t was given to your father on his marriage day by
the priest that married him. Here's the mate to it that he give your
mother on the same day,' an' I picked up Mona's rosary lyin' on the bed
an' showed him the cross on it. They was as like as two peas, only on
the back of hers was carved the name of Mona Conners.

"Well, we had to break the news to her gently, an' it's the happy woman
she was for the next few days in spite of all the pain she suffered.
She'd just lie there holdin' Gerald's hand an' gazin' at him an' makin'
him tell over an' over again of how he'd been saved from the wreck. He
was only a wee lad of three at the time, but he could still remember of
his father standin' there on the deck of the sinkin' ship an' holdin'
him in his arms. He could still hear the words his father spoke to him
an' feel the father's hand slippin' the rosary over his head an'
claspin' the little fingers around the cross as it lay on his breast.
Michael had passed him to a sailor an' he was lowered into one of the
boats, where a kind-hearted woman took compassion on his loneliness an'
cared for him. They'd been picked up by a sailin' vessel bound for
France, an' the woman who first cared for him, took him with her from
France to America an' finally adopted him. She brought him up, educated
him, an' at last he became a priest of God.

"He was with his mother to the very end, an' it was his hand that give
her the last blessin' of the Church an' his voice recited the prayers
that send the departin' soul safe on its journey to the throne of God.
It's the happy woman my Mona was in them last few days upon earth, an'
it's the happy woman she is this day, all her troubles over, all her
sufferin's gone, an' she in Paradise for ever an' ever."

During Nancy's recital, the shadows of twilight had gathered and
deepened, and now her little kitchen was wrapped in darkness. Still, she
sat for several moments buried in thought which I cared not to
interrupt. Then, with a sigh, she rose to light the lamp and I noticed
that tears filled her eyes though the brave lips were smiling.

"Yes, yes," she repeated. "God's ways are wonderful, they are that. Even
if we don't understand things in this world, we're sure to in the next,
for the Lord knows His own business best every time."

PATSY.

Patsy was wide awake in a second. What was it those men were talking
about; what was it they were planning to do? That name, and "the brown
house on th