her, if it's the
same to you."

"Well, then," replied Mave, "you can call to our place, as it's on your
way, an' we'll both go together."

"If she knew her," said Mave to her friends, on her way home, "as I do;
if she only knew the heart she has--the lovin', the fearless, the great
heart;--oh, if she did, no earthly thing would prevent her from goin' to
her without the loss of a minute's time. Poor Sarah!--brave and generous
girl--what wouldn't I do to bring her back to health! But ah, mother,
I'm afeard;" and as the noble girl spoke, the tears gushed to her
eyes--"'It's my last act for you,' she whispered to me, on that night
when the house was surrounded by villains--'I know what you risked for
me in the shed; I know it, dear Mave, an' I'm now sthrivin' to pay back
my debt to you.' Oh, mother!" she exclaimed, "where--where could one
look for the like of her! an' yet how little does the world know about
her goodness, or her greatness, I may say. Well," proceeded Mave, "she
paid that debt; but I'm afeard, mother, it'll turn out that it was with
her own life she paid it."

At the hour appointed, Mrs. M'Ivor and Mave set out on their visit to
Sarah, each now aware of the dreadful and inevitable doom that awaited
her father, and of the part which one of them, at least, had taken in
bringing it about.

About half an hour before their arrival, Sarah, whose anxiety touching
the fate of old Dalton could endure no more, lay awaiting the return of
her nurse--a simple, good-hearted, matter-of-fact creature, who had no
notion of ever concealing the truth under any circumstances. The poor
girl had sent her to get an account of the trial the best way she could,
and, as we said, she now lay awaiting her return. At length she came in.

"Well, Biddy, what's the news--or have you got any?"

The old woman gently and affectionately put her hand over on Sarah's
forehead, as if the act was a religious ceremony, and accompanied an
invocation, as, indeed, she intended it to do.

"May God in His mercy soon relieve you from your thrials, my poor girl,
an' bring you to Himself! but it's the black news I have for you this
day."

Sarah started.

"What news," she asked, hastily--"what black news?"

"Husth, now, an' I'll tell you;--in the first place, your mother is
alive, an' has come to the counthry."

Sarah immediately sat up in the bed, without assistance, and fastening
her black, brilliant eyes upon the woman, exclaimed--"My mothe