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diff --git a/37715.txt b/37715.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2171521 --- /dev/null +++ b/37715.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7857 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mother Meg, by Catharine Shaw + +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: Mother Meg + or, The Story of Dickie's Attic + +Author: Catharine Shaw + +Release Date: October 11, 2011 [EBook #37715] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOTHER MEG *** + + + + +Produced by Hunter Monroe, Delphine Lettau and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: obvious typographical errors have been corrected.] + + +[Illustration: "Well, yer can 'ave him: the worst on't is the gal; +she'll take on if I say yes, awful."--p. 109.] + + + + + _MOTHER-MEG_ + + OR, + + _THE STORY OF DICKIE'S ATTIC_ + + BY + + CATHARINE SHAW + + AUTHOR OF + "ONLY A COUSIN," "ALICK'S HERO," "NELLIE ARUNDEL," "THE GALLED + FARM," ETC., ETC. + + New Edition + + _LONDON_: + JOHN F. SHAW AND CO., + 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + + SHAW'S NEW GIFT SERIES. + + FORMING MOST ATTRACTIVE PRESENTATION VOLUMES. + + SERIES =A=. + + _In bevelled boards, gilt edges, price Half-a-crown each. + Also issued in cloth, plain edges_. + + 1. SCAMP AND I. A Story of City Byways, By L. T. MEADE. + 2. FRIENDS OR FOES. A Story for Boys and Girls E. EVERETT-GREEN. + 3. JONAS HAGGERLEY. The Story of L100 Reward J. JACKSON WRAY. + 4. THE LOST JEWEL. A Tale A. L. O. E. + 5. OUR CAPTAIN; or, The Hero of Barton School M. L. RIDLEY. + 6. MISTRESS MARGERY. A Tale of the Lollards E. S. HOLT. + 7. THE EARLS OF THE VILLAGE. A Tale AGNES GIBERNE. + 8. CABIN AND CASTLE; or, Barney's Story E. A. BLAND. + 9. I WILL. A True Story for Boys ARTHUR HALL. + 10. IDA'S SECRET; or, The Towers of Ickledale AGNES GIBERNE. + 11. WATER GIPSIES; Adventures of Tagrag and Bobtail L. T. MEADE. + 12. CRIPPLE JESS; The Hop-picker's Daughter L. MARSTON. + 13. THE GABLED FARM; Young Workers for the King CATHARINE SHAW. + 14. LOVE'S LABOUR; or, The Caged Linnet M. LEATHES. + 15. THE THREE CHUMS. A School Story M. L. RIDLEY. + 16. TRUE TO THE END. The Story of a Sister's Love DR. EDERSHEIM. + 17. FLOSS SILVERTHORN; The Little Handmaid AGNES GIBERNE. + 18. WORTH THE WINNING; or, Rewarded at Last EMMA HORNIBROOK. + 19. A FORGOTTEN HERO; or, Not for Him EMILY S. HOLT. + 20. MARCELLA OF ROME. A Tale of the Early Church F. EASTWOOD. + 21. IN THE DESERT. A Tale of the Huguenots D. ALCOCK. + 22. NOBODY'S LAD. A Story of the Big City LESLIE KEITH. + 23. MADGE HARDWICKE; or, Mists of the Valley AGNES GIBERNE. + 24. OUR SOLDIER HERO. The Story of my Brothers M. L. RIDLEY. + 25. COUSIN DORA; or, Serving the King EMILY BRODIE. + 26. BRAVE GEORDIE. The Story of an English Boy G. STEBBING. + 27. MARJORY AND MURIEL; or, Two London Homes E. EVERETT-GREEN. + 28. LIFE IN A NUTSHELL. A Story AGNES GIBERNE. + 29. GIPSY MIKE; or, Firm as a Rock ANON. + 30. DAVID'S LITTLE LAD. A Story of a Noble Deed L. T. MEADE. + 31. SILVERDALE RECTORY; or, The Golden Links G. STEBBING. + 32. ALICK'S HERO; or, The Two Friends CATHARINE SHAW. + 33. LONELY JACK, and His Friends at Sunnyside EMILY BRODIE. + 34. WILL FOSTER OF THE FERRY. A Story AGNES GIBERNE. + 35. SENT TO COVENTRY; or, The Boys of Highbeech M. L. RIDLEY. + 36. FROGGY'S LITTLE BROTHER. A Story BRENDA. + 37. TWICE RESCUED. The Story of Tino N. CORNWALL. + 38. IN THE SUNLIGHT. A Year of my Life's Story CATHARINE SHAW. + 39. OLD CHICKWEED; or, The Story told E. A. BLAND. + 40. THROUGH THE STORM; or, The Lord's Prisoners EMILY S. HOLT. + 41. THE OLD HOUSE IN THE CITY; or, Not Forsaken AGNES GIBERNE. + 42. KING'S SCHOLARS; or, Faithful unto Death M. L. RIDLEY. + 43. JEAN LINDSAY, the Vicar's Daughter EMILY BRODIE. + 44. SEEKETH NOT HER OWN. An Old Time Story M. L. SITWELL. + 45. MOTHER-MEG. The Story of Dickie's Attic CATHARINE SHAW. + + + + =LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, Paternoster Row, E.C.= + =_And all Booksellers_=. + + 1806. + +[Illustration] + + CONTENTS. + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. PITILESS 7 + + II. THE WEDDING-DAY 13 + + III. THE LOST BROOCH 22 + + IV. ROYAL CHILDREN 32 + + V. A FEW SHIRTS 41 + + VI. A LODGER 49 + + VII. THE EMPTY PAN 60 + + VIII. GONE 70 + + IX. MEG'S TEA-PARTY 84 + + X. TURNING A NEW LEAF 97 + + XI. A MIDNIGHT BARGAIN 108 + + XII. "INASMUCH" 117 + + XIII. DICKIE'S ATTIC 131 + + XIV. IN THE HOSPITAL 144 + + XV. THE EMPTY CRADLE 156 + + XVI. "THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE" 166 + + XVII. CHERRY'S APOLOGY 178 + + XVIII. MEG'S SAVINGS 188 + + XIX. LISTENING 200 + + XX. EARTH'S SONG AND HEAVEN'S ECHO 213 + +[Illustration] + + + + + MOTHER-MEG: + + THE STORY OF DICKIE'S ATTIC. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + PITILESS. + + +"Put 'im down, 'e can walk as well as anythink." + +It was a cold day in May, when the sun was hidden behind leaden clouds, +and the wind swept along the streets as if determined to clear them of +every loiterer who should venture to assure himself that it was not +March, and could not be so cold. + +The few people who had ventured out in spring clothing bid fair to +"repent it many a day," and those who were happy enough to have winter +wraps drew them closer, and hurried along, the sooner to get into some +shelter. The omnibus men dashed their arms across their breasts for +warmth, and everybody, gentle or simple, looked nipped up with the +strong east wind. + +"Put 'im down," said a hard-featured woman, who was walking slowly +along by the side of the road; "it won't matter 'is walkin' now." + +The man thus addressed was a thin, brow-beaten looking individual, who +was carrying a child of some three years old in his arms. His clothes +were threadbare, his knees peeped through his worn trousers, and his +whole appearance was most deplorable. The woman by his side was as +poorly clad as himself, outwardly at least, but seemed to suffer less +from it. She was not thin, and if looked at closely, appeared to be well +fed, and perhaps to have no lack of drink either. She carried a small +infant in her arms, wrapped in a large dirty shawl. + +The three-year-old child had a pale, suffering little face, which looked +as if tears were often very near. His eyes were terribly weak, and when +he was set down by the man he looked as if he would have fallen. But the +woman disengaged one of her hands, and said impatiently, dragging him +towards her, "Come along, Dickie, none o' yer nonsense; walk on like a +good boy." + +The child gave one glance at her stern face, and then tottered on +silently, occasionally rubbing his poor little eyes with the back of his +tiny hand. + +The wind met them round the corners; it seemed to be everywhere, and at +every gust the miserable-looking party looked more miserable still. + +"How much 'ave yer took?" asked the man, as if he could turn and run +home. + +The woman felt for her pocket, and after some fumbling she said in a low +voice, "Two-and-eight, I should think." + +"Won't that do?" said the man, shivering. Then glancing sideways at the +child, he went on, "'E'll not walk many more steps, and if you don't +take care 'e'll not be hout to-morrer, nor next day neither; 'e's most +done, 'e is." + +The woman turned round and was going to speak, when a respectable +couple, dressed in warm cloth, silks, and furs, came in sight. + +In a moment her manner changed. "Take 'im up," she said in a wheedling +tone, "'e's tired, 'e is, and cold; carry 'im a bit, George." + +The child, too cold and weary to care, was taken resistlessly into the +man's arms, and laid his head on his shoulder, and the party paused, +looking expectantly at the lady and gentleman who were fast approaching. + +"My good woman, this is a bitter day for such little ones to be out," +said the gentleman kindly; "have you far to go?" + +"Over London Bridge, sir, down that way." + +"That's a long distance," he exclaimed; "and you all look perished with +the cold." + +"That we are, sir," answered the woman, sniffing, "and my good man, sir, +just now was a-saying that though we hadn't took a ha'penny, sir, this +day, we must give it up. But it's hard to see 'em suffer, sir, and have +no bread nor firing to give 'em." + +The man shook his head dolorously at each sentence, and the weak little +child shut his eyes, as a fresh gust of wind seemed ready to blind him +altogether. + +"That child ought not to be out on such a day as this at all," said the +lady almost severely. + +"What is poor folk to do, my lady?" asked the woman, "there's no work, +and there's no food; and surely we'd be better to get a bit of broken +victuals or a copper from some Christian gentleman than to starve at +home, like rats in a hole!" + +"Well, well," said the gentleman with a ponderous sigh, "it makes one's +heart ache, Clarissa. Here, my good woman, go home now and buy some food +and coals, and get that poor child warm." + +He gave her a shilling and passed on, and the woman, catching sight of a +policeman whom she recognized bearing down upon them, they hastily +turned the other way and set off in the direction of London Bridge as +fast as they could go. + +The man knew it was useless to put Dickie down to walk, for he had seen +all day that the child was very ill. His light weight, however, was not +a great trouble, for he was very small for his age, and now was so thin +and emaciated with hardship that the man doubted if he should ever carry +him again. + +"I wish yer'd git some one else," he exclaimed at last, for some +remnants of humanity were left in his heart, and he had not carried that +tender little mite for six months without some feeling as near akin to +love as he was capable of. + +His wife turned on him sharply. "Yer know we can't! There's lots o' +reasons why 'e is the best one as we can git. Look at them soft brown +curls of 'is, what allers takes the ladies, and 'is small size for +carryin'; and then yer know as well as I do as 'is mother's dead, and +'is father ain't of no account, and is glad to git a pint or two in +return for our havin' 'im. I wish you wouldn't be such a simpleton, +George." + +The man sighed. Long ago he had given up contending with his imperious +wife, but sometimes as now, he walked along morosely, and his thoughts +were best known to himself. + +"I'd save 'im from it if I could," he muttered to himself, "but I've +thought that 'afore, and it ain't no use. Still I shan't forgit--though +I ain't no good at anythink now." + +They had now reached London Bridge, and soon after turned down one of +the narrow streets leading from the main thoroughfare, and again under a +long low archway running beneath the first floor rooms of one of the +houses, and so emerged into a court squalid and forlorn, which contained +the house they called home. + +Just as they were turning in at the door a crippled child of some +thirteen or fourteen years came down the stairs to meet them. She +silently held out her arms for little Dickie, and without vouchsafing +more than one dark look at the woman's face, and then another hopeless +one at her little brother's, she slowly ascended again, step by step, +till weary and panting she laid him down on an old mattress in the +corner of the crowded room where she lived. + +"Dickie," she moaned, burying her face in his neck, where the soft waves +of his golden-brown hair felt like silk against it, "Dickie, are they +goin' to kill you right out? Dickie----!" + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE WEDDING-DAY. + + +"I mean to take care of you, my girl; leastways I'll do my best." + +The words were spoken by a man of about twenty-five, in a workman's +dress, as he led his bride in at the door of her future home. + +"I know that," she answered, looking up almost wistfully, for there had +been a different tone in the ending of his sentence to that in which it +had begun. + +"It's not such a place as I should like to ha' brought you to, Meg; but +work's been slack, and--there, you know all that!" + +Meg stepped in and looked around; her glance was shy and somewhat +fearful. Should she be afraid to see what her young husband had prepared +for her? + +She clasped his hand tightly, and the firm pressure in return reassured +her. Whatever it might be, love had done it from beginning to end. + +For Meg had come out of the sweet country with its sunny meadows, and +cowslips and buttercups. She had left, fifty miles away, the dear +fragrant garden, where only this morning her mother had gathered such a +posie as had never been seen before; she had left the cottage where +every china mug and shepherdess was like a bit of her life; she had left +the situation in the grand house at the end of her mother's garden, +where she had lived for four years in the midst of every luxury. And +this is what she had come to: two small rooms in a high London house, in +one of the streets turning out of a wide but gone-down thoroughfare near +London Bridge. + +The rooms were on the second floor, and looked out front and back, and +as her husband ushered her in and closed the door, she knew she had come +home. + +He led her to the fire, where already a kettle was singing blithely, +placed there in readiness by some one as yet unknown to Meg, and then he +put his arm round her and whispered, + +"Does it all seem very different to what you thought, my dear?" + +"Oh, no," said Meg, leaning against his shoulder and looking round; +"it's ever so nice. And how could you think of all these things by +yourself, Jem?" + +He laughed nervously, and her glance continued to take in all the things +one by one. The little chiffonier which he had bought at a second-hand +shop with such pride, because Meg's mother had one just like it; the +bright-burning grate, with its little oven and boiler; the two American +arm-chairs, looking so inviting by it; the large rag hearthrug, the +strips of clean carpet on each side of the table, the red table-cloth, +the freshly-scrubbed shelves, on which quite an array of pretty new +crockery was set out. + +Yes, it was home. Meg looked up in her husband's face with a satisfied +glance. + +"It is beautiful," she said, taking possession of it all with her heart. +Hers and his, their home, for as long as God willed it. + +Perhaps something of that thought shone in the man's eyes as he stooped +to kiss her upturned face. + +So Meg put down her bunch of home flowers, and looked round for +something to put them in. + +"They are too many for a vase," she said, "or a jug either. I wonder if +there's a basin?" + +Jem went to a cupboard in the corner and produced a nice-sized one, +neither too large nor too small. + +"Oh!" said Meg, gratified; "what a lot of basins and things, Jem; I +shall make you some puddings in those." + +"I reckon you will," he answered smiling. + +She bent over her flowers, touching them with soft tender touch, for she +loved each one, and he stood looking on. + +Could this sweet girl really belong to him? Then a thought came over him +with a pang, of what the women grew into around them--the toiling, +hard-working, ill-fed, sometimes ill-used women. + +"But Meg will never grow like that," he thought; "not while I love her, +and God loves her; and His love is a never-ending love." + +"Ain't you going in t'other room to take off yer bonnet, my dear?" he +asked; "or are the flowers too precious?" + +"Don't you see," she answered, smiling, "my bonnet won't fade, and these +will; so I thought I would do them first." + +"I told mother to come and take a cup o' tea with us at five o'clock; it +must be near that now." + +He drew out a clumsy, old-fashioned watch from his pocket and glanced at +it. + +"It wants nigh on twenty minutes to, my girl, so if we mean to get out +our things we must be quick." + +"These are done now," she answered, gathering up the bits and putting +them into the fire, where they crackled up into a blaze and made the +kettle boil up in good earnest. + +So she took off her bonnet, and when she came back Jem had put a small +square hamper on the table ready for her to open. + +"Do you think mother would like to see what my mistress has given me?" +she asked a little timidly; for "mother" was a new word to her lips; +hitherto it had always been "your mother." + +"I dare say she would, Meg; and tea don't matter for a few minutes." + +So Meg left the hamper untouched and went to the cupboard where she had +seen the cups, and began to set three on a small tray she found there. + +"Here is some milk, Jem!" she exclaimed; "how kind your mother is; and +some bread and butter too all ready." + +"Mother's in general very thoughtful," he answered, going over to her +and lifting the tray to the chiffonier. "It will be handy there, against +we have cleared the table." + +At this moment there was a knock at the door, which Jem hastened to +answer by opening it wide. + +"I've brought her," he said, by way of introduction. + +And then Mrs. Seymour saw her new daughter-in-law for the first time. +That slim graceful figure, clothed in a simple, plainly-made dress of +some mixture of grey and brown, which Meg had decided on for her wedding +dress, because it would wear well in London, and then the blushing +gentle face above it. Jem had not said a word too much in her praise, as +far as she could judge by the first glance. + +"Welcome, my dear," she said, advancing and kissing her; "I'm glad as my +Jem is made happy at last." + +"We waited for you, mother," said Jem, when he had placed her in the +arm-chair, "because Meg thought as you'd like to see the things +unpacked; they was put in by Mrs. MacDonald's own hands." + +"That I should," answered Mrs. Seymour heartily, drawing nearer to the +table; "what is it?" + +"I don't know," answered Meg; "she called me in this morning and she +said, 'Archer,'--you know it was only mother called me Meg at home; at +mistress's I was always called Archer, so she said, 'Archer, I've put +you in a few things to begin on, and so that you will not have to begin +cooking at once. Remember, however, that a workman's wages will not buy +these sort of things. It is only as a little wedding treat.'" + +"That's very true," said Mrs. Seymour, referring to the wages. + +"Ah, we know that," answered Meg cheerfully, with a bright glance at +Jem; "but it's very kind of her all the same." + +By this time Jem had undone the strings, and the hamper lay open before +them. First there were a couple of fine chickens all ready cooked, done +up in a clean cloth; then there were some sausages; after that a +blancmange in a basin; then a bottle of cream; and lastly, some fresh +butter and a box of new-laid eggs. + +Underneath everything else was a flat parcel tied up in pieces of thin +board. + +"A wedding present to Margaret Archer, as a mark of Mrs. MacDonald's +esteem, wishing her and her husband every happiness." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Meg; "she said I should find her present at home! Jem, +whatever can it be?" + +"I guess," said Jem, trying to get his fingers underneath it to lift it +up. But he had to find another way, for the package resisted his efforts +by sticking close to the bottom of the hamper as if it were glued. + +"It's mighty heavy," he said. And then they found that the strings had +been so placed as to allow of its being easily lifted out by them. + +"A clock!" said Mrs. Seymour, delighted. "Oh, Jem, how I did want to get +you a clock, but I could not manage it anyhow." + +He put his broad hand on hers gratefully. + +"I know, mother," he answered. "Don't ye think as I've eyes to see as +all these things wasn't here when I left here last evening?" + +A sweet smile came over the worn face, and with almost an arch look she +answered, + +"There's a certain bag in my drawer that used to be pretty heavy once, +that I kept to buy things for 'Jem's wife.' It's empty now though." + +"For me?" asked Meg; and then she blushed so much that she had to help +Jem very industriously to undo the knots in the strings. + +"For you," answered her mother-in-law. + +And when Jem lifted out the present, they found it was a very nice +clock, which would strike the hours. + +"Shall I move this on one side?" asked Meg, touching the vase in the +centre of the mantel-shelf. + +"Put it on the chiffonier," said Jem, placing the clock where she had +made room for it. "Don't it look handsome?" + +After they had all admired it till they had no more words at their +command, Meg turned to the basket again. + +"Jem, we must have one of these fowls to-night for tea, because mother +is here." + +"You're very kind, my dear," said Mrs. Seymour, "but I don't wish to eat +up your good things." + +"Who should enjoy them if not you?" asked Meg heartily, quickly clearing +away the papers and things, and placing the hamper tidily in a corner. +She spread the cloth and set out the fowl on one of the dishes, putting +the sausages round as a garnish; then she poured out some cream, and +found a plate for the country butter, which quite ornamented the table, +with its pretty cow resting on the circle of grass. + +"My mother put us in a loaf of her home-made bread," she exclaimed, +turning to Jem; "can you get it out of my basket?" + +Jem laughed. It already stood on a plate at her elbow. + +"We are ready then, mother," said Meg, preparing to sit down at the +tray. "Will you come to the table?" + +"I don't think you've made the tea yet, my dear," answered Mrs. Seymour +smiling, as she glanced at the still steaming kettle. + +Meg looked disconcerted, but Jem only patted her cheek, and said +tenderly, + +"We can't expect little wives to remember everything the first day, can +we?" + +Meg had to ask where the tea was kept, and then they gathered round the +table. + +Jem bent his head and asked their God to bless them now and always, and +Mrs. Seymour added a gentle and solemn Amen. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE LOST BROOCH. + + +Jem had been brought up as a painter, and had served his time in that +trade. But painters are often slack, as he knew to his cost; and when he +had nothing much to do he used to employ his fingers in another way. +Besides, there were long evenings and half holidays when he could pursue +the avocation which he liked much better than even painting. + +During the years in which he had been learning his trade he had been +thrown with carpenters and builders of every class, and he soon had made +up his mind that he would learn all he could, so that, should the +opportunity ever come, he should know how to be a builder himself. + +But times had not as yet been propitious, and at twenty-five he found +himself still only a painter, with a very fair knowledge of carpentering +into the bargain. + +About a year ago he had been taken on as a permanent hand at a large +decorating-house, who undertook work in the country; and Jem, valued for +his trustworthiness and general ability, was often sent as one of those +who knew his own trade well, and also could turn his hand to several +others. + +Thus it came to pass in the early spring of this same year he had been +sent to help in repairing Mrs. MacDonald's handsome house, and had +stayed there for two months. + +He had soon met with Meg, and had been struck with her gentle modesty of +demeanour. + +Hitherto the girls he had met had been dressed to the very utmost of +their means, and had behaved in a flighty, loud manner which grated on +his feelings. + +"No such wife for me," he had said to his mother one evening, when they +had just met one of their acquaintances in gaudy finery, which could not +hide her slovenly boots or pinned-together dress. + +His mother quite agreed. Hard-worked and poor as she was, no one had +seen her anything but neat. + +But Meg was different. As now and then he met her flitting up the stairs +at the hall, or passing to and from her mother's cottage, he knew he had +to do with quite a different woman from those with whom he was +accustomed to meet. + +He was sauntering along a lane one afternoon in March when his work was +over, thinking of all this, and enjoying the quiet twilight, when he saw +a stooping figure in front of him eagerly looking for something. + +"Have you lost anything?" he asked, coming up to the figure. "Can I help +you?" + +He found with a start that the subject of his thoughts was close to him. + +Hitherto she had only nodded civilly in return for his passing greeting, +and now in the dusk hardly recognized him, though she knew he was a +stranger to their village. + +"Oh, thank you!" she answered. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"It is my mother's little brooch. I can't think how I came to drop it. I +should not mind so much only that it has my father's hair in it. She +values it very much." + +"I dare say we shall manage to find it. When did you miss it?" he asked. + +"Just now--not two minutes ago. I know I had it at that stile, because I +turned there to look at the new moon, and I had it in my hand then." + +They searched in silence for some minutes, but the twilight had deepened +quickly, and the dewy grass seemed all one mist under their feet. + +"This is damp for you, ain't it?" he asked suddenly. + +"Yes; that was how I came to drop it. I gathered up my dress, and it +must have slipped then. Whatever shall I do?--we cannot see any +longer." + +"I dare say they have a lantern at the stables; I will go and ask." + +"I will wait here," she answered. + +"Don't do that. You go home; I'll come back and look till it's found." + +"I cannot trouble you with that," said Meg. "Mother and I will come +early to-morrow. No one passes this lane before seven. We could see soon +after six now." + +"It will be no trouble," Jem answered earnestly; "and if it can be found +to-night it is far better nor waitin'. There is some things gets better +for waitin', but others----" + +Meg listened: surely there was a serious tone in this man's talk, such +as her mother loved. + +They were rapidly nearing the light in her mother's window. + +"That is your home, ain't it?" asked Jem, pointing. + +"Yes; how did you know?" + +"I heard you lived there. May I come up to the door with you?" + +Meg assented. She was rather surprised, but not sorry that he wished it. + +When, however, he got to the door, he bade her an abrupt good-bye, and +hastened back along the path. + +She saw his form disappear in the direction of the stables, and then she +opened the door and told her mother all about it. + +"He's been working at the Hall for this month, mother; but I've never +spoken to him before." + +Mrs. Archer went to the door and looked anxiously down the lane, as if +with her old eyes she could see the lost brooch herself. + +"Dear, dear," she said, "to think I could have let you take it to be +mended, and not have gone myself!" + +Poor Meg stood beside her in silence. She wished it too; but how could +she know she would lose it? + +Just then a light twinkled down the lane, and passed rapidly onwards. + +Meg bethought herself. + +"Mother, I _must_ go back," she exclaimed. "What will they say to me? I +told them I should be home early. I'll try to send George over to know +if--if he has found it." + +So when after a quarter of an hour's search Jem came back with it to the +cottage, the little bird whom he had hoped to see there was flown. + +"I'm naught but a workman," he said to her, when after another month of +seeking the little bird he caught her at last; "and I haven't anything +nice to offer you, Meg. I can't give you such a home as you've been used +to, not even as good as you might ha' had at yer mother's." + +Meg was going to speak, but he went on as if he must say all that was in +his heart. + +"And I know I'm not so--so--refined, Meg, as you are. You have lived +amongst gentlefolks, I've lived amongst the poor, and I know now what I +didn't perhaps enough understand when I set my heart on you, that my +speech and my bringin' up is not so good as yours. Meg, if I've done you +a wrong in lovin' you, I'll go back home, and never come again--" + +He paused: could he say any more? What would he do if she accepted that +last alternative of his? + +But Meg put her hand into his. + +"It's the heart, that is the thing, Jem," she whispered, "and that's +above fine words and ways." + +"If you can be satisfied with that, Meg, we shall be very happy!" he +answered, clasping her hand tightly; "for my whole heart is yours, which +has never loved another." + +"And I'm not afraid," Meg went on earnestly, "since you told me all that +happened two years ago. Any one who has felt like that is safe to +trust." + +For Jem had told her one Sunday, when, with her mother's permission, he +had walked home from the evening service with her, what a different man +he had been since one particular day. + +"I was going down a street near home," he had said, "when some people +came along singin' somethin' which I thought sounded very swinging and +pretty, and I stopped to listen. They marched along slowly, half-a-dozen +of 'em carryin' a banner in front of them, with the words in large +letters on it, 'Come to the hall at 7 o'clock and hear the good news.' +Still they went on with the singin', and I got curious to know what +their good news was. + + "'Ye must be born again, again, + Ye must be born again, again; + I verily, verily, say unto you, + Ye must be born again!' + +"On it went with a swingin' sort of roll, and I wondered, and followed +on in spite of myself. 'Seven o'clock; hear the good news!' What good +news was there in being told to be born again? Nonsense! this warn't any +good news as I could see. I'd a deal sooner they'd have told me where I +could ha' got a bit more work. That's what would ha' been good news to +me, I thought. But I went with 'em, for all that; and the end of it all +was, that I _was_ born again! That very night I got into a new sort o' +man. I left all the old things far away behind--'as far as the east is +from the west,' the man who preached said, and I got instead such a +white robe to cover me over, as made me feel whiter than the snow they +sang about. And that's how I came to be different--just washed in the +Blood of the Lamb!" + +"I know what that means too," Meg had answered softly. + +"I knew you did," he had said. And then they did not speak again till +they parted at the Hall gates. + +"So, though I'm naught but a workman, you can put up with me, Meg?" he +asked, the day before he was going away, and the repairs were finished. + +[Illustration: "Dickie," she whispered, as Jem paused, "don't yer like +to hear about Jesus? That's the Good Shepherd what I've told you about, +as loves the little lambs."--p.38.] + +And she answered by putting her hand into his. + +"One thing I can promise you," he said: "that as long as God gives me +strength I'll work for you, Meg!" + +"And after that I'll work for _you_!" she answered, while two tears +glittered in her eyes. + +In three months' time Meg left the sweet country and the great Hall, and +her mother and young sister, and went to London to make Jem happy. + +Mrs. MacDonald gave her a nice wedding breakfast, and much good advice, +and Meg entered on her new life as we have seen, full of hope and peace. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + ROYAL CHILDREN. + + +"You didn't think as I was near you this afternoon, did you?" asked Jem, +when he came in to his tea, a few days after their marriage. + +"No, indeed," answered Meg, looking up; "were you?" + +"Yes; you know the court what runs up under these houses, first turnin' +on the right?" + +"I think I do." + +"Well, one of them houses. My master has the job to repair them a bit; +they're goin' to change hands, I believe, and so I shall be about here a +good while before they're done." + +"I wish I'd known; then I'd have watched for you," said Meg. + +"Would you? Well, my dear, I don't know as it will make much difference, +only for knowing as we're near each other, because I never do use +myself to leave my work, for nothing." + +"Ah! no," answered Meg. + +He sat down to the table, and after he had asked a blessing they began +their meal; but Jem was unusually preoccupied. + +Meg was not an old enough wife to understand all her husband's moods, +and supposed he was tired with his day's work. + +"Meg," he said suddenly, "I suppose we haven't such a thing as an old +blanket?" + +Meg looked rather astonished. + +"Why, you know, Jem, as everything nearly is new what you got ready for +our home." + +"Yes," said Jem, "yes, I know. I wonder how we could do?" + +"What is it for?" asked Meg. + +"Why, my girl, my heart's just achin' at a little feller I saw there in +a attic. He's been lyin', his sister told me, ever since the first week +in May, and he's like a skeleton. She don't seem to have much to give +him, nor to live on herself neither, and he's got nothing on him but an +old shawl, and the girl says as he's awful cold of nights. It's a +frightful draughty place." + +Meg's happy eyes filled with tears. + +"Oh, Jem," she exclaimed, "can we give them one of ours?" + +"Well, ye see, Meg, it won't do for us to be giving away our things one +by one; for if we began in this poor neighbourhood, we should not have a +rag to our backs, as the sayin' is. But yet this little chap--" + +"Oh, yes, Jem, we ought not to 'pass by on the other side,' as the Bible +says. Do let us give one of ours." + +"I was thinkin'," said Jem; "you know, Meg, you and me made up our minds +when we was married to put by somethin' to give to our God out of every +shillin' we earned--" + +"Yes, we did," answered Meg eagerly. + +"Now, though we haven't earned much yet," he went on, "yet we've had a +deal give us; and 'sposin' I was to get a blanket for the poor little +chap: how would that be?" + +"Oh, Jem, do! Will you take me out with you to get it?" + +Jem smiled; then turning grave again, he added: + +"But, sweetheart, I'm loth to sadden you with such tales when your dear +heart's a bit sore at leavin' home. Eh, Meg?" + +Meg's tears were very near, but she answered as steadily as she could-- + +"It would be poor thanks to Him who's given me so much, Jem, to say as I +was too happy to be made sorrowful by helping any one in need." + +Jem said no more, but went into the other room and fetched Meg's hat and +jacket; but when they got outside in the brilliant light of the +declining June sun, he said to himself, that he had never before seen +his Meg look so beautiful. + +The blanket was bought, a very ordinary one--"all wool" as Jem had said, +remembering his mother's bringing-up, but not so good as to be +immediately noticed and perhaps stolen in the large lodging-house in +which the children lived. + +Then they retraced their steps, and when they came to the court Jem +stopped. + +"I'll soon be home, my girl; you go on without me." + +"Shan't I come too?" asked Meg. + +"If you'd like to, my dear; but it ain't a nice place." + +It was by this time getting dusk between the high houses, and Meg +followed her husband in silence. It was the first time she had ever been +into any crowded abode. A country cottage was the only experience she +had had. + +Jem led the way up the dark and rickety stairs to the very top, and then +stooped his head under a low doorway. + +The room was close under the roof, open to the tiles, and was very bare, +but neat and orderly. On a mattress in the corner lay the little +sufferer, while by him sat his crippled sister, nearly as pale and thin +as he. + +"My child," said Jem in a kind voice, addressing her, "do you think if +I brought you a blanket you could keep it from being stolen?" + +The child looked up suddenly. A face, with all its want and suffering, +on which something indescribable was written. Jem did not analyze it, +but he felt it. + +"I think so," she answered. "I know a place outside up under the roof +where I could hide it away if I go out. That's what I have to do with +most things as it is." + +Meg seated herself on the box by the child's side and looked down on his +little face. She put his wavy hair back from his forehead and said +tenderly-- + +"Poor little dear, you have a bad cough!" + +"Yes," said the child; "me cough all de time." + +"Yes," pursued his sister. "Dickie's been bad this five weeks, and if it +hadn't been for father having a bit of work, and bringin' home a little +for once, he'd ha' died." + +Dickie did not seem to mind being thus spoken of, but he turned his head +wearily away, as if it were too much trouble to think. + +"I like bein' ill," he whispered, as Meg bent over him. + +"Like it, dear?" she questioned, thinking she had not heard aright. + +He nodded ever so slightly, and then added in a little determined +voice-- + +"'Cause then they don't _hurt_ me no more." + +Meg would have asked for an explanation, but Jem was unfolding the +blanket, and the girl was absorbed in wonder at its comfort and +whiteness. + +"Dickie, look!" she exclaimed in a low joyful tone. + +But the child was too ill to be interested. He did not turn his head +again, and Cherry said, with all the life gone out of her eyes, which +had so quickly lighted up at sight of the blanket-- + +"That's how he is most times. Sometimes I wish he was safely in heaven +with mother." + +Jem put his hand gently on the girl's arm. + +"Ah, my dear, that's how we feel when we're sad; but if we understand +that God loves us, we'll be willing to wait, so as we may do His will." + +Her wide-open, sad blue eyes filled slowly, and she turned in silence to +cover over her little brother. She took up the old shawl and spread the +blanket next him, then unfolding the shawl, which had been doubled for +warmth, she carefully covered every bit of the blanket with it, even +seeking a bit of rag from somewhere to stop up a hole through which the +whiteness peeped. + +"He might guess it else," she explained, and her hearers had to draw +their own conclusions. + +"Wouldn't he like him to have it?" questioned Jem. + +"He'd like drink better," answered Cherry, in a matter-of-fact tone. +"Since poor father's taken to that so much, he don't have the heart he +used to have, He wouldn't have took this attic for us, so comfortable, +only the landlady let us have it cheap 'cause the other folks wouldn't +have Dickie no longer." + +"Why, dear?" asked Meg pitifully. + +"'Cause he cried and coughed so. The attic was empty, and I told father +I didn't mind the holes in the roof so long as they wouldn't worry +Dickie. So he was in a good humour, and let us come, and we've been here +a month." + +Cherry spoke in a congratulating tone, but soon grew sober again when +she looked towards the little brown head that moved so restlessly. + +"Jem," whispered Meg, "might I make him some bread and milk, and bring +it round to him at once?" + +Jem willingly agreed, and Meg hurried away. While she was gone, he sat +down and drew from his pocket a little Testament, and with Cherry's eyes +curiously watching him, he turned over the leaves till he came to the +tenth chapter of John. Then in a clear, low tone, that soothed while it +wooed them to listen, he read about the Good Shepherd giving His life +for the sheep. + +Cherry sat down on the bottom of the mattress and listened, evidently +not as if it were a new tale, but yet as a thirsty man will stretch out +his hand for water which he has not tasted for so long. + +"Dickie," she whispered, as Jem paused, "don't yer like to hear about +Jesus? That's the Good Shepherd what I've told you about, as loves the +little lambs." + +Dickie opened his eyes just enough to give her the shadow of a smile of +assent; but he was too weak to care to speak. + +"Here, dear," said Meg, coming in and leaning over him; "do you like a +little nice hot bread and milk?" + +The child could not remember the time when such a name had been +mentioned to him; but when Meg put a spoonful to his lips the smell of +it brought back vividly the remembrance of his mother. + +"Yes," he said, answering Meg's question now; "I 'ike it very much." + +When he had eaten about half he put his little hand out, and gently +pushed the basin away. "No more," he whispered, and sank into sleep such +as he had not had since that terrible May day, when he had been brought +home nearly dying. + +Then Meg turned to Cherry. + +"Eat the rest of it, dear," she said. + +"Oh, no," answered the child, drawing back; "it 'ull do him such a deal +o' good. He never gets nothing nice." + +"Jem will let me bring him some more another day," answered Meg; "but if +you would rather keep this till he wakes, see, I have brought something +for you." + +She unfolded a piece of paper with two thick slices of +bread-and-butter, which Cherry took in her hands with a look of +gratitude which went to Meg's heart. + +"Oh, you _are_ good!" the girl exclaimed, throwing her arms round Meg; +"nobody was ever so good to us before--since mother went. He's always +callin' for mother." + +Meg gazed in the upturned face, and then after an instant's hesitation +she stooped and kissed it--the soiled little face, upon which Meg was +certain was written the name of the King of kings. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + A FEW SHIRTS. + + +"You look tired, mother," said Meg, drawing forward the arm-chair the +first time her mother-in-law came to see her after her wedding-day. + +"I am," answered Mrs. Seymour, sinking into the seat with a weary sigh. + +"I was going to set out to call on you this morning, but, stupid-like, I +never asked Jem where you lived before he went to his work. So I +couldn't come." + +"And Jem never told you where I lived?" asked Mrs. Seymour, astonished. + +"I asked him," answered Meg, "and he smiled at me, and said he should +tell me nothing about it, but take me to see." + +"Why, I live in the very same house, my dear." + +Meg looked too surprised to speak. When at last she could find any +words, she said anxiously-- + +"How very unkind you must have thought me, mother, in not coming to see +after you. Times I have meant to ask Jem, but then he was out; and these +few days have passed so quickly, I have been so busy getting out all my +little treasures." + +Mrs. Seymour looked round. + +"Your things have made a lot o' difference, my dear. You have smartened +it up a deal." + +"Oh, it did not want smartening up," said Meg; "but the young ladies at +the Hall did give me such pretty things. Look at this workbox, and this +tea-caddy, and that pretty vase. Those were the young ladies' gifts, +and those glass dishes from the other servants." + +Mrs. Seymour said they were very kind, and then sat looking somewhat +abstractedly into the little fire. + +"And he never told you what a job he had to get these rooms for you?" +she asked at last. + +"No," said Meg; "did he have a job?" + +"Oh, that he had. For the party that was in them didn't want to move +out. You must know, Meg, that I and Jem lived in two rooms in this house +ever since I buried his poor father. But when he got to earn enough, he +took the front room on this floor for himself, and used to come and have +his meals with me. I've lived in this house twenty years come +Michaelmas. I'm a laundress, you know, and wash for poor folks." + +"A laundress!" exclaimed Meg, looking at her pale, thin face; "then +that's what makes you so tired?" + +"No, my dear," briefly answered her mother, "not if I had got my usual +help. But she's took a day's holiday, as she does whenever it suits her, +and I and my work may go then, for aught she cares." + +The old woman's face had begun to assume a hard look, but it was only +for a moment. + +"Well, well," she said hastily, "it's not for me to be coming down hard +on others; I'm not so good myself to my Master. But there was a day, +Meg, when I couldn't have felt like that; and it ain't so long ago, +neither. It was my Jem as brought me the good news, and since I've been +forgiven myself, I'm learnin' to forgive. It makes all the difference." + +"It does indeed," answered Meg gently, seating herself in a low chair +close to the old woman, and putting her hand in hers. + +The caress was unexpected, and her mother looked down upon her with +quick watering eyes. + +"I might help you to-day," said Meg, hesitating a little. + +Not that she grudged offering her help, but she knew so little of her +mother-in-law's life. Should she have to go and wash and iron among a +lot of other women? + +Mrs. Seymour paused a moment before answering, and then said +cheerfully-- + +"Well, my dear, if you would help me for an hour or so, till Jem comes +home to dinner, I should be very much obliged, and then we can ask him. +What worries me is, that I promised a man who is going away to get his +shirts done by one o'clock; but I was that beat, that I could not stand +another moment." + +"I wish you had asked me," said Meg, looking grieved. "You must try to +think of me as a real daughter." + +Mrs. Seymour was much touched, but it was not her way to show feeling, +and she only answered-- + +"Thank you, my dear. I shall take your kindness as it was meant; but if +you help me at any little pinch like this, you must not be hurt at my +giving you what I should have given Jenny." + +Meg looked mystified, and then coloured painfully. + +"Oh, I don't think I could," she began; but her mother-in-law stopped +her. + +"Talk it over with Jem, my dear; this is a hard world, and if you could +put by a little for a rainy day you would not be sorry. I must pay some +one; why not you?" + +"We will talk to Jem," said Meg, recovering herself, and speaking with +cheerful alacrity. "I am quite ready, mother; so if you are, we will +come and begin, because one o'clock will be soon here." + +"They're all starched and damped down," said Mrs. Seymour, "and the +irons is heating beautiful." + +They turned from the door, and Meg prepared to run down-stairs. + +"Not there!" exclaimed Mrs. Seymour. "Why, Meg, I live at the top." + +"Oh," said Meg, laughing, "you must scold Jem for not telling me." + +"Yes, I live at the top," Mrs. Seymour went on as they reached the +landing, "because, you see, no one don't interfere with me up here. I +hang my things across here, or I hoist them along this pole out o' +window, and I can manage finely." + +"Capital," said Meg heartily. "And have you both these rooms?" + +"Yes, I rent both; but I have a lodger in one." + +Meg made no answer, but followed Mrs. Seymour into the front room, where +hung numerous lines close to the ceiling, with clean clothes airing away +as fast as they could. + +The fire was bright, and so were the irons; so were the tins on the +shelf, and one or two covers on the wall. In the middle of the room +stood a spotlessly white deal table, and across the window an +ironing-board covered with a blanket and cloth, all ready for use. + +"What a nice room!" said Meg. "Shall I begin now, mother?" + +Mrs. Seymour assented, standing by and watching critically, while Meg +looked round for the iron-holder, saw that the stand was ready, and bent +over the fire to lift off the iron. Her mother had placed a collar in +readiness for her to begin on, and waited while she dusted her iron and +put her first pressure upon it, after which she turned back to the +arm-chair and sat down with a satisfied sigh. + +Meg's cheeks were hot under the gaze of those observant eyes, but she +went on without looking up till the collar was done and another spread +out. Then she said-- + +"What will be the next thing, mother?" + +"You've learnt from a good ironer, my dear." + +"Yes, that was mother," answered Meg brightly; "they used to say so at +the Hall." + +"I don't doubt it. There are the shirts rolled up in that cloth. When +you've done one hang it here to air; I always air everything. Poor +people haven't fires, you know, and there's plenty of rheumatics caught +by damp clothes." + +Meg ironed away, and the weary old woman caught herself dropping into a +doze. It was all very well being up early and late, and washing and +drying and folding, but worry quite knocked her up; and to know that she +had a certain time in which those shirts must be done, and being +deprived of her strong helper, she had felt as if her usual energy had +failed her. + +A gentle voice roused her. + +"They are finished, mother. Have you anything else you want done, or may +I go down and see if it is time for Jem?" + +"To be sure," answered Mrs. Seymour, opening her eyes. "Have you done +a'ready? Thank you kindly, my dear." + +Her quick glance scanned the shirts hanging neatly folded on the large +horse in front of the fire. + +"Are they right?" asked Meg. "I had to guess a little, because I have +not ironed any of these sort of shirts ever." + +"They will do quite well, thank you, my dear. I don't fold 'em just so, +but I don't see that it matters much for once. He won't know no +difference." + +Just then a step was heard on the wooden stairs, and Meg started and +turned round. + +"Is my little woman here?" asked a voice that made her heart bound. + +"Just ain't she?" answered her mother-in-law with animation. "Here have +I been sleepin' like any top, and Meg's come and done my work for me." + +Jem looked well pleased. He knew his upright old mother far too well to +fear that Meg would be called on too often to help. + +"Oh, it's nothing," said Meg; "but now, Jem, you must come to dinner, +or you'll not be back in your hour." + +They left the old woman, and as they went down, up came the man to fetch +his shirts. + +"All right," said Mrs. Seymour, handing them to him; "and I've put on +the buttons. No thanks to Jenny, though, I can tell you. It's my new +daughter as has helped me." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + A LODGER. + + +"What do you think I'm going to try my hand at to-day?" said Meg the +next morning at breakfast. + +"I'm sure I can't tell, dear." + +"I'm going to make some bread!" + +"Oh, that's it, is it?" asked Jem; "if I didn't guess as much when I saw +you carryin' home that little red pan." + +"But if it's heavy," said Meg dubiously, not referring to the pan, but +to the bread, "shall you ever trust me with your flour again?" + +He only smiled at that, and said, + +"But you used to make it at home, for I'm sure as you told me so once." + +"So I used, but not for a long time now; and you know there are a great +many things that have to be right, or your bread won't be right." + +"Well," said Jem, "let's get 'em all right, and then we shan't have no +mishaps." + +Meg laughed merrily. + +"Jem, I must have some German yeast, and some nice good flour." + +"I'll buy those for you as I pass along to my work, and tell them to +send 'em in." + +"But they'll have to come early," said Meg, "or it will not be a bit of +use." + +Jem promised to see to that; and then Meg propounded the question which +had been burning on her lips all yesterday, only she could not get +courage to bring it out. + +"Jem," she began. + +"Well, little woman?" + +"Jem--should you very much mind if I were to earn something?" + +Jem looked astonished, and then a cloud came over the brightness of his +face. Did his little woman already begin to miss some of the things she +had been accustomed to at the Hall? + +"Why, dear?" he asked soberly. + +"Because--at least--Jem--your mother said--if I helped her she should +pay me!" + +"And you did not like that?" asked Jem, looking relieved, but puzzled. + +"I suppose I did not. I think I should like to help her for nothing--out +of love to you, Jem, and by-and-by out of love to her." + +"Yes, dear, so should I; but I see what mother feels. If she has more +work than she can do alone, she would have to pay some one else, and +would a deal rather the money went into your pocket. She would not be +right to earn money at your expense." + +"Not if we gave my time willingly?" + +"No; but, Meg, you needn't do it unless you like it, my dear." + +"I thought you would be sure to tell me to help your mother all I can," +said Meg, almost ready to cry. + +"An' so I should, sweetheart, while we had breath in our bodies, if she +were ill or needed it. But it's different as it is. Jenny don't serve +her well, that she don't." + +"Who is 'Jenny'?" asked Meg. + +"Jenny lives on our first floor. She has an old blind father, but she's +out a deal. I fancy they have some sort of little income, for she don't +work steady enough to keep him, and pay rent for those two rooms." + +"And does she iron for mother?" + +"Yes; and wash too sometimes. But mother has a knack or two with the +washing, and likes to do most of that herself; she says folks don't get +the things clean." + +"Then you would like me to earn something if I could, Jem?" she asked. + +"Well, dear," he answered very kindly, "if you was to ask me what I'd +like, I'd say as I should _like_ you never to have a need to work all +your life! But, Meg, I've looked at things a long time, and I've laid +awake at night too thinkin' of them, and I've come to learn this. That +our God don't mean us to be idle--none of us--and that it's _whatsoever_ +our hands find to do, that we are to do with our might." + +Meg's eyes lost their troubled look, and brightened up into their own +serene sweetness under his earnest gaze. + +"And so," he pursued, "the matter seems to me to stand like this: 'Is +this what your dear little hand finds to do, or ain't it?'" + +Meg sat thoughtfully silent for a few moments, and Jem got his hat. Then +he came over to bid her good-bye. + +"I won't forget the flour, little woman." + +"And I won't forget what you've said, Jem. I think my hand does find it +to do." + +He kissed her tenderly. + +"If we bring everythin' as we're doubtful of to whether He would like +it----" + +Meg nodded; and then he was gone, and she stood alone. + +But in a moment his step was heard coming up, and his bright face peeped +in. + +"How much yeast did you say?" + +"Oh, a halfpenny worth--if they would sell it--half an ounce, Jem; that +will make up five pounds of flour well." + +"All right." + +This time she heard his step go to the bottom, and then she turned round +and began to think of her day's work. + +"I'll run up and ask mother first," she said; and locking her door, +which they were obliged to do in a house with so many lodgers, she ran +up-stairs. + +In answer to her knock a rather far-off voice called "Come in." + +She pushed open the door and entered, but Mrs. Seymour was nowhere to be +seen. The bed-room door adjoining was ajar, but Meg hesitated to knock +there, as she was sure her mother had said she had a lodger. + +But in another moment a voice from within said, "Come in here, please; I +can't bear to speak loud." + +To Meg's great surprise the speaker's voice came from the further of two +beds, and a wan pale face, belonging to an elderly woman, raised itself +a little from the pillow. + +"Did you want me to come in?" asked Meg, hesitating with a fluttering +heart. + +"Yes. Mrs. Seymour's run down to find Jenny; she promised to be up +early, and she ain't come. You're young Mrs. Seymour, I suppose?" + +Meg blushed as she answered, "Yes." She had hardly ever heard herself +called by her new name. + +"She won't be but a minute. Sit down, will yer. You didn't 'spect to +find some one here, by your looks?" + +"No," answered Meg. + +The invalid shook her head. + +"Ah, to think now I should see you before I've been made straight for +the day, after all!" + +Meg did not reply; but thinking it might be unkind to go back, she sat +down on the edge of a chair, and tried to think of something to say. + +"I've heard of you before to-day," said her mother-in-law's lodger, with +an attempt at a smile. + +"Have you?" asked Meg. + +"And what's more, I've done for you what I wouldn't ha' believed any one +would ha' persuaded me to do. But it was all along of Jem's kindness, +and Mrs. Seymour's kindness." + +"For me?" echoed Meg. + +"For you. When Jem told me he wanted me to move up here, out of my back +room--yours, as is now--I flatly refused, that I did." + +"Oh," said Meg, "was it you who did that for me?" + +"Yes, I did, and I don't repent it. In fact, I'm mighty glad I did, for +I'm a deal more comfortable up here than I was down there. Of course +there's the smell of the washing, but if it's bad I holler out to them +to shut the door; and most times I don't mind it, and where I lie I can +see 'em in there, going about and ironing, and fussing; and it ain't +half so quiet and dull as it was. And then of nights, when I want +anything, I can just give a call, and Mrs. Seymour's up in a minute! Jem +said as it would be so, but I wouldn't credit it before." + +"And what made you decide?" asked Meg, wondering in this mixture of +self-interest and helplessness what had been the reason that influenced +her at the bottom. + +"It was one night," said the invalid with a softened look, "I was took +awful bad. I don't know what it was made me so bad; but I had told Jem +that evening, flat, that nothing on earth should move me out of the room +where I'd lain for ten years, and it was no use his asking me. + +"Well, as I said, I was took awful bad in my chest, and I laid there +groaning for a long time. At last I managed to knock the wall, and got +Jem to come to the door. + +"'Oh, I'm dying,' says I; 'come in and see what you can do for me, Jem.' + +"He'd put on his things when he heard me first; and in he came and +raised me up, and then he goes up-stairs and calls his mother. But as +luck would have it, the neighbour on the ground floor was ill too, and +Mrs. Seymour couldn't leave her for a moment just then. + +"When Jem come up and told me that, I thought I should ha' died straight +away. But he comes over to me as quiet and kind as any woman, and he +says, 'Miss Hobson, don't you take on; I'll do all as I can for you, if +you'll tell me what to do.' + +"So I told him to prop me up, for I couldn't fetch my breath, you see; +and he goes and gets some hot water from his mother's boiler, and puts a +shawl over my head, and makes me breathe the steam; and when I was a +little easier he gets me a cup of tea, as did me a world of good. + +"Once or twice while he was bending over me when I was so very bad, he +says to me sort of soft-like, 'Look to Jesus, Miss Hobson--there's +nought but Jesus can save a dying soul.' + +"But I heard him without taking much notice. + +"When I was a bit better, and had done gasping so bad, he sits down by +my side as kind as any nurse, and he says to me, 'Miss Hobson, I'm a +deal more anxious for you to get the Breath of Life than ever I am for +you to be able to breathe easy. I wish you would think of that!' he +says. + +"And I says to him, 'What do you mean by the Breath of Life?' + +"And he says, 'It's coming to Jesus, and getting forgiveness of all our +sins from Him. That's the Breath of Life!' + +"'I don't know how to come,' says I. + +"'Ask Him to draw you!' says he. 'He tells you, "Him that cometh unto Me +I will in no wise cast out." If you'll come to Jesus, you'll have new +life.' + +"Well, I don't know how it was, but I thought as it 'ud be a fine thing +to get new life. So I laid myself back on my pillow and thought it over. +But before long I says to him, 'Jem, do you ever pray?' + +"'Ever?' says he; 'you know I do.' + +"'Then pray for me,' says I, closing my eyes. + +"When the grey dawn of morning crept into my room there he was, sitting +by me and watching me still. + +"'Jem,' says I, 'I've come to Jesus. I'm awful bad, but He's said as +He'll not cast me out. I've come.' + +"At that he looked as glad as if I'd left him a fortune. And then he +gets up and lights my fire, and warms some gruel his mother had brought +for me, and while I was eating it, I says to him, 'Jem,' says I, 'you +may have it!' + +"'Have what?' says he. + +"'My room,' says I. And that's how it was as I moved up here to make +room for you!" + +Meg had sat spell-bound, listening to the woman's words, her interest in +her Jem swallowed up in her greater interest in this soul's struggle +from death to life. + +"Oh, thank you for telling me," she exclaimed at last. + +But the invalid spoke again. + +"I've been a selfish woman all my life, and now I've come near the end +of it, I'm a selfish old woman still; but my Jesus is going to cure me +of that. I tell Him about it every day, and He helps me every day to get +the better of it, a little bit." + +"Oh, Miss Hobson," said Meg, coming close to her, "I do want to get like +Jesus too. Will you help me?" + +"Me, my dear?" + +"Yes; I'm sure if you want to so much, you can show me how." + +"_He_ teaches," she answered, "teaches every day." + +Just as she said these words Mrs. Seymour pushed open the door, and not +seeing Meg, said anxiously, + +"There! Jenny's been and played truant again. Her old father says as her +uncle has come and fetched her to spend the day over at Brixton." + +Then she caught sight of Meg, who hastened to explain why she was there, +and her mother-in-law said, + +"Why, my dear, you've come in my time of need. Do you mean you will work +for me as I proposed?" + +"Yes," answered Meg, "if it would be a comfort to you." + +Mrs. Seymour looked exceedingly relieved. + +"Can you come at once?" she asked. + +"When I have made some bread," answered Meg, "and tidied up a bit." + +"Bread?" said Mrs. Seymour. + +Meg smiled. + +"I'm going to try; and if I succeed I'll bring you a loaf, mother! +Please don't think I'm a new broom!" + +"You're a _nice_ broom!" said her mother-in-law, with rare enthusiasm, +"and I'll come down to see you make it one of these days. Dear, dear, +can you make bread, to be sure? I've often wished to see it done!" + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE EMPTY PAN. + + +It was Saturday, and Meg had plenty to do, so that her mother-in-law's +wish to have her at once was a little confusing. + +When she got down to her own room again her fire was low, her breakfast +table untidy, and things less bright and orderly than they had been once +since her marriage. + +She felt inclined to go up to her mother-in-law and excuse herself for +to-day; but the remembrance of Jenny's breach of faith made her pause. + +"No," she said to herself, "even if my bread has to be given up for +to-day I must not disappoint mother." + +She ran up again and tapped at Mrs. Seymour's door. + +"Mother, I want to arrange my work; how long will your ironing take me?" + +"Why," answered Mrs. Seymour, "I've got behind this week, else I do say +if they won't bring it to me before Friday, I can't do it! But you +see, my dear, I've to take it pretty much as I find it. Poor folks +haven't many clothes, and when they spare them, they want them done up +quick. These came in yesterday, and if Jenny had come to her time, +they'd have been half done by now." + +[Illustration: She sat holding it, the mother looking on at Meg's swift +gentle ways.--p. 75.] + +"And they will take----?" began Meg. + +"Three hours at least," answered Mrs. Seymour. + +"All right," answered Meg, "I'll be up in about an hour. I must set +Jem's dinner on." + +She hastened away, and Mrs. Seymour turned into the bed-room to see +after her invalid lodger. + +"I like her," said Miss Hobson. "Jem's got a good 'un." + +"Yes," answered Mrs. Seymour, a little shortly. + +The invalid noticed the tone, and answered, + +"Now don't you 'spose I've known Jem long enough to be free to pass a +remark on his wife?" + +"As you like," answered Mrs. Seymour. + +"But _you_ don't like, I can see that," answered Miss Hobson. + +Mrs. Seymour did not reply, for she and her charge were apt to get into +a little wrangle unless she could be very forbearing. The thought of how +hard it must be to be in bed for years generally came to her aid, added +to another thought, deeper and sweeter: "I forgave _thee_ all that +debt." + +Miss Hobson was reminded by her silence that she too had some one else +to please, and she proceeded with her morning toilet with a softer +feeling in her heart. + +Meanwhile Meg quickly washed up her breakfast cups, and spread the +things ready for making a meat pie. There were the remains of the +chickens, and a little fresh meat which she and Jem had gone out last +night to buy. It was the middle of June, and very warm, and Meg had +fried it that it should keep the night. + +So she made her pie and set it ready to bake at the right time; she +peeled her potatoes, and left them in a basin of clear water; she made +up her fire so that it should burn as little coal as possible till she +needed it for cooking, and then, after a glance to see if all were +right, she went to the door. + +Here she nearly stumbled over the boy with her flour and yeast. She took +it from his hand, and putting it in her cupboard, once more set out for +her mother-in-law's room. + +"You've come within the hour!" remarked Mrs. Seymour contentedly. "Now, +my dear, while I starch these few things, will you iron those pinafores? +They belong to the family on the ground floor, where there's such a lot +of 'em." + +"Are there?" + +"Such mites; there's six of them, I think, and one above another like so +many steps. Poor thing, you've seen her, haven't you, standing at the +door with her young baby? It ain't two months old yet." + +"I've seen her," answered Meg, leaning on her iron and pressing very +hard. She remembered the glimpse she had had of the full room--the +fretting babies, the general air of untidiness which only a half-open +door had revealed. + +"She's no hand at washing,--leastways not to make anything +respectable,--so I take a few of her things cheap. She was a tidy enough +woman when she came; but poor living and many cares have beaten the life +out of her." + +Meg sighed, and wondered if there might be anything _she_ might do to +lighten the burden; perhaps some day she might hold the baby or +something. + +Mrs. Seymour did not sit down to doze in her chair this morning. She +kept Meg well supplied with things to iron, and Meg satisfied her as +much as on the previous day. + +"You do it just right," she said, approvingly. "You don't fiddle over +it, and you don't hurry over it. Now, Jenny slights some of it, and puts +so much work into the rest, that I tell her it's a wonder if there's a +bit of profit left." + +"I'm glad I do it right," said Meg, smiling. And then she thought of +Jem's dinner, and ran down-stairs to put her pie in the little oven. + +"How's your bread getting on?" asked Mrs. Seymour, when she came back. + +"Oh, I left it for to-day. It does not matter," said Meg, rather +hurriedly, for she did not want her mother to know what a disappointment +it had been to have to give it up after all Jem's care and trouble. + +Mrs. Seymour made no remark, but she drew her own conclusions; and when +Meg had finished the ironing and had gone down-stairs, she went into the +back room, and said to Miss Hobson-- + +"Did you hear that about the bread?" + +"Yes, I did. I don't know as I could 'a done it; only married hardly a +week. That's what I call thinking of others afore yerself." + +Mrs. Seymour nodded and went back to clear her table for dinner, Miss +Hobson's eyes watching her with interest meanwhile. On the whole, she +did not feel sorry that she had given up her room to Meg. + +When Jem came in at dinner-time and went to peep into the red pan, clean +emptiness reigned there, and Meg sat quietly working by the window. As +he understood nothing about bread-making, he concluded it must be in the +oven. But when Meg went to that to lift out the pie, and he saw no bread +there, he was fairly puzzled. + +"Where's the baker's shop?" he asked playfully. + +"Oh, Jem, I'm so sorry; but Jenny went out, and mother wanted the +ironing done. I could not manage the bread too--so it's not done." + +Meg looked so concerned that Jem had to get up and kiss her. + +"Never mind," he said, "We must try again on Monday." + +"Yes; but I'm afraid the yeast may not be good this hot weather. Still, +we can see. Jem, I did think it was what my hand found to do--" + +"I haven't a bit of doubt about that, little woman," he answered. "How +did you find time to make this nice pie, or did a fairy come in?" + +Meg shook her head, while she was delighted with his praise. + +"This is for to-morrow as well," she said, "because you know we agreed +we'd only cook potatoes on Sunday." + +"So we did; it could not be a better dinner." + +"How nicely this oven will bake our potatoes while we are at service, +Jem!" + +"Everything's nice," answered Jem, smiling. "Meg, I shall not be home +till four o'clock this afternoon; but if you'll be ready we'll take a +penny boat, and have a turn up the river. This is our honeymoon, you +know." + +Meg blushed and smiled. + +"Oh, Jem," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder, "I hope I shall +be all you wish!" + +He looked down at her with eyes that said a great deal, but he only +answered-- + +"Mind you're ready, little woman." + +So Meg set to and made her rooms as clean and beautiful for Sunday as +she could devise. It was true, they were already nearly as clean as they +could be; but London smoke penetrates everywhere, and Meg knew that a +little sweeping and scrubbing would do no harm. When it was nearly four, +she went up to ask a favour of her mother-in-law. + +"Jem's going to take me up the river," she said, smilingly; "but I'm +afraid the fire will go out, and there'll be no hot water for tea. Would +you think it a trouble to look to it for me, mother?" + +"Not a bit, my dear. But if Jem and you are going out, let out your fire +this hot day, and come up and have tea with me when you come in. I was +thinking I'd come and ask you." + +Meg promised to do so if Jem were agreeable, and hastened away to take +off what little fire she had, and to lay it again to be ready whenever +it might be needed. And then she stood looking out of the window +watching for Jem. + +The look-out was not as cheering as the look-in. Tall sombre houses +across the narrow street, with dirty tattered blinds, bedsteads half +across windows, dirty children leaning out and risking their necks, here +and there a few sickly plants. Such was her outlook in front. Behind it +was still worse. A double row of forlorn little courts, where stunted +fowls were kept, where badly-washed clothes were hung from Saturday to +Saturday all the week round, where rubbish was thrown, where children +made mud-pies, where old boxes and firewood were heaped, and every +imaginable untidiness congregated to depress the spirits and health of +the crowded houses abutting on it. + +Meg never looked out if she could help it. People must live in London, +she supposed, and Jem had asked her to come and make London bright for +him, and she meant to do it if she could. And then her eyes went up +above the narrow street, and looked into the clear June sky, and she +whispered: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: +they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be +weary; they shall walk and not faint." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + GONE. + + +And so time went on happily and swiftly. The summer days came and went, +while Meg and her young husband worked cheerily at their allotted tasks. + +Many a time did Meg visit the forlorn attic, carrying not only dainties +for poor suffering Dickie, but cheer and sunshine for his devoted little +sister. If Meg had discovered in Cherry traces of "a disciple," she did +not fail to do her part in giving her many "a cup of cold water." + +This she did in various ways, so tenderly and unobtrusively, as to be +almost unnoticed by Cherry at the time. She brought her some soap and an +old towel, and coaxed Dickie "to feel how nice the warm water was," and +when his ablutions were done, to their joy he had a long sound sleep. +Cherry made up her mind she would try it again another day. + +Then Meg begged a bowl without a handle, which her mother-in-law had +done with as useless for washing; this she carried round to Cherry and +taught her to wash over her floor, so that if the old boards might not +look white, they would at least be fresh. And once Meg put on her oldest +dress and scrubbed the room from end to end. She also took home the old +shawl one hot August day and returned it in the evening clean and sweet. + +She was rewarded, if reward she needed, by Cherry's brightened face, and +by Dickie's creeping off his mattress and up into her arms, where he +would lie peacefully while she told him story after story of the little +lamb who was lost on the mountains, and was sought by the Good Shepherd, +until He carried it home rejoicing. + +By-and-by Dickie began to run about the bare room with fresh energy; but +as he began to revive, so Cherry seemed to get despondent. There was a +look of alarm on her face which puzzled Meg; but the child would never +give any explanation. She resolutely kept Dickie up-stairs, hushing him +from making any extra noise, and Meg heard her once whisper to him in a +warning voice-- + +"Dickie, they'll know yer well again if yer don't mind; and then--I hope +they've forgot you, Dickie, for a bit." + +He seemed to comprehend, and turned to the bits of toys and broken +crockery which he called tea-things as contentedly as before. + +"Is he ever naughty?" asked Meg softly. + +Cherry nodded. + +"What do you do then?" + +"I talk to 'im, and tell 'im how sorry mother'd ha' been, and how sorry +_He_ is," reverently; "and then he soon gets right again, and says he's +'good now.'" + +One day when Meg went she found Cherry with an old hat on, and Dickie +also with some apology for walking things. + +"Are you going out, dear?" she asked, surprised, for Cherry's aversion +to leave her room had been so great. + +"We're goin' hopping," answered the child. "Father's goin' to take us; +and I think it 'ull be the best thing for Dickie. He'll be able to run +out in the air, and so--" + +She placed in Meg's hand a pawn-ticket, as if she would perfectly +understand. + +"What is this, dear?" + +"That's the blanket. I don't know no one as would keep it for us, and so +I put it there. Here's the money, and you can get it out for me, if you +will, when we come back. I'd ha' come to you about it, only I didn't +rightly know where you lived." + +It did not occur to Meg to explain where her home was at the moment, +though afterwards it cost her many a pang that she had not done so. She +was busy thinking about the blanket; and just as she had promised to do +as Cherry wished about the pawn-ticket, Cherry's father came up the +stairs and entered the room. + +It was the first time Meg had met him, and he stared in surprise at such +a sweet vision in that desolate place. + +"This is a friend what came to see Dickie when he was ill, father," said +Cherry in a deprecating tone. + +"Eh! Oh, well, Dickie's all right now; and the train 'ull be gone if you +don't come at once. We shan't be back again for many a long day." + +He looked askance at Meg, and evidently waited for her to go. She bade a +hasty good-bye to the children, and went down-stairs with a sad heart. + +So Meg lost sight of her little friends, and though in a month or two's +time she went several times to their attic, she could hear nothing of +them. The attic had other occupants, and the child and his crippled +sister seemed forgotten. + +Meanwhile, the winter came and was passing away, while Meg was busy from +morning till night. If she were not rendering efficient help to her +mother-in-law, she had some work of her own, over which she bent with a +happy look in her face which made it like sunshine. + +One morning as she was returning from fetching some yeast for her +bread-making, for Meg had set up a regular practice of supplying her +husband with her own baking, she entered the doorway just as the +toddling girl belonging to the woman on the ground floor did the same. + +The little one was running at full speed, and before Meg could put out +her hand to save her, she tripped over a bit of brick which was lying in +her path, and down she came with her head against the stone doorstep. + +Meg quickly picked her up, and recognizing her, knocked at the door just +as the child's mother ran to see what the screams were about. + +"I'm afraid she's hurt," she said, entering; "her head came right +against the corner." + +"Dear, dear, dear!" exclaimed the mother, with an inward feeling that +here was another misfortune; "I never did _see_ such children! There, +child, leave off screaming and I'll see to yer." + +Though the words were rough, the face of the woman was not unkindly. +Somehow Meg had never come across her before, and had been too shy to +make any advances without being asked, though she had often pitied the +poor woman as she passed and heard the crying babies and general hubbub. + +"Thank you, Mrs. Seymour," said the woman, taking the child from Meg's +arms. "My! ain't it bleeding! Whatever shall I do?" + +"I should lay a wet rag on it," said Meg; "and then we can see how big +the place is. Perhaps it isn't so much as it looks." + +"Dear, dear, dear!" said the mother again; "I haven't one bit of rag +handy; I have had to use all mine up for my boy's leg what was bad so +long." + +Meg ran up-stairs, and soon returned with a nice clean piece from a +store of old linen which had been given her at the Hall. She looked +round for a basin, and soon had a little lukewarm water in it, and the +rag put on the child's forehead. She sat holding it, the mother looking +on at Meg's swift gentle ways with evident surprise and pleasure. + +When the crying grew less, and the little thing, pale and miserable, was +laid on the little bed in the corner, Meg bethought herself of her +bread, and took up her basket to go. + +"Thank you _kindly_," said the woman gratefully; "you've quite cheered +me up a bit. This is a hard life for us poor mothers." + +Her eyes, which had once perhaps been as bright as Meg's, were sunken +and tired. She glanced at the deserted breakfast-table, and said +wearily-- + +"Work as me and him do, you may say, night and day, we can't satisfy +their mouths. I can't tell you how I long for somethin' different from +bread, Mrs. Seymour!" + +Meg's eyes had followed hers, and she could see that there had been +nothing on that table that morning but milkless tea and dry bread. +Nothing remained but a few small crumbs. + +"My 'usband says as it's hard to work and bring 'ome all he've earned, +and then not to have enough after all. But what can I do? They've eaten +a loaf and a half this mornin', and not one of 'em but could ha' eaten +double!" + +"You have six children, haven't you?" said Meg, sympathizing truly, but +feeling powerless to help. + +"Eight," answered the woman, "and all under twelve year old. Here's the +baby." + +She led the way into the back room, where in a good-sized bed a baby +still slept soundly. + +"You must have your hands full," said Meg kindly; "I wish I could think +of anything to help you. Where are they all?" + +"Gone to school. They take even my biggest girl away from me, her as +might be some 'elp, and I'm sure she don't want schooling as bad as she +wants food." + +"It comes very hard on you. And so you have to stay at home with the +babies?" + +"That's just it. I might put 'em out to be 'minded,' but I'm not going +to have 'em starved under my eyes, and burnt and neglected and slapped! +Not but what I slap 'em myself sometimes," she added with compunction, +"when I'm that tired--but not so often considering; and I'm not going to +put 'em out for nobody." + +She seemed glad to have some one to pour out her griefs to, and Meg +hardly liked to hurry away. + +"I thought when I see you first as you'd soon get untidy like the rest +of the girls, but you ain't yet!" remarked the woman, as they went back +to the other room. + +Meg smiled. + +"I hope not," she said gently; "but you know I have not got a lot of +children to feed and see to. I should have no excuse now." + +Just as she was turning to the door she thought of something. + +"I wonder if you ever make oatmeal porridge for your children?" she +asked. + +The woman made a wry face. + +"Law, my dear, they wouldn't touch it!" + +"I think they would if it were made nicely." + +"I'm sure you've been so kind and clever, that I ought to think of what +you say," apologized the woman; "but I'm afraid--" + +"What have you for dinner to-day, if I may ask?" said Meg, hesitating, +in her shy way. + +"Bread," answered the mother emphatically; "and I meant to pour some +boiling water on it, and put some salt, and make believe it was soup. +It's so bitter cold to-day." + +"I wonder if you'd be offended if I offered to make some porridge for +you?" + +"I shan't be _offended_; but I know they won't touch it!" + +Meg laughed. + +"You see!" she said brightly. "Tell them a friend brought them some, +and you give them their choice of that or bread, and I expect--" + +"I haven't any oatmeal," said the woman. + +"But I have; I'll go and fetch some. My husband has it every day for +breakfast." + +"You don't say so!" exclaimed the woman. + +"But I must make my bread first, for if I don't it will not have time to +rise. When I have done that I'll bring the oatmeal down with me, and +make it for them. Will you let me?" + +The woman thanked her; but before Meg went up to her bread she requested +that a saucepan of water might be put over the fire instead of the +kettle, which the woman had already put on for the early dinner. + +"Will you mind measuring the water into it?" asked Meg; "eight +half-pints is what I want, and a good teaspoonful of salt." + +Mrs. Blunt said she would, and Meg went away to her bread. + +That did not take her half-an-hour, but when she came down the woman had +done her best to smarten up her room. The little hurt child had had its +hands washed, and was now fast asleep, and the woman herself looked +three degrees fresher than when Meg left her. + +"I have brought half-a-pound of oatmeal if you will accept it," she +said, entering, with her clean cooking apron still on, and her neat hair +uncovered by her hat. + +"It's very kind, I'm sure," said the woman. "Now you must show me the +right way, and then I shall know." + +"Is the water boiling yet?" asked Meg, seating herself near the fire and +peeping into the steaming saucepan. + +"That it is! Don't it look like it?" + +"Because it must boil," explained Meg, "or the oatmeal would sink to the +bottom and burn." + +"Oh, that's the reason?" + +"Yes; and I've brought down my wooden spoon in case you had not got one. +The iron ones get so hot." + +"Must it be stirred all the time?" + +"Oh no, every now and then. See, I'm going to sprinkle in the oatmeal +with my hand. If I put it in all at once it would fall into lumps, and +children hate lumps! At least _I_ did when I was a child." + +Mrs. Blunt stood by watching. + +"And how much do ye pay a pound for it, Mrs. Seymour?" + +"Twopence-halfpenny where Jem gets it." + +"What do ye eat it with? I've heard tell of treacle, but I'm no hand at +sweet things myself." + +"No, more am I," said Meg. "Of course the best thing is a little milk; I +dare say half a pint would do; but you might give them their choice of +sugar." + +Mrs. Blunt sighed. She had spent nearly all she had left on the baker's +loaves which went so fast, and she hardly knew where the milk and sugar +were to come from. + +Meg guessed that, from the change in the woman's face from bright +interest to despondency. + +She thought for a moment, and then she said with some little +hesitation-- + +"I wonder if the children would think me interfering if I were to bring +them a little milk and sugar as a present?" + +The woman turned away to the other room, nominally to fetch the baby, +who was stirring, but really to get rid of a few tears. It was the way +it was done, she told herself, that was so nice. She couldn't have let +every one do her such a kindness. + +"Mind you stir it while I am gone," said Meg, "because they won't take +to _burnt_ porridge, for certain! You see it doesn't need much fire +after once the saucepan boils." + +When she came back with the pound of sugar and a pint of milk, the +porridge had had its full half-hour, and was done. + +"Now stand it on the hob, and if it simmers a little it will not hurt at +all. Pour it out the last thing, and see if they do not like it better +than bread, and feel more satisfied too. I've heard that it is the best +thing you can have to make children grow." + +"May I bring back your spoon and tell you how I got on with it?" asked +Mrs. Blunt, already longing to taste what looked and smelt so good. + +"Do; I shall be glad to see you," answered Meg. Then pausing with a +sudden remembrance, she said, blushing, "Do you remember those loving +words of our Saviour to all who are weary and troubled, 'Cast thy burden +upon the _Lord_, and He shall sustain thee'?" + +"I've heard 'em before," answered the woman, "but I don't know much +about it." + +"We all can, just by taking Him at His word," said Meg gently, "and I +don't know a burden that any one can have that will be too hard for Him +to help in." + +The woman looked in Meg's face to see if she really meant it, and the +clear eyes she met were too earnest to be mistaken. + +The woman wrung her hand and went back to the porridge without speaking. + +When Meg had finished dinner, and was sitting down to her needle, there +was a tap at the door, and on saying "Come in," Mrs. Blunt with her two +babies appeared in the doorway. + +"Well?" asked Meg, smiling. + +"Well," said the woman, sinking into the seat Meg pushed forward, "when +they came in they sniffed and looked about, and asked where the loaf +was, and peeped into the milk-jug, and then they spied the saucepan, and +came over as curious as anything to see what it was. I told 'em as it +was a present to 'em, but they had no call to eat it unless they liked; +and with that I poured out a little into the basins. Some of 'em was +that hungry that they didn't think twice about it, and after a mouthful +or two that they wasn't sure about, they finished what I gave 'em, and +asked for more! That they did--all but one of 'em, and she turned up her +nose at it and stuck to the bread." + +"Did they finish it?" asked Meg. + +"All but a bit I put by for their father. And they told me to say as +they was much obliged, and hadn't had such a nice hot dinner I don't +know when." + +Meg was delighted. She got up to look into her little bread-pan, and the +woman's eyes followed her curiously. + +"I wish I could see ye do it," she said, "'cause I've heard as it's a +deal cheaper." + +"Of course it is," said Meg; "and if you have to stay at home to mind +your babies, you could not use some of your time better. Mother used to +say it went quite twice as far as baker's bread. I'll show you how to do +it next time I bake. I don't do it every day, because we don't need it." + +"Will you?" asked Mrs. Blunt earnestly. + +"That I will. I'll let you know when to come." + +The woman rose, and called her little girl from the window, where she +had been absorbed in looking out from such an unusual height. + +"She's better then?" asked Meg. + +"Yes," answered her mother, undoing the bandage; "see, it ain't such a +great place. How it did bleed to be sure!" + +"I should keep it wet for the present," said Meg; "water softens things +so." + +"That's true," said the woman. Then hesitating, she added, "Mrs. +Seymour, you and your mother-in-law has been the only creatures since I +came to London who has ever done me a kindness--I don't forgit it. The +neighbours come in at times, and they mean to be kind; but one and +another 'ull say a little word as 'ull make ye discontented with yer +lot; and it ain't a bit of good. We've got to bear it, and makin' the +worst of it don't mend it." + +"No," answered Meg softly, "that's why----" + +"Yes," interrupted the woman. "_You_ say I've got a burden, but you say +there's the Lord as can lighten it, and I shan't forgit. For one thing, +I can see as you let Him carry _yours_." + +She turned abruptly and left the room, and Meg's eyes filled with tears +to think how little, after all, she loved and trusted that dear Lord who +loved her and gave Himself for her. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + MEG'S TEA-PARTY. + + +The next time Meg set about making some bread, she told Jem to stop at +their neighbour's door, and tell her to come up as soon as she could. + +Accordingly Mrs. Blunt soon appeared, carrying her baby in her arms, a +roll of mending in one hand and her toddling child in the other. + +Meg greeted her with a bright smile. + +"Here you are!" she said. "I am so glad you came early, because the +earlier I get to it the better. I often make it before breakfast." + +"And can you bake it in your oven?" + +"Yes, it is such a good little stove. I'm so glad it is not a kitchener, +because they burn so much, whether you want it or not." + +"I could never bake enough in my oven to make it worth while," said Mrs. +Blunt. + +"I've been thinking of that," answered Meg, "and my husband says that +the baker would bake it for you, he thinks, for nothing, if you made the +arrangement to buy your flour there. You could make inquiries. Jem says +he knew one woman who did regularly." + +"I should want some large tins," said Mrs. Blunt. + +"I dare say you could pick some up cheap somewhere," said Meg; "but +anyway in a week you would save the price of a large tin." + +"Should I?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +"Yes; Jem has been reckoning it up, and he says you would save +eighteenpence or two shillings a week." + +"I should like to save that," exclaimed Mrs. Blunt; "it would buy us a +deal of things we have to do without now." + +"That it would," said Meg, busily pouring her flour into the pan, and +measuring some crushed salt into it. "See, Mrs. Blunt, to my five pounds +of flour I put five half teaspoonfuls of salt and five half-pints of +lukewarm water. It is very simple." + +"But you haven't put the water in yet," said Mrs. Blunt. + +"No, because part of that has to melt my yeast. Here it is, feel +it--just as warm as new milk. There! now I pour this on the yeast and +mix it well; now I make a hole in my flour and pour in my yeast and the +rest of my water, and stir it round--so--round and round till it is as +thick as a batter and as smooth." + +Mrs. Blunt was watching intently. It looked very interesting to see +Meg's clean hand going round and round, each time drawing a little flour +into the yellow cream in the middle. + +"It takes a long time," she remarked. + +"Not a bit too long. If you are patient over this part the next will +take less time, and your bread will not be lumpy." + +While she spoke she plunged her two hands into the middle of the batter +and began to knead in the rest of the flour, which stood up round the +sides as a sort of wall; and as she kneaded she pushed the middle out +and drew the sides in, to Mrs. Blunt's great astonishment. + +"You see, I want to work it all smooth, and when it is in a round +cushion it is done." + +"Does it go into the oven at once?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +Meg laughed merrily. "No; I set it near the fire to rise, and it has to +get to more than twice as high as it is now before it is ready. You will +have to come up again to see it 'made up' if you want to learn the whole +process." + +"I'm afraid I should be a long time getting it right," said Mrs. Blunt, +sighing. + +"It wants experience," answered Meg; "but you would soon know; and if +you like to try it, I will look in on you and give you some hints." + +"Then I may come up again?" asked Mrs. Blunt, as she saw Meg turn her +dough over as a final act, and cover the pan with a clean cloth. "I +'spose it's done for the present?" + +"Yes," said Meg, going to the bowl to wash off the flour which clung to +her hands, "and when you come up again Pattie shall have a bit of dough +all to herself to make into a little loaf." + +Pattie, who had stood all the while with her chin over the edge of the +pan, absorbed in watching, now clapped her hands gleefully. + +"You are _very_ kind, I'm sure," said Mrs. Blunt heartily. "Then you +will let me know?" + +"I shall not forget, and if it is good bread you shall have a loaf for +the children." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Blunt, in a very gratified tone. + +"Look here," said Meg, considering for a minute or two. "It is half-past +ten now, and if I do not put it quite so near the fire it will not be +ready till my husband has gone back to work this afternoon. I can keep +it back a little. Will you come up directly your children are gone to +school, and sit with me for an hour or so while I bake it? That is the +best way to learn." + +"Oh, thank you!" said Mrs. Blunt; "then I will." + +"As I do not want my bread to be late, perhaps you would not mind coming +up before you wash up your dinner-plates, then you can run down for that +when the bread goes into the oven, and I'll mind the babies." + +The mother was only too pleased. Somehow Meg's society was so restful; +she chatted about such pleasant things; above all, she seemed to be able +to look at everything as coming from a Father's hand above, who allowed +even the disagreeable things to happen in truest love. + +So Mrs. Blunt went down with fresh heart, and tried her hand at a +saucepan of porridge herself, and succeeded as well as Meg had done, to +her own great delight. + +At two o'clock she once more set out to see the bread made up. + +Meg had already cleared away all traces of her dinner; the kettle was on +the hob, the fire had been made up, and on the table stood a clean +pastry-board, a basin of flour, and a knife. + +"The first thing I do when I have got out my things and washed my hands, +is to butter my tins--dripping will do. See, here are two that exactly +fit into my oven. I take a clean bit of paper and put a little knob of +dripping or butter on it, and rub them all over, not missing any place, +or the bread will stick. Now I put the tins on the fender to warm; next +I cut my dough in half,--look how full of little holes it is! that's +what mother at home calls her 'lace,'--and I lift it out on to my board. +Here, Pattie, this is a little bit for you. How nice and clean mother +has made your hands! Now you'll be able to eat it when it's baked. Now I +work and roll this with a little flour which I have sprinkled on the +board first, till it feels quite dry again and has left off sticking; +this will make the bread white and keep the holes small. Hark how the +bubbles break as I pinch it and roll it! There, that will do. Now I must +make it into the right shape and put it into the tin." + +[Illustration: "Here 'tis," she said, in a satisfied tone. "I knew as +'twas somewheres. Supposin' you and me was to read a bit every night?" +p. 105.] + +She did the same with the other half of the dough, then plunged the +knife several times to the bottom of the tin, cut it across the top, and +put it back on the fender. + +"Now, Mrs. Blunt," said Meg, "I judge by my oven whether to leave it +there for a quarter of an hour, or whether to put it into the _bottom_ +shelf of the oven. If the bottom is not too hot, that's the best place. +Yes, mine is just right; feel what a different heat it is from the top." + +"Why do you do that?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +"Because if I put it into the hot part at once it would set the crust of +the loaf before it had time to rise, and then the rest would be heavy. I +leave it in the bottom just so long as will allow it to begin to rise, +about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, and then put it into the top, +and my baking begins. You had better wait to see that before you go down +again." + +"I made some porridge, Mrs. Seymour; and what's more they've eat it, and +said it's as good as yours." + +"Oh, I _am_ glad!" said Meg, heartily. "When they get used to it, you +see if they don't say it's _better_ than mine." + +Mrs. Blunt laughed at that, but she knew enough of children by this time +to guess that Meg was right. + +When she was gone down to wash her dishes, Meg sat down on her low chair +with the baby, and drew little Pattie to her knee to hear a story. She +told them about the Good Shepherd who loves little lambs, and how He +gave His life to save the little lambs from being lost. + +Pattie's eyes were very wide open, and she listened as long as there was +any "story" in Meg's words. Then when she began to grow fidgety Meg got +her to learn the one word "Jesus," and after that she sang to them till +their mother came back. + +"Now I'm going to fetch my mother-in-law," said Meg; "she's coming to +have a cup of early tea with us, while the bread is baking. I do not +look at it yet, because I want the oven to keep hot, and I know it will +not burn yet." + +"If the baker bakes my bread for me, I shall be saved all that," said +Mrs. Blunt. + +"Yes, so you will; and as your loaves will be large it would be a great +help, because a baker's oven is such a nice even heat. Still it is nice +to know how to do it." + +"Oh yes," said Mrs. Blunt. "I did not mean that." + +Meg went upstairs. + +"Come, mother," she said, "Mrs. Blunt's there, and I'm going to make the +tea. It's early to be sure, but you won't mind." + +"I must finish these couple of shirts, my dear." + +"Then I'll do that," said Meg, "while you make up your fire. I couldn't +venture to do _that_ for you, mother; I shouldn't do it right." + +Meg laughed as she said that, and Mrs. Seymour laughed too. + +Miss Hobson from the inner room called out cheerily: "Well, it's the +only thing as she thinks you can't do to her mind anyway." + +"Young folks can't have the experience of us old ones," said Mrs. +Seymour. "We can't expect it." + +Meg finished the shirts, and then went into the back room to say, "How +d'ye do" to her mother-in-law's lodger, while Mrs. Seymour took off her +ironing apron, settled her cap aright, and went downstairs. + +"I shall bring you a cup of our tea presently," said Meg, "and a bit of +bread and butter, so don't settle to sleep yet, Miss Hobson." + +"Very well, my dear, I'm glad you told me. Are you going to have a +party?" + +Meg smiled. "Miss Hobson, I've got a pot of sunshine that won't hold it +all, so I'm going to give a little away." + +Miss Hobson looked at her curiously, but Meg only nodded and ran off. + +Presently Meg allowed Mrs. Blunt to look for a moment with her into the +little oven. There were the two loaves brown and crusty, with beautiful +white ridges peeping out where the crust had broken, looking the picture +of what home-made loaves should be. + +"Are they done?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +"Not quite. They are not 'soaked,' as mother would say. If we took them +out now they would be wet in the middle." + +She quickly shut the oven, looked at her fire, but did not touch it, as +she had made it up before the bread went in; and then she turned to her +kettle. + +"Now boil as soon as you like," she said to it. She spread a cloth, set +some teacups, cut some bread and butter, and took out of her cupboard a +tin of sardines. "Jem heard what I was going to do, and he brought these +home of his own idea; don't you think that was kind of him?" asked Meg. + +"That it was," said Mrs. Blunt. "Why, I haven't been out to tea +since--not for years." + +"Here is the kettle boiling, and here is Pattie's little loaf, just cool +enough for her to touch. Come, Pattie, sit on this hassock on the chair +by mother, you'll be high enough then." + +They gathered round the table while Meg invited her mother to ask the +blessing; then they all began. But before Meg tasted hers she took up a +couple of thin slices of bread and butter and a sardine on a little +tray, with a nice hot cup of tea. + +"Brought up some of the sunshine to me?" said Miss Hobson, smiling. + +"Oh, I didn't mean that! But if you saw how thin and, careworn and poor +she is----" + +"I know it--I've seen her often enough. Meg, wasn't it Jem as said that +you did with your might 'whatsoever your hand found to do'?" + +"No, he said we ought to." + +"It's the same thing with you, I'm thinking." + +Meg went back to her tea-party, and by-and-by the bread was done, and +came out of the oven looking a picture. + +"How do you judge?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +But she need not have spoken, for Meg was tapping it with her knuckles, +and when she heard it sound clear and bright on every side, she knew it +was baked through. + +"There, Mrs. Blunt, one of those is for you; see I will stand it on its +top on this shelf to let the steam off, and when you go you shall take +it with you. Whenever you like, I'll come down and watch you make one or +two batches; that is, if mother does not want me." + +So the tea-party ended. Mrs. Blunt had not had such a quiet meal for +years. Her face looked brighter and happier as she prepared to go back +again. Mrs. Seymour had already returned to her ironing, and Meg was +putting the loaf on a plate. + +"Would you mind saying that text over again?" asked Mrs. Blunt +wistfully. + +"That about our burdens?" said Meg. + +"She's teached me one," said Pattie. "I 'tan say it--'Jesus,'--that's +what she teached me." + +"So I did," said Meg, kissing her, "and mother's text means just the +same, only longer, because she's big. 'Cast thy burden on the _Lord_, +and He shall sustain thee.'" + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + TURNING A NEW LEAF. + + +And so Mrs. Blunt began a new life. + +That afternoon when she went down with softened heart to her crowded and +somewhat dirty rooms, she looked round upon them with new eyes--eyes +that had been lightened by a ray from above. She scarcely knew it, and +yet, instead of gloomy half-patient, half-hopeless despondency, she +began to think even her poor little things might be able to be made +better. + +The rest of her children were all at school, but they would soon be home +now. They must not find home more desolate than usual because mother had +had a rare treat. + +She put the new loaf carefully away, it must not be touched till +to-morrow, and then she set on her kettle for tea and swept up the room. +How different it looked even with that little bit of care! Next, +deciding that she should just have time to clean the hearth, she set +about it with all speed, and was just putting away her pail when there +came a rush in the passage, and four or five children burst into the +room. + +It was on her lips to say, "What a row you do make!" but another word +was already hovering there--Pattie's new word, "Jesus,"--and somehow +that word would not let the others pass it. + +"Ain't tea ready? we're awful hungry, mother." + +"Very soon, Jim. Just take Pattie and baby outside, will yer, while I +turn round a bit. It 'ull come all the sooner for letting me get it +without them hangin' on my skirts." + +Jim saw the force of this argument, and with pretty good grace took the +little ones under his charge on the doorstep, while the mother turned to +the eldest girl with an unusually kind welcome. + +"Come, Kittie," she said, "and help tidy up for father. I've been out to +tea, Kittie, and I've heard words as has made me wish to have a happier +home, and I want you to 'elp me do it." + +Kittie, a well-grown but backward girl of twelve, rather stared at her +mother, but she recognized that the tone was different, and concluding +that her mother was in a good humour, as she called it, she hastened to +do as she was bid. + +Tea was a favourite meal. Sometimes a little treacle or dripping was +added to the bread, and though the tea was nearly as colourless as it +was tasteless, still it was hot and occasionally sweet, and that was +something. + +To-night a large stale loaf and some treacle was the fare, and as Kittie +bustled about to spread the cloth, Mrs. Blunt said again-- + +"Kittie, I've often grumbled at things bein' so terrible hard for us, +and about bein' so short of food and all, but instead o' that I'm goin' +to turn over a new leaf." + +"A new leaf?" questioned the girl, pausing on her way to the cupboard. +"What do yer mean, mother?" + +"I don't rightly know yet--if I did I'd tell yer. But one thing I do +know, Kittie. Young Mrs. Seymour, what's been so kind to me, says the +Saviour don't mean us to go worritin' all our days, but likes us best to +ask Him to 'elp us bear our troubles; and she says as He lightens hers +and He will mine. Well, if that's true, I'd like to try it, and +somehow, Kittie--I don't hardly like to so much as say it--but I feel a +deal happier and better, and as if I'd got some one to love as will +never fail me." + +Mrs. Blunt's eyes were tearful by the time she had said all this, and +Kittie's watered in sympathy, though she did not fully understand her +mother. + +"There's the kettle boilin'! Make the tea and call the little 'uns in. +What a mercy as we've got some treacle! That's 'cause the porridge cost +less nor the bread would ha' done. We saved a penny or more for dinner, +and every one had enough; and that's more'n we can say every day, ain't +it, Kittie?" + +Kittie nodded. She was intent on filling the tea-pot. Then she went to +the door and began to call; but there was no need. Jim caught up the +baby, and there was a general rush to the table. + +The father did not come home till six, so some bread was set aside for +him first of all, and then the mother divided what there was as equally +as she could, giving larger shares to the bigger children. Soon there +was nothing but empty plates, and then the elder children went into +different corners, or wherever they could be quietest, to learn their +home-lessons. Then mother quickly cleared away, and set the table +straight for the father. A meagre meal for a working man. She felt it +bitterly as she spread the few slices of bread on a plate, and put a +small bit of dripping in front of them. But as she looked she remembered +that there was the Lord who was to carry her burdens, and not herself, +and so she took courage again, though she could not at the moment see +any way out of the difficulty. + +"It 'ull be better when I can make 'em the bread," she thought. "Fancy +saving two shillings a week!" + +At this moment a knock came at the door, and on going to open it, she +found old Mrs. Seymour standing there with something in her hand. + +"Mrs. Blunt," she said, "I guess you're wishin' as your husband had been +with us this afternoon to have such a nice tea, now weren't you?" + +Mrs. Blunt's colour rose, and she could have cried, she thought. At last +she said, "Why, how could you know that, Mrs. Seymour?" + +"I've had a husband myself, my dear, and a steady one too, like yours, +and so I've brought this bloater if you'll excuse it, just to make a +little relish for his tea. He isn't in, is he?" + +"No," said Mrs. Blunt, "but----" + +"No 'buts,' my dear. Just you cook it for him and tell him to ask no +questions about it, but enjoy it as much as we did our tea up yonder." + +She was gone before Mr. Blunt could say another word, and when she +turned to the fire with her treasure, she thought she had never been so +happy. + +But were these tears that were coursing each other down her cheeks? How +was that? + +When her husband opened the door, expecting an untidy home and some dry +bread, what was his astonishment to be greeted by an unusually +cheerful-looking room, and a fragrant smell of frying fish. + +His wife turned round with a smile. + +"Here's a treat!" she said, "and you're to ask no questions, but enjoy +it. It ain't come out of our to-morrer's breakfast neither, so don't you +think it; and I didn't buy it neither; so here it is smoking hot, and +mind ye don't burn yerself." + +The man sat down in great wonder, first at the nice supper provided for +him, and secondly at his wife's tone. + +She, however, took no more notice, but shut herself in the next room +with the little ones, where she quickly undressed them and put them to +bed. When she returned again, the other children had gone out to play in +the street, and Kittie was clearing away her father's tea. + +The father sat by the fire smoking, and turned round on his wife's +entrance to look in her face, as if to see if there were a change there. +But he saw nothing particular that he could fix upon, and he resumed his +pipe in silence. + +"Come, Kit," said Mrs. Blunt, "you and me 'ull get to that mending. +Jim's wearin' his best trousers 'cause we ain't done it." + +"But I don't know how," said Kittie, none too willingly. + +"Then I'll show yer. Come, Kit, be a good girl and do yer best. You've +been taught yer needle, that's one good thing." + +"I wish I could leave school," grumbled Kit, as she fumbled in her +pocket for her thimble; "there's lots o' girls as young as me has +left." + +"Of course they 'ave! Them as is quick at their learning can leave +sooner. I've telled you that a hundred times, but ye see ye haven't +taken what I said." + +"I can't do no better," answered Kittie, "the lessons is so terrible +hard." + +"Well, well," answered the mother, more patiently than usual, "perhaps +the Lord can help you in your troubles as well as me. We'll see about +it. You and me has a deal to learn, Kittie." + +Kittie knew that. She was always being told "she had a deal to learn." +The daily pressure on her mother, that would have been so lightened +could she have left school, made the subject return again and again to +worry her. Inattentive and careless, she thought she could do no better, +and hopelessly gave the whole matter up as a bad job. + +But when the mending was done, and she laid herself down in her little +bed in the corner of her mother's room, behind the screen of a large +towel-horse, which served as her bedroom, she began to think the matter +over in rather a new light. + +What had her mother meant when she said, "perhaps the Lord would help +her to do better in her lessons"? + +Was there any help in such a thing as that? And who was this "Lord" of +whom her mother spoke? + +Kittie had perceived that things had been brighter for the last day or +two, and if this had anything to do with this "Lord," of whom her mother +seemed to expect something, she too would like to understand the whole +matter. + +Long she lay awake, thinking. Sleep seemed to have left her eyelids. Her +brothers came in from the street, and she watched through the open door +her mother helping them to their rough little beds in the front room. +By-and-by the hubbub was over, and quiet sank down upon the whole of +them. + +Her father must be dozing, she supposed, as he said not a word, and her +mother was unusually silent too. The click of her needle and the sharp +rap of her scissors on the bare table were the only sounds inside the +room. Outside the noisy roar went on as usual: the crying children, the +scolding mothers, the cries of the fish and fruit sellers, the +organ-grinders--everything just as usual. + +Presently her mother spoke. "Husband, I've been a thinkin' there must be +something in them Seymours as is different from most folks." + +"Like enough," he answered. + +"There's a big print Bible or somethin' stuck up over old Mrs. Seymour's +ironing-board. What should ye think that might be for, now?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure; you'd a deal better ask her if y'er so +curious." + +Mrs. Blunt was busy on her own thoughts, and pursued, without noticing +her husband's implied rebuke-- + +"'Cause if that's what makes 'em different, I'd like to be different +too." + +"Bide as ye are. Don't you be taking up fine notions. Ye've enough to do +to mind us all, without doin' as other folks does." + +"I wonder where our Bible's been put to," his wife went on, without +regarding him. + +Her husband did not answer. He was half inclined to be vexed at his +wife's persistency, but he remembered the brightened room this evening, +the absence of scolding, and the nicely-cooked fish, so he took refuge +in silence. + +Mrs. Blunt got up, put away her work, and began searching on the top +shelf of a cupboard which filled one corner. + +At last she got down from the chair on which she had been standing, and +Kittie could hear her blowing the dust from something. + +"Here 'tis," she said, in a satisfied tone. "I knew as 'twas somewheres. +Supposin' you and me was to read a bit every night?" + +"Not I," said the man. "If you've took up with new notions, keep 'em to +yerself. I'm goin' to step out a bit. This 'ere room's stiflin'." + +His wife's countenance fell, and when the door banged behind him, she +opened the book with a sigh. + +Kittie from her corner could just see her mother's face--such a weary, +thin face. She was thinking so, when, after turning over a good many +pages, her mother began to read out in a subdued voice. Kittie was so +surprised that she listened, and these were the words she heard-- + +"Behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou +wilt Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched +him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was +cleansed." + +Kittie lost the next few sentences while she said to herself, "Then the +'Lord' as mother spoke on means Jesus! I didn't know that. And people is +asking Him to do something for 'em, and He seems quite willin'. I wonder +if He'd be willin' to help poor little Kittie a bit? Well, what comes +next?" + +"Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. +And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him." + +Her mother ceased reading, and leant her head on her hand, while Kittie, +strange thoughts running in her mind, began to wish she could go to this +Lord to obtain help as these people had. She must get that book and see +what more it said. At any rate of this she was certain, that the Lord +Jesus answered to both those applicants, "_I will_." He did not say "no" +to either, and if she could only find out how to speak to Him, she too +might get what she needed. With this comforting thought, and with the +light of a new hope dawning in her heart, little Kittie fell asleep. + +She did not yet know that He was close to her all the time, and that His +ear was ever ready to hear if she spoke to Him. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + A MIDNIGHT BARGAIN. + + +"Look 'ere," said a low voice, "be a good boy, and don't cry, and then +I'll see if I can't get yer somethin' or other to eat." + +"But I'm 'ungry, Cherry," whispered the little one in answer, frightened +by former experiences into keeping his woe within bounds, "and it's all +cold and dark 'ere. I wish you'd take me to mother." + +A sharp pang shot across Cherry's heart, and she answered in a voice +that held a sob only just restrained from breaking forth, "I can't, +Dickie, you know as I can't. I would in a minute if I could; mother's +gone a long way off." + +"In a train?" whispered Dickie. + +Cherry nodded. What did it matter, so that Dickie was pacified? she +thought. + +"She promised as she'd take me," he said again, "and she never has. She +never went a long way from Dickie 'afore." + +"No," whispered Cherry again, "no more she did from Cherry; but she +couldn't help herself--mother couldn't. She was took." + +Dickie turned round wearily, and his little sister smoothed his hair and +cheek, till by-and-by his gentle breathing told her that he was at last +asleep. + +Then she raised herself a little and looked round stealthily. + +The room in which she lay was a good-sized one, and in each of the four +corners, heaped together for warmth, the different members of four +different families were huddled. Tattered rugs, shawls, and rags covered +them from the biting February cold, and a flickering nightlight on a box +in the middle of the room was the only gleam that revealed the shadowy +misery congregated there. + +Though the poor little brother was asleep, and Cherry herself sorely +needed repose, she still kept her wearied eyes open, watching the door +fearfully. At last, overcome by fatigue, she forgot everything, till a +slight moan from Dickie brought her back to the present, and she heard a +voice close at her elbow say thickly-- + +"Well, yer can 'ave him: the worst on't is the gal; she'll take on if I +say yes, awful." + +The words were spoken in a rough sort of undertone by a man who seemed +by the sound of his voice to have been drinking heavily. + +The answer, from a woman who was already settling herself to sleep in +her corner near, came in a hard distinct whisper-- + +"Never mind _her_! She'll fret a bit, but that'll be the end on it. She +can't do nothing. Anybody 'ud know as 'tis better for 'im to be fed and +clothed than left 'ere to starve." + +The man addressed was sensible of a sort of flash of memory, and a +picture came up before his eyes. + +A neat, quiet home; an invalid wife sitting in a chair by the fire, +tenderly holding a little frail boy; a crippled girl standing with her +hand in the child's; a low hoarse voice pleading, "You'll take care of +'em, Tom! You'll let that dreadful drink alone, and feed them as are so +helpless instead!" + +That was the picture, and as Tom heard the woman say what she proposed +"was better than starving," he knew in his heart how cruelly he had +broken the promise he had made to his dying wife. + +"I'll take 'im right away up to the attic if ye like," the woman went +on, "and then," indicating Cherry by a movement of her hand, "she won't +hear nor see nothink." + +The man shook his head. + +"One thing, she do keep 'im quiet when we don't want 'im. And if she +makes a fuss I'll find a way to shut 'er mouth; that I will, don't yer +fear." + +Cherry lay and quaked. Well she knew all that was implied in this +low-toned conversation, both towards her little brother and herself. But +she too had seen, as by a flash, another scene. A woman on a dying bed, +whispering with an earnestness which impressed every word on her child's +memory, "Cherry, if you're in any trouble, tell Jesus--ask Him to help +you. Oh, Cherry, if I did not know you love Him, my heart would break. +Jesus, will help you. Tell Dickie that I always said that." + +Cherry thought of it now, at first with a hopeless feeling that things +had been so bad for so long that she feared Jesus did not hear; and then +with a rebound she determined never to give up what her beloved and +dying mother had bequeathed to her. "She always spoke true," she +thought, with a sudden lightening of her terrible burden, and her head +nestled against Dickie's with a certain dim belief that rescue of some +sort would come some day. + +The crowded inhabitants of the room had one by one sunk into slumber; +even her father had ceased tossing about and swearing at all around him. +Still Cherry lay broad awake, thinking over all the events of the last +year, and remembering now with a sort of awe how she _had_ called upon +her Lord Jesus last May, when things had been so dreadfully bad with +little Dickie, and how He had heard her, and had sent Dickie a long and +dangerous illness, which had made him quite unable to be taken out on +hire with old Sairy as heretofore. + +She remembered now with thankfulness, though she had not looked upon it +as the answer at the time, that somehow the kind carpenter who had been +repairing their wretched room had taken notice of Dickie, and had given +him a blanket and some grapes, and how his wife had brought him many a +nice meal from their table. + +Cherry's life was so hard that she had taken all that happened, both bad +and good, with a sort of apathy; but to-night it all came over her +afresh, and she realized that this had perhaps been the way her Lord +Jesus had answered her despairing prayer for little Dickie. + +Then she would pray again; and this time instead of asking only for him +to be taken away from the cruel woman everybody called "old Sairy," she +would pray that he might have a nice home, and love and care. + +Cherry did not say those words, but in her simple language she asked +what she wanted, and after that, with a strange sense of the burden +lifted on to shoulders which were very strong, she closed her eyes and +at last fell asleep. + +And even the next day, when Dickie woke, and old Sairy handed him a +piece of bread, Cherry took the matter with equanimity, saying to +herself over and over again, "I've told Jesus, and He's goin' to see to +it." + +But when Dickie had eaten the bread ravenously, he turned his little +face back again to Cherry's shoulder, and said with a shudder, "Don't +yer let me go 'long o' them, Cherry, don't yer!" Then Cherry's heart +misgave her, and she looked at her still sleeping father, and then at +old Sairy, as if to measure her possibility of resistance. + +But Sairy gave her a glance which withered her up, like the raw February +air which was rushing in at the open door, and hissed out in an +undertone which made her shiver, "If yer don't mind what yer about, it +'ull be the worse for _'im_, and that I tell yer." + +An hour after, when she saw them set off as of old, the man with Dickie, +and old Sairy with somebody's wailing baby, her heart died within her. + +The room had almost cleared. Only a weakly young mother with her babe +were left, and two sleeping drunken men. + +As Cherry lifted her heavy sorrowful eyes they met those of the woman. + +"Come 'ere, dear," she said gently; "don't you take on about the little +'un. It won't 'urt 'im to be out o' doors, and if you 'aven't food to +give 'im, ain't it a deal better as they should feed 'im? I 'eard what +them two said last night, and it's true as he's pretty nigh starvin'." + +"Yes, but you don't know," whispered Cherry, looking round fearfully; +"if it was only taking him out I shouldn't care; but--" + +At this moment her father roused up and shook himself. + +"Eh, gal, so they're gone?" with a coarse laugh; "and to-night we'll get +a bit of supper, and some'ut to drink." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: "Then the woman seizes Dickie again, and begins to tie +somethin' on his eyes, and he fights and screams with all his little +might."--p. 136.] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + "INASMUCH." + + +March was nearly over, when one night Jem woke to see Meg standing at +the window. It was moonlight, and he could see her outline distinctly +against the bright sky. + +"Is anything the matter, Meg?" he asked anxiously. + +"Hush!" exclaimed Meg earnestly. "Jem, night after night I hear the +same. I thought it must be my fancy, but I'm certain it's not. There! +can't you hear those screams?" + +Jem got up and came to the window, more with the intention of soothing +Meg than of listening to his neighbours. He had too long been used to +London sights and sounds to be alarmed at a little crying in the night. + +Meg held her breath, and on the night air were certainly borne +unmistakable cries of some child, either in great fear or pain. + +"Jem!" said Meg again in a frightened whisper, "which house did you say +Dickie used to live in?" + +"D'ye mean Dickie's attic?" + +"Yes; where we went," said Meg, with her teeth chattering. + +"Get into bed!" he implored. "Meg, you'll catch your death o' cold, my +dear. I'll stay and listen here, if it 'ull do any good." + +Meg retreated, and Jem gazed out into the dimness. Still he could hear +what had so affected Meg, and as he looked, and his eyes became +accustomed to the moonlight, which could not shine down into the depths +of the courtyard below, but still shed a hazy light on it all, he began +to see which-were-which of the houses behind; and could trace--there the +back windows of a certain public-house--there the blank darkness of an +empty building--and there the twinkling lights in houses which he knew +to be general lodgings. + +It was from one of these he fancied, up the next court, that the cries +came; and as he stood reckoning it up, he turned to Meg and said, + +"It _is_ Dickie's attic, I believe! There's a light there, and people +movin' back and forwards. Perhaps some one's ill." + +"No," said Meg, sitting up, "it's nobody ill. It's some child being +beaten or hurt. Oh, Jem, _could_ you go and see--could you get in +there, do you think?" + +"Not to-night, my girl. But to-morrow I'll see if I can hear anything of +it. It's the house where I worked, so they'll know me most like, and not +think I'm intrudin' on 'em." + +"Jem! that blanket weighs on me," said Meg with a sob. "Those children +ought to have had it all this time; but whenever I've been up to the +attic to see, the people have been so rough to me, and the other rooms +were all let out to several families in each." + +"I know," said Jem, coming away from the window, "and very likely he'd +have took the children elsewhere, especially if he didn't want you to +interfere with 'em, Meg." + +Poor Meg, with a weary sigh she lay down on her pillow and tried to +sleep. The house where they fancied the sound came from was so near +theirs at right angles, that a conversation could be carried on from the +back windows if any one had chosen. + +As Meg lay wakeful and sad, she fancied she could still hear the cries, +growing fainter and fainter, till either they ceased, or Meg ceased to +be able to catch them. + +The next morning Jem and she consulted as to what could be done; Jem +averring, very truly, that "folks wouldn't stand people coming to make +inquiries after crying children." + +"I should not so much mind if it were not for Cherry's hints," said Meg; +"but, Jem, I could make something, or you could buy a few oranges to +take in your hand, and say you had brought them for Dickie if you could +find him. Would that do?" + +Jem promised to do his best, and went to his work revolving the matter +in his mind. He bade a tender adieu to his wife, looked in her pale +face, and told her she must not worry, but remember what she had tried +to teach Mrs. Blunt--to cast her burden on the Lord, and find anew that +He would sustain her. + +He hastened away, and Meg cleared her table, and went up-stairs to speak +to her mother-in-law. + +It could not have been more than half-an-hour afterwards that she and +Mrs. Seymour were coming down together, and Meg had just reached the +bottom step at her own landing, when a man's voice was heard asking in a +loud voice as he came up-- + +"Does any one live here belonging to a man of the name of Seymour?" + +"Yes," answered Meg and her mother both together. + +"Because he's been run over near the Monument, and they've taken him to +'Guy's.'" + +Meg gave one wild look at her mother, held out her arms to catch +something, and fell fainting on the floor. + + * * * * * + +Towards afternoon Meg opened her eyes at the sound of a beloved voice. + +"My girl," he said, "don't ye know me? Look up, sweetheart! Here's Jem. +And look what we've got sent us from our God! Meg, my girl, it was not +your Jem as was hurt." + +Meg gave a faint smile, and then she saw her mother-in-law bending over +her, and putting into Jem's hand a spoon with something to give her. + +She allowed him to feed her, and when the cup was empty she whispered-- + +"Jem, I thought----" + +"You must not talk, my little woman; but now you're a bit better, would +you like to see our little child? He was sent to us while you were so +ill." + +Meg tried to hold out her arms, but failed, and her mother-in-law laid a +little babe in them. Meg said not a word, but pressed a kiss upon Jem's +hand, and endeavoured to reach the downy little head. But she had no +strength, and Mrs. Seymour, seeing her wish, and knowing too something +else which neither of them guessed, raised the babe a little, that its +mother's lips might touch its tiny face. + +Meg was satisfied, and closed her eyes to sleep. "Husband and child," +she thought, "who could be richer?" And then another thought came to +rest her with its sweetness--"Who for your sakes became poor, that ye, +through His poverty, might be rich." + +Meg's lips moved, and Jem bent over her to hear. + +"We'll teach him about Jesus first of all, Jem," she murmured; and as +Jem assented, she slept. + +But the little one was to be taken into the Shepherd's care at once. Meg +was never to have her desire of herself teaching him the name she loved +beyond all others. + +Mrs. Seymour stood by and watched, unwilling to break the slumber which +was like life to Meg, and knowing that nothing could be done for the +babe better than lying in its mother's bosom. + +And Jem sat watching too, realizing in a dim sort of way that he was +indeed a father. + +By-and-by his mother touched him on the shoulder. + +"Jem," she whispered, cautioning him by a warning glance, "God is taking +the little one to Himself; but I think Meg will do well if we can but +keep her quiet." + +Jem gave one look at her to take in the meaning of her words, and then +he sat still, trying to realize and submit to what his God was sending. + +When, after two long hours of watching on their part, and deep +refreshing sleep on Meg's, she again opened her eyes and turned to her +babe, the little spirit had already taken flight to the land where +"their angels do alway behold the face of the Father which is in +heaven." + +"Meg, my girl," said Jem's voice, oh, so tenderly, "you'd be willin' to +give him up into our Saviour's care if He was to ask it?" + +"I think I would," she answered in a wondering tone, but looking up +quite collectedly. + +"Because I think the Good Shepherd has been callin' him, my dear." + +Meg could turn her head now; she raised herself on her elbow, and gazed +at the little face. + +"Jem," she said helplessly, and laid her head back on her pillow with a +sob. + +Her mother-in-law bent over her. + +"Let me take him for a little while, my child; it will be better so." + +Meg made no objection, and her mother lifted the tiny form to her lap, +and crossed its wee hands on its breast. + +"May it go in my cradle, just for once?" asked Meg beseechingly. + +And so he was laid in the little cot that Meg had prepared with such +loving hands, and Jem put it on a chair by her side; and then he sat +down again by her, and they both wept together. + +After a long time Meg wiped away her tears. + +"Jem," she said softly, "I can say it now: 'The Lord gave, and the Lord +hath taken away, _blessed_ be the name of the Lord.'" + +Jem and his mother watched by her side till the clock in the other room +struck twelve, and then Mrs. Seymour signed to him to go and take some +rest. + +But though not a word had been spoken nor a movement made, Meg started +up. + +"There it is again!" + +"What, my dear?" asked Mrs. Seymour soothingly. "Lie down, and I'll see +to it." + +But Meg could not be silenced so. + +"Jem," she urged, doing, however, as her mother wished, "Jem, you said +you'd go and see about it. Oh, Jem dear, my heart will break!" + +"I will, Meg," he answered at once. "You're bein' so ill put it out of +my head. I'll go at once." + +He rose, and his mother followed him out of the room. + +"I think she's a bit light-headed, Jem; don't go out, my dear. What does +she mean?" + +"I know," answered Jem hurriedly. "Let me go, mother; I ought to have +been there ever so long ago." + +He went, and Meg lay wide awake listening. She took the gruel her mother +brought her, and pronounced herself much better. Often her eyes rested +on the little cot, but she did not cry, nor did she say anything about +it. + +Once she asked hesitatingly-- + +"Mother, did I dream it, or did some one say that Jem was dead?" + +"It was a mistake," answered Mrs. Seymour, "a cruel carelessness. It was +a man of the name of Seymour, who lives, we find, in the second house up +the court, and people sent them here. 'Twas a cruel thing to say it out +like that!" + +Meg asked no more, and before long she heard Jem's step coming up the +stairs and entering the room. + +He came softly to her bedside, and then, as if he could no longer bear +it, he threw himself on his knees and wept bitterly. + +Meg put out her hand and touched his head. + +"Jem dear?" she questioned; while Mrs. Seymour laid a firm hand on his +arm, and said gravely-- + +"Don't give way so, my son, or you'll worry her." + +But Jem was wholly overcome. + +"It might ha' been ours, it might ha' been ours!" he said, over and over +again, till Mrs. Seymour was quite beside herself. + +"Tell me, Jem," said Meg gently. "Have you found Dickie?" + +He nodded. + +"Was he being hurt?" she asked again. + +He nodded again. + +"How?" + +Jem shivered. + +"_How_ I shall never tell to mortal being!" he exclaimed; "but it was +something they are doing to his eyes." + +"His eyes?" said Meg, leaning up. "Oh, Jem, do tell me quick!" + +"To make them bad, to get more money by begging," said Jem, as if the +words were forced from him; "and his father's dying in the hospital, and +he'll be left to their mercy!" + +"Can't you fetch him here?" asked Meg. + +Jem looked up. + +"Meg! could we--now? You and me was talkin' of it this mornin'. They'll +be orphans to-morrow." + +Meg smiled a weak sweet smile as she looked towards the cot. + +"Bring him if you can," she answered, "and Cherry too." + +Mrs. Seymour could hardly follow the course of their thoughts, for she +knew so little of what had gone before, and when Jem rose up and left +the house for the second time, she was too astonished to protest. + +This time he was gone longer than before, and Meg ate what her mother +brought, and dozed quietly. + +After some time his step was again heard, and he came quickly up. + +Meg's eyes opened, and she listened intently. Yes, that was his step, +and after it surely, surely, there was the halting one of poor little +Cherry. + +Jem opened the door and came softly in. + +"Meg," he said, in a smothered voice, "God has sent us two little +children instead of the one He's took to Himself. Here is Dickie for you +to comfort." + +Meg opened her arms, and Jem laid Dickie in them. + +"No one shan't hurt you any more, Dickie, while we live," he said; +"don't you have any more fear." + +The child had given one rapid glance at Meg's face, and the moment he +recognized her he nestled down confidently in her arms, while Cherry +stood by with happy tears running down her cheeks. + +"It's a solemn charge, Jem," said his mother. + +"Cherry says she's been askin' Jesus to find a home for him for ever so +long, and now it's come," answered Jem. + +"Cherry, child," said Mrs. Seymour, "you come up with me, and I'll put +you to bed, and to-morrow we'll talk it all over." + +"Yes, to-morrow I must go and see their father at the hospital. I trust +he'll live till then." + +"You won't be 'fraid for 'Cherry' to go to bed, Dickie?" asked the +little girl, looking down on him as he lay. + +Dickie shook his head. + +"I'll stay along of mo'ver-Meg," he said. + +Jem sat down, quite overcome, and drew the trembling little Cherry +within his kind arm. + +Her eyes were wandering round the cosy bedroom, which reminded her so +forcibly of her mother's; and when she saw the cot, she thought how +lovely it would be to have a baby to hold. But when Jem saw her glance +resting there he whispered softly, so as not to disturb Meg, + +"The little 'un's gone to be with God, Cherry; you and Dickie is come to +us instead." + +Cherry's eyes filled with tears, and she laid her head on Jem's kind +shoulder, repressing her sobs by a great effort. + +"Cherry," said Mrs. Seymour, "there's my bed up-stairs, you shall have a +good sleep on that; come along, child, or it will be morning." + +Cherry looked towards Dickie, as if even now loth to let him out of her +sight. + +"Stay," added Mrs. Seymour; "let's have a cup of tea first, and some +bread and milk for Dickie. I dare say you haven't had much? I had just +made some before you came." + +Cherry shook her head. + +Mrs. Seymour soon put a steaming cup into Jem's hand, and another into +Cherry's. Then she cut some bread for them, and placed some in Meg's +little saucepan for the child. After which she went to the bed and took +him out, telling Meg she should soon have him again if she wished, but +that he was hungry. + +Meg was too tired and peaceful to say a word. "He does all things well," +she thought, and lay quietly sleeping, not noticing the hushed noises +which were going on around her. + +She had no idea that Jem left her to lie down on the sofa in the next +room; nor that her mother-in-law took little Dickie on her knee and fed +him tenderly; nor that she bathed his eyes with warm water; nor that she +refilled the baby's bath, and with Cherry's help undressed and bathed +him. + +"It is nice," said the poor little fellow, as the kind old woman sat +with him on her lap before the fire, and slipped over his head a clean +warm little nightgown brought down from her airing-horse up-stairs. + +"It's Mrs. Blunt's," she explained to Cherry; "but I'm not a bit afraid +but what she'll lend it to him for a night or two. Wasn't it fortunate +that she happened to send it in amongst the sheets I do for her? She +don't ever send me these sort of things, but this one came for the +purpose, I do believe! Don't he look different?" + +"He do indeed," answered poor little yawning Cherry. "I never see him +look so nice since mother used to undress him. I did the best I could, +ma'am, but it was so dreadful hard to keep 'im clean." + +Mrs. Seymour shook her head kindly. + +"I know it was, child," she said. + +She was going to add that she did not know how her Jem was going to +support two children; but a glance at Cherry's happy face stopped her, +and she only added softly-- + +"You can wash your face and hands too, child, and then you shall go to +bed." + +"Are you goin' to bed?" whispered Cherry. + +"Not to-night, my dear," glancing towards Meg, "but I'll doze a bit in +this chair. Now, Dickie, shall I put you back in the nice warm bed with +Meg, as I promised?" + +Dickie nodded. + +She rose, and opening the clothes as gently as she could, she put the +clean warm little boy close to Meg's side. + +Meg instantly felt him, and understood enough, without rousing herself, +to say in a soft little tone of endearment-- + +"Come along, Dickie; you won't mind staying with me?" + +"No; I'll stay along of mo'ver-Meg," said Dickie; and as he said it, he +put his thin little arms about her neck and kissed her. Then without +another word they both sank into dreamless slumber. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + DICKIE'S ATTIC. + + +When Mrs. Seymour had placed the tired little Cherry in her own nice +bed, and had made Miss Hobson understand in a few words who it was who +would be found in the morning sharing her room, she returned to the next +floor and looked round. + +In the bedroom Meg and Dickie slept the sleep of the utterly weary, and +leaving them for a moment she went to look after her son Jem. + +He too slept soundly, though he had not undressed, but lay covered by a +blanket on the sofa. + +The clock on the mantel-piece pointed to two, the fire was out, and the +room desolate. + +Making her own determination, but leaving it for the present for fear of +disturbing Jem, she went back to Meg. She stood by the side of the +little cot and gazed long and earnestly at the face of her grandchild. + +Her grandchild! How she had longed to welcome it! how she had counted on +hearing its little feet patter about in her room! how she had yearned to +see her Jem with his child on his knee! + +Instead of that, a dead baby lay in the cradle; and in Meg's embrace +slept a little stranger child, taken, as it were, out of the very +gutter; and in Jem's arms had stood a little cripple, who might be a +care to him all his days. + +Mrs. Seymour could hardly believe that all this had happened in one +day--that it could be only yesterday when she had felt that everything +was going so well with the pair whom she loved better than herself. + +She sat down in Meg's low chair, and looked into the fire with a +troubled face. She argued to herself that Jem and Meg little knew the +burden they were taking up; and even if they dimly understood it, they +were not able to look into the future, and could not know what the years +might bring. + +While these thoughts were passing through her mind, she seemed to see +something written across the fire as she gazed into it. + +The words were familiar, and yet she could not make them out in their +order. She shut her eyes, but still they came again, haunting her with a +rebuke as thorough as it was gentle. Was it the Holy Spirit, who teaches +all those who are wanting to do their Father's will? + +"I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me +drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in. Verily I say unto you, +Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, +ye have done it unto Me." + +"My Lord, have I grudged Thee?" she said, her old eyes dimmed with rare +tears. "Oh, forgive me, and let me do my part towards taking Thee in!" + +When the clock struck six she rose and softly went into the front room. +With as little sound as possible she set Jem's breakfast, and lighted +his fire; putting on the kettle and preparing his room against he should +awake. + +After that she made some gruel for her daughter, on the clear little +fire she had noiselessly kept up all night, and when all was done, she +decided it was time to wake Jem. + +But when she entered his room again he was already up, all traces of +fatigue gone from his face, and her own cheerful Jem stood before her. + +She signed to him that Meg was still asleep, and closing the door behind +her, she set about making the tea, Jem asking her in a low tone what +sort of a night his wife had passed. + +"Beautiful," said Mrs. Seymour; "she hasn't waked once since I put +Dickie back; and while they're all asleep I want to talk to you, Jem. +Shall we sit down and have a bit of breakfast, so as to be ready when we +are wanted?" + +Jem willingly complied, and began at once on the subject that was +uppermost in his mother's thoughts. + +"I dare say, mother, that you think as Meg and me must ha' gone crazy +last night?" + +"I _did_ think so, but----" + +"It wasn't so bad as that," Jem went on, smiling slightly, "for Meg and +me has often talked about Dickie and Cherry; and Meg had said if she got +through this, she should do her best to find 'em, and try to teach +Cherry somethin' or 'nother to get her livin'." + +Mrs. Seymour listened. She had intended to give her son a lecture on +caution and rash haste, but since those words had shone out upon her, +she could hear nothing but the tender "Inasmuch--ye have done it unto +Me." How could she say anything after that? + +"Of course we neither of us thought on it comin' all of a heap like +this, mother; and we didn't guess as our Lord was goin' to take away +with one hand while He gave with t'other! But it's His doin', and we +ain't goin' to grumble. Meg said, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord,' and +if she could say it, I won't be behind her." + +Mrs. Seymour got up to poke the fire, and as she passed her son's chair, +she bent and kissed his forehead in silence. + +"Dear mother!" he said affectionately, "I knew as it 'ud be a sore trial +to you; but----" + +"Don't say a word more, Jem," she said; "I'll help you all I can, and +after a bit we shall see how things turns out. If you decide to keep +Cherry with you, and she is a good girl, I'll promise you as I'll let +her share my bed; and there'll often be a bit of breakfast for her too. +I 'ain't given so much to my Lord as that I can't spare a little more. I +feel to-day as if I'd never done nothing for Him. 'Inasmuch'----!" + +"That's right down kind o' you, mother. If you'd seen all as I saw last +night, you'd find it easier to understand what I felt." + +"Was it so bad, Jem? I never saw you take on like that before." + +"_Bad?_" echoed Jem. "Why, mother, if any one'd 'a told me about it I +wouldn't ha' given it credit. + +"I went out last night more to pacify Meg than because I thought as I +could do any good. The streets was mighty dark, 'cause ye know it was +wet, and when I got to the door, I thought I'd got the right 'un, but I +couldn't be sure. But when I pushed it open and listened, I could hear +the crying, and up I went to the very top, as quiet as I could, +wondering what on earth I could give as a excuse for bein' there if any +one interfered with me. + +"Nobody did. They was all settled in to bed, that is, those as had 'em. +Leastways they was settled to sleep. As I got near the top there was a +bit of light out of the door, and when I got to the landin' I just +paused and took a look in. + +"There was a man sittin' over a bit of fire, sulky like; and there was +a woman bustlin' about gettin' somethin'; and there was Cherry holdin' +Dickie, and cryin' as if her heart would break. And while I looks the +woman comes to her, and drags Dickie away, and when Cherry tries to hold +her off from him, she lays it on to her with a stick till poor little +Cherry lets go at last. Then the woman seizes Dickie again, and begins +to tie somethin' on his eyes, and he fights and screams with all his +little might. + +"'Take it away,' he moans, 'I s'an't have it. Take me away from 'em, +Cherry! Cherry, take it off!' + +"Oh, how his screams rings in my ears now. I could ha' rushed in and +knocked her down, that I could; but I'm glad I didn't interfere then, +for I should ha' lost the little 'un if I had. They'd ha' made off with +him fast enough. + +"So I was just turnin' away on the dark stairs when the woman came +towards the door. I stood back behind it as flat as I could, and she +brushed past without seein' me. + +"The moment she was gone I could see Cherry creep towards her little +brother and lift the bandage. 'You'll get hit agin,' said the sulky man +in a low voice; 'there's nothing but the p'lice, Cherry. I wish some 'un +would give 'em a wink. I'm goin' down to bed.' + +"He shuffled off to one of the lower rooms, and passed me as the woman +had done without seeing me. Fearin' I should be questioned, and not +makin' up my mind whether to let the poor little things know as I was +there, I came out to collect my thoughts. The man had given me a hint. +What if I should go in and rescue the children with the knowledge of the +p'lice? + +"I hastened down-stairs and reached the air without meetin' any one. +Then I came home to you and Meg; but when I saw our own little 'un lyin' +there so still and sweet, and knew that he, anyways, could never know +those cruel blows, it wholly overcame me. And you know the rest, +mother." + +"I don't know how you got 'em, Jem, at last?" + +"No more you do. Well, when Meg said as they was to come home here, I +rushed out; and the first p'liceman I found I tells him the story. + +"He didn't half believe me, but I says to him, 'You come up and stand +outside the door, and if I can't persuade 'em, I'll call you. I don't +want to have a row if I can get the children peaceable.' + +"'Ain't they got no one belongin' to 'em?' he says, as we got to the +door. + +"'Their mother's dead and their father drinks; he might be anywhere,' I +says to him. + +"'I'll tell you where _he_ is, then,' he says, 'if this is the house. +He's dyin' in the hospital, he is. He was run over this mornin'.' + +"'Is _that_ their father?' says I; and, mother, if you'll believe me, I +felt all at once as if they ought to belong to me, since I'd been +saved, and this man of my name had been took. + +"So we went up, and when we come to the door she'd begun beatin' of +Cherry again. + +"'Stop that!' I says, goin' in quick, and she looked as if she'd been +shot. 'And now I've come to fetch these 'ere little 'uns away. I've seen +yer cruelty to 'em, and if you make a fuss I'll expose you, as sure as +my name's Jem Seymour.' + +"With that she stares at me hard, and I go to Dickie and untie his eyes +once more. They was terrible bad by this time, and he only cried more +than ever at the light, and ran to Cherry. + +"'Come, Cherry,' I says to her, 'there's them outside as will see +justice done this time. Come along with me; put that shawl round Dickie, +and never you fear, my dear.' + +"Then I turned to her as they call old Sairy--'As for you,' says I, 'if +you're ever seen with such another little 'un as this, I'll give you in +charge that instant!' + +"Cherry lifted Dickie up, but she was too sore to carry him. So I took +him in my arms, and he clung round my neck, and so we come away. The +woman was too scared to say a word, but I think as she caught sight of +the p'liceman's helmet as we went down." + +Mrs. Seymour sat with her breakfast almost untasted. + +"Oh, God be thanked as they are safe," she said at last. "Jem, you did +quite right." + +"I think as I did," he answered; "but it's a cruel world, mother." + +"And that child, Cherry, said as she was praying for a home?" asked Mrs. +Seymour presently. + +"Yes; she told me so as we come along. Her little heart was near +breakin'." + +Mrs. Seymour said no more, but went into the back room to see if Meg had +waked. Still she and Dickie slept; so leaving the door ajar, she +ascended to her own rooms, taking a cup of tea in her hand for her +lodger. + +She found her awake, and very glad of the tea and the latest news. While +they were talking Cherry raised her head from her pillow and looked +round startled. Then she saw Mrs. Seymour's kind face, and understood it +all. + +"Have you slept long enough, my dear?" she asked. + +"I think so; when I opened my eyes at first I thought it was two years +ago, and that this was our home before father took to drink so bad." + +"Did your mother die since then?" + +"Yes," said Cherry; "I forget exactly, but one thing I know, she was +dreadfully ill on Christmas Day--not this last one, nor the one before +that, but two years ago--and she died in a few days. Soon after that +father got bad; he used to drink afore, but not so much; and then our +things went one by one, and at last----" Cherry shuddered. + +"At last?" questioned Mrs. Seymour. + +"He got tired of me askin' for food for me and Dickie, and we'd been a +long time livin' in that big room where's there's such a lot of 'em, and +then he agrees with old Sairy to take Dickie out with her, and let him +share the profits; and he was out with 'em for I should say nigh on six +months. At last Dickie was took so ill that he couldn't walk another +step, and for a long time I thought he'd 'a died; I wished he had." + +"And was that when you began to know my Meg?" + +"Yes. Oh, she was awful kind to us. And then we went hoppin', and father +and me earned a lot; but he hadn't been home but a little while afore +he'd drunk up every bit of it, and then he thinks of sendin' Dickie out +ag'in; and then they was that cruel to us both. Look here!" + +She undid some of her poor little dress, and bared her thin, deformed +shoulders. They were scarred with red seams and black and blue lines. + +"Why did they beat you?" asked Mrs. Seymour, her face turning white at +the sight. + +"'Cause I wouldn't let 'em hurt Dickie, not while I could hold 'em back; +but it weren't of no use, they always got the best of me at the end." + +"Poor little girl," said Mrs. Seymour, stroking Cherry's head tenderly; +"poor little motherless girl!" + +Cherry's eyes looked up gratefully. + +"Oh, ma'am," she exclaimed earnestly, "if they'll keep Dickie safe from +old Sairy I'll do anything for 'em--anything in the world that I can. I +can learn things pretty quick--mother used to say so. Do you think as +you could teach me anything?" + +"I think we can, Cherry, if you're a good girl." + +"I will try to be," she said humbly. "And please don't think, ma'am, as +I've took to bad ways, 'cause--" + +Cherry's voice was choked, and she could say no more. + +Had the child guessed a certain holding back in Mrs. Seymour's manner. + +"Why?" she asked gravely. + +"'Cause," answered Cherry in a low voice, "I've never forgot what mother +taught me. She said as I belonged to Jesus. When I thought of that--" + +"Well?" asked Mrs. Seymour gently. + +"I tried to please Him," said Cherry, hiding her face in the pillow. + +Mrs. Seymour bent over her. + +"Forgive me, little Cherry; I was so afraid--but now I'm not. Look up, +dear, and give me a kiss." + +Cherry put her arms round her neck without a word; and then Mrs. Seymour +asked her if she would not like some breakfast soon? + +Cherry's eyes brightened. "Oh, ma'am," she said, "I've not had anything +but a crust for so long that I gave up callin' it breakfast." + +"Well, child, when you have made yourself a bit tidy you come down as +quiet as you can, and see what I'm about. There's Jem's teapot on the +hob for you, and some nice bread and butter. Dickie's fast asleep now, +and I must go back to them." + +She went to seek Jem, who was not in the front room. She came to the +open door, and saw him standing looking intently into the cradle. He +turned hastily when he saw his mother, and signed to her to go into the +other room, whither he followed quickly. + +"Mother," he said, in a low tone, "what must I do about the little +babe?" + +He spoke in a smothered voice, and his mother knew the pang he must +feel, now the excitement of all that had happened on the previous day +was passing off. + +She gave him a few brief instructions, and after saying he understood, +he presently added, "Mother, I shall go to my master's, and ask him to +let me off for a few hours. There ain't nothin' particular doin', so I +dare say he'll make no objections. You see I've got to go about +this----; and then when I come back Cherry and me must go to the +hospital. I've been told as he's not expected to live the day. D'ye +think my Meg'ull be awake when I come back?" + +"Very likely she will. And, Jem, tell Mrs. Blunt as you pass, as I want +her to step up for a few minutes. I've done by her clothes as I've +never done by no one's, all these twenty years that I've washed for +people. I've let some one belongin' to me wear one! What do you think of +your old mother now, Jem?" + +"It's what she'll think," answered Jem with a slight smile. "I'll tell +her to step up anyway." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + IN THE HOSPITAL. + + +Jem came back within the hour. He found his Meg awake and calm. She had +had some breakfast, and was now lying with her hand clasped in little +Dickie's with a serene smile on her face. + +As for the child, he lay on the soft white pillow with his eyes closed +from the light, dozing occasionally and then rousing just enough to +understand the tender care that surrounded him, and to realize that he +need have no fear now. + +"Cherry," he said, without moving, hearing Jem's entrance and believing +it to be his sister, "is this what ye asked Jesus to send me?" + +"Yes," answered Cherry, who was standing on the other side of the bed, +"only I didn't know as the Lord Jesus would send anything so very nice +as this." + +Dickie assented, adding with a little sigh of satisfaction, "I never +want to get up no more." + +"You shall lie here as long as you like," said Meg assuringly. "Now, +Dickie, open your eyes and look at Jem." + +"I can't open my eyes," answered Dickie, "'cause they hurt so; but I'm +glad fa'ver-Jem has come back." + +"Am I to be 'father-Jem'?" asked the man, bending down to look closer +into the little face. + +"Yes," said Dickie; "if it's 'mo'ver-Meg,' it must be 'fa'ver-Jem.'" + +Jem smiled and then sighed. He had hoped for something different from +this; but what if His Father's will had arranged it so? + +"You do not mind, Jem?" came in Meg's soft voice. "His feeling so has +made me very happy." + +"So it shall me, sweetheart," he answered, taking the child henceforward +right into his big heart. + +Then he turned to Cherry. + +"Make haste and put on your hat, Cherry," he said to her; "for I want to +get your poor father to give you to us to take care of. D'ye think he +will?" + +Cherry looked doubtful. It was on her lips to say, "Father would do +anything for drink," but she felt it would be cruel to even think such a +thing now, and she hastily dismissed the thought. And as it went another +came--"I'll ask Jesus to help." So when she put on her shabby little +hat, and turned down-stairs with Jem, the uppermost thought in her +heart came to be, "Oh, if only poor father could love Jesus; I shouldn't +mind about being happy myself." + +Perhaps Jem's mind was running on the same subject, for he walked along +very silently by her side. Once he turned to her to take her little thin +hand, and to ask her if he were walking too fast, but after that he +scarcely spoke till they stood inside the hospital. + +He felt Cherry's hand trembling so much then, that he stooped to her, +and spoke in a whisper. + +"There's naught to be afraid of, dear," he said; "and if you're thinkin' +of your poor father, the best plan as I know on is to tell God about +that." + +Cherry looked up. Did he guess from her eyes that she had already done +so? + +They soon found themselves in the accident ward, and in a moment were +standing by a bed in which Cherry could recognize her father's form. + +"I don't suppose it'ull be much use," said the nurse in a low tone; "he +hasn't taken a bit of notice since he was brought in; the only word he +says is 'Dickie,' and you don't either of you seem to be him." + +Jem shook his head. + +"May I speak to him?" + +"Oh, yes; but you mustn't be disappointed if he don't notice." + +She made a gesture which implied that he had not long to live, and then +stood off at a little distance; while Cherry, at a sign from Jem, bent +towards the bed and whispered, "Father!" + +[Illustration: Jem took the child out of the chair and wrapped his arms +round him pacing up and down the room with him on his breast.--p. 176.] + + +The suffering man moved uneasily and groaned. + +"Father, I'm so sorry as you're hurt. Don't you know your little +Cherry?" + +"Dickie, Dickie!" said the man despairingly. + +"Do you want Dickie?" asked Cherry, trembling. + +"No, no, no; only I wish he hadn't been hurt. Dickie, Dickie!" + +"Father," said Cherry, gathering courage from Jem's eyes, "father, you +know as I and Dickie pray to the Lord Jesus?" + +The miserable man seemed to be listening. + +"Well, father, we asked Him to find some one to take care of Dickie, +and--" + +"They'll have him again," broke in the man. "I said as I'd give 'im over +to 'em, and they'll hold to 'im. It ain't a bit o' use. Oh, I can't talk +to yer. Oh, my dreadful pain! To think Dickie should ever suffer like +this; and I took no heed of it when I might." + +"But, father," said Cherry, restraining her tears by a violent effort, +"there's stronger than them as has Dickie in hand. Don't ye see that +Jesus is stronger than them?" + +The man only groaned afresh. + +"And Jesus has heard me and Dickie askin' Him, and He's found us such a +nice home. Father, 'ull you be willin' to give us to those as is so good +to us?" + +"Who?" asked the man, for the first time opening his eyes. + +"To me," said Jem, coming close. "I've taken 'em from old Sairy, and +they shan't ever go back, if you'll say as you will let me and Meg be +their guardians." + +The poor dying eyes were eagerly scanning Jem's face; they returned to +Cherry's as if satisfied. + +"Their mother was a good woman," he said. + +"So Cherry tells me. We'll do our best to teach them to be good too." + +The man turned his head away as if he had done with the subject, and +indeed with all earthly things. Then, just as Cherry and Jem were +looking at each other in dismay, he roused himself once more. + +"You may 'ave 'em," he said. + +Jem signed to the nurse to draw near. + +"Tom Seymour," he said solemnly, "do you make my wife and me guardians +of your two children, Cherry and Dickie?" + +"Yes," said the man distinctly; "and God grant as you may keep the +charge better'n I've done." + +"God will help us," said Jem, taking the hand which lay outside the +counterpane; "and, my friend, God will help _you_. If you turn to him +now He will receive you." + +The man drew away his hand with impatient pain. + +"That's past for me," he said between his teeth. + +"No, it isn't, father," exclaimed Cherry. "If Jesus 'as been so good to +you as to take Dickie away from old Sairy, don't ye think as He can be +kind enough as to take you from Satan?" + +"I'm too bad, Cherry; it ain't no use talkin'. You've tried, my girl, a +score o' times. And so did yer mother; it ain't a bit o' good. Leave me +to die now. If Dickie's all right, I can't 'elp the rest." + +Cherry's eyes looked despairingly at Jem, but he encouraged her to try +again, himself only praying silently that some word, winged by the power +of the Mighty Spirit, might enter that hard heart. + +"Ain't you goin' to _thank_ Jesus, then?" asked poor little Cherry. +"He's been awful kind to Dickie, father." + +The man was silent; but Cherry thought he heard her nevertheless. + +"You did love Dickie, father?" + +"And I _do_," flashed the man angrily; "howsoever cruel I've been, I do +love the little 'un." + +"And Dickie loves Jesus," pursued Cherry, soothingly; "and if you was to +ask Dickie which he'd rather you'd love, he'd say as he'd like you to +love _Jesus_. I know he would." + +"It ain't no good now," said her father hopelessly. + +"Why ain't it, dear father?" + +"'Cause I've sinned till--it ain't no good now." + +"But Jesus is sorry, and He'll forgive if you'll ask Him. Father--I +_know_ He will. He says somethin' about 'Wash me, and I shall be whiter +than snow.'" + +"Ah! that's them as can be washed." + +And then Jem said earnestly-- + +"'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though +they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'" + +"It's because Jesus died instead of us, father," added Cherry, weeping. +"Oh, father, why don't ye come to Him?" + +The man did not answer her. Wearied out with pain and emotion, he lay +exhausted; nor would the nurse allow any more talking. + +"You can come again this evening," she said, looking into Cherry's +woe-begone face. "He may live till then." + +With this they were forced to be satisfied, and Cherry turned away with +a sad heart. + +Slowly they made their way home again, while Cherry's halting steps +seemed to drag more wearily than they had done while hope beat in her +bosom. Tear after tear coursed down her cheeks, and it was with +difficulty that she could guide herself in the crowded thoroughfare. + +At last Jem, seeing this, took her hand again, and sought for words of +comfort. + +"You mustn't doubt God, child," he said kindly; "we're all apt to think +as He can't do nothin' without us. But 'tis oftentimes when we have done +all as is in our power, and yet have failed, that He can work best. Me +and Meg was readin' yesterday--why, it was only yesterday!" he +exclaimed, stopping to interrupt himself,--"we was readin' afore I went +to my work some such words as these: 'Not by might, nor by power, but by +My Spirit, saith the Lord.' And, Cherry, it seems to me as it ain't when +we can do most, but when we'll let _Him_ do most, as He can work best." + +Cherry listened and took courage, and though she did not say a word, she +thanked Jem from the bottom of her little heart. + +When they presented themselves at the hospital again that evening, and +asked to be allowed to see Tom Seymour, the answer came like a knell to +them both: + +"He died at three o'clock." + +"Dead?" asked Cherry; and no one knew the depths of that crippled +orphan's heart at that moment. No one but God; but He knew, and pitied. + +Dead! and no messages of God's love, no assurances of forgiveness, no +pardoning grace could reach him now. He had sunk into the grave, in +spite of all her efforts, all her prayers, unsaved! + +A hand touched her arm. It was the nurse's who had stood by them that +morning. + +"Come in here," she said, leading the way to a little comfortless room +where people waited. It was empty now, and the nurse closed the door. +She held out to Jem the piece of paper he had left with her that +morning, containing his address in case of his being wanted. + +Under his name was written, in the doctor's hand, "I, Tom Seymour, +leave my children to his care," and then there was a weak straggling +cross, and the doctor's signature as witness. + +"When you were gone," explained the nurse, "he never spoke for an hour +or so, and we didn't disturb him, because we knew he couldn't recover. +You see the accident went hard with him, because he drank so. Well, +after an hour or two he woke up, and he called as before, 'Dickie!' + +"I went to him to quiet him, and he asked 'if the carpenter (meaning +you, I suppose, Mr. Seymour) was there, and Cherry?' + +"I told him that you were coming again, and asked if he wanted you to be +fetched. + +"'I don't know where he lives,' he said; 'but it don't matter. Ask the +doctor to write it down.' + +"The doctor was going his rounds, and when he had done with his patient +I asked him to come, and he wrote at the poor fellow's request those +words on that paper, to which he managed to put his cross. After that he +was terribly bad for ever so long; it had hurt him so to move. I knew he +wouldn't last long, and I offered to send for the little girl, but he +only shook his head. + +"'She wouldn't be here in time,' he said; 'but when she comes, tell her +as the last word as her poor father said was, 'Wash me, and I shall +be----' + +"He couldn't finish it; so I said the end of it to him, 'whiter than +snow.' + +"'Yes, "whiter than snow," sins like crimson, "wash me, and I shall be +whiter than snow."' + +"He didn't speak again, but after a bit I looked at him, and he tried to +reach my hand. Though I don't understand that sort of talk myself, +thinking to please him, I took his in mine, and said again, 'Wash me, +and I shall be whiter than snow,' and he gave one look at me, and then +one long look up, and so passed away." + +Cherry took the nurse's kind hand and covered it with kisses and tears; +she tried to utter her thanks, but was choked. + +And when she and Jem turned homewards once more, though her tears were +pouring, they were far more grateful than sad, as the words seemed to +ring in her ears: + +"Not by might, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + THE EMPTY CRADLE. + + +When Cherry and Jem had really set forth to the hospital, Meg, who had +been lying very quiet for some time, opened her eyes and spoke to her +mother-in-law. + +"Are you very busy, dear mother?" she asked. + +"No, my dear, I have nothing to do now but to wait on you. Do you want +anything?" + +Meg was silent for a moment, and Mrs. Seymour saw traces of tears on her +face, which, however, Meg was evidently anxious should not be noticed. + +"You feel a little low, my dear," observed Mrs. Seymour kindly; "but you +will be better soon, I hope." + +"No," said Meg; "I don't exactly feel low, mother; but should you think +it very wrong in me to ask you to let me hold him once more?" + +"Will it upset you, my child?" + +"I think not--I will try not; but, mother, I had so looked forward to +it, and I should like to hold him once more." + +Mrs. Seymour made no further objection, but went into the other room, +whither the little cradle had been carried, and lifted the tiny baby out +carefully. She brought it to Meg's side, placed it in her arms, and then +went back to clear away Jem's tea, leaving the young mother alone with +her grief. + +Dickie slept quietly, and Meg could cry over her babe unseen. She could +lay her cheek against its little head, she could wrap her arms round it, +she could press her lips upon its lifeless ones. But after all it was +lifeless, and Meg shed some bitter tears over the thought that it could +never know her love; but by-and-by these were wiped away. The +remembrance stole over her that her little child was only parted from +her for a short time, and was meanwhile in such safe keeping as she +could never hope, at the best, to give it here. "The Lord gave, and the +_Lord_ hath taken away," she murmured half aloud. "He has got him safe +waiting for me." + +Whether her soft words woke Dickie, or whether her slight movements had +done so, she did not know; but at this moment he turned over and flung +his arms about her neck. + +"Are you awake, dear?" she asked, hoping he would not notice the little +form lying at the other side of her. + +"Yes, mo'ver-Meg. Are you cryin'?" + +"I was crying, Dickie, but I'm better now." + +"What for?" asked the child. + +"Because I had a little baby-boy, and the Lord Jesus has taken him to +His Home." + +Dickie pondered. + +"Did that make yer _cry_, mo'ver-Meg?" + +"Yes, dear; but I shan't cry any more," at which words Meg burst into +such weeping that Dickie was frightened, and Mrs. Seymour came in from +the other room. + +She was going to take the babe, but Meg put out her hand beseechingly. +"One moment, dear mother," she said. + +Mrs. Seymour waited while Meg pressed one long kiss on the little face, +and then she allowed her mother to bear her child away from her sight. + +Meanwhile Dickie with clinging arms was trying to comfort her in his +tender little way, and Meg turned round and yielded herself to his +caresses. + +"Is the home Jesus 'as taken him to better than this?" he asked in his +gentlest tones. + +"Oh, yes!" said Meg, drying her eyes, and trying to stop her tears. + +"Then why do yer mind, mo'ver-Meg?" + +"Because he's gone away from _me_, Dickie. But I shan't be sorry soon." + +"And fa'ver-Jem said as He'd sent me _instead_," said Dickie +comfortably, "and so that's nice for ev'wybody." + +Meg smiled, though she almost cried again. + +"Yes, Dickie," she answered, "and I'm not sorry for that part of it. I'm +sure our Father in heaven knows best, and will make me glad in time that +He has taken my little baby." + +Dickie laid his soft cheek against her face, and then Meg saw her +mother-in-law coming in with a little tray in her hand. + +"Look, Dickie," she said; "here is a kind mother with some gruel or +something for us. Why, here are two basins! How kind she is. Can you +open your eyes now, Dickie?" + +He tried, but quickly put up his hand to shield them from the light. + +"How bad they are!" remarked Mrs. Seymour. "Meg, did Jem say what they +did to him?" + +"No," answered Meg, shuddering. "He said it was so dreadful, yet so easy +that he should never tell it, lest any one else should be so cruel." + +"How strange!" said Mrs. Seymour. + +"Did the doctor say this morning that they should be tied up?" asked +Meg. + +"No; only bathed often. He said while he kept them shut of his own +accord it was better not to harass him with a bandage. He looked very +serious over it, Meg." + +Meg did not answer. She was stroking the little face tenderly, and +smoothing the soft brown curls. + +"Poor little man," she whispered at length. + +Mrs. Seymour fed the child with a spoon, and just as she had finished a +knock came at the sitting-room door, which she went to answer. + +Meg guessed what it was, but she lay quiet, her thoughts dwelling on +what Dickie had suggested--that the Home above was better than this. + +Mrs. Seymour did not return for some time, nor indeed till the steps of +Jem and Cherry were heard coming back from the hospital. She went +outside to meet them, telling Cherry to go up-stairs, and preparing Jem +by a low word for what he would find in his room when he entered. + +Though he knew it would be so, the little coffin having been promised at +seven o'clock, yet it was a shock to him after all; and he was glad that +his kind mother had let him go alone into the room, that he might have +time to get over his feelings. + +Mrs. Seymour, finding that Meg was quiet, and even cheerful, went +up-stairs to look after Cherry, and to see if her invalid lodger should +want anything. She found the poor child sitting near the fire, looking +very mournful; and guessing at once that she had lost her father, she +went up to her and kissed her kindly, saying-- + +"You must tell me all about it presently, dear child. Just now I want +you to help me as nicely as you did this morning." + +Cherry looked up, greatly relieved to be set to work at something. + +"What can I do?" she asked. + +"Let us get the bath ready for Dickie again, and then you go down and +fetch him, Cherry. Wrap this about him. He is awake; but I shall bathe +him up here, for I think Meg has had enough excitement." + +Cherry quickly understood, and in a few minutes all was ready, and she +was standing by Meg's side asking Dickie if he would not like another +warm bath. + +"I'd rather stay 'ere," said Dickie; "but you'll let me come back, +Cherry?" + +"Oh, yes; only Mrs. Seymour has got such a lovely fire for yer, Dickie; +and I'm goin' to try to carry yer up." + +Meg added her word that it would be very nice; so Dickie allowed himself +to be lifted out of bed. + +"I 'tom back soon," he nodded, as he was borne towards the door. + +"Yes, dear." + +Then as Cherry went out, Jem came in from the other room, and sat down +by his wife's side. + +"Let me carry him, dear," said Mrs. Blunt's voice outside. "He's too +heavy for you, and I was just a-goin' up." + +"Oh, thank you; but I often do carry him," said Cherry. + +"My! ain't he light? Well, dear," to the child, "you're not afraid as I +am old Sairy?" + +For Mrs. Blunt had heard the whole story from Miss Hobson that morning. + +"No," said Dickie; but the very name made him tremble, and Mrs. Blunt, +perceiving it, knew she should not have said that. + +When he was placed on Mrs. Seymour's lap, Mrs. Blunt produced something +which she had carried on her arm. + +"There!" she said, with evident delight; "don't you think as we've been +quick? This little nightgown was calico in the shop at nine o'clock +this mornin', and here it is ready for him to put on now." + +"You've made it for him?" asked Mrs. Seymour, too astonished to find +words. + +"That we have! When you sent for me this mornin' to tell me about +borrowin' mine--bless 'im, he was welcome to it!--and to ask me to 'elp +you with your laundry work, as 'as been put so behind this week, I ran +down to Jenny to see if she would mind my children. (She's a kind girl +at a pinch.) And then thinks I, 'Mrs. Seymour won't be ready with her +irons and things for a few minutes;' and I pops on my bonnet, and takes +the little 'uns round to the shop to get the calico. We was back in no +time, and there was Jenny smiling at the door waitin' for me. + +"'Jenny,' says I to her, 'I know as you're good at your needle, and I +want to surprise Mrs. Seymour. I haven't made a present to any one +these many years, but if you'll help me, I will to-day!' + +"Jenny, she takes it in as kind as anythink. + +"'All right,' she says. 'And I'll mind those precious babies of yours, +and do the work as well; for I'm right down sorry for 'em up-stairs, +that I am.' + +"So we cut it out, and she was set-to with her needle afore I come up to +you. When I got down again at twelve o'clock, after you'd finished with +me, she'd done more than half of it, that she had!" + +Mrs. Blunt was out of breath, so Cherry unfolded the little nightgown +and showed it to Dickie, who, however, only smiled gratefully, but did +not venture more than a peep with his poor little inflamed eyes. + +Mrs. Seymour was so pleased at the thoughtful kindness that she could +not say much. + +"Don't think as I grudged him the _other_!" said Mrs. Blunt; "but I +thought as you'd feel it nicer for him to have one of his own." + +"I'm sure Meg will take it very kind of you," said Mrs. Seymour, +gratefully. + +"Kind!" echoed Mrs. Blunt. "Nothin' as I could do for her would be kind, +after all she has done for me. Why, my dear, I'm a new woman!" + +Mrs. Seymour was too surprised to answer, and Mrs. Blunt went on +earnestly: + +"'Tisn't only as I have a tidy dress now, and a clean room, and better +food, but 'tis the inside of me as is different. Instead of frettin' +over the little money I've got, she's taught me to make the most of it; +and instead of being cross, and tired, and miserable, she's taught me as +there is One above as cares for me, and will bear my burdens and lighten +'em, and comfort and cheer me into the bargain. There! if ye don't think +that's enough to make a body grateful, I don't know what is." + +"Is that mo'ver-Meg," asked Dickie, "as you're talkin' on?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Seymour, softly. "She's a dear mother-Meg, isn't she?" + +"Cherry and me's goin' to stay 'long of her," he said, addressing +himself to Mrs. Blunt. + +"I know you are. You're happy children." + +Cherry smiled brightly; and then Mrs. Blunt, having said her say, +bethought herself of her children and hurried away, only pausing at the +door to say, "T'other one's cut out, and we'll make it as soon as we +can; only to-morrer's Sunday." + +Yes, to-morrow was Sunday; and in the afternoon the little coffin was +carried away and laid in the cold ground; while Meg, shedding no more +tears, but full of peace, listened to Cherry's musical voice. Though she +was very small for her age, she was a good scholar, and read fluently. +Meg had chosen the account, in the eleventh chapter of John, of the +Lord's sympathy: how He waited, that He might bless the more abundantly; +how He wept, showing Himself the comforter of all who mourn; how He +raised the dead, and gave precious promises of everlasting life to all +who believe in Him. + +Cherry and Meg, both mourning, and both needing the Heavenly food which +should sustain their souls, found in that chapter, and above all in that +beloved Saviour of whom the chapter treats, the rest and comfort that +they needed. + +When Jem came back from seeing the earth laid over his child, he met the +glance of Meg's serene eyes and wondered. + +She held out her hand and clasped his. + +"Jem," she said, "come and read this over again to us, and then you'll +get comforted, as we have been." + +So Jem sat down and read it all through again, and got lifted, as they +had been, from the dark grave to the bright sky, where He dwells "who +liveth, and was dead," and is "alive for evermore." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + "THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE." + + +As long as Meg was not well enough to get up, Dickie kept his resolve of +staying in bed too. + +Whether he had an undefined feeling that he was safer there, no one +could guess; but whenever Mrs. Seymour or Cherry tried to coax him to be +dressed, he always shook his head and answered, + +"I 'ike to stay 'long of mo'ver--Meg." + +One day Meg, thinking of all this, said to him, "Dickie, I'm going into +the other room to-day. Cherry has made it all ready for me, and I'm +going to have tea with Jem." + +Dickie was silent, but his lip trembled. So Meg quickly went on, + +"Shall I ask Cherry to dress you, dearie, so as to be up to tea with +father-Jem too?" + +"I can't wun about," said Dickie despondently. + +"But you can sit by me," returned Meg; "and father-Jem has a secret for +you." + +"Has he?" asked Dickie, looking interested. + +"Did you not hear him hammering and planeing in the other room?" + +Dickie nodded. "Were that the secret?" + +"I think so; would you not like to be dressed and see?" + +Cherry stood looking on, and now added her persuasions; and Dickie, in +hopes of finding out "the secret," allowed himself to be arrayed in his +clothes, which, under Mrs. Seymour's soap and water and skilful fingers, +could hardly be recognized for the same old garments which he had left +off. + +Cherry too had been busy, and with Mrs. Seymour's direction had made him +two brown holland pinafores which covered patches with clean neatness. + +"Oh, Dickie!" exclaimed his sister, kissing him impulsively, "I never +did see you look so nice since before mother was ill." + +"That he does," said Meg, smiling. "Now brush his hair, dear, and then +he can sit on your lap till I am ready." + +It was a mild, sunshiny day in April when Meg first walked into her +sitting-room. + +Cherry had been busy making everything as cosy as she could devise, and +Meg looked round with satisfaction. + +"You have been clever, Cherry," she said. + +"Mrs. Seymour says I shall be very useful if I take pains," answered +Cherry, "and I have been trying very hard to, mother-Meg, because I do +eat so much." + +Cherry said this with compunction, and Meg laughed a little. + +"Never mind that, dear. While I have been lying still I've been thinking +of a lot of things you might do to get a little living." + +"Have you?" asked Cherry, sitting down by the fire with Dickie on her +knee. + +"Yes; you might help mother with her washing sometimes; or you could +learn to do nice needle-work. I mean to write to Mrs. MacDonald and ask +her if she wants any done." + +"I did learn to work when I was at school," said Cherry. + +"You see, Cherry," pursued Meg, "it is not that we would not keep you +altogether if you needed it, or it were right; but it will be much +better and happier for you to have something to do; and then if you +could earn enough to get some neat clothes and put a little by, how nice +that would be." + +Dickie grew tired of this talk, and asked if his secret was going to be +told. + +Meg took him on her lap, and as he nestled his soft curls against her, +she explained to him that they must wait till father-Jem came home. + +Just as she was saying this the doctor's quick rap was heard at their +door, and he entered at once. + +"I am late, Mrs. Seymour," he said; "but I waited till the pressure of +my work was over, because I want to have a good look at this little +fellow's eyes. Does he never try to use them?" + +"No," answered Meg; "he seems to dread the light so much." + +"I'm afraid--" said the doctor, glancing up at her and stopping short. + +Meg looked yearningly into the little face. + +"I think I was told he is not your own child?" + +"No," answered Meg; "they are our adopted children." + +"What puzzled me was that his sister said his name was Dickie Seymour." + +"So it is," said Meg, as if this were a new thought to her. "How strange +I did not think of that; but he is no relation." + +"The best thing for him would be to go into the country," said the +doctor, considering; "but I suppose that is out of the question. Even +then I doubt if he will ever--" + +Meg looked at him startled. + +"Do you mean that I am going to lose him?" she asked, not knowing how to +put it so that Dickie should not understand and be troubled. + +"No, no," said the doctor quickly, putting his hand in explanation to +his own eyes. "But it would be a great thing to improve his health." + +"I will think it over," said Meg, her thoughts instantly flying to her +own dear mother and the little rose-covered cottage at home. + +"Now, my little man, let me have a look into your eyes. Don't be afraid; +I'm not going to hurt you much." + +He proceeded to open the lids, in spite of Dickie's wail of pain; while +Cherry stood by trembling, having well understood the tenor of the +foregoing conversation. + +"It _does_ hurt me," said Dickie, trying to draw away. + +"Ah, well," said the doctor, letting him go; "time will show. Can you +see me now, or your sister?" + +But Dickie only buried his head in Meg's bosom, and would not be +persuaded to try. + +Just as the doctor was going out at the door he turned back and +addressed Cherry. + +"My little girl, are you old enough to have left school?" + +"Yes, sir; I passed all the Standards just before mother died." + +"Indeed?--and what are you thinking of turning your hand to?" + +"Anything I can get," answered Cherry, blushing. + +"Because the girl who used to clean my steps every morning has gone to a +regular place, and I want some one else. Would you like to do it?" + +[Illustration: Cherry went up-stairs to see if Mrs. Seymour should want +her to do anything before she went to bed.--p. 195.] + +"Very much, sir," she answered, smiling. + +"My servants are busy just then, and I do not like my steps to be +cleaned after eight o'clock. You see, my house being a doctor's, people +begin to come early." + +"I could be there as early as you like, sir," said Cherry, looking +towards Meg for confirmation. + +"Yes," answered Meg, "and I'm much obliged to you for thinking of her, +sir." + +"Oh, as to that, she may as well have it as any one else. It is two +shillings a week, and not very hard work." + +After arranging that Cherry should begin the next morning, he bade them +good day, and went off to finish his rounds. + +"Oh, mother-Meg, did you ever think I could have anything so nice?" +asked Cherry, kneeling down by her side, and laying her head on Dickie's +lap. + +"No, indeed," answered Meg, "we must not forget to thank Him who has +sent it to us, Cherry. How kind God is to us!" + +Cherry did not answer in words, but she was very quiet for a long while, +looking soberly into the fire. + +Presently Dickie, concluding that the doctor was gone, and that he need +have no further fear of molestation, put up his little hand to stroke +Meg's face. + +"Well, dear?" she said inquiringly, for there was a question on his +lips. + +"Mo'ver-Meg, did the doctor say as you was goin' to _lose_ me?" + +"No, dearie, he did not think I should," said Meg, soothingly. + +"'Cause he _said_ so," persisted Dickie. + +"He didn't mean that," answered Meg softly; "and even if he had, Dickie, +those who love Jesus can never be really lost." + +"I 'ove Jesus," said Dickie, considering, "and so do Cherry." + +"I'm sure you do; and to those who love Him He says, 'No man is able to +pluck them out of My hand.' When once we are in the care of Jesus, +nothing shall ever drag us away from that." + +"Is that why Jesus has sent me to you, mo'ver-Meg?" + +"I expect it is, Dickie; He's been very good to you." + +Dickie smiled happily, then started up expectantly. + +"There's fa'ver-Jem!" he exclaimed. + +"So it is," cried Meg. + +Even then he did not attempt to look, but sat in an attitude of +suppressed excitement, till Jem really came in and shut the door. + +"Where's my secret?" asked Dickie eagerly. + +"Let me speak to Meg first," answered Jem, coming to his wife's side and +kissing her. + +"Well, sweetheart, the room don't look like the same with you out of it, +that's certain!" + +"No," said Cherry, "I never saw her in it afore, but I couldn't think it +'ud look so much better." + +Meg smiled at their love and praise, and then Cherry made the tea. + +Meanwhile Jem went to the corner and uncovered something which stood +there, bringing it forward to Dickie, and telling him to look at what it +was. + +Dickie leaned forward, opened his eyes, gave a cry of pain, and then +looked pitifully up in Meg's face. + +"I can't see, mo'ver-Meg; where is it? It's all dark 'ere. Do light the +lamp for me." + +But no lamp could be of any avail, as Meg saw when he felt about with +his tiny hands in the broad daylight to find his way to the secret. + +"Here, darling," said Meg, struggling with her tears, and commanding her +voice by a great effort, "here is the secret; put your little hands and +feel it." + +Dickie, believing that the lamp had not yet been lighted, and not +guessing or being capable of understanding the calamity which had fallen +upon him, let her guide his hands to the arms of a little chair, high +enough to reach the table. + +"For me?" asked Dickie; "a chair for my werry own?" + +"Yes," answered Jem, taking him from Meg and placing him in it. "See, +Dickie, you can play by the table or sit by the fire. I have made it +for your very own." + +"Kind fa'ver-Jem," said Dickie, contentedly. "Now Cherry, light the +lamp, so as I can see it." + +Meg looked at Jem as if seeking strength from his pitying eyes; then she +bent and laid her cheek against Dickie's head as she said tenderly-- + +"It's because your eyes have been so bad, dear." + +"Will they get better?" he asked. + +"I am not sure, dear." + +"I want to see my booful chair, and mo'ver-Meg!" + +Jem took the child out of the chair and wrapped his arms round him, +pacing up and down the room with him on his breast. + +"Kind fa'ver-Jem," said Dickie, settling himself in those strong arms. + +They went up and down for some minutes, while Meg and Cherry wept, and +wiped away their tears in turn. + +By-and-by they heard Dickie ask in a whisper-- + +"Shall I ever get better, and be able to see my mo'ver-Meg?" And Jem +answered, in that low husky voice which betokened strong emotion-- + +"I can't say as you will for certain, Dickie, not here; but there's one +thing as I do know on. In heaven we are promised, all of us who love +Him, to see His face; and that'll be better than even mother-Meg's." + +Dickie listened silently. + +"That 'a be _nice_," he said at last with a little sob. + +"Yes, Dickie," Jem went on, still walking to and fro with soft even +tread, "there is no sorrow nor sufferin' there, no cryin', nor pains, +nor achin'; but He says they shall see His face, and His name shall be +in their foreheads. Don't ye think, Dickie, as, if His holy name is in +our foreheads, He'll take care of them as bears it?" + +Dickie assented, but he was thinking of other things. + +"Did ye say as my eyes 'ud be all right there, fa'ver-Jem?" he asked at +length. + +"Yes; all right there. 'They shall see His face,'" answered Jem. + +Dickie was satisfied. + +"Put me in my chair close to mo'ver-Meg, fa'ver-Jem, and she'll tell me +all 'bout it. She allays does tell me such nice fings." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + CHERRY'S APOLOGY. + + +That night, when Cherry had gone up to bed in Mrs. Seymour's room, and +Dickie was fast asleep, Meg and Jem found themselves alone by their own +fireside. + +"My girl," he said, when she turned her face towards him after a long +look in the fire, "this is a funny change as has come across our life." + +"I hope it isn't a disappointment to you, Jem," she said. "I mean about +Cherry and Dickie." + +"No, my dear, no," he answered heartily. "If I had the choice over again +I'd do the same." + +"So would I," said Meg, "a hundred times over. I did not know all the +joy it would bring. I never thought of it at first as anything but a +care, that we did for our Lord's sake. I never guessed it would turn +into a blessing." + +"That's how the Lord's way mostly is," said Jem, thoughtfully; "but this +about poor little Dickie is a sad thing, Meg, and will make him a great +care. Not that I grudge it--but as far as we can look ahead, it 'ull be +more difficult nor if he could see." + +Meg could not speak of it yet without tears, and she leant her head +against Jem's shoulder in silence. Soon after this Mrs. Seymour came in, +and Jem put her into her chair, saying-- + +"Mother, I was just thinking about you; for I want to ask your advice. I +don't like to see this pale face. I want to send my Meg down to the +country for a week or two." + +Meg turned and was going to speak, but Jem put up his hand playfully, +and went on-- + +"Mrs. MacDonald wants some more repairs done, and I'm to be sent there +next week. Now what could be better'n Meg's goin' too?" + +"Beautiful," said Mrs. Seymour. "Cherry will help me nicely, and we'll +manage to take care of Dickie while she is away. Wouldn't you like it, +my dear?" + +"I was only going to say," said Meg, "that the doctor told me this +afternoon that it would be the very best thing for Dickie. Jem, might I +take him?" + +Jem stroked her cheek, which had flushed with eagerness, and he said, +turning to Mrs. Seymour and smiling a little sadly-- + +"Mother, she's like a hen with one chick; nobody can't take care of +Dickie but her." + +"Oh, Jem!" exclaimed Meg. + +"No, more they can't, half as well," he went on. "Nobody who has seen +my Meg for the last few weeks, but knows as she has the true motherly +heart. I'd thought as our Father above was goin' to give her one of her +own to see after, but He's seen as it 'ud be nice for her to have two +instead o' one. Ah! Meg, my girl, I've seen the meanin' of those words, +'as one whom his mother comforteth' since I've watched you." + +Meg did not answer; she was thinking of the tiny white-robed form that +had lain unresponsively in her arms. For a moment she felt very +desolate. + +"But it would be very nice indeed for Dickie to go with her," remarked +Mrs. Seymour; "I am glad it's been proposed." + +Then they explained as well as they could what had happened that +evening, with the sad certainty which had come upon them, that the +cruelty which had been practised on Dickie had made him quite blind. + +"Now I can understand what made Cherry so dumpy," said Mrs. Seymour. +"She came up-stairs as quiet as anything, and crept into bed with hardly +a word. I've heard her sniffin' and that, for ever so long; indeed, that +was partly why I came down to ask you if anythin' was the matter." + +"Poor child," said Jem, "I could see as she felt it very much. There, +mother, we've had mercies and trials both mixed up, as you may say. +Here's my Meg about again, as is the greatest joy I've had for a long +time, and here's this trouble about poor little Dickie. Then Cherry's +got a nice beginnin' of somethin' to do, and she too has got to hear, as +her little brother, what she's loved so tenderly, is blind." + +"Well, my dear," answered Mrs. Seymour, "I'm gettin' to learn, a step at +a time, as God leads His people along in the _best_ way. He knows just +how to send the sunshine and cloud so as to make the fruits of the earth +come to ripen; and it's so with us: if we was to have all sunshine we'd +be dried up, and should not bear fruit for Him, and if we was to have +all cloud and rain, we'd be so damp and mildewy that I doubt if we +should do much good. So He sends both, just as He sees best, to make us +what He would have us be." + +"Yes, mother," answered Jem, thoughtfully; "I dare say as you're quite +right." + +"You see, Jem," she added, as she rose to go back to her own room, "I +have a lot o' time to think, as I stand washin' and ironin', and where I +used to think of other folks and a hundred things, now says I to myself, +'What can I do better than think on the Lord, and all His ways?' So I +put up a large-print Bible I've got, where my eyes can light upon a word +here and there, without stoppin' in my work, and you'd be surprised what +a deal o' comfort I get." + +Jem kissed her for good night very tenderly. + +"Ah, mother!" he said, "I see another way of gettin' to bear fruit; and +that is to spread your roots deep in the soil as the great Gardener has +got ready for us; I see that now, and I'll remember it." + +She bade Meg good-bye, and went up-stairs again. + +"Cherry, child," she began, coming close to the bed, "give grannie a +kiss, and let's tell the Lord all about it." + +Poor Cherry broke into sobs, as she raised her face to meet that of her +friend. + +"Child, there are many things to comfort you. He'll not be unhappy, my +dear, even if he is blind. People will be kind to him, and he'll not +miss it as much as you fear. But, whether or not, the best thing we can +do is to come to the bottom at once. The Lord knows, and the Lord +_loves_. Cherry, He loves Dickie more than you and Meg do, and that's +saying a great deal." + +Then she knelt down, and taking Cherry's hand in hers, she prayed that +they might all be able to trust Him who loved them, both when He sent +cloud and when He sent sunshine. And then Cherry, yielding herself to +submit to the cloud, suddenly remembered the flash of sunshine which had +been sent her that day, and cheered up and took courage. + +When Mrs. Seymour rose, she put up her face once more. + +"Oh, grannie!--may I call you grannie?--how good you are to me. Indeed, +I will try to be a good girl to you and mother-Meg." + +"I'm sure you will, child." + +"And I'll not fret about Dickie anymore. I felt so sorry, so--angry--but +I've asked Jesus to forgive me. Good night, grannie dear." + +So Mrs. Seymour, though she only kissed the little girl in silence, had +her bit of comfort too that evening. + +"Grannie," she thought; "I believe the child will be a true grandchild +to me in time, and cheer up my old age when I can't so well help +myself." + +Early the next morning Cherry was up betimes. She dressed herself as +neatly as her poor little mended clothes would allow, and, without being +asked, proceeded to light Mrs. Seymour's fire before she went out. + +She had often watched the thrifty woman take two or three pieces of +coal, which she placed along the back of her stove, so as to form an +arch for her sticks from the front bar. Then she would lay eight or ten +sticks evenly from back to front across this, and eight or ten more from +side to side, putting her paper lightly under the arch, and her cinders +lightly over it. + +"There, my dear," the old woman would say, "if you lay it like that, and +your sticks are dry, you never need fear that if you turn your back your +fire will be out. Those cinders will burn up hot before you have washed +your hands." + +All this Cherry remembered, and followed as implicitly as she could. +When she had done she stood spell-bound, watching the effect. Mrs. +Seymour, roused by the crackling of the sticks, opened her eyes, and +startled her by calling out-- + +"Halloa! my dear, are you up already, and the fire lighted too?" + +"Yes," said Cherry, coming forward; "I thought as you'd be glad to have +it done, grannie." + +"So I should, child. But look here, I've found a small apron of mine as +'ull do nicely for you to go to the doctor's with. Mind, Cherry, you +never take it dirty, my dear. There it is on that chair." + +Cherry found a clean, neatly-folded apron ready for her, and to her +thinking it added to her appearance just the one thing she wanted. + +She thanked Mrs. Seymour very gratefully, and ran down-stairs. + +Many had been Meg's instructions the evening before as to how she was to +clean the steps of the doctor's house, and Jem's hearth had been cleaned +three times over, in order that Cherry should know properly how to do +it. + +As she hurried along the two or three streets which intervened between +their house and the doctor's, she thought over all Meg had said, and +hoped she should do it right. + +It was a very nervous little girl who rang at the area bell, as the +church clock near struck seven. + +"Who are you?" asked the cook. "Ah, I know. Well, my dear, here's the +pail and things; do it from outside, and I'll open the front door for +you to begin on the top step. Here's the mat to kneel on. Don't you +leave it out there, nor the broom, or they'll be walked off with." + +Cherry promised, and waited while the cook went up-stairs to unfasten +the door. + +"Please," said Cherry, looking up with her candid eyes, "I'm not very +used to making stones white, but mother-Meg says I shall do it much +better in a day or two." + +"All right; and if you don't quite know anythink, you just come to me, +and I'll tell you." + +Cherry began sweeping, and the cook went back to prepare her master's +breakfast. + +"Poor little thing," she said compassionately, when the housemaid came +down to put away her brushes, "she don't look strong. I wonder master +chose such a child." + +"How old is she, then?" + +"She looks fifteen, but she's that small and thin. She limps, and one of +her shoulders is all crooked, but I never see a prettier face in my +life. Her eyes is soft and large, and altogether----" + +But Jane could not stay to hear, for the busy doctor must have +everything punctual, so cook finished her sentence to herself. + +When Cherry came back with the pail and broom, cook went to inspect her +work in a very kindly spirit. + +"It don't look quite _clear_, my dear, but as your mother says, you'll +improve if you take pains. You've done it very well considering. Hasn't +she, Jane? Come and see." + +This was to give Jane, who was passing through the hall at the moment, +an opportunity of agreeing with cook's verdict on Cherry's eyes. + +"I haven't a mother, please," answered Cherry, timidly. + +"Oh, I thought you said mother, my dear; I beg your pardon." + +Cherry turned homewards, and the two comfortable servants went +down-stairs again. + +"It 'ud be a charity to alter one of my dresses for her, that it would," +said Jane; "no wonder, if she ain't got no mother. But how her poor +things was patched and mended; and how white her apron was. They're +clean people who belong to her, if they are poor." + +And so it came to pass, when Cherry had done her steps the next morning, +the cook asked her to step into the kitchen with a very pleased look. + +Cherry entered wondering, and then Jane ran down-stairs in a great +bustle, and said she couldn't stay, but did nevertheless, while they +produced her print dress, which cook explained had shrunk in the wash, +and which they had together altered to Cherry's size. + +"There!" said Jane, "we were up till I don't know what time doing it, +and I believe it 'ull fit splendid." + +Cherry, for thanks, burst into tears, at which both the kind-hearted +girls looked very concerned. But when she could look up again, she said +gently-- + +"Please, you mustn't think as those belongin' to me wouldn't give me +clothes; but there's been illness and death in the house, and they took +me and my little brother when we was in the greatest want. They're +_ever_ so kind to us, only mother-Meg has not been strong enough to see +about anything yet." + +The pathetic eyes of the child, begging for indulgence, lest her best +friends should be blamed for her poverty, quite struck the two +well-to-do young women, and the cook answered quickly-- + +"I quite believe it, my dear; don't have any fear of us. Take your dress +home, and tell--who is it, dear?" + +"Mother-Meg----" + +"Tell her that you've been a very good girl, and have done your steps +very nicely to-day. I'll come and see her one of these days." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + MEG'S SAVINGS. + + +During the week which elapsed before Jem's work took him into the +country, Meg and Cherry were busy from morning till night. + +Dickie must have a new frock, and, indeed, so must Cherry, though the +doctor's servants had been so kind as to provide her with a print one. + +"Cherry," said Meg one morning, "you know we'd take you with us if we +could; but you see, dear, my mother hasn't but one room to spare, and +I'm afraid, besides, we should be too large a party for her. But I +shan't forget; and you must go another time." + +Cherry looked up brightly. + +"Oh, yes, mother-Meg; of course I _should_ like to see the green fields, +but I couldn't leave the doctor's anyhow; so if you could take me ever +so, I couldn't go." + +"No," said Meg; "but I should not wish you to think I'd forgot you, +dear." + +Just then Mrs. Blunt tapped at the door, and came in with her pleasant +face. + +"Here I am, Mrs. Seymour; did ye expect me afore?" + +"I was so busy that I hardly knew the time," answered Meg; "but I hope +it isn't inconvenient to you to come?" + +"Not a bit of it! Why, I'm pleased, I'm sure, as you want me. It's nice +to be wanted, ye know, sometimes." + +"I expect you're often wanted," smiled Meg. + +She shook her head, smiling too. + +"More of late than I used to be," she said. "But now what is it you want +me to do?" + +"Well," said Meg, "I want you to stay with Dickie while Cherry and I go +to buy something, for he's too heavy for either of us to carry, and he +has not got courage to walk yet. The noise in the street frightens him +now he can't see it all." + +"Poor little dear," said Mrs. Blunt, kissing him. + +"We shan't be gone long," explained Meg; "and you can't think how glad I +am mother advised me to save what I earned with her. Here's quite a +little store--enough to buy some things for my two children, and to pay +for making them." + +"I should like to 'elp you for nothing," said Mrs. Blunt, understanding +what Meg meant by those last words; for she had sent Jem down to explain +to her, that she wanted to find some one to make Cherry's dress, and +that she would ten times rather she should do it than put it out. + +"But that would not be right," answered Meg; "and, like me, now you've +begun to have a little saving-bag, the money can go into that." + +Mrs. Blunt laughed. + +"I always feel rich when I look into that bag, even if there's ever so +little in it." + +Meanwhile Meg was putting on her bonnet, and now stooped to kiss Dickie, +who was sitting in his own little chair. + +"Is this the chair as I've heard on?" asked Mrs. Blunt. "What a rare +nice one! Why, it takes in half, I do declare, and makes into a little +table too, like they do in the shops." + +Dickie looked very pleased, and Mrs. Blunt's own babies toddled round to +look and admire. They regarded the little blind boy with awe, having +been drilled by their mother as to how they were to behave to him. But +his gentle little face won them at once, and when they found that he +looked very much like themselves, and wore frocks and pinafores, they +ceased to be afraid, and began to prattle about the little bits of toys +they had brought up with them. + +Meg glanced at the three crowded round the little table, and left them +with a happy heart. + +Mrs. Blunt busied herself with some work Meg had left for her, and it +did not seem long before she came back, accompanied by Cherry carrying a +long-shaped parcel. + +"Look!" she exclaimed, spreading it out on the table, "just look what +mother-Meg has bought for me! Here's some dark blue serge for my best +frock, and stuff for two aprons, and a new hat. I never saw such a lot +o' things in my life." + +Then Meg unrolled her parcel, and there was a ready-made jacket for +Dickie, and stuff like Cherry's for a neat little frock, and a hat, +which Meg put down on his table in front of him, guiding his soft hands +to feel its shape and newness. + +"For me?" asked Dickie. "What a nice lickle hat!" + +"See if it fits you," said Meg, placing it on his head. + +Cherry was delighted; and then Meg turned to the table to begin cutting +out, so that no time might be wasted. + +"Does he never run about?" whispered Mrs. Blunt, glancing towards +Dickie. + +"Not yet," answered Meg, in the same tone. + +But the children's society was very attractive, and before long they +noticed that Dickie stood up of his own accord, and even went so far as +to feel his way round to the other side of his table. + +"He will get on by-and-by," said Mrs. Blunt. "It's all new to him, poor +little chap." + +Cherry sat by, watching the children, and working at the seams of her +skirt; and if ever her heart felt thankful it was this morning, as she +saw Dickie, sheltered from all danger, playing so peacefully there. Her +own new dress was only a part of her happiness, and when she thought of +all the love which had been showered upon her, she felt as if she could +sing for joy. + +"Mother-Meg," she said softly, when she was next standing by her to have +something fitted, "I don't know how to tell you how grateful I am to you +and father-Jem." + +Meg smiled kindly. "Tell Jesus," she answered, stroking her wavy hair, +"for when we tell Him, it does not make us less glad, but more." + +So Cherry went back to her work, and Meg and Mrs. Blunt were left to +theirs. + +"Do you think as we shall get this done to-night?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +"I hope we shall--I think we may. You see, to-morrow is Sunday, and I +did want for us all to go to the Mission Room together. I don't know +that Cherry _could_ go in that old thing, though I am not sure, now I +say so, that shabby clothes ought to keep us away." + +"No," answered Mrs. Blunt; "but one don't like to be looked down on." + +"I suppose we ought to think about pleasing God more than about pleasing +our neighbours." + +"That's very true, I'm sure." + +"And if we wear what _He_ has given us, we ought to be satisfied that it +is right." + +"Only some of us didn't always make the best of what He did give us," +remarked Mrs. Blunt, with a little smile. + +"We learn, don't we," asked Meg, "when He teaches us? Mrs. Blunt, I wish +you'd get your husband to go with us to-morrow." + +"What, in his working-clothes? He ain't got no others, my dear." + +"Jem goes in his," said Meg. + +"Yes; but a carpenter's different from a mason." + +"It's cleaner work, of course; but I don't believe that our Father in +Heaven minds a bit about clothes. He clothes us with the 'Best Robe,' +and He looks at us in that." + +"What do you mean by 'the best robe,' Mrs. Seymour?" asked the woman, +still plying her needle as fast as she could. She had found in talking +to Meg, that there was often a hidden meaning under some quaint little +sentence. + +"Don't you remember in the parable of the prodigal son, how the father +says, 'Bring forth the best robe and put it on him?' It seems to me that +that is how God looks at us. He covers over all our rags and tatters +with the Robe of His Son's righteousness, and He looks at that instead +of at our poor doings." + +"I see," said Mrs. Blunt; "and I'll ask Blunt to think of what you say. +I'm sure I miss goin' out of a Sunday dreadful; but I haven't been, I do +believe, since the first year I was married." + +Meg did not exclaim, but she answered gently, "We must ask God to help +you both to go; I'm sure you would feel different." + +"I _do_ feel different already; and Blunt says as I've grown young +again. Think of that! It's all along of you, Mrs. Seymour, and what +you've helped me to learn of our Saviour. But I want Blunt and the +children to take the comfort of it too." + +"Of course you do," answered Meg, sympathetically, "and you'll have it +too, if you ask for it." + +"Shall I?" asked Mrs. Blunt. + +"It says, 'Ask, and ye shall _receive_,'" answered Meg. + +A little before twelve o'clock Mrs. Blunt went down to prepare her +husband's and children's dinner, and Meg rose to get ready for her Jem. + +"Let me do it," said Cherry, "and then you can go on with the work; I've +come to the end of all I can do now." + +Meg willingly let her try, and so the dress progressed rapidly, and when +Mrs. Blunt and her babies reappeared after dinner, she was surprised to +see how much had been accomplished. + +About eight o'clock that night the last stitch was put in it, and the +last button sewn on; and then Cherry went into the other room, and came +back in it smiling and blushing, and looking so pretty that Mrs. Blunt, +who was preparing to go, was obliged to stoop and kiss her. + +"Thank you, Mrs. Blunt," said Cherry earnestly. "I know you've put out +your own work for me, and I think it's very kind of you." + +"You're welcome, my dear; and I've had one of the happiest days I ever +spent--that I have." + +When she was gone Cherry suddenly turned to Meg. + +"Oh, how selfish I've been! I never thought about Dickie's frock; shall +you be able to take him to-morrow in his old one?" + +"Yes," answered Meg, "it was impossible to do both; and his jacket will +cover up the dear little old frock." + +"I wish I'd thought of it," said Cherry, sorrowfully. + +But Meg assured her, that even if she had it would have made no +difference. + +"So be happy, dear," she said, "and enjoy the nice new frock which God +has given you." + +Cherry kissed her and wished her good night, and then went up-stairs to +see if Mrs. Seymour should want her to do anything before she went to +bed. + +"My!" exclaimed Miss Hobson, when she stood in the doorway, with her +golden hair falling over her shoulders. "My! you do look nice so, +Cherry." + +Cherry laughed. "Mother-Meg wishes me to wear my hair like this," +answered Cherry, "and mother used to like it when she were alive. Only I +couldn't, ye know, when I'd got no soap, nor brush, nor nothing." + +"Ain't that a nice dress!" said Miss Hobson, admiringly. "I shouldn't 'a +known ye, Cherry. But why didn't young Mrs. Seymour get ye a black one +for yer poor father?" + +Cherry looked a little troubled, and Mrs. Seymour quickly interposed. + +"She would ha' done, but I advised her not; it's better as it is. Cherry +is as sorry for her poor father in this one as ever she would be in a +black; and 'tain't as if Meg could get her another best one in a hurry." + +"No," said Miss Hobson; "only some folks thinks a deal o' black." + +"Very foolishly," answered Mrs. Seymour decidedly; "but that's not my +Jem's Meg. She never even got a bit of new black for the little darling +that's gone. She had one as she'd had at the Hall, and she says to me, +'Mother, you'll not think as I don't care because I don't spend Jem's +money getting black things.'" + +"Well, you needn't be hot over it," said Miss Hobson; "I didn't know the +reason, of course." + +Cherry came to her bedside, and spoke gently, though there were tears in +her large sweet eyes. + +"Miss Hobson, _don't_ tell any one as I haven't a black frock--no one +but you knows; and it don't make a bit of difference so long as I think +as _God_ sent it." + +Miss Hobson stroked the little hand which lay on her sheet, and called +out to Mrs. Seymour, who had turned away, + +"Mrs. Seymour, I'm sorry as I was cross; and I wouldn't ha' said a word +if I'd remembered in time." + +Then she drew Cherry towards her, and asked her to give her a kiss. + +"You've been a kind little girl to me all this month past, that you +have, my dear; and you can go to that drawer there--the bottom one. In +the left-hand corner you'll find a work-box. Will you bring it to me?" + +Cherry did as desired, and when it was placed on the bed, Miss Hobson +raised herself on her elbow. + +"Yes," she said, "that's it. That was give to me when I was a young +woman, all fitted up as nice as anything, with scissors, and thimble, +and cottons and all. It was give to me by my young man as was drowned at +sea, and I've kept it hoarded up this thirty years. But now I'm going to +give it to you, Cherry. Why should it lie there when there's one of my +Lord's little ones as 'ud be glad of it for their work?" + +"Do you really mean for _me_, Miss Hobson?" asked Cherry, looking at the +beautiful box as if she could not believe what she had heard. + +"Yes; it will not make him as is gone seem more far off, for your havin' +it. He was always generous, and he'd have liked you to have it, as these +poor old rheumatic fingers of mine can't use it no longer." + +She wept a little, while Cherry stood by, hardly liking to take her at +her word. + +"You see, Cherry," Miss Hobson went on, cheering up as she spoke, "I've +been too apt to think of myself all my life, so the Lord has made it so +as I've only myself left to think about. And then He begins to teach me +to think about Him. And every day, as I think about _Him_, I care less +about myself, and more about Him. And so it comes to pass as He brings +me you to think of too. And by-and-by He'll let me do something for you, +perhaps, more'n giving you my dear work-box." + +"I can't begin to thank you," said Cherry, "but it _is_ kind of you. I +never saw such a nice one in my life. Are you sure as you won't be sorry +as you've give it to me, Miss Hobson?" + +"No--no, my dear; not so long as you take care on it." + +She passed her crooked suffering fingers over it tenderly; then, as if +she could not help it, she raised herself and pressed a kiss upon the +lid. Then she bade Cherry take it away and keep it as her own. + +When Cherry showed her treasure to Mrs. Seymour she said-- + +"That's cost Miss Hobson a deal to give up, I can tell you. But when she +thinks as her Lord would be pleased, she don't stick at it. It's for +_His sake_, child!" + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + LISTENING. + + +"Cherry, go down and ask Mrs. Blunt if any of them are going with us," +said Meg, as they rose from breakfast the next morning. "Tell her we +shall start at a quarter to eleven." + +Cherry made her way to the ground floor, and knocked at Mrs. Blunt's +door. + +It was quickly opened by the eldest girl, with the baby in her arms. She +did not ask Cherry to enter, but went back to her mother, who was busy +in the other room. + +Mrs. Blunt herself came forward, and spoke in a low tone. + +"Ask 'em to be kind enough to knock as they come down, and if we're +ready, we'll come." + +Cherry nodded. + +"How's little brother?" + +"All right," answered Cherry, smiling; "he's so pleased as father-Jem +is going to carry him; and he says as he'll sit as still as anythink." + +"So do my Pattie. I've promised as I'll take her, if Blunt will go." She +lowered her voice and half came outside. "I think he will--but men is +men, my dear." + +Cherry understood, and went up-stairs again with her report. + +How proudly, when the time came, did she dress Dickie in his new hat and +jacket, and sit with him on her knee telling him stories till the time +that Meg should be ready. + +Presently she came out of her room, and Cherry fancied that her eyes +looked rather tearful. + +"Well, my girl," said Jem, starting up from his chair, "we're none too +soon. It is nice to have you to go along with me once more." + +"I'm very thankful," she answered gently, turning towards the door. + +Jem took Dickie up in his strong arms, while Cherry followed Meg to the +stairs. She linked her arm confidingly in hers, and her golden hair fell +over Meg's shoulder as she whispered, + +"I know as we don't make up for the little baby, even though we do love +you very much indeed, mother-Meg; I wish as I could do anything for +you." + +"You do a great deal for me, Cherry," said Meg affectionately, "and I'm +very thankful that we've got you both. Doesn't Dickie look happy?" + +He did indeed, his arms clasped round Jem's neck, his little face +leaning on the broad shoulder. + +Jem went out at the front door, while Meg tapped at Mrs. Blunt's. + +"We're ready," announced the woman, "and it's mighty kind of you to wait +for us." + +She came out of her room, followed by her husband, who had brushed +himself up as well as he was able. + +Three or four of the children pressed out also, and Meg, seeing this, +offered a hand to two of them, which gratified them very much. + +Jem waited till Blunt came up, and they paced along together, while Mrs. +Blunt joined Cherry, and so they came to the Mission Room where Jem and +Meg generally attended. + +Jem went in first with his little frail burden, and when he had found +seats for his friends, he followed Meg to where they usually sat. + +When the hymn began, Dickie raised his head from Jem's breast with a +light in his face. Meg was afraid he would speak, but Jem warned him by +a low word, and after another moment Meg saw tear after tear come from +his little sightless eyes. The first he had shed since he had been their +child, she thought; and she took his little hand in hers and kissed it. + +But that hymn went to another heart besides Dickie's. + +Mrs. Blunt's husband sat as one in a dream. Where had he heard those +words before?-- + + "There is a Fountain filled with Blood, + Drawn from Immanuel's veins; + And sinners plunged beneath that flood, + Lose all their guilty stains." + +He closed his eyes, and he saw a certain bare room with a lot of little +children sitting round; a teacher sat close to them, who was leading +them in a clear voice, while the little ones followed and joined in as +they could. + + "And sinners plunged beneath that flood!" + +The hymn rose and fell to the end; and then there was a prayer, while +his mind did not follow the speaker's words, but went back to that old +country Sunday School, in which he had sat week after week, month after +month, and even year after year. + + "Lose all their guilty stains." + +What had the years since then brought him but guilty stains? + +He heard not a word of the prayer; but the first sentence that arrested +his attention was, "May I not wash in _them_, and be clean?" and then he +listened with an eagerness which surprised himself. + +He heard about the proud man turning away in a rage; he heard about his +servants trying to persuade him--and mentally said that this was like +his own wife; he heard how the man obeyed the prophet's words, and +dipped seven times in the stream; he heard how he was cured from his +loathsome disease; he heard how he went home rejoicing. + +And all through the preacher's words these lines kept running as a +strain of sweet music-- + + "There is a Fountain filled with Blood, + Drawn from Immanuel's veins; + And sinners plunged beneath that flood, + Lose all their guilty stains." + +Slow tears forced themselves from under his eyelids, which he hastily +brushed away with his hand. + +What passed in the man's mind during that hour was known to none but +God; perhaps he was hardly conscious himself at the time what a great +transaction had taken place; but from that day forth, first very slowly +and fitfully, but afterwards growing stronger and firmer, came the +knowledge that he had plunged in that crimson tide, and had been washed +and was clean. + +As they walked home very little was said; there had been many praying +during that little service for the man who had hardly moved a finger, +but had sat with bowed head during the whole time, and they believed +that their prayers had been heard. + +When they parted at the door of their home, Blunt looked up and wrung +Jem's hand. + +"Thankye kindly," he said. "If ye don't mind, I should like to come next +Sunday." + +Mrs. Blunt, like a wise woman, did not stop to speak, but followed her +husband into their room, where their little daughter Kittie stood, +clean and smiling, ready to meet them, with their frugal meal set out on +the table. + +[Illustration: All day long the two sat out under the apple-trees +basking in the sunshine.--p. 220.] + +That was a happy Sunday. How Dickie was praised for sitting so still, +and what a soft little colour mantled in his face when he heard that +they were pleased with him! + +That evening Meg left Cherry to take care of Dickie, and went to the +service with her husband. + +When they came home, the sound of singing on the staircase made them +pause. It came from the top of the house, and Jem and Meg went up to see +who it could be. + +Their mother's door was ajar, and through it they could see Cherry +sitting by the fire, singing in a clear, bell-like voice, Dickie resting +on her lap. Miss Hobson's door was open, and she lay propped up on her +pillow listening with a peaceful look on her face. + + "Whiter than the snow!" + +sang Cherry. + + "Whiter than the snow-- + Wash me in the Blood of the Lamb, + And I shall be whiter than snow." + +"Sing it again, Cherry," said Dickie, "'cause I do like it so. Did we +sing that this mornin', Cherry?" + +"Not this one," answered Cherry. + +"I 'fought we did--sing it again, Cherry. Do you fink He'll wash _me_ +whiter than snow?" + +"Of course He will, Dickie, if you come to Him." + +"What do it mean, Cherry, 'whiter than snow'?" + +"I think it means being washed in the Blood of Jesus." + +"But how, whiter than the snow?" + +"Don't you remember, Dickie, when there was snow, afore mother-Meg took +us away from old Sairy,--don't you remember how there weren't a spot on +it when we got up one morning?" + +"Yes--I 'member," said Dickie. "Shall we be like that?" + +"I 'spose so. Them as is washed, He can't see no spot on us, more than +we can on the snow." + +"Mother-Meg says as there ain't no sin in _Heaven_," murmured Dickie. +"Let's go to sleep now, Cherry." + +So Meg and Jem came in at that, and Jem carried him down-stairs at once +to his own little bed, too sleepy to say more than a very soft "It is +nice!" as he laid his head on his pillow. + +After that Cherry prepared the supper which she was allowed to stay up +for, as it was Sunday night--a great treat, but Meg liked nice things to +happen on Sundays. + +"That child sings like the angels," said Miss Hobson, when Mrs. Seymour +came in from her service. "She's been up here this hour, and I feel as +if I'd been nigh the gate of heaven." + +"How's she learnt them?" asked Mrs. Seymour. + +"Before her mother died. She's got a book full of 'em. She says when +she was alone up in that attic she used to sing 'em to Dickie pretty +near all day; and what's more, I've heard it often through the window, +but o' course I didn't know as it was her." + +"We didn't guess as we should ever come to know and love any one livin' +in _that_ house, did we, Miss Hobson? It shows us how some nice things +can come out of bad things!" + +Miss Hobson shook her head assentingly, but her mind was running on +something else. + +"Who do ye think has been up here a listenin' to her too?" + +"I don't know, I'm sure," answered Mrs. Seymour, looking round quickly, +for she disliked visitors in her little home, more especially on +Sundays. Miss Hobson knew this, but she went on calmly: + +"We was sittin' here, as you left us, me in my bed, and Cherry by your +fire, when there comes a little rap at the door, and Kittie Blunt comes +in. + +"'Oh, Kittie,' says Cherry, half-startled, 'do you want Mrs. Seymour?' + +"'No, I don't, I want you--may I come in and speak to yer?' + +"'I suppose so,' says Cherry, as if she didn't rightly know. I think +she'd forgotten as I was close by, and she could ha' asked me." + +"Well?" questioned Mrs. Seymour, as Miss Hobson paused. + +"Well--Kittie she comes in and stands just where I couldn't see her, +but I could see Cherry and Dickie as I lay, and she says in a low voice, +'Cherry, was you at the Mission Room this mornin'?--but there, I know as +you was--well, Cherry, mother said as I should have a turn to go +to-night, and she'd put the little 'uns to bed. So I puts on my things +and goes; leastways, I set out to go, but when I got a little +way--Cherry! I met one o' my schoolfellers, and she said as it was +nonsense what was talked there, and I should be a silly girl if I went. +So I turned t'other way with her, and we went a walk instead. And after +a bit I felt so wretched, and all at once I said good night all in a +hurry, and ran home. But when I got to the door I couldn't make up my +mind to go in and tell mother how bad I'd been, and she so kind in +smartenin' me up and all, and I came up to ask you if you could ever +have done such a thing?' + +"Cherry, she looked up from hugging of Dickie, and she says as gentle as +anythink, 'I expect I could have, Kittie, only you see I don't want to +do nothing bad just now, 'cause I'm so happy.' + +"'Yes,' says Kittie, 'but if you wasn't happy, Cherry?' + +"Cherry nodded, and she says, 'That's what I mean. When I used to be so +miserable, and we was so hungry--Dickie and me--I used to tell dreadful +stories to quiet him sometimes.' + +"'Oh!' says Kittie. + +"'I didn't _mean_ to be so wicked,' says Cherry, 'and I didn't think +much about it then; the words used just to slip out, anything as come +first; but since I've come back here to this nice home, I'm awful sorry +as I could ha' said such things, 'cause, ye know, I did love the Lord +Jesus, even then!--and think o' telling lies and lovin' _Him_ at the +same time!' + +"Cherry's eyes was droppin' tears all this time and then Kittie comes +runnin' to her side, and throws her arms round her neck and begins to +cry, and says, 'I thought as I loved Him, too, but I'm sure I don't, or +I couldn't ha' turned my back on Him as I done to-night! You should 'a +heard what Pollie says, against Him!' + +"'But you runned away from her,' says Cherry, 'and you're sorry now, and +want Him to forgive you, don't ye, Kittie?' + +"'I don't know,' says Kittie sorrowfully; 'I don't see as how He can, +for I can't go down and tell mother about it.' + +"'Why not?' says Cherry. + +"''Cause I _can't_; it ain't no use, Cherry.' + +"'Shall we ask Jesus to help you do it?' says Cherry, huggin' of her. + +"They was quiet after that, and at last Kittie, she says, 'Ask Him +then,' and Cherry she bends over her head and whispers somethin'. Then, +Dickie, who'd been listenin' all the time, says to her, ''Ou mus' go +down now, Kittie, 'cause Jesus 'ull help 'ou, now.' + +"So Kittie got up without another word and left the room, but when she +got to the door she ran back and kissed them both over and over again. +'I do love Him,' she says, 'and I _will_ try to do as He likes!' And +then she runs down in good earnest. After that Cherry begins to sing +that one about the snow--'Wash me in the Blood of the Lamb, and I shall +be whiter than snow.' That was just before you come in, Mrs. Seymour, +and I was, as I says, sittin' nigh the gate of Heaven: for it seems to +me, when we come to think o' His forgivin' love, as we mount up, and up, +and up, till we are a'most lost in wonder!" + +Mrs. Seymour did not answer beyond a gentle "Yes--yes--yes," as she +busied herself in preparing her invalid's supper; but the story sank +down into her heart, and many a time little Kittie got a kind smile or a +word of encouragement, where before she would have passed her with a +nod. And thus she gave "a cup of cold water" to another of His little +disciples. + +A day or two after this Jem and Meg bade Cherry good-bye, and left her +under Mrs. Seymour's wing, proud to be of some use in the world. For +Mrs. Seymour's last words as she placed her hand upon the girl's +shoulder were-- + +"She's my grandchild, you know, Meg, and I couldn't spare her now for +anything." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + EARTH'S SONG AND HEAVEN'S ECHO. + + +While Cherry was busy all day long, from early morning, when she cleaned +the doctor's step, till evening, when she read poor suffering Miss +Hobson to sleep, little Kittie Blunt was learning her life-lessons too. + +"Kittie," said Mrs. Blunt one day, as she and the little girl stood over +their washing-tub, "I shouldn't like you to grow up like Pollie, and +them girls, as is never satisfied unless they're at their doors +gossipin'." + +"Well, I don't, mother," answered Kittie, a little sulkily. + +"No, you don't; but if you go so much with Pollie it won't be long afore +you do." + +"I don't go with Pollie now," said Kittie. "I should ha' thought as +you'd seen that I didn't, mother, since--that Sunday." + +"I'm glad on it," said Mrs. Blunt heartily. "That's good news, Kittie. +You'll grow up to be a comfort to me yet." + +Kittie wrung out a towel very hard, but she half shook her head. + +"Yes, you will, Kit. It may be a deal easier to you now to go out on the +step, and see folks passin', and have a grumble with Pollie; but +by-and-by, if you're steady, you'll find it a deal easier to sit down +with mother to a bit o' work, and have a chat or a bit o' readin'." + +"'Tain't that I care so much for _Pollie_," answered the girl rather +dolefully; "but you don't know how dull it seems in 'ere, instead of +outside, mother; leastways when you're used to goin' out." + +Mrs. Blunt did not answer, for Kittie's words gave her a pang. If her +child only would believe that she knew best! + +But Mrs. Blunt had some one to consult now in all her difficulties. She +raised her heart to Him with an earnest prayer, that Kittie might be +kept from the first steps of danger. So it was with a quieted trust that +she bent over her tub once more; she knew but little, but that little +was so real, that it made her life a perfectly different thing. + +Was she puzzled how to guide her boys?--she asked Jesus about it. Was +she worried with Kittie?--she asked Jesus to make it right. Was she cast +down at their small means and many wants?--she told Jesus about it. Was +she afraid that the food would run short?--she told Jesus about it. + +And she found, as thousands have found before, that He could supply +_all_ her need. + +Did she watch and see that the boys were quieter than she expected, +after that telling Jesus? Did she notice that Kittie cheered up and was +good? that some one sent a frock for the baby unexpectedly? that her +husband brought home an extra shilling for an extra bit of work he had +done? + +Ah! they that ask, expecting an answer, from the faithful God, shall +receive abundantly. + +Her thoughts were broken in upon by Kittie's drawing a pinafore out of +the water, and saying-- + +"My! ain't this dreadfully old, mother? It ain't worth gettin'-up, that +it ain't." + +Mrs. Blunt shook her head. + +"It 'ull have to serve another turn, Kit." + +"I was a-thinkin'--" said Kit, hesitating. + +"Well, Kittie, what was you a-thinkin'?" answered her mother, kindly. + +"Why, there's Cherry Seymour, she earns two shillings a week." + +"So she does, but she ain't you, and she's left school." + +"But she don't earn that in school-time, mother." + +"Of course she don't." + +"But I've been thinkin', that if she was to mention me to them servants +at the doctor's, who is so kind to her, they might know of some little +place or 'nother before breakfast for _me_." + +"So they might, Kit; you're a good girl to ha' thought of it." + +"I _am_ honest," Kittie went on, meditatively, washing away all the time +as she talked, "and you could say as I'm not given to pickin' things, or +takin' what ain't mine, now couldn't you, mother?" + +Mrs. Blunt laughed a little, at which Kittie blushed crimson. + +"Mother!" she exclaimed. + +"Oh, Kit, my dear, I never meant as I couldn't! Bless your heart, I +should hope so! But I was laughin' at you havin' thought it all over so +grand!" + +"Well--but--mother--we would be glad of two shillings more every week, +wouldn't we?" + +"Of course we should, Kittie." Mrs. Blunt raised herself, and wrung the +soap-suds from her arms. "Why, yes, Kit, if you _could_, my dear, we +shouldn't know ourselves!" + +Kittie looked very pleased; and directly her mother had done with her, +she ran up-stairs to ask Cherry to put her into communication with the +doctor's servants. + +She knocked at Meg's door, but could get no answer, and remembering that +they were away, she went up to the top to Mrs. Seymour's rooms. + +Here on the landing, swaying about in the air that came in freely from +the window, were sheets and clothes drying finely; she bobbed her head +under them, and as she did so she heard Cherry's clear voice saying-- + +"I've a'most done, Miss Hobson; will it do then?" + +Kittie gained admittance, and found Cherry starching some things on the +centre table. + +"My! you do know how to do it fine!" she exclaimed; and then she +explained her errand. + +Cherry took her compliments very calmly, ironing and starching were such +every-day things to her; but when she heard what Kittie wanted she +looked very serious. + +"I can ask 'em and welcome, but I don't know as they would. But they are +mighty kind." + +As she spoke she went into the back room to give Miss Hobson a book +which she had dropped on the floor, and the invalid called to Kittie to +come too. + +"Look 'ere," she said to her, "_I've_ got a friend as I'll name ye to, +if ye like to go and see her. She's the curate's wife, what comes to see +me sometimes, and I know as she've got a heap of children and not much +to do with. Would ye like to go?" + +Kittie said she should, and the day being Saturday, and a half-holiday, +she ran down to ask her mother's permission to go at once. + +Mrs. Blunt said it could do no harm to try, and made Kittie as neat as +her very spare wardrobe would allow, and saw her set forth on her errand +with a strange feeling that she was going out into the world. + +Kittie traversed the two or three streets that brought her to the one +where the good man, who spent his life among the poor, had his home. + +She rang timidly, and stood for some minutes much concerned that the +door was not opened, though she heard feet running up and down, and +children's voices many and shrill. + +At last another step came nearer and nearer, and the door was opened by +a lady, pale and careworn, the curate's wife herself, who led the way +without asking any questions into the front room, where a baby was +crawling on the hearth-rug, and two or three little ones were standing +about watching Kittie with curiosity. + +The curate's wife took up the baby, and bade Kittie be seated. She +supposed she had come on account of some sick relative, and patiently +waited to hear the story. But when Kittie had explained why she came the +lady looked surprised and pleased. + +"And you think you could help me at odd times?" she asked at last, "and +would not get tired of the children? because, you know, I could not have +them slapped even if they were tiresome." + +Kittie promised that this should never happen, privately remembering +that it was a thing her mother never allowed, though she recalled with +compunction, that now and then--but still she felt different now from +what she used to do, and she must ask for help from the Lord Jesus. + +All that passed through her mind as she made the promise, but the +curate's wife could not tell that. She only thought that this little +girl seemed very straightforward. + +"So you would be able to come before breakfast, and light the kitchen +fire?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes, ma'am." + +"But does not your mother want you, as you have such a large family at +home?" + +"No, ma'am, 'cause mother's obliged to stay at home with the little +'uns, and she says as we didn't ought both of us to be at home." + +"But I am afraid I shall not be able to pay you as much as I should +like, Kittie; I have very little to spend; and yet--" She sighed. "I +_am_ so tired, and it would be such a comfort to have you if you were a +good girl." + +"I'd try to be, ma'am," answered Kittie; "but--mother says I'm very +tiresome sometimes." + +The curate's wife smiled kindly. + +"We all are," she said gently; "but if we know it, and try to be better, +so as to please our Lord and Master, we are sure to improve." + +Kittie's eyes gave a flash; nobody talked to her quite like that. She +should like to serve this pretty lady very much. + +"Then you will come in the evenings too, and wash up our dishes for us, +and help me put the children to bed, or anything I may want?" + +Kitty promised, and went home, about the happiest little girl in London. +Of course her difficulties were yet to come. + +Two whole shillings a week! It seemed a fortune to her. + +Cherry and Miss Hobson were as pleased as she could wish, and then she +ran down and burst in with her news to her mother. + +"Oh, Kittie!" exclaimed Mrs. Blunt, "won't you just have to be good to +them dear little children! and to the lady too. I never did see such a +wonderful thing, never. But it's like my Lord, that it is!" + + * * * * * + +When, after a fortnight's work at the Hall, Jem went back to London, he +left Meg and Dickie to get two more weeks of fresh air and country milk. + +Perhaps to Dickie that month in the country seemed to him afterwards as +but one brief day filled with the birds' song. + +All day long the two sat out under the apple-trees basking in the +sunshine, and listening to the melodious sounds from the Hall farm. + +Dickie, in Meg's old little wooden chair, was learning to catch the song +of the different birds, and would listen intently and patiently while +Meg tried to teach him how to distinguish them. + +One day, seeing the lark soaring above their heads, she raised his hand, +and pointed with his little finger as far as he could reach. + +"It is up in the sky, Dickie, oh, so high! singing God's praise," she +said. + +And Dickie answered as he caught the sound-- + +"_God's_ hymn-book." + +"What did the child mean?" thought Meg, as she gathered him into her +arms and kissed him again and again. "Was he thinking how Cherry sang +out of her hymn-book at home? And what could the lark sing out of, but +God's hymn-book?" She did not know; but she looked with awe into the +little face, which already, to her mind, seemed to reflect the light of +heaven. + +"Mother-Meg," said Dickie, all unconscious of her thoughts, "I should +like to stay here always, 'cause the birds do sing so nice." + +"Yes, Dickie, so they do, but we couldn't stay here always, because of +father-Jem and Cherry. They'll want us back again." + +"Yes, we can't stay away from Cherry, 'cause she takes care o' Dickie +when you're not there; and I love father-Jem too." + +"We are going back to-morrow, Dickie; but some day I hope you and Cherry +will both come and see my mother again." + +"She's very _kind_," nodded Dickie. "I'll come some day." + +Mrs. Archer, who was sitting by, quite appreciated the compliment. She +smiled a little tearfully, however. + +"This has been a happy, peaceful month, Meg; I've enjoyed it as I never +expected to enjoy anything on this earth again." + +So Meg and Dickie went back to smoky London; and when Cherry saw her +little brother, she was fain to burst into tears of joy, so altered and +improved was he. And Jem was equally pleased with Meg, and said she +looked like the country girl he had brought away a year ago. + +As Dickie sat telling all his little news on Cherry's lap, he whispered +earnestly-- + +"Cherry, I've heard 'em all day long. They sang Halleluia, like you!" + +When Cherry noticed that Meg was sufficiently at liberty to attend to +her, while still holding Dickie tightly in her arms as if she could not +part with him, she produced something mysteriously out of her pocket, +and handed it to Meg. + +It was a little shabby purse, and when at her entreaty Meg opened it, it +was found to contain ten whole shillings and a bright half-crown. + +"Those are my first earnings, mother-Meg," said Cherry, smiling and +colouring, "and they are for you." + +"Not for me, dear; I shall put them away for you." + +"No," answered Cherry stoutly; "I'm your child now--you know you said +so, yourself--and so all I get is yours. Don't give it back, +mother-Meg--don't--but let it go into the savings-bag." + +"Shall I, Jem?" asked Meg, doubtfully. + +"Yes," said Jem, "the child's quite right; we're all one family now, for +good or ill. May God bless us all." + +So Meg unlocked her savings-bag, and Cherry dropped her money into it +with great satisfaction. + +"Would you not like a _little_ for yourself, dear?" she asked. + +"Not a farthing," answered Cherry, "not till you have to get me some +boots. But I wore these old things all the time, 'cause I told grannie +as I wanted to have every bit of it ready for you. That half-crown's +what I got from her, for helping her with the washing." + +"_I've_ got some savings too," said Jem, smiling. "I've kept it a great +secret, even from Meg, because I wanted to surprise her. I was goin' to +give it to her on our weddin' day, but as Cherry's so clever, I won't be +left behind. There, Meg! this is what a pint a day would ha' cost me +ever since last June; see, it's nigh on three pounds!" + +Meg was too astonished to speak for a moment. + +"It's to go into the Savings-Bank," pursued Jem, "and it's to buy a +cottage with by-and-by; if it's God's will as we should." + +"Oh, Jem!" exclaimed Meg, "I knew before we were married that you never +took any of the drink, but I never guessed this." + +"It's the only secret as I've kept from you, and now it's out," he +answered. "Why, sweetheart, there's them as works with me, as drinks +quarts instead of pints, and see what that mounts up to in a year, let +alone the damage as they do to their health. They think it comforts 'em, +but I'll tell ye one thing, they feel a deal worse afterwards." + +Meg knew that from what she had heard, and Cherry knew it by sorrowful +experience. + +She bent her head and kissed Dickie. Oh, how thankful she was that they +were taken away from all that! She told him for the hundredth time how +glad she was to have him back. + +But even Cherry's love, pleased as he was to be with her again, could +not satisfy him. He soon slid down from her knee and began to feel his +way round the room. + +"Where are you going, darling?" asked Cherry, watching his renewed +powers with delight. "What do you want?" + +And Dickie answered in a yearning little tone, brimful of love-- + +"Only mo'ver-Meg!" + + THE END. + + + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + BRENDA'S NEW STORY, + + THE EARL'S GRANDDAUGHTER. + + _Large Crown 8vo, Art Cloth, gilt edges, Six Shillings_. + + + THE WHITEHALL REVIEW. + +"Rarely does the jaded reviewer find anything so fresh and spontaneous +as Brenda's new novel, 'The Earl's Granddaughter.' It is full of 'go' +and merriment, and the quaint and ludicrous sayings of children. The +scenes between Lady Patty and the Bungalow children are fascinating in +their life-like sincerity and grotesque comicality.... The style of the +book is simple and direct, and in it there is not a dull page." + + THE GENTLEWOMAN. + +"'The Earl's Granddaughter' relates the doings of quite the most +delightful family that I have ever met with in books, in the +children of Colonel and Mrs. Gabb. They are original, fearless, clever, +helpful, and intensely lovable. The account of their first visit to +London, given by the Gabb children to Lady Patty, is simply delightful." + + THE SATURDAY REVIEW. + +"A more delightful book for girls than this one we have seldom read. On +little Lady Patty, the Earl's Granddaughter alone, is lavished enough of +character-drawing to stock an average novel. She and her delightful +little friends, the Colonel's daughters, are living and breathing girls, +and more good might be done by the tale of their doings than by many a +volume of sermons.... The book, as we have said, is entirely delightful, +full of health and humour. It is refreshing to be able to praise +anything so unreservedly." + + THE GUARDIAN. + +"The various characters and habits of the country townsfolk are almost +worthy of 'Cranford,' and the relations between the wild merry family of +the Gabbs, and the spoilt and educated, rather haughty and conceited +young aristocrat, are thoroughly original and very droll." + + THE LEEDS MERCURY. + +"Brenda is excelled by few in her sketches of child-life, and in 'The +Earl's Granddaughter' she has given us a story breezy, varied, and +interesting enough to delight all who may be happy enough to possess it. +The lives of the children at the Bungalow, and of plain clever Lady +Patty, cannot fail to charm." + + THE RECORD. + +"'The Earl's Granddaughter' is certainly among the best work of this +popular writer. Some of the character-sketches indeed are worthy of +Charles Dickens himself.... It is a long time since we have read so +bright, so fresh, and so clever a tale, with so valuable a purpose as +'The Earl's Granddaughter.'" + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + ENGLISH LIFE IN THE OLDEN TIME. + + NEW EDITIONS OF THE WELL-KNOWN STORIES + + OF + + EMILY S. HOLT. + + _In Large Crown 8vo, price THREE SHILLINGS & SIXPENCE each_, + + IN SPECIALLY ATTRACTIVE BINDING. + + +=THE KING'S DAUGHTERS; or, How Two Girls Kept the Faith=. + +=ALL'S WELL; or, Alice's Victory=. _A Tale of the Times of Queen Mary_. + +=BEHIND THE VEIL=. _A Tale of the Norman Conquest_. + +=WHITE LADY OF HAZELWOOD=. _A Tale of the Fourteenth Century_. + +=VERENA; or, Safe Paths and Slippery Byeways=. _A Story of To-day_. + +=EARL HUBERT'S DAUGHTER; or, The Polishing of the Pearl=. _A Tale of the +Thirteenth Century_. + +=ASHCLIFFE HALL=. _A Tale of the Last Century_. + +=LETTICE EDEN=. _A Tale of the Last Days of King Henry the Eighth_. + +=CLARE AVERY=. _A Story of the Spanish Armada_. + +=THE WHITE ROSE OF LANGLEY=. _A Story of the Olden Time_. + +=ISOULT BARRY OF WYNSCOTE=. _A Tale of Tudor Times_. + +=JOYCE MORRELL'S HARVEST=. _A Story of the Reign of Elizabeth_. + +=SISTER ROSE; or, The Eve of St. Bartholomew=. + +=ROBIN TREMAYNE=. _A Tale of the Marian Persecution_. + +=MARGERY'S SON=. _A Fifteenth Century Tale_. + +=IMOGEN=. _A Tale of the Early British Church_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + Tales of English Life in the Olden Time. + + By EMILY S. HOLT. + + Large Cr. 8vo, FIVE SHILLINGS each. + + +=ONE SNOWY NIGHT; or, Long Ago at Oxford=. + + "Both the story and the telling will linger long in the memory of + the reader." + +=THE HARVEST OF YESTERDAY=. + + A Tale of the Sixteenth Century. + + "The volume takes foremost rank among Miss Holt's interesting, + valuable, and picturesque productions."--_Notes and Queries_. + +=COUNTESS MAUD; or, The Changes of the World=. + + A Tale of the Fourteenth Century. + + "Miss Holt's books are not only highly readable, but historical + studies of much value."--_Spectator_. + +=MINSTER LOVEL. A Story of the Days of Laud=. + + "Capitally written, and enjoyable from first to last."--_The + Scotsman_. + +=IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. The Story of Gunpowder Plot=. + + "A well-constructed and well-told tale. We know of no one whose + historical fiction is more trustworthy."--_Spectator_. + +=OUT IN THE '45; or, Duncan Keith's Vow=. + + "No one can fail to find pleasure in the quaint picturesque tale + which Miss Holt sets forth."--_Spectator_. + +=IN CONVENT WALLS. The Story of the Despensers=. + + "The characters are carefully studied and vividly presented, while + sound research is skilfully utilized in suggesting the life and + colour of the historical period selected by the writer."--_Saturday + Review_. + +=IN ALL TIME OF OUR TRIBULATION=. + + The Story of Piers Gaveston. + + "A highly meritorious attempt to familiarize nineteenth century + readers with the confusions of a long past century, little known + and less understood."--_Academy_. + +=THE LORD MAYOR. A Tale of London in 1384=. + + "Full of stirring incident graphically told."--_The Christian_. + +=LADY SYBIL'S CHOICE. A Tale of the Crusades=. + + "The book charms from the naive simplicity of the heroine and from + the skill with which the authoress has preserved the spirit of the + age."--_The Graphic_. + +=WEARYHOLME; or, Seedtime and Harvest=. + + "A skilful picture of the Restoration period."--_Graphic_. + +=A TANGLED WEB. A Tale of the Fifteenth Century=. + + "A charming book.... We heartily commend it."--_Sword and Trowel_. + +=RED AND WHITE. A Tale of the Wars of the Roses=. + + "A charming historical Tale, full of clever portraiture and antique + colouring."--_Publishers' Circular_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + Tales of English Life in the Olden Time. + + =BY EMILY S. HOLT=. + + +=ALL'S WELL; or, Alice's Victory=. + + With Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo. =3/6=. + +=THE WHITE LADY OF HAZELWOOD=. Large Crown 8vo. =3/6=. + + "An entertaining book of the instructive type, which we always take + a special pleasure in commending."--_The Christian_. + +=BEHIND THE VEIL. A Story of the Norman Conquest=. =3/6=. + + "Interesting from first to last."--_British Weekly_. + +=THE KING'S DAUGHTERS; or, How Two Girls kept the Faith=. + + Large Crown 8vo. Illustrated. =3/6=. + + "We never met with a book more suited to read aloud to young people + on a Sunday afternoon."--_Record_. + +=YE OLDEN TIME. English Customs in the Middle Ages=. =3/6=. + + "We have seldom met with a more useful book."--_Notes and Queries_. + +=MISTRESS MARGERY. A Tale of the Lollards=. Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "A page in history which our young men and maidens will do well to + saturate with holy tears."--_Sword and Trowel_. + +=JOHN DE WYCLIFFE. The First of the Reformers=. + + And What He Did for England. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "An admirable exposition of the opinions of a remarkable man." + _Notes and Queries_. + +=A FORGOTTEN HERO; or, Not for Him=. + + The Story of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall. Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "We trust many will become acquainted with Miss Holt's 'Forgotten + Hero.'"--_The Christian_. + +=THE MAIDEN'S LODGE; or, None of Self, and all of Thee=. + + A Tale of the Reign of Queen Anne. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =2/6=. + +=AT YE GRENE GRIFFIN. A Tale of the Fifteenth Century=. + + Small 8vo, cloth extra, =2/6=. + +=THE WELL IN THE DESERT=. + + An Old Legend. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =2/-= + +=FOR THE MASTER'S SAKE=. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =2/-= + + "We heartily recommend this well-written tale."--_Churchman_. + +=OUR LITTLE LADY; or, Six Hundred Years Ago=. =2/-= + + "A charming chronicle of the olden time."--_The Christian_. + +=THE WAY OF THE CROSS. A Tale of the Early Church=. =1/6=. + +=THE SLAVE GIRL OF POMPEII=. With Illustrations. Cloth extra, =1/6=. + +=ALL FOR THE BEST; or, Bernard Gilpin's Motto=. =1/-= + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY BRENDA. + + +=UNCLE STEVE'S LOCKER=. Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =5/-= + + "Brenda has never drawn two more charming pen and ink + sketches."--_Spectator_. + + "An attractive story of one of the bravest and sweetest of + girl-heroines." _Saturday Review_. + +=THE SHEPHERD'S DARLING=. Large Cr. 8vo, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "A pretty pastoral with an attractive heroine, whose chequered + life-story is told with the grace and delicacy that harmonize with + the author's original conception of the child Bonnie; and a story + that is well told and well devised must needs be good."--_Saturday + Review_. + +=THE PILOT'S HOUSE; or, Five Little Partridges=. + + With Illustrations by M. IRWIN. Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, + =2/6=. + + "One of those admirable sketches of child-life which this writer + can so well portray."--_Bookseller_. + +=FROGGY'S LITTLE BROTHER. A Story of the East End=. + + New Illustrated Edition. Square, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "Very pathetic and yet comical reading."--_Guardian_. + +=A SATURDAY'S BAIRN=. + + With Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =5/-=. + + "A pleasing story, skilfully written, and in an excellent + spirit."--_Record_. + +=LITTLE COUSINS; or, Georgie's Visit to Lotty=. + + With Illustrations by T. PYM. Square, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "Sure to satisfy any little girl to whom it may be + given."--_Athenaeum_. + + "Little girls who read it will long dream of the delights of the + shops and the Zoo."--_Guardian_. + +=VICTORIA BESS; or, The Ups and Downs of a Doll's Life=. + + With Illustrations by T. PYM. Square, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "A charming book for little girls."--_Literary World_. + + "Told with Brenda's usual brightness and good aim as to + teaching."--_Aunt Judy_. + +=LOTTY'S VISIT TO GRANDMAMA=. + + A Story for the Little Ones. With Fifty Illustrations. Square, + cloth extra, =2/6=. + + "An admirable book for little people."--_Literary World_. + + "A capital children's story."--_Record_. + + "Would form a nice birthday present."--_Aunt Judy_. + +=NOTHING TO NOBODY=. + + With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =2/-= + + "A very pretty story."--_Athenaeum_. + +=THE MERCHANT AND THE MOUNTEBANK=. + + With Illustrations by H. PETHERICK. Cloth, =1/6=. + + "One of Brenda's delightful tales."--_British Weekly_. + + "A sparkling little sketch, very prettily got up."--_The Record_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY LOUISE MARSTON. + + +=MISS MOLLIE AND HER BOYS; or, His Great Love=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, =3/6=. + + "The love of God is charmingly illustrated by a recital of the + loving devotion of a young woman who bestowed affectionate care + upon some poor lonely lads." _The Christian_. + +=TWO LITTLE BOYS; or, I'd Like to Please Him=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =2/6=. + + "A wonderfully pathetic story. It will be read with deep feeling, + especially by children."--_The Record_. + +=MR. BARTHOLOMEW'S LITTLE GIRL=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =2/6=. + + "A story that should turn the hearts of many to the Saviour. It is + well written, and the teaching is pure and true."--_The Christian_. + +=CRIPPLE JESS. The Hop Picker's Daughter=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =2/6=. + + "Fully as engrossing as anything from the pen of Hesba Stretton." + _The Christian_. + + "A sketch well drawn of a sweet flower blooming in a very humble + place." _Woman's Work_. + +ROB AND MAG. A Little Light in a Dark Corner. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, =1/6=. + + "A beautiful sketch."--_Churchman's Magazine_. + + "We believe this little volume will be found the means of leading + many to Jesus."--_The Christian_. + +=BLIND NETTIE; or, Seeking Her Fortune=. =1/-= + +=JITANA'S STORY; or, Light in the Darkness=. =1/-= + +=BENNIE, THE KING'S LITTLE SERVANT=. =1/-= + + + + + STORIES BY JENNIE CHAPPELL. + + +=BERNE'S BARGAIN=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "A delightful story. Boys cannot fail to like it. It is + full of incident and adventure. The illustrations are + excellent."--_Manchester Examiner_. + +=FOR ELSIE'S SAKE; or, A Seaside Friendship=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated =1/6=. + +=LITTLE RADIANCE. A Year in a Child's Life=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =1/6=. + + "A charming book for children."--_Footsteps of Truth_. + +=HAND IN HAND; or, Radiance at Beechdale=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =1/6=. + +=LEFT BEHIND; or, A Summer in Exile=. Cloth, =1/-=. + +=OUGHTS AND CROSSES. A Story for Boys=. =1/-=. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY AGNES GIBERNE. + + +=LIFE IN A NUTSHELL. A Story=. + + Crown 8vo, bevelled boards, =2/6=. + +=IDA'S SECRET; or, The Towers of Ickledale=. + + Crown 8vo, Cloth, =2/6=. + +=WON AT LAST; or, Mrs. Briscoe's Nephews=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "The treatment is so admirable we can understand Miss Giberne's + book being a help to many."--_Athenaeum_. + +=HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER; or, A Quiet Valley=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, =5/-=. + + "A thoroughly interesting and good book."'--_Birmingham Post_. + +=THE EARLS OF THE VILLAGE=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =2/6=. + + "A pathetic tale of country life, in which the fortunes of a family + are followed out with a skill that never fails to + interest."--_Scotsman_. + +=THE OLD HOUSE IN THE CITY; or, Not Forsaken=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, =2/6=. + + "An admirable book for girls. The narrative is simply written, but + there is a good deal of quiet force that deserves special + notice."--_Teachers' Aid_. + +=FLOSS SILVERTHORN; or, The Master's Little Handmaid=. + + Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "Thoroughly interesting and profitable, as Miss Giberne's tales + always are. We should like to see this in every home + library."--_The News_. + +=MADGE HARDWICKE; or, The Mists of the Valley=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =2/6=. + + "An extremely interesting book, and one that can be read with + profit by all." _The Schoolmaster_. + +=WILL FOSTER OF THE FERRY=. Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "We are glad to see this capital story in a new shape."--_Record_. + +=TOO DEARLY BOUGHT=. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =1/6=. + + + NEW SUNDAY STORY. + + Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + +=By M. S. COMRIE=. + +=THE KING'S LIGHT-BEARER; or, Shining for Jesus=. + + A Story of Little Louise. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY EMMA MARSHALL. + + +=THE CHILDREN OF DEAN'S COURT=; + + Or, Lady-bird and her Friends. Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, + =8/6=. + +=BLUEBELL. A Story of Child Life Now-a-days=. + + Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + +=LITTLE QUEENIE. A Story of Child Life Sixty Years Ago=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "'Little Queenie' is particularly pleasing."--_Saturday Review_. + +=EVENTIDE-LIGHT. The Story of Dame Margaret Hoby=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, =5/-=. + + "A charming gift book, especially to girls in their teens."--_The + Record_. + +=THE END CROWNS ALL. A Story of Life=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, =5/-=. "A most exciting story of modern + life, pervaded as Mrs. Marshall's tales always are by a thoroughly + wholesome tone."--_Record_. + +=BISHOP'S CRANWORTH; or, Rosamund's Lamp=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =5/-=. + + "This is a delightful story, with a considerable flavour of + romance."--_Baptist_. + +=LITTLE MISS JOY=. Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =2/6=. + + "A pretty picture of childish influence."--_Brighton Gazette_. + +=HURLY-BURLY; or After a Storm comes a Calm=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, =2/-=. + + "Simply and touchingly told."--_Aberdeen Journal_. + +=CURLEY'S CRYSTAL; or, A Light Heart Lives Long=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =1/6=. + + "The vehicle of good thought as to life and its duties."--_The + Christian_. + +=ROBERT'S RACE; or, More Haste Less Speed=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =1/6=. + + "Is both cheap and good."--_Teachers' Aid_. + +=PETER'S PROMISES; or, Look before you Leap=. + + Crown 8vo, Illustrated, =1/6=. + + + + + STORIES BY M. E. WINCHESTER, + + +_Author of "A Nest of Sparrows," etc_. + +=CITY SNOWDROPS; or, The House of Flowers=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =5/-=. + + "We have read very few stories of such pathos and + interest."--_British Weekly_. + +=GRANNY'S CABIN; or, All He Does is Love=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =2/6=. + + "Will do any one's heart good to read."--_Spectator_. + +=LOST MAGGIE; or, a Basket of Roses=. + + Cloth, Illustrated, =1/-=. + + "A pathetic and interesting story."--_Record_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY E. EVERETT-GREEN. + + +=FRIENDS OR FOES=. + + A Story for Boys and Girls. Crown 8vo, with illustrations, + bevelled boards, =2/6=. + +=SHADOWLAND; or, What Lindis Accomplished=. + + Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =1/6=. + + "A charming story for children, very prettily got up."--_Record_. + +=HER HUSBAND'S HOME; or, The Durleys of Linley Castle=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "Some of the scenes are particularly effective."--_Spectator_. + +=MARJORIE AND MURIEL; or, Two London Homes=. + + Small 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, =2/6=. + + "A capital story, very prettily got up."--_Record_. + +=HIS MOTHER'S BOOK. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 2/.-= + + "Little Bill is so lovable, and meets with such interesting + friends, that everybody may read about him with + pleasure."--_Spectator_. + +=LITTLE FREDDIE; or, Friends in Need=. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =2/-= + + "There is real pathos in this story, telling how a poor little waif + is protected from evil by the recollection of a lost mother's + teaching."--_Liverpool Courier_. + +=BERTIE CLIFTON; or, Paul's Little Schoolfellow=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, =2/-=. + + "Seldom have we perused a tale of the length of this with so much + pleasure." _The Schoolmaster_. + +=LITTLE RUTH'S LADY=. Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =2/-=. + + "A delightful study of children, their joys and + sorrows."--_Athenaeum_. + + "One of those children's stories that charm grown people as well as + little folk." _Guardian_. + +=OUR WINNIE; or, When the Swallows Go=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, =1/6=. + + "The beautiful life of little Winnie is one which all children will + do well to take as an example."--_Banner_. + + + + + STORIES BY J. M. CONKLIN. + + +=JUST AS IT OUGHT TO BE; or, The Story of Miss Prudence=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =5/-=. + + "Very original, interesting, with many good and suggestive + thoughts." _English Churchman_. + + "A capital book for girls."--_Baptist_. + +=BEK'S FIRST CORNER, AND HOW SHE TURNED IT=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, =3/6=. + + "Bek Westerley is a very charming person."--_Standard_. + +=OUT IN GOD'S WORLD; or, Electa's Story=. Large Crown 8vo, =3/6=. + + "One of the best girls' stories we have read."--_The + Congregationalist_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY L. T. MEADE. + + _Author of "Scamp and I," &c_. + + +=GREAT ST. BENEDICT'S; or, Dorothy's Story=. + + New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with + Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "The description of Dorothy's life is excellent."--_Spectator_. + + "At once a noble book, and a most interesting story."--_Court + Circular_. + +=A KNIGHT OF TO-DAY. A Tale=. + + New and Cheaper Edition. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth + extra, =3/6=. + + "A finely-imagined story of a good man. It is a book well worth + reading." _The Guardian_. + +=BEL-MARJORY. A Tale=. Crown 6vo, cloth extra, =6/-=. + + "Most interesting; we give it our hearty commendation."--_English + Independent_. + +=SCAMP AND I. A Story of City Byeways=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, =2/6=. + + "All as true to life and as touchingly set forth as any heart could + desire." _Athenaeum_. + +=THE CHILDREN'S KINGDOM;= + + Or, The Story of a Great Endeavour. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with + Illustrations, =3/6=. + + "A really well-written story, with many touching passages. Boys and + girls will read it with eagerness and profit."--_The Churchman_. + +=WATER GIPSIES. A Tale=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations =2/6=. + + "It is full of incident from beginning to end, and we do not know + the person who will not be interested in it."--_Christian World_. + +=DAVID'S LITTLE LAD=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with Illustrations, =2/6=. + + "A finely-imagined story, bringing out in grand relief the contrast + between quiet, steady self-sacrifice, and brilliant, flashy + qualities."--_Guardian_. + +=DOT AND HER TREASURES=. + + With Illustrations. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =2/-=. + + "One of the tales of poor children in London, of which we have had + many examples; but none finer, more pathetic, or more original than + this." _Nonconformist_. + +=OUTCAST ROBIN; or, Your Brother and Mine=. + + Illustrated. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =2/-=. + +=WHITE LILIES, AND OTHER TALES=. + + With Illustrations. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =1/6=. + + "Stories of a singularly touching and beautiful + character."--_Rock_. + +=LETTIE'S LAST HOME=. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =1/6=. + + "Very touchingly told."--_Aunt Judy's Magazine_. + +=THOSE BOYS. A Story for all Little Fellows=. Small 8vo, =1/-=. + +=LITTLE TROUBLE THE HOUSE=. Small 8vo, =1/-=. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY CATHARINE SHAW. + + =Price Three Shillings and Sixpence each=. + + +=THE STRANGE HOUSE; or, A Moment's Mistake=. + + "A charming story. It is characterised by simplicity of treatment, + but the interest is cleverly sustained, and the characters are well + drawn." _Manchester Examiner_. + +=LILIAN'S HOPE=. Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra. With Illustrations. + + "One of the best gift books for girls we have seen. The story + throbs with the power and pathos of real home life."--_In His + Name_. + +=HILDA; or, Seeketh Not Her Own=. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "A charming story, illustrative of the blessedness of + self-sacrifice." _Literary World_. + + +=Price Two Shillings and Sixpence each=. + +=ALICK'S HERO=. Large Crown 8vo, cloth. Illustrated. + + "Mrs. Shaw has added to our delight in noble boyhood, as well as to + her own reputation, in this most charming of her works."--_The + Christian_. + +=ONLY A COUSIN=. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "In our excavations among heaps of tales we have not come upon a + brighter jewel than this."--Rev. C. H. SPURGEON in _Sword and + Trowel_. + +=THE GABLED FARM; or, Young Workers for the King=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "A charming story, wherein the children are described naturally." + _Evangelical Magazine_. + +=IN THE SUNLIGHT AND OUT OF IT=. + + A Year of my Life-story. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "One of the pleasantest books that a girl could take into her hand, + either for Sunday or week-day reading."--_Daily Review_. + +=NELLIE ARUNDEL. A Tale of Home Life=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, Illustrated. + + "We need scarcely say that Mrs. Shaw holds out the light of life to + all her readers, and we know of few better books than those which + bear her name." _Record_. + + + + + =SOMETHING FOR SUNDAY=. + + _SELECTED BY CATHARINE SHAW_. + + =Price One Shilling each=. + + + 1st. =OUTLINE TEXTS FOR PAINTING=. 48 Texts in Packet. + + 2nd. =HAPPY HOURS WITH THE BIBLE=. Devices for Bible Searching. + + 3rd. =ECHOES FROM THE BIBLE=. Illustrated Papers for Bible Study. + + 4th. =ALPHABET TEXTS FOR PRICKING OR PAINTING=. Specially for the + Little Ones. + + 5th. =MESSAGES FROM HEAVEN=. Small Outline Texts for Painting. + (Suitable for Flower Missions.) + + 6th. =GLEAMS OF GLORY FROM THE GOSPELS=. Subjects for Bible Study. + + 7th. =A LARGE THOUGHT IN A LARGE WORD=. Outline Texts for + Painting. + + 8th. =SCRIPTURE FEAR NOTS=. Texts for Painting. + + 9th. "=ALL THINGS ARE YOURS.=" Outline Texts for Painting, with + Hints for Bible Searching. + + 10th. =TEXTS FOR THE CHILDREN=. For Pricking or Painting. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + POPULAR HOME STORIES. + + By EMILY BRODIE. + + +=OLD CHRISTIE'S CABIN=. Crown 8vo, =2/6=. Illustrated. + + "A capital book for young people, depicting the loveliness of a + ministering life on the part of some happy children."--_The + Christian_. + +_COUSIN DORA; or, Serving the King_. Large Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "An admirable tale for elder girls."--_Nonconformist_. + +=HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL=. Large Crown 8vo, =3/6=. + + "Should find its way into school libraries as well as into homes." + _Sunday School Chronicle_. + +=FIVE MINUTES TOO LATE; or, Leslie Harcourt's Resolve=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =3/6=. + +=NORMAN AND ELSIE; or, Two Little Prisoners=. + + Large Crown 8vo, extra cloth, =3/6=. + + "So true and delightful a picture that we can hardly believe we + have only read about it; it all seems so real, and has done us so + much good."--_The Christian_. + +=NORA CLINTON; or, Did I Do Right?= Crown 8vo, =3/6=. + + "Will be read with pleasure and profit."--_Christian Age_. + +=LONELY JACK and His Friends at Sunnyside=. Crown 8vo, =3/6=. + + "Its chapters will be eagerly devoured by the reader."--_Christian + World_. + +=THE HAMILTONS; or, Dora's Choice=. Crown 8vo, =3/6=. + + "Miss Brodie's stories have that savour of religious influence and + teaching which makes them valuable as companions of the + home."--_Congregationalist_. + +=UNCLE FRED'S SHILLING: Its Travels and Adventures=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "Children will follow it with as eager interest as the little + people who listened to it in the book itself."--_Christian World_. + +=ELSIE GORDON; or, Through Thorny Paths=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =2/6=. + + "The characters have been well thought out. We are sure the volume + will be welcome at many a fireside."--_Daily Express_. + +=JEAN LINDSAY, the Vicar's Daughter=. Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "The tale is admirably told, and some capital engravings interpret + its principal incidents."--_Bookseller_. + +=ROUGH THE TERRIER. His Life and Adventures=. + + Illustrated by T. Pym. Square, cloth extra, =2/6=; or boards, + =1/6=. + + "A clever autobiography, cleverly illustrated."--_The Christian_. + +=SYBIL'S MESSAGE=. Small 8vo, cloth extra, =1/6=. + +=EAST AND WEST; or, The Strolling Artist=. =1/6=. + +=THE SEA GULL'S NEST; or, Charlie's Revenge=. =1/6=. + +=RUTH'S RESCUE; or, The Light of Ned's Home=. =1/-=. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + BOOKS FOR BOYS. + + By M. L. RIDLEY. + + +=Price Two Shillings and Sixpence each, with Illustrations=. + +=SENT TO COVENTRY; or, The Boys of Highbeech=. + + Illustrated. Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "A really good story of boys' school-life."--_Pall Mall Gazette_. + + "Eminently interesting from start to finish,"--_Pictorial World_. + +=KING'S SCHOLARS; or, Work and Play at Easthaven=. + + Illustrated. Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "Full of all those stirring incidents which go to make up the + approved life of schoolboys. Both adventure and sentiment find a + place in it."--_Pall Mall Gazette_. + + "A schoolboy tale of very good tone and spirit."--_Guardian_. + +=OUR CAPTAIN. The Heroes of Barton School=. + + With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "A first-class book for boys."--_Daily Review_. + + "A regular boy's book."--_Christian World_. + +=OUR SOLDIER HERO. The Story of My Brothers=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth extra. With Illustrations. + + "Contains the healthiest of matter presented in the most + entertaining of ways." _Schoolmaster_. + +=THE THREE CHUMS. A Story of School Life=. + + With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra. + + "A book after a boy's heart. How can we better commend it than by + saying it is both manly and godly?"--Rev. C. H. SPURGEON in _Sword + and Trowel_. + + "Ingeniously worked out and spiritedly told."--_Guardian_. + + +=Price Three Shillings and Sixpence each, with Illustrations=. + +=GOLDENGATES; or, Rex Mortimer's Friend=. Large Crown 8vo. + + "An excellent story of boyish love."--_Sunday School Chronicle_. + + "A first-rate story for boys. The hero is a fine specimen of a + manly young Christian."--_Congregational Review_. + +=WALTER ALISON: His Friends and Foes=. + + Crown 8vo, cloth extra. With Illustrations. + + "Schoolboys are sure to like it."--_Churchman_. + + "A book boys will be sure to read if they get the chance."--_Sword + and Trowel_. + + +=HILLSIDE FARM; or, Marjorie's Magic=. + + Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Two Shillings. + + "A very well-written story which all girls will thoroughly + enjoy."--_Guardian_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + STORIES BY GRACE STEBBING. + + +=A REAL HERO. A Story of the Conquest of Mexico=. + + With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "We can cordially recommend this to all youthful lovers of + adventure and enterprise."--_Academy_. + +=IN ALL OUR DOINGS. A Story for Boys=. Large Crown 8vo, =3/6=. + + "A story for boys, in which the lessons of the daily Collects are + brightly brought home to them."--_Times_. + +=GRAHAM MCCALL. A Tale of the Covenanters=. + + Large Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Cloth extra, =5/-=. + + "Stirring, and ably written."--_Guardian_. + + "We heartily commend it to English boys and girls."--_Sunday School + Chronicle_. + +=WINNING AN EMPIRE; or, The Story of Clive=. + + Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "Miss Stebbing is one of the few ladies that can write really good + boys' stories. She has caught, not only the phraseology, but the + spirit of boys."--_Standard_. + +=ONLY A TRAMP=. + + Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "Miss Stebbing holds the attention and extorts the admiration of + the reader from first to last. Many a weighty lesson may be learnt + from her pages." _The Christian_. + +=FUN AND FAIRIES=. + + Fully Illustrated by _T. Pym_. 410, cloth extra, =3/6=. + + "With its dear little pictures, is quite charming."--_Athenaeum_. + +=SILVERDALE RECTORY; or, The Golden Links=. + + With Illustrations, Crown 8vo, =2/6=. + + "We can heartily recommend this story." _Church of England Sunday + School Magazine_. + +=BRAVE GEORDIE. The Story of an English Boy=. + + With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, =2/6=. + + "It is refreshing to meet with such a spirited and thoroughly good + story." _The Christian_. + +=IN WYCLIFFE'S DAYS; or, A Safe Hiding Place=. + + Small 8vo. With Illustrations. Cloth extra, =2/6=. + + "A delightful invigorating story."--_Daily Review_. + +=LOST HER SHOE AND OTHER THREADS=. + + Small 8vo. Illustrated. Cloth extra, =1/6=. + + "Five short stories sure to be devoured by young people."--_Sword + and Trowel_. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + THE PINAFORE PICTURE BOOKS. + + Price EIGHTEENPENCE, in Cloth Gilt. + + +=PINAFORE DAYS=. + + By ISMAY THORN With Illustrations by T. PYM. + +=MY SUNDAY STORY BOOK=. + + With Illustrations. + +=ONLY FIVE=. + + By ISMAY THORN With Illustrations by T. PYM. + +=ROUGH THE TERRIER=. + + By EMILY BRODIE With Illustrations by T. PYM. + +=MY SUNDAY PICTURE BOOK=. + + With Illustrations. + +=A SIX YEARS DARLING=. + + By ISMAY THORN With Illustrations by T. PYM. + +=SUNDAY BIBLE PICTURES=. + + With Illustrations. + + + SHILLING PICTURE BOOKS. + + Coloured Boards, Crown 4to, with many Illustrations. + +=JINGLES & CHIMES & NURSERY RHYMES=. + + With 74 Original Illustrations. + +=BY SEA AND LAND=. + + Stories of Adventure, Travel, and Conflict. With many + Illustrations. + +=SOMEBODY'S DARLING=. + + By CATHARINE SHAW. With 100 Illustrations. + + JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + SPLENDID STORIES FOR BOYS. + + =By Dr. GORDON STABLES, R.N=. + + +=FACING FEARFUL ODDS. A Tale of Flood and Field=. + + Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =5/-=. + +=HEARTS OF OAK. A Story of Nelson and the Navy=. + + Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =5/-=. + + "Tom Burn, the hero, will charm every boy that gets hold of it." + _Literary World_. + + "A Story of the navy and of mighty Nelson, told with excellent + spirit." _Saturday Review_. + +=TWO SAILOR LADS=. + + A Story of Stirring Adventures on Sea and Land. L. Cr, 8vo, with + Illustns., =5/-=. + + "A sea story, big with wonders."--_Saturday Review_. + + "A capital story in Dr. Stables' best style."--_Spectator_. + +=FOR ENGLAND, HOME, AND BEAUTY=. + + A Tale of Battle and the Breeze. Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with + Illustrations, price =5/-=. + + "Dr. Stables has almost surpassed himself in this book. Certainly + we have read nothing of his which has pleased us more--perhaps we + might say as much." _The Spectator_. + +=EXILES OF FORTUNE=. + + The Story of a Far North Land. Large Cr. 8vo, cloth extra, with + Illustrations, =5/-=. + + "A capital book; written with this popular writer's accustomed + spirit, and sure to be enjoyed."--_Scotsman_. + +=FROM SQUIRE TO SQUATTER=. + + A Tale of the Old Land and the New. Large Crown 8vo, Illustrated, + price =5/-=. + + "Just the sort of book that boys delight in, as the story is + crowded with exciting incidents."--_Schoolmaster_. + + "The story is naturally and brightly written, and shows a marked + advance over former productions by the same author."--_Standard_. + +=IN THE DASHING DAYS OF OLD; or, The World-wide Adventures of Willie +Grant=. Large Crown 8vo, Illustrated, price =5/-=. + + "We can commend this book as the best story for boys which we have + read for many a day."--_English Churchman_. + + "Can be safely recommended as one of the very best books that could + possibly be placed in a boy's hand."--_Schoolmaster_. + + + + + By W. C. METCALFE. + + +=ROGUE'S ISLAND; or, The Pirate Lair=. + + Large Crown 8vo, with Illustrations, =5/-=. + + +By LADY FLORENCE DIXIE. + +=THE TWO CASTAWAYS; or, Adventures in Patagonia=. + + Large Crown 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations, price =5/-=. + + "A lively story of adventure, drawn a good deal from personal + experience." _The Guardian_. + + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mother Meg, by Catharine Shaw + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOTHER MEG *** + +***** This file should be named 37715.txt or 37715.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/1/37715/ + +Produced by Hunter Monroe, Delphine Lettau and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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