the other boat came alongside and
took her in tow.

A few words told the story, and in five minutes she was sitting snugly
tucked up watching an unpleasant mass of lobsters flap about dangerously
near her toes, while the boat bounded over the waves with a delightful
motion, and every instant brought her nearer home. She did not say much,
but felt a good deal; and when they met two boats coming to meet her,
manned by very anxious crews of men and boys, she was so pale and quiet
that Jack was quite bowed down with remorse, and Frank nearly pitched
the bicycle boy overboard because he gayly asked Jill how she left her
friends in England. There was great rejoicing over her, for the people
on the rocks had heard of her loss, and ran about like ants when their
hill is disturbed. Of course half a dozen amiable souls posted off to
the Willows to tell the family that the little girl was drowned, so that
when the rescuers appeared quite a crowd was assembled on the beach
to welcome her. But Jill felt so used up with her own share of the
excitement that she was glad to be carried to the house by Frank and
Jack, and laid upon her bed, where Mrs. Hammond soon restored her with
sugar-coated pills, and words even sweeter and more soothing.

Other people, busied with their own pleasures, forgot all about it by
the next day; but Jill remembered that hour long afterward, both awake
and asleep, for her dreams were troubled, and she often started up
imploring someone to save her. Then she would recall the moment when,
feeling most helpless, she had asked for help, and it had come as
quickly as if that tearful little cry had been heard and answered,
though her voice had been drowned by the dash of the waves that seemed
ready to devour her. This made a deep impression on her, and a sense of
childlike faith in the Father of all began to grow up within her; for
in that lonely voyage, short as it was, she had found a very precious
treasure to keep for ever, to lean on, and to love during the longer
voyage which all must take before we reach our home.

Chapter XXII. A Happy Day

"Oh dear! Only a week more, and then we must go back. Don't you hate the
thoughts of it?" said Jack, as he was giving Jill her early walk on the
beach one August morning.

"Yes, it will be dreadful to leave Gerty and Mamie and all the nice
people. But I'm so much better I won't have to be shut up again, even if
I don't go to school. How I long to see Merry a