' says she. "Tis easy seen as a woman's hands be needed here.'

"'They are, truly,' says he, lookin' at her so wistful-like.

"'Well, we'll see,' says she, noddin' at him very kind."

"An' did she really look over everything Mrs. Domeny, my dear?"
interrupted Mrs. Cross eagerly. "She must ha' been a wonderful
sensible woman!"

"You'd ha' said so if you could ha' seen her. There! there wasn't so
much as a pan as she didn't look into. Behind the doors, and under the
bed; she turned over the very blankets, I do assure 'ee. Upstairs an'
down she went, an' roun' the yard, an' down the garden, an' into the
shed. Poor Brother John kep' a-trottin' after her, an' at last she
come back to the kitchen again."

[Illustration: THE ROMANCE OF BROTHER JOHN
"Poor Brother John kep a trottin' after her"]

"'Well, Mr. Domeny,' says she, 'if ye'll go to the expense of a few
buckets of whitewash, an' give a lick o' paint to the door here, I
think it 'ull do very well.' So they settled the day an' everythin'
there an' then."

"Well, to be sure!" ejaculated Mrs. Cross. "It do sound jist like a
book; an' talkin' o' that, I suppose she did show en the bank-book?"

"She never gave en so much as a sight o' it, Mrs. Cross, if you
believe me. Kep' it locked up, she did, and never let him throw his
eye over it till the day of her death. I went up to see en so soon as
I heard as all were over, an' found en cryin' fit to break his heart.

"'Come, Brother John,' says I, ''tis a sad loss, as we do all know,
but you must bear up.'

"''Tisn't only the loss o' poor Sarah,' says he, ''tis--'tis,' an' his
'eart were that full he couldn't say no more, but jist held out the
bank-book to me. My dear, there weren't above three pound in it!"

"Dear heart alive!" ejaculated Mrs. Cross, clapping her hands
together, "I never heerd o' such a thing i' my life. Why," she added
energetically, "it 'ud scarce pay for the whitewash! An' yet he gave
her a nice funeral, ye tell me?"

"'E--es, my dear. Ye see, 'tis this way. Brother John be a very just
man, an' so soon as he did get over his first disappointment, he did
say to I, m'urnful like, but very patient--

"'Mary,' he says, 'it weren't what I did look for, an' it weren't what
I were led to expect, but takin' one thing wi' another,' says he, 'I
don't regret it. Poor Sarah was a wonderful hand at managin' pigs,'
says he, 'an I never see'd her equal for bringin' up chicken. No!' he
says, 'I don't regret i