scenery. He understood that his old friend was
suffering, and would want to be left alone for a while. So, for the first
part of the way, they jogged along in silence, except for the scrunching
of the gravel beneath the wheels, and the steady thud, thud of the old
horse's hoofs, Granny Barnes looking forward with sad stern eyes, and a
heart full of dread; Mona looking back through tears, but with hope in her
heart; the old driver staring thoughtfully before him at the familiar way,
along which he had driven so many, old and young; happy and sad, some
willing, some unwilling, some hopeful, others despondent. The old man
felt for each and all of them, and helped them on their way, as far as he
might travel it with them, and sent many a kind thought after them, which
they never knew of.

"I suppose," he said at last, speaking his thoughts aloud, "in every
change we can find some happiness. There's always something we can do for
somebody. So far as I can see, there's good to be got out of most
things."

Mrs. Barnes' gaze came back from the wide-stretching scene beside her, and
rested enquiringly on the old speaker. "Do 'ee think so?" she asked
eagerly. "'Tis dreadful to be filled with doubts about what you're
doing," she added pathetically.

"Don't 'ee doubt, ma'am. Once you've weighed the matter and looked at it
every way, and have at last made up your mind, don't you let yourself
harbour any doubts. Act as if you hadn't got any choice, and go straight
ahead."

"But how is anyone to know? It may be that one took the way 'cause it was
the easiest."

"Very often it's the easiest way 'cause it's the way the Lord has opened
for us," said the old man simply, and with perfect faith. "Then I count
it we're doubting Him if we go on questioning."

The look of strained anxiety in Granny Barnes' eyes had already given way
to one more peaceful and contented.

"I hadn't thought of that," she said softly, and presently she added, "It
takes a load off one's mind if one looks at it that way."

Mona, who had been listening too, found John Darbie's words repeating
themselves over and over again in her mind. "There's always something we
can do--there's good to be got out of most things." They set themselves
to the rhythm of the old horse's slow steps--"There is always something--
there is always something--we can do--we can do, there is always something
we can do."

Throughout that long, slow journey on that sunshiny