y
interested. "Oh, I am so glad. Who is she engaged to, mother?"

"Why, Dr. Edwards! Isn't it nice! Doesn't it seem just right?" Lucy was
almost as excited as Mona. "I am so glad she isn't going to marry a
stranger, and leave Seacombe."

"Can it be true! really true?"

"It's true enough. Mrs. Luxmore told me. Her husband works two days a
week at Mrs. Lester's, and Mrs. Lester told him her very own self. So it
must be true, mustn't it?"

Mona's thoughts had already flown to the wedding. "We girls in Miss
Grace's class ought to give her a wedding present. What would be a nice
thing to give her? And, oh, mother!" Mona clapped her hands in a fresh
burst of excitement. "I wonder if she will let us all go to the wedding
and strew roses in her path as she comes out of the church--"

"It'll depend a good deal on what time of the year the wedding is to be,"
remarked granny, drily. But Mona's mind was already picturing the scene.

"We ought all to be dressed in white, with white shoes and stockings, and
gloves, and some should wear pink round their waists and in their hats,
and the rest should have blue, and those that wear pink should throw white
roses, and those that wear blue should throw pink roses. Wouldn't it look
sweet? I'd rather wear blue, because I've got a blue sash."

A door banged upstairs, and made them all jump. "Why, how the wind is
rising!" said Lucy, in a frightened voice. She hurried to the window and
looked out anxiously. "Oh, dear! and I was hoping it was going to be
pretty still to-night."

"What I'd give if Peter was a ploughman, or a carpenter!" cried granny,
almost irritably. "I don't know how you can bear it, Lucy, always to have
the fear of the sea dogging you day and night!" Her own face had grown
quite white.

"I couldn't bear it," said Lucy quietly, "if I didn't feel that wherever
he is God's hand is over him just the same." She came back and stood by
the fire, gazing with wistful eyes into its glowing heart.

"But sailors and fishermen do get drowned," urged Mona, putting her fears
into words in the hope of getting comfort.

"And ploughmen and carpenters meet with their deaths, too. We've got our
work to do, and we can't all choose the safest jobs. Some must take the
risks. And no matter what our work is, death'll come to us all one day.
Some of us who sit at home, die a hundred deaths thinking of those
belonging to us and the risks they are facing."

Then, seeing