Ellen looked up with joyful gratitude.
"Oh, how good of you, Susey!" she exclaimed. "Then I could earn money. I wouldn't mind how hard I should have to work."
"It is a capital idea," said Dan, taking Susan's hand. "The best thing you can do, Susey, is to bring some of your work here every day for a couple of hours, and let Ellen help you--she will soon learn."
"That I will," said Ellen in a voice of quiet gladness.
These young people, you see, were not entirely unhappy.
"I wonder where Joshua is," remarked Ellen during the evening.
"Ah, where?" sighed Dan. "But wherever he is, he is doing his duty, and we will do ours. How happy we all were that night at Mr. Meddler's What a beautiful day that was! Like a dream! Hark! There is the church-bell striking nine o'clock." They listened in silence. "That is like a wedding-bell. Now the other church is striking--how solemn it sounds--like a funeral-bell."
The tears came to their eyes when Dan inadvertently made the last remark.
They did not speak for a long time after that, and then Dan said,--
"I feel now just as I felt the day after Jo went away."