nd she wakened. Then I couldn't help seeing she was much worse;
and I tried to keep from crying, for she seemed wild-like, and the
doctor had said she was to be kept quiet. Then she looked up in a
moment, and said, "Polly, promise me you'll look after Willie when I
die. Never let any harm come to Willie, mind that; and take care of
father, but look well after Willie." She never spoke again, not even to
father, who came in soon after, and cried like a baby over her. She just
opened her eyes once, and looked at him with a smile, and tried to push
Willie over to him, and then she died. How good father was to us then!
He used to take Willie down to the beach with him while I made the house
tidy and got the dinner; and he made Willie a fine boat, and dug out a
place for him to sail it in; and oh! but we were happy then!'

"'I don't think your father would have been lost if it hadn't been that
step-mother of yours,' said Martha angrily. 'I can't a-bear her, I
can't.'

"'Oh, don't say that, Martha. It was God who took father,' said Polly,
in a low whisper. 'Didn't you hear the rector saying it was God's will
to send the storm that night?'

[Illustration: LITTLE WILLIE AND HIS FATHER.]

"'Yes,' said Martha; but if your step-mother had only bade your father
stay at home, as all the other men did, he never would have been lost.
Didn't old Joe Gafler warn them there was a squall a-coming! but no, she
is so grasping, she wanted the money for the fish, and she let him go.
It was a shame!'

"'But father often says the boat may be found yet,' said Rachel; 'and
you know even old Dick says the thing is likely.'

"'Well, if so be's it should happen that Will Dampier comes to land
again, I hope he'll know how his Polly has been treated when he was
away,' said Martha.

"'Oh, I wouldn't mind for myself not one bit,' said Polly. 'It's when
she strikes Willie that I can't bear it; and I somehow think Willie is
not so well this last week.'

"'Then you mustn't think of running away, Polly,' said Vea. 'Wasn't that
what Martha was urging you to do? If you went away, who would take care
of Willie? Do you know, I have a brother I am very anxious about too,
Polly?' said Vea. 'He is lying in Dick's cottage, with his leg broken,
and the doctor is setting it while we are waiting out here.'

"'Oh, I am very sorry indeed, miss,' said Polly, forgetting her own
troubles in turn. 'Is that the young gentleman who is living with Mrs.
Berkley?'

"