on this solution, and applied it to her heart to ease its
pain and relieve the pressure that weighed on it.

Under the lightening of her anxiety caused by this Mehetabel fell
asleep, for how long she was unable to guess. When she awoke it was
not that she heard the cry of her child, but that she was aware of
a tread on the floor that made the bed vibrate.

Instead of starting up, she unclosed her eyes, and saw in the
room a figure that she at once knew was that of Jonas. He was
barefooted, and but partially dressed. He had softly unhasped the
door and stolen in on tip-toe. Mehetabel was surprised. It was
not his wont to leave his bed at night, certainly not for any
concern he felt relative to the child; yet now he was by the
cradle, and was stooping over it with his head turned, so that
his ear was applied in a manner that showed he was listening to
the child's breathing. As his face was turned the feeble light of
the smouldering rushlight was on it.

Mehetabel did not stir. It was a pleasing revelation to her that
the father's heart had warmed to his child, and that he was
sufficiently solicitous for the feeble life to be disturbed
thereby at night.

Jonas remained listening for a minute, then he rose erect and
retreated from the chamber on tiptoe and closed the door noiselessly
behind him.

A smile of pleasure came on Mehetabel's lips, the first that had
creamed them for many a week, and she slipped away again into
sleep, to be aroused after a brief period by the restlessness and
exclamations of the child that woke with hunger.

Then promptly she rose up, went to the cradle, and lifted the
child out, coaxed it and sang to the infant as she seated herself
on the bedside nursing it.

As she swayed herself, holding the child, the door that was ajar
opened slightly, and by the feeble light of the rush she could
discern something without, and the flame was reflected in human
eyes.

"Is that you, Jonas?" she called.

There was no reply, but she could hear soft steps withdrawing in
the direction of his room.

"He is ashamed of letting me see how anxious he is, how really
fond of the poor pet he is in heart." As the child's hands relaxed,
and it sobbed off to sleep, Mehetabel laid it again in the cradle.
It was abundantly evident that the infant was getting better. In a
couple of days, doubtless, it would be well.

Glad of this, relieved of the care that had gnawed at her heart, she
now slipped between the s