m happier to know about it; but if you like I will
tell him that you love him dearly, and are very sorry for everything you
have ever done that may not have been kind."

Even this message, vague as it was, seemed better than none, and I
thankfully endorsed it.

"But oh, mamma," I added, "do tell me that you think it just possible he
may get well again. I think it will kill me if he does not."

"He is in God's hands, Willie," answered my mother, "and with God all
things are possible; but I fear there is little hope of his getting any
better. Dr. Wilson does not say there is _no_ hope, but the other
doctors quite gave him up. I do not hide it from you, my child, because
it is easier to know the worst than to be in doubt and suspense; and God
will help you--help us all--to bear it."

There were tears in my mother's eyes and a tremble in her voice as she
said this, and as it rushed upon me all at once how greatly it must add
to her trouble to know that I was the cause of it, my own grief seemed
rekindled. She gently unclasped my hands, which were tightly locked
around her.

"I must leave you now, my poor child," she said; "I cannot stay a minute
longer away from Aleck;" and stooping down, she kissed me in spite of my
wickedness, and went away up-stairs; whilst I, throwing myself upon the
sofa, buried my head in my hands, and wept until, from sheer exhaustion,
I seemed to grow quiet at last, whilst the day-light faded away, and the
faint flickering of the fire-light produced mysterious shadows on the
ceiling, and made the things in the room assume to my fevered
imagination weird and fanciful shapes.

But there was a species of dim comfort in watching the fire; and a
comfort, too, in spite of my misery, in the recollection that I had
confessed my sin--that it was no longer a dread secret in my own sole
keeping, but was shared by the strong, tender hearts, of my parents: and
it seemed to come soothingly to my mind that now the barrier of sin
might be taken away, and my heart rose once again in earnest prayer to
God for forgiveness. Then I began to think about the great things of
eternity my mother had spoken of; and of the meeting-time for those who
were parted on earth, of Aleck, and of Old George, and his son--Ralph's
father; and of what Groves said about the open book; and then came the
recollection of the sea-stained little Testament, and the quaint verse
at its beginning, and the young sailor's profession of faith,