Martha, in a flurry of pleasure, dusted with her apron the arm-chair which she had already twice dusted that morning; but Harry was too gallant to deprive the old dame of her accustomed seat, and took possession instead of a rush-bottomed chair. Michael stirred the wood-fire to a blaze, such being perhaps his idea of a warm welcome, and stood with his cap in his hand, pleasure written in every line of his wrinkled, but still rosy face. "How well I remember this cottage!" cried Harry. "And what pleasant visits I used to pay here when I wanted my fishing-rod mended, or my kite put to rights, or advice about my sick rabbits! There is my old friend the owl with his staring glass eyes, the sampler framed on the wall, with the flowering tree worked on each side, and the text down the middle; the little crockery cow on the mantelpiece, the old prints of George III., Wellington, and Nelson, the kettle on the hob, the big log on the hearth, just as I used to see them all here ten years ago!" "I wonders as how you han't forgotten such like things, Master Harry," said Mrs. Garth, with a smile of gratification, "such a power of fine sights as you must have come across in your travels." "I have seen a good deal," observed Maude, "for I have been in all the four quarters of the globe since I last crossed this threshold. But of all the fine sights which have met my eyes, there was not one that pleased me like that of the faces of kind old friends." "Ye'll not be leaving home in a hurry again, I take it, master," said old Michael Garth. "I hope only for a very short time, but I must go up to London to-morrow." "Go up to Lunnon!" repeated both the Garths in surprise; and Martha added, "Why, sir, ye only came from it yesterday." "I must return thither to-morrow for all that, but only to remain there one night." "It must be a mighty business to keep you tossing to and fro like a football, a hundred and fifty miles each way, as if Lunnon weren't farther off than yon church," said Garth. The honest labourer had never made one such journey in the course of all his long life. "I should ha' thought as how ye'd ha' needed a little rest," observed Martha. "I do need rest, for I've been much knocked about," replied the young sailor, "and I'd fever in the Channel, and have not yet picked up my strength. But for all that, sick or well, I'm bound for London to-morrow." "Maybe you've a lot of money to get there," said old Michael Garth. "Not a farthing; not even will my travelling expenses be paid," replied Harry. "But sure and sartain, sir, ye can't go to-morrow, it's Miss Lily's wedding-day!" exclaimed Martha. "Don't you wish to be at the marriage?" "I do wish it much," said Harry Maude. "It is a disappointment to me not to be present, but I am obliged to give up the wedding, for the train starts for London at eleven." "Well—to be sure!" murmured Martha Garth, lifting up her hands in surprise.