t needed another block of peat.

"I told ye just now," he answered with a puzzled air.

"Tell me again," said Dame Brinker, wisely warding off another
digression.

"Well, just before jumping from the boat, he says, handing me the watch,
'I'm flying from my country as I never thought I could. I'll trust you
because you look honest. Will you take this to my father--not today but
in a week--and tell him his unhappy boy sent it, and tell him if
ever the time comes that he wants me to come back to him, I'll brave
everything and come. Tell him to send a letter to--to'--there, the rest
is all gone from me. I CAN'T remember where the letter was to go. Poor
lad, poor lad!" resumed Raff, sorrowfully, taking the watch from his
vrouw's lap as he spoke. "And it's never been sent to his father to this
day."

"I'll take it, Raff, never fear--the moment Gretel gets back. She will
be in soon. What was the father's name, did you say? Where were you to
find him?"

"Alack!" answered Raff, speaking very slowly. "It's all slipped me. I
can see the lad's face and his great eyes, just as plain--and I remember
his opening the watch and snatching something from it and kissing
it--but no more. All the rest whirls past me; there's a sound like
rushing waters comes over me when I try to think."

"Aye. That's plain to see, Raff, but I've had the same feeling after a
fever. You're tired now. I must get ye straight on the bed again. Where
IS the child, I wonder?"

Dame Brinker opened the door, and called, "Gretel! Gretel!"

"Stand aside, vrouw," said Raff feebly as he leaned forward and
endeavored to look out upon the bare landscape. "I've half a mind to
stand beyond the door just once."

"Nay, nay." She laughed. "I'll tell the meester how ye tease and fidget
and bother to be let out in the air; and if he says it, I'll bundle ye
warm tomorrow and give ye a turn on your feet. But I'm freezing you with
this door open. I declare if there isn't Gretel with her apron full,
skating on the canal like wild. Why, man," she continued almost in a
scream as she slammed the door, "thou'rt walking to the bed without my
touching thee! Thou'lt fall!"

The dame's thee proved her mingled fear and delight, even more than the
rush which she made toward her husband. Soon he was comfortably settled
under the new cover, declaring, as his vrouw tucked him in snug and
warm, that it was the last daylight that should see him abed.

"Aye! I can hope it myself," lau