mmer mantle for one of Miss Sutton's friends, and
had been paid four and sixpence for it. Albert had got a rise of a
shilling a-week; and baby's cheeks were getting to have quite a
colour. Mrs. Mitchell was sure that Juliet was very good and very
happy, and making herself useful to her aunt and uncle. And when they
could spare her to come back to London she must get a little place,
and earn her own living like a woman. If Mrs. Mitchell had any fresh
troubles since Juliet left home, she did not mention them in her
letter.

Then the parcel--ah! that came from Miss Sutton and some of her
friends at the West-end. It contained nice articles of clothing. A
pair of strong boots, two pink cotton pinafores, some few other
things, and a clean, large-print prayerbook. Juliet's face grew so
happy over her letter and her presents that, to Mrs. Rowles surprise,
it became quite pretty. This was the first time that she had perceived
how the girl's ill-tempered countenance spoilt her really good
features.

"Is she like her father or her mother?" Mr. Rowles inquired of his
wife. "But there! she can't be like her father--a pasty-faced, drowsy
fellow, always sleeping in the daytime, and never getting a bit of
sunshine to freshen him up. Not like some of them, camping out and
doing their cooking in the open air, and getting burnt as black as
gipsies. There they are--at it again!"

And he went out to the lock.

There were two boats waiting to go down. The people in one of them
were quite unknown to Rowles, but in the second was that middle-aged
man who was so determined to learn to row.

"How are you getting on, sir?" asked Rowles. "Easier work now, ain't
it?"

The man seemed unwilling to reply. He had an oar, and with him was a
youth in a suit of flannels pulling the other oar, while on the seat
sat an elderly gentleman steering.

"Did you find it very hard at first?" said the lad to his colleague.

"Yes, I did, Mr. Leonard; and I don't find it any too easy now."

The old gentleman laughed. "Well, Roberts, take it coolly going down
stream, and reserve your energies for coming up. I say, lock-keeper, I
am told that you let lodgings; have you any rooms vacant?"

"My missus has two rooms, sir," replied Rowles, as he leaned on the
great white wooden handle while the lock was emptying through the
sluices of the lower gates. "There is a gentleman who generally comes
in August, being an upper-class lawyer and can't leave his work till