when a man knew
if he were alive or dead and whether it was night or morning."

"Yes, yes," Johnny said, but not altogether as if he regretted the
passing of those golden days; "things were different then; we didn't
think of it then."

"Teaching in the Sunday school?" the Captain asked. "Not quite! And if
we had, we shouldn't have thought of coming to it even when we had got
old and foolish."

Johnny looked uncomfortable and unhappy; then a bright idea occurred
to him. "There wasn't a Sunday school there," he said. "You remember
the hill station?"

Just then Julia called from the house, "Father, I believe we might
have a dish of turnip tops if you would get them. Johnny, you will be
late if you don't start soon."

Johnny promptly started, and the Captain, less promptly, sauntered
away to find a basket for the turnip tops, muttering the while
something about people whose religion took the form of going out and
leaving others to do the work.

But by the time Joost Van Heigen arrived, the Captain was quite
amiable again. He had had a quiet morning with nothing to do after the
turnip tops were brought in and the knives cleaned, and Johnny had had
a long tiring walk home from church in a hot sun and a high wind,
which Captain Polkington felt to be a just dispensation of Providence
to reward those who stopped at home and cleaned knives. Joost arrived
not long after Mr. Gillat; Julia heard the gate click as she was
taking the meat from before the fire.

"Who is that, Johnny?" she asked.

Johnny, who had just come down-stairs after taking off his Sunday
coat, looked out of the window.

"I don't know," he said; "a young man."

Julia, having deposited the joint on the dish, went to the kitchen
door. "Put the meat where it will keep hot," she said to Johnny; "I
expect it's some one who thinks the last people live here still;
fortunately there is enough dinner."

She pushed open the unlatched door and saw the visitor going round to
the front. "Joost!" she exclaimed. "Why, Joost, is it really you?"

She ran down the garden path after him and he, turning just before he
reached the front door, stopped.

"Good-morning, miss," he said solemnly, removing his hat with a sweep.
"I hope I see you well. I do not inconvenience you--you are perhaps
engaged?"

"Come in," Julia answered; "I am glad to see you!"

There was no mistaking the sincerity of her tone; Joost's solemn face
relaxed a little. "You are not occupied?" he