d out of Markdale Harbour the
old sailors warned him that a storm was brewing and that it would catch
him if he did not wait until it was over. The captain had become very
impatient because of several delays he had already met with, and he was
in a furious temper. He swore a wicked oath that he would sail out of
Markdale Harbour that night and 'God Almighty Himself shouldn't catch
him.' He did sail out of the harbour; and the storm did catch him, and
the Seth Hall went down with all hands, the dead and the living finding
a watery grave together. So the poor old mother up in Maine never had
her boys brought back to her after all. Mr. Coles says it seems as if it
were foreordained that they should not rest in a grave, but should lie
beneath the waves until the day when the sea gives up its dead."

"'They sleep as well beneath that purple tide
As others under turf,'"

quoted Miss Reade softly. "I am very thankful," she added, "that I am
not one of those whose dear ones 'go down to the sea in ships.' It seems
to me that they have treble their share of this world's heartache."

"Uncle Stephen was a sailor and he was drowned," said Felicity, "and
they say it broke Grandmother King's heart. I don't see why people can't
be contented on dry land."

Cecily's tears had been dropping on the autograph quilt square she was
faithfully embroidering. She had been diligently collecting names for it
ever since the preceding autumn and had a goodly number; but Kitty Marr
had one more and this was certainly a fly in Cecily's ointment.

"Besides, one I've got isn't paid for--Peg Bowen's," she lamented, "and
I don't suppose it ever will be, for I'll never dare to ask her for it."

"I wouldn't put it on at all," said Felicity.

"Oh, I don't dare not to. She'd be sure to find out I didn't and then
she'd be very angry. I wish I could get just one more name and then I'd
be contented. But I don't know of a single person who hasn't been asked
already."

"Except Mr. Campbell," said Dan.

"Oh, of course nobody would ask Mr. Campbell. We all know it would be
of no use. He doesn't believe in missions at all--in fact, he says he
detests the very mention of missions--and he never gives one cent to
them."

"All the same, I think he ought to be asked, so that he wouldn't have
the excuse that nobody DID ask him," declared Dan.

"Do you really think so, Dan?" asked Cecily earnestly.

"Sure," said Dan, solemnly. Dan liked to tease