re the
power of breathing.

Meantime Mrs Kempson, among the other women, had come up.

"Oh! my husband! my husband! where is he? Dick, my boy, have you found
your father and Tom? Where is your brother, boy?" Such were the
questions asked by numbers of the unhappy women.

Dick could only shake his head and burst into tears.

From the report of the viewer, the engineers declared that it would be
dangerous to go down the pit again till the ventilation was set to
rights, and that all hope of finding any of those below still alive was
gone.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER 7.

There was deep sorrow and tears and groans in the mining village of
Wallford that night. Those who had gone forth to their work in the
morning in health and spirits, the bread-winners of the family, were
never to return. The widows and orphans sorrowed for husbands and
fathers, and it was natural that they should sorrow for themselves.

Among those who had good cause to look forward with dread to the future,
was Mrs Kempson, and yet she did not fear it as once she would have
done. She believed that her husband had fully accepted Christ's
gracious offer of salvation, and that he was prepared for death; and she
also knew that God protects the fatherless and widows who trust in Him.
Still she had a good deal to try her faith.

Dick was the only one of the family who could work for their support; he
could gain but little, and she trembled when she thought that any day
he, too, might be cut off. He, like a good son, was doing his best to
comfort her.

"Don't take on so, mother, don't take on so," he said, putting his arm
round her neck. "I shall soon be big enough to work as a hewer, and you
shan't want while I can earn good wages, and God will look after us all.
Don't fear, mother, don't fear."

Dick had not forgotten his friend David, but, while attending to his
mother, he had had no time to ask about him. He now said that he would
go out to see Mrs Adams, and learn if he had recovered.

Dick looked in at Mrs Adams's open window. It was a comfort to him in
his own sorrow to see his friend sitting up, though looking very ill.
He felt inclined to go away again without speaking, but Mrs Adams saw
him, and, coming out, brought him in.

"You have saved my boy's life twice, Dick," she exclaimed. "I can't
thank you enough, and never can. But David and I and all of us can pray
for you. God will reward you. He will bless you."

There had been