went up
to her chamber. She started up in the bed as I opened the door.

"'Good God! Betsy,' she cried, 'is that you? I thought I heard David
call me.'

"'And so he did,' I said; 'he came under the window just now, and
called to you to let him in. I told him to wait till I could dress
myself, and I would come down and open the door. Is he not here?'

"'No,' said his mother, her face turning as white as her cap; 'you
must have been dreaming.'

"'Dreaming!' said I, rather indignantly; 'you need not try to persuade
me out of my senses--I saw him with my own eyes!--heard him with my own
ears! and spoke to him! What else will convince you? He has gone back to
the ship for John--I will breeze up the fire, put on the kettle, and get
something cooked for their supper. After buffeting about in this storm,
they will be cold and hungry.'

"Mrs. Arthur soon joined me. She could not believe that I had spoken to
David, though she fancied that she had heard him herself, and was in a
fever of anxiety, pacing to and fro the kitchen floor, and opening the
door every minute to look out. I felt almost provoked by her want of
faith.

"'If the ship were in,' she muttered, 'he would have been in long ago,
to tell me that all was safe. He knows how uneasy I always am when he
and his brother are away. Betsy must have been deceived!'

"'Mother, dear--indeed, what I tell you is true!'

"And I repeated to her for the twentieth time, perhaps, what David had
said, and described his appearance.

"Hour after hour passed away, but no well-known footstep, or dearly
loved voice, disturbed our lonely vigil. The kettle simmered drowsily on
the hob; Mrs. Arthur, tired out with impatient fretting at her son's
delay, had thrown her apron over her head, and was sobbing bitterly. I
began to feel alarmed; a strange fear seemed growing upon my heart,
which almost led me to doubt the evidence of my senses--to fancy, in
fact, that what I had seen might have been a dream. But, was I not
there, wide awake? Had not his mother heard him speak as well as me?
though her half-waking state had rendered the matter less distinct than
it had been to me? I was not going to be reasoned out of my sanity in
that way, because he did not choose to wait until I came down to open
the door--which I thought rather unkind, when he must be well aware,
that my anxiety for his safety must quite equal that of his mother.

"The red beams of the rising sun were tinging the white f