Major Langdon’s great pleasure boat, with its six oarsmen, was moving steadily on the flood, and yet both current and tide seemed hindering to such impatient hearts. All the way from Portsmouth there had been people standing on the shores to wave at them and welcome them as they passed; the light was fast fading in the sky; the evening chill and thin autumn fog began to fall on the river. At last Roger and Mary could see the great house standing high and safe in its place, and point it out to Madam Wallingford, whose face wore a touching look of gratitude and peace; at last they could see a crowd of people on the lower shore. The rowers did their best; the boat sped through the water. It was only half dark, but some impatient hand had lit the bonfires; the company of gentlemen were coming down already through the terraced garden to the water-side. "Oh, Mary, Mary," Roger Wallingford was whispering, "I have done nothing that I hoped to do!" But she hushed him, and her hand stole into his. "We did not think, that night when we parted, we should be coming home together; we did not know what lay before us," he said with sorrow. "No, dear, I have done nothing; but, thank God, I am alive to love you, and to serve my country to my life’s end." Mary could not speak; she was too happy and too thankful. All her own great love and perfect happiness were shining in her face. "I am thinking of the captain," she said gently, after a little silence. "You know how he left us when we were so happy, and slipped away alone into the dark without a word.... "Oh, look, Madam!" she cried then. "Our friends are all there; they are all waiting for us! I can see dear Peggy with her white apron, and your good Rodney! Oh, Roger, the dear old master is there, God bless him! They are all well and alive. Thank God, we are at home!" They rose and stood together in the boat, hand in hand. In another moment the boat was at the landing place, and they had stepped ashore. The Riverside Press Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. * * * * * * * * *Books by Sarah Orne Jewett* THE TORY LOVER. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $1.50. THE QUEEN’S TWIN AND OTHER STORIES. 16mo, $1.25. THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS. 16mo, $1.25; paper, 50 cents. DEEPHAVEN. 18mo, gilt top, $1.25. _Holiday Edition_. With 52 Illustrations. Attractively bound. Crown 8vo, $2.50. OLD FRIENDS AND NEW. 18mo, $1.25. COUNTRY BY-WAYS. 18mo, $1.25. THE MATE OF THE DAYLIGHT, AND FRIENDS ASHORE. 16mo, $1.25. A COUNTRY DOCTOR. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. A MARSH ISLAND. A Novel. l6mo, $1.25. A WHITE HERON AND OTHER STORIES. 18mo, $1.25. THE KING OF FOLLY ISLAND, AND OTHER PEOPLE. 16mo, $1.25. STRANGERS AND WAYFARERS. 16mo, $1.25. A NATIVE OF WINBY, AND OTHER TALES. 16mo, $1.25. THE LIFE OF NANCY. 16mo, $1.25.