net eagerly, "else I
scarce know how we could have come, for there were six children
left in the house, and no homes yet found for them to go to. They
were the sickly ones whom we feared to part with, and father said
they would strive to get places for them in the country. When we
heard what our kind aunt wished, we saw not how we could leave the
little ones; but Lady Scrope, she up and chid us well for silly,
puling fools, who thought the world could not wag without our help.
And then she sent out and got two nice, comfortable, honest widow
women to live in the house with the children. And one of them had a
neat-fingered daughter, who had been in good service till the
plague sent her family into the country and she was packed off
home. Her she took for her maid, and sent Dorcas off with us. Sure,
never was a sharper tongue and a kinder heart in one body together!
I had never thought to like Lady Scrope one-tenth part as well as I
do."

Those were happy days that followed. It was pure delight to the
sisters to wander about the green fields and lanes, watching the
play of light and shadow there, hearing the songs of the birds, and
seeing the gorgeous pageantry of autumn clothing the trees with all
manner of wondrous tints and hues. Reuben knew the neighbourhood by
that time, and was their companion in their rambles; and happy were
the hours thus spent, only less happy than the meetings round the
glowing hearth or hospitable table later on, when the news of the
day would be told and retold.

James Harmer went frequently into the city to see after certain
things, and to ascertain that his own and his neighbour's houses
were safe. What he saw and heard there day by day made him
increasingly glad that big family had found so safe a retreat; for
there was still some considerable peril to the dwellers in the
city, owing, more than anything, to the utter carelessness of the
people now that the immediate scare was removed.

The same men who had shrunk away from all contact with even sound
persons six weeks ago, would now actually visit and hold converse
with those who had the disease upon them. Persons afflicted with
tumours that were still active and therefore infectious would walk
openly about the streets, none seeming to object to their presence
even in crowded thoroughfares. It seemed as though joy at the
abatement of the pestilence had wrought a sort of madness in the
brains and hearts of the people. So long as the dea