We went to bed again, and the forsaken child of some half-animal mother,
now perhaps asleep in some filthy lodging for tramps, lay in my Ethelwyn's
bosom. I loved her the more for it; though, I confess, it would have been
very painful to me had she shown it possible for her to treat the baby
otherwise, especially after what we had been talking about that same
evening.

So we had another child in the house, and nobody knew anything about it but
ourselves two. The household had never been disturbed by all the going and
coming. After everything had been done for her, we had a good laugh over
the whole matter, and then Ethelwyn fell a-crying.

"Pray for the poor thing, Harry," she sobbed, "before you come to bed."

I knelt down, and said:

"O Lord our Father, this is as much thy child and as certainly sent to us
as if she had been born of us. Help us to keep the child for thee. Take
thou care of thy own, and teach us what to do with her, and how to order
our ways towards her."

Then I said to Ethelwyn,

"We will not say one word more about it tonight. You must try to go to
sleep. I daresay the little thing will sleep till the morning, and I am
sure I shall if she does. Good-night, my love. You are a true mother. Mind
you go to sleep."

"I am half asleep already, Harry. Good-night," she returned.