and at the sale all the furniture and
fittings of Captain Sankey's study were bought by a friendly grocer on
her behalf, and the morning after the sale a badly written letter, for
Abijah's education had been neglected, was placed in Ned's hand.

"MY DEAR MASTER NED: Knowing as it cut you to the heart that everything
should go away into the hands of strangers, I have made so bold as
to ask Mr. Willcox for to buy all the furniter and books in maister's
study. He is a-going to stow them away in a dry loft, and when so bee as
you gets a home of your own there they is for you; they are sure not to
fetch much, and when you gets a rich man you can pay me for them; not as
that matters at all one way or the other. I have been a-saving up pretty
nigh all my wages from the day as you was born, and is quite comfortable
off. Write me a letter soon, dearie, to tell me as how things is going
on. Your affectionate nurse, ABIJAH WOLF."

Although Ned was a lad of sixteen, he had a great cry over this letter,
but it did him good, and it was with a softer heart that he prepared to
receive his mother and her husband that evening. The meeting passed off
better than he had anticipated. Mrs. Mulready was really affected at
seeing her children again, and embraced them, Ned thought, with more
fondness than she had done when they went away. Mr. Mulready spoke
genially and kindly, and Ned began to hope that things would not be so
bad after all.

The next morning, to his surprise, his mother appeared at breakfast, a
thing which he could not remember that she had ever done before, and yet
the hour was an early one, as her husband wanted to be off to the mill.
During the meal Mr. Mulready spoke sharply two or three times, and it
seemed to Ned that his mother was nervously anxious to please him.

"Things are not going on so well after all," he said to himself as he
walked with his brother to school. "Mother has changed already; I
can see that she isn't a bit like herself. There she was fussing over
whether he had enough sugar with his tea, and whether the kidneys were
done enough for him; then her coming down to breakfast was wonderful. I
expect she has found already that somebody else's will besides her own
has got to be consulted; it's pretty soon for her to have begun to learn
the lesson."

It was very soon manifest that Mr. Mulready was master in his own house.
He still looked pleasant and smiled, for his smile was a habitual one;
but there w