"Dear Jesus, take care of them!" and all the way she went her pleadings beat at Heaven's gate for the two poor waifs she so loved.

"Dear Jesus, protect them, and bring them back to me.

I love them so, and they are all I have." Her heart laboured so heavily she could scarcely breathe, her head throbbed distractingly, her limbs shook so much under her that she could scarcely drag herself along.

Every now and then she fancied she heard a scream or Huldah's sobs; then again she thought she heard Dick's bark, and each time she stopped and listened, and gazed into the darkness, but presently the loneliness and darkness so oppressed her that she could not bring herself to stop again.

All she could do was to stumble onward until the vicarage was reached, and arrived there she sank down on the doorstep exhausted.