face--the face of a boy of fifteen or sixteen. But, oh, what suffering
was depicted in those sunken eyes, those bloodless, cracked lips, and
the shrunken yellow skin which clung in premature wrinkles about the
emaciated features! An old and worn fur cap was pulled down over his
ears, but from under its rim a few strands of blond hair were hanging
upon his forehead.

Atle had just disentangled Carina from her wrappings, and was about
to descend the stairs to the water when a heavy hand seized him by the
shoulder, and a panting voice shouted in his ear:

"Give me back my child."

He paused, and turned his pathetically bewildered face toward the
pastor. "You wouldn't take him from me, parson," he stammered,
helplessly; "no, you wouldn't. He's the only one I've got."

"I don't take him from you," the parson thundered, wrathfully. "But what
right have you to come and steal my child, because yours is ill?"

"When life is at stake, parson," said the pilot, imploringly, "one gets
muddled about right and wrong. I'll do your little girl no harm. Only
let her lay her blessed hands upon my poor boy's head, and he will be
well."

"I have told you no, man, and I must put a stop to this stupid idolatry,
which will ruin my child, and do you no good. Give her back to me, I
say, at once."

The pastor held out his hand to receive Carina, who stared at him with
large pleading eyes out of the grizzly wolf-skin coat.

"Be good to him, papa," she begged. "Only this once."

"No, child; no parleying now; come instantly."

And he seized her by main force, and tore her out of the pilot's arms.
But to his dying day he remembered the figure of the heart-broken man,
as he stood outlined against the dark horizon, shaking his clinched
fists against the sky, and crying out, in a voice of despair:

"May God show you the same mercy on the Judgment Day as you have shown
to me!"

II.

Six miserable days passed. The weather was stormy, and tidings of
shipwreck and calamity filled the air. Scarcely a visitor came to the
parsonage who had not some tale of woe to relate. The pastor, who was
usually so gentle and cheerful, wore a dismal face, and it was easy to
see that something was weighing on his mind.

"May God show you the same mercy on the Judgment Day as you have shown
to me!"

These words rang constantly in his ears by night and by day. Had he
not been right, according to the laws of God and man, in defending his
household agai