the crowd grew larger and larger,
as few things but bad news can make a crowd grow.

We learnt it very quickly. Biddy had been so much cheered up by our
visit, that when the woman went out to buy supper for them, she did not
lock the door. When she came back, Biddy was gone. To do her neighbours
justice, we could not doubt--considering how they talked then--that they
had made inquiries in all the streets and courts around.

"And wherever t' owld lass _can_ ha' gone!" sobbed the woman who had
been her neighbour in the noblest sense of neighbourhood.

I was beginning to comfort her when Dennis gripped me by the arm:

"I know," said he. "Come along."

His face was white, his eyes shone, and he tossed his head so wildly, he
looked madder than Biddy had looked; but when he began to run, and
roughs in the streets began to pursue him, I ran too, as a matter of
safety. We drew breath at the dock gates.

The gatekeeper told us that old Biddy, "looking quite herself, only a
bit thinner like," had gone through the evening before, to meet some one
who was coming off one of the vessels, as he understood, but he had not
noticed her on her return. He had heard her ask some man about a ship
from New York.

I wanted to hear more, but Dennis clutched me again and dragged me on.

"I'll know the wharf when I see it," said he.

Suddenly he stopped, and pointed. A wharf, but no vessel, only the water
sobbing against the stones.

"That's the wharf," he gasped. "That's where he sat and looked down.
_She's there_!"

* * * * *

He was right. We found her there at ebb of tide, with no sign of turmoil
or trouble about her, except the grip that never could be loosened with
which she held Micky's one letter fast in her hand.

CHAPTER XVIII.

"Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed
The lighthouse-top I see?
Is this the hill? Is this the Kirk?
Is this mine own countree?

We drifted o'er the harbour bar,
And I with sobs did pray--
O let me be awake, my GOD!
Or let me sleep alway."
_The Ancient Mariner_.

When Alister joined us the first evening after we came back from poor
Biddy, he was so deeply interested in hearing about her, that he would
have gone with us the next morning, if he had not had business on hand