must have struck his head against a stone when first he dived into the
river, and this had produced concussion of the brain. Nancy had been
taken home before he came, but the news was brought to her that he was
still alive, though in great danger, and that was a great comfort to her
poor little sorrowful soul.

For many days he lay between life and death. The inquiries after him
from every one of his schoolfellows, the Hall, and the different farms
and places round, told his mother how much her little son had been
beloved. And when on the following Sunday Mr. Upton gave out, in a
faltering voice, 'The prayers of this congregation are desired for
Edward Platt, who is very dangerously ill,' there was not a dry eye in
the church, and one or two audible sobs came from the boys' seats in
the gallery.

Mrs. John never left her boy's bedside--night and day she was by him, and
many wondered at her calm peacefulness. After the first great shock, she
had been able to hand over her child into her Father's loving hands, and
rest content with the result; and so she was able, in perhaps the most
anxious time of her life, to look up and say, 'Father, not my will, but
Thine be done.'

The days slowly passed, and still no change for the better. The doctor
came and went with his grave, impenetrable face, and Teddy was still
unconscious. Then doubts began to rise in his mother's heart as to
whether his reason would ever come back, and she stopped the doctor as he
was leaving one morning to ask him the question,--

'If he lives, doctor, will he be an idiot?--my brave, bonny boy! Oh, I
would rather have death for him than that!' And the doctor could only