been telling us about you and Elsie," began Miss
Smith, "and we have only been waiting for the moors to be tolerably dry
to come over and see you. Now we 've once got here, I hope we shall be
good friends."

"Thank ye, miss; thank ye kindly. I shall be glad to see ye, and I
hope ye won't be strangers. It's not often any one passes this way,
and I often think very long when Elsie's out."

"We hear Elsie has a very good voice, and we want to know whether she
could not manage to come over and sing in the choir, in summer-time at
least."

"Aye, the lass has a good voice enough, and a good heart too, God bless
her! She 'll sing her hymns to me here half the night when I'm kept
awake with the pain. But, begging your pardon, young ladies, I don't
care much for these new-fangled hymns; it's the good old psalms that I
like--them's the Lord's work and not man's. And, as for Elsie singing
in the church, it's very kind of you to think of her; but it 'a a long
road, or rather no road at all. But here 's the lass, and she 'll
speak for hersel'."

At this moment Elsie entered the cottage, and was delighted at the
invitation, for which, it may be told, George Hendrick had already
prepared her. "But how could she leave poor gran?" The old woman
thought this could be managed if she was only wanted for the morning.
And so it was finally settled that Elsie should, on fine Sundays, walk
over to Rossleigh in time for the half-past eleven service, remaining
for dinner at the rectory, in order that she might attend the afternoon
Sunday-school, and thence return to Tor Bay at about four in the
afternoon. To all this Mrs. McAravey assented, though probably the
three young girls had no conception of the sacrifice it was to the
invalid thus to consent to her being left alone from ten o'clock of a
Sunday morning till nearly five.

Elsie soon became a favourite at the rectory. Young and enthusiastic,
she thought nothing of the four miles' walk across the rough moorland;
nor did it ever occur either to her or Mrs. McAravey that, in partaking
of the rector's hospitality, she was profiting by the delicate sympathy
of the girls for their hard-worked and ill-fed _protegee_.

Mrs. Cooper Smith was much interested in Elsie, and offered to procure
her a situation, or to take her into her own house as maid for the
younger children. But Elsie, who thankfully received every other
favour, and availed herself of every opportunity for improvin