ock is no place for one to be
sick in. Hurry, boy?"

Instead of hurrying, however, Noll suddenly grew very grave and
exclaimed,--

"Oh, I've forgotten something, Uncle Richard! That tide drove it all
out of my head. What can I do? Dirk Sharp's little girl is
sick--dying, and I was to bring her some medicine, if Hagar had any!"

"What is Dirk or his to you?" exclaimed Trafford. "Was that what kept
you so late? Is that how you came to be caught by the tide?"

"Yes," said Noll, "I--"

His uncle interrupted him with a stern, "Noll, you reckless lad! What
are those Culm people to us,--to me? You put your life in peril--oh,
I tremble to think _what_ peril!--for Dirk's miserable child? What
were you thinking of? Have you no regard for your life,--for my
happiness?"

"Why," said Noll, quickly, "Dirk loves his child as well as you love
me, and I thought perhaps Hagar's medicines could help it, and I
didn't know there was any peril till I got into it; and oh, Uncle
Richard, what will they do now that I can't come back?"

"I don't know," said Trafford, gloomily; "they are accustomed to such
things, I suppose. Shall I have to command you to take off those wet
clothes?"

Noll began to remove his ice-cold garments, but presently said,--

"Is there,--do you think there'll be any hope of my going back
to-night, Uncle Richard? The child is dreadful sick, you know."

"Going back!--to-night! Are you crazy, Noll?" Trafford cried. "No, you
will not put foot outside the door this night!"

"But, Un--"

"Hush! not another word," said his uncle, sternly. "If you have no
regard for your life, I must have for you. Hagar is waiting at the
door with your dry clothes. Are you ready for them?"

Noll answered "Yes," his heart suddenly filled with a dreary
recollection of the sight which he had seen in Dirk's miserable abode.
It seemed to him as if he could hear the sick child's wail above the
war of the storm. Dirk, he thought, would watch and wait for his
return, peering through the dirty little window into the gathering
gloom and darkness, and, finding that he did not come, would settle
back into despair again.

Noll put on the dry garments with a heavy heart. He was sure he felt
strong enough to return to Culm, and although the sea barred the beach
path, yet, with a lantern, he could find a way over the rocks, he
thought. But Uncle Richard had utterly refused; so there was no hope,
and the child must s