"This is the best sign of you yet--no foolish pride--no flying in my
face with indignant disclaiming of what people call charity, and
throwing the bit of paper on the carpet for the lass to sweep out, but
a sensible and reasonable way of taking from a fellow-creature what she
would take as pleasantly from you if she needed it and you had it to
spare. You will do, Miss Melville; only mind, as the old Scotch proverb
has it, 'You must set a stout heart to a stey brae'."

On Jane's return to Cross Hall she found her sister in very much better
spirits than when she set out for Allendale. An idea had struck Elsie,
consequent partly on the remark Jane had made about her name looking
well on the title-page of a book, and partly on her seeing in the
Poet's Corner of the SWINTON COURIER some verses very inferior to her
own which Mrs. Dalzell had returned to her. She was a poet; and what
was there to hinder her from distinguishing herself in the literary
world by thoughts that breathe and words that burn; and also from
earning in this pleasant way a handsome income. Hope arose out of the
vision; the fanciful and fragile mind that every one had despised and
undervalued might, perhaps, do greater things than Jane's clear head
and busy hands. Never had her ideas flowed more rapidly, or her words
arranged themselves so well. She began by bewailing her own sad fate,
the loss of fortune, and the desertion of friends; and the sincerity of
her feelings made it feel like an inspiration. Things that appeared to
her to be new thoughts crowded on her, and before Jane's return she had
finished a short poem very much to her own satisfaction.

She would scarcely wait to hear the result of her sister's visit to
Miss Thomson, but impetuously and affectionately made Jane sit down to
listen to her lay.

"I wish I were a good judge, Elsie. It seems to me to be very pretty.
Here and there I would alter a word; but, on the whole, I think you
have succeeded," was the welcome criticism.

"You think so; and you are so prosaic. I feel as if I could go on for
ever writing. Don't you think you have seen worse verses printed, not
in a newspaper, but in a book?"

"I read so little of that kind of literature; but I am sure you often
read pieces to me, from both newspapers and books, that do not interest
me half so much."

"Oh, Jane, I count so much on your good opinion, because I know that
you will give it honestly, and because I think if I can please yo