to the
really splendid meal, they repaired to the sitting room. The beautiful
aluminum organ graced the center of the apartment, and the musicians
gathered about it. Fred was surprised and delighted to find that the
young Bartons were all really accomplished musicians, and their
instruments blended in sweetest harmony. So they played a number of
orchestral pieces that were received with great applause by the
audience. Then solos, duets, trios, quartettes, choruses, etc., were
sung, and it is not probable that the Barton family ever spent so
delightful an evening in their lives. And let us just contemplate the
scene for a moment. How happy, joyous, and innocent they were, just as
God intended his children to be. Two days before, this lovely family had
been in the depths of despair, day by day watching a beloved wife and
mother dying by inches of a painful, lingering, loathsome disease. Not a
sound of music had been heard in the house for many days. The violin,
guitar, and dulcimer had lain utterly neglected and unstrung. Now a
change has occurred that must have delighted the angels of God. Through
the unselfishness, skill, and noble-heartedness of one man, has come so
unexpectedly, as if dropped from the very skies, in the heart of one of
the most inhospitable portions of the earth, sweet hope and deliverance.
What wonder that their hearts are light and merry? One thought only mars
their pleasure: to-morrow morning the Children of the Skies will sail
away in their glorious sky-ship, probably never to return.

At ten o'clock the company broke up, the ship company ascending, as
before to their staterooms. Barton would not hear to anything else than
that they should descend in the morning for the last time. How sad these
earthly partings are. It will not be so in that better land.

CHAPTER XI.

Is the World Growing Better?

Before daylight on the following morning they descended to breakfast.
Mrs. Barton had enjoyed a comfortable night, and Dr. Jones expressed
himself as delighted with her condition.

"You have everything to hope for," he said to the family. "I leave you
this medicine, with written directions for its use. Do not repeat the
dose I have given her so long as improvement continues. When it ceases
you will do as directed in my written instructions."

The hour of departure had arrived. Farewells had all been said, and the
company had ascended except the Doctor and his wife.

"I cannot say what I w