And then she thought of
her sister Jane, from whom she had not heard for a long, long time,
and her heart yearned towards her with an eager and yearning desire
to see her face once more.
And now let us look in upon Jane and her family. Her husband, by
saving where Thorne spent in foolish trifles, and working when
Thorne was idle, gradually laid by enough to purchase a little farm,
upon which he had removed, and there industry and frugality brought
its sure rewards. They had three children: little Ellen had grown to
a lively, rosy-cheeked, merry-faced girl of eleven years; and
George, who had followed Ellen, was in his seventh year, and after
him came the baby, now just completing the twelfth month of its
innocent, happy life. It was in the season when the farmers' toil is
rewarded, and William Moreland was among those whose labor had met
an ample return.
How different was the scene, in his well established cottage, full
to the brim of plenty and comfort, to that which was passing at the
same hour of the day, a few weeks before, in the sad abode of Ellen,
herself its saddest inmate.
The table was spread for the evening meal, always eaten before the
sun hid his bright face, and George and Ellen, although the supper
was not yet brought in, had taken their places; and Moreland, too,
had drawn up with the baby on his knee, which he was amusing with an
apple from a well filled basket, the product of his own orchard.
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