"Wouldst like to go to Upclose Farm?" asked she, sorrowfully.

"It's just blackberrying time," said Tom.

Will shook his head. She looked at him awhile, as if trying to read that
expression of despondency, and trace it back to its source.

"Will and Tom could go," said she; "I must stay here till I've found her,
thou knowest," continued she, dropping her voice.

He turned quickly round, and with the authority he at all times exercised
over Tom, bade him begone to bed.

When Tom had left the room, he prepared to speak.




CHAPTER II.


"Mother," then said Will, "why will you keep on thinking she's alive? If
she were but dead, we need never name her name again. We've never heard
nought on her since father wrote her that letter; we never knew whether
she got it or not. She'd left her place before then. Many a one dies
in--"

"Oh, my lad! dunnot speak so to me, or my heart will break outright,"
said his mother, with a sort of cry. Then she calmed herself, for she