"'Oh yes, I think she has given up that idea; indeed, I heard her say to Rachel she would try to bear it a little longer.'
"'There is Dick returned already,' said Vea; and she scrambled out of the boat, and ran down to the beach to meet Dick, who was coming from the doctor's house with a basket containing medicines for the sick boy.
DICK RETURNING WITH THE MEDICINE.
"'Oh, you are a good boy, Dick,' said Vea. 'How fast you must have gone!'
"'Well, yes, miss, I did go fast,' said Dick, pleased with Vea's speech apparently. 'I went by the beach, the tide being out, and it is nigher that way by a good mile. I would go faster than most folks for the young master.'
"'Why, has Patrick been kind to you too, Dick!' said Vea, in much surprise.
"'That he has, miss,' said Dick gratefully. 'When I lost grandfather's knife, didn't he buy me a new one with the new half-crown his aunt gave him to spend at the fair! And didn't he let grandfather think he had broken the glass in the window, when all the time it was me, and nobody else! And hasn't he often and often brought me a bit of his own dinner tied up in his handkerchief, or a pie he would find lying handy in the pantry, when he knowed I'd had nothing for my dinner that day at all!'
"Vea said nothing, but she evidently thought her brother was a very curious boy, and that she had not understood him at all.
"When Natilie had returned with the things required by the sick boy and his attendants, Uncle John and I set off home, he promising that we would return the next afternoon to inquire after Patrick. The sun was just shedding its last rays of golden light over the sea, lighting it up with a strange lurid light, which, with the stillness of the scene, and the great rocks on the coast, left a strange impression on my mind.