hing footsteps could be heard approaching them, although no one
yet could be perceived through the rifts of snow. "I think it the
prettiest girl's name in the world!"

"Go 'long!" cried she again; but she sidled up to him and held on to his
arm once more as she spoke, the blasts of the storm at the moment being
especially boisterous.

"Is that you, Mary?" repeated the voice in front, now much nearer, her
answer not having been heard apparently, on account of the wind blowing
from the speaker towards them.

"Yes, sir," she screamed out. "I've found Master Teddy, and he's all
right."

She was heard this time.

"Thank God!" returned the voice in trembling accents, nearer still; and
then a thin, haggard, careworn-looking man in clergyman's dress rushed
up to them.

He was quite breathless, and his face pale with emotion.

"Padie! Padie!" exclaimed the mite, raising himself up on Jupp's
shoulder and stretching out one of his little hands to the new-comer
while the other grasped the kitten. "I'se turn back, I'se turn back to
oo!"

"My boy, my little lamb! God be praised for his mercy!" cried the
other; and the next instant Teddy was locked in his father's arms in a
close embrace, kitten and all.

"Say, Miss Mary," whispered Jupp, taking advantage of the opportunity
while Mr Vernon's back was turned.

"What?" she asked, looking up into his face demurely.

"This ought to be passed round."

"Go 'long!" she replied; but, she didn't budge an inch when Jupp put his
arm round her, and nobody knows what happened before Mr Vernon had
composed himself and turned round again!

CHAPTER THREE.

AT THE VICARAGE.

Three little girls were flattening their respective little noses against
the panes of glass as they stood by one of the low French windows of the
old red brick house at the corner of the lane commanding the approach
from the village; and three little pairs of eager eyes, now big with
expectation, were peering anxiously across the snow-covered lawn through
the gathering evening gloom towards the entrance gate beyond--the only
gap in the thick and well-nigh impenetrable laurel hedge, some six feet
high and evenly cropped all round at the top and square at the sides,
which encircled the vicarage garden, shutting it in with a wall of
greenery from the curious ken of all passers-by without.

With eager attention the little girls were watching to see who would be
the first of the trio to herald the return