it an insult to his Creator and to you, too."

"Will you please bring my coat and boots and things? I can never quite
find them myself," was all the rector said, and knowing that further
opposition was useless, Mrs. Martha went in quest of the boots and
overshoes, and coat and overcoat and muffler, and fur cap and mittens,
and heavy shawl, in which she enveloped her husband, lamenting that
there was not ready a hot soap-stone for his feet, which were sure to
suffer.

But the little man did not need the soap-stone; he had the warmest,
kindest, most unselfish heart that ever beat in a human breast, and
never thought of the storm, as he waded through the deep snow and took
his seat beside Burton Jerrold in the sleigh, which Sam drove rapidly
toward the farm-house in the pasture.




CHAPTER IX.

THE HORROR AT THE FARM-HOUSE.


When Hannah reached home the gray November afternoon was already merging
into the dark night, which was made still darker by the violence of the
increasing storm, and never had Hannah's home seemed so desolate and
dreary as it did when the sleigh turned from the highway into the
cross-road which lead to it, and she saw through the gathering gloom the
low, snow-covered roof and the windows from which no welcoming light was