"Have you courage to try to float?" said Hope; "for I too shall be out of my depth soon."
"Good-bye, then, dear Hope," said Nellie, giving her a kiss. "Look to Jesus; He knows and cares."
She spread her arms and fell backwards, committing herself not only to the deep, but to His care who she knew was "a very present help in time of trouble."
At first her agony was lest her courage should not hold out. Just floating for a few moments with a sandy shore two or three feet beneath was a very different feeling from floating on the wide ocean, drifting, it might be, out to sea.
But Nellie's habit of trust came to her aid, and she opened her eyes and looked once more calmly and trustfully up to her God.
How long she floated, she never knew.
Presently a sound of oars fell on her ears, she felt sure, above the noise of the rushing sea; and, still looking up, she felt a shadow come between her and the sunlight; her eyes were met by those of Wilmot Elliot; she was grasped by a strong grip, and lifted out of the water, and placed in the boat by the side of a dripping, shivering Hope.
