thing, he wasna so bad after all! It was, Mrs. Widdiwicket always said, only his spirit; he wanted more room for his life than he got here, and should have been a soldier or a traveller, or something or another where he would always be moving." She had often dreamt of her husband, who appeared to her and said he was waiting for her in a very pleasant place; but he never mentioned little Luke, and she never dreamed of him except as racing before Welland and his giant wife, or plunging into Hillmarton dam, all amongst the dark weeds and deep, slimy mud.

It was a fine breezy summer's day, Mrs. Barnicott was sitting under the great hanging elder, and her knitting-needles were going very fast for so old a woman. She was stooping and wrinkled and lean, but there was a quick motion in her darkened eyes and their twinkling lids, and there was a motion about her withered mouth, and she gave every now and then deep sighs as she shifted her needles, and seemed to look down at her knitting, which she could not see, and then paused awhile, let her work fall on her knee upon her check-apron, and raised her sightless eyes towards the sky and seemed to think. Just then she heard an active step as if a young man came along the brick pavement along the garden to the house-door. There was a knock, and she heard a young man's voice—she was sure it was a young man—ask if Mrs. Barnicott was at home. Amy Beckumshire said, "Ay, there she sits, sir, knitting under the elder." The young man advanced, and old Beckey rose up in wonder who it could be.

"Good day to you, Mrs. Barnicott," said the young man. "You don't know me, but I have heard of you some years ago, and being in this part of the country, I thought I should like to see you."

"You're very good, sir, to come to see an old blind woman like me!" She guessed that it was all about the sad business of her husband and grandson that the gentleman had heard. "Pray you, sit down, sir," she added, "there's room on the bench."

"Thank you," said the young man. There was a little silence, and then the young man said, "I've often heard of this neighbourhood, and I always thought it must be very pleasant, and really I find it so. Why, I seem to know all about it, as if I had seen it. The old windmill, and the pool below here, and the Marlpool above, and the old church tower of Monnycrofts."

Beckey was silent and pondering. "And pray," she said, after a time, "where might you hear all this about this country place?"

"Well, it was very far from here. You must know Mrs. Barnicott, that I have been a sailor, and have sailed nearly all over the world; and we sailors make acquaintance in different ships with men from all parts. I was on board the Swallow, bound for Pernambuco, in South America, for a cargo of cotton and coffee, and I had a mate there that I took a great fancy to; he came from some part of this country, Cosser or Hawsworth, or some such place."

"Ay, ay," said Beckey, "these are places not far off; you may see 'em from th' mill up yonder. But it's many a year sin I seed 'em."

"Ay, more's the pity!" said the young man; "but you can hear, and I think I can tell you some good news."

"What good news?" said old Beckey, suddenly giving a start, and turning her blind eyes fixedly on him. "What good news can come to a poor old creature like me?"

"I should not like to agitate you," said the youth, "by going into things long past, and very dark things too; but this mate of mine told me several times of what happened here years ago; and I wonder," he used to say, "whether any of the Barnicotts be living, and if they ever heard of the lad that was lost?"

"What do you mean?" said old Beckey; "do you know anything of little Luke? is he alive? can he be alive? Speak, man! speak!"

"Well, this young man thought he was alive."

"What!" said old Beckey, "what! oh laws! you've made my heart jump into my mouth. What did he know? Did he know Luke, and had he seen him?"

"Well," he said, "he was alive and was a sailor."

"A sailor! alive!" Poor old Beckey trembled like an aspen leaf, and dropped her knitting from her knee. "Oh me! if this should be true!" she said; "but my strength fails me; it is more nor I can bear."

The young man took hold of her to support her, and bade her not agitate herself; he believed her grandson was alive, and that they should be able in time to learn more about him.

"And you dunna know where he is? Are you sure he is alive? are you sure?"

"Well, I feel pretty sure. I know my mate said he was alive and well, and a fine active sailor, five years ago; for he sailed to Ceylon, in the Indies, with him."

"Luke alive! oh laws! this is too much. Amy! Amy!" Amy Beckumshire, who was standing at the door all curiosity and astonishment, came the moment that old Beckey called, and the poor old woman, shaking and trembling as with the ague, said to her, "Dost hear? Luke's alive, and is a sailor, and has been i' th' Indies, and this gentleman has seen a sailor as knew him!"

"Is that so?" said Amy, in a voice of wondering inquiry, and looking in distant respect at the handsome young gentleman.

"I quite believe it is true, missis," said the young man; "I never knew Sam Birchin tell me a lie."

"He comes from Cosser or Hawsworth, that sailor does," said old Beckey, all eagerness, "and knows all about this country, and all the old doings here."

"Gracious me!" said Amy, "how wonderful!"

"O Lord," said old Beckey, lifting her sightless brow towards heaven, "only let me once see Luke, and then take me—take me—that I may tell my husband. But, laws-a-me! maybe he knows all about it."

Poor old Beckey then asked the stranger a hundred questions: if he knew what sort of a looking lad Luke was? how tall he was, and how he looked? if he had heard that he had blue eyes and a very fair skin, and hair very light coloured? To all these questions the young man said he could give no answer; but he would write to Sam Birchin, who would be in port soon, and ask him all about it. He then rose up and said he had ordered his dinner at the Dog and Partridge, and must go there, but that he meant to stay a few weeks in the country, and go and find out Birchin's relations at Cosser. He did not mean to go to sea again; he had been to Australia, and got enough gold to live on, and he meant to settle down somewhere in the country. He should often come and see her while he stayed.

Old Beckey prayed God to bless him for the good news he had brought; an angel from heaven could not have brought more blessed tidings; and as he went across the garden she tottered after him, leaning on her frail wand, and stood at the gate to listen to his steps going down the field. Then she had to tell the wonderful news all over to Amy, and to ask a hundred questions. What sort of looking young man was he, light or dark? and how he was dressed, and how tall he was? Though he'd been a sailor, she was sure he was a gentleman by his talk. Amy said he was a handsome young man, and quite a gentleman in his dress. He was as finely dressed as young Squire Flaggimore himself. His eyes were dark blue.

"Blue, says ta?" broke in old Beckey. "Luke's were blue."

"They are dark blue or black," said Amy.

"And his hair very light?" asked Beckey.

"No. Light! ravenly black."

"Oh, then, he's not like Luke. Luke's hair," said Beckey, "was very light, and a little sandy."

"What! thou artna dreaming that this is Luke himself, Beckey"

"Oh laws, no!" said Beckey. "It's not Luke, Amy; I was only wondering whether it was like him. But thinkster I should not know Luke's voice? Ay, that voice I shall never forget; it's down in my heart as clear as a bell, though it's fifteen years come Michaelmas since I heard it, poor fellow! And to think as he's alive, and 's a been a sailing all over the world ever since! And now, thou sees, Amy, that's the reason that he never came, like his grandfayther, in my dreams. How could he come, and was alive all the time? But thou mun