etters, with their untold love and longing; she saw the look
on the boyish face when Dan, too mindful of his promise to Father Mack to
speak plainly, said he 'reckoned she wouldn't be here long if he didn't
get her somehow _home_.' She learned, too, all Dan could tell about poor
old Nutty's medal.

"Get it for me the next time you go to town, Danny," she said to him. And
Danny drew it from old Jonah's junk shop and put it in Miss Stella's
hand.

And then, when at last her patient was able to sit up in Great-uncle Joe's
big chair in the cabin doorway and look out at the sea, Miss Stella wrote
to dad and Polly to come and take her home.

"Lord, but we'll all miss her!" Captain Jeb voiced the general sentiment
of Killykinick when this decision was made public. "I ain't much sot on
women folks when you're in deep water, but this one suttenly shone out
like a star in the dark."

"And kept a-shining," added Neb,--"a-shining and a-smiling straight
through."

"She's a good girl," said Brother Bart. "And I'm thinking--well, it
doesn't matter what I'm thinking. But it's a lonely time laddie's poor
father will be having, after all his wild wanderings; and it will be hard
for him to keep house and home. But the Lord is good. Maybe it was His
hand that led Miss Stella here."

"Oh, what will we do when she is gone, daddy?" mourned Freddy. "Of course
you are getting well now, and Dan and I can wait on you and get you broth
and jelly; but it won't be like having dear Miss Stella. Oh, I just love
her! Don't you, daddy? She is almost as good as a real mother."

And daddy's pale cheek had flushed as he answered:

"Almost, little Boy Blue!"

"Well, we're all going home in a week," said Dan, as he stood out under
the stars that night. "But I'll miss you sure, Miss Stella; for you don't
mind being friends with a rough sort of a boy like me, and you know Aunt
Winnie; and if I give up and--and go down you'll--you'll understand."

"Give up and go down!" repeated Miss Stella. "You give up and go down,
Danny? Never,--never! You're the sort of boy to climb, however steep and
rough and sharp the way,--to climb to the stars."

"That's what Aunt Winnie dreams," was the answer. "That's what I dream,
too, sometimes. Miss Stella. But it isn't for me to dream: I have to wake
up and hustle. I can't stay dreaming and let Aunt Winnie die. So if I have
to give up and go down, Miss Stella, you'll--you'll understand."

And Miss Stella steadied he