to his father, and grasp one of the girl's hands as fast as he could.
She trembled and shivered, but there was something in the presence of
this strange man which choked back all inquiry, and the silence, the
vehement grasp, and the shuddering, alarmed the captain, lest she
might suddenly go off into a fit upon his hands.

"This is gear for mother," said he, and taking her up like a baby,
carried her off, followed closely by Humfrey. He met Susan coming
down, asking anxiously, "Is she sick?"

"I hope not, mother," he said, "but honest Goatley, thinking no harm,
hath blurted out that which we had never meant her to know, at least
not yet awhile, and it hath wrought strangely with her."

"Then it is true, father?" said Humfrey, in rather an awe-stricken
voice, while Cis still buried her face on the captain's breast.

"Yes," he said, "yea, my children, it is true that God sent us a
daughter from the sea and the wreck when He had taken our own little
maid to His rest. But we have ever loved our Cis as well, and hope
ever to do so while she is our good child. Take her, mother, and
tell the children how it befell; if I go not down, the fellow will
spread it all over the house, and happily none were present save
Humfrey and the little maiden."

Susan put the child down on her own bed, and there, with Humfrey
standing by, told the history of the father carrying in the little
shipwrecked babe. They both listened with eyes devouring her, but
they were as yet too young to ask questions about evidences, and
Susan did not volunteer these, only when the girl asked, "Then, have