e, but you know her as Jerrie, for--for I am
Gretchen's daughter,' fell from Jerrie's lips.

With a wild, glad cry, 'My daughter! oh, my daughter! Thank God! thank
God!' Arthur sank back into the chair, from which he had risen, fainting
and insensible.

For hours he lay in a state so nearly resembling death that but for the
physician's reassurance that there was no danger, Jerrie would have
believed the great joy given her was to be taken from her at once. But
just as the twilight shadows began to gather in the room he came to
himself, waking as from some quiet dream, and looking around him until
his eyes fell upon Jerrie sitting by his side; then into his white face
there flashed a look of ineffable joy and tenderness and love, as he
said, with a smile the most willing and sweet Jerrie had ever seen.

'My daughter, my little Cherry, who came to me up the ladder, with
Gretchen's eyes and Gretchen's voice, and I did not know her--have not
known her all these years, although she has so puzzled and bewildered me
at times. My daughter! oh, my daughter!'

He accepted her unquestioningly, and with a glad cry Jerrie threw
herself into the arms he stretched toward her, and on her father's
bosom gave free vent to the feelings she had restrained so long, sobbing
passionately as she felt Arthur's kisses upon her face, and his
caressing hands upon her hair, as he kept repeating:

'My daughter! Gretchen's baby and mine!'

'There is more to tell. I have not heard it all, or how you came by the
information,' he said, when Jerrie was little composed and could look at
and speak to him without a burst of tears.

'Yes, there is much more. There is a letter for you, with those you
wrote to her,' Jerrie said, 'but you must not have them to-night.
To-morrow you will be stronger, now you must rest.'

She spoke like one with authority, and he did just what she bade him
do--took the food she brought him, went to bed when she said he must,
and, with her hand locked in his, fell into a heavy slumber, which
lasted all through the night, and late into the next morning. It almost
seemed as if he would never waken, the sleep was so like death; but the
doctor who watched him carefully quieted Jerrie's fears and told her it
would do her father good, and that in all probability he would awake
with a clearer mind than he had had in years, for as a great and sudden
shock sometimes produces insanity, so, contrarywise, it sometimes
restored a shatt