"It's not advice. It's something else."
"Well, sir,—anything you like to say,—I'm sure I'll listen attentive, and I'll try to do it." Jack seemed proof against alarm.
"It's not what you have to do. It is—that something very sad has happened. And I have to tell it to you."
Jack seemed at last a little concerned. "Dear me, I'm sorry for that. Nothing very bad, I hope, sir."
"Yes,—very bad, as we men count things to be bad. Not bad, really, for it is God's will; and what He sends is good—even when we cannot see it to be so. It is a great and unlooked-for sorrow."
"Yes, sir;" and Jack waited expectantly.
"There has been an accident."
"Not my mother? Not Jessie?"
"No, neither. But—your father—"
"Something happened to my father!" Jack drew a quick breath. "An accident, you say, sir. He has been hurt then?"