“If we were ruined, Martha, what would Harry do?” said Agnes. “_We_ could work for ourselves, and I am sure I would never mind the change; but Harry--poor Harry it would break his heart. I thought there could be nothing harder to bear than last night, but, Martha, I think if there is no good change, it will kill me.” “It must not kill you, Agnes,” said Martha, speaking very low. “Bairns, hear me; you must let nothing kill you, nothing crush you, even in your inmost hearts, till God sends the messenger that will not be gainsaid; and God grant that he may be far off from you both. Now it is coming--maybe ruin, maybe destruction, certain distress and anguish. If I could bear it all, you should never hear when it drew near; but it must come upon you both--upon you both, tender delicate things, that should be blessed with the dews of your youth. But the end is coming which God knows; you must not pine, you must not weep, you must not waste your strength with mourning. Bairns, we have to wait, and be ready and strong, to meet it when it comes. This is what we have to do.” As Martha spoke, she held in her grasp the soft warm hands of Agnes and Rose. They looked up to her, one on either side, like children to a mother, with lifted eyes, wistful and eager. It was not necessary to answer, but they went back again to the house together, with a strange strain in their hearts, something like the bodily strain which their eager bend towards Martha and anxious look up to her had produced. They were warned, prepared, ready for the evil; and they thought they had reached to the sublime sadness of patience, and would not fret or chafe over the daily griefs again, but rather would be strong for the end. CHAPTER IX. “Life will not flow as rivers flow, or seas; It is a flood, but made of raindrops; days, And hours, and moments--several, pitiless.” BUT still the days, each with its daily burden, wore out the faltering strength, which tried to endure them calmly, and look towards the end--the end great and solemn, which would demand all their might when it came, was obscured with smaller miseries coming hour by hour, which called for less preparation, and were less easily endured.