“What has happened?  Why are you all here?” she asked faintly; then remembering, she wailed:  “Oh, why did you bring me back?  I went to the lake, but it was so cold I could not throw myself in; then I walked about till almost sunrise, and I was so tired that I laid down by the cedars to sleep—­why did you wake me?”

“Anna,” said the Squire, “we want you to forgive us and come back as our daughter,” and he slipped her cold little hand in David’s.  “This boy has been looking for you all night, Anna.  I thought maybe he had been taken from us to punish me for my hardness.  But, thank God, you are both safe.”

“You will, Anna, won’t you? and father will give us his blessing.”  She smiled her assent.

“I say, Squire, if you are giving out blessings, don’t pass by Kate and me.”

In the general kissing and congratulation that followed, Hi Holler appeared.  “Here’s the sleigh, I thought maybe you’d all be ready for breakfast.  Hallo, Anna, so he found you!  The station agent told me that Mr. Sanderson left on the first train for Boston this morning.  Says he ain’t never coming back.”

“And a good thing he ain’t,” snapped Marthy Perkins—­“after all the trouble he’s made.”

THE END.