“Miss Crawford is ill too and cannot come to see you, but she often thinks of you.  Perhaps this will buy you a small loaf of white bread, as your mother says you cannot eat brown.”

She only said, “Mercie, monsieur;” but the bright colour, which spread itself over her pale face at the mention of Ellen’s thought of her, told Edward that he had said the right thing; and with a gentle “Good-by, I hope you will soon be better,” he left the cottage.  He walked fast with his head bent, as if to hide his face; but we must run after him, and have a peep at it.  He is smiling, and—­can it be?—­he is blushing!  Captain Crawford, who never turned pale before the Russians at Alma or Inkermann, is now blushing scarlet before his own approving conscience and the gratitude of a sick girl.  The smile and blush were not gone when he reached home, and Ellen saw both and smiled too, but wisely said nothing.  The ice on Edward’s heart was broken; a few “kind words” had flowed out and melted it.  He went to sleep that night, and dreamed that angels were saying “kind words” to him; Ellen went to sleep, too, and dreamed of her brother reading the Bible to the dying on a battle-field; and the sick girl lay awake all night, thinking how good it was of Miss Crawford to think of her, and how good of the Captain to tell her so.

The Sixpence had done a good day’s work; had a shilling been in its place, it would probably have failed in accomplishing it; and Captain Crawford, thinking money the best way to the heart of the poor, would never have tasted the joy of soothing sad hearts by kindness.  Alas! little Sixpence, that you who have been such a blessing to-day, should become a curse to-morrow; that you who have gone forth on errands of mercy to-day, should dwell in scenes of drunkenness and theft to-morrow!

Early next morning Mrs. Tourtel went to market, and left the Sixpence at a baker’s shop in payment for a white loaf for her daughter.  There it spent the day—­a quiet day—­broken by few events.  It might have seen the fresh bread taken out of the oven, and packed in the cart which waited at the door to receive it; and it might have seen many people bustle in and out of the shop, from the little child to buy a penny loaf, to the gentleman’s housekeeper to pay the week’s bill; but it remained undisturbed till the shutters were taken down on the following morning, when a man came to buy a small loaf for his breakfast, and received the Sixpence in change.  Appearances were far more against it this time than they had been before.  John Barker had an unshaved beard, a scowling eye, and a red face; his dress consisted of a blue woollen shirt, coarse blue trousers grimed in mud, and a low-crowned black hat; on his shoulder he carried a spade and pickaxe.  As he walked along he was joined by others of an equally unprepossessing appearance, and found many more already assembled at the scene of their labours—­the new harbour.