Sally hesitated before she made her first move. Playing at trances was a new game to her, and she was in the dark in more ways than one. But the crisis was an imminent one, and she was vaguely conscious that none but bold measures would help her safely through it. Yet she approached her subject warily, unaware that Seth's accustomed eyes could plainly discern the working of every muscle in her face.

"I went off all of a sudden, didn't I?" was her first inquiry.

"You did, Sally," replied Seth, "without saying with your leave or by your leave."

"And you tried to bring me to."

"And couldn't."

"Right you are, Sally."

"Then you carried me down here."

"How do you know that?" asked Seth, so abruptly as to shake her nerves.

"You must have done," she said in feverish haste. "How could I be here, else? People don't walk in trances, do they? Joanna didn't walk when she was in a trance, did she?"

"Well, no," answered Seth, the corners of his eyelids wrinkling up with amusement. "I never heard that she did."

A sigh of relief escaped Sally's bosom at this confirmatory evidence, and was followed by a chuckle from Seth.

"It stands to reason, Sal, that if Joanna had walked, you'd have done the same."

"In course I should," said Sally innocently. "Did I go off like Joanna?"

"I should say there wasn't a pin to choose between you." A cunning smile played about Sally's lips. "You put somethink on my face."

"Water, Sal, to bring you to."

"But somethink else," said Sally, with a slight shudder, "somethink that crept and frightened me."

"You see, Sally, you were so bad, and wanted such a deal of bringing to, that I had to take the water from my aquarium----"

"What's that?"

"You'll know by-and-bye. There's fish in it, and all sorts of things, and when I dipped the cup in, out came a water-beetle. There isn't a bit of harm in the little creatures, but they do creep! Now for the vision, Sally."

Sally puckered her eyebrows, and tightly interlaced her little fingers.

"It was dark and it was light," she slowly commenced. "Not both at once. That could hardly be--though we don't quite know what happens in trances."

"No, we don't, do we? It wasn't light and dark together. First it was dark, and then it was light. I couldn't see a wision in the dark, could I?"

"I should say not, Sal; but I never was in a trance, you know. I'm not one o' the prophesying sort."

"So it must ha' been light when it come. There was all sorts o' things flying about--birds, and angels, and spirits. It was splendid. Then all of a sudden a king comes to me done up in a bundle."

"Pharaoh," suggested Seth, in the midst of a quiet fit of laughter.

"Yes, Pharer, it was," said Sally, eagerly adopting the suggestion.

"Because that's the only old king you ever heard of."

"Yes. Well, Pharer come----"

"Stop a minute, Sal. What was he like?"

"Didn't you never see him?"

"I never set eyes on the old gentleman."

A deeper puckering of Sally's eyebrows, and a tighter interlacing of her little fingers.

"He was done up in a bundle, you know, and I didn't see much of him."

"Was he like the doll outside old Adam's rag and bone shop?"

"A little bit."

"Only he didn't have a black face,"

"No," said Sally, following the cues with heaving bosom.

"But his face was painted."

"In course it was."

"In stripes. Red, and yellow, and green."

"Yes, he looked so rum! And he had a big gold crown on his head."

"Ah," said Seth, in a tone of sly satisfaction, "now I can say I've seen Pharaoh if anybody asks me. Go on, Sal."

"Well, he come, and said----"

"Ho! ho! Sally! he spoke to you, did he?"

"Yes, he said a lot."

"Now," mused Seth, hugging himself in great enjoyment, "how did he speak?"

"With his tongue," replied Sally, with precocious sharpness.

"Yes, yes, with his tongue, of course. But in what language? It couldn't be Hebrew, because he hated the Jews, and wouldn't have lowered himself to it. Besides if he had, you wouldn't have understood him."

"Not in a trance?" asked Sally in a cunning tone.

"I should say," replied Seth very gravely, "not even in a trance."

"Why, then, he spoke what I'm speaking to you, and what you're speaking to me--jist the same. 'Git up, Sally,' he says, 'and come along o' me; I'm going to show you somethink.' I got up and went along of him."

"The people must have stared, Sal, to see you and Pharaoh walking together."

"We didn't mind that. We walks straight to the horspital, and there's father laying in bed. 'Shall I ever git better?' says father to Pharer. 'No,' says Pharer, 'you'll never git better. Do you hear, Sal? Father'll never git better.' Then we goes out of the horspital, me and Pharer, and walks miles and miles into the country, and we come to a big, big place with stone walls. 'Mother's in there, Sal,' says Pharer; and I peeps through and sees poor mother working and working."

"Was it a prison, then, that mother was in?"

"No, it was a workus. 'If you was to go to her,' says Pharer, she'd be turned away. She's got eighteen pound a year.' Is that a lot?" asked Sally, suddenly breaking off.

"It's a lot taken in a lump," replied Seth, upon whose face a more thoughtful expression was gathering, "and a year's a lot, too, Sally."

"Is three-and-sixpence a week a lot for a gal's keep?" asked Sally, pursuing her inquiries.

"What sort of a girl? One who would make herself handy?"

"Oh, yes; and do anythink, never mind what. Clean and scrub, and git up early and light the fire and go of errands----" Thus Sally breathlessly ran on.

"But this girl's so small--not strong enough to do all that."

"She'd git bigger, and stronger, and older, every day. And you don't know, oh, you don't know what she wouldn't do, if you wanted her to! And she'd be as good as gold."

"Then this girl's liable to fainting dead away, without notice----"

"She wouldn't do it!" cried Sally, beating her hands together and creeping closer to Seth; "she wouldn't do it, if you didn't want her to!"

"--And of falling into trances--"

"She'd never do so agin, this gal wouldn't, if you didn't want her to!"

"Three-and-sixpence wouldn't go far, Sal, but it's something. What next did Pharaoh say?"

"'She's got eighteen pound a year,' says Pharer, 'and she's been obliged to go away from you 'cause she's so poor, and couldn't git nothink to eat; but she's giving somebody three-and-sixpence a week for your keep.'"

"Ah, ah, Sally, now we're coming to it."

"After that, Pharer looks at baby----"

"Saying anything about her keep, Sal?"

"Oh, no; there's no need to. I keep her, you know; I take care of her. I nurse her, and wash her, and dress her, and put her to bed, and she's no trouble to nobody."

"Not even to you, Sal, I suppose."

"Not to me--oh, no, not to me, 'cause I love her, and she's the beautifullest baby there ever was! Pharer looks at her, and says, 'When baby grows up, she'll be a lady, and 'll have fine clothes, and 'll give everybody money who's been good to her.' That's sure to come true, that is."

"Pharaoh says?"

"No, I say. It's sure to come true. You mind, now! Whoever's good to baby'll be done good to."

"A good Christian sentiment, Sal. And then?"

"Then," said Sally abruptly, "Pharer goes away."

"Walks away?"

"No, flies away, and is swallowed up like. That's all of it."

And with her heart beating as fast as if she were in a high state of fever, Sally, whose hand was resting on Seth's knee, waited in the deepest anxiety to learn her fate. Seth put his hand down, and it touched Sally's face. He gave a start as he touched her cheek, which was wet with her tears, fast and silently flowing.

"Sally," he said, "you've got a brother."

"I'll tell you somethink," rejoined Sally quietly and solemnly; "but you mustn't tell him, or he'd beat me."

"I won't tell him, my child."

"I don't think," sobbed Sally, "as he's any good."

"Why?"

"It was him as made father ill, and him as made mother poor. And last night, when I was abed, pretending to be asleep, I sor him eating up all the bread and drinking up all the tea. And when he went away, mother cried and cried."

Many moments passed in silence. Then Seth rose, and lit a candle, Sally following his movements with undisguised anxiety.

"Look about you, Sal."

Sally gazed with longing, admiring eyes at the treasures of the cellar, which was a veritable Aladdin's cave in her sight. It was with difficulty she removed her eyes from the aquarium, which was something so entirely outside her experience as to make it a marvel indeed.

"Here's my bed, Sally; and here's my cupboard; and here's my frying-pan and saucepan and kettle, all clean and tidy." As he seemed to expect an answer, Sally nodded. "Now here," he continued, lifting a blanket which, hung on a line, divided off a portion of the cellar, "is a place where two children might sleep, supposing such an out and out-of-the-way circumstance should ever occur to Seth Dumbrick as taking two ready-made, mischievous girls----"

"Oh, no," interrupted Sally positively, "not mischievous. Good."

"You're not fit to judge. Supposing, I say, such an extraordinary and ridiculous circumstance were to occur to Seth Dumbrick as his taking two girls, one of 'em a baby----"

"Such a beauty!" again interrupted the irrepressible Sally. "Kiss him, baby."

She put baby's face to his, and, utterly confounded and unable to resist, Seth Dumbrick kissed a pair of lips for the first time for Heaven knows how many years.

"If I believed in the Bible," he muttered, "which I don't, it'd be almost like kissing that. Sally, will you stop here, quiet, while I go out a bit?"

"Yes," replied Sally joyfully.

"You won't move, you won't touch a thing?"

"No, I won't--I won't!"

"And you won't mind sitting in the dark?"

"N--no," said Sally, with a little shiver.

"One soon gets used to it."

" I would," said Sally, becoming suddenly brave.

"I can't afford to burn candles all day long. You won't touch the aquarium, or put your fingers in the water?"

"No--no; I'll never!"

"Because my fish bite, Sally."

"I won't move from here, Mr. Dumbrick," protested Sally, grouping mentally for some strong affirmation. "I hope I may never move at all if I do!"

"Very well; I sha'n't be gone long."

Seth............