corroborated Raby's,
but threw no light on what had gone before. He had found the child on
the main road, running very fast, and crying aloud. He had asked him to
jump into his wagon; and Raby had replied: "Yes, sir: if you will whip
your horse and make him run all the way to my house? My auntie's drowned
in the lake;" and this was all the child had said.

Poor Raby! his young nerves had entirely given way under the strain of
those hours of anxious waiting. He had borne the first hour very well.
When the watch said it was five o'clock, and Hetty was not in sight,
he thought, as she had hoped he would, that she was searching for the
shawl; but, when six o'clock came, and her boat was not in sight, his
childish heart took alarm. He ran to the shanty where the old boatman
lived; and pounded furiously on the door, shouting loud, for the man was
very deaf. The door was locked; no one answered. Raby pushed logs under
the windows, and, climbing up, looked in. The house was empty. Then the
little fellow jumped into the only boat which was there, and began to
row out into the lake in search of Hetty.

Alas! the boat leaked so fast that it was with difficulty he got back to
the shore. Perhaps, if Hetty, from her hiding-place, had seen the dear,
brave child rowing to her rescue, it might have been a rescue indeed. It
might have changed for ever the current of her life. But this was not
to be. Wet and chilled, and clogged by his dripping shoes, Raby turned
towards home. The woods were dark and full of shadows. The child had
never been alone in them at night before; and the gloom added to his
terrors. His feet seemed as if they would fail him at every step, and
his sobbing cries left him little breath with which to run.

Jim and Sally turned helplessly to the stranger, as he concluded his
story.

"Oh, what shall we do! what shall we do!" they said. "Oh, take us right
back to the lake, won't you? and the rest will follow: we may find her."

"There isn't any boat," cried Raby, from the floor. "I tried to go for
her, and the boat is all full of holes, and she must have been drowned
ever so long by this time; she told me it only took half an hour, that
nobody could be brought to life after that," and Raby's cries rose
almost to shrieks, and brought old Caesar and Nan from the kitchen. As
the first words of what had happened reached their ears, they broke into
piercing lamentations. Nan, with inarticulate groans, and Caesar with,
"