again, an' I
might choose. Wouldst thou, _Dulcie_?"

"Oh dear, no!" cries my Lady _Stafford_.

"And thou, _Grissel_?"

Mistress _Martin_ shook her head.

"And thou, _Lettice_?"

_Mother_ hesitated a little. "Some part, I might," she saith.

"Ay, some part: we could all pick out that," returns Aunt _Joyce_.
"What sayest thou, _Bess_?"

"What, to turn back, and begin all o'er again?" quoth Cousin _Bess_.
"Nay, Mistress _Joyce_, I'm none such a dizard as that. I reckon _Ned_
shall tell you, when a sailor is coming round the corner in sight of
home, 'tis not often he shall desire to sail forth back again."

"Why, we reckon that as ill as may be," saith _Ned_, "not to be able to
make your port, and forced to put to sea again."

"And when the sea hath been stormy," saith Aunt _Joyce_, "and the port
is your own home, and you can see the light gleaming through the
windows?"

"Why, it were well-nigh enough to make an old salt cry," saith _Ned_.

"Ay," saith Aunt _Joyce_. "Nay--I would not live it again. Yet my life
hath not been an hard one--only a little lonely and trying. _Dulcie_,
here, hath known far sorer sorrows than I. Yet I shall be glad to get
home, and lay by my travelling-gear."

"But thou hast had sorrow, dear _Joyce_," saith my Lady _Stafford_
gently.

"Did any woman ever reach fifty without it?" Aunt _Joyce_ makes answer.
"Ay, I have had my sorrows, like other women--and one sorer than ever
any knew. May-be, _Dulcie_, if the roads were smoother and the rivers
shallower to ford, we should not be so glad when we gat safe home."

"`And so He leadeth them unto the haven where they would be,'" softly
saith Mistress _Martin_.

"Ay, it makes all the difference who leads us when we pass through the
waters," answereth Aunt _Joyce_. "I mind _Anstace_ once saying that.
Most folks (said she) were content to go down, trusting to very shallow
sticks--to the world, that brake under them like a reed; or to the
strength of their own hearts, that had scantly the pith of a rush. But
let us get hold with a good grip of _Christ's_ hand, and then the water
may carry us off our feet if it will. It can never sweep us down the
stream. It must spend all his force on the Rock of our shelter, before
it can reach us. `In the great water-floods they shall not come _nigh_
him.'"

"May the good Lord keep us all!" saith _Mother_, looking tenderly on us.

"Amen!" saith Aunt _Joyce_. "Children, the biting cold a