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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mountain Moggy, by William H. G. Kingston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mountain Moggy
+       The Stoning of the Witch
+
+Author: William H. G. Kingston
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21471]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOUNTAIN MOGGY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Mountain Moggy; The Stoning of the Witch, by William H G Kingston.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+This is quite a short book, taking only 2.5 hours to read, yet it packs
+quite a punch.
+
+It is devoted to the theme of Forgiveness.  On a remote mountainside in
+Wales there dwells a broken-down old woman, whom the local children
+believe to be a witch.  As such she will live for ever, and cannot be
+hurt, so they amuse themselves by going to her hut, taunting her, and
+throwing stones at the hut.  One evening one of these stones knocks a
+burning stick from the fire, and sets fire to the old woman, but by
+chance a young midshipman who has lost his way, is nearby, helps her,
+and takes word to the village that she is badly hurt.
+
+The local clergyman had previously been a medical doctor, and rushes up
+to the hut to see what can be done.  One of the local women helps with
+Old Mountain Moggy as well.  Old Moggy shows true forgiveness to
+William, one of the Doctor's sons, even though he had been one of the
+ringleaders in taunting her.  William is very much moved by this.
+
+Time goes on, and on his next leave the young midshipman brings one of
+his shipmates, Tom, to share his holiday with him.  Tom tells the story
+of how he had been brought up, and Mountain Moggy tells her story, as
+well.
+
+The story has a happy ending, after a fashion, literally on the very
+last page of the book.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+MOUNTAIN MOGGY; THE STONING OF THE WITCH, BY WILLIAM H G KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+The succession of mountain ranges, precipitous and rugged, which extend
+from the shores of the Irish Sea to the boundaries of England, rising
+tier above tier, and culminating, at different points, in the heights of
+Snowdon, Cader Idris, and Plinlimmon, gives to wild Wales that romantic
+beauty for which it is so justly celebrated.  That mountain region, too,
+guarded by the strong arms and undaunted hearts of its heroic sons,
+formed an impassable bulwark against the advance of barbarian invaders,
+and remained for many years, while Saxon England was yet pagan, the main
+refuge of that Christian religion to which Britain owes its present
+greatness.  Yet subsequently, on account of the inaccessible nature of
+the country, the inhabitants, separated from their more enlightened
+fellow-subjects, remained for a long period almost as ignorant as their
+ancestors in the dark ages; and, till of late years, retained many of
+the grosser superstitions and customs of those times.
+
+A young traveller was climbing the side of one of these mountain ranges
+facing the ocean, the silvery waters of which could be discerned in the
+distance, when he observed, far up, a hut.  Solitary and cheerless it
+looked, scarcely to be distinguished from the sombre colouring of the
+surrounding ground and the rocks and bushes amid which it stood.  It was
+weather-worn and dilapidated, and appeared altogether unfit to be the
+abode of a human being; indeed, a thin wreath of peat smoke ascending
+from an aperture in the roof alone made it likely that it was inhabited.
+Its appearance offered no temptation to the young stranger to turn
+aside from the path he was pursuing, and he continued his ascent till he
+gained a rocky pinnacle, from whence he could watch the sun dipping into
+the ocean; and hence he could look down, on one side, over a confused
+mass of barren hills and fertile valleys, rocks, and precipices, heights
+crowned with trees, peaks bare and rugged, and glens with sparkling
+torrents dashing and foaming amid them; while on the other side, towards
+the ocean, he saw before him a wide and smiling valley, with a stream
+meandering through it, and green meadows and groves of trees, from among
+which a church spire reared its pointed summit; and near it a cheerful
+village of white-washed cottages and other dwellings of more pretension;
+and there were sheep feeding, and cattle wending their way slowly
+homeward, all speaking of peace and security.
+
+"I could not have selected a more lovely spot to spend an evening in,
+had I been allowed a choice," said the young traveller to himself, as he
+took his seat on the highest point he could find.  "As I cannot find my
+home, I could not be better off.  I thought that I knew perfectly well
+the place my family have got to, but I am fairly puzzled with the Welsh
+names.  I ought to have kept my brother's letters in which he had
+clearly written it down.  Whether it is Twrog-y-Bwlch, or
+Llwyd-y-Cynfael, or Dwyryd-y-Ffetiog, I am sure I don't know.  I hit the
+right post-town, of that I am nearly certain.  There's a village in the
+bottom.  I might go down and inquire, but then I probably should not
+find my way back again over the mountain to the inn where I left my
+traps.  I hope that I may hit it off to-morrow.  It's very tantalising,
+and provoking too, to be so near home, and yet not able to find it.  It
+was very stupid to lose the letter.  They do say midshipmen are very
+careless chaps, and that I am no exception to the rule.  Well, I have no
+reason to grumble.  I haven't enjoyed such a sight as this for many a
+day, though it's something like being mast-headed, except with the
+difference that I may go down when I like.  I should enjoy it more if I
+had a messmate to talk to about it.  The air is wonderfully fine up
+here.  It makes me feel inclined to shout out at the top of my voice,
+`Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, And Britons never, never,
+never will be slaves,' Hurra!  That's it.  Hurra, boys!  `We'll fight
+and we'll conquer again and again.'"
+
+Thus the happy young midshipman gave full scope to the exuberance of his
+spirits, feeling very sure that no one was listening to him.  As he
+ceased, a curiously wild, mournful strain struck his ear, ascending from
+below him on the west, and forming a strange contrast to the merry notes
+he had been singing.  It was like the noonday song of the joyous lark,
+as he soars into the blue sky, answered by the midnight croak of the
+raven as he sits on the old abbey's ivy-covered wall.  He listened.  It
+seemed rather like a continued shriek than a song, or the fearful cry of
+the fabled Banshee as she flits by the family mansion in Ireland, to
+warn the inmates, as is ignorantly supposed, that one of their number
+must prepare to quit the world, its pleasures and its sorrows.  The
+young midshipman's mind was, however, too well trained to indulge even
+for a moment in any such fancies, for he owed his education to a wise,
+religious, and loving father.  Yet he was sorely puzzled at first to
+account for the wild strains which floated through the air, till he
+caught sight of the ruined hut he had observed on his way up, and
+discerned a large rent in the roof, through which he supposed the sounds
+uttered by its inmate must be ascending.  He was too far off to
+distinguish the words; but that there were words uttered, and probably
+as strange as the music itself, if music he could call it, he was very
+certain.  Now the strains rose to a high pitch, now they swelled, now
+decreased into a low moan scarcely audible.
+
+"Some poor mad creature," said the midshipman to himself.  "I should
+think nobody but a mad person would live in such a place as that; in
+truth, if anybody had to live there, its solitude and its forlorn
+condition would be enough to drive them out of their senses; it would
+me, I know; only I should forthwith set to work to make it habitable.
+To be sure, I shouldn't be worse off than Tom and I were when we were
+cast away on that coral island in the Pacific, except that there we had
+summer all the year round and abundance of food of one sort or another.
+Here it must be terribly cold in winter, and as for food, a person would
+soon starve if he were compelled to live only on what the hillside
+produces."  The young midshipman had got into the habit of talking to
+himself, either during his night watches, or, it is just possible, while
+at the mast-head, at which post of honour, in some ships, the young
+gentlemen of his rank used to spend a considerable portion of their
+existence.
+
+The strange singing continued for some time.  As he looked down from his
+rocky height he saw a number of persons coming up the hill, apparently
+from the village towards the hut.  They appeared from their movements to
+be children.  They got close to the hut, and were hid from his sight.
+Now they seemed to be running away--now they returned, leaping and
+shouting, so that their shrill young voices reached to where he sat.
+Suddenly he saw them all running down the hill, just as children run,
+jumping and pushing against each other, and evidently in high glee.  The
+midshipman was considering that it was time for him to return to his inn
+for the night, when a loud shriek, which came from the direction of the
+hut, struck his ear, and he saw a bright light streaming through the
+aperture in the roof.  "Something is the matter," he exclaimed, as
+jumping from his seat he ran down the mountain towards the hut: "the
+cottage or its inmate is on fire; I must do my best to put out the
+flame, at all events."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+An old woman was the sole occupant of that cheerless hut on the bleak
+hillside just described.  She sat, on that evening, on a low stool
+before the hearth, on which a few clods of peat, smouldering slowly with
+some scarcely dry sticks on the top of them, served as an apology for a
+fire, and threw out the smallest possible heat to warm the shrivelled
+palms held up ever and anon before it.  As she sat, occasionally rocking
+herself backwards and forwards, she sang, in a voice which sometimes
+sounded high and shrill, till it rose into almost a shriek, and then
+again sank down into a long-continued moan.  She uttered words often
+with great rapidity, though even the poor creature herself might
+scarcely have been able to explain the burden of her song.  The gentle
+breeze, pleasant in the cheerful sunshine, sighed through the rents in
+the tottering walls, and amid the branches of the solitary, crooked
+pine-tree, which bent its riven head over the building, its distorted
+limbs creaking and groaning as they swayed to and fro; while an owl
+shrieked his twit-to-hoo to the departing sun, as he prepared to go
+abroad with other creatures of the night in search of prey; and cold
+grey twilight covered the mountain-side.  There still sat the lone old
+woman, crouching over the mocking fire.  Dark and drear was the hovel--
+floor it had none, save the damp, cold earth--nor was there a chimney or
+other outlet for the smoke, except a hole which a branch of the
+ill-favoured pine-tree had made in the roof, in one of his most restless
+moods.  More light came through this hole than through the window, the
+broken panes of which were stuffed with rags, dry grass, and heather,
+though not tight enough to prevent the wind from whistling, and the
+rain, snow, and sleet from driving in upon the wretched inmate.  Except
+where the solitary gleam of cold evening light fell upon the crouching
+figure of poor Mountain Moggy, all else in the hovel was gloom and
+obscurity.  Little, however, did Moggy heed the weather.  Winter or
+summer, chilling blasts or warm sunshine, the changeful seasons brought
+no change to her.  Her brain was on fire, her heart cold and forlorn,
+"icy cold, utterly forlorn and deserted," so she says, and all feeling
+for outward things has long since departed.
+
+Why does Moggy start, clasp her bony hands, open wide her almost
+sightless eyes, and mutter, "Yes, yes--that's it.  Forgive us our
+trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.  But it's hard,
+very hard to forgive our foes.  Does God find it so hard to forgive me?"
+Then again she starts off in her wild song.
+
+Once more she is silent, and listens to some noises outside.  She seems
+sorely distressed.  Again and again she starts.  The noises increase,
+children's feet and voices are heard around the hut, and--is it
+possible?--a stone comes whizzing through the glassless window across
+the darkened space, and a heavy thump announces that it has found a
+destination; another, and another follows--some come in sideways, and
+one striking the window bar glances off and reaches the hearth, whence
+it drives before it a lighted stick which sends out sparks on every side
+and causes a faint gleam of light in the hitherto gloomy room.  Shouts
+of laughter accompany each stone; but the sun has set, the sonorous bell
+of the distant church gives notice, too, that evening has arrived.  The
+children's ears catch the sound.  "Away, away!  Home, home!" they shout,
+as they run off from the solitary hut.  Out of its window at that moment
+a bright light shone forth, but they did not heed it as they chased each
+other down the steep mountain-side, crying out, "Good-night, old witch.
+We'll stone you again, old Polly Forty Rags.  If we hear any more of
+your witcheries we'll make you wish you'd kept out of this country.
+Good-night, and bad luck to you, Old Mog."  Notwithstanding the words
+they used, there was terror in the voices of most of the children.  Some
+of them shouted, "She's coming after us!  The witch is coming after us!
+She's mounting her broom, and out she'll ride.  Run--run--run!"  On this
+the urchins shrieked louder, and ran faster and faster down the slope.
+One boy, more daring than the rest, and superior in appearance to most
+of them, lingered behind, and finding a stone remaining in his pocket of
+those with which he had, like his companions, provided himself to attack
+the old woman, he turned round once more, and flung it in the direction
+of the hut, saying, as he did so, "That's my parting gift, old Moggy.
+Ha, ha!  I see the old lady is going to have a feast tonight, for she
+has lighted up her banqueting-hall.  But I would rather not be one of
+the guests, though."  Pleased with what he considered his own wit, he
+shouted out again, and ran after his idle companions, a prolonged cry
+which came from the hut hastening his steps, for he was in no degree
+free from the ignorant superstition of the rest of the urchin troop.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+A good log was burning brightly on the hearth, and filling with its
+glowing, cheerful light the dining-room of Dr Morgan, the new rector of
+the parish, where he with his wife and the younger members of his family
+were collected.  The rector sat in his easy-chair, his book had fallen
+from his hand, for he was dozing after a hard day's work of physical and
+mental labour in the abodes of the sick and afflicted of his
+widely-scattered parish.  His wife had a cradle by her side, but she
+held its usual occupant in her arms, putting it to sleep with a low
+lullaby, while a group of older children, boys and girls, sat at the
+table variously occupied.  Charles and Anna having some fresh foreign
+postage-stamps, arranged them in a book according to the different
+countries from whence they came, and were preparing a short account of
+each--a plan their father had recommended, so as to give an interest to
+this otherwise very useless pursuit.
+
+"This must surely be American," said Anna, holding up a stamp.  "How
+like a well-done photograph is the head.  Can it be that of Washington?"
+
+On this William, who was engaged professedly in learning his lessons for
+the next day, looked up.  The rest decided that although the stamp was
+American, as it was the head of a somewhat sour-looking old gentleman it
+could not be that of the great Washington, but of one of the later
+Presidents of the United States.  The children were talking in an
+undertone, so as not to disturb their father.
+
+"Old Polly Forty Rags, the witch, came from America," said William.
+"But it was from some place which the English don't know about; a wild,
+barren sea-coast, just like the mountain-side up there, where they say
+that she used to practise her witch tricks on the vessels which came
+near, and many and many's the one she has sent to the bottom or driven
+on the rocks."
+
+"How did she practise her witch tricks?" asked Arthur, who did not very
+clearly understand his brother's meaning.
+
+"How!" exclaimed William.  "That's more than I can tell.  I'm only
+repeating what those who know all about the matter say."
+
+"Isn't she a very wicked old woman then?" asked Mabel, with simplicity.
+
+"Wicked?  I should think so! as wicked an old hag as you ever heard of,"
+answered William.  "It would be a good thing to rid the world of such a
+monster; but they say she can't be killed; not if she was soused over
+head and ears in the river or thrown into the fire.  That's the nature
+of witches."
+
+Anna, who was giving the finishing rub to a stamp just put in, heard the
+last words, and, looking up, inquired with a slight tone of irony in her
+voice, "What did you say about witches, Willie?  Who has been telling
+you those remarkably wise things about them?"
+
+"Oh, the people about here, and the other fellows at school," answered
+Willie in a low tone and somewhat hesitating manner, for he was not fond
+of having to reply to his sister's pointed questions.
+
+"Oh, the people about here," said Anna, repeating his words.  "Is it
+possible they can believe such nonsense?"
+
+Willie did not reply.  "Anna wouldn't think it nonsense if she was to
+see Old Polly Forty Rags," he muttered.  After being silent for some
+time he added, "If ever there was an old witch she is one."
+
+"You said she came from America, Willie.  Why, that's where Frank's ship
+has been to, isn't it?" said Arthur.
+
+"Of course it is," cried Willie, as if a bright thought had occurred to
+him.  "I wonder whether he heard anything of her there?  He'll soon be
+at home, and then he'll tell us."
+
+"If she didn't send his ship on the rocks," remarked Arthur.
+
+"She'd better not have tried to do it, or we'd pay her off for it," said
+Willie, as if speaking of some heroic purpose.
+
+"But I thought you said that she couldn't be killed; and if she couldn't
+be killed, she couldn't be hurt, I should think," observed Arthur, who
+was called the philosopher of the family.
+
+"Well, I don't know: they say witches can't be killed, and that Old
+Polly Forty Rags has lived hundreds and hundreds of years," said Willie,
+justly considered the most thoughtless of the family.  "Nothing does
+hurt her either.  You can't think what fun it is to hear the stones
+bounce against her, just as if she was made of straw.  If anything could
+hurt her, I know a big stone I sent in at her window this evening would
+have given her a cracker she wouldn't forget in a hurry.  It's my belief
+that she didn't care for it more than she would if it had been a pea out
+of a pea-shooter."
+
+Anna's attention was again drawn to her brother's whispered
+conversation.  "What are you saying about throwing stones?" she asked.
+"At whom have you been throwing stones?"
+
+"Why at old Mountain Moggy, of course, or Polly Forty Rags as they call
+her.  Who else should I throw at?  She's as hard as she is wicked; and
+they say she has a whole suit of elephant's skin under her rags, and
+that's one of the reasons the stones don't hurt her."
+
+Anna had been so busy examining some little three-cornered Cape of Good
+Hope stamps, that she had not till now clearly comprehended what Willie
+was speaking about.
+
+"You throw stones at Mountain Moggy!" she said in an incredulous tone.
+
+"Of course we do, and awful fun we had this very evening," answered
+William, boldly.  "We heard them go in at the window and thump against
+the old witch.  The clock struck, and we had to run away, or we should
+have given her more of it.  But it was just as well that we were off,
+for some of the fellows saw her lighting up her house for her
+witcheries, and there's no doubt but that she'd have sent down some of
+her imps after us if we hadn't made good use of our legs to get off."
+
+"What do you really mean, Willie?" said Anna, now quite interested.
+"You cannot tell me that you have been stoning that poor miserable old
+woman on the mountain?"
+
+"Haven't we though," said Willie, carelessly, crossing his arms on the
+table and beginning to pore over his book.
+
+"Willie says that she's a wicked black witch, with red eyes and a blue
+tongue," remarked little Mabel.
+
+"Don't stuff the little ones' heads with such abominable nonsense,
+Will," said Charles, looking up from his book.  "There's nothing I hate
+to hear so much; it's wrong, and you have no business to do it."
+
+"No, indeed; it's very wrong to tell stories about her, even in fun,"
+remarked Anna.
+
+"Nonsense and stories, indeed!" cried Willie, indignantly.  "They are
+neither one nor the other.  If she isn't black she's near it; and I
+never said she had red eyes and a blue tongue; but if you two were to
+hear her screech and howl, as I have, you'd confess fast enough that she
+was a witch."  And Willie turned back to his book with the air of an
+injured person.
+
+Poor boy, he had not had the advantages of his brothers and sisters,
+though worldly people would have said that his prospects were far better
+than theirs.  They had been carefully trained in the way they should
+walk from their earliest days by their parents, who, though not
+possessed of worldly wealth, felt that they might yet give them the
+richest of heritages.  William had not, like the others, been brought up
+entirely by his parents.  His godmother, Miss Ap Reece, had offered to
+leave him her property, provided she might have entire charge of him,
+and his parents somewhat hastily consented.  By her he had been well fed
+and well clothed, but not well educated.  She was capricious, fond of
+gossip, and self-indulgent; and continually she would, in order to be
+rid of him, send him down amongst the servants, who, as her country
+residence was in a remote village, were more than usually ignorant.
+There he imbibed many of their prejudices, and learned to believe in
+many of their superstitions.  Meanwhile, happily, the good seed sown in
+his earlier days was not entirely eradicated, though he and his brothers
+and sisters always exhibited in their subsequent lives the different
+systems of cultivation to which they had been subjected.  The residence
+of William with Miss Ap Reece was brought to an abrupt termination by
+the failure of the County Bank, in which most of her money was placed.
+Her means were in consequence so straitened that she was obliged to ask
+Dr Morgan to take William home.
+
+It was soon after this that the conversation took place which we have
+already recorded.
+
+Mrs Morgan had been too much absorbed with her infant, and a book she
+occasionally read, to listen to the undertone conversation carried on by
+the rest of her children.  Her husband continued dozing in his chair,
+but his sleep was soon interrupted, as was the conversation of the young
+people, by the violent ringing of the hall-door bell.  A servant came in
+directly afterwards to say that the doctor was wanted immediately.  Dr
+Morgan at once left the room, and when William, sent by Mrs Morgan,
+went out to inquire why he was summoned, it was found that he had
+quitted the house without leaving any message to say where he had gone.
+So startled were the younger ones by the sudden noise, that Arthur upset
+the gum-bottle over the beautiful new stamp-book.  The little fellow
+looked very much alarmed at what he had done, and possibly in some
+families angry words and blows would have warned him to be more careful
+for the future; but Charles and Anna had learned that "he that ruleth
+his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city"; and the constant
+practice of this principle made it now easy for them to say to their
+brother, who sat crying and looking very sorrowful, "Never mind, little
+fellow; we shall soon make it clean."  Then warm water had to be
+procured, and the injured book cleansed, and a few more stamps stuck in,
+and the rest put away, and scraps and writing materials cleared off the
+table.  Books were then got out, and lessons looked over for the next
+day.  Mrs Morgan left the room for some time to hear the younger
+children say their prayers, and to see them put to bed.  When she
+re-entered the room, Dr Morgan had not returned.  Dr Morgan's
+prolonged absence did not create any alarm.  He was a Doctor of
+Divinity, but he had also, in his younger days, devoted much time to the
+study of medicine and surgery, so that he was qualified to become a
+regular practitioner.  However, he had taken orders in the Church of
+England, but he never regretted the time he had spent in walking the
+hospitals, for, biding his time, he had now a means of access, which he
+otherwise might have lacked, to even the most hardened and profligate.
+Those who would not have called him in as a Christian minister to advise
+them regarding their souls, were thankful to get him to attend to the
+ailments of their bodies.  Once in a house he never left it without
+making himself beloved and respected by its inmates, and insuring for
+himself, and for his glad tidings, a favourable reception.  Although he
+was not looked upon as a popular preacher, it was observed that wherever
+he went there was a marked change in the religious conduct of the
+people.
+
+Such was Dr Morgan.  His great difficulty was to give that
+superintendence to the education of his children which he felt they
+required, without at the same time neglecting the multifarious duties of
+his position.  His parishioners gained what his family lost.  But the
+strict discipline by which he endeavoured to make amends for the want of
+that constant watchfulness so important in training the youthful mind
+did not answer the same purpose.  Yet after all he could do, he knew
+that he must fail altogether, had he not gone daily, constantly, to the
+Throne of Grace for strength and wisdom for himself, and for protection
+and guidance for those committed to his charge.
+
+Mrs Morgan had returned to the sitting-room; the elder children had put
+down their books.  It was bed-time.  They always waited for family
+prayers.  When the Doctor was absent Mrs Morgan or Charles read them,
+but as he was momentarily expected, his wife and son were unwilling to
+usurp his office.  At length the hall-door bell rang.  It was the
+Doctor.  He appeared unusually sad and serious.  The family assembled.
+His voice, generally so firm, trembled as he prayed.
+
+When he rose from his knees, shading his eyes with his hand, he said,
+after he had given them his blessing--
+
+"Go to bed immediately, and be up betimes, for I wish you to breakfast
+an hour earlier than usual, and to accompany me directly afterwards to
+visit a sick, and I fear a dying person."
+
+The younger children would all have been well pleased at this
+invitation, had it not been for their father's very grave manner; yet no
+one ventured to ask him the cause of this, and it was, perhaps, not
+without a slight misgiving that some of the party laid their heads on
+their pillows that night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+Dr Morgan gave no explanation of what had occurred till Charles and
+Anna had left the room.  He then called his anxious and ever helpful
+wife to his side.  "I much want your assistance, dearest Maria," he said
+in a tone which showed the depressed state of his feelings; "I was
+summoned just now to visit a person in a most melancholy condition.  You
+have heard of the forlorn old creature--Moggy, she is called by the
+country people--who lives in that wretched hovel we can see high up on
+the side of the mountain.  She has been dreadfully burnt."
+
+The Doctor's wife, ever ready with help and sympathy, in spite of the
+numerous maternal cares to which she had to attend, immediately
+exclaimed, "Poor old creature!  I am sure that she much wants comforts.
+Shall I not at once send up some sheets and cotton wool? and is there
+anything else you can think of?"
+
+"The comfort that is wanted, dear Maria, is nearer home," answered the
+Doctor, taking his wife's hand.  "I have a sad story to tell you.  On
+reaching Old Moggy's hovel I found her with her hands and feet horribly
+burnt; so much so, that, should she survive, which I think it possible
+she may not, she will, I fear, never recover their use.  I found that
+sturdy old Welshwoman, Jenny Davis, watching by her, and tending her
+with the care of a daughter.  After I had dressed the poor creature's
+burnt limbs, and done all I could to alleviate her sufferings, Jenny
+told me that when crossing the mountain that evening on her way home,
+and having nearly reached the bottom, she observed an unusual light
+streaming out of the window of Old Mountain Moggy's hovel.  Believing
+that the hut must be on fire, she hurried up towards it, though she
+feared that she should be too late to render any effectual assistance to
+its half-witted inmate.  So indeed she would, had not another person
+most providentially arrived before her.  On looking in at the window as
+she passed she saw a young gentleman--a tourist, she supposed--kneeling
+down by the side of the poor creature; his great-coat was off, he having
+with it extinguished the flames with which he said that he had found her
+almost surrounded.  Happily, from the great number of under-garments she
+wore, only the outer rags had caught.  He had been sitting on a rock
+above the hovel, and hearing a scream, and seeing a light break forth
+through a hole in the roof, he ran down, on the chance of something
+being wrong, and was undoubtedly the means of saving the poor creature
+from instant destruction.  He and Jenny together lifted Moggy on to her
+straw bed, and in so doing a piece of burnt stick still smouldering fell
+out from among her clothes.  This was evidently what had set her on
+fire, but how it had come there, was the question.  Jenny was loud in
+her praise of the young gentleman.  He was so gentle, and kind, and
+didn't mind touching the dirty old creature, and helping to place her in
+an easy position.  He took out his purse, and observing that he hadn't
+much money, he gave her a handful of shillings, as he said, to help to
+pay the doctor and to buy her some proper food and clothing.
+Fortunately he saw a boy crossing the mountain, and running after him he
+gave him a shilling to go and call a doctor.  The lad naturally came to
+me.  The young gentleman would not tell Jenny his name, saying, `names
+don't signify.'  He had to get back to his inn on the other side of the
+mountain, and as it was growing dark he could wait no longer; but, as
+Jenny said, ran off as fast as a deer up the steep, singing and jumping
+as merry as a lark.  He told Jenny that, if he could, he would come back
+to learn how the poor old creature might be getting on, but that he
+feared he should be living too far off to reach her on foot.  This
+account was, I own, like a gleam of sunshine, though it threw into a yet
+darker shade the sad account of an act of which I am compelled to tell
+you.  Having dressed Old Moggy's hurts, I observed several stones, some
+lying on the bed, and others scattered about the floor of the hut.  A
+large one I especially remarked on the hearth, and which I had no doubt
+had struck the embers of the fire, and been the immediate cause of its
+bursting into a flame, and igniting the poor creature's clothes.  I
+asked Jenny if she could account for the stones being, as they were,
+scattered about in every direction; and she then gave me a history of a
+piece of barbarous cruelty, the result of a thoughtlessness and an
+amount of ignorance I should scarcely have expected in the actors.
+Jenny, though in most respects a true Welshwoman, is free from the
+ignorant superstition which forms so sad an ingredient in the character
+of the uneducated peasants of these mountain districts, and was grieved
+when she found that poor Old Moggy had become the victim of the gross
+superstition of her neighbours, by whom she is reputed to be a witch who
+has flown across the sea from distant parts for the purpose of taking
+possession of the wretched hovel on the mountain.  `I do think, sir,'
+said Jenny, `if the poor creature had had the power of flying, she'd
+have flown to a better sort of a place than this poor shed, scarcely fit
+to shelter a gipsy's donkey from a snow-storm.  When once the mind
+strays away from the truth, it's impossible to say what follies it won't
+believe.  People don't seem to see the foolishness and nonsense of their
+own stones.  If they'd seen her, as I have, in her right mind, they'd
+know that a friend of the Evil One couldn't talk as she talks; and as
+for flying, poor old creature! she can scarcely drag one foot after the
+other,' Jenny Davis is a thoughtful and sensible woman, though her
+exterior is somewhat rough," observed the Doctor, who was evidently
+unwilling, sooner than he could, to repeat the story he had heard.  He
+continued, however: "Jenny gave little heed to these foolish stories,
+till one day one of her boys came from playing on the mountain-side,
+with a scared look, and almost breathless, saying that the witch had run
+after him, shrieking out, and uttering the most dreadful threats.  On
+cross-questioning the child, she found that he did not actually see
+Moggy running after him, but that his companions said she was, while the
+shrieks and cries were the result of his imagination.  She determined,
+however, to go and see the old woman herself.  Being a woman of action,
+she immediately set off.  When she got near the hovel she found a number
+of boys yelling, hooting, and throwing stones at it.  On her demanding
+why they did so, they said that the old witch was within, and had done
+them all some mischief.  She had stolen the ducks of the mother of one
+of them, had milked the cows of a second, and a third declared that she
+had prevented the butter from coming in his mother's churn.  One urchin
+asserted that his father's horse had died in consequence of her
+incantations, and another, that she had given his younger brother the
+croup; indeed, every one had some sort of complaint to make, and
+vehemently declared that they would pay her out.  Whilst she was arguing
+with them the door opened, and Old Moggy appeared, an unattractive
+figure, bent with age, covered with rags, and her countenance
+weather-beaten and scared, and expressive of a melancholy, wild, and
+restless spirit.  The boys, on catching a momentary glimpse of her (for
+she instantly again closed the door), turned round, and scampered down
+the mountain.  Jenny confessed that she at first felt inclined to follow
+them, but once more the door slowly opened, and the poor creature looked
+out to ascertain if her tormentors had gone off.  Not seeing them she
+came out, and Jenny heard her in a plaintive voice thanking God for
+having delivered her from her enemies; then she broke into a low wail,
+the words she uttered being disconnected and incoherent.  She was on her
+knees, with her hands clasped and her countenance upturned towards
+heaven.  Jenny's heart was more touched than she had expected.  Going up
+to the old woman, she said, `These bad boys have been teasing you sadly,
+I fear, Moggy.'  A vacant stare was at first the only reply she
+received, but on repeating her words Moggy seemed to gather their
+meaning, and answered, `Ay, sadly, sadly; but ye knows what we have been
+taught to say by One who loved us, and died for us.  "Forgive us our
+trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us."  So ye see
+that I forgive them, and I pray for them.  I pray that they may never be
+poor and helpless as I am, that they may never be so afflicted in mind
+and body, and that no evil may fall on their heads; and God will hear my
+prayers just as much as He will the prayers of the great, and wealthy,
+and learned, and young, and strong, and happy,' Then she suddenly
+stopped, and began to shriek wildly and wring her hands, moaning out,
+`No father, no husband, no child--all, all gone.  Oh, my child, my boy,
+my hope, my pride!'  Jenny tried to soothe and comfort her, and after a
+long time succeeded in leading her back into the hut, where she became
+more tranquil, but still apparently was unable to give any connected
+account of herself.  Jenny then, from the basket she was carrying to
+market, gave her some food, for which she looked grateful, but said
+nothing.  After this, by little acts of kindness, Jenny gradually
+obtained the helpless creature's confidence; and daily, whenever able,
+went at the same hour to disperse the boys, who after school hours have,
+it sterns, been in the habit of assembling, for their amusement, to
+torment her.  Jenny had often threatened to complain to the parents of
+the boys, and, should they not attend to her complaints, to place the
+whole case before the magistrates.  She had complained to several whose
+children she recognised, but they either took no notice of what she
+said, or were very angry with her; and she had therefore resolved, the
+next time she found any boys ill-treating the old woman, to put her
+threat into execution.  `Yes, sir, and that I must do, even though some
+be gentlefolks' sons; one be your son, sir, and sorry I have to speak
+it.  It's that young Master William of yours, and he is the most daring
+and outrageous of the lot,' she added.  `It's a shame, sir, I'm sure
+you'll allow, that they should go on so; for a more harmless
+sorrow-stricken soul I have never met in my life than poor Old Moggy
+here.  All she's gone through would make a book, and it's not to be
+wondered at that with all her trials, and care, and the cruelty she
+meets, she is often crazy like.  Maybe she's listening now, and knows
+what I say, for at times she has got as much sense as any one; and it's
+then that she feels her loneliness, and poverty, and wretchedness, and
+that makes her go off again as bad as ever, so it seems to me, sir.'  I
+would not at first believe the truth of the accusation brought against
+William, but on closely questioning Jenny, I found that, without doubt,
+it is unfortunately the fact that one of our children is capable of thus
+cruelly ill-treating one of his fellow-creatures; and that he is so
+ignorant as not to be aware of his crime; indeed he has a vague idea
+that he was rather performing a meritorious act."
+
+After sitting silent for some time, and grieving over the delinquencies
+of her son, Mrs Morgan, like a tender mother, endeavoured to find some
+excuse for his conduct; for one of the hardest trials which parents--who
+have learned to look upon sin in its true light--have to bear, is to
+discover that any one of their children is guilty of a crime.  The
+Doctor, however, upright himself, and having a clear and distinct view
+of right and wrong, would not allow himself to find any excuses for the
+crime, though anxious as his wife for the good of the criminal; nor did
+he fail to blame himself, as Mrs Morgan blamed herself, for allowing
+their child, during the most impressible years of his life, to go from
+under their charge.
+
+"Still," argued the Doctor, "William has been told what is right and
+wrong; he has read the Scriptures.  He has infringed one of the chief
+commandments in a most cruel and cowardly manner.  I must not be
+indulgent towards a crime which, if his victim dies, the legal authority
+of his country will pronounce to be manslaughter.  I will endeavour,
+however, first to ascertain how far he is sensible of his fault by
+showing him its consequence.  Should he give no proof of penitence I
+must resort to severer measures.  I purpose to take all the children
+with me to-morrow morning to Old Moggy's hut, and I trust that the sight
+William will there witness will prove, as it must if his heart is not
+hardened, a sufficient punishment for his act."
+
+"I hope and pray it may," said Mrs Morgan.  "I fear, though, that Miss
+Ap Reece was most injudicious in her management of him, and that he has
+now been allowed a long course of self-indulgence; and I believe that
+nothing more effectually hardens the heart and makes it indifferent to
+the feelings of others, to their sorrows and physical sufferings, than
+such a mode of treatment."
+
+Long did the Doctor and his wife talk over the subject, and then
+kneeling, they earnestly placed the matter before the Throne of Grace,
+seeking from thence guidance and strength.  How little, in many
+instances, are prosperous, healthy, happy children aware that the chief
+cause of their prosperity, health, and happiness, is to be found in the
+earnest, trustful prayers of God-fearing parents.  Unhappy the children
+who have not praying parents! thrice blessed those who have, and who, at
+the same time, set high value on their parents' prayers, and learn
+betimes to pray aright, and to pray for them as well as for themselves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+The sky was bright and blue; a fresh breeze, invigorating and pure, came
+from the distant sea; the sun, just risen above the mountain tops, shone
+down with undiminished lustre on the smiling valley, and all nature
+sparkled with life and light, as the young Morgans, having finished
+breakfast, assembled at the hall-door to accompany their father on his
+proposed walk.  The elder ones remarked that he looked graver than
+usual, but hoped that the fresh air and exercise would soon restore his
+spirits.  They all enjoyed a walk with him, for he generally took care
+to make it interesting, by giving them information on one or more of the
+various natural objects they met with.  There was not a tree, a flower,
+or a stone, about which he had not something to say which was well worth
+hearing.  Charles called them "Father's peripatetic lectures."  This
+morning, however, the Doctor was unusually silent.  His daughter Anna
+walked by his side, affectionately waiting, in the hopes of an
+opportunity to bring forward some subject to enliven him.  Charles also
+accompanied him.  The rest of the children kept behind, wondering where
+he was going; Willie especially sauntering at some distance, and
+thinking that he would rather have been out by himself or with some of
+the boys with whom he had lately associated.  Charles, finding that his
+father was not inclined to give one of his lectures, bethought him of a
+subject likely to interest him.
+
+"I say, father, I wonder when Frank will be here.  His ship was expected
+at Plymouth every day.  I sent a letter for him to Fox, giving him full
+directions how he was to find his way here, so that if he could get
+leave he might come up at once.  My only fear is that he may not have
+any cash for his journey.  I begged Fox to advance it, but Frank may not
+think of asking him.  He'll have a great deal to tell us about the
+Pacific and the coral islands, the Sandwich Islanders, and the other
+natives, once horrible savages, now mostly Christians.  And those people
+of Fiji--the Black Cannibals of the Pacific as they were called--I want
+to know if they are as bad as has been represented."
+
+"Yes, your brother Frank will have much to say," remarked the Doctor,
+and again relapsed into silence.
+
+"I hope he may bring Tom Holman with him.  I should like to see the man
+who saved his life, that I might thank him as he deserves for his
+bravery," said Anna.  "Dear Frank, if it had not been for Holman we
+might never have seen him again."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I should like to see Holman, the fine and gallant fellow,"
+exclaimed Charles.  "The puzzle will be how to get him here.  I know
+that seamen have difficulty in obtaining leave till their ship is paid
+off, and then there is the expense of the journey.  However, I will do
+my best to manage that."
+
+"And I will help you," said Anna.  "I will sell some of my fowls, and
+the egg money of last year, which I have never spent, and old Mrs
+Taffety's present, which mamma says I have a right to do just what I
+like with.  Oh, there will be no difficulty about money matters if Frank
+can get leave for Tom Holman.  It will be very nice to see him and to
+thank him, though it will be difficult to thank him enough."
+
+Dr Morgan had not joined in the conversation of his elder children.  He
+appeared to be absorbed in his own thoughts.  Once or twice he glanced
+round to ascertain if William was following.  He continued for some time
+along the road leading to the village, and then suddenly turned into a
+path leading up the mountain.  William began to feel not very
+comfortable when he saw this.  Still his father might possibly intend to
+cross over the mountain.  He lingered still farther behind, and when he
+saw him turn off again up the uneven path which led to poor Old Moggy's
+hut he was strongly inclined to run away.
+
+Surely his father would not wish to go inside the hut.  What could he
+have to say to the old woman?  However, go on he must.  Fortunately,
+Charles dropped behind the Doctor, and Anna and William hurried up to
+him.
+
+"Charley, is papa really going into the witch's den?" he exclaimed in a
+tone of alarm.  "She will be doing him some harm, I am sure."
+
+"Nonsense, Willie," answered Charles.  "I did not fancy that a fellow
+with a head on his shoulders could be such a goose."
+
+"Goose or no goose, I don't wish to fall into the old witch's clutches,
+nor papa, nor any of us either," muttered William, as Charles walked on
+again rapidly to catch up their father, and to give a helping hand to
+the two younger ones.  Willie's foolish fears increased when he saw his
+father walk up to the door of the hut, and still more alarmed did he
+become when the Doctor, lifting the latch, went in, and then turned
+round and beckoned to him to enter, though Arthur and Mabel were allowed
+to remain outside.  Most unwillingly he obeyed; but when he got inside
+the door, not a step farther could he bring himself to advance, and from
+the furtive glances which he ever and anon cast through the doorway, it
+was very evident that he would make his escape if he dared.  Even
+Charles and Anna drew back from the pitiable object which met their
+sight.  The light streaming through the window fell on a low pallet, on
+which, covered with a sheet, lay the form of Mountain Moggy.  By her
+side sat Jenny Davis, whom William recognised as her champion who had
+threatened him and his companions with condign punishment if they ever
+again attacked the old woman.  Something dreadful was going to happen--
+William scarcely knew what.  A glance his father cast at him made him
+understand that he must not move.  Of course Jenny Davis had told
+everything.  After exchanging a few words with Jenny, the Doctor lifted
+the sheet from off Moggy's feet.
+
+"William, come here and witness the effects of your cruelty," he said in
+a stern voice, very unlike that in which he was accustomed to address
+his children.  "Now look at those poor burnt hands.  You, and those with
+you, I have no doubt, caused all the pain this poor woman is now
+suffering; and should she die, at whose door, think you, will the guilt
+lie?"
+
+William could not answer.  The Doctor, taking out some salves he had
+brought with him, began to dress the poor creature's limbs.  Anna could
+not refrain from tears, while she went forward to assist her father and
+kind Jenny.  William stood by without uttering a word, and feeling as he
+had never felt before.
+
+When the sufferer's hands and feet were once more covered up, the Doctor
+directed Charles to call in the younger children.
+
+"Listen to what Jenny Davis will tell you," he said, when they were all
+assembled round the bed.
+
+"Ah, sir, I have a tale to tell which would soften a heart of stone; but
+I hope none of these young people have hearts of that sort," remarked
+Jenny, fixing her eyes on William.  "She has told me how it all
+happened, and it may be a warning to that young gentleman never to throw
+stones at any human being, even though they may be deserted; or, for
+that matter, at any living creature.  They cannot tell where the stone
+may strike, and what harm it may do.  Well, sir, Old Moggy was sitting
+at her poor fire when those cruel boys came up here again to play off
+their cowardly tricks.  They talk of her imps doing mischief, though
+they were the imps, and they were doing the mischief, I'm thinking.
+Stone after stone was thrown in on her.  At last one struck the hearth
+and sent a burning stick under her feet.  While she stooped down to
+remove it, another large one gave her a blow on the head which must have
+stunned her, for she fell to the ground and her clothes began to burn.
+The agony she was suffering brought her in some degree to her senses
+again, when she found herself surrounded by flames, and believed that
+she was going to be burnt to death.  There was nobody near that she knew
+of to help her, and she couldn't help herself; she knew that, so she
+prayed for the help of God.  Just then the door burst open, and the
+young gentleman I told you of ran in, and throwing his coat over her,
+put out the fire.  I came in soon after, and helped to put her on the
+bed.  I think that the young gentleman burnt his own hands not a little
+in tearing off the burning clothes which his coat couldn't cover, but he
+said it was just nothing, and wouldn't let me look at them even before
+he went away."
+
+"What a brave, noble fellow!" exclaimed Charles.  "I should like to have
+made his acquaintance."
+
+"So indeed should I," cried Anna.  "Do not you know his name, Jenny?"
+
+"No, my sweet miss, I don't," answered the Welshwoman.  "But I think I
+know where it's written, and that's where the names of the cruel, and
+selfish, and heartless will never be found."
+
+"God bless him!  God bless him!" said a deep voice from the bed.
+
+The children started; it was the voice of Old Moggy.  They had not
+supposed she was listening, much less that she was capable of speaking.
+The rest of the children remembered William's remarks on the previous
+evening, and all eyes were turned on him.  He stood white as ashes, and
+trembling in every limb.  While they had before been speaking, the
+window had been darkened by a person passing before it.  William had
+remarked it, and he had taken it into his head that it was that of a
+person come to carry him off to prison for his misdeeds.  The rest had
+been so interested in what they were hearing that they had not observed
+that a stranger was near them.
+
+"Ye said that she knows the truth; ay, that she does, and practises what
+the Word of Truth tells us; for instead of railing she blesses, and from
+her heart forgives them who have ill-treated her," said Jenny.  "Poor,
+harmless, weary soul that she is!  Those young ones who stand there can
+know little of the sorrows and trials she has been called on to endure.
+She has seen loss of parents, and property, and husband, and child, and
+her good name, and all that we think makes life pleasant; and now that
+she has found her way to this lone place, to die in peace, the Evil One
+has made these lads come up here to mock and torment her.  I mind
+reading of a good prophet going to a certain village in a foreign land,
+and the lads came out and mocked him, and called him old bald-head, and
+what do ye think happened?  Why, two she-bears came out of a wood and
+destroyed forty and two of them.  I don't mean to say that Old Moggy is
+like the old prophet, but yet she is aged and friendless; and those who
+abuse and ill-treat her are, in the eyes of the Almighty, doing a great
+wickedness; that they are, I'm sure."
+
+While Jenny was speaking, the lips of the sufferer were seen to move;
+and in the same deep tones which had before been heard, the words came
+forth, "but forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass
+against us.  Yes, yes: oh, I forgive them; they didn't know any better;
+they thought I was a witch; they thought I could work charms, and had
+bad power.  Oh! they would not have done as they did if they had known
+of my weary, weary, aching heart; my poor boy underneath the sea--my
+husband drowned before my eyes--my sad, sad days, my sleepless nights--
+my wandering brain--my hunger and thirst--my wretched, wretched life for
+long, long lonesome years.  All these things you did not know of, young
+gentleman, when you and your companions threw stones at me.  Don't think
+I would curse you for it.  No, no.  Come near, my children.  I bless
+you, ay! from my heart, all of you.  You who ill-treated me and you who
+never did me harm."
+
+Slowly and reluctantly, with awe in their countenances, the children
+drew still nearer to the bed.  The old woman's voice had dropped through
+weakness and exhaustion, yet she continued--
+
+"My lot has been very hard, very hard; yet I have had a Friend above who
+has upheld and comforted me.  And yet I have had many trials, many
+trials, many trials.  My brain reels and wanders.  I think of my husband
+and my boy, my only boy, many fathoms deep beneath the cold, cold waves,
+and then my head turns and my heart changes into stone, and I forget
+where I am and what has happened."
+
+The old woman began to ramble, and suddenly burst forth in the wild song
+which she had been singing on the previous evening.
+
+Jenny Davis shook her head, observing, "She'll not be right after this
+for some time.  When the fit comes on her there's no more sense to be
+looked for till she has had some rest."
+
+"I will send her up a quieting draught and some wholesome food, which
+will probably do her more good than any medicine," said the Doctor,
+taking Anna's hand, and motioning the others to move towards the door.
+
+William had hitherto not spoken a word.  "Papa, may I take her up the
+medicine and food?" he said, and big tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+"Yes, William, you may," was the answer.
+
+Dr Morgan and his children had got outside the hut, and were on their
+way down the steep side of the mountain, when they heard a cheery shout
+behind them.  Turning round, Anna instantly sprang up the hill, and in
+another moment was in the arms of a young gentleman who was running down
+to meet them.
+
+"It is Frank!  It is Frank!" burst from the lips of the rest.
+
+"Why, father!  Charley! who would have thought it?" cried the young
+stranger, warmly greeting them; "and Willie, and Mabel, and Arthur!
+What big people they have become!  I little expected to have found you
+so soon; and you were in that poor old woman's hut, too!  Well, that is
+curious!  The truth is, I am lost, or rather I couldn't find you.  I
+mislaid Charley's letter, and though I thought I knew the name of the
+place, I found, when I got into the country, that I hadn't the slightest
+notion of what it was; and after wandering about for a couple of days, I
+determined to write to old Evans, at Bangor, and to await his answer at
+the inn on the other side of the mountain."
+
+"Then, Frank, you are the young gentleman who saved Old Moggy's life,"
+said Anna.  "How delightful!"
+
+"Oh, did I?  I merely threw my jacket over the poor creature's legs, and
+put out the fire which had caught her clothes and would have burnt her,"
+answered the midshipman.  "I am very glad I was of use, though it's not
+a thing to be proud of.  It was very fortunate, however, for me, for I
+don't know how otherwise I should have found you.  There is one thing I
+should like to do, and that is to thrash the heartless young monkeys who
+threw stones at the poor woman.  If I can find them I will."
+
+William looked down, overwhelmed with shame, and almost wished that
+Frank _would_ thrash him.
+
+"Then what brought you back to the hut, my boy?" asked the Doctor.
+
+"Oh, to look after the poor old woman," said Frank, "I understood from
+the nurse--Jenny Davis she told me was her name--that she has no
+friends, and so I thought it was but right and proper to come back and
+see how she was getting on.  I dropped a bundle with some old shirts and
+other things in at the window; but seeing some people there, not
+dreaming that they were all of you, I of course wouldn't go in.  I
+waited, expecting you soon to go away, and fortunately I made you out,
+or I should have gone back to my inn, and not known that I had been
+close to you."
+
+"Bless you, my boy, bless you! may you ever act in the same way from
+principle, and not merely from the impulse of the heart, good as that
+may be," said the Doctor, warmly, pressing Frank's hand, and undoubtedly
+feeling the contrast between his conduct and that of William.  "And now
+let us hear something about yourself," he continued, in a more cheerful
+tone than he had hitherto been speaking in.
+
+The young sailor had plenty to talk about, though, as he remarked, he
+found his words apt to block up the hatchway, he was in such a hurry to
+get them out of the hold.
+
+Charles and Anna were eager to hear about Tom Holman, and William would
+have liked to hear what his brother was saying, but, in shame, he hung
+back some way behind the rest, and when they reached the house his
+father told him to go to his room, and wait there till summoned Frank
+saw that there was something wrong, but forbore to inquire, hoping soon
+to have an opportunity of pleading for the culprit.
+
+"Ah, that comes, whatever it is, of his being brought up by old Becky Ap
+Reece," he thought to himself.  "I am heartily glad he is free of her,
+though he may never get a farthing of her money.  He was a plucky little
+chap, and with good training something might be made of him; but she
+treated him like one of her poodles, and would soon have made him of no
+more use in the world than a puppy dog."
+
+Though Frank Morgan was thoughtful, he was one of the merriest fellows
+under the sun, and among the lightest of heart though not of head.
+Frank's return brought life and spirit into the house; for Charles,
+though highly esteemed, was grave and somewhat reserved; Anna was sedate
+and quiet; and William, since his return home, had been very
+troublesome, and was looked upon generally as an arrant pickle; while
+the Doctor and Mrs Morgan were so much occupied that they were unable
+to think of amusements for their children.  Everything, however, was to
+give way in order to make Frank enjoy his short visit at home; and
+picnics and several pleasant excursions were planned that he might find
+the time as pleasant as possible.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+Dr Morgan loved William fully as much as he did the rest of his
+children, but he saw that correction was necessary to cure him.  Instead
+of being allowed to welcome Frank with the rest of the family, William
+was sent to his room, where he remained by himself, not knowing what was
+next to happen.  He was very sorry for what he had done; he had seen the
+fearful consequences of his cruelty, by which he might have deprived a
+fellow-creature of life; indeed, he knew not even now whether Old Moggy
+might not die; and he also saw his own folly in believing that a poor
+weak old creature, who could not preserve herself from injury, could
+injure others in the way she was accused of doing, and he wished that he
+had not thrown stones at her.  These thoughts made him very
+uncomfortable, and he would have been glad to go anywhere, or do
+anything which would enable him to cast them away from him.  It was a
+great relief when his father came with the medicine and other things for
+Old Moggy, and told him that he might take them to her, but must return
+immediately to his room, without stopping to talk to any one.
+
+"Solitude is good for our spiritual welfare, to allow of reflection, but
+we must not permit it to hinder us in the performance of the active
+duties of life," observed the Doctor to his wife, when he told her how
+he purposed treating William.  "He wished to take the things to her, and
+he is the fittest person to do so.  It is well that he should feel that
+he is useful and doing his duty; but at the same time it is necessary
+that he should understand that the so doing cannot exonerate him from
+the consequences of his transgressions."
+
+William hastened out of the house with his basket.  He knew that if he
+met any of his school companions they would ask him how long he had
+turned apothecary's boy, what wages he got, and whether he made the
+pills as well.  He determined not to mind.  Still he anxiously looked
+about, fearing some might appear.  He ran on, therefore, till he reached
+the steep part of the path up the mountain.  As he climbed up his heart
+again failed him, for he began to fear that Jenny Davis would at all
+events scold him, and that perhaps Moggy, seeing him alone, would say
+something disagreeable.  Still, as he had volunteered to go, it would be
+arrant cowardice if he turned back.  He reached the hut and looked in at
+the window.  Jenny saw him, and saw that he had a basket in his hand.
+
+"Come in, come in, my good young sir," she exclaimed.
+
+The words encouraged William, and he entered.
+
+"It's like your father's son to come and visit the poor and the
+afflicted," she added.  "I'm sure I thank ye, and so does she who lies
+there, though she's ill able to speak now."
+
+Moggy, whose senses had by this time returned, heard her.
+
+"Ay--bless you, young gentleman! bless you!" she muttered.  "I forgive
+you, and thank you, and am your debtor; and there's One above who'll
+forgive you if you go to Him."
+
+It surprised and puzzled him that Moggy bore him no ill-will, after all
+the injury he had inflicted on her.  He did not stop to inquire how this
+was, but, having left the contents of his basket, bent his steps
+homeward.  As he wound his way by the path down the mountain-side, at a
+far more sedate pace than was his wont, he thought over the matter.
+Suddenly the words of the Lord's Prayer occurred to him--"Forgive us our
+trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us."
+
+"That's it; she has been very wicked, and so she forgives me that she
+may be forgiven," he said to himself.  "But then I have been very wicked
+too, and I have nobody to forgive.  I don't know anybody who has done me
+harm; I wish that somebody would, and then I might forgive them."  He
+reached home, and made his way to his room again.  No one came near him
+all day.  At dinner-time Anna stole up with a plate of meat and
+vegetables.  She placed it before him, but he felt very little
+inclination to eat.  Anna was about to quit the room; Willie stopped
+her.
+
+"I know I am very wicked, but I don't know what to do!" he exclaimed,
+sobbing.  "I wish that papa would come and tell me."
+
+Anna reported these words to their father.  The Doctor might have
+hastened at once to Willie, but he judged it wiser to allow the good
+impression that had been formed to take root.  He therefore sent him up
+the Bible, by Anna, and begged him to read the answer of Paul to the
+gaoler at Philippi.  Anna showed him other texts of Scripture--"Blessed
+are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"; and then pointed out
+warnings against those who wrong and oppress the poor and the afflicted.
+
+"I know, I know that I have done very wrong, and am very wicked," sobbed
+William.  "Do you think God will pardon me?  I do not feel as if I could
+do anything to make God forgive me, or love me, or be kind to me again."
+
+Anna stopped to collect her thoughts before she spoke; she then said--
+
+"I am very sure that you never can do anything to make God forgive you,
+dear Willie; and yet I am sure that God _will_ forgive you if you seek
+Him through the Mediator He has given us.  God loves to be gracious.  If
+you really are sorry for what you have done, if you repent, not because
+your fault has brought you into trouble and disgrace, but because you
+have offended God, then God will assuredly pardon you, for He has
+promised in His Holy Word to do so.  He says `Knock and it shall be
+opened to you, seek and ye shall find'; so you see, dear Willie, you may
+be pardoned if you seek it in the right way."
+
+And she spoke of God's love in sending His blessed Son to save us from
+our sins, and of the Holy Spirit that He gives us to soften our hard
+hearts and make them tender, as well as to teach us always what we ought
+to do.
+
+When she ceased speaking he was sobbing, but not bitterly.
+
+"Pray for me, Anna," said he; "I am not able to pray for myself."
+
+"Oh, be sure all those who love you will pray for you," she answered,
+kissing him.  "Papa and mamma pray for us night and morning, I am
+certain of that; and it makes me very happy and confident to think so.
+But still, dear Willie, remember always that we must pray for
+ourselves."
+
+"Yes, I know, and I will try," said William, as his sister left the
+room.
+
+The evening approached.  Charles brought him up some tea and
+bread-and-butter, but said nothing.  No one else came near him, not even
+Frank.  He thought that Frank might have come, but still he could not
+complain.  How different had been his brother's conduct and his own
+towards poor Old Moggy!  He had thought her a witch, and thrown stones
+at her, and called her all sorts of bad names; while brave Frank had
+risked burning himself to save her, and had kindly treated her, and
+given her money, and come back to see how she was faring.
+
+"And they say that there are no such things as witches, or ugly ghosts
+wandering about, or such-like creatures," he thought to himself.  "I
+always fancied there were, but papa must be right, and I am sure I hope
+that there are not.  And as God loves us I don't think He would let such
+things be, to come and frighten us, certainly not to harm or frighten
+those who love Him.  How very, very foolish I have been, to believe all
+the nonsense I have heard."
+
+With these thoughts, repentant Willie fell asleep.  He did not see that
+his parents entered, when the rest of the family were gone to bed, and
+bending over him observed how placidly he slept.  Then they knelt down
+together and earnestly prayed for his spiritual welfare.  He had sorely
+felt their absence all day, and was inclined to believe that their love
+was estranged from him.  How far was this from the truth!  Thus it is
+that our Heavenly Father deals with His erring children.  He shuts
+Himself out from them.  He allows evil to overtake them, but not the
+less does He love them.  He thus afflicts them that they may more fully
+feel their dependence on Him, and return like the prodigal to His arms.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+Frank had to return to his ship, but after a short cruise he wrote word
+that he had again got leave to go home; and this time he hoped to be
+accompanied by his shipmate, the preserver of his life, Tom Holman.  The
+family at the rectory were as eager to see Tom as they were before.
+Some changes had taken place among them.  Willie was very different to
+what he had been.  His masters remarked that he was much improved.  From
+being the most idle, he was now one of the most attentive and obedient
+of their scholars.  His parents, too, believed that they had discovered
+a real change of heart.  His godmother, Miss Becky Ap Reece, had died
+and left him her heir, her property realising a far larger sum than had
+been expected; indeed, it was surmised that the poor lady must have lost
+a considerable portion of her income at cards, or she would have been
+able to live in better style, or have done more good with it than she
+had done.
+
+As soon as William heard that cousin Becky's property had been left to
+him, though of course he was ignorant of its value, he entreated that he
+might give it to Old Moggy to make her comfortable.
+
+"What, all, Willie? all your fortune?" asked his father, with a feeling
+of pleasure about his heart.
+
+"O yes, papa, I do not think that I have a right to spend any of it on
+myself, while she is suffering in consequence of my wickedness,"
+answered Willie, with perfect sincerity.
+
+"I rejoice to hear you say so, my dear boy, but the matter is not left
+in your power, nor indeed in mine.  Until you are of age, the interest
+of the capital can alone be spent; and I, as your guardian, have
+authority only to expend it on your proper maintenance and education.
+It is only, therefore, by denying yourself all luxuries and amusements,
+and by saving pocket-money, with which I am directed to supply you, that
+you can help poor Moggy as you desire."
+
+"Oh then, that is what I will do," exclaimed Willie.  "Don't give me any
+pocket-money, or let me have any amusements which cost money.  That's
+almost what I wanted to do; though I should like to set her up as a
+lady, or in a comfortable house, with a servant to attend on her."
+
+"That would not be wise, Willie," remarked Dr Morgan.  "You would
+expend all your means on one person, giving her more than she requires;
+and though it would save you trouble, you would be prevented from
+benefiting others; whereas you should calculate the means at your
+disposal, and take trouble to ascertain how much good you can possibly
+do with it.  I am also bound to give you your pocket-money, provided I
+do not find that you make a bad use of it.  You must decide how it is to
+be spent, and of course you are at liberty to return it to me to spend
+for you."
+
+"Oh, that will do, that will do!" exclaimed Willie, with pleasure in his
+tone.  "But you will help me, papa, in doing what is best with it?"
+
+"I have already anticipated some of your wishes with respect to poor
+Moggy, and we will see what more can be done to make her comfortable.
+She says that she prefers Windyside to any other spot on earth, and has
+no wish to move from it."
+
+On a fine day, when the sun was shining brightly over mountain and moor,
+and his beams were lighting up the pine-trees and the once dark, ruinous
+hovel on the hillside, Dr Morgan with most of his children took their
+way towards Old Moggy's abode.  It was greatly changed for the better.
+A chimney was now to be seen rising above the roof, which had been fresh
+tiled; there was glass in the window, a latch on the door, which had
+been repaired, and the lichen-covered walls had been scraped, fresh
+pointed, and white-washed.  When the party got inside they discovered an
+equally agreeable change.  A thick curtain divided the room; a screen
+kept off the draught when the door was opened; the walls were whitened,
+and there was a cupboard, and a table and chairs, and several shelves,
+on which rested some neat crockery.  On the inside of the curtain there
+was a comfortable bed, and some thick matting on the floor.  Old Moggy
+was seated in a large easy-chair, with her feet on the old stool, which
+before was one of her sole articles of furniture, and good Jenny Davis
+was making up a nice fire of coals, on which to cook some wholesome meat
+and vegetables which she had just brought from the market.
+
+"She's getting quite strong and hearty, with the good food and
+kindness," answered Jenny to the Doctor's question, "How is Moggy
+to-day?"
+
+"She can talk to ye as clear and sensibly as any one; ay, and there are
+some glorious things she has been saying to me, which have done my soul
+a world of good."
+
+"Ay, Doctor Morgan, in one thing Jenny speaks truth.  I don't feel the
+poor demented creature I was a few short months ago," said Moggy; "and
+it's your tender kindness, and that of your dear boy, Master Willie, and
+the rest of your children, has brought about the change which ye see in
+me.  I am clothed, and in my right mind; and yet, through the mercy of
+God, I never, even when my mind was wrong, was cast out from Him.  I
+still sought Him, and found Him.  He watched over me and protected me."
+
+"Be assured, Moggy," said the Doctor, "that we are well repaid for what
+we have done for you.  But I must not stay.  I came up with my children
+to-day to see how you were.  You require no doctoring, and so I must
+away.  Anna, however, will remain with the rest, as she has brought up a
+book to read, which may interest you."
+
+When the Doctor had gone Anna took a seat by Moggy's side, and Willie
+begged Jenny to give him some employment which might be of use.
+
+"There's little enough, my sweet young master, that is fit for you to
+do," answered Jenny.  "There are those few pots and pans to clean, and
+some cups and saucers, and plates and spoons, and knives and forks, but
+sure that's not work fit for a young gentleman's hands."
+
+"Oh, any work is fit for me, if it is to serve Moggy," said William,
+rubbing away at the articles which were placed by his side.
+
+Anna read on in her sweet, low voice.  The book contained a true history
+of one who bore suffering and affliction with patience and perfect
+resignation to the Divine will for long, long years, till health came
+back and she enjoyed peace and happiness in this world, and departed
+full of joy and hope.  Moggy, who seemed deeply interested, instantly
+applied the history to herself.
+
+"That's me, that's me," she muttered.  "I have got peace and comfort,
+and it's a happiness to have all these loving, dear children round me."
+She paused and sighed deeply, as if a recollection of the past had come
+suddenly on her, for she added, "But ah, who can bring back the dead--
+those who lie far, far away in their ocean grave?  No joy for me here
+till I know that I am departing to meet them."
+
+"Dear Moggy," said Anna, interrupting her gently, and fearing that she
+might give way to her feelings too much, "you have more than once
+promised that you would give us some of your past history.  We should
+very much like to hear it, provided you do not dwell too long on the
+more painful portions."
+
+Moggy looked up at her with a sad expression in her eyes.
+
+"Ah, sweet Miss Anna, you do not know what you ask," she answered.  "If
+I were to tell you my history without the sad portions there truly would
+be little to tell; but I will not therefore deny you.  It will do me
+good, maybe, to know that those I love are acquainted with my griefs,
+and can pity me, and as it were share them with me."
+
+"We know that you have had sore troubles, and we pity you for them, and
+we have all learned to love you because you bear them so patiently,"
+said Anna; "therefore if it gives you pain do not talk of your past
+history."
+
+"Ay, that is kind in you, Miss Anna, to say, but I have the wish now to
+tell you all; what I have been, and how I came to be as I am," said
+Moggy.  "Master Willie, ask Master Charles to come in (Charles had
+returned outside the cottage to botanise), then I'll tell ye all, yes,
+all.  Often and often I've thought of the past, so it does not seem
+strange to me as it will to you, dear Miss Anna, but ye will not weep
+for me, for it's long, long since I wept for myself."
+
+A shout from William made Anna run to the door, and from thence she saw
+Charley shaking hands with their brother Frank, and Willie running down
+the hill towards them.  Another person stood by, who must be, she was
+certain, Tom Holman.  Looking into the cottage again, and crying out,
+"Frank has come!  Frank has come!" she also ran down the hill towards
+her brothers.  There were warm greetings, and smiles, and laughter; and
+then Frank sang out, "Hillo, Tom, come up here.  My brothers and sister
+want to thank you for enabling me to get back and see them; and tell
+them how you picked me out of the water and saved my life, and have
+taken such good care of me ever since."
+
+Tom had, with true politeness, gone some way off out of ear-shot of the
+brothers and sister when they met.  The latter words were addressed to
+him, and with the activity of a seaman he sprang up the hill towards
+them.  He did not quite come up to the idea Anna had formed of him.
+Though dressed as a seaman, he was somewhat different to the
+commonly-received notions of what a British tar is like; still less
+could he be compared to a refined pirate or dashing rover of romance.
+He was an ordinary sized, sunburnt, darkish man of middle age, with a
+somewhat grave expression of countenance.  When he spoke, however, a
+pleasant smile lit up his firm mouth, and his eyes beamed with
+intelligence.  Anna, Charles, and Willie went forward, and putting out
+their hands one after the other, shook his cordially, and thanked him,
+in a few simple words, for the manly services he had rendered Frank;
+each hoping to find means of proving their gratitude in a more
+substantial way than by words alone.  Tom answered them in a pleasant
+voice, evidently gratified by the way they had treated him.
+
+"Why you see, Miss Morgan and young gentlemen, it was your brother first
+did me a service, and a very great one too, and so I felt very grateful,
+and a liking to him, and that made me have my eye oftener on him when
+there was any danger abroad, and be oftener talking to him; and so, do
+ye see, all the rest followed in course."
+
+"We never heard of Frank doing anything for you," answered Anna.  "We
+thought that the obligation was all on his side."
+
+"Come, Tom, don't talk about that just now," cried Frank.  "I say, Anna,
+how's Old Moggy?  I'm glad to see that you have painted up her abode.  I
+must go up and see her at once, and introduce Tom to her; she'll like to
+hear about the foreign parts he has been to."
+
+Saying this, he ran up the hill towards the hut.  The rest of the party
+followed more slowly.  Tom remained outside; the young Morgans entered.
+They found Frank seated opposite to Moggy, talking away to her, and
+telling her how happy he was to see her so comfortable.  The poor old
+woman was much gratified with the attention paid her.
+
+"But where is Tom?" cried Frank.  "Willie, tell him to come in.  I want
+to introduce him to Moggy.  He will be interested in her, for a kinder
+heart than his does not beat in the bosom of any man, woman, or child
+that I know of."
+
+Tom soon made his appearance, doffing his tarpauling as he entered, and
+taking a seat to which Frank pointed, nearly opposite Moggy.
+
+For a minute or more after Tom had taken his seat Moggy was silent, when
+bending forward, and shrouding her grey eyebrows with her withered hand,
+with unexpected suddenness she said, in a deep, low voice, and a strange
+inquiring expression in her countenance--
+
+"Who are you, and where do you come from?"
+
+"A seaman, mother," answered Tom, "and shipmate for many a year with
+young Mister Morgan here."
+
+The old woman scarcely seemed to understand what was said, but kept
+muttering to herself, and intently gazing at Tom.
+
+"Come, Moggy, you'll stare my shipmate out of countenance, for he's a
+bashful man, though a brave one," cried Frank, who fancied that his
+friend did not like the scrutiny he was undergoing.  Frank produced the
+effect he wished, and Moggy at once resumed the placid manner she had of
+late exhibited.
+
+"Your pardon, sir; strange fancies come over me at times, though it's
+seldom now I get as bad as I used to be," said Moggy.  "I forgot how
+time passes, ay, and what changes time works, but I will not trouble you
+with my wild fancies.  Your honoured father has shown me how I may put
+them to flight by prayer, by looking to Him who died for us, and then
+all becomes peace, and joy, and contentment."
+
+"Moggy was just going to give me an account of her early days when you
+arrived," said Anna.
+
+"I shall like very much to hear all about her, if Moggy will put off her
+history till another day," remarked Frank.  "I promised to return home
+again without delay, so we must not remain any longer."
+
+"Remember, children dear, time is in God's hand, not ours.  We propose,
+but He disposes as He knows best.  He may think fit to let me live, to
+enjoy the comforts you have provided for me in my old age, or He may
+think fit to call me home; but while I live my wish will be to please
+you if I can benefit you, and my last prayers will be for your welfare."
+
+"Oh, you must live on for many a day, and we must hear your story over
+and over again, till we know it by heart," cried Frank, about to go.
+
+"Once for me to tell and once for you to hear would be enough, my dear
+lad," said Moggy, shaking her head.
+
+"Good-bye, mother, good-bye," said Tom, his heart evidently touched by
+the poor old woman's condition.
+
+"Fare thee well, my son, fare thee well.  May Heaven prosper thee and
+guard thee on the perilous waters," answered Moggy, gazing intently at
+him as before.  "So like thy countenance, and thy manners."
+
+The rest of the party uttered their farewells, and leaving the hut, took
+their way down the mountain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+Frank was the life of the family in the drawing-room, and Tom interested
+and astonished the inmates of the kitchen with the accounts he gave them
+of his own adventures and his young officer's exploits and gallant
+deeds.  It is possible that some of his companions might have preferred
+hearing him sing a rollicking sea song, and seeing him dance a hornpipe,
+as most seamen are represented as doing on all possible occasions; but
+they soon found out that such was not Tom Holman's way.  He could talk,
+though, and laugh, and be very merry at times, and never seemed unhappy;
+and Mary Jones, Mrs Morgan's old nurse, declared that he was the
+pleasantest, and nicest, and quietest, ay, and more than that, the best
+young man she had seen for many a day.  Not that he was very young, for
+he was certainly over forty.  Tom Holman was more than pleasant--he was
+an earnest, Christian seaman.  Happily there are many such now-a-days,
+both in the Royal Navy and in the merchant service--men who are not
+ashamed of the Cross of Christ.  Tom and Mrs Jones soon became fast
+friends, and it was through her that the way in which he and Frank first
+became intimate was known to Mrs Morgan and the rest of the family.
+
+"You see, Mrs Jones," said Tom, as he sat with her in the housekeeper's
+room, "I was pretty well a castaway, without friends, without home,
+without any one to care for me, or show me the right course to sail on.
+I had got hold of some books, all about the rights of man, sneering at
+religion, and everything that was right, and noble, and holy; and in my
+ignorance I thought it all very fine, and had become a perfect infidel.
+All that sort of books writ by the devil's devices have brought
+countless beings to destruction--of body as well as of soul.  Our ship
+was on the coast of Africa, employed in looking after slavers, to try
+and put a stop to the slave trade.  I entered warmly into the work, for
+I thought that it was a cruel shame that men, because they had white
+skins, more power, and maybe, more sense, should be allowed to carry off
+their fellow-men and hold them in bondage.  I was appointed as coxswain
+of the boat commanded by Mr Morgan.  Often we used to be sent away in
+her for days together from the ship, to lie in wait for slavers.  The
+officers on such occasions used to allow us to talk pretty freely to one
+another and to express our minds.  One day I said something which showed
+Mr Morgan what was in my mind--how dark and ignorant it was.  He
+questioned me further, and found that I was an infidel, that I had no
+belief in God or in goodness, and that I was unhappy.  Some officers
+would have cared nothing for this, or just abused me, called me a fool,
+and let me alone; others, who called themselves religious, would have
+cast me off as a reprobate.  But Mr Morgan, whom I always thought only
+a good-natured, merry young gentleman, did neither; but he stuck to me
+like a friend.  Day after day, and night after night, he talked to me,
+and reasoned with me, and read to me out of the blessed Gospel, for he
+never was without the Book of Life in all our expedition.  [See Note 1.]
+Whenever he could get me alone he pleaded earnestly with me, as a
+friend, nay, as affectionately as a brother.  In spite of myself, he
+made me listen to him, and I learned to love and respect him, even when
+I thought myself far wiser than he was.  He persevered.  I began to see
+how vile I was, how unlike a pure and holy God; and then he showed me
+the only way by which I could become fit to dwell with God.  It seemed
+so plain, so simple, so beautiful, so unlike any idea man could
+conceive, that I, as it were, sprang to it, just as a drowning man
+springs to a rock, and clutching it, lifts himself up clear of the
+tangled weeds which are dragging him to destruction.  From that moment I
+became a changed man, and gained a peace and happiness of which I knew
+nothing before."
+
+"Dr Morgan's regards, and he hopes you'll step into the dining-room,
+Mr Holman," said the parlour-maid, opening the door.
+
+Tom was soon seated among the family circle, his manner showing that he
+was perfectly at his ease without the slightest show of presumption.
+
+"Tom, they want to hear about our adventures, and I've told them that I
+must have you present to confirm my account, lest they should suppose I
+am romancing," said Frank, as Tom entered.
+
+"They wouldn't think that, Mr Morgan," answered Tom.  "But, however,
+I'll take the helm for a spell if you get out of your right course."
+
+"I don't doubt you, old shipmate," said Frank.  "But before I get under
+weigh with my yarn I want you to give them a few pages out of your log
+before you and I sailed together."
+
+Tom guessed what this request meant.  "Well, sir, if your honourable
+father and mother and you wish it, I'll tell you all I know about
+myself.  For what I know to the contrary, I was born at sea.  My first
+recollections were of a fearful storm on the ocean.  We were tossing
+about in a boat.  One of them, whom I for a long time afterwards thought
+was my father, had charge of me.  He was a kind-hearted man, and looked
+after me most carefully.  He went by the name of Jack Johnson, but
+sailors often change their names, especially if they have deserted, or
+have done anything for which they think that they may be punished.  He
+always called me Tom, and I didn't know that I had any other name till
+he told me that my name was Holman, that he had known my father, who was
+a very respectable man, who, with my mother, and many other people, had
+been lost at sea.  He said that he had saved me, and that we, with a few
+others, were the only people who had escaped from the wreck.  We had
+been picked up by a ship outward bound round the Horn.  Two of the men
+died, the rest entered on board the whaler, and as the captain could not
+well pitch me overboard he was obliged to take me; for indeed Jack, who
+was the best seaman of the lot, refused to do duty unless I was put on
+the ship's books for rations.  It was a rough school for a child, but I
+throve in it, and learned many things, though some of them I had better
+not have learned.  The captain seemed a stern and morose man, and for
+many months he took no notice of me; but one day as I was trying to
+climb up the rattlins of the lower shrouds I fell to the deck.  He ran
+to me, lifted me up, and carrying me to his cabin, placed me on his own
+bed, and with an anxious countenance examined me all over to find where
+I was hurt.  He rubbed my temples and hands, and Jack, who followed him
+into the cabin, said he looked quite pleased when I came to again.  I
+was some weeks recovering, and he watched over me all the time with as
+much care as if I had been his own child.
+
+"`Ah! the man's heart is in the right place, and I'd sooner sail with
+him than with many another softer-spoken gentleman I've fallen in with,'
+remarked Jack one day after I had recovered.
+
+"We heard from one of the crew, who had before sailed with the captain,
+that he had a little son of his own killed from falling on deck, and
+this it was which made him take to me."
+
+"Yes, God has implanted right and good feelings in the bosoms of all His
+creatures," observed the Doctor.  "But when they are neglected, and sin
+is allowed to get the better of them, they are destroyed.  None of our
+hearts are in their right place, as the saying is.  They are all by
+nature prone to ill.  The same man who was doing you the kindness might
+in other ways have been grievously offending God."
+
+"Ay, sir, it might have been; but it would not become me to find fault
+with one who had rendered me so great a service," said Tom.  "After I
+was well, he used to have me into his cabin every day to teach me to
+read and write, and the little learning I ever had I gained from him.
+We had been out four years, and the ship had at last got a full cargo,
+and was on the point of returning home, when we fell in with another
+ship belonging to the same owners.  The captain of her had died, and the
+first mate had been washed overboard, and so the supercargo invited our
+captain to take charge of her.  As he had no wife nor children living at
+home, this he consented to do, and thus it happened that I remained out
+in the Pacific another four years.  Tom for my sake went with him to the
+other ship.  We were nearly full.
+
+"`One more fish, and then hurrah for old England, lads,' sung out the
+captain, as three sperm whales were seen spouting from the mast-head.
+
+"All the boats were immediately lowered.  Jack was in the captain's
+boat.  Away they pulled from the ship in chase.  Those sperm whales are
+sometimes dangerous creatures to hunt.  We saw that the captain's boat
+was fast, that is to say, he had struck the whale.  Away went the boat,
+towed at a great rate.  Suddenly she stopped--the whale rose.  The
+captain pulled in to strike another harpoon into her.  The monster
+reared her powerful tail and struck the boat a blow which split her
+clean in two.  We had not a boat left to go to our shipmates'
+assistance; the other boats were far away in other directions.  The wind
+was light, but we were able to lay up towards the spot where the
+accident had occurred.  We could at length see the wreck of the boat and
+two men clinging to her.  I hoped that one might be Jack and the other
+the captain; for they were, I may well say, the only two people I cared
+for in the world, or who cared for me.  Eagerly I looked out.  `It's Jem
+Rawlins and Peter Garvin,' I heard some one say.  My heart sank within
+me.  Jem and Peter were got on board.  They were, of all the crew, those
+I had the least reason to like.  They told us that the poor captain had
+got the line entangled round his leg, and had been drawn down when the
+whale sounded, and that Jack had been killed by a blow from her tail.
+It seemed wonderful that they themselves should have escaped,
+considering the fury with which the whale attacked the boat.  Thus was
+the last link broken which, as it were, connected me with my lost
+relations, and I might say that I had not a friend in the world.  All I
+knew about myself was that Jack had saved me from the wreck of a ship
+called the `Dove,' which, with my name, `Tom Holman,' he had tattooed on
+my arm.  He had also put into a tin case the belt I had on and one or
+two other little articles, which tin case was in his chest.  It was
+unanimously agreed on board that I should be his heir, so I succeeded to
+the chest, the chief article of value in which was the tin case.  I took
+it out, and have ever since preserved it carefully, though with little
+hope of finding it of use.  I had become very fond of reading, and had
+read all the books in the captain's cabin.  There were not many of them,
+and there was not one which had religion in it, and I am very certain
+that there was not a Bible on board.  I only knew that there was such a
+book from the captain, who had read it at home, and I heard him only a
+few days before his death regretting that he had not got one.  I believe
+our ship was not worse than others, and to the best of my belief not one
+of the South Sea whalers we fell in with had a Bible on board.  The
+crews, as a rule, were lawless reprobates, and the masters petty
+tyrants, who cared nothing for the men, provided they would work to get
+their ships full.  We sailed for England by the way of Cape Horn.  I
+wished to go there because I wished to see what sort of a country it
+was, and to enjoy the amusements of which I heard the men talking.  We
+had a prosperous passage till we were in the latitude of the Falkland
+Islands, when we were caught in a heavy gale, and after knocking about
+for some time in thick weather, when no observation could be obtained,
+we found ourselves with breakers under our lee, and a rocky shore
+beyond.  The masts were cut away and anchors let go, but to no purpose;
+the ship parting from her anchors was driven on the rocks.  Nearly half
+the crew were washed away, and the rest of us succeeded in gaining the
+shore, soon after which the ship went to pieces, and all the cargo which
+we had toiled so hard to collect was returned to the sea from whence it
+was obtained.  Very few provisions came on shore, but there was a fair
+supply of canvas and plenty of ropes.  We at once therefore put up a
+tent for ourselves, and placed all our more valuable possessions under
+cover.  With some spars which came on shore we formed a lofty flagstaff,
+on which we hoisted a flag, in the hope that it might be seen by some
+passing vessel.  There were springs of good water near the shore, and as
+long as our provisions lasted we got on pretty well, but when they began
+to fail the men looked at each other and asked, `What next?'
+
+"`Oh, some ship must be passing soon, and will take us off,' cried out
+two or three, who were unwilling to be placed on reduced rations.
+
+"`But suppose no ship does pass, lads, what will you do?  I have to tell
+you that, with the greatest economy, our provisions will not last
+another ten days,' said the first mate, who was now captain.  `It is
+barren and sandy here, but maybe, if we push our way across the island,
+we may find a richer country, and some animals on which we may live.'
+
+"Some agreed to the mate's proposal, others determined to remain on the
+sea-shore.  I accompanied the mate.  The provisions were equally
+divided, and those who remained said they would try and catch some fish,
+in case theirs ran short.
+
+"`Try and catch them at once, then,' said the mate; `don't wait till you
+are starving.'
+
+"In our party was a man who had been in South America, and could use the
+lasso with dexterity.  He and another man fitted two lines for the
+purpose, in the hope of finding some wild animals.  The rest laughed at
+them, declaring that in an island where there was not a tree to be seen,
+and only some long tufts of grass, it was not likely that we should find
+anything but snakes and lizards.  We had made good some ten miles or so,
+when we came upon a scene of desolation such as I have seldom elsewhere
+met with.  Far as the eye could reach the surface of the ground was one
+black mass of cinders.  The men looked at each other.
+
+"`Little prospect of finding any animals hereabouts,' observed one of
+the men.
+
+"`Not so sure of that,' said the mate, kicking up the ashes with his
+foot.  Under them appeared some blades of green grass just springing up.
+
+"`To my mind the fire has run across the island at this part, which
+seems to be somewhat narrow, for from the top of that rock I climbed I
+could make out the sea on either hand; and thus, you understand, it may
+have driven the animals, if there are any, over to the other parts
+beyond, where I hope we may find them.'
+
+"`But how is it that the animals didn't run our way?' asked one of the
+men.
+
+"`Because the country where we have been is barren and sandy, and they
+have gone to the opposite side, which is very different.  To the best of
+my belief we shall find herds of wild cattle feeding on the other side
+if we bravely push on.  Here goes, who'll follow?'
+
+"Saying this, the mate walked on quickly into the sea of cinders.  I ran
+after him, and the rest followed.  The mate supposed that the fire had
+occurred only a short time before we reached the island, and had been
+put out by the storm which had driven us on shore, or rather by the rain
+which accompanied it.  We had to sleep that night in the middle of the
+cinders, without a drop of water to drink.  Some of the men grumbled,
+but the mate told them that they ought to be thankful, because there was
+no chance of our being burned, which there might be if we were sleeping
+in the long grass.
+
+"`Ah, lads, every situation has its advantages, if we will but look for
+them,' he remarked; and I have often since thought of that saying of
+his.
+
+"On we went, the mate leading, the men often unwilling to proceed till
+he uttered a few words of encouragement.  At last the sun's rays,
+bursting out from between the clouds, fell on some green grass which
+clothed the side of a hill before us.  It was a welcome sight; and still
+more welcome was the sight of a herd of cattle which appeared before us
+as we got clear of the burnt district.  It was important not to frighten
+them.  We advanced carefully, the two men with lassoes leading, hiding
+ourselves among rocks and bushes, and keeping to leeward of the herd.
+To our great satisfaction, the animals as they fed moved on towards us.
+Suddenly the men with the lassoes threw them round the neck of a cow,
+the nearest animal to us.  We sprang forward, laying hold of the ends,
+one party hauling one way, one the other.  In spite of all her violent
+struggles, we had her fast, and one of the men, rushing in, hamstrung
+her, and she was in our power.  This capture raised our spirits, for we
+felt sure that we should never want food on the island, as we might
+catch the oxen in pitfalls if not with lassoes.  The mate was asked how
+he came to suppose that there were cattle on the island.
+
+"`Just because a shipmate, in whose word I could trust, told me he had
+seen them,' was the answer.  `What better reason for believing a thing
+would you require?'
+
+"We camped where we were, and the South American showed us how to cut up
+the heifer and to dry the meat in the sun, so that we had as much pure
+meat as each of us could carry.  As our companions had enough food for
+some days longer, the mate wished to see more of the island before
+returning.  We saw several large herds of cattle, which fed on the long
+grass covering the face of the country, which was generally undulating.
+We were several days away, and as we caught sight of the flagstaff, we
+thought of the pleasure the supply of meat we had brought would afford
+our companions.  We saw the tents, but no one came to meet us.  We
+shouted, but there was no shout in return.  We feared that they might be
+ill, or even dead.  We reached the tent, but no one was within; we
+looked about, we could find no one.  The mate was looking seaward.  He
+pointed to the offing, where, sinking below the horizon, the white sail
+of a ship was seen.  It was more than probable that our shipmates had
+gone in her, but whether with their own will or carried off by force we
+could not conjecture.  Some of the men were very angry, but the mate
+observed that was wrong.  Our shipmates, probably, could not help
+themselves.  They might have supposed we should not return, and, if they
+had gone with their own will, might have been unable to leave any
+message for us.  The mate was a truly charitable man, for he was anxious
+to put the best construction on the conduct of our shipmates.  There,
+however, we were left, with a diminished party, with the possibility
+that another ship might not approach the coast for many months to come.
+The summer was drawing to a close.  It had been somewhat damp and cold,
+and we expected that the winter would be proportionally severe.
+
+"`We may get off, but we may possibly have to stay; and if we are wise,
+lads, we shall prepare for the worst,' said the mate; and telling the
+men what would be wanted, forthwith began the work he advised.
+
+"We were to build a couple of huts, to cut and dry turf for fuel, and to
+kill some cattle and prepare the flesh; to hunt for vegetables or herbs,
+which might keep off scurvy, and to do various other things.
+
+"`Example is better than precept, Tom, as you will find,' observed the
+mate to me.  `I never tell men to do what I am not ready to do myself.
+That's the reason they obey me so willingly.'
+
+"I've ever since remembered the mate's words, and told them to Mr
+Morgan; and I am sure he never orders men to do what he is not ready to
+try and do himself if necessary.  It was fortunate for all that the
+mate's advice was followed.  Some comfortable huts were got up, and a
+store of provisions and fuel collected before the winter began.  It set
+in with unusual seventy, and I believe that we should all have perished
+from cold, and damp, and snow, had we not been prepared, though I do not
+remember that the frost was hard at any time.
+
+"Some of the men abused their companions for going away without them.
+
+"`Let be,' said the mate; `all's for the best.  We don't know where they
+are now, but we do know that we are not badly off, with a house,
+clothing, food, and firing.  These islands are not so much out of the
+way, but what we are certain to get off some day or other, and in the
+meantime we have no cause to complain.  Let us rather be thankful, and
+rejoice that we are so well off.'
+
+"I remembered those words of the mate afterwards.  It is now my belief
+that the mate was a God-fearing man, but religion had been so unpopular
+among those with whom he had sailed, that he was afraid of declaring his
+opinions, and just went and hid his light under a bushel.  What a world
+of good he might have done us all if he had spoken out manfully!  As it
+was, all that precious time was lost.  The mate did speak to me
+occasionally, but timidly, and I did not understand him.  How should I?
+It was not till long afterwards, as Mr Morgan knows, that I became
+acquainted with Christianity.  Before that I was as a heathen; I knew
+nothing of Christ, nothing of God.  The winter passed away, the spring
+returned, and the summer drew on, and not a sail had been seen.  All
+hands became anxious to get off, and from early dawn till nightfall the
+flag was kept flying, and one or more of the party were on the lookout
+from Flagstaff Hill.  At length a sail hove in sight.  Nearer and nearer
+she came.  `Would our flag be seen?' was now the question.  The wind was
+off the shore, she tacked, she was beating up towards us.  From her
+white canvas and the length of her yards she was pronounced to be a
+man-of-war corvette, and her ensign showed us that she was English.
+Some of the men declared that they would rather live the rest of their
+days on the island than go on board a man-of-war; but the mate told them
+that they were very foolish, and that if they did their duty they would
+be better treated than on board most merchantmen.  I shared their fears,
+for I had heard all sorts of stones about the treatment of men on board
+men-of-war, which I have since found to be absurdly false.  The end was
+that we all stood ready to receive the boat when she reached the beach.
+A lieutenant with a midshipman came in her.  They were very much
+surprised to hear that we had been a whole year on shore, observing that
+we must have saved a good supply of provisions from the wreck.  When the
+mate told them of the wild cattle, and that we could catch some, they
+begged us to do so, saying that the purser would purchase the meat from
+us for the ship's company.  They accordingly returned on board, but soon
+came back with the butcher, and by the next day we had six or eight fine
+animals ready for them.  The officer kindly gave us permission to carry
+off any of our property which could be stowed away on board.  From the
+considerate treatment the men received, they all volunteered into the
+service, and I was rated as a ship's boy, and from that day to this have
+belonged to the Royal Navy of England.  The mate was promised promotion
+if he would join.
+
+"`At all events I do not wish to eat the bread of idleness,' was his
+answer.  `I'll do duty in any station to which I am appointed.'
+
+"The corvette was bound round the Horn, so back again into the Pacific I
+went.  We touched at many places in Chili and Peru, and then stood to
+the west to visit some of the many islands in those seas.  I had been
+about a year on board when one day an object was seen from the
+mast-head, which was made out to be a boat.
+
+"There was one man sitting up in her, but three others lay dead under
+the thwarts.  The man was brought on board more dead than alive, and had
+it not been for the watchful care of our surgeon he could not have long
+survived.  At first he was nothing but skin and bone, with sunken eyes
+and hollow cheeks, but when he got some flesh on him I recognised him as
+one of my shipmates who had deserted us on the Falkland Islands.  He had
+not, it seemed, discovered any of us, and of course in two years I was
+so grown that he did not know me.  So one day, sitting by him, I asked
+him how it was he came into the plight in which we found him.  He told
+me many circumstances of which I was cognisant, and how the ship was
+wrecked on the Falklands, and how part of the people had gone off into
+the interior, and deserted those who wisely remained on the sea-shore.
+`Never mind, they must have got their deserts, and perished,' he added;
+and then he told me a ship appearing the day after we left, they had all
+gone on board.  They soon found that the crew had been guilty of some
+foul deed; the captain and mate had been killed, with some others, and
+the rest had determined to turn pirates.  My shipmate was asked if he
+would do so.  They swore if he did not that he must die.  To save his
+life, he with the rest consented to join them.  I will not repeat the
+account he gave of all the crimes which he and his companions had
+committed.  He said that he had protested against them, and excused
+himself.  From bad they went on to worse, and frequently quarrelling,
+murdered each other.  The end was that this ship was cast away on a
+reef, one boat only escaping, and of the people in her, after she had
+been nearly a month drifting over the ocean, he alone survived.  We who
+had been left alone on the Falklands had reason to be thankful that we
+had not gone off in the pirate ship.  Had we done so, who among us could
+have said that we should have escaped the terrible fate which overtook
+our shipmates?  From the time I learned the Lord's Prayer, there is no
+part I have repeated more earnestly than `Lead us not into temptation.'
+My poor shipmate never completely recovered from the hardships to which
+he had been exposed; his mind, too, was always haunted with the dreadful
+scenes he had witnessed, and he often told me that he never could show
+his face in England, lest he should be recognised by those he had
+wronged.  He died the day before we made the coast of England.  The ship
+was paid off, but I found the naval service so much to my taste, and
+there was so little on shore to attract me, that I the next day joined
+another fitting out for the Indian station.  After this, I visited in
+one ship or another most parts of the world.  But I think, Doctor
+Morgan, you and your lady and the young gentlefolks will be getting
+tired, so I'll put off an account of my adventures till another evening.
+One thing I must say now, though.  I looked upon it as a blessed day on
+which I joined the `Rover,' where I met Mister Morgan, and yet there was
+a day which I have reason to call still more blessed, when we were off
+the coast of Africa."
+
+"Well, well, Tom.  Don't talk of that now," said Frank.  "I just did
+what every Christian man should do.  I put the truth before you, and you
+believed it.  I did not put myself to any inconvenience even to serve
+Tom, while he risked his life to save mine.  That was after the `Rover'
+had come home and been paid off, and we belonged to the `Kestrel,' and
+were sent out to the Pacific.  I had an idea before we went there that
+we were to find at all times calm seas and sunshine.  I soon discovered
+my mistake.  We were caught in a terrific gale when in the neighbourhood
+of coral islands and reefs.  I had gone aloft to shorten sail, when the
+ship gave an unexpected lurch, and I was sent clean overboard.  I felt
+that I must be lost, for the ship was driving away from me, and darkness
+was not far off, when I saw that some one had thrown a grating into the
+sea, and immediately afterwards a man leaped in after it.  He was
+swimming towards me.  There seemed a prospect of my being saved.  Still,
+how the man who had thus nobly risked his life for my sake, and I could
+ever regain the ship, I could not tell.  I struck out with all my
+strength to support myself, and prayed heartily.  I soon recognised Tom
+Holman's voice, cheering me up.  He clutched me by the collar, and aided
+by him I gained the grating.  Two or three spars had been thrown in
+after it, and, getting hold of them we formed a raft which supported us
+both.  By the time we were seated on it the ship was far away, and it
+seemed impossible that in the dangerous neighbourhood in which I knew
+that we were, the captain would venture to return on the mere chance of
+finding us, should we indeed be alive.  Our prospect outwardly was
+gloomy indeed, though we kept up hope.  I was sorry when I thought that
+we should be lost; that Tom had, as I fancied, thrown away his life for
+my sake.  However, we will not talk of that now.  We were drifting, that
+was certain, and might drift on shore, or we might be driven against a
+reef, when we must be lost.  It was now night, though there was light
+enough to distinguish the dark white-crested seas rising up around us,
+and the inky sky overhead.  Still we knew that there was the Eye of Love
+looking down on us through that inky sky, and that though the rest of
+the world was shut out from us, we were not shut out from Him, without
+whose knowledge not a sparrow falls to the ground.  I say this to you,
+dear father and mother, because I wish to show my brothers and sisters
+the effect of your teaching.  I wished to live, but I was prepared to
+die.  The water was warm, and as we had had supper just before I fell
+overboard we were not hungry, so that our physical sufferings were as
+yet not great.  Hour after hour passed by; the raft drove on before the
+wind and sea.  We supposed that it must be near dawn, for it seemed as
+if we had been two whole nights on the raft, when we both heard the
+sound of breakers.  Our fate would soon thus be decided.  As far as we
+were able, we gazed around when we reached the summit of a sea.  There
+were the breakers; we could see the white foam flying up like a vast
+waterspout against the leaden sky.  We were passing it though, not
+driving against it.  A current was sweeping us on.  The dawn broke.  As
+the light increased our eyes fell on a grove of cocoa-nut trees, rising
+it seemed directly out of the water.  The current was driving us near
+them.  We sat up and eagerly watched the shore; we had of ourselves no
+means of forcing on the raft a point towards it, or in any degree faster
+than we were going.  Had we been driven directly towards it, on the
+weather side, which, in our eagerness, we might have wished, we should
+probably have been dashed to pieces; but the current took us round to
+the lee side, and finally drifted us into a little bay where we safely
+got on shore.  You already know how we lived luxuriously on cocoa-nuts
+and shell-fish, and about the clear fountain which rushed up out of the
+rock in the centre of our island, and how our ship came back after some
+weeks to water at that very fountain, and found us safe and well; and so
+I will bring my yarn to an end."
+
+"We cannot be too thankful that you were preserved, my dear boy, when we
+hear of the terrific dangers to which you and your brave friend were
+exposed," exclaimed Dr Morgan.  "I will not now speak of our debt to
+him, never properly to be repaid, but I would point out to you all, my
+children (what struck me as Frank was speaking), how like the way in
+which he and Tom were preserved, is that in which God deals with His
+people who put their trust in Him.  We are in an ocean of troubles, with
+darkness around us.  We dimly discern breakers rising up on one side,
+breakers ahead.  We can do nothing to help ourselves, except pray on and
+trust in Him.  We see at length a haven of safety before us.  Our
+eagerness gets the better of our faith, but the current of His mercy
+drifts round and away from what is really a peril, and we are carried on
+into calm waters, and find shelter and rest from danger and trouble."
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Note 1.  The author has a dear friend, a naval officer, who was, as is
+here described, the instrument of bringing some of his shipmates to a
+knowledge and acceptance of the truth; one especially, from being an
+infidel, became a faithful follower of Christ.  His bones lie sepulchred
+under the eternal snows of the Arctic pole.  How consolatory to believe,
+that amid the fearful sufferings that gallant band was called on to
+endure, he, with many others--it may be all--were supported by faith and
+hope to the last.  We say all, for we cannot say what influence he and
+other Christian men may have exerted over their companions during the
+long, long years they passed in those Arctic regions ere they perished.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+Several circumstances had prevented the young Morgans from paying a
+sufficiently long visit to Old Moggy to enable her to give them her
+promised history.  Jenny reported that she was better in mind and body
+than she had ever known her, and as the time for Frank and Tom's
+departure was drawing near, the whole party resolved to go up to hear
+her tale.  They did not fail to carry a few little luxuries which were
+likely to please her.  They found her as usual, seated before her fire,
+for even in the summer she seemed to enjoy its warmth, on that bleak
+hill's side.  What with chairs, benches, and stools, a log of wood, a
+pile of turf, and a boulder which Charley rolled in, all found seats.
+Anna had to exercise a little diplomacy to induce Moggy to begin before
+so formidable an audience.  The poor creature was inclined to chide Tom
+for not having come up oftener to see her, when she discovered that he
+was going away.
+
+"I took a liking to your face and your manner my son, from the first
+minute my eyes fell on you; and it would have been a slight thing for ye
+to have come up and cheered the old woman's well-nigh withered heart,"
+she observed, in a more testy tone than she was accustomed to use.
+
+"Well, mother, don't blame me," answered Tom.  "Many's the time I've
+come round this way, but feared to intrude, or I would have come in, and
+I'll not now miss the chance another time."
+
+This promise seemed to satisfy Moggy, and after a little hesitation she
+began.
+
+"Once I was blithe and gay as any of you dear young people.  I had a
+home, and parents, and sisters.  There were three of us, as pretty and
+as merry as any to be found in the country around.  We merrily grew up
+into happy maidens, as merry as could be found, and the glass told us,
+even if others had been silent, that we were as pretty too.  We sang and
+laughed from morn till night, and, alack, were somewhat thoughtless too;
+but we were not idle.  Our parents had a farm, and we helped our mother
+in the dairy, and there was plenty of work for us.  It was a pleasant
+life.  We were up with the lark and to bed in summer with the sun, and
+in winter we sat by the fire when the cows were housed and the milk was
+set in the pans, and all our out-door work was done, and knitted or
+spun, or plied our needles, and chatted and sung; and guests came in,
+and some of them came to woo; and we thought not of the morrow, and
+taught ourselves to believe that the pleasant life we led would never
+have an end.  Ah! we were foolish--like the foolish virgins who had no
+oil for their lamps, as all are foolish who think only of the present,
+and prepare not for the future.  Bad times were in store for us, such as
+all farmers must be ready to encounter.  Storms injured the crops, and
+disease attacked our cattle; a fire broke out in the farm buildings; and
+the end was that father had to throw up the farm, to sell his remaining
+stock, and to go forth almost penniless into the world.  Barely enough
+remained to pay our passage to America.  I was about to go with the rest
+of my family, when one I had loved right well, an honest, steady youth,
+entreated me to remain.  He might soon have enough to wed.  He had a
+sick mother whom he could not leave, or he would have gone with us.  If
+I went we might never meet again.  I consented to remain, so that I
+could obtain service in which to support myself.  A kind, good mistress
+engaged me.  She was more than kind, she was wise; not worldly wise, but
+her wisdom was from above.  She taught me that wisdom.  By her means my
+eyes were opened to things about which I before knew nothing.  I saw
+that God had dealt mercifully with me; that what I thought was a
+misfortune was a blessing.  I was thus led out of darkness into light.
+I was happy, with a new happiness of which I before knew nothing.  My
+intended husband enjoyed it likewise; we both embraced the truth--my
+only sorrow being that those who had gone away knew nothing of it.
+Thomas lived at a distance, but whenever he could he came over to see
+me.  My kind, good mistress often spoke to him, and approved of my
+choice.  Time wore on.  We waited to hear of those who had crossed the
+sea.  Sad tidings came at length.  My mother had died on the voyage.  My
+father, heart-broken, and my sisters had landed and found a home, but
+they missed her who had been their guide and their friend; and they
+wanted me to go out and join them, and some cousins who lived a few
+miles off from where I was at service, and Thomas also, if he would
+marry me.  I told my kind mistress.
+
+"`If Thomas loves you, and will take you to that foreign land, I will
+not say you nay,' was her reply.
+
+"She gave me leave to go and deliver the message to my cousins, charging
+me soon to return.  My cousins were not averse to my sister's proposal,
+and talked with pleasure of the many kindred who would meet in that
+far-off settlement, for far off it seemed to them.  On my return I found
+the front door of my mistress's house closed.  I went round and gained
+an entrance through a window at the back.  What was my horror to find
+her bathed in blood, fallen from the arm-chair in which she sat before
+the fire.  I kneeled down to examine where she had been hurt, and was
+about to raise her up when the door was burst open; some men rushed in;
+I was seized.  No one aided my dear mistress.  A surgeon at length came.
+He pronounced her dead.  These cruel men had allowed her to die
+unaided.  I was accused of being her murderess.  My horror, my
+indignation, at the way she had been treated, my grief, my agitation,
+impressed them with the conviction that I was guilty of the foul crime
+which had been committed; for murdered she had been, of that there was
+no doubt.  Branded as a murderess I was borne off to prison.  Many
+thought me guilty.  It was cruelly said that I was found red-handed by
+the side of my victim.  But even in prison I sought support, and
+obtained it whence alone it was to be afforded.  As King David, I could
+say, `I have washed my hands in innocency.  I cried unto the Lord and He
+heard me.'  Oh, my young friends, keep innocency.  Do what is right in
+the sight of the Lord, and never need you fear what man can do unto you.
+There was one, however, on earth who knew me to be innocent--my Thomas.
+He obtained leave to visit me in prison, obtained the best legal aid by
+the sacrifice of his savings, and the evidence against me broke
+completely down.  I was acquitted.  I scarcely knew how, or what
+occurred.  I entreated Thomas to let me become his wife, that I might
+repay him by devoting my life to his service.  We married; we were
+happy; and by watchful care I was enabled to make his wages go farther
+than before his marriage.  More than a year had passed away; we had a
+child born, a son.  We believed that he would prove a blessing to us.
+Some few more years had fled by.  Again and again my sisters urged that
+we would go out to join them.  At length they were both about to marry,
+and our father would be left alone.  Thomas agreed to go.  I thought
+with delight of showing my young son to my father, of assisting and
+supporting him in his old age, and more than all, of imparting to him
+those blessed truths which I myself had found such a comfort to my soul.
+We sailed in as fine a ship as ever put to sea, with many others about
+to seek their fortunes in the New World; but scarcely had we left the
+shores of England a hundred leagues astern than we encountered a fearful
+gale, which washed away the bulwarks and some of our boats, strained the
+hull, and shattered our masts and spars.  It was but the beginning of
+disasters.  But, dear young people, I cannot dwell on that most grievous
+period of my existence.  The storm had injured our provisions.  After
+the storm came a calm, more dreadful than the storm; our water began to
+run short.  Did any of you ever feel the pangs of thirst?  Day after day
+our shattered bark lay rolling on the burning ocean.  There was the
+constant gush of water to tantalise us, for by undiscovered leaks the
+sea had found an entrance, and in every watch the pumps were kept at
+work.  We were thankful when a breeze came, and once more the ship moved
+across the ocean; but the breeze increased into a gale more fearful than
+the first.  On, on we drove; the leaks again increased.  Day and night
+the men were kept toiling at the pumps; my husband worked like the rest.
+In vain, in vain; they could work no longer; the water was gaining on
+us; the raging seas were washing over our decks.  The strength of the
+men was exhausted.  Some of the women offered to try and work the pumps.
+The night was coming on.  I resolved to labour, that I might aid to
+save my husband's life, our boy's, my own.
+
+"My boy had clung to me.  I gave him, so I thought, to his father, to
+watch over, while I laboured like the rest.  Would you hear what
+occurred?  My heart has grown into stone, or I could not bear to tell
+it.  The raging seas broke more and more frequently over the ship.  The
+dreadful cry arose, `The ship is sinking, the ship is sinking!'  I flew
+towards my husband--my child was not with him.  He had not received him
+from me.  Frantically I rushed along the deck; it was with no hope of
+safety, but to die with my boy in my arms.  Once more I was approaching
+my husband; a flash of lightning revealed him to me at the moment that a
+vast sea came sweeping down on the ship.  It seized him in its cruel
+embrace, and bore him far, far away, with many other helpless, shrieking
+beings.  Thankfully would I have followed, but I sought my boy.  In
+vain, in vain!  I felt myself seized by a strong arm, and lifted into a
+boat.  I lost all consciousness for the next instant, it seemed.  I
+found the boat floating alone amid the tumultuous waves.  My husband and
+my boy were gone.  They said there were other boats, and that some might
+have been saved in them.  I know not if any were saved.  Neither my
+husband nor our child did I ever again see; the cold, cruel waves had
+claimed them.  For many days we lay tossed about on the foaming waters.
+We were more dead than alive when a sail appeared in sight.  How I lived
+I know not; it was, I believe, because all my feelings were dead.  I
+felt nothing, thought of nothing; I was in a dream, a cold, heavy weight
+lay on my heart and brain.  I knew not what was going on; the past was a
+blank, the future was darkness.  We were lifted on board--carefully
+tended.  The ship was bound, with settlers, to the same port to which I
+was going.  Those who had been saved with me told my story.  Some of the
+passengers were going to the far-off West, to the very spot where my
+father and sisters had settled.  Their hearts were touched with
+compassion by my misfortunes, and they bore me with them.  Truly they
+were followers of the good Samaritan.  Day after day we journeyed on
+towards the setting sun.  At length we reached my father's house; he and
+my sisters scarcely knew me, so great was the havoc grief had wrought.
+Kind and gentle treatment by degrees thawed my long frozen faculties,
+and I began to take an interest in the affairs of the farm.  In that
+region the native tribes, the red men of the prairie, were fierce and
+warlike, and often were engaged in deadly contests with the whites.
+Years--many years, passed by, during which our people enjoyed peace.  A
+storm, however, was brewing, to burst with fury on our heads.  It came;
+in the dead of night the dreadful war-whoop of the red men was heard.
+On every side arose those horrid cries.  Our village was surrounded;
+young and old, men and maidens, were ruthlessly murdered.  My old father
+and sisters were among the first slain.  Some few bravely made a stand.
+They fought their way out through the savages.  I felt my arm seized by
+some friendly hand, and was borne on amid them.  Armed friends came to
+our assistance, and the savages were driven back through the smoking
+ruins of our home.  All, all were gone; relatives, friends, and
+property.  Those who had accompanied me to the country, all, all were
+gone.  I was among strangers; they pitied me, but pity cannot last long
+in the human breast.  There is only One whose tender pity never wanes;
+and it is only that human pity which arises from love of Him which can
+stand all tests, and can endure for ever.  I was left alone, alone in
+that far-off land.  My reason gave way.  An idea had seized me--it was
+to visit that mighty ocean beneath which slept my husband and my child.
+I wandered on.  I know not how I found my way, often through vast
+solitudes where foot of man but rarely trod, till I reached the more
+settled states.  Food and shelter were rarely denied to the poor mad
+woman, though of the roughest sort.  At length I reached the eastern
+cities; scant was the charity I found within them, I gained the
+sea-coast; I gazed upon the ocean, with its majestic billows rolling up
+from the far-off east.  They seemed to me like mighty monuments raised
+to the memory of those who slept beneath.  For many years I had lived on
+that wild sea waste, when I was seized and carried to a prison.  I
+demanded to know my crime.  I heard myself branded as a pauper lunatic,
+and was placed on board a ship to be returned to my native land.  Sad,
+sad was my heart.  I had many companions in my misery--helpless beings
+whom the strong new world would not receive.  We were placed on shore to
+starve, or live as best we could.  I wandered on towards the spot where
+long, long years before, I had lived a happy maiden.  No one knew me; I
+was branded as a witch, and fled away.  Should I go to the relatives of
+my husband?  Thomas had spoken of them as kind and charitable.  I
+reached the village; every one looked at me with suspicion as a vagrant.
+Well they might, for a vagrant I was, poor, wretched, and despised.  I
+had been there in my happy days with Thomas; but the place itself looked
+strange.  I inquired for his father, Farmer Holman.  `Dead many a year
+ago; all the rest gone away; never held up his head since his son went
+off with that jade who murdered her mistress.'  Such was the answer I
+received.  The words fell like molten lead upon my brain.  I fled away.
+I wandered on, not knowing whither I was going, till I reached these
+sheltering walls on the mountain-side."
+
+Tom had been greatly agitated on hearing the name of Holman.  Frank and
+Anna had exchanged surprised glances with each other.
+
+"Dame, do you remember the name of Jack Johnson on board the ship which
+foundered with so many on board?" asked Tom.
+
+"Ay, that I do.  He was one who took a great fancy to my precious boy,"
+answered Moggy, gazing earnestly at Tom.
+
+"It is strange, mother, but such was the name of a kind seaman who for
+many years acted as a second father to me; and still stranger, that he
+always called me Tom Holman," exclaimed Tom, as he sat himself down on
+the stool at her feet, and drawing a tin case from his pocket, took from
+it a variety of small articles, which he placed in her lap.
+
+She gazed at them with a fixed, earnest look for some moments, and then,
+stretching out her arms, she exclaimed, "Come to me, my son, my boy--
+long lost, now found!  I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me out of my
+deep distress.  You bear your father's name, you have your father's
+looks.  Wonderful are the ways of the Lord.  The Lord giveth and the
+Lord taketh away.  The Lord hath restored me tenfold into my bosom.
+Blessed be the Name of the Lord!"
+
+Tom threw his arms round the old woman, and sobbed like a child.
+
+"Mother, mother, I have found you, I have found you!" he cried out, as
+he kissed her withered cheek.
+
+What mattered it to him that she was aged and infirm, poor and despised?
+She was his mother, of whom he had dreamed in his youth whom he had
+always longed to find.  He would now devote himself to cherish and
+support her, and cheer her few remaining days on earth.
+
+"My dear children," said Dr Morgan, who had entered soon after Moggy
+had begun her history, "let us learn, from what we have heard, never to
+cease to put our whole trust and confidence in God.  Whatever happens,
+let us go on praying to God and trusting in God, for let us be assured
+that He always careth for us."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Mountain Moggy, by William H. G. Kingston
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