warrant."

"Oh, Mr. Dale!"

"There, so long," and he shook Miss Yorke's hand warmly. "And take my
excuse if I bin a bit of a slave-driver now and then. I didn't mean
it."

"We've no complaints," said one of the clerks. "Good luck, sir!"

Then Dale told his carter to make a start of it, and the wagon
creaked, jolted, slowly lumbered away.

Though they moved at a foot pace, it was not easy traveling in the
wagon; the china boxes bumped and rattled, the piano swayed so much
that all its strings vibrated, and the cat leaped frantically in the
basket; but Mavis felt no inconvenience. She was full of hope. For
more than a mile Dale walked beside the shaft horse, echoing the "Coom
in then" and "Oot thar" of the man with the leader, and the sound of
the voices, the plod of the iron shoes, and the bell-like tinkle of
the harness were all pleasant to hear. The whole thing seemed to her
picturesque and interesting, like a small episode in the Old
Testament, and imaginary words offered themselves as suitable to
describe it. "Therefore that day her husband gathered all that was
theirs, and set her behind his horses and they journeyed into another
place."

She smiled at her cleverness in inventing such good Bible language,
and then the thought came to her mind that they were going into the
promised land. Once she turned her head to get a last glimpse of the
church tower, and perhaps be able to pick out the roof of the post
office among the other roofs, but the high mass of furniture shut out
all the view. Only the sky was visible, with the sun quite low, and so
bright that it was almost blinding. And she thought that this chance
of the hour being late and the sun being nearly down was a lucky omen.
Straight ahead of them the road was sunlit, and the long slanting
sunbeams appeared to hurry on before them as if to light up and
glorify the land of promise. "If," she said to herself, "we get there
before it has dipped and I catch the sunshine on the ricks, I shall
know we are going to be happy."

Then all at once she saw Dale's straw hat and face rise above the fore
boards of the wagon. He had swung himself on the shaft to see how she
was getting on.

"All right, old lady?"

"Yes--lovely."

The tone of his voice had made her heart bound. It was the dear old
voice, speaking to her just as he used to speak before their bad time
began.

"We'll be there sooner than you know where you are. I think I'll rest
my bones a bit."