It was only the fancy of a heated imagination, of course, but just then, as the first ray of the rising sun glanced through the forest clearing, and fell at his feet, he felt himself looking down into Ruth's upturned, pleading eyes; her hand lay on his arm, and her voice said: "For my sake, John, take it now!" He started, as if from a dream, and looked round. No apparition melted into morning mist, no human form was yet stirring, but, with a strange, mingled sense of awe and gladness, John said:
"Bless you, my Ruthie, I will, for your sake! You shall never have cause to be ashamed of me again!"
Then he turned indoors, and, throwing himself down beside his brother, was soon fast asleep.
CHAPTER VIII.
A HAPPY ENDING.
OU skulking good-for-nothing greenhorn! go and beg on the streets if you will, for I'll never raise my hand to save you from starvation," roared Dick Greenwood, when a few hours later John told him he intended returning to Melbourne.