Nellie stood up with a cry.
“I remember it all,” said she slowly, “all about the island, a sick woman, and you taking me from the water. That was nice, Tom, the way you crawled up the rock with me clinging to your back.”
The man made no answer, and Nellie went around and took his hands in hers.
“I’m your girl forever, ain’t I, Tom? I want to always be with you. Are you telling me this story so as to send me away from you to my relatives?”
There was a pathos in the girl’s voice that wrung the tears from her listeners. Tom did not reply for a moment.
Nellie turned quickly to Biddy.
“Oh, Biddy, who is going to have me? I want to stay with you and Tom.”
She dropped upon a chair, and Tom Cooper regained his voice.
“God forbid, my darling,” cried he, “that you should ever be with any one in the world but your own Tom and Biddy. No, little Helen Standish, you have no relatives to whom Biddy and I will ever give you. You belong alone to us.”
“Oh, I am so glad—oh, so happy,” and the girl rubbed her face against the whiskers without which she had never known her Tom.