Well , last spring she begun talking of going away to the States . She said a friend of hers had got her a good place in Boston , and she was going to go and take little Harry . We supposed it was all right . Last Saturday she went , sir . She was going to walk to the station , and the last seen of her she was trudging along the road , carrying the baby . It has n't been thought of since . But , sir , d'ye suppose she set that innocent child adrift in that old leaky dory to send him to his death ? I knew Maggie was no better than she should be , but I ca n't believe she was as bad as that . '' `` You must come over with me and see if you can identify the child , '' I said . `` If he is Harry Martin I shall keep him . My wife has been very lonely since our baby died , and she has taken a fancy to this little chap . '' When we reached my home old Abel recognized the child as Harry Martin . He is with us still . His baby hands led my dear wife back to health and happiness . Other children have come to us , she loves them all dearly ; but the boy who bears her dead son 's name is to her -- aye , and to me -- as dear as if she had given him birth . He came from the sea , and at his coming the ghostly dream-child fled , nevermore to lure my wife away from me with its exciting cry . Therefore I look upon him and love him as my first-born . VI . THE BROTHER WHO FAILED The Monroe family were holding a Christmas reunion at the old Prince Edward Island homestead at White Sands . It was the first time they had all been together under one roof since the death of their mother , thirty years before .
The idea XXXXX this Christmas reunion had originated with Edith Monroe the preceding spring , during her tedious convalescence from a bad attack of pneumonia among strangers in an American city , where she had not been able to fill her concert engagements , and had more spare time in which to feel the tug of old ties and the homesick longing for her own people than she had had for years .
If as at in of since than to upon with