No one knows how far they went, or exactly what happened to them; but a sudden squall sprang up, and the children being missed, my mother insisted, ill as she was, in running down to the shore to search for her darlings.

Braving the wind and drenched by rain, the two mothers stood side by side, peering into the gloom, while brave men dared the waves to search for the missing ones.

The body of the girl was first washed ashore, and my mother rocked the lifeless form in her arms until her dead son was laid beside her.

Then young Tom's body was recovered, and the horror was complete.
"When my father arrived, three days later, he not only found himself bereaved of the two children he had loved so tenderly, but his young wife was raving with brain fever, and likely to follow her babies to the grave.

During that terrible time, Nora, who could not forget that it was her own adventurous son who had led all three children to their death, went suddenly blind--from grief, the doctors said.
"My father pulled his wife back to life by dint of careful nursing; but whenever she looked at the sea she would scream with horror; so it became necessary to take her where the cruel sound of the breakers could never reach her ears.