out again. I have been
watching the hay-making in Farmer Jennings' field from my window; I was
very glad to see _you_ at work there, Bob.'

Bob made an indescribable contortion of his figure, charitably supposed
to be intended for a bow, and passed on.

'Madam looks palish,' he observed to Johnnie, who was escorting him
about; 'I doubt she's not very hearty yet.'

'No, it'll be some time before she's quite strong. Has she ever spoken
to you before, Bob?'

'Oh my! yes. Why, she brought me some doctor's stuff and some sweet cold
drink when I was so bad with fever two winters ago, and she took and
spoke up to me last autumn when I was throwin' stones at parson's
chickens. Besides, I've seen her in the school when I was a little
chap.' He was evidently proud of his acquaintance with so sweet-spoken
and kind a lady, and when he left the garden with the jacket under his
arm, remarked, 'I'll make a bigger haycock than e'er a one else in the
field right under madam's window, that'll pleasure her, maybe, for it
smells fust-rate, it does.'

He fulfilled his intention, and pleased Farmer Jennings so much by his
cheerful industry in the hay-field, that he took him on trial for a
month as farm-lad, and finding him tolerably satisfactory in that
capacity, gave him permanent employment. His impudence was not at once
conquered, and brought him into some trouble; but when he found that the
farmer and his men would not put up with it as his mother had, he
learned to put a check on it, and others besides the seven Campbells
encouraged him in taking a turn for the better.

Johnnie still remained 'sans terre,' by his own desire, but worked away
in his father's garden as he never had done in the part that was called
his own. He began to get on better at school too; and Willie joined him
there after the summer vacation, and helped to keep him steady by his
example and admonitions. For Willie had certainly a little taste for
lecturing; and Lackland, the harum-scarum and good-humoured, was just
the boy both to provoke it and to bear it: if he was a Du Guesclin in
bravery, he was not in quarrelsomeness, and nothing that Willie could
say ever made him angry. The mother, too, became well and strong again,
able once more to exercise her sweet influence through all the
household; and between the father's firmness and the mother's
gentleness, those seven boys were well and wisely trained.

* * * * *

Many yea