t, Agnes!" cried Mistress Flint's cheery voice from within. "Come
in, dear heart, and welcome. What news to-night, trow?"

"The old news, my mistress," said Agnes, smiling, "that here is a
supperless maid bereft of lodgment, come to see if your heart be as full
of compassion as aforetime."

"Lack-a-daisy! hath Gossip Winter turned thee forth? Well, thank the
saints, there is room to spare for thee here. Supper will be ready ere
many minutes, I guess. Prithee take hold o' th' other end of Helen's
work, and it shall be all the sooner."

Helen Flint, who was busy at the fire, welcomed the offered help with a
bright smile like her mother's, and set Agnes to work at once. The
latter was beginning to find herself very hungry, and Mistress Flint
treated her guest to considerably better fare than Mistress Winter did
her drudge. There were comparatively few of the household at home to
supper; for the party consisted only of Mr and Mrs Flint, two
daughters, Helen and Anne, and the little boys, Will and Dickon.

"What news abroad, Goodman?" demanded Mistress Flint, when her curiosity
got the better of her hunger.

"Why, that 'tis like to rain," returned her husband, a quiet,
unobtrusive man, with a good deal of dry humour.

"That I wist aforetime," retorted she; "for no sooner set I my foot out
of the door this morrow than I well-nigh stepped of a black snail."

"I reckon," observed Mr Flint, calmly cutting into a pasty, "that black
snails be some whither when there is no wet at hand."

"Gramercy, nay!" cried unphilosophical Mistress Flint.

"Oh, so?" said he. "Fall they from the sky, trow, or grow up out o' th'
ground?"

"Dear heart [darling, beloved one], Jack Flint! how can I tell?"
answered his wife.

"Then, dear heart, Mall Flint!" responded he, imitating her, "I'd leave
be till I so could."

Mistress Flint laughed; for nothing ever disturbed her temper, and the
banter was as good-humoured as possible.

"Well, for sure!" said she. "Is there ne'er a man put in the pillory,
nor a woman whipped at the cart-tail, nor so much as a strange fish gone
by London Bridge? Ha, Nan! yonder's a stranger in the bars. Haste
thee, see what manner of man."

Anne left the form on which she was sitting, and peered intently into
the grate.

"'Tis a dark man, Mother," said she, after careful investigation.

"Is he nigh at hand?" inquired Mistress Flint anxiously.

"I trow so," replied Anne, still occupied with the b