thy of him.

The farmer dozed in his chair by the glowing hearth. The woman got
a large book from some secret receptacle upstairs, and read with
deep attention, though with cautious glance around her from time to
time, as if half afraid of what she was doing. It was long before
the silence outside was broken by any sound of approaching
footfalls; and when the ring of a horse hoof upon the frosty ground
became distinctly audible through the silence of the night, the
farmer would not unbar the door until his wife had glided away with
the volume she had been reading.

A minute later and the parents both stood in the doorway, peering
out into the cloudy night, that was not altogether dark.

"By holy St. Anthony, there are two horses and three riders," said
the farmer, shading his eyes from the glare of the lantern as he
peered out into the darkness beyond.

"Jack, is that you, my son? And who are these that you have brought
with you?"

"Friends--friends claiming the shelter and protection of your roof,
father," answered Jack's hearty voice as he rode up to the door;
and then it was seen that he was greatly encumbered by some burden
he supported before him on his horse. But from the other lighter
palfrey there leaped down a small and graceful creature of
fairy-like proportions, and Mistress Devenish found herself
suddenly confronted by the sweetest, fairest face she had ever seen
in her life, whilst a pair of soft arms stole caressingly about her
neck.

"You are Jack's mother," said a sweet, soft voice in accents of
confident yet timid appeal that went at once to her heart. "He has
told me so much of you--he has said that you would be a mother to
me. And I have so longed for a mother all my life. I never had one.
Mine own mother died almost ere I saw the light. He said you would
love me; and I have loved you long. Yet it is not of myself I must
talk now, but of yon poor lad whom you know well. We have brought
Paul Stukely back to you. Oh, he has been sorely handled by those
cruel robbers--the band of Black Notley! He has been like a dead
man these last miles of the road. But Jack says he is not dead, and
that your kindly skill will make him live again."

And before Mistress Devenish was well aware whether she were not in
a dream herself, her husband had lifted into the house the
apparently inanimate form of Paul Stukely, and had laid him down
upon the oak settle near to the hospitable hearth.

Jack had gone to th