The flags in the
kitchen were strewn with broken plates, and the front kitchen door swung
loosely on its hinges.
[Sidenote: No Answer!]
He called Bess, but there was no answer! He went into her room, the bed
was untouched since day! Then he pulled on his great sea-boots and cap
and went out to look for her.
The day was dawning when they brought her in and laid her on the bed of
her little room more dead than alive. She was soaked through and
through, and the seaweed still clung about her hair. Jacob Tresidder
stood watching her like a man in a dream as she lay there white and
silent.
"Us be mighty sore fer ee, so us be!" said old Benjamin Blake, who had
helped to bring her home. "But teddin fer yew nor I, Jacob, tu go
fornenst His will." And he went out crying like a child.
There was a slight movement of the quiet figure on the coverlid, and
Jacob Tresidder's heart stopped beating for a moment as he watched his
daughter's brown eyes open once more! They wandered wonderingly to where
he was, and rested there, and a faint smile crossed the dying lips.
Then he bowed his head between his hands as he knelt beside her, for he
knew that God had given her back her memory again; and his sobs were
the sobs of a thankful heart.
"Vather!" she whispered, and with an effort she stretched the hand
nearest to him and touched his sleeve. "'Tis--all right--now--I be
gwine--tu--Ben.
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