“ He was an ambitious lad and wanted, when he was grown quite to man’s estate, to be something better than the promise of his surroundings held out. He did not know exactly how to put in words his ideas of what he wished to be, for they were crude and unformed, but the yearning was in him.
“And whatever I become,” he said, “Nan is to be with me always, and to share my lot. It may be good, it may be bad, but we are to be always together.”
“Yes, Nick,” said Nan, softly, “I could not be happy without you.” ”

“ What, indeed, has not my excellent patron and chosen friend done, for the dear ones who love him so well?
His son mercifully restored to him, he has placed at North Repps Cottage, one of the ideal love nests of this beautiful old England of ours, and there he dwells, when he can be spared from his splendid philanthropic labours, and from Parliament, and from countless duties, with the beautiful, dark-eyed, whole-souled, handsome Nan, who is the Lady Bountiful of the villagers for miles and miles around. ”

“ Here they have played since infancy, under the famous copper beeches, hedged round in June time with rhododendron bloom, and here their sharp ears have often heard Nick and Nan discuss and compare the varied beauties of England and Australia. And though Nick would say he loved Australia best, because there he became the lord and master of the sweetest woman in the world, still Nan will ever keep on insisting that there is no place like home, after all, and emphasize the truth of it with a kiss on her husband’s honest face and faithful lips. ”

“ Sometimes on the blazing December days, when the sun would beat on the zinc roofs, and the glare be reflected from the white stones and the mullock heaps, and when there was no shade to be got under the straight lank gum-trees, and the miners, red and grimy and perspiring, would loaf about the street, and the bars would be filled with the sound of swearing, I used to fancy that, if you wanted to find an earthly similitude of Hades, you couldn’t go to a more likely place than Eungella Diggings. ”

“ It is not all joy; touches of sadness come in when we begin to understand things aright; and it is out of those new experiences that the angel of Pity is born.
It was so with Nick and Nan. I bring to mind the last Christmas Eve we spent together. Before another Christmas came round, there was a woeful change in their fortunes, and dark clouds had settled upon their young lives.
I had called the hour—eleven o’clock—when Nick and Nan joined me unexpectedly.
“Christmas Eve, Mr. Dix,” said Nick.
“Yes, Nick,” said I, “Christmas Eve. What brings you out?” ”

“ Flash! flash! flash! went the memories, and still the night wind whistled through the trees, still the great sea moaned its eternal song under the cliffs that lead to the Garden of Sleep.
246Now I was in Australia, whither I had wandered in my despair, standing white-robed before the altar, where I had made our Nick and Nan man and wife. Now back again in England, where I fell in with Samuel Barkston, the Mascotte of my strange, wandering and lonely life.
Why is it, that I look upon this good fellow as the best friend man ever had on earth? ”

“ To me the House of Commons is always a delightful place. I offer it the uncompromising admiration that young poets lay at the feet of their mistresses; I feel for it the affection that a friend feels for a friend. But I do not wish it to be supposed, because I say all this, that I am convinced that I have in me the makings of a great statesman, or, indeed, that my presence at Westminster is in any serious degree indispensable to the safety of the commonweal. ”

“ Challice?” she says in surprise. “You? Oh, no! Oh, no!”
“And why not, Nan? My wages is pretty good and rising regularly. And you shall never do a stroke of work again if I can help it. And I’ll be a friend to your brother, my dear! I did my best to stand his friend to-day, but the evidence was too strong for me.”
110“My brother! Oh, no, you don’t understand, Mr. Challice! That is the reason. Nick is not my brother!
“He is my dear, dear friend and my lover, and we were to have been married in a little while. Oh, my Nick, my darling Nick! I shall never be the wife of any man but you.” ”

“ What were the unexpected words that rang in my ears that Christmas Eve, when I had toasted them all, a glass of excellently brewed punch in my hand, in the simple phrase, “God bless us all”? It came from the pipy, crooning voice of old Cheevers, who spoke with his good old wife’s hand locked in his own, and thus he spoke:—
“Well, this ’ere is wonderful! wery wonderful, my dear.” ”

“ Anyhow, I think old Barkston is to be envied. It is pleasant to be rich and to be a Cabinet Minister, but it is more pleasant to be the father of a man like John Drury.
Let me add that I think it is still more pleasant to be the father-in-law of a woman like John Drury’s wife.
I have often had the pleasure of meeting her since, and I can honestly say, that I think she is as clever as she is beautiful, and as good as she is clever. From which you will gather that so far as a man may be happy in this world, John Drury—for he kept to the name by which he had won his way to success—is a happy man. ”

“ Why, a prince going to his private box at the opera can’t get a thousandth part of the pleasure, that Nick enjoyed as, with Nan with her sprightly step and pretty face at his side, he marched about once every three months to the sixpenny gallery at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, where Mr. Samuel Phelps was doing his best to amuse, in an intellectual way, the poor people in the north and east of London.
Mr. Phelps did a power of good in his day, and there are many well-to-do people living now, who have the best of all reasons to be grateful to him. ”

“ A more beautiful belief in an all-merciful Providence persuades me, that something of the music and the melody of his life is not forgotten even then, and that, if there be such music and melody, even in the lives of the worst of us, they are allowed mercifully to alleviate the agonies of our last moments, to help us through the darkness of that interminable valley which lives in the future for all of us, and whose end no one knows. ”

“ What a gift from man to man! To be 252presented with the care of these faithful souls; to preach to them, to pray for them, to visit them in their sickness, to advise them in their sorrows, to hear their heartfelt blessings when my feet cross their threshold; to love our fellow-creatures and to be loved again; to feel one has found a mission upon earth; to exchange the cares of a long and restless life for one of profound peace; to be able to retire to rest every night in true thankfulness of heart ”

“ I loved my sister Margaret as much as she loved me, and her cheery face and words was better for me to see and hear than those of any woman—leastways till I met Nan. And this is how I met her.
In those days my beat lay up Whitechapel way, and a nasty neighbourhood it is, particularly at night time—full of thieves and drunkards, and not fit for a decent woman to pass through. ”

“ Has he not done everything that one Christian man can do for another? Has he not well deserved the love of every one of the villagers round about, and become part of the heart’s life of those who just now, on this Christmas Eve, at my bidding, said “God bless us all”?
Have you ever seen the modest, picturesque almshouses, that dear old Barkston built in the village of North Repps, near Cromer? ”

“ He’s savage to strangers.”
I knelt down, and Dummy licked my hand.
“He won’t hurt me,” said Nan. “Poor doggie! His leg’s cut to the bone.”
And so it was, but Nan had done what she could for it, and the look of gratitude in Dummy’s eyes showed that he properly appreciated her kindness. From that night Dummy and Nan were friends, and there were occasions when he would even leave me to go to her.
For some time before this adventure I had noticed Nan and Nick walking together of an evening, when I was sitting at my window smoking my pipe, but I had not paid much attention to them. ”

“ Never for a moment did I doubt his innocence, for there is a ring in a good man’s voice, a warmth in his hand-clasp, and honesty in his eyes that are absolutely convincing to those who have made a study of criminal life. ”

“ When all the lights are out, and the embers are dying down on the hearth, when 264silence reigns about this land of love, and the peace is profound, I shall go in at the gates of the Garden of Sleep, and I shall kneel down on a grave, that is my dearest possession, and I shall kiss the marble cross above it, and pray that the parting may not be eternal, and that we may meet again to part no more for ever! ”

“ You know we policemen like to be called “officer!” It sounds higher and more important like, and when Nan said it, it sounded sweeter and better than ever.
From passing the time of day, we came to exchanging a few words, but my love always made me too timid to say much.
I longed to hear all about her family and her home, but I never seemed to get to know 84more, than that the lad, whom I took for her brother, called her “Nan,” and she called him “Nick,” in return. “Dear Nick” and “darling Nick.” Lord! how I used to envy the feller, though I wouldn’t have been her brother for all the world. ”

“ It was very hot indeed that night, and all was wonderfully still, when, as I marched slowly to and fro, with my keys in my belt, I began thinking of home and a certain person, and whether it wouldn’t be wise to stay out there and ask her to join me, when, all at once, there was a stifled sort of cry, right in forward amongst the men’s hammocks, and this was repeated again and again, as if someone was in pain. ”

“ Assuredly they did so in the case of Nick and Nan, for they were my hands that joined their hands at the altar, and it was I, who put to them that solemn oath of mutual fidelity which they have never broken to this hour.
257Out of the darkness comes the light, out of the cloud comes the sunshine, and it is my experience, that those who suffer most, and that those who “have patience and endure” have some of their reward in this world as well as in the next. ”

“ By CLEMENT SCOTT. I HAVE often heard it said, that a drowning man, before he sinks, never to rise again in this world, sees mirrored instantly in the dreamy mist, the dramatic moments and episodes of his life. ”

“ Nan will remain in the Children’s Hospital working under me, until she has gained sufficient experience to take a higher position. But you may rest assured she will never want for food or clothes or occupation so long as she behaves herself. And that I’ll warrant she means to do.”
113“Indeed, indeed, I will,” sobbed Nan, “if only that I may feel your heart is at ease about me, Nick.”
“My Nan! my Nan!” he cried brokenly. “Oh! take her away, Miss Challice, whilst I am master of myself, and may God bless you for all your goodness to her.” ”

“ Being a plain person, accustomed to call a spade a spade, and so hope do not give offence—I, the undersigned Mary Cheevers, washer-woman, being called on by some as I have reason, the dear Lord knows, to love and reverence, write my plain story in my own plain way, and with the best of intentions, though a difficulty with the spelling—Eliza’s Grace’s Emmeline not being always handy—and a cramped hand from soaking in the tub for many, many labouring years. ”

“ Let those that have never known temptation be gentle in their thoughts of her. Let them as has knowed it and overcome it, thank the Merciful Power as made ’em stronger to suffer and endure than Nick’s dead mother.
It seems all this while, as if I was neglecting Nan. The best of children always, and the most willing, and helpin’ me at the wash-tub, with all her little strength, as, even with my pattens on, she were hardly tall enough to reach it. ”

“ There is a new light in the sky, a new meaning in the song of birds and the kiss 67of the summer’s breeze. All that is brightest and most beautiful rises to the surface, and stirs with solemn significance the pulses of those whose hearts are attuned to what is highest and best in Nature. ”

“ I felt exactly in the position of that typical drowning man, when I walked alone—as I shall ever walk alone whilst life lasts—between North Repps Cottage and my house at The 241Highlands, in the village of Syderstrand in Norfolk, one memorable Christmas Eve.
It is not a long walk, as you all know, within shelter of wood and sound of everlasting sea. ”