For Thou alone hast power to save.’
(Timothy used to sing it to Lois, because she was afraid of the sea), and then I went to sleep. When I waked up I was at the lighthouse, all rolled up in a blanket. Mrs. Captain Joe was holding me in her lap and Captain Joe was giving me some hot milk to drink. Rings was rolled up in another blanket close by the fire. He looked so funny!
“I had a lovely time. I saw the big light. Captain Joe says it is his Christmas candle shining through all the year.”
Christmas day found everyone brimming over with joy. Lois was very happy to have “a real father and mother of her own,” though she confided to “Father Douglas” that she “hadn’t expected them to be just a strange lady and gentleman.”
Rings was the hero of the hour. Everyone knew now how he had barked and barked and so guided the searchers to Dorothy.
The Christmas party was a merry one. The grown people who had gathered to witness the “Santa Claus hunt” and help with the games, forgot their years, and went hurrying about in search of the hidden “gift.”
It turned out that everyone found just what they wanted. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, the doctor, and Mr. Douglas watched the fun while they made plans for the future of three little girls.
Wearied at last, the merry-makers gathered about the piano and listened as first one and then another sang some loved song.
One good-night song they begged, and Mr. Douglas, standing in the mellow light, sang as no one had ever heard him sing before: