"She's very kind," nodded Dickie. "I'll come some day."
Mrs. Archer, who was sitting by, quite appreciated the compliment. She smiled a little tearfully, however.
"This has been a happy, peaceful month, Meg; I've enjoyed it as I never expected to enjoy anything on this earth again."
So Meg and Dickie went back to smoky London; and when Cherry saw her little brother, she was fain to burst into tears of joy, so altered and improved was he. And Jem was equally pleased with Meg, and said she looked like the country girl he had brought away a year ago.
As Dickie sat telling all his little news on Cherry's lap, he whispered earnestly—
"Cherry, I've heard 'em all day long. They sang Halleluia, like you!"
When Cherry noticed that Meg was sufficiently at liberty to attend to her, while still holding Dickie tightly in her arms as if she could not part with him, she produced something mysteriously out of her pocket, and handed it to Meg.
It was a little shabby purse, and when at her entreaty Meg opened it, it was found to contain ten whole shillings and a bright half-crown.
"Those are my first earnings, mother-Meg," said Cherry, smiling and colouring, "and they are for you."
"Not for me, dear; I shall put them away for you."