ban. "Just do you go and turn in, and
I will moor the boat and make a new set of `tholes' for you."

Again Michael begged that his friend would not trouble himself, adding--

"If you have brought the shells for Nelly and will leave them with me, I
will give them to her when she comes home."

Nothing he could say, however, would induce Eban to go away. The latter
had made up his mind to remain till Nelly's return.

Still Michael was not to be turned from his purpose of doing his own
work, though he could not prevent Eban from assisting him; and not till
the boat was moored, and her gear deposited in the shed, would he
consent to enter the cottage and seek the rest he required.

Meantime Eban, returning to his punt, shaped out a set of new tholes as
he proposed, and then set off up the hill, hoping to meet Nelly and her
grandmother.

He must have found them, for after some time he again came down the hill
in their company, talking gaily, now to one, now to the other. He was
evidently a favourite with the old woman.

Nelly thanked him with a sweet smile for the shells, which he had
collected in some of the sandy little bays along the coast, which
neither she nor Michael had ever been able to visit.

She was about to invite him into, the cottage, when Michael appeared at
the door, saying, with a sad face--

"O granny! I am so thankful you are come; father seems very bad, and
groans terribly. I never before saw him in such a way, and have not
known what to do."

Nelly on this darted in, and was soon by Paul's bedside, followed by her
grandmother.

Eban lingered about outside waiting. Michael at length came out to him
again.

"There is no use waiting," he said; and Eban, reluctantly going down to
his boat, pulled away up the harbour.

CHAPTER THREE.

Paul continued to suffer much during the evening; still he would not
have the doctor sent for. "I shall get better maybe soon, if it's God's
will, though such pains are new to me," he said, groaning as he spoke.

The storm which had been threatening now burst with unusual strength.
Michael, with the assistance of Nelly and her grandmother, got in the
nets in time.

All hope of doing anything on the water for that night, at all events,
must be abandoned; the weather was even too bad to allow Michael to fish
in the harbour.

Little Nelly's young heart was deeply grieved as she heard her father
groan with pain--he who had never had a day's illness th