Many, many tears fell over that work; tears of memory, tears for lost opportunities, tears for the depression of the trials which fell so heavily on her young heart, tears for the future, which all at once had become so blank and cold to her.
But while she wept, she would pray; and as surely as she prayed would the Comforter be sent, as He was promised, and peace would steal over her troubled heart.
So she would sit, and the song of the sea blended with other songs in her heart. Her father had once said to her, "When you have nothing else to do, it is a very good plan to count up your mercies." So sometimes she would try to remember them all, and the hours which had begun in sadness would often end in praise, and she would rise up to go to meet her father with a peaceful face, which had cast its burden on the Lord.
She would traverse the piece of path which ran along the edge of the sea, then cross the beach, and in about five or six minutes would come to her dear ones.
Tom would look up to her and say, "We have been so happy, Nellie."
And her father would raise his face, with the deep lines of sorrow smoothed out for a while, and would place his book and his little Bible in his pocket, while he would say, with a sigh of content—
"I am glad we came, Nellie."
[CHAPTER XXII.]
A LETTER.