"Tell him I believe all things, hope all things,
and that I never can forget."
Nan went to her and held her fast, leaving the
prints of two loving but grimy hands upon her
shoulders; Di looked on approvingly, for, though
stony-hearted regarding the cause, she fully
appreciated the effect; and John, turning to the
window, received the commendations of a robin
swaying on an elm-bough with sunshine on its
ruddy breast.
The clock struck five, and John declared that he
must go; for, being an old-fashioned soul, he
fancied that his mother had a better right to his
last hour than any younger woman in the land,--
always remembering that "she was a widow, and
he her only son."
Nan ran away to wash her hands, and came
back with the appearance of one who had washed
her face also: and so she had; but there was a
difference in the water.
"Play I'm your father, girls, and remember
that it will be six months before 'that John' will
trouble you again."
With which preface the young man kissed his
former playfellows as heartily as the boy had been
wont to do, when stern parents banished him to
distant schools, and three little maids bemoaned
his fate.
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