girls sat and looked at it and talked about it for a few
minutes, and then Tiny said wistfully: "Will you show me now how you
make up them nice words?"

"Oh, it's easy enough if you know the letters; but you must learn the
letters first," said Polly; and she proceeded to tell Tiny the name of
each; and the little girl had the satisfaction of knowing now that she
had remembered them quite correctly, and that G O D did spell God, as
she had surmised.

She was not long now in putting other words together; and before she
went home she was able to spell out the first two lines of the printed
page, for they were all easy words, and intended for beginners.

What a triumph it was to Tiny to be able to read out to the fisherman's
family what she had learned on the sands that day. She was allowed to
have the candle all to herself after supper, and they sat round the
table looking at each other in wondering amazement as her little finger
travelled along the page, and she spelt out the wonderful news, "'God is
good to all: He loves both boys and girls.' It's true, Dick, what I told
you, ain't it?" she said, in a tone of delighted satisfaction.

Dick scratched his head, and looked round at his father, wondering what
he would think or say. For a minute or two the fisherman smoked his pipe
in silence. At length, taking it from his mouth, he said, in a slow,
meditative fashion: "Well, little 'un, I s'pose if it's printed that way
it's true; and if it is, why I s'pose we've all got a share in that
'Star of Peace' we was talking about to-day."

Tiny did not quite follow his train of thought; but she nodded her head,
and then proceeded to tell them what she had heard about the picture,
and the conclusion she and Polly had arrived at upon the subject--that
Jesus, the kind, loving man of the picture, had come to show them how
kind God was to them.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI.

BAD TIMES.

Winter around Bermuda Point was at all times a dreary season, and the
only thing its few inhabitants could hope for was that its reign might
be as short as possible. A fine, calm autumn was hailed as a special
boon from heaven by the fisher-folk all round the coast, and more
especially by the lonely dwellers at the Point.

A fine autumn enabled Coomber to go out in his boat until the time for
shooting wild fowl began, and the children could play on the sands, or
gather samphire, instead of being penned up in the house half the time.
Bu