hove, and I
caught it. I was about to make it fast round your father.

"`You go first, Paul,' he said. `If you reach the boat I will try to
follow, but there is no use for me to try now; I should be drowned
before I got half way.'

"Still I tried to secure the rope round him, but he resisted all my
efforts. At last I saw that I must go, or we should both be lost, and I
hoped to get the boat in nearer and to return with a second rope to help
him.

"I made the rope fast round my waist and plunged in. I had hard work to
reach the boat; I did not know how weak I was. At last I was hauled on
board, and was singing out for a rope, when the people in the boat
uttered a cry, and looking up I saw a huge sea come rolling along. Over
the rock it swept, taking off your poor father. I leapt overboard with
the rope still round my waist, in the hopes of catching him, but in a
moment he was hidden from my sight, and, more dead than alive, I was
again hauled on board.

"The crew of the boat pulled away from the rock; they knew that all
hopes of saving my friend were gone. Sail was made, and we stood for
the shore.

"The people at the village attended me kindly, but many days passed
before I was able to move.

"As soon as I had got strength enough, with a sad heart I set out
homewards. How could I face your poor mother, and tell her that her
husband was gone? I would send my own dear wife, I thought, to break
the news to her.

"As I reached my own door I heard a child's cry; it was that of my
little Nelly, and granny's voice trying to soothe her.

"I peeped in at the window. There sat granny, with the child on her
knee, but my wife was not there. She has gone to market, I thought.
Still my heart sank within me. I gained courage to go in.

"`Where is Nelly?' I asked, as granny, with the baby in her arms, rose
to meet me.

"`Here is the only Nelly you have got, my poor Paul,' she said, giving
me the child.

"I felt as if my heart would break. I could not bring myself to ask how
or when my wife had died. Granny told me, however, for she knew it must
be told, and the sooner it was over the better. She had been taken with
a fever soon after I had left home.

"It was long before I recovered myself.

"`I must go and tell the sad news I bring to poor Mary,' I said.

"Granny shook her head.

"`She is very bad, it will go well-nigh to kill her outright,' she
observed.

"I would have got granny to go, but I