"Oh!" his face lightened, "then I don't mind. Do what you think best." His face darkened again. "But I doubt whether the master will keep me on when you have left. I reckon he only takes me because of you; he thinks you wouldn't like it, if I was to be turned adrift. No. You had better go back to Red Hall. Make yourself as comfortable as you can. That's my doctrine."
Presently the old man asked, "I say, does the master know you have left?"
"No, Abraham."
"Are you sure?"
"I never told him."
"Did your mother know you had made up your mind to leave?"
"Yes, I told her so a week ago."
"And you suppose she has kept her mouth shut? She couldn't do it."
"If Elijah had suspected we were going to-day," said Mehalah, "I do not think he would have left home; he would have endeavoured to prevent me."
"Perhaps. But he's deep."
"Good day, Abraham!" She waved him a farewell with a smile. She knew, and made allowance for the humours of the old man. In a moment she was again by her mother, at the oar, and speeding with the flowing tide up the Rhyn to the "hard" at its head belonging to the Rose Inn.
"Have you brought the toad-jug with you, Mehalah?"
"No, mother."
"Nor the china dogs?"
"No, mother."
"It is of no use, I will not live at the Rose. I will not get out of the boat. I must have all my property about me."
"I will fetch the other things away. When you are housed safely, then I shall not care. I will go back and bring away all our goods."
"You are so rough. I won't let anyone handle the china but myself. Last time the poodles were moved, you know one lost a ear and a bit of its tail. There is no one fit to touch such things but me. Those rough-
