“Darling, darling mother!” was all that poor Nelly could say, as she tried in vain to see the Fort though the tears which sprang to her eyes.
“Don’t you see it, Nell?” said Roy, passing his arm round his sister’s waist.
“No, I don’t,” cried Nelly, brushing the tears away; “oh, do let us go on!”
Robin patted her on the had, and at once resumed the march.
That morning Mrs Gore rose from her bed about the saddest woman in the land. Her mind flew back to the last New Year’s day, when her children were lost to her, as she feared, for ever. The very fact that people are usually more jocose, and hearty, and happy, on the first day of the year, was sufficient to make her more sorrowful than usual; so she got up and sighed, and then, not being a woman of great self-restraint, she wept.
In a few minutes she dried her eyes, and took up her Bible, and, as she read its blessed pages, she felt comfort—such as the world can neither give nor take away—gradually stealing over her soul. When she met her kinsman and his friends at breakfast she was comparatively cheerful, and returned their hearty salutation with some show of a reciprocal spirit.
“Jeff,” said Mrs Gore, with a slight sigh, “it’s a year, this day, since my two darlings were lost in the snow.”
“D’ye say so?” observed Jeff, as he sat down to his morning meal, and commenced eating with much voracity.
Jeff was not an unkind man, but he was very stupid. He said nothing more for some time, but, after consuming nearly a pound of venison steak, he observed suddenly—