-shed
and thought he heard the tinkle of a bell at sea, hurried off to the
shore, where he found his boat bobbing on the beach, and thereby came to
his own conclusions.

By the light of a lantern he pulled out to St. Mary's Rock, and there,
guided by the howling of the dog, he came upon the great little
explorers, hardly more than three feet above high water, lying together
in the corn sack, locked in each other's arms and fast asleep.

There were no crowds and bands of music waiting for us when Tommy
brought us ashore, and after leaving Martin with his broken limb in his
mother's arms at the gate of Sunny Lodge, he took me over to the
Presbytery in order that Father Dan might carry me home and so stand
between me and my father's wrath and Aunt Bridget's birch.

Unhappily there was no need for this precaution. The Big House, when we
reached it, was in great confusion. My mother had broken a blood vessel.

TENTH CHAPTER

During the fortnight in which my mother was confined to bed I was her
constant companion and attendant. With the mighty eagerness of a child
who knew nothing of what the solemn time foreboded I flew about the
house on tiptoe, fetching my mother's medicine and her milk and the ice
to cool it, and always praising myself for my industry and thinking I
was quite indispensable.

"You couldn't do without your little Mally, could you, mammy?" I would
say, and my mother would smooth my hair lovingly with her thin white
hand and answer:

"No, indeed, I couldn't do without my little Mally." And then my little
bird-like beak would rise proudly in the air.

All this time I saw nothing of Martin, and only heard through Doctor
Conrad in his conversations with my mother, that the boy's broken arm
had been set, and that as soon as it was better, he was to be sent to
King George's College, which was at the other end of Ellan. What was to
be done with myself I never inquired, being so satisfied that my mother
could not get on without me.

I was partly aware that big letters, bearing foreign postage-stamps and
seals and coats of arms, with pictures of crosses and hearts, were
coming to our house. I was also aware that at intervals, while my mother
was in bed, there was the sound of voices, as if in eager and sometimes
heated conference, in the room below, and that my mother would raise her
pale face from her pillow and stop my chattering with "Hush!" when my
father's voice was louder and sterner than usu