CHAPTER IX.

THE FIRST SUNDAY ALONE.

he next morning dawned bright and clear, and Agnes was the first awake.

She slipped on her dressing-gown, and went across to her brothers' door and tapped gently.

"It is time to get up," she called.

"All right, mother," answered a very sleepy voice, and there was a comfortable sound of smothering bedclothes, and then silence.

"Hugh and John, do wake," exclaimed shivering Agnes; "we shall be late for church, if you go to sleep again."

She tapped louder this time, and then John's voice responded: