g to walk on. But
after a pace or two he seemed to change his mind, and stopping, he
said--

"But what about Jack? How did it happen?"

"He offended her yesterday. He brought dirty boots into the parlour;
and he blew a tune on the little cornet you gave him, when she told him
to be quiet. He upset a jug of water on the table, and he made a face
at her, and he called her 'an old cat.' He had no business to call her
names."

George laughed.

"A very fitting name, I think; he has felt her claws often enough.
Well, what then?"

"Then she boxed his ears--it was at supper--and he flew into a rage,
and he would not listen to me, but tore out of the room, out of the
house, and has never come back. Oh, George, what if there should be
two to wait and watch for, instead of one! Jack! Jack! How could he
leave me?"

"He can't have gone far; and, as to being out all night, why, that
won't hurt him. The young rascal, to give you all this trouble! Yes,
I'll go and hunt for him; and if I catch him, won't I give it to him!"

"No, George; no. Remember his provocation. Remember he has had no
father, only a mother like me to control him."

"Only a mother like you! I should like to know where a better could be
found! I am sorry for the boy that he has had to live with a
cross-grained old maid, but for your sake he ought to have put up with
it."

"She means well. She took us in for my father's sake, and she has kept
me and the boy from starving."

"You have earned your living; you have worked well for her, and she
knows it. But I will go and hunt for Master Jack. See! I will leave
my basket of tools here as an assurance that I am coming back. You go
and lie down, and I'll have the young master back before an hour is
over. Come, go indoors; you look ready to drop."

But Patience shook her head.

"I am used to waiting and watching," she said again; "it's nothing new."

Then her eyes began their search up and down the row, with the same
wistful, eager gaze.

George Paterson had put the basket of tools just within the doorway,
and turning to her said--

"Look up at that strip of blue sky, Patience; look up, not downward so
much."

As he spoke he raised his head, and pointed to the narrow bit of sky
which made a deeply blue line above the tops of the tall houses.

"That tells of love," he said--"God's love which is over us. Take
heart, and lift it up to Him in your trouble."

George spoke out of the