upon Daddy Skinner seated on his own stool. He was smiling at her
with misty, shaggy-browed eyes, his lips showing his dark teeth with
each incoming breath.

Deforest Young saw the girl bound forward, and the red curls shroud the
huge fisherman's face. Tears blurred his sight. He turned into the day
to regain his control.

"Ye be here to stay!" gasped Tess, sitting up presently, and holding the
thick neck with her curved arm. "Ye ain't never goin' back to Auburn?"

"Nope; I's here to stay with my pretty brat.... Air ye glad to see yer
Daddy?"

"Glad! glad! Daddy, daddy! I air a-goin' to be your brat till we dies!"
She had nestled, as in the old days, completely under his chin hair,
crying silently, deeply, with low-caught sobs.

For a long time they sat thus, until the man outside entered and spoke
to them.

* * * * *

Tess jubilantly cooked the fish for dinner, spattering the bacon fat
upon the floor. She smiled alternately at her father and Professor
Young; she caroled like a spring bird with bursts of happy song. Then
they three sat down to the table to eat the homely squatter fare.

A sickening longing swept over Deforest Young. To have the love of this
girl he would be willing to live in the shanty--to eat just such food
for the rest of his life. But during the few days past, he had fully
realized that he could not make Tess love him. He would never speak of
love to her again.

Yet it pleased him to remain with them through the long afternoon, with
Tess near him to watch the sun sink behind the western hill.

He had drawn on his coat preparatory to leaving, and stood with
Tessibel's hand in his. A sharp, quick knock on the door stayed his
farewell. Orn Skinner lifted the latch, and Frederick Graves entered at
the fisherman's bidding. His face was drawn and pale, his eyes red from
weeping. Tessibel's heart bounded in sympathy, but she remained backed
against the shanty wall until his eyes searched hers for a welcome. He
spoke first.

"My sister is dead," he said slowly, his voice breaking as the tears
came into the dark eyes; "and my father sent you this."

Daddy Skinner was seated blinkingly on his stool; Professor Young, hat
in hand, waited for the girl to take the extended paper. But for several
seconds she stood staring at Frederick, with wide-eyed wonderment. He
had said that his beautiful sister was dead, that she had gone with the
thin babe to her loved one, even