kness deeper.
Miss Rose sat quietly at the table, the open Bible before her,
keeping watch over the sleeping woman and the fire, her ear always
alert for a sound outside. Her hearing grew so strained that over
and over again she thought she heard footsteps coming, Huldah's
quick, brisk step and Dick's pat-pat patter; again and again she
tip-toed to the door, and opening it wide peered out into the
darkness. But no real sound broke the silence, save the hoot of an
owl, and by-and-by the chirping of the waking birds.

Then at last day dawned, and streaks of light appeared in the sky,
turning presently to a glorious fiery radiance, as the sun rose,
flooding the sky and all the world with brightness and with hope.

Martha Perry stirred stiffly in her chair, and opened her eyes.
"Oh, Miss Rose, I've been asleep, and left you keeping watch all by
yourself! Oh, I am ashamed!"

"Not by myself, Martha. I had this," laying her hand on the open
Bible, "and I felt God nearer me than ever in my life before, I
think. He is going to help us, I know. I feel that He has given me
His word this night!"

"She has not come?" sighed Martha, glancing round the kitchen, as
though expecting to see Huldah hiding somewhere. "Oh, what a night
of misery she must have endured!"

"She has not come yet, but she is coming, and brownie is very brave,
Martha, and patient and hopeful. She has the blessed gift of making
the best of what can't be helped, and she has a wonderful faith.
Look, Martha, look at the sky, does it not already sing to us
'joy cometh with the morning'?"

Martha Perry walked to the door and looked out, and even her timid,
doubting heart could not but feel calmed and comforted.

"'God's in His heaven: All's right with the world,'" quoted Miss
Rose, softly, as they stood there together. And already help was on
its way to Huldah.

CHAPTER IX.

TO THE RESCUE.

When Bob Thorp awoke that same morning about six o'clock, his first
thought was that he had six shillings in his pocket. Six shillings
got without working for them, so that he had every right to look on
them as an extra, and spend them on himself.

Having made up his mind on this point, he lay for a happy half-hour,
thinking how he should lay it out to get most pleasure out of it.
"Why, I know!" he almost exclaimed aloud, as a particularly pleasant
idea struck him. "I'll go to the big football match at Crinnock.
It's going to be a clipper, they say.