down again, to watch over the child. At the same time up one of the
bedposts crawled something black and hideous, which on seeing that
the angel of God seemed about to depart, stuck its head over the
bedside and grinned with glee, thinking it could creep inside and
lie down in the angel's place.

But when it saw that the angel of God still guarded the child, it
began to writhe as if suffering the torments of hell, and shrank
back toward the floor.

The next day the little girl was on the road to recovery. Katrina
was so glad the fever was broken that she had not the heart to say
anything about the spoiled wedding shirt, though she probably
thought to herself that she had a fool of a husband.


CALLING ON RELATIVES

0ne Sunday afternoon Jan and Glory Goldie set out together in the
direction of the big forest; the little girl was then in her fifth
year.

Silent and serious, father and little daughter walked hand in hand,
as if bent upon a very solemn mission. They went past the shaded
birch grove, their favourite haunt, past the wild strawberry hill
and the winding brook, without stopping; then, disappearing in an
easterly direction, they went into the densest part of the forest;
nor did they stop there. Wherever could they be going? By and by
they came out on a wooded hill above Loby. From there they went
down to the scale-pan, where country-road and town-road cross. They