roach with
a smile; for Sancho sat bolt upright in the chair which Ben pushed,
while Thorny strolled beside him, leaning on a stout cane newly cut.
Both boys were talking busily, and Thorny laughed from time to time, as
if his comrade's chat was very amusing.

"See what a jolly cane Ben cut for me! He's great fun if you don't
stroke him the wrong way", said the elder lad, flourishing his staff as
they came up.

"What have you been doing down there? You look so merry, I suspect
mischief," asked Miss Celia, surveying them front the steps.

"We've been as good as gold. I talked, and Ben learned a hymn to please
you. Come, young man, say your piece," said Thorny, with an expression
of virtuous content.

Taking off his hat, Ben soberly obeyed, much enjoying the quick color
that came up in Miss Celia's face as she listened, and feeling as if
well repaid for the labor of learning by the pleased look with which She
said, as he ended with a bow,--

"I feel very proud to think you chose that, and to hear you say it as if
it meant something to you. I was only fourteen when I wrote it; but it
came right out of my heart, and did me good. I hope it may help you a
little."

Ben murmured that he guessed it would; but felt too shy to talk about
such things before Thorny, so hastily retired to put the chair away, and
the others went in to tea. But later in the evening, when Miss Celia was
singing like a nightingale, the boy slipped away from sleepy Bab and
Betty to stand by the syringa bush and listen, with his heart full of
new thoughts and happy feelings; for never before had he spent a Sunday
like this. And when he went to bed, instead of saying "Now I lay me," he
repeated the third verse of Miss Celia's hymn; for that was his
favorite, because his longing for the father whom he had seen made it
seem sweet and natural now to love and lean, without fear upon the
Father whom he had not seen.

CHAPTER XII

GOOD TIMES

Every one was very kind to Ben when his loss was known. The Squire
wrote to Mr. Smithers that the boy had found friends and would stay
where he was. Mrs. Moss consoled him in her motherly way, and the little
girls did their very best to "be good to poor Benny." But Miss Celia was
his truest comforter, and completely won his heart, not only by the
friendly words she said and the pleasant things she did, but by the
unspoken sympathy which showed itself just at the right minute, in a
look, a touch, a smile