Mary Margaret was the first to recover herself and say briskly , `` Now , do explain , somebody . Tell me how it all happened . '' `` Martin and I got back to Harbour Head too late last night to cross over , '' said her mother . `` It would have been madness to try to cross in the storm , although I was nearly wild thinking of you two children . It 's well I did n't know the whole truth or I 'd have been simply frantic . We stayed at the Head all night , and first thing this morning came your father . '' `` We came in last night , '' said Captain Campbell , `` and it was pitch dark , not a light to be seen and beginning to snow . We did n't know where we were and I was terribly worried , when all at once the Big Dipper light I 'd been looking for so vainly flashed out , and everything was all right in a moment . But , Mary Margaret , if that light had n't appeared , we 'd never have got in past the reefs . You 've saved your father 's ship and all the lives in her , my brave little girl . '' `` Oh ! '' Mary Margaret drew a long breath and her eyes were starry with tears of happiness . `` Oh , I 'm so thankful I went over . And I had to tie Nellie in her chair , Mother , there was no other way . Uncle George broke his leg and is very sick this morning , and there 's no breakfast ready for anyone and the fire black out ... but that does n't matter when Father is safe ... and oh , I 'm so tired ! '' And then Mary Margaret sat down just for a moment , intending to get right up and help her mother light the fire , laid her head on her father 's shoulder , and fell sound asleep before she ever suspected it . The Prodigal Brother Miss Hannah was cutting asters in her garden . It was a very small garden , for nothing would grow beyond the shelter of the little , grey , low-eaved house which alone kept the northeast winds from blighting everything with salt spray ; but small as it was , it was a miracle of blossoms and a marvel of neatness . The trim brown paths were swept clean of every leaf or fallen petal , each of the little square beds had its border of big white quahog clamshells , and not even a sweet-pea vine would have dared to straggle from its appointed course under Miss Hannah 's eye . Miss Hannah had always lived in the little grey house down by the shore , so far away from all the other houses in Prospect and so shut away from them by a circle of hills that it had a seeming isolation .
Not another house could Miss Hannah see from her own doorstone ; she often declared she could not have borne it XXXXX it had not been for the lighthouse beacon at night flaming over the northwest hill behind the house like a great unwinking , friendly star that never failed even on the darkest night .
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