This was too much. Tom groaned in spirit, but again Biddy came to the rescue. “Tom always groans when he thinks of how near you got killed over there, don’t you, Tom?” The man bowed his head. Biddy was a darling anyway. “Then do hurry and tell me how I came with you, and who my father is and my mother, for I will know, Tom.” “And so you shall, my darling Helen, you shall know.” “One dark night I left the island with another fellow----” Tom could not go on, and Biddy took up the thread. “And the bold, bad boy had you in his arms, and our Tom saw him trying to throw you in the water, and when he did it Tom jumped in after----” Nellie stood up with a cry. “I remember it all,” said she slowly, “all about the island, a sick woman, and you taking me from the water. That was nice, Tom, the way you crawled up the rock with me clinging to your back.” The man made no answer, and Nellie went around and took his hands in hers. “I’m your girl forever, ain’t I, Tom? I want to always be with you. Are you telling me this story so as to send me away from you to my relatives?” There was a pathos in the girl’s voice that wrung the tears from her listeners. Tom did not reply for a moment. Nellie turned quickly to Biddy. “Oh, Biddy, who is going to have me? I want to stay with you and Tom.” She dropped upon a chair, and Tom Cooper regained his voice. “God forbid, my darling,” cried he, “that you should ever be with any one in the world but your own Tom and Biddy. No, little Helen Standish, you have no relatives to whom Biddy and I will ever give you. You belong alone to us.” “Oh, I am so glad--oh, so happy,” and the girl rubbed her face against the whiskers without which she had never known her Tom. “And now I am going to place something about your neck which was yours many years ago, this little locket which was your mother’s.” Helen Standish took the trinket, and lifted it tenderly to her lips. “I’ve never known another mother but you, Biddy, and no other friend but Tom, but pardon me if I weep for my dead mother.” She rose to her feet, and walked away toward the window, where the night shadows were falling. Her heart beat gratefully for these two good people who had taken her into their lives and home. “Tom,” she began without looking at him, “I can remember many times I have been naughty and seemed ungrateful to you, but will you believe that all my life I have loved you better than any one else?” There was the big Irishwoman waiting for her turn, and her little sob drew Nellie’s attention. “And you, too, my own Biddy. I do not deserve all you have done for me. I have always meant to be a good girl, but have failed miserably.” “Now, now, my pretty darlint,” sobbed Biddy, “don’t you go and make your hearties cry. We both loves you, and there ain’t nothing to forgive, is there, Tom?”