Then she stooped to kiss her foster-child, who opened his black eyes
very wide, and caught the sleeping kitten round the head, in the
fear that it might be taken from him.

"Tell Abel the name of pretty young lady you see today, love," said
Mrs. Lake.

But Jan was well aware of his power over the miller's wife, and was
apt to indulge in caprice. So he only shook his head, and cuddled
the kitten more tightly than before.

"Tell un, Janny dear. Tell un, there's a lovey!" said Mrs. Lake.
"Who did daddy put in the hopper?" But still Jan gazed at nothing
in particular with a sly twinkle in his black eyes, and continued to
squeeze poor Sandy to a degree that can have been little less
agonizing than the millstone torture; and obdurate he would probably
have remained, but that Abel, bending over him, said, "Do 'ee tell
poor Abel, Jan."

The child fixed his bright eyes steadily on Abel's well-loved face
for a few seconds, and then said quite clearly, in soft, evenly
accented syllables, -

"Amabel."

And the sandy kitten, having escaped with its life, crept back into
Jan's bosom and purred itself to rest.