Dick suddenly remembered the slip of paper given him by the gentleman on horseback, and he gave it silently into Mr. Dainton's hand.
"Why, this is first-rate, my boy! Couldn't be better. Sir Dale Melville is one of the directors of the line we do so much work for, and it was luck, or something better, that brought you in his way."
"Something better, I should say," Mrs. Dainton remarked softly, and Dick answered her smile with one as bright.
"You're right, wife, it strikes me God has been guiding Dick here right to our door, and I can see he thinks so, too."
"He could stop here, couldn't he mother, till Teddy comes back from grandma's, and have his little room?" said Nellie, eagerly. "Then Pat and Kitty could quite make friends, and have such fun together."
"That's not a bad notion, pet, if mother is willing."
And Mrs. Dainton at once said "Yes," and so Dick found himself with home and food and friends, before he had been an hour in Ironboro'.
How wonderfully God had answered his prayers!
"Hulloa, you young hopeful, what do you mean by sleeping all through dinner, and then waking just as we've cleared the dishes?" And Mr. Dainton stooped to the cradle by the hearth, where a bonny six-month's old baby had wakened with a cry.
"What, fretty, little man? Those teeth do bother you, don't they? And I can't stop to take you now."