he White-House that evening, the wreck was discussed over and over
from every point of view. Each person wished to describe the moment
when he awoke to the apprehension of the calamity,--what he said and
did, thought and planned. Such conversations lead one to believe that
the chief pleasure of the resurrection will lie in the comparison of
post-mortem experiences on first awakening.

Dr. Cricket said that when he first heard the booming of guns,
half-asleep as he was, he dreamed that the statue of William Penn was
falling off the dome of the Philadelphia city hall.

Miss Standisth said that she was broad awake; but had happened not to
catch any sound till she heard the commotion of people moving about
downstairs. This she took to mean that breakfast-time had arrived, and
that this was destined to be another dark day like the freak of nature
famous in the colonial annals.

"I heard Fred call out--" Jimmy Anstice began; but his sister
interrupted, "Please, Jimmy, leave me out. You know Papa forbade you
to talk about me in company."

"My dear," remonstrated her father, mildly, "don't speak so abruptly
to your little brother."

Thus, in one shape and another, every one said his say.

Flint alone, of the entire group, was silent, almost surly. He
submitted without comment to being ensconced in the great
chintz-covered chair. He even swallowed, under protest, the various
pills and potions which Dr. Cricket presented to him at intervals; but
the most adroit questioning on the part of Miss Standish failed to
elicit any information as to his sensations or emotions, past or
present. Brady, who understood his friend better than all the rest,
strove to shelter him by talking longer and laughing louder than
usual; but this Miss Standish resented as much as Flint's silence, and
set it down to flippancy. Her ethical training impelled her to strive
to improve the occasion to these young people. She shook her gray
curls, and cleared her throat several times before her conversational
opening arrived.

"I hope, Mr. Flint," she said at last, "that you feel as strongly as
that poor girl upstairs, the mercy of the divine Providence which
brought you to the rescue at that critical moment, and enabled you to
save a life."

Something in Miss Standish's tone irritated Flint.

"If, for 'divine Providence,' you will substitute 'lucky accident,' I
will agree to it as heartily as either you or she. If you persist in
dragging in Providen