ed at
home; but anxious to increase his means for the sake of the object he
had nearest at heart, he took a larger share than before in a whaler,
and sailed once more, with Rolf in his company, for Greenland. Eager in
the pursuit of the oil-giving whale, he proceeded further north than
usual, his ship got nipped in the ice, crushed into a thousand
fragments, and Rolf Morton, and six of the crew only escaped with their
lives.

Sorrowing deeply for the loss of his kind friend and protector, and
caring very little for that of his fortune, Rolf at length returned home
to find himself the possessor of the small farm and house on Whalsey,
and very little else in the world. He was not in the slightest degree
cast down, however; he made another voyage to Greenland as mate, and
having been very successful, came home and married young Bertha Eswick,
to whom he had before sailing engaged himself.

Bertha Morton, like the rest of her countrywomen, accepted her lot, and
notwithstanding the fate to which so many others were subjected, she
hoped to enjoy years of happiness with her brave, fine-hearted husband.
There was not in all Scotland, just then, a blither or happier woman
than Bertha Morton. Her husband had told her that he expected to be at
home soon after midnight, and she was sitting up to receive him. As the
fury of the storm had not broke till some time after she hoped her
husband would be safe on shore, she was not particularly anxious about
his safety; still, as time wore on, her keen ear became more and more
alive to approaching sounds: at length she heard footsteps. Her
husband's voice called to her, and in he rushed with her mother and
Nanny Clousta, followed by Don Hernan and Hilda. Her astonishment at
seeing them was very great, but without losing time in asking
unnecessary questions, she set to work to remedy, as far as she had the
power, the effects of the pelting rain to which her guests had been
exposed. Fresh fuel was added to the already hot peat fire on the
hearth, that the foreign captain and her husband might dry their clothes
while she retired with her female visitors, that they might change
theirs for such as her own ample wardrobe could supply. Her best Sunday
gown well became Hilda, for except in height they differed but little in
figure; indeed, dressed as they now were, in the same homely garb, there
was a remarkable likeness between them. Nanny soon came back to place
certain pots and kettl