there'll be snow next morning. He's rubbed through so far, but it sits
heavy. I'm not in their kitchen for an odd bit of work now and then for
nothing. I see what I see, and I hear what I hear. Beda is lonely like,
and she's pleased to have somebody to talk out to. What if the pastor
and his wife should find out who's who!" she continued, pointing over
her shoulder at the supposed sleeper.

The cellar-master gave a stupid look at her mysterious face.

"That's the major's son over there," she whispered--"Alf, who ran off
and never came back. I must tell somebody, if I should die for it. But
you mustn't breathe it to a living soul."

"Not that beautiful young fellow! No, no; you don't make me believe
that. Don't I remember him? This one isn't a bit like him--an ugly,
worthless-looking old tramp. He was a wild chap, Alf. My wife used to
tell me it was a shame to let him come there and drink--drink down a
glass as if he couldn't swallow it quick enough, and then another, and
then go out to the stable-boy, who was there to help him home. But
that's not Alf. I'd know that handsome fellow anywhere among a million."

"But that _is_ Alf," she whispered. "When he was almost frozen to death,
the doctor told me to open his breast and rub him well; and I did. But
what did I find there, hanging on to a black string, but his mother's
picture, in a little locket she gave him when he was a little fellow;
and he was so fond of it then he would wear it outside his clothes,
where everybody could see, he said. He's willing enough to hide it now;
he don't want to shame such parents, and that's the only good thing I
see about him. I found it out, and I know it; but I won't tell anybody
but you."

"That's Alf! And I helped to make him so! My wife said I'd rue the day.
Now I do. It's very fine to be called 'cellar-master' when you sit fast
in the poorhouse; but it's a bad business dragging people down. Think
what Alf was and see what he is! I don't want to talk any more to-day.
You go, Gull. I've got something to think about."

Johanson, lost in his own thoughts, had not noticed the whispered
conversation till his own name of the past was mentioned. After that, in
bitter repentance he heard the galling words that penetrated his inmost
soul. Now he understood Gull's new politeness to him, and the kindly
willingness with which she saved him in his degradation, for his
mother's sake. She could not treat him like a common tenant of the
poorho