Mrs. Brown had finished her household business for the day, and was seated before a bright fire in a cosy little sitting-room, reserved for her private use. Her children were with her, the girls having closed the store earlier than usual, and with the beloved and rescued son and brother in the midst, they were talking over the exciting events of the week.
“When I look back upon what has happened for the past two or three weeks,” said the happy mother, “it seems like a dream. There I was, day after day, and week after week, watching the papers, and no news of the vessel, a short passage too. Then I got Captain Folger to write to Halifax, and the consignee wrote that they supposed the vessel was lost, as one of her boats, bottom up, had been found, and a bucket that had the vessel’s name on it. A husband and son both buried in the ocean. It tore open the old wounds, and they bled afresh; brought up all the anguish of your father’s loss anew. I felt it was more than I could bear. How I begged and plead with my heavenly Father for your life, Arthur, the widow’s only hope! And some how, whenever I rose from my knees, I felt better than when I knelt down; a feeling as though, some how or other, the cup would pass from me, seemed to take possession of me, and this feeling kept me, for the most part of the time, on my knees. I felt better and happier there than anywhere else.”
“Don’t you think, mother, when I came to be on that raft, provisions and water all gone, the captain raving mad and jumping overboard, my shipmates dying one after another, that I didn’t think of you, and that you were praying for me? Poor little Ned and I, our throats were so dry and parched we couldn’t speak so as to be heard by each other above the winds and waves. I fell into a doze, and dreamed I saw a most beautiful grove of apple trees all in blossom, and a great long table spread under them, covered with piles and piles of meat, and great goblets, that held a gallon, full of the clearest water; and you was sitting at it, and saying, ‘Come, Arthur, this is all for you.’ I tried so hard to move towards you, it woke me; and I heard a shout, ‘Raft, ahoy! Is there anybody can take a line?’ Then I knew there was help. I tried to shout, but couldn’t. I could only raise my arm. Soon I heard something strike the raft; a voice shouted, ‘All fast!’ and two men stood over us. They were Mr. Ben Rhines and Charlie Bell. They told me to keep my heart up, for they would stick by me; but I was so overcome I fainted away.”
“Brother,” said Ellen, “didn’t you suffer terribly before you got so low as that?”
“Tongue can’t describe it; but the thirst was the worst. But here I am now, sitting before this comfortable fire, in this old room where we have spent so many happy hours, with you all around me. I’m sure, as mother says, it seems like a dream to me.”
“I hope,” said the widow, “such trials and such mercies will make us better; they certainly should.”
“I feel that it has been good for me,” said Eliza. “I thought, when we were in that agony of uncertainty, ‘O that I, too, could pray with mother! that I had a right to, as I felt she had! But when Captain Rhines’s letter came, I did go to God with tears of thankfulness, and trust I was accepted.”
“I thought, if my poor boy’s life could only be spared, even if he was a cripple, or injured for life, I could ask no more. And then to have him come home so well and happy, with such a friend as God has raised up for us all in Captain Rhines! Yet I can never think upon him and his kindness but it makes me reflect upon myself.”
“Why so, mother?” said Arthur.