requent visitor, and he could not afford to waste his time in welcoming
his guests. He did not even look round, therefore, but listened for her
greeting white his hammer kept up a steady tack, tack, tack. It did not
come. Joshua stopped his work, raised his head, and listened more
intently. The kitchen was as perfectly silent as though it were empty.
"I cert'nly did see her," said he, almost doubting his eyesight; "maybe
she's playing off a game." He got up and looked cautiously round the
entrance, quite expecting Lilac to jump out from some hiding-place with
a laugh; but a very different sight met his eyes. Lilac had thrown
herself into a large chair which stood on the hearth, her head was bent,
her face buried in her hands, and she was crying bitterly.

"My word!" exclaimed Joshua, suddenly arrested on the threshold.

He rubbed his hands in great perplexity on his leather apron. It was
quite a new thing to see Lilac in tears, and they fell so fast that she
could neither control herself nor tell him the cause of her distress.
In vain he tried to coax and comfort her: she would not even raise her
head nor look at him. Joshua looked round the room as if for counsel
and advice in this difficulty, and fixed his eyes thoughtfully on the
tall clock for some moments; then he winked at it, and said softly, as
though speaking in confidence: "Best let her have her cry out; then
she'll tell me."

"See here," he continued, turning to Lilac and using his ordinary voice.
"You've come to get Uncle's tea ready for him, I know, and make him
some toast; that's what you've come for. An' I've got a job as I must
finish afore tea-time, 'cause the owner's coming for 'em. So I'll go
and set to and do it, and you'll get the tea ready like a handy maid as
you are, and then we'll have it together, snug and cosy."

When he had settled himself to his work again, and the sound of his
hammer mingled with the ticking of the tall clock as though they were
running a race, Lilac raised her head and rubbed her wet eyes. There
was something very soothing and peaceful in Uncle Joshua's cottage, and
his kind voice seemed to carry comfort with it. She had a strong hope
that he would help her in some way, though she could not tell how, for
he had never failed to find a remedy for all the little troubles she had
brought to him from her earliest years. Her faith in him, therefore,
was entire, and even if he had proposed to make her hair long aga