ands outstretched in pleading; and a
loved voice, long since dumb, rang in her ears: 'You will promise,
Theo, to be a little mother to the boys, and help them over the rough
places in life's journey, as I should have tried to do? God will help
you, dear. He will ever be ready with His aid!'

How vividly it all came back to the girl, that dark time in her young
life when the dear, tender mother was called from out their midst.
When all things, in heaven and earth alike, were shrouded in the
pitiless gloom which hid the face of her Heavenly Father from the
despairing daughter. What a chill, empty, rudderless home it was for
the terror-struck children, with no one to look to for guidance!
Father was away at the far ends of the world on his good ship, and
mother--ah, farther off still was the mother, who had slipped out of
the little home. Theo remembered, with a pang, the clinging hands of
the desolate boys and the baby, Queenie, which had stirred her out of
her own stupor of sorrow. It was borne in upon her, then, that she
must step into the dead mother's empty place; and, frail, weak girl
though she was, she had done her brave best to fill it ever since. She
knew well, none better, that God had indeed helped her daily in her
efforts hitherto. Lifting her tear-stained face, Theo told herself
that He would do so still, for 'His mercies never fail.' With a silent
little prayer for strength and patience, she left Queenie in the
tea-house while she went indoors to confront the rebels as courageously
as she could.

CHAPTER VII

MUTINY AT THE BUNK

'Boys!' Theo's clear treble voice rang through the din that was
shaking the very pictures on the walls of the Bunk dining-room.

'Why, it's Theo, I declare!' shouted Geoff, the first to hear his
sister. 'We're in a state of mutiny, Theo! Isn't it fun?' He
shrieked in his glee.

'We've turned on old Price, and completely routed him off the decks,
and we've seized the ship. We're in sole command of the Bunk--hooray!'
Alick, his face flushed with triumph, his eyes dancing with wicked
mischief, executed a hornpipe in the middle of the dining-table in
furious style and making a hideous clatter, shouting the while--

'Will ye hear of Captain Kidd,
And the deeds of which he did,
All upon the Spanish main,
Where so many men were slain?'

'Won't you get down, boys dear, and tell me quietly what has maddened
you so this morning?' Theo, who had been st