of others. I do not know how I should have been filling up my vacant
hours but for you."

"I wish somebody would say that much to me," Mrs. Larkum said,
sorrowfully. "I don't think I am any use to any one."

"With these lovely children to care for, what more can you ask than to
work for them?"

"Yes, I forget charity begins at home."

"If you hadn't fell in with me that day in the cars, and got helping us
here on the Mill Road you'd a found some other good work to do. Most
young ladies like you would a turned up their noses at a plain old
creature like me, skeered most out of their wits, talking so bold like
as I did; but you answered me so kind like, I never thought you were
anything but common folks like myself."

"I am very thankful to God you did meet her that day. Most like I would
have been dead by this time, and father and the children on the parish,"
Mrs. Larkum said, with a shudder.

"Yes, I am right glad, myself," Mrs. Blake said, very complacently.

"She might have been amusing herself visiting with the aristocracy," Mrs.
Larkum continued, "and dressing up every fine day, instead of coming
among us, bringing better than sunshine with her. Dr. MacKenzie told me
folks wondered at her coming among us so much; but he said he wished
more of her class was like her."

"Now I must leave you;" I said, rising suddenly. "When you begin to
praise me, I shall always go away."

"Don't you like us to tell you how much you have helped us?" Mrs. Larkum
asked wistfully. "It does me so much good to talk about you."

"I believe helping you gives me more pleasure than anything I do; so why
thank me for what I enjoy?"

"You won't mind your own kind talking about you coming to us, and doing
so much for the poor, will you?"

"Certainly not. While I am not dependent on my neighbors for my peace of
mind, I will come to see you two as often as I can do anything for you."

"I am glad to hear that; I don't get over one of your visits for days.
They brace me up to take hold of life, and do the best I can for father
and the children."

"I guess if folks does talk about you, they talked about one that was
better'n any of us. I was reading the other day about the respectable
ones in their days complaining how Christ eat with publicans and
sinners," Mrs. Blake said, giving me one of her strong encouraging
glances.

"Thank you, Mrs. Blake; after that I can brave any criticism."

A few days later I walked in the early aftern