t looking at
the curiously framed paintings that almost covered the wall.

One in particular caught his eye. It was a ship careened on the ocean
with waves breaking upon her. She was resting on rocks that barely
showed beneath, and in her rigging, heavily covered with ice, were five
men. All around was the sea, tossed into giant waves, curling and
breaking about the stranded vessel. He noted the life-like shading of
the green and white billows; the ice that covered every shroud and rope
and spar; and peering out of a cabin door was a woman holding a babe in
her arms. In a way it was a ghastly picture, and one that held his
attention from all the rest.

It was framed in a broad flat moulding covered with shells. He was still
gazing at it when he heard Uncle Terry's voice bidding him good morning.

"Ain't ye up a little arly?" said that worthy; "I hope ye slep' well. I
ginerally roust out by day-light an' put out the light an' then start a
fire, but thar was no need o' you gittin' out so soon."

"I think the waves woke me," replied Albert, "and the morning is so
beautiful I couldn't waste it in bed."

"I'm goin' over to the cove to mend a trap," continued Uncle Terry, "an'
if ye'r' willin', I'd like ter hev ye go along too. The wimmin'll hev
breakfast ready by that time, an' then I'll take ye up to Seal Cove an'
see if yer boat's thar."

He seemed depressed and not inclined to talk, and as Albert sat on an
overturned dory and watched him puttering away over a lobster trap, he
began to feel sorry for him. His hat had fallen off and the sea winds
blew his scant fringe of gray hair over his bald head. His brown shirt
was open at the throat, disclosing a bony neck, and his well-worn
garments showed the outlines of a somewhat wasted form. What impressed
Albert more than all this was the dejected manner of Uncle Terry. It was
as if an unexpected sorrow had come upon him. When he finished fixing
the trap he pulled a dory in that was moored out in the cove and
carefully bailed and wiped it clean. When this was done he said almost
wistfully: "I've worried a good deal 'bout what you told me last night,
an' I'd like ter have a good talk with ye. I s'pose ye'r' anxious ter
see yer friends an' let 'em know ye'r' all safe, an' I'll take ye up the
island the fust thing an' then go an' pull my traps, and then if ye'r'
willin' we'll sot down, if it ain't askin' too much o' ye ter wait," he
added almost pathetically. "I'll get Telly