thin'; it was an
awful silence, but somethin' appeared to keep us from breakin' on 't.

"The shadders had gathered so that the street was all dusky; for there
wa'n't no lamps at our end o' the street,--when all at once mother was
a-standin' up, and holdin' out her arms. The next minute she says, 'Run
to the door, Johnny; I ain't quite sure whether or not it's him!' And
she sunk down, tremblin', and all of a heap.

"I could hear the stairs a creakin' under the tread of heavy steps, and
when I got to the door there was two men a comin' up instead o' one.
'It's him! mother! it's him!' I shouted with all my might, for I see a
sailor's cap and jacket, and took the rest for granted. I swung the door
wide, and stood a-dancin' in it, and yet I didn't like the looks o'
neither on 'em; only I thought I ought to be glad, and so I danced for
pertended joy. 'Get out o' the way! you sassy lad!' says one o' the men,
and he led the tother right past me into the house, I follerin' along
behind, but neither on 'em noticin' of me in the least; and there sot my
mother, dead still on her chair, just as if she was froze into stone.
'Here he is,' says the man that was leadin' of him,--'here's John
Chidlaw, what there is left on him!' Then he give me a push toward him,
and nodded to my mother like, a-drawin' his mouth into such queer shapes
that I couldn't tell whether he was a-laughin' or cryin', and I didn't
know which I ought to do neither.

"By this time the man that I partly took to be my father was a-backin'
furder and furder from us, and at last he got clean agin the jamb o' the
chimney, and then he looked up wild, as if he was a looking at the sky,
and directly he spoke. 'This'll be a stiff blow,' says he. 'We're struck
aft, and we'll be in the trough of the sea in a minute! God help us
all!' And with that he began to climb up the shelves o' the cupboard, as
though he was a climbin' into a ship's riggin'.

"Next thing I seen, mother had got to him, somehow, and was a-holdin'
round his neck, and talkin' to him in tones as sweet and coaxin' as
though he had been a sick baby. 'Don't you know me, John?' she
says,--'your own Katura, that you left so long ago!' He didn't answer
her at all; he didn't seem to see her, but kep' right on, a-talkin'
about the ship not bein' able to lift herself, and about the rudder
bein' tore away, and a leak som'er's, and settin' of a gang o' hands at
the pumps, and gettin' of the cargo up, and the dear know