"

'Well, I did not seem to have my answer ready; for I was fairly choked
at the sight of his changed face, and those poor, pitiable words. But he
did not misunderstand me, and when I took his arm and pushed him into a
chair by the fire, he looked round the place in a dazed kind of way.

'"Where's Susan?" he asked. "I hope she is not sick, Tom." And with that
he did break me down; for the thought of how Susan would have welcomed
him--not standing aloof as Prissy was doing--and how she would have
heartened us up, in her cheery way, was too much for me, and I fairly
cried like a child.

'Well, I knew it was my lad--in spite of his gray hairs--when he cried,
too--just for company. Mat had always a kind heart and way with him.

'"I never thought of this, Tom," he said, when we were a bit better.
"All to-day Susan's face has been before me bonnie and smiling, as I
last saw it. Prissy there is not much like her mother. And so she is in
her coffin, poor lass! Well, you are better off than me, Tom, for you
have got Prissy there to look after you, and I have neither wife nor
children."

'"Do you mean they are gone?" I asked, staring at him; and he nodded in
a grim, sorrowful kind of way.

'"I have lost them all. There, we won't talk about that just yet. What
is it Susan used to say when the children died? 'The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away.' Those are pious words, Tom." And then he looked
at me a bit strangely.

'Well, it was Prissy who interrupted us, by asking if Mat wanted food.
And then it turned out that he was 'most starving.

'"I think I was born to ill-luck, Tom," he went on; "for some scamp or
other robbed me of my little savings as soon as I reached London, and I
had to make shift to pay my fare down here. It is a long story to tell
how I found you out. I went to the old place first, and they sent me on
here. I had a drop of beer and a crust at the Three Loaves, and old
Giles, the ostler, knew me and told me a long yarn about you and
Prissy."

'And then we would not let him talk any more. And when he was fed and
warmed Prissy made up a bed for him, for we saw he was nearly worn out,
and there was plenty of time for hearing all he had to tell us.

'But I could not help going into his room before I turned in, for there
came over me such a longing to see Mat's face again--though it was not
the old face. And I knew my bright, handsome lad would never come back.
Well, he was not asleep, for he turned o