"I want to please her, if you don't mind. We could have our tramp this
afternoon."

"I haven't been to meeting since mother died, and it don't seem to come
easy, though I know I ought to, seeing I'm alive and here," and Mr.
Brown looked soberly out at the lovely autumn-world as if glad to be in
it after his late danger and pain.

"Miss Celia said church was a good place to take our troubles, and to be
thankful in. I went when I thought you were dead, and now I'd love to go
when I've got my Daddy safe again."

No one saw him, so Ben could not resist giving his father a sudden hug,
which was warmly returned as the man said earnestly:

"I'll go, and thank the Lord hearty for giving me back my boy better'n I
left him!"

For a minute, nothing was heard but the loud tick of the old clock and a
mournful whine from Sancho, shut up in the shed lest he should go to
church without an invitation.

Then, as steps were heard on the stairs, Mr. Brown caught up his hat,
saying hastily:

"I ain't fit to go with them, you tell 'em, and I'll slip into a back
seat after folks are in. I know the way." And, before Ben could reply,
he was gone.

[Illustration: BEN AND HIS FATHER OPEN THE GREAT GATE.]

Nothing was seen of him along the way, but he saw the little party, and
rejoiced again over his boy, changed so greatly for the better; for Ben
was the one thing which had kept his heart soft through all the trials
and temptations of a rough life.

"I promised Mary I'd do my best for the poor baby she had to leave, and
I tried, but I guess a better friend than I am has been raised up for
him when he needed her most. It wont hurt me to follow him in this
road," thought Mr. Brown as he came out into the highway from his stroll
"across lots," feeling that it would be good for him to stay in this
quiet place for his own as well as for his son's sake.

The bell had done ringing when he reached the green, but a single boy
sat on the steps and ran to meet him, saying with a reproachful look:

"I wasn't going to let you be alone and have folks think I was ashamed
of my father. Come, Daddy, we'll sit together."

So Ben led his father straight to the Squire's pew, and sat beside him
with a face so full of innocent pride and joy that people would have
suspected the truth if he had not already told many of them. Mr. Brown,
painfully conscious of his shabby coat, was rather "taken aback," as he
expressed it, but the Squire's shake of the hand