They had not very far to go. The houses of the miners--rough shanties hurriedly erected to supply immediate needs--were most of them congregated together, or at most stood at short distances from each other, the larger ones signifying the presence o£ feminine members in a family and perhaps two or three juvenile pioneers--the smaller ones being occupied by younger miners, who lived in couples, or sometimes even alone. Before one of the larger shanties Langley reined in his horse. “A Lancashire man lives here,” he said, “and I am going to leave you with him.” In answer to his summons a woman came to the door--a young woman whose rather unresponsive face wakened somewhat when she saw who waited. “Feyther,” she called out, “it's Mester Langley, an' he's getten a stranger wi' him.” “Feyther,” approaching the door, showed himself a burly individual, with traces of coal-dust in all comers not to be reached by hurried and not too fastidious ablutions. Clouds of tobacco-smoke preceded and followed him, and much stale incense from the fragrant weed exhaled itself from his well-worn corduroys. “I ha' not nivver seed him afore,” he remarked after a gruff by no means-ill-natured greeting, signifying the stranger by a duck of the head in his direction. “A Lancashire lad, Janner,” answered Langley, “I want a home for him.” Janner regarded him with evident interest, but shook his head dubiously. “Ax th' missus,” he remarked succinctly: “dunnot ax me.” Langley's good-humored laugh had a touch of conscious power in it. If it depended upon “th' missus” he was safe enough. His bright good looks and gay grace of manner never failed with the women. The most practical and uncompromising melted, however unwillingly, before his sunshine, and the suggestion of chivalric deference which seemed a second nature with him. So it was easy enough to parley with “th' missus.” “A Lancashire lad, Mrs. Janner,” he said, “and so I know you'll take care of him. Lancashire folk have a sort of fellow feeling for each other, you see; that was why I could not make up my mind to leave him until I saw him in good hands; and yours are good ones. Give him a square meal as soon as possible,” he added in a lower voice: “I will be accountable for him myself.” When he lifted his hat and rode away, the group watched him until he was almost out of sight, the general sentiment expressing itself in every countenance. “Theer's summat noice about that theer young chap,” Janner remarked with the slowness of a man who was rather mystified by the fascination under whose influence he found himself--“sum-mat as goes wi' th' grain loike.” “Ay,” answered his wife, “so theer is; an' its natur' too. Coom along in, lad,” to Seth, “an ha' summat to eat: yo' look faintish.”