dale after breakfast and carry her the news in
regard to the sick children.

She was extremely anxious and distressed about them, and as soon as at
liberty to follow her inclination, hastened to a part of the grounds
overlooking the road by which he must come.

She had not been there long when she saw him approaching, walking slowly,
dejectedly along, with his eyes on the ground.

"Oh, they are no better," she said to herself; "for if they were better,
Max wouldn't hang his head like that."

She stood still, watching him with a sinking heart as he came in at the
gate and drew near her, still with his eyes cast down. And now she
perceived that his countenance was pale and distressed.

"O Max," she cried, "are they worse?--dying? Oh, don't say they are!"

"No; they are no better: perhaps they may be to-morrow; but--"

He stopped, his eyes full of tears as he lifted them for a moment to her
face, his features working with emotion.

"Max, Max, what is it?" she asked, clutching at his arm. "Oh, what is the
matter? You must tell me."

"My father--our father--" He covered his face with his hands and sobbed
aloud.

"O Max, what about papa?" she cried wildly. "Oh, don't say anything has
happened to him! I couldn't bear it!--oh I couldn't!--but I must know. O
Maxie, tell me what it is?"

She had put her arms round his neck and laid her cheek to his. He
returned the embrace, hugging her tightly to his breast.

"It mayn't be true, Lu," he said brokenly; "but oh, I'm afraid it is:
they say it's feared his ship has gone down with all on board."

"Gone down?" she repeated in a dazed tone, as if unable to believe in the
possibility of so terrible a disaster. "Gone down?"

"Yes, in the sea--the dreadful sea! O Lu, shall we ever see our father
again in this world?"

"Do you mean that papa is drowned? Oh, I can't, I _won't_ have it so!
He'll come back again, Max--he surely will! I couldn't live without him,
and neither could you, or Gracie; but oh maybe she will die too! And I'm
afraid it's because I'm so bad; God is taking away everybody I love,
because I don't deserve to have them. I've been disobeying my father by
not doing as Grandpa Dinsmore bade me; and now maybe I haven't any father
to obey! Oh, Max, Max, what shall I do? everybody's being taken away!"

"I'm left, Lu," he said, brushing away a tear; "I'm left to you, and
you're left to me; and we don't know certainly yet, that anybody is
really taken from us, or