o speak, but Tom was quick to
understand. Next morning Miss Goldthwaite was able to appear at the
breakfast table, looking a little paler than usual, but apparently
not much the worse of her ducking. Dr. Gair forbade Tom to get up
till noon, so Carrie herself took up his breakfast-tray. He looked
surprised and greatly relieved to see her, and tried to make light of
what he had done.

"It is nothing," he said. "I would gladly do fifty times more for
you."

"We are bound more closely together now," she said. "I owe my life to
you." And bending over him she kissed him, and slipped away, leaving
him very happy indeed.

In the evening he came down to the drawing-room, where he was treated
as a hero. Everybody made so much of him that he began to feel
uncomfortable, and took refuge at last with Mr. Robert Keane, who
good-naturedly showed him the sketch-book he had filled in Europe,
and explained everything to him, as if he found pleasure in it. And
he did find pleasure, for Tom was an enthusiastic listener.

No inquiry had come from Thankful Rest, which had astonished Mrs.
Keane very much. She thought they would be sure to feel anxious about
Tom's recovery. She did not know Joshua Strong and his sister. The
following morning Dr. Gair said Tom might go home as soon as he
liked; so Miss Alice drove him and Lucy to Thankful Rest in the
course of the forenoon. Miss Hepsy was plucking chickens for the
market, and tossed up her head when her nephew and niece appeared
before her.

"I wonder you'd come back at all after livin' so long among gentle
folk. It'll be a long time, I reckon, afore ye get the chance to jump
through the ice after Miss Goldthwaite or any other miss.--Here,
Lucy, get off yer hat, and lend a hand wi' them chickens.--You'll
find plenty wood in the shed, boy, waitin' to be chopped, if yer
uncle hain't anything else for ye to do. Off ye go."

The contrast between the happy circle they had left and their own
home was so painful that Lucy's tears fell fast as she went to do her
aunt's bidding. And Tom departed to the wood-shed with a very
downcast and rebellious heart.

XI.

HOPES FULFILLED.

On the afternoon of the following day Mr. Goldthwaite came to
Thankful Rest, accompanied by Mr. Robert Keane. Lucy opened the door
to them; and seeing a stranger with the parson, her aunt shouted to
her to show them into the sitting-room. It was a chill and gloomy
place, though painfully clean and tidy--utterly