hem until they learned that it was
only the man in the next room knocking angrily on the wall because their
mother's cough kept him from sleeping.

Tommy knew what death was now, and Elspeth knew its name, and both were
vaguely aware that it was looking for their mother; but if she could
only hold out till Hogmanay, Tommy said, they would fleg it out of the
house. Hogmanay is the mighty winter festival of Thrums, and when it
came round these two were to give their mother a present that would make
her strong. It was not to be a porous plaster. Tommy knew now of
something better than that.

"And I knows too!" Elspeth gurgled, "and I has threepence a'ready, I
has."

"Whisht!" said Tommy, in an agony of dread, "she hears you, and she'll
guess. We ain't speaking of nothing to give to you at Hogmanay," he said
to his mother with great cunning. Then he winked at Elspeth and said,
with his hand over his mouth, "I hinna twopence!" and Elspeth, about to
cry in fright, "Have you spended it?" saw the joke and crowed instead,
"Nor yet has I threepence!"

They smirked together, until Tommy saw a change come over Elspeth's
face, which made him run her outside the door.

"You was a-going to pray!" he said, severely.

"'Cos it was a lie, Tommy. I does have threepence."

"Well, you ain't a-going to get praying about it. She would hear yer."

"I would do it low, Tommy."

"She would see yer."

"Oh, Tommy, let me. God is angry with me."

Tommy looked down the stair, and no one was in sight. "I'll let yer pray
here," he whispered, "and you can say I have twopence. But be quick, and
do it standing."

Perhaps Mrs. Sandys had been thinking that when Hogmanay came her
children might have no mother to bring presents to, for on their return
to the room her eyes followed them woefully, and a shudder of
apprehension shook her torn frame. Tommy gave Elspeth a look that meant
"I'm sure there's something queer about her."

There was also something queer about himself, which at this time had the
strangest gallop. It began one day with a series of morning calls from
Shovel, who suddenly popped his head over the top of the door (he was
standing on the handle), roared "Roastbeef!" in the manner of a railway
porter announcing the name of a station, and then at once withdrew.

He returned presently to say that vain must be all attempts to wheedle
his secret from him, and yet again to ask irritably why Tommy was not
coming out to hear all ab