l loaf and
some bacon intended for her dinner.

'Take this,' she said; 'to-day at any rate you shall dine well,' and the
old woman took it, gazing at Tephany the while.

'Those who help others deserve to be helped,' she answered; 'your eyes
are still red because that miser Barbaik has forbidden you to speak to
the young man from Plover. But cheer up, you are a good girl, and I will
give you something that will enable you to see him once every day.'

'You?' cried Tephany, stupefied at discovering that the beggar knew all
about her affairs, but the old woman did not hear her.

'Take this long copper pin,' she went on, 'and every time you stick it
in your dress Mother Bourhis will be obliged to leave the house in order
to go and count her cabbages. As long as the pin is in your dress you
will be free, and your aunt will not come back until you have put it in
its case again.' Then, rising, she nodded to Tephany and vanished.

The girl stood where she was, as still as a stone. If it had not been
for the pin in her hands she would have thought she was dreaming. But by
that token she knew it was no common old woman who had given it to her,
but a fairy, wise in telling what would happen in the days to come. Then
suddenly Tephany's eyes fell on the clothes, and to make up for lost
time she began to wash them with great vigour.

Next evening, at the moment when Denis was accustomed to wait for her in
the shadow of the cowhouse, Tephany stuck the pin in her dress, and at
the very same instant Barbaik took up her sabots or wooden shoes and
went through the orchard and past to the fields, to the plot where the
cabbages grew. With a heart as light as her footsteps, the girl ran from
the house, and spent her evening happily with Denis. And so it was for
many days after that. Then, at last, Tephany began to notice something,
and the something made her very sad.

At first, Denis seemed to find the hours that they were together fly as
quickly as she did, but when he had taught her all the songs he knew,
and told her all the plans he had made for growing rich and a great
man, he had nothing more to say to her, for he, like a great many other
people, was fond of talking himself, but not of listening to any one
else. Sometimes, indeed, he never came at all, and the next evening
he would tell Tephany that he had been forced to go into the town on
business, but though she never reproached him she was not deceived and
saw plainly that h