d not be
persuaded to leave the pier; but, as time went on, and it grew darker
and colder, she consented to do as my grandfather told her, and he
promised he would send me up to the lighthouse to tell her as soon as
Jem arrived.

When she was gone, my grandfather said 'Alick, there's something wrong
with Jem, depend upon it! I didn't like to tell her so, poor soul! If we
only had the boat, I would go out a bit of way and see.'

We walked up and down the pier, and stopped every now and then to listen
if we could hear the sound of oars in the distance, for we should not be
able to see the boat till it was close upon us, so dense had the fog
become.

'Dear me,' my grandfather kept saying anxiously, 'I wish he would come!'

My thoughts went back to the bright sunny morning when Jem Millar had
started, and we had heard him singing, as he went, those two lines of
the hymn,--

'On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.'

The time passed on. Would he never come? We grew more and more anxious.
Mrs. Millar's servant-girl came running down to say her mistress wanted
to know if we could hear anything yet.

'No,' my grandfather said, 'nothing yet, my lass; but it can't be long
now.'

'Missis is so poorly,' said the girl; 'I think she's got a cold: she
shakes all over, and she keeps fretting so.'

'Poor soul! well, perhaps it's better so.'

'Whatever do you mean, grandfather?' I asked.

'Why, if aught's amiss, she won't be so taken aback as if she wasn't
afraid; and if Jem's all right, why, she'll only be the better pleased.'

The girl went back, and we still waited on the pier. 'Grandfather,' I
said at length, 'I think I hear a boat.'

It was a very still night; we stood and listened. At first my
grandfather said he heard nothing; but at length he distinguished, as I
did, the regular plash--plash--plash--of oars in the distance.

'Yes, it _is_ a boat,' said my grandfather.

I was hastening to leave the pier, and run up to the house to tell Mrs.
Millar, but my grandfather laid his hand on my shoulder.

'Wait a bit, Alick, my lad,' he said; 'let us hear what it is first;
maybe it isn't Jem, after all!'

'But it's coming here, grandfather; I can hear it better now.'

'Yes,' he said, 'it's coming here;' but he still kept his hand on my
shoulder.

The boat had been a long way off when we first heard it, for it was many
minutes before the sound of the oars seemed to become much more