THE SEA-BIRDS’ MESSAGE. II

 

soul went out in passionate yearning for help. She prayed to God. She prayed to her
mother, and while:she prayed sleep fell on her, and she dreamed that the help had come.

It seemed to her that she and Dick were on the sea-shore, and the sea-gulls were
gathered round them, and the birds’ great white wings were like those of angels closing
them in from harm. Somehow the sea-gulls were not sea-gulls, but angels indeed with
kind faces, and one had the face of her mother. The mother-wings folded round the two
children, and seemed to lift them up in air, and Janie heard the dear voice say, “ My poor
babies! Mother will take care of you.” Then she awoke, and the moon’s rays streamed
into the room, and for a minute or two Janie fancied that those white wings were still
enfolding her. But it was only the white curtains of her little bed that flapped in the
night breeze. The wind had
risen, and outside on the lake shore she
could hear the waves rising and falling,
and the curlews in the bush were
making their plain- tive moan. Janie
gotup and dressed. The house was
quite still, and she’ crept out along
the verandah to Dick’s door and
listened. Through the chink she
could see Dick’s white face with
the moon’s rays £ “upon it, as he lay
all dressed upon a ie sack on the floor ;
and she could hear the frightened gasps
which seemed still drawn up from his heart out
of very fear. = “Dickie,” Janie
whispered softly, “don’t cry; don’t call out. I’m coming to
you somehow. I’m going to take you where she can’t hurt you.
Mother knows ; mother will look after us.”

The child stirred uneasily ; he was only half asleep. “ Janie,’ he mut-
tered, “I’m so frightened, Janie, ~Can’t you come?”

Janie stole back to the sitting room. Polly was sleeping heavily. Down by the fire-place
in a camp-oven was some new-baked bread, and Janie lifted the lid and broke off a three-
cornered piece, which she put in her pocket. She did not dare to take any other food from
the cupboard, for that was near Polly’s room, and the door stood wide open, as is the way
' in these bush-houses. .

A daring project had entered the child’s mind, and she went out again by the verandah
to the back of. the hut, where was the little skillin-room in which Dick was locked up. By
placing a forked log against the window—and oh! what an effort it was for the puny arms!
—she could just manage to clamber up, and presently she was at little Dick’s side, and

‘bidding him “hush!” had lifted him in her arms, and was guiding him painfully down to
the ground.

They stood out.in the pale moonlight—the two children, free to roam whither they _
would. The lake lay before them—a rippling sea tipped with moonbeams. Janie drew
Dick with her, and they ran along the beach and under the shadow of the rocks till they
reached a shallow cove which Janie knew.

There was a tiny floating islet at the point of the cove. It was the stump of an