She was trembling so that the letter shook perceptibly in her hand.
"There has been an accident out at the mines," she answered, trying to steady her voice, "and Jack was badly hurt.

So very badly that mamma didn't telegraph us, but waited to see how it would terminate.

Oh, he's better," she hurried to add, seeing Mary grow faint and white, and sit down weakly on the floor beside the bandbox.

"He is going to live, the doctors say, but they're afraid--" Her voice faltered and she began to sob.

"They're afraid he'll be a cripple for life! Never walk again!" Throwing herself across the couch, she buried her face in the cushions, crying chokingly, "Oh, I can't _bear_ to think of it! Oh, Jack! how could such an awful thing happen to _you_!" Sick and trembling, Mary sat as if dazed by a blow on the head, her stunned senses trying to grasp the fact that some awful calamity had befallen them; that out of a clear sky had dropped a deadly bolt to shatter all the happiness of their little world.