Mellen looked up. Tom had just put his hand on the side of the skiff, and was lifting Elsie in. It was evidently the last effort of his mighty strength, for he floated for some distance, holding on to the boat before he had power to attempt more. The husband and wife watched him while he got into the boat himself, lifted Elsie's head on his knee, and allowed the tide almost entirely to wash them towards the beach. As they approached the bank Elsie began to recover consciousness. As Tom took her in his arms and sprang with a staggering bound on shore, she opened her eyes and saw her brother and Elizabeth. "I'm safe," she said, faintly, "quite safe. Don't be afraid." It was not a moment for many words. With an exclamation of thankfulness, Mellen snatched Elsie from Tom's arms and carried her into the house. In a few moments their united exertions brought the reckless girl completely to herself. She looked up and saw the anxious faces bent over her. "Don't scold," she cried, "Tom saved me, Grant, Tom saved me!" Mellen grasped Fuller's hands. "I can't thank you, I can't," he said. "God bless you, my friend." Tom was shaking from head to foot, his drenched garments dripping like a river god's, but he answered as soon as his chattering teeth would permit: "Don't say a word. I'd have drowned myself, if I hadn't saved her." Elizabeth insisted upon Elsie's being carried upstairs to her room, and sent Tom off to change his dress; luckily, in his frequent visits, he had always forgotten some portion of his baggage, so dry clothes were found in his room. Before Mellen had recovered from the shock sufficiently to be at all composed, Elsie was dressed and lying on the sofa in her own room, quite restored, with the exception of her unusual pallor. She had been wrapped in a rose-colored morning robe, trimmed with swansdown, and lay in delicate relief on the blue couch of her boudoir. Mellen was bending over her and holding her hands, as if he feared to let her free for an instant; while Elizabeth stood near, finding time, now that her labors were over, to watch her husband and wonder if danger to her would have brought a pang like this to his heart. "I am quite well now," said Elsie, "and I didn't feel much frightened." "Oh, child!" said her brother, "promise me never to run such risks again." "But you mustn't scold," she pleaded; "think of the danger I was in! Oh! it was horrible to feel the water closing over my head--to go down--down!" "Don't think of it," cried Elizabeth, making a sudden effort to change the conversation, from a fear that dwelling upon the danger which she had incurred might bring on one of Elsie's nervous attacks. "No," added Mellen; "it is all over now, quite over--don't think of it any more." "You look pale, Grant." "No wonder, no wonder!" The girl gave him one of her wilful smiles. "Perhaps I tried the experiment to see how much you loved me?"