60 | OLNEY.

beach with her till they came to where mammy was still
sitting.

Olney’s companion delivered her safely into mammy’s
keeping and turned to retrace his steps; but this did not suit
Olney at all, and she strove with all her wiles to detain him.
While the matter was still under dispute Olney spied a figure
approaching, and, not letting go her hold of her friend, she
cried, “Mamma! mamma! come here! Here is a nice man,
and his little girl wunned away just like me, but he loves her,
and Iam so sorry he hasn’t any little girl any more.”

Olney’s mother drew nearer, smiling, but when within a
few steps of the group she turned very pale and stopped
short. Olney felt her friend’s hand tremble as he, too, stood
still. Olney looked curiously from one to the other, and then
began to ery, why she could hardly have told. With a few
swift steps her mother was by her side, folding her arms
closely around her. Kneeling there, she looked up into the
face of Olney’s friend, and said, “ Father !”

For a moment there was absolute silence. Old mammy,
standing a little way off, folded her wrinkled hands and lifted
up her eyes to the clear sky above them, while her lips moved.

Presently the stillness was broken by a sob from the old
man, who, kneeling down on the sand, put his arms around
Olney and her mother, drawing them closer and closer as he
kissed them both. Olney looked up, and, with an arm about
each neck, whispered, “ Don’t kwy any more. I love you.”