and perhaps Archie might be gentle with it, and his father can mind the
garden at odd times. I've half a mind to try him; but he must know his
place, and not be thinking himself an equal just because we choose to
benefit him."

Kittie did not care what he did, nor how he got there, so that he really
had the permission, and before Willie had time to alter his mind she had
flown out the gate, and was fast nearing the humble cottage. The workmen
had dispersed, and the door and windows were closed, and the curtains
all down, so that the child thought nobody was there, but she went
quietly in, as she had been accustomed, and tapped at Archie's room.
There was a sound of voices within, and she heard the old woman
murmuring against the new proprietor of the ground for disturbing her in
her old age; but she was scarcely prepared for such a burst of grief as
met her from Archie, as she entered the room and spoke to him in her
soothing gentle manner. His treasures were lying upon his bed ready for
the packing in a small box that he held in his hand, and his books and
clothes were piled up on the table awaiting their final destination.

The child had never seen him so pale and troubled in all his trying
illness as he now looked, and his unconcealed, unsuppressed sorrow
frightened her so that she had scarcely a word to say, until he became
somewhat calm, and then she told him of the small house on her uncle's
domains, and the permission he had to occupy it. "It is so much better
than this, Archie!" said she, looking out the window upon the barren
space, and around the room at the dingy and tottering walls. They were
both very grateful--the old woman and the boy--but nobody could tell
with what tenacity their affections clung to every splinter of the old
building, and what a bitter step it was, that last one, over the
threshold of their lowly home.

CHAPTER VIII.

The morrow had come, and the old woman knew that the word had gone forth
against her humble tenement, and that there could be no appeal, so she
quietly betook herself to the vacant cottage within the grounds of Mr.
Lincoln with the feeling that "it was not long that she had to stay upon
the earth anyhow, and it mattered little where she spent her few
remaining days."

Archie said nothing to his grandmother about his own movements, but
while she went her way to the new home he turned toward the beautiful
cemetery, and there, upon the head of his mother's grave,