“Was she drowned, papa?” asked Grace.
“Yes, my child; she could not live many minutes amid such waves and rocks. They made all the haste they could to get help, but none was near at hand, and she must have been dead long before they got it there. They did get the body finally, with grappling irons, but the soul had fled.
“My children, remember what I say to you now. Never run the risk of losing your lives when nothing is to be gained by it for either yourselves or others; to do so is both wrong and foolish; it is really breaking the sixth commandment—‘Thou shalt not kill.’ We have no right to kill ourselves, not even to escape great suffering, but must wait God’s time to call us hence.
“Now I will take you to your little sister and brother, to take charge of them while your mamma comes to view Rafe’s Chasm.”
In the mean time Grandma Elsie had called to Rosie and Walter, and was talking to them, in much the same strain, of the folly and sinfulness of unnecessarily exposing themselves to danger.
“You can see almost as much from this safe place as you can by going into those very dangerous ones,” she said. Then she told them the same story the captain had just been telling his little girls.
“O mamma, how dreadful, how very dreadful!” exclaimed Rosie; “it was so sad to be snatched away from life so suddenly, while young and well and with so much to live for.”
“Yes,” sighed her mother; “my heart aches for the poor parents, even more than for the lover. He has probably found another bride before this, while they still mourn the irreparable loss of their dear daughter.”
“Your mother is right, children,” said Mr. Dinsmore, standing near. “Heed her teachings, and never risk life or limb in a mere spirit of bravado.”