dull without you; and, of course, a young creature like you must feel
it, too." And with that he took my hands, awkwardly enough, and began
warming them in his own, for they were blue with cold. If Aunt Agatha
had only seen him doing it, and me, with the babyish tears running down
my face.

"Why, look here," continued Uncle Keith, cheerily, with a sort of
cricket-like chirp, "we are all as down as possible, just because you
are leaving us, and yet you will only be two or three miles away, and
any day if you want us we can be with you. Why, there is no difficulty,
really; you are trying your little experiment, and I will say you are a
brave girl for venturing on such a brave scheme. Well, if it does not
answer, here is your home, and your own corner by the fireside, and an
old uncle ready to work for you. I can't say more than that, Merle."

"Oh, Uncle Keith," I returned, sobbing remorsefully, "why are you so
good to me, when I have always been so ungrateful for your kindness?"

"Nay, nay, we will leave bygones alone," he answered, a little huskily.
"I never minded your tandrums, knowing there was a good heart at the
bottom. I only wished I was not such a dry old fellow, and that you
could have been fonder of me. Perhaps you will understand me better some
day, and----" Here he stopped and cleared his throat, and said
"hir-rumph" once or twice, and then I felt a thin crackling bit of paper
underneath my palm. "It will buy you something useful, my dear," he
finished, getting up in a hurry. A five-pound note, and he had lost so
much money and had to do without so many comforts! Who can wonder that I
jumped up and gave him a penitent hug.

It was long before I slept that night, and my first waking thoughts the
next morning were hardly as pleasant as usual. A premonitory symptom of
homesickness seized me as I glanced round my little room in the dim,
winter light. Aunt Agatha had made it so pretty; but here a certain
suspicious moisture stole under my eyelids, and I gave myself a resolute
shake, and commenced my toilet in a business-like way that chased away
gloomy thoughts.

Never had the little dining-room looked more inviting than when I
entered it that morning. One of Uncle Keith's carefully hoarded logs
blazed and crackled in the roomy fireplace, a delicious aroma of coffee
and smoking ham pervaded the room. Aunt Agatha, in her pretty morning
cap, was placing a vase of hothouse flowers some old pupil had sent her
in