She drew back with an exclamation――then bade Jane enter, drew her into the hall, where a fire was burning and candles were lighted, and at once recognised her. Jane Marley told what was on her mind. 'Sit down,' said the farmer's wife, whose name was Jose, 'sit down and have a cup of tea. Mercy on us, you look shivered and scared and starving, and as if you'd been up all night. It is of no use your trying to think when the stomach is empty. I've attempted it scores of times and failed. Do not fret till you have a cause. I have been the mother of nine children.' 'I have but one.' 'Then I have had nine times your worries. Bless you! children will be children. They with their pranks are always giving us heartaches; but if we was sensible we would not worry. She has been playing a trick on you to see how you would take it.' Mrs. Marley shook her head. 'You eat a rasher of bacon,' said Mrs. Jose. 'It is wonderful how different we see things when the stomach is full to what we do when it is empty. Spectacles are nothing to it. All will come right. That is my experience, especially when we are expecting ills. When the evil drops on us it is when we are not on the look-out. What I have found, time out of mind, is that when I have been terrified with fancying disaster was on me, it has been a token that good luck was on its way. There was my Tomasine. I missed her. I made sure she had got smothered in the mud; but it was only she was settling with her young man the day they were to be married, and he was a warm man with several hundreds, and had as fine a breed of sheep as any in the country. My Samuel fell off a waggon, and I thought he had broke his neck; he was laid up a bit――but it prevented him from enlisting; he was mad on soldiering, and he might have been shot. Now he is settled as a horse jobber and doing finely. Be still now, puss!' The last words were addressed to a kitten that was rubbing against her skirt, and finding that no attention was paid to her, proceeded to claw into the garment. 'Milk in good time,' said Mrs. Jose; 'there are others to be attended to besides kitties. Drat the canaries, what a clamour they keep up! Of a morning all creation is on the alert, and all, every member of it, thinking only of itself and its stomach. Mrs. Marley, you sit in the chimney corner, warm yourself. You shall have a dish of tea in a jiffy. I can smell the bacon, it is being fried. I hear that you have been scampering all round the world seeking work, and you did not think of coming to me.' 'This house is so large――――' 'More the reason I should require help in it. I dare be bound we can find a corner for you. Martha Ann has gone home with a housemaid's knee, and that has made us short of hands. Those canaries must be looked to, or they will crack my ears. Do not trouble about your girl, she will turn up all right.'