my father was glad to follow them. I never saw him in better
spirits than during that gale. We were bound to England from Denmark."

"Helen's death saddened him,--I know,--I know; he was never gay after
that. But how--how did--?"

"He would keep the deck, though the helmsman had to be lashed to the
wheel. I think he never cared to see land again, but he was full of
spirits and life. He said this was weather fit for a Viking.

"We were standing by the foremast, holding on by a belaying-pin. The
sea came over the side, and struck him overboard. I went after him.
Another wave brought me back; but not my father! I was knocked
senseless, and when I came to, it was too late."

Helwyse's voice, towards the end of this story, became husky, and Mr.
MacGentle's eyes, as he listened, grew dimmer than ever.

"Ah!" said he, "I shall not die so. I shall die away gradually, like a
breeze that has been blowing this way and that all day, and falls at
sunset, no one knows how. Thor died as became him; and I shall die as
becomes me,--as becomes me!" And so, indeed, he did, a few years
later; but not unknown nor uncared for.

Balder Helwyse was a philosopher, no doubt; but it was no part of his
wisdom to be indifferent to unstrained sympathy. He went on to speak
further of his own concerns,--a thing he was little used to do.

It appeared that, from the time he first crossed the Atlantic, being
then about four years old, up to the time he had recrossed it, a few
weeks ago, he had been journeying to and fro over the Eastern
Hemisphere. His father, who, as well as himself, was American by
birth, was the descendant of a Danish family of high station and
antiquity, and inherited the restless spirit of his ancestors. In the
course of his early wanderings he had fallen in with MacGentle, who,
though somewhat older than Helwyse, was still a young man; and later
these two had encountered Hiero Glyphic. About fifteen years after
this it was that Thor appeared at Glyphic's house in New Jersey, and
was welcomed by that singular man as a brother; and here he fell in
love with Glyphic's sister Helen, and married her. With her he
received a large fortune, which the addition of his own made great;
and at Glyphic's death Thor or his heirs would inherit the bulk of the
estate left by him.

So Thor, being then in the first prime of life, was prepared to settle
down and become domestic. But the sudden death of his wife, and the
subsequent loss of one