excess of anything which I have been able to give you."

"Why, sir, this is real kind of you," the young workman said earnestly.
"She--my girl--Mary, will be as grateful to you as I am. I know what you
say is right, and that if I had to look for work I should be likely to
spend the little that I have laid by towards housekeeping before I found
it. But, sir, with your leave I'd like to speak to her about it before I
made up my mind. Could you leave it open for a few hours?"

"The mail goes out to-morrow," Mr. Fairbairn answered. "If you decide to
accept you can write tonight. Here is their letter, which will give you
their address."

John Huxford took the precious paper with a grateful heart. An hour ago
his future had been all black, but now this rift of light had broken in
the west, giving promise of better things. He would have liked to have
said something expressive of his feelings to his employer, but the
English nature is not effusive, and he could not get beyond a
few choking awkward words which were as awkwardly received by his
benefactor. With a scrape and a bow, he turned on his heel, and plunged
out into the foggy street.

So thick was the vapour that the houses over the way were only a vague
loom, but the foreman hurried on with springy steps through side streets
and winding lanes, past walls where the fishermen's nets were drying,
and over cobble-stoned alleys redolent of herring, until he reached a
modest line of whitewashed cottages fronting the sea. At the door of one
of these the young man tapped, and then without waiting for a response,
pressed down the latch and walked in.

An old silvery-haired woman and a young girl hardly out of her teens
were sitting on either side of the fire, and the latter sprang to her
feet as he entered.

"You've got some good news, John," she cried, putting her hands upon his
shoulders, and looking into his eyes. "I can tell it from your step. Mr.
Fairbairn is going to carry on after all."

"No, dear, not so good as that," John Huxford answered, smoothing back
her rich brown hair; "but I have an offer of a place in Canada, with
good money, and if you think as I do, I shall go out to it, and you can
follow with the granny whenever I have made all straight for you at the
other side. What say you to that, my lass?"

"Why, surely, John, what you think is right must be for the best," said
the girl quietly, with trust and confidence in her pale plain face and
loving hazel