not to go to bed that night, but to sit up in my room, in
case I should be of any use. I was really glad of the quiet time for
thought and prayer.

I am ashamed to confess that I had brought no Bible with me to Runswick
Bay; I had not opened a Bible for years. But when all was quiet in the
house I stole quietly downstairs, and brought up Duncan's Bible, which
was lying on the top of the oak cupboard below. What a well-worn,
well-read Bible it was! I wondered if my mother's Bible had been read
like that. There was his name on the title-page, 'John Duncan, from his
affectionate father.' It had evidently been given to him when a boy, and
underneath the name was written this verse: 'Open Thou mine eyes, that I
may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.' I said that little prayer
before I began to read, and I have said it ever since each time that I
have opened my Bible.

About twelve o'clock that night the weather became very stormy. A sudden
gale set in, and in a very short time the sea became lashed into a fury.
I have never heard wind like the wind that night. It literally shrieked
and moaned as it blew, and every window and door in the house rattled,
and sometimes I felt as if the cottage itself would be swept away.

'What a time they must be having out at sea!' I said to myself.

I went to the window, and putting out my candle, I tried to see out into
the darkness; but I could distinguish nothing whatever, so black was the
sky and so tremendous was the rain.

It must have been about one o'clock that I heard a step on the stairs. I
opened my door and went out. It was Polly.

'How is he, Polly?' I asked.

'Very bad, sir; very bad,' she said. 'He doesn't know me now, and he
won't take anything; and oh, sir, do you hear the wind?'

Who could help hearing it? It was raging more furiously every moment,
and the house seemed to rock with the violence of the storm.

'Let me help you, Polly,' I said; 'let me come and sit with you beside
little John.'

'Well, sir, if you would just stay a few minutes whilst I fetch Betty
Green,' she said; 'I feel as if I dursn't be alone any longer, I'm
getting that nervous, what with little John talking so queer, sir, and
the wind blowing so awful, and his father on the sea!' and Polly burst
into tears.

'Polly,' I said, 'God is on the sea as well as on the land. Go and fetch
Betty, and I will sit by the child.'

She went down and opened the door, and the wind rushed into the hous