is trunks. It's one of papa's old scholars, Uncle Richard,
and his name is Henry Fields. He worked with papa in the old sea-town
where we lived, and he's come down to work here at Culm among our
fish-folk. I like him very much, and you can't help but like him,
too; and we've brought a cargo of benches and desks all ready to--"

The library-door began to swing softly open,--not so softly, however,
but that Noll heard and stopped.

"It's Ned," he said, looking over his shoulder. "Come in!"

Ned came shyly around to where they were sitting, his usually merry
face sobered by something which he perceived in the faces of his
friends before him. A silence fell upon them here. Ned leaned against
his friend, looking soberly at Trafford's rapt face, and wondering
where all the man's grimness and gloominess had gone. And just then a
sudden thought came into Noll's heart, and he said, looking up
brightly,--

"It's a year this very night since I came to you, Uncle Richard!
Don't you remember? What a long, long time!"

Trafford said, "Yes, I remember. Through all the days since then God
has been teaching me, and he has led me on to this; and, oh! my boy,
the sea may never divide us again, for, though through its dark floods
we go down to death, beyond there is light and God and heaven!" And in
his voice there was peace unutterable.

* * * * *

If this Story of a Year, and what it taught, is not already too long,
you may know that a schoolhouse was built at Culm, and that Henry
Fields proved a good and faithful teacher; that a stanch, new "White
Gull" was built, and one of Skipper Ben's sea-loving sons was its
captain; that the Culm children and their parents slowly improved in
more ways than one under the constant, unfailing care and effort of
Trafford and his nephew; that the Rock was not always Noll Trafford's
home, but exchanged for a pleasanter one in Hastings, though the old
stone house was often brightened by his presence, and never got to be
entirely gloomy and deserted again.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Culm Rock, by Glance Gaylord

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