“I am sorry, my dear little lady,” rejoined he, “that I cannot go with you; but I will set about it immediately, and I have no doubt, being able to go faster than you, that I will get there before you, so that all will be right before you arrive.”
“See that you do it, then,” said she, “because I can’t live if Mary dies. Are you quite sure you will do it?”
“Perfectly sure, my little dear,” added he; “go away home, and all will be right. The pelican will do his duty.”
And Annie being thus satisfied, went away, dragging the main-sheet after her, and having upon her face a look of contentment, if not absolute happiness, in place of the sorrow which had occupied it during all the time of her toilsome journey. The same road is to be retraced; and if she had an object before which nerved her little limbs, she had now the delightful consciousness of that object having been effected—a feeling of inspiration which enabled her, hungry as she was, to overcome all the toil of the return. Another two hours, with that heavy umbrella overhead as well as body, brought her at length home, where she found that people had been sent out in various directions to find the missing Annie. The mother was in tears, and the father in great anxiety; and no sooner had she entered and laid down her burden, than she was clasped to the bosom, first of one parent, and then of the other.
“But where is the pelican?” said the anxious little maid.
“The pelican! my darling,” cried the mother; “what do you mean?”
“Oh! I have been to him at his own office at Edinburgh, to get him to come and save Mary’s life, and he said he would be here before me.”
“And what in the world put it in your head to go there?” again asked the mother.
“Because I heard my father say yesterday that the pelican had insured dear sister Mary’s life, and I went to tell him to come and do it immediately; because, if Mary were to die, I couldn’t live, you know—that’s the reason, dear mother.”
“Yes, yes,” said the father, scarcely able to repress a smile which rose in spite of his grief. “I see it all; you did a very right thing, my love. The pelican has been here, and Mary is better.”