Year: 1876

sldered so ominous that public PRAYERS
were deemed necessary in conse-


FAITHFUL BRONZE.


The noontide was warm, and Miss
Gladys sat upon rock to read. AS
she did SO a tiny skiff skimmered along
as near the land as the shallow water
would allow it. When the sailor who
was in it saw her, he waded to shore
and came to her. He was good, SIM
pie fellow, who lived in one of the
huts on the beach, and worked some
times with cOllierS, sometimes with
tishing-smacks. He was full of trouble
now, and poured his sorrow out to her.
1t seemed that he had been on shore
seeking her. His wife, who was on
board a fishing smack that lay off the
land, some mile or SO westward down
the coast, was very ill-dying, he
feared-and had begged of him, if he
could find Miss Gladys, to entreat her
to so and speak to her. He had been
compelled to go to the village for
bread, and tackle and other things he
needed, but he could not find the doc
tor. This woman was a delicate,
pretty, good-living creature, and Miss
Gladys had won her heart with many
little services in the drear winter-time
gone by. 1t was a common thing with
her to visit the people on board their
vessels, for she loved nothing so we'll
as to sail to and fro on the sea. She
told the sailor that she would come at
once.


''Come - she called to her faithful
dog, Bronze; but the sailor stopped
her.


81 dare not take him, Miss-not for
our lives - he said. ''He's the weight
of a man; and the boat is overcrowded
now with the things as I've had to get;
you're to the full as dare carry


81 cannot leave him - she answered,
shrinking back; and, indeed, she never
had left him. He was always with
her, whether OH sea or land.


Il can go and come for you again,
Miss said the fisherman ruefully;
''but it will take goodish bit of time
and Jenny so bad, and nobody but the
boy with her, and the doctor not to the
fore neither! Surely the dog'll wait
for you here, Miss, safe enow! Notas
I'd be pressing you.''


But he did press her-pressed her
sorely. 1t was very relunctantly that
she consented to leave Bronze there.
Nothing but the thought of the sick and
lonely woman would ever have persuad-
ed her. AS it was, she threw her arms
around him and kissed him fondly, and
then pointed to the basket of shells
and sea-weed on the red, smooth piece
of rock.


stake care of them, Bronze,'' she
murmured, land wait till come back.
Wait here.''


She did not mean to command; she
only meant to console him by the ap-
pOintment of some service. Bronze
looked into her face with eyes of woe
and longing, but he made no moan or
sound, but only stretched himself be-
side the basket on guard.


The boat flew like sea-gull over the
waves, the sun bright upon her sail.
Bronze, left upon the rock, lifted his
head and gave one long wall. It echo
ed. woefully over the wide, quiet
waters. Nothing was in sight except
that single little sail shining against
the light, and fitting, fitting away.


Bronze never moved, and his eyes
never turned from the little boat that
had gone and left him there. An hour
drifted by, and ere long the sand, hith-
erto so smooth, and beautifully ribbed,
grew moist and glistened with the
CLEAN of water, like eyes that fill with
tears. Bronze never saw: he only
watched the far off boat. \ little la
ter the water gushed above the sand,
and gathering in frail, rippling edge
of foam rolled up against the rock.


And still he never saw, for still he
watched the boat. A while, and the
water grew in volume, and all around
the tide rose silently about the rocks
and stones, gliding and glancing in all
the channels of the shore, until the
sands were covered. ~, ,,..


The waters rose till they touched
the rock; but he never moved.
Stretched out upon the stone. guarding
the things which his mistress had left
in his care, and with his eyes fastened
on the sail which rose against the
light on the distant horizon, he waited
for death. '"'1