wd who had
the heart or hardihood to say an unpleasant word to him or to give
utterance to a jest at his expense.

They all spoke kindly to him, and welcomed him back. Some of them did
it very awkwardly indeed, and with much embarrassment, but they made
him to understand, somehow, that they were glad to see him, and that
he still held his place among them as a companion and a friend. It was
very good in them, Ralph thought, very good indeed; he could scarcely
keep the tears back for gratitude.

He took his accustomed bench in the screen-room, and bent to his task
in the old way; but not with the old, light heart and willing fingers.
He had thought never to do this again. He had thought that life held
for him some higher, brighter, less laborious work. He had thought to
gain knowledge, to win fame, to satisfy ambition. But the storm came
with its fierce blasts of disappointment and despair, and when it had
passed, hope and joy were engulfed in the ruins it left behind it.
Henceforth there remained nothing but this, this toilsome bending over
streams of flowing coal, to-day, to-morrow, next week, next year. And
in the remote future nothing better; nothing but the laborer's pick
and shovel, or, at best, the miner's drill and powder-can and fuse. In
all the coming years there was not one bright spot to which he could
look, this day, with hope. The day itself seemed very long to him,
very long indeed and very tiresome. The heat grew burdensome; the
black dust filled his throat and lungs, the ceaseless noise became
almost unendurable; the stream of coal ran down and down in a dull
monotony that made him faint and dizzy, and the bits of blue sky seen
from the open windows never yet had seemed to him to be so far and far
away.

But the day had an end at last, as all days must have, and Ralph came
down from his seat in the dingy castle to walk with Bachelor Billy to
their home.

They went by a path that led through green fields, where the light of
the setting sun, falling on the grass and daisies, changed them to a
golden yellow as one looked on them from the distance.

When they turned the corner of the village street, they were surprised
to see horses and a carriage standing in front of Mrs. Maloney's
cottage. It was an unaccustomed sight. There was a lady there talking
to Mrs. Maloney, and she had a little girl by her side. At the second
look, Ralph recognized them as Mrs. Burnham and Mildred. Then the lady
descended f