er still by daylight, my dear," answered Gray.

"How kind you are to me, dear Reuben."

"It shall always be my greatest pleasure to be so, Hannah."

A negro girl at this moment appeared at the door with a light, and the
husband and wife entered the house.

Ishmael sprang down from his seat, stretched his cramped limbs, and
gazed about him with all the curiosity and interest of a stranger in a
strange scene.

The features of the landscape, as dimly discerned by starlight, were
simple and grand.

Behind him lay the deep forest from which they had just emerged. On its
edge stood the white cottage, surrounded by its garden. Before him lay
the open country, sloping down to the banks of a broad river, whose dark
waves glimmered in the starlight.

So this was Judge Merlin's estate--and Claudia's birthplace!

"Well, Ishmael, are you waiting for an invitation to enter? Why, you are
as welcome as Hannah herself, and you couldn't be more so!" exclaimed
the hearty voice of Reuben Gray, as he returned almost immediately after
taking Hannah in.

"I know it, Uncle Reuben. You are very good to me; and I do hope to make
myself very useful to you," replied the boy.

"You'll be a fortun' to me, lad--an ample fortun' to me! But why don't
you go in out of the midnight air? You ain't just as strong as Samson,
yet, though you're agwine to be," said Gray cheerily.

"I only stopped to stretch my limbs, and--to help in with the luggage,"
said Ishmael, who was always thoughtful, practical, and useful, and who
now stopped to load himself with Hannah's baskets and bundles before
going into the house.

"Now, then, Sam," said Gray, turning to the negro, "look sharp there!
Bring in the trunks and boxes from the light wagon; take the furniture
from the heavy one, and pile it in the shed, where it can stay until
morning; put both on 'em under cover, feed and put up the horses; and
then you can go to your quarters."

The negro bestirred himself to obey these orders, and Reuben Gray and
Ishmael entered the cottage garden.

They passed up a gravel walk bordered each side with lilac bushes, and
entered by a vine-shaded porch into a broad passage, that ran through
the middle of the house from the front to the back door.

"There are four large rooms on this floor, Ishmael, and this is the
family sitting room," said Gray, opening a door on his right.

It was a very pleasant front room, with a bright paper on its walls, a
gay homespun carpet