re bound for, and explain things a bit to him, it's
more than likely he'd stretch a point and take us to Firdale. And if he
refuses, we could do just as you say--slip in at the next stopping-place
without anybody being anything the wiser.

"Bless you for a wee wisehead!" gasped Bambo, in his hoarse, quavering
voice, at the same time drawing the child still closer to his side.
"You've put new life into me. Here I've been fearing as how I should
never reach Firgrove, and blaming the Lord for forgetting us. And now,
out of the mouth of a babe, so to speak, He brings the very plan that
will be easiest and best for us all," and tears of joy and thankfulness
trickled down the poor creature's hollow, fevered cheeks.

"We needn't go just yet, not for ever so long," said Darby, quite proud
of his post of commander-in-chief for the time being. "The boat leaves
Barchester early, early in the morning, but she doesn't reach Engleton
till about eight o'clock. I've talked with Mrs. Grey of the _Smiling
Jane_ lots and lots of times, so I know. She reaches Firdale some time
in the evening. We'll be home in time for tea. Oh, won't it be lovely!"
said Darby, clasping his hands in ecstasy.

"Ay!" assented Bambo, earnestly, solemnly. It was not of the tea he was
thinking, however, but of the deep satisfaction and gratitude with which
he would hand over his charges to their proper guardians. "And now you
must try and sleep a while, sonny, like missy here. See, lie down on
this nice dry place, and you can lean your head on Bambo's knee."

"You must rest too," coaxed Darby sweetly. "You are so good to us, yet
you never think of yourself. Wait, see if we won't take care of you when
we go to Firgrove! Aunt Catharine will soon cure your cough. She's fine
for doctoring, though she _is_ so--so--"

"Don't fret about me, sonny; I'll rest plenty by-and-by, never you
fear," and with that strange smile lighting up his pale, plain face, a
smile which to look upon--only now it was too dark--made Darby feel as
if he were in church or had newly finished saying his prayers, the dwarf
watched until the little lad's heavy eyelids drooped over his tired
eyes.

Soon he would have been, like Joan, fast asleep. Bambo also was hovering
on the undefined borderland, when the sound of footsteps from the field
above the kiln caught his quick ear, and with a sudden jerk of his great
head he sat up to listen. At the same time a flare of light from a
lantern streame