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Bessie was startled in her occupation by the click of the gate, and Hugh stood before her. He was fresh from the dead, and he looked pale, and haggard, and wretched as he followed Bessie into the house, and took his seat at the open lattice, where her work was lying, and her flowers kept nodding in at the casement.

'She's gone, and the old house is dull and empty,' he said, as he threw down the key on the table.

'I'm real sorry for you, Hugh; dear Hugh, my heart's sore for you,' said Bessie, laying her hand on Hugh's shoulder.

Hugh lifted his bowed head at those refreshing words, much as the rose had done, and a light came into his soul which was so downcast and sorrowful.

'Prove your words, Bessie; make my home bright with your presence, and I'll still have something worth living for.'

Bessie's answer was not heard; but when her mother returned, Hugh told her Bessie was his promised wife. Mrs. Higgins opened her eyes, and stared as if she could not believe her senses.

'On this night?' she asked.

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'She wished it,' said Hugh, and gave her blessing, and so it's the best of all nights.'

And so the child Bessie was no longer a child, but awoke all at once to find herself a woman.

CHAPTER XII.

The Holidays.

'Father of mercy, Thou art nigh
To smile on deeds of tenderness;
And when afflictions rudely press,
Thou teachest us to scatter wide

The bounty which thy hands provide.

UCY'S school life had little of event to mark

Mrs.

its course; the even tenor of her days flowed on undisturbed by any incident. Mason's illness and the good old dame's death soon followed each other, and now Lucy's career at school was almost at a close, and in a few weeks she would again be in the dear old home. How she counted the weeks and days, till at length she was able to divide them into hours and minutes, and then completely lost herself in the immensity of her calculations! Every girl and boy knows what a last day at school is like, the bustle, and excitement, and delightful confusion which pervades everything, and breaks through all laws and rules. The partings, though not exactly of the description 'to press the life from out young hearts,'

were to all appearances sad enough; and yet many of the eyes that were washed with tears, were the next moment pouring forth their beaming smiles of welcome, like the sun shining through the watery clouds on an April day.

Lucy for one did not say farewell to her kind teacher and schoolfellows without a pang; and as she took her seat in the railway carriage, she could not help thinking what a dreary, weary thing those partings were. She would have chosen to fix her tendrils deeply and firmly into some soil where they would never be uprooted, but allowed to spread out and round every object within their reach.

This day of Lucy's home-coming was something of an event, and a day of rejoicing at the Farm. Charlie had done his best to wile away the hours till it was time to harness the old horse and go to meet his sister; but there were still some hours to be disposed of, and they hung heavy enough on his hands. His mother was busy as she could be about the house; and as Charlie followed her about, he wished for the first time that he was a girl.

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They always find such lots to do out of nothing,' he soliloquized. But I know something I can do, mother: Lucy loves flowers so much, I shall fill a glass, and put them in her room.'

'A very good idea, Charlie; and she will love

CHARLIE'S PREPARATIONS.

187

them all the more when she knows it was your thought.'

And so Charlie went out to the flower-beds with the basket and scissors which Lucy used to use, and gathered a sweet bouquet for his sister.

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'I shall pull a good bunch of this forget-me-not,' he said to himself. Lucy's eyes are so like the pretty forget-me-not-so beautiful and blue with looking up to heaven.'

At four o'clock the gig was made ready, and Charlie and his father set off on their pleasant errand.

What a different journey was this from the last! Then the trees were as fresh and green, and the flowers as bright and gay, as now; but then the hearts of one and all were sad with thoughts of the coming parting, and now they were full of happy expectation; and this made all the difference. Charlie could not make the horse go half fast enough, his thoughts travelled so much quicker.

'Doesn't he seem lazy to-day, father ?' said the boy, touching him with the whip.

It's somebody else that's too impatient, I think. Why, we shall have half an hour and more to wait if we go at this rate, and that will be worse than all.'

'So it will,' said Charlie, perceiving the truth of the statement; and drawing rein accordingly, they pro