Michael Godwin's Xmas Box

id of the people and there was no sun, and I thought that if Beppo and I were dead we should be with God. So I walked into the sea. But the little one fought for life. He was too young to die. And when the wave had taken us and carried us out I came to my senses, and I fought so hard to save him. He is so strong my pretty one, and he would not die. And I fought so hard to save him, but the sea carried us out. And so we were drowned, till we came back to life in this dear place, to which the blessed Mother of God and all the Saints brought me despite my sin."

Mr. Hurst went away thoughtful. He was a bachelor, and had no wife to take into his confidence. What was to be done? He knew his world, and he knew full well that the tongues of scandal would soon be in full cry. What was to be done?

There was a sense of idyllic happiness at Godwin Farm in those days. Even old Nance had intercepted him to say that Maddalena was a good, poor lass, for all her heathenish ways; and as for the young child, why,