whole party had reached the children, who
stood drenched with rain, and trembling violently, under a cliff that
gave no shelter, but was exposed especially to the wind and rain.

"O Christ! my children!" cried the mother, wildly, struggling forward
and clasping one in her arms. "Nancy! Jane! But where is David? David!
David! Oh, where is David? Where is your brother?"

The whole party was startled at not seeing the boy, and joined in a
simultaneous "Where is he? where is your brother?"

The two children only wept and trembled more violently, and burst into
loud crying.

"Silence!" shouted the father. "Where is David? I tell ye? Is he lost?
David, lad, where ar ta?"

All listened, but there was no answer but the renewed crying of the two
girls.

"Where is the lad, then?" thundered forth the father with a terrible
oath.

The two terrified children cried, "Oh, down there! down there!"

"Down where? Oh, God!" exclaimed one of the young men; "why it's a
precipice! Down there!"

At this dreadful intelligence the mother gave a wild shriek, and fell
senseless on the ground. The young men caught her, and dragged her back
from the edge of the precipice. The father in the same moment, furious
at what he heard, seized the younger child, that happened to be near
him, and shaking it violently, swore he would fling it down after the
lad.

He was angry with the poor children, as if they had caused the
destruction of his boy. The young men seized him, and bade him think
what he was about; but the man believing his boy had fallen down the
precipice, was like a madman. He kicked at his wife as she lay on the
ground, as if she were guilty of this calamity by leaving the children
at home. He was furious against the poor girls, as if they had led their
brother into danger. In his violent rage he was a perfect maniac, and
the young men pushing him away, cried shame on him. In a while, the
desperate man, torn by a hurricane of passion, sate himself down on a
crag, and burst into a tempest of tears, and struck his head violently
with his clenched fists, and cursed himself and every body. It was a
dreadful scene.

Meantime, some of the young men had gone down below the precipice on
which the children had stood, and, feeling among the loose stones, had
found the body of poor little David. He was truly dead!

When he had heard the shout of his father, or of the young men, he had
given one loud shout in answer, and saying, "Come on