Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/287

282 "That's like enough. Where is ta staying?"

"I've got a nice place to stay. I'm with Sybil Johnson. She used to work with my mother."

"Sybil is a good woman. See thou bides with her, and does what she tells thee to do, then thou won't go far out of thy way. What can ta do in a mill?"

"I can either spin or weave."

"I'll give thee a loom to-morrow morning."

"Why, thank thee, master. Sybil said thou was a kind man. I'm glad I came to thee."

Then Nelly, with a smile, went away, and Ben Holden bothered his head about her more than enough. Her childish, confiding manner had touched the spring of Ben's heart, and set the door wide open for her.

All day her innocent face and bright eyes were constantly before him, and he felt as if the pretty, girlish form was at his side as he went up and down the mill. Then he worried himself for not having set her to work at once. She might be tempted to go to some other mill, and find a master who would not be as just and kind to her as he intended to be.

"A poor little orphan lass among strangers,"