A Daughter of the Forest

With swift nervous motions she unfastened his coat and bent her ear to his breast.

"'Tis only a faint, maybe shock. In all the world was only Margot, and Margot was lost. Ugh! the hail. See, it is still here--look! water, and--yes, the tea! It was for you---- Ah!"

Her words ended with a sigh of satisfaction as a slight motion stirred the features into which she peered so earnestly, and she raised her master's head a bit higher. Then his eyes slowly opened and the dazed look gradually gave place to a normal expression.

"Why, Margot! Angelique? What's happened?"

"Oh! Uncle Hugh! are you hurt? are you ill? I found you here behind the rocks and Angelique says--but I wasn't hurt at all. I wasn't out in any storm, didn't know there had been one, that is, worth minding, till I came home----"

"Like a ghost out of the lake. She was not even dead, not she. And she was singin' fit to burst her throat while you were--well, maybe, not dead, yo