"Lie down and sleep, mother, and let me sit by her," whispered Teddy
in his mother's ear; and, with a nod, the weary woman crept across
the foot of the bed, and was asleep in a moment.






CHAPTER IX.

THE NIGHT-WATCH.





TEDDY, waving the old palm-leaf fan up and down with as much care as
if it had carried the breath of life to his poor little charge, sat
for some time very quiet, listening to her wild prattle without
trying to interrupt it; until, after lying still for a few moments,
she suddenly fixed her eyes upon him, and said,--

"Oh! you're Peter Phinn, sister to Merry that weared a sun-bonnet,
ain't you?"

The question seemed so conscious and rational, that Teddy answered
eagerly,--