146 Turnaside Cottage.

 

schoolmaster, I said, I promised to work hard, and
be as little expensive as possible; and Master
George promised to lay my wishes before Mr.
Prickard. I have said nothing about my gratitude,
but it was great, in proportion to the intense relief
I found it to be no longer in uncertainty whether I
should ever be able to support myself, and how
I was to live in the meantime.

Now I had only one serious anxiety left, and that
was my father. I felt pretty sure by this time that
he had got safely away, probably out of the country ;
and that he had money enough with him to supply
his wants ; for the sale of the farm-stock, for which
I understood the reason now, must have brought in
a considerable sum. But I knew nothing for
certain, and no tidings reached us.

I received a kind note from Miss Churchill, en-
closed in one of her letters to her brother, in which
she said how glad she was to hear of the well-doing
of her former pupil, and wished me success in the
work I had chosen. This was comforting to me,
for I feared lest the bad opinion which people must
too surely have of my father should extend to me
also; and I was glad to find that she seemed to’
think, like my master, that this shadow need not
darken my future life.

Tommy made his appearance on Sunday morn-