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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Odd, by Amy Le Feuvre
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Odd
+
+Author: Amy Le Feuvre
+
+Release Date: August 10, 2007 [EBook #22291]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ODD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: Betty came to a standstill, and Prince likewise, the
+latter putting his tongue out and looking up inquiringly, as he panted
+for breath.]
+
+
+
+
+ODD
+
+
+By
+
+Amy Le Feuvre
+
+
+
+
+The Religious Tract Society
+
+4 Bouverie Street, London, E.C. 4
+
+1919
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+  CAGED BIRDS
+
+CHAPTER II
+  'MOTHER NATURE'
+
+CHAPTER III
+  WAS IT AN ANGEL?
+
+CHAPTER IV
+  ADVENTURES
+
+CHAPTER V
+  PRINCE
+
+CHAPTER VI
+  MADE INTO A COUPLE
+
+CHAPTER VII
+  HAYMAKING
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+  GOD'S PATCHWORK
+
+CHAPTER IX
+  BETTY'S DISCOVERY
+
+CHAPTER X
+  A LITTLE MESSENGER
+
+CHAPTER XI
+  A DARING FEAT
+
+CHAPTER XII
+  UNCLE HARRY'S FRIEND
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+  'WHEN WE TWO MET'
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+  A HERO'S DEATH
+
+CHAPTER XV
+  COMFORTED
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Caged Birds
+
+It was just four o'clock on a dull grey winter afternoon.  The little
+Stuarts' nursery looked the picture of cosiness and comfort with the
+blazing fire that threw flickering lights over the bright-coloured
+pictures on the walls, the warm carpet under foot, and the fair fresh
+faces of the children gathered there.
+
+Five of them there were, and they were alone, for the old nurse who had
+brought them all up from their infancy was at present absent from the
+room.
+
+By one of the large square windows stood one of the little girls; she
+was gazing steadily out into the fast darkening street below, her chin
+resting on one of the bars that were fastened across the lower part of
+the window.  How the children disliked those bars!  Marks of little
+teeth were plainly discernible along them, and no prisoners could have
+tried more perseveringly to shake them from their sockets than they
+did.  Betty, who stood there now, had received great applause one
+afternoon when, after sundry twists and turns, she had successfully
+thrust her little dark curly head through, and was able to have a
+delightfully clear view of all the passers-by.
+
+But the sequel was not so pleasant, for somehow or other Betty's head
+would not come in so easily as it went out, and when nurse came to the
+rescue with an angry hand, the poor little head was very much bruised
+in consequence, and Betty's reward for such dexterity was an aching
+head and dry bread for tea.  She was a slight, slim little figure, with
+big blue eyes, and long, black curved lashes and eyebrows, which made
+her eyes the most beautiful feature in her face.  Very soft, fine curly
+hair surrounded a rather pathetic-looking little face; but her
+movements were like quicksilver, and though all the little Stuarts were
+noted for their mischievous ways and daring escapades, Betty eclipsed
+them all.
+
+She turned from the window soon with a sigh of relief.
+
+'He's coming,' she said, 'old Bags is coming, and it's my turn to-day.'
+
+There was no response.  Bobby and Billy, the twins, little lads only
+just promoted from petticoats to knickerbockers, were deeply engrossed
+in one corner of the room over their bricks.  Perched on the top of a
+low chest of drawers were Douglas and Molly, and their heads were in
+that close proximity that told that secret business was going on.
+
+Betty's heart sank a little.
+
+'Old Bags is coming,' she repeated; 'don't you hear his bell?'
+
+'We're busy,' said Douglas, looking up; 'we won't have Bags' story
+to-day.'
+
+'You promised yesterday when you put it off that you would hear it
+to-day.  It isn't fair.  I always listen to you.'
+
+'Tell it to the babies; they'll like to hear.'
+
+This was adding insult to injury, and when the twins trotted up to the
+window Betty turned a defiant back upon them, tears of disappointment
+dimming the blue eyes.
+
+'She's cwying,' announced Bobby, twisting his head round to look up
+into her face.
+
+Betty turned round furiously; a sharp push sent Bobby to the ground,
+and in falling he struck his head against one of the feet of the
+nursery table.  There was a howl, general confusion, and nurse
+appeared, to discover and chastise the offender.  Betty was led off in
+disgrace to a little room on the nursery landing, known by the children
+as 'Cells.'  Their uncle, a young captain in the Guards, had given it
+that name, but in reality it was nurse's storeroom, and was heated with
+hot pipes, to air the linen kept there.  It was a small, square room,
+containing a table and one chair; the window was high above the
+children's reach, and locked cupboards were on every side.  Nurse
+invariably used it for punishing small offences, and being a woman of
+stern principles, she generally set the little culprit a text to learn
+whilst there.  A Bible was on the table, and Betty was led up to it.
+
+'You will stay here till tea-time, and will not come out until you have
+learnt a text, and said you are sorry for knocking down your little
+brother in a fit of wicked temper.  This is the fourth time I have had
+to bring you here this week, and it is now only Tuesday.  I have more
+trouble with you than all the others put together, and you ought to be
+ashamed of yourself.'
+
+Betty was sobbing bitterly, and when nurse left the room and turned the
+key behind her, the child flung herself down on the floor.
+
+'It's a shame!  It's all Douglas and Molly: they make promises and
+don't keep them; and it was ever so much nicer a story than Molly's.  I
+know they'd have liked it if they'd heard it; they never think I can do
+anything!'
+
+To explain the cause of Betty's grievance, I must tell you that it was
+a custom of the little Stuarts to await the muffin man's approach on
+his rounds, and as his bell would sound, they would take it in turns
+each day to relate to the others an account of the different houses he
+had gone to, and who had been the fortunate individuals to receive the
+muffins that had already disappeared from his tray.  It was an idle
+hour in the nursery from four to five, and if the gathering dusk kept
+the active eyes still, the fertile brains were brought into
+requisition.  Telling stories was a constant delight, and the wonderful
+adventures that befell the muffins on their daily rounds kept the
+little gathering quiet and happy till tea appeared.
+
+Betty's stories were not inferior to her elders, and it was her
+childish sense of justice and consideration that was outraged.  But
+tears will come to an end, and soon the little maiden was perched up at
+the table to learn the task before her.  She turned over the pages till
+she reached Revelation, that mysterious and mystical book that so
+fascinates and contents a child's soul, though the wisest on earth read
+it with perplexity and awe.  And after a moment or two Betty had found
+a text to learn, and when nurse appeared later on she repeated
+unfalteringly with shining eyes and with a note of triumph in her tone
+'And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.  And he said to me, These are
+they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
+and made them white in the blood of the Lamb' (Rev. vii. 14).
+
+'That's a good child; are you sorry?'
+
+'Yes,' was the reply, rather absently given, for Betty's mind was on
+the white-robed throng; and how could she let nurse know all the
+workings of her busy brain over the verse she had been taking into her
+heart and soul?
+
+'And remember,' said nurse gravely, 'that no naughty children who
+quarrel and fight will ever be in heaven.'
+
+'Not even if they've been through great tribulation?' quickly demanded
+Betty.
+
+But nurse did not hear, and Betty was received into the well-lighted
+nursery with acclamation from the others, already seated at the round
+table for tea.
+
+'We've made a new game, Molly and I,' announced Douglas.
+
+He was a fair, curly-headed boy with an innocent baby face, and a
+talent for inventing the most mischievous plans that could ever be
+concocted, with a will that made all the others bow before him.  Molly
+was also fair, with long golden hair that reached to her waist; extreme
+self-possession and absence of all shyness were perhaps her chief
+characteristics.  'I am the eldest of the family,' she was fond of
+asserting, and she certainly claimed the eldest's privileges.  Yet her
+temper was sweet and obliging, and she could easily be swayed and led
+by those around her.
+
+'Is it one for outdoors or indoors?' asked Betty with interest.
+
+'Indoors, of course; we'll tell you after tea.'
+
+'Your mother wants you in the drawing-room after ten,' put in nurse;
+'you and Miss Molly are to go down.'
+
+Molly looked pleased, not so Douglas.  At last, putting down his piece
+of bread and butter, he looked up into nurse's face with one of his
+sweetest looks.
+
+'Why are grown-up people so very dull, nurse?  They all are just the
+same, except Uncle Harry.  They are dreadfully heavy and dull.'
+
+'They have so little to amuse them,' Molly said reflectively: 'no games
+or toys; they never make believe, or pretend the lovely things we do.'
+
+'And their legs get stiff, and their dresses trip them up if they try
+to run.'
+
+'But they never get punished, and they're never scolded, and they're
+never wicked.'
+
+This from Betty.
+
+'It's their talk that is so stupid,' went on Douglas; 'they look nice
+until they begin to talk; they make me dreadfully sleepy to listen to
+them.'
+
+'Shall I go down instead of you to-night?' asked Betty eagerly.
+
+'Don't chatter such nonsense; it's strange times when children begin to
+pick their elders to pieces.  You weren't asked for, Miss Betty; and
+Master Douglas is to go down and behave himself.'
+
+'The three B's aren't big enough yet to leave the nursery.'
+
+Douglas said this with a sparkle of mischief in his eye.  It was a sore
+point with Betty to be ranked with the twins, for she was only a year
+behind Douglas.  Long ago he had seized hold of a laughing joke of his
+father's, alluding to the names by which the three youngest children
+were called, and had twitted her with it ever since.
+
+'B for Baby--Baby Betty, Baby Bobby, and Baby Billy; babies must go to
+bed,' he explained.
+
+Betty gave an angry kick under the table, but did not speak.
+
+She was very silent for the rest of that evening; but when she and
+Molly were safely in bed, and the room was very quiet, she asked,--
+
+'Molly, do you know what tribulation means?'
+
+'I'm not sure that I do,' was the hesitating reply; 'I think it's
+something dreadful.  Why do you want to know?'
+
+'Is it like the dark valley Christian went through in the _Pilgrim's
+Progress_, or the goblin's cave we make up about?'
+
+'I expect it is something like.  Why?'
+
+'It's on the way to heaven,' whispered Betty, in an awestruck tone;
+'the Bible says so.'
+
+There was silence, then Molly said,--
+
+'There's a book in father's library will tell you about it.  It tells
+the meaning of every word; father said so.  A dick something it is.'
+
+'I'll ask Mr. Roper to get it for me.'
+
+And Betty turned over on her pillow comforted by this thought, and fell
+fast asleep.
+
+Mr. Stuart was a Member of Parliament, and being a man who threw his
+whole soul into everything he did, was too much engrossed with business
+when in town to have much to do with his children.  He spent a great
+part of his day in the library with his secretary, a quiet young
+fellow, who was looked upon by the children as an embodiment of wisdom
+and learning.  Mrs. Stuart saw as little of her children as her
+husband; her time was fully occupied in attending committee meetings,
+opening bazaars, and superintending numerous pet projects for ennobling
+and raising the standard of social morality amongst the masses.  She
+was not an indifferent mother; she was only an active, busy woman, who,
+after carefully selecting a thoroughly good and trustworthy woman as
+her nurse, left the children's training with perfect confidence to her.
+And between her social and charitable claims there was not much time
+for having her little ones about her.  A young governess came every day
+for two hours to teach the three eldest ones, but their life was
+essentially a nursery one.  And when the House was closed, and the
+husband and wife would go off to the Continent or to the Highlands, the
+children would be sent to a quiet seaside town with their nurse and the
+nursery maid.
+
+The following afternoon a little figure stole quietly down to the
+library door.  Betty knew her father was out, and Mr. Roper never
+repulsed any of the children.  After a timid knock she passed in, and
+made a little picture as she stood in the firelight, in her brown
+velveteen frock and large white-frilled pinafore.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Roper, wheeling round from his writing-desk, 'what do
+you want, Betty?'
+
+'I want one of father's books,' the child said earnestly, 'one that
+Dick Somebody wrote--a book that tells the meaning of everything.'
+
+'I wish there was such a one in existence,' said the young man, smiling
+a little sadly.  'Now what is in your little head, I wonder?'
+
+'It's a word I want to find, please.'
+
+'Oh, a word!  Bless the child, she means a dictionary!' and Mr. Roper
+laughed as he drew a fat volume out of a shelf, and placed it on a
+table by the little girl.
+
+'May I help you to find it?'
+
+'It's tribulation.  I don't know how it's spelt.'
+
+He did not ask questions; that was one thing that attracted Betty
+towards him.  She was a curious mixture of frankness and reserve.  She
+would confide freely of her own free will, but if pressed by questions
+would relapse at once into silence.  He found the word for her, and she
+read with difficulty, 'Trouble, distress, great affliction.'
+
+'Do they all mean tribulation?' she asked.
+
+'Tribulation means all of them,' was the answer.
+
+'And can children have tribulation, Mr. Roper?'
+
+'What do you think?'
+
+'I must have it if I'm to get to heaven,' she said emphatically; and
+then she left him, and the young man repeated her words to himself with
+a sigh and a smile, as he replaced the book in its resting-place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+'Mother Nature'
+
+A few evenings after this, as nurse was undressing the little girls for
+bed, Mrs. Stuart came into the nursery.  She was going out to dinner,
+and looked very beautiful in her soft satin dress and pearls.  She was
+tall and stately, with the same golden hair as Molly, but her face was
+somewhat cold in expression.
+
+Sitting down in an easy chair by the fire she asked,--
+
+'What is the matter with Betty? is she in disgrace again?'
+
+Betty was standing in her long nightdress at the foot of her small bed;
+her hands were clenched, and there was a resolute, determined look upon
+her flushed face.
+
+'One of her obstinate fits,' said nurse angrily; 'she generally goes to
+bed before Miss Molly, and because I have let her stay up a little
+later to-night she is as contrary as she can be!  I can do nothing with
+her, a good whipping is what she wants!'
+
+Betty's blue eyes wandered from nurse's face to her mother's, as if
+seeking consolation there; her hands relaxed, and a slight quiver came
+to the little lips.
+
+'Are you going to a party, mother? may I come and kiss you?'
+
+It was Molly who spoke.  She was in the act of scrambling into bed, but
+upon receiving permission she made her way, a little shyly, across to
+where her mother was seated.
+
+'Now keep your hands off my dress,' Mrs. Stuart said with a smile; but
+she put her arm round the little figure and kissed her, and sent her
+back to bed perfectly happy.  All the children adored their mother,
+though it was adoration at a distance.
+
+'Now come here, Betty; what have you been doing?  How is it that I
+never visit the nursery without hearing complaints of your naughtiness?'
+
+'I'm going to be good now,' said Betty, hanging her head, and coming
+slowly forward into the firelight.
+
+'She has refused to say her prayers,' said nurse sternly.
+
+'I will say them now'; and Betty raised her eyes to her mother somewhat
+wistfully.
+
+'Why did you refuse to say them when nurse told you to?'
+
+'Because Molly was saying her prayers.'
+
+'Well, what had that to do with it?'
+
+Betty did not answer.
+
+'Answer me.'
+
+The child looked round; nurse had left the room.  She worked her little
+foot backwards and forwards in the long-haired rug rather nervously,
+and then, almost in a whisper, said,--
+
+'God couldn't listen to both of us, and I wanted Him to listen to me.'
+
+Mrs. Stuart gazed perplexedly at her little daughter, then laughed.
+
+'You are a little goose!  Go and say your prayers at once, and get into
+bed.  I have come here to talk to nurse.'
+
+Betty crept away.  Her mother's amused laugh had hurt her more than
+nurse's scoldings.  It was hard to have one's secret feelings brought
+to light and scoffed at, and her sensitive little soul felt this,
+though in a dim, uncertain way.
+
+'I want to have God all to myself,' was her thought, as a few minutes
+later she laid her little head down on the pillow; 'I wonder if I'm
+very wicked.  I won't say my prayers if He is not listening.'
+
+'Now, nurse,' said Mrs. Stuart, as that worthy reappeared, 'I want to
+talk to you.  Your master and I are going abroad after Easter; he is
+not well, and the doctors have ordered him away.  I want to send you
+and the children into the country for the summer.  I don't fancy them
+being at the seaside all that time.  You were telling me some time ago
+of your old home; isn't it a brother of yours who has the farm?  Yes?
+Well, do you think they have room to take you all in?'
+
+Nurse's face glowed with pleasure.
+
+'He has no chick or child, ma'am, and the house is large and roomy; his
+wife was saying in a letter to me they should like lodgers in the
+summer.  I'm sure it would please them to take us in; and the country
+round there is wonderfully healthy.'
+
+'I think that would answer very well,' Mrs. Stuart went on
+thoughtfully; 'we may be away six months: and the children are looking
+pale, a country life will do them all the good in the world.  Let them
+run wild, nurse, they will come back to their lessons all the better
+for it.  Miss Grant told me this morning she would have to give up
+teaching--her mother is very ill--so, all things combined, I think this
+plan will work well.  Will you write to your brother and find out if he
+can take you in the last week in April?  Let me know when you have
+heard from him.'
+
+Mrs. Stuart rose as she spoke; her visits were never long, and nurse
+left the room with her.
+
+'Betty,' said Molly, in an eager tone, 'did you hear?  We're going into
+the country.'
+
+'I heard; and no lessons, and we're to run wild; how lovely!'  Betty's
+curly head bobbed up and down in excitement, then she said
+persuasively, 'Molly, let you and me keep it a secret together; we
+won't tell Douglas or the twins.'
+
+This required consideration.  Molly sat up in bed and looked thoughtful.
+
+'I never do have a secret with you,' pleaded Betty.  'You and Douglas
+have lots; I never have any one to have secrets with.'
+
+'Well, I'll see,' and there was a little of the elder sister in Molly's
+tone.  'I'll tell you to-morrow morning.  Oh, it will be jolly in the
+country, won't it?  And nurse's home that she tells us about is like
+our story-books: it's full of calves, and lambs, and horses, and ducks,
+and chickens, and haymaking, and pigs!'
+
+'And ponds, and apple orchards, and we shall have cream, and honey, and
+strawberries every day!' continued Betty.
+
+The little girls' voices were raised in their excitement, and they did
+not notice a door at the end of the room slowly open.
+
+'What a row!  Are you telling stories?'
+
+It was Douglas, who slept in a little room off the nursery, and who had
+been roused by the sound of talking.
+
+'Hush! nurse will hear.  Come and sit on my bed,' said Molly, 'and then
+you will hear all about it.'
+
+'Oh, Molly, it was to be our secret!'
+
+'Douglas won't tell.  Besides, nurse is sure to tell us; she knew we
+were awake and listening.'
+
+Betty gave a little sigh, then joined eagerly in giving her brother the
+delightful information.
+
+He listened, rumpling up his fair curls, and blinking his blue eyes,
+which were already heavy with sleep.
+
+'Easter is years off,' he said at last.  'Why, we are still in winter.
+I daresay we shan't go, after all.'
+
+'We are in February now,' said Molly, looking a little disappointed at
+the calm way he received such rapturous news.
+
+'If I go,' Douglas went on meditatively, 'I shall ask father to let me
+have a gun, and I shall shoot rabbits and birds every day.'
+
+'Then you'd be a wicked, cruel boy!' pronounced Betty indignantly.  'I
+shall catch all the rabbits I can see and tame them.'
+
+'Then I shall let them loose again,' retorted Douglas; and taking up
+Molly's pillow, he flung it with all his strength at Betty, who
+instantly returned it, and a pillow fight commenced.  Molly joined
+delightedly in the fray; but, alas! in the height of the excitement,
+Betty backed into a can of water put ready for their morning bath.
+Over she went, head first, on the floor, and the whole contents of the
+can flooded her and the carpet together.  Douglas precipitately fled
+into his little room, and Molly into her bed, so that when nurse came
+hastily in Betty again was discovered as chief offender.  Whilst she
+was being hustled into a dry nightdress nurse relieved her vexed
+feelings by giving her a good scolding, and Betty eventually crept into
+bed wondering if she was really the 'wickedest, mischievousest child on
+earth,' or if grown-up people sometimes made mistakes.
+
+For the next few days nothing was talked of but the proposed country
+visit; but as weeks went on, and spring seemed still as far away, the
+children's excitement subsided, and the ordinary routine of lessons,
+walks, and play engrossed their whole attention.
+
+But Easter came at last, and then packing-up began.  Miss Grant took
+her departure, and poor Sophy, the nursery maid, had her hands full
+enough, for nurse's command was to keep the children quiet, and not let
+them come near her when packing.
+
+Mr. Roper was leaving the library one afternoon about four o'clock,
+when he saw the disconsolate little figure of Betty seated on the
+stairs.
+
+'Anything the matter?' he asked good-naturedly.
+
+'We're going away to-morrow,' was the reply, 'and it is all topsy-turvy
+upstairs.  Douglas and Molly have been lions for hours, and Bobby and
+Billy two monkeys, and I've been the man.  I'm tired of being him, and
+they won't let me change.  I've broken a jug and basin, and nearly
+pulled a cupboard over, and spilt a bottle of cod-liver oil all over
+Billy's hair, and upset nurse's work-basket, and then I ran away and
+hid, and came down here.  You don't know how tiring it is to be hunted
+by four animals all at once.'
+
+Mr. Roper sat down on the stairs by her and laughed heartily.  'Poor
+little hunter!' he said, 'and how does nurse bear all this raging storm
+around her?'
+
+'Oh, nurse is with mother, in the night nursery.  Sophy is running
+after all of us.  I don't know who she pretends to be, but when I left
+her she was sitting on the floor wiping Billy's hair and crying.'
+
+Betty's tone and face were grave, and Mr. Roper stopped laughing.
+'Have you been thinking over tribulation any more?' he asked.
+
+Betty nodded.
+
+'A lot,' she said emphatically, then shut up her little lips tightly;
+and Mr. Roper knew he was to be told no more.
+
+'Are you going into the country, Mr. Roper?' he was asked presently.
+
+'No, indeed.  I am not rich enough to have such a holiday as is in
+prospect for you.  I wonder what you will do with yourselves all the
+time?  You must come back much the better and wiser, Betty, for it.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'You will be six months older, and old Mother Nature is the best
+governess for little ones like you.  She will teach you many a lesson,
+if you keep your eyes and ears open.'
+
+Betty's eyes were very wide open now.
+
+'Does she live at the farm?  I never heard nurse speak of her.  We
+don't want another governess there.  How do you know her?'
+
+'I knew her when I was a little boy, and loved her.  I love her now,
+but my work is in London, and I never get much chance of seeing her.'
+
+'She must be very old,' Betty said meditatively.
+
+'Very old; and yet every year she seems younger and more beautiful.
+You will see her at her best, Betty.  I shall expect you to come home
+and tell me all about her.'
+
+'Shall I give her your love and a kiss when I see her?'
+
+'Yes,' said the young man, smiling down upon the earnest child beside
+him.
+
+A rush of feet behind them, and Molly and Douglas came tearing
+downstairs.
+
+'Here she is!  Where have you been?  Bobby has cut his head open, and
+Sophy has rushed to nurse, and nurse is scolding away, so we came off.
+Mr. Roper, do you know we're going away to-morrow?'
+
+'And will you come and see us one day, Mr. Roper?'
+
+'Mr. Roper, does every farmer in the country go about in his
+night-shirt?  Douglas says they do, and we have pictures of them.'
+
+'And are there stags and wild boar to hunt?  Do tell us.'
+
+Mr. Roper made short work of these questions, and departed.  He was a
+reserved, reticent man, and did not understand the boisterous spirits
+of the little Stuarts.  Betty was his favourite; he was always ready
+for a chat with her, but the others worried him.
+
+Nurse was very thankful when she got herself and her little charges all
+comfortably settled in the railway carriage for Tiverstoke the next
+day.  Sophy was not going with them, but the longing to be in the old
+home again quite compensated nurse for the additional labour and
+responsibility she would have.
+
+The children had parted from their parents with great composure.  Mrs.
+Stuart had reiterated parting injunctions to nurse, and their father
+had presented all five with a bright half-crown each, which gift
+greatly added to their delight at going.
+
+'Not much affection in children's hearts,' said Mr. Stuart to his wife,
+as he watched the beaming faces gathered round the cab window to wave
+'good-bye.'
+
+'They will get through life the better for absence of sentiment and
+demonstrativeness,' replied Mrs. Stuart; and perhaps those words were
+an index to her character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Was it an Angel?
+
+It was a lovely afternoon in May, a week after the children's arrival
+at Brook Farm.  They were together in the orchard, which was a mass of
+pink and white bloom.  Bobby and Billy were having a see-saw on a low
+apple branch; Douglas was perched on a higher bough of a cherry tree,
+and the little girls were lying on the ground.  Tongues were busy, as
+usual.
+
+'We've seen everything round the house,' Douglas was asserting in
+rather a dictatorial tone; 'and now we must be busy having
+adventures--people always do in the country.'
+
+'What kind?' asked Molly meekly.
+
+'They get tossed by bulls, or lost in the woods, or drowned in ponds,'
+Douglas went on thoughtfully.
+
+'I'm not going to do any of those.'
+
+And Betty's tone was very determined.
+
+'What are you going to do, then?'
+
+'I shall be busy all by myself.  I'm going out to look for some one.'
+
+'Who?' asked Molly curiously.
+
+'Some one Mr. Roper told me about.  He sent his love to her and a kiss.
+It's a secret between me and Mr. Roper, I shan't tell you any more.'
+
+And Betty rolled over in the grass with a delighted chuckle at the
+puzzled faces round her.
+
+'It's only one of her make-ups,' Douglas said, recovering his
+composure.  'Let me tell you of my plans.  Do you see those thick trees
+at the top of that hill?  That's a real wood.  Now, if nurse sends us
+out tomorrow afternoon while she takes a nap, I'm going there, and you
+girls must come after me.'
+
+'And us, too,' put in Bobby, listening attentively.
+
+'If you can walk so far, and don't go telling nurse about it.'
+
+'How far is it?  Six miles?' asked Molly, who would have been willing
+to walk ten, had her brother so ordained.
+
+'It is only through three fields, Sam told me.'
+
+Sam was one of the carters, who had already become one of Douglas's
+greatest friends.
+
+'He be the pluckiest, knowingest little chap that ever oi see wi' such
+a baby face!' was the carter's opinion of him.
+
+'If it's a very nice wood perhaps I'll come,' said Betty.
+
+'You must save something from dinner to take with us, for we will have
+a feast when we get there.'
+
+This sounded delightful, and all spent the rest of the day in busy
+confabulation as to how they could get there without being stopped by
+any one, and what provisions they must take.
+
+But, alas! when the next day came, nurse announced her intention of
+taking Douglas and Molly with her to tea with a friend, a little
+distance off, and so the visit to the wood was postponed.
+
+Betty pleaded to be allowed to go with them, but nurse refused.
+
+'I can't have more than two; and I'm taking them more to keep them out
+of mischief than anything.  Mrs. Giles is going to look after the
+little ones, so you must amuse yourself.'
+
+Betty felt rather disconsolate after they had gone.  She wandered into
+the farm kitchen, where Mrs. Giles, a good-natured, smiling woman, was
+busy making bread.  The twins were in a corner playing with some
+kittens.  Betty stood at the table watching.  At last she looked up a
+little shyly and said,--
+
+'Mrs. Giles, do you know a very nice governess that lives here?'
+
+'A guviness, bless your little heart.  There's Miss Tyler in the
+village, two mile off--but I don't think much of her.  She's too giddy
+and smart, and the way she carries on with Dan Somers is the talk of
+the place!  Are you after having lessons then?'
+
+'Oh no, no, no!' cried Betty eagerly, 'that's why I don't talk about it
+to any one; but I should like to see her, for I have a message to give
+her.  I don't think it can be Miss Tyler; Mother Nestor--I forget the
+name, but something like Nestor or Nasher--Mr. Roper called her.  She's
+old and young together, and very pretty.'
+
+Mrs. Giles laughed.  'Old and young together!  I know of nought like
+that; when we gets old, youth don't stick to us.  Do you think I answer
+to that description, Miss Betty?'
+
+'I should say you were very old,' observed Betty reflectively, 'not a
+bit young; but I think your red cheeks are very pretty.'
+
+Mrs. Giles laughed again, and Betty left the kitchen saying, 'I'll go
+out of doors and look for her; perhaps she'll be coming along the road.'
+
+Into the bright sunshine she went, across a clover field, and out at a
+gate into the white, dusty road.  She trotted along, picking flowers by
+the wayside, and peeping over hedges to look at the tiny lambs or young
+foals and heifers sporting on the green grass.  Everything was new and
+delightful to her; the birds singing, the budding trees, the bright
+blue sky, and sweet fresh air, all was filling her little heart with
+content and happiness.  Wandering on, she kept no reckoning of time or
+distance, until she came to a church in the midst of green elms, and
+rooks keeping up a perpetual chatteration on the topmost branches of
+the trees.
+
+Betty was a little afraid of rooks; they were so big and strong and
+black that she feared they would peck her legs; but she was very tired
+and warm, and as the church-gate was open she thought she would venture
+into the cool shade of the elms inside.  Her little steps took her to
+the church porch, and finding the door partly open, with a child's
+curiosity, she pushed her way in, there to stand with admiring awe in
+the cool, quiet atmosphere.  It was a pretty old church, with stained
+glass windows; and the sun streaming through sent flashing rays of red
+and blue, golden and purple, across the old stone walls and oaken seats.
+
+Betty felt she was in another world at once, and the very novelty and
+strangeness of her surroundings had a great charm for her.  Slowly she
+made her way round the church, looking at every tablet and monument,
+and trying in vain to decipher the writing upon them.  But one amongst
+them brought her to a standstill: it was the figure of a little girl
+sculptured in white marble, lying in a recumbent position; her hands
+were crossed on her breast, with a lily placed between them, her eyes
+were closed, and her hair curled over her brow and round her shoulders
+in the most natural way.  Just above her was a stained glass window--a
+beautiful representation of the Saviour taking the children in His arms
+and blessing them.  Below the window was written in plain black
+letters,--
+
+
+IN LOVING MEMORY OF VIOLET RUSSELL.
+
+Aged six years.
+
+'_Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not._'
+
+
+Betty drew a deep breath; her thoughts were busy.  She wished herself
+that little girl lying so calm and beautiful, with the red and golden
+rays slanting across her; and then looking up at the window, she wished
+still more that she was one of those happy children in the Lord's arms.
+
+Looking up with tearful eyes, she clasped her hands, and let her
+buttercups and bluebells fall to the ground unheeded.
+
+'O God, I will be good!  I will be good!'
+
+Those were all the words uttered, but He who heard them looked down
+into the overflowing heart, and knew all that lay behind them.
+
+Long the child stood there, and then with flagging footsteps made her
+way down the aisle.
+
+'I'm very tired,' she murmured to herself; 'I'll just sit down inside
+that pew.'
+
+And a moment after, curling herself up on the cushions, Betty went fast
+asleep.
+
+She was dreaming soon of a wonderful white-robed throng; she saw the
+little girl walk up with her white, still face to a golden throne, she
+tried to follow, but could not manage to walk, and then the most
+wonderful music began to sound; louder and clearer it came, until with
+a start she opened her eyes and discovered where she was.  Was it all a
+dream?  The music was still sounding in her ears, and sitting up she
+peered over the edge of the high pew.  There, seated at the organ, was
+a lady, and she was pouring forth such a flood of melody and song that
+it did indeed seem to the half-wakened child music straight from heaven.
+
+Betty listened breathlessly to the words--words that she knew now so
+well, and that were ever in her thoughts: 'These are they which came
+out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them
+white in the blood of the Lamb.'
+
+It was a beautiful anthem, and a beautiful voice that was singing.
+Betty had never heard such singing before.  She gazed with open mouth
+and eyes; the lady was rather a young one, she noticed, and when her
+voice rose in triumph and the organ pealed out in accompaniment, Betty
+saw that her uplifted eyes, shining as they were with such a glad light
+behind them, were full of tears.
+
+'It's an angel,' she whispered to herself.  And when at last the notes
+died away, and there was stillness in the church, when she saw the
+lady's face bowed in her hands, as if in prayer, Betty stole softly out
+of the building, and retraced her steps along the road, sobbing as she
+went.  It had been too much for her excitable little brain; she always
+had been passionately fond of music, but was more accustomed to the
+street organs in London than to any other sort, and this was as great a
+contrast to those as heaven is to earth.
+
+It was a long way back, but Betty did not feel it.  Had God sent an
+angel to sing to her?  Was there a chance of her ever being amongst
+that white-robed throng?  If she could only go through tribulation!
+Had the little girl lying so white and still gone through it?  These
+and other similar puzzling thoughts came crowding through her brain.
+
+She was very quiet when she reached the farm.  They were just sitting
+down to tea when she came in, and Mrs. Giles looked relieved when she
+saw her.
+
+'We was wonderin' where you had got to,' she said.  'Ain't you tired?
+You look quite beat.'
+
+'I've had a lovely afternoon,' was the child's answer, and the blue
+eyes shone up at her questioner; but not a word more could be got from
+her, though the little boys did their best to extract more information.
+
+The next day was a wet one, but the little Stuarts were never at a loss
+for occupation, and when they were packed off into a large empty garret
+for the whole afternoon their delight was unbounded.
+
+At last, tired out, their spirits began to flag, and after having
+exhausted all their stock of games they flung themselves down on the
+ground to rest.
+
+'I'll tell you a story,' said Betty suddenly.
+
+'All right, go on!'
+
+Betty sat up in a corner, and rested her back against the wall.  She
+clasped her small hands in front of her, and gazing dreamily up at an
+old beam across the room, on which hung many a cobweb, she began,--
+
+'It was a beautiful day in heaven----'
+
+'It's always a beautiful day there,' put in Douglas critically.
+
+'I never said it wasn't.  You're not to interrupt me.  It was a
+beautiful day, the harps were playing and the angels singing, and one
+angel looked as if she wanted something.  So God asked her what was the
+matter.
+
+'"Oh, please," she said, "I want to go down to earth to-day."
+
+'"What do you want to do there, O angel?"
+
+'"I want to play and sing to some children there."
+
+'Then God said she might go.  So she flew down and changed her
+clothes----'
+
+'What kind of clothes did she put on?' asked Molly eagerly.
+
+Betty considered a moment 'She put on a straw hat and a grey dress; she
+took off her wings and folded them up.'
+
+'Where did she put them?' demanded Douglas.
+
+'Down a well,' was the prompt reply.  'It was a dry well, and she put
+her white dress and crown with it; she did them up in a paper parcel,
+and wrote her name on.'
+
+'What was her name?' asked Bobby.
+
+Betty knitted her brows.  'It was a Bible name, of course; I think it
+was Miriam.  She felt the earth was very hot, for the sun was shining
+like anything, and then she wondered who she could sing to.  Well, she
+walked along a road, and then she saw a church, so she thought that
+must be a good place, and she went inside.  The church was dark, and
+cool, and still, but it was lovely; and there were red and blue and
+yellow and green and violet sunbeams, and beautiful painted windows,
+and white marble figures all about, and it was so still that you felt
+you must hush and walk on tiptoe.  And then, what do you think she saw?'
+
+All eyes were on Betty now, as she sank her voice to an impressive
+whisper.
+
+'She saw a little girl fast asleep!'
+
+'Go on,' said Douglas impatiently, as Betty made another pause.
+
+'So the angel thought she would sing to her; so she went up very softly
+to the big organ, and began to play it, and then she began to sing.  It
+was lovely.  She sang like she did in heaven, and the little girl woke
+up and listened.'
+
+'What did she sing about?' asked Molly.
+
+'She sang about heaven, and all the people and children who had come
+through great tribulation.  And the music went on right up to the top
+of the church, and her voice got louder and louder, and then softer and
+softer to a whisper, and then the music got softer too, and then--it
+was quite still.'
+
+'Well, go on.  What did the little girl do?'
+
+'The little girl came away; she--she cried a little.'
+
+'Why, you're crying too!  What a silly!'
+
+Betty dashed her small hand across her eyes, and threw up her head
+defiantly.  'That's all my story,' she said.
+
+'Oh, what a stupid story! You must make a proper ending.'
+
+'You shall go on! we'll make you!'
+
+'Did the angel get her proper clothes again?'
+
+'Yes,' said Betty, with a little sigh; 'she put them on and went up to
+heaven.  And God asked her what she'd done.  And she told Him she
+thought the little girl would like to come to heaven, if He would let
+her.'
+
+There was a little break in Betty's voice; she slid down from her
+corner, and rolled over on the floor, her face hidden from the others.
+Then in a second she called out, 'I see a mouse!  Let us catch him!'
+
+The children were on their feet directly, and a regular scramble
+ensued, Betty the most boisterous of them all.  And when nurse came in
+a little later, she found the little story-teller in the act of
+crawling across the oaken beam in the centre of the room, to the
+intense delight of those watching her below.
+
+Nurse caught her breath at the daring feat, but waited till she had
+accomplished it in safety, then caught her in her arms, and taking her
+off, gave her a good whipping, and Betty's spirits totally subsided for
+the rest of the evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Adventures
+
+The visit to the wood came off the day after.  Nurse arrayed all her
+little charges in large holland overalls, and sent them out into the
+fields for the afternoon.  And the little party set out in good spirits,
+Bobby and Billy tramping sturdily along, under the firm conviction that
+they were going to meet with wild beasts, and go through the most
+harrowing adventures.
+
+It was a long walk, but they reached it at last, and came to a standstill
+when they saw the ditch and the thick hedge that surrounded it.
+
+'There's a castle and a princess inside, so they don't like people to
+come in,' asserted Douglas; 'but we'll find a hole somewhere and creep
+through.'
+
+And this was soon done.  The children looked round them with delight at
+the little winding paths, the banks of green moss, and the thick
+overhanging bushes and trees, that seemed so full of life and interest.
+Douglas was in his element.
+
+'We'll find a place we must call home first, and then we'll see what food
+we've got.'
+
+The foot of an old oak tree was chosen.  Bits of cake, pudding, some
+biscuits, and a few lumps of sugar were then produced from different
+pockets, and these were given over to Douglas, who, wrapping them in
+paper, deposited them inside the hollow trunk of the tree.
+
+'Now,' he said, 'we must all divide, and go in search for adventures; and
+when we've found them, we can come back and tell the others here, and
+then we'll have a feast.'
+
+'And if we don't find any?' questioned Betty doubtfully.
+
+'Then you must go on till you do.  Why, of course a wood is full of
+dangers.  I mean to have an _awful_ time.  We must go two and two; Molly
+and I will take this path, and the twins can take that one, and you,
+Betty, must go by yourself, because you're the odd one.'
+
+'I always have to go alone,' murmured Betty; 'it isn't fair.'
+
+Bobby and Billy stood clasping each other's hands, and looking with
+anxious though determined faces along the path mapped out for them.
+
+'And if we should meet a cwocodile?' Billy asked, lifting his blue eyes
+to those of his big brother.
+
+'Then you must either kill it or run away,' said Douglas.  'And
+crocodiles don't live in woods.'
+
+'And if we lose ourselves in the wood?' questioned Bobby.
+
+'If you're frightened, you needn't go, but stay here till we come back,'
+put in Molly, her conscience a little uneasy with turning such little
+fellows loose on their own resources.
+
+But this gave the twins courage.  Frightened!  Not a bit of it!  And they
+trotted off, calling out they were going to kill every one they met.
+
+Betty likewise started on her journey.  She was feeling rather depressed
+with the truth of which she was always being reminded--namely, that she
+was the odd one.
+
+'I wish there had just been one more of us,' she kept saying to herself;
+'I'm either one too many or one too few, and it's very dull to be always
+alone.'
+
+But her thoughts soon left herself when she saw some rabbits scudding
+away in the distance; and the flowers on her path, and the strangeness of
+her surroundings, were quite enough to occupy her mind.  She soon found
+that her path was coming to an end; right across it was some fine wire
+netting, and for a moment she hesitated, then, deciding to go straight
+on, clambered over it with great difficulty.  The grass was smoother
+here, and the path a wide one; a little distance farther was an iron
+seat, and then she came to a long, straight grass walk, with trees on
+either side, and at the end a gate, in an old stone wall.
+
+'I shall have to get through that gate,' she mused, 'or else I must climb
+the wall.  I wonder what is inside!  It might be anything--a castle, with
+an ogre or giant, or a prince and princess--and I can't go back till I
+find out.  My adventures have come.  But I'm very tired.  I'll just sit
+down for a little before I go on.'
+
+A few moments after Betty's little body was lying full length on the
+grassy path, and she was counting over a cluster of primroses with great
+care and precision.
+
+'Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three--ah, what a pity! there is a little
+odd one, just like me!'
+
+'What are you doing, child?'
+
+Betty started to her feet.  Looking down upon her was a tall old lady,
+dressed in a shady straw hat and black lace shawl; her black silk dress
+rustled as she moved.  One hand was resting on a stick, the other was
+holding a sunshade.  Her face was as still and cold-looking as some of
+the figures on the monuments in the little village church, and her voice
+stern and peremptory.
+
+Wild thoughts flashed through Betty's brain.  Was this a fairy godmother,
+a queen, a princess?  Or might it possibly be the old governess that Mr.
+Roper loved so much?
+
+Again the question was repeated, in the same stern tone, and Betty gazed
+up in awe, as she answered simply,--
+
+'I was counting the primroses, to see if they were even or odd.'
+
+'And what business have you to be trespassing in my private grounds?'
+
+'I didn't know this was trespassing,' Betty faltered; 'a wood belongs to
+anybody in the country, and I haven't got inside your gate yet, though I
+was going to try.'
+
+'And pray what were you coming inside my gate to do?'
+
+'I'm--I'm looking for adventures; I have to do something before I go
+back.'
+
+'I think you had better explain to me who you are.'
+
+The voice was gentler, and Betty took courage.  The lady listened to her
+attentively, and seemed interested; she even smiled when Betty, looking
+up, asked innocently, 'I suppose you are not a princess, are you?'
+
+'No, I'm not a princess,' she said; 'but this is a private wood, and I
+cannot allow children to run wild all over it.'
+
+'And mustn't we ever come here again?' asked Betty, with a grave face.
+'We should be ever so careful, and we won't pick a flower if you'll only
+let us walk about.  We've never seen a wood before, only read about one
+in our story-books; and children always go through woods in books without
+being stopped, unless it's an ogre or a giant that stops them.'
+
+The lady did not speak for a minute, then she said,--
+
+'How many are there of you?'
+
+'Five with me; there's Molly and Douglas, and there's Bobby and
+Billy--I'm the odd one.'
+
+'Why should you be the odd one?'
+
+'Because Molly and Douglas are the eldest ones, and they always go
+together, and Bobby and Billy are the babies.  Mother always calls them
+the babies, and I come in between, and I belong to no one.  You see, in
+our games it's generally two and two; I always make everything odd, and
+Molly and Douglas are always having secrets, and that only leaves me the
+babies to play with, and they're only just four years old--much too small
+for me.'
+
+'I suppose you have a doll or something to comfort yourself with?  I
+remember I used to when I was a little girl.'
+
+'I don't much like dolls,' said Betty, with a decided shake of her curly
+head; 'I like something really alive, something that moves by itself.
+There's a big sheepdog at our farm called Rough.  I sometimes get hold of
+him for a game, but he likes Douglas better than me.  Sam says he's
+always fond of boys.'
+
+'Would you like to come inside my gate?' asked the lady, looking down
+upon Betty with a strange tenderness in her eyes, though her lips were
+still grave and stern.
+
+Betty slipped her hand confidingly into hers.
+
+'Yes, please; and will you tell me who you are?  I think you're rather
+like a lady I'm trying to find.  She teaches children, a governess she
+is, and she's old and young together.  You're much more like her than
+Mrs. Giles is.'
+
+But the lady did not satisfy Betty's curiosity; she only said,--
+
+'I have never taught any children in my life,' and led her up the grassy
+walk to the gate in the wall.
+
+'I am only going to let you stand inside for a moment, and then you must
+run away.  And you must never come over the wire netting in the wood
+again.  You and your brothers and sister can play in the other part of
+the wood, but I will not have children running over my private walks.'
+
+She opened the gate, and Betty saw a lovely flower garden, with a smooth,
+grassy lawn, and away in the distance a great white house.  The flowers
+were exquisite, and to Betty's London eyes they were a feast of delight.
+Her little face flushed with pleasure.
+
+'Do you live here?' she asked.  'How happy you must be!'
+
+'Do you like it better than my wood?'
+
+Betty turned from the blaze of sunshine and brightness to look at the
+cool green glade behind her.  She did not answer for a minute, then she
+said, pointing with her small finger down the grassy avenue,--
+
+'It's something like church down there, it looks so quiet.  But this
+garden is like heaven, I think.'
+
+The lady smiled.  'I will give you any flower you like to take away, so
+choose.'
+
+Betty was not long in making her choice.  There were some beautiful white
+lilies close by--lilies that might have come from the same plant as that
+one lying between the little girl's hands in church.
+
+'I should like one of those, please,' she said, with sparkling eyes.
+
+She was given, not one, but several, and then was dismissed.
+
+'And I shall never see you again,' Betty said, as she put up her mouth
+for a kiss.  She did not say it regretfully, only as if stating a fact.
+
+The lady stooped and kissed her.  'Not unless I send for you,' she said.
+'Can you find your way back?'
+
+Betty nodded brightly, and ran off.  The lady stood watching her little
+figure for some minutes, then she gave a deep sigh, and her face relapsed
+into its usual stern and immovable expression as she entered her garden
+and locked the gate behind her.
+
+Betty ran on as fast as she could to join the others.  When she reached
+the oak tree, Douglas and Molly were already there, seated on the ground,
+busily employed in dividing the provisions for the feast.  They exclaimed
+at the sight of her flowers.
+
+'I've had a lovely adventure,' said Betty.  'Where are Bobby and Billy?'
+
+'We don't know,' said Molly, rising to her feet and looking anxious.
+'I'm sure they ought to be here by this time.'
+
+'Perhaps they're lost,' Douglas suggested cheerfully; 'I was hoping some
+of us would get lost, and then we should have the fun of finding them.
+We'll go in a few minutes and look for them.  Would you like to hear
+where we have been, Betty?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Well, it is rather a stupid wood, for we came to nothing particular;
+only we've found a little house.  It has three sides and a roof--tumbling
+in.  We're going to mend it up, and live there, next time we come out
+here.  At least, I mean to live in it.  I shall be a disguised prince
+hiding for my life, and you will all have to search the wood to get food
+for me.  Molly and I have made it all up.  She is to be my daughter, who
+steals out at night time to visit me; you can be a servant, who mends the
+roof, and makes me comfortable; and the twins can be soldiers scouring
+the wood for me.'
+
+Neither Betty nor Molly showed much interest in this plan; they were both
+thinking of the twins, and Douglas, having said his say, was quite ready
+to start off on the quest.
+
+Together they ran along the path by which the little boys had gone.  It
+led them under some low brushwood, and then along the banks of a stream.
+And then calling their names aloud, they were relieved to hear an
+answering call.  A moment later and they came upon them.  The stream was
+broad, and rather deep here, with great boulders of stone appearing above
+the water.  Upon one of these boulders, in the centre of the stream, sat
+the two little boys, wet to the skin, and looking the pictures of abject
+despair.
+
+'However did you get there?' said Douglas rather angrily.
+
+'Billy was getting some forget-me-nots, and tumbled in, and so I came
+over to help him, and we can't get back,' explained Bobby, not very
+lucidly.
+
+'If you got over there you can get back again,' Molly said decisively.
+
+At this both the twins began to cry.
+
+'It's so cold; we was nearly drownded; and we've seen a shark swim along.'
+
+Douglas laughed, but took off his shoes and stockings.
+
+'I shall have to wade in and bring them over on my back,' he said, with
+rather a lordly air.
+
+And this he did, landing both the twins safely on the bank.
+
+'Nurse will scold awfully, they're both so wet; we shall have to go home
+at once,' said prudent Molly, as with very small handkerchiefs she and
+Betty tried to wipe some of the wet off their clothes.
+
+'And then she'll say we're never to come to the wood again.  I wish we
+hadn't brought them with us!'
+
+It was a quiet little party that returned to Brook Farm; and in the
+excitement of receiving the vials of nurse's wrath, and the fuss made
+over the poor little victims, Betty's adventures remained still unheard
+and unknown.
+
+She was not sorry that this was so, and was quite content to muse in the
+secrecy of her own heart upon the beautiful cold lady who had given her
+the lilies.  She thought of her sleeping and waking, and with a strange
+longing wondered if she would ever be allowed to see her again.
+
+The next afternoon was a very warm one; but Betty's restless little feet
+could not stay in the buttercup meadow close to the house, where the
+others were playing, and soon a small white figure in a large sun-bonnet
+could have been seen plodding along the dusty road towards the churchyard
+in the distance.
+
+Her little determined face relaxed into wonderful softness when she
+entered the cool church.  Going on tip-toe up the aisle, she came to the
+monument of little Violet Russell, and here she paused, then clambering
+up with a little difficulty, she laid two fresh lilies by the side of the
+sculptured one, across the clasped hands of the child's figure.
+
+'There,' she said in a hushed voice; 'you shan't always hold a cold dead
+lily, Violet dear; I've brought them to you from my own self, because
+they're mine, and I'll get you some other flowers when they are dead.'
+
+She put her soft red lips down and left a kiss on the little clasped
+hands, and then slipped down to the ground again, where she stood for a
+moment looking up at the stained window above.  A noise startled her:
+walking up the middle aisle was the lady who had played to her before,
+and following her a rough country boy, who disappeared through a little
+door behind the organ.
+
+Betty slipped behind a pillar, and watched eagerly.  Yes, she was going
+to play again; and her heart beat high with expectation.  She crept into
+one of the high, old-fashioned pews, and sitting on a hassock, leant her
+little head back upon the seat, and prepared herself to listen.
+
+The music began, and sent a little shiver of delight through Betty's
+soul.  The long, soft notes that died away like a summer breeze, the
+deep, grand rolls that seemed to come from a cavern below, and then blend
+with the clear, sweet echoes rising and falling, and at length ascending
+in a burst of praise and gladness--it seemed to her that the angels above
+would be stooping to listen to such strains.
+
+And then, after a little, the lady began to sing; and Betty drew in one
+deep breath after another.  It must be an angel, surely!  and yet there
+was something in the fresh holland dress and shady hat of the singer this
+afternoon that seemed hardly suitable for an angel's apparel.
+
+The lady once looked round; and Betty thought her face looked sad; but
+when she began to sing her face was illumined with such light and
+gladness that the child watched it entranced.
+
+An hour passed, and then the singer was startled by the sound of a sob.
+She was singing 'Oh, that I had wings like a dove!' and turning round,
+was startled at the sight of a white sun-bonnet and two small hands
+grasping the back of one of the pews.  Betty had mounted on the hassock
+to have a full view of the singer long ago, and was now trying in vain to
+restrain the pent-up feelings of her sensitive little soul.
+
+In an instant the lady had left her seat and come up to the child.
+
+'What is the matter, little one?  How did you find your way in here?' she
+asked gently, as she put her arm round the sobbing child.
+
+But Betty could not put her feelings into words; she only shook her head
+and sobbed, 'I like the music; don't stop singing.'
+
+'I must stop now: my hour is up.  Tell me who you are.'
+
+Betty made an effort to recover her self-possession.
+
+'I'm only Betty,' she said, dabbing her face with her handkerchief; 'are
+you an angel?'
+
+'Indeed I am not; do I look like one?'
+
+And the lady threw back her head and laughed in a very amused way.
+
+'Not now,' said Betty soberly; 'but you did look like one when you were
+singing, and I--I hoped you might be.'
+
+'Why did you hope so?'
+
+Again Betty was silent; then, looking up, she seemed to gather courage
+from the kind face looking down upon her, and burying her face in the
+lady's dress, she sobbed out,--
+
+'I thought God might have sent you; and then you could have told me lots
+of things I wanted to know.'
+
+'Perhaps God may have sent me instead of an angel.  Tell me some of the
+things you want to know.'
+
+'I want to know about Violet, and heaven, and tribulation,' murmured
+Betty a little incoherently; and then she started as the church clock in
+the belfry began to chime five.
+
+'It's tea-time; nurse will be looking for me.'
+
+The lady stooped and kissed her.  'I must go too,' she said; 'will you
+come and see me to-morrow afternoon?  I shall be here at the same time,
+and then we can have a little talk.'
+
+'What is your name?' asked Betty.
+
+'Nesta,' the young lady answered, a little briefly.
+
+'And do you teach children?' was the next question, breathlessly put.
+
+'Sometimes; on Sundays I do.'
+
+Betty's face lighted up, but she said no more, and trotted out of the
+church and along the road as hard as ever she could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Prince
+
+The children were all at breakfast the next morning in the
+old-fashioned kitchen.  Nurse and her brother were having an animated
+talk over some reminiscences of the past, when there was a knock at the
+back door, and Mrs. Giles went out.  Coming back, she appeared with a
+small hamper under her arm, which she placed on the floor.
+
+''Tis the queerest thing I know of,' she said; 'look at the label now,
+Jack; whoever is it for?'
+
+Every one crowded round at once.
+
+'For the little odd one at Brook Farm.'
+
+''Tis for one of the children,' said Jack, rubbing his head; 'they be
+the only little 'uns that I know of.'
+
+'It's for Betty!' shouted Douglas and Molly excitedly; 'she's the odd
+one!  Open it quick, Betty; perhaps it's a big cake.'
+
+'It's alive!' exclaimed nurse, as on her knees she tried to undo the
+fastenings.  'Come along, Miss Betty, you shall open it for yourself.'
+
+Betty came near, and with trembling fingers cut the string.
+
+A minute after, and out of the hamper jumped a beautiful little black
+and white spaniel.
+
+There were screams of delight from all the children, and great surmises
+as to who could have sent it.  Betty guessed, but said nothing when she
+found a piece of paper tied to a brass collar round his neck, with
+these words: 'From a friend, hoping he may prove a true companion.'
+
+She clasped her arms round the dog's neck in ecstasy.  'He is my very,
+very own,' she said, looking up at nurse with shining eyes; 'and I'll
+have him for ever and ever.'
+
+The little creature sniffed at her face, and then put out his tongue,
+and gave her a lick of satisfaction and approval.  From that time the
+two were all in all to each other.
+
+There was a great deal of discussion about him that morning, and Betty
+had to tell of the strange, stern lady who had spoken to her in the
+wood.
+
+'I'm sure she sent him,' Betty kept repeating; 'I'm sure she did.'
+
+'It was awfully mean to keep your adventure so secret, said Douglas,
+looking at the dog very wistfully; 'she must be a fairy godmother
+living in the wood.  I wish she would send me something.'
+
+'Perhaps she is a wicked fairy or witch,' suggested Molly, 'who has
+turned a prince into a little dog, and we must find a kind of spell to
+bring him back to a prince again.'
+
+'That's what I'll call him,' said Betty, looking up; 'I'll call him
+Prince.'
+
+Nurse at first demurred at having such an addition to her family, but
+Mrs. Giles comforted her with the assurance--'There, let the little
+miss enjoy him; she'll soon get tired of him--children always do--and
+when you go back to London you can leave him behind with us.  He's a
+good breed, that we can see; and Jack will be able to sell him if we
+don't care about keeping him.'
+
+It was fortunate Betty did not hear this suggestion.  Prince was
+rapidly filling a void in her little heart of which only she perhaps
+had been dimly conscious.  She was a child with strong affections and
+intense feelings, and a yearning to have some one to love, and to be
+loved in return.  None of the little Stuarts were demonstrative, and
+few guessed how deeply and passionately the bright and mischievous
+Betty longed for the sympathy and love that was so rarely shown towards
+her.
+
+So engrossing was the possession of Prince that the day went by, and
+tea-time came, before Betty thought of her new friend in the church.
+
+But when tea was over she took Molly into her confidence.  'Molly, do
+you think I might take Prince for a walk? would he follow me?'
+
+'Where are you going?'
+
+'I'm going to see a lady that I think is the governess Mr. Roper told
+me about; Nesta, her name is, only I think he called her Mother Nesta.
+I told you about it one night, don't you remember? she's really very
+old, but she looks very young, and this one must be her.'
+
+'Where did you find her?'
+
+'In a church.'
+
+'Oh!' and Molly's tone was indifferent; 'I don't like people in church.
+Nurse says she is going to take us to church to-morrow.  I hoped she
+would forget; last Sunday it was too far, she said.  And Douglas and I
+were going to have a beautiful church in the orchard.  There's an apple
+tree just like a pulpit.'
+
+'Molly,' called out Douglas, 'Sam is going down to the river to fish;
+he says he'll show us where we can fish too; do come on!'
+
+Away ran Molly.  The twins were playing in the garden porch, and nurse
+chatting in the kitchen with her sister-in-law.  Betty called Prince,
+who had been busy with a saucer of scraps, and putting on her straw hat
+set off along the road to church.  Prince was certainly a great charge;
+he was a dog of an inquiring mind, and his continual rushes into the
+hedge sides, and long searches after young frogs in the grass,
+considerably delayed his young mistress's progress.
+
+But at length the church was reached; the evening shadows threw long,
+weird shapes across the darkened path that led to the porch, the rooks
+were noisier than usual, and Betty looked anxiously down at Prince.
+
+'You won't bark, dear, will you?' she said stooping and lifting him
+into her arms; 'because church is a very quiet place, and music is the
+only noise allowed.  I'll take you in to see the prettiest little girl
+you've ever seen, and she's lying so still.  I've brought her some
+forget-me-nots.'
+
+Prince struggled a little at first, but Betty soothed him and then
+crept inside.
+
+'I'm afraid I've come too late,' she murmured, as she looked round the
+silent church and saw no signs of the lady; 'but I'll come another day
+soon and see her.'
+
+Softly she made her way round to the stained-glass window she loved,
+but started in astonishment when she saw leaning against the monument a
+tall, strange gentleman.
+
+He did not see Betty; his brows were knitted and his lips twitching
+strangely under his heavy dark moustache; with folded arms he stood
+leaning against the pillar, and looking down upon the fair figure of
+the recumbent child in front of him.  Then he stooped, and taking up
+one of the fading lilies across the child's hands looked at it
+wonderingly.
+
+'The picture more lasting than the thing itself,' he muttered; 'it is
+all that is left us; the fragile productions of nature cannot exist
+long in this hard, rough world, and yet how I tried to shield her from
+every blast!'
+
+A slight whine from Prince startled him, and looking round he pulled
+himself together sternly.
+
+'What are you doing here, little girl?'
+
+Almost the same words that had been said to her in the wood the other
+day; and Betty began to wonder if she were again on forbidden ground.
+
+'Does the church belong to you?' she asked, standing her ground, and
+looking up through her long dark lashes rather shyly; 'am I where I
+oughtn't to be?  I came to see that little girl.'
+
+He looked at her.
+
+'What do you know about her?'
+
+'I don't know anything, but I want to know.  I love her, and I've
+brought her some more flowers.'
+
+'Did you put these lilies here?'
+
+'Yes; they're quite dead now, aren't they?'
+
+'Of course they are; this is the place of death.'
+
+Betty did not understand the bitter tone; but she said simply, pointing
+to the child's figure, 'She isn't really dead, is she?  She has gone to
+sleep.  I was thinking, when I was here before, if Jesus would only
+just walk out of that window and touch her hands with His, she would
+open her eyes and get up.  I should like to see her, wouldn't you?  I
+watched her the other day till I almost thought I saw her move.  But
+she will wake up one day, won't she?'
+
+There was no answer.
+
+Betty slipped her little hand in his.  'Would you give her these
+forget-me-nots, or lift me up so that I can do it?'  She had dropped
+Prince, who was sniffing suspiciously round the gentleman's heels, and
+waited anxiously for his reply.  He took her in his arms, and held her
+there whilst she placed the flowers in the position she wished; and
+then, before she was lifted down, she said softly, 'I think she is
+really singing up in heaven.  I like to believe she is there, but I'm
+not quite sure.  Do you know if she came out of tribulation?'
+
+'Why should she?'
+
+'Because it says, about those in white robes with crowns, "These are
+they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
+and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."  It makes me feel very
+unhappy sometimes, because I haven't been through tribulation yet, and
+I shan't be ready to die till I have.'
+
+She was set quickly down upon her feet, and without a word the
+gentleman left her, striding down the aisle and shutting the church
+door with a slam that echoed and re-echoed through the silent church.
+
+Betty was startled at his sudden departure; she took up her dog in her
+arms again, and stood gazing silently up at the window above, through
+which the setting sun was sending coloured rays in all directions.
+Then with a little sigh she turned and left the church.  Outside the
+porch was a grey-headed old man, the sexton, who was taking his evening
+walk amongst the graves.
+
+'Hulloo!' he said, 'be you the one that banged this 'ere door just now?
+'Twas enough to scare the owls and bats and all the other beasties from
+their holes for evermore.'
+
+'No, it wasn't me; it was a gentleman.'
+
+'Ah, was it now?  Shouldn't be surprised if I knew who it was!  'Twas
+Mr. Russell, surely!  There's no other gent that favours this 'ere
+building like him.'
+
+'Is he Violet Russell's father?' questioned Betty eagerly.
+
+The old man nodded.  'Yes, he be that little maid's parent, and he'll
+never get over her loss.  She were the apple of his eye, and when she
+were took, he were like a man demented.  Ah, 'tis the young as well as
+the old I have to dig for!'
+
+'Does that gentleman live here?' asked Betty.
+
+'Ay, surely, for he be the owner of the whole property hereabout.  But
+'tis not money will give comfort; he have had a deal o' trouble.  I
+mind when his father turned him out o' doors for his painting and
+sich-like persoots.  And he went to Italy, and there he taught hisself
+to be a hartist, and painted and carved a lot o' stone figures, and
+folks say he made a name for hisself in Lunnon.  He were taken back by
+his father after a bit, and came a-coorting Miss Violet Granger, that
+lived over at Deemster Hall.  But his brother, Mr. Rudolph, cut him
+out, when he went off to Germany for a spell, and he and Miss Violet
+runned away together, and when he come back he found his bride stolen.
+He were terrible cut up, and off he goes to foreign parts again, and
+never a sight of he did us get till the old squire were dead, and Mr.
+Rudolph had killed hisself out hunting.  Then Mr. Frank comes home agen
+with a bran-new wife, and we thought as how his life were a mending,
+and things were looking up.  He seemed brighter, too; but lack-a-day,
+'twere not ten months afore I had to dig a grave for her, and she left
+him a two-day-old babe to bring up--and little Miss Violet were the joy
+of his heart--she were a purty, bright little maid, and were out on her
+little pony every day wi' her father.  She just doated on him, and he
+were as lovin' as a woman wi' her.  Then there come the day when the
+little maid got a ugly fall from her pony, and all the Lunnon doctors
+were sent for, but could do no good, and she were in bed a wasting away
+for nigh a twelve-month, and then she died.  'Twere a mercy, for she'd
+have been a hunchbacked cripple had she lived; and Mary Foster, what
+were her maid, said as 'ow she suffered terrible at times.  The Lord
+were marciful in takin' of her.  But 'tis not to be wondered at Mr.
+Frank takin' it sorely.  And then he shut hisself up in his painting
+room, and never comed out of it till he had cut the little maid's
+figure out in stone, like as you see it in the church.  Many's the
+visitor that I've a taken in to see it; and the ladies, they comes away
+sheddin' tears at the little dear.  He put up the coloured window too,
+and comes to church reg'lar; but he's hard and cold, like the stones he
+cut, and 'tis his troubles have spoilt him.  I mind he were a
+bright-faced, bonny lad once, that I used to show birds' nests to in
+the hedges; but now he passes me wi'out a civil word or look.  Ay, it's
+trouble and toil and tribbylation that is man's lot here below!'
+
+Betty listened to this long harangue breathlessly.  Much of it she
+could not follow, but the old man's closing sentence made her look at
+him eagerly.
+
+'Do you know about tribulation?' she asked.
+
+'Me know of it!  Ay, surely, when I've buried six sons and daughters,
+and last of all my woife, and dug all their graves mysel', save two,
+which were Jack in Mericky, which died of yellow fever, and only a
+packet of letters sent back to us belonging to him, and in them there
+were a bit o' his mother's grey hair which he had cut off that playful
+afore he went away; and then there were Rob, that were killed down a
+coal mine, and we could never get at his body, and he left a widder and
+three childer, and she were married to one o' his chums afore a
+twelvemonth past--the unfeeling hussy; but I've washed my hands of the
+lot.  Ay, I've been through troubles and tribbylation, which is our lot
+in this world, but I've had a many more than most folks.'
+
+'Then you must be quite ready to die?' said Betty, looking at him
+thoughtfully.
+
+The old man looked at her; then rubbed his head in a puzzled way.
+
+'I'm no so sure about that, little lassie; I've seen scores brought
+into this churchyard and placed in my graves, but there are toimes when
+I think o' seeing mysel' let down into a strange grave, and one not cut
+half so foine as mine, for I'm up to my trade, and none could do it
+better, and I'm thinkin' if that day will wait till I'm ready for it;
+well--'twill be a good way off yet!'
+
+Betty knitted her brows in perplexity.
+
+'If you've been through tribulation, you must be very nearly ready for
+heaven--the Bible says so.'
+
+'Ay, do it?  Let's hear, missy; for sure I've had my lot o' woe, and
+the Lord do be marciful!'
+
+For a second time that afternoon Betty repeated the text that was so
+occupying her mind and thoughts.  The old man listened attentively.
+
+'You see,' said Betty, leaning against an old yew tree and hugging
+Prince close to her, 'it's the first part that's so difficult to me,
+but it must be quite easy for you.  The end of it fits us all, but the
+tribulation doesn't fit me.'
+
+'And what be the end of it?' asked the sexton.
+
+'It says, they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
+the Lamb.'
+
+'Ay,' said the old man, after a minute's silence, 'and 'tis the end of
+it don't fit me.'
+
+The child looked up, astonishment coming into her blue eyes.
+
+'But that's very easy,' she said, 'that is coming to Jesus and asking
+Him to wash our sins away in His blood.  I thought everybody did that.
+I do it every night, because I'm an awful wicked girl.  I'm always
+forgetting to be good.'
+
+Again there was silence; the old man looked away over the hills in the
+distance.  It was just the quietest time in the evening; the birds were
+already in their nests for the night,--even the rooks had subsided; and
+the stillness and peace around drew his heart and mind upwards.  Betty
+thought he was looking at the sunset, which was shedding its last
+golden rays over the misty blue outlines of the hills across the
+horizon.  Presently he drew the cuff of his sleeve across his eyes.
+'And who be they that the Book says that of?' he asked.
+
+'Why, it's the people in heaven--every one who dies, I s'pose.  I like
+to think of them there, but I do want dreadfully to join them one day;
+and I'm afraid sometimes I shall be left out.'
+
+Tears were filling the earnest little eyes, and the curly head bent
+over Prince to hide them.
+
+'I mind,' said the sexton slowly, 'that my missus, before she died,
+told me to pray, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."  I expect
+she knew all about the washing, but I've never done much harm to any
+one, and I've attended church reg'lar.'
+
+'I wish I was as good as you.'  And Betty looked up with emphatic
+utterance.  'I'm always doing some one harm, and nurse will scold me
+when I get in for being out so late--I know she will.  Good-bye, old
+man.'
+
+She put Prince down on the ground, and trotted off, and the old sexton
+looked after her with a shake of his head.
+
+'She be a queer little lass!  Ay, I would be glad to have her chance of
+getting to the Kingdom.  But I'll have a look at the old Book, and see
+what it says about this 'ere washing.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Made into a Couple
+
+The next morning being Sunday, the three elder children were taken to
+church by nurse.  It was a small village congregation; and Betty looked
+round in vain for her friend Nesta.  She saw Mr. Russell standing grim
+and solitary in his large, old-fashioned pew; and she had a nod from
+the sexton at the church door.  The clergyman's wife and grown-up
+daughter and a few grandly dressed farmers' wives were the only others
+who occupied seats of their own.  The organ was played by the
+schoolmaster, and after Nesta's playing it did not seem the same
+instrument.  Betty was quieter than her brother and sister; she could
+see her stained window and little Violet's figure from where she sat;
+she could even catch sight of her forget-me-nots--now looking withered
+and dead; and her thoughts kept her restless little body still.  Molly
+and Douglas did not like church; their fair heads were close together,
+and occasionally a faint sniggle would cause nurse to look round with
+stern reproval.  But at last the long service was over, and they came
+out into the fresh, sweet air of a June morning.
+
+Nurse had several friends to talk to in the churchyard, and Molly and
+Betty walked on soberly in front of her, feeling subdued and a little
+uncomfortable in their stiff white frocks and best Leghorn hats and
+feathers.
+
+'Where is Douglas?' whispered Betty.
+
+'Hush! don't let nurse know; he saw a pair of legs through a little
+hole at the back of the organ, and he's gone to see if it is a robber
+hiding.'
+
+'Will he fight him if it is?' said Betty, with an awe-struck look; then
+an expression of relief crossing her face, she said, 'I know; it's a
+boy that goes in at the back whenever a person plays.  I don't know
+what he does, but I've seen him there before.'
+
+'When did you see him?' asked Molly eagerly.
+
+Betty's private adventures never remained secret for long, and she
+poured forth a long account of her various visits to the church.  Molly
+was much impressed, but Douglas's return soon turned her thoughts into
+another channel.  He looked flushed and dishevelled, and his white
+sailor suit was soiled and dusty; but nurse was too busy talking to
+notice his appearance, and he joined the others with some importance in
+his tone.
+
+'I've made a discovery,' he said; 'how do you think a church organ is
+played?'
+
+'Like a piano,' said Molly promptly.
+
+'It isn't, then; you turn a handle like the organs in the street, and a
+man or boy does all the work behind.'
+
+The little girls looked sceptical, and Betty said, 'I'm sure you don't,
+then, for we can see the person playing.'
+
+'Well, they're only pretending; I've seen the handle myself, and the
+boy told me if he didn't pull it up and down the organ wouldn't play.
+It must be like a kind of duet, perhaps.  I expect he makes all the big
+booming notes, and the squeaky notes are made by the person in front.
+I've promised him sixpence out of my new half-crown, if he'll let me
+play instead of him one day; and he says he will.'
+
+'Nurse won't let you play it on Sundays,' said Molly; 'besides, you
+won't be able to do it properly, and if you made a mistake it would be
+awful.'
+
+'I shall play it on a week-day, and I'll make the old organ sound, you
+see if I don't!'
+
+Directly the children reached home, Betty flew to her dog, who had been
+shut up in the garret whilst they had been at church.  Prince was
+already getting to know his little mistress, and welcomed her back with
+short happy barks and a great many licks.  And Betty poured out all her
+heart's love for him in the shape of caresses and pats and kisses,
+whispering in his silken ears many a secret, and hugging him to her
+breast with a passionate vehemence which astonished and amused those
+who saw her.
+
+'He is my own, my very own,' she kept repeating; 'and I shall never
+feel odd no more!'
+
+She did not.  It was a new and delightful sensation to be one of a
+couple.  'Molly and Douglas, Bobby and Billy, and Prince and I,' she
+would say.  No longer was she to trot off alone in some of their
+games,--Prince was always ready to go with her; if Molly and Douglas
+were deep in some conspiracy, so could she and Prince be; and the
+pent-up feelings and thoughts of rather a lonely little heart were
+poured out to one who listened and sympathised with his soft brown eyes
+and curly tail, but who never betrayed the confidence reposed in him.
+
+At no time in her life had Betty been so happy as she was now; her
+little pensive face sparkled with gladness when Prince gambolled by her
+side; and nurse asserted that the dog kept her out of mischief, and was
+a very successful addition to their party.  It was some days before she
+visited the church again; but when she did, the organ was sounding, and
+she found her friend already playing.  Rolling Prince up in her large
+holland overall, until only his little black nose peeped out, Betty
+crept up close to the player, and stood unnoticed for some minutes.
+Then Nesta Fairfax turned round and gave the child a pleased smile.
+
+'My little friend again!' she said; 'I have been wondering what has
+become of you.  Have you come for a talk?'
+
+'No, only to listen to the music,' said Betty.
+
+'Then I will go on playing.'
+
+She turned back to the organ, and for some time Betty listened in
+silence, sitting on a hassock and rocking Prince backwards and
+forwards, till warm and exhausted with his ineffectual struggles to
+free himself, he fell asleep in her arms.
+
+At last, when there was a pause in the music, Betty said earnestly,--
+
+'Will you sing again what you did when I thought you were an angel?'
+
+'What was it, I wonder?'
+
+'It was about--"these are they which came out of great tribulation!"'
+
+'Oh yes, I remember.'
+
+And the sweet clear voice rang out through the silent church, and the
+organ rose and fell to the beautiful words, till Betty could hardly
+bear it.
+
+'Is it over?' she asked, as the last note died away.
+
+Nesta Fairfax turned her glowing face upon the child.
+
+'You love it as much as I do, you little mite!' she said; 'but you
+mustn't cry.  Do you know where those words come from?'
+
+She put her arms round her, and drew her to rest against her as she
+spoke,--
+
+'Yes,' said Betty with a nod; 'I know all about them; I've read it
+sixty hundred times, I think, and I know that verse by heart.  I want
+to ask you about it.'
+
+Nesta waited, and with a little effort Betty said,--
+
+'I want dreadfully to be one of them one day, and I'm afraid I never
+shall.  I was talking to the old man who digs graves, the other day;
+the first part of the verse doesn't fit me, and the last doesn't fit
+him--at least he said so.  I wonder if both parts fit you.'
+
+Nesta gazed at Betty in a puzzled kind of way; then looked away, for
+her eyes were filling with tears.
+
+'Perhaps it may,' she said softly; 'I should like to think it did.'
+
+'And can you tell me how I can go through tribulation?  I want to get
+it over, so that I can be quite ready for heaven.'
+
+'My dear child, if God means you to have it, He will send it in His own
+good time.  Never wish for troubles; they will come fast enough as you
+grow older.'
+
+'That's what nurse says; she tells us when we get to her age we shall
+know what distress and trouble is.  But s'posing if I don't live to
+grow up?  Violet didn't, and I'm so afraid I may not get inside heaven.
+I may be left out of those in the text, because I haven't been through
+tribulation.  I don't want to be left out; I want to be in the very
+middle of them all!  I want to stand singing, and have a crown and a
+palm, and I want to hear some one ask who I am; and then I want to hear
+the answer, "She came out of tribulation!"  Oh! do tell me how I can go
+into it!  Mr. Roper said you would teach me a lot of things.'
+
+Betty's voice was eloquent in her beseeching tone, and Nesta was silent
+for a moment; then she said,--
+
+'Trouble doesn't take us to heaven; tribulation, even martyrdom, does
+not.  Don't you know what does?  What did Jesus Christ come into the
+world for?  What did He die for?  Will you sing a little hymn with me?
+I expect you know it.'
+
+Betty looked delighted.
+
+'And will you play the organ?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+Then Nesta began to sing; and Betty's sweet little voice chimed in; for
+well she knew the words,--
+
+  'There is a green hill far away,
+    Beyond the city wall,
+  Where our dear Lord was crucified,
+    Who died to save us all.
+
+  We may not know, we cannot tell
+    What pains He had to bear;
+  But we believe it was for us
+    He hung and suffered there.
+
+  He died that we may be forgiven,
+    He died to make us good,
+  That we might go at last to heaven,
+    Saved by His precious blood.
+
+  There was no other good enough
+    To pay the price of sin;
+  He only could unlock the gate
+    Of heaven and let us in.
+
+  Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved,
+    And we must love Him too,
+  And trust in His redeeming blood,
+    And try His works to do.'
+
+
+'Now can you tell me why the Lord Jesus Christ died; what does the hymn
+say?'
+
+'He died that we may be forgiven, He died to make us good,' quoted
+Betty slowly.
+
+'Go on.'
+
+'That we might go at last to heaven, saved by His precious blood.'
+
+'Then how can we get to heaven?'
+
+'Because Jesus died for us.'
+
+'Yes, He died to let you go to heaven, Betty; He did it all, and you
+have nothing to do with it.  If you let Jesus take your little heart
+and wash it in His blood, nothing will ever keep you out of heaven.'
+
+'But if I'm naughty?' asked Betty.  'I've asked God so often to give me
+a new heart and wash me in Jesus' blood, and sometimes I think He has
+done it; but then I'm always getting into mischief, and nurse says it's
+only the good children go to heaven.'
+
+'I think Jesus will teach you to be good, if you ask Him, and you
+mustn't expect to be quite good all at once; always go to Him when
+you've been naughty, and tell Him about it, and ask Him to help you to
+be good.  He loves you, Betty, and He will always listen to you and
+answer your prayers.'
+
+Betty's blue eyes were looking intently at the speaker; and her little
+lips took a resolute curve.
+
+'I will be good,' she said; 'I do love Jesus, and I'll ask Him all day
+long to keep me from being naughty.'
+
+Then after a pause she said,--
+
+'Have you gone through tribulation?'
+
+'I have had a great deal of trouble.'  And a sad look came over Nesta's
+face.
+
+'My old man said he had had a lot of trouble, and he told me Mr.
+Russell had.  Trouble always means people dying, doesn't it?'
+
+'There are troubles worse than death,' Nesta said gravely; 'God grant
+you may never know such!'  Then with a change of tone she said
+brightly, 'Don't look for trouble, darling; Jesus means you to be
+happy.  Now shall we sing one more hymn, and then I must go.'
+
+Betty joined in delightedly when Nesta began,--
+
+  'There's a Friend for little children.'
+
+
+After it was finished Nesta asked,--
+
+'What did you mean, Betty, by saying that a Mr. Roper had told you I
+would teach you?  Who is Mr. Roper?'
+
+Betty told her, repeating as much of the conversation she had had with
+him as she could remember; and Nesta laughed aloud when she discovered
+the origin of the 'lady who taught.'
+
+'He meant Mother Nature, Betty; a very different teacher to me.'
+
+'Do you know her, then?  Where does she live?'
+
+'I will take you to see her when next we meet.  You see her every day,
+Betty.  Now I must go.  Good-bye.  Is this a little doggie you have
+rolled up in your pinafore?  I thought it was a doll.  Now, Dick, you
+can come out.'
+
+Dick Green, a heavy-looking village boy, appeared from behind the
+organ, and followed Miss Fairfax down the aisle.  But Betty waited; she
+had brought two roses with her for Violet's monument, and she went to
+the seat upon which she had laid them, and took them round to the other
+side of the church, where she deposited them in the usual place.  Then
+calling Prince, who had been awakened from his sleep, and was now
+inspecting every corner of the church with nose and paws, Betty set off
+homewards.
+
+Nesta Fairfax had comforted her, but had not entirely satisfied her
+perplexed little heart, and the busy brain was still trying to solve
+the problem.
+
+Betty was not the only visitor to the church that day.
+
+Douglas disappeared after tea, and after nearly two hours' absence
+returned, hot, tired, and very cross.
+
+At last he confided to Molly that he had been to play the organ.
+
+'And I'm awfully afraid I've broken the horrid old thing, and I don't
+like that Dick Green!  He took my sixpence and ran off, and I worked
+the handle up and down for hours; he told me the music would come in
+about a quarter of an hour.  It never did, but the organ gave great
+gasps and groans; you never heard such a noise, just like Mr. Giles
+when he goes to sleep after tea!  It's awfully hard work pulling the
+handle up and down; I hope I haven't broke it.  I think it wants some
+one to play on the front of it, but the front part is locked up.  But
+I've had a kind of adventure.  When I came out there was a strange
+gentleman looking at one of the graves in the church, so I went up to
+see what he was looking at, and it was the stone image of a little
+girl, and there were some pink roses in her hands.'
+
+Betty edged up close to her brother as he got thus far, and asked
+eagerly, 'What did he say about the roses?'
+
+'He looked at me with an awful frown, and I folded my arms and frowned
+back, like this!'
+
+And Douglas rumpled his fair brow into many creases, and looked so
+ferocious that Molly was quite awed, though disrespectful Betty laughed
+aloud.
+
+'"What are you doing here?" he said.  "Did you put these roses here?"
+
+'"No," I said; "oughtn't they to be there?  I'll take them away."  And
+then he frowned worse than ever, and said, "Don't you dare to lay a
+finger on them!" and then he muttered something about the church being
+always full of children now.  But I didn't listen to him much; I was
+busy looking at the little girl, and thinking, and then I made up a
+beautiful story on the spot; it's something like some of the fairy
+stories we read in our big books.  I'll tell it to you in a minute.  I
+said to him that I thought I could tell him where the roses came from,
+and he said "Where?" and then I said to him that the little girl was a
+sleeping beauty waiting for a prince to come along and kiss her and
+wake her up; but he hadn't come yet, so a fairy was watching her till
+he came; and every moonlight night she would bring some flowers in, and
+creep inside them and sleep with her, to keep all the goblins off, and
+she would sing her songs in the night, and tell her stories, and
+comfort her----'
+
+'But,' interrupted Molly, 'if she was asleep, how could she hear the
+fairy?'
+
+'You're too sharp!  Perhaps you'll wait.  I was just going to say that
+in the night she was able to open her eyes, only she couldn't get up.
+I had just got as far as that, when the gentleman said "Pshaw!" and
+then he told me to run off, and not come into the church again to
+tomfool--that's what he said.  He was a kind of dark, grim-looking
+ogre, and I'll--well, I shall have more to do with him yet!'
+
+This awful threat was accompanied with a very significant shake of the
+flaxen head, but Betty cried out hotly,--
+
+'You don't know anything about it!  He's the father of that little
+girl, and he goes to her grave to say his prayers and cry.  I know more
+about him than you do, so there!'
+
+'What do you know?'
+
+But Betty walked off, hugging Prince under her arm, and calling out as
+she went, with a spice of superiority in her tone, 'Prince and I know
+all about him, and her, and the roses; that's _our_ secret.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Haymaking
+
+It was only a few days after this that nurse took all the children to
+tea at an old farmhouse about two miles off.  They rode part of the way
+in a farm waggon, and were all in the best of spirits, for it was
+haymaking time,--a time of entrancing joy to all children, and to the
+little Stuarts a new and delightful experience.  They had tea out in
+one of the fields under a shady elm, and were just separating after it
+was over to have one more romp in the hay, when, to Betty's intense
+surprise, who should come across the field but Nesta Fairfax!  She
+evidently knew Mrs. Crump, the farmer's wife, well, for she sat down
+and began chatting away about all her family, and then she caught sight
+of Betty.
+
+'Why, it's my little friend!' she said, stooping down and kissing her;
+'and are these your brothers and sisters?'
+
+Betty got crimson with delight, and introduced one after the other with
+great importance, and Nesta won all their hearts at once by joining
+them in their frolic.  Her laugh was as gay as theirs, and she could
+run as fast as any of them.
+
+'You're rather a nice grown-up person,' said Douglas approvingly, as at
+last she took her leave; 'you aren't so dull and stupid as grown-up
+people generally are!  Will you come and see us one day at our farm?
+I'll take you to see the sweetest white mice in the stable that Sam
+keeps, and there's heaps of easy trees to climb in the orchard, if you
+like climbing!'
+
+'And I'll show you a baby calf only two days old,' put in Molly, 'and
+three black and white kittens in a loft, with a lot of apples one end.
+We've jolly things at our farm, if you'll only come.'
+
+'And a see-saw and a swing,' added the twins.
+
+'And what will Betty show me?' asked Nesta, amused.
+
+'I think I'll show you the flowers, and the forget-me-nots and
+watercress in the brook,' said Betty meditatively.
+
+'Then I really must come, with such an enchanting programme before me,'
+said Nesta; and she kissed them all round, told nurse she envied her
+her little family, cracked some jokes with old Crump and his wife, and
+departed, leaving behind her a breezy brightness and cheeriness that
+she brought with her wherever she came.
+
+'A pleasant young lady,' said nurse; 'who is she, Mrs. Crump?'
+
+'Ah, well,' said Mrs. Crump, shaking her head solemnly; 'there's a sad
+story attached to the family.  My niece, what the master and I have
+brought up like one of our own children, has got the sitivation as maid
+to Mrs. Fairfax, and she knows all the ins and outs of their trouble as
+no one else do.  You see, this is how it is!  They were a Lunnon
+family, and come down here first for change of air.  They took lodgings
+in Mrs. Twist's farm; there were Mrs. Fairfax and the two young ladies,
+and a dashing young gentleman, the son, who came down for a day or two
+at a time, but he never stayed long.  Mrs. Fairfax were proud as proud
+could be, and very cold and stern-like except to her son, so Jane says,
+and him she couldn't do enough for; her heart was just bound up in him!
+Jane went back with them to Lunnon, but she says the way the young
+gentleman went on were enough to break any mother's heart.  He was fast
+going to the bad; and yet his mother, though she would scold and fume
+at times, never seemed to see it, and paid his debts, and let him have
+his fling.  Miss Nesta were engaged to be married, and Jane says her
+lover did all he could to stand by her brother and keep him straight;
+but it weren't no good whatever.  And about two year ago the end came.
+Mr. Arthur had some trouble over a gaming-table; that was the
+beginning; then he went and signed a bank cheque that wasn't his--I
+believe as how it is called forging, and the gentleman whose cheque it
+was had him up in court; he wouldn't hush it up, and it was the talk of
+all Lunnon, so Jane tells me.  His mother would have paid up, though it
+would have ruined her; but she weren't allowed, and he were sent to
+prison across the seas for seventeen years.  Jane says Mrs. Fairfax
+seemed turned to stone; she shut up the Lunnon house, and went abroad
+to some foreign place with a long name, I forgets it now; and then she
+comes back and takes Holly Grange, which is as nice an old house as
+ever you see, and belonged to a Colonel Sparks, who died only a
+twelvemonth ago, and is about a mile from here, over against that wood
+you see yonder.  But I'm tiring of you with this long tale.'
+
+'I like to hear it,' said nurse; and so did Betty, though a good deal
+of it was incomprehensible to her.  She sat with Prince in her arms on
+the grass close by, and her quick little ears were listening to every
+word.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Crump, with a sigh, 'there ain't much more to tell.
+Jane says Mrs. Fairfax shuts herself up and won't see a single visitor;
+Miss Grace, the eldest daughter, who was never very strong, has become
+a confirmed invalid, with very crotchety and fidgety ways, and makes
+every one miserable who comes near her.  Miss Nesta is the only one
+that keeps bright; and Jane says her temper is that sweet, she bears
+with all her sister's crossness and unreasonableness, and her mother's
+icy coldness, like an angel.  She have had her troubles, too, poor
+thing!  Jane tells me that it was Mrs. Fairfax made her break off her
+engagement with her lover; he were some relative of the gentleman that
+lost the cheque, and she wouldn't have the engagement go on on no
+account.  Jane says her lover had a talk with Mrs. Fairfax, and he were
+rather a high and mighty gentleman, and he left the room as white as
+death, and declared he would never set foot in the house again.  Jane
+thinks Mrs. Fairfax was beside herself at the time, and must have
+insulted him fearful.  Anyhow, it all came to an end.  It's a world of
+trouble, Mrs. Duff.  But I feel very sorry for Miss Nesta.  The other
+ladies hardly ever leave the house or grounds, and they would like to
+keep Miss Nesta in as well; but she comes across to me and has a chat,
+and she reads a chapter and has prayers with grandfather.  She's a very
+good young lady, and no one would think, to look at her, what she have
+come through.'
+
+'Has she come through tribulation?' asked Betty, looking up suddenly.
+
+'Well, I never did!  To think of that child a-taking it all in!'
+ejaculated Mrs. Crump.  'What do you know about tribulation, little
+missy?'
+
+'It means trouble or distress, I know;' and Betty's face was very
+wistful as she spoke.
+
+'Run along and play with the others,' said nurse quickly, 'and don't
+worry your head over other people's troubles.  There is plenty of it in
+the world, but your time hasn't come for it yet.'
+
+'I wish it would come,' said Betty softly, 'and then I could put myself
+in that text.'
+
+But only Prince heard the whispered words, and he wagged his tail in
+sympathy.
+
+It was that night that Betty added another clause to her evening
+prayers.  She generally said them aloud at nurse's knee, but it was not
+the first time that she had said, 'I want to whisper quite a secret to
+God'; and nurse always let her have her way.
+
+'She is a queer little thing,' she told her brother; 'sometimes
+naughtier and more contrary than all the rest put together, and
+sometimes so angel-like that I wonder if she won't have an early death.
+But there's no knowing how to take her!'
+
+Betty's secret was this,--
+
+'And please, God, forgive Prince his sins and take him to heaven when
+he dies, and let me come through great tribulation, so that I may be
+like your people in heaven.'
+
+When haymaking commenced at Brook Farm the children's delight knew no
+bounds.  Every moment of the day they were out in the fields; and as
+the great cart-loads of hay were driven off, they felt proud and
+pleased with having helped in the work.  Prince enjoyed it as much as
+any one; but he never left his little mistress's side for long.  One
+evening, as the tired haymakers were resting, after having placed the
+last load on the wagon, Betty, dancing by the cart, was inspired to
+ascend the ladder which had been left against it.
+
+'Come on,' she shouted to Douglas and Molly, 'and we'll have a ride
+home.'
+
+Up they went, unnoticed by any, and danced up and down with delight
+when they reached the top.  Then nurse discovered them, and in her
+fright and anxiety at their risky position she rushed towards them and
+screamed aloud.  The horses, startled, swerved hastily aside, and
+Douglas, dangerously near the edge, over-balanced himself, and fell
+with a terrible thud to the ground.  It was the work of a moment to
+seize him and drag him from the wheels, which mercifully did not touch
+him; but he was carried into the house stunned and insensible, and
+Molly and Betty, with scared, white faces, were taken down and sent
+indoors.
+
+'It's your fault,' whispered Molly to the frightened Betty; 'you made
+us come up, and now Douglas will die!  I think he's dead already;
+you'll be a murderer, and you'll be sent to prison and hung!'
+
+And Betty quite believed this assertion, and crept up to the passage
+outside Douglas's bedroom trembling with excitement and fright.  She
+crouched down in a corner, and Prince came up, put his two paws on her
+shoulder, and licked her face with a little wistful whine.  It was a
+long time before nurse came out of the room, and then she wasted very
+few words on the little culprit.
+
+'Go to bed, you naughty child, and tell Miss Molly to go too.  You are
+never safe from mischief, and it's a mercy your brother hasn't been
+killed.'
+
+'Will he get better, nurse?'
+
+But nurse made no reply, and both little girls were long before they
+got to sleep that night, so fearful were their conjectures as to the
+fate of their brother.
+
+Douglas was only stunned for the time, and very much bruised and
+shaken.  Nurse kept him in bed for two or three days, and the two
+little girls were unremitting in their care and attention.  He accepted
+their services with much complacency, and enjoyed his important and
+interesting position.
+
+'What would you two girls have done if I had died?' he asked.  'Who
+would have been your leader then?'
+
+'You're not my leader,' said Betty promptly.  'No one is my leader.  I
+lead myself.'
+
+'I don't know what I should have done,' said Molly pensively.  'I
+should have had to go about with Betty then.  You see, I should have
+her, and the twins have themselves.  I don't think Bobby and Billy
+would miss any of us much if we were to die.  We should be equal if you
+died, Douglas--two and two, but I'm glad you're going to get better.'
+
+'You wouldn't have gone about with me, Molly,' said Betty, with a
+decisive shake of her head, as she stooped to caress Prince at her
+feet, 'because you would have been one too many.  We are two and two
+without you.  I don't want any one with me but Prince.  You would have
+to be the odd one if Douglas died--like I used to be.'
+
+'Prince is only a dog,' said Molly, with a little curl of her lip.  'I
+wouldn't make two with a dog!'
+
+Betty's eyes sparkled dangerously.
+
+'Prince is ever so much nicer than you are--much nicer, and you're
+jealous because he likes me and not you.  He's my very own, and I love
+him, and he loves me; and I love him better than all the people in the
+world put together, so there!'
+
+'You needn't get in a temper.  He's a silly, stupid kind of a dog, and
+Mr. Giles said yesterday if he caught him chasing his sheep round the
+field, he would give him a good beating; and I hope he will, for he
+nearly chased the sheep yesterday.'
+
+'When you two have done fighting I should like to speak.  My head
+aches.  I think I should like some of the jelly nurse made for me.  It
+will make it better.'
+
+The little girls' rising wrath subsided.  Both rushed to fulfil
+Douglas's desire,--for had not nurse left them in charge, and had she
+not also warned them against exciting him by loud talking and noise?
+
+'I'm glad you will get better,' said Betty presently.  'I saw Miss
+Fairfax in church yesterday, and she asked me how you were.'
+
+'What were you doing in church?' demanded Douglas.  'It wasn't Sunday.'
+
+'Prince and I go to church very often,' said Betty, putting on a prim
+little air.  'We have several businesses there; but we don't tell every
+one what we do.'
+
+'Do you play the organ?' asked Douglas, a little eagerly.
+
+'No, but we hear it played, and we sing, and we--well, we do lots of
+other things.'
+
+'I shall come with you next time you go,' and Douglas's tone was firm.
+
+'No,' said Betty; 'you'll be one too many.  I don't want Molly, and I
+don't want you.  I've got Prince, and I don't want no one else.'
+
+It was thus she aired her triumphs daily; and it was by such speeches
+that she revealed how much she had felt and suffered in times past by
+being so constantly left out in the cold.  And Prince was daily
+becoming more and more companionable.  Not one doubt did Betty ever
+entertain as to his not understanding or caring for her long
+confidences.  He slept in a little basket at the foot of her bed.  She
+was wakened by his wet kisses in the morning, and he liked nothing
+better than snuggling into bed with her.  Tucking his little black nose
+under her soft chin, he would place a paw on each of her shoulders, and
+settle off into a reposeful sleep; whilst Betty would lie perfectly
+still, gazing at him with loving eyes, and every now and then giving
+him a gentle squeeze and murmuring, 'You're my very own, my darling,
+and I love you.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+God's Patchwork
+
+'Good-morning to you, little maid.'
+
+Betty and Prince had been straying through the lanes, and had suddenly
+come upon the old sexton, who was leaning over his cottage gate smoking
+a short clay pipe.
+
+Betty's face dimpled with smiles.
+
+'May I come in and see your little house?' she asked.  'Prince and I
+want something to do.  Douglas and Molly are lying in a hammock, and
+making up stories; and the twins are no company.'
+
+'Come in, come in, my dear, and welcome, but 'tis a lonesome kind o'
+home with only me in it; 'twas very different once on a time.'
+
+He led the way up a narrow path through rows of cabbages and sweet
+peas, and ushered her into a tiny kitchen, clean, but rather untidy.
+Betty looked round with a child's admiring eyes.  There were great
+shells on the mantelpiece, a stuffed owl on a sideboard, and lots of
+other quaint curiosities on some shelves in a recess.
+
+Then she climbed into a big rocking-chair.
+
+'This is lovely,' she said; 'it's almost as good as a rocking-horse, if
+you go very fast.'
+
+The old man stood looking at her for a minute; then seated himself on
+the low window-seat, and went on smoking.  When Betty had swung herself
+violently to and fro for some minutes, she asked,--
+
+'Have you been busy digging graves to-day?'
+
+'No; 'tis a fortnight since I had one: the season has bin rare and
+healthy.'
+
+'Then what have you been doing?' demanded the child.
+
+'Oh, I don't let the time slip by; there are a many things I turn my
+hand to.  I digs my taters up, and gardens a bit first thing in the
+morning, and I cleans up in my churchyard, and then I cooks a bit o'
+dinner, and has a bit o' gossip with my neighbours.  I'm a sociable
+sort o' chap, though I'm so lonesome.  And I has a bit o' reading on
+occasions.  Are you a-thinkin' any more o' that 'ere tex' that we was
+a-argufying on t'other arter-noon?'
+
+Betty nodded.
+
+'I'm always thinking of it,' she said, stopping the motion of the
+chair, and looking up at him with grave, earnest eyes.
+
+'Ah, well, so am I!  I've had a good bit o' readin', too, 'tis a most
+important thing, the Bible be; and I've been giving a good bit o' my
+mind to it latterly.  'Twas your calm tone of saying I must be ready to
+die, if I'd bin through tribbylation, started me off.  I couldn't quite
+make out about the washing, and so I've a looked it up.  And I've found
+out from the old Book that I'm as black a sinner as ever lived on this
+'ere blessed earth.'
+
+'How dreadful!' Betty said in an awed, shocked tone; 'and you told me
+you were so good!  I never knew grown-up people were wicked; I thought
+it was only children.  What made you find it out?'
+
+'Well, 'twas readin' what we ought to live like, first knocked me down.
+I got a-lookin' through them there epistlies, and got awful cast down.
+And then I thinks to mysel', p'raps arter all Paul and such like were
+too severe, so I went to the gospels, for I've always heerd the gospels
+tell of love, and not judgment, but I wasn't comforted by them, not a
+bit,--not even when I turned up the sheep chapter that I used for to
+learn as a little 'un.  It says there, "My sheep hear My voice, and I
+know them, and they follow Me."  And I says to myself, "Reuben! you've
+never a listened to His voice; you've a gone your own way all your life
+through, and you ain't a follered Him one day in all the
+sixty-and-eight years you've a bin on this 'ere blessed earth!"  Well,
+I began to think I'd better say that prayer my dear old missis a told
+me, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."  And then 'twas last
+Toosday night about seven o'clock I got the answer.'
+
+The old man paused, took his pipe out of his mouth, and looked up at
+the blackened rafters across his little kitchen with a quivering smile
+about his lips; whilst Betty, with knitted brows, tried hard to follow
+him in what he was saying.
+
+'I was a-turnin' over the leaves of the old Book,' he continued, 'when
+I come to a tex' which stared me full in the face, and round it was
+pencilled a thick black line, which was the doin' of my missis.  I'll
+read it for you, little maid.'
+
+He rose, and took from the shelf a large family Bible.  Placing it on
+the table, he turned over its leaves with a trembling hand; and then
+his voice rang out with a solemn triumph in it, '"Come, now, and let us
+reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they
+shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall
+be as wool."  My knees began to tremble, for I says to myself, "Reuben,
+'tis the Lord's voice to thee."  And I drops down on the floor, just
+where you're a-sittin', missy, and I says, "Amen, so be it, Lord."  I
+gets up with a washed soul--washed in the blood of the Lamb.'
+
+There was silence; the old man's attitude, his upward gaze, his solemn
+emphasis, awed and puzzled Betty.
+
+'And now you're in the text!' she said at last, somewhat wistfully; as
+she drew Prince to her, and lifted him into her lap.
+
+'I shall be one o' these days, for certain sure,' was old Reuben's
+reply; 'but 'tis the Lord that will put me there; 'tis His washing that
+has done it.'
+
+'That's what Miss Fairfax said; she said it wasn't tribulation would
+bring us to heaven.  She made me sing,--
+
+  "There was no other good enough
+    To pay the price of sin;
+  He only could unlock the gate
+    Of heaven and let us in."
+
+But I'm quite sure God won't mean me to stand in the middle of those
+people round the throne, if I haven't been through tribulation; I'm
+quite sure He won't!  I shall find myself in a mistake if I try to
+creep in among them; and, oh! I want to be there, I want to be there!'
+
+Tears were welling up, and Prince wondered why he was clutched hold of
+so convulsively by his little mistress.  Reuben looked at her, rubbed
+his head a little doubtfully, and then straightened himself up with a
+sudden resolve.
+
+'Look here, little maid; you just a foller me: I'm a-goin' to the
+church.'
+
+Up Betty sprang, her tears were brushed away; and she and Prince danced
+along by the side of the old man, her doubts and fears dispersing for
+the time.
+
+But Reuben was very silent.  He led her into the cool, dark church and
+up the side aisle to the tomb of little Violet Russell.  There he
+stopped, and directed the child's gaze above it to the stained-glass
+window.
+
+'Can you read the tex', little maid?'
+
+'Yes,' said Betty brightly; 'why, even Bobby and Billy know that:
+"Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not."'
+
+'And that's what the Lord says,' the old man went on; 'did He say the
+children were to have tribbylation afore they comed to Him?  Why, for
+sure not!  And if you, little missy, go straight into His arms when you
+gets to heaven, you'll be safe enough, and He'll know where to put you.'
+
+Betty's little face beamed all over.
+
+'And He will love me, even if I haven't been through tribulation?'
+
+'Why, for sure He will.'
+
+Betty gave a happy little sigh.
+
+'I tell you what, now,' Reuben added; 'if you're a-wantin' to have
+tribbylation made clear to you, I'll take you down to see old
+Jenny--praychin' Jenny, she used to be called--for she used to hold
+forth in chapel bettern than a parson.  And she's bin bedridden these
+twelve year; but she can learn anybody about the Bible; she knows tex's
+by thousands; there hain't no one can puzzle Jenny over the Bible.'
+
+'Is she very ill?' asked Betty.
+
+'She's just bedridden with rheumatics, that's all; but 'tis quite
+enough; and I was calkilatin' only t'other day that I'll have to be
+diggin' her grave afore Christmas.'
+
+'Will you take me to see her now?'
+
+'For sure I will.'
+
+Out of the cool church they went, and along the hot, dusty road, till
+they reached a low thatched cottage by the wayside.  Reuben lifted the
+latch of the door, and walked right in.
+
+There was a big screen just inside the door, and a voice asked at
+once,--
+
+'Who be there?'
+
+''Tis only Reuben and a little lass that wants to see you.'  And Betty
+was led round the screen to a big four-post bed with spotlessly clean
+hangings and a wonderful patch-work quilt.  Lying back on the pillows
+was one of the sweetest old women that Betty had ever seen.  A close
+frilled night-cap surrounded a cheery, withered face--a face that
+looked as if nothing would break the placid smile upon it, nothing
+would dim the joy and peace shining through the faded blue eyes.
+
+Betty held out her little hand.
+
+'How do you do?' she said; 'this old man has brought me to see you.  He
+said you would tell me about tribulation.'
+
+'Bless your dear little heart!  Lift her up on the foot of the bed,
+Reuben.  Why, what a bonny little maid! and who may she be?'
+
+'She be lodgin' at Farmer Giles's; and be troubled in her mind
+concarning tribbylation.'
+
+The old woman reached over, and laid a wrinkled hand on the soft,
+childish one.
+
+'Then tell old Jenny, dearie, what it is.'
+
+Betty was quite ready to do so; and poured forth such a long,
+incoherent story that it was very difficult to understand her.  Jenny
+did not quite take in her perplexity.
+
+'Ay, dearie, most of us has tribbylation in some form or t'other; I
+often think, as I lie lookin' at my patchwork quilt, that it be just a
+pictur' of our life--a little bit o' brightness and then a patch of
+dark; but the dark is jined to the bright, and one never knows just
+what the next patch will be.  But the One who makes it knows--He's
+a-workin' in the pattern, and the black dark bits only serve to show up
+the bright that's a-comin'.'
+
+'Ay,' said Reuben, sinking into a chair; 'I mind plenty o' black days
+in my life; but I've had a many bright 'uns too--ay, and one white 'un,
+and that were last Toosday!  It be a fine patch o' white in my quilt,
+Jenny!'
+
+'Tribbylation!' said the old woman musingly; 'I mind o' several verses
+on it: "In the world ye shall have tribbylation; but be of good cheer:
+I have overcome the world."  "We must through much tribbylation enter
+into the Kingdom of God."  "We glory in tribbylation also, knowing that
+tribbylation worketh patience."  "Who shall separate us from the love
+of Christ? shall tribbylation?"  Ah, tribbylation is tryin' to the
+flesh, but 'tis for the improvin' of the soul!'
+
+'And does everybody have it except children?' asked Betty with a solemn
+face.
+
+'I think as how most folks have it in one form or t'other; the saints
+get it surely, for "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth
+every son whom He receiveth.'"
+
+'What does "chasteneth" mean?'
+
+'Punish, I take it, dearie, your father and mother punishes you at
+times, don't they?'
+
+'No, never; only nurse.'
+
+'Ah, well; and doesn't she desire your good?  She don't do it just to
+spite you.'
+
+'I s'pose it's for my good,' said Betty doubtfully.
+
+'Tribbylation will allays be a mystery,' went on the old woman,
+speaking more to Reuben than the child.  'We must bow our heads and
+take it, whether we like it or no; and it's wonderful strange how
+differently folks take it!  Seems to me, as the Bible puts it, it's
+just a fire, and whiles some like wax gets melted and soft by it,
+t'others are like the clay, they gets hard and unbendable.  I've known
+lots o' both those sorts in my time; 'tis only by keeping close to the
+Hand that smites that you feels the comfort and healing that goes along
+with it.  If you keeps a distance off, and lets the devil come
+a-sympathisin' and a-groanin' with you, then it's all bitterness
+through and through.'
+
+'Ay,' said Reuben, 'me and the devil have oft sat down together over my
+troubles; and he do know how to make 'em werry black!'
+
+Betty's round eyes and puzzled gaze at this assertion made Reuben adopt
+another tone.
+
+'But here's this little lass, Jenny, a-wantin' to have tribbylation,
+for fear she shouldn't be one o' the Lord's people after all.'
+
+The old woman looked across at the child, and then she nodded brightly
+at her.
+
+'And you shall have it, dearie; the Lord will send it surely; and when
+you're in the midst o't, you mind these words o' the Lord's, "Be thou
+faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."  It's in
+tribbylation our faith fails; we can't see in the dark, and we mistrust
+our Guide.'
+
+Betty's face lit up at these words, and she brushed away some
+glittering drops from her long lashes.
+
+'You think I shall really have it?' she questioned eagerly.
+
+'Surely you will in some form or t'other, and p'raps before you're a
+growed-up woman.  I sometimes think little folks' troubles are as big
+as the older folks.'
+
+Betty did not hear much more of the conversation that followed.  Old
+Jenny had done more to comfort and satisfy her than any one else, and
+she left the cottage with Reuben, saying,--
+
+'I like Jenny very much, and so does Prince; we will come and see her
+again.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Betty's Discovery
+
+Molly and Douglas were up in an apple tree in the orchard late one
+afternoon, when Betty and Prince came rushing by.
+
+'Hullo, where are you going?' shouted Douglas.
+
+Betty came to a standstill, and Prince likewise, the latter putting his
+tongue out and looking up inquiringly, as he panted for breath.
+
+Betty cut a caper.  'I'm going to spend the day with Miss Fairfax
+to-morrow; me and Prince, hurray!'
+
+And Prince danced round his little mistress's legs with delighted barks.
+
+'I don't believe it,' said Molly, looking down through the leafy
+branches; 'didn't she ask us too?'
+
+'No, only me; she said she'd ask you another day.'
+
+'Where did you see Miss Fairfax?'
+
+'In church; she has been making the loveliest music, and Prince and I
+have been singing.'
+
+'Prince singing!' said Douglas contemptuously; 'I should like to hear
+him!'
+
+'He does,' Betty said eagerly; 'he really does.  He kind of whines in
+his throat and up his nose, and sometimes he puts up his head, opens
+his mouth wide, and gives a lovely howl!  And he looks awfully pleased
+when he's done it; he thinks he sings very nicely.  Where's nurse?'
+
+'She's washing Bobby; he tumbled right into the pig-stye, and came out
+a disgusting objec'!'
+
+'Is she rather cross?'
+
+'Of course she is; she won't let you go to Miss Fairfax if you ask her
+now.'
+
+'Then I'll wait till tea.'
+
+Betty threw herself down on the grass, and Prince sat at her feet,
+thumping his tail on the ground, and watching intently every change
+that flitted across her face.  Now and then he would make a snap at
+some flies; if Betty spoke to him, his whole body would wriggle with
+ecstasy; he seemed to live on her smiles and caressing words.
+
+'It will be very dull to spend the day with a grown-up person,' said
+Douglas presently; 'I'm glad she didn't ask me; I never do care for
+grown-up persons.'
+
+His lordly air in making this assertion helped to fortify Molly, who
+was bitterly disappointed in not being included in the invitation.
+
+'I love her!' exclaimed Betty; 'she's the nicest grown-up I've ever
+seen.  She does laugh so, and isn't a bit proper.'
+
+'Well, you'll be sick of it before the day is over, you see if you
+aren't!  Now Molly and I are going to have a lovely day.  Would you
+like to know what we're going to do?'
+
+Molly listened eagerly, for Douglas's plans were always sudden and
+unexpected.
+
+'We're going off directly after breakfast with our dinner in our
+basket, and we're going down to the brook.  I'm going to build a bridge
+over it at the widest part!'
+
+Both sisters looked aghast at this audacity.
+
+'What will you build it of?' questioned Betty sceptically.
+
+'Of stones and clay.  We shall make the clay down there; and I shall
+put a few boards in, and make it all smooth with some putty that I saw
+in the stable.'
+
+'You will fall in the water and get drowned,' said Betty; and then she
+jumped up and ran off to the house, to escape a pelting shower of small
+green apples from her irate brother.
+
+Nurse made a few objections at first, when she heard of Betty's
+invitation; but when she knew that Miss Fairfax was going to call for
+her little guest, and had promised to bring her safely back again, she
+gave the required permission; and Betty's sleep that night was full of
+wonderful dreams about her coming visit.
+
+She woke very early the next morning, and was full of confidences to
+Prince of all that they were going to do and say.  She gave nurse no
+rest after breakfast until she had dressed her in her best white frock
+and tan shoes and stockings; then, with her large white Leghorn hat and
+little white silk gloves, she sat up on a chair in the best front
+parlour, feeling very important, and making a dainty little picture as
+she sat there.  Prince had a piece of pink ribbon tied round his neck;
+Mrs. Giles had produced it from her work-basket, and had gained a
+fervent kiss and hug from the little maiden thereby.
+
+At last Nesta arrived in a low pony carriage, to Betty's intense
+delight.  She wished that Molly and Douglas had waited to see her step
+in and drive off, but they had run off half an hour before, nurse
+having packed them a lunch-basket, as desired.
+
+Nesta smiled at the excited child, as she and Prince tumbled themselves
+into the carriage with a good deal of fuss; but when they were once
+off, driving through the shady lanes, Betty folded her little hands
+demurely round Prince in her lap, and upon her face came that dreamy
+look her friend so loved to see.  She did not ask questions, and the
+drive was a quiet one, until they at length drove through some iron
+gates round a thick shrubbery, and up to a big white house with green
+Venetian shutters, and a brilliant show of roses in front.  Betty was
+lifted out, and taken up some low stone steps into a broad
+old-fashioned hall.  It seemed very cool and quiet inside; thick soft
+rugs lay about the tiled floor, large pots of flowering shrubs stood
+here and there, and at the farther end was an open door with striped
+awning outside, and a glimpse of a smooth grassy lawn and bright
+flower-beds.
+
+Nesta opened a door, and led Betty into a darkened room, full of sweet
+scents of heliotrope and roses.
+
+'Now I am going to bring you something, so sit down and wait for me.'
+
+Betty's quick eyes were taking in everything; and as for Prince, his
+nose was as busy as his eyes, and a low growl and a stiffening of his
+ears soon told his little mistress that he had discovered something
+objectionable.  When Betty crossed the room on tip-toe, she found him
+in front of a large mirror, and the snarl on his lips was not pleasant
+to see, as he faced his mock antagonist.
+
+'Oh, Prince, for shame!  I must hold you; what would I do if you broke
+that glass?  Now come and look at these beautiful pictures.  Look at
+that lady up there; she has got a little dog in her arms very like you.'
+
+It was a pleasant morning-room, with plenty of pretty ornaments
+scattered about, and after the farm kitchen it had a great fascination
+for Betty.
+
+Nesta presently returned with some sponge cakes and a glass of
+raspberry vinegar, which Betty found most refreshing.
+
+'Do you live here all alone?' she asked.
+
+'No,' said Miss Fairfax, smiling; 'I have my mother and sister here.
+My mother is not very well to-day, but I will take you to see my sister
+now.  Come along, this way; will Prince be good?'
+
+'Yes, he won't bark at all unless he meets another dog.'
+
+Betty trotted along, following her guide across the hall to another
+room, where on a couch near the window lay a lady.
+
+'I've brought a little visitor to see you, Grace,' Nesta said in cheery
+tones.  'This is the little girl I was telling you about the other day.'
+
+'I can't bear children,' was the fretful reply; 'why do you bring her
+here?'
+
+But nevertheless she put the book down that she was reading, and
+scanned the child from head to foot.  Betty's grave face and earnest
+scrutiny in return seemed to vex her more.
+
+'How children stare!  Do you think me a scarecrow, child? can't you
+keep your eyes to yourself?  What is your name?'
+
+'Betty,' and the little girl drew to her friend's side rather shyly.
+
+'Go and shake hands,' whispered Nesta.
+
+Betty went up to the couch and held out her little hand.  The invalid
+took it, and the fair, flushed little face seemed to attract her.
+
+'This is a perfect baby, Nesta; I thought you meant a much older child.
+Well, little girl, haven't you a tongue in your head?  Have you nothing
+to say?  It's the way of this house: here I lie from morning to night
+without a soul to speak to, and if I do have a visitor it is half a
+dozen words, and then off they go!  I should like them to lie here and
+suffer as I do--perhaps they might have a little more feeling for an
+invalid if they did.'
+
+'Are you going to die?' asked Betty timidly.
+
+'Take her away!' gasped Miss Grace; 'don't bring a child to mock me;
+and I suppose you will be devoting yourself to her the whole day, and I
+shall have no one to read the paper to me.'
+
+'No,' said Nesta brightly, 'I am going to let her play in the garden,
+and then I shall come to you as usual.  Come along, Betty; now you and
+Prince can have a scamper.'
+
+Out into the garden they went; but Betty rubbed her eyes in
+bewilderment when she got there.  Surely she had seen this garden
+before!  Was it in her dreams last night?
+
+She tripped across the velvet lawn, answering Nesta's questions and
+remarks rather absently, and then suddenly she turned round with a
+beaming face.  'I've been here before,' she said; 'I had some lilies
+from over there, and I came through that little door in the wall from
+the wood.  Do you know my lady?  She looks like a queen.  Does she live
+with you?'
+
+Nesta looked perfectly bewildered.
+
+'You must be dreaming, Betty.  How could you have come here?  When did
+you come?'
+
+Betty told her of her adventure in the wood, and Nesta listened in
+wonder.
+
+'It must have been my mother, and yet I can hardly understand it.  It
+is unlike her to take any notice of children.'  Then she added, 'Do you
+think you can make yourself happy in the garden, Betty, or would you
+like to go down the green walk outside the little gate?'
+
+'Will you open the gate and let me see?' said Betty thoughtfully.
+
+Nesta took her to it, and then for a moment they stood silent, looking
+down the green avenue, with the golden sunshine glinting through the
+leafy trees, and the tall bracken swaying to and fro in the summer
+breeze.
+
+'Which do you like best, Betty--the garden or this?'
+
+Betty turned and looked behind her at the lovely flowers and
+beautifully kept grass and gravel walks, and then she heaved a little
+sigh as she looked out into the wood.
+
+'My beautiful old lady asked me that question before, and I thought
+then I liked the garden, but now I like this green walk best,' she said.
+
+'You prefer nature uncultivated, don't you?  So do I.  But I do not
+often come out here.  This is my mother's favourite spot.'
+
+'Did you say "Nature"?' questioned betty eagerly.  'Do you mean Mother
+Nature?  You said you would show her to me one day.'
+
+'So I did, I have quite forgotten.  Well, there she is out there,
+Betty.  Nature is God's beautiful earth: the country, the birds, the
+rabbits, and the squirrels--everything that He makes and that man
+leaves alone.'
+
+'I don't understand;' and the child's white brow was creased with
+puckers.  'I thought she was a woman: Mr. Roper said she was; he said
+he had learnt many a lesson from her.'
+
+'And so have I,' said Nesta softly.  'Listen, Betty.  Sometimes I have
+gone out of doors tired and worried and sad; I have wandered through
+the wood, and the sweet sounds and sights I have seen in it have
+brought me home rested and refreshed.  They have spoken to me of God's
+love, and God's care, and God's perfection.  You are too little to
+understand me, I expect, but you will when you get older.  God makes
+everything beautiful, and He watches over the tiny birds and insects
+whom no one but Himself ever sees.  The tiniest flower is noticed by
+Him, and all His works in nature lead us to think of Him, and to
+remember how He loves and cares for us.'
+
+Betty's blue eyes were raised earnestly upwards.
+
+'God does love everything, doesn't He?  And He loves Prince just as
+much as He does you and me.'
+
+Nesta hesitated.  'I think, darling, God has a different love for us to
+what He has for animals.  We have cost the dear Saviour His life; our
+souls have been redeemed.  Animals have no souls, they do not know the
+difference between right and wrong----'
+
+'But Prince does,' broke in Betty hastily; 'he knows lots of the Bible,
+for I've told him about it, and I read The Peep of Day to him on
+Sunday.  He likes it; he lies quite still on my lap and folds his paws
+and listens like anything.  And I've told him about Jesus dying for
+him, and how he must try to be good.  And he does try: he wanted to run
+after some little chickens yesterday, and I called him and told him it
+was wicked, and he came away from them directly; and I know he wanted
+to go after them dreadfully, for he was licking his lips and glaring at
+them!'
+
+This outburst from Betty was too much for Nesta.  She looked at her
+with perplexity, then wisely turned the subject, and after a few
+minutes' more chat left her, and went back to the house.
+
+Betty wandered out into the wood, and then seating herself on a soft
+bank surrounded by ferns and foxgloves, she drew Prince to her.
+
+'Come, you little darling, how do you like this?  Isn't it lovely to be
+spending a day in that lovely house, and not have to be shut out with
+only some lilies to take away?  Do you like it, Prince?  And do you
+think we shall see that nice queen, and find out if she sent you in a
+basket to me?  Do you understand about nature, Prince?  I wish I did,
+but it's the earth, I think; you put your mouth down and kiss it.
+Isn't it nice and soft?'
+
+And then, laying her curly head on the velvet moss, Betty pressed her
+lips to it, whispering, 'Mother Nature, Mr. Roper sent you his love and
+a kiss!'
+
+Prince was not content to stay as quiet as this for long, and when a
+rabbit popped out from a hole close by, he was after it like lightning.
+Betty tore after him delightedly, and a scamper removed from her busy
+little mind for the time thoughts that were beginning to trouble her.
+
+When Nesta returned to the garden half an hour after, she found Betty
+deep in conversation with the old gardener, and Prince was hunting for
+snails in a thick laurel hedge close by.
+
+'We didn't stay out in the wood very long,' Betty explained; 'we got
+tired of running after rabbits.'
+
+'You must come in to luncheon now; I want you to come up to my room to
+wash your face and hands.'
+
+'Will the cross lady be at lunch?' asked Betty, as she trotted up the
+broad oak stairs a few minutes later.
+
+'Hush, dear; she is ill, remember.  I don't think she will lunch with
+us.'
+
+Nesta took her little visitor through a long passage to a pretty
+bedroom, and Betty looked about at all the pictures and knick-knacks,
+asking ceaseless questions, and fingering everything that she could get
+hold of.  Her curls were brushed out, her hands and face washed, and
+then she was brought down to the large drawing-room.
+
+'This is my little friend, mother,' said Nesta, going in.
+
+A tall figure turned round from the window, and Betty saw her
+mysterious lady once again.  She looked colder and sterner than ever,
+and put up her gold pince-nez to scan the little new-comer down; but
+Betty's radiant face, dimpling all over with pleasure as she held up
+her face for a kiss, brought a softer gleam to the old grey eyes, and,
+to her daughter's astonishment, Mrs. Fairfax stooped to give the
+expected kiss.
+
+'It is the little trespasser,' she said.  'I did not know I should see
+you again so soon.'
+
+Then she turned to Nesta.  'Grace informed me she intended to lunch
+with us.  She is in the dining-room already, so we will wait no longer.'
+
+They walked in silence across to the dining-room, and Betty, awed by
+the big table, the noiseless butler, and the cold, formal stateliness
+of the meal, sat up in her big chair, subdued and still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A Little Messenger
+
+Miss Fairfax seemed the most talkative, but her conversation was a
+perpetual flow of complaints; the food, the weather, and her ailments
+were her chief topics, and Betty's round eyes of amazement, as she sat
+opposite, served to irritate her more.  At length she gave a little
+start and scream.
+
+'I am sure there is a dog in the room!' she exclaimed.  'How often I
+have told you, Jennings' (this to the butler), 'to keep the dogs out of
+our rooms!'
+
+'It's my dog,' said Betty at once; 'it's only Prince; he always sits
+under my chair; he's such a dear, he waits as quiet as a mouse.'
+
+'Take him out of the room at once, Jennings; I can't eat another
+mouthful while he is here.  You ought never to have allowed him to come
+in!'
+
+'Oh, Grace, he won't hurt you!' said Nesta, remonstrating.
+
+Miss Fairfax put her knife and fork together, and leant back in her
+chair.
+
+'Very well; as my nerves are never considered in the least, it is
+useless for me to speak; I had better go back to my room.  I am
+continually being urged to join you at meal-times; yet, when I do, I am
+expected to go through the misery of having a wretched dog crawling
+round my feet, and setting every nerve in my head quivering and
+throbbing.'
+
+'Take the dog outside,' said Mrs. Fairfax quietly; then, turning to
+Betty, who looked very perturbed and flushed, she said, 'Jennings will
+take care of him, and he shall have some dinner in the kitchen.'
+
+'He won't be beaten, will he?  He didn't know it was wrong to follow
+me'; and Betty's eyes began to fill with tears, as she saw Prince
+seized by the scruff of his neck, and carried off, in spite of
+indignant growls and snaps.
+
+'No, he won't be beaten,' she was assured; but after this she had no
+appetite for her dinner; and when the ladies rose from the table she
+ran up to Mrs. Fairfax.
+
+'May I have Prince again now?  He's so very good.  I want him
+dreadfully.'
+
+'Yes, he shall be brought to you.  What are you going to do with the
+child, Nesta?'
+
+'I will take her out into the garden, mother.  But I hear old Mrs. Parr
+has come up for some linseed meal I promised her.  Her husband is very
+ill again with bronchitis.  I shall not be gone long.'
+
+'Then Betty shall come upstairs with me.'
+
+Again Nesta wondered, but wisely said nothing.
+
+Prince came scampering across the hall, and Betty, now completely
+happy, took hold of Mrs. Fairfax's hand, and went upstairs into a
+lovely little boudoir, where she sat down in a low cushioned seat by
+the window, and chattered away to her heart's content.
+
+'Did you send Prince to me?  You did, didn't you?  I knew it was you!
+He is such a darling, and it makes me into a couple--which I've never
+been before.'
+
+Mrs. Fairfax smiled; she seemed to lose some of her stiffness when with
+Betty alone.
+
+'And is he as much a companion as another brother or sister might be?'
+
+'I think he's much nicer.  I wouldn't have any one instead of him for
+all the world.'
+
+'What have you been doing with yourself since I saw you?'
+
+'Lots and lots of things.  I go to church to hear Miss Fairfax play the
+organ; and I take flowers to dead Violet; and I have got into lots of
+scrapes; but I don't think I'm quite as naughty here as I used to be in
+London.  At least, we can't quite make it out.  Douglas was saying the
+other day, nurse lets him climb any trees here; but if he tried to
+climb a lamp-post, or even one of the trees in the parks, in London, he
+was always being whipped or put into cells for it!  And in the country
+we can go out without gloves, and run races along the roads, and swing
+on gates, and we never get punished at all.  We don't want to go back
+to London; it's so dreadfully hard to be good there.'
+
+'But don't you want to see your father and mother again?'
+
+'Yes, I s'pose so; but we don't see them very much in London.  I'd like
+to stay in the country for ever and ever, and so would Prince.'  After
+a pause she went on, 'You see, there's a good deal more going on in the
+country than in London.  We know a lot more people, and there's always
+something fresh happening.  Now, in London every day is the same, and
+we have only the nursery to play in, we get so tired of it.  At the
+farm where we live we're always having nice surprises; lots of little
+calves are born quite suddenly, or little horses, and we don't know
+anything about it till we go and see them in the morning.  Yesterday
+there were six little black pigs, such little beauties!  And then we
+have so many more people to talk to.  There's Farmer and Mrs. Giles,
+and Sam, and all the carters, and the old man who digs the graves, and
+old Jenny, and you, and Miss Fairfax, and Mr. Russell, but I've only
+seen him once.'
+
+Betty paused for breath.
+
+'And what do you find to talk about to so many people?'
+
+'I've been talking rather grave talks with some of them,' Betty said
+reflectively, 'about tribulation.'
+
+Mrs. Fairfax raised her eyebrows.
+
+'That is very grave talk indeed for such a mite as you.  What do you
+know about it?'
+
+'I know that everybody has got it except me, and I want to have it; and
+old Jenny said I'd be sure to come to it soon.  She's had it, and
+Reuben has, and Mr. Russell, and nurse, and Miss Fairfax has.  Has the
+cross lady downstairs had it, and have you?'
+
+Mrs. Fairfax's lips quivered a little as she turned away her head.  The
+soft, childish fingers were probing the wound, and she shrank from
+their touch.
+
+Betty went on dreamily, 'I often wonder what it's like, and whether you
+feel like Christian did in the dark valley; but he got through it all
+right at last!  I should like to come right through it into the middle
+of the text, and Jenny says I shall some day!'
+
+There was glad triumph in her tone.
+
+'What text?' asked Mrs. Fairfax, looking out of the window, and away to
+the green woods in the distance.
+
+Betty repeated once more the familiar words,--
+
+'"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
+their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."  How glad
+they must be to have had it! don't you think so?'
+
+And then the stately Mrs. Fairfax sat down, and took Betty upon her
+knee; drawing her close to her, till she had the little dark curly head
+resting against her shoulder, she bent her head to hers, and said,
+almost passionately,--
+
+'God grant you will never know such trouble as mine, little
+one--trouble that turns your heart to stone, and blots all heaven from
+your sight!'
+
+Betty put her little arms round her neck.
+
+'Old Jenny said I should have it,' she repeated, 'and she told me when
+I was in the middle of it to remember, "Be thou faithful unto death"--I
+forget the other part.'
+
+There was silence for some moments; then Mrs. Fairfax kissed the
+upturned face.
+
+'Now run downstairs, little woman, and find Nesta.  I will say good-bye
+now, for I shall not see you again.'
+
+Betty obeyed instantly, and when she had gone, for the first time for
+many a long month, the sorrowful woman knelt in prayer.  'God help me!'
+she cried; 'I have been an unfaithful servant, and have refused to turn
+to Thee for comfort.'
+
+The rest of the afternoon was as delightful as the morning to Betty.
+She visited the stables and poultry yard; she picked strawberries, and
+ate them whilst she picked; she gathered a large nosegay of flowers to
+take home to nurse; and then, at four o'clock, she came in to a
+delicious little tea in the cool, shady drawing-room.  Miss Fairfax was
+lying on the sofa there, but she seemed to like to hear the child talk,
+and even condescended to allow Prince to come inside to receive a lump
+of sugar on his nose, whilst he sat up and begged.
+
+'I've had a lovely day,' said Betty, as Nesta was putting on her hat
+upstairs in the bedroom.
+
+'And so have I,' responded Nesta, laughing.  'You have been very good
+company, Betty; I shall be quite dull when you are gone.'
+
+'Have you no one to talk to, when I'm not here?  Are you an odd one?'
+
+'Perhaps I may be.'
+
+ Why don't you make yourself into a couple with some
+one, like Prince and me?'
+
+But this made Nesta's soft eyes fill with tears; and Betty felt very
+uncomfortable until she was kissed and told she was the funniest little
+chatterbox living.  The pony carriage came round; and a little later
+she was being driven home, rather tired, and very happy, at her day's
+outing.
+
+Nesta left her at the gate, and drove silently home.  Betty had brought
+a good deal of brightness into her life; and though she was always
+outwardly so cheery in her manner, her heart was often heavy and sore.
+It was not a cheerful house; and as an hour later she tried to enliven
+the solemn dinner-table, expecting as usual to meet with no response,
+but grumbles from Grace and chilling indifference on the part of her
+mother, she was surprised by Mrs. Fairfax's efforts to take part in the
+conversation.
+
+'That child is an original character,' she observed.  'Do you know who
+they are, Nesta?'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Crump was telling me the other day; their father is the
+Member for Stonycroft, and their mother that Mrs. Stuart who is so busy
+in philanthropical objects in town.  She was one of the Miss Champneys,
+the clever Miss Champneys, as we used to call them.  I think the
+children must inherit the talents of their parents, for though they are
+regular little pickles for mischief, they are all original in their
+way.  Betty thinks the most, I should say, the others seem to live in
+dreamland half their time.  I came across the other girl and boy in an
+old willow tree the other day.  I spoke to them, but was hushed up at
+once by the boy, who put his fair curly head out of the branches, and
+said, "You're not to speak to us just now; we're hiding from the Queen
+of the Brook! she comes dashing down in foam, she's so angry with us;
+and if she splashes us we shall be turned into black dogs, and have to
+go on all fours till dinner time!"  I laughed and left them.  I don't
+altogether envy their nurse!'
+
+'Betty is not enough of a child,' Mrs. Fairfax said; 'some of her
+sayings are quite uncanny.'
+
+'Do you think so?  She has plenty of life and spirits.  But she is a
+child of intense feeling.  I am afraid she will suffer for it as she
+grows older.  Yesterday I came upon her outside the churchyard crying,
+as if her heart would break, over a dead frog.  I tried to comfort her.
+"Oh," she sobbed; "I'm so afraid Prince has killed it.  I didn't see
+him, but he may have; and he doesn't look a bit sorry.  What shall I do
+if he grows up a murderer!"'
+
+Mrs. Fairfax would have thought Betty a stranger child still, if she
+could have seen her that evening tossing in her little bed.
+
+Molly was fast asleep; nurse had left the room, and all was quiet; but
+Betty was going over in her busy little mind the events of the past
+day.  At last she stretched out her hand to Prince in his basket.
+
+'She said you had no soul, Prince; I wonder if you haven't!  I wish
+you'd say prayers to God; I'm sure God will give you a soul, if you
+ought to have one!  Prince, wake up!'
+
+Prince rolled over, shook himself, and jumped up on the bed, wondering
+what was the reason of this summons.
+
+Betty sat up with flushed cheeks and bright eyes.  'Come here.  Prince!
+Now beg! that's right.  Now say a prayer; just a very little one.  I
+pray for you, darling, every night; but you're big enough to pray
+yourself.  God will know your language if you speak to Him, and you can
+just speak secret to Him--I do often.  Now, Prince--no--don't lick my
+hand, and keep your tail still.  I wish you'd shut your eyes.  I'll put
+my hand over them--there!  Now Prince, ask God to give you a soul, and
+forgive your sins, and take you to heaven when you die.'
+
+Betty bent her head in silence; whilst for two minutes Prince kept
+perfectly still; then she took her little hands from his eyes, and he
+gave a quick short bark of delight, perhaps in anticipation of a lump
+of sugar for this new trick taught him.  If so, he was disappointed, he
+was only kissed and put back into his basket.  And Betty laid her
+little head on the pillow, but only half satisfied.  'O God,' she
+murmured sleepily, 'if Prince hasn't prayed properly, please forgive
+him, and give him a soul and make him a good dog, for Jesus Christ's
+sake.  Amen.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A Daring Feat
+
+It was a hot afternoon in July.  The children had tired themselves out
+with play, and were resting under some shady trees near the farm.  By
+and bye Betty wandered off into a neighbouring cornfield, and resting
+her head against an old log of wood in the corner of it, went fast
+asleep, whilst Prince sat at her feet, keeping a faithful watch over
+his little mistress.  Mr. Russell, sauntering through a footpath in the
+field, came up and looked at them; and his artist's eye was at once
+charmed with the picture they made.  He stood, and taking out his
+sketch-book, drew a rapid outline of Betty's little figure as she lay
+there, one hand grasping some red poppies, and the other arm thrown
+behind her curly head.  Prince was also sketched; and then Betty awoke.
+She looked confused at first, then jumped to her feet.
+
+'Don't be frightened,' said Mr. Russell gravely.  'Do you live near
+here?'
+
+Betty pointed out the farm.
+
+'And do you think you would be allowed to come to my house one day, for
+me to make a picture of you?'
+
+Betty coloured with pleasure.
+
+'I'll ask nurse.  All by myself?'
+
+'All by yourself--at least with your dog.  Where is your nurse?  Would
+she come out here to speak to me?'
+
+Nurse was only in the next field, so was easily fetched, and though
+demurring somewhat at first, was soon reassured by Mr. Russell, who
+promised to keep her only about an hour.
+
+'I will see she returns to you safely, my good woman; and when you find
+that she has come to no harm, perhaps you will allow her to come again.
+I want to make a little sketch of her, for a subject I have in view.'
+
+And it was settled that Betty should go to him the next day at two
+o'clock.
+
+'I don't quite like it,' said nurse afterwards, when talking it over
+with Mrs. Giles; 'but he seemed rather a high-handed gentleman, as if
+he wouldn't take no.  I don't know whether the mistress would like it,
+most children would be shy of it, but none of these seem to know what
+shyness is; and Miss Betty seems to make friends wherever she goes.  I
+can't understand it; Miss Molly, to my eyes, is much the most taking!'
+
+'Mr. Russell is our landlord,' responded Mrs. Giles; 'he's a proper
+sort o' gentleman, and he won't hurt the child by a-paintin' of her.
+He lives all alone since his little girl died, and maybe she'll cheer
+him up; he's very downhearted, folks say.'
+
+'Why should you go and not us?' said Molly, when Betty ran off to tell
+them all about it; 'it's too bad; you're getting all the nice things,
+and I'm the eldest.'
+
+'I don't expect you'll like it,' said Douglas, rolling over on the
+grass and tickling Bobby's bare legs with a bunch of grass; 'I know the
+man, and he has an awful temper!  Sam told me he thrashed a boy who was
+taking a bird's nest out of his orchard; and he has a large glass room
+with skeletons and bits of people's bodies lying all about.  I think he
+likes to get children in there, and then he keeps them prisoners, and
+never lets them out again.'
+
+Betty stood still, eyeing her brother doubtfully.
+
+'I don't believe it.'
+
+'You wait till he gets you there!  He has dead men's legs and hands.
+Sam says he's seen them through the window!  He's a Bluebeard; he
+always keeps the room locked, and doesn't let any one in.  And if he
+takes you in there to-morrow afternoon, you'll never come out again!'
+
+'And then I shall have Prince, and take him back to London for my dog,'
+put in Molly.
+
+'Prince is coming with me,' Betty retorted; 'so if I never come back
+again, Prince won't!  And I don't care if we don't come back.  I'd
+rather live with Mr. Russell than with you when you are cross.'
+
+'He'll fatten you up with porridge for a week; and then he'll cut you
+up into little bits, and Prince too.'
+
+Betty laughed and danced away, Prince at her heels.
+
+'You're jealous because I'm going to be put into a picture,' she called
+out.  'I'll tell you all about the dead men's legs when I come back.'
+
+The next afternoon she was taken up to the Hall by nurse, who arrayed
+herself in her best clothes, and was delighted when she was taken to
+the housekeeper's room to be entertained.  She would have liked to wait
+there the full hour, but Mr. Russell had promised to bring back Betty
+himself; so she had not that excuse.
+
+And Douglas and Molly were consoling themselves at home, by building a
+hay castle in the meadow, and capturing Bobby and Billy at intervals,
+under the plea of painting their pictures; and then going through a
+process which was more entertaining to them than to their little
+victims--that of cutting off their arms and legs to hang on their walls.
+
+It was nearly five o'clock when Betty returned, and her little tongue
+was busy all tea-time.
+
+'Such a funny room! and Mr. Russell had changed his mind, and he isn't
+going to paint my picture; but he's going to make a dead figure of me
+and Prince instead; he's got some white wet stuff like putty, and he
+rolls up his shirt-sleeves like a workman!  I had to lie down and
+pretend to be asleep, but I could keep my eyes open, and I did see some
+legs, but they're images--and there was a image without a head, a dead
+figure, you know.  And there were beautiful curtains, and flowers, and
+rugs, and pictures half finished.  It was rather an untidy room.  I
+told Mr. Russell what you said, Douglas; and he laughed.  He gave me
+some peaches, and then we had a nice grave talk coming home.'
+
+This and more Betty revealed; and her visits to the Hall became very
+frequent as time wore on.  If she enjoyed them, Mr. Russell did too,
+and yet she brought to him mingled feelings of pleasure and pain.  He
+talked lightly to her, and put aside his stern moods whilst with her;
+but every now and then some childish gesture or tone would stab him
+with the memory of his little daughter, and his brows would contract
+and his voice falter at the remembrance.
+
+One day he was called away from the studio, and for some time Betty was
+left alone.
+
+When he returned, he found her lying flat on her chest, turning over
+the leaves of a book.
+
+'What book have you got hold of?' he asked; 'something that seems to
+interest you.'
+
+'It's Revelation,' said Betty, with a beaming face.
+
+'The Bible?  I did not remember I had one in the room; ah yes, I
+remember, it's here for its antique cover!  Well, what do you make of
+Revelation?'
+
+'Oh, I love it, don't you?  I'm reading about the singing in heaven;
+and it says "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of
+thousands."  What crowds there will be!  Mr. Russell, supposing heaven
+gets too small for all the people, what will happen?'
+
+'I don't think there's a chance of that,' Mr. Russell said, smiling;
+'it doesn't look as if many are bound there in the present age, at all
+events.'
+
+'It says,' went on Betty, with her finger on the page, 'for Thou wast
+slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred
+and tongue and people and nation; that takes in everybody, doesn't it,
+Mr. Russell?'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Russell, looking down at the little figure on the
+floor, half humorously, half sadly; 'every one that wants to be taken
+in.'
+
+'Why should any one want to be outside?' questioned the child.
+
+Mr. Russell did not answer; he went to his outline and uncovered it.
+It was rapidly progressing.  Betty's little figure was nearly finished.
+There was the gnarled log of wood against which she lay; and Prince's
+outline had already been commenced.
+
+She jumped up and came over to look at it.
+
+'It would make a beautiful grave, wouldn't it?' she said thoughtfully;
+'I should like to have it put on the top of mine when I die.'
+
+'Don't talk about dying, child!' was the hasty reply.
+
+'I'm afraid I'm not ready,' said Betty, with a shake of her curly head;
+'but I will be when I've been through tribulation!  Mr. Russell, do you
+think a dog can go through tribulation?'
+
+'No, I do not,' said Mr. Russell, laughing.  Betty's views on her
+favourite text were by this time well known to him; and he generally
+treated her childish difficulties with respect; but this unexpected
+question was too much for him, and Betty's little face clouded over at
+his laugh.  She was very silent after that, and went home with rather a
+wistful little face.
+
+But all serious thoughts were dissolved at the news that awaited her.
+Molly rushed out, her long hair flying in the wind: 'I've got a letter
+from Uncle Harry, and he is coming to see us next week!'
+
+'And he's going to spend a week with us; he's going to fish, and I
+shall fish too!' shouted Douglas.
+
+'And Uncle Harry will have cwicket with us!' cried the twins.
+
+'Of course he wrote to me, as I'm the eldest,' said Molly proudly; 'if
+you'll be very good I'll read you his letter.'  And producing a very
+crumpled envelope from her pocket, she read:--
+
+
+'DEAR MADAM MOLLY,--
+
+'I have had orders from your respected parents to come down for an
+inspection of you all; so expect me Tuesday, the 27th inst.  Tell nurse
+all complaints will be attended to, and punishment duly administered.
+She must get me a room somewhere for a week, as I have heard there is
+good fishing in your neighbourhood.  My love to doughty Douglas and the
+three B's.
+
+'Your affectionate uncle,
+  'HARRY.
+
+'P.S.--Tell nurse I shall bring a rod with me.'
+
+
+'Isn't he a funny dear?' went on Molly.  'He pretends he's coming to
+punish us!  Won't we have fun when he comes!'
+
+'He doesn't know there are six of us now,' observed Betty, with
+sparkling eyes; 'I wonder what he will say to Prince.'
+
+The children could do little else but talk about their uncle's coming
+visit for the next week; and when at last Tuesday arrived, they were in
+a great state of excitement.  Nurse could hardly curb their turbulent
+spirits.  Captain Stuart was adored by his little nephews and nieces,
+and his visits were always a golden time.  At last, after rescuing
+Douglas from a farm wagon that he was driving off during the carter's
+absence, Molly and Betty from an infuriated sow that they were trying
+to wash under the pump, and Bobby and Billy from a hay-cutter they were
+meditating using, nurse locked up all the five in the garret, hoping
+they would be safe there until their uncle arrived.  Prince was left
+outside; and all Betty's beseeching petitions that he might share their
+punishment were unheeded by nurse.  So Prince crouched down outside the
+door, patiently keeping watch, and now and then responding to his
+little mistress's voice through the keyhole by sundry whines and barks.
+
+'Nurse won't dare to put us in cells after to-day,' said Douglas
+wrathfully; 'she is just doing it to pretend to Uncle Harry that we're
+always in disgrace; and I hate her!'
+
+'And I was going down to the brook to get some forget-me-nots, to put
+in Uncle Harry's room,' said Molly plaintively.
+
+'It's wather nice being punished all together,' said Bobby, who always
+dreaded being left alone.
+
+Betty said nothing; her curly head was out of one of the windows, and
+she was deep in thought.  At last she drew it in.
+
+'S'posing the house was to take fire, and we were all to be locked in
+here?' she suggested.
+
+Molly looked quite frightened at the thought; but Douglas rose to the
+occasion, and he said triumphantly,--
+
+'Yes, nurse would be in a pretty state then!  Farmer Giles would rush
+off for a fire-engine; we would throw up the windows, and then I'd get
+out on the roof and make a speech.  I'd remind nurse of all the nasty
+things she has said and done to us since we were babies; how she has
+said over and over again there never were such children in the world,
+and that we nearly drove her mad; and then I'd say she'd be sorry now
+when she was going to see us burnt before her eyes; and she would be
+sobbing and crying, and so would Mrs. Giles and Sam and all the others!'
+
+'But they might get ladders to take us down,' suggested Molly.
+
+'There's only one ladder long enough.  Sam would put that up, but the
+flames underneath the floor would come out and burn the ladder in two;
+and there's no fire-escape!  They don't seem to have them in the
+country.  I should go on speaking as long as I could, and then I should
+say we didn't wish to go down to our graves angry, so we would forgive
+her, only we hoped the next children she had she would be kinder to.
+And then I would say good-bye; and the roof would be cracking
+underneath me; and nurse would scream and cry; and then I would take a
+leap right into the middle of the fire; and there would be a kind of
+explosion, and the house would fall in; and the next day there would be
+five heaps of bones and black ashes! all that was left of us! and nurse
+would sit down with a broken heart in the middle of us!'
+
+Bobby and Billy had been listening to this awful story with their eyes
+nearly starting out of their heads; and now both burst into sobs of
+terror.  'We're going to be burnt!  Nurse, nurse, let us out; we will
+be good!'
+
+They were hushed up in scorn by Douglas; but Molly soothed and
+comforted them, assuring them it was only a make-up, and that the house
+never would catch fire.
+
+'And if it did catch fire I would get out safe,' said Betty solemnly;
+'for I should climb out of the window and walk along the gutter,
+holding on by the roof; and then I should climb down by the pear tree
+over Uncle Harry's bedroom.'
+
+'You couldn't do it,' said Douglas scoffingly; 'girls can't climb!'
+
+'I could do it; I could do it now!'
+
+'Then do it, do it; I dare you to do it!'
+
+Betty's eyes sparkled; and Molly at once left the twins, and ran to the
+window and put her head out.
+
+'I think she could do it if we lifted her out; but it looks awful
+dangerous; I should be afraid.'
+
+'I'm not a bit afraid,' said Betty sturdily.
+
+'You wait till you're once out.  I dare you to do it!'  And Douglas
+danced up and down in delight at the coming excitement.
+
+Not a doubt entered Betty's head as to the right or wrong of such an
+escapade; her impulsive little soul was longing to prove to her brother
+her ability in climbing, and audacious as she was in daring feats, this
+seemed to be a test of her powers.  The garret window was opened; it
+was in the roof, so Betty had no difficulty in climbing out and
+standing in the gutter, which ran right round the house.  Then slowly
+and carefully, in sight of the four admiring faces at the window, she
+commenced her perilous walk.  Steadying herself by leaning with one
+hand on the sloping roof at her right, Betty walked triumphantly on
+till she reached the corner of the house; here she hesitated.
+
+'Come back,' called out Molly; 'you can't turn the corner!'
+
+'I dare you to go on!' naughty Douglas cried excitedly.
+
+There was breathless silence; but others besides the little inmates of
+the garret were watching this feat in horror.  Two gentlemen were
+walking leisurely through the meadow in front of the house.
+
+'What on earth is that on the roof, Stuart?  Not a child, surely!'
+
+'A child it is; good heavens!  It's one of my hopeful nieces; she'll be
+dashed to pieces to a certainty!  Come on, St. Clair; only don't make a
+row!'
+
+They reached the house as Betty was in the act of turning the corner.
+For a moment the little figure swayed outwardly, and Captain Stuart
+quite expected that moment to be Betty's last; but she recovered her
+balance most miraculously, accomplished the turn successfully, and went
+steadily on till she reached the pear tree.
+
+Both gentlemen remained perfectly silent, knowing that a start might
+produce a false step, and they watched her descent to the ground now
+with less anxiety.  Half-way down had Betty got, when there was a
+rushing sound of feet, and nurse, with a scream of horror appeared on
+the scene.
+
+Betty's nerves gave way; she placed her foot on a rotten branch, which
+broke under her; her hands relaxed their hold.  Another scream from
+nurse, echoed by Mrs. Giles behind her, and the child fell heavily, but
+safely, into her uncle's arms below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Uncle Harry's Friend
+
+'There's a pretty welcome for a tired man who wants his dinner!'
+
+Betty was standing before her uncle with a white little face and
+determined, set mouth, and nurse was releasing the other little
+prisoners and bringing them down to their uncle.
+
+Captain Stuart's friend was lounging on the low window-seat of the best
+parlour, looking on with an amused eye.
+
+'Nurse thinks you ought to have a good whipping,' continued Captain
+Stuart, stroking his long, fair moustache very gravely, though there
+was a twinkle in his blue eyes.  'I think we must have a court-martial
+first.  Were you trying to kill yourself, Betty?'
+
+'I was trying to save myself from a fire--I mean a fire that might be.'
+
+The sentence was begun bravely, but the little lips began to quiver.
+Shaken by her fall, afraid of her uncle's anger, and uncomfortable by
+the presence of a stranger, she burst into tears.
+
+And then Captain Stuart took her on his knee, and drew out his large
+handkerchief.
+
+'There, little woman, rest your head against my shoulder and cry away;
+it will do you good.  I was beginning to think you a little stoic.'
+
+The door opened, and the other children appeared, with very large eyes
+and solemn faces.
+
+They kissed their uncle in a subdued fashion, and then Molly said,
+'Nurse told us Betty had fallen, is she hurt?'
+
+'Is her legs bwoken?' demanded the twins.
+
+'I knew she couldn't do it; I told her she couldn't!'
+
+In an instant Betty's face appeared from behind her handkerchief.  'I
+did do it; I did! and I could do it again to-morrow; so there, Douglas!'
+
+Then Uncle Harry laughed outright, after which he pulled himself up,
+and said as sternly as he could,--
+
+'Now look here, youngsters, I'm not good at scolding, as you know; but
+you're all old enough to know that it is not true pluck to go crawling
+round roofs like cats, and running the risks of breaking your necks and
+damaging your limbs for the rest of your lives.  Now then, who is to
+blame?  Speak up like little Britons, and don't be ashamed of owning up
+and telling the truth about it.'
+
+There was a pause.  Douglas got very red in the face, but blurted out,
+'I dared her to do it.'
+
+'And I said I thought she could do it,' said Molly with tearful eyes;
+'but I did ask her to come back at the corner.'
+
+'And I dared her to go on,' added Douglas.
+
+'And Bobby and me clapped our hands at her,' put in Billy eagerly,
+feeling anxious to share in the glory of the escapade.
+
+'Do you think it a brave thing to urge another on to danger, when,
+perhaps, you would be afraid of taking their place yourself?'
+
+It was Douglas who was addressed, and he hung his head in shame.
+
+'But he was just getting out of the window to follow her, when nurse
+came up,' said Molly, in defence of her favourite brother.
+
+'I didn't know boys were in the habit of following girls,' remarked
+Captain Stuart drily.  'I think doughty Douglas must have another name.
+Listen, my boy, and remember this to the end of your life.  There were
+two young fellows came out to join our battalion in Egypt.  We were
+ordered out one morning on a reconnaissance, and both these youngsters
+came with us.  They were strong, fresh-faced young fellows, one
+especially; he was the heir to a big property at home, and had left his
+widow mother to come and earn a name for himself.  I can see him now,
+with his sparkling eyes and merry laugh, as he rode on just in front of
+me with his chum.  I won't give you children details, but we had a
+sharp bit of fighting that morning, and bullets were flying pretty
+freely.  At the finish, when returning, having dispersed our enemy, we
+came across another party of them entrenched on a height.  Orders were
+given to fire lying down, as they were skilled marksmen and had the
+advantage of the position.  "Now then," whispered one of these young
+fellows to the other, "make your name; scale the hillside and storm
+their fort."
+
+'"I would if I had my orders to," was the quick retort.
+
+'"We're like rabbits in the underwood," the youngster went on.  "Do
+those skulking fellows think we're afraid of showing ourselves?  A good
+British cheer and a sight of our rifles would soon send them to the
+right-about.  The poor old major is dead beat and wants a nap, or he
+wouldn't give such an order.  Show yourself, Castleton; let them have a
+sight of your six foot six.  What?  _afraid_!"
+
+'In an instant Johnny Castleton stood up in the full strength of his
+manhood, and the next moment his brains were scattered by a bullet, his
+dead body falling into the arms of the friend who was the cause of his
+death.  Do you think he died the death of a hero, Betty?  How do you
+think his friend felt, Douglas, when he had to write home and tell the
+widowed mother her boy would never come back to her?  Do you know, the
+folly of his act so weighed upon his mind that he left the army, and
+when I last heard of him his friends were afraid that his reason was
+giving way.  There now!  I've made your faces solemn enough to satisfy
+nurse.  And you will never dare your sisters to do foolhardy exploits
+again, will you, my boy?  And you will never listen to him if he does,
+girls?  Now my lecture is ended, and you can tell nurse to forgive you
+all.  Where is Mrs. Giles?  I wonder if she could put up my friend for
+a night or two.'
+
+Captain Stuart put Betty down from his knee, and rose to his feet.  He
+so seldom lectured the children that his words left a deep impression,
+and none of them ever forgot the lesson imprinted on their minds.  They
+were rather subdued for the rest of the day, and not altogether pleased
+at the advent of Major St. Clair.
+
+'We shan't get Uncle Harry a bit to ourselves,' grumbled Douglas, as
+the children were playing in the garden whilst the gentlemen were at
+dinner; 'he'll be going out fishing with that other fellow every day,
+and he's going to stay the whole week with him.'
+
+'I like him rather,' said Molly; 'he is something like Mr. Roper.'
+
+'He has nice sad eyes,' put in Betty; 'and he likes Prince.'
+
+But before long Major St. Clair was taken into favour.  He was a tall,
+dark man, with rather a stern look, until he smiled; and then the
+children knew they need not be afraid, for he had more smiles than
+frowns for them during his stay.  Douglas, to his great delight, was
+allowed to go fishing with them.
+
+'You see,' he confided to his sisters, 'they couldn't get on very well
+without me, as I'm learning to put their bait on for them, and I help
+to unpack their luncheon-basket, and very often I lie down on the bank
+and tell them stories; they like that very much.'
+
+One afternoon they were all in the orchard under some shady trees: the
+gentlemen were smoking and reading the papers, the children playing a
+little way off.  Presently Betty came sauntering up to her uncle,
+Prince close at her heels.
+
+'We're going for a walk,' she said; 'I s'pose you wouldn't like to come
+with us?'
+
+None of the little Stuarts ever did anything without first inviting
+their uncle to participate in it.
+
+'No, I wouldn't,' he said, leaning lazily back in his wicker chair and
+surveying the little figure before him with amused eyes.  'Where are
+you bound?  Your independence of thought and action will be sadly
+crippled when you get back to town.  Does nurse let you all scour the
+country at your own free will?'
+
+'What does scour mean?' asked Betty with knitted brows.  'Does it mean
+scrub? for I'm sure the country doesn't want cleaning.'  Then, not
+liking the laugh following her words, she went on hastily: 'Nurse
+doesn't ask where I go, so I don't tell her; but I go to church, when I
+don't go to Mr. Russell.'
+
+'And what do you do there?'
+
+'Well,' said Betty, looking very steadily at her uncle, 'if you and
+Major St. Clair won't say anything about it, I'll tell you.'
+
+'Wild horses won't tear it from me,' said the major.
+
+'I go to take some flowers to a little dead girl there; she likes to
+smell them, and hold them in her hands instead of the dead lily she has
+got.  And then I've got a friend who meets me there--a lady she is--and
+she sings the most beautiful songs on the organ! they make me cry
+sometimes.  And the church is so dark, and still, and cool; it's a
+beautiful place.'
+
+'Will you let me come with you?' asked Major St. Clair, rising as he
+spoke.
+
+'It is an enchanting programme,' murmured Uncle Harry; 'tears amongst
+the dead!  I warn you, my dear fellow, the church is nearly a mile
+away.'
+
+'I want to stretch my legs,' was the response.
+
+Betty set off radiant, with much self-importance.
+
+'You see,' she said, looking up at the major through her long lashes as
+she trotted along at his side, 'I don't always ask people to come with
+me; Prince and I are quite enough.  But you're a visitor, and so is
+Uncle Harry.  You won't talk or make a noise in church, will you?  And
+will you help me to get some honeysuckle from the hedge as we go along?
+Violet will like to smell it--at least, I make believe she will.'
+
+The walk seemed a short one to the major, Betty entertained him so
+well.  When they reached the church, she took him straight to the
+monument she loved so much, and was pleased with his genuine admiration
+of it.  She placed the honeysuckle reverentially in the clasped hands
+of the little figure, which she stooped down to kiss as usual, and then
+pointed to the stained window above.
+
+'Don't you like it?' she said in a solemn whisper.  'And do you see the
+text?  Mr. Russell put it there.  I was asking him the other day about
+it.  I asked him if he was like one of the disciples that wanted to
+keep the children away from Jesus, and if he put it up for that, and he
+said, Yes, he did want to forbid Violet to go to Jesus when He called
+her.  I expect Violet is very glad she wasn't kept back, don't you
+think so?'
+
+'I expect so,' the major responded gravely.
+
+'She wasn't any bigger than me,' continued Betty, standing before the
+window with clasped hands, and that upward dreamy look that always came
+upon her sweet little face when talking about serious things, 'but
+she's got through tribulation safely.  Mr. Russell told me how she bore
+all the pain of her illness for a whole year without a grumble; and
+pain and suffering is tribulation, isn't it?'
+
+'What do you know about tribulation?'
+
+How often had Betty been asked that question!
+
+'I know a great deal about it,' she said, looking at the major very
+earnestly; 'and though I haven't had it, I'm expecting to.  Have you
+had it?'
+
+'No, I don't know that I have,' was the amused reply.  Then, a shadow
+crossing his face, he added: 'Trouble and I are not strangers.  I think
+I have had my share.'
+
+'And a big trouble is tribulation, isn't it?  And it's on the way to
+heaven.'
+
+Then the major smiled his sweet smile.  'That's it, Betty, on the way
+to heaven.  We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of
+God.'
+
+'And have you had a big trouble?' persisted the child.
+
+'Yes, I have,' the major said slowly; 'a very big trouble, Betty.  At
+one time of my life it would have overwhelmed me, but I've learnt to
+take things differently now.'
+
+'You'll hear my friend sing about tribulation, p'raps, if I ask her to;
+she will be here directly.  Where will you sit?  I like to sit on the
+chancel step, and Prince sits in my lap.'
+
+'I will find a seat for myself.  Perhaps I shall slip away into the
+sunshine again.'
+
+And Major St. Clair sauntered round the church, looking at the old
+tablets until he heard the door open, and then he slipped into a seat
+at the side of the church behind an old stone pillar.
+
+Betty seated herself on the chancel steps after her greetings with her
+friend were over.  The picture she made as she sat there was long
+riveted on Major St. Clair's memory: the golden sunshine streaming in,
+the old carved pews in the background, and the dainty little white
+figure hugging her spaniel in her arms, would have charmed an artist's
+eye.  But it was not this sight that made the strong man suddenly turn
+pale and clutch the back of the seat in front of him with nervous,
+trembling hands; his startled gaze was no longer upon Betty, but upon
+the slight, graceful figure that was now taking her seat at the organ.
+
+Betty's clear, childish voice was heard,--
+
+'Please sing about tribulation.  I've brought some one with me who
+would like to hear it.  He's listening at the back of the church.'
+
+Nesta gave a hasty look round, but seeing no one, turned again to the
+organ, and in a minute her beautiful voice rose in the triumphant
+strains of the song of the redeemed.  Major St. Clair folded his arms,
+and stood up behind his pillar.  He seemed strangely moved, and as the
+last notes died away he hastily quitted the church.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+'When We Two Met!'
+
+Betty was so absorbed in the music that she forgot all about the major.
+
+'When I grow up, do you think I shall be able to play and sing like you
+do?' she asked, with a little sigh of happiness.
+
+'I dare say you may, dear.'
+
+'But shall I have an organ to play?  In London you can't go into any
+church and play, can you?'
+
+'No; it is only because I know the clergyman here that he gives me
+permission.'
+
+'And why do you never come to church here on Sunday?'
+
+'Because we have a little church nearer us; but it has not an organ,
+and so I come over here.'
+
+'Do you know what I do when you're singing?  I shut my eyes and pretend
+I'm in heaven.  It's lovely!  If you shut yours you could pretend too,
+and I wish you could go on singing for ever and ever!'
+
+Nesta laughed, and kissed the little eager, up-turned face.  'I should
+get very tired and hungry, I'm afraid.  I am not an angel, Betty; but
+you're right, darling.  I, too, get very near to heaven when I'm
+singing;' and she added musingly,--
+
+  In heart and mind ascending,
+    My spirit follows Thee.'
+
+
+When, a little later, Nesta came out of the church with Betty, the tall
+figure of Major St. Clair came forward to meet them.
+
+'Good-afternoon, Miss Fairfax.'
+
+His tone was cold and grave; but Nesta started, and turned white to her
+very lips; then with an effort she recovered her composure, and held
+out her hand.
+
+'It is a long time since we have met,' she said.
+
+There was a pause, but Betty came to the rescue with the delightful
+unconsciousness of childhood.
+
+'Do you know my Miss Fairfax?' she asked the major.  'You never told me
+you did.  Didn't she sing beautifully?  Did you like "Tribulation"?  We
+like it the best of all her songs, don't we, Prince?'
+
+She stooped to caress her little dog; then, as he broke away from her,
+she darted after him.
+
+Major St. Clair stood still, and his eyes never moved from Nesta's face.
+
+'Do we meet as strangers?' he asked.
+
+'No,' she said, a little unsteadily, and her lips quivered in spite of
+herself, as she strove in vain to meet his gaze calmly; 'as old
+friends, I hope.'
+
+'Never!' he said, a passionate light coming to his eyes; 'it must be
+everything or nothing to me, as I told you long ago.'
+
+She was silent; a little sigh escaped her, so hopeless and yet so
+patient, that Major St. Clair continued hotly,--
+
+'I would not have come here, had I known you were in this
+neighbourhood; but having met I cannot go without a word with you.
+Nesta, you are not happy; I see it in your face!  Time has not soothed
+and comforted you; why will you not let me share your trouble and stand
+by you when perhaps you need a friend more than ever you did in days of
+old?  Do you realize the blank you are making in my life, as well as in
+your own?  Yes, I know I am taking much for granted; but yours is not a
+nature to change.  I believe in you now as I always did, and it is only
+your mistaken ideas of duty that have brought this trouble into our
+lives.'
+
+He paused, and then Nesta spoke, looking away from the low churchyard
+wall by which they were standing to the hills in the distance.
+
+'I am sorry we have met,' she said simply, 'very sorry, for it is pain
+to us both; but the circumstances in my life have not changed; I cannot
+act differently; my mother and sister require me, and my mother----'
+Her voice faltered.
+
+'Your mother is still of the same opinion,' he said.  'I look back with
+regret to my heated words when last I saw her.  Time and another
+Teacher has shown me since where I was wrong; but, Nesta, let me plead
+my--may I say our cause with her again?  She has no right to spoil our
+lives, and it is no true kindness to her to allow her to do it.  Give
+me your permission to come and see her.'
+
+'I cannot; it will only stir up her grief and pain afresh.  She will
+not, cannot, look at things in a different light.'
+
+'And are you going to part with me like this?'
+
+His tone was low and husky with feeling.  He added, a little drearily,
+'I wonder, after all, if your affection has cooled; you speak so calmly
+about it all, that it makes one think----'
+
+Nesta heard him so far, and then put out her hand as if to stop him.
+
+'Oh, Godfrey!'
+
+That was all; but as the old familiar name slipped from her lips she
+burst into tears, and turning aside, leant her arms on the old wall and
+buried her head in them.
+
+Major St. Clair stepped up quickly.  'Nesta, Nesta, you must not!  I
+cannot stand it!  My darling, we cannot part like this!'
+
+What he might have done was never known; perhaps, with his strong arm
+round her, Nesta would have yielded then and there; but a most
+inopportune childish voice broke in close by.
+
+'You've made her cry!  You've made my Miss Fairfax cry!'  And with a
+little rush Betty flew to comfort her friend.
+
+In an instant Nesta was standing erect again.
+
+'It is nothing, darling; we have been talking over old times.
+Good-bye, Major St. Clair.'
+
+She turned down a path at the side of the church, whilst Major St.
+Clair gazed after her in bewilderment and vexation.
+
+'Oh!' he said, shaking his head at Betty as they retraced their way
+homewards, 'you're like a little boy I once knew, who would bring me a
+delicious plate of cherries.  "Would you like to have some, major?
+Look at them; aren't they lovely?"  And then, as I stretched out my
+hand, he would snatch them back with malicious glee, and gobble them up
+in my sight.'
+
+'He was a very rude little boy,' said Betty, a little offended, 'and I
+don't think I'm a bit like him, for I haven't brought you anything this
+afternoon.'
+
+Very restless and uneasy was Major St. Clair all that evening; Captain
+Stuart more than once took him to task for his moodiness and absence of
+mind, but was quite unsuccessful in eliciting a satisfactory
+explanation.
+
+The next day they went off fishing together, but about four o'clock
+Major St. Clair left his friend and sauntered back to the house.
+Finding Betty and Prince playing together outside, he called her to
+him, and, lying full length on the grass, led her on to talk about
+Nesta.  Betty innocently fell in with his wish; she gave him a graphic
+description of her day at Holly Grange, and then went back to the day
+when she first met Mrs. Fairfax in the wood.
+
+'She's like a queen,' said the eager child; 'her face is so stern and
+proud, but she's very sad!  Every grown-up person seems sad about here!
+I like Mrs. Fairfax very much; she gave me Prince.'
+
+Major St. Clair listened, and asked questions, and then suddenly
+started to his feet.
+
+'Come for a walk with me,' he said; 'wait till I have written a letter,
+and then we will start.'
+
+'To church again?' inquired Betty.
+
+'No, not to church; to Holly Grange.'
+
+'It's miles and miles,' said Betty dubiously; 'I went in a pony
+carriage, but if you go by the wood it is shorter.'
+
+'Oh, we shall manage it very well, and if you are tired I will carry
+you.'
+
+Major St. Clair's tone was quite cheerful, and Betty set off with him,
+delighted at being chosen as his companion.
+
+'Are you going to see Miss Fairfax?' she asked presently.
+
+'No, I don't think I shall go into the house at all; but I want you to
+take a note to Mrs. Fairfax and bring me back an answer.'
+
+Betty coloured up with pleasure.  'I shall like to do that,' she said;
+'it's such a nice house inside, and you should see the flowers!  I
+think I could be quite happy if I were Mrs. Fairfax, couldn't you?'
+
+She chattered on, and when at last the gates were reached, Major St.
+Clair entrusted her with the important letter.
+
+'Give it to Mrs. Fairfax yourself, Betty, and tell her I would like to
+see her very much.'
+
+Betty nodded, and clasped the letter tightly in one little hand, Prince
+followed her closely up the drive.  The hall-door stood open, and for a
+moment the child hesitated; then the old butler crossed the hall, and
+she called out eagerly,--
+
+'Please, can I come in and see Mrs. Fairfax?'
+
+The man looked surprised.  'I don't think she will see you,' he said,
+smiling; 'Mrs. Fairfax sees no visitors.'
+
+'But I'm not a visitor,' said the little girl; 'I'm only Betty, and
+I've got a letter to give her.'
+
+'I will go and see.'
+
+He disappeared, but returned a minute after.
+
+'Come in, missy--this way.'
+
+He led the child into the drawing-room, where Mrs. Fairfax was
+presiding at the afternoon tea-table.  Nesta was not there, and Grace
+was just leaving the room.
+
+A smile lightened Mrs. Fairfax's grave face at the sight of Betty.
+
+'All alone?' she asked, bending down to kiss her.
+
+'I've come to bring you a letter,' said Betty, dimpling over with
+pleasure and importance.
+
+Mrs. Fairfax made her sit down in a little cushioned chair, and took
+the note in her hand.  As she read it, she knitted her brows, and her
+lips took their sternest curve; then rising she went to the farther end
+of the room, and stood looking out of the low French window, her back
+turned to Betty, and her hands clenched convulsively by her side.
+
+Nesta was right in surmising what a torrent of painful memories would
+be aroused by Major St. Clair's advent in their neighbourhood.
+
+If the letter had come a few weeks before, there would have been only
+one answer; but Mrs. Fairfax had been learning lately from the great
+Master Himself, and her heart was softened and subdued.  Still it was a
+hard struggle, and pride fought for predominance.  At length she turned
+round, and went to her writing-desk; and then Betty crept up softly to
+her.
+
+'Major St. Clair asked me to ask you to see him,' she said, laying her
+little hand on Mrs. Fairfax's knee.
+
+'I will write my answer, Betty; I cannot do that,' was the cold reply,
+as Mrs. Fairfax turned her head away from the child.
+
+But Betty was not to be put off.
+
+'I think he would like to see you very much; and you'd like him, for he
+is Uncle Harry's friend; and he has such sad eyes, and he has been
+through tribulation like you; at least, he has had a big trouble, he
+told me; and that's just the same, isn't it?'
+
+There was no answer.  Betty continued: 'Shall I just go out and bring
+him in?  I've been telling him about you this afternoon, and how you
+gave me the lilies, and Prince, and he liked to hear it; he asked me a
+lot of questions, and I think he wants to see you, and if you're like a
+queen, like I told him!'
+
+Then Mrs. Fairfax lifted the child on her knee.  'Oh Betty, Betty!' was
+all she said, but some glistening drops fell on the child's curly head,
+as the grey head was bent over it, and Betty wondered why Mrs.
+Fairfax's voice sounded so strange.  'I think you will have to bring
+him in here,' Mrs. Fairfax said at last; and Betty trotted out of the
+room in great delight.  She found the major pacing up and down the road
+with a white, resolute face.  He threw away the cigar he was smoking
+when he saw the child, and asked, with anxiety in his dark eyes,--
+
+'Well, little woman, how have you fared?'
+
+'You're to come in and see her.'
+
+'Thank God!' and not another word did the major say till he was in the
+drawing-room.
+
+It was a constrained and formal greeting between the two; and then Mrs.
+Fairfax turned to Betty,--
+
+'Will you run into the garden, dear, till we call you?  I think Grace
+is out there.'
+
+Betty obeyed.  Grace was walking slowly up and down the path, enveloped
+in shawls, and did not look well-pleased when the childish voice
+sounded in her ear,--
+
+'May I come and walk with you?'
+
+'Were you sent out here?  Nesta, I suppose, as usual is out, so she
+will not be able to look after you, and I certainly am not in a fit
+state of health to amuse you and keep you out of mischief.'
+
+'I'm not going to get into mischief, really,' protested Betty in an
+aggrieved tone; 'I'll walk quietly along with you, and won't even pick
+a flower.  Are you better today?'
+
+'No, I am not better--I don't expect I ever shall be, though I can get
+no sympathy from any one in this house.'
+
+'What's the matter with you?' asked Betty.
+
+'Now, if you are going to worry me with questions, you can just run
+away; if you were to be kept awake night after night, and never know
+what it was to be without headaches, having every nerve in your body
+quivering from exhaustion, you wouldn't wonder what the matter was.'
+
+'I expect you're like Violet, only she could never leave her bed.  Mr.
+Russell said she would sometimes have no sleep all night, and she was
+so patient, she used to say, "Read me about there shall be no pain."
+Mr. Russell said he wouldn't have been half so patient as she was.  And
+now she is singing right in the middle of "these are they which came
+out of great tribulation."  Wouldn't you like to be her?'
+
+Grace was silent.  Betty's active little tongue turned to other
+subjects; she told about her visit to the Hall, of her 'dead figure'
+which was being made out of 'soft putty'; of Prince's misdemeanours
+when he tried to chase chickens, and then came back to his little
+mistress with his tail between his legs; of Douglas and Molly's
+wonderful games, and the twins' talents for getting into trouble; she
+told her of her walk on the roof, and the story of the young soldiers
+related by Uncle Harry; and Grace listened, and eventually was amused
+and interested in spite of herself.
+
+It was a long time before Betty was summoned to the house; and then she
+met the major in the hall.
+
+'Run in, little one, and wish Mrs. Fairfax good-bye.'
+
+Mrs. Fairfax stooped to kiss Betty; all the hard lines in her face had
+disappeared, and her voice was unusually gentle.
+
+'You must come and see me another day, when I have no business to
+occupy me.'
+
+And Betty put her arms round her neck, and gave her a delighted hug.
+
+'You will meet Nesta coming back from the church if you keep to the
+lane,' Mrs. Fairfax said, speaking to Major St. Clair; 'and we shall
+expect you to dinner tomorrow.'
+
+He raised his hat, and strode round the shrubbery with such energy that
+it was all Betty could do to keep up with him.
+
+'Don't you think Mrs. Fairfax like a queen?' asked Betty presently.
+'Was she like what I told you?'
+
+'I have seen Mrs. Fairfax before,' was the major's short reply; and
+Betty gave a little disappointed 'Oh!'
+
+Not long afterwards they came in sight of Nesta.  She was walking along
+rather slowly, her eyes and her thoughts far away; but when she saw who
+it was, a quick colour spread over her face.
+
+Major St. Clair stepped forward quickly.
+
+'Your mother has sent me to you,' he said; and there was a glad ring in
+his tone.  Nesta looked up at him bewildered.
+
+'My mother!  Have you seen her?'
+
+'Yes; thanks to this little person here with me.'
+
+Betty was kissed, but for once Nesta seemed oblivious of her presence.
+The child could not understand it, neither could she understand the
+explanation that followed in low, earnest tones.  She saw Nesta's eyes
+light up with a sudden joy, and then fill with tears; she saw Major St.
+Clair bend his head very close to hers, and though she stood silently
+by she might just as well have been miles away, for all the notice that
+she received.  At last with a little sigh she said,--
+
+'I'm rather tired; I think I'll go home with Prince.'
+
+Nesta turned to her at once.
+
+'You poor little mite!  Godfrey, will you carry her?  I must leave you.
+No, don't come with me.  I shall see you to-morrow, and I would rather
+see my mother alone.  She has been so different lately, but I never
+dared to hope for this!  Good-bye, Betty; you have been our little
+benefactor.'
+
+Betty was hoisted on the broad shoulders of the major, and carried home
+in silence; he was busy with his own thoughts, and she was tired and
+sleepy.
+
+They found Captain Stuart impatiently waiting for dinner.
+
+'Where have you been?' he asked; 'has Betty bewitched you?'
+
+'She has done me a good turn to-day,' responded the major.
+
+Betty dipped her little hand into her uncle's.
+
+'We've been to Holly Grange, Uncle Harry.  I think Major St. Clair and
+my Miss Fairfax must have quarrelled yesterday, for he made her cry;
+but they kissed each other and made it up to-day, and now we're all
+friends.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A Hero's Death
+
+Captain Stuart's week was prolonged to a fortnight, much to the
+children's delight.  They were all astonished when they heard that
+Major St. Clair was going to marry Betty's Miss Fairfax.  Betty herself
+was very puzzled about it, for she was still unconscious of how large a
+part she had played in the little drama; and only wondered sometimes
+that Nesta seemed to care so little for the organ now, and was so often
+occupied in walking or driving with the major.  This, perhaps, made her
+enjoy her visits to Mr. Russell's studio the more; and when one day he
+put the finishing touch to the bit of sculpture, she looked rather
+wistfully at him.
+
+'And mustn't I come here any more now?'
+
+'Come as often as you like,' was the hearty reply; 'I like you chatting
+away to me whilst I work.'
+
+'I've a good many friends here,' announced Betty upon the last evening
+of Captain Stuart's stay; 'I think I've more friends than Molly and
+Douglas have.  They don't care about grown-up people: I rather like
+them!'
+
+'We like Uncle Harry,' protested Molly.
+
+'And who do you like the best of all your friends, Betty?' asked Major
+St. Clair.
+
+'I think I like Mr. Russell.  You see, he's an odd one, like I used to
+be before I had Prince.  Miss Fairfax used to be an odd one too, but
+she's one of a couple now.  Mr. Russell has got no one; he's quite
+alone.'
+
+There was great laughter at Betty's speech.
+
+'I think I'm an odd one, Betty,' Captain Stuart said.  'What do you
+advise?  My making myself into a couple?'
+
+'Two and two are so much more comfortable,' went on Betty gravely; 'I
+don't really know what I should do if I hadn't Prince to go with!
+Really at the bottom of my heart I love him better than anybody!
+Couldn't you get a dog, if you can't get any one else, Uncle Harry?
+You'd find yourself in a very nice couple then.'
+
+How Captain Stuart laughed!  And Betty was the only one who could see
+no joke in the matter.
+
+After the gentlemen had left, the children had a quiet time.  Betty
+would still steal away to the church to hear Nesta sing and play; and
+one day all the children spent a day at Holly Grange.  Nurse was
+getting a little tired of the quiet country life, and began to talk
+about the return to London, which filled her little charges' hearts
+with dismay.
+
+'It will be dreadful to sit up and do lessons again,' moaned Molly.
+
+'I think,' said Douglas slowly, 'that I shall get lost the day we are
+going back; and then I shall live in the wood in that little hut; I
+shall be a kind of wild man; and I shall eat berries and nuts, and when
+I want some meat I shall kill a rabbit, and cook him!  I really cannot
+stand being cooped up in that nursery at home again.'
+
+'I've never, never been so happy in my life before,' Betty chimed in;
+'but then of course I shall take Prince with me.  Fancy!  If we had
+never come to this farm, we should never have gone to that wood, and I
+should never have seen Mrs. Fairfax, and she would have never sent me
+Prince!'
+
+'It's always "Prince" with you,' Douglas said a little impatiently;
+'you can talk of no one else.'
+
+The day following the one on which this conversation was held, Farmer
+Giles came into the kitchen in great perturbation about twelve o'clock.
+
+'Where are the children?' he demanded quickly.
+
+Nurse came into the room, leading Bobby, who had been undergoing a
+change of garments through a tumble into the duck-pond.
+
+'They're out in the meadows,' she said; 'what's the matter?'
+
+'I'm afraid there's a dog of Mr. Dart's loose; I've just heard say it's
+gone mad, and can't be found!  It's these dreadful hot days.  I've just
+chained up Rough.  Little Miss Betty must look after that dog of hers.
+Tom Dart and a neighbour is out huntin' for theirs now.'
+
+'A mad dog!' exclaimed nurse in horror; 'call them in, Jack, do!  What
+should I do if they met it?'
+
+And leaving Bobby in the kitchen, she as well as her brother ran out to
+warn the children.  They found them in a clover field under the trees:
+Douglas was busy trying to work his way inside an old hollow trunk;
+Molly was digging down a rabbit hole; and Billy was waiting upon them
+both.
+
+'Where is Miss Betty?'
+
+'She's gone along the lane,' said Douglas, looking up with a very
+heated face; 'I sent her to the brook to get some water: we're going to
+lay in provisions for a siege; and this tree will be our hiding-place.'
+
+'And I'm digging for treasure money,' said Molly.
+
+'Is Prince with her?' asked nurse anxiously.
+
+'Yes, he won't ever stay with us.'
+
+'They're safe enough in this field,' said Farmer Giles, looking round;
+'but they'd best not wander in the lanes.  We must have Miss Betty
+back.'
+
+Betty meanwhile was trotting contentedly along, hugging an old
+earthenware jar.
+
+'We'll get them some water, Prince, and then you shall be the sentry;
+Douglas said you could be; directly you hear a step you must bark!'
+
+Prince looked up, wagged his tail in response, and began to burrow in
+the grass for imaginary frogs.
+
+And then Betty, feeling her jar very heavy, sat down against the hedge
+bank to rest.  She remained there some time, chattering away to her
+dog, and was just starting on her way again, when shouts up the lane
+startled her.
+
+A moment after, and straight down the lane towards her tore a large
+retriever; his mouth was open and covered with foam, and he kept making
+snaps at the air as he rushed along.  After him came two men and some
+boys.
+
+'Out of the way!' they shouted; 'he's mad!'
+
+Poor little Betty stood in the middle of the lane, quite petrified.  It
+was a very narrow lane; the banks and hedges were high on either side,
+and there literally seemed no escape for the child.  On he came, with
+open jaws and bloodshot eyes; and in another moment a shrill childish
+scream rose in the air, which sent an awful chill through nurse's
+blood; for she was now close upon the scene.  She arrived just as Tom
+Dart had got near enough to the dog to fire, and the report of a gun
+went off as she clambered over a gate into the lane.
+
+She saw the body of the poor beast in the road, with Tom standing over
+it, but with trembling limbs made her way along to the little crowd now
+assembled higher up the lane.  They were bending down over something in
+the middle of the road.  Was it Betty?
+
+'Is she safe?  Who is hurt?' she gasped, as she pushed her way through.
+There, in agony of grief and terror, Betty was sitting upon the ground,
+shielding with her little arms her precious dog.  'You shan't take him
+from me, you shan't; he's my very own, and he's nearly killed!' she was
+crying frantically.
+
+Nurse seized hold of her and the dog together.  'Are you hurt, child?
+Speak!  Thank God, it's only the dog!'
+
+Farmer Giles was already there, questioning the excited crowd.  'He was
+making straight for her, but the little dog dashed in front just in
+time.  See how he's bitten!  Take him away from the little missy; he'll
+have to be shot!  'Twas lucky for her she had him with her!'  This and
+more was told, with gaps and pauses; but Betty saw and heard nothing of
+what was going on around her.  She seemed almost beside herself with
+terror and grief.
+
+'Take us away, nurse!  Get a doctor! he's bleeding!  He mustn't, oh, he
+mustn't die!  Don't touch him!  Oh, I won't, I won't let him go!'
+
+'Come, come,' said Farmer Giles soothingly; 'I won't hurt him.  We must
+see where he is bitten; perhaps I can put him to rights.  You let me
+carry him home.  There, see, he's been bitten in his neck, but you're
+hurting him, holding him so tightly!  You let me carry him for you, and
+you can walk by my side.'
+
+'Will you bathe him, and put a bandage round, and make him well again?'
+
+There was hope dawning in the blue eye raised so trustfully to his; and
+for a moment the farmer hesitated; then he said, 'We'll do the best for
+him we can.'
+
+And Betty opened her arms, and Prince was tenderly lifted up, and a
+piece of sacking the farmer happened to have with him was wrapped round
+him.  He lifted his head, and tried to lick Betty's little hands as he
+was being taken from her; and she with a fresh burst of sobbing got up
+from the ground, and clutching hold of the farmer's coat, walked back
+to the house with him, nurse trying in vain to comfort her.
+
+Arrived at the farm, nurse took decided measures, 'You come indoors
+with me, there's a good child; and let Jack attend to Prince.  He will
+come and tell you when he's better.  No, I won't let you take him in
+your arms again--now I mean it.'
+
+'I must just see him once more; I must, nurse!'
+
+'Ay,' said the farmer, giving nurse a peculiar look, 'she shall have
+one more look at him, before I take him!'
+
+The sacking was uncovered, and Prince's ears pricked up and his bright
+brown eyes sought his little mistress's face.  Betty bent over him, and
+was allowed to kiss the back of his brown silky head.  'My little
+darling,' she whispered, though tears began to fall again; 'I wish I
+had been bitten instead of you!'  Then turning to Farmer Giles, she
+said, clasping her little hands in agony of entreaty,--
+
+'You'll be as quick as ever you can, won't you?  You won't be more than
+five minutes bathing his neck and binding it up, will you? and then
+I'll sit by and nurse him till he gets better.  Will you put him in
+this basket and bring him to me as soon as ever you can?'
+
+'Yes, yes,' said the farmer a little gruffly, and then he went out to
+the stables; and Betty stood by the kitchen window, too well trained in
+obedience to attempt to follow him, but with her little heart
+overflowing with longing to have Prince in her arms again.
+
+'Now,' said nurse very kindly but determinedly, 'come up into the
+nursery, and let me wash your face and hands and put you on a clean
+pinafore.'
+
+'He will get better, won't he, nurse?  He didn't look very hurt.  Can I
+give him some bread and milk when Farmer Giles brings him in?'
+
+Nurse evaded this question; she seemed ill at ease; and when a few
+minutes afterwards the report of a gun went off, she started violently,
+then gave a sigh of relief.  Betty was too absorbed in her own thoughts
+to notice this; and, directly her toilet was finished, she ran
+downstairs to the kitchen again.
+
+'Has Prince come in, Mrs. Giles?  Is he better?'
+
+'Bless your little heart,' said Mrs. Giles, bustling about, 'Jack will
+be in directly, and he'll tell you.'
+
+And, a few minutes afterwards, Farmer Giles appeared.  Betty ran to him
+with outstretched hands.  'Where is he?  Are you going to take me to
+him?'
+
+The farmer looked helplessly at his wife.
+
+'Where is nurse?' he said.
+
+'Keeping out of the way,' muttered Mrs. Giles.
+
+The farmer fetched a deep breath.  'Come along, then,' he said; 'I've
+done my best, and mustn't shirk the consequence.'
+
+He took hold of Betty's hand, and led her to the stables; twice he
+cleared his throat, as if about to speak, and then at the door, keeping
+one hand on the latch, he put his other one under Betty's little chin
+and raised her face.
+
+'You'll be a brave, good little maid, won't you?' he said, 'and you'll
+bear up, for 'tis better for the little dog than to live in suffering.'
+
+He opened the door, and Betty, not in the slightest understanding his
+words, pushed her way breathlessly in.
+
+There in his basket, cold and stiff, lay poor little Prince!  For one
+minute Betty thought he was asleep, and then the awful truth dawned
+upon her.  With her blue eyes dilating with horror, she turned and
+faced the old farmer, and every vestige of colour left her cheeks.
+
+'He's not dead!' she cried.  'Wake him up, Mr. Giles; he shan't be
+dead!'
+
+'My little maid, I'm dreadful sorry for you; but 'tis better so; and
+his neck were near bitten through; he couldn't have lived long in any
+case.'
+
+Betty flung herself on the floor with such a sharp wail of despair that
+Farmer Giles felt a lump rising in his throat  He knew there could be
+no comfort yet for the broken-hearted child; that she must go through
+her trouble alone--words at such a time were useless; and after
+watching her for some minutes, he slipped away to fetch nurse to bring
+her in.
+
+And Betty lay with her arms round Prince's basket, sobbing her very
+heart out, and feeling as if light and joy and gladness had gone out of
+her life for ever!  When nurse came in a little later, and put a gentle
+hand on the little crouching figure, Betty turned round, furious in her
+grief.
+
+'Go away, I shan't leave Prince; I wish I could die!  Oh, nurse,
+nurse!' and a fresh burst of sobs shook her; 'tell me he isn't dead;
+tell me he isn't!'
+
+Nurse tried in vain to pacify her; Betty was too over-wrought to
+listen.  One thing she stedfastly refused to do, and that was to leave
+her dog, and nurse finally had to take her up in her arms by force, and
+carry her, shrieking and struggling, to the house.  Poor little Betty
+did not prove herself a heroine; but nurse made allowance for her, and
+was unusually patient and tender.
+
+'It's like a bit of her life gone,' she confided to Mrs. Giles.  'I
+always think it a pity when children get so wrapped up with their pets,
+but Miss Betty never does anything by halves.'
+
+All that hot afternoon Betty lay on her bed in the nursery.  Nurse
+could not tempt her to eat any dinner; and when the first paroxysm of
+grief was over, she lay there, white and silent, with little clenched
+hands, and now and then a quick-drawn sob escaping her.
+
+Nurse was relieved and thankful when, going in quietly shortly before
+tea-time, she found her fast asleep, utterly worn out by her trouble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Comforted
+
+Betty did not wake before the children's bedtime, and nurse did not
+disturb her; she trusted that a long night's rest would do her good.
+
+But early the next morning the awakening came, and with it an undefined
+sense of misery.  The little hand was at once put out for Prince's
+basket.
+
+'Prince, wake up, darling!'
+
+There was no basket!  What had happened?  Was it all an ugly dream?
+But where was Prince?
+
+And then Molly woke by feeling a tugging at her bedclothes, and there
+was Betty, with round frightened eyes, standing over her.
+
+'Molly, Molly, wake up; tell me it is only a dream!  Where is Prince?'
+
+Molly sat up, rubbed her eyes, and tried to recover her lost senses;
+then she looked sorrowfully at her little sister.
+
+'Don't you remember, Betty?  You get into bed with me, and I'll tell
+you again.  Nurse told us all about it; and me and Douglas are
+dreadfully sorry too!'
+
+Betty crept into Molly's bed, with much heart-sinking; the bad dream
+was truth then, and Prince was dead!
+
+'Douglas and I went to see him in the stable,' Molly continued in a
+whisper.  'Farmer Giles said he saved your life; so he was quite a
+hero, Betty.  Don't you think he ought to have a tombstone telling
+about it?  Douglas wondered if you would go into mourning for him; but
+I don't think people wear black for dogs, do they?'
+
+'He saved my life,' murmured Betty; 'oh, why did he?  I wish I'd died
+instead; if Prince is dead, I can't live!'  And then, with a fresh
+burst of tears, she sobbed, 'And I shall be the odd one again!  I shall
+always be left out! and I shan't be in a couple any more!  And, oh!  I
+must see Prince again; dear darling Prince, he was the only friend I've
+ever had.'  Then, drying her tears, she sat up.  'I'm going to the
+stable to look at him once again, Molly.  I must give him a real
+good-bye kiss; I couldn't yesterday.'
+
+'But he's buried,' Molly put in quickly.  'After tea last night we had
+his funeral.  Farmer Giles dug a grave for him under our nice old apple
+tree in the orchard, he said it was best to get him out of your sight.'
+
+This was a terrible blow to Betty.  'I think I might have been at his
+funeral; he was my dog, and you and Douglas didn't care for him a bit!
+Farmer Giles is a horrid man!  But, oh dear, oh dear, I don't care for
+anything now he's dead!'
+
+And the curly head sank back on the pillow; and, like Ahab of old,
+Betty turned her face to the wall and refused to be comforted.
+
+For the next few days Betty gave nurse much anxiety; she crept about
+with a white face and flagging footsteps, refused to play with the
+other children, and spent most of her time sitting by Prince's grave.
+She had no appetite, and had restless, wakeful nights.
+
+'Fretting herself ill over it,' was Mrs. Giles's comment; 'she'll be
+better when she gets back to London.'
+
+Nesta Fairfax came down to see her little favourite, and Betty shed
+many tears on her knee.
+
+'It's no good; I shall never, never be happy again!  No one cares for
+me like Prince; and now he's dead I've no friend left!'
+
+'You have a good many friends, Betty.  Listen, darling; when I'm
+married I'm going to live in London, and you shall come and stay with
+me sometimes, if your mother will allow it.'
+
+'When are you going to be married?'
+
+'Soon; but we shall have a very quiet wedding, or I would have you as a
+little bridesmaid.'
+
+Betty shook her curly head mournfully.  'It's no good, my heart is
+broken; and I don't want to stay with anybody or do anything.'
+
+She had the same answer to any one who tried to comfort her.  And then
+one afternoon Mr. Russell appeared on the scene.  When he heard from
+nurse how matters lay, he proposed that Betty should come and stay with
+him for a week.  'It is change of scene and atmosphere that she wants.
+Let me take her back with me at once; my housekeeper will take good
+care of her.'  And this was managed, and Betty walked away with him
+quietly and contentedly.
+
+She was certainly happier roaming through his big house than she had
+been at the farm; but there seemed to be some extra weight on her mind
+that she would not reveal, and it was not until the first Sunday after
+her arrival there that he discovered the cause.
+
+They had been to church together, had waited until the congregation had
+dispersed, and stood by Violet's monument.  Betty had placed some fresh
+roses on it, and as they were leaving the church she said, looking back
+wistfully,--
+
+'I wish Prince had been buried in church; no one cares about his grave!
+I put flowers on it, but the chickens run through the orchard and
+scratch them off; and one day the horrid black pig was grunting with
+his nose, and making a great hole in it!  I wish he could have a
+tombstone; no one cares a bit, and they almost laugh if I say anything
+about it.'
+
+'Is that what is troubling you?' asked Mr. Russell kindly.
+
+'That's one of the things, but not the big thing.'
+
+'And what is the big thing?'
+
+Betty was silent; then she said, 'I'll tell it to you--p'raps this
+afternoon.'
+
+They went back to luncheon, and then Mr. Russell took his seat in the
+shady verandah that ran round the house.  It was a still, warm
+afternoon.  Betty got a stool, and sitting down on it rested her head
+against the knee of her friend.  Outside the bees were humming round
+the roses and amongst the bright flower-beds on the lawn; the birds
+were twittering in the old beeches close by; but over the whole scene
+hung a Sabbath peace and repose.
+
+The child looked away to the soft distant hills and the deep blue sky.
+
+'Shall I tell you what I promised?' she asked at last, bringing her sad
+little eyes to Mr. Russell's face.
+
+Mr. Russell nodded, and clutching rather nervously at his hand, Betty
+said a little hurriedly, 'Prince has always been so good, and I've
+talked so much to him of heaven, and he seemed to like it, and I--well,
+I tried to teach him his prayers, and I've prayed to God for him every
+night, that I thought he would be sure to go to heaven, don't you think
+so?  But I was reading Revelation, and I was thinking how perhaps he
+might be able to sing in heaven, perhaps God would give him a proper
+voice--for Mrs. Giles told me she had a little deaf and dumb brother
+once who died, and she said he would be given a voice when he got
+there; and then I read in the last chapter--oh, I can't tell you!'
+
+Down dropped the little head, and a burst of tears came.
+
+Mr. Russell did not speak; he got up and went inside the house to get a
+Bible.  Coming back, he spread it open on his knee and scanned the
+chapter through.
+
+'Well,' he said at length, 'I don't see your trouble, Betty.'
+
+'It says,' sobbed the child, 'that dogs will be outside heaven with all
+the wicked persons and all the liars!  Prince was never wicked, and
+never, never told a lie.  I can't make it out, it's so dreadful!'
+
+Mr. Russell almost smiled, but his tone was as grave as usual when he
+put his arm round Betty, saying, 'But, my dear child, that is not the
+meaning of the verse.  How can I explain it to you?  Let me try: the
+term dog was used by the Jews to express anything unclean, despicable;
+the Palestine dogs were wild, savage animals, despised and scouted by
+every one; and so people who led wicked lives, without any right
+feeling or principle, are compared to dogs.'
+
+'Then it doesn't mean Prince?  He may be in heaven after all?  Oh, I
+wish I had asked some one about it, but I was afraid!  Miss Fairfax
+said once he had no soul; but then I've asked God to give him one, and
+God can do anything, can't He?  Do you think he is in heaven?  Oh, Mr.
+Russell, he must be somewhere!'
+
+The piteous tone went right to Mr. Russell's heart.  He leant forward
+and lifted Betty on his knee.
+
+'Betty, do you love God?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Very much?'
+
+'I think I do, and I feel He loves me.'
+
+'I think you do too, for you have often talked to me about Him, and you
+have taught me to love Him too, Betty.  Now you must trust God about
+Prince.  I can't give you a text in the Bible to tell you Prince is in
+heaven, but God knows all about your little sorrowful heart.  You tell
+him all about it, and be at rest.  There are times when we go through
+life that we must do this, yes, grown-up men and women, Betty, when
+they cannot see, and struggle to understand and penetrate the unseen,
+are brought down under God's hand.  And He says to us, "I have done
+this: now is the time to trust Me."  "Be still, and know that I am
+God."  I have had to learn this lesson, and at times my heart has been
+hard and bitter.  But there, why am I talking like this to you?  You
+will not understand.'
+
+'I like it,' said Betty, lying back in his arms, and looking out into
+the sunny garden.  'And I may think what I like about Prince now,
+mayn't I?  I'm quite, quite sure God loves him.  God loves everybody,
+even the wickedest sinners, and Prince wasn't a wicked dog at all.'
+
+There was silence, which Betty broke at last.
+
+'I like being here with you, because you talk to me so differently, and
+I feel so dreadfully alone at the farm.  Nurse said you were a single
+gentleman, and your servants couldn't have much to do.  I must be a
+single child, I feel!  And they all say such stupid things to comfort
+me.  Nurse said he would have had to die some time, and perhaps if I
+had taken him back to London he would have got run over, and Douglas
+said I must pretend I never had a dog called Prince; and Molly told me
+that Douglas will soon be going to school, and then she and I will be a
+couple; and Mrs. Giles said if Prince hadn't died he would have gone
+raving mad and bitten all of us, and made us raving mad too, and we
+would have all been shot, and we must be thankful; and Reuben, the old
+grave man, asked me if I didn't thank God that the mad dog didn't bite
+me; and old Jenny said perhaps I was making an idol of Prince, and so
+he was taken away.  How could I make an idol of him?  I wouldn't say my
+prayers to him instead of God!  You wouldn't be comforted to have those
+things said to you, would you?'
+
+'No, I don't think I should,' said Mr. Russell, smiling.
+
+'Mrs. Fairfax wanted to give me another dog, a little puppy; but I
+couldn't, I couldn't have another dog when Prince is dead!  You
+couldn't have another Violet, could you?  I think you and I understand,
+because we've now both had some one dead belonging to us.'
+
+Betty's week lengthened into three.  Mr. Russell seemed loth to part
+with her, and her subdued spirits and pathetic grief touched him
+greatly.  But the visit came to an end at last, and about four o'clock
+one bright afternoon the dog-cart was driven round to take her home,
+'You shall come and see me again, Betty,' said Mr. Russell brightly,
+'and I shall come and see you when I am in London.  I used to be at
+Eton with your father, and shall like to renew his acquaintance.  And
+next spring you ask your mother to take you to the Royal Academy, where
+all the pictures are.  I think you will see a white statue of a little
+girl asleep on a log of wood, and a----'  He stopped.
+
+'And Prince,' put in Betty sadly.  'I shan't bear to look at him; and
+yet I should like to.  I don't mind going back to London; I thought I
+could never be so happy anywhere as in the country, but I've been
+miserabler than I ever was in London.  I shall be miserable now for
+ever and ever!'
+
+'Betty,' said Mr. Russell suddenly, as they were driving through the
+sweet-scented lanes towards the farm-house, 'do you remember the text
+you said to me when I first saw you in the church, and you were putting
+forget-me-nots on my darling's tomb?'
+
+'I expect it was my tribulation text,' said Betty musingly.
+
+'Yes, it was.  You told me you were unhappy because you had not been
+through tribulation, and a short time ago you told me that you were
+asking God to send you tribulation, and that you were hoping to get it
+soon.'
+
+'And you told me the same as everybody else--that I didn't know what I
+was wishing for.  But I did, and I expect God will answer it; for old
+Jenny said I should come through it, and perhaps I wouldn't have to
+wait till I grew up.'
+
+'I think,' said Mr. Russell slowly, as he looked down at the wistful
+little face, 'that God has been answering your prayer already.'
+
+Betty looked up breathlessly.  'How?'
+
+'I think He has sent you a little bit of tribulation to see if you can
+bear it, and if you will be a good, patient child over it, and not keep
+saying you will never be happy again.'
+
+Such a flash of light came across Betty's face, and into her big blue
+eyes.
+
+'Do you really think God has taken away Prince to give me tribulation?
+Oh!  Mr. Russell, is it true, could it be?  Is this coming through
+tribulation?'
+
+Her whole face was quivering with intense feeling.
+
+'I think it is as big a trouble as a little child like you can be
+called upon to bear,' said Mr. Russell, drawing her close to him; 'and
+I think God has sent it to you for some good purpose.'
+
+A long-drawn sigh came from the child, and not another word did she
+say; but when nurse and the other children came out to welcome her
+back, they were all surprised to see the radiant, happy look upon her
+face, and nurse inwardly congratulated herself upon the good her visit
+had done her.  Mr. Russell received a fervent kiss and hug on
+departing, and Betty came back to her own circle again.
+
+But a glad surprise awaited her.  Douglas and Molly were full of a
+suppressed mystery all tea-time; and, when it was over, they
+impatiently begged her to come to the orchard.  She accompanied them
+willingly, but gave a cry of delight and astonishment when she reached
+the old apple tree.  There was a neat little iron railing surrounding
+poor Prince's grave; above it was a stone pedestal, and upon this was
+lying the stone figure of Prince himself, the facsimile of the portrait
+of him lying at Betty's feet when she was fast asleep in the cornfield.
+Below in gold letters was written:--
+
+
+'To THE MEMORY OF PRINCE,
+
+_Who gave his life for his mistress, 11th August, 18--._'
+
+
+'Mr. Russell had it put up,' said Molly; 'he has come over several
+times about it, and he said he wanted it to be kept quite a secret till
+you came back.  Isn't it lovely?'
+
+But Betty had no voice to answer; tears were flowing freely, and when
+Douglas and Molly tried to comfort her, she assured them it was only
+because she was so happy.  They left her there shortly after, and she
+stood silent for some time; then her little face shone again with a
+soft radiance, and kneeling down on the green grass, with closed eyes,
+she bent her curly head, and these were the words she uttered,--
+
+'O God, I thank You for answering my prayer, and sending me
+tribulation.  I thank You that I'm in the text at last!'
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Odd, by Amy Le Feuvre
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