ot find that you make a bad use of it. You must decide how it is to
be spent, and of course you are at liberty to return it to me to spend
for you."
"Oh, that will do, that will do!" exclaimed Willie, with pleasure in his
tone. "But you will help me, papa, in doing what is best with it?"
"I have already anticipated some of your wishes with respect to poor
Moggy, and we will see what more can be done to make her comfortable.
She says that she prefers Windyside to any other spot on earth, and has
no wish to move from it."
On a fine day, when the sun was shining brightly over mountain and moor,
and his beams were lighting up the pine-trees and the once dark, ruinous
hovel on the hillside, Dr Morgan with most of his children took their
way towards Old Moggy's abode. It was greatly changed for the better.
A chimney was now to be seen rising above the roof, which had been fresh
tiled; there was glass in the window, a latch on the door, which had
been repaired, and the lichen-covered walls had been scraped, fresh
pointed, and white-washed. When the party got inside they discovered an
equally agreeable change. A thick curtain divided the room; a screen
kept off the draught when the door was opened; the walls were whitened,
and there was a cupboard, and a table and chairs, and several shelves,
on which rested some neat crockery. On the inside of the curtain there
was a comfortable bed, and some thick matting on the floor. Old Moggy
was seated in a large easy-chair, with her feet on the old stool, which
before was one of her sole articles of furniture, and good Jenny Davis
was making up a nice fire of coals, on which to cook some wholesome meat
and vegetables which she had just brought from the market.
"She's getting quite strong and hearty, with the good food and
kindness," answered Jenny to the Doctor's question, "How is Moggy
to-day?"
"She can talk to ye as clear and sensibly as any one; ay, and there are
some glorious things she has been saying to me, which have done my soul
a world of good."
"Ay, Doctor Morgan, in one thing Jenny speaks truth. I don't feel the
poor demented creature I was a few short months ago," said Moggy; "and
it's your tender kindness, and that of your dear boy, Master Willie, and
the rest of your children, has brought about the change which ye see in
me. I am clothed, and in my right mind; and yet, through the mercy of
God, I never, even when my mind was wrong, was cast out from Him
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