He laughed merrily, exhibiting a row of even white teeth. "If it's afraid ye are, ma'am," he explained, looking at Marion, "sure I'll bring 'em all down to yees,—every mother's son of 'em." "Oh, no, indeed! We will go up. Many thanks for your courtesy." Her face was all dimpled with smiles as she prepared to mount the steps, while the hostler walked away, saying to himself,— "A rale lady that is. The man that owns her must be a happy one." At the top of the steps a door opened into a large room rudely partitioned off from the hayloft and smelling strongly of the fumes from the stable below. Seven people called this room their home,— father, mother, grandmother, and four children of different ages under eight years. Unlike many who live in more spacious apartments, their hearts were larger than their home, and they had recently welcomed a poor waif thrown upon the cold charities of the world. Esther Sims was an orphan who had been connected with the mission Sunday and sewing schools in which Miss Howard was interested. This lady had never considered her very intelligent, but she had a pretty face, with childish features, and an appealing glance in her deep, gray eyes which made her many friends. Marion had lost sight of her for more than a year, and only the day before her visit to the stable learned her sad story. Not being very happy in the family where one of the mission-school teachers had placed her, she was easily persuaded to leave it for employment in a cigar factory. There she formed the acquaintance of a young fellow by the name of Cole, and soon after was married to him. If she had taken to heart the instructions of her faithful teacher, she would have distrusted the principles of a man whose first act in connection with her was deceit. As they were both infants in the eye of the law, Esther being but sixteen, and her husband to be but eighteen, the clergyman refused to perform the ceremony unless one of the parents, was present and wished it. Leaving her sitting on the steps to the house, he hurried off, and soon returned with a woman who said she was his mother, and who declared her willingness for her bye to be married. They were married, and young Cole took his wife home to a house where he had lodgings, where they had many a laugh about the ease with which he had found a mother in his emergency, he having given the woman twenty-five cents to personate such an individual.