t fortune which had fallen to him might bring no wrong or evil with
it. There were many soft anxious thoughts in her tender heart in those
new days.

[Illustration: "I'VE A GREAT DEAL TO THANK YOUR LORDSHIP FOR," SAID
HIGGINS. (SEE NEXT PAGE.)]

"Oh, Ceddie!" she had said to him the evening before, as she hung over
him in saying good-night, before he went away; "oh, Ceddie, dear, I wish
for your sake I was very clever and could say a great many wise things!
But only be good, dear, only be brave, only be kind and true always, and
then you will never hurt any one, so long as you live, and you may help
many, and the big world may be better because my little child was born.
And that is best of all, Ceddie,--it is better than everything else,
that the world should be a little better because a man has lived--even
ever so little better, dearest."

And on his return to the Castle, Fauntleroy had repeated her words to
his grandfather.

"And I thought about you when she said that," he ended; "and I told her
that was the way the world was because you had lived, and I was going to
try if I could be like you."

"And what did she say to that?" asked his lordship, a trifle uneasily.

"She said that was right, and we must always look for good in people and
try to be like it."

Perhaps it was this the old man remembered as he glanced through the
divided folds of the red curtain of his pew. Many times he looked over
the people's heads to where his son's wife sat alone, and he saw the
fair face the unforgiven dead had loved, and the eyes which were so like
those of the child at his side; but what his thoughts were, and whether
they were hard and bitter, or softened a little, it would have been
hard to discover.

As they came out of the church, many of those who had attended the
service stood waiting to see them pass. As they neared the gate, a man
who stood with his hat in his hand made a step forward and then
hesitated. He was a middle-aged farmer, with a careworn face.

"Well, Higgins," said the Earl.

Fauntleroy turned quickly to look at him.

"Oh!" he exclaimed; "is it Mr. Higgins?"

"Yes," answered the Earl dryly; "and I suppose he came to take a look at
his new landlord."

"Yes, my lord," said the man, his sunburned face reddening. "Mr. Newick
told me his young lordship was kind enough to speak for me, and I
thought I'd like to say a word of thanks, if I might be allowed."

Perhaps he felt some wonder when he saw w