uld, and the boat would have gone over on
top of us."

"Oh, poor Gran'ma!" cried Terry.

"I tell you Nursey will pretend we're in bed," said Turly; and Terry
grasped at this idea and took a little comfort from it, remembering Nancy's
many successful little plots for screening the children and saving her dear
lady from anxiety and disturbance.

The beds in the fisherman's house were only of straw done up in bags, and
the bed-clothes were very light, but the children slept soundly and found
everything as comfortable as possible. Terry was wakened by a little kid
licking her face, and started up in great astonishment and delight. It was
a pet kid, and had rushed into the house as soon as the door was opened.

The breakfast was potatoes and goat's milk. The little fisher-children ate
with them, and were very merry as they peeled their potatoes and sipped the
milk from their tin mugs. But Terry and Turly could scarcely understand
what they said, even when they spoke English.

"What are they saying, Mrs. O'Neill?" asked Terry, completely puzzled,
while Nonie and her little brothers and sisters chattered to one another.

"Sure it's Irish they're talkin'," said their mother. "It's what we always
talk together, and anything else comes strange to them."

"Irish? But we are Irish too. Why don't we talk Irish?" cried Terry.

Here Peter O'Neill came and said that the weather was looking better, and
the boat was ready, and if the little lady and gentleman would come, he
would take them across that bit of sea home to their Granny.

The children felt it hard to leave the island and their new friends without
having seen more of them, but the thought of Gran'ma's pain of mind and
Nurse Nancy's misery hurried them off, and they were soon in the boat. This
was a very different crossing from the last, seeing that they were cared
for by two stout fishermen, and pulled along by four strong oars.

"But, after all, God did very well for us, now didn't He, Mr. O'Neill?"
said Terry.

"He did the next thing to a miracle," said O'Neill; "but you'd better not
be doin' any more thricks behind your Gran'ma's back, or maybe God would
turn round and punish ye."

"I won't; indeed, indeed, I never will," said Terry.

Meanwhile poor Nurse Nancy had spent a dreadful day and night since Bridget
had rushed home to her with the news that the children had disappeared and
were not to be found. All the evening and through the night men were out
sear