iew" aloud to Silas Croft, who, as he grew
older, found that the print tried his eyes, an attention which the
old man greatly appreciated. Silas was a well-informed man, and
notwithstanding his long life spent in a half-civilised country, had
never lost his hold of affairs or his interest in the wide and rushing
life of the world in one of whose side eddies he lived apart. This
task of reading the "Saturday Review" aloud had formerly been a part
of Bessie's Sunday service, but her uncle was very glad to effect an
exchange. Bessie's mind was not quite in tune with the profundities of
that learned journal, and her attention was apt to wonder at the most
pointed passages.

Thus it came about, what between the "Saturday Review" and other things,
that a very warm and deep attachment sprang up twixt the old man and his
younger partner. John was a taking man, especially to the aged, for whom
he was never tired of performing little services. One of his favourite
sayings was that old people should be "let down easy," and he acted up
to it. Moreover, there was a quiet jollity and a bluff honesty about him
which was undoubtedly attractive both to men and women. Above all, he
was a well-informed, experienced man, and a gentleman, in a country in
which both were rare. Each week Silas Croft came to rely more and more
on him, and allowed things to pass more and more into his hands.

"I'm getting old, Niel," he said to him one night; "I'm getting very
old; the grasshopper is becoming a burden to me: and I'll tell you what
it is, my boy," laying his hand affectionately upon John's shoulder, "I
have no son of my own, and you must be a son to me, as my dear Bessie
has been a daughter."

John looked up into the kindly, handsome face, crowned with its
fringe of snowy hair, and at the keen eyes set deep in it beneath the
overhanging brows, and thought of his old father who was long since
dead; and somehow he was moved, and his own eyes filled with tears.

"Ay, Mr. Croft," he said, taking the old man's hand, "that I will to the
best of my ability."

"Thank you, my boy, thank you. I don't like talking much about these
things, but, as I said, I am getting old, and the Almighty may require
my account any hour, and if He does I rely on you to look after these
two girls. It is a wild country this, and one never knows what will
happen in it from day to day, and they may want help. Sometimes I wish
I were clear of the place. And now I'm going t