Ah! lad, it was a kindly act, your fetching that tiny bit of humanity out to visit us.

You have made her almost happy again for once." Hugh, looking, saw that the old lady was paying no further attention to them, or listening to what they were saying.

She touched the sweet face of the child, and pressed her withered lips against his soft skin.

If a tear fell on the little fellow's head, was it to be wondered at?
He saw her open his clothes at the neck, as though the heat of that blazing fire might be a little too much, in her matronly estimation.
The deacon, too, was looking as though his heart might be in his eyes.

Such a spectacle as that must have been of rare occurrence at his fireside, deeply as he regretted it.
Then he started talking again, for he had been in the midst of an unusually interesting description at the time he drew the boy's attention to the beautiful picture at the opposite side of the fireplace.