e get courage enough to say anything to Uncle Richard about
it,--he would be angry, I'm afraid. Do you think I could do anything,
Hagar?"

The old housekeeper let go her dishcloth, and turned about to look at
Noll, as he stood before the fire. Her eyes surveyed the lad from head
to foot,--as if it was the first time she had seen him,--and after a
few minutes of silence she slowly said, "What put dat in yer head,
chile?"

"I don't know; it's been there this great while. It was the misery
over there, I suppose," said Noll.

"Well, well," said she, turning back to her dishes, "Hagar's
'stonished, she is! Does I 'spect ye ken do anything fur dem yer?
Bress de Lord! He'll help ye, honey!--he'll help ye! An' ef it wa'n't
de Lord dat put it in yer head--Well, chile," Hagar added, "de Lord's
eberywhere, an' 'pears to me like as ef it was his doin'. What ye
t'ink, honey?"

Noll was looking in the rosy bed of coals, and for a few minutes made
no reply; then he said, in answer to Hagar's question,--

"I'd like to think that, Hagar. I'd like to have all my thoughts and
plans come from him, and I'd like to do the Lord's work; for that's
what I promised,--that's what I am trying to do."

Hagar wiped a pile of plates, and laying down her towel, said,
reverently,--

"Promise, chile? Did ye promise de Lord, or who?"

After she had asked this question, she looked furtively over her
shoulder at Noll, as if fearing she had asked about something which
she had no right to know.

But Noll, with hands clasped over knee, was looking straight into the
firelight, and did not appear offended; and pretty soon he said,
slowly and softly, Hagar stopping her clatter to listen,--

"Before mamma died--Did you know mamma, Hagar?"

"Not muchly, chile," said Hagar; "yer Uncle Dick's wife was my lady."

"Well, before mamma died," continued Noll, "we used to take long walks
upon the shore by the town. A great shining shore it was, I remember,
and yellow like gold sometimes when the sun shone upon it."

"Like de shore ob de new Jerusalem," interposed Hagar, gazing
abstractedly in her dish-pan.

"And there were great cedars and pines drooping down from the rocks,"
continued Noll, "and here mamma and I used to walk up and down when
papa was busy in his study; and almost always he used to come out to
walk a little with us before we were through. And one day we waited a
long time for him to come out, and at last sat d