r, and an old woman was stooping painfully, trying
to carry them in.

"Let me help you," cried Dick, hurrying forward, "I'd be so glad of a
job!"

The worker looked sharply at him, and at once said, with a sigh of
relief, "I don't mind if you do. Carry them into the woodshed there
and stack them tidy, and I'll give you three-pence. You look honest,
and that's a nice little dog you've got."

"Yes, isn't he? Sit up, Pat!"

The old woman laughed, as Pat stood up obediently on his tired little
legs and begged, and Dick went on, "I don't beg myself, though I am
tramping, but Pat learned to do it before we came."

And encouraged by this friendly notice Pat wagged his tail and
immediately followed the old woman into her bright kitchen and
stretched himself on the gay rag carpet before the fire.

Like her, he kept one eye on the little toiler outside, but Dick had
set to work with a will. He plodded on, making a threefold stack in
the woodshed, with the logs at one end and the blocks at the other, and
all the chips in the middle.

"Must be Lionheart when there's threepence to be earned, even if you
are tired all over," he murmured, as he trudged to and fro. Presently
a cheerful sound of teacups and a delightful smell of toast came from
the cottage, and then the old woman brought out a broom to sweep up the
mess.

"That's right, my lad. Why, bless me, you _have_ been quick! And
you've stacked them a sight better than I could myself. You shall wash
your hands and come in and have some tea before you go on. As to the
little dog I should like to keep him, he's so pretty and peart. I
s'pose you don't want to part with him?"

"Oh, no, thank you, ma'am," said Dick quickly, "but I _should_ like
some tea, I am so thirsty." And in five minutes Dick was sitting at
the round table and telling Mrs. Grey a little bit of his story, while
Pat finished a saucerful of sop and then looked up knowingly at his
master, as if to say, "These are famous quarters--don't tramp any
further to-night."

"Poor boy," said Mrs. Grey, as she wiped her spectacles, "it's a long
way for you to go, and coming on dead of winter too. I don't see how
you're going to manage it. But you shall have a shakedown on the old
sofa here, for to-night. I am sure I can trust you, or rather trust
Him who said 'Inasmuch.'"

"I _knew_ He would help me," said Dick gratefully, "but I didn't expect
anything so good as this."

"But He always gives more th