time, and
he was getting a sober, old, wizened face.

He wished often that he could have a month of downright play and
idleness; and no doubt it would have been the very best thing for him.
However, now he had to manage all alone.

"I'll go up to supper, or mother will be uneasy," he said at last. He
would be back in half an hour, and before that he could do nothing. The
wind drove the schooner back, so that she could not reach the rocks
under an hour. Lloyd's eyes were sharper than Jem's.

He did not tell his mother about the schooner. She was a little woman,
not strong, and she was easily frightened.

Lloyd tried to keep all trouble from her, as he knew his brother John
had done when he was living.

She was waiting for him. "Come, sonny, boy. Here's fish for supper, and
good corn bread."

Lloyd laughed, and washed his hands. He joked and talked all the time
he was eating, though he was terribly anxious about the schooner. He
would have liked, too, to have some nourishing tea for his mother, or a
warmer dress than the thin one she wore. But John had been a hearty,
cheerful fellow, keeping up everybody's heart.

"There's no use shoving trouble on to mother," thought Lloyd.

After supper he heaped up the fire, put her chair in the warmest
corner, and brought her knitting all ready. She had a great basket full
of socks and stockings, big and little, ready to send for sale down to
the town.

"Are you going out again, Lloyd?" when he kissed her. "It's a bitter
night."

"Down on the beach a bit, mother. You go to bed early. I'll be in all
right and safe."

He seemed to have forgotten that it was Christmas eve. His mother had
not. She looked after him sorrowfully. In old times, when his father
was alive, Christmas had been a great holiday for his boys. Afterward,
John had made it so for Lloyd. Now, she had not a penny to spare to buy
him a book or a toy, such as other boys had down in the village, even
the poorest. Even the new shoes which she had hoped to be able to buy,
to take the place of his broken boots, she had to give up.

She thought it was but a dull, poor life coming for Lloyd. He was too
young to be put to hard, hard work with neither chance for learning nor
play. But, as she sat looking in the fire, she suddenly remembered how
God, who held the great, moaning sea and the starless night in the
hollow of His hand, held her, too, and her boy.

In the meantime, Lloyd was down on the beach. It was gr