"You would hardly know what to do without her," said Miss Winter.

"No, ma'am; but she wants better food than I can give her, and it is
a bad wild place for a girl to grow up. It is not like what I was
used to, ma'am; I was always used to keep to my school and to my
church--but it is a bad place to live in here."

No one could deny it, and the party left the cottage gravely. Alan
and Norman joined them, having heard a grievous history of the
lawlessness of the people from a foreman with whom they had met.
There seemed to be no visible means of improvement. The parish
church was Stoneborough, and there the living was very poor, the
tithes having been appropriated to the old Monastery, and since its
dissolution having fallen into possession of a Body that never did
anything for the town. The incumbent, Mr. Ramsden, had small means,
and was not a high stamp of clergyman, seldom exerting himself, and
leaving most of his parish work to the two under masters of the
school, Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Harrison, who did all they had time and
strength for, and more too, within the town itself. There was no
hope for Cocksmoor!

"There would be a worthy ambition!" said Etheldred, as they turned
their steps homeward. "Let us propose that aim to ourselves, to
build a church on Cocksmoor!"

"How many years do you give us to do it in?" said Norman.

"Few or many, I don't care. I'll never leave off thinking about it
till it is done."