"'I daresay'" (continued the letter) "'you have heard—but perhaps not—that after I came out here—a good bit after—I married a young person I met with. Her name was Helen; and my life from that time became a very happy one, for I loved my wife very dearly; and she gave all her love to me.'" (Here a deep sigh escaped from Sarah.) "'And we lived together all through many years, God prospering me in His providence, until—until God saw fit to take my Helen from me three months ago.'"
("Poor Walter!" whispered Sarah, softening.)
"'This is the great trouble I mentioned; and since then my life has been a blank to me, or it would be, only I have a daughter whom I dearly love. She is about fifteen years old, and I am troubled about her. For I feel I have not long to live. The doctors out here tell me I have had a mortal disease hanging over me for years and years, and that it has laid hold of me all the sooner because of my fretting about my poor dear Helen who is gone. I am in a hopeless decline, they say; and I feel it to be true. I am worn away to a shadow of what I was; and they tell me if I want to prolong my life, even for a few months, I must have a sea-voyage, and get to my native climate.'"
"'My dear cousin, I would not care to prolong my life, even for a single day, if it were not for my poor young Helen (for that is my daughter's name, named after her mother). If it wasn't for her, I seem as if I could have done with this world to-morrow. But I am bound to care for my poor motherless girl. And if she were left here, all alone and unprotected, it would be bad for her. So, as soon as I heard what the doctors said, I made up my mind what to do. I have sold my small property here to a person who knows how to manage it, and I mean to take passage home for my Helen and myself by next month's mail ship. It may be that I shall not live to reach England; but if I don't, I have left my affairs in proper order, so that there will not be any trouble about them. There will be enough for poor Helen after I am gone.'"
"'Now, my dear cousin,'" John went on reading, after a little pause, "'I have done a very bold thing. I have put in my will, and the instructions to my London lawyer, that your husband, Mr. Tincroft, is to be my sole executor, and my daughter's guardian, if he will be so kind as to undertake all the trouble for one who used him, and you too, so badly as I did. I know his goodness. I know more of it than you would think, Sarah; and there isn't anybody in the world I would so soon have as Mr. Tincroft and you for my poor Helen's friend.'"
("Oh, John, does Walter Wilson say that?" said Sarah, interrupting the reading.)
"Yes; and he goes on to say that, trusting to our being willing to befriend his Helen, he intends to give directions, in case of his not living through the voyage, that notice shall be sent to us when the ship comes in, so that his daughter may have friends to take care of her and do the best for her. And he says that if he should reach England himself, he will write to us directly he gets to London. That's all, Sarah. No, not quite; for he writes down the name of the ship they are coming by. It is the Sea Bird."
"There, my wife, that is your cousin's letter," said John, when he had finished reading it. "There is no harm in it, you see, though there is a good deal of trouble."
"Poor Walter!" sobbed Sarah. "But, John, you wouldn't like that trouble put upon you—and you with all your books to write, that keep you so busy always; besides—"
"My books may go to the bottom of the Red Sea, for anything I care," quoth John, with unwonted alacrity.
"Oh, John, John! And you so fond of writing!"
"I won't write another line," said John, heroically, "while there is anything better to do. And there is something better to do now, Sarah; we must get our best rooms ready for your cousin and his dear girl; and we must look out for the Sea Bird, and go and meet them when it comes in; and we must make them come down here, and get Walter strong again if we can. And if he hasn't got money enough to set him up in a farm, why, I must help him; and there, I think that's all I have to say about it just now."