et of their
mother.

"Ah! I begin to understand," she screamed, as she glanced around on
the scared group that surrounded her, like a wounded lioness whose
cubs were being carried off; "now the bandage begins to drop from my
eyes. A thousand inexplicable things dart into my mind. You are
sending the boys on an impracticable voyage to secure the safety of
their mother; but you did not think that in order to prolong my
existence for a few years, you would kill me instantly with grief!
What right have you to impose a remedy upon me that is a thousand
times worse than the malady? Have I ever complained? May my sufferings
not be agreeable to me? May I not like them? Is pain and suffering not
our lot from the cradle to the tomb? But I am not ill, I was never
better in my life than I am at this moment."

Here she was seized with a paroxysm of nervous tremors that convulsed
her frame most fearfully, and completely belied her words. Becker
rushed forward and held her firmly in his arms.

"God give me strength!" he murmured. "Go, my children, where your duty
calls you; go, my friend, do not prolong this terrible scene an
instant longer."

Not another word was spoken, the pinnace was unmoored; Fritz, Jack,
and Willis embarked. When at some little distance from the shore,
there was just light enough for Fritz to notice that his father was
directing the feeble steps of his mother in the direction of Falcon's
Nest. In a few moments more all the objects on shore were one confused
mass of unfathomable shadow. The pinnace dropped anchor at Shark's
Island, where some few final preparations for the voyage had to be
made. Fritz here took a pen and wrote:

"We part. We are gone. When you read this letter, the sea, for some
distance, will extend between us. We shall live and move elsewhere,
but our hearts still with you. We wish that Ernest and Frank would
erect a flagstaff on the spot where we last parted with our parents.
It may be to us what the celestial standard bearing the scroll, _in
hoc signo vinces_ was to the Emperor Constantine. The place is already
sacred, and may be hallowed by your prayers for us. Our confidence in
the divine mercy is boundless. Do not despair of seeing us again. We
have no misgivings, not one of us but anticipates confidently the
period when we shall return and bring with us health, happiness, and
prosperity to you all.

"Let me add a word," said Jack.

"The sea is calm, our hearts are firm, our ente