children; and though I did not gain by them like my other boarders, I
never LOST, and they have been a great joy to me, yes, and a help, by
giving my house a character."

"When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven years ago,
when their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused help, and how
despairingly I prayed, I feel all the more that there is an answer to
even feeble almost worldly prayer."

"That it could not be when it was that you might be enabled to do the
duty that was laid on you, my dear."

And with the exchange of a kiss, the two good women set themselves to
practical pounds, shillings, and pence, which was just concluded when
the patter of feet up the stone steps and voices in the hall
announced the return of Mrs. Best's boarders.

Just as Magdalen was opening the door, there darted up, with the air
of a privileged favourite, a little person of ten years old, with
flying brown hair and round rosy cheeks, exclaiming breathlessly, "Is
she come?"

The answer was to take her up with a motherly hug, and "My dear
little Thekla!" There was not time for more than a hurried glance
and embrace of the three on the steps of the stair, in their sailor
hats and blue serge; but when in ten minutes more, the whole party,
twenty in number, were seated round the dining table, observation was
possible. Agatha, as senior scholar, sat at the foot of the table,
fully occupied in dispensing Irish stew. She had a sensible face, to
which projecting teeth gave a character, and a brow that would have