the tide.

A groan came from the group of fishermen who were watching, and as the
capsized boat neared shore they ran into the water to meet it. I do not
think it was necessary to look at the name upon it as it was dragged out
of the water: we all did look, however, and we found there the name
which we knew we should see before we looked. It was the Mary Ann.

I shall never forget the piercing shriek which came from the wife of one
of Duncan's mates, who was standing just behind me, when she read the
name on the boat. I thought the shock and the sorrow had driven her mad,
for she ran screaming up the hill; indeed, I firmly believe that for the
time she was quite out of her mind.

Poor Polly heard the shrieks of the woman as she ran under her window,
and looking out, she saw the boat on the shore, and guessed the truth at
once. _She_ did not scream nor cry, but she looked as if she had
been turned into stone. No word escaped her lips, not a tear was in her
eye; but she looked as if all her youth had gone in a moment, and as if
she had suddenly become an old and worn-out woman.

She never looked up as we went in, but bent over little John, moistening
his lips from time to time, and watching his every movement. We tried to
say a few words of comfort, but she did not seem even to hear our
voices. Yet no moan, no sigh from the child was unheard by her; she
seemed to be listening to every breath he drew, as if it might be his
last.

I thought that terrible day would never have an end. Mr. Christie stayed
with us until dark, and then he took me home with him to supper, that I
might get a little change and rest before my night watch. I think they
knew how tired I was, worn out more by feeling than by want of sleep,
and they were very good to me. I do not think my own mother could have
been more kind to me than Mrs. Christie was that night. She told me that
she would have had a boy nearly as old as I was if he had lived, but he
had died when he was very young; and then they had had no children for
many years, not until Marjorie was born.

'Your mother was so good to me when my baby died,' she said. 'I thought
I should never be happy again, but she came and talked to me, and made
me look from my sorrow to my little boy's gain, and I think her kindness
to me and the loving words she spoke made me love her more than ever.'

I felt much better for the good supper, and for the kind words of these
dear people, and I went back