e will be pleasant ones, I know. This has been a happy day
for me, Raynor. Goodnight."

When the two met again the brighter face had sadly changed; its beauty
was marred with pain, and the shadow of death lay upon it.

Entering Janner's shanty the following morning, Seth found the family
sitting around the breakfast-table in ominous silence. The meal stood
untouched, and even Bess looked pale and anxious. All three glanced
toward him questioningly as he approached, and when he sat down Janner
spoke: "Hasna tha' heerd th' news?" he asked.

"Nay," Seth answered, "I ha' heerd nowt."

Bess interposed hurriedly: "Dunnot yo' fear him, feyther," she said.
"Happen it isna so bad, after aw. Four or live foak wur takken down ill
last neet, Seth, an' th' young mester wur among 'em; an' theer's them as
says it's cholera."

It seemed as if he had not caught the full meaning of her words; he only
stared at her in a startled, bewildered fashion. "Cholera!" he repeated
dully.

"Theer's them as knows it's cholera," said Janner, with gloomy
significance. "An' if it's cholera, it's death;" and he let his hand
fall heavily upon the table.

"Ay," put in Mrs. Janner in a fretful wail, "fur they say as it's worse
i' these parts than it is i' England--th' heat mak's it worse--an' here
we are i' th' midst o' th' summer-toime, an' theer's no knowin'
wheer it'll end. I wish tha'd takken my advice, Janner, an' stayed i'
Lancashire. Ay, I wish we wur safe at home. Better less wage an' more
safety. Yo'd niwer ha' coom if yo'd listened to me."

"Howd thy tongue, mother," said Bess, but the words were not ungently
spoken, notwithstanding their bluntness. "Dunnot let us mak' it worse
than it need be. Seth, lad, eat thy breakfast."

But there was little breakfast eaten. The fact was, that at the first
spreading of the report a panic had seized upon the settlement, and
Janner and his wife were by no means the least influenced by it A
stolidly stubborn courage upheld Bess, but even she was subdued and
somewhat awed.

"I niwer heerd much about th' cholera," Seth said to her after
breakfast. "Is this here true, this as thy feyther says?"

"I dunnot know fur sure," Bess answered gravely, "but it's bad enow."

"Coom out wi' me into th' fresh air," said the lad, laying his hand
upon her sleeve: "I mun say a word or so to thee." And they went out
together.

There was no work done in the mine that day. Two of three new cases
broke out, and the t