The Captain assures his daughter that he is "wery anxious," and, indeed, when he says so, his dark eyes kindle, and his fine, sunburnt countenance glows and warms expressively under his broad brimmed hat.
The day has come at last, and Little Wolf's party are aboard, but oh, how changed are they all!
Consumption has fastened itself upon poor Alfred Marsden. His days are numbered, and for earth he seems to have but one desire, to see again his childhood home, and die there. His faithful nurses, Annie and Little Wolf, have grown pale and thin, His sister's eyes are tear stained, and Little Wolf's also grief shaded, for together they have watched over and tended him, striving to drive away that unseen something, which makes his cheeks and lips so white, and takes fast hold upon his vitals, determined to wrench him away from those he loves.
It will not even grant his last wish; for here, in mid ocean, he grapples with death. All day long those fair young faces have bent over him, and his friend, the Captain, has been there with them, and little Flora has hovered near with trembling lips, whispering softly, "I am so wery, wery, sorry."
As the evening draws on, the sick man revives a little, and in a low, rapid tone, says something to his sister, which we do not hear, but with a few hurried words to Little Wolf, she moves away with the Captain and Flora, and Little Wolf is left alone with the dying. All that he is breathing into her ear we shall never know; but her cheek changes, and her lip quivers, and she bends over and kisses him tenderly.
That hungry look in his eyes is gone. He is satisfied, and now, surrounded by those he loves, he dies with a smile upon his lips.
His body will not rest in the place prepared for him in Greenwood, beside his parents, but will sink into the ocean's Greenwood, where the sea shall ever kiss his lips, where flowers bloom, and things of beauty are perpetual, and coral monuments are raised, out-rivalling those of the cemeteries of art.
The fair moon shines out upon the waves and the winding sheet, and the burial is over.
Three days more, and we shall be on shore again," says Little Wolf, half regretfully.
The Captain is by her side, and he bends over and says something which we do not hear.