e slowed up at Firdale he was
able, with the help of Darby's willing hand, to creep out of his bunker
up on deck.

The _Smiling Jane_ was in that evening rather before her regular time.
There were, therefore, none of the idlers on the wharf who usually
awaited her arrival, only a few people, beside the wharf-keeper, who had
come to receive or send off stuff. These were too much occupied to
notice, except by an amused or curious glance, the odd-looking trio who
slipped so quietly through their midst and away up the field-path
towards Firgrove. Indeed, had not bargee, after their backs were turned,
told their story and made known their identity to an open-mouthed and
delighted audience, no one would have suspected that the two little
ragamuffins in company with the outlandish-looking mountebank were the
lost children whose tragic fate had cast quite a gloom over the
neighbourhood, and elicited such universal sympathy with the ladies at
Firgrove and the poor bereaved father fighting for his country far, far
away in Africa.

It was almost sunset when the little travellers reached their journey's
end. The western sky was ablaze with crimson and gold, the hilltop was
flushed with warmth and beauty, the streak of sluggish water which was
the canal lay athwart the level land like a shining, jewelled belt,
while every window-pane in the quaint old house shone and glowed as if
there were an illumination within by way of welcome for the wanderers.

But Darby and Joan heeded none of these things. They trudged sturdily on
as fast as their short legs could carry them and the dwarf's failing
strength would permit, until they came to the gate. There they paused,
with their backs to the glory of the sun-setting, the blush on the
hilltop, and the radiance beyond. For now they knew that at last they
had found the country they had travelled so far to seek, while all the
time it was spread out wide and fair about their very feet, shut up
within themselves, whence it should well forth in an atmosphere of
obedience, love, duty--the chief elements which go to make a truly happy
land.

CHAPTER XV.

BAMBO'S FRIEND.

"After the night comes the morning,
After the winter the spring;
We can begin again, Dolly,
And be sorry for everything.

"We love, and so we are happy;
No beautiful thing ever ends;
'Tis good to cry and be sorry,
But better to kiss and be friends."