he has come back. Oh, try to say
it with me, daddy: you have come back to be good,--to live good and live
right forever!"

And then, even while Freddy prayed, the storm burst upon Last Island. And
such a storm! It seemed as if the derelict lying there had roused wind and
wave into destructive fury against the friendly outpost that sheltered
him. Last Island had been abandoned on account of its perilous exposure;
and its beacon light, shattered again and again by fierce ocean gales, was
transferred to a safer shore.

"It's a-washing away fast," old Neb had informed Dan when they had drifted
by the low-lying shore. "Some of these days a big storm will gulp it down
for good."

And truly the roaring sea seemed to rush upon it in hungry rage to-day.
The dogs came in crouching and whining to their master; while the wind
shrieked and whistled, and the foaming breakers thundered higher and
higher upon the unprotected shore.

"O Dan, Dan!" thought Freddy hopelessly, as the storm beat through the
broken walls and roof. "Dan will never get here now,--never!"

But, though his heart was quailing within him, Brother Bart's laddie was
no weakling: he stood bravely to his post, bathing his father's head and
hands, wetting the dry, muttering lips, soothing him with tender words and
soft caresses,--"daddy, my own dear daddy, it is your little boy that is
with you,--your own little Boy Blue! You will be better soon, daddy." And
then through the roar and rage of the storm would rise the boyish voice
pleading to God for help and mercy.

And the innocent prayer seemed to prevail. The sick man's labored
breathing grew easier, the drawn features relaxed, the blood came into the
livid lips; and, with the long-drawn sigh of one exhausted by his struggle
for life, Freddy's patient sank into a heavy sleep; while his little Boy
Blue watched on, through terrors that would have tried stronger souls than
Brother Bart's laddie. For all the powers of earth and air and sea seemed
loosened for battle. The winds rose into madder fury; the rain swept down
in blinding floods; forked tongues of fire leaped from the black clouds
that thundered back to the rolling waves.

The dogs crouched, whimpering and shivering, at Freddy's side. Whether
daddy was alive or dead he could not tell. He could only keep close to
him, trembling and praying, and feeling that all this horror of darkness
could not be real: that he would waken in a moment,--waken as he had
so