stopped to
rest.

It had been gradually getting overcast, and now the sky was dark and
lowering, save where the glory of the departing sun piled up masses of
gold and burning fire, decaying embers of which gleamed here and there
through the black veil, and shone redly down upon the earth. The wind
began to moan in hollow murmurs, as the sun went down carrying glad day
elsewhere; and a train of dull clouds coming up against it, menaced
thunder and lightning. Large drops of rain soon began to fall, and, as
the storm clouds came sailing onward, others supplied the void they
left behind and spread over all the sky. Then was heard the low
rumbling of distant thunder, then the lightning quivered, and then the
darkness of an hour seemed to have gathered in an instant.

Fearful of taking shelter beneath a tree or hedge, the old man and the
child hurried along the high road, hoping to find some house in which
they could seek a refuge from the storm, which had now burst forth in
earnest, and every moment increased in violence. Drenched with the
pelting rain, confused by the deafening thunder, and bewildered by the
glare of the forked lightning, they would have passed a solitary house
without being aware of its vicinity, had not a man, who was standing at
the door, called lustily to them to enter.

'Your ears ought to be better than other folks' at any rate, if you
make so little of the chance of being struck blind,' he said,
retreating from the door and shading his eyes with his hands as the
jagged lightning came again. 'What were you going past for, eh?' he
added, as he closed the door and led the way along a passage to a room
behind.

'We didn't see the house, sir, till we heard you calling,' Nell replied.

'No wonder,' said the man, 'with this lightning in one's eyes,
by-the-by. You had better stand by the fire here, and dry yourselves a
bit. You can call for what you like if you want anything. If you
don't want anything, you are not obliged to give an order. Don't be
afraid of that. This is a public-house, that's all. The Valiant
Soldier is pretty well known hereabouts.'

'Is this house called the Valiant Soldier, Sir?' asked Nell.

'I thought everybody knew that,' replied the landlord. 'Where have you
come from, if you don't know the Valiant Soldier as well as the church
catechism? This is the Valiant Soldier, by James Groves--Jem
Groves--honest Jem Groves, as is a man of unblemished moral character,
a