e was no larger than
our Maye who died--our little three-year-old. The child was half frozen,
and nothing but a coarse cloak thrown over her night-dress, had saved her
from perishing. I reported the circumstance at the police-station, but such
things were of too common occurrence to excite much interest. Weeks passed,
and then months, and no one answered the advertisements. At last we had
learned to love the child so dearly, that we dreaded the thought of parting
with it. I asked and obtained permission to adopt the pet, and so Daisy
became ours. She is very proud, and the mystery of her birth troubles her;
and this----"

Before Snarle could finish the sentence, Daisy herself opened the room
door, and came tripping up to the bed-side.

Mortimer took her hand very quietly.

"Daisy," he said, "I love you."

Daisy hid her face in the pillow.

"He has told me everything, and I love you, Daisy!"

Daisy looked up with the tears and sunshine of April in her eyes.

"Do you love me?" he asked.

The girl was silent for a moment, then a sweet little "yes" budded on her
lips.

Then Mortimer kissed Daisy, and poor Snarle died happy; for that evening
his life-stream ebbed with the tide, and mingled with that ocean which is
forever and forever.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE.

VI.

_A lone ship sailing on the sea:
Before the north 'twas driven like a cloud;
High on the poop a man sat mournfully:
The wind was whistling through mast and shroud,
And to the whistling wind thus did he sing aloud._

SMITH'S "BARBARA."

VI.

THE PHANTOM AT SEA.

_A Storm in the Tropics--The Lone Ship--The Man at the Wheel--How he
sang strange Songs--The Apparition--The Drifting Bark._

The blood-red sun had gone down into the Atlantic. Faint purple streaks
streamed up the western horizon, like the fingers of some great shadowy
hand clutching at the world.

Huge masses of dark, agate-looking clouds were gathering in the zenith, and
the heavy, close atmosphere told the coming of a storm. Now and then the
snaky lightning darted across the heavens and coiled itself away in a
cloud.

A lone ship stood almost motionless in the twilight.

The sails were close-reefed. Here and there on the forecastle were groups
of lazy-looking seamen; and a man walked the quarter-deck, glancing
anxiously aloft. The sea was as smooth as a mirror, and that dreadful
st