198 DOGGED JACK.

vistas and groups of shrubs to his sight the tears
sprang fast to his eyes.
 Oh if he only could find his father still alive, how
happy he could be once more, and what a devoted
and dutiful son he would make in gratitude for so
great a blessing.granted him!
 As his fright subsided, and the supernatural energy
with which it had endued him, he began to be aware
in what a wearied and exhausted state he was. His
three months of confinement on boardship had un-
fitted him for much pedestrian exercise, and the long
walk of nine miles from Westcoast had completely
tired him out.
 When Jack at length reached the house he felt
hardly able to drag one leg after another. He saw that
there was a light in one of the rooms on the ground
floor as he approached, and knowing it to be his
father's study, into which others rarely entered, his
heart beat with a faint throb of hope. Oh, that he
might see the well-loved form once more bending
over his books as of old!
 Hardly able to contain his emotion, Jack crept
softly over the grass before the window, and holding
back the sweeping boughs of the creeping rose trees
which would impede the sight he so longed to see,
looked in. He saw his father. Yes! at the same