gone back to her father's house; and taking the fork in her hand proceeded homewards.
Some twenty yards from the house she was met by one of her sisters.
'O, Tessy—what do you think! 'Liza-Lu is a crying and there's a lot of folk in the house, and mother is a good deal better, but they think father is dead!'
The child realized the grandeur of the news; but not as yet its sadness; and stood looking at Tess with round-eyed importance, till, beholding the effect it produced upon her, she said—
'What, Tess, shan't we talk to father never no more?'
'But father was only a little bit ill!' exclaimed Tess distractedly.
'Liza-Lu came up.
'He dropped down just now, and the doctor who was there for mother said there was no chance for him, because his heart was growed in.'
Yes; the Durbeyfield couple had changed places; the dying one was out of danger, and the indisposed one was dead. The news meant even more than it sounded. Her father's life had a value apart from his personal achievements, or
