wn, she led
the little girl, laughing now and chatting by the old woman's side,
a bird freed from a cage.

"And you'll bring sister Helen, too?" asked Lily.

"That I will, pet,--she'll be home to-night."

"Oh, Mammy, it's so good to have you again--so good, and I thought
you never would come."

They walked away from Cottontown and past pretty houses. In a quiet
street, with oaks and elms shading it, she entered a yard in which
stood a pretty and nicely painted cottage. Lily clapped her hands
with laughter when she found all her old things there--even her pet
dolls to welcome her--all in the cunningest and quaintest room
imaginable. The next room was her father's, and Mammy's room was next
to hers and Helen's. She ran out only to run into her father's arms.
Small as she was, she saw that he was sober. He took her on his lap
and kissed her.

"My little one," he said--"my little one"--

"Mammy," asked the little girl as the old woman came out--"how did
you get all this?"

"Been savin' it all my life, chile--all the money yo' blessed mother
give me an' all I earned sence I was free. I laid it up for a rainy
day an' now, bless God, it's not only rainin' but sleetin' an' cold
an' snowin' besides, an' so I went to the old socks. It's you all's,
an' all paid fur, an' old mammy to wait on you. I'm gwine to go after
Miss Helen before the mill closes, else she'll be gwine back to
Millwood, knowin' nothin' of all this surprise for her. No,
sah,--nary one of yo' mother's chillun shall ever wuck in a mill."

Conway bowed his head. Then he drew Lily to him as he knelt and
said: "Oh, God help me--make me a man, make me a Conway again."

It was his first prayer in years--the beginning of his reformation.
And every reformation began with a prayer.

CHAPTER XVII

THE DOUBLE THAT DIED

Two hours before the mill closed Richard Travis came hurriedly into
the mill office. There had been business engagements to be attended
to in the town before leaving that night for the North, and he had
been absent from the mill all day. Now everything was ready even to
his packed trunk--all except Helen.

"He's come for her," said Jud to himself as he walked over to the
superintendent's desk.

Then amid the hum and the roar of the mill he bent his head and the
two whispered low and earnestly together. As Jud talked in excited
whispers, Travis lit a cigar and listened coolly--to Jud's
astonishment--even cynically.

"An' what you