rm the little patch was now united, she yet found
herself in very straitened circumstances, especially as she regarded
spending her principal as almost a sin. It was a bitter struggle, and,
yet by degrees there crept into her heart a degree of peace and
contentment such as she had never known before. Both she and Elsie had
been deeply affected by the earnest and simple appeals of the
Scripture-reader during that last sad night of watching by the bed of
death. The more so, in all probability, in that the words were not
addressed directly to them, so that there was none of that irritation
which often results when one feels himself being "preached at."
Hendrick was now a weekly visitor at Mrs. McAravey's cottage, and he
had at length the gratification of seeing, in this one home at least,
the results of his long-continued and faithful labours. At his
suggestion, Jim, who, especially after the old man's death, could be
made nothing of at home, was sent to a distant relative in Coleraine,
where he had an opportunity of pursuing his studies at the Model
School, with a view to entering some sort of business. This was almost
the only object for which Mrs. McAravey would permit a portion of her
small capital to be touched. For the rest, she and Elsie struggled on
almost in poverty, but helped and, as far as possible, kept in work by
the kindness of the neighbours. In some mysterious way the substance
of McAravey's confession had become public property, and it was known
and suspected by everybody but herself that something had come out to
identify the drowned woman as Elsie's mother. Thus the child found
herself, she knew not why, an object of interest to every member of the
little community. And the remembrance of the dead woman was really
like that of a mother to her. As Mrs. McAravey grew rapidly aged,
Elsie acquired the habit of calling her "gran;" while the feelings of
tenderness and sympathy that had been first roused in her by the sight
of that poor soiled dead face, with the hair and sea-weed dashed across
it, were cherished and sanctified by the daily call made on them in
consequence of the old woman's increasing infirmities. The child had
even come, strangely enough, to think of and speak to the object of her
dreams as "mother." Was it an accident? Was it an instinct? Was it
the result of some overheard expressions which, passing through her
consciousness unnoticed, had yet made a lasting impression on the b