he could not be old enough to be a
clergyman.

Richard hoped they would find sponsors by that time; and there Mrs.
Taylor gave little hope; it was a bad lot--there was no one she liked to
ask to stand, she said, in a dismal voice; but there her husband put in,
"I'll find some one if that's all; my missus always thinks nobody can't
do nothing."

"To be sure," said the lamentable Mrs. Taylor, "all the elder ones was
took to church, and I'm loath the little ones shouldn't; but you see,
sir, we are poor people, and it's a long way, and they was set down in
the gentleman's register book."

"But you know that is not the same, Mrs. Taylor. Surely Lucy could have
told you that, when she went to school."

"No, sir, 'tis not the same--I knows that; but this is a bad place to
live in--"

"Always the old song, missus!" exclaimed her husband. "Thank you kindly,
sir--you have been a good friend to us, and so was Dr. May, when I was
up to the hospital, through the thick of his own troubles. I believe you
are in the right of it, sir, and thank you. The children shall be ready,
and little Jack too, and I'll find gossips, and let 'em christened on
Sunday."

"I believe you will be glad of it," said Richard; and he went on to
speak of the elder children coming to school on Sunday, thus causing
another whining from the wife about distance and bad weather, and no
one else going that way. He said the little Halls were coming, but Mrs.
Taylor begun saying she disliked their company for the children--granny
let them get about so much, and they said bad words. The father again
interfered. Perhaps Mr. Wilmot, who acted as chaplain at the hospital,
had been talking to him, for he declared at once that they should come;
and Richard suggested that he might see them home when he came from
church; then, turning to the boy and girl, told them they would meet
their sister Lucy, and asked them if they would not like that.

On the whole, the beginning was not inauspicious, though there might be
a doubt whether old Mrs. Hall would keep all her promises. Ethel was so
much diverted and pleased as to be convinced she would; Richard was a
little doubtful as to her power over the wild girls. There could not be
any doubt that John Taylor was in earnest, and had been worked upon just
at the right moment; but there was danger that the impression would
not last. "And his wife in such a horrible whining dawdle!" said
Ethel--"there will be no good to be don