FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 91 



come to anchor. Her heart gave one happy rebound, and she arose and 

 soon dressed herself and the children, and looking out, saw the well-known 

 vessel swinging at her anchor off the Point, with her mainsail swaying in 

 the light morning breeze. She also saw a well-known form rowing ashore 

 in a dory which some kind neighbor had tendered him the use of. 



Grasping the baby in her arms, with the other little one by her side, and 

 Davie running on ahead, she hastens down the pathway to the beach to 

 meet her husband, for it was he ! It seemed to her that he had really come 

 back from another world. He cries out, "Janet, my wife! my good wife!" 



And then she knew that it was no dream, for she was in his arms. His 

 dear face was pressed close to hers, and she was so happy. 



"David, my husband!" and he answered, "God is good; here are wife 

 and children. What more can I want ? " 



And they walked up to the little cottage — this united family — and David 

 explained how the Captain and part of the crew put into an out-of-the-way 

 port, and sold most of the trip and nearly all the moveable articles on the 

 vessel and pocketed the money and decamped — how he, in pursuance to 

 instructions from the owner, then took possession and started home ; how, 

 when twenty-four hours out from port, during a fresh breeze, they found her 

 leaking badly ; how the leak increased as the storm grew worse, and it 

 seemed as if they must go to the bottom ; how his faithful men pumped and 

 strove to stop the leak, and when it seemed as if their efforts were fruitless, 

 and they must disappear beneath the seething waters, they found three holes 

 which had been bored through the vessel's bottom and had been partially 

 filled with a substance which the action of the water had set free ; how these 

 holes were stopped and the staunch vessel, being freed from the water, was 

 herself again, and they got her safely into port. 



The plot had been revealed to Kenneth Foster, and he was hoping that 

 it would be successful, and when he found that it was not, and David Col- 

 burn had come back — he left the town and never returned. His cowardly 

 heart failed him — -he could not look honest David Colburn and his faithful 

 wife in the face, after what had transpired. 



And David was well remembered by the owners of the Snow-Bird. They 

 reckoned rightly. Without his efforts the vessel would have been lost. 

 They therefore gave him a bill of sale of one-third of her, and remembered 

 the crew with a handsome sum, and David for many years pursued his call- 

 ing in this vessel, making good returns. 



And Janet was one of the happiest little women in all the town. 



