ave been selfish. It is hard to
sing the same songs. We were very happy. But the miners like to hear me
sing, and I think perhaps it helps them to feel less lonely, and keeps
them from evil. I shall try to-night, if I am needed. Mr. Craig will not
ask me unless he must.'

I would have seen every miner and lumberman in the place hideously drunk
before I would have asked her to sing one song while her heart ached. I
wondered at Craig, and said, rather angrily--

'He thinks only of those wretched miners and shantymen of his.'

She looked at me with wonder in her eyes, and said gently, 'And are they
not Christ's too?'

And I found no word to reply.

It was nearing ten o'clock, and I was wondering how the fight was going,
and hoping that Mrs. Mavor would not be needed, when the door opened,
and old man Nelson and Sandy, the latter much battered and ashamed, came
in with the word for Mrs. Mavor.

'I will come,' she said simply. She saw me preparing to accompany her,
and asked, 'Do you think you can leave him?'

'He will do quite well in Nelson's care.'

'Then I am glad; for I must take my little one with me. I did not put
her to bed in case I should need to go, and I may not leave her.'

We entered the church by the back door, and saw at once that even yet
the battle might easily be lost.

Some miners had just come from Slavin's, evidently bent on breaking up
the meeting, in revenge for the collapse of the dance, which Slavin
was unable to enjoy, much less direct. Craig was gallantly holding his
ground, finding it hard work to keep his men in good humour, and so
prevent a fight, for there were cries of 'Put him out! Put the beast
out!' at a miner half drunk and wholly outrageous.

The look of relief that came over his face when Craig caught sight of us
told how anxious he had been, and reconciled me to Mrs. Mavor's singing.
'Thank the good God,' he said, with what came near being a sob, 'I was
about to despair.'

He immediately walked to the front and called out--

'Gentlemen, if you wish it, Mrs. Mavor will sing.'

There was a dead silence. Some one began to applaud, but a miner said
savagely, 'Stop that, you fool!'

There was a few moments' delay, when from the crowd a voice called out,
'Does Mrs. Mavor wish to sing?' followed by cries of 'Ay, that's it.'
Then Shaw, the foreman at the mines, stood up in the audience and said--

'Mr. Craig and gentlemen, you know that three years ago I was known as
"Old R