bout
being good, I'm sorry I was Moses, I'm sorry I'm such a bad girl, but
as sure as I kneel on this grass I'll be good for iver an' iver if
ye'll send back our wee Honeybird."

Tears blinded and choked her for a moment. Almighty God could do
everything, could help her now so easily. It wouldn't hurt Him just
for once, she thought. She went on repeating her promise to be good,
begging and coaxing, but no sign came from the flaring heavens. At
last she got desperate. "If ye don't I'll niver believe in ye again,"
she shouted, then added: "Oh, please, I didn't mean to be rude, but we
want our poor, poor, wee Honeybird." She laid her face down on the
grass, and sobbed.

Almighty God might have helped her, she thought. It wasn't much she
had done to make Him cross after all--but, then, He was just--and she
had made Moses cross too. But Honeybird must be saved from the
Kidnappers, and if Almighty God would not help Fly knew she must go on
herself. She dried her eyes on her sleeve, and was getting up from her
knees, when something white hopped out from behind a whin. It was
Beezledum; and when Fly looked in under the whin there was Honeybird
fast asleep. She knelt down, and folded her hands again. "Almighty
God," she said, "I'll niver, niver to my dyin' day forget this on ye."
Then with a yell of joy she ran to wake Honeybird.

[Illustration: When Fly looked in under the whin there was Honeybird
fast asleep.]

There was great rejoicing when they got home. Lull hugged and kissed
them both, and made Honeybird tell her story over and over again.

"It was that ould Beezledum," Honeybird said; "he didn't like goin' to
church, an' he ran away through the hedge. An he run on an' on, an' I
thought I'd niver catch him. An' when I catched him, an begun to come
home, I was awful tired, an' I just sat down to get my breath, and Fly
came and woke me up."

About ten o'clock the others came home, despairing of ever seeing
Honeybird again. They had met ould Davy at the gates, who told them to
run on and see what was sitting by the kitchen fire.

What was sitting by the kitchen fire when they came in was Honeybird
eating hot buttered toast.

Lull pulled up their stools to the fire, and took a plate of toast that
she had made for them out of the oven. The rest of the evening was
spent in rejoicing. Fly began to be elated.

It was she who had found Honeybird. The others had run on and left
her, but she was the bes