he's as good as gold, bless him!'

Duncan was out before I was up, and I had seen him, as I was dressing,
going round to the fishermen sitting as usual on the seats on the cliff,
with a bundle of pink papers in his hand, similar to the one which had
been given me, and distributing them to every group of his mates which
he came across. Yes, I felt that I was expected to go, and it would be
hard work to keep away. But if I had still had any doubt about the
matter, it would have surely disappeared when at half-past ten exactly a
tiny couple came toiling hand in hand up the steps leading to Duncan's
door, and announced to Polly that they had come to call for big Mr. Jack
to go to church.

It was Marjorie and her little brother, and the small Jack put his
little fat hand into that of big Jack, and led him triumphantly away.

It was a pretty sight to see that congregation gathering on the village
green. From the fishermen's cottages there came a stream of people down
to the shore,--mothers with babies in their arms and leading young
children by the hand, groups of boys and girls wearing shoes and
stockings who had been barefooted all the week, many a weather-beaten
sailor, many a sunburnt fisher lad, many elderly people too, old men,
and white-haired women in closely-plaited white caps. There were
visitors, too, coming down from the rocks, and these mostly kept in the
background, and had at first an air of watching the movement rather than
joining in it. My York friends were, however, well to the front, and the
children nodded to me, and smiled at one another as they saw me led like
a lamb to the service by my two small guardians.

It was a lovely day, and the sandy ground was dry, and the congregation
sat on the rough coarse grass or perched on the sand hillocks round. As
for the old boat, it was occupied by the choir, and little Jack, having
seen me safely to the spot, climbed into it and stood proudly in the
stern. He had a hymn-book in his hand, which I knew he could not read,
for he was holding it upside down, but he looked at it as long and as
earnestly as if he could understand every word. Marjorie planted herself
beside me, I suppose to watch me, in case I showed signs of running away
before the service was over.

Then just before eleven, and when quite a large company of people had
gathered on the green, her father arrived. He was a man of about forty,
and his face gave me the impression that he had known trouble