ittle face; a tall, bronzed man;
but the eyes and mouth were those of the little photograph framed in
black that hung over his mother's bed.

Lloyd tried to raise his head. "John," he cried, "O, John."

John took him in his strong arms and cried over him, big man as he was.

"Yes, I've got back, Lloyd. I've had a rough time of it these three
years. But I'm home now, with plenty of money in my pocket, thank God!
And I'll take the load off of your shoulders, my boy, and mother's.
You're going to have time to live like other boys, Lloyd. And we'll
begin to-morrow, by keeping such a Christmas as was never known. We'll
buy out half the stores in the village."

It was his old way of rattling on, but he could not keep the choking
from his throat. Lloyd's mother sat down and held her two boys' hands
in hers, and said nothing.

"Were you in the schooner?" asked Lloyd, when he found strength to
speak.

"Yes, your fire saved us, Lloyd."

"I am glad of that. I wonder what Jem will say now," laughed Lloyd.

But his mother was thinking how God had held both her boys in the
hollow of His hand that night.

THE END.

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