ld have amused you almost as much
as it amused him. It may have entertained the Cricket, too, for
anything I know; but, certainly, it now began to chirp again vehemently.

[Illustration: _Tilly Slowboy._]

"Heyday!" said John in his slow way. "It's merrier than ever to-night, I
think."

"And it's sure to bring us good fortune, John! It always has done so. To
have a Cricket on the Hearth is the luckiest thing in all the world!"

John looked at her as if he had very nearly got the thought into his
head that she was his Cricket in chief, and he quite agreed with her.
But it was probably one of his narrow escapes, for he said nothing.

"The first time I heard its cheerful little note, John, was on that
night when you brought me home--when you brought me to my new home here;
its little mistress. Nearly a year ago. You recollect, John?"

Oh, yes! John remembered. I should think so!

"Its chirp was such a welcome to me! It seemed so full of promise and
encouragement. It seemed to say, you would be kind and gentle with me,
and would not expect (I had a fear of that, John, then) to find an old
head on the shoulders of your foolish little wife."

John thoughtfully patted one of the shoulders, and then the head, as
though he would have said No, no; he had had no such expectation; he had
been quite content to take them as they were. And really he had reason.
They were very comely.

"It spoke the truth, John, when it seemed to say so: for you have ever
been, I am sure, the best, the most considerate, the most affectionate
of husbands to me. This has been a happy home, John; and I love the
Cricket for its sake!"

"Why, so do I, then," said the Carrier. "So do I, Dot."

"I love it for the many times I have heard it, and the many thoughts its
harmless music has given me. Sometimes, in the twilight, when I have
felt a little solitary and down-hearted, John--before baby was here, to
keep me company and make the house gay--when I have thought how lonely
you would be if I should die; how lonely I should be, if I could know
that you had lost me, dear; its Chirp, Chirp, Chirp upon the hearth has
seemed to tell me of another little voice, so sweet, so very dear to me,
before whose coming sound my trouble vanished like a dream. And when I
used to fear--I did fear once, John; I was very young, you know--that
ours might prove to be an ill-assorted marriage, I being such a child,
and you more like my guardian than my husband; and that