"I'll make the coach easy for the matter of that," observed Franks, with a smile. "Norah shall have enough of ready rhino to pay for both."
"I'm sure that you might do something better with your money," exclaimed Bessy, who always thought that she had first claim to whatever her brother could spare.
"I hope you remember, uncle, that to-morrow is New-year's day," cried Dan, with a knowing wink of the eye.
"That there awkward boy broke my clothes' horse yesterday," sighed Bessy, "and I'm sure I don't know which way to turn for money to buy a new one."
"If Dan broke it yesterday, let him mend it to-day," laughed Ned, who understood the hint well, but did not choose to take it, "He and I, we can muster three hands between us. No need of money when a little labour will serve the turn. I'll give you a lesson, Dan, in the carpentering line; take that as a New-year's gift if you will."
[CHAPTER III.]
THE COTTAGE IN THE DELL.
THE sun had scarcely shown his red globe over the hill when Ned Franks, whistling as he went, walked down the path into the little wooded dell where Persis Meade resided. The January air was keen and sharp, the snow felt crisp under the sailor's tread. Every branch in the trees, every twig in the hedges, was cased in silvery frost; the prickly leaves of the holly, the withered fern by the path, every blade of grass was edged, as if by fairy art, with glittering crystals. Franks looked around with admiring eyes, doubting whether winter, in such a garb, were not as fair as the spring.
"How strange it is to look back on one year," reflected Ned, "when we're just stepping on board another, and the old hulk, with all the hopes and fears that freighted it, is sinking down into the ocean of the past! Last New-year's day I spent on the blue waters, amongst my jovial messmates, little dreaming then what a twelvemonth's cruise was before me. 'Twould not have mended my mirth to have known that I should have a terrible fall, smash my arm, have it taken off by the surgeon, lie for weeks in my hammock, and then leave the service maimed and disabled, come to a comfortless home, and find Bessy—well, I won't be hard on her, but she was not just what I had expected her to be. Here was a cargo of troubles indeed. And yet at the end of that year's cruise I can say, 'surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life!' God has given me a home of my own, pleasant work in the school, kind friends to help me on; He has restored my health, and made me again able to enjoy the blessings of life. And better things are behind. What are earthly comforts compared to 'the means of grace and the hope of glory'?"
"Ay," said the sailor half aloud, as he gazed on the red rising sun, "as we look for each day now to be longer and brighter, till we bask in the full beams of summer, so is it with the Christian! With him the best is ever to come; he has heavenly hope to crown every earthly joy. This is the 'helmet, the hope of salvation,'* which the Christian soldier is to wear. A glittering helmet it is," pursued Franks, whose fancy delighted in following out the Scriptural image, "and the crest upon it is joy! In life's hard struggle that plume may be reft away, even the faithful in this world cannot always rejoice; but the helmet of hope remains, never to be parted with but with life, and only put off in death to make way for the conqueror's crown! Hope, glorious hope, will be changed for happiness then!"