"There is Bill Davis' boat!" exclaimed George, suddenly, as his eye fell on the rude dory hitched in the brook near the house. "I believe I will borrow it, and go down the bay clamming. There will be a good tide a little before noon. Then if the girls get some nuts they can exchange them for crackers, and we shall be provided for to-day." "Why not go down to Long Point--that is a good place for clams; and then you can see Ray?" asked Betsy. "I'm afraid he will insist on knowing how we are situated here at home," replied her husband, "and will make me take some money. You know when you were sick he made me take ten dollars, and then when here two weeks ago he left five dollars with you. It seems too bad to take his money when he is working so hard to get an education." "Your going to Long Point won't make any difference about that," said Betsy; "for if he don't see you before long, he will surely come here. He knows well enough that you have hard work to get along, and he said to me when here that he ought to bear his part of the expenses in this crisis just as much as you." "I know he feels so, and his willingness to do for us forms one of the very reasons why I want to receive as little help from him as possible," replied George. "But Long Point is a good place for clams, and I will go down there, since you have suggested it. It may, perhaps, be the way in which the Lord is going to answer our prayers." And getting his basket and hoe, and putting on a pair of heavy boots, he prepared to go. Before he left the house, however, there came a knock at the door. On opening it, Mr. Jacob Woodhull stepped in, with a large pail in his hand. "How are you, George? How do you do, Mrs. Branford? Fine day! I was going up town, and thought I would bring you along a pail of milk," he said, extending the pail he carried to George. "When you have three or four of those fellows," and he pointed at the cradle, "milk always comes in handy." "Indeed, it does; and you don't know how thankful we are for it," Betsy answered, while George went into the pantry to empty the pail. "Perhaps I do now," the old gentleman replied, with a smile. A moment later the husband and wife were alone. They looked at each other a few moments, and then George slowly repeated the words: "Call upon me, and I will answer thee," "God has begun to answer us already, Betsy," he said, gently and reverently. Then kissing her and the sleeping child, he left the house. He had no difficulty in securing the boat, and soon was pulling rapidly down the bay. An hour later he landed on Long Point, and, as the tide was already well out, he took his basket and hoe and began his search for the delicious bivalves. The tide proved to be a favorable one, and his basket was nearly full, when a voice suddenly exclaimed: "You have done well, George; but I'll show you a quicker way yet, and we'll fill your basket. Then you must come up to the house and take dinner with me."