16 The Brothers.

 

phen, tidy and clean, looked far more like
Johnnie’s brother than when he first came.
However, he was very silent still, and only
coloured when Mrs. Baynes said at breakfast,
“Stephen will begin going to Sunday school
to-day.”

John had ceased to expect answers from
his brother, so he talked on describing the
school, and trying to cheer Stephen up and
make him laugh, but it was all in vain.

Mrs. Baynes walked with them to the gate
when school-time approached, and sighed as
she felt the tight clasp of Stephen on her
hand, as if he feared to let her go.

“Good-bye, my dear,” she said, kissing him
when they reached the end of the garden.
“Be a good boy.”

Then she was obliged to pull away her
hand, and John led his brother off; she
watched them for a while along the road, and
then went indoors and sat down to read.
How pleasant the stillness was, after her’
week’s work!

Outside, only the birds’ songs and the
‘wind among the trees moving ever so softly ;
within, the clock ticking, the purring of the
cat. This was all she heard. She opened
her Bible at some words she loved.