, as it had ever
been, of her home and her children; and the little girl looked up to see
whether there was anything like the shadow of wings between her and the
dim stars. She saw nothing; but still, in some kind of hope, she softly
breathed the words, "O, mother! Mother!"

"Mother! Mother!" shouted little George, as he overheard her. Oliver
leaped up the stairs, and inquired whether there was a boat,--whether
mother was coming.

"No, Oliver, no. I was only thinking about mother; and so, I suppose,
was George. I am afraid you are disappointed;--I am sorry."

Oliver bit his lip to prevent crying, and could not speak directly; but
seemed to be gazing carefully all around the waste. He said, at last,
that he had many times thought that his mother might come in a boat: and
he thought she might still, unless...

"Unless she should be an angel now," whispered Mildred,--"unless she
died yesterday; and then she might be with us now, at this very moment,
though we cannot see her;--might not she?"

"Yes, I believe so, dear. And, for one thing, I almost wish she may not
come in a boat. Who should tell her that father was carried away into
all those waters, without having spoken one word to us?"

"If they are both dead, do you not think they are together now?" asked
Mildred.

"Certainly. Pastor Dendel says that all who love one another well
enough will live together, where they will never die any more."

"And I am sure they did," said Mildred.

"If they see us now," said Oliver, "it must make a great difference to
them whether we are frightened and miserable, or whether we behave as we
ought to do. Let us try not to be frightened, for their sakes, dear."

"And if they are not with us all the while, God is," whispered Mildred.

"O, yes; but God knows ... God will not expect..."

"Surely He will feel in some way as they do about us," said Mildred,
remembering and repeating the verse Pastor Dendel had taught her.
"`Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him.'"

"`For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.'" So
Oliver continued the psalm.

"There comes the sun!" exclaimed Mildred, happy to greet some one
familiar object amidst this strange scene.

The scene hardly appeared the same when the sun, after first peeping
above the hills like a golden star, flamed up to its full size, and cast
a broad glittering light over the wide waters, and into the very eye