ollowed the coffin
to the grave, and stood reverently round, with their caps in their
hand, and their weather-beaten features working convulsively, while
the clergyman read the burial service. The little child was laid in
the same grave; she was the daughter of the rescued woman, and the
master of the ill-fated ship--who with many another went to his long
home on that awful night.

"My mother, boys, never recovered from the shock poor Ned's death gave
her: she drooped and drooped, until God's messenger came to lead her
to her lost son.

"One of my companions, who had a turn for verse-making, put into my
hand a few lines which he said were suggested by poor Ned's death.
They were not of much account, but I learnt them, and sometimes even
now repeat them as a trifling memento of a lost brother:

Autumn winds are in the sky;
Autumn leaves are whirling by;
Autumn rain falls pattering;
Autumn time goes clattering
On in storm,
While onward borne
To desolate shore,
Billows rage and roar:
On dark waters tost,
A plaything lost,
The big ship creaks and groans,
Starts and moans.
And sailors' oaths, and sailors' prayers,
To wild night cast,
With sea-bird's screams,
Are carried by the blast,
To happy home, where
A mother dreams;
While the son she bore,
Lies still on the shore.
At break of day,
The salt sea spray
Is washing the sand
From the clenched hand;
And the breezes twirl
The glossy curl;
And the silent face,
Without a trace
Of life, lies
Upturned to the skies.
And the sightless eyes,
Their last work done,
Stare up at the sun.

"That, boys, was the end of poor Ned. Those who die young escape much
sorrow, says the proverb; and the old heathens used to say that those
who died young the gods loved; but we hear a more sure voice saying,
'_Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord._'"

CHAPTER VII.

THE FLOOD.

Every boy had gone home with the exception of Leslie, their farewell
shouts still echoed in his ears as he looked gloomily from one of the
deserted school-room windows out into the equally deserted playground;
how silent and lonely everything seemed, and to make matters worse,
the rain had re-commenced to fall. How sad Leslie felt; he pictured to
himself the warm and loving reception each of his depa