need to have had a dozen pair of hands to have served them,
and they did not go till they had cleared out her entire stock of sweet
things and gingerbread; nay, some of them would have gone off without
their change, if she had not raced out to catch them with it after they
were climbing up the coach, and then the silly fellows said they hated
coppers! And meeting Harold and his post-bag on his way home from
Elbury, they raised such a tremendous cheer at him that poor Peggy seemed
to make but three springs from the milestone to the bridge, and he could
not so much as touch his cap by way of answer.

Somehow, even after those droll customers were gone, every Saturday's
reckoning was a satisfactory one. More always seemed to come in than
went out. The potatoes had been unusually free from disease in Mrs.
King's garden, and every one came for them; the second pig turned out
well; a lodger at the butcher's took a fancy to her buns; and on the
whole, winter, when her receipts were generally at the lowest, was now
quite a prosperous time with her. The great pressure and near anxiety
she had expected had not come, and something was being put by every week
towards the bill for flour, and for Mr. Blunt's account, so that she
began to hope that after all the Savings Bank would not have to be left
quite bare.

Quite unexpectedly, John Farden came in for a share of the savings of an
old aunt at service, and, like an honest fellow as he was, he got himself
out of debt at once. This quite settled all Mrs. King's fears; Mr. Blunt
and the miller would both have their due, and she really believed she
should be no poorer!

Then she recollected the widow's cruse of oil, and tears of thankfulness
and faith came into her eyes, and other tears dropped when she remembered
the other more precious comfort that the stranger had brought into the
widow's house, but she knew that the days of miracles and cures past hope
were gone, and that the Christian woman's promise was 'that her children
should come again,' but not till the resurrection of the just.

And though to her eye each frost was freshly piercing her boy's breast,
each warm damp day he faded into greater feebleness, yet the hope was far
clearer. He was happy and content. He had laid hold of the blessed hope
of Everlasting Life, and was learning to believe that the Cross laid on
him here was in mercy to make him fit for Heaven, first making him afraid
and sorry for his sins, and