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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Philosopher Jack, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
+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: Philosopher Jack
+
+Author: R.M. Ballantyne
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21756]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PHILOSOPHER JACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+PHILOSOPHER JACK, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+TREATS OF OUR HERO AND OTHERS.
+
+If the entire circuit of a friend's conversation were comprised in the
+words "Don't" and "Do,"--it might perhaps be taken for granted that his
+advice was not of much value; nevertheless, it is a fact that
+Philosopher Jack's most intimate and valuable--if not valued--friend
+never said anything to him beyond these two words.  Nor did he ever
+condescend to reason.  He listened, however, with unwearied patience to
+reasoning, but when Jack had finished reasoning and had stated his
+proposed course of action, he merely said to him, "Don't," or "Do."
+
+"For what end was I created?" said the philosopher, gloomily.
+
+Wise and momentous question when seriously put, but foolish remark, if
+not worse, when flung out in bitterness of soul!
+
+Jack, whose other name was Edwin, and his age nineteen, was a student.
+Being of an argumentative turn of mind, his college companions had
+dubbed him Philosopher.  Tall, strong, active, kindly, hilarious,
+earnest, reckless, and impulsive, he was a strange compound, with a
+handsome face, a brown fluff on either cheek, and a moustache like a
+lady's eyebrow.  Moreover, he was a general favourite, yet this favoured
+youth, sitting at his table in his own room, sternly repeated the
+question--in varied form and with increased bitterness--"Why was I born
+at all?"
+
+Deep wrinkles of perplexity sat on his youthful brow.  Evidently he
+could not answer his own question, though in early life his father had
+carefully taught him the "Shorter Catechism with proofs," while his good
+old mother had enforced and exemplified the same.  His taciturn friend
+was equally unable, or unwilling, to give a reply.
+
+After prolonged meditation, Jack relieved his breast of a deep sigh and
+re-read a letter which lay open on his desk.  Having read it a third
+time with knitted brows, he rose, went to the window, and gazed
+pathetically on the cat's parade, as he styled his prospect of slates
+and chimney cans.
+
+"So," said he at last, "my dreams are over; prospects gone; hopes
+collapsed--all vanished like the baseless fabric of a vision."
+
+He turned from the cat's parade, on which the shades of evening were
+descending, to the less romantic contemplation of his empty fire-grate.
+
+"Now," said he, re-seating himself at his table and stretching his long
+legs under it, "the question is, What am I to do? shall I kick at fate,
+throw care, like physic, to the dogs, cut the whole concern, and go to
+sea?"
+
+"Don't," said his taciturn friend, speaking distinctly for the first
+time.
+
+"Or," continued Jack, "shall I meekly bow to circumstances, and struggle
+with my difficulties as best I may?"
+
+"Do," replied his friend, whose name, by the way, was Conscience.
+
+For a long time the student sat gazing at the open letter in silence.
+It was from his father, and ran thus:--
+
+  "Dear Teddie,--It's a long time now that I've been thinkin' to write
+  you, and couldn't a-bear to give you such a heavy disappointment but
+  can't putt it off no longer, and, as your mother, poor soul, says,
+  it's the Lord's will and can't be helped--which, of course, it
+  shouldn't be helped if that's true--but--well, howsomever, it's of no
+  use beatin' about the bush no longer.  The seasons have been bad for
+  some years past, and it's all I've been able to do to make the two
+  ends meet, with your mother slavin' like a nigger patchin' up the
+  child'n's old rags till they're like Joseph's coat after the wild
+  beast had done its worst on it--though we _are_ given to understand
+  that the only wild beasts as had to do with that coat was Joseph's own
+  brothers.  Almost since ever I left the North of England--a small
+  boy--and began to herd cattle on the Border hills, I've had a strange
+  wish to be a learned man, and ever since I took to small farmin', and
+  perceived that such was not to be my lot in life, I've had a powerful
+  desire to see my eldest son--that's you, dear boy--trained in
+  scientific pursoots, all the more that you seemed to have a natural
+  thirst that way yourself.  Your mother, good soul, in her own broad
+  tongue--which I've picked up somethin' of myself through livin' twenty
+  year with her--was used to say she `wad raither see her laddie trained
+  in ways o' wisdom than o' book-learnin',' which I'm agreed to myself,
+  though it seems to me the two are more or less mixed up.  Howsomever,
+  it's all up now, my boy; you'll have to fight your own battle and pay
+  your own way, for I've not got one shillin' to rub on another, except
+  what'll pay the rent; and, what with the grey mare breakin' her leg
+  an' the turnips failin', the look-out ahead is darkish at the best."
+
+The letter finished with some good advice and a blessing.
+
+To be left thus without resources, just when the golden gates of
+knowledge were opening, and a few dazzling gleams of the glory had
+pierced his soul, was a crushing blow to the poor student.  If he had
+been a true philosopher, he would have sought counsel on his knees, but
+his philosophy was limited; he only took counsel with himself and the
+immediate results were disastrous.
+
+"Yes," said he, with an impulsive gush, "I'll go to sea."
+
+"Don't," said his quiet friend.
+
+But, regardless of this advice, Edwin Jack smote the table with his
+clenched fist so violently that his pen leapt out of its ink-bottle and
+wrote its own signature on one of his books.  He rose in haste and rang
+the bell.
+
+"Mrs Niven," he said to his landlady, "let me know how much I owe you.
+I'm about to leave town--and--and won't return."
+
+"Ech!  Maister Jack; what for?" exclaimed the astonished landlady.
+
+"Because I'm a beggar," replied the youth, with a bitter smile, "and I
+mean to go to sea."
+
+"Hoots!  Maister Jack, ye're jokin'."
+
+"Indeed I am very far from joking, Mrs Niven; I have no money, and no
+source of income.  As I don't suppose you would give me board and
+lodging for nothing, I mean to leave."
+
+"Toots! ye're haverin'," persisted Mrs Niven, who was wont to treat her
+"young men" with motherly familiarity.  "Tak' time to think o't, an'
+ye'll be in anither mind the morn's mornin'.  Nae doot ye're--"
+
+"Now, my good woman," interrupted Jack, firmly but kindly, "don't bother
+me with objections or advice, but do what I bid you--there's a good
+soul; be off."
+
+Mrs Niven saw that she had no chance of impressing her lodger in his
+present mood; she therefore retired, while Jack put on a rough
+pilot-cloth coat and round straw hat in which he was wont at times to go
+boating.  Thus clad, he went off to the docks of the city in which he
+dwelt; the name of which city it is not important that the reader should
+know.
+
+In a humble abode near the said docks a bulky sea-captain lay stretched
+in his hammock, growling.  The prevailing odours of the neighbourhood
+were tar, oil, fish, and marine-stores.  The sea-captain's room partook
+largely of the same odours, and was crowded with more than an average
+share of the stores.  It was a particularly small room, with charts,
+telescopes, speaking-trumpets, log-lines, sextants, portraits of ships,
+sou'-westers, oil-cloth coats and leggings on the walls; model ships
+suspended from the beams overhead; sea-boots, coils of rope, kegs, and
+handspikes on the floor; and great shells, earthenware ornaments,
+pagodas, and Chinese idols on the mantel-piece.  In one corner stood a
+child's crib.  The hammock swung across the room like a heavy cloud
+about to descend and overwhelm the whole.  This simile was further borne
+out by the dense volumes of tobacco smoke in which the captain enveloped
+himself, and through which his red visage loomed over the edge of the
+hammock like a lurid setting sun.
+
+For a few minutes the clouds continued to multiply and thicken.  No
+sound broke the calm that prevailed, save a stertorous breathing, with
+an occasional hitch in it.  Suddenly there was a convulsion in the
+clouds, and one of the hitches developed into a tremendous cough.  There
+was something almost awe-inspiring in the cough.  The captain was a huge
+and rugged man.  His cough was a terrible compound of a choke, a gasp, a
+rend, and a roar.  Only lungs of sole-leather could have weathered it.
+Each paroxysm suggested the idea that the man's vitals were being torn
+asunder; but not content with that, the exasperated mariner made matters
+worse by keeping up a continual growl of indignant remonstrance in a
+thunderous undertone.
+
+"Hah! that _was_ a splitter.  A few more hug--sh! ha! like that will
+burst the biler entirety.  Polly--hallo!"
+
+The lurid sun appeared to listen for a moment, then opening its mouth it
+shouted, "Polly--ahoy!" as if it were hailing the maintop of a
+seventy-four.
+
+Immediately there was a slight movement in one corner of the room, and
+straightway from out a mass of marine-stores there emerged a fairy!  At
+least, the little girl, of twelve or thereabouts, who suddenly appeared,
+with rich brown tumbling hair, pretty blue eyes, faultless figure, and
+ineffable sweetness in every lineament of her little face, might easily
+have passed for a fairy or an angel.
+
+"What! caught you napping?" growled the captain in the midst of a
+paroxysm.
+
+"Only a minute, father; I couldn't help it," replied Polly, with a
+little laugh, as she ran to the fireplace and took up a saucepan that
+simmered there.
+
+"Here, look alive! shove along! hand it up!  I'm chokin'!"
+
+The child held the saucepan as high as she could towards the hammock.
+The captain, reaching down one of his great arms, caught it and took a
+steaming draught.  It seemed to relieve him greatly.
+
+"You're a trump for gruel, Polly," he growled, returning the saucepan.
+"Now then, up with the pyramid, and give us a nor'-wester."
+
+The child returned the saucepan to the fireplace, and then actively
+placed a chair nearly underneath the hammock.  Upon the chair she set a
+stool, and on the top she perched herself.  Thus she was enabled to
+grasp the lurid sun by two enormous whiskers, and, putting her lips out,
+gave it a charming "nor'-wester," which was returned with hyperborean
+violence.  Immediately after, Polly ducked her head, and thus escaped
+being blown away, like a Hindoo mutineer from a cannon's mouth, as the
+captain went off in another fit.
+
+"Oh! father," said Polly, quite solemnly, as she descended and looked up
+from a comparatively safe distance, "isn't it awful?"
+
+"Yes, Poll, it's about the wust 'un I've had since I came from
+Barbadoes; but the last panful has mollified it, I think, and your
+nor'-wester has Pollyfied it, so, turn into your bunk, old girl, an'
+take a nap.  You've much need of it, poor thing."
+
+"No, father, if I get into my crib I'll sleep so heavy that you won't be
+able to wake me.  I'll just lie down where I was before."
+
+"Well, well--among the rubbish if ye prefer it; no matter s'long as you
+have a snooze," growled the captain as he turned over, while the fairy
+disappeared into the dark recess from which she had risen.
+
+Just then a tap was heard at the door.  "Come in," roared the captain.
+A tall, broad-shouldered, nautical-looking man entered, took off his
+hat, and stood before the hammock, whence the captain gave him a stern,
+searching glance, and opened fire on him with his pipe.
+
+"Forgive me if I intrude, Captain Samson," said the stranger; "I know
+you, although you don't know me.  You start to-morrow or next day, I
+understand, for Melbourne?"
+
+"Wind and weather permittin'," growled the captain.  "Well, what then?"
+
+"Have you completed your crew?" asked the stranger.
+
+"Nearly.  What then?" replied the captain with a touch of ferocity, for
+he felt sensations of an approaching paroxysm.
+
+"Will you engage _me_?" asked Philosopher Jack, for it was he.
+
+"In what capacity?" demanded the captain somewhat sarcastically.
+
+"As an ordinary seaman--or a boy if you will," replied Edwin, with a
+smile.
+
+"No," growled Samson, decisively, "I won't engage you; men with kid
+gloves and white hands don't suit me."
+
+From the mere force of habit the young student had pulled on his gloves
+on leaving his lodging, and had only removed that of the right hand on
+entering the captain's dwelling.  He now inserted a finger at the wrist
+of the left-hand glove, ripped it off, and flung it with its fellow
+under the grate.  Thereafter he gathered some ashes and soot from the
+fireplace, with which he put his hands on a footing with those of a
+coal-heaver.
+
+"Will you take me now, captain?" he said, returning to the hammock, and
+spreading out his hands.
+
+The captain gave vent to a short laugh, which brought on a tremendous
+fit, at the conclusion of which he gasped, "Yes, my lad, p'r'aps I will;
+but first I must know something about you."
+
+"Certainly," said the philosopher, and at once gave the captain a brief
+outline of his circumstances.
+
+"Well, you know your own affairs best" said Captain Samson when he had
+finished; "I'm no judge of such a case, but as you're willin' to ship,
+I'm willin' to ship you.  Come here before ten to-morrow.  Good night.
+There, it's a-comin'--hash--k--!"
+
+In the midst of another furious paroxysm Edwin Jack retired.
+
+Not long after, the captain raised himself on one elbow, listened
+intently for a few seconds, and, having satisfied himself that Polly was
+asleep, slipped from his hammock--as only seamen know how--and proceeded
+to dress with the utmost caution.  He was evidently afraid of the little
+sleeper among the rubbish.  It was quite interesting to observe the
+quiet speed with which he thrust his great limbs into his ample
+garments, gazing anxiously all the time at Polly's corner.
+
+Issuing from his own door with the step of an elephantine mouse, the
+captain went rapidly through several streets to the house of an intimate
+friend, whom he found at supper with his wife and family.
+
+"Evenin', Bailie Trench; how are 'ee, Mrs T? how's everybody?" said the
+captain, in a hearty rasping voice, as he shook hands right and left,
+while one of his huge legs was taken possession of, and embraced, by the
+bailie's only daughter, a pretty little girl of six.
+
+"Why, Samson," exclaimed the bailie, after quiet had been restored, and
+his friend had been thrust into a chair with little Susan on his knee,
+"I thought you were laid up with influenza--eh?"
+
+"So I was, bailie, an' so I am," replied the captain; "leastwise I'm
+still on the sick-list, and was in my hammock till about half an hour
+ago, but I'm gettin' round fast.  The night air seems to do me a world
+o' good--contrariwise to doctor's expectations."
+
+"Have some supper?" said Mrs Trench, who was a weakish lady with watery
+eyes.
+
+"No supper, Mrs T, thank 'ee; the fact is, I've come on business.  I
+should be on my beam-ends by rights.  I'm absent without leave, an' have
+only a few minutes to spare.  The passenger I spoke of has changed his
+mind and his berth is free, so I'm glad to be able to take your son Ben
+after all.  But he'll have to get ready quick, for the _Lively Poll_
+sails the day after to-morrow or next day--all bein' well."
+
+The eyes of young Benjamin Trench sparkled.  He was a tall, thin, rather
+quiet lad of eighteen.
+
+"I can be ready to-night if you wish it, Captain Samson," he said, with
+a flush on his usually pale face.
+
+Beside Mrs Trench there sat a sturdy little boy.  He was the bosom
+friend of Ben--a bright ruddy fellow of fourteen, overflowing with
+animal spirits, and with energy enough for three lads of his size.  This
+youth's countenance fell so visibly when Ben spoke of going away, that
+Mrs Trench could not help noticing it.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Wilkins?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, nothing!" returned the boy, "only I don't like to hear Ben speak of
+leaving us all and going to Australia.  And I would give all the world
+to go with him.  Won't you take me as a cabin boy, Captain Samson?"
+
+"Sorry I can't, lad," said the captain, with a grin, "got a cabin boy
+already."
+
+"Besides, your father would not let you," said Mrs Trench, "and it
+would never do to go without his leave.  Only misfortune could come of
+that."
+
+"Humph! it's very hard," pouted the boy.  "I wanted him to get me into
+the navy, and he wouldn't; and now I want him to get me into the
+merchant service, and he won't.  But I'll go in spite of him."
+
+"No, you won't, Watty," said Ben, laying his hand on his friend's
+shoulder.
+
+"Yes, Ben, I will," returned little Wilkins, with such an air of
+determination that every one except Ben laughed.
+
+"Now, bailie," said the captain, rising, "I'm off.  The truth is, I
+wouldn't have come if it had not been important to let you know at once
+to get your boy ready; but I had no one to send except Polly, and I
+wouldn't send her out at night by herself for all the wealth of Indy.
+Moreover, _she_ wouldn't have let me out to-night for any consideration
+whatever.  She's very strict with me, is my little keeper.  I wouldn't
+for the world she should wake and find me gone.  So, good-night all."
+
+Ten minutes more, and the guilty man entered his dwelling on tiptoe.  In
+order to get into his hammock with extreme caution he forsook his
+ancient method of a spring, and mounted on an empty cask.  The cask was
+not equal to the emergency.  He went through the head of it with a
+hideous crash!  Spurning it from him, he had just time to plunge into
+his place of repose and haul the clothes over him, when Polly emerged
+from her lair with wondering eyes.
+
+"What ever was that, father?"
+
+"Nothin', my dear, nothin' in partickler--only a cask I kicked over.
+Now, then, Poll, since you're keepin' me awake in this fashion, it's
+your dooty to soothe me with an extra panful, and another nor'-wester--
+so, up wi' the pyramid; and after you've done it you must turn into your
+crib.  I'll not want you again to-night; the cough's much better.
+There--thank 'ee.  Pollyfy me now--that's right.  Good-night."
+
+Oh, base mariner! little did you merit such a pleasant termination to
+your evening's work; but you are not the only wicked man in this world
+who receives more than he deserves.
+
+Two days after the incidents just related a noble ship spread her canvas
+to a favouring breeze, and bowing farewell to her port of departure,
+commenced the long long voyage to the Antipodes.
+
+She was not a passenger ship, but a trader; nevertheless there were a
+few passengers on her quarter-deck, and among these towered the colossal
+figure of Captain Samson.  Beside him, holding his hand, stood a
+fairy-like little creature with brown curls and pretty blue eyes.  Not
+far from her, leaning over the bulwarks, Benjamin Trench frantically
+waved a handkerchief and wiped his eyes.  The signal was responded to,
+with equal feeling, by the bailie, his wife, and little Susan.  A good
+number of people, young and old, assembled at the pier-head, among whom
+many waved handkerchiefs, and hands, and scarfs, and hats to the crew.
+
+Among the sailors who gazed wistfully towards the pier was one who made
+no farewell signal, and received no parting wave.  Philosopher Jack had
+concealed his intention of going to sea from all his college chums, and
+a bitter feeling of loneliness oppressed his heart as he thought of his
+old father and mother, and the lowly cottage on the Border hills.  He
+had not, indeed, acted in direct opposition to the wishes of his
+parents, but he had disobeyed the well-known Scripture command to do
+them "honour," for he had resolved on his course of action without
+consulting them, or asking their advice.  He felt that he had very
+selfishly forsaken them in their old age; in the hour of their sore
+distress, and at a time when they stood woefully in need of his strong
+muscles, buoyant spirit, and energetic brain.  In short, Edwin Jack
+began to feel that he required all his philosophy, and something more,
+to enable him to face the future with the unflinching courage of a man.
+
+So the ship moved slowly on, revealing on her stern the "_Lively Poll_"
+in letters of burnished gold--past the pier-head, down the broad river,
+out upon the widening firth, beyond lighthouse, buoy, and beacon, until
+at last the fresh Atlantic breezes filled her snowy sails.
+
+And ever as she rose and sank upon the rolling waves, their swish and
+thud fell strangely on the ear of one who lay deep down in the recesses
+of the hull, where--among barrels of pork, and casks of tar, and cans of
+oil, and coils of rope, and other unsavoury stores--he consorted with
+rats and mice and an uneasy conscience, in thick darkness.  This was a
+"stowaway."  He was a sturdy, bright, ruddy little fellow of fourteen.
+Down in that unwholesome place, with a few ship-biscuits and a bottle of
+water to keep him alive, he would have looked like a doubled-up
+overgrown hedgehog if there had been light enough to reveal him.
+
+Thus, with its little world of hopes and fears, its cares and pleasures,
+and its brave, trembling, trusting, sorrowing, joyful, anxious, reckless
+hearts, the good ship passed from the shores of Britain, until her sails
+quivered like a petrel's wings on the horizon, and then vanished into
+the boundless bosom of the mighty sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+TELLS OF A GHOST AND AN OVERWHELMING DISASTER.
+
+It may seem strange, nevertheless it is true, that ignorance is a
+misfortune which now and then results in good.  Of course we do not make
+this remark in commendation of ignorance, but if Baldwin Burr had not
+been ignorant and densely stupid, Philosopher Jack would not have had
+the pleasure of instructing him, and the seaman himself would not have
+enjoyed that close intimacy which frequently subsists between teacher
+and pupil.  Even Polly Samson derived benefit from Baldwin's want of
+knowledge, for, being remarkably intelligent for her years, and having
+been well taught, she took great pleasure in enlightening his darkness.
+
+"How is it," she asked one day, while sitting on the cabin skylight and
+looking up in the man's rugged countenance, "how is it that you are so
+stupid?"
+
+Burr, who was steering, gave the wheel a turn, looked up at the
+mast-head, then round the horizon, then down at his questioner with a
+bland smile, and said--
+
+"Well now, Miss Polly, d'ee know, that's wot I can't exactly tell.
+P'r'aps it's 'cause of a nat'ral want of brains, or, maybe, 'cause the
+brains is too much imbedded in fat--for I'm a fleshy man, as you see--
+or, p'r'aps it's 'cause I never went to school, my parients bein' poor,
+uncommon poor, though remarkably honest.  I've sometimes thought, w'en
+meditatin' on the subject, that my havin' bin born of a Friday may have
+had somethin' to do with it."
+
+"Oh, Baldwin," said Polly with a little laugh, "surely you can't believe
+that.  Father says it's all nonsense about Friday being an unlucky day."
+
+"P'r'aps it is, an' p'r'aps it ain't," returned the cautious seaman.  "I
+regard your father, my dear, as a deeply learned man, and would give in,
+if I could, to wotever he says, but facts is facts, and opinions is
+opinions, you can't change that, nohow you fix it.  Wot's the cap'n's
+opinions, now, as to ghosts?"
+
+"He don't believe in 'em at all," was Polly's prompt answer.  "No more
+do I, for father knows everything, and he's always right."
+
+"He's a lucky man to have you, Polly, and there's a lucky boy knockin'
+about the world somewheres lookin' out for you.  A good daughter, it's
+said, inwariably makes a good wife; which you don't understand just now,
+but you'll come to in course of time.  Hows'ever, as I wos observin',
+I've been of the same opinion as your father till two nights ago, when I
+heard a ghost right under the deck, it seemed to me, blow my hammock,
+where there's nothin' but ship's stores and rats."
+
+"Heard a ghost!" exclaimed Polly, with opening eyes.
+
+"Ay, an' seed 'im too," said Burr.  "Night before yesterday I heer'd 'im
+as plain as I hear myself.  He wos groanin', an' it's quite impossible
+that a tar-barrel, or a cask, or a rat, could groan.  The only thing
+that puzzled me wos that he seemed to snore; more than that he sneezed
+once or twice.  Now, I never heard it said that a ghost could sleep or
+catch cold.  Did you, Polly?"
+
+Polly laughed and said that she never did, and asked eagerly what the
+ghost was like.
+
+"It was wery much like an or'nary man of small size," said the seaman,
+"but it were too dark to make out its face.  I know the figure of every
+soul in the ship by this time, an' I could swear before a maginstrate,
+or a bench of bishops, that the ghost is neither one of the crew nor a
+passenger."
+
+"Why didn't you speak to it?" asked Polly.
+
+"So I did speak to it, but it wouldn't answer; then I made a grab at it,
+but it was as active as a kitten, dodged round the mainmast, flew for'ed
+on inwisible wings, and went slap down the fore-scuttle, head first,
+with a crash that would have broke the neck of anything but a ghost."
+
+At this interesting point the conversation was interrupted by Edwin
+Jack, whose turn it was to relieve the man at the wheel.  He nodded to
+Polly as he came up, took his post, and received the ship's "course"
+from Burr, who thrust his hands into his pockets, and left the
+quarter-deck.
+
+Edwin was by this time a considerably changed man, although but a few
+days at sea.  The rough blue trousers, guernsey, and pea-jacket, took as
+naturally to his strong limbs as if he had been born and bred a sailor;
+and already some huge blisters, a few scars, and not a little tar, had
+rendered his hands creditable.
+
+Steering at the time was a mere matter of form, as a dead calm
+prevailed.  Our philosopher therefore amused himself and Polly with
+commentaries on the ghost-subject which Burr had raised.
+
+Late that night, when the stars were shining in a cloudless sky, and
+winking at their reflections in the glassy ocean, the ghost appeared to
+Edwin Jack.  It was on this wise:
+
+Jack, being one of the watch on deck, went to the port bulwarks near the
+foremast shrouds, leant over, and, gazing down into the reflected sky,
+thought sadly of past, present, and future.  Tiring at last of his
+meditations, he went towards a man who appeared to be skulking under the
+shadow of the long-boat and remarked that it was a fine night, but the
+man made no reply.
+
+"A most enjoyable night, shipmate," he said, going closer.
+
+"I'm glad you think so," said the ghost, "it's anything but enjoyable to
+_me_.  The state of the weather hasn't much effect, either one way or
+another, on a fellow who is half-dead with hunger, half-choked with a
+cold caught among the rats and stores, and half-killed by a tumble down
+the fore-scuttle, or whatever may be the name of that vile ladder that
+leads to the regions below."
+
+"Surely," exclaimed Jack in surprise, seizing the ghost by the shoulders
+and looking close into its face, "I have heard your voice before now,
+and, eh?--no, I don't know you."
+
+"Yes, Philosopher Jack, you do know me," returned the ghost; "I've had
+the honour of playing cricket with you on the green, though you've
+forgotten me, and no wonder, for I've suffered much from bad air and
+sea-sickness of late.  My name is Walter, more familiarly Watty
+Wilkins."
+
+"Little Wilkins!" exclaimed Jack, in surprise, "well, you _are_ changed;
+you don't mean to say that you've run away from home?"
+
+"That's just what I've done," said the poor lad in a tone of
+despondency; "but you've no occasion to shake your head at me so
+solemnly, for, to all appearance, you have run away too."
+
+"No, Wilkins, you are wrong, I have walked away, being my own master,
+and I have done it openly, though I admit somewhat hastily--"
+
+Jack was interrupted at that moment by Ben Trench laying a hand on his
+shoulder.
+
+"It strikes me," he said, in some surprise, "that I recognise the voice
+of a townsman--Mister Jack, if I mistake not?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the philosopher, "not _Mister_, only Edwin Jack,
+seaman aboard the _Lively Poll_.  You are right, however, in styling me
+townsman.  Allow me to introduce you to another townsman, Mr Watty
+Wilkins, stowaway on board of the same vessel!"
+
+Trench had not, in the darkness, recognised his friend.  He now seized
+him by both shoulders, and peering into his face, said--
+
+"O Watty, Watty, have you really done it?  I had thought better of you."
+
+"I _said_ I would do it, and I've _done_ it," returned the little youth
+somewhat testily; "and now I want to know what is to be done next."
+
+"Report yourself and take the consequences," said Jack, promptly.
+
+This advice being seconded by Ben Trench, Watty Wilkins went aft to the
+captain, who had just come on deck, touched his cap, and confessed
+himself.
+
+For some moments the captain spoke not a word, but looked at the young
+culprit with a portentous frown.  Then, uttering something like a deep
+bass growl, he ordered the lad to follow him into his private cabin.
+When there, Captain Samson seated himself on a locker, and with a hand
+on each knee, glared at his prisoner so long and so fiercely from under
+his shaggy brows, that Watty, in spite of his recklessness, began to
+feel uneasy.
+
+"So, youngster, you've run away?" he said at length, in deep solemnity.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Wilkins.
+
+"And you think yourself a fine clever fellow, no doubt?"
+
+"No, sir, I don't," said Watty, with much humility.
+
+"I knew your father, boy," continued the captain, assuming a softer and
+more serious tone, "and I think he is a good man."
+
+"He is, sir," returned the boy promptly.
+
+"Ay, and he is a kind man; he has been kind to _you_, I think."
+
+Watty hung his head.
+
+"He has fed you, clothed you, educated you since you was a babby; nursed
+you, maybe, in sickness, and prayed for you, no doubt that God would
+make you a good, obedient and loving son."
+
+The boy's head drooped still lower.
+
+"And for all this," continued the captain, "you have repaid him by
+running away.  Now, my lad, as you have made your bed you shall lie on
+it.  I'll clap your nose to the grindstone, and keep it there.
+Steward!"
+
+A smart little man answered to the call.
+
+"Take this boy for'ed, and teach him to clean up.  Don't spare him."
+
+In obedience to this order the steward took little Wilkins forward and
+introduced him to the cook, who introduced him to the coppers and
+scrubbing brushes.  From that day forward Master Watty became deeply
+versed in the dirty work and hard work of the ship, so that all the
+romance of a sea life was driven out of him, and its stern realities
+were implanted.  In less than three weeks there was not a cup, saucer,
+or plate in the ship that Watty had not washed; not a "brass" that he
+had not polished and re-polished; not a copper that he had not scraped;
+not an inch of the deck that he had not swabbed.  But it must not be
+supposed that he groaned under this labour.  Although reckless, hasty,
+and inconsiderate, he was not mean-spirited.  Making up his mind to do
+his best in the circumstances, he went cheerfully to his dirty work, and
+did it well.
+
+"You see," said he to Philosopher Jack, as they chanced one dark night
+to have a few minutes' talk together near the weather gangway, where
+Watty paused on his way to the caboose with a soup-tureen, "as the
+captain says, I've made the bed myself, so I must lie on it and I'm
+resolved to lie straight, and not kick."
+
+"Right, Watty, right," said Jack, with a sigh; "we have both been fools,
+so must grin and bear it."
+
+Watty greeted this remark, to Jack's surprise, with a sudden and
+unexpected yell, as he received a cut from a rope's-end over the back.
+
+"What, idling, eh?" cried the steward, flourishing the rope's-end again.
+
+In a burst of rage the poor boy raised the soup-tureen, and would
+infallibly have shattered it on the man's head if Jack had not caught
+his arm.
+
+"Come, Wilkins, mind what you're about," he said, pushing him towards
+the forepart of the ship to prevent a scuffle.
+
+A moment's reflection sufficed to convince Wilkins of the folly, as well
+as uselessness, of rebellion.  Pocketing his pride and burning with
+indignation, he walked forward, while the tyrannical steward went
+grumbling to his own private den.
+
+It chanced that night that the captain, ignorant of what had occurred,
+sent for the unfortunate stowaway, for the mitigation of whose sorrows
+his friend Ben Trench had, more than once, pleaded earnestly, but in
+vain.  The captain invariably replied that Watty had acted ungratefully
+and rebelliously to a kind father, and it was his duty to let him bear
+the full punishment of his conduct.
+
+Watty was still smarting from the rope's-end when he entered the cabin.
+
+"Youngster," said the captain, sternly, "I sent for you to tell you of a
+fact that came to my knowledge just before we left port.  Your father
+told me that, being unwilling to disappoint you in your desires, he had
+managed to get a situation of some sort for you on board a well-known
+line of ocean steamers, and he only waited to get the thing fairly
+settled before letting you know about it.  There, you may go for'ed and
+think what you have lost by running away."
+
+Without a word of reply Watty left the cabin.  His day's work had just
+been completed.  He turned into his hammock, and, laying his head on his
+pillow, quietly wept himself to sleep.
+
+"Ain't you rather hard on the poor boy, father?" said Polly, who had
+witnessed the interview.
+
+"Not so hard as you think, little woman," answered the captain, stroking
+the child's head with his great hand; "that little rascal has committed
+a great sin.  He has set out on the tracks of the prodigal son you've
+often read about, an' he's not sufficiently impressed with his guilt.
+When I get him into a proper frame o' mind I'll not be so hard on him.
+Now, Polly, go putt your doll to bed, and don't criticise your father."
+
+Polly seized the huge whiskers of her sire, and giving him an
+unsolicited "nor'-wester," which was duly returned, went off to her
+little cot.
+
+We do not mean to trouble the reader with all the incidents of a
+prolonged voyage to southern latitudes, during which Philosopher Jack
+formed a strong friendship with Ben Trench and Watty Wilkins; continued
+his instruction of the amiable and unfathomable Baldwin Burr, and became
+a general favourite with the crew of the _Lively Poll_.  Suffice it to
+say that all went well, and the good ship sailed along under favouring
+breezes without mishap of any kind until she reached that great ocean
+whose unknown waters circle round the Southern Pole.
+
+Here, however, good fortune forsook them, and contrary-gales baffling
+the _Lively Poll_ drove her out of her course, while tumbling billows
+buffeted her severely.
+
+One night a dead calm prevailed.  The air became hot, clouds rose
+rapidly over the sky, and the barometer--that faithful friend of the
+mariner--fell unusually low.
+
+"How dreadfully dark it is getting," said Polly, in a low,
+half-frightened tone to Baldwin Burr, who was at the wheel.
+
+"We're going to have a night of it, my dear," replied the seaman.
+
+If he had said that the winds and waves were going to "have a night of
+it" Baldwin Burr would have been more strictly correct.  He had scarcely
+uttered the words when the captain gave orders to close-reef the
+top-sails.  Our philosopher, springing aloft with his comrades, was out
+on the top-sail yard in a few seconds.  Scarcely had the sails been
+reefed when the gale burst upon the ship, and almost laid her flat upon
+the foaming sea.  At first the very violence of the wind kept the waves
+down, but they gradually rose until the ship was tossed on their crests
+and engulfed in their hollows like a cork.  As the force of the gale
+increased sail was further reduced, until nothing but a mere rag was
+left and even this at last was split and blown to ribbons.  Inky clouds
+soon obscured the sky, and, as night descended on the wild scene, the
+darkness became so intense that nothing could be seen except the pale
+gleam of foaming billows as they flashed past over the bulwarks.  In the
+midst of the turmoil there came a blinding flash of lightning, followed
+instantly by a terrible crash of thunder.  This was succeeded by a sound
+of rending which was not the result of elemental strife.
+
+"Foremast gone, sir," cried one of the men, staggering aft.
+
+Seizing an axe, the captain sprang forward.  Edwin Jack followed.  They
+found the ship's-carpenter already at work cutting the shrouds and other
+ropes that held the wreck of the mast.  As flashes of lightning followed
+in quick succession they revealed a scene of ruin on the forepart of the
+vessel, with the tall figure of Edwin as he stood on the bulwarks
+wielding an axe.  At last the wreck was cleared, but the seas were now
+bursting over the decks and sweeping away everything not made fast.
+Among other things the long-boat was carried away, and ere long all the
+other boats were torn from their fastenings or destroyed.  It was a
+fearful night.  Even the most reckless among the sailors were overawed
+by such a display of the terrors of God.  At such times scoffers are
+wont to become tremblers, and those who "trust in God" find Him "a very
+present help in trouble."
+
+The gale was as short-lived as it was fierce.  By the dawn of the
+following day it had abated considerably, and it was found that less
+damage had been done to the ship than might have been expected.
+
+"We're all right, Polly, thank God!" said the captain, earnestly, when
+he ventured to open the companion hatch and go below.  "You prayed for
+us, dear, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, father, I did; I prayed that our lives might be spared, if He
+pleased."
+
+"Well, Polly, our prayers have been answered," said the captain; "our
+lives are spared and the ship is safe, though we've lost the foremast
+and the boats.  However, that can be putt to rights; we'll rig up a
+jury-mast and get on famously, so keep up your heart, old girl, and give
+us a nor'--.  There, you'd better stay below yet awhile; it's dirty on
+deck."
+
+The weather was not long of improving.  A profound calm followed the
+storm.  Bright sunshine banished the thunder-clouds.  The contrast
+between the dangers just past and the peaceful condition that prevailed
+had the effect of raising the spirits of all on board the _Lively Poll_
+to an unusual height, so that snatches of song, whistling, and cheery
+remarks, were heard on all sides among the busy crew as they rigged up a
+new mast, bent on new sails, and repaired the various damages.  When
+night put a stop to their labours, and every one sought repose, except
+the watch and the captain and the man at the wheel, the same peaceful
+calm continued.  Only the long undulating swell of ocean remained to
+tell of the recent storm, while the glassy surface reflected a universe
+of stars.
+
+It was at this time of profound repose and fancied security that the
+death-knell of the _Lively Poll_ was sounded.  In the southern seas
+there is a little creature, named the coral insect (of which we shall
+have more to say hereafter), which is ever at work building walls and
+ramparts on the bottom of the sea.  These rise by degrees to the
+surface,--rise above it--and finally become some of the fairest isles of
+the Pacific.  Charts tell of the isles, but no charts can tell the
+locality of coral reefs which have just, or barely, reached the surface.
+The _Lively Poll_ was forging slowly ahead under a puff of air that
+only bulged her top-sails as she rose and sank on the majestic swell.
+Presently she rose high, and was then let down on a coral reef with such
+violence that the jury-mast with the main-topmast and all the connected
+rigging, went over the side.  Another swell lifted her off, and flung
+her on the ocean's breast a total wreck.
+
+The scene that followed may be imagined.  Whatever could be done by an
+able and active seaman in such an emergency was done by Captain Samson.
+Water was rushing in through the shattered hull.  To pass a sail under
+the ship's bottom and check this was the first act.  Then the pumps were
+rigged and worked by all on board.  Besides Ben Trench there were three
+gentlemen passengers.  These took their turn with the rest, but all was
+of no avail.  The ship was sinking.  The utmost efforts of those whose
+lives seemed dependent on her only delayed the final catastrophe.
+
+"There is no hope," said the captain in a low tone to his chief mate, to
+whom he gave some rapid orders, and went below.
+
+It was daybreak, and the first gleam of light that leaped over the
+glassy sea tinged the golden curls of Polly Samson as she lay sleeping
+on one of the cabin sofas.  She awoke and started up.
+
+"Lie still, darling, and rest as long as you may," said the captain in a
+low tender voice, "and pray, Polly, pray for us again.  God is able to
+save to the uttermost, my pet."
+
+He said this without pausing, as he went to his berth and brought out a
+sextant, with which he returned on deck.
+
+Standing near the foot of the companion-ladder, Watty Wilkins had heard
+the words, "There is no hope," and the few sentences addressed to the
+child.  His impressionable spirit leapt to the conclusion that the fate
+of all on board was sealed.  He knew that the boats had all been swept
+away, and a feeling of profound despair seized him.  This was quickly
+followed by contrition for his past conduct and pity for his father,
+under the impulse of which he sat down in a corner of the steward's
+pantry and groaned aloud.  Then he wrote a few lines in pencil on a
+piece of paper, bidding farewell to his father.  Often had he read of
+such messages from the sea being wafted ashore in bottles, but little
+did he expect ever to have occasion to write one.  He had just put the
+paper in a bottle, corked it up, and dropped it out of one of the cabin
+windows, when he was summoned on deck, and found that a raft was being
+hastily prepared alongside.  Already some casks of biscuits and water
+had been lowered on it, while the carpenter and several men were busily
+at work increasing its size and binding it together with iron clamps,
+hawsers, and chains.
+
+There was urgent need for haste, as the ship was fast settling down.
+
+"Now then, my lads, look alive!" cried the captain, as he lifted his
+little daughter over the side.  "The ship can't float much longer.
+Here, Jack, catch hold."
+
+Edwin sprang to the side of the raft, and, standing up, received Polly
+in his arms.
+
+"Take care of her!  Hold her tight!" cried the anxious father.
+
+"Trust me," said Philosopher Jack.
+
+The child was placed on the highest part of the raft with the
+passengers, and partially covered with a shawl.  The crew were then
+ordered to leave the ship.  Having seen every one out of it Captain
+Samson descended and gave the order to shove off.  This was quickly
+done, and the distance was slowly increased by means of two large oars.
+The huge mass of spars and planks moved gradually away from the doomed
+vessel, whose deck was by that time little above the level of the sea.
+They had not got more than a few hundred yards off, when Baldwin Burr,
+who pulled one of the oars, uttered an exclamation.  Edwin Jack and Ben
+Trench, who knelt close to him fastening a rope, looked up and saw the
+captain standing on the high part of the raft near Polly and little
+Wilkins, waving his right hand.  He was bidding farewell to the old
+ship, which suddenly went down with a heavy roll.  Another moment, and
+only a few ripples remained to mark the spot where the _Lively Poll_ had
+found an ocean tomb.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+ADRIFT ON THE GREAT OCEAN.
+
+Sunshine gladdens the heart of man and causes him more or less to forget
+his sorrows.  The day on which the _Lively Poll_ went down was bright
+and warm, as well as calm, so that some of those who were cast away on
+the raft--after the first shock had passed, and while busily employed in
+binding the spars and making other needful arrangements--began to feel
+sensations approaching almost to hilarity.
+
+Polly Samson, in particular, being of a romantic turn of mind, soon
+dried her eyes, and when called on to assist in the construction of a
+little place of shelter for herself on the centre of the raft, by means
+of boxes and sails, she began to think that the life of a castaway might
+not be so disagreeable after all.  When this shelter or hut was
+completed, and she sat in it with her father taking luncheon, she told
+him in confidence that she thought rafting was "very nice."
+
+"Glad you find it so, Polly," replied the captain with a sad smile.
+
+"Of course, you know," she continued, with great seriousness of look and
+tone, "I don't think it's nice that our ship is lost.  I'm very very
+sorry--oh, you can't think how sorry!--for that, but this is such a
+funny little cabin, you know, and so snug, and the weather is _so_ fine;
+do you think it will last long, father?"
+
+"I hope it may; God grant that it may, darling, but we can't be sure.
+If it does last, I daresay we shall manage to reach one of the islands,
+of which there are plenty in the Southern Seas, but--"
+
+A roar of laughter from the men arrested and surprised the captain.  He
+raised the flap of sail which served as a door to the hut--Polly's
+bower, as the men styled it--and saw one of the passengers dragged from
+a hole or space between the spars of the raft, into which he had slipped
+up to the waist.  Mr Luke, the passenger referred to, was considered a
+weak man, mind and body,--a sort of human nonentity, a harmless
+creature, with long legs and narrow shoulders.  He took his cold bath
+with philosophic coolness, and acknowledged the laughter of the men with
+a bland smile.  Regardless of his drenched condition, he sat down on a
+small keg and joined the crew at the meal of cold provisions which
+served that day for dinner.
+
+"Lucky for us," said one of the sailors, making play with his
+clasp-knife on a junk of salt pork, "that we've got such a fine day to
+begin with."
+
+"That's true, Bob," said another; "a raft ain't much of a sea-goin'
+craft.  If it had blowed hard when we shoved off from the ship we might
+ha' bin tore to bits before we was well fixed together, but we've had
+time to make all taut now, and can stand a stiffish breeze.  Shove along
+the breadbasket, mate."
+
+"You've had your allowance, Bob; mind, we're on short commons now," said
+Baldwin Burr, who superintended the distribution of provisions, and
+served out a measured quantity to every man.  "There's your grog for
+you."
+
+Bob Corkey growled a little as he wiped his knife on his leg, and
+accepted the allowance of "grog," which, however, was only pure water.
+
+"Are you sure the raft can stand a storm?" inquired Watty Wilkins of
+Philosopher Jack, who sat eating his poor meal beside him.
+
+"Sure?" responded Jack, "we can be sure of nothing in this life."
+
+"Except trouble," growled Corkey.
+
+"Oh yes, you can be sure of more than that," said Baldwin Burr; "you can
+always be sure of folly coming out of a fool's mouth."
+
+"Come, come, Baldwin, be civil," said Philosopher Jack; "it's cowardly,
+you know, to insult a man when you can't fight him."
+
+"Can't fight him?" repeated Burr with a grin; "who said I couldn't fight
+him, eh?  Why, I'm ready to fight him now, right off."
+
+"Nevertheless, you can't," persisted the philosopher; "how could two men
+fight on a raft where there's not room for a fair stand-up scrimmage
+between two rats?  Come now, don't argue, Burr, but answer little
+Wilkins's question if you can."
+
+"Stowaways don't desarve to have their questions answered," said Corkey;
+"in fact, they don't desarve to live.  If I had my way, I'd kill little
+Wilkins and salt him down to be ready for us when the pork and biscuit
+fail."
+
+"Well, now, as to the safety of this here raft in a gale, small
+Wilkins," said Baldwin, regardless of Corkey's interruption, "that
+depends summat on the natur' o' the gale.  If it was only a half-gale
+we'd weather it all right, I make no doubt; but, if it should come to
+blow hard, d'ee see, we have no occasion to kill and eat you, as we'd
+all be killed together and eaten by the sharks."
+
+"Sharks!" exclaimed Mr Luke, whose damp garments were steaming under
+the powerful sun like a boiler on washing-day; "are there sharks here?"
+
+"Ay," said Corkey, pointing to the sea astern, where the glassy surface
+was broken and rippled by a sharp angular object, "that's a shark
+a-follerin' of us now, leastwise the back fin of one.  If you don't
+believe it, jump overboard and you'll soon be convinced."
+
+This reference to the shark was overheard by Polly, who came out of her
+bower to see it.  The monster of the deep came close up at that moment,
+as if to gratify the child, and, turning on its back, according to shark
+habit when about to seize any object, thrust its nose out of the water.
+For one moment its double row of teeth were exposed to view, then they
+closed on a lump of pork that had been accidentally knocked overboard by
+Corkey.
+
+"Is that the way you take care of our provisions?" said the captain,
+sternly, to Baldwin.
+
+"We've got a big hook, sir," said Edwin Jack, touching his cap; "shall
+we try to recover the pork?"
+
+"You may try," returned the captain.
+
+Little Wilkins uttered something like a war-whoop as he leaped up and
+assisted Jack to get out the shark-hook.  It was soon baited with
+another piece of pork.  Ben Trench, who had a strong leaning to natural
+history, became very eager; and the men generally, being ever ready for
+sport, looked on with interest and prepared to lend a hand.  The shark,
+however, was cautious.  It did indeed rush at the bait, and seemed about
+to swallow it, but suddenly changed its mind, swam round it once or
+twice, then fell slowly astern, and finally disappeared.
+
+Although the fish was not caught, this little incident served to raise
+the spirits of every one, and as the calm sunny weather lasted the whole
+day, even the most thoughtful of the party found it difficult to realise
+their forlorn condition; but when evening drew near, the aspect of
+things quickly changed.  The splendid ocean-mirror, which had reflected
+the golden crags and slopes, the towers and battlements of cloud-land,
+was shivered by a sudden breeze and became an opaque grey; the fair blue
+sky deepened to indigo; black and gathering clouds rose out of the
+horizon, and cold white crests gleamed on the darkening waves.  The men
+gathered in anxious groups, and Polly sat in the entrance of her bower
+gazing on the gloomy scene, until her young heart sank slowly but
+steadily.  Then, remembering her father's advice, she betook herself to
+God in prayer.
+
+Young though she was, Polly was no sentimentalist in religion.  She
+believed with all her heart in Jesus Christ as a living, loving Saviour.
+Her faith was very simple, and founded on experience.  She had prayed,
+and had been answered.  She had sought Jesus in sorrow, and had been
+comforted.  The theologian can give the why and how and wherefore of
+this happy condition, but in practice he can arrive at it only by the
+same short road.  One result of her prayer was that she went to sleep
+that night in perfect peace, while most of her companions in misfortune
+sat anxiously watching what appeared to be a gathering storm.
+
+Before going to rest however, Polly had an earnest little talk with her
+father.
+
+"Polly," said Captain Samson, sitting down under the shelter of the
+tarpaulin, and drawing the child's fair head on his breast, "I never
+spoke to you before on a subject that p'r'aps you won't understand, but
+I am forced to do it now.  It's about money."
+
+"About money!" exclaimed Polly in surprise; "oh, father, surely you
+forget!  The very last night we spent on shore, you spoke to me about
+money; you gave me a half-sovereign, and said you meant to give a
+blow-out to old Mrs Brown before leaving, and told me to buy--stay, let
+me see--there was half a pound of tea, and four pounds of sugar, and
+three penn'orth of snuff, and--"
+
+"Yes, yes, Polly," interrupted the captain, with a smile, "but I meant
+about money in a business way, you know, because if you chanced, d'ee
+see, ever to be in England without me, you know,--it--"
+
+"But I'll never be there without you, father, will I?" asked the child
+with an earnest look.
+
+"Of course not--that's to say, I _hope_ not--but you know, Polly, that
+God arranges all the affairs of this world, and sometimes in His love
+and wisdom He sees fit to separate people--for a time, you know, _only_
+for a time--so that they don't always keep together.  Now, my darling,
+if it should please Him to send me cruising to--to--anywhere in a
+different direction from you, and you chanced ever to be in England
+alone--in Scotland, that is--at your own home, you must go to Bailie
+Trench--you know him--our old friend and helper when we were in shoal
+water, my dear, and say to him that I handed all my savings over to Mr
+Wilkins--that's Watty's father, Poll--to be invested in the way he
+thought best.  When you tell that to Bailie Trench he'll know what to
+do; he understands all about it.  I might send you to Mr Wilkins direct
+but he's a very great man, d'ee see, and doesn't know you, and might
+refuse to give you the money."
+
+"To give me the money, father!  But what should I do with the money when
+I got it?"
+
+"Keep it, my darling."
+
+"Oh!  I see, keep it safe for you till you came back?" said Polly.
+
+"Just so, Poll, you're a clever girl; keep it for me till I come back,
+or rather take it to Bailie Trench and he'll tell you how to keep it.
+It's a good pot o' money, Poll, and has cost me the best part of a
+lifetime, workin' hard and spendin' little, to lay it by.  Once I used
+to think," continued the captain in a sad soliloquising tone, "that I'd
+live to cast anchor near the old spot, and spend it with your mother,
+Polly, and you; but the Lord willed it otherwise, and He does all things
+well, blessed be His name!  Now you understand what you're to do about
+the money, don't you, if you should ever find yourself without me in
+Scotland, eh?"
+
+Polly did not quite clearly understand, but after a little further
+explanation she professed herself to be quite prepared for the
+transaction of that important piece of financial business.
+
+Poor Captain Samson sought thus to secure, to the best of his ability,
+that the small savings of his life should go to Polly in the event of
+her being saved and himself lost.  Moreover, he revealed the state of
+his finances to Philosopher Jack, Ben Trench, and Watty Wilkins, whom he
+found grouped apart at a corner of the raft in earnest conversation, and
+begged of them, if they or any of them should survive, to see his
+daughter's interest attended to.
+
+"You see, my lads, although I would not for the world terrify the dear
+child uselessly, by telling her that we are in danger, it must be clear
+to you that if a gale springs up and our raft should be broken up, it's
+not likely that all of us would be saved.  Yet Polly might escape, and
+some of you also.  We are all in the Lord's hands, however, and have
+nothing to fear if we are His followers."
+
+Ah! that "if" went home.  The captain did not lay stress on it;
+nevertheless stress was laid on it somehow, for the three youths found
+it recurring again and again to memory that night, though they did not
+speak of it to each other.
+
+As the night advanced, the threatening gale passed away; the stars came
+out in all their splendour, and the morning sun found the glassy sea
+again ready to reflect his image.  Thus they floated for several days in
+comparative peace and comfort.  But it came at last.
+
+One evening a squall came rushing down on them, turning up the sea, and
+converting it to ink and foam as it approached.  The rag of sail with
+which they had previously courted the breeze in vain was hastily taken
+in; the fastenings of everything were looked to.  Polly was placed in
+her canvas bower, and the whole structure of the raft was strengthened
+with a network of hawsers and cordage.
+
+When the squall struck them, the raft appeared to tremble.  The seas
+broke clean over them, several articles not properly secured were swept
+off, and weak points in the main fastenings were made plain, as the
+spars, beams, and planks writhed and struggled to get free.
+
+But Captain Samson and his men were equal to the occasion; an iron clamp
+here, and an extra turn of a chain or hawser there, made all fast, so
+that before the squall had time to raise the sea, the raft held well
+together, and yielded, without breaking, to the motions of the waves.
+
+Of course every one was drenched, including poor little Polly, for
+although the tarpaulin turned off the waves and spray above, it could
+not prevent the water spirting up between the spars from below.  But
+Polly was, according to Baldwin, "a true chip of the old block;" she
+bore her discomforts with heroism, and quite put to shame poor Mr Luke,
+whose nervous temperament caused him great suffering.
+
+Thus was spent a night of anxiety.  The next day was little better, and
+the night following was worse.  In addition to the violence of the wind
+and constant breaking over them of heavy seas, the darkness became so
+intense that it was difficult to see where damage to the fastenings
+occurred, and repairs became almost impossible.
+
+About midnight there was a terrible rending of wood in that part of the
+raft lying farthest from Polly's bower, and a great cry of fear was
+heard.  The more courageous among the men sprang, by a natural impulse,
+to assist those in distress.  It was found that a large portion of the
+raft had broken adrift, and was only held to it by a single rope.  On
+this portion were two passengers and one of the crew.  The former were
+apparently panic-stricken; the latter made frantic but futile attempts
+to haul in on the rope.
+
+"Bear a hand, boys!" cried Edwin Jack, as he laid hold of the inner end
+of the rope.
+
+Strong and willing hands were ready, but before they could lay hold the
+rope parted, and Jack was dragged violently into the sea.  He rose like
+a cork.  Little Wilkins lay down, and stretched out a helping hand.
+Jack caught it, and would infallibly have dragged the little fellow into
+the water if Ben Trench had not thrown himself on his legs and held on.
+Baldwin Burr seized hold of Ben, and the captain coming up at the
+moment, lent his powerful aid.  Jack was saved, but the broken part of
+the raft, with its hapless occupants, was swept away and lost sight of.
+
+This sad event had naturally a very depressing effect on every one.
+True, the portion of the raft which had broken away was large enough to
+sustain the unfortunates who were on it.  Moreover, some of the
+provisions had also gone with them, so that there was hope of their
+holding out for a time and being picked up by a passing ship, but the
+hope was slight, and in the event of rougher weather, their fate would
+be certain.
+
+For six days and nights the raft was tossed about on the open sea.  It
+could scarcely be said that it sailed, although as large a mast and
+piece of canvas as they could set up urged it slowly though the water
+when the wind was strong.  As to steering, that was next to impossible,
+and in truth it did not matter much how they steered.
+
+Constant exposure by night and by day now began to tell on the less
+robust of the crew.  Little Polly, however, was not one of these.  She
+possessed a naturally good constitution, and was, besides, specially
+cared for by her father, who devoted all the powers of an inventive mind
+to the strengthening and improving of "the bower."  In this he was ably
+assisted by Philosopher Jack, whose love for the child deepened daily as
+he watched the sweet contented manner with which she received every
+drenching--and she got many--and the anxious way in which she inquired
+for, and sought to help, those of the party whose health began to fail.
+
+Among these latter was Ben Trench.
+
+"Ah!  Polly," said Ben one sultry forenoon when she brought him a glass
+of sweetened lime-juice and water, "you're a kind little nurse.  I
+really don't know how I should get on without you."
+
+"Upon my word," said little Wilkins, pouting, "you're a grateful fellow!
+Here have I been nursing you all the morning, yet you seem to think
+nothing of that in comparison with Polly's glass of lime-juice."
+
+"Come, Watty, don't be jealous," said Ben; "it's not the glass of
+lime-juice, but Polly's sympathetic face beaming behind it, that does me
+so much good.  Besides, you know, Polly's a girl, and a girl is always a
+better nurse than a man; you must admit that."
+
+Watty was not at all prepared to admit that, but his being spoken of as
+a man did much to mollify his hurt feelings.
+
+"But I do hope you feel better to-day," said Polly, observing with some
+anxiety the short, half-breathless manner in which the invalid spoke.
+
+"Oh yes!  I feel better--that is to say, I think I do.  Sometimes I do,
+and sometimes I don't.  You know, Polly, I came on this voyage chiefly
+on account of my health, and of course I must expect to be a little
+damaged by so much exposure, though your good father has indeed done his
+best to shelter me.  Why, do you know, I sometimes think the berth he
+has made for me between the logs here is a greater triumph of his
+inventive genius than your bower.  I often think they spoiled a splendid
+engineer when they made your father a sailor."
+
+Polly laughed at this, and Watty Wilkins tried to laugh, just by way of
+keeping up his friend's spirits and being what Baldwin called good
+company; but poor Watty could not laugh.  He had loved and played with
+Ben Trench since ever he could remember, and when he looked at his pale
+face and listened to his weak voice, a dread foreboding came over him,
+and brought such a rush of feeling to his heart that he was fain to leap
+up and spring to the farthest end of the raft, where he fell to hauling
+and tightening one of the rope-fastenings with all the energy of his
+little body and soul.
+
+"Land ho!" shouted one of the men at that moment from the top of a cask,
+which formed the outlook, where, every day and all day, a man was
+stationed to watch for a sail or a sign of land.
+
+An electric shock could not have produced greater excitement than these
+two words.
+
+"Where away?" exclaimed the captain, leaping up beside the look-out.
+
+"On the port-bow, sir,--there!" pointing eagerly.
+
+"I don't see it--oh--yes--no.  It's only a cloud.  Who ever heard of the
+port-bow of a raft?  Bah! your eyes have been squintin'.  Not a bit of
+it, I see it--low lyin'; why, I see the palms--and I see the nuts--ah,
+and the monkeys, no doubt a-eatin' of 'em--hip, hip, hurrah!"
+
+Such were some of the exclamations, ending in a long, deep-toned,
+British cheer, with which the discovery of land was greeted.
+
+In a short time all uncertainty was removed, and the land was clearly
+made out to be a small coral island with its narrow outlying reef, and a
+few cocoa-nut palms waving thereon.
+
+The joy of the shipwrecked crew was excessive--somewhat in proportion to
+their previous depression.  They shook bands, laughed, cheered, and in
+some cases wept, while a few clasped their hands, looked up, and audibly
+thanked God.
+
+"You'll soon get ashore," said Polly, laying her hand on Ben Trench's
+arm.
+
+"Ay, and the cocoa-nut milk will set you up and make you fat in no
+time," added Watty Wilkins.
+
+"So it will," returned Ben, who had not risen like the others; "we'll
+have jolly times of it, won't we?  Like Robinson Crusoe.  Oh! how I wish
+that sister Susan was here!  She would enjoy it so much.  It's an
+island, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Edwin Jack, coming forward at the moment, "a coral island,
+with plenty of vegetation on it.  So cheer up, Ben, we shall soon be
+ashore."
+
+Not so soon, however, as they expected, for the wind was light, although
+favourable, the raft was heavy, and the two oars had but little
+influence on it.  The sun sank and rose again before they drew near to
+the reef.  Inside the reef, between it and the island-shore, there was a
+lake or lagoon of calm water, but outside, on the reef itself, a heavy
+swell broke with continuous roar.  To get involved in those giant
+breakers would have been destruction to the raft, and probably death to
+most of those on board.  One narrow opening, marked by a few shrubs and
+palms on either side, formed the only portal to the calm lagoon.  The
+captain himself took the steering oar, and summoned our philosopher to
+his assistance.
+
+"Give way now, lads, with a will."
+
+As many men as could grasp the two oars laid hold of them, and bent
+their backs till the strong wood cracked again.  Gradually the raft
+neared the opening.  As it did so the ground-swell began to act on it.
+By degrees the towering billows--which seemed to rise out of a calm sea
+and rush to their destruction like walls of liquid glass--caught it,
+dragged it on a little, and then let it slip.  At last one great wave
+began to curl in hissing foam underneath, caught the raft fairly,
+carried it forward on its boiling crest, and launched it with lightning
+speed into the opening.  The space was too narrow!  One of the
+projecting spars touched the reef.  Instantly the fastenings were rent
+like pack-thread, and the raft was hurled forward in disconnected
+fragments.  One of these turned completely over with several men on it.
+Another portion passed through the opening and swung round inside.  The
+steering oar was wrenched from Jack's hands, and struck the captain into
+the water.  As if by instinct, Jack sprang to the "bower," caught Polly
+in his arms, and leaped into the sea.  At the same moment Wilkins ran to
+the rescue of his friend Ben.  These two were on the part that had swung
+round to the calm side of the reef, and Watty waded to it with Ben on
+his back.  The captain and all the rest were washed in a cataract of
+foam and wreckage through the opening into the lagoon, and pitched by
+curling eddies on the shore.  In a few minutes they all stood in safety,
+panting, but uninjured, on the white sands of the coral reef.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE CORAL ISLAND--PROCEEDINGS THEREIN.
+
+The island on which the raft with its occupants had been cast was of
+small size, not more than six miles in extent, and lay low in the water.
+Nevertheless it was covered with luxuriant vegetation, among which were
+several groves of cocoa-nut palms, the long feathery branches of which
+waved gracefully in a gentle breeze, as if beckoning an invitation to
+the castaways on the reef to cross the lagoon and find shelter there.
+But crossing the lagoon was not an easy matter.
+
+"Shure it's a mile wide if it's a futt," said one of the men as they
+stood in a group on the reef, dripping and gazing at the isle.
+
+"No, Simon O'Rook," said Bob Corkey, in that flat contradictions way to
+which some men are prone; "no, it's only half a mile if it's an inch."
+
+"You're wrong, both of you," said Baldwin Burr, "it ain't more than
+quarter of a mile.  Quite an easy swim for any of us."
+
+"Except my Polly," observed the captain quietly.
+
+"Ay, and those who are too weak to swim," said Watty Wilkins, with a
+glance at his friend Ben, who had lain down on the sand and listened
+with a calm untroubled look to the conversation.
+
+"You don't seem at all anxious," whispered Polly to Ben.
+
+"No, Polly, I'm not.  I have lately been taught how to trust in God by
+your example."
+
+"By mine!" exclaimed the child in extreme surprise.
+
+Before Ben could reply the captain turned and called to Polly.
+
+"Come here, my duckey; Edwin Jack offers to swim over the lagoon to the
+island with you on his back.  Will you trust yourself to him?"
+
+"Yes, father," answered the child promptly.
+
+"But maybe there are sharks," suggested O'Rook.
+
+There was a momentary silence.  In the excitement of the occasion every
+one had forgotten sharks.  What was to be done?  The raft was utterly
+destroyed.  Only a few of the logs which had formed it lay on the reef;
+the rest were floating on the lagoon at various distances, none nearer
+than fifty yards.
+
+"There's nothing for it, then, but to reconstruct our raft," said the
+captain, throwing off his coat and shoes; "so these logs must be
+secured."
+
+He had only taken two steps towards the water when Philosopher Jack
+grasped his arm.
+
+"Stop, sir, it is your duty to look after Polly.  Now lads, those who
+can swim come along!"
+
+Another instant and he was in the sea, regardless of sharks, and
+striking out for the floating wreckage, closely followed by O'Rook,
+Corkey, Burr, and Watty Wilkins.  Strange to say, eight other men of the
+crew could not swim, although they had managed somehow to scramble on
+the reef.  Whether it was that the sharks were not there at the time, or
+that the number and energy of the swimmers frightened them, we cannot
+tell, but each man reached a log or plank in safety, and began pushing
+it towards the reef.  It was when they drew near to this that the trial
+of their courage was most severe.  The excitement and gush of daring
+with which they had plunged in was by that time expended, and the slow
+motion of the logs gave them time for reflection.  O'Rook's lively fancy
+troubled him much.
+
+"If the baists would only attack a man in front," he muttered, "it's
+little I'd mind 'em, but to come up behind, sneakin' like--hooroo!"
+
+At that moment a branch of coral, which projected rather far from the
+bottom, touched O'Rook's toe and drew from him an uncontrollable yell of
+alarm.  Baldwin Burr, who swam close behind, was humorously inclined as
+well as cool.  He pushed the plank he was guiding close to his comrade's
+back, dipped the end of it, and thrust it down on O'Rook's legs.
+
+The effect was even more powerful than he had hoped for.
+
+"A shark!--a sha-a-a-rk!" howled O'Rook, and dived under the broken
+main-yard, which he was piloting ashore.  Coming up on the other side,
+he tried to clamber on it, but it rolled round and dropped him.  He went
+down with a gurgling cry.  Again he rose, grasped the spar with his left
+arm, glared wildly round, and clenched his right hand as if ready to hit
+on the nose any creature--fish, flesh, or fowl--that should assail him.
+
+"Take it easy, messmate," said Burr in a quiet tone; "sorry I touched
+you.  Hope it didn't hurt much."
+
+"Och! it was you, was it?  Sure, I thought it was a shark; well, well,
+it's plaised I am to be let off so aisy."
+
+With this philosophic reflection O'Rook landed with his piece of timber.
+Enough of material was soon collected to form a raft sufficiently large
+to ferry half of the party across the lagoon, and in two trips the whole
+were landed in safety on the island.
+
+"You don't mean to tell me, Jack," said Baldwin Burr, "that this island
+was made by coral insects?"
+
+"Yes, I do!" said Jack.
+
+"From the top to the bottom?" asked Burr.
+
+"From the bottom to the top," said Edwin.
+
+Baldwin asked this question of the philosopher during a pause in their
+labours.  They were, at the time, engaged in constructing a new bower
+for Polly among the flowering shrubs under the cocoa-nut palms.  Polly
+herself was aiding them, and the rest of the party were scattered among
+the bushes, variously employed in breaking down branches, tearing up
+long grass, and otherwise clearing ground for an encampment.
+
+"How could insects make an island?" asked Polly, sitting down on a bank
+to rest.
+
+"Don't you know, Poll?" said Edwin; "why, I thought your father taught
+you about almost everything."
+
+"Oh no," replied Polly, with an innocent smile, "not everything yet, you
+know, but I daresay he will in the course of time.  Tell me about the
+insects."
+
+"Well, let me see, how shall I begin?" said Jack, leaning against the
+bank, and crossing his arms on his breast.  "The coral insects, Polly,
+are very small, some of them not larger than a pin's head.  They are
+great builders.  There is lime in sea-water.  The insects, which are
+called corallines, have the power of attracting this lime to them;
+drawing it away from the water, so to speak, and fixing it round their
+own bodies, which is called secreting the lime.  Thus they form shells,
+or houses, to themselves, which they fix at the bottom of the sea.
+Having laid the basements of their houses close together, they proceed
+to add upper storeys, and thus they add storey to storey, until they
+reach the surface of the sea.  They work in such innumerable millions
+that, in course of time, they form reefs and islands, as you see."
+
+"But I _don't_ see!" said Polly, looking round; "at least, I don't see
+corallines working."
+
+"Ah, good," said Baldwin, with a nod of approval to the child, as if to
+say, "You have him there!"
+
+"True," returned the philosopher, "because the corallines can only work
+under water.  The moment they reach the surface they die; but those that
+remain continue their labours on the sides of the reef or island, and
+thus widen it.  Then the waves break off masses of coral, and cast them,
+with drifting sea-weed and other things, up on the reef, which makes it
+higher; then sea-birds come to rest on it.  The winds carry seeds of
+various plants to it, which take root, grow up, die; and thus thicken
+the soil by slow degrees, till at last, after a long, long time, the
+island becomes a pretty large and fertile one like this."
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed Polly; "what a clever insect!"
+
+"Clever indeed," returned Edwin; "especially when we consider that it
+has got no brains."
+
+"No brains!" echoed Baldwin.
+
+"No, it has little more than a stomach."
+
+"Oh! come now," remonstrated Baldwin; "we can't believe that, can we,
+Miss Polly?  Even a house-builder must think, much more an
+island-builder; and no fellow can think with his stomach, you know."
+
+"Nevertheless, it is as I tell you," continued Jack, "and these little
+creatures manage to create hundreds of islands in the Southern Seas, by
+their perseverance, energy, and united action.  Quite an example to
+man--eh, Baldwin?"
+
+"Ha! just so--a long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull all together.
+I think we'd better act on the principles of these corry-lines, else
+Miss Polly's bower won't be ready afore dark."
+
+So saying, the seaman and our philosopher resumed their work with such
+united energy--aided by Polly herself--that a very comfortable
+habitation of boughs and large leaves was finished before the day
+closed.  It resembled a large beehive, was overshadowed by dense foliage
+of a tropical kind, and carpeted with a species of fern.
+
+Polly was profuse in her thanks, and when it was finished, called to her
+father to come and admire it.  The stout mariner at once obeyed the
+summons.  He quitted the pile of firewood on which he had been
+labouring, and with a violently red face and perspiring brow, appeared
+on the scene, bearing a mighty axe on his shoulder.
+
+"Splendid!" he exclaimed, with beaming admiration.  "It's fit for the
+queen of the coral isles."
+
+"For whom it is intended!" said Philosopher Jack, quickly.
+
+Polly laughed, for she understood the compliment, but suddenly became
+grave, as she remembered Ben Trench, and said, "No, no; it must be used
+as a shelter for Ben."
+
+"That's kind of you, Polly," said Watty coming up with a huge bundle of
+grass and foliage for bedding at the moment; "but Ben has got friends to
+remember him as well as you.  Bob Corkey and I have made him a hut on
+the other side of the bushes--there, you may see the top of it through
+the leaves."
+
+"Does any one know where Mr Luke is?" asked the captain.
+
+None of those assembled at the bower had seen him for some hours, and
+Captain Samson was on the point of organising a party to go in search of
+him, when one of the crew came in from the bush and said he had gone off
+with Simon O'Rook to the highest point of the low islet, to ascertain if
+possible its extent.
+
+"He's all right if O'Rook is with him," said the captain to Polly, in
+confidence, when they went into the bower together; "but he's not to be
+trusted away by himself.  I never saw a man more unfit to look after
+himself."
+
+"And yet he is a good, kind man, father," said Polly.
+
+"True, quite true, Poll," replied the captain, musingly.  "I wonder why
+it is that some men seem as if they had been meant for women; maybe it
+is by way of balancing those women who seem to have been meant for men!"
+
+Polly listened to this with a look of grave consideration, but not
+having formed an opinion on the subject, wisely held her tongue.
+
+Meanwhile O'Rook led his companion towards the highest part of the
+islet, which, being clear of trees, seemed likely to afford them a good
+outlook.  The sailor was a man of inquiring disposition, and, being of a
+free-and-easy nature, did not hesitate to speak out his mind on all
+occasions.  After walking beside his tall companion and eyeing his thin
+figure and sad countenance in silence for some time, he said--
+
+"You're a cadaverous sort o' man, Mr Luke."
+
+"Think so?" said Mr Luke, gently.
+
+"Of course; I can't help thinkin' so, because I see it," returned
+O'Rook.  "Was it a fall, now, w'en you was a babby, that did it, or
+measles?"
+
+"Neither, that I am aware of," replied Mr Luke, with a good-natured
+smile; "my father before me was cadaverous."
+
+"Ah!" said O'Rook, with a look of sympathy, as he touched the region of
+his heart with his left thumb, "p'r'aps it was somethin' o' this sort,
+eh?  I've bin through that myself in the ould country, where as purty
+a--well, well, it's all over now, but I've a fellow-feelin' for--"
+
+"No," interrupted Mr Luke, with a sigh, "it wasn't a disappointment, it
+was--oh! what a splendid view!"
+
+They had reached the top of the ridge at the moment, and the view of the
+verdant islet that burst upon them might well have called forth
+admiration from men of coarser mould than they.
+
+O'Rook forgot for a few minutes the subject of his curiosity, and
+compared the prospect to some of the beautiful scenery of Ireland,
+though there was no resemblance whatever between the two.  He soon
+returned, however, to the previous subject of conversation, but Mr Luke
+had ceased to be communicative.
+
+"What is that lying on the beach there?" he said, pointing in the
+direction referred to.
+
+"It's more than I can tell," answered O'Rook; "looks like a boat, don't
+it?"
+
+"Very," said Mr Luke, "and there is something lying beside it like a
+man.  Come, let's go see."
+
+The two explorers went rapidly down the gentle slope that led to the
+beach, and soon found that the object in question was indeed a boat,
+old, rotten, and blistered with the sun.  Beside it lay the skeleton of
+a man, with a few rags of the garments that had once formed its clothing
+still clinging to it here and there.  It was a pitiful sight.  Evidently
+the unfortunate man had been cast away in an open boat, and had been
+thrown on that beach when too much exhausted to make a last struggle for
+life, for there was no sign of his having wandered from the boat or cut
+down bushes, or attempted to make a fire.  His strength had apparently
+enabled him to get out of the boat, that was all, and there he had lain
+down to die.
+
+For some time the two wanderers stood contemplating the sight in
+silence, and when at length they spoke it was in low, sad tones.
+
+"Poor, poor fellow," said Mr Luke, "he must have been shipwrecked, like
+ourselves, and cast adrift in the boat.  But I wonder that he is alone;
+one would expect that some of his comrades must have got into the boat
+along with him."
+
+"No doubt," said O'Rook, "they was all starved at sea and throw'd
+overboard.  Come, Mr Luke, let's bury him; it's all we can do for him
+now."
+
+Saying this, O'Rook threw off his jacket and, with his companion's
+assistance, soon scraped a hole in the sand.  Into this they were about
+to lift the skeleton, when they observed that its right hand covered a
+decayed remnant of rag, under which was seen a glittering substance.  It
+turned out to be the clasp of a notebook, which, however, was so decayed
+and glued together that it could not be opened.  O'Rook therefore
+wrapped it in his handkerchief and put it in his pocket.  Then they
+buried the skeleton, and rolled a large mass of coral rock upon the
+grave to mark the spot.
+
+A careful examination was next made of the old boat and the locality
+around it, but nothing whatever was found to throw light on the fate of
+the vessel to which the man had belonged.
+
+Returning to the encampment, O'Rook and his companion found their
+friends busy preparing supper, which consisted of some provisions saved
+from the raft, and cocoa-nuts.
+
+In a few seconds the whole party was assembled in front of Polly's
+bower, listening attentively, while O'Rook described the discovery of
+the skeleton to the captain, and produced the old notebook.  Deep was
+the interest of every member of that little community as the captain
+attempted to open the book, and intense was the expression of
+disappointment on each countenance--especially on that of Polly--when,
+after a prolonged trial, he utterly failed.
+
+"Let Philosopher Jack try it," exclaimed Watty Wilkins eagerly.
+
+The captain at once handed the book to Jack with a smile.
+
+"To be sure," said he, "a philosopher ought to understand the management
+of books better than a skipper; but when a book is glued hard and fast
+like that, it may puzzle even a philosopher to master its contents."
+
+Jack made the attempt, however.  He went to work with the calm
+deliberation of a thorough workman.  By the aid of heat and gentle
+friction and a little moisture, and the judicious use of a penknife, he
+succeeded at last in opening the book in one or two places.  While he
+was thus engaged, the rest of the party supped and speculated on the
+probable contents of the book.
+
+"Here is a legible bit at last," said Jack, "but the writing is very
+faint.  Let me see.  It refers to the state of the weather and the wind.
+The poor man evidently kept a private journal.  Ah! here, in the middle
+of the book, the damp has not had so much effect."
+
+As he turned and separated the leaves with great care, Jack's audience
+gazed at him intently and forgot supper.  At last he began to read:--
+
+  "`_Saturday, 4th_.--Have been three weeks now on short allowance.  We
+  are all getting perceptibly weaker.  The captain, who is not a strong
+  man, is sinking.  The boat is overcrowded.  If a gale should spring up
+  we shall all perish.  I don't like the looks of two of the men.  They
+  are powerful fellows, and the captain and I believe them to be quite
+  capable of murdering the most of us, and throwing us overboard to save
+  their own lives.'
+
+"Here there is a blank," said Jack, "and the next date is the 8th, but
+there is no month or year given.  The writing continues:--
+
+  "`I scarce know what has passed during the last few days.  It is like
+  a horrible dream.  The two men made the attempt, and killed big
+  George, whom they feared most, because of his courage and known
+  fidelity to the captain; but, before they could do further mischief,
+  the second mate shot them both.  The boat floats lighter now, and,
+  through God's mercy, the weather continues fine.  Our last ration was
+  served out this morning--two ounces of biscuit each, and a wine-glass
+  of water.  _Sunday, 11th_.--Two days without food.  The captain read
+  to us to-day some chapters out of the Bible, those describing the
+  crucifixion of Jesus.  Williams and Ranger were deeply impressed, and
+  for the first time seemed to lament their sins, and to speak of
+  themselves as crucifiers of Jesus.  The captain's voice very weak, but
+  he is cheerful and resigned.  It is evident that _his_ trust is in the
+  Lord.  He exhorts us frequently.  We feel the want of water more than
+  food.  _Wednesday_.--The captain and Williams died yesterday.  Ranger
+  drank sea water in desperation.  He went mad soon after, and jumped
+  overboard.  We tried to save him, but failed.  Only three of us are
+  left.  If we don't meet with a ship, or sight an island, it will soon
+  be all over with us.  _Thursday_.--I am alone now.  An island is in
+  sight, but I can scarcely raise myself to look at it.  I will bind
+  this book to my hand.  If any one finds me, let him send it to my
+  beloved wife, Lucy.  It will comfort her to know that my last thoughts
+  on earth were of her dear self, and that my soul is resting on my
+  Redeemer.  I grow very cold and faint.  May God's best blessing
+  rest--'"
+
+The voice of the reader stopped suddenly, and for some moments there was
+a solemn silence, broken only by a sob from Polly Samson.
+
+"Why don't you go on?" asked the captain.
+
+"There is nothing more," said Jack sadly.  "His strength must have
+failed him suddenly.  It is unfortunate, for, as he has neither signed
+his name nor given the address of his wife, it will not be possible to
+fulfil his wishes."
+
+"Maybe," suggested O'Rook, "if you open some more o' the pages you'll
+find a name somewheres."
+
+Jack searched as well as the condition of the book would admit of and
+found at last the name of David Ban--, the latter part of the surname
+being illegible.  He also discovered a lump in one place, which, on
+being cut into, proved to be a lock of golden hair, in perfect
+preservation.  It was evidently that of a young person.
+
+"That's Lucy's hair," said O'Rook promptly.  "Blessin's on her poor
+heart!  Give it me, Philosopher Jack, as well as the book.  They both
+belong to me by rights, 'cause I found 'em; an' if ever I set futt in
+old England again, I'll hunt her up and give 'em to her."
+
+As no one disputed O'Rook's claim, the book and lock of hair were handed
+to him.
+
+Soon afterwards Polly lay down to rest in her new bower, and her father,
+with his men, made to themselves comfortable couches around her, under
+the canopy of the luxuriant shrubs.
+
+A week passed.  During that period Captain Samson, with Polly, Jack, and
+Wilkins, walked over the island in all directions to ascertain its size
+and productions, while the crew of the _Lively Poll_ found full
+employment in erecting huts of boughs and broad leaves, and in
+collecting cocoa-nuts and a few other wild fruits and roots.
+
+Meanwhile the bottle thrown overboard by Watty Wilkins, with its
+"message from the sea," began a long and slow but steady voyage.
+
+It may not, perhaps, be known to the reader that there are two mighty
+currents in the ocean, which never cease to flow.  The heated waters of
+the Equator flow north and south to get cooled at the Poles, and then
+flow back again from the Poles to get reheated at the Equator.
+
+The form of continents, the effect of winds, the motion of the earth,
+and other influences, modify the flow of this great oceanic current and
+produce a variety of streams.  One of these streams, a warm one, passing
+up the coast of Africa, is driven into the Gulf of Mexico, from which it
+crosses the Atlantic to the west coast of Britain, and is familiarly
+known as the Gulf Stream.  If Watty Wilkins's bottle had been caught by
+this stream, it would, perhaps, in the course of many months, have been
+landed on the west of Ireland.  If it had been caught by any of the
+other streams, it might have ended its career on the coasts of Japan,
+Australia, or any of the many "ends of the earth."  But the bottle came
+under a more active influence than that of the ocean streams.  It was
+picked up, one calm day, by a British ship, and carried straight to
+England, where its contents were immediately put into the newspapers,
+and circulated throughout the land.
+
+The effect of little Wilkins's message from the sea on different minds
+was various.  By some it was read with interest and pathos, while others
+glanced it over with total indifference.  But there were a few on whom
+the message fell like a thunderbolt, as we shall now proceed to show.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+TELLS OF PLOTTINGS AND TRIALS AT HOME, WITH DOINGS AND DANGERS ABROAD.
+
+In a dingy office, in a back street in one of the darkest quarters of
+the city, whose name we refrain from mentioning, an elderly man sat down
+one foggy morning, poked the fire, blew his nose, opened his newspaper,
+and began to read.  This man was a part-owner of the _Lively Poll_.  His
+name was Black.  Black is a good wearing colour, and not a bad name, but
+it is not so suitable a term when applied to a man's character and
+surroundings.  We cannot indeed, say positively that Mr Black's
+character was as black as his name, but we are safe in asserting that it
+was very dirty grey in tone.  Mr Black was essentially a dirty little
+man.  His hands and face were dirty, so dirty that his only clerk (a
+dirty little boy) held the firm belief that the famous soap which is
+said to wash black men white, could not cleanse his master.  His office
+was dirty, so were his garments, and so was his mean little spirit,
+which occupied itself exclusively in scraping together a paltry little
+income, by means of little ways known only to its owner.  Mr Black had
+a soul, he admitted that; but he had no regard for it, and paid no
+attention to it whatever.  Into whatever corner of his being it had been
+thrust, he had so covered it over and buried it under heaps of rubbish
+that it was quite lost to sight and almost to memory.  He had a
+conscience also, but had managed to sear it to such an extent that
+although still alive, it had almost ceased to feel.
+
+Turning to the shipping news, Mr Black's eye was arrested by a message
+from the sea.  He read it, and, as he did so, his hands closed on the
+newspaper convulsively; his eyes opened, so did his mouth, and his face
+grew deadly pale--that is to say, it became a light greenish grey.
+
+"Anything wrong, sir?" asked the dirty clerk.
+
+"The _Lively Poll_," gasped Mr Black, "is at the bottom of the sea!"
+
+"She's in a lively position, then," thought the dirty clerk, who cared
+no more for the _Lively Poll_ than he did for her part-owner; but he
+only replied, "O dear!" with a solemn look of hypocritical sympathy.
+
+Mr Black seized his hat, rushed out of his office, and paid a sudden
+visit to his neighbour, Mr Walter Wilkins, senior.  That gentleman was
+in the act of running his eye over his newspaper.  He was a wealthy
+merchant.  Turning on his visitor a bland, kindly countenance, he bade
+him good-morning.
+
+"I do hope--excuse me, my dear sir," said Mr Black excitedly, "I do
+hope you will see your way to grant me the accommodation I ventured to
+ask for yesterday.  My business is in such a state that this disaster to
+the _Lively Poll_--"
+
+"The _Lively Poll_!" exclaimed Mr Wilkins, with a start.
+
+"Oh, I beg pardon," said Mr Black, with a confused look, for his seared
+conscience became slightly sensitive at that moment.  "I suppose you
+have not yet seen it (he pointed to the paragraph); but, excuse me, I
+cannot understand how you came to know that your son was on board--
+pardon me--"
+
+Mr Wilkins had laid his face in his hands, and groaned aloud, then
+looking up suddenly, said, "I did not certainly know that my dear boy
+was on board, but I had too good reason to suspect it, for he had been
+talking much of the vessel, and disappeared on the day she sailed, and
+now this message from--"
+
+He rose hastily and put on his greatcoat.
+
+"Excuse me, my dear sir," urged Mr Black; "at such a time it may seem
+selfish to press you on business affairs, but this is a matter of life
+and death to me--"
+
+"It is a matter of death to _me_," interrupted the other in a low tone,
+"but I grant your request.  My clerk will arrange it with you."
+
+He left the office abruptly, with a bowed head, and Mr Black having
+arranged matters to his satisfaction with the clerk, left it soon after,
+with a sigh of relief.  He cared no more for Mr Wilkins's grief than
+did the dirty clerk for his master's troubles.
+
+Returning to his dirty office, Mr Black then proceeded to do a stroke
+of very dingy business.
+
+That morning, through some mysterious agency, he had learned that there
+were rumours of an unfavourable kind in reference to a certain bank in
+the city, which, for convenience, we shall name the Blankow Bank.  Now,
+it so happened that Mr Black was intimately acquainted with one of the
+directors of that bank, in whom, as well as in the bank itself, he had
+the most implicit confidence.  Mr Black happened to have a female
+relative in the city named Mrs Niven--the same Mrs Niven who had been
+landlady to Philosopher Jack.  It was one of the root-principles of Mr
+Black's business character that he should make hay while the sun shone.
+He knew that Mrs Niven owned stock in the Blankow Bank; he knew that
+the Bank paid its shareholders a very handsome dividend, and he was
+aware that, owing to the unfavourable rumours then current, the value of
+the stock would fall very considerably.  That, therefore, was the time
+for knowing men like Mr Black, who believed in the soundness of the
+bank, to buy.  Accordingly he wrote a letter to Mrs Niven, advising her
+to sell her shares, and offering to transact the business for her, but
+he omitted to mention that he meant to buy them up himself.  He added a
+postscript on the back, telling of the loss of the _Lively Poll_.
+
+Mrs Niven was a kind-hearted woman, as the reader knows; moreover, she
+was a trusting soul.
+
+"Very kind o' Maister Black," she observed to Peggy, her
+maid-of-all-work, on reading the letter.  "The Blankow Bank gi'es a high
+dividend, nae doot, but I'm well enough off, and hae nae need to risk my
+siller for the sake o' a pund or twa mair income i' the year.  Fetch me
+the ink, Peggy."
+
+A letter was quickly written, in which worthy Mrs Niven agreed to her
+relative's proposal, and thanked him for the interest he took in her
+affairs.  Having despatched Peggy with it to the post, she re-read Mr
+Black's epistle, and in doing so observed the postscript, which, being
+on the fourth page, had escaped her on the first perusal.
+
+"Hoots!" said she, "that's stipid.  I didna notice the PS."  Reading in
+a low tone, and commenting parenthetically, she continued, "`By the way,
+did not one of your lodgers, a student, sail in the _Lively Poll_,
+(Atweel did he; he telt _me_, though he telt naebody else, an' gaed
+muckle again' _my_ wull) as a common sailor?'  (Common indeed! na, na,
+he was an uncommon sailor, if he was onything.) `If so, you'll be sorry
+to learn that the _Lively Poll_ is lost, and all her crew and passengers
+have per--'"
+
+Instead of reading "perished" poor Mrs Niven finished the sentence with
+a shriek, and fell flat on the floor, where she was found soon after,
+and with difficulty restored to consciousness by the horrified Peggy.
+
+That same morning, in his lowly cottage on the Scottish border, Mr John
+Jack opened a newspaper at the breakfast-table.  Besides Mrs Jack there
+sat at the table four olive branches--two daughters and two sons--the
+youngest of whom, named Dobbin, was peculiarly noticeable as being up to
+the eyes in treacle, Dobbin's chief earthly joy being "treacle pieces."
+
+Mr Jack's eye soon fell on the message from the sea.  Of course he knew
+nothing of the writer, but recognised the name of the vessel as being
+that in which his son had sailed for the Southern Seas, for our hero had
+written to tell of his departure, although he had not asked or waited
+for advice.  Mr Jack was a man of strong nerve.  Rising quietly from
+the table, he left the room, but his wife noticed the expression of his
+face, and followed him into their bedroom.
+
+"What's wrang, John?"
+
+The poor man turned abruptly, drew his wife to him, and pressed her head
+on his breast.
+
+"O Maggie!" he said, in a low husky voice, "`the Lord gave, and the Lord
+hath taken away,' can you finish the sentence?"
+
+"Ay, `blessed be the name o' the Lord,'" said Mrs Jack in a tremulous
+voice; "but what--"
+
+"Listen," said her husband, and he read out the fatal message.
+
+"It canna be--oh! it canna be--that my Teddie is gone," said the
+stricken mother, clasping her hands; "I canna, I winna believe it.  Are
+ye sure that was the ship's name?"
+
+"Yes, too sure," answered her husband.  "I've mislaid the dear boy's
+letter, but I'll go and see Mrs Niven.  He mentioned it, I know, to
+her."
+
+There was yet another house in Scotland into which the message carried
+profound grief; namely, that of Bailie Trench.  Need we say that the
+supposed loss of an only son was a crushing blow, rendered all the more
+terrible by the thought that death had been met so suddenly in a voyage
+which had been undertaken in search of health?
+
+But we will spare the reader further details, and return once more to
+the Coral Island, where we left the castaways making themselves as
+comfortable as the nature of the place would admit of.
+
+And, truth to tell, there are many people in civilised lands much less
+comfortably situated than were these same castaways.
+
+The weather, as O'Rook said, "was splendacious, almost equal to that of
+ould Ireland."  Cocoa-nuts and other fruits were abundant.  The lagoon
+swarmed with fish, including sharks, which rendered fishing an
+excitingly dangerous, as well as enjoyable, pastime.  Polly Samson found
+gardens of coral and seaweed in crystal pools, which she could gaze at
+and admire for hours, though she could not walk in them.  But she could,
+and did, sympathise with the little fish of varied size and colour which
+darted about in these water gardens, and Philosopher Jack found in them
+an inexhaustible theme for discourse to the teachable and inquisitive
+Baldwin Burr.  The captain found enough of employment in directing and
+planning generally for the whole party.  Cutting firewood, gathering
+nuts and wild fruit, fell to the lot of Bob Corkey; and Simon O'Rook
+slid naturally into the office of cook.  The remainder of the men were
+employed at various jobs, according to circumstances.
+
+Watty Wilkins was a passionate fisher.  He divided his time between the
+lagoon and the couch of his sick friend Bell Trench, who soon began to
+improve on rest, sunshine, and cocoa-nut milk.  As for Mr Luke, being
+fit for nothing, he was allowed to do very much what he pleased, except
+at meal times, when O'Rook made him wash the dishes, many of which were
+merely flat stones.  In short, the place was, according to Polly, a sort
+of paradise, and would have been almost perfect, but for a tendency in
+one or two of the men to quarrel, and a powerful disposition in Bob
+Corkey and Simon O'Rook to argue.  Though the arguing never quite
+degenerated into quarrelling, and the quarrelsome men never absolutely
+came to blows, their tendencies made this coral paradise imperfect.
+
+Two of the most troublesome men, named respectively Bounce and Badger,
+were cured by the captain in the following manner:--They had been
+quarrelling verbally for half an hour one morning, calling each other
+names, and threatening, as usual, to fight, but not doing so.
+
+"Come, lads, follow me," said the captain to them sternly, and much to
+their surprise.
+
+He led the way to a neighbouring grove, where he stopped.  "Now," said
+he, "this is a cool, shady spot.  I want to know which of you two is the
+best man.  Come, go to work and fight it out.  I'll see fair play."
+
+Bounce and Badger showed much unwillingness, whereupon the captain
+buttoned his coat, turned up his wristbands, doubled his enormous fists,
+and declared that they would have to fight with him if they would not
+fight with each other.
+
+"But we don't want to fight, sir," said Bounce, humbly, seeing that the
+captain was thoroughly in earnest.
+
+"Very well, then, shake hands," said the captain, in a tone so
+peremptory that the men were fain to obey.
+
+"Now, go back to camp together," said the captain, "and let us have no
+more boasting--d'ee understand?"
+
+They went off at once.  After that there was less disagreement and no
+threatening to fight among the men.
+
+One morning--it was a Sunday--the captain called the whole party
+together after breakfast, and announced the fact that he was going to
+preach them a sermon.
+
+"You see, my lads," said he, "since you have agreed that I shall
+continue to be your captain on shore as well as at sea--to be the
+governor, in short, of this little colony--it is right that we should
+come to a distinct understanding as to our new position, and be guided
+by fixed laws.  In time I will draw you up a code which I hope will be
+ratified by yourselves, and will work well.  To-day I mean to start by
+preaching a sermon.  I pr'pose to do so every Sunday, and to have family
+prayers every morning.  Is that agreed to?"
+
+"Agreed," said nearly every one.  Bounce and Badger laughed, however,
+supposing that the captain was jesting.
+
+But he was very far from jesting.  Taking no notice of the laughter, he
+continued, in an earnest, impressive manner, which enforced respect
+while he pointed towards the other side of the island--
+
+"My lads, the skeleton that lies over yonder furnishes me with a text:
+`One is taken, and another left.'  That poor fellow was taken away from
+this life.  You and I have been left behind.  Assuredly we have been
+left for a good purpose, and the merciful God who has spared us means
+that we should henceforth live for His glory.  My lads, you all know
+what a blessed thing is a state of peace, and you also know what a
+miserable thing it is to be for ever quarrelling.  Since we landed on
+this island, we've had a little of both.  I took in hand to stop the
+quarrelling the other day, in my own way.  P'r'aps it wasn't altogether
+my own way either, for I've read in the Bible of smiting a scorner, that
+the simple might take warning.  However, be that as it may, that system
+may serve a turn; but it's not the straight road to come to a state of
+peace.  If we are to live happily here, my lads, to avoid quarrelling,
+to honour our Maker, and to prove to each other--as well as to angels
+and devils, who may be lookin' on for all that I know--that we stand on
+a higher level than the brutes, we must square our conduct by the rules
+and laws laid down by the Prince of Peace, whose desire is that on earth
+men should live together in peace and goodwill.  I'll now read you some
+of these laws."
+
+Here the captain drew a small Bible from his pocket, and slowly read the
+fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, pausing at each verse, and commenting
+thereon, after his own peculiar fashion, to the surprise of all who
+heard him; for although all knew the captain to be an upright man, they
+were not prepared, by his usually stern look and brusque off-hand
+manner, for the tender spirit and depth of feeling which he now
+displayed.
+
+"Now, my lads," said he, shutting the book, "that's all I've got to say
+to you to-day, but before closing, let me ask you to think like men--not
+like children--about what we have been reading.  The service of God is
+not a mere matter of ceremonies.  Jesus Christ came to save you and me,
+not so much from punishment, as from sin itself.  It is a great
+salvation.  Those of you who may have been swimming with the current
+know and care nothing about the power of sin.  If you think you do, my
+lads, turn up stream.  Try to resist sin, and you'll learn something
+new.  Only those who are made willing and strong by the Spirit of God
+can do it successfully.  No doubt that remark will set adrift a lot o'
+thoughts and questions in your minds.  To all of them I give you a short
+text as a good course to steer by: `Ask, and ye shall receive.'  Ask
+light and ask wisdom.
+
+"Now, cook," continued the captain, turning to O'Rook, "go to work and
+get your dinner under weigh, for talking makes one hungry.  Meanwhile, I
+intend to go and have a short ramble on the sea-shore, and I want to
+know if there is any small female on this island who wants to go with
+me."
+
+At this Polly jumped up with a laugh, put her little hand in that of her
+father, and stood on tiptoe, with upturned face.  The captain stooped,
+received a stiff nor'-wester, and the two went off together.
+
+The following night, as the party were seated round the fire finishing
+supper, Watty Wilkins surprised his friends by rising, clearing his
+throat, extending his right arm, after the manner of an orator, and
+delivering himself of the following speech:--
+
+"Lady and gentlemen,--I rise on the present occasion, with or without
+your leave (`Order,' from Ben Trench), to make a few pertinent remarks
+(`Impertinent,' from Philosopher Jack) regarding our present strange and
+felicitous circumstances.  (Hear, hear.)  Our community is a republic--a
+glorious republic!  Having constituted Captain Samson our governor,
+pastor, and lawgiver, it has occurred to me that we might, with great
+advantage to ourselves, institute a college of learning, and, without
+delay, elect professors.  As a stowaway, I would not have presumed to
+make such a proposal, but, as a free and independent citizen of this
+republic, I claim the right to be heard; and I now move that we proceed
+to elect a professor of natural philosophy, natural history, and any
+other natural or unnatural science that any of us may happen to remember
+or invent.  (Hear, hear, and laughter.)  As a student is naturally
+allied to a professor, and somewhat resembles him--the only difference
+being that the one knows mostly everything, and the other next to
+nothing--I further propose that we appoint to this professorship
+Philosopher Jack, with a salary of gratitude depending on merit, and the
+duty of lecturing to us every night after supper for our entertainment."
+
+Watty Wilkins sat down amid great applause, and Ben Trench seconded the
+motion, which was of course carried unanimously.
+
+Philosopher Jack at once accepted the professorship, and proceeded then
+and there to deliver his inaugural address, in which he philosophised of
+things past, present, and to come, both seriously and humorously, in a
+way that filled his favourite pupil, Baldwin Burr, with inexpressible
+delight.
+
+When he had finished, Bob Corkey rose, and with an air of intense
+solemnity said--
+
+"Messmates, my lady, fathers, and brethren,--I begs to offer a
+observation or two.  It seems to me that a college with only one
+professor ain't quite the thing for this great and enlightened republic.
+Seems to me; therefore, that we should appint a professor who could
+spin yarns for our amusement, not to say edification.  And, for this
+end, I moves that we appint Simon O'Rook (great applause), whose gifts
+in the way o' story-tellin', or nat'ral lyin', so to speak, is
+unequalled by any nat'ral philosopher on the island."  (Hear, hear, and
+cheers, mingled with laughter.)
+
+This motion was seconded by Bounce, and the appointment was gracefully
+accepted by O'Rook, who, however, declined taking office till the
+following night as it was getting late, and he required time to compose
+his professional lies; but he ventured, as a free citizen of the "noo"
+republic, to move that the house should adjourn to bed.
+
+The idea thus jestingly introduced was so far carried into effect in
+earnest, that Philosopher Jack did, on many evenings thereafter, amuse
+and interest his comrades round the camp-fire, by relating many a tale
+from history, both ancient and modern, with which his memory was well
+stored.  He also proved to himself, as well as to others, the great
+value of even a small amount of scientific knowledge, by being able to
+comment on the objects of surrounding nature in a way that invested them
+with an interest which, to absolutely ignorant men, they could not have
+possessed.
+
+O'Rook also fulfilled his engagements to some extent, being not only
+able, but willing, to spin long-winded yarns, which, when genuine
+material failed, he could invent with facility.
+
+Thus the time passed pleasantly enough for several weeks, and the
+shipwrecked crew succeeded in keeping up their spirits, despite the
+undercurrent of heavy anxiety with which they were oppressed,--as indeed
+they could scarcely fail to be, when they reflected on the fact that the
+island, on which they had been cast, lay far out of the ordinary track
+of ships.  This had been ascertained by the captain, who, it may be
+remembered, had taken his sextant from the ship, and who, the day before
+the destruction of the raft on the coral reef, had obtained a reliable
+observation, and fixed their position.
+
+But this anxiety was deepened, and a darker gloom was cast over the
+party, by an incident which happened soon afterwards.
+
+It has been said that Watty Wilkins was passionately fond of fishing.
+This business he prosecuted by means of a small raft, made from the
+remnants of the old one, which he pushed about with a long pole.  But
+the raft was inconvenient; moreover, it had been more than once nearly
+upset by a shark.  Watty therefore resolved to make a small boat out of
+the remains of the old boat beside which the skeleton had been found.
+In this he was so ably assisted by his friends Jack and Ben, that the
+boat--which was a very small one--was launched in the course of two
+weeks.  A pair of light oars was also made, and in this boat the fishing
+was prosecuted with redoubled vigour.  Sometimes the three friends went
+off in company; more frequently little Wilkins went out alone.
+
+One day he pushed off by himself, and pulled to different parts of the
+lagoon, casting his line now and then with varying success.  The day
+happened to be unusually calm and bright.  When he passed the opening in
+the reef, the surf appeared less violent than usual, so that he was
+tempted to pull though it.  The breakers were passed in safety, and he
+soon found himself with a sensation of great delight, floating on the
+gentle swell of the open sea.  He pulled out for a considerable
+distance, and then cast his lines.  So intent was he on these, that he
+did not observe the approach of a squall till it was almost upon him.
+Seizing the oars, he pulled towards the island, but he had drifted off
+shore a considerable distance.  The wind, also, was against him.  His
+efforts were vain.  In short he was blown out to sea.
+
+The desperate anxiety of the poor boy was changed to despair when the
+island gradually receded and finally disappeared.  At first the little
+boat was nearly swamped, but by clever management of the oars Watty
+saved it.  The squall was short-lived.  Before long it again fell calm,
+and the sky cleared, but nothing was now to be seen save the unbroken
+circle of the horizon.
+
+Who can tell the feelings of the poor youth when night descended on the
+sea?  For hours he sat in the stern-sheets quite motionless, as if
+stunned.  [Note: see frontispiece.] Rowing, he knew, would be of no use,
+as he might be pulling away from the island instead of towards it.
+Fastening his jacket to an oar, he set it up as a signal, and sat down
+helpless and inactive, but his mind was busy as he gazed into the depths
+of the moonlit sky.  He thought of home, of the father whom he had so
+deeply injured, of the prospects that he had unwittingly blighted, of
+his comrade Ben Trench, and his other friends on the Coral Island.  As
+he continued to think, conscience rose up and condemned him sternly.
+Wilkins bowed his head to the condemnation, and admitted that it was
+just.
+
+"Oh!" he cried, in a passion of sudden remorse, "O God! spare me to
+return home and be a comfort to my father,--my dear, dear father!"
+
+He put his face in his hands and wept bitterly.  Sitting thus, overcome
+with sorrow and fatigue, he gradually sank lower and lower, until he
+slid to the bottom of the boat, and lay at last with his head on the
+thwart, in profound slumber.  He dreamed of home and forgiveness as he
+floated there, the one solitary black spot on the dark breast of the
+solemn sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+WATTY WILKINS IS TRIED, COMFORTED, RUN DOWN, RESCUED, AND RESTORED.
+
+When Watty Wilkins awoke from sleep, the sun was high in the heavens and
+the sea smooth as a mirror.
+
+The poor boy raised himself on one elbow and looked about him, at first
+with a confused feeling of uncertainty as to where he was.  Then the
+truth burst upon him with overwhelming force.  Not only was he alone in
+a little, half-decayed boat without sail, rudder, or compass, on the
+great Pacific Ocean, but, with the exception of a few fish, he was
+without food, and, worst of all, he had not a drop of fresh water.
+
+What was to be done?  An unspoken prayer ascended from his heart to God,
+as he rose and seized the oars.  A belief that it was needful to act
+vigorously and at once was strong upon him.  For several minutes he
+relieved his feelings by rowing with all his might.  Then he stopped
+abruptly, and his spirit sank almost in despair as he exclaimed aloud--
+
+"What's the use?  I don't know where the island is.  I may only be
+pulling farther away from it.  Oh! what shall I do?"
+
+At that moment of extreme depression, the value of having had a
+God-fearing father who had taught him the Bible was unexpectedly
+realised, for there flashed into his mind, as if in reply to his
+question, the words, "Call upon me in the time of trouble; I will
+deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."
+
+He pulled in the oars at once, fell on his knees, and, clasping his
+hands, prayed fervently.  Watty had been taught a form of prayer in
+childhood, and had often used it with little or no regard to its
+meaning.  Now, in his distress, he prayed in earnest.  He meant what he
+said.  It followed, also, that he said what he meant.  The old form,
+being quite unsuitable to the occasion, was forgotten, and very homely
+language indeed was used, but it was sufficient for the purpose.  The
+substance of it was a cry for pardon and deliverance.  That which winged
+it to the Throne of Grace was the name of Jesus Christ.
+
+Resuming the oars, he rowed gently; not for the sake of directing the
+boat, but because a state of inaction was disagreeable, and as he rowed
+he thought of the promise that had been sent to him.  Strange to say,
+the latter part of it, "Thou shalt glorify me," seemed to take a
+stronger hold of his mind than the first.  "Yes," he thought, "the whole
+promise is true.  He will deliver me and make me to glorify Himself in
+some way or other.  Perhaps He will let me live to return home, and be a
+comfort to my father."
+
+The thought of the sorrow he had caused his father weighed heavier than
+ever in the poor boy's mind, and the desire to express his repentance,
+and, if possible, make his father glad again, became very intense.  It
+seemed to him that a millstone would be removed from his heart if he
+could be allowed, even for one minute, to hold his father's hand and
+say, "Oh, I am so sorry, sorry, sorry that I ran away!"  The millstone
+was not removed at that time, however; but in answer to prayer it was
+unquestionably lightened.
+
+The exercise of rowing and the fresh morning air produced their natural
+effect ere long on the little castaway.  He became ravenously hungry,
+and turned his eyes inquiringly on the few fish which surged about in
+the pool of dirty water that had gathered in the bottom of the boat.  It
+was not an inviting breakfast.  Watty turned his eyes away from it,
+looked up into the fair blue sky, and tried to think of other things!
+But the calls of nature were not to be silenced.  Instead of thinking of
+other things, he somehow thought of bread and butter.  He even fell into
+a species of argument with himself as to whether it would not be
+uncommonly pleasant in various supposable circumstances, to eat bread
+without butter.  Then he found himself meditating on the delights of
+butter and jam together, which somehow suggested the scriptural figure
+of a land flowing with milk and honey.
+
+"Oh!" he sighed at this point, "if the sea was only milk and honey--milk
+even without honey!--what a glorious prospect!"
+
+He looked at it as if he half thought it would be transformed under the
+power of his intense wish.  Then he looked again at the floating fish
+and shuddered.  Well might he shudder, for they were contemptible little
+fish, most of them, with unnaturally large heads, and great staring
+eyes, as if they had failed, even in death, to get rid of their surprise
+at being caught.  With their mouths opened to the uttermost, they seemed
+to wish to shout, but couldn't.
+
+"I may as well take them out of the dirty water anyhow," he muttered,
+suiting the action to the word, and spreading the fish on the thwart in
+front of him.  Liking their appearance still less in that position, he
+put them on the thwart behind him, and tried to forget them.
+Impossible!  He might as well have tried to forget his own existence.
+At last, after holding out as long as possible, the poor boy made up his
+mind to eat a little.  Then he thought, "If I could only cook them; oh!
+for only one small lump of live coal from the camp fire on--"
+
+The thought was checked abruptly, for he suddenly remembered that he had
+a burning-glass in his trousers pocket.  He might perhaps be able to
+roast them with that--in a somewhat underdone fashion, no doubt--still,
+any sort of cooking would be better than none!
+
+It need scarcely be said that the attempt failed.  The only results were
+a burnt spot or two and a faint odour that served to intensify his
+hunger.  At last he bit a mouthful out of the back of one of the fish,
+chewed it viciously, swallowed it in a hurry, and felt very sick.  The
+ice was broken, however, and he got on better than he had expected.  But
+when hunger was appeased, there came gradually upon him the far less
+endurable condition of thirst.  He really felt as if he should choke,
+and once or twice he dipped his baling-dish over the side, but
+restrained himself on remembering the journal of the skeleton, wherein
+it was recorded that one of the men had gone mad after drinking salt
+water.
+
+Towards the afternoon hope was revived in his breast by the appearance
+of clouds indicating rain.  It came at last, in a soft gentle shower--
+far too gentle, indeed, for it could not be collected.  What dropped
+upon the wooden baling-dish seemed to sink into or evaporate off it.
+The few drops that fell upon his patiently protruded tongue served only
+to tantalise him.  But Watty was not prone to give way to despair; at
+least, not to remain in that condition.  He took off his jacket, spread
+it out so as to form a basin, and eagerly watched the result.  Alas! the
+cloth was too soft.  It acted like a sponge, into which the rain-drops
+disappeared.
+
+When it became evident that the coat was a failure--refusing even to
+part with a single drop when wrung,--Watty chanced to cast down his
+eyes, and they naturally fell on his trousers.  They were stiff canvas
+trousers, and very greasy from much service among the dishes.  Instantly
+he had them off, and spread out as the coat had been.  Joy
+inexpressible--they held water!  To convert the body of them into a lake
+and the legs into two water-courses was not difficult for one whose
+ingenuity was beyond the average.  But oh! the lake basin was slow to
+gather the precious drops!  He caused the two legs to debouch into the
+baling-dish, and watched eagerly for half an hour, at the end of which
+period about a wineglassful was collected.  He sucked it in, to the last
+drop, and waited for more.  It seemed as if the very sky sympathised
+with the boy's distress, for soon afterwards the rain increased, then it
+poured, and finally, Watty Wilkins was more than satisfied, he was
+drenched.  Fortunately the downpour was short-lived.  It ceased
+suddenly; the clouds broke up, and the evening sun came out in full
+splendour, enabling him to partially dry his garments.
+
+In the Southern Seas at that time, the weather was particularly warm, so
+that our castaway felt no inconvenience from his ducking, and spent the
+second night in comparative comfort, his dreams--if he had any--being
+untroubled with visions of food or drink.  Once, indeed, he awoke, and,
+looking up, recalled so vividly the fate of the man who had been cast
+alone and dying on the Coral Island, that he became deeply depressed by
+the thought of meeting a similar fate; but the text of the previous day
+again recurred to him.  Clinging to it, he again fell asleep, and did
+not wake till morning.
+
+Looking over the side, he saw what sent a gush of hope and joy to his
+heart.  A ship, under full sail, not half a mile off!  He rubbed his
+eyes and looked again.  Was he dreaming?  Could it be?
+
+He sprang up with a cry of delight and gave vent to a long, loud cheer,
+as much to relieve his feelings as to attract attention.  It was almost
+too good to be true, he thought.  Then a voice within whispered, "Did
+you not ask for deliverance?" and the boy mentally responded, "Yes,
+thank God, I did."
+
+While he was thinking, his hands were busy refastening his jacket (which
+he had taken down to sleep in) by a sleeve to its former place at the
+end of an oar.  But there was no occasion to signal.  The vessel, a
+barque, was running straight towards him before a light breeze under
+full sail--as Baldwin Burr would have said, with "stuns'ls slow and
+aloft."  Believing that he had been observed, he ceased waving his flag
+of distress.
+
+But soon a new idea sent a thrill through his heart.  No sign of
+recognition was made to him as the ship drew near.  Evidently the
+look-out was careless.
+
+Leaping up, Watty seized the oar, waved his flag frantically, and yelled
+out his alarm.  Still the ship bore majestically down on him, her huge
+bow bulking larger and higher as she drew near.  Again Watty yelled,
+loud and long, and waved his flag furiously.  The ship was close upon
+him--seemed almost towering over him.  He saw a sailor appear lazily at
+the bow with his hands in his pockets.  He saw the eyes of that seaman
+suddenly display their whites, and his hands, with the ten fingers
+extended, fly upwards.  He heard a tremendous "Starboard ha-a-a-rd!"
+followed by a terrific "Starboard it is!"  Then there was a crashing of
+rotten wood, a fearful rushing of water in his ears, a bursting desire
+to breathe, and a dreadful thrusting downwards into a dark abyss.  Even
+in that moment of extremity the text of the morning flashed through his
+whirling brain--then all was still.
+
+When Watty's mind resumed its office, its owner found himself in a
+comfortable berth between warm blankets with a hot bottle at his feet,
+and the taste of hot brandy-and-water in his mouth.  A man with a rough
+hairy visage was gazing earnestly into his face.
+
+"Wall, youngster, I guess," said the man, "that you'd pretty nigh
+slipped your cable."
+
+Watty felt thankful that he had not quite slipped his cable, and said
+so.
+
+"You went over me, I think," he added.
+
+"Over you!  Yes, I just think we did.  You went down at the bows--I
+see'd you myself--and came up at the starn.  The cap'n, he see'd you
+come up, an' said you bounced out o' the water like the cork of a
+soda-water bottle.  But here he comes himself.  He told me I wasn't to
+speak much to you."
+
+The captain, who was an American, with a sharp-featured and firm but
+kindly countenance, entered the berth at the moment.
+
+"Well, my boy, glad to see you revived.  You had a narrow escape.
+Wouldn't have been so if it hadn't chanced that one of our worst men was
+the look-out--or rather wasn't the look-out.  However, you're all right
+now.  Your ship went down, I expect, not long since?"
+
+"About three or four months ago," answered Watty.
+
+"Come, boy, your mind hasn't got quite on the balance yet.  It ain't
+possible that you could be as fat as a young pig after bein' three or
+four months at sea in an open boat.  What was the name of your ship?"
+
+"The _Lively Poll_."
+
+"What! a Scotch ship?"
+
+"Yes; part owned and commanded by Captain Samson."
+
+"_I_ know him; met him once in Glasgow.  A big, rough-bearded, hearty
+fellow--six foot two or thereabouts.  Didn't go down with his ship, did
+he?" asked the captain with a look of anxiety.
+
+"No," replied Watty with increasing interest in the American; "we
+escaped on a raft to an island, off which I was blown, while alone in my
+boat only two days ago."
+
+"Only two days ago, boy!" echoed the captain, starting up; "d'you happen
+to know the direction of that island?"
+
+Watty did not know, of course, having had no compass in his boat; but he
+fortunately remembered what Captain Samson had said when he had
+ascertained the latitude and longitude of it.
+
+"Mr Barnes," shouted the captain to the first mate, who stood on deck
+near the open skylight, "how's her head?"
+
+"Sou'-sou'-west, sir."
+
+"Put her about and lay your course west and by north.  Now," said the
+captain, turning again to Watty, with a look of satisfaction, "we'll
+soon rescue Captain Samson and his crew.  I'm sorry I won't be able to
+take you all back to England, because we are bound for San Francisco,
+but a trip to California is preferable to life on a coral island.  Now,
+boy, I've talked enough to you.  The steward will bring you some dinner.
+If you feel disposed, you may get up after that.  Here are dry clothes
+for you.  We ripped up your own to save time after hauling you out of
+the sea."
+
+It was not usual for the gentle Polly Samson to alarm the camp with a
+shriek that would have done credit to a mad cockatoo, nevertheless, she
+did commit this outrage on the feelings of her companions on the
+afternoon of the day on which Watty was run down and rescued.
+
+Her father and all the others were seated around the camp fire among the
+bushes at the time.  Polly had left them, intending to pay a visit to
+one of her beautiful water-gardens on the beach, and had just emerged
+from the bushes and cast her eyes upon the sea, when she beheld the
+sight that drew from her the shriek referred to.  She gave it forth in
+an ascending scale.
+
+"Oh!  Oh!!  Oh!!! father! come here! quick! quick! oh!"
+
+Never since he was a boy had the captain jumped so sharply from a
+sitting posture to his legs.  Every man followed suit like a
+Jack-in-the-box.  There was a rush as if of a tempest through the
+bushes, and next moment the whole party burst upon the scene, to find
+Polly--not as they had feared in some deadly peril, but--with flashing
+eyes and glowing cheeks waving her arms like a windmill, and shrieking
+with joy at a ship which was making straight for the island under full
+sail.
+
+The captain greeted the sight with a bass roar, Philosopher Jack with a
+stentorian shout.  Ben Trench did his best to follow Jack's example.
+Simon O'Rook uttered an Irish howl, threw his cap into the air, and
+forthwith began an impromptu hornpipe, in which he was joined by Bob
+Corkey.  Baldwin Burr and his comrades vented their feelings in
+prolonged British cheers, and Mr Luke, uttering a squeak like a wounded
+rabbit, went about wanting to embrace everybody, but nobody would let
+him.  In short every one went more or less mad with joy at this sudden
+realisation of "hope long deferred."  Only then did they become fully
+aware of the depth of anxiety which had oppressed them at the thought of
+being left, perhaps for years, it might be to the end of their days, on
+that unknown island.
+
+As the vessel approached, it became apparent that there was some one on
+board whose temporary insanity was as demonstrative as their own, so
+wild were his gesticulations.
+
+"It's too fur off," said Baldwin, "to make out the crittur's phisog; but
+if it warn't for his size, I'd say he was a monkey."
+
+"P'r'aps it's an ourang-outang," suggested Corkey.
+
+"Or a gorilla," said O'Rook.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Polly, in a low, eager voice of surprise, "I do believe
+it is Watty Wilkins!"
+
+"Polly is right," said Philosopher Jack; "I'd know Watty's action among
+a thousand."
+
+As he spoke, the vessel rounded-to outside the reef, backed her
+top-sails, and lowered a boat.  At the same time the excited figure
+disappeared from her bow, and reappeared, wilder than ever, in the stern
+of the boat.  As it crossed the lagoon, the voice of Watty became
+audible, and was responded to by a succession of hearty cheers, in the
+midst of which the boat was run ashore.  The excited lad sprang on the
+beach, and was almost annihilated by the species of miscellaneous
+embracing that he immediately underwent.
+
+Need we say that Captain Samson and his men were only too thankful to
+have such an opportunity of deliverance?  They at once accepted the
+offer of the American captain, embarked in his ship the following
+morning, passed Cape Horn not long after, sailed up the coast of South
+America, and, in course of time, cast anchor in the renowned harbour of
+San Francisco.
+
+At the time of which we write, the excitement about the gold-fields of
+California was at its highest pitch.  Men were flocking to that region
+from all parts of the earth.  Fortunes were being made by some in a few
+months, and lost by others, at the gaming-tables, in a few days, or even
+hours.  While a few gained a competence, many gained only a bare
+subsistence; thousands lost their health, and not a few their lives.  It
+was a strange play that men enacted there, embracing all the confusion,
+glitter, rapid change of scene, burlesque, and comedy of a pantomime,
+with many a dash of darkest tragedy intermingled.  Tents were pitched in
+all directions, houses were hastily run up, restaurants of all kinds
+were opened, boats were turned keel up and converted into cottages,
+while ships were stranded or lying idle at their anchors for want of
+crews, who had made off to that mighty centre of attraction, the
+diggings.
+
+Arrived at San Francisco, Captain Samson and his crew were landed one
+fine morning at an early hour, and went up to a modest-looking hotel,
+without any definite idea as to what was best to be done in their
+peculiar circumstances.  Feeling a strange sensation of helplessness in
+the midst of so much turmoil and human energy, after their quiet sojourn
+on the Coral Island, they kept together like a flock of sheep, and
+wandered about the town.  Then they returned to their hotel and had
+luncheon, for which so large a sum was demanded, that they resolved to
+return on board at once, and ask the American captain's advice.
+
+They found their deliverer pacing his quarterdeck, with his hands in his
+pockets, and a stern frown on his countenance.  He was quite alone, and
+the vessel wore an unusually quiet air.
+
+"Nothing wrong, I hope," said Captain Samson, as he stepped over the
+gangway.
+
+"Everything wrong," replied the American; "crew skedaddled."
+
+"What! bolted?"
+
+"Ay, every man, to the diggin's."
+
+"What will you do?" asked Captain Samson, in a sympathetic tone.
+
+"Sell off the ship and cargo for what they'll fetch, and go to the
+diggin's too," replied the other.  "Moreover, I'd strongly recommend you
+to do the same."
+
+"What say you to that advice, Philosopher Jack?" asked Captain Samson,
+turning to our hero, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"I say," answered the philosopher, returning the smile, "that the advice
+requires consideration."
+
+"Cautiously replied; and what says my Polly?" continued the captain.
+
+"I say whatever you say, father."
+
+"Ah!  Poll, Poll, that sort of answer don't help one much.  However,
+we'll call a council of war, and discuss the matter seriously; but,
+first of all, let's see how the wind blows.  How do _you_ feel inclined,
+Ben Trench?  Bein' the invalid of our party, so to speak, you're
+entitled, I think, to speak first."
+
+"I say, Go," replied Ben.
+
+"And I say ditto," burst from Watty Wilkins with powerful emphasis.
+
+"You wasn't axed yet," observed Bob Corkey.  "Besides, stowaways have no
+right to speak at all."
+
+"What says Mr Luke!" continued the captain.
+
+"Don't go," answered Mr Luke feebly.
+
+"Now, lads," said the captain, after putting the question to the others,
+"we'll go in for the pros and cons."
+
+They went in for the pros and cons accordingly, and after an animated
+debate, resolved that the path of duty, as well as that of interest and
+propriety, lay in the direction of the diggings.
+
+Having settled the matter, and gathered together into a common fund the
+small amount of cash and property which each had saved from the wreck,
+they went ashore, purchased the articles necessary for their expedition,
+and followed the great stream of Californian gold-diggers.
+
+We shall join them, but let not the reader suppose that we intend to
+bore him or her with the statistics and details of Californian
+gold-digging.  It is our purpose only to touch lightly on those salient
+points in the adventures of our wanderers which had a more or less
+direct bearing on the great issues of their lives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+FAILURE.
+
+There are times, probably, in the life of all when everything seems to
+go against one,--when plans and efforts turn out ill, or go wrong, and
+prospects look utterly black and hopeless.  Such a time fell upon
+Philosopher Jack and his friends some months after their arrival at the
+gold-diggings.
+
+At first they were moderately successful, and at that time what
+amazingly golden visions they did indulge!
+
+"A carriage and pair," soliloquised Watty Wilkins, one evening at
+supper, while his eyes rested complacently on the proceeds of the day's
+labour--a little heap of nuggets and gold-dust, which lay on a sheet of
+paper beside him; "a carriage and pair, a town house in London, a
+country house near Bath or Tunbridge Wells, and a shooting-box in the
+Scotch Highlands.  Such is my reasonable ambition."
+
+"Not bad," said Philosopher Jack, "if you throw in a salmon river near
+the shooting-box, and the right to wear the bonnet, plaid, and kilt at
+pleasure."
+
+"Not to mention bare legs an' rheumatiz," remarked Simon O'Rook, who was
+busy with the frying-pan.  "Sure, if the good Queen herself was to order
+me to putt on such things, I'd take off me bonnet an' plaid in excuse
+that I'd be kilt entirely if she held me to it.  All the same I'd obey
+her, for I'm a loyal subject."
+
+"You're a bad cook, anyhow," said Baldwin Burr, "to burn the bacon like
+that."
+
+"Burn it!" retorted O'Rook with an air of annoyance, "man alive, how can
+I help it?  It hasn't fat enough to slide in, much less to swim.  It's
+my belief that the pig as owned it was fed on mahogany-sawdust and steel
+filin's.  There, ait it, an' howld yer tongue.  It's good enough for a
+goold-digger, anyhow."
+
+"In regard to that little bit of ambition o' your'n," said Bob Corkey,
+as the party continued their meal, "seems to me, Watty, that you might
+go in for a carriage an' four, or six, when you're at it."
+
+"No, Corkey, no," returned the other, "that would be imitating the
+foibles of the great, which I scorn.  What is _your_ particular
+ambition, now, Mr Luke?  What will you buy when you've dug up your
+fortune?"
+
+The cadaverous individual addressed, who had become thinner and more
+cadaverous than ever, looked up from his pewter plate, and, with a
+sickly smile, replied that he would give all the gold in the mines to
+purchase peace of mind.
+
+This was received with a look of surprise, which was followed by a burst
+of laughter.
+
+"Why, you ain't an escaped convict, are you?" exclaimed Baldwin Burr.
+
+"No, I'm only an escaped man of business, escaped from the toils, and
+worries, and confinements of city life," returned Mr Luke, with another
+sickly smile, as he returned to his tough bacon.
+
+"Well, Mr Luke, if contrast brings any blessing with it," said Edwin
+Jack, "you ought to revive here, for you have splendid fresh country
+air--by night as well as by day--a fine laborious occupation with pick
+and shovel, a healthy appetite, wet feet continually, mud up to the
+eyes, and gold to your heart's content.  What more can you desire?"
+
+"Nothing," replied the cadaverous man with a sigh.
+
+The state of prosperity to which Jack referred did not last.  Their
+first "claim," though rich, was soon worked out, and they were obliged
+to seek another.  This turned out to be a poor one, yielding barely
+enough of the precious metal to enable them to pay their way, every
+article of clothing, tools, and food being excessively dear at the
+mines.  Nevertheless, they worked on in hope, but what was termed their
+"luck" became worse and worse every day, so that at last they were
+obliged to run into debt.
+
+This was not difficult to do, for the principal store-keeper, Higgins by
+name, saw that they were respectable, trustworthy men, and felt pretty
+safe in giving them supplies on credit.  One bad result of the debt thus
+incurred was that the whole tone and spirit of the party was lowered.
+
+"It's too bad," growled Philosopher Jack one evening, as he strode into
+the tent and flung down his tools; "got barely enough to keep the pot
+boiling."
+
+"Better that than nothing," remarked Watty Wilkins, who was in the act
+of taking off his wet boots.  "_I_ haven't got as much dust as would
+gild the end of a bumbee's nose.  Hope some of the others have been more
+successful.  None of them have come in yet except O'Rook, who is as
+unlucky as myself.  He's off to the store for something for supper."
+
+Watty sat down before the fire which burned in front of the tent, and
+sadly toasted his toes.
+
+"I'll tell you what," said Jack, sitting down beside him, "I fear we
+were fools to come here."
+
+"Not so sure of that" returned Wilkins, with a dubious shake of the
+head.  "Every one, you know, cannot be lucky.  Some succeed and some
+don't.  We are down just now, that's all.  The wheel of fortune is going
+round, and something will be sure to turn up soon."
+
+"Nothing will turn up unless we turn it up for ourselves, you may depend
+upon that" said Philosopher Jack.
+
+"The captain seemed to preach a different doctrine from that last
+Sunday, didn't he, when he remarked that God sometimes sends prosperity
+and riches to those who neither ask, work for, nor deserve them?"
+
+"True, Watty, but these, he told us, were exceptional cases; the rule
+being, that those who labour with body or mind acquire possessions,
+while those who don't labour fall into poverty.  The simple truth of
+that rule is partially veiled by the fact that thousands of laborious
+men labour unwisely, on the one hand, while, on the other hand,
+thousands of idle men live on the product of their forefathers' labours.
+Besides, didn't the captain also impress upon us that success is not
+success when it leads to evil, and failure is not failure when it
+results in good?"
+
+"From all which," retorted Watty, "you bring forward strong proof that
+your present growling at bad luck is most unphilosophic, you
+cross-grained philosopher."
+
+"Not at all," returned Jack.  "The captain's principles may, or may not
+be correct.  The mere statement of them does not prove that my ill luck
+just now is going to result in good.  But the worst of it is, that
+during the time of our good fortune, I had been hoarding up in order to
+be able to send money to my poor father, and now it has all melted
+away."
+
+"I'm sorry for you, Jack," said Watty, "but that is not the worst of it
+to my mind, bad though it be.  What grieves me most is, that my dear
+friend and chum, Ben Trench, is surely losing his health under the
+strain of anxiety and hard work.  You see, he is not gifted with the
+gutta-percha feelings and cast-iron frame of Philosopher Jack, neither
+has he the happy-go-lucky spirit and tough little corpus of Watty
+Wilkins, so that it tells on him heavily--very heavily."
+
+Poor Watty said this half jestingly, yet with such a look of genuine
+feeling that Jack forgot his own troubles for the moment.
+
+"Something _must_ be done," he said, gazing with a concerned look at the
+fire.  "Did you observe that man Conway last night up at the store?"
+
+"Yes; what of him?"
+
+"He staked largely at the gaming-table last night--and won."
+
+Little Wilkins glanced quickly in his friend's face.  "Jack," he said,
+with a look and tone of earnestness quite unusual to him, "we must not
+think of _that_.  Whatever straits we are reduced to, we must not
+gamble--I repeat, we _must_ not!"
+
+"Why not, little man?" asked Jack, with an amused smile at what he
+considered an uncalled-for burst of seriousness.
+
+"Because it is dishonourable," said Wilkins, promptly.
+
+"I don't see it to be so," returned Jack.  "If I am willing to stake my
+money on a chance of black or red turning up, and the banker is willing
+to take his chance, why should we not do it? the chances are equal; both
+willing to win or to lose, nothing dishonourable in that!  Or, if I bet
+with you and you bet with me, we both agree to accept the consequences,
+having a right, of course, to do what we please with our own."
+
+"Now, Jack," said Wilkins, "I'm not going to set up for a little
+preacher, or attempt to argue with a big philosopher, but I'll tell you
+what my father has impressed on me about this matter.  One day, when we
+were passing some ragged boys playing pitch-and-toss on the street, he
+said to me, `Watty, my boy, no man should gamble, because it is
+dishonourable.  To want money that does not belong to you is greedy.  To
+try to get it from your neighbour without working for it is mean.  To
+risk your money in the hope of increasing it by trade, or other fair
+means, and so benefit yourself and others, is right; but to risk it for
+nothing, with the certainty of impoverishing some one else if you win,
+or injuring yourself if you lose, is foolish and unfeeling.  The fact
+that some one else is willing to bet with you, only proves that you have
+met with one as foolish and unfeeling as yourself, and the agreement of
+two unfeeling fools does not result in wisdom.  You will hear it said,
+my boy, that a man has a right to do what he will with his own.  That is
+not true.  As far as the world at large is concerned, it is, indeed,
+partially true, but a man may only do what God allows with what He has
+lent him.  He is strictly accountable to God for the spending of every
+penny.  He is accountable, also, to his wife and his children, in a
+certain degree, ay, and to his tradesmen, if he owes them anything.
+Yes, Watty, gambling for money is dishonourable, believe me!'  Now,
+Jack, I did, and I do believe him, from the bottom of my heart."
+
+What Jack would have replied we cannot tell, for the conversation was
+interrupted at that moment by the abrupt appearance of Captain Samson.
+He led Polly by the hand.  The child had an unwonted expression of
+sadness on her face.
+
+"Come into the tent.  Now then, darling," said the captain; "sit on my
+knee, and tell me all about it.  Polly has seen something in her rambles
+that has made her cry," he explained to Jack, Wilkins, and the rest of
+the party who chanced to come in while he was speaking.  "Let us hear
+about it."
+
+"Oh! it is _so_ sad," said Polly, whimpering.  "You know that good kind
+man Jacob Buckley, who lives up in Redman's Gap with his sick brother
+Daniel, who is so fond of me; well, I went up to the Gap this afternoon,
+when I had done cleaning up, to sit with the sick brother for a little.
+I found him in great anxiety and very ill.  He told me that Jacob, who
+had always been such a good nurse to him, is much cast down by his bad
+luck, and has taken to drink, and that he has lost or spent all his
+money, and can't get credit at the store.  He went out quite drunk last
+night, and has not returned since.  Of course poor Daniel has had
+nothing to eat, for he can't leave his bed without help, and even if he
+could, there isn't a morsel of food in the house."
+
+This story created much sympathy in the hearts of Polly's hearers.
+
+"Well now, messmates, what's to be done in this case?" asked Captain
+Samson, looking round.
+
+"Make a c'lection," said O'Rook.
+
+"Here you are," said Watty, taking up his cap and dropping several small
+nuggets into it as he handed it to Jack.
+
+The philosopher contributed a pretty large nugget, which, in his heart,
+he had intended to stake at the gaming-table.  "Well," said he, "we are
+reduced to low enough circumstances just now, but we are rich compared
+with poor Buckley."
+
+The entire party at that time numbered only nine, including Polly,
+Bounce, and Badger, the other members of the crew of the _Lively Poll_
+having separated soon after leaving San Francisco.  But as all of them
+were men of generous spirit, Watty's cap soon contained a very
+creditable "c'lection," which was made up forthwith into a bag, and
+carried with some cooked provisions by Polly to Redman's Gap, under the
+safe escort of her father and Baldwin Burr.
+
+The following evening, after supper, Philosopher Jack quietly put his
+last bag of gold into his pocket and went off with it to Higgins' store.
+On the way up he entered into a debate with himself as to the rectitude
+of gambling.  He seemed to himself to be composed of two persons, one of
+whom condemned, while the other defended gambling.  But Jack had a
+strong will of his own.  He was not to be lightly turned from a purpose,
+either by the disputants within him or by the arguments of his friend
+Wilkins.  Being a good reasoner, our philosopher found that the
+condemner of gambling within him was rapidly getting the best of the
+argument; he therefore brought the matter to a point by suddenly
+exclaiming aloud, "Now, the question is, shall I do it?"
+
+"Don't?" said his old, brusque, but faithful friend Conscience, with a
+promptitude that made him quite uncomfortable.
+
+"Or," continued Jack slowly, "shall I go back and wait to see whether
+things will turn and mend?"
+
+"Do!" answered his friend at once.
+
+If Jack had put more questions, he would have received clear and
+emphatic replies, but he merely said, "Pooh!" and when a man says
+"pooh!" to conscience, he is in a very bad way indeed.
+
+At Higgins' store gold-miners assembled to buy and sell, to talk and
+drink and gamble.  As the necessaries of life were procured there,
+miners of all sorts, from the steady to the disreputable, were to be
+found assembled at times, but it was chiefly the latter who "hung about"
+the place.  No notice was taken of Jack as he mingled with the crowd,
+except by one or two acquaintances, who gave him a passing nod of
+recognition.
+
+At the bar there was assembled a boisterous group, who were laughing
+heartily at something.  Jack joined it, and found a tall, half-tipsy man
+offering to bet with another.  When men are smitten with the gambling
+spirit anything that affords a "chance" will serve their turn.
+
+"See here, now," said the tall man, looking round, "I repeat, that I'll
+bet any man ten dollars--all I have in the world--that there's not any
+four of the men in this store can prevent my lifting this tumbler of
+water to my lips."
+
+He held out a tumbler in his right hand as he spoke, and straightened
+his long sinewy arm.
+
+Some of those present laughed, but one, a short, thick-set, powerful
+fellow, said "Done!" at once, and stepped forward.
+
+"Well, stranger," said the tall man, with a smile, "lay hold.  You ought
+to be strong enough to prevent me by yourself, but come on some more of
+you."
+
+Three strong fellows rose and laughingly grasped the man's arm, while
+several of the lookers-on began to bet on the event.
+
+"Now, hold fast," said the tall man, giving his arm a slight but
+vigorous shake, which had the effect of causing those who held it to
+tighten their grip powerfully.
+
+"Oh! you're not strong enough," he added; "come, another of you!"
+Hereupon a fifth man rose, and laid hold of the arm amid much laughter.
+
+At that moment a big, rough miner pushed his way through the crowd and
+demanded to know "what was up."  On being told, he drew a bag from his
+pocket and exclaimed, "I'll bet you this bag of dust if you can match
+it, that these five men will prevent you easily.  They are strong enough
+to hold Goliath himself, if he were here."
+
+"Sorry that I can't match your bag, stranger," replied the tall man;
+"I'm only game for ten dollars, and that's already staked."
+
+"But _I_ can match it," exclaimed Philosopher Jack, suddenly producing
+his bag, which was much the same size as that of the big miner.
+
+"Now, then, hold fast, but don't break the bone if you can help it,"
+said the tall man, giving his arm another shake.
+
+The laugh with which this was received was changed into a roar of
+delight, when the tall man passed his left arm over the heads of those
+who held him, and with his left hand conveyed the tumbler to his lips.
+
+There was a good deal of disputation immediately, as to the justice of
+paying up bets on what was obviously a "sell," but it was ruled that in
+this case they had been fairly lost and won, so that the big miner
+turned his back on his bag of gold, and, with a deep curse, left the
+store.
+
+Never before had Edwin Jack felt so thoroughly ashamed of himself as
+when he went forward and took up the two bags of gold.  He did it, how
+ever, and, hurriedly quitting the store, returned to his tent.
+
+There was a small portion of the tent curtained off at the farther
+extremity, as a chamber for Polly Samson.  Jack was relieved, on
+arriving, to find that she had retired to it for the night.  He was also
+glad to observe that all his tired companions were asleep, with the
+exception of O'Rook.  That worthy was busy clearing up his pots and pans
+for the night.
+
+"It's late you are to-night," remarked O'Rook with a yawn.
+
+"Yes, I've been to the store," said Jack; "hand me that candle; thanks."
+
+Turning his back on his comrade, he opened the bag which he had won, and
+looked in.  The first thing that met his astonished gaze was the
+identical nugget which he had contributed the evening before to the sick
+miner at Redman's Gap.  There was a name inside the bag.  Holding it
+near the candle, he read--"Buckley!"
+
+"They must have been robbed!" he muttered to himself; then, rising, said
+to O'Rook, "I've taken a fancy to go up to the Gap to see the Buckleys.
+Don't mistake me for a thief when I return."
+
+"No mistake at all if I did," returned O'Rook, "for you're stealin' a
+march on us all just now, an' isn't it robbin' yourself of your night's
+rest you are? ah! then, a wilful man must have his way; good luck go
+with ye."
+
+Before the sentence and the yawn that followed it were finished, Jack
+was on his way to the Gap.  He found the elder Buckley seated on a log
+by his brother's couch, with his face buried in his hands.  A glance
+showed him that the sick man was dying.  Jacob looked up quickly.  His
+face was haggard from the combined effects of dissipation, grief, and
+watching.  He seemed rather annoyed than pleased by Jack's visit.
+
+"I'm grieved to see Daniel so ill," said Jack in a low voice, which,
+however, roused the attention of the invalid.
+
+"Dying," said Jacob sternly, though in a voice that was scarcely
+audible.  "What have you got there?" he added, almost fiercely, as he
+observed, and at once recognised, the bag in his visitor's hand.
+
+"Your property," answered Jack.  "Have you not missed it?  I conclude,
+of course, that it has been stolen from you, because it was gambled away
+by a big rough fellow at Higgins' store this evening."
+
+A peculiar smile flitted for a moment across the rugged face of Jacob
+Buckley as he said, "No, he didn't steal it.  Not being able to leave my
+brother myself, I sent him with it to the store, to try his luck.  It
+was my last throw, contained all I had, includin' the dust and nuggets
+you and your comrades sent me last night."
+
+He said this in a hard, reckless, defiant manner, then looked suddenly
+in Jack's eyes, and inquired with an expression of curiosity how he came
+by the bag.
+
+"I won it, God forgive me," said Jack, a deep flush of shame
+overspreading his face, "and I now come to return what I had no right to
+win."
+
+A sound from the dying man attracted their attention at that moment.
+
+"He wants to speak to you," said Jacob, who had stooped down to listen.
+
+Jack bent over the sick man, who said in a low whisper, with occasional
+pauses for breath, for his strength was almost gone.
+
+"God bless you!  You've saved his life.  He said if he lost that gold
+that he'd blow out his brains--and he'd have done it--he would; I know
+Jacob--he'd have done it.  Read to me--the Word--the only true gold."
+
+Jack looked round.  Jacob had sat down, and again covered his face with
+his hands.
+
+"I have not my Bible with me," said Jack, "but I can repeat passages
+from memory."
+
+He began with the words, "They that trust in Him shall never be put to
+confusion," when the dying man roused himself, and with a strong effort
+whispered, "O, sir, I _do_ trust in Him!  Will you try to save my
+brother from gambling and drink.  Speak!--promise!"
+
+"I will!" whispered Jack in his ear.
+
+The man's energy left him at once, and he fell back on the pillow, from
+which he had partially risen, with a deep, prolonged sigh.  Jacob heard
+it.  Springing up, he fell on his knees by the bedside and seized his
+brother's hand.
+
+"O Dan! dear Dan," he exclaimed, passionately, "don't give way like
+that.  You'll get well soon, an we'll cut this infernal place
+altogether; we'll go home and work with the old folk.  Dan, dear Dan!
+speak to me--"
+
+He stopped abruptly, and rose with a stony stare of hopelessness, for
+Dan's spirit had returned to God who gave it.
+
+Without a word Jacob set to work to lay out the body, and Jack quietly
+assisted him.  Having finished, the former put the recovered bag of gold
+in his pocket, stuck a revolver in his belt, and took up the door key of
+the hut.
+
+"Come, Jacob," said Jack, purposely taking no notice of these actions,
+"you'll go home and spend the night with me.  Dear Dan wants no tending
+now.  We will return together, and see to his remains to-morrow.  Come."
+
+Buckley looked undecided.
+
+"You haven't your flask, have you?" he asked eagerly.
+
+Jack felt in his pockets, and with something like joy found that his
+flask was not there.  "No," said he, "I haven't got it.  But come,
+Jacob, you want rest.  I'll give you something better than spirits to
+drink when we reach the tent.  Come."
+
+The man submitted.  They went out and, locking the door, walked quickly
+and silently away.
+
+Many and anxious were the thoughts that chased each other through the
+busy brain of our hero during that dreary midnight walk.  Before it was
+ended, he had almost resolved upon a plan of action, which was further
+matured while he prepared a can of strong hot coffee for poor Jacob
+Buckley.
+
+"This is how the matter stands," he said to Captain Samson next morning,
+during a private conversation, while Buckley and the others were at
+breakfast in the tent.  "I, who am not a teetotaller, and who last night
+became a gambler, have pledged myself to do what I can to save Jacob
+Buckley from drink and gaming.  To attempt that _here_ would be useless.
+Well, we are at our lowest ebb just now.  To continue working here is
+equally useless.  I will therefore leave you for a time, take Buckley
+and Wilkins with me, and go on a prospecting tour into the mountains.
+There it will be impossible to drink or gamble; time may cure Buckley,
+and perhaps we may find gold!  Of course," he added, with a sad smile,
+"if we do, we'll return and let you know."
+
+The captain approved of this plan.  Jacob Buckley and Watty Wilkins at
+once agreed to go, and immediately after Daniel's burial, the
+prospecters set out.  The entire party, including Polly, convoyed them
+as far as Redman's Gap, where, wishing them good-speed, they parted
+company.  Then the three adventurers passed through the Gap, and were
+soon lost in the wild recesses of the mountain range.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+SUCCESS.
+
+For more than a month did the prospecting party wander among the
+Californian mountains in quest of gold, but found none--at least not in
+paying quantities.
+
+At first the trip was to each of them full of romance, interest and
+hope.  Even Buckley began to cheer up after a few days had passed.  The
+craving for drink began to wear off, and grief for his lost brother--
+whom he had truly loved--began to abate.  The wild scenery through which
+they passed was in itself sufficient to rouse to a high pitch the
+enthusiasm of such youths as Philosopher Jack and Watty Wilkins, while
+their comrade, though not so impressionable in regard to the sublime and
+beautiful, was roused to sympathy by their irresistible ardour.  The
+necessity of hunting, too, in order to obtain food, added excitement of
+a more stirring kind, and an occasional encounter with a grizzly bear
+introduced a spice of danger to which none of them objected.  Their
+various washings of the soil and examination of river beds afforded a
+sufficient quantity of gold to foster hope, though not to pay expenses.
+Thus they progressed through many a scene of loveliness, where the hand
+of God had sown broadcast all the forms and hues of grace and beauty
+which render this world attractive; they also passed through many a
+savage defile and mountain gorge--dark, gloomy, almost repulsive--which
+served to enhance their enjoyment of the beautiful by contrast.
+
+But as the time passed by they became accustomed to the life, and
+therefore less appreciative.  They failed, also, to find gold in larger
+quantities, and as the finding of gold was their highest aim, they were
+proportionally disappointed and downcast.  Watty, indeed, kept up his
+spirits pretty well.  He experienced the benefit of the change that had
+taken place in his soul that time when he was alone with God in the
+little boat upon the sea.  He prayed in secret for light, and tried to
+believe that "all things work together for good to them that love God;"
+but his faith was weak, and the old heart of unbelief was still very
+strong.
+
+As for Philosopher Jack, his spirit was still engaged in rebellious
+warfare.  He growled a good deal at his "luck," and was heartily
+seconded by Buckley.  In addition to this, Jack's spirit was much
+troubled by his promise to Daniel Buckley on his deathbed.  He shrank,
+with a strength of feeling that surprised himself, from speaking to
+Jacob about his infirmity, yet he felt the duty lying strong upon him,
+for he knew well that, if nothing was said, the man would certainly go
+back to his old habits on returning to the neighbourhood of the store
+where drink could be obtained.
+
+"Shall I break the ice at once?" thought Jack.  "Perhaps it would be
+well to wait till we know each other better."
+
+"Don't," said the voice of his old laconic friend.
+
+But Jack did wait, and the longer he waited the more disinclined to
+speak did he become.  He held strongly, however, that a right promise
+once given should never be broken, and, under a feeling of desperation,
+said to himself one day, "Would it not be much better to end this matter
+by speaking without further delay?"
+
+"Do," said conscience, approvingly.
+
+And Jack did, then and there, the result being that Jacob Buckley did
+not take it well, but told him flatly to mind his own business.  Jack
+flushed crimson and clenched his fist; then the absurdity of attempting
+to knock sobriety into a man struck him, and he laughed as he said--
+
+"Well, Buckley, that is just what I am doing, for it _is_ my business to
+remonstrate with a comrade when I see him give way to a habit which will
+result in his destruction if not abandoned."
+
+After this Buckley allowed him to talk a little on the subject, but Jack
+felt the work to be very distasteful.  Eventually he gave it up,
+consoling himself with the reflection that at all events he had brought
+the man away on an expedition where nothing stronger than cold water and
+hot tea was to be had for love or money.
+
+At last the tide turned.  On the same day a piece of great good and bad
+fortune befell our explorers.  It happened thus:--
+
+Watty Wilkins roused himself from a golden dream one morning, threw off
+his blanket looked up at the bush which served him and his comrades as a
+canopy, and yawned.  It was grey dawn.  There was that clear sweet light
+in the sky which gives sure promise of a fine day.  Seeing that his
+companions still slept, he drew from his breast a small Testament, read
+a few verses, and prayed.  This had been his custom ever since his
+deliverance by the American ship.
+
+Soon after, Jack moved his bulky frame, rolled round, threw out his
+arms, and yawned.  The yawn awakened Buckley, who immediately followed
+suit--such is the force of example!
+
+"I'll tell you what it is, mates," said the latter, sitting up, "that
+twist I gave my leg yesterday troubles me a little.  I shall remain in
+camp to-day and smoke."
+
+"Very good," said Jack, rising and putting the kettle on the fire with a
+view to breakfast.  "Watty and I will go up that valley and prospect.
+We will expect that you'll eat no more than your share of the provisions
+during our absence, and that you'll have supper ready for us when we
+return."
+
+The simple breakfast being disposed of and washed down with cans of hot
+tea, the two friends shouldered their guns and set off up the gorge or
+narrow mountain valley, near the mouth of which they had bivouacked.
+There was a belt of wood close to their camp; beyond that a small plain,
+after crossing which they entered a dense thicket, and began a toilsome
+march up the bed of a little mountain stream.  The channel was nearly
+dry at the time, but the boulders, which were strewn about everywhere,
+showed that it was sometimes a formidable torrent.
+
+"A likely place for gold," said Watty, with a hopeful look and tune.
+
+"We've tried many such likely places," replied Jack, with a look and
+tone not quite so hopeful.
+
+For several miles they advanced, washing out a panful of dirt here and
+there, and finding a little gold-dust as usual.  Mid-day arrived, and
+they sat down to a cold dinner, consisting of a few scraps of meat left
+from breakfast.  Little conversation was indulged in.  They were too
+hungry for that--perhaps too much depressed by hope deferred.
+
+"I'll try the banks higher up," said Jack, rising.
+
+"And I'll try the bed of the stream lower down, just by way of
+opposition," said Watty.
+
+They separated, and the latter soon found himself among the boulders,
+where he continued to search--actively at first, but more lazily as time
+passed by.  Presently he came to a wild spot where the stream was
+overhung by bushes.  He turned over a small stone.  Beneath it was a
+hole or "pocket".  He stooped quickly, and pulled out a nugget of gold
+about the size of a thimble.  He stooped again, and, inserting his hand,
+pulled at something that would not come.  His heart gave a jump and
+appeared to get into his throat, where it apparently remained, while the
+blood rushed to his forehead.  Another pull, and out came a mass of
+solid gold, about the size of his own fist!  A cheer rose to his lips,
+but he checked it.  "P'r'aps there's more!" he said.  Yes, the greedy
+little wretch said that!  But there was no more in that pocket.
+
+Quickly turning over several more stones, he found more pockets, with
+nuggets of various sizes in each.  In a short time his specimen pouch
+was pretty well lined with the precious metal.
+
+Meanwhile his friend Jack was equally successful, the chief difference
+between them being that the latter washed out the earth on the banks
+above, and found his gold in little grains and specks, but in such
+quantities that he felt as if his fortune were already made.  Towards
+evening Watty hallooed and was replied to.  As they walked rapidly
+towards the pre-arranged rendezvous, each hit on the same idea--that of
+deception!
+
+"Well, what luck?" asked Watty with a careless air that ill concealed
+the elation of his heart.
+
+"Only a little dust--nothing to speak of--at least not as compared with
+what some fellows get," said Jack, whose laughing eye gave the lie
+direct to his melancholy tones.  "See here, Watty, this is all I've
+got."
+
+As he spoke, the hypocrite poured the glittering contents of his pouch
+into his tin wash-pan.
+
+"Well, _what_ a lucky fellow you are!" said Watty, with mouth expanded.
+"Just look here; this is all that I have got."
+
+He opened his bag and displayed the nuggets, with the big one in the
+midst!
+
+Need we say that these youths found it difficult to express their joy
+and astonishment?  The fact was evident that they had at last discovered
+unusually rich ground, and they travelled back to the camp to tell their
+lazy comrade the good news.
+
+It was near sunset when they reached the little plain or open space at
+the mouth of the gorge.  Here Jack turned aside to cut a stick of
+peculiar form, which had caught his eye on the way up, and which he
+meant to keep as a souvenir of their discovery and the spot.  Watty
+sauntered slowly across the plain.
+
+He had just reached the wood on the other side, and turned to wait for
+his comrade, when he heard two shots in quick succession.  There was
+nothing unusual in this, but when he heard the Philosopher utter a loud
+cry, he started, cocked his gun, and ran a few steps back to meet him.
+Next moment Jack burst from the thicket and ran across the plain at a
+speed that told of imminent danger.  From the same thicket there also
+rushed a large grizzly bear, whose speed was greater than that of Jack,
+though it did not appear to be so.
+
+All the blood in Watty Wilkins's body seemed to fly back to his heart,
+and immediately after it rushed to his brain and toes.  Prompt action!
+no time to think!  Life! death!  Watty never afterwards could tell
+clearly what he felt or did on that tremendous occasion, but Jack could
+tell what he did, for he saw him do it.
+
+Going down on one knee and resting his left arm on the other, in what is
+known to volunteers as the Hythe position, the little youth calmly
+levelled his double-barrelled gun.  It was charged only with small shot,
+and he knew that that was useless at long range, therefore he restrained
+himself and waited.
+
+Jack and the bear ran straight towards him.
+
+"Up, Watty, up a tree," gasped Jack; "it's no use--shot won't hurt him--
+quick!"
+
+As he spoke he darted to the nearest tree, seized a large limb, and
+swung himself up among the branches.  The bear passed under him, and,
+observing the kneeling figure in front, charged at once.  When it was
+within three feet of him the youth let fly the contents of both barrels
+into the grizzly's mouth.  So true was his aim that about six inches of
+the barrel followed the shot as the bear rushed upon it.  This saved
+Watty, who was violently hurled aside by the stock of his own gun, while
+the bear went head-over-heels, vomiting blood and rage amid smoke and
+dust and scattered nuggets of gold!
+
+"O Watty!" cried Jack, leaping down to the rescue with his drawn
+hunting-knife.
+
+But before Jack reached him, or the bear had time to recover himself,
+Watty was on his active legs, and sprang up a tree like a monkey.  Jack
+caught a branch of the same tree, and by sheer strength swung himself
+up, but on this occasion with so little time to spare, that the bear,
+standing on its hind legs, touched his heel lovingly with its protruded
+lips, as he drew himself out of reach.
+
+We need scarcely say it was with beating and thankful hearts that the
+two friends looked down from their perch of safety on the formidable and
+bloody foe who kept pawing at the foot of the tree and looking hungrily
+up at them.
+
+"What a mercy that the grizzly can't climb!" panted Watty, who had not
+yet recovered breath.
+
+"But he can watch and keep us here all night," said Jack, "and we have
+no means of killing him.  I fell and lost my gun in escaping, and yours
+is doubled up.  We're in for a night of it, my boy.  Why didn't you do
+what I bade you, get up into the tree with your gun when you saw us
+coming, and then we could have shot him at our leisure?"
+
+"Why didn't you lend me your own cool head and clear brain," retorted
+the other, "and then we might have done something of the sort?  But
+surely the shot I gave him must tell in the long-run."
+
+"Pooh!" said Jack, "it's not much more to him than an over-dose of
+mustard would be to a cat.  However, we've nothing for it but to wait.
+Perhaps Buckley may have heard our shots."
+
+In this conjecture Jack was right.  The gold-miner was enjoying an
+unsocial cup of tea at the time, and fortunately heard the distant shots
+and shouting.  Buckley was a prompt man.  Loading his double barrel with
+ball as he ran, he suddenly made his appearance on the field, saw at a
+glance how matters stood, and, being a good shot, put two balls in the
+bear's carcass with deadly effect.  Grizzly bears are, however,
+remarkably tenacious of life.  This one at once turned on his new foe,
+who, getting behind a tree, re-loaded as quickly as possible.  As the
+animal passed he put two more balls in its heart and killed it.
+
+"Splendidly done!" cried Jack, leaping to the ground and shaking Buckley
+by the hand, as he thanked him for his timely aid.  Almost in the same
+breath he told of their unexpected good fortune.
+
+"Now, then," he added, "we'll cut off the claws of this fellow as a
+trophy, and then to camp and supper."
+
+"Stop a bit, not so fast," said Wilkins, who had descended the tree and
+was sitting on the ground with a most lugubrious countenance; "we must
+gather up my nuggets before going.  Besides, it strikes me there's
+something wrong with my ankle."
+
+This was found to be too true.  In scrambling into the tree Watty had
+sprained his ankle badly, and in jumping down had made it so much worse
+that he could not bear to put even his toe to the ground.  He was
+compelled, therefore, to accept the services of Jacob Buckley, who
+carried him into camp on his back.
+
+Despite his sufferings poor Wilkins rejoiced that night with his
+comrades at their good fortune, and it was long before he or they could
+cease to talk over future plans and take needful rest.  At length
+Buckley rolled himself in his blanket, and lay down.
+
+"Poor fellow," said Jack, seeing Watty wince a little, "does it hurt
+much?"
+
+"Yes, rather, but I'll be all right to-morrow.  Now, Jack, I'm going to
+sleep.  Do me a favour before turning in.  Just make a pile of my
+nuggets close to my pillow here, with the big one on the top.  There,
+thanks."
+
+"What a covetous little wretch you are becoming!" said Jack with a
+laugh, as he lay down.  "Have a care, Watty, that you don't become a
+miser."
+
+Watty made no reply, but in the night, when he thought his comrades were
+asleep, he was overheard muttering in a low tone: "Yes, my dear old dad,
+you shall have them every one, big 'un as well; at least I'll send you
+every rap that they will fetch.  Not that you need it.  You're rich
+enough as it is, but this will show you, perhaps, that my first thoughts
+after my first luck were of you."
+
+A long sigh followed the remark.  Looking up soon afterwards, Jack saw
+that Watty was sound asleep, with the point of his nose reposing on the
+big nugget.
+
+The poor lad's idea of a sprain was not quite correct.  Instead of being
+"all right" next day, he found himself to be hopelessly lame, and was
+unable to move from the camp for a couple of weeks.  During that period
+Jack and Buckley went forth to the new diggings every morning, and
+returned at night laden with gold, so that in a short time they had
+gathered as much as they could conveniently carry.  Then they resolved
+to go for their comrades and return with them to continue their labours
+at what they named Grizzly Bear Gulch.  As Watty was still unable to
+walk without great pain, they made a sort of litter of a blanket between
+two poles.  In this contrivance they carried him, with their gold and
+their other belongings, back to the old diggings.
+
+But here, on arrival, they found a wonderfully altered state of affairs.
+
+"Immediately after you left," said Captain Samson, over a cup of tea,
+while Polly, who presided, listened with sympathetic delight, "we bought
+a new claim or two, without much hope, however, of bettering our
+circumstances.  One of these claims we bought for you, Jack, with part
+of the money you left in our charge, one for Buckley, and another for
+Wilkins.  Well, these claims all turned out splendidly, and we've been
+makin' our fortunes ever since!  As you were off prospecting, as much
+for our benefit as your own, we agreed that it was the least we could do
+to work a little for you, so we gave your claims a rummage day about,
+and thus we've made your fortunes too, or part of 'em anyhow.  We've bin
+sendin' home bills of exchange too, and knowin' your wish to help your
+father, Jack, I took upon me to send a small sum to him with your love.
+I did right didn't I?"
+
+"Right!" exclaimed Jack, seizing the captain's hand and squeezing it;
+"need you ask?  I'm only sorry I didn't dig the gold out with my own
+hand, and enclose the bill in my own letter.  How much did you send?"
+
+"Only 1000 pounds," replied the captain.
+
+"Come, don't joke.  I'm anxious to know, because he was very hard up
+when I left."
+
+"More shame to you for leaving him, my young Philosopher," returned the
+captain, "but I tell you the truth; I sent him 1000 pounds sterling, and
+I believe there's as much lyin' here in gold-dust and nuggets that
+belongs to you.  We've all done equally well, I'm thankful to say, and,
+better than that, good fortune seems to have brought us good health.
+Even Ben Trench there is able to dig like the rest of us."
+
+"Not exactly," said Ben with a pleasant smile at his old friend Wilkins,
+"but I'm very well, thank God, and able to do a little.  I wouldn't have
+been what I am now but for the care of this dear little nurse."
+
+Polly was quite pleased with the compliment, and made a liberal offer to
+supply more tea to any of the company who might want it.
+
+All this, and a great deal more, was corroborated by every one present;
+moreover, it was told them that there were many other claims which had
+suddenly turned out well, and that the whole aspect of these diggings
+had changed for the better.
+
+"And what of Mr Luke?" asked Jack, glancing round the circle.
+
+"Gone," said the captain, "nobody knows where.  He became gloomier and
+stranger than ever after you went away, and one morning announced his
+intention to leave us and return to San Francisco.  He left, and has not
+been heard of since.  Bob Corkey, too, is off.  He got restless and
+disappointed at our bad luck, said he'd go away prospectin' on his own
+hook, and went."
+
+"Good luck go with him!  He was altogether too fond of argifying," said
+Simon O'Rook.
+
+"He's not the only one," remarked Baldwin Burr, with a grin.
+
+After much consideration and consultation, it was agreed that, in the
+meantime, the party should remain where they were, and, when their
+claims began to fail, go off to Grizzly Bear Gulch.
+
+This being decided, Jacob Buckley rose, saying that he was going to
+visit his friends at Higgins' store.  Jack followed him.  When they were
+alone he said--
+
+"Now, Jacob, don't go, there's a good fellow.  You saved my life, I may
+say, and that gives me a claim on you."  Buckley frowned, but said
+nothing.  "If you get among your old mates," continued Jack, "and begin
+to _taste_, you're a gone man.  God has been very good to us.  He has
+made us rich.  We may live to be useful, Jacob.  Think of it."
+
+A half sarcastic smile flitted over Buckley's face as he said, "You
+didn't use to be a preacher, Jack; what makes you now so keen to save
+me, as you call it?"
+
+"I'm not sure what it is that makes me anxious now," replied Jack, "but
+I know what made me anxious at first.  It was your poor brother Daniel.
+That night he died, when he whispered in my ear, it was to make me
+promise to save you from drink and gambling if I could."
+
+"Did he?" exclaimed the miner vehemently, as he clenched his hands.  "O
+Dan! dear Dan, did you say that at such an hour?  Look you, Jack," he
+added, turning sharply round, "I'll not go near the store, and if I _am_
+saved it is Dan who has done it, mind that--not you."
+
+And Buckley held to his word.  For months after that he worked with the
+Samson party--as it was styled--and never once tasted a drop of anything
+stronger than tea.
+
+During all that time success continued, but Philosopher Jack felt in his
+heart that no success in digging up gold was at all comparable to that
+of working with the Lord in helping a brother-sinner to turn from the
+error of his ways.
+
+As their wealth accumulated, the different members of the party
+converted it into cash, sent some of it home to the assistance of
+friends or relatives, and the rest for safe and remunerative investment.
+For the latter purpose they committed it to the care of Mr Wilkins
+senior, who, being a trusty and well-known man of business, was left to
+his own discretion in the selection of investments.  Simon O'Rook,
+however, did not follow the example of his friends.  He preferred to
+keep his gold in his own hands, and, as its bulk increased, stowed it
+away in a small chest, which, for further security, he buried in a hole
+in the tent directly under his own sleeping corner.
+
+In addition to his remittances to Mr Wilkins for investment, Edwin Jack
+sent large sums regularly to his father, for the purpose not only of
+getting him out of his difficulties, but of enabling him to extend his
+farming operations.  The wheel of fortune, however, had turned upwards
+with Jack senior, and he did not require these sums, as we shall see.
+
+While things were going on thus prosperously at the other side of the
+world, a wonderful change--intimately connected with gold--took place in
+the "Old Country", which materially altered the circumstances of some of
+those personages whose names have figured in our tale.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+TREATS OF A CATASTROPHE AND RUIN.
+
+We return once again to the cottage on the Scottish Border.  It is not
+quite so lowly as it was when first introduced to our readers.  Although
+not extensively changed, there is a certain air of comfort and
+prosperity about it which gives it much the appearance of a dirty boy
+who has had his face washed and a suit of new clothes put on.  It has
+been whitewashed and partially re-roofed.  A trellis-work porch with
+creepers has been added.  The garden bears marks of improvement, and in
+one part there are four little plots of flower-beds, so conspicuously
+different in culture and general treatment as to suggest the idea of
+four different gardens.  Inside of Mr Jack's abode there are also many
+changes for the better.  The rooms are better furnished than they used
+to be.  Several cheap oleograph copies of beautiful pictures adorn the
+walls, and the best parlour, which used to be kept in a condition of
+deadly propriety for state occasions only, is evidently used in the
+course of daily life.  A brand-new piano, with a pretty little girl
+seated before it, suggests advancing refinement, and the expression of
+the child's face, while she attempts the impossible task of stretching
+an octave, indicates despair.  There is another little girl seated at a
+table darning with all the energy of a Martha-like character.  She is
+engaged upon a pair of juvenile socks, which have apparently been worn
+last by a cart-horse.  Books and drawing materials and mathematical
+instruments on the table betoken progressive education, and, in short,
+everything without and within the cottage tells, as we have said, of
+prosperity.
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that all this is due to Philosopher
+Jack's good fortune and liberality.  When the first letter came from
+California, telling of the safety of our hero and his friends, Mr Jack
+was indeed in great material distress, but there was no money in that
+letter.  It was despatched from San Francisco at the time of the arrival
+of the party, along with letters from the other members, informing their
+various relations of their deliverance.  But if the letter had contained
+tons of the finest gold it could not have added a feather's weight to
+the joy of the old couple, who, like the widow of Nain or the sisters of
+Bethany, had received their dear lost one direct from the Lord, and, as
+it were, back from the dead.  Then, after an interval, came Captain
+Samson's letter enclosing the bill for 1000 pounds, and explaining why
+Philosopher Jack himself did not write with it.  Mr Jack senior
+thankfully used two hundred of the amount, which was quite sufficient to
+extricate him from all his difficulties.  The balance he put into the
+nearest bank, to be kept for "the dear boy" on his return.
+
+From that date God sent prosperity to the cottage on the Border.  Flocks
+increased, seasons were no longer bad, grey mares no longer broke their
+legs, turnips throve, and, in short, everything went well, so that,
+instead of using the large sums of money which his son frequently sent
+him, Mr Jack placed them all to "dear Teddie's" credit in the bank.
+
+In one of these letters, his son mentioned that he had sent still larger
+sums to the care of Mr Wilkins senior, to be invested for himself.  Mr
+Jack, having consulted with his faithful spouse, drew his son's gifts
+from the local bank, went to the city of Blankow, called on Mr Wilkins,
+and desired him to invest the money in the same concern with the rest.
+Mr Wilkins purchased shares with it in the Blankow Bank, telling Mr
+Jack that he considered it one of the best and safest investments in
+Scotland, that he had invested in it all the funds sent home by his own
+son and his comrades, and that he himself was a large shareholder.  Thus
+did Mr Jack senior act with all the gifts that Jack junior sent him,
+saying to Mr Wilkins on each occasion, that, though the dear boy meant
+him to use the money, he had no occasion to do so, as the Lord had
+prospered him of late, and given him enough and to spare.
+
+We re-introduce the Jack family to the reader at breakfast-time, not
+because that was the only noteworthy period of their day, but because it
+was the time when the parents of the family were wont to talk over the
+daily plans.
+
+Mr Jack went to the door and shouted, "Breakfast!" in a sonorous tone.
+Instantly the octave was abandoned and the socks were dropped.  Next
+moment there was a sound like the charge of a squadron of cavalry.  It
+was the boys coming from the farm-yard.  The extreme noise of the
+family's entry was rendered fully apparent by the appalling calm which
+ensued when Mr Jack opened the family Bible, and cleared his throat to
+begin worship.  At breakfast the noise began again, but it was more
+subdued, appetite being too strong for it.  In five minutes Dobbin was
+up to the eyes in a treacle-piece.  This was a good opportunity for
+conversation.
+
+"Maggie," said Mr Jack, looking up from his plate, "the last bill sent
+us from the diggin's by the dear boy makes the sum in my hands up to two
+thousand pounds.  I'll go to town to-day and give it to Mr Wilkins to
+invest as usual."
+
+"Very weel, John," replied Mrs Jack, "but it's been runnin' in my mind
+that it's no that safe to pit a' yer eggs in the same basket.  Maybe ye
+might invest it in somethin' else."
+
+"That's true, Maggie, we shall see," said Mr Jack, who was at all times
+a man of few words.  As Dobbin became at the moment clamorous for more
+food, nothing further was said on the subject.
+
+Arrived in the city, John Jack made his way to the office of Mr
+Wilkins.  He found that gentleman with an expression of unwonted
+resignation on his countenance.
+
+"I've brought you more money to invest, Mr Wilkins," said John Jack,
+sitting down after wiping his forehead, and producing a fat pocketbook;
+"I thought of doin' it in the old way, but my wife and I have been
+thinkin' that perhaps it might be wise to put some of the eggs in
+another basket."
+
+A very sad and peculiar smile flitted for a moment across Mr Wilkins's
+face.  "It is plain that you have not heard of the disastrous failure,"
+he said.  "Only last week the Blankow Bank suspended payment, and if the
+reports as to its liabilities be true, the result will be widespread
+ruin throughout the country."
+
+"Do you mean to say that the Bank has failed?" asked Mr Jack,
+anxiously.
+
+"Yes, and it is feared that most of the shareholders will be ruined.  I
+am one, you know."
+
+"Will _you_ be ruined, Mr Wilkins?"
+
+"I fear that the first call will be more than I can meet.  I trust that
+you are not personally involved."
+
+"No, thank God, I'm not," said Mr Jack, with an increasingly anxious
+look.  "But tell me, Mr Wilkins--for I don't understand banking matters
+very well--is my son's money all gone?"
+
+"All," returned Mr Wilkins sadly, "and all that my own son has
+invested, as well as that of his friends!"
+
+"How was it, sir," asked Mr Jack, in a reproachful tone, "that you were
+so confident in recommending the investment?"
+
+"Because I thoroughly believed in the soundness of the bank and in the
+character of its directors.  Investing my own funds so largely in its
+stock proves how I trusted it.  But I was mistaken.  It is a mystery
+which I cannot solve.  Perhaps, when the examination of its affairs is
+completed, light may be thrown on the subject.  I hope that no more of
+your relations or friends have stock in it?"
+
+"None that I know of, except indeed my poor friend Mrs Niven, who was
+my son's landlady when he was at college.  I'll go and inquire about
+her."
+
+Mr Jack thrust the fat pocket-book into a breast pocket, and buttoned
+up his coat with the determined air of a man who means to keep hold of
+what he has got.
+
+Bidding Mr Wilkins good-bye, he walked rapidly to Mrs Niven's house
+and pulled the bell rather violently.  The summons was promptly answered
+by Peggy, who ushered him into a little parlour, where he was quickly
+joined by Mrs Niven.
+
+"I'm very sorry to hear the bad news," said Mr Jack, pressing the good
+woman's hand in sympathy.
+
+"What bad news?" asked Mrs Niven, in alarm.
+
+"The bank, you know," said Mr Jack.  "It's very hard, and to think that
+you're in the same boat with my dear boy, whose fortune is wrecked--"
+
+A little scream stopped him, for the word "wrecked" struck a chill to
+the poor woman's heart.
+
+"What! wrecked again?" she cried, "on a bank, in a boat?  Oh! don't tell
+me, don't tell me that he's drownded."
+
+"No, no," cried Mr Jack, hastening to relieve her mind, while he
+supported her to a chair; "no, no; my dear boy's all right.  It's the
+Blankow Bank I mean that's gone to wreck, you know, and all his money
+with it, and yours too, I suppose, for you told me you had shares in
+that bank."
+
+"Oh! as to that," said Mrs Niven, greatly relieved, "you may mak' yer
+mind easy.  I've got nae shares intilt noo.  I selt them through Mr
+Black lang syne.  He's a douce, clever, honest felly--a relation o'
+mine, and a first-rate business man; but for him I'd hae lost my siller,
+nae doot.  He warned me that the bank was nae a right ane, and advised
+me to sell."
+
+Mr Jack thought that such a clever, disinterested man-of-business, and
+a relation of Mrs Niven, might be just the person to give him sound
+advice at this crisis; he therefore obtained his address, and, after a
+long chat with the good woman, who would have listened for hours to the
+adventures of her "bonny lodger," took his departure, and in due time
+stood at the door of the dirty little office.
+
+The dirty clerk ushered the visitor into the presence of Mr Black,
+whose presence was more repulsive than it used to be.  He received Mr
+Jack rather gruffly, and asked his business.
+
+"Oho! an eccentric character, gruff but honest," thought Mr Jack, who
+began by saying that he had just come from visiting his friend Mrs
+Niven.
+
+Mr Black's face grew almost green at the name, and his brows scowled
+fiercely.
+
+"Strange look for an honest, kindly man," thought Mr Jack, "but we must
+never judge from the outward appearance;" then he said aloud, "I went to
+see her about that bank failure--"
+
+"Ha!" growled Mr Black, interrupting, "but for that woman, and that--"
+he checked himself and said, "but you came here on some matter of
+business, I suppose.  Will you state it?"
+
+"A very eccentric man indeed, remarkably so, for a kindly, honest man,"
+thought Mr Jack; but he only said, "I came here to consult you about
+the investment of two thousand pounds--"
+
+"Oh! indeed," said Mr Black, in quite an altered tone, as he rose and
+politely offered his visitor a chair.
+
+"But," continued Mr Jack, rebuttoning his greatcoat which he had partly
+opened, "but, sir, I have changed my mind, and bid you good-day."
+
+So saying, he went out, leaving Mr Black standing at the door in stupid
+amazement and his dirty clerk agonising with suppressed laughter behind
+his desk.  Mr Black had been groaning and growling all the day at the
+thoughts of the ruin which had overtaken him--thoughts which were
+embittered by the knowledge that he had drawn it on himself through the
+instrumentality of Mrs Niven.  The climax of Mr Jack's visit did not
+tend to restore him.  Recovering from his amazement, and observing the
+condition of the clerk, he suddenly hurled the cash-book at him.
+Cleverly dodging it, the dirty little creature bolted from the office,
+and banged the door behind him.
+
+Meanwhile Mr Jack cashed his last bill of exchange, returned home, and
+presented his wife with a bag of gold, which she deposited in the
+darkest recesses of the great family chest.
+
+"That bank gives no interest," said John Jack, with a quiet chuckle, as
+he superintended the deposit, "but we shall always have the interest of
+knowing that it is there."
+
+Long afterwards Mr Wilkins sought to combat Mr Jack's objection to
+invest in another Scotch bank.  "This disaster," he said, "ought not to
+be called a bank _failure_; it is a bank _robbery_ committed by its own
+directors, as has been clearly proved, and no more touches the credit of
+Scotch banks in general than the failure of a commercial house, through
+the dishonesty of its principals, affects the other commercial houses of
+the kingdom."
+
+"It may be as you say, sir," replied John Jack, gravely, "an' if it was
+my own money I might act on your advice.  But I intend to take care of
+what's left of the dear boy's money myself."
+
+So saying, the stout farmer threw his shepherd's plaid over his
+shoulder, and went off to his cottage on the Border.
+
+But we must pass from this subject.  Space forbids our going deeper into
+it, or touching on the terrible consequences of dishonesty coupled with
+unlimited liability.  Fortunes were wrecked; the rich and the poor, the
+innocent and guilty, the confiding and the ignorant as well as the
+knowing and wise, fell in the general crash.  Many homes were desolated,
+and many hearts were broken.  May we not believe, also, that many hearts
+were purified in passing through the furnace of affliction!
+
+"All is not evil that brings sorrow," may be quite as true as the
+proverb, "All is not gold that glitters."  Some have been glad to say
+with the Psalmist, "It was good for me that I was afflicted."  This
+truth, however, while it might strengthen some hearts to bear, did not
+lighten the load to be borne.  The great Bank failure produced
+heart-rending and widespread distress.  It also called forth deep and
+general sympathy.
+
+Out among the mountain gorges of California the gold-hunters knew
+nothing of all this for many a day, and our adventurers continued to
+dig, and wash, and pile up the superstructure of their fortunes, all
+ignorant of the event which had crumbled away the entire foundations.
+
+At last there came a day when these fortunate gold-miners cried, "Hold!
+enough!" an unwonted cry--not often uttered by human beings.
+
+Standing beside the camp fire one evening, while some of the party were
+cooking and others were arranging things inside the tent Captain Samson
+looked around him with an unusually heavy sigh.
+
+"It's a grand country, and I'll be sorry to leave it," he said.
+
+"Troth, and so will meself," responded O'Rook.
+
+It was indeed a grand country.  They had lately changed the position of
+their tent to an elevated plateau near a huge mass of rock where a
+little mountain stream fell conveniently into a small basin.  From this
+spot they could see the valley where it widened into a plain, and again
+narrowed as it entered the gloomy defile of the mountains, whose tops
+mingled magnificently with the clouds.
+
+"You see, my lads," continued the captain, "it's of no use goin' on
+wastin' our lives here, diggin' away like navvies, when we've got more
+gold than we know what to do with.  Besides, I'm not sure that we ain't
+gettin' into a covetous frame of mind, and if we go on devotin' our
+lives to the gettin' of gold that we don't need, it's not unlikely that
+it may be taken away from us.  Moreover, many a man has dug his grave in
+California and bin buried, so to speak, in gold-dust, which is a fate
+that no sensible man ought to court--a fate, let me add, that seems to
+await Ben Trench if he continues at this sort o' thing much longer.
+And, lastly, it's not fair that my Polly should spend her prime in
+acting the part of cook and mender of old clothes to a set of rough
+miners.  For all of which reasons I vote that we now break up our
+partnership, pack up the gold-dust that we've got, and return home."
+
+To this speech Polly Samson replied, promptly, that nothing pleased her
+more than to be a cook and mender of old clothes to rough miners, and
+that she was willing to continue in that capacity as long as her father
+chose.  Philosopher Jack also declared himself willing to remain, but
+added that he was equally willing to leave if the rest of the firm
+should decide to do so, as he was quite content with the fortune that
+had been sent him.  Simon O'Rook, however, did not at first agree to the
+proposal.
+
+"It's rich enough that I am already, no doubt," he said, "but sure,
+there's no harm in bein' richer.  I may be able to kape me carriage an'
+pair at present, but why shudn't I kape me town house an' country house
+an' me carriage an four, if I can?"
+
+"Because we won't stay to keep you company," answered Watty Wilkins,
+"and surely you wouldn't have the heart to remain here digging holes by
+yourself?  Besides, my friend Ben is bound to go home.  The work is
+evidently too hard for him, and he's so fond of gold that he won't give
+up digging."
+
+"Ah!  Watty," returned Ben with a sad smile, "you know it is not my
+fondness for gold that makes me dig.  But I can't bear to be a burden on
+you, and you know well enough that what I do accomplish does little more
+than enable me to pay my expenses.  Besides, a little digging does me
+good.  It occupies my mind and exercises my muscles, an' prevents
+moping.  Doesn't it, Polly?"
+
+In this estimate of his case Ben Trench was wrong.  The labour which he
+undertook and the exposure to damp, despite the remonstrances of his
+companions, were too much for a constitution already weakened by
+disease.  It was plain to every one--even to himself--that a change was
+necessary.  He therefore gladly agreed to the captain's proposal.
+
+Baldwin Burr, however, dissented.  He did not, indeed, object to the
+dissolution of the partnership of Samson and Company, but he refused to
+quit the gold-fields, saying that he had no one in the Old Country whom
+he cared for, and that he meant to settle in California.
+
+It was finally agreed that the captain, Philosopher Jack, Watty Wilkins,
+Ben Trench, Simon O'Rook, and Polly should return home, while Baldwin
+Burr and Jacob Buckley should enter into a new partnership and remain at
+the fields.
+
+Although, as we have said, most of our adventurers had sent their gold
+home in the form of bills of exchange for investment, they all had
+goodly sums on hand in dust and nuggets--the result of their more recent
+labours--for which strong boxes were made at Higgins's store.  Simon
+O'Rook, in particular,--who, as we have said, did not send home any of
+his gold,--had made such a huge "pile" that several strong boxes were
+required to hold all his wealth.  The packing of these treasure-chests
+occupied but a short time.  Each man cut his name on the lid of his box
+inside, and printed it outside, and nailed and roped it tight, and took
+every means to make it secure.  Then, mounting their mules and
+travelling in company with a trader and a considerable party of miners,
+they returned to San Francisco, having previously secured berths in a
+ship which was about to sail for England _via_ Cape Horn.
+
+Baldwin Burr and Buckley convoyed them a day's journey on the way.
+
+"I'm sorry you're goin', Miss Polly," said Baldwin, riding up alongside
+of our little heroine, who ambled along on a glossy black mule.
+
+"I am _not_ sorry that we're going," replied Polly, "but I'm sorry--very
+sorry--that we are leaving you behind us, Baldwin.  You're such a dear
+old goose, and I'm so fond of teaching you.  I don't know how I shall be
+able to get on without you."
+
+"Yes, that's it, Miss Polly," returned the bluff seaman, with a look of
+perplexity.  "You're so cram full of knowledge, an' I'm sitch an empty
+cask, that it's bin quite a pleasure to let you run over into me, so to
+speak."
+
+"Come, Baldwin, don't joke," said Polly, with a quick glance.
+
+"I'm far from jokin', Miss Polly," returned the seaman; "I'm in
+downright earnest.  An' then, to lose Philosopher Jack on the selfsame
+day.  It comes hard on an old salt.  The way that young man has strove
+to drive jogriffy, an' 'rithmetic, an navigation into my head is
+wonderful; an' all in vain too!  It's a'most broke his heart--to say
+nothin' of my own.  It's quite clear that I'll never make a good seaman.
+Howsever, it's a comfort to know that I've got edication enough for a
+landsman--ain't it, Miss Polly?"
+
+Polly laughed, and admitted that that was indeed a consoling reflection.
+
+While these two were conversing thus, Jack and Jacob Buckley were riding
+together in the rear of the party.  They had been talking as if under
+some sort of restraint.  At last Jack turned to his companion with a
+kind, straightforward look.
+
+"It's of no use, Buckley, my beating about the bush longer.  This is
+likely to be the last time that you and I shall meet on earth, and I
+can't part without saying how anxious I am that you should persevere in
+the course of temperance which you have begun."
+
+"Thank you, Jack, thank you," said the miner heartily, "for the interest
+you take in me.  I do intend to persevere."
+
+"I know that, Jacob, I know it; but I want you to believe that you have
+no chance of success unless you first become a follower of Jesus Christ.
+He is the _only_ Saviour from sin.  Your resolutions, without Him,
+cannot succeed.  I have found that out, and I want you to believe it,
+Jacob."
+
+"I _do_ believe it," said the miner earnestly.  "Dear Dan used to tell
+me that--often--often.  Dear Dan!"
+
+"Now," added Jack, "we shall have to part soon.  There is another thing
+I want to mention.  There is a bag of gold with my name on it, worth
+some few hundred pounds, more or less.  I want you to accept it, for I
+know that you have not been so successful as we have during our short--"
+
+"But I won't take it, Jack," interrupted Buckley.
+
+"Yes you will, Jacob, from an old friend and comrade.  It may tide you
+over a difficulty, who knows?  Luck does not always last, as the saying
+goes."
+
+Still Buckley shook his head.
+
+"Well, then," continued Jack, "you can't help yourself, for I've left
+the bag under your own pillow in the tent!"
+
+Buckley's reply was checked by a shout from Captain Samson.  They had
+reached the parting point--a clump of trees on an eminence that
+overlooked a long stretch of undulating park-like region.  Here they
+dismounted to shake hands and say farewell.  Little was said at the
+time, but moistened eyes and the long grasp of hard muscular hands told
+something of feelings to which the lips could give no utterance.
+
+The party could see that knoll for miles after leaving it, and whenever
+Polly reined up and looked back, she saw the sturdy forms of Baldwin
+Burr and Jacob Buckley waving a kerchief or a hat, standing side by side
+and gazing after them.  At last they appeared like mere specks on the
+landscape, and the knoll itself finally faded from their view.
+
+At San Francisco they found their vessel, the _Rainbow_, a large
+full-rigged ship, ready for sea.  Embarking with their boxes of
+gold-dust they bade farewell to the golden shore, where so many young
+and vigorous men have landed in hopeful enthusiasm, to meet, too often,
+with disappointment, if not with death.
+
+Our friends, being among the fortunate few, left it with joy.
+
+The _Rainbow_ shook out her sails to a favouring breeze, and, sweeping
+out upon the great Pacific, was soon bowling along the western coast of
+South America, in the direction of Cape Horn.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+CHANGE OF SCENE AND FORTUNE.
+
+The fair wind that swept the good ship _Rainbow_ away from California's
+golden shores carried her quickly into a fresh and purer atmosphere,
+moral as well as physical.  It seemed to most, if not all, of the
+gold-finders as if their brains had been cleared of golden cobwebs.
+They felt like convalescents from whom a low fever had suddenly
+departed, leaving them subdued, restful, calm, and happy.
+
+"It's more like a dream than a reality," observed Ben Trench one day, as
+he and Polly sat on the after part of the vessel, gazing out upon the
+tranquil sea.
+
+"What seems like a dream?" asked Philosopher Jack, coming aft at the
+moment with Watty Wilkins, and sitting down beside them.
+
+"Our recent life in California," replied Ben.  "There was such constant
+bustle and toil, and restless, feverish activity, both of mind and body;
+and now everything is so calm and peaceful, and we are so delightfully
+idle.  I can hardly persuade myself that it is not all a dream."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Philosopher Jack.  "There are men, you know, who
+hold that everything is a dream; that matter is a mere fancy or
+conception, and that there is nothing real or actually in existence but
+mind."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Watty with contempt; "what would these philosophers say
+if matter, in the shape of a fist, were to hit them on their ridiculous
+noses?"
+
+"They'd say that they only imagined a fist and fancied a blow, I
+suppose," returned Jack.
+
+"And would they say that the pain and the blood were imagination also?"
+
+"I suppose they would."
+
+"But what if I were to come on them slily behind and hit them on their
+pates before they had a chance to see or to exert their terribly real
+and powerful minds?" demanded Watty.
+
+"You must ask one of themselves, Watty, for I don't know much about
+their views; indeed, I'm not sure that I have represented them
+correctly, though it's very likely I have, for there is no species of
+nonsense under the sun that men have not been found to hold and defend
+with more or less vigour."
+
+"Would you not call that a proof of the Creator's intention that man
+should exercise the investigative powers of his mind?" asked Ben.
+
+"I would call it a proof of man's depravity," said Wilkins.
+
+"What does Polly think?" asked Jack, with an amused look at the child,
+whose fair brow wore an anxious little frown as she tried to understand.
+
+"I think it's a proof of both," replied Polly, with a blush and a laugh;
+"we have got the power to think and speak and reason, and we are
+sometimes very naughty."
+
+"Well said, Polly; we must call _you_ the philosopher in future," cried
+Watty.  "But Jack," he added, with a perplexed air, "it seems to me that
+we live in such a world of confusion, both as to the limited amount of
+our knowledge, and the extent of our differences of opinion, while
+presumptuous incapacity attempts to teach us on the one hand, and
+designing iniquity, or pure prejudice, seeks to mislead us on the other,
+and misconception of one's meaning and motives all round makes such a
+muddle of the whole that--that--it seems to me the search after truth is
+almost hopeless, at least to ordinary minds."
+
+"I admit it to be a great difficulty," replied Jack, "but it is by no
+means hopeless.  We must not forget that the world is well supplied with
+extraordinary minds to keep the ordinary minds right."
+
+"True, but when the extraordinary minds differ, what are the poor
+ordinary ones to do?" asked Watty.
+
+"Use their brains, Watty, use their brains," said Captain Samson, who
+had come aft, and been listening to the conversation.  "Your brains,
+whether good or bad, were given to be used, not to be sold.  The power
+to reason is a gift that is not bestowed only on extraordinary minds.
+The unlearned are sometimes better reasoners than the learned, though,
+of course, they haven't got so many tools to work with.  Still, they are
+sufficiently furnished with all that's needful to run the race that is
+set before them.  God has given to every man--civilised and savage--a
+brain to think with, a heart to feel with, a frame to work with, a
+conscience to guide him, and a world, with all its wonderful stores, in
+which to do what he will.  Conscience--which, I think, is well named the
+voice of God in man--tells him to do _right_, and forbids him to do
+_wrong_; his heart glows with a certain degree of pleasure when he does
+well, and sinks, more or less, when he does ill; his reason tells him,
+more or less correctly, _what_ is right, and _what_ is wrong.  The Word
+of God is the great chart given to enlighten our understandings and
+guide us heavenward.  As my reason tells me to go to my charts for safe
+direction at sea, so every man's reason will tell him to go to God's
+revealed Word, when he believes he has got it.  There he will find that
+Jesus Christ is the centre of the Word, the sum and substance of it,
+that he cannot believe in or accept the Saviour except by the power of
+the Holy Spirit.  He will also find the blessed truth that God has
+promised the Spirit to those who simply `ask' for Him.  There is no
+difficulty in all this.  The great and numberless difficulties by which
+we are undoubtedly surrounded are difficulties of detail, which we may
+be more or less successful in solving, according to our powers of mind,
+coupled with our submission to the revealed will of God.  To some extent
+we fail and get into trouble because we lazily, or carelessly, let other
+men think for us, instead of making use of other men's thoughts to help
+us to think for ourselves.  Depend upon it, Watty, we won't be able to
+justify ourselves at the judgment day by saying that things were too
+deep for us, that things seemed to be in such a muddle that it was of no
+use trying to clear 'em up.  Why, what would you say of the mainspring
+of a watch if it were suddenly to exclaim, `I'll give up trying!  Here
+am I--so powerful and energetic, and so well able to spin round--
+checked, and hindered, and harassed by wheels and pinions and levers,
+some going this way, and some going that way, all at sixes and sevens,
+and all for no good end that I can see, buried as I am in this dark hole
+and scarcely allowed to move at all?'  Would it be right or reasonable
+to charge the watchmaker with having made the watch in vain, or made it
+wrong?  Of this I at least am convinced, that God is _perfect_, and that
+all things are working towards a _good_ end, God's sovereignty, our
+mysterious free-will and personal responsibility being among these `all
+things.'"
+
+While Captain Samson was discoursing on these important subjects, the
+look-out on the forecastle reported a sail on the weather-bow.
+
+"She's a whaler, I do believe, and her boats are after a sperm whale,"
+said Simon O'Rook, who stood by the mizzen shrouds looking intently at
+her through his double glass.  Simon, being now a rich man, had not only
+taken a cabin passage, but had bought for himself one of the best
+binocular telescopes to be had in San Francisco.
+
+It was soon seen that O'Rook was right for the whale rose to blow, and
+swam towards the _Rainbow_, while the boats of the whaler immediately
+followed in pursuit.
+
+Great was the excitement on board the _Rainbow_ as the men clustered on
+the forecastle, or ran up the rigging, to watch the chase, while the
+officers and passengers got out their telescopes.
+
+"Come here, Polly," cried Jack; "look through my glass.  It's a rare
+chance you've got of seeing what men have to go through in order to send
+oil to market."
+
+Polly at once accepted the invitation.  Jack assisted her to mount on
+the top of the capstan, and arranged the glass.
+
+"There she blows!" shouted one of the men who had been an old whaler;
+"there she breaches!"
+
+As he spoke the whale rose about three miles to windward of them, not
+far from the boat that led the chase.  The men in the boat were seen to
+bend to their oars, as Captain Samson said, "with a will."  Another
+moment and the harpooneer stood up in the bow.  The spectators were too
+far off to see the weapon used, but they could perceive the man's
+action, and there was no possibility of mistake as to the result, when
+the tail of the enormous creature was suddenly flourished in the air,
+and came down on the sea like a clap of distant thunder.
+
+"Oh! oh!!" shrieked the horrified Polly, "the boat is gone!"
+
+But the boat was not gone.  It had been quickly backed out of danger
+when the harpoon was thrown, and reappeared when the cataract of spray
+sent up had dispersed.
+
+"He's pouring water on the rope now," said Jack, in a low excited voice,
+"to prevent its catching fire as it runs out.  They're fast to the
+fish."
+
+"Yes, I see," exclaimed Polly, squeezing her right eye against the glass
+and shutting the other with her hand.
+
+But in a few minutes there was no need for telescopes, as the whale came
+straight towards the _Rainbow_, dragging the boat after it, while the
+other boats followed as fast as the men could pull.  The whale-ship
+steered in the same direction, but there was scarcely wind enough to
+fill her top-sails.
+
+Suddenly the leviathan came to the surface for breath, not far off, and
+sent up a grand spout of water on the _Rainbow's_ starboard bows.  The
+boat pulled quickly up, and another harpoon was sent deep into the
+whale's side.  It dived immediately, and, turning at an angle, darted
+off in an other direction.  This time the excited onlookers could hear
+the cheer given by the whalers as the second "iron" was fixed, and
+replied to it with enthusiasm.  Soon the boat was carried far away, and
+the telescopes became again necessary, but ere long the fish turned, and
+once more made for the ship.  It could not have been more than five
+hundred yards distant when it came to the surface for the third time,
+and the harpooneer was distinctly seen to drive a lance deep into its
+side, from which fountains of blood flowed.  He had struck its "life,"
+as whalemen express it, and the whale soon went into its dying
+struggles, in the course of which it hit the boat, stove in its side,
+and overturned it.
+
+There was a cry of consternation on board the _Rainbow_ at this.
+Instantly the order was given to lower the boats.  Philosopher Jack and
+O'Rook sprang to obey, by an irresistible impulse, as if they had been
+part of the ship's crew.  In a few seconds two boats were rowing at full
+speed to the rescue, while the boats belonging to the whale-ship--still
+far distant--made for the scene of disaster.
+
+Ere long the rescue party had the great satisfaction of picking up the
+wrecked whalers, and found that not a man among them had received
+greater injury than a bruise or two and a ducking.  Their boat, however,
+was completely destroyed.  They were therefore taken on board the
+_Rainbow_, while the whaler's boats came up and secured their prize.
+
+That night, while the stars twinkled at their own reflections in the
+sleeping sea, the crew of the whale-ship had a "gam" on board the
+_Rainbow_.
+
+A "gam," good reader, may be described as a "small tea-party" on the
+sea.  But it differs in many respects from such gatherings on shore,
+inasmuch as the revellers are not "a few friends", male and female, but
+are usually absolute strangers to each other, and of the male sex only.
+But the circumstances of their meeting--on the lone ocean, far from home
+and friends--have a marvellous effect in opening up the fountains of the
+human heart.  The men and officers fraternised at once.  The whalers
+were chiefly American, the Rainbowers principally English, with a slight
+mixture of Irish and Scotch.  They all spoke the same language; that was
+enough.  Soon after the arrival of their guests, powerful friendships
+were formed.  While tea, or rather supper, was being discussed, these
+were cemented; and, when pipes were lit, confidences of the most
+touching nature were interchanged.  Anecdotes and stories naturally
+followed the confidences, broke up the separate parties, and drew the
+company more together.  The union was finally and effectually
+concentrated by one of the whalers' crew making a demand for a song.
+
+"Come, O'Rook," cried one of the _Rainbow_ men, "let's have `The poor
+little pig wi' the purple nose.'"
+
+O'Rook began at once, and sang with such fervour and pathos, that his
+auditors became quite uproarious in their admiration.  But when the
+Irishman called on the whalers for a ditty, a fine-looking youth sang a
+song of the "Homeward Bound," in a voice so sweet and true, that the
+spirit of the men was changed, and many a moistened eye told that deep
+chords of sympathy had been touched.
+
+"Can you play the fiddle?" asked one of the men of O'Rook, when the song
+was finished.
+
+"Sure it's myself can do that same," he replied, with a modest air,
+which drew forth a peal of laughter.  When the fiddle was produced and
+O'Rook struck up reels, and strathspeys, and hornpipes, with a precision
+of touch and time and perfection of tune that was far above the average
+of amateurs, the joy of the party could no longer find vent through eye
+and mouth.  They were forced to open the safety-valves of heel and toe.
+For this purpose the quarter-deck was cleared, and flags were festooned
+round it; the officers joined, and Polly Samson was placed on the
+capstan, like the presiding angel of the scene.
+
+Ah! reader, if you have not been for many months on the ocean, or in the
+lone wilderness, without seeing a new face, or hearing a sweet sound, or
+feeling the power of female influence, you cannot fully appreciate what
+we describe.  There was no drink save coffee and tea at that feast.  The
+_Rainbow_ was a temperance ship.  But the men required no spirits.  Each
+one had more than sufficient within himself.  The presence of Polly,
+too, had a powerful effect.  Every man there saw his own particular
+Polly or Susan or Nancy in her pretty laughing face and sparkling eyes.
+
+"Your men are powerful fellows," said the captain of the _Rainbow_ to
+the captain of the whaler; "I've no doubt they'll be quite game for work
+to-morrow, though they should keep it up all night."
+
+"They certainly would," replied the latter, "if called on to do duty;
+but they won't be required to work to-morrow, for we keep the Sabbath on
+board of our ship as a duty we owe to God, and we find that we are great
+gainers in health and strength, while we are no losers of fish by doing
+so."
+
+"Ha! the great Captain Scoresby tried that before you, and said that he
+found keeping the Sabbath to be good both for body and soul," said the
+captain of the _Rainbow_.
+
+"I know he did," replied the other, "and I am trying to follow in
+Scoresby's wake."
+
+It was pretty late in the evening before the whalers could tear
+themselves away, and when at last they did so, they expressed a
+unanimous opinion that it had been the most successful gam they had ever
+had in their lives.
+
+Not long after parting company from the whale-ship the _Rainbow_ sailed
+into the cold and variable regions south of Cape Horn.  Here they
+experienced what the men styled "very dirty weather."  The skies were
+seldom blue, and the decks were never dry, while it became necessary to
+keep the stove burning constantly in the cabin, and the berth-ports
+almost always shut.
+
+The effect of all this on poor Ben Trench was to injure his health
+severely.  His cough increased, and it soon became evident that his
+complaint, which at first had only threatened to grow worse, had now
+become chronic and serious.
+
+"Watty," he said one day, while his friend sat beside his cot reading to
+him, "it's of no use shutting one's eyes to facts.  I fear that I am now
+hopelessly ill, and that I shall never see father or mother or Susan
+again in this world."
+
+"O Ben! don't speak like that," said Watty, laying down the book, and
+gently taking his friend's thin hand in both of his.  "You mustn't do
+it.  It will only make you worse.  When we get out of this horrible
+region into the trade winds and the sunshine near the Line, you'll be a
+new man.  Come now, cheer up, Ben, and don't let your good little nurse
+see you with such a sad face."
+
+Polly's step was heard at the moment.  She entered with a bowl of soup.
+
+"Here, Ben, this will do you good," she said, handing him the bowl.
+"The cook says it's the stuff to stick to your ribs.  There now, I can't
+stop to give it you, for father wants me, but you're all right when
+Watty's by.  Are you better?"
+
+"Well, not much," replied Ben with a smile; "but I'm always the better
+of seeing your little face.  Don't be long of returning, Poll."
+
+When she had left, Ben drank the soup, and then lay down with a sigh.
+
+"It may be that the warm latitudes will do me good, Watty," he said,
+"but I don't feel as if they would.  Still I'm resigned to God's will,
+though it seems sad to die so young, and just when I've come to know my
+dear Redeemer, and might, perhaps, have done some little work for Him.
+It seems so strange to be saved and not allowed time to _do_ anything."
+
+"You _have_ done something," returned his friend with an earnest look;
+"if I have really turned to Jesus at all, it has been through your
+influence, Ben, and I'm sure that Jack would say the same of himself;
+and if he and I are spared to do any good work for our Lord, it will be
+all owing to you."
+
+"Not to me, Watty, not to me," rejoined Ben, with a glad look; "but if
+God's holy Spirit has used me as an instrument in this, I shall have
+cause to praise Him for it throughout eternity.  Oh! is it not strange
+that in a region where there is so little godliness, and while we were
+in the eager pursuit of gold, our eyes should have been opened to see
+and appreciate the true gold?  But now, Watty," he added in a lower
+tone, "I want to ask you to do me a favour.  I want you to go yourself
+to our house, without delay, and break it to mother."
+
+He paused.  Watty laid his face in the bedclothes, and wept silently.
+
+"They are very fond of you," continued Ben, "and I should not like them
+to hear of it from any one but you.  Be very tender to Susan, Watty.
+Poor Susan, she will need comfort, and you know how to direct her."
+
+For some time Ben Trench continued talking, and then fell into a quiet
+slumber, in which his friend left him, while Polly watched by his side.
+
+The warm latitudes did no good to the invalid.  On the contrary, he
+suffered much from the heat, and became visibly weaker.
+
+At last the shores of Old England drew nigh.  A few days more and they
+should sight land.  They sought to cheer him with this, but there was no
+answering sparkle in Ben's eyes.
+
+"Yes," he said, faintly, "I shall see them all again, but not _here_."
+
+Ben was dying when the _Rainbow_ approached the British Channel.  The
+whole of the previous day a stiff gale had blown, and this had not much
+abated when night drew on.  Liverpool was their port, and the captain
+carried on full sail--more than the good ship could well bear.  It is
+not known whether he felt so sure of his course that he did not think it
+necessary to shorten sail on nearing the Land's End, or that he was
+anxious, at all hazards, to reach port before Ben Trench should die, but
+he held on recklessly, and, in the dead of night, ran the _Rainbow_
+straight against the high cliffs not far from the Cornish town of Saint
+Just.
+
+The wreck of the ship was complete in a few seconds.  All her masts went
+over the side, and the waves overwhelmed her.  She would have gone down
+in deep water if she had not been dashed between two rocks and held
+there.  Time was thus given for one of the boats to be got out, but
+utter confusion reigned, for the captain had disappeared.  No wonder
+that several of the men leaped into her, crying, "Every man for
+himself," and endeavoured to cast off.
+
+"Have you got Polly?" cried Jack, as he dimly saw a figure staggering
+through the turmoil of wind and whirling spray.
+
+"All safe!" gasped Captain Samson.
+
+Jack instantly jumped into the boat and found O'Rook struggling to
+prevent one of the men from cutting the hawser.  Jack knocked the man
+down, and, hauling the boat close alongside, shouted, "Jump, Captain,
+jump!"  The captain did so at the right moment, and alighted safely,
+though with great violence.  Just then Watty Wilkins was seen striving
+to lift Ben Trench over the bulwark of the ship.  It was impossible to
+render him assistance, though Jack tried to do so, for at the moment a
+towering billow fell on the deck and tore the invalid from his grasp.
+With a shriek of despair Watty fell back into the sea, but was caught by
+one of the men and hauled into the boat which was then cut adrift.  It
+was not a moment too soon, for the next wave dashed their ship to
+pieces.
+
+As it was impossible to effect a landing among perpendicular cliffs
+which were lashed by roaring breakers, they were obliged to push out to
+sea, where they rowed till daylight, and succeeded in reaching Penzance
+harbour.
+
+Leaving the others to report the news, Jack and Wilkins started off
+along the coast to the scene of the wreck.  They found the spot, but not
+a vestige was to be seen of what had so long been their home, save a few
+broken spars, here and there far down in the clefts of inaccessible
+rocks.  A fisherman, however, told them that several bodies had been
+thrown into a little bay, and were then lying in a shed near the spot.
+Hastening thither, they found five lying side by side.  Among them were
+those of poor Ben Trench and the captain of the ship--the one strong,
+stalwart and still ruddy in the face, the other attenuated and ghastly,
+as might have been expected of one who had, as it were, died a double
+death.
+
+We will not dwell on the terrible scene.  While Jack and Captain Samson
+remained to attend to the dead, Wilkins set off, without delay, to be
+first, if possible, in breaking the sad news to his friend's family,
+according to promise.
+
+In regard to the wreck, it is sufficient to say that she, with all her
+precious freight was scattered on the rugged coasts of Cornwall, and our
+adventurers stood once more on their native shores without even the
+means of paying their travelling expenses home.  They did not like to
+speak of their invested wealth, fearing that their statements might be
+disbelieved.  They therefore stood literally in the position of beggars.
+
+In this extremity they found the hospitable men of Cornwall to be
+friends indeed and full of sympathy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+RETURN OF THE WANDERER.
+
+Great was the anxiety of Edwin Jack as he walked, with light foot and
+fluttering heart, over the Border hills and drew near to the old home.
+He had not heard from his father for nearly a year.  Were they all well?
+had they struggled out of their difficulties with the funds he had sent
+them.  Was there no empty chair?  Such and similar thoughts hurried
+through his mind as he went along, until he was forced to run for
+relief.  There was a rocky ridge of land in front of him.  From the top
+of this he knew the cottage could be seen.  Panting with exertion when
+he gained the top, he sat down on a mass of rock and gazed at the old
+place till tears disturbed his vision.  There it stood as of yore--no
+change in the general aspect of things, though there did seem one or two
+improvements about the cottage.  But he did not gaze long.  Starting up
+again he hurried on.
+
+At last he stood in the midst of the old home-circle--all well, and,
+thank God, not one absent!
+
+Philosopher though he was, he could not reason down the tears of joy
+that blinded, and the lump in his throat that well-nigh choked him.
+After the first wild miscellaneous embrace all round was over, Jack (or
+Teddie, as the home-circle called him) found relief by catching up
+Dobbin and burying his face in his neck and curls, regardless of the
+treacle with which that gentleman was plentifully besmeared.
+
+"I've got bad news for you, Teddie, my boy," said his father, after they
+had moderated a little.
+
+"Nobody ill or--dead?" asked Jack, with a look of anxiety.
+
+"No, nobody."
+
+"Then I'm prepared for any other kind of bad news," said our philosopher
+with a quiet smile.
+
+"The Blankow Bank," said his father, laying a hand impressively on his
+shoulder, "has failed, and every penny of your gold is gone!"
+
+The family had become very grave.  Jack looked from one to the other
+with a bewildered air.
+
+"You are jesting, father."
+
+"No, my boy; I would that it were not true.  The distress that is abroad
+in the land because of this calamity is very great.  Not only is all
+your fortune gone, Ted, but anything that you may have brought home with
+you will be taken to pay the creditors of the bank; and they require so
+much money that it would ruin you, though you had thousands upon
+thousands of pounds."
+
+A strange smile flitted across the youth's face as he replied--
+
+"What I brought home with me won't benefit them much, for it lies with
+the wreck of the _Rainbow_ at the bottom of the sea."
+
+This was indeed a surprise to the old couple, who now learned, for the
+first time, that the wrecked ship, about which a rumour had just reached
+them, was that in which their son had come home.
+
+"But, father," continued Jack, with a look of deepening anxiety, "if
+this be as you say, then my comrades must also be ruined, for their gold
+was all invested by Mr Wilkins in the same bank."
+
+"All ruined," replied the old man in a sad tone.  "Mr Wilkins himself
+is bankrupt--the first call brought him and many others down."
+
+"And yourself father; I hope you had no shares in it."
+
+"None, my boy, thank God.  Prosperity has attended me ever since I got
+the first money you sent home.  _That_ saved me, Teddie."
+
+A gleam of joy overspread Philosopher Jack's countenance as he started
+to his feet.
+
+"Then am I well and undeservedly rewarded, daddy," he exclaimed; "but
+all this news is pretty tough.  I must go out to tackle it.  I'll be
+back in a few minutes."
+
+He sprang through the cottage door and sped away over the moor like a
+greyhound.  Reaching the top of a rising ground--from which he could see
+a boundless stretch of border-land, with the sea in the far distance and
+the sun setting in a flood of golden light--he drew himself up, and
+pushing back the hair from his temples with both hands, stood gazing
+wistfully into the radiant glory.
+
+"So like a dream--so like a dream!" he murmured.  "It was God who gave;
+surely it is He who has taken away.  Can there be anything but good in
+all this?"
+
+His hands dropped to his side as he spoke, and he sauntered slowly down
+the slope on which he stood.  Entering a small plantation of fir-trees
+at the foot of it, he disappeared.
+
+When he returned to the cottage all trace of strong feeling was gone.
+"We won't talk of the bank to-night," he said, "let's be jolly," and
+jolly he was accordingly.  Not only so, but he made Dobbin jolly too, by
+supplying him with such a number of treacle-pieces that the child could
+hardly gasp his refusal of the last slice offered, and was made sticky
+from the ends of his filthy fingers to the crown of his curly head.
+
+It is not necessary, nor would it be pleasant to describe minutely the
+effect of the "bad news" on the other members of our gold-digging party.
+Captain Samson and Watty Wilkins took it well, but Polly and Simon
+O'Rook could not easily reconcile themselves to their fate.  The former,
+it is true, sorrowed not for herself, but for her father.  O'Rook,
+however, was more selfish, and came down very heavily on what he called
+his "luck."
+
+"Sure it's a misfortunate pig I've been iver since I left Owld Ireland,"
+he remarked to his pipe one day after dinner, being alone with that
+implement at the time; "an no sooner does the first stroke of good luck
+befall me, an me fortune's made intirely, than whoop! down goes the
+whole consarn to the bottom of the say.  It's well, hows'ever, that ye
+didn't go down yerself along with it, Simon.  Ye've raison to be
+thankful for that, anyhow."
+
+If O'Rook's pipe did not offer him a comforting reply it appeared to
+console him with its fumes, for after a pause, during which the smoke
+played voluminously about his nose, he wrinkled his visage into a smile
+of good humour.
+
+"Now, Simon," he said, rising and putting the black little implement in
+his pocket, "you're in a fit state to go an' comfort the widdy."
+
+Saying which he went out of the cheap refreshment room in which he had
+dined, and betook himself to the principal street of the city, whose
+name we have already declined to mention.
+
+To explain his remark, we may state here that after the most diligent
+inquiry without success, the Irishman had, by the merest chance,
+discovered the widow of David Ban--in this very city, to which he had
+accompanied Philosopher Jack and Captain Samson, after clearly
+ascertaining that every vestige of the wreck of the _Rainbow_ had
+disappeared, and that all his gold was irrevocably gone.  Walking along
+the principal street one day, he had been attracted by a temperance
+eating-house named the "Holly Tree."  Entering it for the purpose of, as
+he said, "revictualling the ship," he was rooted to the spot by hearing
+a customer call out, "Another cup of coffee, please, Mrs Bancroft,"
+while at the same moment an assistant at the counter addressed the
+comely woman, who replied, "Yes, sir," by the name of "Lucy."  Could
+proof be more conclusive?  Upon inquiry "Lucy" turned out in very truth
+to be the widow of David Bancroft, and the lock of hair corresponded.
+Of course O'Rook revealed to her the sad circumstances connected with
+her husband's end.  To say that Mrs Bancroft was overwhelmed with grief
+would not be true.  She had long mourned him as dead, and although the
+information, corroborated as it afterwards was by Edwin Jack and Captain
+Samson, did re-open the old wound to some extent, she nevertheless bore
+it heroically, and took Simon O'Rook's comforting observations in good
+part.  But we must not anticipate.  Let us return to Watty Wilkins.
+
+Having broken the news of Ben Trench's death to the Bailie and his
+family--and a terrible duty he found it to be,--Watty went straight to
+his father's house.  We drop the curtain on the meeting.  The joy of the
+elder Wilkins can only be fully understood by those who can say of an
+only son, "He was lost and is found."
+
+"Now, Watty, dear boy," said Mr Wilkins when they came to talk of
+ordinary matters, "God has mingled mercy with my sorrows.  My business
+has indeed been ruined, and I have passed through the bankruptcy court;
+but I am by no means so unfortunate as hundreds of people who have been
+reduced to absolute poverty by this crash.  You remember my brother
+James--Uncle Jimmy? well, he has got a flourishing business in the West
+Indies.  For some years past he had been meditating the establishment of
+an agency in connection with it in this city.  The moment he heard of my
+failure he offered to make me his agent here, with a good salary.  Of
+course I was only too glad and thankful to accept the offer, and after
+my affairs were wound up, entered upon the office.  So now, you see,
+here I am, through God's goodness, still inhabiting the old house, which
+I now rent from the person who purchased it.  Of course I can no longer
+keep a carriage, and it will cost me some calculation and economy to
+make the two ends meet, but these are small matters."
+
+"Oh, father, I'm so glad and thankful!" said Watty with sparkling eyes.
+
+"But," continued Mr Wilkins, with a look of profound gravity, "at
+present I happen to be troubled with a great difficulty."
+
+"What's that?" asked his little son, with a ready sympathy that was
+natural to him, and which his recent experiences had rendered much more
+powerful.
+
+"I find the nature of my duties too much for me," replied Mr Wilkins
+with a peculiar smile, "and it is almost impossible that I can get along
+without a clever, honest, intelligent clerk, or, shall we say,
+secretary--a character that is not easily found in these degenerate
+days.  Can you recommend one, Watty?"
+
+"O yes," cried the youth, springing up and seizing his father's hand in
+both of his; "you mean _me_!  Don't you, now?  You _can't_ get on
+without me."
+
+Watty felt inclined to dance a hornpipe, but he sat down instead, and,
+covering his face with his hands, burst into tears of joy.  Being a
+tender-hearted man, Mr Wilkins could not help joining him, but in a
+moderate degree.  We will leave them thus engaged, merely remarking that
+if the act was a weakness, it nevertheless seemed to do them a world of
+good.
+
+After a considerable time had elapsed, Philosopher Jack left the Border
+cottage one day, went up to town, and presented himself at his old
+lodgings to Mrs Niven.  That lady's feelings, under the influence of
+surprise, had a tendency, as we have shown, to lay her flat on the
+floor.  But the faithful Peggy had come to understand her tendencies,
+and was usually too much for her.  When her old lodger made his
+appearance in her parlour, Mrs Niven exhibited symptoms which caused
+Peggy to glide swiftly forward and receive her in her arms, whence she
+was transferred to an easy-chair.
+
+Recovering, she gave Jack what, in the circumstances, was a hearty
+welcome.
+
+"Losh me, laddie, ye'll be the death o' me!"
+
+"I hope not, Mrs Niven," said Jack, laughing, as he shook her hand
+heartily and sat down, "for my own sake as well as yours; because I have
+come to take my old room if it is vacant."
+
+"Yer auld room, Maister Jack!" exclaimed the bewildered woman.
+
+"Yes, if it is not already occupied."
+
+"The yin wi' the reeky lum and the view o' chimbley-pots frae the
+wundy?"
+
+"The same.  I hope I can have it, for I'm going to college again, and
+I've an affection for the old place, despite the smoky chimney and the
+cans on the cats' parade."
+
+"Yer jokin', Maister Jack."
+
+"Indeed I am not, Mrs Niven."
+
+"They telt me ye was in Callyforny, an had made 'eer fortin there by
+howkin' gold."
+
+"Well, they told the truth, my good woman, but I happened to invest all
+in Blankow Bank shares, and--"
+
+"Wow! wow!" exclaimed Mrs Niven, whimpering, for she understood full
+well the meaning of that, "an' 'ee've been ruined!  Oh dear!  Weel,
+weel, ay, ay, an it's come to that.  Jist like my kind freen' Maister
+Black.  Losh me! man," she added in a sudden burst of indignation, "what
+for disna the Government order a penny subscription ower the hail
+kingdom to git the puir guiltless shareholders oot o' their
+diffeeculties?"
+
+Philosopher Jack declined to enter upon so subtle a question, but after
+finding that his old room was vacant, retook it, and then went out to
+the region of the docks to pay a visit to Captain Samson.  He found that
+old salt in possession of his old lodging, but it was wonderfully
+changed, and, perhaps, not for the better.  Polly was there, however,
+and her presence would have made any place charming.
+
+"Sit down.  There is an empty keg to offer a friend," said the captain,
+looking round the almost empty room.  "You see they've cleared me out.
+Had to sell everything a'most."
+
+This was true.  The marine stores, coils of rope, kegs, charts,
+telescopes, log-lines, sextants, foreign shells, model ships, Chinese
+idols--all were gone, excepting a table, a chair, a child's crib in a
+corner, and the hammock, which latter looked more like an overwhelmingly
+heavy cloud than ever, as it hung over the clean but desolate scene.
+
+"But we're going to have _such_ a nice tea," said Polly, "and you shall
+stay and have some."
+
+She bustled about the fire, but it had so little heart that even her
+coaxing nearly failed to make it burn.  Jack offered to assist.
+
+"Take care," said Polly with some anxiety; "if you cough or sneeze
+you'll put it out."
+
+"But I promise neither to cough nor sneeze," said Jack.
+
+Under their united efforts the fire blazed, and tea with buttered toast
+ere long smoked on the board.
+
+"Polly's going to London," said the captain suddenly--almost fiercely.
+
+"Yes," said Polly, hastening to explain; "you see, my aunt Maria has
+been so good as to offer to take me to live with her and put me to
+school."
+
+"Ha!" said the captain, almost blowing the buttered toast out of his
+mouth with contempt, "and Aunt Maria says she'll make a lady of Polly!
+Think o' that, Jack; _make_ a lady out of an angel!"
+
+The captain was so tickled with the idea that he went off into a roar of
+sarcastic laughter.
+
+"I'll tell 'ee what it is, Jack," he continued on recovering, "I
+shouldn't wonder it in the course of a few months' residence with her,
+Polly was to make a lady out of Aunt Maria--supposin' that to be
+possible."
+
+"Oh! father," remonstrated Polly.
+
+"Come," cried the captain savagely, "give us a nor'-wester--that's it;
+another--thank 'ee.  The fact is, I'm goin' in for nor'-westers durin'
+the next fortnight--goin' to have it blow a regular hurricane of 'em."
+
+Philosopher Jack hoped, if at all allowable, that he might be permitted
+to come under the influence of the gale, and then asked why Polly was
+leaving her father.
+
+"She's not leavin' me, bless you," said the captain, "it's me that's
+leavin' _her_.  The fact is, I've got a ship.  What's left of me is not
+over young, but it's uncommon tough, so I mean to use it up as long as
+it lasts for Polly.  I'm off to the East Indies in two or three weeks.
+If it hadn't been for this Aunt Maria I shouldn't have known what to do
+for Polly, so I've no call to abuse the stupid old thing.  A lady,
+indeed--ha!"
+
+"You might have been quite sure that my father's house would have been
+open to Polly," said Jack quite warmly, "or Mr Wilkins's, for the
+matter of that."
+
+"I know it lad, I know it" returned the captain, slapping his friend on
+the shoulder, "but after all, this Aunt Maria--this lady-like
+individual--is the most natural protector.  But now, tell me, what of
+O'Rook?"
+
+"I know nothing of him.  Haven't seen him for several days.  When I last
+met him he seemed to be much depressed, poor fellow.  I don't wonder,
+considering the fortune he has lost.  However, Wilkins's father is sure
+to do the best he can for him.  He feels so deeply having led him and
+the rest of us into this--though it was no fault of his, and he went in
+and suffered along with us.  I couldn't understand, however, what O'Rook
+meant by some wild remarks he made the other day about taking to the
+temperance line and going in for coffee and mutton chops up a
+holly-tree.  I hope it hasn't unseated his reason, poor fellow."
+
+While the trio were thus discussing O'Rook over a cup of tea, that bold
+Irishman was busily engaged "comforting the widdy" over a cup of coffee
+in Mrs Bancroft's private parlour.
+
+It is only just to O'Rook to say that he originally sought the widow
+from a simple desire to tell her of her husband's sad end, which, as we
+have seen, had made a deep impression on his sympathetic heart.  When,
+however, he found that the widow was young, cheery, and good-looking,
+his sympathy was naturally increased, and the feeling was not
+unnaturally intensified when he found her engaged in the management of
+so excellent an institution as the "Holly Tree Public House without
+Drink."  At first O'Rook confined his visits to pure sympathy; then,
+when he had allowed a "raisonable" time to elapse, he made somewhat
+warmer approaches, and finally laid siege to the widow's heart.  But the
+widow was obdurate.
+
+"Why won't ye have me, now?" asked the poor man one evening, with a
+perplexed look; "sure it's not bad-lookin' I am, though I've no occasion
+to boast of gud looks neither."
+
+"No, it's not your looks," said Mrs Bancroft with a laugh, as she
+raised her eyes from her knitting and looked at her sister Flo, who sat
+opposite, also knitting, and who took a smiling but comparatively
+indifferent view of the matter.
+
+"Then it must be because I'm not owld enough.  Sure if ye wait a year or
+two I'll be as owld as yourself, every bit," said O'Rook.
+
+"No, it's not that either," said the widow.
+
+"Ah, then, it can't be because I'm poor," persisted O'Rook, "for with
+this good business you don't want money, an' I'm great at cookin',
+besides havin' the willin' hands that can turn to a'most anything.  If
+ye'd seen me diggin' for goold, bad luck to it, ye'd belaive what I tell
+ye.  Ah!" he added with a sigh, "it's a rich man I'd have been this day
+if that ship had only kep' afloat a few hours longer.  Well, well, I
+needn't grumble, when me own comrades, that thought it so safe in the
+Blankow Bank, are about as badly off as me.  When was it they began to
+suspec' the bank was shaky?"
+
+"Oh, long ago," said Mrs Bancroft, "soon after the disappearance of Mr
+Luke, the cashier--"
+
+"Mr who?" demanded O'Rook with a start.
+
+"Mr Luke.  Did you know him?"
+
+"I've heard of such a man," replied O'Rook with assumed carelessness;
+"what about _him_?"
+
+"Well, it was supposed that he was goin' deranged, poor fellow, and at
+last he suddenly disappeared, no one could tell why; but it's clear
+enough now, for he was made to put the accounts all wrong, and I suppose
+the struggle in his mind drove him to suicide, for he was a long, thin,
+weakly sort of man, without much brains except for figures."
+
+Hereupon O'Rook told the widow all he knew about the strange passenger
+of that name with whom he had sailed to the Southern Seas and worked at
+the gold fields.  The conclusion which they came to was that the
+gold-digging passenger was the absconded cashier.  Having settled this,
+O'Rook renewed the siege on the widow's heart but without success,
+though she did not cast him off altogether.  The poor man, however, lost
+patience, and, finally, giving it up in despair, went off to sea.
+
+"I've been too hard on him," remarked the widow, sadly, to her sister
+Flo, after he was gone.
+
+"You have," was Flo's comforting reply, as she rose to serve a clamorous
+customer of the Holly Tree.
+
+Philosopher Jack from that time forth devoted himself heartily to study,
+and gradually ceased to think of the golden dreams which had for so long
+a time beset him by night and by day.  He had now found the gold which
+cannot perish, and while he studied medicine and surgery to enable him
+to cure the bodies of men, he devoted much of his time to the study of
+the Book which would enable him to cure their souls.
+
+The captain came and went across the seas in the course of his rough
+calling, and he never came without a heart full of love and hands full
+of foreign nick-nacks, which he conveyed to Polly in London, and never
+went away without a rousing nor'-wester.
+
+Watty and his father worked on together in vigorous contentment and many
+a visit did the former pay to Bailie Trench, attracted by the strong
+resemblance in Susan to the bosom friend who had reached the "Better
+Land" before him.
+
+Thus time rolled quietly on, until an event occurred which modified the
+career of more than one of those whose fortunes we have followed so
+long.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.
+
+If it be true that there is "many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip"--
+which we have no reason to doubt--it is not less true that many a cup of
+good fortune is, unexpectedly and unsought, raised to the lips of
+thankless man.
+
+Captain Samson was seated one fine summer evening in his shore-going
+cabin, that used to be the abode of fishy smells, marine-stores, Polly,
+and bliss, but which now presented an unfurnished and desolate aspect.
+He had just returned from a voyage.  Little "kickshaws" for Polly lay on
+the table before him, and a small fire burned in the grate, with a huge
+kettle thereon.  A stormy sigh escaped the captain as he glanced round
+the old room.
+
+"Come, come, Samson," he exclaimed, apostrophising himself, "this will
+never do.  You mustn't give way to the blues.  It's true you haven't got
+as much to leave to Polly when you slip your cable as you once had; but
+you have scraped together a little these few years past, and there's
+lots of work in you yet, old boy.  Besides, it's His way of ordering
+events, and that way _must_ be right, whatever it appears to me.  Why,
+Samson, for all your preaching to others, your own faith isn't as big as
+a grain of mustard seed.  Ah!  Polly, you're a woman now a'most--and a
+beauty, I'll be bound.  I wish you'd come though.  You're not up to
+time, young 'ooman.  It's as well you've got one or two faults, just to
+keep you in sympathy with other mortals.  Ah, here you come."
+
+He hastened to answer a double knock at the door, and checked himself,
+not a moment too soon, from giving a warm embrace to the postman.  Under
+a strong impulse to knock the man down he took a letter from him, flung
+it on the table, and shut the door.  After pacing the room for some time
+impatiently he sat down, opened the letter, and read it aloud.  It ran
+thus:--
+
+  "Sir--Having been for some years past engaged in diving operations at
+  the wreck of the _Rainbow_--lost off the coast of Cornwall in 18
+  hundred and something, I write to say that I have recovered a large
+  chest of gold with your name on the inside of it, and that of a man
+  named Simon O'Rook.  Most of the gold recovered from the _Rainbow_ has
+  been scattered about, but in all cases when ownership could be proved,
+  I have handed over the property.  If you can give such an account of
+  the contents of the chest referred to as shall satisfy me that it is
+  yours, the part of its contents which belongs to you shall be
+  restored.
+
+  "I would feel obliged if you could give me any clew to the whereabouts
+  of O'Rook.--I am, etcetera."
+
+"The whereabouts of O'Rook!" cried the captain, starting up and gazing
+at the letter; "why, he's my own first mate, an' close alongside at this
+good hour!"
+
+"True for ye," cried a man outside the window, as he flattened his nose
+against the glass, "an is it polite to kape yer own first mate rappin'
+the skin off his knuckles at the door?"
+
+The captain at once let in his follower, and showed him the letter.  His
+surprise may be better imagined than described.
+
+"But d'ee think it's true, cap'n?"
+
+"I haven't a doubt of it, but we can settle that to-morrow by a visit to
+the writer of the letter."
+
+"That's true," said O'Rook; "which o' the boxes, now, that belonged to
+us d'ee think it is?"
+
+"It can only be one," replied the captain, "that box of mine in which
+you asked me to stuff the remnant of the gold-dust that you hadn't room
+for in your own boxes.  It was the strongest box o' the lot, which
+accounts for its not breakin' up like the others."
+
+"It must be that.  I rowled it up in an owld leather coat bought from an
+Injin the day before we left the diggin's.  It's but a small remainder
+o' me fortune--a thousand pounds, more or less,--but sure, it's found
+money an comes handy this good day, which reminds me I've got some noose
+for 'ee.  What d'ee think, cap'n?" continued O'Rook, with a very
+conscious look.
+
+"How can I think if ye don't give me somethin' to think about?"
+
+"The widdy's tuk me after all!" said O'Rook.
+
+"What! widow Bancroft?"
+
+O'Rook nodded impressively.  "Moreover," he said, "she's tuk me as a
+poor beggar with nothin' but his pay, for better and for worse, an',
+sure now, it's better I'll be than she tuk me for."
+
+The captain was interrupted in his congratulations of the mate by
+another knock at the door.  He opened it, and next moment was seized
+round the neck by a tall, graceful, beautiful, exquisite--oh! reader,
+you know who we mean.
+
+"Why didn't you come up to time, old girl?" demanded the captain, while
+O'Rook looked on in admiration.
+
+"Oh, father," gasped Polly, "don't crush me so and I'll tell you."
+
+When she had explained that delay in the train had caused her want of
+punctuality, she shook hands with O'Rook, with whom she had renewed
+acquaintance at the time of his being appointed first mate to her
+father's ship.  Then she was bid stand up in a corner to be
+"overhauled."  The captain retired to an opposite corner, and gazed at
+his daughter critically, as though she had been a fine portrait.
+
+"Yes, Polly, you'll do," he said, while an approving smile wrinkled his
+vast countenance.  "Fit for a queen any day.  A _lady_--ha! ha!  Have
+you done your duty to Aunt Maria, Polly, eh?  Have you made a lady of
+her, eh?  Have you infused into her something allied to the angelic, eh?
+Come, now, a rousing nor'-wester!"
+
+With a laugh worthy of her girlhood, Polly ran out of her corner and
+obeyed orders.
+
+"Now, my pet" said the captain, seating her on his knee, "here are some
+kickshaws from foreign parts for you; but before letting you look at
+'em, I must explain why I asked you to meet me here instead of going to
+see you as usual in London.  The fact is, I had bin longing to take you
+with me my next voyage, and it would have been handier to have you by me
+here when we're getting ready for sea, but--but, the fact is, things
+have taken a sudden turn, and--and--in short, circumstances have come
+about that I can't speak of just now; only I'm not quite so sure about
+going to sea as I was an hour ago.  But you don't seem to jump at the
+notion, Polly.  Surely you'd have liked to go--wouldn't you?"
+
+"Liked, father, of _course_.  I should have been overjoyed to have gone
+with you, but--but--the truth is," she said, with a little laugh and a
+glance at O'Rook, "circumstances have come about that _I_ can't speak of
+just now."
+
+"Well, my pet," rejoined the captain, with a puzzled, anxious look,
+"we'll _not_ talk about 'em.  Now, you must know that I've got up a
+small party to meet you here to-night, and expect you to do me credit.
+The pastry-cook next door has undertaken to send in cakes, and tea, and
+hot sausages, and buns, at a moment's notice.  I expect his man here
+every minute to lay out the spread.  Now, who d'ee think are coming?
+You'll never guess.  There's Mr and Mrs John Jack, the father and
+mother of Edwin Jack--you remember him, Polly?  Philosopher Jack we used
+to call him."
+
+"Yes," replied Polly, in a low tone.
+
+"Well, they happen to be in town just now with their family, and they're
+all coming.  Then there's my first mate, Simon O'Rook; he would be
+coming, only he's come already, a full hour before his time!  Then
+there's a Mr Burr and a Mr Buckley, both returned from California with
+fortunes--"
+
+"A-rowlin' in gold," muttered O'Rook, in a low tone.
+
+"You don't _really_ mean, father, that--"
+
+"Yes I do, Polly.  I mean that Baldwin Burr and Jacob Buckley are
+coming.  I met 'em only two days ago in the streets, going about in
+chimney-pot hats and broadcloth like gentlemen--which they are, every
+inch of 'em, if worth and well-doing and wisdom make the gentleman.  So,
+knowing you were to be here, I made 'em promise to come.  Well, then,
+there's your old friend Watty Wilkins, who, by the way, is engaged to be
+married to Susan Trench.  I tried to get Susan to come too, but she's
+shy, and won't.  Besides these, there's a doctor of medicine, whom I
+think you have met before, a very rising young man--quite celebrated, I
+may say.  Got an enormous practice, and--"
+
+The captain was interrupted by the rattle of wheels outside, and the
+pulling up of a carriage at the door.
+
+Polly rose quickly, with a half-frightened look.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, Poll, it's only the doctor," he said, going out to
+the passage.
+
+"Pardon my coming so much before the appointed time," said a familiar
+voice; "but I have something to communicate before she comes--something
+very important and--"
+
+Philosopher Jack stopped short, for he had entered the room and saw that
+Polly had already come.  With one spring he was at her side, seized her
+in his arms, and imprinted on her lips what her father afterwards called
+the "stiffest nor'wester he'd ever seen."  At the time, however, the
+captain strode up to our philosopher with a frown.
+
+"Come, come, doctor," he said, sternly, "there is a limit to familiarity
+even among--"
+
+"Pardon me," said our hero, drawing Polly's unresisting hand through his
+arm; "I had no intention of doing it until I had your consent; but
+somehow--I can't tell how--it came upon me suddenly while I was paying
+my respects to her in London, not long ago, and before I knew where I
+was, it all came out, and she accepted me, on the understanding that I
+should consider it no engagement until I had obtained your consent.  So
+now, I have to ask your forgiveness and your blessing--father."
+
+Captain Samson stood there, bereft of speech, and O'Rook stood there,
+the picture of benignity, in a corner.  What the former would have said
+it is impossible to tell, for at that moment there came an impatient
+rapping at the door.
+
+"Hurrah! captain, I could not help looking in before the time," cried
+Watty Wilkins, "to tell you that Susan's coming after all.  The dear
+girl--"
+
+He stopped suddenly, and stared at Polly, as if he had applied the term
+of endearment to her.
+
+"The ghost of Polly Samson!" he exclaimed, after a breathless pause.
+
+"Nothing of the sort, my boy," said the captain, grasping his little
+friend's hand, "but an enlarged and improved edition of Polly Samson,
+not yet full-bound, but goin' to be, very soon, by Philosopher Jack."
+
+At that auspicious moment the pastry-cook made his appearance, and
+compelled the party to quit the premises.  They therefore went for a
+stroll while he put things in order.  When they returned, it was found
+that his wonderful powers had made a change little short of miraculous.
+The floor was swept.  Chairs had been introduced on the scene.  The
+table groaned, being weak in the legs, under a surfeit of viands.  The
+hammock had been removed.  The fire leaped high, as if desirous of going
+up the chimney altogether, and the huge kettle sat thereon, leaning
+back, with its spout in the air, pouring its very heart out in a joyous
+domestic song.
+
+Need we say that the united party made the most of their opportunity?
+They spoke of the golden land, of their toils and joys, their successes
+and losses, and of their Heavenly Father's guiding hand.  The
+ex-gold-diggers, Baldwin Burr and Jacob Buckley, fought their battles
+over again, and sang the camp-fire songs.  Philosopher Jack sat beside
+his mother, who was a little deaf, to explain the miners' slang and
+point the jokes.  Watty Wilkins became involved in Susan, and was
+comparatively useless; but he laughed at the jokes, whether he saw them
+or not, and joined with telling effect in the choruses.  Polly sang, in
+a voice that corresponded with her sweet face, two or three of the hymns
+with which they had been wont to make vocal the palm grove on the coral
+island in the southern seas, and Philosopher Jack related the story of
+the slaying of the bear at Grizzly Bear Gulch.  All this was a rare
+treat to the family from the lonely cottage on the Border, the younger
+members of which had by that time ascended, through Christian example
+and improved education, to a high level in the social scale.  Dobbin, in
+particular, had become a strapping youth of gentlemanly mien, and would
+as soon have thought of shoe-blacking as of treacle to his bread.  He
+retained a sneaking fondness for it, however, especially when presented
+in the form of golden syrup.
+
+But we must not prolong the scene.  It is sufficient to say that they
+had a glorious night of it, on strictly temperance principles, which
+culminated and drew to a close when Captain Samson, opening his Bible,
+and reading therefrom many precious promises, drew his friends' minds
+from things seen and temporal to things unseen and eternal.  Thereafter
+he prayed that neither he nor they should be permitted to forget that a
+loving Father holds the helm and guides the souls of his people, whether
+in joy or in sorrow, success or failure, through time into eternity.
+
+And now it is incumbent on us to draw our story to a close.
+
+On the day following the feast Captain Samson called with his chief mate
+on the writer of the important letter, and found that his principal
+chest of gold had indeed been fished up from the deep.  He and O'Rook
+were able to give so correct an account of its contents that their claim
+was at once admitted, and thus the captain became possessor of gold to
+the value of about four thousand pounds sterling, while O'Rook recovered
+upwards of one thousand.  This was only a fraction of their original
+fortune, but the interest of it was sufficient to supply their moderate
+wants.
+
+Going straight off to the Holly Tree, of which a healthy shoot had been
+planted in the suburbs, O'Rook proceeded, according to use and wont, to
+"comfort the widdy."
+
+"It's a rich man I am, darlin', after all," he said, on sitting down
+beside her.
+
+"How so, Simon?"
+
+Simon explained.
+
+"An' would you consider yourself a poor man if you had only me?" asked
+the widow, with a hurt air.
+
+"Ah! then, it's the women can twist their tongues, anyhow," cried
+O'Rook.  "Sure it's about dirty goold I'm spakin', isn't it?  I made no
+reference to the love of purty woman--did I, now?  In regard of that I
+wouldn't change places with the Shah of Pershy."
+
+"Well now, Simon, if it's the women that can twist their tongues, it's
+the Irishmen that can twist their consciences, so you an' I will be well
+matched."
+
+"That's well said, anyhow," rejoined O'Rook.  "An' now, darlin', will ye
+name the day?"
+
+"No, Simon, I won't; but I'll think about it.  There, now.  Go home,
+it's gettin' late, and if ye happen to be passing this way to-morrow you
+may give us a call."
+
+Thus Simon O'Rook prosecuted his courtship.  In process of time he
+married the widow, and was finally installed as master of the juvenile
+Holly Tree in the suburbs, while his wife conducted the parent stem in
+town.  Vegetables and other country produce had to be conveyed to the
+town Tree regularly.  For this purpose a pony-cart was set up, which
+travelled daily between it and the country branch.  Thus it came to pass
+that O'Rook's Californian dreams were realised, for "sure," he was wont
+to say, "haven't I got a house in the country an' a mansion in the town,
+an' if I don't drive my carriage and four, I can always drive me cart
+an' wan, anyhow, with a swate little widdy into the bargain."
+
+It is, we suppose, almost superfluous to say that Doctor Jack and Polly
+Samson were united in due course, but it is necessary to record that, by
+special arrangement, Walter Wilkins, Esquire, and Susan Trench were
+married on the same day.  More than that, the Doctor and Watty so
+contrived matters that they rented a double villa in the suburbs of the
+nameless city, one-half of which was occupied by Dr Jack's family, the
+other by that of Wilkins.  Still further, it was so contrived by
+Philosopher Jack that a small cottage was built on an eminence in his
+garden, in which there was a room, precisely similar in all respects to
+that in which he had first met his father-in-law.  There was a hammock
+in this room, slung as the original hammock had been, and although the
+old telescopes and sou'-westers and marine stores and charts had been
+sold and lost past redemption, a good many new things, bearing a strong
+resemblance to such articles, were purchased and placed on the walls and
+in the corners, so that almost the only difference between it and the
+old room was the absence of fishy smells.  There was an improvement,
+also, in the view; for whereas, in the old room, the window commanded a
+prospect of about ten yards in extent, comprising a brick wall, a
+lamp-post, and a broken pump, the windows of the new room overlooked
+miles and miles of landscape, embracing villages, hamlets, fields, and
+forests, away to the horizon.
+
+In this cottage Captain Samson took up his abode, rent free, and the
+money which he was thus enabled to save, or which Jack insisted on his
+saving, was spent in helping the poor all round his dwelling.  Here the
+captain spent many happy hours in converse with Polly and her husband.
+To this room, as time rolled on, he brought a small child, to which,
+although not its nurse, he devoted much of his spare time, and called it
+"Polly."
+
+And oh! it was a wonderful sight to see Polly the second, with her heart
+in her mouth and her hair flying in the air, riding the captain's foot
+"in a storm!"
+
+Here, too, as time continued to roll on, he fabricated innumerable boats
+and ships for little boys, whose names were Teddie, Watty, Ben, Baldwin,
+and such like.  In this room, also, every Sunday morning early, the
+captain was to be found with a large, eager, attentive class of little
+boys and girls, to whom he expounded the Word of God, with many an
+illustrative anecdote, while he sought to lead them to that dear Lord
+who had saved his soul, and whose Holy Spirit had enabled him to face
+the battles of life, in prosperity and adversity, and had made him "more
+than conqueror."  Here, also, in the evenings of the same holy day, he
+was wont to gather a meeting of old people, to whom he discanted on the
+same "old, old story."  In all which works he was aided and abetted by
+the families of the double house close by.
+
+Besides his constant visitors among the young, the aged, and the poor,
+the captain had a few occasional visitors at his residence, which, by
+the way, was named Harmony Hall.
+
+Among these were Bailie Trench and his wife, who were naturally
+attracted to that region by the presence there of a slender, loving,
+sprightly boy, whose name was Benjamin Walter Wilkins, and who bore--at
+least they thought he bore--a striking resemblance to their loved and
+lost son Ben.  The family from the cottage on the Border also paid
+annual visits to Number 1 of the double house (which was the Doctor's),
+and the various members of that family, being very fond of a chat with
+the old sailor, often found themselves of an evening in "the old
+store-room" (as the boys styled it) of Harmony Hall.
+
+These visits were regularly returned, chiefly in the summer-time, by the
+captain and the families of the double house, on which occasions the
+cottage on the Border was taxed to such an extent that Philosopher Jack
+was obliged to purchase a neighbouring barn, which he had fitted up as a
+dormitory that could accommodate almost a battalion of infantry.  During
+these visits the trouting streams of the neighbourhood were so severely
+whipped that the fish knew the difference between a real and an
+artificial fly as well as their tormentors, but they were captured for
+all that.
+
+Baldwin Burr and Jacob Buckley were also among the occasional visitors
+at the Hall; but their visits were few and far between, because of their
+having taken up their permanent abode in California.  Only when they
+came home on business, once in the two years, had they an opportunity of
+seeing their old comrade, but they never failed to take advantage of
+such opportunities.  These men were not prone to speak about themselves,
+but from various remarks they made, and from their general appearance,
+it was easy to see that they were substantial and influential members of
+society in foreign parts.
+
+From Baldwin the captain heard that Bob Corkey had, during his
+wanderings, fallen in with Bounce and Badger, and that these three had
+formed a partnership, in which they tried their luck at gold-digging,
+farming, fur-trading, and many other sources of livelihood, but, up to
+the last news of them, without success.  There was hope of them yet,
+however, so thought Baldwin Burr, because of the latest remarks made by
+them in the hearing of credible witnesses.  Bob Corkey, having attained
+to the lowest depths of destitution and despair, had, it was said, made
+to his comrades the following observation: "Mates, it strikes me that we
+are three great fools;" whereupon Bounce had replied, "We're more than
+that Bob, we're three great sinners;" to which Badger had added, with
+considerable emphasis, "That's a fact," and when men come to this, there
+is hope for them.
+
+The only personage of our tale who now remains to be mentioned is Mrs
+Niven.
+
+That steady-going female continued her vocation of ministering to the
+wants of young students, some of whom treated her well, while others--to
+their shame, be it said--took advantage of her amiability.  In regard to
+this latter fact, however, it may be recorded that Peggy proved a
+sharp-witted, tight-handed, and zealous defender of her mistress.  Among
+Mrs Niven's other boarders there was one who was neither young nor a
+student.  He came to reside with her in the following manner:--
+
+One evening Peggy was heard in altercation with a man in the passage who
+seemed bent on forcing his way into the house.  The students who chanced
+to be in their rooms at the time cocked their ears, like war-steeds
+snuffing the battle from afar, and hoped for a row.  Mrs Niven, after
+opening the parlour door softly, and listening, called out, "Let the
+gentleman come up, Peggy."
+
+"Gentleman indeed!" cried the irate Peggy, who had the intruder by the
+throat, "he's only a dirty auld blagyird."
+
+"Niver ye mind, Peggy," returned Mrs Niven peremptorily; "I ken him.
+Let him up."
+
+Immediately after, there walked into the parlour a bowed, mean-looking,
+dirty little old man, who, as he sat down on a chair, paid some doubtful
+compliments to Peggy.
+
+"Oh, Maister Black, is it you!" said Mrs Niven, sitting down beside
+him.
+
+Besides being all that we have said, Mr Black was ragged, dishevelled,
+haggard, and in every way disreputable.
+
+"Yes, it's me, Mrs Niven," he replied harshly, "and you see I'm in a
+sorry plight."
+
+"I see, I see," said the good woman, taking his hand and shedding tears.
+"I kent ye had lost a' by that fearfu' bank failure, but I didna ken ye
+had come doon sae low.  And oh! to think that it was a' through me, an
+your kindness in offerin' to tak the shares aff my hands.  Oh!  Maister
+Black, my heart is wae when I look at ye.  Is there onything I can dae
+for ye?"
+
+Now, it was quite a new light to Mr Black that his relative had not
+found him out.  He had called in a fit of desperation, for the purpose
+of extorting money from her by any means.  He now changed his tactics,
+and resolved to board and lodge with her gratuitously.  The proposition
+rather startled the poor woman, for she found it difficult to make the
+two ends meet, even when her house was full of lodgers.  She had not the
+heart to refuse him, however, and thus Mr Black was fairly installed in
+the old room whose window opened on the cats' parade.
+
+In her difficulty Mrs Niven went, as she was in the habit of doing, to
+Philosopher Jack, to whom she represented Mr Black as such a suffering
+and self-sacrificing man, that his heart was quite melted.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do, Mrs Niven," he said.  "There is a sum of
+money in my father's possession, the interest of which enabled me to pay
+my way when I came back from the gold-fields.  My father won't use that
+money himself and I won't accept it from him.  We have therefore
+resolved to devote it to charitable purposes.  Now, we will give Mr
+Black a small annuity out of it, for your sake, Mrs Niven."
+
+Philosopher Jack was not, however, so easily deceived as Mrs Niven.  He
+afterwards "found out" Mr Black, and told him so in very stern
+language.  Nevertheless, he did not stop his allowance.  Neither did he
+enlighten Mrs Niven as to the man's true character, though he kept a
+sharp eye on him.
+
+Thus did Mr Black become a pensioner and a free boarder.  There is no
+sinner on this side [of] the grave who is beyond redemption.  That which
+prosperity and adversity had equally failed to accomplish, was finally
+brought about by unmerited kindness,--Mr Black's spirit was quietly and
+gradually, but surely, broken.  The generous forbearance of Edwin Jack,
+and the loving Christian sympathy of his intended victim, proved too
+much for him.  He confessed his sin to Jack, and offered to resign his
+pension; but Jack would not hear of it, as the pensioner was by that
+time too old and feeble to work.  He also confessed to Mrs Niven, but
+that unsuspecting woman refused to believe that he ever did or could
+harbour so vile a design towards her, and she continued in that mind to
+her dying day.
+
+Peggy, however, was made of sterner stuff.  She not only believed his
+confession, but she refused to believe in his repentance, and continued
+to treat him with marked disrespect until her mistress died.  After that
+however, she relented, and retired with him to a poorer residence, in
+the capacity of his servant.  Peggy was eccentric in her behaviour.
+While she nursed him with the assiduous care and kindness of a rough but
+honest nature, she continued to call him a "dirty auld blagyird" to the
+last.  The expression of this sentiment did not, however, prevent her
+from holding more polite intercourse.  When his eyes grew dim, she read
+to him not only from the Bible, but from the Pilgrim's Progress and
+Robinson Crusoe, which were their favourites among the books of the
+little library furnished to them by Christian friends.  And many sage
+and original remarks did Peggy make on those celebrated books.  The
+topics of conversation which she broached with Mr Black from time to
+time were numerous, as a matter of course, for Peggy was loquacious; but
+that to which she most frequently recurred was the wonderful career of
+Philosopher Jack, for Peggy liked to sing his praises, and never tired
+of treating the old man to long-winded accounts of that hero's ever
+memorable voyage to the Southern Seas.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Philosopher Jack, by R.M. Ballantyne
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