heart leaped, and then beat peacefully, happily, as it had not beaten
for many days. All was over; and Alice leaned against his arm with a
little movement of content, and the good neighbors looked at one
another again, and smiled this time to know that all was well.

What is the song now? The blind child turns slightly, so that she
faces Miss Vesta Dale, whose favorite song this is,--

"All in the merry month of May,
When green buds were a-swellin",
Young Jemmy Grove on his death-hed lay,
For love of Barbara Allan."

Why is Miss Vesta so fond of the grim old ballad? Perhaps she could
hardly tell, if she would. She looks very stately as she leans against
the wall, close by the room where her sister Rejoice is lying. Does a
thought come to her mind of the youth who loved her so, or thought he
loved her, long and long ago? Does she see his look of dismay, of
incredulous anger, when she told him that her life must be given to
her crippled sister, and that if he would share it he must take
Rejoice too, to love and to cherish as dearly as he would cherish her?
He could not bear the test; he was a good young fellow enough, but
there was nothing of the hero about him, and he thought that crippled
folk should be taken care of in hospitals, where they belonged.

"'Oh, dinna ye mind, young man,' she said,
'When the red wine was a-fillin',
Ye bade the healths gae round an' round,
And slighted Barbara Allan?'"