I would that men would e'en forget all these vexed doctrines and
dry dogmas, and learn to enjoy life as it might be enjoyed. Why are
we for ever lamenting evils which none may put right? What does it
matter whether we pray to God in a fine church or a homely room? I