girl, with her water-pitcher on her
head and her knitting in her hands, met him. She looked with a shy
smile at David, and the glance from her eyes made him thrill with
pleasure; but before he had a word ready she had passed, and he
could only turn and look at her tall form and the heavy braids of
pale-brown hair below the water-pitcher. He felt as if he were in a
dream as he went onward again down the narrow street of gray and
white houses--houses so tall, and so fantastic, and so much larger
than he had ever seen, that they impressed him with a sense of
grandeur in which he had neither right nor place; for, though he
saw women moving about within them and children sitting on the
door-steps, no one spoke to him, no one seemed interested in his
presence; and yet he had come to them with a heart so full of love!
Never for a moment did he reflect that his anticipations had rested
only on his own desires and imaginations.

His disappointment made him sorrowful, but in no degree resentful.
"It was not to be," he decided. Then he resolved to return to a
public house he had noticed by the pier. There he could get his
dinner and make some inquiries about his kindred. As he turned he met
face to face a middle-aged woman with a basket of turf on her back.

"Take care, my lad," she said cheerfully; and her smile inspired
David with confidence.

"Mother," he said, doffing his cap with instinctive politeness,
"mother, I am a stranger, and I want to find my father's people--the
Borsons. Where do they live?"

"My lad, the sea has them. It is Paul Borson you are asking for?"

"Yes, mother."

"He went out in his boat with his four sons one night. The boat came
back empty. It is two years since."

[Illustration: "'I WANT TO FIND MY FATHER'S PEOPLE.'"]

"I am Liot Borson's son."

"You?"

"Yes. Have I any kin left?"

"There is your far-cousin Nanna. She was Paul's one daughter, and he
saw the sun shine through her eyes. She is but sadly off now. Come
into my house, and I will give you a cup of tea and a mouthful of
bread and fish. Thank God, there is enough for you and for me!"

"I will come," said David, simply; and he took the basket from the
woman, and flung it lightly over his own shoulder. Then they went
together to a house in one of the numerous "closes" running from
the main street to the ocean. It was a very small house, but it was
clean, and was built upon a rock, the foundations of which were
deep down in the s