glittering gold pieces.

"That is ten pounds," he said.

Honeybird looked bewildered.

"It is for you if you will accept it," he said.

She answered by throwing her arms round his legs and hugging them
tight. Mr M'Keown took her hand, and went back to his chair.

"An' what made ye say ye had none, ye ould ruffan?" she said, hugging
him round the neck this time, till he had to beg to be allowed to
breathe.

"I think you must ask Doctor Dixey to call here for it," he said.

Honeybird's face fell. "Auch, sure I can take it home myself," she
said.

"I'm afraid you might lose it," he said.

"How could I lose it?" she said. "Are ye feared I'd drop it? 'Cause I
tell ye what: I couldn't drop it if ye'd put it in an ould stockin' for
me to carry."

Mr M'Keown smiled. "Perhaps a sock would do," he said. He went out of
the room again, and came back with a sock. "But it will not be full,"
he said, as he tied the money in the toe. Then he said he would walk
back with her. Honeybird went with him to get his coat, and brushed
his top-hat for him with her arm, as Andy Graham had taught her. They
set out, hand-in-hand, Honeybird carrying the sock. Mr M'Keown walked
very slowly, and Honeybird talked all the way. She told him about her
mother and Lull and Andy Graham, what she played, and what the others
did, till they came to the gates of Rowallan.

"Now I shall leave you," Mr M'Keown said.

She kissed him good-bye, and when, half way up the avenue, she turned
to look back he was gone. The others were having dinner. Jane and
Mick had come back. Honeybird ran into the schoolroom, waving the sock.

"Ye were quare and cross with me for gettin' out a' bed last night,
weren't ye, Janie? But luk what it got me." She shook the gold out of
the sock on to the table.

They all danced round her while she told her tale. And when they ran
down and told Mrs Kelly she was so bewildered by the news that she
could not believe it till they brought her up and showed her the little
heap of gold on the table. Honeybird was the least excited of them
all; not even when Doctor Dixey came and made her tell her adventures
twice over did she lose her head.

"Sure, Almighty God always does anythin' I ast Him," she said. "Mind
ye, He's quare an' obliging; if I loss anythin' He fin's it for me as
quick as quick."

"Well, He worked a miracle for you this time," said Doctor Dixey.

A fortnight later Honeybird wrote, or rather J