Thine old room shall be made ready for thee.

I am glad to see thy face again, boy; and would hear thy story anon." Cuthbert received a warmer welcome than he had looked for from the aunt and cousins upstairs.

Perhaps they were all missing the brightness that had left them when Cherry went.

Perhaps the vacant place at the board day by day was an offence to the conservative eye of Mistress Susan.

But whatever was the cause, there was no denying the cordiality of the reception accorded to him; and after the lonely life of the forest, and all his wanderings there, his strange resting places, and many hours of watching, toil, and anxious fear, it seemed pleasant indeed to be sitting at this hospitable board, warmed by the friendly glow of the fire, and discussing the savoury viands that always adorned a table of Mistress Susan's spreading, and which did indeed taste well after the hardy and sometimes scanty fare he had known in the forest.
But his open-air life had done him good in many ways.