down
among your old friends?"

"I had better go where I am sure of employment, ma'am. Better go down
to Birmingham at once. I should never have left it but for my young
ladies' sakes. But I should be right glad, my dears, to leave it again
for you, if you can at any time write to say you wish for me back.
There is another way I have thought of sometimes; but, of course, you
cannot have overlooked anything that could occur to me. If you would
all go to Birmingham, you have so many friends there, and my master
would be valued as he ought to be; which there is no sign of his being
in this place. I do not like this place, my dears. It is not good
enough for you."

"We think any place good enough for us where there are men and women
living," said Hope, kindly but gravely. "Others have thought as you do,
Morris, and have offered us temptations to go away; but we do not think
it right. If we go, we shall leave behind us a bad character, which we
do not deserve. If we stay, I have very little doubt of recovering my
professional character, and winning over our neighbours to think better
of us, and be kind to us again. We mean to try for it, if I should have
to hire myself out as a porter in Mr Grey's yards."

"Pray, don't say that, sir. But, indeed, I believe you are so far right
as that the good always conquers at last."

"Just so, Morris: that is what we trust. And for the sake of this
little fellow, if for nothing else, we must stand by our good name. Who
knows but that I may leave him a fine flourishing practice in this very
place, when I retire or die?--always supposing he means to follow his
father's profession."

"Sir, that is looking forward very far."

"So it is, Morris. But however people may disapprove of looking forward
too far, it is difficult to help it when they become parents. Your
mistress could tell you, if she would own the truth, that she sees her
son's manly beauty already under that little wry mouth, and that odd
button of a nose. Why may not I just as well fancy him a young
surgeon?"

"Morris would say, as she once said to me," observed Margaret,
"`Remember death, my dear; remember death.'"

"We will remember it," said Morris, "but we must remember at the same
time God's mercy in giving life. He who gave life can preserve it: and
this shall be my trust for you all, my dears, when I am far away from
you. There is a knock! I must go. Oh! Miss Margaret, who will there
be to go