"'Mither! mither! speak and bless me!' cried he in agony.
"Alas! the power of speech was gone forever. Joy, like grief, is
often fatal to a worn-out frame. The spirit had calmly passed; the
parent had lived to see and bless her lost one; and expire in the
arms of him, who, with all his faults, appeared to have been her
earthly favorite."
DORA. "What an affecting story! How sorry Jock must have felt that
he came so suddenly into his mother's presence; but his father was
yet alive for him to comfort and cheer in his declining age. I hope
he was kind and affectionate to him all his days, to compensate for
the loss of the poor old woman?"
MR. BARRAUD. "I trust he was, but our historian saith no more."
MR. WILTON. "There is a little cluster of islands between Alnwick
and Berwick called the Farne islands, on one of which was situated
the lighthouse where the heroine Grace Darling spent her dreary
days. These rocky islands have for centuries been respected as holy
ground, because St. Cuthbert built an oratory on one of them, and
died there. At one time there were two chapels on these rocks; one
dedicated to St. Cuthbert, the other to the Virgin Mary: they are
now ruins; and a square building, erected for the religieux
stationed on these isles, has been put to better use, and converted
into a lighthouse. Off these islands occurred that dreadful
calamity, the wreck of the Forfarshire steamer, of which I will give
you a brief account:--
#Wreck of the Forfarshire.
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