drew back my hands from my face. The relief was so great I
could scarcely believe in it; and I must have appeared--as I certainly
felt--utterly bewildered, whilst I tried to find words, and only at last
succeeded in repeating my father's mechanically:

"The danger is over--Aleck is spared to us."

"To be sure he is," said Dr. Wilson, in his cheeriest tones. He had got
up from his chair, and was standing with his back to the fire looking at
us. "Yes, he'll be quite well again by-and-by; and all the more prudent,
we'll hope, for the trouble he's been putting us in during these last
few days. He's had a lesson that ought to last for some time to come;
but boys never learn their lessons, do what one will to make them."

There was a moment's pause after this discouraging general statement
with reference to boys; and then the doctor added, as if thinking to
himself, in quite a different tone:

"Poor boy! poor boy! it's been a very near thing. By the help of God,
we've brought him through. May it be a life worth the saving--a life
given back to God!"

"Amen!" ejaculated my father, earnestly; and then, at his suggestion, we
knelt together, and, in a few heartfelt words, he offered thanks to the
heavenly Father for his goodness to us, and turned kind Dr. Wilson's
aspiration into a prayer, that the life given back to my cousin might
be by him given back to God.

I knew, as I knelt there by my father's side, for the first time in my
life, the feeling of a deep and speechless thankfulness, for which all
words would be too poor.

It was very late--past ten o'clock--but I was not allowed to go up to
bed at once. Supper was ready, my father said, and I should come into
the dining-room, and have it with him and Dr. Wilson. Accordingly, in
spite of all remonstrances of nurse, who put in her appearance, and
thought fit to reflect upon the utter impropriety of such late hours, I
went to supper; and felt, moreover, greatly refreshed and strengthened
by it, sitting there close by my father's side, and rejoicing every
moment of the time in the feeling as of a great deliverance.

So it came to pass that my second night did not begin until eleven
o'clock.

CHAPTER XI.

THE WHITE-ROCK COVE AGAIN.

Aleck was a long time getting well. He had to be nursed and taken care
of all through that winter, only gradually making little steps towards
recovery.

It was quite a festival when he was first carried down-stairs; and then
ag