the ship. Well, we sailed a few days after that, and
at first the voyage was pleasant enough, though I had to walk the cabin
with the babies, while my lady lay ill in her berth. The sea almost
always affects the gentry, you know. The other lady was hardier, though
sometimes ailing, and she and her husband tended their baby night and
day, never letting it out of their arms when it was awake. Poor little
thing,--gone these fifteen years!"

"Are you sure the little cousin was lost?" asked Donald, wondering how
she knew.

"Why, Mr. Donald, I drew it from your not saying more about the child.
Was she ever found? And her mother, the pretty lady, Mrs. Robbins, no,
Robertson,--and my lady, your mother? I heard people saying that all
were lost, except those of us who were in our boat. And I never knew to
the contrary until now. Were they saved, sir?"

Donald shook his head sadly.

"Not one of them saved!" she exclaimed. "Ah me! how terrible! I had a
sight of Mr. Robertson, with his baby in his arms--just one glimpse in
the dreadful tumult. It all came on so suddenly,--every one screaming at
once, and not a minute to spare. I could not find _my_ lady, yet I
fancied once I heard her screaming for her children; but I ran with them
to the first deck, and tried to tie them to something--to a chair, I
think, so they might float--I was frantic; but I had no rope, only my
gown."

"Yes, yes," said Donald, longing to produce the pieces of black cloth
which he had brought with him, but fearing to interrupt the narrative
just then. "Please go on."

"I tore long strips from my gown, but I could not do anything with
them; there was not time. The men were filling the boats, and I rushed
to the side of the sinking vessel. No one could help me. I prayed to
Heaven, and, screaming to the men in a boat below to catch them, I threw
the babies out over the water. Whether they went into the boat or the
water I could not tell; it seemed to me that some one shouted back. The
next I knew, I was taken hold of by strong arms and lifted down into one
of the boats. My lady was not there, nor the babies, nor any one of our
party; all were strangers to me. For days we drifted, meeting no trace
of any other boat from the ship, and living as best we could on a few
loaves of bread and a jug of water that one of the sailors had managed
to lower into our boat. We were picked up after a time and carried to
Liverpool. But I was frightened at the thought of wh