"No, I wasn't aware of it."
"I gave him one slap that he'll remember, I reckon!"
The situation was too solemn for Fred to utter the remark that would have come to his lip at any other time. He therefore directed his next words to Maggie, who was close to her father, and holding the hand of Eva.
"This looks pretty bad, Maggie," said he, in a low voice, "and it is hard to find we were mistaken, when I was so hopeful that we had passed all danger."
"So it is, but how many of our friends and neighbors have fared still more ill!"
"They are to be envied," said Mr. Brainerd, speaking for the first time, "for their woe is ended, and ours is to come."
"There may be hope," remarked the daughter, though it must be confessed she saw none; "we must not despair."
"It is well enough to talk about hoping on forever," said her father, who seemed more dejected than the others, "but every man that is born must sooner or later reach the hour when hope is ended: we struck the hour and minute just now."
"I'm disposed to hold out as long as any of you," said Fred Godfrey, "but I must own that I feel about as you do."
"And so does every one," added Mr. Brainerd, "for the days of miracles passed long ago; some of our escapes to-day came about as close to the miraculous as they could well do, and that may have led us to expect unreasonable things."