"That doesn't excuse me in the slightest. If every person in the world spoke falsely I couldn't plead that it gave me a right to do so. But come into the house and get something to eat. You must be nearly famished as well as tired."
"A slice of bread and butter wouldn't taste bad. Where's Louis?"
"I put him to bed an hour ago," the little woman replied as she led the way in. "After I set the table I'll read the papers you brought so we can find out what's to be done to let that poor woman know where her baby is."
Jack insisted there was no reason why the table should be laid for him, but Aunt Nancy would not listen to his proposition of taking the food in his hands.
She set out some of the best crockery, and in it placed as tempting a lunch as the most fastidious boy could have asked for.
Then as Jack ate she read the accounts of the accident on board the "Atlanta."
"It doesn't state here where the captain lives," she said after a while, "but I think I know how we can find Mrs. Littlefield. I will write a letter to the editor of the paper asking for her address, or perhaps it would save time to send one to her and get him to address it."
"The last plan is the best," Jack said after some thought.
"Then I'll write at once, and you shall take it to the post office the first thing in the morning."
It was late before the little woman finished what was to her a hard task, and then she thanked her Father for his wondrous goodness and mercy in allowing that her sin brought forth no other evil than the delay in restoring the baby to his mother's arms.