SUNSHINE AGAIN. 63

“Give him time, dear.”

Nellie sighed heavily.

“JT have tried so hard all this year to show
him that he may believe in me. I could never
be underhanded again.”

Mrs. Maine leaned forward and kissed her.
“ Patience, Nellie,” she said encouragingly.

There was a clatter of feet on the gravel,
and Harry rushed in, his face glowing with
health. He hugged his mother, and then flung
an arm round his sister’s neck.

“Tt’s horrid, going to school without you,
Sissy.”

Nellie’s face, which had been clouded, cleared
up. The one who had suffered most through
those old faults loved her as well as ever.

She had to unclasp his arm, though, now, to
get ready the tea, for Mr. Maine would soon
be in, and Harry must be hungry. However,
as she bustled in and out of the room, the boy
told her the scraps of news he had heard in
the village. He had seen Miss Rayner, and she
sent her love to Nellie. Mr. Cooper, too, he
had met, with the same friends who had stayed
with him for some shooting last year, and they
had all stopped him to ask how he was, and