e from a troubled
dream, unrested. She almost meditated whether she would not ask some one
to read a sermon at the afternoon service and let her go on sleeping.
Then a memory of the lonely old woman at the camp, and the men, who came
so regularly to the service, roused her to effort once more, and she
arose and tried to prepare a little something for them.

She came into the school-house at the hour, looking fagged, with dark
circles under her eyes; and the loving eyes of Mom Wallis already in her
front seat watched her keenly.

"It's time for _him_ to come back," she said, in her heart. "She's
gettin' peeked! I wisht he'd come!"

Margaret had hoped that Rosa would not come. The girl was not always
there, but of late she had been quite regular, coming in late with her
father just a little after the story had begun, and attracting attention
by her smiles and bows and giggling whispers, which sometimes were so
audible as to create quite a diversion from the speaker.

But Rosa came in early to-day and took a seat directly in front of
Margaret, in about the middle of the house, fixing her eyes on her
teacher with a kind of settled intention that made Margaret shrink as if
from a danger she was not able to meet. There was something bright and
hard and daring in Rosa's eyes as she stared unwinkingly, as if she had
come to search out a weak spot for her evil purposes, and Margaret was
so tired she wanted to lay her head down on her desk and cry. She drew
some comfort from the reflection that if she should do so childish a
thing she would be at once surrounded by a strong battalion of friends
from the camp, who would shield her with their lives if necessary.

It was silly, of course, and she must control this choking in her
throat, only how was she ever going to talk, with Rosa looking at her
that way? It was like a nightmare pursuing her. She turned to the piano
and kept them all singing for a while, so that she might pray in her
heart and grow calm; and when, after her brief, earnest prayer, she
lifted her eyes to the audience, she saw with intense relief that the
Brownleighs were in the audience.

She started a hymn that they all knew, and when they were well in the
midst of the first verse she slipped from the piano-stool and walked
swiftly down the aisle to Brownleigh's side.

"Would you please talk to them a little while?" she pleaded, wistfully.
"I am so tired I feel as if I just couldn't, to-day."

Instantly Br