eady against the father's arrival.

The old grandfather, who had watched the proceedings from his corner,
called Elsli to him.

"You are good, and very handy too," he said; "can you come again
to-morrow?"

Elsli promised to come.

"Look, I am lame," he went on, "and ever since my daughter has been
sick, I have not been able to get out into the sun, because there is no
one for me to lean on; the children are too little. Will you help me
to-morrow to get out-of-doors?"

She promised that too. But now it was time for her to go; she must not
be away when the supper-bell rang. The mother thanked her again and
again, and the children begged her to stay longer. As she went out of
the house she saw a man just taking from his shoulder a shovel, which he
placed against the house. Elsli recognized him at once as the weary
laborer whom she had seen before, and who had reminded her of her
father. And as he stood there now, with his two boys affectionately
clinging to his sides, and looked sadly yet kindly at her, he seemed
still more to resemble her father, and she could not keep the tears from
her eyes. She could scarcely refrain from sobbing, so clearly did she
see the anxiety and trouble that were in his heart, the same that
weighed down her own father at home. She held her hand to him, he
pressed it kindly, and she was gone.

When the father entered the cottage, the children all began talking at
once, so that he could not understand a word they said. He went to the
bedside, and asked his wife for an explanation. She told him just what
had happened, and of her wonder that a child so well dressed and with
such an air of refinement should have been able to do that kind of work
for poor people like themselves, and she didn't know where she could
have come from; but the father said simply, "Our Heavenly Father has
taken pity on our misery, and has sent a kind angel to help us." And he
thought of the tears of pity that he had seen in Elsli's eyes.

Elsli ran as fast as she could along the path to the linden tree and up
into the garden. The supper-bell rang just as she reached the house, and
the different members of the household gathered together from their
different occupations. No one asked any questions of Elsli. She meant,
as soon as she could find a good opportunity, to ask Aunt Clarissa's
leave to continue her visits to the fisherman's family. She did not
doubt that she should be allowed to help them; they were so much i