to diminish as much as possible the obligation she was under to
one who had offended her. "Some one else would have saved him, if
this fine young spark had never been here. He's an orphan, and
God watches over orphans, they say. I'd rather it had been any
one else as had picked him out, than one who comes into a poor
body's house only to abuse it."

"He did not come in only to abuse it," said Ruth gently. "He came
with little Tom; he only said it was not quite so clean as it
might be."

"What! you're taking up the cry, are you? Wait till you are an
old woman like me, crippled with rheumatiz, and a lad to see
after like Tom, who is always in mud when he isn't in water; and
his food and mine to scrape together (God knows we're often
short, and do the best I can), and water to fetch up that steep
brow."

She stopped to cough; and Ruth judiciously changed the subject,
and began to consult the old woman as to the wants of her
grandson, in which consultation they were soon assisted by the
medical man.

When Ruth had made one or two arrangements with a neighbour whom
she asked to procure the most necessary things, and had heard
from the doctor that all would be right in a day or two, she
began to quake at the recollection of the length of time she had
spent at Nelly Brownson's, and to remember, with some affright,
the strict watch kept by Mrs. Mason over her apprentices'
out-goings and in-comings on working-days. She hurried off to the