If she was your own child--" "Well, you see, my own two dears went to heaven with the measles," said Mrs.Kane, "and I felt so lonesome without them, that when John walked in with the little bundle in his arms that night, I thought he was just an angel of light." "It was on the Long Sands he found her, wasn't it ?" asked Mrs.Ford, balancing her spoon on the edge of her cup.
"On the Long Sands after the great storm," said Mrs.Kane; "and that's just four years ago in May gone by.

How a baby ever lived through the storm to be washed in by the sea alive always beats me when I think of it, it seems so downright unnatural; and yet that's the way that Providence ordered it, Mrs.Ford." "I suppose all her folks were drowned ?" said Mrs.Ford.
"Most like they were, for it was a bad wreck, as I've heard," said Mrs.
Kane.

"Leastways, nobody has ever come to claim her, and no questions have been asked.

Unless it was much for her good I would fain hope that nobody ever will claim her now.

Wild as she is, I've grown to love that little Hetty, so I have.