Now that Tom has got over all his worries, and the sun is rising earlier, his heart is becoming attuned, and the familiar old Scots airs are accompanying the different items of his morning duties just as they used to do when first I came to stay with Betty. I hear the gray mare's whinny, the turning of the key in the stable door, the lid of the corn-bin creaking on its rusty hinges--these are all as they used to be. But, alas! all is quiet in Betty's kitchen now, and I miss the cheery sounds of the early breakfast preparations, for Nathan is lying prostrate in the back-room, and poor Betty's rest is too much disturbed to permit of her rising with the dawn. Every Friday evening since I came here I have given Nathan an envelope enclosing my weekly contribution toward the household expenses--that is, of course, in accordance with the arrangement I made with Betty; and at first I often used to wonder if she had fully explained the matter to him, because he always took the packet from me in a hesitating, doubtful way, very much as a debtor would accept a summons. Later he just smiled, and without a word put it in his trousers-pocket, looking sideways at me and inclining his head toward Betty wherever she happened to be at the time. Last Friday night, when I was at his bedside, I handed him the envelope as usual. He didn't hold out his hand for it; so I laid it down on the coverlet, and nothing was said for a time. Then, nodding toward a wooden box in the corner of the room, he said, 'Maister Weelum, will ye open the lid o' that kist, if ye please, an' bring me the wee tin box that's lyin' at the left-haun side?' I did as he requested. It was an old, battered, black japanned receptacle without a lock, and only secured against accidental opening by a wooden peg inserted through the catch. Withdrawing the peg and placing it between his teeth, he took off the lid, and there--some clean, others crumpled and dirty--was every envelope I had given him, and all of them unopened, as I had put them into his hand. 'Maister Weelum,' he said, after a pause, 'I mak' nae great shape at speakin' or explainin'; but I've been thinkin', as ye've been idle an' aff yer wark sae lang, ye'll mebbe no' ha'e muckle comin' in the noo, an'--an'----Auch! I was gaun to say something mair, an' I've forgot it; but ye can tak' it a' back if it's ony use to ye.' 'Nathan,' I said, in astonishment, 'I--I don't quite understand. Why should you offer me these?' He gave a wee bit quiet laugh. 'I dinna ken what kind o' a job ye ha'e, Maister Weelum. Betty never telt me, an' I never asked; but wi' us yins doon here it's nae wark, nae pey. Ye've been idle a lang time, as I've said, an' I thocht mebbe it micht come in handy. Of coorse, if ye dinna need it--weel, there's nae hairm dune.'