shore, and with a sort of incredulous joy Mrs. Beauchamp listened to
the sturdy steps coming slowly, surely, carefully down, with a little
ripple of shale following them.

She clutched at the gunwale of the boat until she hurt her hands, and
strained her eyes for the sight she longed to see. First there came the
stalwart figure of the sailor with a bundle in his arms, and behind him a
slim, bare-footed, bareheaded, stumbling little creature, who almost fell
into the expectant arms waiting for her.

"He's quite warm, mother." It was Susie's voice, faint, eager, appealing,
caught by deep sobs. "He has never coughed once--he has never _moved_. He
is quite warm; feel him."

"O Susie! And you?"

"Me! Oh, I'm all right," said Susie, wondering. "I did take care of him;
I tried my very best."

"But where are your clothes, Susie? And it rained so."

"They are round Dick," said Susie. "Mother, they kept him beautifully
warm."

The men jumped into the boat and pushed off. The little bundle of flannel
and serge that held Dickie rolled quite comfortably to the bottom of the
boat; but Susie's mother held two frozen feet in her warm hands and said
nothing. Words did not come easily.

Presently Susie spoke again in that strained whisper. "Mother, when I
went to sleep I dreamt a ferryman came for us, and his boat was close to
the shore, and we were stepping in when you called me back. I knew your
voice, and you said 'Susie' quite plainly. I wouldn't go, and I wouldn't
let him take Dick! I screamed and held him tight, and the ferryman said
we must pay him, all the same; and then you gave him two pennies, and he
went away."

"Susie, I _did_ call. In my heart I have called all night."

"Yes, I know," said Susie. "When I woke and saw the sailor, I thought it
was the ferryman."

"I _had_ paid," said Mrs. Beauchamp.

"Oh, I knew you would," said Susie.

Mrs. Beauchamp took the rug that Mr. Amherst threw to her, and folded it
close and warm about Susie's wet locks and damp body; and presently the
difficult, sobbing breaths grew quieter, but her mother knew that she was
not asleep by the fierce pressure of her fingers.

The day was breaking as the boat was beached, and a dozen willing hands
pulled her high and dry. The sea-birds were awake, fluttering about the
head of the island; the ebbing tide had left the rocks very black and
bare.

When they set Susie on her feet she was too stiff to stand alone, and
never for one mome