tablished hour for having tea; and Tackleton came back again to
share the meal, and spend the evening.

Caleb and Bertha had returned some time before, and Caleb had sat down
to his afternoon's work. But he couldn't settle to it, poor fellow,
being anxious and remorseful for his daughter. It was touching to see
him sitting idle on his working stool, regarding her so wistfully, and
always saying in his face, "Have I deceived her from her cradle, but to
break her heart?"

When it was night, and tea was done, and Dot had nothing more to do in
washing up the cups and saucers; in a word--for I must come to it, and
there is no use in putting it off--when the time drew nigh for expecting
the Carrier's return in every sound of distant wheels, her manner
changed again, her colour came and went, and she was very restless. Not
as good wives are when listening for their husbands. No, no, no. It was
another sort of restlessness from that.

Wheels heard. A horse's feet. The barking of a dog. The gradual approach
of all the sounds. The scratching paw of Boxer at the door!

"Whose step is that?" cried Bertha, starting up.

"Whose step?" returned the Carrier, standing in the portal, with his
brown face ruddy as a winter berry from the keen night air. "Why, mine."

"The other step," said Bertha. "The man's tread behind you!"

"She is not to be deceived," observed the Carrier, laughing. "Come
along, sir. You'll be welcome, never fear!"

He spoke in a loud tone; and, as he spoke, the deaf old gentleman
entered.

"He's not so much a stranger that you haven't seen him once, Caleb,"
said the Carrier. "You'll give him house room till we go?"

"Oh, surely, John, and take it as an honour!"

"He's the best company on earth to talk secrets in," said John. "I have
reasonable good lungs, but he tries 'em I can tell you. Sit down, sir.
All friends here, and glad to see you!"

When he had imparted this assurance, in a voice that amply corroborated
what he had said about his lungs, he added in his natural tone, "A chair
in the chimney-corner, and leave to sit quite silent and look pleasantly
about him, is all he cares for. He's easily pleased."

Bertha had been listening intently. She called Caleb to her side, when
he had set the chair, and asked him, in a low voice, to describe their
visitor. When he had done so (truly now, with scrupulous fidelity), she
moved, for the first time since he had come in, and sighed, and seemed
to have no f