The young people were all impatience next morning to visit Peggy Dobie’s cottage. They met Mr. Howard returning from it, who told them they would find Peggy much recovered. He had found her up, sitting by the fire reading her Bible, and full of gratitude and thanksgiving for the blessings which surrounded her. “My bairns,” she said as they entered, and she closed her Bible and laid aside her spectacles, “you have come at the right moment--I hae been giving praise to Him that has lifted me out o’ my sair tribulations, and it is here I hae found the words, and noo may He put into my heart what I should say to you; how can I ever thank you enough for all I see about me, for all you have done for me?” “You need not thank us, Peggy,” Leila answered; “for we are as happy as you are; and it is so joyful that you should be alive, and so wonderful, that we can scarce believe it;--and so you like your house?” “Like it, Miss Leila! ’deed that’s no’ the word to testify my wonderment at all I see around me. I hae been looking at that cupboard, wi’ all the tumblers and glasses sparkling and shining like a leddy dressed out in her diamonds, and praying that my auld head may not be turned all the gether wi’ the vanities o’ life; but to feel that I hae come to sic a haven o’ rest, to lie down on that bed last night, and to think it was my ain; to think that I am no longer a wanderer on the face o’ the earth, without a covering to my auld head, or a friend to speak the word o’ comfort to my crushed spirit--no, it’s no’ just at ance that I can get into a measure o’ composedness for sic a change as this. I am in a bewilderment o’ joy and gratitude--and there’s Dash, bonnie man, wagging his tail, and aye looking in my face; he is telling me we are in the land o’ Canaan noo. O let me ever thank God for all his mercies; and let me thank you also, my dear bairns, for all your kindness to me; for never did I think to have seen your bit canty faces again in the land o’ the living, for it’s out o’ the swellings o’ Jordan that puir auld Peggy has been delivered by an arm o’ strength.” “It is so nice to hear you speaking Scotch again,” Matilda said; “I like it so much. That word canty is such a nice word, and it is so nice to have you back again when we thought you dead; but how did it all happen? Were you not washed overboard in the storm? You must tell us all about it. How were you saved?” “Yes,” Leila said, “it will be such an interesting story, and so long; for you must tell us every thing from the very beginning. But you are not to tell it all in one day, for that would tire you. You are very, very thin, Peggy,” and Leila took Peggy’s withered hand in hers; “can we do nothing to make you better? If it will tire you to speak, we will wait for the story till another day.”