the and apparently contented,
Trafford wondered and conjectured, and could not surmise a reason for
it; though, had he observed closely, it would not have been a great
mystery. For Noll there was the unfailing comfort of the little Bible
which lay beside the huge old bed up-stairs, and which gave the double
comfort of its own blessedness and the remembrance of its preciousness
to her who turned its pages to the last; and there were ever the
pitying ears of Jesus ready to hear the story of discouragement and
loneliness, when the burden of slow, weary days seemed _too_ heavy to
bear.

Into Trafford's life had come more brightness and content than he had
known since that dark day when his wife left him and vanished in the
darkness which, to his eyes, filled and hovered over the grave. It did
not, as yet, seem like a real and lasting joy; he trembled lest some
day it should prove but a dream, a vision, and so vanish. He often
laid aside his book and looked up, half expecting to find the room as
silent and lonely as when, of old, he was the only inhabitant of the
great library; but there, at the opposite window, sat the pleasant
figure of the boy, busy with his books, and as real and tangible as
heart could wish. It was a perpetual delight, though he hid all
knowledge of it from Noll, to feel that the boy was present, to see
him curled up in a great chair by the fire, watching the flames or the
depths of rosy coal, of a twilight, and to feel that he was _his_,--a
precious gift to love and cherish. So the man's heart began to go out
toward the boy,--tremblingly, warningly at first, then, as he found
him true and worthy, with all its might and all the fervor of which it
was capable.

CHAPTER IX.

DIRK'S TROUBLE.

Noll closed his books one afternoon after recitations, saying, "I'll
put on my overcoat, Uncle Richard, and take a run up the shore,--just
for exercise. The waves are monstrous, and how they thunder! I haven't
seen them so large since I came to Culm."

"Look out for the tide," continued his uncle; "keep away from that
narrow strip of sand up the shore, for the waves will cover it in an
hour."

Noll promised to be cautious, and ran off after cap and overcoat.
Hagar met him as he came down from his room all muffled for the walk,
and exclaimed,--

"Bress ye, honey! where ye bound fur now? Dis yer is a drefful bad
time on de shore! I's 'feard to hev ye roun' dar!" looking at him
anxiously.