elp."

"Oh, yes, it will support you whatever happens, and that's a good deal.
Don't fret, Dave; you are a right, good, manly fellow. You will fight
your way in the world yet, and Grannie and me we'll be proud of you. I
wish I had half the pluck you have; but there, I am so down now that
nothing seems to come right. I wish I had had the sense to learn that
feather-stitching that you do so beautifully."

David colored.

"I aint ashamed to say that I know it," he said. "I dare say I could
teach it to you if you had a mind to learn it."

But Alison shook her head.

"No; it's too late now," she said. "It takes months and months of
practice to make a stitch like that to come to look anything like
right, and we want the money at once. We have got scarcely any left,
and there's the rent due on Monday, and the little girls want new
shoes--Kitty's feet were wringing wet when she came in to-day. Oh,
yes, I don't see how we are to go on. But Grannie will tell us when
she comes back. Oh, and here she is."

Alison flew to the door and opened it. Mrs. Reed, looking bright and
excited, entered.

"Why, where are the little ones?" she said at once. "Aint they reading
their books, like good children?"

"No, Grannie. I'd a headache, and I let them go into the court to play
a bit. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not for once, I don't," said Grannie; "but, Dave, lad, you'd better
fetch 'em in now, for it's getting real late. They may as well go
straight off to bed, for I have a deal I want to talk over with you two
to-night."

Alison felt impatient and anxious; she could scarcely wait to hear
Grannie's news. The old lady sat down near the fire, uttering a deep
sigh of relief as she did so.

"Ally, my dear," she said, "I'm as weary as if I were seventy-eight
instead of sixty-eight. It's a long walk back from St. Paul's
Churchyard, and there was a crowd out, to be sure; but it's a fine
starlight night, and I felt as I was walking along, the Lord's in his
heaven, and there can never be real bad luck for us, his servants, what
trusts in him."

Alison frowned. She wished Grannie would not quote Scripture so much
as she had done lately. It jarred upon her own queer, perverse mood;
but as she saw the courageous light in the blue eyes she suppressed an
impatient sigh which almost bubbled to her lips. She got tea for
Grannie, who drank it in great contentment. David brought the children
in. They kissed Grannie, and w