?" said Alison. "But are you sure you are really
comfortable, Grannie?"

"And why shouldn't I be comfortable, child? I don't look
uncomfortable, do I?"

"No, not really, but somehow----"

"Yes, I know what you mean," interrupted David.

"Somehow," said Alison, "you look changed."

"Oh, and ef I do look a bit changed," said the old woman, "it's cause
I'm a-frettin' for you. Of course I miss you all, but I'll get
accustomed to it; and it's a beautiful big place, and I'm in rare luck
to have got a 'ome there. Now I must hurry off. God bless you, my
dear!"

Alison stood on the steps of Mrs. Faulkner's house, and watched Grannie
as she walked down the street. The weather had changed, and it was now
bitterly cold; sleet was falling, and there was a high wind. But
Grannie was leaning on Dave's arm, and she got along bravely.

"I don't like it," said Alison to herself, as she went into the house.
"Grannie's hiding something; I can't think what it is. Oh, dear, oh
dear, how I wish Jim had been true to me. If he only had, we would
have made a home for Grannie somehow. Grannie is hiding something.
What can it be?"

Meanwhile David saw Grannie to the omnibus, where he bade her an
affectionate "good-by." She arranged to come again to see her
grandchildren on the following Sunday if all was well.

"But ef I don't come, don't you fret, Dave, boy," was her last word to
the lad. "Ef by chance I don't come, you'll know it's because it aint
quite convenient in the family I'm staying with. Now, good-by, Dave.
Bless you, lad."

The omnibus rolled away, and Grannie snuggled back into her corner.
Her visit to her grandchildren had cheered her much, and she thought
that she could very well get through a dreary week in the workhouse
with that beacon post of Sunday on ahead. She would not for the world
trouble the children on work-a-day Thursday, but on Sunday she might as
a rule get a sight of them.

"And they suspect nothin', thank the good Lord!" she said, hugging her
secret to her breast.

She left the omnibus at the same corner where she had left it on the
previous Monday.

The weather meanwhile had been changing for the worse; snow was now
falling thickly, and the old woman had no umbrella. She staggered
along, beaten and battered by the great tempest of wind and snow. At
first she stepped on bravely enough, but by and by her steps grew
feeble. The snow blinded her eyes and took away her breath, it
trick