ed eyes and
trembling lips, but strong to do and to endure. She seemed almost to
have grown a woman in that moment, and unconsciously she took the lead,
though she was the younger of the two.

"Dick," she said steadily, "go and harness Murphy. We must take father
to the Collinsons."

Dick stumbled off blindly to do her bidding. Murphy was the one lean
ox who had done all their carting and ploughing; and before long the
boy came back again, driving the slow brute in the clumsy, creaking
ox-cart. Between them they managed to draw their father up two
inclined boards until his inert body rested safely in the cart; and
then fleet-footed Stephanie ran back to the cabin for all the coverings
and pillows in their poor store. Before half-an-hour had passed, the
clumsy conveyance was creaking down the rough old Indian trail which
led by many windings to the Collinson homestead, bearing the
unconscious Captain, while Dick and Stephanie walked beside, urging
Murphy to his best pace. Their hearts were sick with dread; motherless
they had been for two years--were they now to be fatherless also?

It had all been so terribly sudden they had scarcely time to think, but
it was the best thing they could do. At the Collinson homestead their
father would be certain to receive the tenderest care, and perhaps
medical attendance if things turned out fortunately. But would they
ever get him alive over those long, jolting miles? The same fear was
in the eyes of each as they looked at one another.

They were never to reach their journey's end. Before long the Captain
began slowly to regain consciousness, and his first question was a
faintly-uttered "What's this? Where are you taking me?"

They told him, with white, anxious faces bending over the rough sides
of the cart, while Murphy tried to reach a tempting bit of green grass
under the trees. But the injured man shook his head. "It is no use,
my dears," he said feebly, "another two miles would kill me at once.
And I must die where she died, for I cannot recover. Stephanie"--it
was curious how he turned from the elder child to his
younger--"Stephanie, take me back! Promise to take me back!"

Who could have withstood the pitiful appeal in his eyes? With aching
hearts they promised, and once more he relapsed into unconsciousness,
muttering fragments of old orders which he had given as captain of the
great merchantman Theseus, in the long ago days. They looked at each
other i