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diff --git a/old/51979.txt b/old/51979.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 954d28a..0000000 --- a/old/51979.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6378 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Little Royal Highness, by Ruth Ogden - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: His Little Royal Highness - -Author: Ruth Ogden - -Illustrator: W. Rainey - -Release Date: May 3, 2016 [EBook #51979] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS LITTLE ROYAL HIGHNESS *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - - - -HIS LITTLE ROYAL HIGHNESS - -By Ruth Ogden - -Illustrated by W. Rainsey - -New-York - -1887 - -[Illustration: 0001] - -[Illustration: 0008] - -[Illustration: 0009] - -[Illustration: 0010] - -[Illustration: 0012] - -[Illustration: 0013] - - - - -I.--CORONATION DAY - - -[Illustration: 9013] - -HE king's body-guard waited in the outer court of the palace, but the -palace was only a dull, red cottage, and the court a low porch that -surrounded three sides of it. As for the body-guard, they were not -dressed as such great people are wont to be. One of them wore a calico -dress, canvas shoes, and an untrimmed hat of soft red felt. The other, -for there were but two of them, was resplendent in gray knickerbockers, -and a blue flannel shirt, with white anchors worked in the corners of -the sailor-shaped collar. As for the king, but a short time before' he -had been only a rollicking little fellow astride of a cherry tree bough, -and a blue-eyed little Nan had stood holding out her apron to catch the -cherries he threw down, and gazing up at him with a face full of wonder -at his daring. But the old and brittle bough had suddenly given way -under his weight, and Reginald Fairfax tumbled in a sad little heap to -the ground. - -[Illustration: 0015] - -Quick as a flash Nan sat down by his side, with her feet straight out -before her, and drew the brown head into her lap, while the tears fell -fast on the face that seemed so still and lifeless. Her brother Harry -ran for the young doctor up at the hotel, as fast as his stout little -legs could carry him. - -All this had happened only last week, and now Reginald lay on a hospital -cot in his own little room in the cottage, and Harry and Nan were -waiting on the porch till the doctor should come out and they could be -admitted. - -They were both very quiet, for they had not seen Regie since the -accident, and were awed at the thought of being soon ushered into his -presence. Harry kept making round holes in the gravel path with the heel -of his boot; Nan sat staring in abstracted fashion at a little wreath of -oak leaves which she was balancing on one extended hand. - -Presently the doctor came out. "You can go up now," he said, "Regie -expects you." Then he caught up his tennis racquet, which he had left on -the porch, and hurried away, for the doctor was taking his vacation. -If he had not been quite a young doctor, perhaps he would rather have -forgotten for those two short weeks that there was such a thing as a -patient in the world. But as matters stood he did not seem to mind in -the least, that now and then he must stop whatever he was doing, and run -over to see "how the little Fairfax boy was coming on," and, young as he -was, he had set Regie's leg as neatly and dexterously as any older and -more experienced surgeon could have set it. - -The children crept quietly up the stairway which landed them at -Reginald's door. Nan paused midway in the room and looked toward Regie -with a puzzled frown, for the little fellow stretched out on the cot did -not seem exactly like the Regie she had known, tumbling around out of -doors. - -Harry scarcely stirred a foot beyond the door-sill, and screwed his -funny round mouth into a funnier pucker, a queer little habit to which -he always resorted in moments of embarrassment. - -"I'm very sorry for you, Regie," said Nan, drawing a trifle nearer. - -"It is too bad," replied Regie. "It couldn't be helped though;" a remark -which he had volunteered several times, as if anxious that no one should -think that carelessness had aught to do with the accident. - -"We've thought of a splendid game," said Harry, feeling that he ought to -say something. - -[Illustration: 0016] - -"I guess the only game I'll play for a good while will be still pond, no -moving," said Regie, with a poor little ghost of a smile. - -"Oh! no, indeed," cried Nan, eagerly, "you're to be the principal one -in this game. You're to be a little king, and we are to be your -body-guard." - -"What's a body-guard?" asked Regie, in a tone as though he doubted -the merits of everything with which he could not claim previous -acquaintance. - -"Oh! it's a----, but we are not going to tell many people," answered -Harry, glancing significantly toward a room opening-out of Regie's, -where some one, a stranger to him, sat knitting. - -"She's only my nurse," Regie explained; "you mustn't mind her, for -she'll have to be round a great deal, and you don't catch me having a -body-guard unless I know just what it is." - -"It won't hurt you," laughed Nan, with her hands behind her back, and -still standing in the centre of the room. Harry had made so bold as to -take a seat on the edge of a high-backed rocker, so very much on the -edge, in fact, that it threatened to land him on the floor any moment. - -"Why don't you sit down, Nan?" Reginald asked at last. - -"I can't sit down, Regie, because of the crown," and Nan looked -beseechingly toward Harry, as if acting under orders. - -"Yes, you may show it now," was Harry's patronising answer; whereupon -Nan exultingly held up the little oak wreath before Regie's wondering -gaze. - -"Oh! is that the crown?" and Regie betrayed a shade of disappointment -in his tone, having a conviction that such articles ought to be made of -gold, or at least of silver. - -"Oh! Regie, don't you like it? It took me a whole day to make it," Nan -exclaimed, with a perceptible quiver in her voice. - -"Oh yes, it's very nice, very nice indeed! only--well! it'll wither, you -know." - -"I can make another then," she said, complacently, as though that -objection were easily met. "May I put it on your head?" - -"Certainly;" and Regie bent his head forward from the pillow. - -"Nan stood in great awe of the apparatus of weights attached to the cot -to keep Regie's limb from shortening while the broken bone was knitting. - -"Are you sure it won't do your leg any harm?" she asked, nervously, -holding the crown, poised in both hands, above his head, for she could -only boast eight years, and was rather a timid little body. Regie -laughed outright at this, and Harry shouted, "Of course not, goosie!" -with true brotherly disgust. - -Thus encouraged she dropped the crown on to Regie's head. - -"You look lovely in it," she said, bringing the hand-glass from the -bureau; "you can lean your head back, it won't hurt the crown." - -"It hurts me though," said Regie, settling back against the pillow, and -holding the little mirror at arm's length that he might see the general -effect; "it pricks." - -"I do not think a king ought to mind such a thing as a prick," Nan -remarked, seriously, for she possessed a lively imagination, and, for -the time being, Regie was a real little king. - -"Perhaps not," said Regie, recalling something about "Uneasy lies the -head that wears a crown" (which proverb had once been set for a copy in -his writing book at school), and thinking how very true it was. "But you -have not told me anything about the body-guard," he added. - -"As I understand it," said Harry, who liked to use a big word when he -could, "the body-guard sort of takes care of the king, and does whatever -he tells 'em to do." - -"Then you and Nan are to do _whatever_ I tell you," with an accent on -the "whatever." - -"Yes," said Nan, with hearty seriousness. Harry merely nodded his head, -as if not quite willing to commit himself by an audible "yes." He -looked as though he foresaw some unpleasant possibilities in Regie's -"whatever." - -"If you think of anything you'd like to have," Nan farther explained, -"why, Harry or I will run and get it--and things like that you know." - -"My! but that'll be fun for me," said Regie. - -"Of course it will," Nan replied; "that's why we thought of it, because -there's a great many kinds of fun you'll have to do without while -you must lie so still. Will it be for very long, Regie?" she asked, -wistfully. - -"Pretty long, I guess," answered Regie, with an honest little sigh. - -"It was Nan that made it up," said Harry, whose thoughts had a trick of -following their own bent independent of other people's; "I don't know as -I'm going to like it." - -"Like what?" queried Regie, with a puzzled frown. - -"Why, the being ordered about.'' - -"Oh, I'll be easy on the body-guard," laughed Regie. - -"I'm ashamed of you, Harry Murray, to talk like that right before poor -Regie!" and Nan's face showed how real was her mortification. - -"I don't believe kings wear their crowns to bed!" exclaimed Regie, -having borne the pricking of the stiff little leaves as long as he -could. "This king won't, at any rate. Hang it on that nail, Nan, where -I can reach it, and put it on whenever you seem to forget that I am -the king, and you must mind me," with a sly look toward Harry. Harry's -threatened downfall became a reality just at that moment, and the -unbalanced-rocking-chair landed him suddenly on the floor. - -"I think we had better go now," he said, picking himself up, with a -furtive look in the direction of the nurse, knowing that such a mishap -was rather inexcusable in a sick room. - -"I should think we had," observed Nan, with a good measure of reproach -in tone and accent; and after a good-bye to Regie, and a friendly -word or two from the nurse who had come in with Regie's luncheon, the -children took their departure. - -[Illustration: 0019] - -Down the path, across the boulevard and over to the beach they -trudged, side by side, but without saying a word to each other. Nan was -preserving a dignified silence, which means that she wished Harry -to understand by her manner that she did not at all approve of his -behaviour during their visit. But Harry was so completely absorbed in -his own thoughts as to be quite unmindful of the implied rebuke. When -they reached the beach he lingered to watch the fishermen bring their -boat in over the surf, leaving Nan to walk the rest of the way home -alone. - -Regie felt tired after his talk with the children, and having eaten the -luncheon, soon dropped off into a sound little nap, to dream of kings -and queens and all sorts of royal things, suggested, no doubt, by the -oak-leaf crown on which his brown eyes were resting the last moment -before the long lashes closed over them. In these brown eyes and long -lashes lay the charm of Regie's face, and he had reason to be very -grateful to them. Perhaps you wonder how this could be? Well, the very -next chapter will tell you. - -[Illustration: 5020] - -[Illustration: 0021] - - - - -II.--THE KING HOLDS AND INTERVIEW WITH SISTER JULIA - - -[Illustration: 9021] - -HE second evening after Reginald's accident, Mr. Fairfax sat down by his -cot, and taking up his little brown hand, said cheerily, "Well, Master -Regie, we shall need to have a nurse for you." - -"I should think I was rather too old for that, sick or well," replied -Regie, biting his lip, lest unruly tears should betray that he was not -so very old after all. - -"Why, Reginald," laughed Mr. Fairfax, "grown-up people have nurses -when they break their legs, and are glad enough to get them. Your mamma -Fairfax will never be able to do all that must be done for you, and Dr. -Delano knows of a splendid nurse. He is sure you will like her, and he -would be glad to have her come here to the seashore for a while. He says -it will do her good as well as you." - -So it happened that Sister Julia arrived the very next day, and Regie -grew fond of her in almost less time than it takes to tell it. He -thought she had the sweetest face he had ever seen, and a good many -other people thought so too. She always wore a pretty cap, a little -square shawl, and a long full apron, all made of the same soft, white -material. - -"Of course," thought Regie, "it's all right for a nurse to wear an -apron, and I know some children have French nurses with caps; but Sister -Julia is not French, and besides, what's the use of the little shawl?" -and as was usual when he did not thoroughly understand anything, he soon -made inquiries on the subject. - -[Illustration: 0022] - -Sister Julia was sitting at the east window of Regie's room, watching -two schooners far out at sea, whose sails, aglow with the red light of -the sunset, made them look like fairy boats of conkshell. "Oh, Regie!" -she said, at last, earnestly, "I never saw the ocean as beautiful as it -is to-night. I wish you were able to have me lift you up, so that you -could have a look at it." - -"I would rather look at you any day," Regie said, honestly, "because you -do look lovely in those white fixings, but I do not see very much sense -in 'em." - -"I'm afraid there isn't very much sense in them, Regie; only that we all -wear them." - -"All your family?" - -"Yes, all my family. And how many do you suppose there are of us?" Regie -looked mystified. "There are seventy-five." Regie looked incredulous, -but he had a foolish notion of never liking to appear astonished at -anything, so he said quite casually, as though he were asking the most -commonplace question, "And are you the oldest of seventy-five?" - -"Do you think I look old enough for that?" - -"No, not exactly, but your hair is pretty gray, and no one that's young -has gray hair, you know." - -"You are not far from right, Regie, but gray hair or no, I am not -the oldest of my seventy-five sisters. Have you never heard of a -Sisterhood,--that is, of a society of women who bind themselves together -for some sort of work?" - -"Oh yes, often," said Regie, not meaning to be untruthful, but because -always averse to pleading ignorance on any subject. At any rate, if he -had heard of a sisterhood his ideas were somewhat vague regarding it. - -"Well, I belong to such a society, and all who join it pledge themselves -to follow its rules, to take the title of Sister, and to wear these -white fixings as you call them, and the work of our society is to care -for the sick." - -"Have you got to do it all your life?" he asked, shaking his brown head -from side to side by way of sympathy. - -"No, we are not obliged to do it always. We can resign at any time, but -most of us love the work so much, that it would be a great trial to give -it up." - -Regie did not speak for several seconds, then he said, timidly, "Would -you not like to be married, Sister Julia?" - -"Well, Regie, that depends," she answered, with an amused smile. - -"I should think some one would have wanted you. Did nobody ever?" - -"These are pretty plain questions, Regie," said Sister Julia, as indeed -they were; and then Regie suddenly remembered that Mamma Fairfax had -told him, and but a little while ago, too, that he must get the better -of this questioning trick of his. - -"I did not think you would mind," he said, and his voice trembled a -little. - -"Oh no, dear! Of course I don't mind; only you see it might be rather -embarrassing to have to own up that nobody ever had wanted me." - -"But I know somebody did, because----" Regie paused a second, for he -was not sure he ought to tell this; but his desire got the better of his -judgment, as often happens with older people, "because I overheard Dr. -Delano tell Papa Fairfax that somebody did want you, but that you sent -him away 'cause you thought you'd better care for sick children." - -"It does not matter much, Regie, whether all that is true or not; but I -think we have talked quite long enough about me. Let us talk about you a -little while." - -"Oh, there's nothing particular about me,'cept that I'm adopted. I -suppose you know that, everybody does," with a little sigh, as though he -wished everybody didn't. - -"Yes, I know; but I do not believe Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax could love you -more if you were their own little boy." - -"I am their own little boy, too. I mean, I mean----" and without a word -of warning Regie burst into tears. - -An unusually sweet look of sympathy came into Sister Julia's face -just then, as she moved her rocking-chair close to the cot, and began -stroking Regie's hair, for he was crying too hard for her to attempt -to reason with him. Her heart went straight out to this high-strung, -sensitive boy, and she was sorry enough in any way to have grieved him. -By-and-by, when the tears were somewhat under control, he said, with a -little convulsive sob between every two or three words---- - -"I know you did not mean to say anything, but I could not help crying. -Some folks, you know, thinks there isn't any good in adopted children. -It's an awful pity fellows can't choose their own fathers and mothers; -I'd have chosen Papa and Mamma Fairfax every time, and then I could have -called them just papa and mamma the way other children do. I do wish -they'd never told me about it," and the tears threatened to overflow -again. - -"Ah, Regie," said Sister Julia, quietly, "you know that they have taught -you to call them Papa and Mamma Fairfax only because they feel they -have no right to the very same names as you would have used for your own -father and mother, if they had lived." - -"Yes, I know," he answered, sadly. - -"Regie, I would like to tell you a story. Do you feel like listening?" - -A sort of little after-sob helped to give Regie's head a forward shake -which meant, yes, he would like to listen. - -"Well, about thirty years ago, a little girl was left quite alone in the -world. Her father, a young physician, and her mother, were both taken -away in one week by a terrible fever, which had broken out in the -village in which they lived. At first there seemed to be no one to care -for the little girl, but after a while a lady, whose baby had died with -the fever, offered to take her; and oh, how kind she was to her for -years and years, and the little girl never dreamed that she was not her -very own mother. Well, it happened one day at school, when the little -girl was twelve years old, that an unkind boy called to her: 'Say, -Julia, you're only adopted, aren't you?' Only adopted, what could he -mean? The words kept ringing in Julia's heart, and at recess she slipped -away and ran home as fast as she could." - -"'It is not true that I am only adopted, is it, mamma?' she said, as she -rushed into the house." - -"'Yes, yes, it is true,' said her mother, sadly; 'but who has told you -about it, Julia?' The little girl did not answer; she cried and cried -and could not be comforted. 'Why did you not tell me yourself, mamma?' -she sobbed over and over again." Sister Julia paused a moment to run -the window shade up to the top, so that Regie could see the evening star -growing bright in the deepening twilight. - -"I should not wonder," said Regie, "if we were talking about you again, -Sister Julia." - -"I should not wonder if we were, so you see I know just how to feel for -you; only I think it is better always to have known the facts as you -have done, than to have it come suddenly upon one, and perhaps as -roughly as it did upon me." - -Regie laid his hand over in Sister Julia's lap, "I'm awfully glad you -were adopted," he said, stroking her hand affectionately. - -"Why, dear child?" - -"Oh, because--well--I shall never be ashamed of it now, I guess. I used -to think it was kind of disgraceful, and that it made a difference in a -fellow's looks somehow; but I'm sure it doesn't in yours." - -"Oh, Regie! what a foolish notion," and Sister Julia laughed merrily. - -"I did though," said Regie, "really." - -"Do you know, Regie, I think you ought to be one of the happiest -children in the world, and you yourself know why." - -"Well, I suppose," said Regie, thoughtfully, "that I ought to remember -how different it would have been if they had not taken me, and that -ought to make me very happy; and, Sister Julia, I am happy, almost -always. Anyhow, I guess I'll never be unhappy again about being adopted. -I do love Papa and Mamma Fairfax dearly; nobody knows how much," and -Regie's face glowed and his eyes kindled with loyal affection. Speaking -of eyes, a promise at the end of the last chapter must not be forgotten. -Regie owed a particular debt to these brown eyes and long lashes of -his, because when he was but a little baby, and while his own mother was -living, they had won his way right into Mrs. Fairfax's heart, and so, -when he was left an orphan, what more natural than that they should win -his way right into her arms as well. - -[Illustration: 5026] - -[Illustration: 0027] - - - - -III.--THE FAIRFAXES CALL ON THE MURRAYS - - -[Illustration: 9027] - -EGIE'S accident had happened late in June, and the weeks had worn slowly -away with their dull monotony varied by many a visit from loyal Nan and -Harry. Now, it was the middle of August, and Regie was about again, -only with an addition to the bodyguard in the shape of two sturdy little -crutches. It happened one evening about this time, when Regie had been -stowed away for the night, that Mr. Fairfax was walking up and down in -front of his cottage in a "brown study," which means, you know, that -he was thinking too hard about something in particular, to pay any -attention to things in general. It seemed a pity he should not discover -in what a glory of gold and crimson the sun was setting, and how -beautiful its reflection over on Pleasure Bay. Then a party of -the neighbours' boys were engaged in some dexterous and pretty -bicycle-riding a little way up the road, and he was missing that also. - -Hereward, a greyhound, only he was fawn-coloured instead of gray, and -Ned, a Gordon setter, would now and then come bounding up to their -master, expecting to be petted, and look strangely surprised when he -took no notice of them. They would plant their forefeet in the ground, -with their heads on one side, in a questioning, beseeching manner, and -stand gazing up for a moment into his face, but only for a moment; there -were too many circles to be described, and too many matters to be looked -into, to waste much time upon such an indifferent master. Presently the -click and bang of a swinging screen door roused Mr. Fairfax from his -reverie, and he hurried to join his wife, who had just come out from the -house. - -She was a lovely little woman, this Mrs. Fairfax, with a face not unlike -Sister Julia's, and whether joy or pathos found most expression in her -clear gray eyes no one could discover. - -She had no sooner stepped on to the piazza, than Hereward and Ned were -fairly leaping upon her. There was a little shawl on her arm, and a lace -scarf on her head, which they well knew meant a walk to the beach, and, -from their point of view, nothing quite compared with that. - -"I do not need to ask what you have been thinking about, Curtis," Mrs. -Fairfax said to her husband, when they had gone but a little way; "you -are wondering and wondering, and so am I, whatever we shall do with -Regie." - -"It has been a puzzling question, Alice," said Mr. Fairfax; "but I -believe I am prepared to answer it. I think the best thing we can do -will be to leave him here at the beach." - -"Why, Curtis dear, that is simply impossible," Mrs. Fairfax replied, in -a decided little way of her own; "there will not be a cottage open here -two months from now." - -"I know of one cottage, at any rate," said her husband, "that is open -all the year round, and where Reginald and Sister Julia would be likely -to have a very happy time of it while we are away." - -"Of course, you mean Captain Murray's." - -"Of course I do. Don't you agree with me about its being a good place, -and had we not better walk right up there now and see if they will -consider it?" They had come to the railroad crossing, and the shrill -whistle of a locomotive brought them to a standstill. Seldom an express -train went spinning through Moorlow that Hereward did not run a race -with it, and the engineers on the road were always on the lookout for -him. Hereward was a very knowing dog; he would lie dozing in the sun, -and let the local trains steam up to the little station and off again, -without so much as cocking up an ear, but would detect the approach of -the "express" way down the track. To-night proved no exception to -the rule. Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax watched him proudly, as in a flash he -gathered himself together and started for the race. For fully a quarter -of a mile he held his own, and, if he had possessed as inexhaustible -a supply of breath as the iron-chested engine, his long limbs might -sometimes have won him the victory. - -As for Ned, this sort of thing was not at all to his taste, and he -stood looking stolidly on, as much as to say, "Great waste of time and -energy." - -Between you and me, had his body been as long, and his legs as slender -as Hereward's, he would probably have joined in the wild scamper. There -are people here and there in the world not at all unlike Ned; they sit -and frown upon certain innocent pleasures simply because they are not -fitted by nature to enjoy them. - -Breathless and satisfied, Hereward was soon back again, trotting and -sniffing along as though nothing had happened. - -"I do not believe we had better go to Captain Murray's tonight," said -Mrs. Fairfax, taking up the conversation where the train and Hereward's -performances had interrupted it; "I would like time to think it over." - -"Oh, I've thought it over enough for both of us, Alice. Besides, you -see, we must decide upon some plan pretty quickly; it is only ten days -now before we sail." - -[Illustration: 0029] - -So Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax kept on down the beach, climbed the short flight -of wooden steps that scaled the bulk-head in front of Captain Murray's -cottage, and knocked at the door. Mrs. Murray opened it. - -"Why, how do you do?" she said, with evident surprise and pleasure, as -she ushered them into the sitting-room. - -[Illustration: 9030] - -Hereward and Ned poked their noses in at the door, and acted as though -they intended to crowd their bodies in too. One look from Mr. Fairfax -seemed to change their minds, and with grave faces and limp tails they -lay down on the porch instead. - -"Here, Harry, bring a chair for Mrs. Fairfax," said Mrs. Murray, "and -Nan, darling, go call your father." - -This little sitting-room was the very cosiest, perhaps, that one would -find from end to end of the whole Jersey shore. Cheery and cool-looking -in this summer weather, with the linen floor covering and the vines at -the windows, and so warm and cheery in the fall and winter, with pine -logs blazing on the old brass and irons. - -"Father's coming," announced Nan, returning to the room. "And how's -Regie?" asked both the children in one breath. - -"Oh, he's getting along finely," answered Mr. Fairfax. - -"I'm _right glad_ to hear _that_," said Mrs. Murray, who always -conversed with strong accents on certain words. "And it's a good piece -of news to carry to bed and dream over," she added, turning to -the children, and looking toward the energetic little clock on the -mantel-shelf. "Come, it's high time; a good-night to Mr. and Mrs. -Fairfax, and a kiss for your mother." The children mechanically obeyed, -and with reluctant, backward glances trudged up the winding stairway -leading directly from the sitting-room. - -"Well, well," exclaimed Captain Murray, a wiry, weatherbeaten man, as he -entered the room, "a call from the Fairfaxes; what's up, I wonder?" - -"Seems to me, you're pretty free, father," said Mrs. Murray, half -apologetically. - -"Well, something is up," replied Mr. Fairfax, "one may as well be -honest. We have a proposition to make, and we are very much afraid you -won't accept it, and then we shall be all at sea again." - -"Oh, I see," laughed Captain Murray, "you want an old sailor to bring -you into port, or something like that, eh? Well, if there's anything we -can do for you----" - -"There is something," said Mr. Fairfax, eagerly, "and a pretty big -something too. We want to know if you will take Reginald and Sister -Julia into your own snug little harbour for three or four months. You -know, when we adopted Regie, Mrs. Fairfax promised that he should never -stand between us----" - -"He means," interrupted Mrs. Fairfax, thinking she could better explain -matters, "that if ever the question came up of remaining with Curtis or -Reginald, the decision should always be in favour of my husband." - -"That is the way of it," said Mr. Fairfax, "and at last the question has -come up. I am obliged to go to Europe for three or four months, and I -have no notion of putting that great ocean yonder between my wife and -me. Of course, Reginald is not in a condition to travel, and we have -been greatly at a loss to know what to do with him. This would be such a -fine place for him, if you only would be good enough to let us board him -with you." - -"I don't know much, after all, about the domestic harbour," said Captain -Murray, with elevated eyebrows. "You must ask the first-mate. What do -you say, Mollie Murray?" - -"Do you think we could really make him comfortable, father?" asked Mrs. -Murray, smoothing out her white apron; "we live very plain, and the boy -has been accustomed to----" - -"Comfortable! Oh, Mrs. Murray," interrupted Mrs. Fairfax, "why this -seems to me altogether the most _comfortable_ little home that I know -of, and Reginald will be so happy here with the children. As for Sister -Julia, I am sure she will be a help rather than a trouble, and you will -fairly love her before she has been in the house twenty-four hours." - -After this the conversation fell into a quiet chat between the -"women-folk," and a more business-like one between Mr. Fairfax and -Captain Murray, and when, in its thumping, ringing way, the little -clock struck nine, everything had been arranged to the satisfaction of -everybody. - -"I cannot tell you what a load is off my mind," said Mrs. Fairfax, -pressing Mrs. Murray's hand in both of hers, as she stood ready to go. -"I only hope it has not rolled off on to yours." - -"Never you fear, dearie," Mrs. Murray answered, in her cheerful, -whole-souled way. - -"How about Hereward and Ned?" exclaimed Mr. Fairfax, almost stumbling -across both as they lay on the porch. "And how about Reginald's pony? -Can you care for them too, Captain Murray?" - -"Yes, yes, send 'em along. We'll do our best by all hands." - -"Oh, Mrs. Murray," said Mrs. Fairfax, turning back for a moment, "please -don't tell the children about the plan. Regie would so much enjoy -telling them himself." - -"Oh, to be sure," she answered; "I'll not say a word. Happy secrets are -hard things for me to keep; but I'll keep this, I promise you." - -The two dogs who had come over in such rollicking fashion, trotted back -again quietly enough, but Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax felt half inclined to -dance all the way home, so delighted were they over the success of this -splendid plan for Regie. - -[Illustration: 0033] - -[Illustration: 0034] - - - - -IV. A SURPRISE FOR THE BODY GUARD - - -[Illustration: 9034] - -RULY no one ever looked into a face more beaming than Regie's when Mrs. -Fairfax told him of their plan to leave him in Sister Julia's care, and -that they were both to board at the Murrays. - -"I've been wondering what you would do," said Regie. "I knew you -could not take along a boy on crutches; and, Mamma Fairfax," he added, -ruefully, "I thought I was in the way for once at any rate." - -Then Mrs. Fairfax drew the little fellow into her lap, and said, very -tenderly and earnestly, "Remember this, Regie Fairfax: you have never -been in the way yet, and you never will be so long as you stay the dear -good boy you are to-day." A grateful, happy look came into Regie's face, -and he nestled his head close down on Mamma Fairfax's shoulder, quite -forgetting that nine-year-old boys are supposed not to care in the least -for that sort of thing. - -Well, the day for the move to the Murrays dawned at last, though at -times it had seemed to Regie as if it never would come. - -In the thought that he was going to live in the same house with Nan and -Harry, the little reprobate almost forgot he was to say good-bye to -Papa and Mamma Fairfax for three whole months at least. But Mr. and -Mrs. Fairfax were quite willing he should forget it, and were only too -delighted to see the little fellow anticipating so much happiness. It -would have been sad enough to have sailed away over that great ocean, -leaving a brokenhearted as well as a broken-legged little Reginald -behind them. - -Still dependent upon his crutches, Regie of course could not help -very much with the packing, but as he sat on the piazza, in the warm -September sunshine, Sister Julia gave him a lapful of his own neckties -to sort over and fold into a box. They were to move that very afternoon. -It was half-past eleven now, and at twelve Harry and Nan were coming, as -they thought, to say "Good-bye." - -Puzzled little Nan and Harry! They had not heard a word of Reginald's -coming to stay with them. Had they known it, they would not have been -trudging sorrowfully along the beach as they were that very moment. -Naturally they wondered at the strange preparations going forward at -home. Fresh dimity curtains had been tacked up in the room over the -kitchen, and there was a new bowl and pitcher on the wash-stand, and -some red-bordered towels that were very beautiful in Nan's eyes. But -when the children asked their mother the reason for all this, she had -told them that times were a little hard, as indeed they were, and that -they were going to take a couple to board. - -"I don't like the idea of a couple to board at all," Harry had confided -to Nan when they were gathering up the chips one morning in the -woodshed. - -"Neither do I," sighed Nan, "but if times are hard of course we ought -to make the best of it." That Sister Julia and Reginald were the couple -never entered their foolish little heads for a second. - -Regie sat sorting the neckties, putting the worn ones, and the ones he -did not like, at the bottom of the box, you may be sure. Now and then -he would stop to watch the four Brooks' boys, who were playing tennis in -front of their cottage, and then it seemed as though he could not stand -keeping still another moment; but he knew he must, and that word _must_ -is a very tyrannical and exacting little master. Presently the waggon -from the store at Atlanticville, where they sold everything, from -kerosene oil to shoe-strings, drove up and stopped; and a little errand -boy, no larger than Regie, jumped down and pulled a basket out from the -back. The basket was filled with groceries, and was so very heavy that -the boy had to slip the handle way up to his elbow, so that he could -rest part of its weight on his hip, as he carried it into the Brooks's -kitchen. - -[Illustration: 0036] - -When he came out again he stopped to watch the little tennis players -with such a wistful look on his thin face, while the old horse, as -overworked as his child-driver, improved the opportunity for a hurried -browsing on the Fairfax terrace. - -"What a difference!" thought Regie, noting the contrast between the -boys in knickerbockers and polo caps and this shabby little stranger. -"I wonder why some boys have to wear themselves out trudging round with -dinners for other boys who do nothing but have a good time the whole -summer long!" - -In another moment the little fellow jumped into his waggon, and, as if -to make up for lost time, jerked the old horse into a bobbing sort of -gait, which was something better than a walk and yet could not honestly -be called a trot Then Reginald sat dreaming and looking out to sea. -Perhaps he was thinking of a time when there might be a better order -of things, not exactly of a better world,--that blue ocean and -cloud-flecked sky were about as beautiful as anything could be--but of -a time when the sins and misfortunes of the fathers should no longer -be visited upon the children, and when everyone should have an equal -chance. At any rate his thoughts were far away from anything about him, -and Harry and Nan came nearer and nearer, without his ever seeing them, -and he only knew they were there when Nan rushed up in front of him and -said "Boo!" as if to frighten him out of his reverie. - -"Why, I did not see you at all!" exclaimed Regie. - -"Of course you didn't; you were looking right over our heads," said -Harry, seating himself on the edge of the piazza, and straightway -beginning to whittle on a block, which was fast being converted into a -boat hull. "You seem to be able to see farther than anyone I know of," -he added. "You looked then as though you were staring right round the -world and up the other side." Reginald blushed a little. Somehow or -other, in the presence of matter-of-fact Harry, he always felt ashamed -of this dreaming habit of his. - -"We're awful sorry you're going," said Nan. "It's so dull for bodyguards -when there's no king to care for." - -"I'm glad you're sorry," said Regie, biting his lip to keep from -smiling. He did not want to have the pleasure of telling them over quite -yet. Then there was a lull in the conversation. It was going to be very -lonely without Regie, and the bodyguard, particularly Nan, had little -heart for conversation. - -"How's your base-ball club getting on, Harry?" asked Reginald, feeling -he must either keep matters going or tell right away. "It was great fun -your beating those fellows up at the Branch." - -"It was quite a beat," Harry replied, complacently, "but I guess our -beating days are over." - -"Why?" asked Regie, astonished. - -"Oh, our catcher, the best in the 'nine,' you know, is disabled." - -"That's too bad, but I suppose he'll get over it," said Regie, cheerily. - -"Well, I rather guess not," Harry drily remarked; "he's dead," and he -held the little boat-hull at arm's length to get a better view of its -shape. If Nan had been paying attention she would have taken Harry to -task for speaking in such apparently heartless fashion of poor little -Joe Moore's death. But instead of listening, she was wondering when -would be the best time to give Regie a little rubber pencil-case her -right hand was affectionately clasping, as it lay in the bottom of her -pocket. There was another long pause, and Reginald could keep his secret -no longer. - -"Children," he said, importantly, "where do you suppose I am going to -when I leave here?" - -"To New York, of course," replied Nan, with a little sigh. - -"No, sir'ree; to Captain Epher Murray's;" and Regie, glancing from one -puzzled face to the other, fairly beamed with delight. - -"To our house?" said Nan, incredulously. - -"By Jimmini!" exclaimed Harry, tossing his hat so high in the air that -it caught on the leader of the roof. - -"It isn't so!" said Nan, decidedly, and shaking her head from side to -side, showing that she believed that to be one of the things literally -too good to be true. - -"Yes, it is true," said Sister Julia, who had just come on to the porch -with her arms full of boxes; "and I am coming too, and the pony, and -Hereward, and Ned." - -"And we're going to stay till Christmas," chimed in Regie. - -"And what is more," added Sister Julia, "we are coming this very day, -and you have arrived just in time to escort the king in person, as a -true bodyguard should. His little Royal Highness will ride in his own -court carriage," and as she spoke Pet and the village cart jogged up to -the door. - -[Illustration: 9039] - - - -Then for a few moments Sister Julia and Nan busied themselves, stowing -away in the cart such valuable commodities as two or three tennis -racquets, a base-ball bat, a tool chest, a small photographing camera, -and other things too numerous to mention. Meanwhile Harry, to use his -own expressive English, had "shinned up" one of the piazza posts, and -succeeded in regaining his jubilant hat. - -Nan's brown little face as she bustled about was wreathed in smiles, but -she said nothing. Awhile ago she was too sorry to talk, and now she was -too happy. - -Finally, Sister Julia helped Reginald into the cart, and Nan, with -Regie's crutches in her lap, took her seat on one side and Harry on the -other. - -'"When is your mother going?" questioned Harry. - -"To-morrow morning early," Reginald replied. - -"Well, don't you want to say goodbye to her?" - -"Do you suppose I'd be going off like this, Harry Murray, if I were not -going to see her again?" with as much imperiousness as a real king. - -"Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax are coming to your house to-night to supper," -Sister Julia explained. - -"They are, are they?" said Harry, somewhat gruffly. "Well, I think they -might have told Nan and me something about it all." - -"Oh! I don't," Nan cried, eagerly. "I think s'prises are lovely. I love -to be s'prised." - -"And I love to s'prise people," said Reginald; "and so Mamma Fairfax -planned for me to do it." - -"Now I guess you're all ready," Sister Julia remarked, wisely changing -the subject, as she tucked the linen lap-robe close about Nan, so that -her stiffly-starched little gingham dress should not puff out against -the wheel. - -"Where are the dogs?" asked Harry, looking forward to their -establishment in his home with possibly as much interest as to that of -their little master. - -Regie gave a loud, shrill whistle. That was one of the few things he -could do just as well as before he broke his leg, and so he seemed to -take special delight in doing it. Hereward and Ned came bounding from -some point back of the house, and Pet, seeming to understand that all -was in readiness, started off of his own accord. Hereward and Ned, -comprehending at once that they were to be allowed to follow, flew -hither and yon in the wildest manner, bringing up at the cart every few -minutes as if to report proceedings. - -"Regie, why do you always say Papa Fairfax and Mamma Fairfax, instead -of just papa and mamma?" Nan asked presently. Evidently she had been -turning the matter over in her mind for some seconds. - -"Because--because--" Regie hesitated,--"because, don't you know, I'm -adopted." - -"'Dopted," said the children, in one breath. Reginald nodded his head in -the affirmative, and sat thoughtfully watching the sand as it fell from -the wheel with each revolution. If he had looked into Nan's face or -Harry's he would have seen a world of wonder in it. - -Finally Nan said, in a very sympathetic way, as though she felt it must -be something very dreadful,-- - -"I do not know just what being adopted means, but have you always been -so?" - -"Almost always. You see, Nan, my own father died when I was a little -fellow, and then Papa Fairfax, who was my father's best friend, took me -for his own little boy; and that being took is being adopted." - -In certain earnest moments Regie often forgot all about grammar. - -"O--h!" said Nan. - -It is astonishing how much that one word may mean when one gives it the -right inflection. As Nan used it, it stood for "Yes, I understand now; -you need never say another word about it, but isn't it strange? Not your -own father and mother! I shall have to do a great deal of thinking about -that." - -By this time Pet had travelled the half mile between the cottages, but -without doubt Hereward and Ned had made two miles of it. Regie half -believed they had understood the conversations going on about them, and -knew that they were to be permitted to enjoy, for three months longer, -the freedom of their life by the sea, instead of being cooped up in the -cramped backyard in town. At any rate, they were a pair of very jolly -dogs that warm September morning. - -[Illustration: 5041] - -[Illustration: 0042] - - - - -V. GOODNIGHT AND GOODBYE - - -[Illustration: 9042] - -T was quite an event in the Murray family to have such people as the -Fairfaxes come to supper, and perhaps it was not strange that great -preparations were being made; but you might have thought that Mrs. -Murray expected Mrs. Fairfax to go straight through her cottage on a -tour of critical inspection. The whole house was put in _apple-pie_ -order--whatever that may mean--from the cool, clean-smelling cellar, to -the little triangular attic, redolent of thyme and sage and other dried -things hanging from the rafters. Not that there was ever much disorder -in that neat little household; but the fact that the Fairfaxes were -coming seemed to lend an extra touch of thoroughness to everything that -Mrs. Murray did. - -Soon after the children's arrival Sister Julia knocked at the door, and -was warmly welcomed. She busied herself right away with unpacking the -trunks, which had been sent down that morning, while Regie sat at the -pretty curtained window of the room that was to be his, telling Sister -Julia where to put his own particular treasures. Already he was fond of -that little window, from which he could look straight out to sea. - -Nan was busy in the kitchen, cutting out the thinnest of little round -cookies from dough that her mother had mixed. Some of them were already -in the oven, and sending such a delicious savoury smell up into Regie's -room! - -Harry was active, making things comfortable for Ned and Hereward in the -barn. - -[Illustration: 0043] - -It was a very happy afternoon all round, though withal a trifle sad too; -for there is always something in the atmosphere more or less depressing -on the eve of any decided change, no matter how satisfactorily -everything may have been arranged for everybody. At six o'clock Mr. and -Mrs. Fairfax came down the beach, and at half-past six supper was on -the table. Such an inviting little supper-table, with its snowy cloth, -polished plated service, and shining glass lamp in the centre, to say -nothing of innumerable good things to eat, including a dish heaped high -with a delicious "floating island," such as few besides Mrs. Murray know -how to make. The canary, in his cage over the plants, was singing away -for dear life, as if he wanted to make the occasion just as merry as -possible; and Hereward and Ned, who must have sniffed the buttered toast -and broiled mackerel from outside, scratched away at the door trying to -gain admission. Then they bounded to the window, and planting their -paws upon the sill, peered in with a most beseeching look on their -intelligent faces. - -I wonder what they thought of what they saw? - -The family were standing at their places at the table with their heads -bowed, and Captain Murray was asking a blessing, a long blessing with -a little prayer midway, for the dear friends going on so "distant a -journey." - -Ah! Ned and Hereward, there lies the difference; true and loving and -grateful as you are, you cannot comprehend that there is a Father in -heaven willing to hear and answer the prayer of, every soul He has -created. - -"Let the good fellows in to-night," said Captain Murray, when the -blessing was over, and he discovered the dogs at the window. Harry -unlatched the door only too gladly, and they came leaping in; but acting -under orders from their lord and master, soon dropped quietly down in -one corner to wait as patiently as possible for their own supper time. -Regie sat next to Mamma Fairfax, holding his fork in the wrong hand now -and then, that he might give her left hand a squeeze under the table. -Regie was happy and contented, and yet there was a real little ache in -his heart. She was going a long way from home, that dear Mamma Fairfax -of his, and how could he help feeling somewhat sad about it? - -Mr. Fairfax was apparently very full of fun that night, and amused the -children, telling of certain strange pranks of his own when he was a -boy. - -Mrs. Murray laughed whenever the others did, but she really did not hear -much that was going on, she was so thoroughly preoccupied in seeing if -Mrs. Fairfax would not have another biscuit, or if Mr. Fairfax's cup was -empty, and in caring that everyone had plenty to eat. When supper was -finished, Sister Julia in her quiet, helpful way insisted upon aiding -Mrs. Murray to clear the table. Little Nan attended to her regular share -of the work, and as a result, soon paraded a wonderfully bright row of -tumblers on the lowest shelf of the dresser. When the red cloth had been -laid on the table, Captain Murray brought out a great map, and they all -gathered about while Mr. Fairfax showed them the plan of their journey. - -"You'll get it out often and keep track of us, won't you?" he said to -Regie, taking the crutches from his hand and lifting him to his knee. - -"Every night," Regie promised, solemnly. - -"Not every night, Rex," said Mr. Fairfax. "That will not be necessary, -because you see we shall spend a week in London, and another whole week -in Berlin, and two weeks perhaps in Paris." - -"Shall you?" asked Regie, ruefully. - -"Why, to be sure; have you any objections, Rex?" - -"Oh, I thought you'd keep going and going until you got back again. I -shall not like to think of you as stopping so long anywhere." - -"We shall come home just as soon," laughed Mr. Fairfax, giving that -little adopted boy of his the most genuine sort of a fatherly hug. - -All too soon it was nine o'clock, and time for the children to go to -bed. - -Mrs. Fairfax went up herself with Regie. Sister Julia had been up before -her and lighted the candle, and laid Regie's night-dress out on the bed. - -"You will try not to give Mrs. Murray any trouble, won't you, dear?" -said Mrs. Fairfax, helping Regie to undress. - -"Yes, I will, Mamma Fairfax," Regie answered, with a little quiver in -his voice. - -"And you will write to me once a week?" - -"Yes, mamma," with two little quivers. - -"And you will do just as Sister Julia tells you?" - -"Yes," and with a great sob Regie hid his face on her shoulder. - -"Why, Rex darling, do you really care so much?" said Mrs. Fairfax, with -tears in her own eyes. "Well, I am proud that you do, and you will be -all the more glad to have us home again. In the meantime, you will be -very happy in this dear little home with Harry and Nan." - -"Yes, I know I will," said Regie, with a shadow of a smile. - -"And your little crutches will be hanging on the wall long before that -time, because you will have no further need of them." - -"Yes, I know," said Regie, with a face almost wreathed in smiles at the -thought, as he scrambled into bed. - -Then Mr. Fairfax ran up the little flight, two steps at a time, to bid -him good-bye. - -There was considerable whispering and hugging between the little fellow -inside the bed and the big fellow outside, and then in another moment -Papa Fairfax was gone. - -And then it was Mamma Fairfax's turn. "I will send Sister Julia right -up," she said, for Regie should not be left alone that night. "And now -two of your best hugs and five of your best kisses--and now, my own dear -little Rex, good-night and goodbye." - -[Illustration: 5046] - -[Illustration: 0047] - - - - -VI. IN THE HIGHLAND LIGHT - - -[Illustration: 9047] - -T nine o'clock Thursday evening Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax had bade farewell -to their friends at Moorlow. At nine o'clock Friday morning the train -whirled by on its way to Sandy Hook, and then they waved good-bye from -the car windows, as they had promised, to Regie and Harry and Nan, who, -seated on a pile of railroad ties, had been watching and waiting for the -train a long half hour. At nine o'clock Saturday morning Mr. and Mrs. -Fairfax went on board the _Alaska_, which some one has called "the -greyhound of the sea," and a half hour later the good ship steamed out -into the Bay. - -"Well, I suppose you've seen the last of 'em," said Captain Murray, -joining the little party just as the train had disappeared, and looking -closely at Regie to see how he was taking it. - -"The last for a while, I suppose, sir," said Regie, in a firm little -voice, but nevertheless gazing very wistfully down the track in the -direction of the vanishing train. "I would have given a good deal," he -added, "to have seen the big ship they are going on." - -"You would? Well, why not?" said the captain. "Yes, why not?" looking -from one puzzled face to the other in an amused sort of fashion. - -"Oh!" said Harry, "do you mean that you'll take us to the Highland -Light?" - -"Of course I do. Where else, to be sure? We can drive over with Dobbin -early to-morrow morning. I'll take the glass along, and we'll have a -good look at the _Alaska_, every one of us. What time does she leave the -dock, Reginald?" for the honest captain believed in calling people and -things by their right names. - -"Half-past nine, sir," said Regie, promptly, for he was well posted on -all the details of the projected journey. - -"Then she'll round the Hook about eleven.". - -"Is the lighthouse very high?" asked Regie, his face aglow with -excitement. - -"High enough to see a long way out to sea," answered the captain. - -[Illustration: 0048] - -"I was not thinking of that," said Regie, rather ruefully. "I was -thinking I could not climb up so very many stairs with these crutches." - -"But you can go up mighty easy without them. See! just like this," and -Captain Murray caught Regie in his arms as easily as Regie himself would -have lifted a kitten. "Bring the crutches, Nan," he added, "there's no -use in staying here any longer." - -[Illustration: 0050] - -"I believe Papa and Mamma Fairfax would like to know we were looking -at them," said Regie, with his arms clasped firmly round the captain's -neck. "They could not see us, but they could know we were there." - -"To be sure," said the captain, making use of those three monosyllables -on every possible occasion; "and we'll stop at the railroad station on -our way home now, and telegraph them to be on the lookout for us." - -"You're a magnificent captain!" said Regie, never hesitating to express -honest admiration. - -"I'm glad you think so," replied the captain, tightening his hold of the -warm-hearted little fellow, "but unfortunately your saying so does not -make it true." - -"But, papa, it is true," said Nan, loyally, catching hold of her -father's coat, and trudging along by his side. "All the men say so at -the Life-saving Station, and I guess they ought to know." - -"None of them have ever been to sea with me, Nan." - -"They know about you all the same," said Harry, with a significant -shake of his head; for he was very proud of his tall father, and of his -handsome weather-beaten face. - -They had reached the little Gothic railroad station, and Captain Murray -sat Regie down on the operator's table while he wrote this telegram on -one of the yellow paper blanks:-- - -"Mr. Curtis Fairfax, - -"No. --, Wall St., New York. - -"The children will wave you good-bye from the Highland Light at eleven -o'clock to-morrow, rain or shine. - -"Epher Murray." - -In two hours back came this answer:-- - -"Captain Epher Murray, - -"Moorlow, New Jersey. - -"Good for you. Keep a sharp lookout for special signals. - -"C. Fairfax." - -"A sharp lookout for special signals!" the words kept ringing in the -children's ears. - -"What can he mean to do--my darling old Papa Fairfax?" thought Regie, as -he dropped off into a sound sleep that night. - -At eight o'clock the next morning, Sister Julia and Regie and Nan -climbed into the back seat of Cap-. tain Murray's waggon, while Harry -took the place beside his father in front. - -[Illustration: 8051] - -Faithful old Dobbin broke straightway into a canter, bound for the -"Highland Light," and fortunately for the party there was no "rain," but -plenty of "shine" instead. - -Down the fine boulevard they went, past the fine houses, through -Sea Bright, with its queer medley of summer cottages, hotels, and -fishermen's huts; then crossing and recrossing the track again and -again, because the drive on that narrow strip of land between the ocean -and the Shewsbury river constantly accommodates itself to the curves of -the railroad; over the rickety Highland Bridge, stopping to pay toll -on the draw; past the bevy of cottages, where a number of actors and -actresses have established a little colony of their own; up the steep -hill, with the great seams washed in the road by the heavy rains, but -wide enough and deep enough to seem more like the work of an earthquake; -finally coming to a halt at the gate which opens on the rear of the -grand old lighthouse. - -"Why, how do you do, captain? Want to show the youngsters through the -light?" asked the keeper, appearing in the doorway at the sound of the -waggon wheels. - -"Want to do more than that," answered Captain Murray, lifting his little -party out one by one; "want to see the _Alaska_ off for Europe." - -"Friends on board?" - -"This little chap's father and mother." - -"Oh, that's it, is it?" said the keeper. "But what's happened the little -fellow?" glancing at Regie's crutches. - -"He fell from a cherry tree a few week ago," Sister Julia explained, as -they walked towards the house. - -"Stealing cherries, eh?" chuckled the man, giving Regie a significant -little nudge. - -"Indeed, I wasn't," answered Regie, with some indignation. - -"Why, Reginald, he is only joking," Sister Julia said, reprovingly. - -"Of course I was," said the keeper. "Such a bright little fellow as you -look to be ought to know when a man's joking." - -"Yes, I know I ought," Regie answered, blushing. "I spoke before I -thought; you must excuse me, Mr. Keeper." - -"'Mr. Keeper,'" laughed the man, "well! that's a new name for Joe -Canfield; but I like it, and you're a mighty honest little fellow. When -you're ready to go up, you can leave your crutches below here, and I'll -carry you over every one of those blessed stairs myself." - -"You'd better let papa do that," said Nan, "he's pretty heavy, and we -wouldn't have anything happen to him for the world." - -"Do you think I would drop him, little one? Never you fear; I could -carry you both as well as not;" whereupon Nan started to travel briskly -up the stairs, as if to show him she was quite equal to doing her own -climbing. - -"Bide a bit, miss," called the keeper. "You won't be able to sight the -_Alaska_ for a half hour yet. If you want to understand about the light -you'd better look about down here first." Then he led the way into a -room on the ground floor, where the oil for the lights was stored, -the little party following him closely, with the exception of Captain -Murray, whom the children were glad to have go "on watch" in the balcony -of the light, for fear, by any chance, the _Alaska_ should be sighted -ahead of time. - -"I suppose you have noticed before you came in, ma'am," said Keeper -Canfield, addressing Sister Julia, "that this lighthouse has two -towers and two lights? The dwellings for the keepers' families are in -between 'em, and there we live as cosy and comfortable as can be. If you -have time when you come down you must take a peep at our baby. Have you -ever seen a lighthouse baby?" he added, turning to Nan. - -"Never," said Nan, seriously. - -"Well, a lighthouse baby is worth seeing, for somehow or other they look -brighter than ordinary babies. It seems as though they were born with -a notion that their two eyes must cheer us old codgers on life's great -sea, just as the lights in the tower there cheer the sailors." - -The children looked wonderingly up at their guide, not quite sure -whether he were in earnest or no. - -"Now, you see," he continued, "this is the room where we store the -oil, and how much do you suppose we burn in a year? Forty-five hundred -gallons! We burn mineral oil, that is, oil that comes out from the -ground through the oil wells." - -The room in which they were standing was flanked with wooden boxes, each -containing a full oil-can, and everything was scrupulously neat, for not -a speck of dust was to be seen anywhere. - -"Now I guess we had better go up," said the keeper, when a good many -questions had been asked and answered, "and we'll go easy, so as not to -lose our breath;" then, taking Regie's crutches in one hand, he lifted -him into his arms. - -"And, Nan," said Sister Julia, "you had better take hold of my hand, for -fear your little head should grow dizzy on this winding flight." - -Of course Harry was half-way up before the rest of the party had even -started. - -The keeper landed Regie safely right inside the light itself, and indeed -it was large enough to hold them all. What a marvellous place it was! It -seemed as though they were in a beautiful crystal house, for they were -surrounded by tier after tier of glass prisms, so arranged as to project -the light from the lantern against a series of brass reflectors at the -back, and they, in turn, throw the light twenty-five miles out to sea. - -The children were too much awed by the wonderful contrivance to even -speak, until Harry slipped out of the light and peered in at them -through the glass. It made him look very funny--eyes, nose, mouth, every -feature appeared to be drawn out lengthwise by the prisms. - -"Why, Harry Murray!" cried Nan, "you're a disgrace to the family. I -never saw anything so ugly in all my life!" - -"I wish you could come out here and have a look at yourself, then," -Harry called back. "Your head is about two inches high, and two feet -wide. You could stand in a bandbox, you are so short, but it would take -a dozen of 'em to hold you the other way!" - -Nan and Harry were so much amused with these ridiculous distortions -that Reginald was the only one who really paid attention to the keeper's -description of the lantern, but he listened sagely, and plied questions -fast enough to atone for the indifference of the others. Harry might be -partially excused for his inattention, on the ground that he had been -through the light two or three times before. As for Nan, it must be -confessed that she was not of an inquiring turn of mind. - -"There's one sad thing about this light," said the keeper to Reginald, -who sat on a little stool with his crutches laid across his knees. -"There's one very sad thing, and that is, that some sailors do not -understand what it is for at all. They seem to be fascinated by it, and -they steer straight for it, and of course there's no help in the end, -but that they all get wrecked on the bar." - -"Why, that's very queer," said Reginald. "I should think a man wasn't -fit to be a sailor at all unless he understood about lighthouses and -things." - -"So it would seem," said the keeper, with a shrug; "but I've thought -sometimes that the trouble is with their steering apparatus, and that -the poor things are more to be pitied than blamed. The moment they come -in sight of the light, their helms seem to get bewitched, and first -thing they know their queer-rigged little crafts are headed straight for -the light, and on they come, sort of in spite of themselves, and with -death staring them right in the face." - -"Have there been many wrecks lately?" asked Reginald, his eyes as large -as saucers. - -"Five last night." - -Regie stared at the man with a look that meant plainly, "I don't believe -a word of it," and the keeper laughed outright. Sister Julia, sitting at -the top of the little flight of stairs just outside the lantern, watched -him with an amused smile on her face; and Nan, who was listening now, -was interested enough to wish that she had heard it all. - -"You think that I am telling you a yarn, don't you, youngster?" said the -keeper to Regie, "but 'pon honour it is every word true. If you don't -believe it, I'll show you the five little wrecks lying in a row on a -bench in the yard, just as I picked 'em up this morning." - -"Picked 'em up!" said Regie, scornfully. - -"Yes, sir, picked 'em up. The reason you don't understand me is because -you spell sailor with an "o," but in this case you must spell it with an -"e"--sailers, you see--which is only another name for birds, you know." - -It was Regie's turn to laugh now. "You fooled me pretty well," he said; -but Nan looked more ready to cry. - -"Do you mean," said she, "that five little birds flew against this -lantern last night, and killed themselves?" - -"Five last night, and six the night before," said the man, as though the -truth must be told, no matter how unpleasant. - -"Ship ahoy!" shouted Captain Murray from the tower balcony, where he -had been on watch for the last half hour. All knew what that meant, and -Sister Julia and Nan and Harry hurried down the little flight that led -from the lantern to the balcony, and the keeper quickly caught Regie in -his arms again. - -"Where is she?" cried Regie, impatiently, as though he could hardly wait -for an answer. - -"You can see her with the naked eye," replied the captain, "away off -there in a direct line from the Hook. I knew her build and rig the -moment she came in sight; but she's flying a queer sort of flag," -putting his glass to his eye. - -"Perhaps it's the special signal Mr. Fairfax telegraphed us to look out -for," said sister Julia. - -"Please let me have a look," cried Reginald, almost pulling the glass -from Captain Murray's hands in his eagerness. It took a moment to -adjust it to his eyesight, and then he exclaimed, almost breathless with -excitement. "Yes, there's a big red flag with some large yellow thing on -it. Oh, I know, it's a flag from one of Papa Fairfax's warehouses, and -the yellow thing is a coffee canister; see, Captain Murray, see if it -isn't." - -Captain Murray took the glass back again. "Yes, you're right, Reginald," -he said; "but there's something on the flag beside the canister, -something that looks like letters." - -"Perhaps it is a message," cried Rex, fairly wild with excitement. "Oh! -please let me see if I can make them out." Once again the glass was -quickly re-adjusted to Regie's sight, while Nan and Harry pressed their -faces close to his, as though being as close as possible to the glass -was the next best thing to looking through it. "Yes, they are letters," -said Regie more calmly, "big white letters, and the first is a G, I -think, and the next an O, but the flag waves so I cannot read the rest." - -"'Perhaps it's 'Good-bye,'" said Nan. - -"Of course it is," cried Regie, "I see the B now, and the E; but there's -another word besides. Try, Nan, if you can make it out," and Regie with -much self-denial gave up his place at the glass. - -Wind and tide seemed always to favour little Nan, for at that very -moment a stiff breeze caught the flag and held it out bravely, so that -she read "Good-bye, Regie," as easily as from her spelling book at -school. - -Oh! how the message thrilled through and through Regie's excited little -frame. - -[Illustration: 9057] - -To think that Papa Fairfax cared so much for him as to take all that -trouble; and right then and there a prayer went silently up from Regie's -full heart that he might never do anything to grieve him--never. - -Quickly the glass was passed from one to another that all might have a -look. - -"Oh, if we only could signal back somehow!" said Sister Julia, -earnestly. - -"And what is to hinder, dear?" answered the keeper's wife, who had -toiled up to the tower with the baby in her arms. - -"Daniel," she added, turning to her husband, "run to the parlour and -pull down the curtain from the double window. That's big enough for them -to distinguish." - -Big enough for them to distinguish! you would have thought so could you -have seen the great expanse of turkey red that floated from the tower a -few minutes later. - -"They see it! they see it!" shouted Harry, whose turn it was now at the -glass. "They're dipping their colours." - -"So they are!" every one cried, for no glass was needed to discern that. - -With happy, wistful eyes Regie watched the great _Alaska_ till she was -a mere speck on the horizon; then the little party turned their faces -homeward, and from that moment Regie looked eagerly forward to the day -when they should come sailing back again. - - -[Illustration: 0058] - - - - -VII.--A TRIP TO BURCHARD'S - - -[Illustration: 9058] - -EEMS to me, peaches must be at their best about now, father," Mrs. -Murray said to the captain, as they sat at breakfast one morning, about -a week after Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax had sailed. - -"Shouldn't wonder, Mollie," replied the Captain, and then he said -nothing more, for he was busy with his own thoughts. - -"Shouldn't wondering doesn't help matters any," said his wife at last, -impatiently. "What's to be done about 'em, Epher?" - -"About what, Mollie?" asked the captain, for he had really forgotten -what she was talking about. - -"Why! the peaches, to be sure. You must be having one of your -absent-minded turns." - -"I was thinking, Mollie," he answered, "about getting some new blankets -and tarpaulins for the crew. That is more like minding my own business -than being absent-minded, it strikes me." - -Captain Murray had had charge of the Moorlow Life-saving Station for -eight years, and had just accepted a new appointment. - -"I guess you'd say I hadn't been minding mine, if I let the fall go by -without doing up any peaches. Nobody sets more store by my preserves -than you do, Epher Murray, but you'll have few enough to set store by -this year, unless you do something pretty quick about 'em." - -[Illustration: 0059] - -"Well! well! I'll send word over to Burchard's orchard; that's all -that's needed, isn't it?" - -"And who will you send, I'd like to know?" - -It seemed to Mrs. Murray as though the captain might offer his own -services for such an all-important matter as this preserving. - -"Couldn't the children drive over for them?" asked Sister - -Julia, who always endeavoured to make things as comfortable as possible -for everybody. - -"The very thing!" Regie exclaimed. - -"Oh! do let us go, father," cried. Harry and Nan together. - -"Of course you can go," answered Captain Murray, only too willing to -give a permission that freed him from any responsibility in the matter. - -To be allowed to go by themselves all the way to Burchard's orchard -seemed quite an adventure in the eyes of the children, and they were -anxious to be off but certain things must needs be first attended to. -Nan had various little indoor duties, which kept her busy for a while -every morning, and Harry had regular morning work in the neighbourhood -of the wood pile. As for Regie, Sister Julia said, kindly but firmly, -that "he could not stir a step till he had written a letter to Papa -Fairfax." Harry soon succeeded in finishing his task, and hurried out -to the barn, as he thought, to help the man, Joe, to put Pet into the -harness. What was his disappointment to find the barn empty. He knew in -a moment that Joe must have taken him to be shod, for ponies, as well -as little people, seem to need shoeing very often, and he rushed back to -the house in a great state of excitement. - -Regie was struggling with his letter, with Sister Julia sitting by as an -authority in the matter of spelling. - -"Say," cried Harry, appearing on the scene, "there isn't a sign of Pet -in the barn. I s'pose they've taken him off to be shod, and there's no -telling when they'll bring him back." His manner showed so very plainly -what he thought, that he hardly needed to have added that "he thought it -was very mean indeed." - -"I think it is very mean, too!" said Regie; "seems to me I ought to be -told when my own pony needs shoeing, and not have him walked off just -when I want to use him." - -"If that is the case you had better off with my head, then, King Regie," -laughed Sister Julia; "for I am the guilty one. The moment it was -decided that you should go to the orchard I sent Joe off with Pet, for -it would never do to have him cast a shoe on such a long drive." - -"Oh, that's all right then," said Regie, apologetically. He had a -foolish trick of growing indignant over many things, because he would -not wait to find out the true facts of a case. This may be said in his -favour, however, that when he found himself in the wrong, which was very -often, he was always ready to admit it,--an honest, winning trait which -is somewhat rare in this self-confident world of ours. - -"Now run along, Harry," said Sister Julia. "This letter of Reginald's -must go out by to-morrow's steamer, and if he does not hurry, Pet will -be at the door long before he is through with it." - -Harry departed as requested, and Reginald spread his arms out on the -table, and resumed writing, accompanying every up and down stroke of -his pen with an earnest little motion of the lips, as if that were a -necessary part of the proceeding. With long pauses over certain words, -and constant appeals to Sister Julia, frequently as to the spelling of -words of which he was perfectly sure, the letter was at last finished, -and this was the result-- - -"Moorlow, Sept, 7th '85. - -"Dear Papa Fairfax,--We are all well, and having a first-rate time, and -hope you are having a good time too. The pony is just as well and fat -as ever, but Captain Murray's cow has a very lame foot. We caught a -woodchuck last Saturday, and Captain Murray's man, Joe, skinned him, and -we gave the skin to Mrs. Murray for a little rug. We have been making -darts with horseshoe nails and corks and feathers. Did you know how to -do that when you were a little boy? We have had to put the old drake in -another place. He kept picking up the little ducks and shaking them. We -are going to a peach orchard this morning (if Pet ever comes home from -being shod). So good-bye, from - -"Your loving - -"Regie. - -"P. S. It is very nice here. Captain Murray asked me to send his love -to you. Sister Julia is very kind. I love her next to you and Mamma -Fairfax.--R. F." - -The careful directing of the envelope was the work of an additional -five minutes, and Sister Julia stood ready to hand Reginald his hat and -crutches the moment it should be completed; for Harry and Nan and Pet -were waiting at the door, and all equally impatient. - -[Illustration: 0062] - -"Now, children," said Sister Julia, as they were getting stowed away in -the cart, "it is eleven o'clock, and it will take you about an hour and -a half to drive over, and you must allow the same time for driving home. -I shall be worried if you are not here by five. I shall depend upon you, -Regie, to keep watch of the time. Let us see if our watches agree." They -were found to agree to the minute, and the little party set off. Pet -was the most energetic pony; going or coming was all the same to him. -He always trotted over the ground as fast as his little legs could carry -him, seldom falling into a walk of his own accord. So it was not strange -that, with Pet's steady pattering and the children's steady chattering, -they found themselves at the peach orchard in what seemed to them a very -short space of time, though, in point of fact, they had been on the road -almost as long as Sister Julia had predicted. - -Regie was able to drive right into the orchard, for the bars of the rail -fence had been let down, and they soon came to a rough platform covered -with peach baskets, some full and some empty, over which a coloured boy, -with hands plunged into his trousers pockets, was loyally keeping guard. - -"Any peaches for sale?" asked Harry, scrambling out. - -"Lots of 'em," grinned the boy. - -"Where's Mr. Burchard?" asked Nan. - -"South corner," indicating the direction with a bob of his woolly head; -"he's got a gang of men down there with him picking." - -"Let's go and help 'em," said Harry, "we can eat all we want to and have -lots of fun," but the words were no sooner uttered than he realised that -hobbling over that rough orchard was out of the question for Regie, and -indeed it was too rough to drive farther in with the cart. - -"One of us must stay with Pet," said Regie, casually, as though there -was no other reason in the world why he should not go. Harry and Nan -scampered off, with some misgivings on Nan's part as to the kindness -of deserting her king; but the vision of a seat on a comfortable bough, -with luscious peaches within easy reach, was a stronger test than even -her loyalty could bear. - -"Want to get out?" said the coloured boy to Rex, when the children had -gone. "I'll help you," glancing significantly toward the crutches. - -"No, thank you," answered Rex, "it is too much bother;" and, foolish, -sensitive little fellow that he was, he blushed up to the roots of his -hair, as though a broken leg was something to be heartily ashamed of. - -"Lame long?" asked the boy, who seemed averse to wasting breath on any -unnecessary words. - -"Three months," said Rex, "but I'll soon be over it. I wish you'd let -down Pet's check," he added, willing to change the subject. - -"Boss pony," said the boy, carrying out Regie's request, whereupon Pet -sniffed about him, expecting something to eat. - -"Seems hungry," said the boy. - -"That can't be," said Rex, proudly; "he has all the hay and oats he -wants every day." - -"Give him a peach?" asked the boy, with elevated eyebrows. - -"Yes, if you want to." - -Jim, for that was the boy's name, picked out "a booty," as he called it, -gave it rather an unnecessary rub on the side of his old trousers, and -popped it into Pet's expectant jaws. Pet made a great fuss over it. -It could hardly be an easy matter to manage a large peach, and the -good-sized pit inside of it, with a curb bit in the mouth. - -"Do they give peaches to horses?" asked Reginald, beginning to have some -misgivings on the subject. - -"Some's feared to do it." - -"Are they afraid of the pit's sticking in their throats?" - -The boy gave a little grunt that meant "Yes, they were." Regie was -alarmed. "But you need not fear 'bout this un," added the boy; "he looks -knowin' enough to spit the pit out." Jim was right, and in a few minutes -the pit fell softly to the ground. Then the boys fell to talking about -one thing and another to while away the time, until it suddenly occurred -to Jim to put another peach into Pet's mouth. - -"I wish you had not done that," said Regie, a little provoked. "I think -he came very near choking on the other one." - -There was a sound of wheels just then, and a waggon loaded with peach -baskets came in sight, with Nan and Harry seated in front of them. -"There's old black Ned," said Jim, pointing towards the horse that was -drawing the waggon; "he eats ten peaches of a mornin', and spits the pit -out every time; but, my eyes! I reckon this pony ain't got sense enough, -arter all," for just at this point Pet began to cough and strangle most -prodigiously. - -"Pull it out, can't you?" said Rex, impatiently, whereupon the boy -simply stood and stared, plunging his hands deeper down into the depths -of his trousers pocket. Regie knew that he could get to Pet in no other -way so quickly as to scramble along his back and drop over his head. It -was the work of a moment, and the unexpected arrival of somebody on his -neck caused Pet to jerk his head so violently as to send the unlucky -stone flying out of his throat, and to land Regie in a topsy-turvy state -in front of him. Regie hardly touched the ground before Harry was at his -side, trying to help him up. Pet did not know what to make of all this, -and stood looking down at his young master with his ears pricked up and -his head on one side; but no doubt he was grateful to the transaction -that had enabled him to part company with that deplorable stone. - -"Your leg's not hurt, is it, Rex?" cried Nan, instantly appearing on the -scene. - -"I guess not. Get my crutches, please," and Nan hurried to pull them out -from under the seat of the cart. - -"Why, what's all this?" asked the man, who had been leading the horse -with the load of peaches. - -"Oh, that old coloured boy of yours gave a peach to my pony, and then, -when he choked on the pit, was too much of a coward to try and get -it out and Rex turned to wither poor Jim with one of his most kingly -glances, but Jim had vanished. - -"I should think he would take himself off," said Harry, indignantly. "If -he'd stayed round here I would have given him a piece of my mind," and -Harry made certain significant gestures with the plumpest of fists. -"Think of his letting a lame fellow like Rex come tumbling out of the -cart, rather than lift his hand to help a choking pony," and an angry -red flush shot over Harry's sun-burned face. - -Just at this moment Nan discovered a black curly-headed little pate -directly under a hole in the platform, but with Harry at this angry -pitch she did not dare to make known her discovery. Presently, when -Harry and Rex were busy getting into the cart, and the man's back was -turned, what did the little witch do but catch up an old tin pail near -at hand, dip it half full of powdered dust from the road, and pour -it down through that one small hole in the platform. There was a -spluttering sound as of suppressed choking. Nan was the only one that -noticed it, but her little face was sufficiently wreathed in smiles to -prove that "revenge is sweet" to the "gentler sex," though the revenger -be still in pinafores. - -[Illustration: 5066] - -[Illustration: 9067] - - - - -VIII.--ON THE WAY HOME - - -[Illustration: 9067] - -HEN you will surely send those peaches this afternoon?" said Harry to -the man, when all was in readiness to turn their faces homeward. - -"Surely; and if you don't hurry up they'll get there before you." - -Hurrying was just in Pet's line, and he pricked up his ears as though -he fully understood this last remark. Rex gave him the word and away -he flew, almost running against the gatepost in his eagerness to be off -from that region of coloured boys and peach stones. - -"Which way shall we go?" asked Rex, consulting his little silver watch; -"we have plenty of time." - -"Of course we have," said Nan, "and why shouldn't we stop somewhere when -there is an elegant luncheon in the bottom of this cart and we have not -taken a minute to eat it?" - -"Sure enough," Harry exclaimed, and the children stared at each other -with a look of amazement, wondering how it ever could have happened that -they should for a moment have forgotten anything so important. - -"I tell you what let's do," said Rex; "let's go home by the Rumson -Road. I know a lovely great tree, where we can rest Pet while we eat the -luncheon." - -Harry and Nan fell in with the plan, and Pet, who, with true -pony instinct, had started the shortest way home, was obliged to -right-about-face. There are not many more charming drives than that -of the Rumson Road, bordered as it is on one side by beautiful country -houses, whose windows command a near view of the river and a distant -one of the sea. Luxuriant hedges and evenly trimmed grass-plots line -the drive, and here and there a fine old tree throws a grateful shadow -athwart the red soil road. Though each of the little trio had been over -it many times before, it seemed to-day to wear a new beauty in their -eyes, and when they reached a point where it curves gracefully and two -grand old places confront each other, Nan's enthusiasm found vent. - -"Isn't it just too beautiful for anything?" she exclaimed. "Yes, it is -lovely," Rex answered,--"just like the country far away from the sea, -and yet you can see the ocean as plain as day." - -"It is a great pity," said Nan, "that plants and flowers won't grow as -they ought to, close down to the shore." She was looking at a great -bed of flowers in the midst of one of the lawns, and recalling a -little company of spindly geraniums, which she had vainly tried to make -flourish in her little garden at home, so depressing is the effect of -salt sea-fogs and sandy soil upon all growing things. "And there are no -trees to speak of near the sea," she added, with a little sigh, for she -dearly loved the green and the shade of the inland country; "nothing but -meadows of great coarse grass." - -"You forgot the lawns round the places on the boulevard, Nan," said -Harry. - -"Oh, to be sure, but the grass only grows there because they have men -to sprinkle and 'tend to it all the time. Papa says he could s'port -half-a-dozen little girls like me for what it costs for one of those -lawns a single summer." - -"That seems very extravagant," said Regie, who had quite a business way -of looking at matters. - -"I think I would like to live back here, where things grow as though -they loved it, and not because they are made to," Nan remarked, -thoughtfully. - -"Indeed, I know better, Nannie Murray; you love the sea too much to -be contented away from it a week," Harry remarked, with brotherly -superiority. "Why, mother took you to Grandma Murray's when you were -only a scrap of a baby, and you cried and fretted so she 'was ashamed of -you, and had to bring you home. The moment you caught sight of the sea -you crowed and clapped your little hands, and behaved like another baby -altogether. No, sir-ree, you'd be sick of living back here in a week." - -[Illustration: 0069] - -"Well, perhaps I would," Nan admitted, for she knew, after all, that no -sound was so sweet in her ears as the roar of the breakers on the beach, -nor anything that looked quite so beautiful to her as the dear old -ocean, whether under a blue sky or a grey one. - -By this time they had reached Regie's tree. It stood just at the top of -a little descent in the road, and not many yards away from one of the -numerous railroad crossings which traverse that part of the country. - -Rex was helped out to a comfortable seat under it. Harry took Pet out -of the shafts and tied him to a rail fence near by, while Nan, a perfect -counterpart of her energetic mother, began transferring the luncheon -from the basket to the grass, and spreading it out so that it should -look as inviting as possible. - -Then there was silence as far as any continued conversation was -concerned for the space of fifteen minutes. There was an occasional -"These biscuits are delicious," or a "Please pass me the sponge cake," -but that was all. A good appetite and plenty to gratify it generally -quiets, for the time being, even the most incessant of little -chatterboxes. - -When the luncheon was all disposed of, save a few crumbs,--which, by -the way, made a beautiful meal for a family of ants the next day,--Regie -threw himself on his back, and with hands folded under his head, looked -up into the boughs, and in dreamy fashion watched the birds flying in -and out. Harry whipped the inevitable boat hull out of his pocket and -began whittling; and Nan, as any one who knew her could have foretold, -soon discovered some sort of wild flowers at a little distance, and -wandered off to gather them. They proved to be Black-eyed Susans, as the -children call the yellow field daisies; and when she had picked them she -discovered a larger growth of the same flower farther on in the midst of -one of those luxurious wild "hedges, which often flourish along the line -of railroads in the country. Of course she must needs have these too, -and she hurried to reach them, as though half afraid that someone would -seek to rob her of the prize. Eagerly she broke the stems; with a quiet -knack placed each flower just where it would most contribute to the -effectiveness of her bouquet, and she was just turning to go back to -the boys when she spied something large and dark lying right across the -track a hundred yards away. - -"Harry! Reginald!" she cried, at the top of her voice, "come here, -quick!" at the same time shading her eyes with her hand, to discover, -if possible, what the something might be. Harry was on his feet in an -instant, for Nan was hidden from sight, and he feared some accident. -Regie reached for his crutches and followed after as fast as he could. -It seemed to Nan as though Harry never would come. "Look there," she -cried, as soon as he was within hearing distance, "What can it be?" -pointing down the track as she spoke. - -"My jimini, I believe it's a cow!" and, more courageous than Nan, -hurried on to investigate. Nan, with a pretty native thoughtfulness, -waited till Rex had hobbled up to her, and then they trudged along to -join Harry, who had reached the dark object, and stood poking at it with -a sharp-pointed stick. Yes, it was certainly a great, dark-red cow, and -the little party, gathering around her, stared at her for a few seconds -in awe-struck silence. - -"Is she dead?" asked Nan, betraying a world of emotion in her voice. - -"Looks like it, doesn't it?" said Harry, appealing to Regie. Rex shook -his head solemnly in the affirmative. - -"Oh, dear, dear!" cried Nan, "she'll be run over when the train comes." - -"It won't hurt her if she is," answered Harry, trying to assume a light -tone; but his face plainly showed that he thought it a pretty serious -matter. - -"I wonder what we ought to do?" said Rex. - -"I think we had better get right off this track this minute," Nan wisely -advised, "for there's no knowing when a train may come round the curve -yonder." So they clambered up the bank and sat down to deliberate. - -"Do you suppose she will throw the train off the track?" questioned Nan. - -"I don't believe so," said Rex, "that's what the cow-catcher is for, you -know." - -"But the trouble is they don't always catch," remarked Harry, with an -emphatic shake of his head. - -"Oh, do you suppose a train may be coming?" asked Nan, with a -perceptible little shiver. - -"How should we know, goosie?" answered Harry, with a nervous sort of -shrug. - -"But," questioned Rex, in business-like fashion, "what are we going to -do about it?" - -"Well," said Harry, "I don't see that we can do anything. I haven't an -idea where this road can run to. Perhaps it is not used now." - -"Oh, yes, it is," cried Nan. "Hark!" and she pushed back her sun-bonnet -so that she could hear more distinctly. - -Yes, surely it was a whistle, all three of the children heard it,--a -long way off no doubt; but now they hear it again, and it sounded -nearer. - -"I think we ought to run down the track and stop the train," urged Rex. - -"But how shall we do it?" Harry exclaimed. "I don't believe they would -stop just for our calling; and besides, they might not hear us; we ought -to signal somehow." - -The words "signal somehow" suggested a red flag to Nan, for she -knew that was what they used at times of danger, and the thought -suggested--well, no matter what, but she disappeared behind a bush, and -in a moment re-appeared, waving a veritable little red flag. - -"Where did you get it?" cried the boys both at once, and staring at her -in blank astonishment. - -"It is my flannel skirt," Nan replied, with cheeks well nigh as scarlet -as the skirt itself. - -"Good for you, Nan; you're a 'cute one!" and Harry quickly fastened the -skirt to the same stick with which he had poked the cow. Then he rushed -off, calling, "Come on, Nan; but Rex had better wait here." - -Poor Rex! never had he felt so thoroughly out of patience with that lame -leg of his. It seemed so hard not to be able to run with the best of -them when there was so much excitement in the wind. - -"May I go?" said Nan, appealingly, and as though she dared not stir -without permission from his little Royal Highness. - -"Of course, child," said the king, somewhat ungraciously. - -Harry hurried along the track, and rounding the curve immediately gained -a position, from which he knew the little flag could be seen from quite -a distance? He reached the spot none too soon, for by this time the -train was in sight. Right away he began waving vigorously. Nan's -sun-bonnet was hanging from her neck, and she quickly untied the strings -and shook it wildly up and down. - -[Illustration: 0073] - -"Oh, Harry! do you think they see us?" she cried. - -"See us! why, they can't help seeing us, goosie." Harry called Nan by -this name more often than by any other. He did not mean it unkindly, and -Nan did not mind. - -"They are slowing up," cried Harry, jubilantly. - -"They are slowing up," Nan repeated, in the vain hope that Rex might -hear her. The next moment the train came to a standstill, and Nan -dropped in a limp heap to the ground, for, trembling with excitement, -her little limbs, stout though they were, refused longer to support her. - -"Well, children, what's up?" shouted the engineer, from the cab of -the locomotive. "I hope you ain't stopped the train for the fun of the -thing." - -"Well, I guess not," cried Harry, indignantly. "There's a dead cow on -the track just round the curve; we were afraid she might throw your -train off." - -"Good for you," answered the man, "you may have saved us an ugly -accident. Come, Joe," he called to the fireman, as he jumped from his -engine. "Now show us where she is, Johnnie." - -"My name's Harry," suggested that small gentleman, not caring to be -addressed by the general title of Johnnie. - -"Well, then, Master Harry, lead the way." Nan stayed where she was. -The excitement of the last few moments had robbed her of all strength; -besides, she did not exactly want to see them drag that poor cow from -the track. And now the people in the train began to crane their necks -from the car windows to ascertain what might be the' cause of the delay. -A few men had gotten out and had gone ahead to investigate. - -"What's wrong, honey?" asked an old woman of Nan, whose seat on the -embankment brought her just on a level with the window. - -"There's--there's a cow on the track," answered Nan, with a big sigh -between the two "there's," as if her little heart had been quite -overburdened. - -"And de engineer saw it in time to stop de train? Tank de Lord!" -ejaculated the old woman. - -"No, no, he didn't; _we_ stopped the train," Nan answered, proudly; "the -engineer couldn't see the cow at all from here." - -"Bress my heart! how did yer do it, chile?" - -"Why, with my flannel skirt," Nan explained. She had not noticed that -others in the car were listening to their conversation, but at this -remark a coarse derisive laugh made her realise that a dozen pair of -eyes were upon her. It proved too much for her overstrung nerves. She -burst into tears and threw herself flat upon the grass, burying her face -in her hands. - -"Ye'd all oughter be ashamed o' ye'selves," said the old mammy, turning -indignantly upon the fellow-passengers, though as much mystified as any -of them by Nan's reply to her question. - -Meanwhile the cow had been pulled from the track, and Regie and Harry -were naturally much elated by the earnest commendation of the passengers -who stood about them. "Look here," said one of them, evidently a farmer, -"seems to me we ought to do something for these little people; who knows -but some of us might have been in Kingdom Come but for them." - -"That's so," answered another passenger, "but what can yer do more'n -thank 'em? they look like gentlefolks' children. I reckon they wouldn't -take money for doing a kind turn." - -"Well, I guess not," said Regie, who had overheard the last remark. - -"I thought so," answered the passenger, with a knowing wink. "He's got -the right spirit, but I'd like to know one thing: where did you get -that 'ere red flag?" - -"It's my sister's flannel skirt," said Harry. - -"And who was so awful 'cute as to think of it?" - -"Why, Nan, of course," Harry replied, and as though Nan's "'cuteness" -was a widely-accepted fact. - -They had all been walking back toward the train as they talked, and now -a warning whistle from the engineer hurried every one on board. As the -wheels of the car began to turn slowly, the old mammy was the first -to descry the little flannel skirt, whose mention had caused so much -merriment, flying from the stick, which Harry had thrust into the ground -when he had no farther use for it. - -"Oh, see!" she cried, pointing towards it, "that's how she did it--she -did make a flag of it. Now that's what I call 'cute." - -"'Cute, I should say so," exclaimed the passenger who had been talking -with Regie. "Let's give 'em three cheers as we go, one apiece, and the -last and the loudest for the girl--the smart little owner of the little -red skirt." At the sound of the hearty cheering Nan raised her head, -with a smile shining through her tears. She had heard the old mammy's -exclamation, and then she understood why the people had laughed when she -told them she had stopped the train with her flannel skirt. How stupid -of her not to have explained that she made a flag of it! Four slow puffs -from the locomotive were heard above the cheering, then a dozen short -quick ones, and in another second the train had rounded the curve and -was out of sight, though for several minutes they could hear the noise -of it growing fainter and fainter in the distance. - -"Well, now we had better hurry home," said Rex, drawing a long breath. -"It wall be seven o'clock before we get there, and Sister Julia will be -awfully worried." - -Nan readjusted the little skirt that had done such good and novel -service, and then they hurried back to Pet and the cart as fast as Regie -could manage to get over the ground. - -It was indeed nearly seven o'clock before they reached home, and Sister -Julia _was_ worried--worried enough to have been waiting at the gate an -hour, peering up and down the road in the deepening twilight, wondering -what could have happened, and which way they would come home, and -sometimes wondering if they ever would come at all. Oh! how happy she -felt when she recognised the patter of Pet's nimble feet on the hard -boulevard, long before she could discover the little turnout itself. - -"Bless your little hearts!" she cried, running to meet them, "I have -been so worried! what has kept you such a long while?" The children -tried to tell all in one breath. "Oh, lots of things," they answered. -"We had to wait to stop a train because a dead cow was on the track," -said Nan. - -"And Pet almost choked to death on a peach stone," added Rex, "and----" - -"Oh, wait a moment," said Sister Julia, putting her fingers to her ears; -"I cannot understand a word if you all talk at once." Mrs. Murray was -standing in the doorway; she had felt sure the children would come home -all right. "How about the peaches?" she asked as they came up the path, -for all this excitement did not make her forget that everything was in -readiness for preserving the next day. - -"Oh, they'll surely come to-night, the man promised faithfully," Harry -answered. "Hark! I heard a waggon; I guess they're coming now." Yes, -the waggon turned in at the gate, and Mrs. Murray's mind was as much -relieved about the peaches as Sister Julia's about the children. The -little trio did justice to an ample supper that night, and after an -hour's narration of the exciting experiences of the day, they were -perfectly willing to desert the open wood fire in the sitting-room for -downy pillows and blankets, those comfortable contrivances which waft -tired little people into the realm of slumberland. - - - - -[Illustration: 0078] - - - - -IX.--A DAY ON THE BEACH - - -[9078] - -T had been arranged that for the first week Regie and Harry and Nan -should be allowed to do pretty much as they liked, but after that -lessons should be regularly begun with Sister Julia. Rex and Harry had -reached about the' same point in their studies, but poor little Nan was -a good way behind, farther than her years would warrant. All the winter -before she had attended school at the Branch, but she had pleaded very -hard not to be sent back again. - -"It is such a large school," she had told her mother, "that when you get -ahead they have to hold you back for the other girls, and so you don't -learn very much." - -Mrs. Murray could not help smiling at her excuse for having made so -little progress, knowing well enough the fault lay in the fact that she -could not or would not apply her mind to the task which had been set -her, but Nan hailed with delight this plan for studying with Sister -Julia. Of course it had to be quite independently of the boys, because -they were so far ahead of her, but somehow or other she was really -in earnest about the matter, and did get along finely. The greatest -incentive to hard study came to her in the mortification she felt one -evening at not being able to enter into a game of Regie's, because she -could not read the printing on the cards belonging to the game. - -[Illustration: 8079] - -Now that the children had settled down to their schooling the time flew -faster than ever, and before they knew it, enough days had come and -gone to allow "Uncle Sam," one morning, to shake a letter out of his -mail-bag, directed to Regie and postmarked "London." - -"See here, Reginald, I've brought something for you," called Captain -Murray, coming with the mail, just as the children were setting off from -the house, for it was Saturday and they had planned to spend the morning -on the beach. - -"Hurrah! here's another!" shouted Regie, for he had already received -a steamer letter, which had been mailed when the _Alaska_ touched at -Queenstown. - -"Yes, another letter," answered the captain, handing it to him, "and -it's a rouser." - -Regie stood irresolute a moment. "I tell you, boys," he said, always -forgetting that Nan could not be included under this general title, "I -tell you, I'll save it till we get fixed all comfortable on the beach, -and then I'll read it to you." - -"All right; let's start," said Harry, and the little party started, -though Rex had some misgivings as to his ability to master Mamma -Fairfax's handwriting, for he knew from the direction that the letter -was from her. "We haven't played that king game much," he said, as they -trudged along. He was able to manage with a little cane now in place of -the crutches. - -"Seems to me we're kind of playing it," answered Harry, glancing down -at a heavy rug that he himself was carrying, and then over towards a -luncheon basket with which Nan was laden: "at any rate the body-guard -are sort of waiting on Your Highness." - -"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Harry Murray?" cried Nan, resenting the -indignity. "You oughtn't to expect Regie to help carry things until he -can walk as well as you and I do." - -"I hope he'll walk a good sight better than you do before very long," -retorted Harry, in a teasing mood. "See, Nan, this is the way you -always get over the ground," and Harry threw aside the rug the better to -imitate Nan's funny gait, characterised by a straightness on Nan's part -amounting to an actual bending backward, and a jerky, independent little -step. Harry hit it exactly, and Regie laughed immoderately, which was -not very polite, considering Nan's gallant defence of him a few moments -before. But Nan smiled, too, in spite of herself. - -"I can't help it if I am too straight," she said; "there's one good -thing,--straight people are not so dangerous of having consumption." - -"Look out, Nan, you'll choke if you use such big words," advised Harry. - -"No, really, I think it would be real fun to play the king game this -morning," urged Regie, as they came to a spot on the beach where, by -mutual consent, they spread out the rug and sat down. - -"All right, then," replied Harry, "and I'll be the king." - -"Then I shall not play," said Nan, "I am not going to keep changing -kings every day." - -"Of course not," Regie laughed, "you believe in the divine right, don't -you, Nan?" Regie had just learned what "divine right" meant, and proudly -aired his knowledge. - -"I don't know," said Nan, "but whenever we play I believe in your being -the king; I never could think of Harry as a king for a moment. Besides, -you're our company, and we ought to wait on you." - -"Bosh!" said Harry, "I don't call people what boards in your house, -company." - -"'What boards!'" repeated Nan. "Well, I should think you'd better brush -up your grammar, Mr. Murray. Oh, the letter," she added, nodding in the -direction of Regie's pocket. - -[Illustration: 0081] - -"Oh, to be sure; why, I'd almost forgotten it," and Rex drew out his -knife and carefully cut the envelope open at one end, after a neat -little fashion of his own. - -"'London, September 19th. My dear Reginald,'" he read, then paused, for -in the very first sentence he discovered a word that he could not quite -make out. - -"Guess I'd better read it to myself first," he said, "there may be -something private in it." Harry gave a significant cough, which meant -that it was easy enough to see through such a flimsy excuse as that. -Regie wisely paid no attention to it. Both the children knew it must -necessarily be many minutes before they would be favoured with the -contents of the letter, so Nan threw herself back on the rug, laid one -arm under her head, and gazing out over the ocean gave herself up to the -most delightful daydreams. Harry resorted to whittling, that occupation -of all leisure moments. - -Suddenly, after ten minutes of unbroken quiet, Regie began again, -making brief halts now and then before words that still proved a little -puzzling. - -"London, September 19th. - -"'My dear Reginald,--I doubt if there is a half hour in which we do not -speak of you, or five minutes in that half hour in which we do not think -of you, and so you can understand that we are pretty fond of a little -fellow we have left behind us. Indeed, Papa Fairfax said, only a few -minutes ago, that he wanted so much to see Regie that if he was not sure -that he was very happy he thinks he would have to send some one away to -America to bring him over.'" - -"Oh! do you think he will?" questioned Nan. - -"Of course not, goosie," Harry retorted, "don't interrupt again. Go on, -Rex." - -----"'But if he did,'" Regie resumed, "'you would have to hurry to -catch us, for we shall be obliged to travel pretty fast as soon as we -leave London. You do not need to get out the atlas to look up the place -where this letter comes from, do you? Even little Nan knows how London -looks on the map.'" - -"Don't believe it," muttered Harry, half under his breath, but loudly -enough for Nan to hear him. - -"Do, too," whispered Nan, with a defiant shake of her curls; "but please -don't interrupt. Go on, Rex." Rex did not mind these interruptions in -the least, as they gave him a chance to look ahead a little. - -"'It is ten years,'" he went on, reading slowly, "'since Papa Fairfax -and I were here before, and we hardly know this London in the sunshine, -for the old London of fog and rain, since we are having wonderfully -clear weather. I shall have to wait till we reach home to tell you all -about the sights of London. When you are older I shall hope to visit -with you all the places where Papa Fairfax and I have been this -morning,--Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's, and the Tower. How you will -enjoy the Tower, but in a sad sort of way, because so many sorrowful -things have happened there. Last evening we strolled in for a while to -see Madame Tussaud's wax figures, naturally looking rather more grimy -and dusty than they did ten years ago. - -"'And now, Rex, I have several other letters to send off by this same -steamer, so this must do for the present. Do not forget to write once a -week surely, either to Papa Fairfax or to me. - -"'Yours lovingly, - -"'Mamma Fairfax. - -"That's a nice letter," said Regie, gazing rather wistfully out to sea. - -"Very nice," said Nan, "but you don't want to go, do you?" - -Poor little Nan was blessed with a lively imagination. - -I say "poor Nan," for these lively imaginations play such sorry tricks -upon the little folk and big folk who happen to possess them. Nan had -but to catch a glimpse of the wistful look in Regie's eyes straightway -to make up her mind that he was unhappy and lonely, and would gladly -leave them all if he could. - -"No, I don't want to go exactly," answered Rex; "but I guess you'd feel -a little queer sometimes if that great ocean were between you and your -father and mother." - -"I do not believe I'd mind if I was on the same side of it with you, -Regie," said Nan, betraying her unbounded admiration for his little -Royal Highness. - -"Nan, you're a regular spoony," remarked Harry. - -"I don't know what a spoony is," Nan answered; "but of course it's -something horrid, or you would not call me one," and she gave a little -sigh which seemed to come almost from the soles of her boots. She did -have to put up with a great deal of teasing from this brother of hers. -Regie came to her rescue. - -"You're not a spoony, Nan, at all," he said; "and, Harry, you don't -deserve to have a sister. You do tease her awfully." - -"What's the harm?" said Harry, sullenly. "But, Nan," he added, "I wish -you would remember this, that I would not care to tease you if I did not -really love you, and that when I stop it will be a bad sign." - -"What's going on up there?" asked Nan, willing to change the subject. - -"They're getting ready for a drill at the Life-saving Station," Harry -answered, glancing in the direction toward which Nan was pointing. Regie -was on the alert in a moment. - -"Oh, are they? do let's go up there. I never saw a drill in all my life, -and I never was in a Station but once." - -[Illustration: 0084] - -It was an old story to Nan and Harry, but Regie was up and off, and the -body-guard must needs follow. - -The station was one of those low, oblong buildings, which, dotting the -coast at regular intervals, are to be found in the neighbourhood of all -sea-shore resorts in the United States, and whose well-trained crew have -been the means of saving many, many lives. This one little station at -Moorlow had the grand record of having rescued five hundred persons in -the nine years since it was established. - -"What are you going to do?" asked Rex, the moment he came within -speaking distance of two men who were dropping a coil of rope into a -box. - -"Going to have a drill," one of them answered; "there's no telling how -soon we may have a wreck, and we must be ready for it. We had two last -November." - -Regie was about to say that he hoped they would have at least two this -November, but realised what a dreadful wish that would be in time to -check himself. - -"What will be the best place to see it from?" he asked. "I would not -miss any of it for the world." - -The men were amused at his earnest manner. - -"That boat hull will be a good place," said one of them; "but you'd -better understand about things first. You see we are going to fire a -shell out of this here howitzer, and the shell is fastened-to this long -coil of rope, so that when it goes whizzing away to the wreck it carries -this rope--the whip-line we call it--with it." - -"Yes, but where's your wreck?" Regie queried. - -"Why, yonder," and the man pointed down the beach to where a piece of -timber, with cross-pieces resembling a mast, was firmly planted in the -sand. "There's our wreck, and we are going to send this rope flying over -it." - -"And what are you going to do then?" - -"Why, then, one of the men, who is supposed to be on the wreck, will -haul away on the line till the big rope which is fastened to the little -rope is drawn over, so that we can send the breeches-buoy buzzing along -the line." - -"The breeches-buoy?" questioned Regie. - -"Yes, to be sure. Have you never seen one?" - -"I think not; I was never in a Life-saving Station but once, and that -was in the summer, when there was nothing particular going on, and -nobody to tell me anything." - -"Then you come right along into the Station with me," said the man, -kindly, "and I'll show you the breeches-buoy, and some other things -besides. Why, there's Captain Murray's children," spying Harry and Nan -seated on the sand at a little distance; "they know the old Station by -heart. Hallo, Nan!" he called, "come, show this little stranger through -the Station." - -"Why, that's Reginald Fairfax, Mr. Burton," cried Nan, coming toward -them, and in a tone of surprise at such ignorance. "He lives at our -house, and he's no little stranger at all." - -"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Joe Burton, with elevated eyebrows; "well, -then, Miss Murray, please have the kindness to show Mr. Fairfax through -the Station." - -[Illustration: 0086] - -Regie would have preferred to adhere to the original plan of having -Mr. Burton for a guide, but was sufficiently polite not to betray his -preference. - -"You won't begin the drill before I come out, will you?" he called out -to Mr. Burton. - -"Never you fear," was the reassuring answer. - -Nan showed Regie through, and was able to answer all questions to the -perfect satisfaction of his little Royal Highness. First they went into -the large room where the surf-boat was kept, and the life-saving car, -which was oval in shape, with a cover fitting tightly over it. It was -large enough to hold five people, and was sent out on the line to -a wreck when the weather was too rough for the breeches-buoy. The -breeches-buoy was a funny contrivance, made to accommodate one person -at a time, and closely resembling a life-preserver in tarpaulin -knee-breeches. Attached to it was an arrangement of pulleys and wheels, -by means of which it could be run to and fro on a line from the wreck. -At the farther end of the room hung the shells which had been fired from -the mortar at different times. They were painted red, and each bore in -white letters the name of the particular wreck to which it had proved -such a welcome messenger. - -From this larger room opened the "mess room," a kitchen, where the crew -spent most of their time during the long winter months. A steep little -stairway ran up from one corner to the loft overhead where the men -slept. At one end of it a large window looked out to sea, and from the -centre of the room a short flight of ladder-like stairs led into the -cupola which surmounted the Station, and from which you see a great -distance in every direction. The view from the cupola this clear October -morning was glorious. - -The water was wonderfully blue, with here and there a white sail -skimming over it, as lightly and airily as the fleecy clouds across the -blue of the sky. Regie and Nan stood side by side, taking in the beauty -of the scene. Presently Nan said, "Yes, I do love the ocean so, it seems -to me I couldn't live away from it; as though I should die if I had to, -the same as little plants and things die without water." - -"Yes, I guess you would," answered Regie; "and do you know, Nan, I -believe you must have been born on just such a day as this, for your -eyes have the same shade of blue in them as the sea. Besides, you are -like a little wave anyway, a daring little wave that comes scampering -way up the beach and then--and then----," Rex paused. He was sure he -had hold of a very fine idea, but somehow he could not get on. A -half-suppressed giggle from the stairway did not help matters much, -nor a whispered, "Guess you're stuck, old fellow." Harry always had a -faculty for turning up when he was not wanted, and never when he was. -Nan was thoroughly provoked at him. She liked what Rex was saying about -her being just a little wave of the sea, and now she should never -know how he was going to finish. But for Rex Harry's coming was quite -fortunate, for he was himself quite at a loss to know how he should -wind up the flowery little speech begun so bravely. - -"You two spoonies had better come down," Harry added, descending the -little flight of stairs as noiselessly as he had come. Just then one of -the men waved his hand as a sign that the drill was about to commence, -and the children hurried down to join Harry, where he sat comfortably -established on the hull of the old boat. The drill amounted to little -more than a series of experiments with the breeches-buoy. The whip-line -was shot over the improvised mast, and one after another all the crew -got into the buoy and came spinning down the line. - -"Oh! I should think that would be such fun," said Regie; "but unless -we're wrecked some day I suppose we'll never have a chance to try it." - -"Why not?" said Harry; "I warrant you they'll let us play with it awhile -when the drill's over. I'll ask one of the crew." - -"Seeing as you're Captain Murray's children we can't refuse you," -answered Joe Burton, "but look out for yourselves, that you don't get -a tumble. The little 'un had better not try it." With Harry's help Rex -managed to climb the ladder attached to the mast, and after they had -each had two or three rides apiece, Nan could resist the temptation no -longer. Watching her chance when the boys were standing for a moment -with their backs turned, she clambered up the ladder, and dropped into -the buoy. It was a very funny sight, the red-stockinged legs dangling in -mid-air, and the blue eyes just peering over the edge of it, for she -was such a little tot as to be quite swallowed up by this contrivance -intended for grown-up people. But oh! the fun of it. It seemed more like -flying than anything else in the world, and in regular turn Harry and -Rex and Nan took ride after ride. - -[Illustration: 0088] - -Never, I venture, did three children enjoy a morning of rarer sport, or -do better justice to such a delicious dinner as they found waiting for -them when they went home at noon. - -[Illustration: 5089] - -[Illustration: 9090] - - - - -X. A LAND BREEZE. - - -[Illustration: 9090] - -RIP! drip! drip! that was the sound that woke Sister Julia the next -Saturday morning. It was the splash of water dropping from the eaves of -the cottage on to the tin roof below. As soon as she heard it she gave -a little half sigh, for what did it foretell but a rainy Saturday? and a -rainy Saturday in that little cottage was likely to prove rather a -sorry affair. In the first place it was a small cottage at any time, -and doubly so on a rainy holiday, when three restless children must find -their amusement within doors. In the second place, these three little -people had a fashion of regarding a rainy Saturday as a sort of personal -grievance, and accordingly indulged in considerable fretfulness. - -On this particular morning Master Harry Murray hearing the ominous -splashing, tumbled out of bed and flattened his gloomy little face -against the pane. - -"Is it raining?" called Nan, in a most woe-begone voice, from her bed in -her own room. - -"Raining? I should think so!" Harry called back. "It's raining cats and -dogs, and it is not going to stop for a minute all day. Besides, there's -an awful fog. It's pretty hard lines, it strikes me, to study all the -week with the sun shining bright, and then have it rain on your only -holiday. I just wish I could have the managing of things in this old -world for a while." - -"I don't, then," called Nan; "it would be an awful hard world for girls. -You wouldn't think of a thing but just what would please the boys." - -Harry did not hear all of this, for he had flounced back into bed, -drawing the blanket tight over his head, as though he meant to stay -there for the rest of the day at any rate. Soon certain familiar odours, -suggestive of a favourite breakfast, began to steal through his room, -and his head gradually appeared above the covers, as though he were -debating in his mind whether on the whole it would not be better to get -up. A moment later the debate came to an end, for he heard his father's -voice, and pricking up his ears it was easy enough to hear what he was -saying. - -"Look here, mother!" were the words that reached him, "the next time -Harry is so late to breakfast he must go without it; I mean it, mother. -The boy seems to be losing all regard for discipline. You can't manage a -boy without discipline, no more'n a crew." - -So it was not strange that Harry no longer questioned the advisability -of getting up, but springing out of bed and dressing in a jiffy managed -to put in an appearance at the table just as everyone else had finished. -Mrs. Murray dropped some cakes on the griddle especially for him, and -the lazy little fellow fared much better than he deserved. Mrs. Murray -had a very soft spot in her heart for this only boy of hers, and Captain -Murray's threat that another time Harry should go fasting set that soft -spot to aching, and made her anxious to fortify him against such an -emergency by heaping his plate high on this particular morning. - -"Now I propose," said Sister Julia, after breakfast, when the children -were moping and growling in the sitting-room, "that we have regular -lessons to-day, and then you can take the first clear day as a holiday -instead." - -"No, sir-ree," answered Harry, decidedly. "You don't catch me studying -on Saturday for nobody." - -He felt rather ashamed of this speech as soon as it was uttered, but -this was not a day when he was going to ask any one's pardon, not -he--not even Sister Julia's, though he was very fond of her. - -"You ought to be made to study every moment till you learn enough -grammar to know that you ought never to use two negatives in one -sentence," said Regie, indignant at the way in which Harry had spoken. - -"What do you say to that proposition yourself, Regie?" asked Sister -Julia. . - -"Well, to tell the truth, I don't feel much like it," said Regie; "my -head aches a little." - -"And mine aches like everything," and Nan threw herself on to the lounge -and plunged her face into the sofa pillow, as though smothering itself -were preferable to life on a rainy Saturday. - -"Oh, dear me! what a disconsolate little trio," cried Sister Julia; "the -wisest thing doubtless for me to do will be to take refuge in my own -room and write some letters. When your troubles grow insupportable, come -up, and we'll all try to be as miserable as possible together." - -In their hearts that little trio must have felt very much ashamed of -themselves, but they continued to mope and fret for another hour. By -this time Mrs. Murray had gotten through with her morning work, and -notwithstanding the rain, had gone in the buggy with Captain Murray to -take some milk and fresh eggs to a sick woman down at the Branch. - -"Oh, look here!" called Harry, wandering into the kitchen, and -discovering that he was monarch of all he surveyed, "we've got -everything to ourselves, we ought to have a regular good time, and do -something unusual." - -"Let's play tag through the doors," cried Nan, proposing a game they -were seldom allowed to indulge in because of the general disturbance and -racket. - -"No," said his little Royal Highness, in an authoritative way, "we'll -have private theatricals. We'll act out a play," he added, when he saw -by Nan's puzzled frown that she did not quite take in his idea. - -"Good for you!" cried Harry, "that'll be the greatest fun. But oh! what -do you suppose?" he exclaimed, suddenly lowering his voice to an excited -whisper,--"crouch! crouch down, both of you; this way, close to the -window." - -"What--what is it, Harry?" Nan asked, frightened at this strange -performance, and regarding Harry in much the same dazed, sympathetic -fashion as she had watched her little kitten endure the horrors of a fit -the day before. - -"Drop, drop, both of you!" was Harry's hoarse answer. "Don't you see? -the Croxsons are coming." - -[Illustration: 0093] - -Oh! that was it, the Croxsons were coming! Regie and Nan quickly obeyed -Harry's order. - -"How many of 'em?" asked Nan, from her prostrate position. - -"The whole five," Harry answered, hopelessly; "but I don't believe they -can see any of us, and if Sister Julia only does not hear them knock, -and come down, they'll go away again and think no one's at home. Now, -don't let's say a word." - -There was the patter of two pairs of little feet without, and the -scuffle of three pairs of others, and then there came a vigorous -knocking at the kitchen door, again repeated after an interval of a few -moments. The children held their breath. - -"Guess they're all out," they heard Joe Croxson say, disconsolately. - -"I think it's kind of mean to keep them out in the pouring rain," Nan -whispered. - -"And I know it is," answered Regie. "I say, let 'em in," and it was no -sooner said than done. - -Immediately the Croxsons crowded in after the manner of a rubber ball -which may be forced through a very small aperture. They all contrived -somehow or other to get through the door at once, but straightway spread -out into so large a company that one could but wonder how they had -managed it. None of them spoke a word till they were safely within -doors, evidently deeming conversation of no importance in comparison -with simply "getting in." - -"We made up our minds you were all out," said Joe Croxson, at last, -while the family were in the process of removing damp-smelling outer -garments. - -"We thought we'd fool you a while," Harry answered, with a nonchalant -air. - -The Croxsons were too glad to have gained entrance to take such -treatment much to heart. "We've c-c-come to spend the morning, and -stay to d-d-dinner, if you want us," said little Madge, who stuttered -dreadfully. - -"I'm pretty sure it won't be convenient to have you stay to dinner," -said Nan, who no sooner beheld the shabby little Croxsons disposing -themselves about the room with a permanent air, than with charming -inconsistency she straightway regretted her noble impulse to let them -all in. That they were a shabby little company no one could for a moment -deny. The three girls, the youngest little more than a baby, each wore a -ragged dress, and for an out-of-door wrap a faded and colourless strip, -which collectively had once formed a shawl of their mother's. - -The mother herself had died five years ago, and since then the children -had managed for themselves as best they could. Their father was fireman -on one of the engines belonging to the local road that ran through -Moorlow, and the children were alone from morning till night. A poor -woman came in every morning to cook their oatmeal and "tidy up," but -being poorly paid, the tidying up was always hasty, and never thorough. -They were rather a stupid-looking set of children, and no wonder! You -would hardly expect to find much that was bright in their faces, with so -little brightness in their lives; besides, none of them had ever been to -school, and Joe, who was the oldest of them all, knew little more than -his letters, although he had passed his eleventh birthday. Everyone felt -sorry for the Croxsons; and no doubt they would have fared better in one -of the large cities, where they would have been reached by some of -the organised charities, than in a little place like Moorlow. The rich -people, who came in the summer in search of rest and refreshment, did -not interest themselves in the villagers, and the villagers themselves -were mostly hard-working fishermen with little time or money to devote -to others. Had it not been for the Murrays the Croxsons would surely -have fared much worse. Mrs. Murray did them many a kind turn, and when -Madge had a fever the winter before, Harry or Nan had trudged backward -and forward every day with beef tea or some other nourishing food. So -there was one bright spot in their lives after all. Indeed, there was -more than one, for born by the sea they loved it dearly, and in warm -sunshiny weather they romped on the beach the whole day long, keenly -enjoying their perfect freedom, and pitying the children obliged to go -to school. Nan always spoke of them as the "poor little Croxsons," and -it was this pathetic side of their history which made her second Regie's -motion to open the door. - -"Of course we can't play that game now, and all our fun is spoiled," -said Harry, seeming to utterly disregard the feelings of the Croxsons. -Fortunately they were not sensitive, and their stolid little faces -showed no signs either of pain or resentment. - -"Oh, yes, we can," answered Regie; "they'll be the audience." - -"The very thing!" cried Nan, enthusiastically. "Now, children," turning -to the Croxsons, "we are going to have a play, and you'll be the -audience, won't you?" - -Each little Croxson nodded in the affirmative, though they had not the -remotest idea what it was they were to be. They were literally clay in -the hands of the potter when they were at the Murrays'. They did not -care what was done with them, or to them, so long as they were simply -allowed to stay. Harry fancied the idea of an audience, and preparations -were at once begun. - -[Illustration: 0096] - -The clothes-horse was converted into scenery by covering it with a green -plaid blanket-shawl,' the ironing table was pressed into service as a -settee for the audience, and the five Croxsons were packed into it in -one tightly wedged row. From the commencement of the performance to -its tragic end they sat staring in open-eyed astonishment; for they -had never seen anything like it before--nor had any one else, for that -matter. The plot of the play beggars description. Suffice it to say that -Nan figured as the heroine, with a blue gingham apron for a train and -a dish towel for a turban. Harry, muffled in a red table cover, was -terrible as a sort of border ruffian, and Regie played the part of Nan's -gallant brother. In a greater part of the performance there was so much -action, so much rushing on and off the stage, that it was difficult to -gain a clear idea of what was really intended; but matters culminated in -a hand-to-hand scuffle between Harry and Reginald--a wooden spoon and -a toasting fork doing service as weapons. Finally Harry succumbed, and -fell to the ground with the rather inelegant exclamation, "Stabbed! -stabbed to the liver!" and Nan falling in a swoon to the floor was -enveloped in the green plaid shawl, which she accidentally pulled down -with her. - -[Illustration: 0097] - -"Oh, Harry! why did you give out?" cried Joe Croxson, never more excited -in his life. - -"It was planned for me to die," Harry answered, still lying motionless -on the floor. "I was Regie's sister's lover, and I'm a fraud and a -wretch." - -The play had lasted almost an hour, and to the great delight of all -concerned. - -"P-p-please d-d-do it again!" begged little Madge. Rex and Nan were in -favour of a repetition, but for Harry the novelty was gone, and novelty -was everything with him. - -"No, I've had enough," he said, decidedly, and so the project had to be -abandoned. Meanwhile Harry's assertion that it was going to rain all -day was fast being contradicted, for it had stopped raining, and now and -then the sun shone out bravely through a rift in the clouds. With the -sunshine came a distaste for indoor fun, and there was a rush for hats -and coats preparatory to a rush out into the November air. Nan, with -tender thoughtfulness, had hung the Croxsons' wraps on chairs near the -fire, and now they were dry, and as fit for use again as it was possible -for such sorry clothes to be. At last all were ready, and Regie hurrying -to open the door that led to the porch from the kitchen, found it locked -and the key gone. The little party stared at each other. Harry was -missing, and nowhere to be seen. Of course he was the guilty one. Then -there was a stampede for the sitting-room door. Locked, too, and minus -the key. A suppressed titter from the head of the stairs made them all -look up. - -"Why don't you go out?" Harry giggled; "I'd be ashamed if I couldn't -open a door." - -"Come down and give us those keys this minute," demanded Nan, in a tone -most unlikely to accomplish her object. Harry only smiled provokingly. -All in vain the children begged and coaxed. Finally they scrambled -up the stairs to gain possession of them by main force if possible. -Meanwhile Nan, evolving a little scheme out of her own head, slipped -into Harry's room, appearing again in a trice with his Sunday suit in -her hand. Harry had great regard for that Sunday suit, and Nan knew it. - -"Look here, Harry!" she cried, "I will throw this downstairs if you -don't give up those keys right away." - -"You dare!" called Harry, still engaged in a scuffle with the boys, "and -I know what I'll do." - -Alas! Nan dared, and the precious suit fell in a crumpled mass to the -floor below. By a sudden jerk Harry freed himself from his captors, and -rushing into Nan's room, dragged pillow and bed-clothes from the bed, -and then pitched them over the banisters. In a second they were followed -by bolster and mattress. The little Crox-sons and Regie looked on in -speechless astonishment The general encounter had reduced itself to -single combat between Harry and Nan. - -"Well!" said Nan, "mother will soon be home, and then we'll see what -will happen. Harry Preston Murray" (Nan always called Harry by his full -name when out of patience with him), "you have an awful temper!" - -[Illustration: 8099] - -"I'll teach you not to touch my clothes again, any way," Harry answered, -carefully shaking and folding the precious trousers. - -"But you don't know when to stop, Harry," sighed Nan, coming down the -stairs and surveying the havoc wrought with real dismay. What would her -mother say and do about it? Harry began to have some misgivings of his -own on the subject. - -"You will have to carry all those things up again," she said, in a -half-pleading tone. - -"And I'll help you, though you ought to be made to do it all yourself," -added Regie. - -Harry came to the conclusion that he _would_ have to carry them up again -sooner or later, and deemed it wise to commence before any one arrived -on the scene. Besides, there was an ominous sound of wheels down the -road. It might be Captain and Mrs. Murray. Joe Croxson had his own fears -regarding this possibility, and beckoning his brothers and sisters into -a corner, confided to them that he thought they had better take their -departure. "There's going to be a row," he whispered, "when the old 'uns -come home. Harry 'll catch it, and if we don't look out we'll catch it -too." To the little Croxsons a hint was sufficient. Owing to certain -personal experiences of a painful character, they seemed to live in a -constant dread of what they termed "catching it." The keys had fallen -from Harry's pocket in the confusion, and hurriedly unlocking the door, -the whole five slipped out and stole noiselessly away, without so much -as saying "by your leave," or "good-bye," either to host or hostess. -Harry and Rex and Nan, toiling, tugging, and shoving the unwieldy -mattress upstairs, did not miss them till many minutes afterward. -Indeed, they were each too much absorbed with their own thoughts to -notice anything. Regie was the only one who saw any funny side to the -proceeding, and the corners of his mouth twitched a little. Nan was on -the verge of actual tears. The sight of her dainty little pillow shams -and coverlid so sadly rumpled was almost too much for her. Harry was -indignant over having to undo his own mischief, and did everything in -a jerky, disagreeable way. Finally the little bed was in some sort of -order, but as Nan was adjusting the pillow, Harry, giving her a shove -which sent her into the middle of the bed, exclaimed, "You are enough to -try the patience of a saint, Nan!" - -It needed nothing more to bring Nan's threatening tears to the surface, -and lying just where Harry had pushed her, she burst into sobs and -tears. If there was one thing Harry hated more than another it was to -have Nan cry, and to add to his discomfort Sister Julia came hurrying -into the room. She had heard the romping in the hall, but never dreamed -that it needed investigation till Nan's crying reached her. - -"Why, what is the matter?" she questioned. - -"There's a great deal the matter," Regie replied, calmly; "and I should -think Harry would be ashamed of himself." - -"Nan began it," said Harry, with Adam-like self-excusing. "Harry got so -mad," explained Regie, excitedly, "that he threw---- - -"Wait a minute, Regie, let Harry tell me himself." - -"Yes, I got so mad," said Harry, using Regie's own words, "that I took -everything from Nan's bed and pitched it downstairs. Nan threw my Sunday -suit down first, or I would never have thought of it. But I helped bring -all the clothes up again, so I don't see what she wants to cry about it -now for." - -"I am not crying about that at all, Sister Julia," sobbed Nan, without -raising her head; "I'm crying because he said 'I was enough to try the -patience of a saint.' I don't know what it means, but I think it's an -awful unkind thing for a brother to say." - -Sister Julia could hardly keep from smiling at this unexpected turn of -affairs. Harry and Regie laughed outright, which did not help matters -much. - -Sister Julia motioned the boys from the room, and sitting down by Nan, -on the side of the bed, stroked the brown curls till the sobs grew few -and far between. Then she explained that "she was enough to try the -patience of a saint" was not such a very dreadful thing for Harry to -have said, and finally induced Nan to admit, smiling through her tears, -that both she and Harry were to blame, and that on the whole they had -had rather a funny time of it Presently Captain and Mrs. Murray came -home, finding everything in order about the house. Only you and Sister -Julia, little reader, ever heard the full history of that rainy Saturday -morning. - -[Illustration: 0102] - - - - -XI.--A NEW FRIEND - - -[Illustration: 9102] - -T was early in November, but if you had lain by Nan's side on the beach -basking in the sunshine you would scarcely have guessed it. The air was -mild and warm, and there were no trees near to betray what sad havoc -blustering fall winds had made with the foliage. Old ocean was as blue -and still as in midsummer, with just a single line of breakers falling -at regular intervals on the hard white beach. Nan was fairly glorying in -the June-like day, feeling there could hardly be such another till June -herself should have come round again. The boys had gone off for the -afternoon on some sort of an expedition, never so much as asking her to -accompany them, but she was not sorry to be left at home. She was one -of those little people who, like some big people, loved to have a chance -for a quiet think now and then, and lying there by herself she was -supremely happy and tranquil. She had been there fully an hour, and for -a while had been busy building a little castle in the sand, making a -foundation of clam shells, and using an old bottle for a tower. - -Most of the time she had been "just thinking," and thinking so hard that -she did not notice some one coming nearer and nearer until, suddenly -looking up, her eyes met those of a stranger. She was a pretty little -picture lying there flat on the sand, with her dimpled face propped -comfortably between her hands. - -[Illustration: 0103] - -"I wonder what you are thinking about, my little friend," said the -new comer, kindly. "I know from your face that your thoughts are happy -thoughts?" - -"Pretty foolish ones, I guess you'd call them!" laughed Nan, for there -was something about the stranger that at once won her confidence. - -"I'm not so sure of that," he answered; "but a stranger has no right to -ask you what they were, so good-bye, my little dreamer." - -"I wish you would not go," said Nan, sitting up and smoothing out her -dress; "I would like to talk to you, because I think you look like a -minister, and I never spoke to a real minister before." - -"Well, you shall now," he answered, sitting down beside her, "for you -have guessed rightly, and for that matter there is nothing the minister -would rather do than talk to you for a while." - -There was a little pause, and then Nan asked hesitatingly, as though she -feared to seem rude, "You don't belong about here, do you?" - -"No, but I almost wish I did. I love the sea with all my heart, so that -I have hard work to keep from saying something about it in every sermon -I preach. But if I do not belong about here, it is very certain that you -do. You must have lived by the ocean week in and week out, to get that -shade of blue into your eyes." - -"That's what Reginald says!" laughed Nan. - -"And who is Reginald?" - -"Why, Reginald Fairfax; he's staying with us while his father and mother -are in Europe. The poor little fellow broke his leg last summer, and -Sister Julia is here too, to take care of him, but he's almost well now. -I wish you knew Sister Julia. She comes from one of the great hospitals -in New York, and she is the loveliest person you ever saw." - -"Well, I should say I did know her," answered the minister. "She goes to -my church in town, and so do Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax; and Regie and I are -the best of friends." - -"Why, are you Mr. Vale?" queried Nan, astonished, for the name of the -young minister had often been on Regie's lips. - -"Yes, I am," he answered, laughing, as though he must own up to the -truth. - -"But what are you doing here?" - -"Well, I'll tell you. Do you see that red-tiled cottage yonder?" -pointing down the beach. - -"Do you mean Mr. Avery's?" for Nan knew the name of every resident in -the neighbourhood of Moorlow. - -"Yes; Mr. Avery is a friend of mine, and stays down here, you know, -quite late into the fall, so he asked me to bring my sister, who is -quite an invalid, to his cottage, thinking the change would do her good. -So here we are; we came this morning, but I am obliged to go back to the -city again this afternoon." - -"Oh, dear! I'm sorry for that," said Nan, regretfully, "I would so much -have liked to hear you preach." - -"Well, that is very kind of you. Perhaps you can some time, when you -come to New York to visit Regie. By the way, where is he?" - -"Oh, he's off with my brother Harry this afternoon, and I don't believe -they'll be home before supper time." - -"That's too bad, but I shall probably see him the next time I come." - -"Oh, you are coming again then!" exclaimed Nan, her face brightening. - -"Yes, surely. Once a week, at least, so long as my sister stays. And -now, suppose you tell me something about yourself. Your name is----" - -"Nannie--Nannie Murray," answered Nan. - -"And you live----" - -"In that brown cottage behind us there on the bluff," nodding her head -in the direction of the house. - -"And you have lived there always?" - -"Yes, sir," she replied, proudly. - -"Then you are a fortunate little maiden. To have grown up by the sea is -something to be very thankful for. It seems a pity to live in town when -one loves the sea and open country as much as I do." - -"Why don't you come down here?" urged Nan. "There are plenty of houses." - -"But the bother of it is there are plenty of people in town, and the -preacher must stay near the people. It is more beautiful and wonderful, -you know, to be able to help a soul struggle up toward high-water mark, -than even to watch the tide come in as we are doing. But I think I must -be talking quite over your head. Now that we are friends, perhaps you -will not mind telling me what you were thinking about when I so rudely -interrupted you?" - -"Do you see that schooner, away off there?" Nan answered. "Well, when -you came it was right in front of me, and I was pretending it was -sailing away to a beautiful island with a crowd of poor city children -on board, who had never been very well, or had a very happy time, and -I pretended they were already beginning to look fresh and rosy with the -salt breeze blowing in their faces; and I made believe that some of the -children had a glass, and were looking here at me on the beach, and that -some of them thought I was a mermaid, and others a queer sort of a fish. -Now I suppose you think those were pretty foolish thoughts, don't you?" - -"Not a bit of it. It is like a fairy story, only better. But before you -began to build a castle in the air, I see you built a little one here -in the sand. I suppose you have peopled this with a lot of queer little -people of your own too." - -"No," said Nan, honestly, "I don't make up things much, except when I am -just looking out to sea." - -"Have you ever thought, Nan," said Mr. Vale, earnestly, as he banked -up a falling wall of her castle with his hand, "that your own life is a -sort of little castle, wonderfully made, richly furnished, beautiful and -hopeful to look upon? It is fitting that only One should live in that -fair house--He who is purity and goodness and truth Himself. Ask Him to -come and dwell within you, to look out of your eyes, to hear with your -ears, to speak through your lips, to guide your hands and your feet." - -"You mean Jesus, don't you?" asked Nan, looking frankly into his face -with sweet simplicity. - -"Yes, my little friend, I do." - -"Well, it is just like a sermon." - -"But you said, you know, that you would like to hear me preach." - -"Yes, I did," answered Nan, thoughtfully, gathering up a handful of sand -and letting it sift through her fingers, "and I like your preaching; I -like it very much indeed." - -"Thank you," and Mr. Vale looked as though he deeply appreciated Nan's -honest praise; "but it is high time the preacher was off. There is the -train whistle now! give my love to Regie, and I shall surely run over to -see him next week when I come down." - -Nan watched her new friend hurrying away to the station, and stood -transfixed till a low sand-hill hid him from sight. Then she scampered -to the house to tell of her good fortune. - -As soon as Regie came home, and while he was making a hurried toilet for -supper, Nan ran into his room, and curling herself up on the window-box, -commenced, for the third time (for Sister Julia and Mrs. Murray had -already been favoured), to give an excited narration of the afternoon's -experiences. - -"Oh, Regie!" she began, "I've had the most splendid time--a good long -chat with a real live minister. He came from the city, and he told me -the nicest things, sort of preached, you know; and he loves the sea just -as much as I do, and his sister is staying up at the Averys', so he's -coming again. He's a young minister, Regie, and he has the loveliest -face." - -"I don't like men with lovely faces," said Regie, scornfully. - -"Well, you'd like his face, Regie. It was like a great strong angel's -face, and he told me he knew you, and for me to give you his love, and -to tell you that when he came again he would surely come and see----" - -"You don't mean Mr. Vale, do you?" cried Regie - -"That's just who I do mean," Nan answered, complacently. - -"Oh, dear me! why wasn't I round? Are you sure he's coming again?" - -"Sure," said Nan, wondering if it was selfish to be glad that just this -once Regie had not been "round" at all, and that she had the young; -clergyman quite to herself. - -[Illustration: 5107] - -[Illustration: 0108] - - - - -XII.--THE STARLING RUNS ASHORE - - -[Illustration: 9108] - -ERTAIN unmistakable signs were in the wind by which anyone could have -told that, Thanksgiving Day was comparatively close at hand. There was -a vigorous stoning of raisins on the part of Mrs. Murray, an odour of -cider in the air which pointed plainly to the concoction of mincemeat, -and Nan was confident she detected the largest turkey scratching round -the yard in a nervous, timorous sort of way, as though he knew his days -were numbered. By the calendar the eventful occasion was still ten days -off, when one cold and blustering afternoon Captain Murray came home -from the Life-saving Station, and into the cosy kitchen. - -[Illustration: 0109] - -"If I'm not very much mistaken," he said (and in the matter of weather -Captain Murray seldom was mistaken), "we are in for a pretty heavy -storm. We shall need to be on the look out, every man of us at the -Station, the whole night through. Give us a hearty supper, Mollie, -that'll keep a fellow well braced till morning." - -"Do I ever put you off with a poor supper, Epher?" asked Mrs. Murray, -reproachfully, pausing a moment in her mixing of some gingerbread in a -large yellow bowl. - -"Never with a poor supper, mother, only you know what I mean. Give us -sort of an extra touch to-night." - -Mrs. Murray knew as well as could be what her good husband meant by "an -extra touch," and soon the waffle-iron was taken from its hook and Harry -was on his way to the cellar to fill the maple syrup cup. It was one of -those nights when a cosy, comfortable home seems doubly comfortable and -cosy, and very reluctantly Captain Murray put on his great coat to go -back to the Station as soon as supper was over. The rain was falling -in torrents now, and as he opened the sitting-room door, a gust of wind -whipped in, sending the papers on the table whirling to the floor and -overturning the lamp, which fortunately went out as it fell. When order -was again restored, Sister Julia began reading a bright little story -aloud to the children by way of cheering them up a bit. Even Harry was -quite overawed by the violence of the storm, for by this time it was -violent. The wind was blowing a gale now, and it had grown so cold that -the fire had to be constantly replenished to keep the room comfortably -warm. At nine o'clock the children went upstairs, and were glad enough -to hurry into bed, for on such a night as this it was impossible to heat -the upper story of the little cottage. - -"I'm glad there's a great big lighthouse at the Highlands," Regie called -out after he had gotten into bed. - -"So am I," answered both Nan and Harry, and with this comforting thought -in mind they all fell asleep. But Sister Julia and Mrs. Murray scarcely -closed their eyes the whole night long. Sometimes it seemed as though -the little cottage could not hold its own against such a terrific blow. -At daybreak Mrs. Murray came up to Sister Julia's room, to find her -already dressed. - -"I think there's something wrong at the Station," she said. "Hereward -and Ned have been barking and bounding about in the most excited fashion -for the last half-hour. Then, when the wind dies down for a second, I -think I can hear the voices of the men calling to each other." - -"Yes, and look here," answered Sister Julia, pressing her white face -close to the pane; "I imagine I can discover the masts of a schooner -near the beach." - -"Yes, surely; there must have been a wreck," and Mrs. Murray threw open -the window to see more clearly. "Hark!" she added, "now don't you hear -the men?" - -"Of course I do," cried Sister Julia; "and I can stand it no longer. I -must bundle up and go down and see for myself." - -"Oh! my child, you ought never to go," exclaimed Mrs. Murray, but at the -same time she helped her to hurry into her heavy ulster. "Oh, dear! -I've a good mind to go with you; but no, it will not do to leave the -children. Send one of the men up though, as soon as possible, to let me -know what has happened, and that you have reached the Station without -being blown away." - -So out into the storm went Sister Julia, and Hereward and Ned were at -her side in an instant. The rain had ceased falling, but the wind still -blew a hurricane, and in walking from the cottage to the station all her -strength was needed to bear up against it. She had gone but a little way -before she discovered that a schooner _had_ run ashore, and she tried to -quicken her steps, fearing and yet anxious to know the truth. Just here -I would tell my young reader that this story, so far as it relates to -the work done that morning by the Life-saving crew, is every word true. -Somebody, whom I choose to call Captain Murray, could show you a letter, -sent, in company with a gold medal, from the Government at Washington, -and written in appreciation of his gallant services and those of his -brave crew, and in which you could read a graphic narration of all that -happened that eventful November morning. - -As Sister Julia neared the Station she heard the men shouting to each -other in such cheery tones that she felt sure no lives could have been -lost, and her heart grew lighter. The crew were at some sort of work -down on the beach, and unnoticed by anyone she entered the Station from -the landward side. The large room was empty, but the door stood open -into the kitchen, and there what a strange sight met her eyes! Four men -were huddled round the stove trying to get a little warmth into their -half-frozen bodies. On one blanket on the floor, covered by another, lay -a poor woman, who looked half-dead; and seated on a stool near her was -Captain Murray, endeavouring to remove the dripping clothing from a -screaming baby lying across his knees. - -[Illustration: 0111] - -"God bless you!" he exclaimed, looking up and discovering Sister Julia, -"you've come in the nick of time. We've just brought these poor wretches -in from the wreck yonder, and I've sent Burton up to the house to get -some dry duds for the woman and this baby," and he laid the soaking -little specimen of humanity in Sister Julia's arms. - -"Now, my hearties," he said cheerily, turning to the men, "hurry up to -the loft, strip off your wet clothing, wrap yourselves in the blankets -you'll find there, and turn into the bunks. You'll have to stay there -till your clothes are dry, but I reckon you're tired enough to be -willing to. We'll get you up some breakfast as soon as possible. Now I'm -off," he added, turning to Sister Julia. "I am needed on the beach more -than here." - -The shivering little company about the stove promptly and gladly obeyed -Captain Murray's orders, and Sister Julia, having succeeded in quieting -the baby, began to remove its draggled clothing. Just then someone came -in from the large room. - -"There were no lives lost, were there?" she asked, eagerly, without -looking up, presuming it to be one of Captain Murray's crew, and in the -same instant the newcomer asked the same question of her. - -"No, no lives lost," answered the woman on the floor, in a weak, -exhausted voice. The new comer was Mr. Vale, who had come down to -Moorlow the night before, and Sister Julia was glad enough to welcome -him, for she needed someone to aid her. - -"My poor woman, you ought to get that wet clothing off at once," said -Mr. Vale, bending over her. - -"I know it, sir, but I'm that weak." - -"I can attend to her now, if you'll take the baby," said Sister Julia. - -"With the greatest of pleasure," and Mr. Vale took the blanketed -baby into his arms, with a knack that showed his love for children. -Straightway he went up aloft, with the little stranger gazing -comfortably over his shoulder, to enquire for the welfare of the men. -No sooner had he gone than Burton came hurrying in with the bundle of -clothing which Mrs. Murray had gotten together. Quickly and skilfully -Sister Julia helped the woman to make the change, and had but just -finished buttoning a warm flannel wrapper about her when, overcome by -fatigue, she fell asleep in the chair in which she was sitting. - -"These good people had better have something to eat as soon as -possible," said Mr. Vale, returning down the narrow stairway, "and if -you can show me a place to put this baby, for it is fast asleep, we'll -see about getting some food ready for them." - -"Here's a good place for it," and Sister Julia let down a wide shelf -that was fastened against the wall, and with her ulster rolled up for -a pillow, made the little waif very comfortable, for it was too young a -baby to be in danger of rolling off. Captain Murray put his head in at -the door just then with a most anxious face. - -"It is raining," he said, "and the storm is increasing every moment. -I can't spare one of the men, for we must lose no time in getting the -life-saving tackle in order, though it is not probable we shall need to -make use of it twice in one morning. Do you think you can manage to get -a breakfast together, Sister Julia?" - -"Aye, aye, sir," answered Mr. Vale, cheerily, "we'll attend to that." - -"That must be Nan's new friend," thought Captain Murray, but he could -not take the time to find out, and hurried away, feeling that he had -left his shipwrecked party in good hands. Then Mr. Vale and Sister Julia -set right away to work to investigate the supply of provisions in the -Station. Mr. Vale peered into boxes, and Sister Julia lifted covers of -crocks and dishes, and then they looked at each other rather blankly, -for they were disappointed at the result. - -"I have it," said Sister Julia, after a moment's thought. "The best -thing, I think, would be for you to put on your coat and make your way -as best you can to Mrs. Murray's. She will have the oatmeal on the fire -by this time," glancing at the clock on the high shelf overhead, "and it -would be just like her, remembering the hard work going on down here, to -have made a larger quantity than usual." - -Mr. Vale was off in a moment, and then Sister Julia made preparations -for boiling the coffee, carrying the coffee-mill into the larger room, -so as not to wake the baby and its mother with the clatter of the -grinding. Afterward she set the little table as best she could, and -slicing some stale bread she had found in the closet, placed it at -one side ready for toasting. So she busied herself about one thing and -another till there was nothing more to be done. It seemed to her as -though Mr. Vale would never come back, but in a really marvellously -short space of time there was a tramping outside the door, and in came -a little party, well laden with tin pails and baskets. They were all -there--Mrs. Murray and Nan, Reginald and Harry; and indeed all were -needed, to carry safely through such a storm as that the generous -breakfast which Mrs. Murray had prepared; and the whole family at -once set about serving it. The children trudged up and down the steep -stairway, carrying the steaming coffee and oatmeal to the men in the -loft. - -"Bless your little heart!" said one of the men, as he took a brimming -cup from Nan's hand; but the others seemed too hungry to take time to -say so much as "thank you." Sister Julia woke the tired mother, who fell -asleep again as soon as she had eaten a little, and then she quieted -the baby, who had begun to cry lustily, with a breakfast of warmed milk -served in a ginger-ale bottle. As soon as she could be spared, Mrs. -Murray put on her cloak and hurried down to the beach to see how that -good captain of hers was enduring all this excitement and fatigue. For -the captain, as he himself said, "was not so young as he once was," and -could not stand up as well as in other days against wind and weather. - -"Oh, Mollie!" he called, as soon as she came near enough for his voice -to reach her, "go back to the Station; you'll catch your death o' cold -in this driving wind." - -"No fears for me, Epher," she called back, "but you must go right up to -the Station yourself, you and the men, and get some breakfast, or you'll -be down sick, every one of you." - -[Illustration: 0115] - -All hands were only too glad to obey this order, for the lifesaving -apparatus was again intact, and they were very hungry. Filing into -the big room, they laid aside their tarpaulins, and then sat down to a -better breakfast than ever before graced their mess table. It did Mrs. -Murray's heart good to see how thoroughly they enjoyed it, and when the -captain said, "I'd like to see the wife that can compare with Mollie -Murray," the colour flushed proudly into her face. - -It was eight o'clock when the hungry party finished breakfast, and they -were just pushing their chairs back from the table when one of their -crew, who had been left on the beach on patrol duty, threw open the door -and called for aid. - -"Can it be possible that we are to have another wreck this morning?" -thought the captain, as he and his men hurried into their tarpaulins, -and rushed out of the Station. But alas! it was possible, for a short -distance up the beach another vessel was stranded. In a moment the -little house was quite deserted. Calling for their clothes, the men who -had been rescued from the _Starling_ got into them, wet as they were, -and, accompanied by Mr. Vale, hastened to render what service they -could. Notwithstanding the commotion the mother and baby still slept -quietly on in the kitchen, while Sister Julia, Mrs. Murray, and the -children crowded into the seaward window of the loft, to watch as best -they could the terribly exciting scene taking place below them on the -beach. - -[Illustration: 5116] - -[Illustration: 0117] - - - - -XIII.--THE WRECK OF THE SPANISH BRIG. - - -[Illustration: 9117] - -HE storm that culminated on that November morning was the worst that -had been known on the Moorlow coast for years. The wind, which was -north-east, blew a hurricane averaging eighty-four miles an hour. The -beach was flooded by a furious surf, and, strangely enough for that time -of the year, the weather was freezing cold. In less than ten minutes -after the second vessel stranded Captain Murray's crew was abreast of -her, but in the meantime she had worked to within a hundred yards of the -beach, and Joe Burton, running down behind a receding wave, cast a line -on board with a vigorous throw of the heaving-stick. - -"Hurrah for Burton!" cried Harry. "He's a fine fellow, I tell you." - -[Illustration: 0118] - -As soon as the line reached the ship, the sailors on board of her tugged -away at it until they had pulled up the larger line, on which Captain -Murray purposed to send out the breeches-buoy. But before the buoy could -be rigged up, the sailors, ignorant of his purpose, showed that they -were going to endeavour to reach the land by coming hand-over-hand along -the rope. Captain Murray and his men shouted from the shore, and wildly -gesticulated, for it seemed impossible that any of them could reach the -shore alive in that way. The surf was very violent, but the greatest -danger lay in the fact that the position of the brig in the set of the -strong current caused an enormous swirl of water between her and the -beach, which retained eddying masses of wreckage, mainly cord-wood from -the wreck of the _Starlings_ and which masses were continually swept out -by the undertow, and hurled in by the breakers. - -"Oh, those foolish men! those foolish men! why don't they understand and -see their danger?" cried Sister Julia, attempting to draw the children -away from a sight so distressing; but the boys were immovable. Mrs. -Murray, Sister Julia, and Nan went down to the little kitchen to wait, -since they no longer had the heart to watch. - -"There, one of the fellows has started!" cried Harry, with long pauses -between his sentences, "and he's all right so far. No; my goodness, -there he goes! a wave has flung him over the rope, and his head is -caught between the cords of the whip-line. He will choke to death. No! -there goes Burton again right into the surf holding on to the line. -There! he's got him, he's got the sailor; but how can he ever bring him -to land? See, Rex, he's clinging to a piece of driftwood with one hand, -and holding on to the sailor with the other." - -"Oh! but another man is trying it now!" exclaimed Rex. "Oh! why don't -they wait? Look there--and another one of the crew has plunged in after -him; but, goodness! the driftwood has knocked him completely under. -Ah! there go two more of the men in to his rescue, and Burton is in the -breakers again, too. Who's that with him, Harry?" - -"I can't make out, but--hurrah! they've reached the sailor; they'll save -him, I know." - -And Harry was right; they did save him, and five others besides, all of -whom attempted the same foolhardy method of reaching the land, and all -of whom were rescued by the same hand-to-hand struggle in the surf on -the part of Captain Murray's gallant crew. - -[Illustration: 0120] - -"I never saw such bravery, never!" called Mr. Vale, and it could -plainly be seen that his enthusiasm cheered the men wonderfully in their -perilous work. He longed to plunge in with them, but he knew that he -would be powerless to render any aid. It was their long experience -that was standing the crew in such good stead. By this time a crowd had -gathered on the beach, that is, every able-bodied resident of Moorlow -was there, and as the last sailor was brought safely to shore a hearty -cheer went up that, for the moment, even rose above the pounding of the -breakers on the shore. Stretched on the sand, in such shelter from the -wind and rain as the side of the surf-boat afforded, the disabled seamen -were laid. They were all Spaniards, and only two of them were able to -stand upon their feet. - -"Which of you is captain of the brig?" asked Captain Murray, looking -kindly down upon this second group of shipwrecked mariners. - -"He no here," answered one of them who had been the least hurt, in -broken English; "when he think his ship go to pieces, he go below and -make hisself dead;" but the man's gestures told more plainly than his -words that the captain had shot himself in the head. - -Captain Murray turned to his men with a look that meant, "Our work is -not over yet." - -"What shall be done with these poor fellows?" ventured Mr. Vale, when -he saw that the thought of how he should reach the man still on the brig -had driven all other thoughts from the captain's mind. - -"Lord knows!" answered Captain Murray, sorely puzzled. "It'll be more'n -a week before some of them will get out of bed, when they once get into -it. There's some ugly bruises among 'em." - -"Do you think we could make them comfortable in the chapel on the beach -yonder? It would serve splendidly for a hospital." - -"The very thing! I'll leave the arrangements to you, sir," said Captain -Murray, confident now that this really was Nan's new friend, the -minister, about whom she had talked so much. - -The first thing to be done was to get the exhausted Spaniards up to -the Station, where Rex and Harry and Nan, with excited, earnest faces, -waited to receive them. Over and over again the children had begged and -entreated to be allowed to run down to the scene of the wreck, but Mrs. -Murray had thought best to refuse them. - -Captain Murray could not have left the preparation of the hospital -in better hands than Mr. Vale's. Won by his handsome face and simple -manner, the villagers crowded about him, eager to do his bidding. The -sexton of the little church hurried home for the keys as fast as his -rheumatic old limbs could carry him, and with the aid of Joe and Jim -Croxson, he soon had a roaring fire blazing in the big chapel stove. -Two men, harnessing up Captain Murray's Dobbin with all possible haste, -drove to the Branch for doctor and surgeon, for both were needed. Two -others, borrowing the largest waggon the town afforded, went off for a -load of cots. There was something for every one to do, and every one was -happy in doing it. - -[Illustration: 0122] - -Meanwhile Captain Murray was hard at work in an effort to board the -brig, with such of his crew as were still able to assist him. Three of -his men had been helped or carried to their homes, too much exhausted -and bruised to be of further service. When at last the little party had -succeeded in reaching the brig, they had the good fortune to find the -captain still alive, but unconscious from the ugly wound he had himself -inflicted. They wasted no time in lowering the poor fellow into the -surf-boat, and then made for the shore, for the vessel was fast going to -pieces. The rescue of the Spanish captain completed the heroic labours -of Epher Murray's crew for that morning, and the brave and wearied -fellows went to their homes for a well-earned rest. Half-a-dozen -fishermen volunteered their services to get the tackle once again in -order. Indeed, none of the Moorlow people thought of setting about their -regular occupations that eventful November morning, and all seemed proud -to lend a hand in whatever way they could. Fortunately in a few hours -the crew of the _Starling_ were so far refreshed and rested as to be -sent by the afternoon train to New York, where most of them lived when -on land. There was literally no place in Moorlow where they could have -been accommodated, unless in the chapel, that was fast being converted -into a hospital. Sister Julia was superintending the work there, and by -four o'clock everything was in readiness. Mrs. Murray had devoted her -time to caring for the crew of the brig in the Life-saving Station. -As soon as damp clothing had been removed, those who had sustained the -severest injuries were made comfortable on mattresses brought from the -bunks in the loft, and laid on the floor of the large room. The surgeon -and doctor found considerable to do when they arrived, and the captain's -wound claimed their first attention. - -Sister Julia had remained to wait upon them, until all the bruises -and wounds had been dressed. Meanwhile, Mrs. Murray had improved the -opportunity to slip home and prepare a second breakfast, and Harry and -Rex and Nan again trudged to and fro, laden with good things, only with -much less difficulty now, for the storm had greatly abated. - -All through that busy day of preparation, Ned and Hereward had kept up -an incessant racing in and out of the chapel. Now and then they would -brush against Sister Julia's black dress, and she could never resist the -temptation, no matter how busy she might be, of giving them a friendly -little pat. Then the two fellows would go bounding out of doors, as -though through her touch they had received some special command which -they must hasten to execute. - -Early in the morning, to meet the first need of the surgeon, Sister -Julia had taught some of the women, who were helping in the chapel, how -to prepare a bandage. She showed them how they must tear off the muslin -in strips, twice the width needed, and then must fold them evenly -lengthwise through the centre, and cut them apart with scissors, because -tearing both edges was likely to stretch them. Then she instructed them -in the art of "rolling firmly," for there is not a more useless thing -in the world than a poorly-rolled bandage. As she sat now by the side -of one, and now by another, she would ask some simple question betraying -her deep interest in them, and so more than one Moorlow woman, almost -unconsciously, unburdened her heart to this new sweet friend, or told -the story of her life. As Mr. Vale's work threw him into the company -of many of the men, one after the other, he would enter into a friendly -conversation with them, and some of the Moorlow men had their eyes -opened to the fact that a minister might be something more than a mere -preacher, standing quite apart from the common interests of their lives; -that he might be an earnest, sympathetic man, a man subject to the same -temptations and same trials as themselves, but able to rise above them, -and even triumph in them, through the Spirit of God, which not only was -in him, but which shone out in well-nigh every look and word and deed. - -Oh! how welcome was the sight of the beds and the cheery fire to the -eyes of those Spanish sailors, when they were tenderly carried into the -chapel at sunset. Only a few hours before they had thought the bottom of -the ocean would be the only bed they should ever know. No wonder their -faces looked grateful and happy, notwithstanding every one of them was -suffering more or less from the injuries he had received. When at last -there was nothing more to be done, and with the exception of Sister -Julia and her assistants the Moorlow folk were making ready to go home, -the Spanish captain, who had regained consciousness soon after being -brought ashore, beckoned to Mr. Vale. The poor fellow was quite too weak -to speak, but knowing him to be a minister, he glanced round the chapel, -and then, slightly raising his hand, pointed upward. Mr. Vale readily -understood that the captain did not want the little company to break up -till they had united in thanking God for the preservation of the crew -of his vessel. Stepping into the reading desk, he easily gained the -attention of everyone. - -"The captain of the _Christina_," he said, "has indicated to me that -he would like us to give God thanks for the rescue of his crew. Will as -many of you as are willing remain for a few moments?" - -[Illustration: 0125] - -The women and children took their seats in the pews near which they were -standing, and not a man went out. Never was a sweeter or more earnest -service held in the little chapel, and there were tears in many eyes at -its close. Every face looked tranquil and happy. For one whole day -those Moorlow folk had not had so much as a thought of self, and nothing -brings a happier look into the face than pure unselfishness. It had been -a wonderful day for them all, and who of the number would ever forget -it? - -Out into the glow of the sunset and homeward went the little -congregation, leaving Sister Julia and three or four women whom she had -chosen as assistants in charge of the hospital. Regie and Harry and Nan, -reluctant to leave, lingered in the doorway, till Sister Julia came and -urged their going. - -"Come, children," she said, "hurry home. Little Nan there looks ready to -drop." - -"Yes, I am tired," Nan admitted; "it has been such a long, long day," -and without further urging the little trio trudged silently home; -silently, because they had so much to think over. Two shipwrecks in one -day! Regie remembered self-reproachfully that he had had his wish. For -Nan, the excitement and fatigue had proved too much, and she fell asleep -at the table before she had eaten a mouthful of supper, and knew nothing -more till she woke late the next morning, with the sunlight streaming -so brightly into her room as to make storms and shipwrecks seem the most -improbable things that could ever happen. - -[Illustration: 0126] - -[Illustration: 0127] - - - - -XIV.--A PUZZLING QUESTION - - -[Illustration: 0127] - -ITH so many willing hearts and hands at their service, it had been an -easy matter to convert the chapel into a hospital; but now that it was -converted, where was the money to come from to run it? The surgeon had -said he thought it would be fully two weeks before the captain, and the -two men who had been most badly hurt, would be about again, and in the -meantime there were medicines to be bought and food to be provided for -the entire party. Sister Julia knew well enough that there was no -money to spare for the purpose in Moorlow, and they could hope for no -remuneration from the poor sailors. With the wreck of his vessel and his -cargo the captain himself had lost everything, and he had told Sister -Julia "he had not even a penny left to go toward paying off his crew." - -So it happened one afternoon, a day or two after the wreck, that Sister -Julia, wrapping a shawl about her, left her patients in charge of her -assistants, and went out on the beach to get a breath of fresh air, and -try and think her way out of this money difficulty. - -She had not gone far before she heard voices behind her, and turned to -see Mr. Vale, with Regie and Harry and Nan, hurrying after her. They -had hold of hands, and, stretched in one long line, looked like quite a -formidable little party, as they came toward her. - -[Illustration: 0128] - -"We have come to take you prisoner for neglect of duty," said Mr. Vale, -as the line formed into a circle and shut her in. - -"Not exactly neglect of duty," laughed Sister Julia; "my thoughts are -all with the hospital. I have been racking my poor brain to know where -the money is to come from to support our patients up yonder." - -"Yes, I knew that must be troubling you," Mr. Vale answered; "and I came -down purposely to talk matters over with you. This log looks long -enough to hold five people comfortably. Suppose we sit down here a few -moments." - -So they ranged themselves on the piece of timber, which had been -stranded from the wreck of the _Starling_, and which two days of -sunshine had thoroughly dried. - -"Now," said Mr. Vale, "let us proceed to business. Suppose we have these -men on our hands for two weeks, how much do you think it is going to -cost us?" - -"That is what I have been trying to get at," replied Sister Julia; "all -the bedding and things must be paid for, and there is the coal, which -we are burning at a lively rate the whole twenty-four hours. These women -who help me can't afford to work without wages, though they would be -willing enough to, and Bromley the sexton must have something, for he's -up a dozen times a night tending to the fires in the two stoves. -It seems to me ten dollars a day might be made to cover our running -expenses, but I do not see how we can manage to do with less." - -"That will be seventy dollars a week," said Harry, having worked out the -difficult sum on the firm wet sand at his feet; "whew! but that's a lot, -and for two weeks it would be twice that." - -"Yes, a hundred and forty dollars," said Sister Julia; "it is a pretty -large sum." - -"And your own services ought not to go unremunerated," Mr. Vale -suggested. - -"Indeed they ought! I only wish my pocket were long enough to pay all -the bills myself." - -"I've wished mine was, a hundred times over, since the wreck." - -"There's one thing I want to ask you, Mr. Vale," said Sister Julia, "and -that is, if, after all, you think even my time is my own to give. You -see while Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax are abroad I am employed by them to care -for Reginald. To be sure he is so nearly well now that he does not need -me, and Mrs. Murray is like a mother to him, but his lessons will have -to be interrupted, and I wondered if Mr. Fairfax would feel I was doing -quite right to neglect them." - -"And who would care for the poor men then?" cried Nan, with real -distress. "Nobody knows just how to do for 'em but you, Sister Julia." - -"You need have no fears on the score of Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax," said Mr. -Vale, decidedly; "I know them well enough to assure you that they will -thoroughly approve of and admire your course, and Nan is quite right. -You know that no one here could care for them properly but just -yourself." - -"But how about the money?" urged Regie, who was anxious to know what -they were going to do about it. - -"Well, I have thought of two or three schemes," Mr. Vale replied. "You -know we could write to Washington, and doubtless get an appropriation -from some fund or other, but I would take a sort of pride in not -bothering the Government at all about it; at any rate, not until we find -it impossible to raise the sum ourselves." - -"Say! Mr. Vale," said Rex, familiarly, "I'll tell you the very -thing--take up a collection in your church next Sunday." - -"Well, I hadn't thought of that, Rex," laughed Mr. Vale; "but, do you -know, some of the good people there grumble already, thinking we have -too many collections as it is. No, it seems to me it would be best to -raise the money here if we could." - -"But you can't," said Harry, emphatically, "there isn't any money -here. I guess father has more than anyone in Moorlow, and yet I know he -couldn't give much." - -"Your father, Harry, has given his share, in the work he has done," Mr. -Vale answered. "What I have to propose is this: suppose you and Reginald -and Nan start out, say two days before Thanksgiving--that will be a week -from next Tuesday--and take the village cart and Pet, and drive over to -the Rumson Road. You know there are some well-to-do people living over -there, who do not go back to town much before Christmas. Now they have -every one heard by this time of the wreck of the _Christina_, and of the -injuries her crew sustained, and I believe that every one of them would -be glad to contribute, if you three little folks were to call upon them -and tell them you were trying to raise two hundred dollars, which, you -see, would cover all expenses. You know, at Thanksgiving time, people -who have a great deal to be thankful for themselves often feel like -helping other people who have not fared so well. It seems to me the plan -is worth trying." - -The children's faces plainly showed their delight in it. - -"But how will we know where to go?" asked Nan. - -"I will give you a list of half-a-dozen names," Mr. Vale replied. "I -happen to have a little blank book in my pocket that is just what you -need;" and, opening it, he wrote upon the first page, "Collection in Aid -of the Crew of the _Christina_, wrecked off the Moorlow coast, November -12th, 18----." - -Then underneath he wrote the words, "A Friend, $20." - -"What do you mean by that?" asked Regie. - -"I mean that I will give you twenty dollars to start the fund. Then, -after you have been to all the other places, you must not forget to -call upon my sister up at Mr. Avery's. She will be glad to give you -something, I know, and Mr. Avery will, too, for that matter." - -"I wish we could do it to-morrow," said Nan, whose enthusiasm always -found it hard to brook delays of any sort. - -"Oh, no, indeed!" Mr. Vale exclaimed, "you will get twice the money by -waiting. Thanksgiving and Christmas have a magical way of letting down -the bars to people's hearts, and making them more generous." - -Of course Sister Julia entered into this fine plan as heartily as the -children, and after they had talked a long while about it she bade them -good-bye, and went back to her duties in the hospital a much cheerier -woman than she had left it. The week that followed proved a long but -happy one to the children. Long, because they were continually counting -the days and the hours till the time should come when they could set out -on that wonderful collecting tour; happy, in the unexpected holidays, -which came to them through Sister Julia's inability to keep up their -lessons. Surely every little scholar knows the peculiar charm of -unlooked-for holidays. - -By the common consent of the body-guard, the collecting-book had been -placed in the keeping of his little Royal Highness, who had placed it -for safety in the top drawer of his bureau. On the evening before they -were to start on this momentous expedition, Regie had taken it out, -handled it for several moments thoughtfully, and then put it back in its -place, with an abstracted air, as though he was thinking very hard about -something. Late that night, when the house was quiet, and every one -asleep, he had crept noiselessly from bed, leaned out of the window to -strike a match, for fear of waking Sister Julia in the next room, and -lit his candle. Then, trying to keep a look out on all sides at once, as -guiltily as any little thief, he went to the drawer, took out the little -book, crossed to the table where the candle was standing, put a new pen -in the holder, and then, with all the customary twists and twirls of his -funny little mouth, wrote on a line, directly underneath Mr. Vale's, - -"A Friend.....................................$20." - -Then he sat, gazing proudly at it for fully five minutes before he put -out the light and crept back to bed. - -[Illustration: 0132] - -[Illustration: 0133] - - - - -XV.--THE QUESTION ANSWERED - - -[Illustration: 0133] - -T was a bracing morning. Of course it was a November morning, for -to-morrow would be Thanksgiving, and Mr. Vale stood looking out of his -study window. It was a beautiful window in the spring and summer time, -when the afternoon sun came streaming in through the Virginia creeper -trained across it. Mr. Vale, who had the happiest way of looking at -things, thought it a beautiful window, even in November. It might have -opened on a blank wall, or a dull row of houses, as so many city windows -do. Instead of that, it overlooked an old-fashioned garden, with little -box-bordered flower-beds of every conceivable shape, and narrow gravel -paths running between them. In some of the sunniest beds a few hardy -chrysanthemums were still blooming, in brilliant reds and yellows. A -fine western breeze was whistling through the leafless branches of the -vine, and Mr. Vale drew in a long breath of the invigorating air. No -doubt he would have drawn a still longer breath of the salt air he -revelled in if he had been where his thoughts were, for they were down -by the sea, where at this very moment a little party was crowding into -a village cart, about to start out on a long-talked-of expedition. If -he could have looked into their earnest, rosy faces, and into their eyes -brimming over with delight and expectation, I think he would have felt -assured of the success of their undertaking. How could anyone resist -such a winning troop of little beggars? - -[Illustration: 0134] - -At last he closed the windows went back to his study table, and wrote -out his Thanksgiving sermon, which he had been turning over in his mind -for many a day,--a glorious, invigorating sermon, as any member of the -large congregation who heard it next day would have told you; but they -could not have told you that it had won much of its inspiration from a -little maiden who a few days before had looked up to him and said, with -loving admiration, "I like your preaching; I like it very much indeed." -Well, the children were off at last, and they bowled along the hard -boulevard road in the highest spirits. They crossed the Sea Bright -Bridge, and Pet, who had not been over it since that September morning -when they went for the peaches, started to take the road that led to -Burchard's orchard. - -"No, sir-reel" cried Regie, jerking him back, "we won't go there any -more," and then the children laughed heartily over that eventful day's -adventures, when the little red skirt had done such good service. Before -long they found themselves in front of Mr. Allan's place, and his name -came first on the list. It had been agreed between them that Regie -should be spokesman for the party. - -"You see, Harry," Nan had said, when they were discussing the matter -in Regie's absence, "Regie has a kind of city way with him that is more -taking, you know." - -"I don't know anything of the kind," Harry had answered. "You're just -gone over Regie. It's a pity you could not have had him for a brother -instead of me." - -"Now, Harry Murray," Nan replied, earnestly, "you know I would not -exchange you for any brother in the world," which was pretty good of -Nan, considering how large a share of teasing she had to undergo from -this same Harry. The discussion had occurred several days previous to -the expedition, and now that they had actually set out Harry was only -too thankful that he did not have to play the principal part on the -programme. - -They drove up to the big house and tied Pet to a tree. No one was to be -seen, and for a moment their hearts misgave them but it was too late to -retrace their steps, and, with the air of a major domo, Harry marched -proudly on to the piazza and pulled the bell, which was the special duty -allotted to him. A coloured man in unpretentious livery opened the door. - -"Does Mr. Allan live here?" asked Rex. - -He hoped that the man did not notice that his voice trembled a little. - -"Yes; would you like to see him?" - -Before Rex could answer, "Yes, if you please," someone called from the -back part of the house, "Is it three little children, Jackson?" - -"Yes, sah, it is." - -"Show them right in here, then," called the voice, and closing the door -after them Jackson ushered them into a spacious diningroom, where an old -gentleman sat toasting his feet and reading his morning paper before a -crackling wood fire. - -"Well, my little friends, I'm right glad to see you," he said, -cordially. "You'll excuse my not getting up to meet you, I am such an -old fellow, you know. Here, Jackson, put that little rocking-chair here -near the fire for the young lady." - -[Illustration: 0136] - -Nan looked about the room to see who the young lady might be. - -"Oh! if you mean me," she said, laughing, taking her seat on a sofa, -"I'm too warm to go near the fire, thank you." - -"Pray be seated, gentlemen, and tell me what I can do for you," said -Mr. Allan, turning to the boys. - -"I guess you knew we were coming," Regie answered, sitting down in the -nearest chair. - -"What makes you think that?" - -"Because you called to your man there as we came in to ask if it was not -three little children, as though you were sort of expecting us." - -"Oh, to be sure! but couldn't I have seen you as you drove up!" - -"Not if you were sitting where you are now, sir," said honest Harry. - -"Well, I guess I shall have to own up, then, that I did know you were -coming. This is how I received my information," and Mr. Allan drew a -little case from his pocket and began looking through the papers it -contained. Nan gazed at the case in silent admiration. It was made -of alligator skin, and had Mr. Allan's initials, R. T. A., in silver -letters on the back. - -"I wonder," she thought, "if two dollars would buy one like that for -Regie when he goes home at Christmas time?" - -And then she remembered with satisfaction that Regie had only two -initials, which would probably make it come a little cheaper. Mr. Allan -finally found a postal card, and handed it to Regie, who read aloud:-- - -"'New York, November 21st, 18----. - -"'Dear Mr. Allan,--Three little friends of mine will call on you -to-morrow. I hope they will be none the less welcome when they have told -you their errand. - -"'Yours in haste, - -"'F. F. Vale.'" - -"Then you do not know what we have come for," and Regie produced his -collecting book with a most business like air. Mr. Allan put on his -spectacles and examined it carefully. "Oh, I see," he said at last, "you -are collecting for the poor sailors who were saved from the wreck. I -hear you turned the church into a hospital. You could not have done a -better thing." - -"Yes, we did," said Nan, proudly, "and the sailors are all very nice -men indeed, and if it had not been for Sister Julia's care, two of them -would have died." - -"And who is Sister Julia?" - -"Don't you know who Sister Julia is?" she asked, incredulously; "why, I -thought everyone in New York knew about her. She's----" - -"Let Regie tell," Harry interrupted. "You see he has a kind of city way -with him that is more taking, you know," he added, with a sly wink and -in tones too low for Mr. Allan's ear. - -Nan immediately relapsed into silence, and Regie came to the front. - -"Sister Julia is a nurse, but she's a lady too, and she came to Moorlow -to take care of me when I broke my leg last June. She lives in a great -hospital in New York, and takes care of sick people, mostly children." - -"But how does she happen to be here now?" asked Mr. Allan. "Those two -legs of yours seem to be as strong as anybody's." - -"Oh, yes, it's all right now," and Regie regarded his right leg rather -affectionately; "but Sister Julia stayed on to look after me, because -Papa and Mamma Fairfax have gone to Europe." - -"Then you are Curtis Fairfax's adopted boy?'' Mr. Allan exclaimed with -some surprise; and readjusting his gold-rimmed spectacles he looked -Regie over rather critically. - -"Yes, sir, I am," Rex replied, for almost the first time in his life -hearing that word "adopted" without wincing. - -"You'll do well then if you make as good a man as your father. He's one -of the whitest men in the trade." - -Regie did not quite know what he meant by that, but hesitated to ask. - -"Just how are you going to use this money?" asked Mr. Allan. - -"For the hospital, sir. It costs seventy dollars a week to run it. The -brig was wrecked last week, Wednesday you know, and Sister Julia says -they will not be able to go before the middle of next week, so we need -a hundred and forty dollars, and sixty dollars more for beds and other -things." - -Mr. Allan re-opened the little book. - -"I see," he said, "that you have forty dollars promised already. I -recognise Mr. Vale's hand in this first twenty. Are you free to tell who -contributes the other?" - -"The other twenty!" exclaimed Harry, looking over Mr. Allan's shoulder; -"why, that is Regie's writing!" - -Rex coloured up to the roots of his brown hair, as though he had been -the most guilty of little culprits. - -"I have ten dollars now of my own," he stammered, "and I know of a way -I can surely earn ten more when I get back to town, so I am going to ask -Mr. Vale to lend me the money." - -[Illustration: 8139] - -"Good for you!" said Mr. Allan, "I call that downright generous, and as -I happen to know of a way I can earn sixty dollars when I get back to -town, I suppose I ought to put myself down for forty at any rate. -I guess I had better draw a check to your order, as you seem to be -chairman of the committee," and crossing the room he sat down at a -little oak desk. Nan stared at Rex in mute amazement. She had never -dreamed he was such a wealthy personage. Harry's respect was wonderfully -increased too, by the way. To think that a boy no older than he actually -knew of a way by which he could earn ten dollars! He stowed that piece -of information away in his mind as a matter to be inquired into more -particularly at a later date, and was so ungracious as to have some -doubts as to the perfect truthfulness of the statement. - -Just at this moment Jackson came again into the room, bearing a tray -laden with cider and doughnuts; clear, amber-coloured cider, in a -cut-glass pitcher, and doughnuts generously sprinkled with powdered -sugar, and fried that morning. - -"I thought dese yere children might enjoy a little sumfin to eat arter -their long ride this breezy morning," said Jackson, setting the tray on -the table. - -"A happy thought, Jackson," answered Mr. Allan, smiling; "and now -suppose we draw up to the table and be comfortable." - -The children needed no urging, and Jackson, placing a plate in front of -each of them, passed the doughnuts, and then filled four tempting little -tumblers to the brim. - -"Let us drink to the health of Sister Julia," said Mr. Allan, and he was -greatly amused at the easy grace with which the children complied. - -Captain Murray had once taken Nan and Harry to a "Rip Van Winkle" -_matinee_, and so they chanced to know what was the proper thing to do -when a health was proposed. Afterward, Harry proposed the health of Mr. -Vale, because, as he put it, "he was such a brick at the time of the -wreck;" and then Regie proposed Captain Murray's. Altogether it was a -very merry party, and the children finally bade Mr. Allan a reluctant -goodbye, when Rex decided that "they really ought to go on to the next -place, for if they kept on at this rate they wouldn't get home till -morning." - -They had still four names on their list, and already had half the money. - -Feeling sure that Mr. Vale had in each place heralded their coming by a -postal, they entered the other houses with an air of childish confidence -which seemed to say, "We have called for that money, please." - -Everywhere they were received with more than cordial kindness, and when -Pet turned his head homeward the whole amount had been subscribed. - -"Oh, dear me!" Nan suddenly exclaimed, quite overcome by a thought that -had occurred to her. - -"What is it, goosie?" And it is not necessary to mention who asked that. - -"Why, we have all the money we need, and we have not called on Miss Vale -yet." - -"That's so, by cracky!" said Harry. - -"Well, we'll just have to go there and explain," Rex volunteered. - -"Perhaps you had better not give so much yourself," suggested Harry; "I -don't see how you are ever going to earn ten dollars." - -"Well, I do then," in a kingly way, resenting such interference. - -"Oh yes, we ought to go," said Nan; "I only hope she won't mind our -having collected it all." - -It did not occur to either of this committee (and would there were more -of these sort of people in the world!) that anyone might possibly prefer -not being called upon for a subscription. They themselves regarded the -opportunity for giving in the light of an actual privilege. Nan was -thankful the money was so easily raised, for she had not a penny in the -world to give save that two dollars, which she must reserve for -that little wallet for Regie; but she was planning to present a warm -comforter, which her own little hands had made, to the Spanish captain, -and she thought she might favour the first mate with the rubber -pencil-case which she had bought as a parting present for Regie. - -When they reached Mr. Avery's they found Miss Vale ready to receive -them. She was very much of an invalid, seldom able to leave her room, -but in honour of their coming she had put on a pretty wrapper, and was -seated in a large rocking-chair. She was anxious to meet these little -friends of whom her brother had so often spoken, and looked forward -to their coming as quite an event in her quiet life. The nurse led the -children up the oaken stair, and Nan trod as noiselessly as possible -herself, but was sure she had never heard Harry and Regie make such a -noise before. - -Miss Vale received them very cordially, and they felt at home with her -at once. They talked about the wreck for some time, and then Miss Vale -said, "Well, I believe you want some money from me for the hospital?" - -"No," Nan answered, with much seriousness, and as though she was -breaking the saddest piece of news imaginable; "we are very sorry, -but we don't need any more; we got enough money before we knew it. We -couldn't help it, really." - -Nan saw that the nurse was laughing in a quiet way, but never dreamt -that she was the cause of the merriment. Miss Vale herself looked -amused, but managed to keep her face straight as she said, feigning much -anxiety, "Dear me! what am I to do, then? I had made up my mind to give -you a hundred dollars." The finance committee looked puzzled enough, and -as though they saw no way out of this difficulty. - -"But look here," Miss Vale continued, "I have an idea. The captain and -his crew did not save anything from the wreck, did they?'' - -"Not a thing, and some of them haven't a penny in the world," Harry -answered. - -"How many are there?' - -"Seven," answered the children, in one breath. - -"Well then, wouldn't it be a good thing to divide the money among them, -so that they will have something to begin life with again?" - -"Seven won't go into a hundred evenly," said Harry, having a horror of -fractions. - -"Well, I guess we can fix matters if it doesn't," was Regie's scornful -response. "I think it is very kind of you," turning to Miss Vale. "When -shall we give it to them?" - -"It seems to me to-morrow would be a good day. Are the men to have a -Thanksgiving dinner?" - -"Indeed they are," Nan answered. "They are to have turkey, and mashed -potatoes, and cranberries that mother has made in beautiful moulds, and -mince-pie, and lots of things. They'll all be able to come to the table -too, except the captain." - -"It's just as well that he can't come," Regie explained, with the air of -an experienced doctor. "He isn't strong enough to eat turkey dna hearty -things like that." - -"He's to have some very nice gruel, though," Nan confided, and as though -she knew more about it all than both the toys put together; as indeed -she did, for she had been present at many a conference between Sister -Julia and her mother regarding the dinner. - -The children made a long call, and no one knows how much longer they -would have lingered in Miss Vale's sunny room, looking at some fine -photographs of Mr. Avery's, which the maid had brought up from the -parlour, if the old clock in the hall had not struck two very clearly -and distinctly. - -"Is it as late as that?" cried Nan; "we shall miss our dinner altogether -if we don't go home this minute." - -That was sufficient to start the boys, and the children took their -departure, Miss Vale promising to send the money down that night -in separate envelopes, so that Harry should not be bothered by the -difficult division of one hundred by seven. - -[Illustration: 5143] - -[Illustration: 0144] - - - - -XVI.--THE CAPTAIN'S STORY - - -[Illustration: 9144] - -T is only quite natural that the little folks throughout these United -States should set less store by Thanksgiving day than Christmas. It may -seem all very fine to sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner, but, after all, -Thanksgiving may not hold a candle to Christmas,--to Christmas, with -its continued round of excitement, beginning in the small hours of the -morning with the inspection of Christmas presents, and ending, in all -probability, with the glory and glitter of a well-loaded Christmas tree -at night. Yet I doubt if the most favoured little darling in the world, -who knew every wish for a twelvemonth would find its fulfilment on -Christmas morning, ever looked forward to that day as eagerly as our -little friends to this Thanksgiving. - -I will do them the credit to say that they gave little thought to -the good things that were to fall to their own share. They were each -conjuring pictures for themselves of how those Spanish sailors would -look when they sat down to that good dinner. Two of the sailors knew -nothing of English beyond the two words "thank you." Nan could see them -now saying it with their funny accent every time anything was passed to -them. And when she wondered how they would look when the money was -handed to them, she could hardly wait for the glad moment to come and -see for herself. She did not have to wait long, for those were her last -thoughts before falling asleep, and when she awoke it was Thanksgiving -morning. Of course the weather would have much to do with the pleasure -of the day, so the first thing she did was to fly to the window and -throw open the blinds. The late November sun, rising out of the ocean, -flooded everything with a rosy light, and the air was mild enough for -early October. - -[Illustration: 0145] - -Three or four seagulls were sailing over the waves In search of their -breakfast, making a dive now and then when their wonderful far-reaching -gaze detected a fish near the surface of the water. Nan watched one of -them circling round and round, and clapped her hands from sheer delight -when she saw him rise from a desperate dive with a fish quivering in -his talons, then flying homeward to his nest on the bough of some inland -tree. It seemed as though even the seagulls ought to fare better than -on other days. To be sure it put a sad ending to the life of the poor -little fish, but no doubt it was as allowable for seagulls to dine -off men-haden, as for people to dine off roast turkeys and ducks. -This logical train of thought, and some other thoughts not as logical, -tripped through Nan's mind as she made her neat little toilet. The -brown hair was braided quickly but very evenly, and tied with a scarlet -ribbon; the whitest of little yoke-aprons was put on over the blue -flannel dress, and, notwithstanding it opened down the back and boasted -fifteen buttons, was carefully adjusted by Nan's own little fingers. -it is astonishing what "own little fingers" can do for the children who -must needs wait on themselves. - -[Illustration: 0146] - -A radiant embodiment of sweetness and freshness, Nan bustled into the -dining-room, to find the boys there before her. They were curled up on -the window-seat looking over, for perhaps the tenth time, the budget of -envelopes which Miss Vale had sent the night before. - -"You look good enough to eat this morning," said Harry, with a look of -honest admiration. - -"Well. I guess I shall not be good enough to let you eat me," Nan -answered, blushing a little. - -Harry caught her dress as she passed him, and held her firmly while he -gave her the heartiest sort of a kiss. The truth is that two months ago -Harry would have done nothing of the sort. It might have occurred to -him, but he simply would not have done it. Regie had been teaching him -a lesson. Always gallant and thoughtful himself toward Nan, Harry had -watched him closely, and gradually had come to the conclusion that a -brother might really treat his sister with much consideration without -being set down for a spoony; indeed, might even go so far as to actually -express his admiration, not only in words, but in the deed of an -unexpected kiss now and then, without being silly. The lesson was well -worth learning, and would it might be taught to a host of well-meaning -little Harrys, who need to learn it every whit as much as this Harry in -particular! As soon as Sister Julia arrived they had breakfast. She ran -up every morning from the hospital, for the sake of the change and fresh -air. As soon as the meal was finished, preparations were at once begun -for the great Thanksgiving dinner. In the first place Dobbin was brought -to the door, and the two boys helped Captain Murray carry out from the -hall several well-filled boxes and baskets; for the dinner was to be -served in the rear end of the chapel, as Captain Murray's dining-room -was too small to accommodate so large a party comfortably; besides, one -or two of the men were not so far recovered as to be able to venture -out of doors. Pet and the cart were also pressed into service, and made -numerous trips to and fro, until at last, with the help of the sailors, -everything had been unloaded at the chapel door. - -Mrs. Murray, in a long white apron, presided over the cooking, and soon -a strange new incense, which was none other than the smell of roasting -turkey, began to make its way to the rafters of the church. - -The captain on his cot sniffed it gratefully, and he wished from the -bottom of his heart that he was up and about and able to enjoy it. -Sister Julia busied herself with setting the table. Rex and Harry sat -in one corner paring potatoes, and the sailors strolled about with their -hands in their pockets, and broad smiles on their dark faces, rendering -some little service whenever they could. - -The one who could not speak English at all kept near Mrs. Murray, -watching her intently with his large black eyes, and trying to -anticipate any little thing he might do for her, such as lifting the -great pot, in which a Savoury soup was boiling away, or pushing more -wood into the cooking-stove. - -"Well, Sister Julia, what can I do now?" asked Nan, when she had -finished the glasses. - -"Let me see," answered Sister Julia, pausing a second to count the -places at the table, to be sure she had made no mistake; "I think you -might arrange the fruit. The bananas and oranges will look the better -for a careful rubbing with one of the glass towels." - -[Illustration: 0148] - -"All right," Nan said, cheerily, glad to have so important a task -assigned to her. Just as she had gotten everything together a sudden -thought occurred to her, and seizing a fruit dish under each arm, she -travelled down the aisles and into the vestry. - -During the week she and the Spanish captain had grown to be fast -friends, and his face brightened the moment he saw her. - -"I was thinking you might be a little lonely," she said; "if you like, I -can bring my work in here and do it." - -"Indeed, senorita, nothing would please me better," the captain -answered, in musical broken English. The captain always addressed Nan as -"senorita," the pretty word that stands for miss in his native tongue. - -Nan asked two of the sailors to carry the great box of oranges and -bananas into the vestry, and seating herself on the floor, with a dish -on each side of her, she set to work. - -"How do you feel to-day, captain?" she asked, by way of opening the -conversation, and rubbing vigorously away at an orange. - -"Better, senorita; but one does not want to get well too fast, and say -good-bye to Sister Julia and the rest of you who have been so kind to us -all." - -"You are sorry, then, that you tried to do it, aren't you?" - -"Do what, senorita?" and the colour came into his dark face. - -"Why, kill yourself, captain," polishing away at a banana without -looking up, and feeling pretty sure it would have been better not to -have said this. - -"I had hoped the little senorita did not know about that," sighed the -captain. "It was a cowardly and foolish thing to do." - -"It was a very wicked thing, captain. I hope you never will try to do it -again." - -"Never you fear," he answered, smiling; "all my life I will try to make -amends for it; and I will tell you something you may think strange, -senorita, and that is, that this has been the happiest week in all my -life. Two or three times when I have been lying here, just at sunset, -where I could watch the great white breakers come rolling in, and Sister -Julia has been playing on the organ in the church there, I have thought -I must be dreaming in my berth in the poor _Christina_. Then I have -raised myself on my elbow, so that I could look into the chancel yonder -and see the cross on the altar cloth, and feel sure it was really all as -it seemed." - -"You are not exactly glad you were wrecked, though?" Nan asked, -practically. - -"Yes, in a way, I am glad." - -"You don't forget about losing all your money and things, do you?" - -"No, but perhaps it's worth while to have lost one's money to be wrecked -on a coast of big and little angels." - -"Big and little angels!" - -"Yes, and if you want to know why it seems so to me you must listen to a -story." - -There was no "must listen" for Nan where a story was concerned. She was -all attention in a moment, an eager breathless little listener, and the -captain began. - -"Just thirty-six years ago a Spanish boy found himself without father or -mother, and was set adrift on the world. Not a penny did he own, but he -was a hearty, fearless little fellow, and he managed somehow to live, -though he seldom knew where the next meal was to come from, or where -he would sleep at night. By the time the boy was ten years old he grew -tired of his vagabond life, and longed to learn how to read and write. -So he resolved to go to the village school, and he earned a little money -out of school hours here and there, and was a happier fellow than in the -old idle days. - -"No sooner had he learned to read and write in pretty decent fashion -than he decided to run away to sea, for he had always a notion that he -would be a sailor some day. I do not know that you could exactly call it -running away, when no one cared very much whether he came or went; but -for the next few years he had a pretty hard time of it, for to go to sea -before the mast under a harsh and cruel captain is likely to make life -rather difficult. Sometimes when he was sent out to reef the top-gallant -sail he would balance himself on the yard, wondering if it would not be -better to let himself drop into the ocean--the men would only think he -had tumbled off; but somehow the fear of God always kept him from it." - -[Illustration: 0151] - -"Notwithstanding the hardship he went to sea again until he was -twenty-five years old, and by that time he had worked up to be first -mate of the----" - -"Of the _Christina?_" Nan questioned, eagerly. - -"Yes, of the _Christina_," the captain admitted; "and he had managed to -save enough to become part owner of her besides." Nan had finished her -work, but was quite unmindful of the fact, and sat gazing up to the -captain's face, with her hands clasped round her knees. - -"Had he grown up to be a good man?" she asked, innocently. "I am afraid -not, senorita, as you would count goodness." - -"Was he kind to his men?" altogether unconscious of how embarrassing her -questions might prove. - -"Yes, he was kind. That was the best thing that could be said for him. -He did not deserve any credit for that, though, for he had suffered so -much himself from unkindness." - -"Then he deserved all the more credit," Nan said, decidedly, and the -colour in the captain's face showed how grateful her praise was to him. - -"Well, it happened one November morning," he continued, "ten years -afterward, that when he had been battling all night with the wind and -the waves of a terrible storm, his ship ran ashore, and in such a way -that he knew he could never save her. All the earnings of his lifetime -gone in a minute! What was there to live for? He had not a relative in -the world, and that ship was his darling. Then the thought to take his -own life came to him, as it used to sometimes when he was a poor little -sailor on the top-gallant yard, only now that he was a man no thought -of God came with it, and so the desperate deed was attempted." Nan had -never listened to anything so fascinating in all her life before. - -"That is not all?" she asked, eagerly, for the captain had paused for a -moment. - -"Thank God, no! scarcely did the captain--for he was no longer first -mate--think that the ugly weapon had done its work, than he seemed to be -all by himself in a beautiful silver boat on a wide blue sea. It was a -little boat, without sails or oars, and it bounded over the waves of -its own free will, so that the captain had simply to let it carry -him whither it would. Soon he knew they were nearing a shore, for he -recognised the sound of breakers on the beach; but he shuddered as he -heard it, for he half-remembered that something terrible had happened -when he had heard that sound once before But his fright was over in -a moment, for he saw a great banner waving in the air, and on it was -printed, in gold letters, 'The Shore of Loving kindness.'" - -[Illustration: 0153] - -"As he neared the land, one curling white breaker seemed gently to lift -the boat on to the next, until at last it was landed on a great white -stretch of beach. It seemed to the captain such a beautiful shore, that -he wondered if it might be heaven; and if it was, he knew he had no -right there. He tried to lift himself up and step out of the little -boat, but somehow he was not able to do that; so he lay quite still and -contented, looking up at the stars overhead,--wonderful stars they -were, for the only light there was came from them, and yet he could see -everything plainly. At last the stars seemed to grow dim and still more -dim, and the captain turned himself over on the silk cushions of the -boat and fell asleep. When he awoke he stared about him with a wondering -gaze, for everything looked so strange. He was no longer in the -silk-cushioned boat, but lying on a cot in a little room, a queer little -room, with a carved oaken partition, and soft red curtains running along -two sides of it. He could not see very plainly, for the light was low -in the room, and he could not tell where it came from. He felt something -heavy on his head, and put his hand up, for he remembered that he had -thought that the little red boat had landed him in heaven. But alas! -there was no crown, only a tightly-bound bandage, and the moment his -hand touched it he guessed why it was there, and that he was only a -shipwrecked captain whom someone had cared for. But where was he? A door -led out of his little room--into what? Why, it looked like a church; -yes, it was surely a church,' for the moonlight was streaming through -the chancel window, and he could see the communion table and some one -sitting beyond the chancel rail. How strange! What could it mean? He put -his hand to his head again to make sure of the bandage, and that he -was not dreaming. And now the figure has left the table, and is moving -toward him. It comes gently to the side of his cot, and he can see that -it is a woman, a woman with the face of an angel. The captain looks up -at her with a wondering gaze; but she puts her finger to her lips as a -sign that he must not speak. Then she makes the light brighter in the -room, and draws a chair to his side, and tells him in a low, sweet voice -all about himself--how he happens to be in the vestry of the little -church; and finally she tells him that she means to take care of him -until he is entirely well again. But the captain almost wishes he may -never be well again, if he may only have that angel face to watch over -him." - -"That angel was Sister Julia," said Nan, with a sigh, as though to -relieve her overcharged little heart. - -"Yes, that was Sister Julia," assented the captain. - -"But you said there were little angels, too," Nan said, innocently. - -"Certainly. I have a picture of the little _arch_angel (that is, the -principal one) here beside me," and the captain placed a little frame in -Nan's eager hands. - -Of course it proved to be only a little mirror, in which she saw the -reflection of her own fair little face. - -"Do you call a round chubby face like that the face of an angel?" she -laughed, holding the little mirror at arm's length and looking in, in a -funny, half-critical fashion. - -"Yes, I do. It has been a real angel face to me, coming in and out of -this vestry room with its bright smiles." - -"Why, where is Nan?" someone called just then. - -"Coming, Sister Julia," Nan answered, jumping to her feet, and with an -effort lifting one of the heavy fruit dishes. - -"I must go," she said, reluctantly; but when she reached the door she -paused for a moment to look back and ask, "It was true, wasn't it, -all that about when you were a boy; all except about the boat and the -angels?" - -"Every word of it," answered the captain; "and it was true about the -angels, too, senorita." - -[Illustration: 5155] - -[Illustration: 0156] - - - - -XVII--THANKSGIVING IN EARNEST - - -[Illustration: 9156] - -HE hour-hand of the watch that hung at Sister Julia's belt had just -reached three as she put the last touch to the table; that last touch -consisted in placing, at each seat, a card bearing the name of the -person who was to occupy it. Sister Julia had herself prepared the cards -in the little leisure she could spare from hospital duties. On each -she had painted some little emblem of the sea--a shell, or a spray of -seaweed--introducing the name in odd-shaped letters. - -Then on the reverse side she had enrolled the entire party in the order -of their seats at the table, knowing that some of their number would -cherish those little cards as precious souvenirs for many a long year to -come. - -The soup was on the table, and Mrs. Murray having instructed the woman -who had been helping her just how to bring the dishes to the table, laid -aside her great gingham apron, and gave the signal to sit down. - -"Why, there's one seat too many!" remarked Harry, when all had found -their places. - -"Dear me, why so there is!" exclaimed Sister Julia. "How did that ever -happen?" - -"Why, it happened just this way," answered a familiar voice; no one -could tell just where the voice came from, but all knew whose it was. -"It happened just this way. I telegraphed Sister Julia yesterday that if -she would put off the dinner till three o'clock I could get through -my sermon in time to come, and so here I am, you see," and Mr. Vale -appeared in the door-way, having waited a moment in the vestibule to -hang up his coat. - -The presence of Mr. Vale was just the one thing needed to complete that -Thanksgiving dinner in everyone's estimation. - -Even the men, whose knowledge of English was limited to the -parrot-learned "Thank you," brightened when they saw him. There are -faces which bear so plainly the imprint of love and sympathy, one does -not need to speak a common language to comprehend them. - -"You have come at the right moment," said Sister Julia, and Mr. Vale, -knowing what she meant, bowed his head and asked a blessing. It was a -prayer as well as a blessing--a prayer for the future of these sailors, -who were so soon again to give their lives to the keeping of the sea; -and a prayer for the future of the children, that the whole volume of -their life might remain as pure and unsullied as the pages of their -childhood--nor did he forget the captain lying on his cot in the little -vestry room. His voice seemed to gather additional earnestness as he -prayed that he might be restored to perfect health, and take up his life -again with a divine trust and courage which should be able to grapple -victoriously with misfortune and despair, should he again be called to -meet them. - -At the close of the blessing Sister Julia thought she heard a low -fervent "Amen" from the recesses of the little vestry room. - -No doubt it was but natural that everyone at that long table should -realise that it was no ordinary occasion. Never did a stranger company -sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner under stranger circumstances, but they -enjoyed it heartily, notwithstanding the strangeness. - -Somehow or other, Mr. Vale knew just the way to draw everybody out, and -thanks to him the party, that otherwise might easily have found itself a -little stiff and embarrassed, became a very merry one. - -[Illustration: 9158] - -Captain Murray enlivened the table with two or three old sea yarns, -and while they were waiting for the dessert to be brought in Mr. Vale -induced the sailors to give them two or to be going on, on every side. - -When at last Mrs. Murray lifted an all-on-fire plum pudding to the -table, one of the younger sailors, who was little more than a boy, -clapped his hands from sheer delight, and, fired by his enthusiasm, all -at the table followed his example. The colour came into Mrs. Murray's -round face; she considered the demonstration as a compliment to herself, -as was quite right she should, three Spanish songs which they were -accustomed to sing together at sea. Meanwhile, Nan had travelled into -the vestry with the captain's dinner, of clam broth and dainty little -crackers; delicious broth, which Sister Julia had herself prepared, and -crackers which Nan's own little hands had toasted to a most inviting -brownness. It did Nan's heart good to see how the captain enjoyed eating -them, and it did the captain's heart good to see how much she enjoyed -seeing him eat them; and so it was that all through that Thanksgiving -Day a constant process of _doing hearts good_ seemed for no little -raisin-stoning and washing of currants had gone toward the concoction of -that great brown pudding, about which the blue flames were now curling -so beautifully. - -At last the supreme moment for "all hands" arrived, when, at a signal -from Sister Julia, Regie, as chairman of the finance committee, produced -the budget of envelopes, and handed them to one and another as fast as -he could make out the names written on the backs of them. - -Meanwhile, Mr. Vale stood up, and explained that each envelope contained -a gift of money, and though by no means a large amount, the giver hoped -it might stand them in good stead, and that each would kindly accept it -with her best wishes. - -At the words "her best wishes," the eyes of the crew, as by common -consent, turned toward Sister Julia, so that she had right away to deny -having had any part in the transaction. - -"No, indeed," she said, "you must not thank me for this; Mr. Vale's -sister is the good friend to whom you are indebted." - -In the absence of their captain the men looked to their first mate to -express their gratitude. Mr. Vale would have given a great deal if his -sister could have heard the few earnest words which the first mate spoke -from a full heart, and could have seen the sturdy fellow as he spoke -them. - -And so the dinner was ended. It had grown quite dark in the chapel, for -the early November twilight had deepened landward and seaward. - -"Before we separate," said Mr. Vale, "I wish Regie would sing the German -evening hymn from the Children's Hymnal." - -Regie needed no urging, and took his stand beside Sister Julia at the -organ, while the others still kept their places. He loved to sing, -throwing his whole soul into it, and in that lay half his power to -please. - -Clear and sweet rang out the words of the simple hymn, and at its close -more than one sleeve was brushed across misty eyes, and tears stole from -under the captain's eyelids as he lay in the little vestry--lying there -alone, why need he strive to hide them?--besides, what was there to be -ashamed of in such tears as those? - -These had been days of new and strange experiences to those Spanish -sailors, and they had learned some of life's best lessons for the first -time. - -"Your faces are kinder than when you came," Nan had frankly said to the -crew one day. - -"Senorita, that is because our hearts are kinder," one of the men had -answered. - -[Illustration: 5160] - -[Illustration: 0161] - - - - -XVIII.--THE KING'S CAMERA - - -[Illustration: 9161] - -NOTHER week rolled by, and found the crew of the _Christina_ ready to -say good-bye to Moorlow, and yet not ready, for most of them were very -loth to go; but the captain was quite recovered, and there was no excuse -for their remaining longer. Indeed, Sister Julia thought that those of -their number who had sustained no very severe injuries ought to have -gone before, but the men seemed anxious to stand by their captain, and -she did not quite have the courage to send them off. That such a sad -state of things was possible never seemed to enter the mind of any -member of the crew. Without being in any sense ungrateful, they simply -took everything for granted. With the exception of the captain, not -one of them ever questioned where the money came from that provided -so generously for their wants during those two weeks. They looked upon -Sister Julia as a veritable saint, with illimitable, if not divine, -resources, sent to minister to them especially; and the reverential way -in which they bade her farewell showed that they so regarded her to the -last. - -All Moorlow was gathered at the station to see them off. Everyone who -had contributed in any way to their comfort,--and there were few in -Moorlow who had not--felt a sort of responsibility in giving them a -cheery "send off." Even the shabby little Croxsons were there, for had -they not run on innumerable errands that morning when the crew were -rescued? As the train moved away the captain stood upon the rear -platform. A neat little bundle was tucked under one arm, for Nan, not -forgetting her resolution, had presented him at the last moment with -the warm comforter which she herself had made. The captain waved a red -handkerchief until the station was entirely out of sight, and his last -glance, before he turned and went into the car, was toward the hull of -the _Christina_, which he could plainly see just where she had stranded -that stormy November morning. It seemed to him as though he were saying -good-bye to all his past, and with a courage that surprised him he was -ready to make a new start. He was very grateful for the fact that his -men were thoroughly loyal to him, and felt pretty sure that with such a -crew at his service he could easily gain command of some vessel plying -between Spain and the United States. So it was that with a contented -smile he took a seat in the midst of his crew, and, encouraged by their -captain's good cheer, the dark-eyed men soon fell to conversing in the -liveliest manner in their native Spanish, much to the amusement of their -fellow-passengers. - -It had been a very exciting fortnight for quiet Moorlow, but in a -marvellously short space of time everything settled back into the old -grooves. The little church soon looked as sober and decorous as though -it had never served as a temporary hospital, or known the savoury odours -of a Thanksgiving dinner. - -A December storm had beaten the _Christina's_ hull literally to pieces, -and nothing was left to tell the story of the wreck save the shell -which had been shot out with the whip-line, and which Captain Murray, -according to custom, had lettered and dated, and hung in the Life-saving -Station; a trophy of which the crew had good reason to be proud. - -The children had resumed their lessons, and Regie was counting the days -till Papa and Mamma Fairfax would board the homeward-bound steamer -at Liverpool. The three months, which had seemed a long time to look -forward to, had slipped away very quickly, and Harry and Nan and himself -were full of joyous anticipation, for a glorious plan was on foot. - -Mr. Fairfax had written very urgently asking that the Murray children -might be allowed to spend the Christmas holidays with Regie in town. -Captain Murray had only given his consent very reluctantly, for he knew -the Moorlow Christmas would be a sorry affair without the children; but -nevertheless he _had_ given it, and Nan and Harry's respective heads -were almost turned with delight at the prospect. - -It is doubtful if the liveliest imagination could picture all that a -whole week in New York meant to these little Murrays. They had never -been there for more than a day at a time, and then only at rare -intervals, and it was not strange that stolen whispers in lesson hours, -and long chats out of them, all bore upon the delightful subject of -this visit, until, in Sister Julia's estimation, the children were -devoting too much time to sitting indoors, and plotting and planning, -and not enough to out-of-door exercise; so she put her wits to work to -devise some scheme to bring about a change of affairs. - -"There is one thing, Regie," she said, "over which your Papa Fairfax -will be very much disappointed when he comes home." - -She spoke so seriously, that Regie looked up at her with a very troubled -face, which said, as plainly as words, "Whatever do you mean?" - -"Why, you haven't a single picture to show him. In all this while not a -photograph have you taken." - -"That's so," with a sigh; "but then I don't believe he'll expect it. You -can't do much photographing in cold weather; besides, there's nothing to -take in winter." - -"You said once that you'd like to take a good picture of me," Nan -remarked, showing that she did not consider that the low state of the -thermometer in any way diminished her charms, as indeed it did not. -There was not a prettier or more breezy little specimen of humanity in -existence than Nan on one of these wintry afternoons, when she had just, -come in from an hour's buffeting with wind and weather on the beach. - -"Yes, I _would_ like a good picture of you, Nan," said Regie, -patronisingly, looking at her with his head on one side, after the -meditative fashion of an artist regarding his model. "The trouble is, -I don't know of any place in this house where you can get a good enough -light." - -"And why in the house, pray?" asked Sister Julia; "it is not a bit too -cold to try your hand out of doors. This is just a perfect winter's day, -and there is no wind to blow, your camera over." - -"That's so," assented Regie again, "I'm going to get ready," and suiting -the action to the word he bounded out of the room, and the body-guard -followed his example. - -At the time that Mr. Fairfax had seen fit to endow Regie with a -photographing outfit, he had, with no little painstaking, carefully -instructed him as just to how the whole process, from beginning to -end, must be managed. As a result Regie had succeeded in producing some -first-rate pictures, "all his own work, too," as he would have told you -proudly. But that was more than a year ago, and before he knew Nan -and Harry. He had some fine plans for the summer just ended, but that -unlucky fall from the cherry tree bough had prevented his carrying them -out. To be sure, within the last few weeks, since the little leg had so -thoroughly mended, he might have gotten to work again as easily as could -be, but the excitement following the wreck of the _Christina_ had driven -all thought of it out of his mind. - -The fact that Nan knew that Regie could take pictures accounted in a -measure, perhaps, for the reverence with which she regarded him; but -Harry was as doubtful of his real ability as in the matter of the -earning of the money for the hospital fund, and he hailed with delight -the chance he was about to have to put him to the test. - -Harry and Nan were ready in no time, but with the amateur photographer, -"getting ready" is a mysterious and laborious proceeding, and Rex failed -to put in an appearance. - -The body-guard waited and waited till, their patience exhausted, they -scaled the stairway leading to His Royal Highness's private apartment, -but His Majesty was nowhere to be seen. - -"Why, where is Rex?" cried Nan. - -"I'm in here," answered a muffled voice. - -"What, in the closet?" and Harry rushed for it. - -"Yes, but don't open the door for the world. I'm filling my -plate-holders." - -Harry and Nan looked at each other as much as to say, "What in creation -is he talking about?" then by tacit consent they noiselessly crouched -down by the closet door, and Harry peeped through the keyhole. - -His face grew pale, and with a terrified expression he drew Nan over so -that she could take a look; then with precipitate haste they fled from -the room. - -"Oh, Sister Julia!" cried Nan. - -"Regie's shut up in his closet," cried Harry. - -"And we looked through the keyhole and saw an awful red light," -interrupted Nan. - -"And we think he has set the closet on fire, and you had better go -and see to it right away," interrupted Harry, very much surprised that -Sister Julia did not seem in the least alarmed. - -"Why, he's only filling his plate-holders," she exclaimed, laughing, - -"Yes," nodded Nan, her eyes as large as saucers, "he said something like -that." - -"Of course he did, and the fire you thought you saw is the light from -his ruby lantern." - -"His what!" exclaimed Harry; then, after a little pause, he added, "Say! -won't you explain to us something about it?" Ashamed that he had shared -Nan's fright, and foreseeing that he would be obliged to ask Regie more -questions than would be at all agreeable. - -"Why, certainly," answered Sister Julia, with a smile still playing -about the corners of her mouth. "You see they take these pictures on a -plate, that is a square glass which comes for the purpose, coated with -a dry, white preparation. Mr. Fairfax buys them in boxes holding a dozen -each, and when Regie wants to take pictures he has to take them from the -box and put them in his plate-holders. The plate-holders are a sort of -little boxes that fit in the back of his camera." - -"His cam-e-ra?" drawled Nan. - -"Yes, that is the name of the instrument he takes the pictures with, but -it will ruin the plate to let a ray of daylight touch it before he is -ready to take the picture, so Rex must needs go into a dark closet, -and light his ruby lantern, when the time comes for filling his -plate-holders." - -[Illustration: 0166] - -Regie appeared on the scene just then, with his apparatus in his arms, -and the trio marched off, the King all unconscious of the fright he had -given the body-guard, and the body-guard intending never to enlighten -him on the subject. - -"What shall we take?" said Regie, when they had gone a little way down -the beach. "I wish we had enough for a group. I like to take groups -best." - -"What is a group?" Nan asked, shyly. - -"Why, a group's a lot of people, goosie," Harry answered, for he enjoyed -answering questions in direct proportion to his dislike to asking them. - -"Would the Croxsons do, then?" Nan queried timidly, often feeling more -or less subdued by Harry's "goosie." - -"The very thing," replied Rex; "they're so queer-looking, they'll make a -jolly funny group." - -"Shall I go for them while you're getting your _camera_ ready?" remarked -Harry, airing his knowledge of the photographic terms. Regie nodded yes, -and Harry was off. - -"Wouldn't it be nice to take them in that?" said Nan, pointing to one of -the fishermen's boats drawn up upon the beach. - -"Of course it would. You're splendid for thinking of things, Nan," Regie -replied, proceeding to get his instrument in order. Nan helped him -as best she could, very happy over the fact that such an important -personage as he was considered her _splendid_ for anything. - -Meanwhile the Croxsons were hurrying into a miscellaneous assortment of -threadbare out-of-door wraps, which were supposed to keep the cold out, -but in point of fact did nothing of the sort. They were highly elated -over the prospect of having their photographs taken. Not one of them had -ever experienced that sensation before. - -"W-w-won't it be a lark to be t-t-took?" stuttered little Madge, -beside herself with excitement; and the flushed faces of the other four -children showed that they undoubtedly thought it would, the neglected -little quintette never dreaming that they had been invited because they -were so "queer looking" and would make "a jolly funny group." But if -Regie and Harry and Nan did sometimes have a little fun at the Croxsons' -expense, they were too well-behaved ever to let them have an inkling of -it. As for Regie, he was as gallant in his manner to these shabby little -specimens as to the would-be little aristocrats in velvet knickerbockers -and patent leather pumps whom he was accustomed to meet at dancing -school. When the Croxsons arrived on the scene, Regie, having succeeded -in fastening his camera to the tripod, had just plunged his head under -the black rubber cloth which hung over it. - -"What are you doing?" Joe Croxson made so bold as to ask. - -"Focussing on the boat," was Regie's mysterious reply, from the folds of -the rubber cloth. - -At this answer Madge seemed to be somewhat intimidated. The word -focussing had an ominous sound in her ears. - -"What do you mean by that?" Joe asked gruffly, for not one of the little -party was a whit wiser than before. - -"Oh, I'm fixing things so as to be able to take a clear picture of that -boat," Regie answered, good-naturedly; "and now I would like you all to -run and get into it, ready to be taken." - -At this the party would have scampered off to do his bidding but for -little Millie Croxson, the baby, who had succumbed to a nameless fear, -and had to be coaxed and carried to the scene of action. - -[Illustration: 0168] - -Regie stood at a little distance, wondering how he should pose his -party, when suddenly Nan exclaimed, "Oh, I say! let's do this; let's -pretend we have been shipwrecked, and had to take to the boats, and are -out on the open sea. And you might take two pictures, Rex, one where -we think we must all die in the boat, and one where we have hailed a -steamer, and are going to be picked up and saved." - -[Illustration: 0169] - -Certainly Nan _was_ splendid for thinking of things, and the children -took to the idea at once; but it took somewhat longer to arrange matters -to the satisfaction of everybody. Finally it was arranged that the four -girls should be huddled together in the stern of the boat, and Joe and -Jim Croxson should each have an oar, and lean way forward, as though -they were rowing against a very heavy sea, and that Harry should be -stationed on the bow as a look-out. Harry and Nan endeavoured, by -turning their coats inside out, and one or two other alterations in -costume, to make themselves as forlorn as possible. There was something -pathetic in the fact that even the Croxsons themselves realised they -need attempt nothing in this direction; they were sufficiently forlorn -as they were. - -Little Millie was supposed to be a half-starved little baby, and had -an old handkerchief tied three-cornerwise about her head. As she sat on -Nan's lap her thin little face looked the character to perfection. - -"Now," said Rex, when all was in readiness; "you mustn't move, not one -of you." - -"C-c-can we w-w-wink?" stuttered Madge. - -"Are we forlorn enough and sorrowful enough?" asked Nan. - -"How do I look?" urged Harry, who stood balanced on the look-out in the -stiffest of positions. - -"Oh, you are all right," Regie answered, collectively; "now, still, -every one of you." - -Trembling with excitement he uncapped the lens, while he counted one, -two, three, four, which were supposed to cover two seconds in time'; and -then pop! on went the cap again, but alas! the picture was not taken. -Rex had forgotten to draw out the slide which would let the picture -in on the plate; but before he had time to announce his discovery the -children had abandoned their positions in the boat, and were crowding -once again around the camera. - -Regie hated to acknowledge his carelessness. He was loth to take a -single step down from the pinnacle on which the children had placed him -because of his acquaintance with the photographing art, but it had to be -done. - -"You'll all have to go back and be taken over again," he said, -disconsolately. "I didn't get any picture that time, because I forgot to -do something I ought to." - -The children marched back to the boat, but with faith evidently weakened -in the real ability of this would-be photographer. It took some time to -gain the properly forlorn expression and look of general despondency, -but at last all was in readiness, and the picture was taken. - -"Now change your positions and smile like everything," called Rex, "as -though you saw the steamer that is going to rescue you coming toward -you, and I'll take the other picture in a jiffy." - -The children brisked up and obeyed Regie's orders by grinning from ear -to ear, with the exception of baby Millie, whom neither petting nor -teasing could coax into so much as the suggestion of a smile. This -having your picture taken still seemed to her an uncanny and perilous -proceeding. - -"Say, Rex!" called Nan, in an anxious tone, "the baby won't look -cheerful. I can't make her smile, no matter what I do." H ere was a real -difficulty! Rex walked over to the boat to give the matter his personal -attention. - -"Perhaps it's too young a baby to understand that she isn't going to -be drowned," suggested Madge, who was really quite experienced in the -matter of babies, having had almost entire charge of Millie from her -birth. - -"Why, of course she is," Nan replied, blaming herself for not having -thought of this way of solving the problem; "she's hungry and cold -still, and she shouldn't smile." - -So little Miss Millie's downheartedness proved no obstacle after all, -and Regie soon announced that picture number two was taken. Pell mell -the children scrambled out of the boat and hurried back to the camera. - -"Let's see it, Rex." - -"Is it good?" were their exclamations all at once. - -"Which is the best?" - -"Why, I can't tell you yet," answered Regie, out of patience with such -ignorance; "don't you know I have to take the plates home before you can -tell a thing about them, and develop them?" - -"Develop?" said Jim Croxson, not having the remotest idea what the word -might mean; "develop your grandmother! It's my opinion if a fellow had -taken a picture he'd be glad enough to show it. I don't believe you -can take 'em at all, and there's no use in wasting any more time in this -tomfoolery. Come, Croxsies, let's travel home and scare up something to -eat." - -Jim was a ringleader in that family circle, and the younger Croxsons -took their departure with sullen faces, which looked as though they had -spent more time in the weary activity of _scaring up_ something to eat, -than in the more passive and beneficial process of eating. Regie stood -looking after them. - -[Illustration: 0172] - -"I call that pretty mean," he said, angrily, "and it shows just how much -they know about it." - -"Mean!" muttered Nan, with her little lips pressed tightly together; "I -would just like to see that Jim Croxson come up with." - -Nan did not know exactly what was involved in this proceeding of being -"come up with," but she had an idea that it was just about the most -dreadful thing that could happen to anybody. Harry stood non-committal. -Of course he thought it was very foolish for the Croxsons to go off like -that; but he would himself see the thing through before expressing -an opinion. If Regie said something more was needing to be done, he -supposed he must believe him; but it certainly seemed, if a picture was -taken, it was taken, and he ought to be able to show something for it. - -"Say, Harry," asked Regie, as they walked home, "isn't there a big dark -closet up in the attic?" - -"Yes, as dark as Egypt." - -"Well, then, we'll go up there to develop the pictures. I'd like to have -you and Nan see me do it. Is the closet large enough for three?" - -"Plenty." - -"All right then; and will you carry up a bucket of fresh clear water, -while Nan helps me to get my bottles and trays together?" - -Harry's faith began to revive. "Rex does seem to know what he's about, -after all," he thought. - -Coats and hats were punched on to their respective pegs, rather than -hung up according to rule, and in a few moments Harry, with the bucket -of water, and Rex and Nan, with their mysterious vials and bottles, met -in the dark closet. Rex lit his ruby lantern, and then solemnly closed -the door. Poor little Millie would undoubtedly have been frightened -to death had she been compelled to be present at this gloomy stage of -proceedings. - -Harry and Nan sat on the floor, with their legs crossed under them, -tailor-fashion, and with their heads pushed very forward so as not to -miss anything. Regie sat opposite them, pouring liquids out of bottles, -measuring them in little glasses, adding water to them, and emptying -them again into certain square trays, or dishes, in front of him, -"Now we're ready to begin," he said at last, with the air of a little -lecturer; "and the first thing to be done is to take the plate out of -the holder. This is the one on which I took the first picture; but you -see it looks perfectly white, as though there were no picture at all." - -"And is there?" asked Nan, incredulously. - -"Of course there is, and you'll see it with your own eyes in a minute. -First, I have to dust it with this camel's hair brush, for the smallest -speck would make a little pin hole in the plate; and now watch! I put -it in this tray; the stuff in here is called the developer, because in a -few moments it will begin to bring the picture out." - -This was always a moment of supreme excitement for Regie. You could -have heard him panting away through the crack of the closed door. -The excitement was contagious, and Nan began to pant too. Only Harry -continued to breathe quite regularly. - -"There it comes, there it comes!" Regie cried exultingly. "There's the -boat, see! and there you are, Nan, and there! the Croxsons are coming -out;" this in a regretful sort of tone, as though he half repented -having included such a disagreeable crowd in the picture at all. - -Mute with wonder, Harry and Nan looked on. To accomplish such a result -in such a mysterious way raised Regie in their eyes to the level of -an actual magician. Yes, there was the whole picture before them. They -could distinguish it quite distinctly, even by the dim lantern light, -only everything was reversed; faces were black and coats were white. - -"That is the reason they call this a negative," Rex explained; "I think -it means, not what it ought to be, because when this plate is dry, and -we lay a piece of sensitised paper against it and put it in the sun, the -print that comes off on the paper is called a positive; that is, we have -a proof, a picture, as it ought to be." - -"What do you do now?" asked Nan, in an awed whisper. - -"Why, now I take it out of the developer and plunge it up and down -several times in this bucket ol water, to wash the developer off, and -now I put it in this other tray; there's a solution of soda in here." - -"Solution of soda?" thought Harry. "Dear me! Regie does know a lot for a -boy of his age." - -"What does the soda do?" he asked. - -"It eats something off the plate, I think," Regie answered, somewhat -vaguely; "something I believe that ought to come off. And now I wash -it thoroughly again, and now I put it in this third tray, which has -a solution of alum in it. The alum gives the plate a good colour. Now -another good washing and it is finished." All this required much more -time than it takes to write about it. "As soon as the plate dries we -can print a proof from it," Rex farther explained, "that is, if the sun -stays out. Would you like to see me do the other one?" - -[Illustration: 0175] - -"_Like_ to see you!" said Nan, in a tone as though she wondered if Regie -could possibly think for one moment that anything could at all compare -with just this very thing that they were doing. - -[Illustration: 0176] - - - - -XIX.--HOLIDAYS IN TOWN - - -[Illustration: 9176] - -N the summer weather all Moorlow, and indeed all the dwellers along the -whole length of the shore, would gather in little groups on the beach to -see the moon rise; but to-night the moon and the waves have the beach -to themselves, for the ice is several inches thick on the fresh water -ponds, and the wind is keen and biting. - -Straight out of the ocean, with no summer fog to veil her coming, rises -the great golden moon, and soon she is high enough to send a broad path -of light shimmering across the water. And now she lights the way for -Captain Murray's man Joe, trudging home from the village with the mail; -and now she peers in through the dimity curtains of Nan's pretty room, -making it bright as the day. - -And what does she find there but something that never was there before; -a bran new little trunk, with N.M. in black letters on the end toward -the window, and no doubt she wonders if it can be possible that Nan is -going away; little Nan, who never remembers having slept a night of her -life out of sound of the sea. Travel on, old Moon, over the roof, until -you can shine in at Sister Julia's window, and there you will discover -two other trunks, which are ready for a start on the morrow, for _you_ -should know what every one else already knows--that Rex is going home, -and Harry and Nan go with him to make a visit. Did you not discover -as you sailed over the ocean the good ship _Alaska_ drawing nearer and -nearer, with Regie's papa and mamma on board? And do you not think, with -your clear light to aid her, she will surely reach port by day after -to-morrow? - -But while we are so foolish as to stand out here in the cold, talking at -the moon, Joe has reached the house and gone in with the mail, and among -the other letters is a neat little package for Regie. - -[Illustration: 0177] - -"Oh, here are the photographs!" he exclaimed; and right away there is -such a solid little group, bending closely about him, that if it were -not for the difference in the colour of hair you could hardly have told -where one head commenced and the other ended. The children had been -looking anxiously for these photographs for a week. - -When Regie found from the proofs that the pictures that he had taken -were satisfactory, he sent the plates up to New York, by express, to a -photographer, who was accustomed to print his pictures for him, but he -had heard nothing from them, and began to think they had gone astray. - -It would have done your heart good to have heard Captain Murray's laugh -as he looked at them. The one where the steamer was supposed to be -coming to the relief of the shipwrecked mariners was, if possible, the -funnier of the two. Nan was the only one who had fully entered into the -spirit of the thing, and really looked as though something joyful -was about to appear.. The others had smiled, as they were bid, but a -heartless conventional smile is at the best a sorry affair, and doubly -so on such pinched little faces as the Croxsons'. - -But the pictures, as pictures, were good, and Rex had no need to be -ashamed of his work. He imagined he could see Papa Fairfax now, and how -much amused he would be by them. - -As this was to be the last of the many happy evenings they had spent -together in the little cottage, it occurred to Sister Julia that it -ought to be celebrated in some special way, so she crossed the room and -whispered to Mrs. Murray. As the result of the whispering Mrs. Murray -asked the children "what they would say to a candy-pull." Much scurrying -about on the part of the children, and the delicious odour of boiling -New Orleans molasses, which presently pervaded the house, showed they -had said "yes" to the suggestion, and in the heartiest fashion possible. - -At eleven o'clock, after enjoying to the full all the fun and -satisfaction attending a thoroughly successful candy-pull, his little -Royal Highness and the body-guard retired to rest, or, in less kingly -English, Rex, Harry, and Nan tumbled into bed; and indeed it was high -time, if they were to be ready for an early start in the morning. - -To Nan and Harry Mr. Fairfax's house in town was a revelation. They -were fortunate enough to be blessed with a comfortable and pretty -little home of their own; but here was a home that was vastly more than -comfortable and pretty. Nan gave vent to her admiration in a succession -of audible "ohs!" the moment they entered the house, much to the -amusement of Mrs. Mallory, the old housekeeper, who was glad enough to -welcome them into the house that had been "such a lonely place without -Rex and Mr. and Mrs." - -[Illustration: 8179] - -"You like it, don't you, Nan?" said Regie, beaming proudly. - -"It is perfectly beautiful," Nan answered, sinking down into a great -easy chair, and trying to look everywhere at once. She was not in the -least overpowered by the new surroundings, only supremely delighted. - -"And to think we are to stay a week!" she exclaimed, with a happy sigh. - -Harry, of a more enquiring turn of mind, was walking about the parlour, -gazing up at the pictures, and making so bold as to touch certain little -ornaments and articles of bric-a-brac to see how they felt. - -When Mrs. Mallory had helped the children to lay off their wraps, she -showed Harry and Nan all through the house, taking as much pleasure in -their exclamations of wonder and delight as though she herself owned -everything in it. - -Two members of the party from Moorlow did not seem in the least -overjoyed at their arrival at the house in town. Secured by one leash, -Hereward and Ned followed Regie obediently enough, for they were too -well trained to offer any resistance; but if you could have had a word -with either of the poor fellows they would have told you that life -at Moorlow was glorious freedom, and life in New York a sadly limited -affair, with whole days together when they did not have so much as a run -in the park. So it was not strange that they suffered themselves to be -led down the kitchen stairs, and out to their kennels in the little city -yard, without one sign of jubilance over their return. If Mr. Fairfax -had been on hand to welcome them, no doubt there would have been no end -of boisterous demonstration, for the joy of seeing their master would -have eclipsed the thought of how changed their life was to be. Early the -next morning a telegram from their friend at the Highland Light came, -addressed to Regie, and announced that the _Alaska_ had been sighted -from Sandy Hook, and would reach her pier about half-past eight. -Then there was such a hurry and flurry, for the telegram had not been -delivered very promptly, and there was no time to spare. Mrs. Mallory -went flying bare-headed round the corner to order a carriage from -the livery stable, while Sister Julia and the children ate a hasty -breakfast. - -"Drive as fast as possible, please," said Sister Julia, bundling the -children into the carriage, and she reached up and dropped something -into the driver's hand; the only thing, in fact, that ever seems to -impart any real life to a livery team of horses. - -They reached the pier just in time, for the Alaska was so near you could -almost recognise anyone on board. Realising that they must not lose -a moment, Sister Julia, with the children following close after her, -pushed her way as politely as she could through the crowd. Indeed, -people rather made way for them, for there was that in their eager, -childish faces which seemed to make everyone feel that they must not be -disappointed in the matter they had in hand. - -As soon as they succeeded in reaching the edge of the wharf, Regie -discovered Papa and Mamma Fairfax, close to the rail, in the very bow of -the steamer, and his enthusiasm found vent in a lusty hurrah at the top -of his lungs, to the general amusement of everyone. - -Somehow or other they all managed going home to crowd into the same -carriage, notwithstanding the wraps and portmanteaus, and then such a -laughing, chattering party as they were! People on the side walk, and -people in the street cars, could not keep from smiling as they glanced -in at the noisy, merry load. - -There is no gladness surpassing that of a happy home-coming, after a -long and distant journey, and it is sad that we so soon settle back into -the old routine of life and forget how supremely happy we were. - -Fortunately for the Fairfax household, just this sort of gladness lasted -for a whole week. Papa Fairfax went but once to the office, and Mamma -Fairfax unpacked little beside the Christmas presents. In whole-souled -fashion they simply gave themselves up to the amusement of the children. - -Christmas came midway in the week, and such a Christmas! Nan may live -to be ninety, but she'll never forget it, and Harry may grow to be a man -with all sorts of cares and responsibilities, but he'll never forget it. -Indeed, these two little people had so many treasures thrust upon them, -that Mr. Fairfax thought best to make them a present of an extra trunk, -in which to carry home their booty. - -"All hands" were constantly on the go--morning, noon, and night I was -going to say, for each day Mr. Fairfax planned some fine sight-seeing -scheme, and every afternoon they "topped off" with an invigorating -sleigh ride. - -It was an ideal Christmas week, with a heavy fall of snow preceding it' -and clear, cold weather that kept the sleighing in perfect condition -until its close, and for many days after. - -There was not a prettier turn out in the park than Mr. Fairfax's Russian -sleigh with its red plumes and black horses, and many a one turned and -gazed at the merry load as it passed. - -"That's the foinest paarty what sleigh-roides in this park," said a -burly Irishman to one of his brother policemen, as they jingled merrily -by on the day after Christmas; and, for one, I think he was quite right -in the matter. - -Mrs. Fairfax and Harry and Regie were on the back seat enveloped in a -great white bearskin robe. It was Nan's turn to ride in front with -Mr. Fairfax, and there she sat, a charming embodiment of serene -satisfaction. - -[Illustration: 9182] - -I think even Mrs. Murray would hardly have recognised her own little Nan -in an otter-trimmed dark-red coat, with an otter cap and muff to match. -Mrs. Fairfax had bought the pretty outfit for her in Paris, and it was -wonderfully becoming. Indeed, I believe there was a touch of pride in -her bright little smile this morning, but I guess we can forgive it, if -the head of this little Moorlow maiden was a trifle turned by the joyous -experience of a happy week in New York at the gayest time of the year. -Remember, too, that she had been the owner of this beautiful coat -scarcely twenty-four hours, and I think you will admit her to be made of -different stuff from other little maidens did she not feel considerably -elated by it. But Nan is not vain by nature, and never you fear but that -she will go back to Moorlow the same dear child that she left it. - -At the upper end of the park Mr. Fairfax met two old bachelor friends -driving in a low cutter, whereupon the whole sleigh-full favoured them -with the most smiling and cordial of bows. Harry and Regie were too fond -of the accomplishment of gallantly touching their hats to lose a single -opportunity, and Nan "was not going to sit stiff and straight as though -she did not know anybody." - -"Fairfax seems to get more out of life than any fellow I know," remarked -one of the old bachelors; "and he's a good sight better-looking than he -used to be. I wonder how it is?" - -"Well, I'll tell you how it is," answered the other; "he's a deal -happier than he used to be. They say his wife's a real treasure. I -suppose that sort of thing goes a long way toward making a fellow get -a good deal out of life. Then Fairfax has told me himself how much they -enjoy that boy of theirs, and they ought to. It was a mighty kind thing -to do. You know they did not have any children of their own, so they -adopted that youngster of Will Reginald's." - -"Yes, I know," replied Bachelor No. 1.; "but who are the other two -children?" - -"Why, I heard at the club last night that they are a pair of French -orphans that they picked up in Paris. They have just returned from -abroad, you know. I wonder where they'll stop; they seem to have a -passion for adopting." - -Surely the merry party in the Russian sleigh would have laughed harder -than ever could they have heard all this. - -A pair of French orphans indeed! Nan and Harry Murray; whose every look -and accent betrayed them such thoroughgoing little Americans, and for -whose home-coming a father and mother were waiting so impatiently. But -that's about as straight as the world often gets things. - -[Illustration: 5183] - -[Illustration: 0184] - - - - -XX.--IN MR. VALES CHURCH - - -[Illustration: 9184] - -S soon as Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax returned Sister Julia went back to her -work at the great hospital. Mrs. Fairfax begged her to stay through the -holidays, and the children coaxed and coaxed, but to no avail, for she -knew that "little lame Madeline," as every one called her, was longing -for her to come. Madeline had been in the hospital once before, and for -almost a year, but now she had come back to stay. The doctors said she -would never be able to leave it again, nor would she be there very -long. The best of care and kindest of nursing must soon fail to cage the -little spirit in any house that human hands had made. - -"I can understand how you feel that you must go," Mrs. Fairfax had said -to Sister Julia at the close of a long talk they had been having about -it; "but it does seem too bad that you should take up your hospital work -again without having had a vacation." - -"Vacation!" laughed Sister Julia. "Why, I have just come home from the -happiest vacation of my life!" - -"But you were at work all the time caring for Reginald, teaching the -children, and, hardest of all, tending those poor wrecked sailors.'' - -"Yes, but it was all a pleasure. Every day I was breathing that strong -salt air, and taking long strolls on the beach. To have chosen your life -work, and to feel yourself hour by hour gaining strength and health -that enables you to keep cheerily and steadily at it, why, there is -no happiness for me, Mrs. Fairfax, that at all compares with that; and -while that state of things continues, no idle vacation, if you please. I -should be half miserable all the time." - -Mrs. Fairfax knew that Sister Julia was right in the matter, and bade -her good-bye and God-speed with tears in her eyes, but they were tears -of loving appreciation, and not because she did not expect to see Sister -Julia soon again. Indeed, it had been arranged that she should come down -from the hospital the very next Sunday, and go with the children to the -afternoon service at Mr. Vale's church. - -[Illustration: 0185] - -Sunday came--a clear, cold Sunday, and little Nan woke and gave a sigh -as she looked about the little room that had been hers for a week. It -was a beautiful room. She was lying in the shiniest of little brass -bedsteads, and there were lovely pictures on the walls, and pretty -things of one sort or another on every side. - -"Dear me!" she thought, a little regretfully; "only one more night, and -we must go home," but at the same time that one word _home_ sent a glad -little thrill through her heart. She felt sure that, after all, she -would not exchange her own little room, with its wide-reaching view -skyward, and landward, and seaward, for the finest room in the city, -overlooking only a narrow street, and dreary stone walls and pavements; -besides, though everyone had been so kind, and she loved them all -dearly, it would be nice to curl up in her own mother's arms again, for -even an eight-year-old little woman sometimes clings tenderly to certain -comforts and luxuries of babyhood. - -Sister Julia came at a quarter of four, and found the children eagerly -waiting for her. As they walked down Fifth Avenue people looked with -considerable interest at the sweet-faced woman, whose dress betrayed -her a member of a sisterhood, and at the three children, who kept up a -constant exchange of the place of honour, which consisted in being close -to Sister Julia, on one side or the other, where they could have the -privilege of clasping whichever hand was in best condition to forego the -comfort of her muff. - -There was nothing connected with this visit to which Nan and Harry had -looked forward with more pleasure than to seeing Mr. Vale's church, and -hearing him preach; and with beaming faces they followed Rex to the pew -which they were to have quite to themselves, for Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax -had gone to spend the afternoon with Grandma Fairfax, in Brooklyn. - -"I think the church is beautiful," whispered Nan to Sister Julia. - -"I knew you would like it," Sister Julia whispered back. - -"The stained-glass windows are lovely, with the light coming through -them." - -"Yes," answered Sister Julia, for she did not fancy prolonged -conversations in church. - -"Must have cost a lot," Harry remarked to Regie, after staring all about -him, and turning his body from side to side, in a take-everything-in -sort of fashion. - -"Yes, it did," Regie replied; "Mr. Vale thought the rich men ought to -make it as beautiful as their homes." - -"Who do you have to blow your organ, a man or a boy?" - -"It's run by water-power, you goosie." - -"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked, with knitted eyebrows. - -"I would rather you would not talk any more now," Sister Julia -interrupted, for she could see that the children's stage whispers were -audible several pews away. - -They were quite willing to be silent, however, for Mr. Vale had come -into the chancel, and they felt themselves on their good behaviour; -beside, they were too much interested in his every gesture to have eyes -or ears for aught else. Indeed, Nan was by nature a most devout little -worshipper. She loved everything connected with the service. Long before -she knew one letter from another she had her own little prayerbook -in the chapel at Moorlow, and would turn from page to page, as though -perfectly familiar with the order, and during the responses she would -emit certain audible little sounds, which greatly amused other children -near her, and yet, to her little ladyship, were perfectly satisfactory. -But she entered even more heartily into this afternoon's service than -ever before. - -Mr. Vale's earnest spirit seemed always to pervade the whole -congregation worshipping in the old Tower Church. They knew he never -preached a word which he did not faithfully strive to practise, and even -little folk feel the power of a consistent life, before ever they can -tell what the power is or why they feel it. There was much in this -afternoon's sermon that the children could understand, and only once -was Nan's attention distracted; that was when a restless little -five-year-old, who sat before them, having disappeared for several -seconds in the bottom of the pew, suddenly popped up again, dangling her -button-boots and stockings over the back of the seat. - -[Illustration: 0188] - -Harry and Rex clapped their hands over their mouths to keep from -laughing outright. Nan smiled, and touched Sister Julia, who leaned -forward and succeeded in inducing her to quietly put them on again. That -was the first the little witch's father knew of the transaction, for he -had been listening intently to the sermon; but he looked gratefully at -Sister Julia when he saw what she had done, and shook his head, as much -as to say, "She is a most unruly little maiden." - -After this performance the child leaned her head against the back of the -pew, and became absorbed in a study of the stained-glass window over the -chancel. No wonder it attracted her childish gaze. At the beginning -of the service the light had fallen upon it from without, but now the -wintry twilight was gathering fast, and the rims of brass in which the -discs of glass were set were brilliantly flashing from the glow of -the gas-jets. Ere long the service is over, and people are leaving the -church. Reluctant to go, the children linger a moment in the pew, and -fortunately too, for Ole, the old Norwegian sexton, is elbowing his -way toward them, with a message from Mr. Vale. Quite out of breath he -reaches them, explaining that "Mr. Vale would like to have the children -come up to the study, and that he said he would see them safely home if -Sister Julia must hurry back to the hospital." - -Harry and Nan give Sister Julia a good-bye hug, "real hard," for they -will not see her again before going home to Moorlow to-morrow; and then -with happy hearts they follow Ole up the winding stairs that lead to the -study. - -[Illustration: 5189] - -[Illustration: 0190] - - - - -XXI.--IN MR. VALE'S STUDY - - -[Illustration: 9190] - -R. VALE was waiting for the children, holding the study door wide open -to light them up the stairway. - -"Come right in," he said; "I am proud to have my first visit from my -little Moorlow friends;" then turning to the sexton, he added, "We may -be here for some time, Ole, and if you wait for us, it will make you -late for your supper, so bring me the keys of the church when you are -ready to go, and I'll take them home with me to-night." - -Ole, looking grateful for this thoughtful suggestion, trudged downstairs -again, and the children walked into the room. Regie had been there -several times before, but even to him it never looked so cosy as -to-night. There was a bright fire on the hearth; Ole had been watching -and stirring it up, for Mr. Vale had told him he expected to entertain -some little folks after service. A cheery lamp was lit on the study -table, as by this time it was quite dark out of doors, and near it some -loving member of the congregation had placed a vase, full of beautiful -roses. On one side of the room were tall book-cases, reaching to -the ceiling, and on the Other three sides hung quaint old-fashioned -portraits of some of the former rectors of the parish. - -As soon as Nan heard Mr. Vale tell Ole that they would probably be there -for some time, she quietly walked over to one corner, took off her hat -and cloak, and carefully and smoothly laid them across a chair. - -"Why, Nan child, who asked you to take off your things?" exclaimed -Harry. - -"Mr. Vale said we were to stay some time," Nan replied, not at all -disturbed; "and I think it seems cosier to take off your things." - -"I quite agree with you," said Mr. Vale, heartily; "and these young -gentlemen cannot do better than to follow your example, for we are going -to draw up to the fire and have a good talk." - -So Harry and Regie, nothing loath, slipped out of their overcoats, and -the little party gathered about the fire, the boys seated on either side -of Mr. Vale's easy chair and Nan on his knee. - -"Well, what did you think of the service?" he asked, taking Nan's little -hand in his. "I know you could not have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed -looking into the upturned faces of my little Moorlow friends. It seemed -as though you sort of belonged to my congregation, and ought to be there -always. - -"I wish we could," sighed Nan, shaking her head thoughtfully. "I knew -all the time you must be a lovely preacher, and really I think you are -the nicest minister there is." - -"Why, so does everybody with any sense that ever heard him"' said Regie, -and in a tone as though there could not be the slightest doubt on that -question. - -"Oh, Rex! you are a good friend of mine," laughed Mr. Vale, -affectionately, laying his hand over on Regie's knee. - -"You love children, don't you, Mr. Vale?" remarked Harry, demurely, as -though he had just made the discovery. - -"Yes, indeed, Harry, and I hardly see how the old world could get along -for a single day without them." - -"I suppose you love 'em all alike, all the little children you know?" Nan -said, rather regretfully. - -"Do you think I ought to, Nan?" - -"No, I guess not. I would like it better if you didn't; if you loved -some of your little friends more than others." - -"Why, what difference would it make to you?" - -Nan hung her head and looked a little embarrassed. - -"I think I know what she means," Harry said, slowly, who, by a glance -toward Mr. Vale, had asked permission to turn the back log, and was at -work with the tongs; "I think she means that she'd like to feel sure -_she_ was one of those you loved the most. Nan's kind of jealous -sometimes." - -"Well, I'm only jealous about nice things, any way, Harry Murray," and -Nan sat bolt upright again; "I do not wish I had other boys' tops and -marbles the way you do." - -Harry was on the point of framing a quick retort, but he checked -himself. He really was trying to be less of a tease, as far as Nan was -concerned. Mr. Vale was the only one who noticed this little act of -self-control. - -"Good for you, Harry!" he exclaimed, "keep that sort of thing up, and I -have no fears for the sort of man you'll make." - -"Keep what sort of thing up?" - -Regie and Nan looked at each other rather mystified, and Nan was very -uncomfortable; besides, she did not enjoy the novel sensation of having -had the last word, and she did wish Mr. Vale had not heard her speak -that way to Harry. She wondered if he thought she was a regular little -heathen. - -"Keep what sort of thing up, Mr. Vale?" asked Regie, after a pause. - -"Why, self-control, Rex. You see that remark of Nan's about tops and -marbles made Harry feel like speaking back pretty sharply: so much like -it that I fairly saw the words shaping themselves on his lips, but you -did not hear them spoken, did you, Nan?" - -"No," Nan confessed. - -But if you had looked Harry's way just then you would have seen a queer -little smile instead, which seemed to say, "Why, Nan's such a dear -little thing I ought not to mind what she says." - -"Well, that's just exactly what I was thinking," said Harry, astonished -at Mr. Vale's power to read his thoughts. - -"It was not very nice for me to tell that about the tops and marbles," -Nan remarked, slowly. . - -"And it was not nice at all," said Harry, "for me to say that you were -jealous sometimes." - -[Illustration: 0193] - -"But I am," Nan truthfully admitted; "I know that well enough, only I do -not like to be told about it." - -"Of course you don't, Nan," and Mr. Vale drew the honest little, maiden -nearer to him. "Of course you don't, few of us like to be told of our -faults; but we ought to like it, for often it would be the very best -thing that could happen to us. Perhaps we should not go on making the -same errors over and over again if somebody would tell us about them, -and we could take the telling kindly." - -"Mr. Vale," said Rex, who had been sitting thoughtful and silent for -some time, "were you just a regular little boy?" - -"Very irregular sometimes, I fear, only I don't quite know what you -mean, Rex." - -"Why, you see, I would like to be like you when I grow up; but I'm -afraid I'm too different at the start. I mean did you use to be like -other boys and me? Did you often get angry and speak back?" - -"Yes, often; and in the sense that you mean I was indeed a regular boy; -and do you think I never get angry now, Rex?" - -"Perhaps you do now and then, but not often, I warrant, and when you do -you keep it under." - -"Keeping under is very hard work," sighed Nan, as though she had a world -of experience in that direction. - -"Keeping under is only another name for self-control, you know. And now, -Nan," added Mr. Vale, "I am ready to answer your question, and to tell -you that I do not love all the children I know alike by any manner of -means. I love them in a dozen different ways. You see no thoughtful man -grows to be as old as I am without wondering, whenever he looks into a -little face, what sort of man or woman its owner will make. And so if I -can I watch the little life closely, and after a while I see good traits -and bad traits cropping out here and there, all in the veriest tangle; -and by-and-bye, when I see the good traits growing faster and faster, -I love that little life very hopefully and joyfully. Then suppose in -another little life I see the evil things choking the good things, I -love that little life very sadly and fearfully; or if I cannot make out -which is getting the upper hand, I love it very anxiously; and so you -see I do not love my little friends alike by any means. Now there you -have had two sermons, one in the church, and one here in the study, and -that is enough for one afternoon. Suppose you go to my table drawer, -Nan, and see what you find." - -Nan quickly slipped from his knee and pulled out the drawer. - -"Three little boxes," she exclaimed, with delight. - -"And what is written on them?" - -How could she tell, this lazy little learner, who only lately had -mastered plain printed' letters? With a shy, half-apologetic look she -placed them in Mr. Vale's hand. - -"Regie, Harry, Nan," he read, handing each a box. Of course it was -a present. With beaming faces they unwrapped them, and in each lay a -square-edged, plain gold ring, with four old English C's engraved on the -outside. - -"One for each of us?" cried Nan, not knowing what else to say. - -"Of course," said Mr. Vale; "I didn't see how I could make one ring do -for three people, or I would, you know, for the sake of economy." - -"And what are the C's for?" - -"To help your growing up," Mr. Vale replied, and Nan looked a little -mystified. - -"Of course they stand for something," remarked Harry. - -"Certainly, and for what do you think?" - -"I shouldn't wonder if they stood for _control_ every time," said Regie, -with their recent conversation fresh in his mind. - -"Not a bad idea," answered Mr. Vale, "and we'll let them stand for that -altogether; but separately they are intended to stand for these four -words, _Charitable, Cheerful, Courteous, Consistent_. Those are pretty -big words for Nan, but I should not wonder if she understands them after -a fashion." - -"Yes," said Nan, with much dignity, for with the exception of the last -word, _Consistent_, they all did convey to her a more or less definite -meaning. - -"I would like you to look up the exact definition of the words in the -dictionary," added Mr. Vale, "and then I believe when you happen to look -down on the four C's you will remember what they stand for, and that -they will help you to build up the finest sort of a character. Now -I propose that we do not tell anybody what those four C's stand for, -keeping it for a little secret among ourselves." - -"I would like just to tell Sister Julia," said Nan, "but, oh, dear me! I -forgot I shall never see her again, perhaps." - -"Why, of course you'll see her again," answered Regie; "don't you know -that you and Harry are going to make me a visit every winter, and that I -am coming to Moorlow for a while every summer? Why, I love every foot of -the beach and the bluff from your house to the Life-saving Station." - -"But, Mr. Vale, Regie can tell Sister Julia, can't he?" asked Nan; "she -would love to know about them." - -"Yes; and I think he might tell Papa and Mamma Fairfax, and Harry and -Nan, Papa and Mamma Murray; but besides those five people I think it -would be better not to tell anybody." - -"So do I," said Regie, warmly; "if you told about them, other fellows -might think you were setting yourself up to be sort of extra good, and -they wouldn't understand." - -"Exactly," Mr. Vale answered, "and so you see it will be wiser to keep -the matter to ourselves, only I shall expect you to candidly report to -me, once in a while, if you really are remembering to give those four -adjectives a large place in your life." - -"It was very, very kind of you to think of these pretty rings for a New -Year present," said Nan, after a pause. - -"And we're very much obliged, Mr. Vale," chimed in Harry and Regie; but -the children's glowing faces showed deeper and more earnest thanks than -could find their way into spoken words. Mr. Vale glanced toward the -clock. - -"I am afraid we must think about going," he said, "or they may think I -have smothered you here in my study, like the poor little princes in the -Tower." - -"I wish we could stop in the church a moment and have a look at that -organ," suggested Harry; "I never saw one that was run by water-power." - -"We will then," answered Mr. Vale, "only hurry into your overcoats so -that we shall not lose any time." - -In a minute the little folk were ready, and each of the three gold rings -was under cover of a warm silk mitten. - -It was quite dark in the church, so that they took hold of hands as they -did that morning on the beach, and Mr. Vale led the way down the aisle -to the choir-loft at the rear. When they reached the vestibule he went -ahead and lit three or four burners, and the children followed him into -a little room underneath the organ. Part of the machinery was here, and -in a quick, clear manner, Mr. Vale explained its workings; then they -went up into the choir itself to see the wonderful keyboard and pedals. - -"Couldn't you play just one tune?" Nan asked, so beseechingly that Mr. -Vale could not refuse the last request that he should probably hear for -many a day from her little lips, so he whipped off his gloves and sat -down on the high bench. - -[Illustration: 0197] - -Mr. Vale loved nothing better than to play on that grand sweet organ, -and to-night with those rapt little faces looking up to his he seemed -fairly inspired. Without break or pause he glided from one sweet, solemn -air to another, till suddenly realizing how late it was he began to play -the German Evening Hymn, the one that Regie had sung at the Thanksgiving -dinner at Moorlow. Regie took the hint, and straightway the sweet words -rang out in his earnest, boyish voice, and so clearly, you could have -heard each syllable in the farthest, darkest corner of the church. When -he came to the verse--= - -```"Let my near and dear ones be - -```Ever near and dear to Thee; - -```Oh, bring me and all I love - -```To Thy happy home above,"= - -he sang it with even a more intense earnestness, so that one could -easily guess his thoughts. - -Surely Harry and Nan were among Regie's "dear ones," and since they -might not always be near to him, he threw his soul into the prayer, that -they might always be near and dear to the Heavenly Father. - -Another moment and the church was utterly dark again, there was the -sound of the closing of a heavy door and the turning of a ponderous key -in its lock; then all was still. Out in the wintry twilight four friends -were walking homeward side by side, home through the frosty air; walking -briskly, and yet with hearts a little heavy, for three happy months were -at an end, and a little King and a faithful body-guard must part company -on the morrow. - -[Illustration: 5198] - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Little Royal Highness, by Ruth Ogden - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS LITTLE ROYAL HIGHNESS *** - -***** This file should be named 51979.txt or 51979.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/7/51979/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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