im again, and at seeing her happiness and contentment at the
home he had prepared for her. Bill was delighted because George was
so, and he was moreover vastly relieved at finding Mrs. Andrews less
terrible than he had depicted her.

After tea was cleared away they talked together for a while, and then
Bill--feeling with instinctive delicacy that George and his mother
would like to talk together for a time--said he should take a turn for
an hour, and on getting outside the house executed so wild a war-dance
of satisfaction that it was fortunate it was dark, or Laburnum Villas
would have been astonished and scandalized at the spectacle.

"I like your friend Bill very much," Mrs. Andrews said when she was
alone with George. "I was sure from what you told me that he must be a
good-hearted lad; but brought up as he has been, poor boy, I feared a
little that he would scarcely be a desirable companion in point of
manners. Of course, as you say, his grammar is a little peculiar; but
his manners are wonderfully quiet and nice, considering all."

"Look what an example he's had, mother," George laughed; "but really
he has taken great pains ever since he knew that you were coming
home. He has been asking me to tell him of anything he does which is
not right, especially about eating and that sort of thing. You see he
had never used a fork till we came down here, and he made me show him
directly how it should be held and what to do with it. It has been
quite funny to me to see him watching me at meals, and doing exactly
the same."

"And you have taught him to read, George?"

"Yes, mother."

"And something of better things, George?" she asked.

"Yes, mother, as much as I could. He didn't know anything when I met
him; but he goes to church with me now regularly, and says his prayers
every night, and I can tell you he thinks a lot of it. More, I think,
than I ever did," he added honestly.

"Perhaps he has done you as much good as you have done him, George."

"Perhaps he has, mother; yes, I think so. When you see a chap so very
earnest for a thing you can't help being earnest yourself; besides,
you know, mother," he went on a little shyly, for George had not been
accustomed to talk much of these matters with his mother--"you see
when one's down in the world and hard up, and not quite sure about the
next meal, and without any friend, one seems to think more of these
things than one does when one is jolly at school with other fe