Two Little Travellers / A Story for Girls

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n they had finished their breakfast. It had been a most unusual one for them, and not much of a treat: the bread was dry, the bacon s

ced look. "What's yer hurry? Are you so keen to leave us, eh?" she asked,

h and politeness. "We didn't come on a visit, you know; we came only for the night.

king this way and that;

here ye're goin' to stay till I've done wi' ye. Do you heed?" he shouted, gripping Darby by the

n shawl, but Darby looked from the black-browed woman to

ere quivering piteously, and all the healthy colour had fled from

king into her broadly-smiling face and unscrupulous eyes, Darby Dene had his first lesson in the meaning of deceit. He there and t

se you can't expect that we can be very fond of you after-after-well, we know you for only such a little while. Do please let us go," urged the child in pleading tones; and now the big tear

Eh?" he cried, playfully pinching Joan's small pink ear until she screamed with pain, then glancing from face to face of the party gathered around the fagot fire, fingering idly at the same time the heavy whip in his belt with which he kept Bruno to his tasks. "An' min',

an, and shouting to Tonio to look sharp, he sauntered off in the direction

if for her own diversion; then-with only the dwarf, the bear, and the monkey to witness their distress-Darby and Joan t

grief and crack some nuts for him instead. The dwarf sat motionless, his head still sunk upon his hands, as if he had forgotten their very presence, yet all the time he was watching them through his fingers. And as soon as th

n, lowly, poor, so far as money went, yet rich in the priceless power of loving, which is beyond the riches of gold or lands; for is not love of God? Is not God Himself the beg

ick, for Joe and Tonio won't stay long away. There's no rabbits or birds over there, I'm sure," he continued,

child to do-who they were, where they lived, why they had left their ho

long breath. "Firgrove! Turner of Firgrove! Old Squire Turner folks about Firdale use

the discovery. "Green my aunts call him; an old, old man with wh

y me! Although he always had a sort of spite at m

peoples like you just grow the way Topsy did? Topsy never had no muver.

grandmother too. But they are both gone this many a year ago, and-exce

ckled slowly down his hollow, weather-beaten cheek, and J

dwarf. Joan loves you; you's s

by 'kith and kin' you just mean friends. We'll be your friends if you

ontinuing to caress the dwarf's hagga

an cuffs and kicks. It was always, 'Get out of the way, you object!' 'Oh, poor wretch! how horrid-looking he is!' or else jeers, gibes, and laughter. And since I became a man, this kind of a man, I mean," he explained, glancing from Joan to his stunted limbs, huge feet, and claw-like hands, "it has been harder still-harsh words and heavy blows if I did not bring in money enough at shows and fairs. Now, I think the Lord Jesus has seen my loneliness, taken pity upon

y Land-we were quite close to it, in fact. Would it be right to turn back now?" the little lad asked, fixing his clear gray eyes seriously on the face of th

't to do it. But we must first make sure that we've put our hands upon the right plough, that it's pointed in the proper direction in the very field the great Hus

re trying to tell me as nicely as you can that we haven't got o

at Firgrove, so back there you and missy must go as soon as ever you can give Joe and Moll the slip. My, won't the ladies be i

Land at all, then?" asked J

f a puzzle as to their meaning. She had, however, gathered the gist of their r

rodding her behind the dwarf's back. "Don'

n he's not cryin'. They's quite 'nuff for me-just now at least," she added as an after-thought. "And I wants to go back to Miss Carolina and the rest of my dear, sweet dollies. Darby wouldn't let me bring none of them wif me. Now I's lonesome for them

understanding gaze upon the winsome, wilful face, with its dewy eyes and quivering lips. At the same time there came back

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satisfaction which filled him at the prospect of going back to the security of Firgrove. It seemed to him as if a return implied an easy entrance at the wide gat

d, hardly knowing how to answer t

e to their hand, and their faces away from the place where God has put them, never find a happy land, neither in this life nor in the n

y, with a puzzled pucker between his brows. "How could t

r there's no such place as that in this world-where the sun's always shining, and night never falls; where folks are never tempted or wicked; where there's no need to struggle, and nobody makes mistakes; where there's neither sickness nor sorrow,

quite happy and good, wifout naughtiness or puttin' to bed same as at Firgrove; where I could keep my dollies and the pussies wif me, and where there 'ud be no Aunt Catharine

eate it around us for ourselves," said the dwarf dreamily. "And I think that you surely make yours

ve tones; "I'm afraid I don't quite understand your meaning yet. I'm only s

just a dull, unlearned fellow. I never had no schooling, not since I wore petticoats!"-here Joan laughed merrily-"and have no knowledge except what the Master has taught me out under the sky and the stars, f

or safe in the snug shelter of Firgrove. Then if He is to walk always beside us, we must conduct ourselves as befits them that keep good company. We must shirk no duty, no matter how disagreeable; leave never a task unlearned, be it ever so hard; and travelling along han

d the multitudes to learn and remember when He said in His sermon on the mo

father, when he comes back, and Eric, and Auntie Alice, and-and-everything," he added, hurriedly lumping Aunt Catharine along with the odds and ends that were too numerous to mention separately, "but just stay at home, and be good and brave and true and loving to everybody. How easy it sounds! I feel as if I never could be disobedient or naug

s; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do