y.

"Tell me, please, is Father very bad? I can bear anything better than
suspense," she said, keeping her voice steady by a great effort.

"I think you can, and you have already proved yourself a girl of
mettle; but you will want all your courage now, for I fear that you have
found your father only to bid him goodbye," replied the doctor; and then
he caught her by the arm and held her fast while the first dizziness of
the shock was upon her.

"I am all right now," she said, moving forward in the direction of the
door, and he walked beside her, still holding her arm, as if he doubted
her strength to stand alone.

There was an old woman, very snuffy and dirty to look at, but with a
face of genuine kindness, who came forward to meet her, and, leading her
past the first bed, where a man was lying who had a much-bandaged head,
she took her to another bed in the far corner, whispering: "That is your
pa, Miss dear, and you had better speak to him quick, for we think that
he is going fast, poor brave gentleman!"

Going fast, and she had only just found him!

Nealie gave a frightened gasp, and crept closer, falling on her knees by
the bed, and trembling so that she could hardly clasp the fingers of the
uninjured hand which lay outside the thin coverlet.

"Father, dear Father, I am Nealie, your own daughter, and I have come
all the way from England to find you, and to help make home again! Oh,
you cannot go away and leave me now!" she wailed in passionate protest
against his dying.

"Hush, Missy dear, it may scare him if you speak so loud!" said the old
woman in a warning tone, for Nealie's voice had unconsciously risen
almost to a scream.

The heavy eyelids opened, and the eyes looked straight into Nealie's
face with blank amazement in their gaze.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice so faint that it was hardly more than
a whisper.

"I am your child, dear Father; I am Nealie! We have come to Hammerville
to live with you. You should have had a letter weeks ago to warn you
that we were all coming, only it was forgotten to be posted," she said,
being determined to take half the blame of that omission on her own
shoulders, for surely it was as much her fault as Rumple's, seeing that
she had never thought to remind him of the letter or to ask if it had
been safely posted.

"All seven of you?" he asked, and now there was a shocked expression in
his face which cut Nealie to the heart; only, for once, she was quite
mista