“They are visitors come here for change of air and to enjoy the sea,” was the reply.
She looked puzzled. “I think I have seen them before,” she said, and put her hand to her forehead.
“Shall they sing something?” asked the physician.
“Oh yes! it will be so sweet; it will remind me of old times,” she said.
Then Walter and his sister, at a nod from the doctor, began the touching duet, “What are the wild waves saying?”
Their mother listened with delight. Then she said, “That used to be one of my songs; I used to sing it with—with—ah, yes, with my husband Walter. Pray sing something else.”
Then the three united in singing “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.”
As verse after verse was given by the three voices melodiously blending, a new light seemed to dawn into the lady’s eyes. “Ah!” she cried, “I used to sing that hymn with my dear children. Let me see. Yes, with Julia, and Walter, and Amos.—These are my dear children, are they not?”
“Yes, yes, dear mother,” cried Julia, unable to control herself.
“Who called me mother?” cried Mrs Huntingdon excitedly, and was about to rise, but the physician gently held her back, and motioned to her children to restrain themselves.