or two at a time, were allowed to come and see him;
twice, leaning on Dr. Balloch, and his servant Bele, he visited the
homes, and saw the orphans at their noonday meals. He felt the clasp
of grateful hands, and the kiss of baby lips that could not speak
their thanks. His last was the flower of his life-work and he saw the
budding of it, and was satisfied with its beauty.

One morning in the following April, Margaret received the letter which
Suneva had prophesied would arrive by the twentieth, if the weather
were favorable. Nowhere in the world has the term, "weather
permitting," such significance as in these stormy seas. It is only
necessary to look at the mail steamers, so strongly built, so bluff at
the bows, and nearly as broad as they are long, to understand that
they expect to have to take plenty of hard blows and buffetings. It
was the first steamer that had arrived for months, and though it made
the harbor in a blinding snow-storm, little Jan would not be prevented
from going into the town to see if it brought a letter. For the boy's
dream of every thing grand and noble centered in his father. He talked
of him incessantly; he longed to see him with all his heart.

Margaret also was restless and faint with anxiety; she could not even
knit. Never were two hours of such interminable length. At last she
saw him coming, his head bent to the storm, his fleet feet skimming
the white ground, his hands deep in his pockets. Far off, he
discovered his mother watching for him; then he stopped a moment,
waved the letter above his head, and hurried onward. It was a good
letter, a tender, generous, noble letter, full of love and longing,
and yet alive with the stirring story of right trampling wrong under
foot. The child listened to it with a glowing face:

"I would I were with my father and Snorro," he said, regretfully.

"Would thou then leave me, Jan?"

"Ay, I would leave thee, mother. I would leave thee, and love thee, as
my father does. I could stand by my father's side, I could fire a gun,
or reef a sail, as well as Snorro. I would not be afraid of any thing;
no, I would not. It is such a long, long time till a boy grows up to
be a man! When I am a man, thou shall see that I will have a ship of
my own."

It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm
and defy it. Margaret never thought of the snow as any impediment.
She went first to Suneva, and then to Dr. Balloch with her letter; and
she