"No," answered Cherry stoutly; "I'm your child now--you know you said so, yourself--and so all I get is yours. Don't give it back, mother-Meg--don't--but let it go into the savings-bag." "Shall I, Jem?" asked Meg, doubtfully. "Yes," said Jem, "the child's quite right; we're all one family now, for good or ill. May God bless us all." So Meg unlocked her savings-bag, and Cherry dropped her money into it with great satisfaction. "Would you not like a _little_ for yourself, dear?" she asked. "Not a farthing," answered Cherry, "not till you have to get me some boots. But I wore these old things all the time, 'cause I told grannie as I wanted to have every bit of it ready for you. That half-crown's what I got from her, for helping her with the washing." "_I've_ got some savings too," said Jem, smiling. "I've kept it a great secret, even from Meg, because I wanted to surprise her. I was goin' to give it to her on our weddin' day, but as Cherry's so clever, I won't be left behind. There, Meg! this is what a pint a day would ha' cost me ever since last June; see, it's nigh on three pounds!" Meg was too astonished to speak for a moment. "It's to go into the Savings-Bank," pursued Jem, "and it's to buy a cottage with by-and-by; if it's God's will as we should." "Oh, Jem!" exclaimed Meg, "I knew before we were married that you never took any of the drink, but I never guessed this." "It's the only secret as I've kept from you, and now it's out," he answered. "Why, sweetheart, there's them as works with me, as drinks quarts instead of pints, and see what that mounts up to in a year, let alone the damage as they do to their health. They think it comforts 'em, but I'll tell ye one thing, they feel a deal worse afterwards." Meg knew that from what she had heard, and Cherry knew it by sorrowful experience. She bent her head and kissed Dickie. Oh, how thankful she was that they were taken away from all that! She told him for the hundredth time how glad she was to have him back. But even Cherry's love, pleased as he was to be with her again, could not satisfy him. He soon slid down from her knee and began to feel his way round the room. "Where are you going, darling?" asked Cherry, watching his renewed powers with delight. "What do you want?" And Dickie answered in a yearning little tone, brimful of love-- "Only mo'ver-Meg!" THE END. JOHN F SHAW & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. BRENDA'S NEW STORY, THE EARL'S GRANDDAUGHTER. _Large Crown 8vo, Art Cloth, gilt edges, Six Shillings_. THE WHITEHALL REVIEW. "Rarely does the jaded reviewer find anything so fresh and spontaneous as Brenda's new novel, 'The Earl's Granddaughter.' It is full of 'go' and merriment, and the quaint and ludicrous sayings of children. The scenes between Lady Patty and the Bungalow children are fascinating in their life-like sincerity and grotesque comicality.... The style of the book is simple and direct, and in it there is not a dull page." THE GENTLEWOMAN.