Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/339

Rh In a short time she returned, with a white, horror-stricken face, and in reply to Tilly's cry of alarm, gasped:— "Your father 's gone!"

After the first shock of the death was over, Mrs. Bennet saw much to be grateful for in its manner; in her own inimitable way, she dilated on the satisfaction it must have been to Captain 'Lisha.

"It 's just what he was forever a sayin' he 'd like, to be buried in the sea, and especially to be washed overboard; if I 've heard him say so once, I 've heard him a hundred times, and the Lord 's took him at his word, and I don't believe there 's a happier spirit anywhere than 'Lisha's is, wherever 'tis he 's gone to."

In the Provincetown way of thinking, Captain 'Lisha's death was no reason why Tilly's marriage should be deferred, but rather why it should be hastened. It took place, as had been planned, on Christmas day.

The next day when Tilly and her mother bade everybody good-by, and went away with Tilly's manly, tall, kindly-eyed husband, everybody said, "What a Providence!" and I make no manner of doubt that Joe and Tilly got on quite as well together, and were quite as happy as if they had known each other better and taken more time to consider the question of marrying

It may not be foreign to our story to add that