There is little more to be told. Dr. Carey made his appearance at Dr. Layard’s that evening, and delighted him beyond measure by asking him for Kate. Mrs. Duffy recovered and lived two or three years longer in undisturbed happiness, and in a degree of comfort to which she had been unaccustomed throughout her life. For her son, who had not prospered much in Australia, worked industriously and steadily to maintain her at home, and devoted himself to her with real tenderness. It was not till after her death, when Kate Carey was standing beside her coffin looking down at the placid face and closed eyes of the old woman, that he told the story of his return home. ‘I’d worked my passage across, ma’am,’ he said, the tears rolling down his cheeks, ‘and I’d landed in Liverpool a week afore Christmas, with as much as five pound in my pocket, all I’d saved in Australy; and there were a lot set on me, and took me to a public, and I suppose I drank all my wits away. I reached Ilverton by the last train on Christmas Eve, but I didn’t know as mother were gone to live in the town. It were a bitter night, and I slept on a bench at the railway station. I hadn’t a penny left, when I set out to seek mother; and I were wandering about very miserable, when I saw a decent old woman coming along all alone. I only thought I’d frighten a shilling out of her. I never meant no harm. The pistol were an old pistol I’d had in the bush; and I didn’t recollect it was loaded, and it went bursting off, all in an instant of time. That quite brought me to, and I were running away to find somebody, when I see you and the doctor coming. I seemed to know it were a doctor. But when I found out it were my own poor old mother, which I did face to face with her in the hospital, I felt as I should die. She never knew as it were me, never. She used to talk about him, and say, “I forgave him, Johnny, and I hope God has forgave him too, whoever he is.” I shall never see another woman like my poor old mother.’ LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET WORKS BY HESBA STRETTON, AUTHOR OF ‘JESSICA’S FIRST PRAYER.’ =I. CASSY.= Twenty-fourth Thousand. With Six Illustrations. Square crown 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._ ‘The close of the little tale is of the most exquisitely touching kind, and the narrative, while free and graceful, is really of the most compressed and masterly character.’--_Nonconformist._ ‘It is very fresh and simple. We thank Miss Stretton for another treat, as real to grown-up people as to children.’--_Church Herald._ =II. THE KING’S SERVANTS.= With Eight Illustrations. Thirtieth Thousand. Square crown 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._ Part I. Faithful in Little. Part II. Unfaithful. Part III. Faithful in Much. ‘The language is beautifully simple, the stories are touchingly told, and the religious purpose constantly kept in view.’ --_Watchman._ ‘An interesting story.’--_Church News._