"Then Jack isn't drowned!"
"Drowned! No. What's put that into your head? Not but what he might have been. I did think—one minute—but he isn't killed. He's got a broken leg, and that's all."
"Miss Sophy came and told us that Tim said they were all drowned, every one of them."
"Miss Sophy needn't have been in such a mighty hurry with her news!" It was seldom that Mrs. Groates gave utterance to so tart a remark; but her eyes had fallen upon Jessie's woe-begone visage. "There's some folks can't be happy without they can make other folks miserable. No, it isn't true, Mimy. But it might have been. They got back close to shore, and then a big wave caught the boat and threw it on the beach upside down. And Jack's leg is broken; and Mr. Gilbert's arm is crushed; and old Adams was stunned."
"And nobody killed?"
"The ship broke up, and all the sailors were lost. Poor fellows! Not a single one saved except a woman! And she was kept afloat by a big dog, till the boat picked them both up. She hasn't come round, but they say she's alive, and maybe she'll do well yet." Mrs. Groates collapsed into a chair, and into a flood of tears. "I didn't think when I got there that we'd have any of them back alive; that I didn't! It was a sight! O dear me!" Then she jumped up again. "And now we must get things ready for Jack. They are bringing him on a shutter; and Dr. Bateson 'll come to set the bone. Poor Jack! He's a brave boy; isn't he, Jessie?"
Jessie had not spoken a word, simply because she lacked the power to do so. When Mrs. Groates looked her in the face, with wet proud eyes, Jessie just stooped to kiss her, and ran away.
"Poor dear Jessie!" murmured Mrs. Groates.
Mimy began impulsively to tell about Jessie's distress on hearing that Jack was drowned. Then came a recollection of her own promise; and she pulled herself up sharply. Mrs. Groates was too much occupied to notice what had or had not been said.
"Yes, she's a nice girl, Mimy. I always do like Jessie Perkins. And so feeling, too! Only think, there was Miss Perkins herself down at the beach. And when everybody was wondering what to do with the poor woman from the wreck, if Miss Perkins didn't up and say, 'I've got a bedroom as she can have!' I wouldn't have expected it of Miss Perkins, and that's a fact. But there, nobody ever knows. Folks has got their good and their bad sides, and the very tiresomest people has mostly got some soft spot or other, I do believe, if only it can be got at. Now, Mimy, we've got to brisk up and make things ready. Jack 'll soon be here."