"
"Oh, Mrs. Blake, you don't know anything about it, but you are to be
disappointed I am sure. But I can do something without any one's help.
Good-bye."
She took my hand, holding it for some time in silence; then she said
softly: "Dear; you can get into other folk's hearts beside the men's."
CHAPTER IX.
AN EVENING WALK.
Thomas got his garden stuff distributed satisfactorily. "It would done
your heart good to see how pleased the Larkums was over their share: I
give 'em good measure, I tell you," he informed me that evening, as I
made an errand to the stables in order to interview him.
"That Mr. Bowen, her blind father, he come out too, and I've not got
better pay for anything for years than what he give me," Thomas continued
solemnly.
"What did he give, you?" I asked.
"Well I can't just go over his words, but it minded me of the blessing
the preacher says over us before we go out of church, only this was all
just for you and me."
"You have found to-day that it is more blessed to give than to receive."
"That Mrs. Blake wan't far astray; but there, I wouldn't let on to the
likes of her that Mr. Winthrop might do more for them. Anyway there's no
one gives more for the poor in the parish, nor anything nigh as much;
only its taxes, and one don't get credit for them."
"It is only for want of thought, Thomas. He has never been among the
poor, to see their wants and sufferings."
"But what makes you think, and the rest all forget?"
"I expect it is because my memory is better.
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