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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 73200 ***

+

+Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.

+

+[Illustration: "You seem to be weary, my friend," said Mr. Curtis,

+ the vicar of Colme, stopping courteously to speak to a sailor,

+ who was seated on the stump of a tree at the side of the pathway.]

+

+

+

+                            THE SAILOR'S HOME;

+

+                                    OR,

+

+                           The Girdle of Truth.

+

+

+                                    BY

+

+                                A. L. O. E.

+

+         AUTHORESS OF "THE CLAREMONT TALES," "THE YOUNG PILGRIM,"

+             "THE COTTAGE BY THE STREAM," "HARRY DANGERFIELD,"

+                         "GLIMPSES OF THE UNSEEN," ETC., ETC.

+

+

+

+                              GALL & INGLIS.

+                   London:                      Edinburgh:

+             30 PATERNOSTER ROW.             6 GEORGE STREET.

+

+

+

+                              CONTENTS.

+

+CHAPTER

+

+   I. COMING HOME

+

+  II. SPEAKING OUT

+

+ III. THINKING IT OVER

+

+  IV. PUT TO THE QUESTION

+

+   V. THE LAME SQUIRREL

+

+  VI. A STORM

+

+ VII. THE FOOTPRINT

+

+VIII. THE SCHOOL-ROOM ADDRESS

+

+  IX. CLEARING UP

+

+

+

+                          The Sailor's Home;

+

+                                  OR,

+

+                         THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH.

+

+CHAPTER I.

+

+COMING HOME.

+

+"You seem to be weary, my friend," said Mr. Curtis, the vicar of Colme,

+stopping courteously to speak to a sailor, who was seated on the stump

+of a tree at the side of the pathway. It was a glowing day in August;

+the air was hot and sultry, and dust lay thick on the road.

+

+Ned Franks, the sailor, rose on being addressed, and touched his glazed

+hat, on which appeared the badge of the anchor, surmounted by a crown,

+which showed that he had belonged to the Royal Navy. He was a fine

+stalwart-looking young man, scarcely thirty years of age, with sunburnt

+cheek, and thick curling hair; and as Mr. Curtis met the glance of his

+clear blue eye, the clergyman thought that he had never looked upon a

+face more manly or pleasant.

+

+"I've walked twenty miles, sir, since sunrise," said Franks, glancing

+at the bundle which he had been carrying on a stick across his

+shoulder, and which was now resting against the stump from which he had

+risen. "But I'm nigh port now, I take it, if yonder's the village of

+Colme."

+

+"Are you going to visit it?" asked the vicar.

+

+"I'm going to drop anchor there for good, sir," answered the tar. "I've

+a sister—a step-sister I should say, living yonder; she and I are all

+that are left of the family now, and I'll make my home with her, please

+God."

+

+"Surely you are too young to give up the navy, my friend. Idleness

+would be no blessing to a fine strong lad such as you seem to be; you

+may have many years before you yet of good service to the Queen."

+

+"I shall never serve the Queen again, bless her!" replied the young

+sailor, with a touch of sadness.

+

+And Mr. Curtis then, for the first time, remarked that the left sleeve

+of Ned's blue jacket hung empty.

+

+"But I don't look to be idle, sir," continued Franks, in a tone more

+cheerful, "Bessy will have my bit of a pension for the mess and the

+berth, and I'll see if I can't make myself useful in some way or

+other—go errands, or maybe try the teaching tack; anything would be

+better than lying like a log on the shore."

+

+"Teaching?" repeated the clergyman. "What are you able to teach?"

+

+"Not many things," replied the sailor, with a smile, "reading, 'riting,

+'rithmetic, and not much of them neither; but I like a book when I can

+overhaul one, and I usually make good way with the younkers."

+

+"I well believe that," said Mr. Curtis; "I doubt not that you've many

+a good sea story to tell, and stirring adventure to relate. I see,"

+he continued, "from the badge on your hat that you've served in the

+'Queen;' I daresay that you lost your arm by a Russian ball from a

+Sebastopol battery," and the vicar looked with interest at the young

+seaman, picturing him at the post of duty amidst the smoke and din of a

+fight.

+

+"No, sir," replied Ned, frankly; "I smashed my arm on shore, stumbling

+down an open cellar on a starless night."

+

+Mr. Curtis slightly raised his eyebrows, and there was a little less

+interest in his manner as he inquired, "And who is the sister with whom

+you are to live?"

+

+"Bessy Peele, sir; she's a widow in these parts."

+

+"I know her," said Mr. Curtis, rather drily; "she lives in the thatched

+cottage yonder, whose chimney you can just see over these trees. I hope

+that she may make you comfortable," he added.

+

+"It's not much, sir, that I want," said the sailor: "a dry berth,

+a wholesome mess, and a welcome, he who gets that may be thankful,

+whether on sea or on shore."

+

+"I shall call and see you," said the clergyman, kindly, "and have a

+little talk with you on other matters than those which concern but this

+passing life."

+

+"I shall be heartily glad, sir," replied Ned, again touching his glazed

+hat; "it's well to have some one to teach us how to steer 'twixt the

+rocks and the shoals."

+

+"I hope that we have both the same port in view," said the clergyman.

+

+"I hope so," answered Ned Franks, cheerfully; and as the vicar bade him

+good day, he turned in the direction of his new home.

+

+Mrs. Peele's cottage stood a little retired from the dusty high road,

+being divided from it by a bit of waste ground, on which some pigs were

+feeding. The ground was overgrown with nettles and straggling briars:

+the dwelling was of mud, with a roof of thatch, green with lichen and

+moss, under which, as under heavy overhanging brows, peeped two dots of

+windows like eyes. The door stood open, and within Ned caught sight of

+his sister engaged in washing.

+

+Mrs. Peele was a tall bony woman, with a habitual stoop, clad in a

+rusty black dress, with a cap which was rustier still. Broad lines of

+grey streaked her hair, and Ned's first feeling was that of painful

+surprise at the change which years had made. He did not stop, however,

+to dwell on the past.

+

+"Holloa, Bessy! Don't you know me?" he exclaimed, as he quickened his

+pace, and the next minute Mrs. Peele had run out, with her bare arms

+covered with soap-suds, to welcome her younger brother.

+

+She was followed by a lad about ten or eleven years of age; a sharp,

+wiry boy, whose pointed upturned nose, quick little black eyes, and

+restless manner, somehow suggested to the sailor's mind the idea of a

+weasel. Ned shook him heartily by the hand on hearing that this was his

+nephew Dan; and, with a heart glowing with pleasure at being once more

+in a home, the seaman entered the cottage accompanied by the Peeles.

+

+"Now, Dan, you take your uncle, and show him his room, while I wring

+these out, and get a bit of something ready for dinner," said Bessy. "I

+hardly looked for you so early, Ned," she added, addressing herself to

+her brother.

+

+"I was up with the lark," answered the sailor.

+

+Dan, looking up with curiosity in his keen small eyes towards the

+stranger, whom he scarcely yet ventured to call "uncle," led the way to

+the back of the cottage, where was a kind of garden—if a place could

+deserve that name where nothing but sickly cabbages seemed to grow,

+with a full crop of chickweed and groundsel between. A small wood-house

+adjoined the cottage, and over this was a little loft, to be reached by

+a rough sort of ladder.

+

+"We're to go up the hatchway, are we?" said Ned, mounting the ladder

+with a lightness and rapidity which surprised his nephew. He had to

+stoop his curly head low as he passed through the entrance, the door of

+which appeared never to have been intended to fit, since even when shut

+it admitted as much light as the small one-paned window of greenish

+glass, with a thick knob in the middle. The loft was very small, with

+walls unpapered, and rafters uncovered; a dirty mattress lay on the

+dirtier floor, and a musty scent pervaded the place.

+

+"I can't say much for the berth," thought Ned; "it's not big enough

+to swing a cat in, and doesn't look as if the planks had ever been

+holystoned. I must set things a little ship-shape. Bessy, poor soul,

+has enough to keep her busy with her washing; I must try if I can't

+make my one hand do the business of two."

+

+The man-of-war's seaman, accustomed to spotless cleanliness and

+neatness, looked around on the miserable den with a mixture of disgust

+and good humour.

+

+"I'll rub up the bull's eye," he said, "and get that door to fasten

+with something better than a piece of old rope; and I'll try to knock

+up a bit of a shelf in that corner, for I've a few books in that bundle

+of mine. We'll soon have all right and trim as a captain's cabin!"

+

+Ned Franks was to find that other things in his new home required

+setting to rights as well as his loft, and that there are spots and

+stains harder to rub out than those on his walls and floor.

+

+"Why don't you keep that garden in trimmer order?" asked the sailor,

+as he descended the ladder, followed by Dan. "You might grow enough of

+potatoes and cabbages in yon slip to supply your mother half the year."

+

+"I've not a minute's time," answered Dan; "I look after Sir Lacy

+Barton's cows."

+

+"Lacy Barton!" repeated Ned. "Why that's the name of one of our

+middies."

+

+"Sir Lacy has a son in the 'Queen' as I've heard."

+

+"What are you saying about Sir Lacy?" asked Bessy Peele, catching the

+sound of the name, as her brother and Dan re-entered the kitchen.

+

+"That he has a son aboard my old vessel the 'Queen.'"

+

+"That's a piece of luck for us!" cried Bessy, pausing in her occupation

+of cutting rashers from a fine large piece of bacon. "He's our

+landlord, is Sir Lacy Barton, and he's thinking of pulling down our

+cottage to build the new school in its place, and I'm mighty anxious to

+be in his favour. 'Tis a lucky chance that you've come, and can tell

+him all about his son."

+

+"That depends on what I've to tell," answered Ned, with a smile; "in

+some cases, it's 'least said soonest mended.' I hope that none of the

+family will come to question me about young Mr. Barton—" and the frank

+face of the sailor expressed more than his words, as he remembered the

+doings of the most worthless youth on board of the man-of-war.

+

+"Well, if you was asked, you'd say something pleasant I hope," observed

+Bessy.

+

+"I could not say what was false," answered Ned.

+

+The words were simple enough, but the decided tone in which they were

+uttered, made Bessy exchange glances with her son. The boy shrugged his

+shoulders slightly, and something like a smile rose to the corners of

+his lips. The very straightforwardness of the sailor made him appear

+strange to those who had long mistaken cunning for wisdom, and low

+deceit for sharpness.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER II.

+

+SPEAKING OUT.

+

+The table was spread with food, homely but abundant, steaming bacon and

+greens.

+

+"A twenty miles' walk must have made you ready for your dinner, Ned,"

+said Bessy, as she seated herself at the table, and a well-filled plate

+was soon before each of the party.

+

+"Why, uncle, what are you waiting for?" asked Dan, surprised that the

+hungry sailor did not at once begin his meal.

+

+"Bessy," said Ned, quietly, "do you say grace, or shall I?"

+

+Again mother and son exchanged glances. As no answer was given, Ned,

+in few words, thanked God for His mercies through Christ. This was no

+mere form with the weather-beaten sailor, who found himself in haven at

+last, after the tempest and the fight, the hardships and perils of a

+sea life, and was thankful to God for mercies greater than preservation

+through all these.

+

+"I'm afraid," said Ned, looking with a good-humoured smile at his

+plate, "that a maimed Jack-tar such as I am, must signal for assistance

+even at the mess."

+

+Bessy had for the moment forgotten her brother's condition; she had not

+realised the constant inconvenience which must follow the loss of an

+arm. Ned's misfortune did not, however, appear in the least to weigh

+down his spirits, and he chatted merrily through dinner-time, talking

+over old days, and then making inquiries as to what hope there might be

+of his getting such employment as might suit a one-armed man.

+

+"I've heard as how Mr. Curtis, our vicar, is looking out for some one

+to help with his school," said Dan.

+

+"I think that it must have been your parson who hailed me on my course

+here," observed Ned.

+

+"He's rather an oldish man, bald, with a little limp in his walk," said

+Dan.

+

+"That's he!" cried the sailor. "He talked to me friendly enough, and

+asked me how I had lost my arm."

+

+"And what said you?" inquired Bessy.

+

+"The truth, of course, that I was lubber enough to stumble down into a

+cellar at night."

+

+"Oh! Ned, he would think that you were drunk," exclaimed Bessy.

+

+"I'm afraid that he did," said Ned. "I could see in his face that I'd

+let myself down a peg in his good opinion."

+

+"Oh! Uncle, what a chance you lost!" cried Dan, his black eyes

+twinkling slily under his shock of rough hair. "If I'd been you, I'd

+have told such a tale, how I lost that arm boarding a thundering big

+ship, or saving an officer's life, or doing some desperate deed!

+You'd have been a reg'lar hero in Colme; they'd have been getting up

+a subscription for you, and Mr. Curtis would have clapped you into

+the place of teacher at once! 'Twould have been the making of you, it

+would!"

+

+"Dan," said Ned, laying down his fork, and looking steadily at his

+nephew across the table, "do you know what a lie is?"

+

+The boy was taken aback by the sudden question, and his eyes sunk under

+the gaze that was fixed upon him.

+

+Receiving no answer, the sailor went on—"A lie is a mean thing—a

+senseless, a wicked: a habitual liar is a sneak, a coward, and a fool!"

+

+"A fool! I don't see how you can make that out," muttered Dan, who was

+secretly not a little proud of his cunning, and who thought the name of

+fool a great deal worse than that of knave.

+

+"It's easy enough to make out," said Ned; "a liar is a fool as regards

+this life; for, look ye, he's sure to be found out afore long, and

+a good character is worth more than anything that he could get in

+exchange for it. Is it nothing to be trusted, is it nothing to be able

+to look any man in the face?"

+

+Dan was at the moment uneasily peering down at the crumbs on the floor.

+

+"Would a man not be called a fool who should put to sea in a vessel

+whose timbers were all rotten, however gaily painted she might be, or

+however fine a figure-head she might carry? She must be stove in when

+the first storm came, she must soon show that she was not seaworthy."

+

+Ned had spoken with the fiery energy of one who, as he often owned,

+carried "too much gunpowder in his cargo;" but his tone softened to

+quiet earnestness as he went on.

+

+"And if we come to speak of another world, my lad, what shall we say

+of the folly of lying, whatever the temptation to do so may be? Was it

+without reason, think you, that St. Paul, when telling how a Christian

+man should be armed to fight against the devil, bade him first be

+'girt about with truth.' * Why, we couldn't so much as set a foot in

+the golden city without it; you've heard what's said in God's Word of

+that matter; outside, shut out of glory, in company with murderers and

+idolaters will be 'whosoever loveth and maketh a lie'! † The devil

+himself is the father of lies, ‡ such as make them, follow him; and

+they who choose their portion with him are fools, whatever the world

+may give, or whatever the world may call them!"

+

+   * Eph. vi. 14.     † Rev. xxii. 15.     ‡ John viii. 44.

+

+There was silence in the cottage for several minutes after Ned had

+ceased speaking.

+

+Dan attempted no reply, but finished his dinner in somewhat sulky

+reserve; then appearing suddenly to remember that he had to look

+after the cows, the boy rose and slunk out of the place. Dan did not,

+however, go in the direction of the fields, but into the village to

+play at pitch-and-toss with Tom and Jack Mullins, and to tell them

+wonderful stories of his sailor uncle, who was, he said, a first-rate

+fellow for fighting, and polished off Russians as fast as they might

+knock down ninepins, but who had a ticklish temper to deal with,

+flaring up like fire at a word.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER III.

+

+THINKING IT OVER.

+

+"You took Dan up sharp, brother," said Bessy, as her son quitted the

+cottage.

+

+"Maybe I did," answered Ned, frankly. "I'm trying to keep down that

+hot temper of mine, but there's nothing stirs it up like anything of

+deceit, and it gets in a blaze afore I'm aware. There was something

+in the lad's looks more than his words, that made me fancy him one of

+those who don't see clearly the difference atween truth and falsehood,

+and who get amongst the shoals almost without knowing it. I wanted to

+show him the beacon lights set in the Bible to warn us off them, that's

+all."

+

+"Ah! Dan's quick enough at lying," said Bessy, with a sigh. "I can't

+believe a word that he says. Many and many's the time I tells him,

+'Dan, with all those fine stories of yours, you'll get into trouble at

+last.'"

+

+"And don't you tell him," said Ned, "that God hears, and marks down,

+and that 'every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account

+thereof in the Day of Judgment'?" *

+

+   * Matt. xii. 36.

+

+"Oh! I'm not one of your saints that likes religion brought in at every

+turn," said Bessy, peevishly. "'Tis all well enough to go decently to

+church on Sundays: and dear me!" she exclaimed, suddenly interrupting

+herself, and starting up from her seat. "If that is not Mrs. Curtis

+coming over the green! That woman is always taking one unawares."

+

+And, with a quickness which astonished the sailor, Bessy whisked off

+the dish from the table, flung an old shawl over the large piece of

+bacon from which the rashers had been cut, and stowed away a heap of

+damp linen which she had been washing into a cupboard.

+

+"She's in a mighty hurry to tidy the room for the lady," thought Ned,

+"but it doesn't look a bit neater than before."

+

+Just as Bessy had finished her hasty preparations, Mrs. Curtis, a

+small, delicate lady, very simply but neatly dressed, tapped at the

+door of the cottage, and entered. Bessy was all smiles and curtsies;

+she dusted a chair and placed it for her guest, hoped that she had

+not been troubled by the heat of the day, and asked after "the young

+masters and misses," like one who took an affectionate interest in the

+well-being of the family.

+

+"I am glad to see your brother here," said Mrs. Curtis, courteously

+bending her head as the sailor respectfully rose at her entrance.

+

+"Ah! Yes, poor fellow!" exclaimed Bessy. "He's my only brother living,

+and as long as I have a crust, he shall be welcome to share it. We must

+all care for one another, ma'am, as our good minister told us last

+Sunday in his beautiful sermon."

+

+"It would be but fair," thought Ned, "if Bessy gave the lady a notion

+that I pay for this half-crust with the whole of my pension."

+

+"It's but a poor home that my brother has come to," continued Bessy,

+whose voice, in addressing the clergyman's wife, had a plaintive

+drawling tone, quite unlike that in which she usually spoke. "I have

+been wanting much, ma'am, to speak a word or two to you or to Mr.

+Curtis."

+

+"My husband told me that he intended to call here soon," said the lady.

+

+"Ah! How glad I am even to see his blessed face. Ah! What I owe him,"

+cried Bessy, heaving a long sigh, as if to express by it gratitude

+too deep for words. "But what I was a-going to say, ma'am, was, that

+I hopes as how Mr. Curtis will be good enough to put me again on the

+widows' list for the loaves. I've really such a hard pull to live,

+I don't know how we can get on without it;" and there was another

+long-drawn sigh.

+

+"Ha!" thought the indignant sailor. "The gratitude was for favours to

+come."

+

+"I don't see how my husband can put you on the needy widows' list,"

+said the clergyman's quiet little wife; "your daughter is in service,

+your son gets work, you take in washing—"

+

+"Please, ma'am, begging pardon for interrupting you," said Bessy, again

+dropping a curtsey, "the trifle Dan earns would not keep him in bread

+(and it's little but bread as ever we tastes), and I've not had all

+this blessed week more than tenpence worth of washing, and—" here Bessy

+Poole's eyes chanced to meet those of her brother, flashing on her a

+glance of such fiery indignation, that, quite confused, she stopped

+short, stammered, and could not finish what she was saying.

+

+Mrs. Curtis naturally turned to see the cause of the cottager's evident

+embarrassment, and was much struck by the stern countenance of the

+young man, who stood tightly pressing his lips together, as if to keep

+in some indignant burst. Finding that he had attracted notice, Ned, who

+had no wish to expose his sister, and who had difficulty in commanding

+himself, thought it safest to quit the cottage without uttering a word.

+

+"Is anything the matter with your brother?" asked the lady, after Ned's

+abrupt departure.

+

+"He has an odd temper, ma'am, very odd; I know that we shall have

+a good deal to put up with, but, as our good minister told us last

+Sunday—" and the woman went on with a string of what were meant as

+pious phrases, but which, being only lip-deep, made far less impression

+on her visitor than the speaker wished and intended.

+

+"She talk to her son about truth," exclaimed the indignant Ned Franks,

+as he strode into the back-garden, forgetful, in the storm of his

+spirit, of the twenty miles which he had walked in the morning. "An

+acted lie is as bad as a spoken one, and her way of going on was all

+one wretched piece of acting from beginning to end. If there's one

+thing I scorn, despise, and detest more than another, it's hypocrisy

+like that."

+

+Ned struck the nailed heel of his boot violently against one of the

+weeds, and uprooted it from the ground; perhaps he connected the

+worthless plant in his mind with the more hateful weed of deceit, or he

+wanted something on which to vent the angry feelings within him.

+

+"All weeds!" he muttered to himself, "I've a great mind to hoist sail

+at once and sheer off, and find some other home where all will be open

+and above board, at least where there will be no hoisting of false

+colours, or hanging out of false lights, saying one thing and thinking

+another."

+

+Ned took one or two rapid turns up and down the garden; then gradually

+slackened his pace as his anger began to cool down.

+

+"Who am I that I should judge another?" thought the frank-hearted

+seaman. "Are we not all of an evil nature, our souls as full of

+wickedness as this wretched garden of weeds? There's nothing good grows

+of itself, it's all God's grace as plants it. Am I—wilful wayward

+sinner as I have been—am I to throw my own sister overboard, because

+she has not yet been led to see things as I see them, and to know that

+the straight course is the shortest course, and the only course that

+can land us in a safe haven at last? Maybe, with prayer and pains,

+we'll get the better both of her weeds and mine; I master my impatience

+and bad temper, she, and that lad of hers, learn that 'a lying tongue

+is an abomination unto the Lord', * and that all who serve a God of

+Truth must speak the truth from the heart."

+

+   * Proverbs vi. 17.

+

+Ned took another turn up and down, stooping down now and then to pull

+up and throw away some straggling weed, till he found his spirit calm

+enough for prayer. The sailor looked up at the sky, so blue, and clear,

+and transparent above him, and his heart rose, in what was earnest

+supplication, though he could not have put it into a regular form of

+prayer. He wished that his deeds, and his sayings, and those of his

+family, might be pure, and clear, and open as heaven's sunlight; that

+they might be in the sight of God what they wanted to appear in the

+sight of men, and be honest and true in all things, like faithful

+servants of the Lord.

+

+Ned's meditations were broken in upon by Bessy Peele, who came running

+up towards him, with a bustling, excited air.

+

+"What's in the wind?" cried Ned.

+

+"You must come in directly," answered Bessy. "Who do you think is in my

+kitchen—I knew she'd be here—but I'm sure—for Lady Barton herself to

+walk all the way from the Hall!"

+

+"What has she come for?" asked Ned, knitting his brow from an uneasy

+apprehension of what was likely to follow.

+

+"To hear about her son, to be sure! Lady Barton thinks no end of her

+son—a pretty scapegrace though he be! When he left her, she lay crying

+in her bed for a week—there was never a mother so fond—or so blind!"

+

+"But what can I say?" exclaimed Ned. "I can tell nothing good of the

+lad!"

+

+"You must invent something good then!" cried Bessy, in an irritated

+tone. "I can't have you, with your stupid bluntness, setting my

+landlord's wife against me, and getting my home pulled down over my

+head at Michaelmas, and my boy turned off, and my washing taken away!"

+

+"I'd better not see Lady Barton," said Ned.

+

+"Shall I hurry back and say I couldn't find you? You could get over yon

+hedge and be off, without coming in front of the cottage."

+

+"No—no sneaking," said the sailor, quickly. "I'll face out the matter

+at once!"

+

+"And you'll say the best you can!" cried Bessy, changing her tone and

+tactics with a perception that her best chance with Ned lay in working

+upon his affection. "You wouldn't injure your poor widowed sister, as

+looks to you for comfort and kindness?"

+

+"I'll do no harm—if I can help it!" muttered the tar, feeling far more

+uneasy as he followed his sister than he would have done had he been

+led up to an enemy's battery.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER IV.

+

+PUT TO THE QUESTION.

+

+LADY BARTON sat in the old wooden arm-chair, which formed the chief

+article of furniture in Mrs. Peele's kitchen, the flounces of her rich

+blue silk dress filling up the space between the red brick fireplace

+and the deal table, which was still scattered over with the crumbs of

+the recent repast. Lady Barton was a stately and elegant woman, with

+an air of fashion and dignity, which contrasted with the simple attire

+and manner of Mrs. Curtis, with whom she was conversing before Ned and

+Bessy re-entered the cottage.

+

+As they came in, Lady Barton was just returning into her pocket a

+purse, from which she had taken a half sovereign, with what intent both

+the sailor and Bessy could not but guess as they caught sight of the

+glittering beads of the purse as it was replaced within the silk dress.

+

+"Ah!" exclaimed Lady Barton, with a queenly graciousness of manner to

+the sailor, "I am glad to have an opportunity of speaking with one of

+the gallant men who have served in the same ship with my son. You can

+give me late accounts of Mr. Lacy Barton."

+

+With a bright smile on her lips, the lady awaited Ned's reply.

+

+"I was aboard the same vessel as Mr. Barton for more than a year," said

+the tar, with the respectful manner with which he would have spoken to

+any lady.

+

+"You must have seen much of him then?"

+

+Ned only bowed, thinking to himself "a good deal too much."

+

+As he did not seem inclined to be communicative, the partial mother

+tried to draw him out by an observation! "My son usually makes himself

+a great favourite wherever he goes."

+

+Bessy nudged her brother's arm, but Ned did not speak at the hint.

+

+Lady Barton's gloved hand closed more tightly over the little piece

+of gold which it hid; rather less graciously she inquired whether Mr.

+Barton had been quite well when the sailor had seen him last.

+

+Ned paused for a moment before he replied. "There was nothing much the

+matter with his health."

+

+The tender mother took alarm from his hesitation as well as his words.

+

+"Not much the matter?" she anxiously repeated. "Was Mr. Barton not

+well, was he obliged to keep his cabin?"

+

+"Only for a few days, lady," said Ned, sincerely desirous to relieve

+her.

+

+"What ailed him?" asked Lady Barton. "Was he laid up with fever?" Her

+voice betrayed her emotion.

+

+"No, not fever," answered the sailor, wishing himself up to his neck in

+water rather than standing there to answer the lady's questions.

+

+"It was not his chest—not his lungs?" said the anxious mother, dropping

+her voice. "He was so subject to coughs as a boy!"

+

+"His lungs are as sound as can be, I'll answer for that!" replied Ned,

+with a clear recollection of the strength of a voice which, raised in

+an oath or a curse, might be heard above the roar of a storm.

+

+"Then what was the matter with him?" repeated Lady Barton, in the tone

+of one who must, and will, have a reply.

+

+Ned's honest face was suffused with a flush, as if he himself had been

+the culprit as he answered—"He'd had a bit of a spree on shore, and

+been knocked about a little; these things will sometimes happen, but a

+few bruises don't do much harm."

+

+Lady Barton asked no more questions; she knew enough of her son's

+former habits to enable her to guess but too well what the sailor had

+left unsaid. Sorrow taking the form of mortified pride, the lady drew

+herself up, and the delicate kid-gloved hand slid something back into

+her pocket, a movement which did not escape the covetous eyes of Bessy.

+

+Without condescending to say another word to Ned Franks, Lady Barton

+rose from her seat, and, turning to address Mrs. Curtis, plunged at

+once into a different subject of conversation. She asked the vicar's

+wife about her scholars, said that Sir Lacy had resolved on beginning

+to build the new school at Michaelmas, and observed that somewhere

+about this spot would be the best possible place for the site.

+

+Bessy clenched her teeth, and scowled at her brother, but the

+expression of anger on her face was instantly changed to one of

+obsequious mildness, as she caught the eye of the stately Lady Barton.

+If Bessy had been gratified by the visit of the vicar's wife, she was

+overwhelmed by the honour of one from a titled lady, and with a double

+number of curtsies and thanks, she shewed her two guests to the door,

+sending blessings after them as long as they remained within hearing.

+

+And then!—

+

+"You heartless good-for-nothing, unfeeling, ill-mannered dolt!" she

+exclaimed, turning towards her brother with a gesture of her clenched

+fist, as though she could have found it in her heart to have struck

+him, had she dared. "What ill luck brought you here to bring trouble,

+and ill-will, and ruin, on a poor lone widow as never did you any harm!"

+

+"I'm as vexed as you can be, Bessy," said the sailor, passing his hand

+through his thick curly hair.

+

+"You'd better have bit off that foolish tongue of yours, than have let

+it provoke such a lady!"

+

+"It was grieving the mother, that I felt," said Ned Franks, "it was

+seeing her so anxious and troubled. 'Twas a stiff gale to weather, and

+I was never in my life more nigh dragging my anchor. But I'm glad," he

+added to himself, "I'm glad that I held fast by the truth."

+

+Ned was to have little peace during the remainder of that day. He had

+to endure the "continual dropping" that made him bitterly remember

+Solomon's proverb—"It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop,

+than with a brawling woman in a wide house." *

+

+   * Proverbs xxi. 9.

+

+On Dan's return home in the evening, the storm which Ned had lulled a

+little, broke forth anew with fresh fury.

+

+"What do you think, Dan, that this hero uncle of yours has been

+a-doing!" exclaimed Bessy to her son, banging down the kettle on the

+bar of the grate, as if it too had grievously wronged her. "Lady Barton

+herself, in her grand sweeping gown, came down from the Hall; I'd never

+but once afore seen her enter my cottage, and that was when your poor

+father lay a-dying!"

+

+"What could she come for?" asked Dan, curiosity gleaming in his keen

+little eyes.

+

+"What for but to hear about her son, to be sure, and to talk to this

+bear's cub about him, and to tip him with what would have bought me

+a Sunday gown, I'll be bound, for I saw the lady thrusting back her

+purse into her pocket. And there was he—" Bessy pointed at Ned with her

+thumb—"first standing dumb as a stock-fish, looking as if he couldn't

+utter a word, and then bounce out with such a fine tale, how Mr. Lacy

+had got himself smashed in a drunken row, how he had to lie in his bed

+for days all covered with bruises, how he was the most swaggering,

+quarrelsome—"

+

+Ned felt the hot blood mounting to his face, and the fiery passion

+to his heart: there was nothing for it but to beat a retreat, before

+he should utter as an angry man what as a Christian he might have

+regretted. Weary as the sailor was, there was something which he felt

+to be worse than fatigue, and he walked out into the cool fresh evening

+air, once more to quiet his fevered spirit under the light of the pale

+young moon.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER V.

+

+THE LAME SQUIRREL.

+

+REFRESHED by a good night's rest, notwithstanding the discomforts

+of his new abode, Ned Franks rose on the following morning with a

+cheerful, thankful heart. He awoke with the verse on his lips—

+

+   "I bless the Lord who safe hath kept,

+    Who did protect me while I slept.

+    Lord! Grant when I from death awake,

+    I may of endless life partake!"

+

+Up sprang Ned from his rough bed, ready to forget and to forgive the

+"breeze" of the preceding day, and to set about his work in the spirit

+of the command, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy

+might."

+

+After his morning prayer, and Bible reading, Ned begun in earnest to

+set things "ship-shape" in what he called his "little cabin." The loss

+of his left hand greatly increased the difficulty of labouring, but Ned

+Franks worked with a will, and therefore with good success. His only

+interruptions were from the little attentions required by a poor lame

+squirrel that the sailor had picked up on the previous evening, and

+which he nursed with the tenderness which seems peculiar to seamen.

+Ned carried it down with him when he went to breakfast in the kitchen,

+where he found his sister scarcely yet recovered from her fit of

+displeasure; but her sulkiness could not stand against the influence of

+his sunny good-humour.

+

+"Come, Bessy, lass," cried the sailor, "let bygones be bygones, we'll

+have smooth water to-day. After I've set my cabin to rights, I'll see

+what's to be done in your garden; if we could only get the ground clear

+of weeds, it's a fine crop we might look for next year."

+

+Bessy Peele grew so gracious that she not only filled her brother's

+wooden bowl almost to overflowing with hot bread and milk, but she

+examined his squirrel with interest, prescribed for its wounded leg,

+and filled an old basket with hay to make a bed for the sailor's new

+pet. The poor little creature seemed already to know its master—did not

+flinch from his hand, and let him warm it within his rough jacket.

+

+"One could never harm a creature that trusted one," said Ned. "I'll

+nurse the squirrel till its leg is all right, and then give it its

+freedom again. 'Twould be hard to keep it in limbo, when it might enjoy

+itself in the woods."

+

+Back went Ned Franks to his work; nor did he stop till he had wrought a

+wondrous change in the appearance of his dull little loft, by the help

+of a pail of whitewash which he had procured from the village.

+

+"It's beginning to look all taut and trim," said the light-hearted tar,

+stepping back with the big whitened brush in his hand, to survey and

+admire his work. "When I've earned a little more ready rhino, I'll have

+a bit of bunting of the Union-Jack pattern over my bed, and stick a few

+pictures round the wall, to make the cabin quite smart. And I'll have

+my books up there aloft."

+

+In default of a shelf, Ned had carefully ranged along the floor what

+he deemed his best earthly treasures, his Bible, and such works as the

+"Pilgrim's Progress" and "Saint's Rest," with a few other little books

+of a useful kind, from which the sailor had gleaned more knowledge than

+is usually possessed by one in his station of life.

+

+Ned had made such good use of his time, that before dinner he had an

+hour to spare for the garden.

+

+Bessy Peele, as she ironed out her linens, could hear Ned's manly voice

+behind the cottage singing blithely as a bird such sea-songs as "Poor

+Jack" and "The Arethusa." Ned Franks felt perfectly happy at his work;

+its very nature cheered him, for every weed that he pulled up, seemed

+to his mind like an emblem of some evil habit rooted out.

+

+"God is ready to give us His sunshine and his dew," thought the sailor,

+"but He will have us to labour all the while; and though ours be but

+one-handed work as it were, He'll never refuse his blessing if He knows

+that we're doing our best. I did ill yesterday to be so angry with

+Bessy and her boy, because of their sly sneaking ways, just as I looked

+with scorn on the dirty loft and the weedy garden. 'One fault-mender

+is worth fifty fault-finders;' says the proverb. Maybe the great Pilot

+has guided me hither that I may take Dan Peele in tow, and get him out

+of the shoals of deceit, and show him that it's better to sail with the

+wind of truth right in our canvass, than to lose way by tacking about,

+and split on the rocks at last."

+

+Dan, on coming home to the cottage for dinner, found the sailor sitting

+by the table, with the crippled squirrel on his knee.

+

+"Ah! I say, where did you get that?" asked the boy.

+

+"In the woods, yester evening," answered Ned.

+

+"In the woods—what woods?" inquired Bessy, turning round from the

+fire-place, where she was stirring something in the saucepan.

+

+"Those woods yonder, at t'other side of the road," said the sailor.

+

+"Why, that's Sir Lacy's park!" exclaimed Dan. "Didn't you see the board

+up about trespassers being prosecuted?"

+

+"I noticed no board," answered Franks; "it was getting dark, and I

+minded nothing but the squirrel. As I was cruising about on the road, I

+saw the little creature limping on the footway. Thinks I, 'the village

+boys will hunt it to death, or 'twill fall a prey to the weasels, so

+I'll catch it to save its life.' Easier said than done; lame as it was,

+the little squirrel nearly managed to get off, squeezing itself through

+a hole in the fence, and so getting into the wood, or park as you call

+it. But I was over, and after it in a minute."

+

+"I don't know how you, managed to get over, maimed as you are,"

+observed Bessy.

+

+Ned Franks burst into a merry laugh. "A Jack-tar who is used to go

+aloft when 'tis blowing great guns, is not likely to make much of a bit

+of oak-fence," said he. "It was easy enough to climb over, but it was

+not easy to catch the squirrel; he led me a good long dance before I

+could clap my hand upon him."

+

+"Then he did say right," exclaimed Dan thumping his fist on the table.

+

+"He! What do you mean?" cried the sailor, looking at the boy with

+surprise.

+

+"The gamekeeper did say right when he declared that he caught a glimpse

+of a sailor in the wood."

+

+"Likely enough," said Ned Franks, "I hope that no one thinks that I was

+poaching."

+

+"Something worse may be thought," cried Dan, winking mysteriously, like

+one in the possession of an important secret. "Maybe you don't know

+what all the village is talking of, that just after dark, half the

+panes in Lady Barton's hothouse were smashed, a lot of them coloured

+panes too, and that the constable's on the look out to catch whoever

+has done the mischief."

+

+"I've heard nothing about it," said Ned Franks, as he stroked quietly

+the reddish brown coat of his little squirrel.

+

+"But you're like to hear a great deal about it, a great deal more

+than you'd like to hear," cried Dan. "'Tis said all about that you've

+some bitter ill-will 'gainst the young master aboard the 'Queen,' and

+all his family too, and that you was angry at something that the lady

+said or did yesterday, and the gamekeeper saw you in the wood—and, of

+course, you was there for no good—and there's not a soul as doubts as

+you went there and smashed the glass out of spite."

+

+"Some one has got up a fine story about me," said Ned, who more than

+suspected that the whole was his nephew's invention.

+

+Bessy Peele looked alarmed. "I hope—I hope," she exclaimed, "that we're

+not agoing to get into another scrape with Lady Barton! Sir Lacy is a

+hard man, and never lets any one off; 'twould be a dreadful business,

+Ned, if you was to be sent to prison!"

+

+Franks flushed indignantly, as if the very thought were an insult; but

+he only said, "There's little danger of that, Bessy, I never hove in

+sight of the house."

+

+"How unlucky it was that you were in the park at all," began Dan, but

+his mother cut him short.

+

+"What's the use, you simpleton, of saying a word about the park? Who

+need know that your uncle was there at all?"

+

+"But the gamekeeper—"

+

+"What of him?" interrupted Mrs. Peele. "He only guessed that he saw

+something like a sailor in the dusk, and even had he seen Ned as

+plainly as I do now, he's only one, and there's us three, you, I, and

+your uncle, as can say—and hold by it too, that he never stirred from

+that there chimney-corner from sunset to midnight!"

+

+"Bessy!" exclaimed her brother, sternly.

+

+"You don't mean to say," cried Bessy, "that with your ridiculous

+notions about truth, you'll run into a trap with your eyes wide open,

+and get yourself disgraced, and locked up in jail! What's the use, I

+should like to know, of your telling the world that you were in the

+woods hunting a lame squirrel like a boy!"

+

+"I shall say nothing about the matter," answered Ned, "unless—"

+

+"Hist! Hist!" exclaimed Dan, starting up. "If there ben't Sir Lacy

+himself, and the vicar, the constable, gamekeeper, and all! And they're

+coming here!" he added, in alarm.

+

+"Oh, Ned, Ned!" exclaimed Bessy, "Whatever you do, don't own that you

+ever got in them woods."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VI.

+

+A STORM.

+

+NED rose from his seat on the entrance of the two gentlemen; the

+constable and gamekeeper remained at the door. Conscious of innocence,

+the sailor confronted the knight with a quiet composure which

+astonished his sister and Dan.

+

+Sir Lacy was a short, thickly-built man, with bushy white whiskers, and

+white hair, round a face whose usually pink hue was now flushed to a

+deeper tint. His round, grey, prominent eyes, with their expression of

+proud domineering insolence, disagreeably reminded Ned Franks of those

+of the knight's namesake and son.

+

+"Your name is Ned Franks," said Sir Lacy at once, without deigning to

+take any notice of Mrs. Peele and her low curtsies.

+

+"At your service, sir," answered Ned.

+

+"You were trespassing in my park last evening?"

+

+"No, indeed, he never left this cottage," began Bessy, but her brother

+silenced her by a glance.

+

+"I am sorry that I trespassed, sir," he said, respectfully, "I did not

+see the board, and I was after this little creature."

+

+He drew out the squirrel which, frightened by the entrance of

+strangers, had taken refuge within his blue jacket.

+

+"You were after something else," said Sir Lacy, roughly. "Do you

+mean to say that you did not wilfully smash some twenty panes in my

+conservatory last evening?"

+

+Ned looked steadily into the face of the rude questioner as he replied,

+"I was never in sight of your conservatory, sir; and as for smashing

+your windows, I know no more who did the mischief than Mr. Curtis

+himself." And as if to appeal to his sense of justice, Ned Franks

+turned towards the clergyman.

+

+"Perhaps you'll say that you know nothing about this," cried Sir Lacy,

+holding out a large leaden ball on which was roughly scratched the word

+"Sebastopol."

+

+Ned Franks looked surprised, and, for a moment perplexed, and passed

+his hand through his hair, as was his wont when in any difficulty.

+

+"Can you deny that it is yours?" asked the knight.

+

+"It is mine," said the sailor, frankly. "'Tis a ball which struck me

+when we lay off the Crimea; but which—being spent—did not wound me at

+all, and I kept it in remembrance of a preservation from death. I lost

+it yesterday, I cannot tell where."

+

+"I can tell where," exclaimed Sir Lacy, in a tone that rang through

+the cottage, and reached the group of village boys, whom curiosity

+had led to follow at a little distance the steps of the knight and

+the constable. "I can tell where you lost it! It was picked up in my

+conservatory this morning, having escaped notice last night when a

+dozen stones were found, which, like it, had been used in breaking my

+glass!"

+

+Ned Franks with an effort kept down his temper, and replied calmly but

+firmly, "How the ball came there I know not; it was certainly never

+thrown by my hand."

+

+"That's a falsehood!" cried the furious knight.

+

+Then, indeed, the gunpowder blazed up in the breast of the young

+sailor; he struck his hand on the table, and, with flashing eyes, he

+exclaimed, "I never told a falsehood in my life, and you are the first

+man who ever spoke such a word of Ned Franks."

+

+Mr. Curtis laid his hand on the arm of Sir Lacy, and whispered

+something to him in a low, earnest tone, while Bessy stood wringing her

+hands, and Ned remained with his form drawn up to more than its usual

+height, looking as a man might look who was facing desperate odds, but

+with unflinching resolution.

+

+"Don't tell me!" exclaimed Sir Lacy, shaking off the hand of the

+clergyman. "He shall go to the lock-up at once, and answer for himself

+before the magistrate to-morrow. The fellow shall pay for my broken

+glass with a couple of months in jail! Here, Masson!"

+

+And at the call, the constable entered, and Ned Franks was given to him

+in charge.

+

+Surprise, indignation, anguish, struggled in the breast of the seaman;

+his first strong impulse was to knock the constable down! But even in

+the sudden gust of passion Ned, whose leading principle was love and

+faith towards God, was like a ship that still obeys the helm, even when

+tost on a raging sea.

+

+"The God of Truth will make my truth clear one day!" Ned exclaimed, and

+with that appeal to One who could never be unjust, and who had Himself

+endured the anguish of reproach and false accusation, the sharpest

+pang of the seaman's trial passed away. He remembered that he was

+drinking of his Master's cup, and would submit to do so for the sake

+of that Master. With more composure than Ned but an hour before would

+have believed himself capable of showing under such circumstances—for

+disgrace to the seaman was worse than death—he gave a few needful

+directions to his sister, commended his lame squirrel to her care, and

+bade her and Dan good-bye.

+

+"Cheer up," were the sailor's words, as he wrung Bessy's hand at

+parting, "the blackest cloud will blow over, and we can't be driven

+from our moorings while the cable of truth holds fast."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VII.

+

+THE FOOTPRINT.

+

+"I don't believe that he did it," said Mr. Curtis, thoughtfully, as he

+stood with his back to the mantelpiece in his own little study, with

+his hands behind him.

+

+"I am convinced that he did not!" exclaimed Mrs. Curtis, from her seat

+by the table, where she was preparing some work for her girls' school.

+

+"And on what do you found that conviction, my love?" asked the vicar.

+

+"If the sailor had broken the windows, he would have said so at once,"

+answered the lady. "That man could no more stoop to a falsehood than

+that pine—" she glanced out of the window—"could stoop to crawl on the

+ground like bindweed! Ned Franks has a soul above lying!"

+

+"You speak very positively upon a very short acquaintance, my dear,"

+said the vicar With a smile, for he had seldom seen his gentle wife

+roused to give an opinion with such animation.

+

+"What were you yourself just telling Henry? Did you not say that you

+were struck by the singular frankness with which the sailor owned

+that he had been trespassing in the park, and that the ball was his,

+and with the dignity of truth with which he asserted his innocence

+concerning the glass? And I also have seen him tried, and bearing the

+trial in a manner that would make me take the sailor's word against

+that of a dozen other men. Was I not by when Lady Barton questioned

+Franks hard about her son? Did I not see the pain which her questions

+gave him! How he flushed and bit his lip, and yet from those lips an

+untruth could no more come than if they had been of marble! Oh, Henry,

+I am as sure of that young man's innocence as I am of my own."

+

+"I'm afraid that we shall find it difficult to prove it, my dear."

+

+"The way will be to find out who really did break the glass," said the

+lady. "I think it very likely that the mischief was done by one of the

+boys of our school."

+

+"Nothing more probable," said the vicar, "but I see no way at present

+of discovering the real offender."

+

+"I'll go to the park myself," exclaimed Mrs. Curtis, beginning

+hurriedly to put up her work. "I'll search all about the spot from

+which the stones must have been thrown, and see if I can pick up

+nothing, if I can find no clue to the secret. And you, dear Henry,"

+Mrs. Curtis laid her hand on the arm of her husband, "you have a

+Bible-class with the boys this evening, let your subject be truth. You

+have such a power to convince, to persuade, you may lead the culprit to

+confess."

+

+"I fear that you hope too much, Eliza," said the vicar, shaking his

+head.

+

+"I cannot hope too much," cried the lady, "when my hope is in the mercy

+and justice of God, who can make all dark things light, and who will

+clear the guiltless. I'll go at once for my bonnet and shawl."

+

+"The sun is very hot, still—"

+

+"Oh! Never mind the heat," said Mrs. Curtis, as she hurried out of the

+room, first to pray for success, and then to take what other means she

+could to ensure it.

+

+In about an hour the gentle little lady returned, looking heated and

+tired, but with an eager expression on her face as she reentered the

+study, where her husband was busy at his desk.

+

+"Have you found anything, Eliza?" he asked, glancing up from his

+writing.

+

+"Very, very little, but something," she said, taking out of her bag a

+bit of whity-brown paper, roughly cut into shape.

+

+"What may this be?" asked the vicar, taking it up in his fingers.

+

+"It is the size, the exact size, as well as I could manage to make it

+out, of a footprint which I found on one spot where the ground was a

+little less dry than in other places. It was just about a stone's throw

+from the conservatory of Sir Lacy."

+

+"A single footprint!" exclaimed the vicar.

+

+"And so faint that I passed the place thrice before I saw it all," said

+the lady. "But two things at least were clear; there were nails in the

+boot which made the mark, as in those which our village boys wear, and

+the foot that wore it, was a good deal smaller than that of a tall man

+like Ned Franks."

+

+"There's something in that," observed the vicar, fixing his eyes

+thoughtfully on the paper. "But it by no means follows that the

+footprint was left by the person who broke the glass."

+

+"Then you think the paper of no use," said the lady, in a tone of

+disappointment.

+

+"I never said so; I trust that it may be of great use, my dear, and I

+thank you, not only for bringing it, but for the hint which you gave

+me in regard to my lecture this evening. I have been thinking over the

+subject."

+

+"And praying, I am sure," said his wife.

+

+"Ay," replied the vicar of Colme; "we can do nothing without God's

+blessing, and we can do everything if it be ours."

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VIII.

+

+THE SCHOOL-ROOM ADDRESS.

+

+MR. CURTIS looked unusually thoughtful and grave as he walked up the

+schoolroom. The boys missed the kindly smile and familiar nod, and the

+inquiries after sick relatives, which were wont to make his greeting

+resemble that of a father. All felt that the vicar had something on

+his mind, as he stood behind the reading-desk, with the sunset glow on

+his bald head, looking down on the throng of boys clustering in the

+closely-filled benches.

+

+Instead of going on with the history of St Paul, which he had been

+explaining in a course of lectures, the vicar turned to the fifth

+chapter of Acts. Before beginning to read, with his hand on the open

+Bible, Mr. Curtis said a few words to the boys, who listened in the

+deep silence of expectation.

+

+"You see me anxious and disturbed—I am so. You all know, I doubt not,

+what has happened in our village to-day. A sailor who, after serving

+his country through hardships and dangers, had come here but yesterday

+to enjoy rest and peace in a cottage-home, has been sent to the

+lock-up, accused of an offence, which I believe from my soul that he

+never committed."

+

+Mr. Curtis paused, and the silence was so profound in the room, that

+the murmur of a little neighbouring brook was distinctly heard.

+

+"My belief of his innocence," continued the vicar, "is chiefly founded

+on his character for truth. I believe Franks to be incapable of the

+meanness and sin of telling a lie. But if the sailor be innocent, some

+one else must be guilty, and I have chosen the history of Ananias and

+Sapphira for our reading this evening, that we may all learn from it

+how Almighty God sees, knows, and can bring to light these things that

+we believe to be hidden for ever from the eyes of all men."

+

+Mr. Curtis then went on to read aloud the awful story recorded in the

+Word of God, of the man and woman whose characters had stood fair

+before the world, who had been counted amongst the flock of faithful

+Christians, but who had been struck down dead, with falsehood upon

+their tongues! Fearful warning to all who think lightly of the guilt of

+untruth!

+

+Mr. Curtis closed the Bible. "Such a history as that which I have just

+read," he remarked, "needs no comment of mine. We see in it written, as

+with letters of fire, what falsehood is in the sight of the Lord! Now,

+to return to the subject on which I was speaking, I wish all here to

+know that a clue, though a slight one, has been discovered as to the

+real author of the mischief done. The footprint of a boy has been left

+on the sod!"

+

+A thrill at the words ran through the assembly; the scholars looked

+one at another, and then fixed their eager eyes on the speaker, gazing

+open-mouthed, as if they expected that the next moment his finger would

+be stretched forth to point out the offender.

+

+"A boy!" repeated the vicar, emphatically. "Perhaps one of these now

+before me! A fac-simile of the footprint has been carefully taken on

+paper, and I intend tomorrow to compare it with the boots of each

+one here present, unless—as I hope and trust—he who broke the glass

+will earn the respect and confidence of all who know him by frankly,

+honestly, nobly, confessing the truth at once."

+

+Again there was that kind of electric thrill through the throng, again

+the boys turned inquiring looks one upon another.

+

+"In such case," continued the clergyman, "I shall do everything in my

+power to shield that boy from the punishment which his mischievous act

+has deserved, I shall use my influence to procure his full pardon from

+Sir Lacy. But even if he have something to bear, it will be more than

+made up to him by the satisfaction of feeling that, in confessing, he

+has done what is manly and right; that he has saved an innocent man

+from distress; that he himself has no sudden shameful disclosure to

+fear; that he has earned a character for honour, the respect of his

+comrades, the approval of conscience; and that he has put on that

+Girdle of Truth without which whatever he may call himself, or think

+himself, he can be a Christian only in name."

+

+Mr. Curtis knelt down, and all the scholars followed his example.

+Very fervent was the vicar's prayer to God, that He might give to all

+present grace and courage ever to speak the truth, to conceal nothing

+that ought to be confessed, remembering that a great Day is coming

+when, before assembled myriads of angels and men, the most secret

+things shall be manifest, when we shall know even as we are known!

+There was some encouragement to the clergyman in the earnest "amen"

+from the boys, which followed his prayer.

+

+"I hope that your words have made an impression, Henry," said Mrs.

+Curtis to her husband, as they sat together that night in the little

+study.

+

+The vicar had been reading aloud to his wife, but the minds of both had

+wandered from the book.

+

+"Why, we have no evidence beyond your little slip of paper, my love,

+and—" Mr. Curtis was interrupted by the sound of a timid ring at the

+door-bell: faint as it was, both the vicar and his wife instinctively

+turned to listen, and nothing was said by either till the maid opened

+the study-door with:

+

+"The glazier's little boy says that he wishes to speak with you, sir."

+

+Mrs. Curtis knew Stephen White to be one of the scholars, and her heart

+beat fast with expectation.

+

+"Ask him to step in here," said the vicar.

+

+A thin, sly, slouching boy soon stood at the entrance, and then, after

+being twice desired to come forward, moved one or two steps into the

+room. He hung his head, fumbled with the buttons of his jacket, and

+looked the picture of confusion and shyness.

+

+"I am glad to see you here, Stephen," said Mr. Curtis, encouragingly;

+"speak out freely, and tell me what you have come for to-night."

+

+"Please, sir-" stammered forth the boy, "you said as how you would try

+to get me off."

+

+Mrs. Curtis could hardly refrain from an exclamation of pleasure, as

+she dropped her work on her knee.

+

+"I will keep my promise to an honest, truthful boy, who, having done

+a wrong and a foolish action, is going to make what amends are in his

+power."

+

+Stephen White looked ready to cry, and put the back of his hand up to

+his face.

+

+"Why did you break the glass?" asked the vicar, seeing that in this

+case silence was clearly consent.

+

+"I thought as how it would give father a job," faintly stuttered forth

+the boy.

+

+"And how came you to have the ball, the leaden ball, that was found in

+the hothouse?"

+

+"I picked it up on the road yesterday," said Stephen, "and put it in

+my pocket along with the stones. I didn't think, indeed I didn't, of

+getting the sailor into trouble."

+

+"I do not doubt you, my boy," cried the vicar.

+

+Then, turning to his wife, he added, "Eliza, my love, just write down

+his words; you and I will sign the paper as witnesses, and I'll carry

+it myself to Sir Lacy Bar-ton's this very night."

+

+"But oh! Sir," cried Stephen in alarm, "you will, you will get me out

+of this scrape!"

+

+"I'll do my best," answered the vicar, "and I've little doubt but that

+I shall succeed."

+

+Mrs. Curtis, with a hand that trembled with joyful excitement, had

+already dipped a pen into ink, and a clear brief statement of the whole

+truth was soon drawn up and signed, first by Stephen in round text,

+very shaky and uneven, then by the pastor and his lady as witnesses.

+

+"I am so glad," said the vicar's wife, as she brought to her husband

+his hat and stick, and a comforter to protect him from the night air.

+"I am so thankful that the character of that gallant tar is now cleared

+from all suspicion."

+

+"And I am as glad and thankful," said the vicar, looking at Stephen

+White as he spoke, "that one of my boys, resolving not to add sin unto

+sin, has come forward with a brave confession, and that I shall always

+be able henceforth to trust his honour and his word."

+

+Stephen gave a great sigh of relief; a weight was lifted off from the

+heart of the boy; he felt that now he could bear even the risk of being

+sent to prison.

+

+

+

+CHAPTER IX.

+

+CLEARING UP.

+

+"A PRECIOUS scrape Uncle Ned has got himself into!" exclaimed Dan on

+the following morning, as he blew the steam from his bowl of hot milk

+and bread. "He'll be had up afore the magistrate to-day, and then

+clapped into jail for I don't know how long!"

+

+"If he'd only had the wit to say that he'd never entered them woods!"

+exclaimed Bessy.

+

+"Ah! He won't be atwitting me again for what he calls 'a mean thing,

+a senseless, a wicked'—we shan't be hearing no more that a liar is 'a

+sneak, a coward, a fool!'"

+

+"Don't make too sure of that, my lad!" cried a loud cheery voice at the

+door.

+

+Bessy and Dan both started up in surprise, as Mr. Curtis and the sailor

+entered the cottage.

+

+"Well, if ever! Is he cleared?" exclaimed Bessy, reading an answer at

+once in the beaming face of her brother.

+

+"Yes, cleared, come off with flying colours," said the vicar; "truth

+has ever the victory at last."

+

+"Why," exclaimed the wondering Dan, "here comes Sir Lacy himself, at

+this hour of the day!"

+

+In bustled the knight with his flushed face and his bushy white

+whiskers, but looking a different man from what he had done on the

+previous day. Notwithstanding a violent temper, which led often to

+passion, and not unfrequently to injustice, there was something kindly

+and generous still in the character of Sir Lacy.

+

+"I could not rest," he said, as to the utter amazement of the Peeles,

+he held out his hand to the sailor, "I could not rest till I had

+told you how much I regret yesterday's mistake. But you'll own that

+appearances were against you."

+

+"Ay, ay, sir, things looked ill," replied Ned.

+

+"I should wish—I should like," began the knight, half pulling a

+sovereign out of his waistcoat pocket, but Ned instinctively drew back,

+with a feeling utterly incomprehensible to Mrs. Peele and her son.

+

+"No, sir; if you do me a favour, please kindly to let off the little

+chap who bravely spoke out the truth and cleared me."

+

+"I've done that already, at the request of my good friend the vicar,"

+said the knight. "I want to do something else, my fine fellow, to show

+my feeling towards yourself."

+

+"Then, sir, if you'd have the kindness not to send my sister here

+adrift at Michaelmas: she has a love for her little cabin, and is sore

+loath to leave it."

+

+"As long as you remain here," said the knight, "I give you my word that

+the cottage shall stand."

+

+Bessy poured out a torrent of thanks and blessings to which no one gave

+heed, while Ned Franks simply replied, "I thank you, sir, kindly."

+

+Then, turning towards the vicar, he expressed in few but heartfelt

+words his gratitude towards him and his lady.

+

+"Depend upon it, Ned Franks," said Mr. Curtis, "a man who will not

+speak an untruth either for fear or for favour, is never likely to

+want a friend. He only can walk on the straight path freely, firmly,

+fearlessly, who keeps the Master's command in mind and wears the Girdle

+of Truth."

+

+

+

+                            THE END.

+

+

+

+

+

+

+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 73200 ***
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+      The Sailor's Home; or, The Girdle of Truth, by A. L. O. E.—A Project Gutenberg eBook

+    </title>

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+<body>

+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 73200 ***</div>

+

+<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;">

+  <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001">

+</figure>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.8125em;">

+  <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002">

+</figure>

+<p class="t4">

+<b>"You seem to be weary, my friend," said Mr. Curtis,</b><br>

+<b>the vicar of Colme, stopping courteously to speak to a sailor,</b><br>

+<b>who was seated on the stump of a tree at the side of the pathway.</b><br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+

+<h1>THE SAILOR'S HOME;</h1>

+

+<p class="t3">

+<b>OR,</b><br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t1">

+<b>The Girdle of Truth.</b><br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+BY<br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t1">

+A. L. O. E.<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t4">

+AUTHORESS OF "THE CLAREMONT TALES," "THE YOUNG PILGRIM,"<br>

+"THE COTTAGE BY THE STREAM," "HARRY DANGERFIELD,"<br>

+"GLIMPSES OF THE UNSEEN," ETC., ETC.<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br><br></p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+GALL &amp; INGLIS.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+&#160; &#160; London:&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; Edinburgh:<br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t4">

+30 PATERNOSTER ROW.&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;  6 GEORGE STREET.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<p class="t3b">

+CONTENTS.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>CHAPTER</p>

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_1">I. COMING HOME</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_2">II. SPEAKING OUT</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_3">III. THINKING IT OVER</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_4">IV. PUT TO THE QUESTION</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_5">V. THE LAME SQUIRREL</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_6">VI. A STORM</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_7">VII. THE FOOTPRINT</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_8">VIII. THE SCHOOL-ROOM ADDRESS</a></p>

+

+<p><a href="#Chapter_9">IX. CLEARING UP</a></p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<p class="t2">

+<b>The Sailor's Home;</b><br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t4">

+<b>OR,</b><br>

+</p>

+

+<p class="t1">

+<b>THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH.</b><br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_1">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+COMING HOME.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>"You seem to be weary, my friend," said Mr. Curtis, the vicar of Colme,

+stopping courteously to speak to a sailor, who was seated on the stump

+of a tree at the side of the pathway. It was a glowing day in August;

+the air was hot and sultry, and dust lay thick on the road.</p>

+

+<p>Ned Franks, the sailor, rose on being addressed, and touched his glazed

+hat, on which appeared the badge of the anchor, surmounted by a crown,

+which showed that he had belonged to the Royal Navy. He was a fine

+stalwart-looking young man, scarcely thirty years of age, with sunburnt

+cheek, and thick curling hair; and as Mr. Curtis met the glance of his

+clear blue eye, the clergyman thought that he had never looked upon a

+face more manly or pleasant.</p>

+

+<p>"I've walked twenty miles, sir, since sunrise," said Franks, glancing

+at the bundle which he had been carrying on a stick across his

+shoulder, and which was now resting against the stump from which he had

+risen. "But I'm nigh port now, I take it, if yonder's the village of

+Colme."</p>

+

+<p>"Are you going to visit it?" asked the vicar.</p>

+

+<p>"I'm going to drop anchor there for good, sir," answered the tar. "I've

+a sister—a step-sister I should say, living yonder; she and I are all

+that are left of the family now, and I'll make my home with her, please

+God."</p>

+

+<p>"Surely you are too young to give up the navy, my friend. Idleness

+would be no blessing to a fine strong lad such as you seem to be; you

+may have many years before you yet of good service to the Queen."</p>

+

+<p>"I shall never serve the Queen again, bless her!" replied the young

+sailor, with a touch of sadness.</p>

+

+<p>And Mr. Curtis then, for the first time, remarked that the left sleeve

+of Ned's blue jacket hung empty.</p>

+

+<p>"But I don't look to be idle, sir," continued Franks, in a tone more

+cheerful, "Bessy will have my bit of a pension for the mess and the

+berth, and I'll see if I can't make myself useful in some way or

+other—go errands, or maybe try the teaching tack; anything would be

+better than lying like a log on the shore."</p>

+

+<p>"Teaching?" repeated the clergyman. "What are you able to teach?"</p>

+

+<p>"Not many things," replied the sailor, with a smile, "reading, 'riting,

+'rithmetic, and not much of them neither; but I like a book when I can

+overhaul one, and I usually make good way with the younkers."</p>

+

+<p>"I well believe that," said Mr. Curtis; "I doubt not that you've many

+a good sea story to tell, and stirring adventure to relate. I see,"

+he continued, "from the badge on your hat that you've served in the

+'Queen;' I daresay that you lost your arm by a Russian ball from a

+Sebastopol battery," and the vicar looked with interest at the young

+seaman, picturing him at the post of duty amidst the smoke and din of a

+fight.</p>

+

+<p>"No, sir," replied Ned, frankly; "I smashed my arm on shore, stumbling

+down an open cellar on a starless night."</p>

+

+<p>Mr. Curtis slightly raised his eyebrows, and there was a little less

+interest in his manner as he inquired, "And who is the sister with whom

+you are to live?"</p>

+

+<p>"Bessy Peele, sir; she's a widow in these parts."</p>

+

+<p>"I know her," said Mr. Curtis, rather drily; "she lives in the thatched

+cottage yonder, whose chimney you can just see over these trees. I hope

+that she may make you comfortable," he added.</p>

+

+<p>"It's not much, sir, that I want," said the sailor: "a dry berth,

+a wholesome mess, and a welcome, he who gets that may be thankful,

+whether on sea or on shore."</p>

+

+<p>"I shall call and see you," said the clergyman, kindly, "and have a

+little talk with you on other matters than those which concern but this

+passing life."</p>

+

+<p>"I shall be heartily glad, sir," replied Ned, again touching his glazed

+hat; "it's well to have some one to teach us how to steer 'twixt the

+rocks and the shoals."</p>

+

+<p>"I hope that we have both the same port in view," said the clergyman.</p>

+

+<p>"I hope so," answered Ned Franks, cheerfully; and as the vicar bade him

+good day, he turned in the direction of his new home.</p>

+

+<p>Mrs. Peele's cottage stood a little retired from the dusty high road,

+being divided from it by a bit of waste ground, on which some pigs were

+feeding. The ground was overgrown with nettles and straggling briars:

+the dwelling was of mud, with a roof of thatch, green with lichen and

+moss, under which, as under heavy overhanging brows, peeped two dots of

+windows like eyes. The door stood open, and within Ned caught sight of

+his sister engaged in washing.</p>

+

+<p>Mrs. Peele was a tall bony woman, with a habitual stoop, clad in a

+rusty black dress, with a cap which was rustier still. Broad lines of

+grey streaked her hair, and Ned's first feeling was that of painful

+surprise at the change which years had made. He did not stop, however,

+to dwell on the past.</p>

+

+<p>"Holloa, Bessy! Don't you know me?" he exclaimed, as he quickened his

+pace, and the next minute Mrs. Peele had run out, with her bare arms

+covered with soap-suds, to welcome her younger brother.</p>

+

+<p>She was followed by a lad about ten or eleven years of age; a sharp,

+wiry boy, whose pointed upturned nose, quick little black eyes, and

+restless manner, somehow suggested to the sailor's mind the idea of a

+weasel. Ned shook him heartily by the hand on hearing that this was his

+nephew Dan; and, with a heart glowing with pleasure at being once more

+in a home, the seaman entered the cottage accompanied by the Peeles.</p>

+

+<p>"Now, Dan, you take your uncle, and show him his room, while I wring

+these out, and get a bit of something ready for dinner," said Bessy. "I

+hardly looked for you so early, Ned," she added, addressing herself to

+her brother.</p>

+

+<p>"I was up with the lark," answered the sailor.</p>

+

+<p>Dan, looking up with curiosity in his keen small eyes towards the

+stranger, whom he scarcely yet ventured to call "uncle," led the way to

+the back of the cottage, where was a kind of garden—if a place could

+deserve that name where nothing but sickly cabbages seemed to grow,

+with a full crop of chickweed and groundsel between. A small wood-house

+adjoined the cottage, and over this was a little loft, to be reached by

+a rough sort of ladder.</p>

+

+<p>"We're to go up the hatchway, are we?" said Ned, mounting the ladder

+with a lightness and rapidity which surprised his nephew. He had to

+stoop his curly head low as he passed through the entrance, the door of

+which appeared never to have been intended to fit, since even when shut

+it admitted as much light as the small one-paned window of greenish

+glass, with a thick knob in the middle. The loft was very small, with

+walls unpapered, and rafters uncovered; a dirty mattress lay on the

+dirtier floor, and a musty scent pervaded the place.</p>

+

+<p>"I can't say much for the berth," thought Ned; "it's not big enough

+to swing a cat in, and doesn't look as if the planks had ever been

+holystoned. I must set things a little ship-shape. Bessy, poor soul,

+has enough to keep her busy with her washing; I must try if I can't

+make my one hand do the business of two."</p>

+

+<p>The man-of-war's seaman, accustomed to spotless cleanliness and

+neatness, looked around on the miserable den with a mixture of disgust

+and good humour.</p>

+

+<p>"I'll rub up the bull's eye," he said, "and get that door to fasten

+with something better than a piece of old rope; and I'll try to knock

+up a bit of a shelf in that corner, for I've a few books in that bundle

+of mine. We'll soon have all right and trim as a captain's cabin!"</p>

+

+<p>Ned Franks was to find that other things in his new home required

+setting to rights as well as his loft, and that there are spots and

+stains harder to rub out than those on his walls and floor.</p>

+

+<p>"Why don't you keep that garden in trimmer order?" asked the sailor,

+as he descended the ladder, followed by Dan. "You might grow enough of

+potatoes and cabbages in yon slip to supply your mother half the year."</p>

+

+<p>"I've not a minute's time," answered Dan; "I look after Sir Lacy

+Barton's cows."</p>

+

+<p>"Lacy Barton!" repeated Ned. "Why that's the name of one of our

+middies."</p>

+

+<p>"Sir Lacy has a son in the 'Queen' as I've heard."</p>

+

+<p>"What are you saying about Sir Lacy?" asked Bessy Peele, catching the

+sound of the name, as her brother and Dan re-entered the kitchen.</p>

+

+<p>"That he has a son aboard my old vessel the 'Queen.'"</p>

+

+<p>"That's a piece of luck for us!" cried Bessy, pausing in her occupation

+of cutting rashers from a fine large piece of bacon. "He's our

+landlord, is Sir Lacy Barton, and he's thinking of pulling down our

+cottage to build the new school in its place, and I'm mighty anxious to

+be in his favour. 'Tis a lucky chance that you've come, and can tell

+him all about his son."</p>

+

+<p>"That depends on what I've to tell," answered Ned, with a smile; "in

+some cases, it's 'least said soonest mended.' I hope that none of the

+family will come to question me about young Mr. Barton—" and the frank

+face of the sailor expressed more than his words, as he remembered the

+doings of the most worthless youth on board of the man-of-war.</p>

+

+<p>"Well, if you was asked, you'd say something pleasant I hope," observed

+Bessy.</p>

+

+<p>"I could not say what was false," answered Ned.</p>

+

+<p>The words were simple enough, but the decided tone in which they were

+uttered, made Bessy exchange glances with her son. The boy shrugged his

+shoulders slightly, and something like a smile rose to the corners of

+his lips. The very straightforwardness of the sailor made him appear

+strange to those who had long mistaken cunning for wisdom, and low

+deceit for sharpness.</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_2">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+SPEAKING OUT.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>The table was spread with food, homely but abundant, steaming bacon and

+greens.</p>

+

+<p>"A twenty miles' walk must have made you ready for your dinner, Ned,"

+said Bessy, as she seated herself at the table, and a well-filled plate

+was soon before each of the party.</p>

+

+<p>"Why, uncle, what are you waiting for?" asked Dan, surprised that the

+hungry sailor did not at once begin his meal.</p>

+

+<p>"Bessy," said Ned, quietly, "do you say grace, or shall I?"</p>

+

+<p>Again mother and son exchanged glances. As no answer was given, Ned,

+in few words, thanked God for His mercies through Christ. This was no

+mere form with the weather-beaten sailor, who found himself in haven at

+last, after the tempest and the fight, the hardships and perils of a

+sea life, and was thankful to God for mercies greater than preservation

+through all these.</p>

+

+<p>"I'm afraid," said Ned, looking with a good-humoured smile at his

+plate, "that a maimed Jack-tar such as I am, must signal for assistance

+even at the mess."</p>

+

+<p>Bessy had for the moment forgotten her brother's condition; she had not

+realised the constant inconvenience which must follow the loss of an

+arm. Ned's misfortune did not, however, appear in the least to weigh

+down his spirits, and he chatted merrily through dinner-time, talking

+over old days, and then making inquiries as to what hope there might be

+of his getting such employment as might suit a one-armed man.</p>

+

+<p>"I've heard as how Mr. Curtis, our vicar, is looking out for some one

+to help with his school," said Dan.</p>

+

+<p>"I think that it must have been your parson who hailed me on my course

+here," observed Ned.</p>

+

+<p>"He's rather an oldish man, bald, with a little limp in his walk," said

+Dan.</p>

+

+<p>"That's he!" cried the sailor. "He talked to me friendly enough, and

+asked me how I had lost my arm."</p>

+

+<p>"And what said you?" inquired Bessy.</p>

+

+<p>"The truth, of course, that I was lubber enough to stumble down into a

+cellar at night."</p>

+

+<p>"Oh! Ned, he would think that you were drunk," exclaimed Bessy.</p>

+

+<p>"I'm afraid that he did," said Ned. "I could see in his face that I'd

+let myself down a peg in his good opinion."</p>

+

+<p>"Oh! Uncle, what a chance you lost!" cried Dan, his black eyes

+twinkling slily under his shock of rough hair. "If I'd been you, I'd

+have told such a tale, how I lost that arm boarding a thundering big

+ship, or saving an officer's life, or doing some desperate deed!

+You'd have been a reg'lar hero in Colme; they'd have been getting up

+a subscription for you, and Mr. Curtis would have clapped you into

+the place of teacher at once! 'Twould have been the making of you, it

+would!"</p>

+

+<p>"Dan," said Ned, laying down his fork, and looking steadily at his

+nephew across the table, "do you know what a lie is?"</p>

+

+<p>The boy was taken aback by the sudden question, and his eyes sunk under

+the gaze that was fixed upon him.</p>

+

+<p>Receiving no answer, the sailor went on—"A lie is a mean thing—a

+senseless, a wicked: a habitual liar is a sneak, a coward, and a fool!"</p>

+

+<p>"A fool! I don't see how you can make that out," muttered Dan, who was

+secretly not a little proud of his cunning, and who thought the name of

+fool a great deal worse than that of knave.</p>

+

+<p>"It's easy enough to make out," said Ned; "a liar is a fool as regards

+this life; for, look ye, he's sure to be found out afore long, and

+a good character is worth more than anything that he could get in

+exchange for it. Is it nothing to be trusted, is it nothing to be able

+to look any man in the face?"</p>

+

+<p>Dan was at the moment uneasily peering down at the crumbs on the floor.</p>

+

+<p>"Would a man not be called a fool who should put to sea in a vessel

+whose timbers were all rotten, however gaily painted she might be, or

+however fine a figure-head she might carry? She must be stove in when

+the first storm came, she must soon show that she was not seaworthy."</p>

+

+<p>Ned had spoken with the fiery energy of one who, as he often owned,

+carried "too much gunpowder in his cargo;" but his tone softened to

+quiet earnestness as he went on.</p>

+

+<p>"And if we come to speak of another world, my lad, what shall we say

+of the folly of lying, whatever the temptation to do so may be? Was it

+without reason, think you, that St. Paul, when telling how a Christian

+man should be armed to fight against the devil, bade him first be

+'girt about with truth.' * Why, we couldn't so much as set a foot in

+the golden city without it; you've heard what's said in God's Word of

+that matter; outside, shut out of glory, in company with murderers and

+idolaters will be 'whosoever loveth and maketh a lie'! † The devil

+himself is the father of lies, ‡ such as make them, follow him; and

+they who choose their portion with him are fools, whatever the world

+may give, or whatever the world may call them!"</p>

+

+<p class="footnote">

+<br>

+* Eph. vi. 14.&#160; &#160;  † Rev. xxii. 15.&#160; &#160;  ‡ John viii. 44.<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p>There was silence in the cottage for several minutes after Ned had

+ceased speaking.</p>

+

+<p>Dan attempted no reply, but finished his dinner in somewhat sulky

+reserve; then appearing suddenly to remember that he had to look

+after the cows, the boy rose and slunk out of the place. Dan did not,

+however, go in the direction of the fields, but into the village to

+play at pitch-and-toss with Tom and Jack Mullins, and to tell them

+wonderful stories of his sailor uncle, who was, he said, a first-rate

+fellow for fighting, and polished off Russians as fast as they might

+knock down ninepins, but who had a ticklish temper to deal with,

+flaring up like fire at a word.</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_3">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+THINKING IT OVER.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>"You took Dan up sharp, brother," said Bessy, as her son quitted the

+cottage.</p>

+

+<p>"Maybe I did," answered Ned, frankly. "I'm trying to keep down that

+hot temper of mine, but there's nothing stirs it up like anything of

+deceit, and it gets in a blaze afore I'm aware. There was something

+in the lad's looks more than his words, that made me fancy him one of

+those who don't see clearly the difference atween truth and falsehood,

+and who get amongst the shoals almost without knowing it. I wanted to

+show him the beacon lights set in the Bible to warn us off them, that's

+all."</p>

+

+<p>"Ah! Dan's quick enough at lying," said Bessy, with a sigh. "I can't

+believe a word that he says. Many and many's the time I tells him,

+'Dan, with all those fine stories of yours, you'll get into trouble at

+last.'"</p>

+

+<p>"And don't you tell him," said Ned, "that God hears, and marks down,

+and that 'every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account

+thereof in the Day of Judgment'?" *</p>

+

+<p class="footnote">

+<br>

+* Matt. xii. 36.<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p>"Oh! I'm not one of your saints that likes religion brought in at every

+turn," said Bessy, peevishly. "'Tis all well enough to go decently to

+church on Sundays: and dear me!" she exclaimed, suddenly interrupting

+herself, and starting up from her seat. "If that is not Mrs. Curtis

+coming over the green! That woman is always taking one unawares."</p>

+

+<p>And, with a quickness which astonished the sailor, Bessy whisked off

+the dish from the table, flung an old shawl over the large piece of

+bacon from which the rashers had been cut, and stowed away a heap of

+damp linen which she had been washing into a cupboard.</p>

+

+<p>"She's in a mighty hurry to tidy the room for the lady," thought Ned,

+"but it doesn't look a bit neater than before."</p>

+

+<p>Just as Bessy had finished her hasty preparations, Mrs. Curtis, a

+small, delicate lady, very simply but neatly dressed, tapped at the

+door of the cottage, and entered. Bessy was all smiles and curtsies;

+she dusted a chair and placed it for her guest, hoped that she had

+not been troubled by the heat of the day, and asked after "the young

+masters and misses," like one who took an affectionate interest in the

+well-being of the family.</p>

+

+<p>"I am glad to see your brother here," said Mrs. Curtis, courteously

+bending her head as the sailor respectfully rose at her entrance.</p>

+

+<p>"Ah! Yes, poor fellow!" exclaimed Bessy. "He's my only brother living,

+and as long as I have a crust, he shall be welcome to share it. We must

+all care for one another, ma'am, as our good minister told us last

+Sunday in his beautiful sermon."</p>

+

+<p>"It would be but fair," thought Ned, "if Bessy gave the lady a notion

+that I pay for this half-crust with the whole of my pension."</p>

+

+<p>"It's but a poor home that my brother has come to," continued Bessy,

+whose voice, in addressing the clergyman's wife, had a plaintive

+drawling tone, quite unlike that in which she usually spoke. "I have

+been wanting much, ma'am, to speak a word or two to you or to Mr.

+Curtis."</p>

+

+<p>"My husband told me that he intended to call here soon," said the lady.</p>

+

+<p>"Ah! How glad I am even to see his blessed face. Ah! What I owe him,"

+cried Bessy, heaving a long sigh, as if to express by it gratitude

+too deep for words. "But what I was a-going to say, ma'am, was, that

+I hopes as how Mr. Curtis will be good enough to put me again on the

+widows' list for the loaves. I've really such a hard pull to live,

+I don't know how we can get on without it;" and there was another

+long-drawn sigh.</p>

+

+<p>"Ha!" thought the indignant sailor. "The gratitude was for favours to

+come."</p>

+

+<p>"I don't see how my husband can put you on the needy widows' list,"

+said the clergyman's quiet little wife; "your daughter is in service,

+your son gets work, you take in washing—"</p>

+

+<p>"Please, ma'am, begging pardon for interrupting you," said Bessy, again

+dropping a curtsey, "the trifle Dan earns would not keep him in bread

+(and it's little but bread as ever we tastes), and I've not had all

+this blessed week more than tenpence worth of washing, and—" here Bessy

+Poole's eyes chanced to meet those of her brother, flashing on her a

+glance of such fiery indignation, that, quite confused, she stopped

+short, stammered, and could not finish what she was saying.</p>

+

+<p>Mrs. Curtis naturally turned to see the cause of the cottager's evident

+embarrassment, and was much struck by the stern countenance of the

+young man, who stood tightly pressing his lips together, as if to keep

+in some indignant burst. Finding that he had attracted notice, Ned, who

+had no wish to expose his sister, and who had difficulty in commanding

+himself, thought it safest to quit the cottage without uttering a word.</p>

+

+<p>"Is anything the matter with your brother?" asked the lady, after Ned's

+abrupt departure.</p>

+

+<p>"He has an odd temper, ma'am, very odd; I know that we shall have

+a good deal to put up with, but, as our good minister told us last

+Sunday—" and the woman went on with a string of what were meant as

+pious phrases, but which, being only lip-deep, made far less impression

+on her visitor than the speaker wished and intended.</p>

+

+<p>"She talk to her son about truth," exclaimed the indignant Ned Franks,

+as he strode into the back-garden, forgetful, in the storm of his

+spirit, of the twenty miles which he had walked in the morning. "An

+acted lie is as bad as a spoken one, and her way of going on was all

+one wretched piece of acting from beginning to end. If there's one

+thing I scorn, despise, and detest more than another, it's hypocrisy

+like that."</p>

+

+<p>Ned struck the nailed heel of his boot violently against one of the

+weeds, and uprooted it from the ground; perhaps he connected the

+worthless plant in his mind with the more hateful weed of deceit, or he

+wanted something on which to vent the angry feelings within him.</p>

+

+<p>"All weeds!" he muttered to himself, "I've a great mind to hoist sail

+at once and sheer off, and find some other home where all will be open

+and above board, at least where there will be no hoisting of false

+colours, or hanging out of false lights, saying one thing and thinking

+another."</p>

+

+<p>Ned took one or two rapid turns up and down the garden; then gradually

+slackened his pace as his anger began to cool down.</p>

+

+<p>"Who am I that I should judge another?" thought the frank-hearted

+seaman. "Are we not all of an evil nature, our souls as full of

+wickedness as this wretched garden of weeds? There's nothing good grows

+of itself, it's all God's grace as plants it. Am I—wilful wayward

+sinner as I have been—am I to throw my own sister overboard, because

+she has not yet been led to see things as I see them, and to know that

+the straight course is the shortest course, and the only course that

+can land us in a safe haven at last? Maybe, with prayer and pains,

+we'll get the better both of her weeds and mine; I master my impatience

+and bad temper, she, and that lad of hers, learn that 'a lying tongue

+is an abomination unto the Lord', * and that all who serve a God of

+Truth must speak the truth from the heart."</p>

+

+<p class="footnote">

+<br>

+* Proverbs vi. 17.<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p>Ned took another turn up and down, stooping down now and then to pull

+up and throw away some straggling weed, till he found his spirit calm

+enough for prayer. The sailor looked up at the sky, so blue, and clear,

+and transparent above him, and his heart rose, in what was earnest

+supplication, though he could not have put it into a regular form of

+prayer. He wished that his deeds, and his sayings, and those of his

+family, might be pure, and clear, and open as heaven's sunlight; that

+they might be in the sight of God what they wanted to appear in the

+sight of men, and be honest and true in all things, like faithful

+servants of the Lord.</p>

+

+<p>Ned's meditations were broken in upon by Bessy Peele, who came running

+up towards him, with a bustling, excited air.</p>

+

+<p>"What's in the wind?" cried Ned.</p>

+

+<p>"You must come in directly," answered Bessy. "Who do you think is in my

+kitchen—I knew she'd be here—but I'm sure—for Lady Barton herself to

+walk all the way from the Hall!"</p>

+

+<p>"What has she come for?" asked Ned, knitting his brow from an uneasy

+apprehension of what was likely to follow.</p>

+

+<p>"To hear about her son, to be sure! Lady Barton thinks no end of her

+son—a pretty scapegrace though he be! When he left her, she lay crying

+in her bed for a week—there was never a mother so fond—or so blind!"</p>

+

+<p>"But what can I say?" exclaimed Ned. "I can tell nothing good of the

+lad!"</p>

+

+<p>"You must invent something good then!" cried Bessy, in an irritated

+tone. "I can't have you, with your stupid bluntness, setting my

+landlord's wife against me, and getting my home pulled down over my

+head at Michaelmas, and my boy turned off, and my washing taken away!"</p>

+

+<p>"I'd better not see Lady Barton," said Ned.</p>

+

+<p>"Shall I hurry back and say I couldn't find you? You could get over yon

+hedge and be off, without coming in front of the cottage."</p>

+

+<p>"No—no sneaking," said the sailor, quickly. "I'll face out the matter

+at once!"</p>

+

+<p>"And you'll say the best you can!" cried Bessy, changing her tone and

+tactics with a perception that her best chance with Ned lay in working

+upon his affection. "You wouldn't injure your poor widowed sister, as

+looks to you for comfort and kindness?"</p>

+

+<p>"I'll do no harm—if I can help it!" muttered the tar, feeling far more

+uneasy as he followed his sister than he would have done had he been

+led up to an enemy's battery.</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+PUT TO THE QUESTION.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>LADY BARTON sat in the old wooden arm-chair, which formed the chief

+article of furniture in Mrs. Peele's kitchen, the flounces of her rich

+blue silk dress filling up the space between the red brick fireplace

+and the deal table, which was still scattered over with the crumbs of

+the recent repast. Lady Barton was a stately and elegant woman, with

+an air of fashion and dignity, which contrasted with the simple attire

+and manner of Mrs. Curtis, with whom she was conversing before Ned and

+Bessy re-entered the cottage.</p>

+

+<p>As they came in, Lady Barton was just returning into her pocket a

+purse, from which she had taken a half sovereign, with what intent both

+the sailor and Bessy could not but guess as they caught sight of the

+glittering beads of the purse as it was replaced within the silk dress.</p>

+

+<p>"Ah!" exclaimed Lady Barton, with a queenly graciousness of manner to

+the sailor, "I am glad to have an opportunity of speaking with one of

+the gallant men who have served in the same ship with my son. You can

+give me late accounts of Mr. Lacy Barton."</p>

+

+<p>With a bright smile on her lips, the lady awaited Ned's reply.</p>

+

+<p>"I was aboard the same vessel as Mr. Barton for more than a year," said

+the tar, with the respectful manner with which he would have spoken to

+any lady.</p>

+

+<p>"You must have seen much of him then?"</p>

+

+<p>Ned only bowed, thinking to himself "a good deal too much."</p>

+

+<p>As he did not seem inclined to be communicative, the partial mother

+tried to draw him out by an observation! "My son usually makes himself

+a great favourite wherever he goes."</p>

+

+<p>Bessy nudged her brother's arm, but Ned did not speak at the hint.</p>

+

+<p>Lady Barton's gloved hand closed more tightly over the little piece

+of gold which it hid; rather less graciously she inquired whether Mr.

+Barton had been quite well when the sailor had seen him last.</p>

+

+<p>Ned paused for a moment before he replied. "There was nothing much the

+matter with his health."</p>

+

+<p>The tender mother took alarm from his hesitation as well as his words.</p>

+

+<p>"Not much the matter?" she anxiously repeated. "Was Mr. Barton not

+well, was he obliged to keep his cabin?"</p>

+

+<p>"Only for a few days, lady," said Ned, sincerely desirous to relieve

+her.</p>

+

+<p>"What ailed him?" asked Lady Barton. "Was he laid up with fever?" Her

+voice betrayed her emotion.</p>

+

+<p>"No, not fever," answered the sailor, wishing himself up to his neck in

+water rather than standing there to answer the lady's questions.</p>

+

+<p>"It was not his chest—not his lungs?" said the anxious mother, dropping

+her voice. "He was so subject to coughs as a boy!"</p>

+

+<p>"His lungs are as sound as can be, I'll answer for that!" replied Ned,

+with a clear recollection of the strength of a voice which, raised in

+an oath or a curse, might be heard above the roar of a storm.</p>

+

+<p>"Then what was the matter with him?" repeated Lady Barton, in the tone

+of one who must, and will, have a reply.</p>

+

+<p>Ned's honest face was suffused with a flush, as if he himself had been

+the culprit as he answered—"He'd had a bit of a spree on shore, and

+been knocked about a little; these things will sometimes happen, but a

+few bruises don't do much harm."</p>

+

+<p>Lady Barton asked no more questions; she knew enough of her son's

+former habits to enable her to guess but too well what the sailor had

+left unsaid. Sorrow taking the form of mortified pride, the lady drew

+herself up, and the delicate kid-gloved hand slid something back into

+her pocket, a movement which did not escape the covetous eyes of Bessy.</p>

+

+<p>Without condescending to say another word to Ned Franks, Lady Barton

+rose from her seat, and, turning to address Mrs. Curtis, plunged at

+once into a different subject of conversation. She asked the vicar's

+wife about her scholars, said that Sir Lacy had resolved on beginning

+to build the new school at Michaelmas, and observed that somewhere

+about this spot would be the best possible place for the site.</p>

+

+<p>Bessy clenched her teeth, and scowled at her brother, but the

+expression of anger on her face was instantly changed to one of

+obsequious mildness, as she caught the eye of the stately Lady Barton.

+If Bessy had been gratified by the visit of the vicar's wife, she was

+overwhelmed by the honour of one from a titled lady, and with a double

+number of curtsies and thanks, she shewed her two guests to the door,

+sending blessings after them as long as they remained within hearing.</p>

+

+<p>And then!—</p>

+

+<p>"You heartless good-for-nothing, unfeeling, ill-mannered dolt!" she

+exclaimed, turning towards her brother with a gesture of her clenched

+fist, as though she could have found it in her heart to have struck

+him, had she dared. "What ill luck brought you here to bring trouble,

+and ill-will, and ruin, on a poor lone widow as never did you any harm!"</p>

+

+<p>"I'm as vexed as you can be, Bessy," said the sailor, passing his hand

+through his thick curly hair.</p>

+

+<p>"You'd better have bit off that foolish tongue of yours, than have let

+it provoke such a lady!"</p>

+

+<p>"It was grieving the mother, that I felt," said Ned Franks, "it was

+seeing her so anxious and troubled. 'Twas a stiff gale to weather, and

+I was never in my life more nigh dragging my anchor. But I'm glad," he

+added to himself, "I'm glad that I held fast by the truth."</p>

+

+<p>Ned was to have little peace during the remainder of that day. He had

+to endure the "continual dropping" that made him bitterly remember

+Solomon's proverb—"It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop,

+than with a brawling woman in a wide house." *</p>

+

+<p class="footnote">

+<br>

+* Proverbs xxi. 9.<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p>On Dan's return home in the evening, the storm which Ned had lulled a

+little, broke forth anew with fresh fury.</p>

+

+<p>"What do you think, Dan, that this hero uncle of yours has been

+a-doing!" exclaimed Bessy to her son, banging down the kettle on the

+bar of the grate, as if it too had grievously wronged her. "Lady Barton

+herself, in her grand sweeping gown, came down from the Hall; I'd never

+but once afore seen her enter my cottage, and that was when your poor

+father lay a-dying!"</p>

+

+<p>"What could she come for?" asked Dan, curiosity gleaming in his keen

+little eyes.</p>

+

+<p>"What for but to hear about her son, to be sure, and to talk to this

+bear's cub about him, and to tip him with what would have bought me

+a Sunday gown, I'll be bound, for I saw the lady thrusting back her

+purse into her pocket. And there was he—" Bessy pointed at Ned with her

+thumb—"first standing dumb as a stock-fish, looking as if he couldn't

+utter a word, and then bounce out with such a fine tale, how Mr. Lacy

+had got himself smashed in a drunken row, how he had to lie in his bed

+for days all covered with bruises, how he was the most swaggering,

+quarrelsome—"</p>

+

+<p>Ned felt the hot blood mounting to his face, and the fiery passion

+to his heart: there was nothing for it but to beat a retreat, before

+he should utter as an angry man what as a Christian he might have

+regretted. Weary as the sailor was, there was something which he felt

+to be worse than fatigue, and he walked out into the cool fresh evening

+air, once more to quiet his fevered spirit under the light of the pale

+young moon.</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_5">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+THE LAME SQUIRREL.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>REFRESHED by a good night's rest, notwithstanding the discomforts

+of his new abode, Ned Franks rose on the following morning with a

+cheerful, thankful heart. He awoke with the verse on his lips—</p>

+

+<p class="poem">

+<br>

+"I bless the Lord who safe hath kept,<br>

+&nbsp;Who did protect me while I slept.<br>

+&nbsp;Lord! Grant when I from death awake,<br>

+&nbsp;I may of endless life partake!"<br>

+<br>

+</p>

+

+<p>Up sprang Ned from his rough bed, ready to forget and to forgive the

+"breeze" of the preceding day, and to set about his work in the spirit

+of the command, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy

+might."</p>

+

+<p>After his morning prayer, and Bible reading, Ned begun in earnest to

+set things "ship-shape" in what he called his "little cabin." The loss

+of his left hand greatly increased the difficulty of labouring, but Ned

+Franks worked with a will, and therefore with good success. His only

+interruptions were from the little attentions required by a poor lame

+squirrel that the sailor had picked up on the previous evening, and

+which he nursed with the tenderness which seems peculiar to seamen.

+Ned carried it down with him when he went to breakfast in the kitchen,

+where he found his sister scarcely yet recovered from her fit of

+displeasure; but her sulkiness could not stand against the influence of

+his sunny good-humour.</p>

+

+<p>"Come, Bessy, lass," cried the sailor, "let bygones be bygones, we'll

+have smooth water to-day. After I've set my cabin to rights, I'll see

+what's to be done in your garden; if we could only get the ground clear

+of weeds, it's a fine crop we might look for next year."</p>

+

+<p>Bessy Peele grew so gracious that she not only filled her brother's

+wooden bowl almost to overflowing with hot bread and milk, but she

+examined his squirrel with interest, prescribed for its wounded leg,

+and filled an old basket with hay to make a bed for the sailor's new

+pet. The poor little creature seemed already to know its master—did not

+flinch from his hand, and let him warm it within his rough jacket.</p>

+

+<p>"One could never harm a creature that trusted one," said Ned. "I'll

+nurse the squirrel till its leg is all right, and then give it its

+freedom again. 'Twould be hard to keep it in limbo, when it might enjoy

+itself in the woods."</p>

+

+<p>Back went Ned Franks to his work; nor did he stop till he had wrought a

+wondrous change in the appearance of his dull little loft, by the help

+of a pail of whitewash which he had procured from the village.</p>

+

+<p>"It's beginning to look all taut and trim," said the light-hearted tar,

+stepping back with the big whitened brush in his hand, to survey and

+admire his work. "When I've earned a little more ready rhino, I'll have

+a bit of bunting of the Union-Jack pattern over my bed, and stick a few

+pictures round the wall, to make the cabin quite smart. And I'll have

+my books up there aloft."</p>

+

+<p>In default of a shelf, Ned had carefully ranged along the floor what

+he deemed his best earthly treasures, his Bible, and such works as the

+"Pilgrim's Progress" and "Saint's Rest," with a few other little books

+of a useful kind, from which the sailor had gleaned more knowledge than

+is usually possessed by one in his station of life.</p>

+

+<p>Ned had made such good use of his time, that before dinner he had an

+hour to spare for the garden.</p>

+

+<p>Bessy Peele, as she ironed out her linens, could hear Ned's manly voice

+behind the cottage singing blithely as a bird such sea-songs as "Poor

+Jack" and "The Arethusa." Ned Franks felt perfectly happy at his work;

+its very nature cheered him, for every weed that he pulled up, seemed

+to his mind like an emblem of some evil habit rooted out.</p>

+

+<p>"God is ready to give us His sunshine and his dew," thought the sailor,

+"but He will have us to labour all the while; and though ours be but

+one-handed work as it were, He'll never refuse his blessing if He knows

+that we're doing our best. I did ill yesterday to be so angry with

+Bessy and her boy, because of their sly sneaking ways, just as I looked

+with scorn on the dirty loft and the weedy garden. 'One fault-mender

+is worth fifty fault-finders;' says the proverb. Maybe the great Pilot

+has guided me hither that I may take Dan Peele in tow, and get him out

+of the shoals of deceit, and show him that it's better to sail with the

+wind of truth right in our canvass, than to lose way by tacking about,

+and split on the rocks at last."</p>

+

+<p>Dan, on coming home to the cottage for dinner, found the sailor sitting

+by the table, with the crippled squirrel on his knee.</p>

+

+<p>"Ah! I say, where did you get that?" asked the boy.</p>

+

+<p>"In the woods, yester evening," answered Ned.</p>

+

+<p>"In the woods—what woods?" inquired Bessy, turning round from the

+fire-place, where she was stirring something in the saucepan.</p>

+

+<p>"Those woods yonder, at t'other side of the road," said the sailor.</p>

+

+<p>"Why, that's Sir Lacy's park!" exclaimed Dan. "Didn't you see the board

+up about trespassers being prosecuted?"</p>

+

+<p>"I noticed no board," answered Franks; "it was getting dark, and I

+minded nothing but the squirrel. As I was cruising about on the road, I

+saw the little creature limping on the footway. Thinks I, 'the village

+boys will hunt it to death, or 'twill fall a prey to the weasels, so

+I'll catch it to save its life.' Easier said than done; lame as it was,

+the little squirrel nearly managed to get off, squeezing itself through

+a hole in the fence, and so getting into the wood, or park as you call

+it. But I was over, and after it in a minute."</p>

+

+<p>"I don't know how you, managed to get over, maimed as you are,"

+observed Bessy.</p>

+

+<p>Ned Franks burst into a merry laugh. "A Jack-tar who is used to go

+aloft when 'tis blowing great guns, is not likely to make much of a bit

+of oak-fence," said he. "It was easy enough to climb over, but it was

+not easy to catch the squirrel; he led me a good long dance before I

+could clap my hand upon him."</p>

+

+<p>"Then he did say right," exclaimed Dan thumping his fist on the table.</p>

+

+<p>"He! What do you mean?" cried the sailor, looking at the boy with

+surprise.</p>

+

+<p>"The gamekeeper did say right when he declared that he caught a glimpse

+of a sailor in the wood."</p>

+

+<p>"Likely enough," said Ned Franks, "I hope that no one thinks that I was

+poaching."</p>

+

+<p>"Something worse may be thought," cried Dan, winking mysteriously, like

+one in the possession of an important secret. "Maybe you don't know

+what all the village is talking of, that just after dark, half the

+panes in Lady Barton's hothouse were smashed, a lot of them coloured

+panes too, and that the constable's on the look out to catch whoever

+has done the mischief."</p>

+

+<p>"I've heard nothing about it," said Ned Franks, as he stroked quietly

+the reddish brown coat of his little squirrel.</p>

+

+<p>"But you're like to hear a great deal about it, a great deal more

+than you'd like to hear," cried Dan. "'Tis said all about that you've

+some bitter ill-will 'gainst the young master aboard the 'Queen,' and

+all his family too, and that you was angry at something that the lady

+said or did yesterday, and the gamekeeper saw you in the wood—and, of

+course, you was there for no good—and there's not a soul as doubts as

+you went there and smashed the glass out of spite."</p>

+

+<p>"Some one has got up a fine story about me," said Ned, who more than

+suspected that the whole was his nephew's invention.</p>

+

+<p>Bessy Peele looked alarmed. "I hope—I hope," she exclaimed, "that we're

+not agoing to get into another scrape with Lady Barton! Sir Lacy is a

+hard man, and never lets any one off; 'twould be a dreadful business,

+Ned, if you was to be sent to prison!"</p>

+

+<p>Franks flushed indignantly, as if the very thought were an insult; but

+he only said, "There's little danger of that, Bessy, I never hove in

+sight of the house."</p>

+

+<p>"How unlucky it was that you were in the park at all," began Dan, but

+his mother cut him short.</p>

+

+<p>"What's the use, you simpleton, of saying a word about the park? Who

+need know that your uncle was there at all?"</p>

+

+<p>"But the gamekeeper—"</p>

+

+<p>"What of him?" interrupted Mrs. Peele. "He only guessed that he saw

+something like a sailor in the dusk, and even had he seen Ned as

+plainly as I do now, he's only one, and there's us three, you, I, and

+your uncle, as can say—and hold by it too, that he never stirred from

+that there chimney-corner from sunset to midnight!"</p>

+

+<p>"Bessy!" exclaimed her brother, sternly.</p>

+

+<p>"You don't mean to say," cried Bessy, "that with your ridiculous

+notions about truth, you'll run into a trap with your eyes wide open,

+and get yourself disgraced, and locked up in jail! What's the use, I

+should like to know, of your telling the world that you were in the

+woods hunting a lame squirrel like a boy!"</p>

+

+<p>"I shall say nothing about the matter," answered Ned, "unless—"</p>

+

+<p>"Hist! Hist!" exclaimed Dan, starting up. "If there ben't Sir Lacy

+himself, and the vicar, the constable, gamekeeper, and all! And they're

+coming here!" he added, in alarm.</p>

+

+<p>"Oh, Ned, Ned!" exclaimed Bessy, "Whatever you do, don't own that you

+ever got in them woods."</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+A STORM.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>NED rose from his seat on the entrance of the two gentlemen; the

+constable and gamekeeper remained at the door. Conscious of innocence,

+the sailor confronted the knight with a quiet composure which

+astonished his sister and Dan.</p>

+

+<p>Sir Lacy was a short, thickly-built man, with bushy white whiskers, and

+white hair, round a face whose usually pink hue was now flushed to a

+deeper tint. His round, grey, prominent eyes, with their expression of

+proud domineering insolence, disagreeably reminded Ned Franks of those

+of the knight's namesake and son.</p>

+

+<p>"Your name is Ned Franks," said Sir Lacy at once, without deigning to

+take any notice of Mrs. Peele and her low curtsies.</p>

+

+<p>"At your service, sir," answered Ned.</p>

+

+<p>"You were trespassing in my park last evening?"</p>

+

+<p>"No, indeed, he never left this cottage," began Bessy, but her brother

+silenced her by a glance.</p>

+

+<p>"I am sorry that I trespassed, sir," he said, respectfully, "I did not

+see the board, and I was after this little creature."</p>

+

+<p>He drew out the squirrel which, frightened by the entrance of

+strangers, had taken refuge within his blue jacket.</p>

+

+<p>"You were after something else," said Sir Lacy, roughly. "Do you

+mean to say that you did not wilfully smash some twenty panes in my

+conservatory last evening?"</p>

+

+<p>Ned looked steadily into the face of the rude questioner as he replied,

+"I was never in sight of your conservatory, sir; and as for smashing

+your windows, I know no more who did the mischief than Mr. Curtis

+himself." And as if to appeal to his sense of justice, Ned Franks

+turned towards the clergyman.</p>

+

+<p>"Perhaps you'll say that you know nothing about this," cried Sir Lacy,

+holding out a large leaden ball on which was roughly scratched the word

+"Sebastopol."</p>

+

+<p>Ned Franks looked surprised, and, for a moment perplexed, and passed

+his hand through his hair, as was his wont when in any difficulty.</p>

+

+<p>"Can you deny that it is yours?" asked the knight.</p>

+

+<p>"It is mine," said the sailor, frankly. "'Tis a ball which struck me

+when we lay off the Crimea; but which—being spent—did not wound me at

+all, and I kept it in remembrance of a preservation from death. I lost

+it yesterday, I cannot tell where."</p>

+

+<p>"I can tell where," exclaimed Sir Lacy, in a tone that rang through

+the cottage, and reached the group of village boys, whom curiosity

+had led to follow at a little distance the steps of the knight and

+the constable. "I can tell where you lost it! It was picked up in my

+conservatory this morning, having escaped notice last night when a

+dozen stones were found, which, like it, had been used in breaking my

+glass!"</p>

+

+<p>Ned Franks with an effort kept down his temper, and replied calmly but

+firmly, "How the ball came there I know not; it was certainly never

+thrown by my hand."</p>

+

+<p>"That's a falsehood!" cried the furious knight.</p>

+

+<p>Then, indeed, the gunpowder blazed up in the breast of the young

+sailor; he struck his hand on the table, and, with flashing eyes, he

+exclaimed, "I never told a falsehood in my life, and you are the first

+man who ever spoke such a word of Ned Franks."</p>

+

+<p>Mr. Curtis laid his hand on the arm of Sir Lacy, and whispered

+something to him in a low, earnest tone, while Bessy stood wringing her

+hands, and Ned remained with his form drawn up to more than its usual

+height, looking as a man might look who was facing desperate odds, but

+with unflinching resolution.</p>

+

+<p>"Don't tell me!" exclaimed Sir Lacy, shaking off the hand of the

+clergyman. "He shall go to the lock-up at once, and answer for himself

+before the magistrate to-morrow. The fellow shall pay for my broken

+glass with a couple of months in jail! Here, Masson!"</p>

+

+<p>And at the call, the constable entered, and Ned Franks was given to him

+in charge.</p>

+

+<p>Surprise, indignation, anguish, struggled in the breast of the seaman;

+his first strong impulse was to knock the constable down! But even in

+the sudden gust of passion Ned, whose leading principle was love and

+faith towards God, was like a ship that still obeys the helm, even when

+tost on a raging sea.</p>

+

+<p>"The God of Truth will make my truth clear one day!" Ned exclaimed, and

+with that appeal to One who could never be unjust, and who had Himself

+endured the anguish of reproach and false accusation, the sharpest

+pang of the seaman's trial passed away. He remembered that he was

+drinking of his Master's cup, and would submit to do so for the sake

+of that Master. With more composure than Ned but an hour before would

+have believed himself capable of showing under such circumstances—for

+disgrace to the seaman was worse than death—he gave a few needful

+directions to his sister, commended his lame squirrel to her care, and

+bade her and Dan good-bye.</p>

+

+<p>"Cheer up," were the sailor's words, as he wrung Bessy's hand at

+parting, "the blackest cloud will blow over, and we can't be driven

+from our moorings while the cable of truth holds fast."</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+THE FOOTPRINT.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>"I don't believe that he did it," said Mr. Curtis, thoughtfully, as he

+stood with his back to the mantelpiece in his own little study, with

+his hands behind him.</p>

+

+<p>"I am convinced that he did not!" exclaimed Mrs. Curtis, from her seat

+by the table, where she was preparing some work for her girls' school.</p>

+

+<p>"And on what do you found that conviction, my love?" asked the vicar.</p>

+

+<p>"If the sailor had broken the windows, he would have said so at once,"

+answered the lady. "That man could no more stoop to a falsehood than

+that pine—" she glanced out of the window—"could stoop to crawl on the

+ground like bindweed! Ned Franks has a soul above lying!"</p>

+

+<p>"You speak very positively upon a very short acquaintance, my dear,"

+said the vicar With a smile, for he had seldom seen his gentle wife

+roused to give an opinion with such animation.</p>

+

+<p>"What were you yourself just telling Henry? Did you not say that you

+were struck by the singular frankness with which the sailor owned

+that he had been trespassing in the park, and that the ball was his,

+and with the dignity of truth with which he asserted his innocence

+concerning the glass? And I also have seen him tried, and bearing the

+trial in a manner that would make me take the sailor's word against

+that of a dozen other men. Was I not by when Lady Barton questioned

+Franks hard about her son? Did I not see the pain which her questions

+gave him! How he flushed and bit his lip, and yet from those lips an

+untruth could no more come than if they had been of marble! Oh, Henry,

+I am as sure of that young man's innocence as I am of my own."</p>

+

+<p>"I'm afraid that we shall find it difficult to prove it, my dear."</p>

+

+<p>"The way will be to find out who really did break the glass," said the

+lady. "I think it very likely that the mischief was done by one of the

+boys of our school."</p>

+

+<p>"Nothing more probable," said the vicar, "but I see no way at present

+of discovering the real offender."</p>

+

+<p>"I'll go to the park myself," exclaimed Mrs. Curtis, beginning

+hurriedly to put up her work. "I'll search all about the spot from

+which the stones must have been thrown, and see if I can pick up

+nothing, if I can find no clue to the secret. And you, dear Henry,"

+Mrs. Curtis laid her hand on the arm of her husband, "you have a

+Bible-class with the boys this evening, let your subject be truth. You

+have such a power to convince, to persuade, you may lead the culprit to

+confess."</p>

+

+<p>"I fear that you hope too much, Eliza," said the vicar, shaking his

+head.</p>

+

+<p>"I cannot hope too much," cried the lady, "when my hope is in the mercy

+and justice of God, who can make all dark things light, and who will

+clear the guiltless. I'll go at once for my bonnet and shawl."</p>

+

+<p>"The sun is very hot, still—"</p>

+

+<p>"Oh! Never mind the heat," said Mrs. Curtis, as she hurried out of the

+room, first to pray for success, and then to take what other means she

+could to ensure it.</p>

+

+<p>In about an hour the gentle little lady returned, looking heated and

+tired, but with an eager expression on her face as she reentered the

+study, where her husband was busy at his desk.</p>

+

+<p>"Have you found anything, Eliza?" he asked, glancing up from his

+writing.</p>

+

+<p>"Very, very little, but something," she said, taking out of her bag a

+bit of whity-brown paper, roughly cut into shape.</p>

+

+<p>"What may this be?" asked the vicar, taking it up in his fingers.</p>

+

+<p>"It is the size, the exact size, as well as I could manage to make it

+out, of a footprint which I found on one spot where the ground was a

+little less dry than in other places. It was just about a stone's throw

+from the conservatory of Sir Lacy."</p>

+

+<p>"A single footprint!" exclaimed the vicar.</p>

+

+<p>"And so faint that I passed the place thrice before I saw it all," said

+the lady. "But two things at least were clear; there were nails in the

+boot which made the mark, as in those which our village boys wear, and

+the foot that wore it, was a good deal smaller than that of a tall man

+like Ned Franks."</p>

+

+<p>"There's something in that," observed the vicar, fixing his eyes

+thoughtfully on the paper. "But it by no means follows that the

+footprint was left by the person who broke the glass."</p>

+

+<p>"Then you think the paper of no use," said the lady, in a tone of

+disappointment.</p>

+

+<p>"I never said so; I trust that it may be of great use, my dear, and I

+thank you, not only for bringing it, but for the hint which you gave

+me in regard to my lecture this evening. I have been thinking over the

+subject."</p>

+

+<p>"And praying, I am sure," said his wife.</p>

+

+<p>"Ay," replied the vicar of Colme; "we can do nothing without God's

+blessing, and we can do everything if it be ours."</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+THE SCHOOL-ROOM ADDRESS.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>MR. CURTIS looked unusually thoughtful and grave as he walked up the

+schoolroom. The boys missed the kindly smile and familiar nod, and the

+inquiries after sick relatives, which were wont to make his greeting

+resemble that of a father. All felt that the vicar had something on

+his mind, as he stood behind the reading-desk, with the sunset glow on

+his bald head, looking down on the throng of boys clustering in the

+closely-filled benches.</p>

+

+<p>Instead of going on with the history of St Paul, which he had been

+explaining in a course of lectures, the vicar turned to the fifth

+chapter of Acts. Before beginning to read, with his hand on the open

+Bible, Mr. Curtis said a few words to the boys, who listened in the

+deep silence of expectation.</p>

+

+<p>"You see me anxious and disturbed—I am so. You all know, I doubt not,

+what has happened in our village to-day. A sailor who, after serving

+his country through hardships and dangers, had come here but yesterday

+to enjoy rest and peace in a cottage-home, has been sent to the

+lock-up, accused of an offence, which I believe from my soul that he

+never committed."</p>

+

+<p>Mr. Curtis paused, and the silence was so profound in the room, that

+the murmur of a little neighbouring brook was distinctly heard.</p>

+

+<p>"My belief of his innocence," continued the vicar, "is chiefly founded

+on his character for truth. I believe Franks to be incapable of the

+meanness and sin of telling a lie. But if the sailor be innocent, some

+one else must be guilty, and I have chosen the history of Ananias and

+Sapphira for our reading this evening, that we may all learn from it

+how Almighty God sees, knows, and can bring to light these things that

+we believe to be hidden for ever from the eyes of all men."</p>

+

+<p>Mr. Curtis then went on to read aloud the awful story recorded in the

+Word of God, of the man and woman whose characters had stood fair

+before the world, who had been counted amongst the flock of faithful

+Christians, but who had been struck down dead, with falsehood upon

+their tongues! Fearful warning to all who think lightly of the guilt of

+untruth!</p>

+

+<p>Mr. Curtis closed the Bible. "Such a history as that which I have just

+read," he remarked, "needs no comment of mine. We see in it written, as

+with letters of fire, what falsehood is in the sight of the Lord! Now,

+to return to the subject on which I was speaking, I wish all here to

+know that a clue, though a slight one, has been discovered as to the

+real author of the mischief done. The footprint of a boy has been left

+on the sod!"</p>

+

+<p>A thrill at the words ran through the assembly; the scholars looked

+one at another, and then fixed their eager eyes on the speaker, gazing

+open-mouthed, as if they expected that the next moment his finger would

+be stretched forth to point out the offender.</p>

+

+<p>"A boy!" repeated the vicar, emphatically. "Perhaps one of these now

+before me! A fac-simile of the footprint has been carefully taken on

+paper, and I intend tomorrow to compare it with the boots of each

+one here present, unless—as I hope and trust—he who broke the glass

+will earn the respect and confidence of all who know him by frankly,

+honestly, nobly, confessing the truth at once."</p>

+

+<p>Again there was that kind of electric thrill through the throng, again

+the boys turned inquiring looks one upon another.</p>

+

+<p>"In such case," continued the clergyman, "I shall do everything in my

+power to shield that boy from the punishment which his mischievous act

+has deserved, I shall use my influence to procure his full pardon from

+Sir Lacy. But even if he have something to bear, it will be more than

+made up to him by the satisfaction of feeling that, in confessing, he

+has done what is manly and right; that he has saved an innocent man

+from distress; that he himself has no sudden shameful disclosure to

+fear; that he has earned a character for honour, the respect of his

+comrades, the approval of conscience; and that he has put on that

+Girdle of Truth without which whatever he may call himself, or think

+himself, he can be a Christian only in name."</p>

+

+<p>Mr. Curtis knelt down, and all the scholars followed his example.

+Very fervent was the vicar's prayer to God, that He might give to all

+present grace and courage ever to speak the truth, to conceal nothing

+that ought to be confessed, remembering that a great Day is coming

+when, before assembled myriads of angels and men, the most secret

+things shall be manifest, when we shall know even as we are known!

+There was some encouragement to the clergyman in the earnest "amen"

+from the boys, which followed his prayer.</p>

+

+<p>"I hope that your words have made an impression, Henry," said Mrs.

+Curtis to her husband, as they sat together that night in the little

+study.</p>

+

+<p>The vicar had been reading aloud to his wife, but the minds of both had

+wandered from the book.</p>

+

+<p>"Why, we have no evidence beyond your little slip of paper, my love,

+and—" Mr. Curtis was interrupted by the sound of a timid ring at the

+door-bell: faint as it was, both the vicar and his wife instinctively

+turned to listen, and nothing was said by either till the maid opened

+the study-door with:</p>

+

+<p>"The glazier's little boy says that he wishes to speak with you, sir."</p>

+

+<p>Mrs. Curtis knew Stephen White to be one of the scholars, and her heart

+beat fast with expectation.</p>

+

+<p>"Ask him to step in here," said the vicar.</p>

+

+<p>A thin, sly, slouching boy soon stood at the entrance, and then, after

+being twice desired to come forward, moved one or two steps into the

+room. He hung his head, fumbled with the buttons of his jacket, and

+looked the picture of confusion and shyness.</p>

+

+<p>"I am glad to see you here, Stephen," said Mr. Curtis, encouragingly;

+"speak out freely, and tell me what you have come for to-night."</p>

+

+<p>"Please, sir-" stammered forth the boy, "you said as how you would try

+to get me off."</p>

+

+<p>Mrs. Curtis could hardly refrain from an exclamation of pleasure, as

+she dropped her work on her knee.</p>

+

+<p>"I will keep my promise to an honest, truthful boy, who, having done

+a wrong and a foolish action, is going to make what amends are in his

+power."</p>

+

+<p>Stephen White looked ready to cry, and put the back of his hand up to

+his face.</p>

+

+<p>"Why did you break the glass?" asked the vicar, seeing that in this

+case silence was clearly consent.</p>

+

+<p>"I thought as how it would give father a job," faintly stuttered forth

+the boy.</p>

+

+<p>"And how came you to have the ball, the leaden ball, that was found in

+the hothouse?"</p>

+

+<p>"I picked it up on the road yesterday," said Stephen, "and put it in

+my pocket along with the stones. I didn't think, indeed I didn't, of

+getting the sailor into trouble."</p>

+

+<p>"I do not doubt you, my boy," cried the vicar.</p>

+

+<p>Then, turning to his wife, he added, "Eliza, my love, just write down

+his words; you and I will sign the paper as witnesses, and I'll carry

+it myself to Sir Lacy Bar-ton's this very night."</p>

+

+<p>"But oh! Sir," cried Stephen in alarm, "you will, you will get me out

+of this scrape!"</p>

+

+<p>"I'll do my best," answered the vicar, "and I've little doubt but that

+I shall succeed."</p>

+

+<p>Mrs. Curtis, with a hand that trembled with joyful excitement, had

+already dipped a pen into ink, and a clear brief statement of the whole

+truth was soon drawn up and signed, first by Stephen in round text,

+very shaky and uneven, then by the pastor and his lady as witnesses.</p>

+

+<p>"I am so glad," said the vicar's wife, as she brought to her husband

+his hat and stick, and a comforter to protect him from the night air.

+"I am so thankful that the character of that gallant tar is now cleared

+from all suspicion."</p>

+

+<p>"And I am as glad and thankful," said the vicar, looking at Stephen

+White as he spoke, "that one of my boys, resolving not to add sin unto

+sin, has come forward with a brave confession, and that I shall always

+be able henceforth to trust his honour and his word."</p>

+

+<p>Stephen gave a great sigh of relief; a weight was lifted off from the

+heart of the boy; he felt that now he could bear even the risk of being

+sent to prison.</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<h3><a id="Chapter_9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3>

+

+<p class="t3">

+CLEARING UP.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br></p>

+

+<p>"A PRECIOUS scrape Uncle Ned has got himself into!" exclaimed Dan on

+the following morning, as he blew the steam from his bowl of hot milk

+and bread. "He'll be had up afore the magistrate to-day, and then

+clapped into jail for I don't know how long!"</p>

+

+<p>"If he'd only had the wit to say that he'd never entered them woods!"

+exclaimed Bessy.</p>

+

+<p>"Ah! He won't be atwitting me again for what he calls 'a mean thing,

+a senseless, a wicked'—we shan't be hearing no more that a liar is 'a

+sneak, a coward, a fool!'"</p>

+

+<p>"Don't make too sure of that, my lad!" cried a loud cheery voice at the

+door.</p>

+

+<p>Bessy and Dan both started up in surprise, as Mr. Curtis and the sailor

+entered the cottage.</p>

+

+<p>"Well, if ever! Is he cleared?" exclaimed Bessy, reading an answer at

+once in the beaming face of her brother.</p>

+

+<p>"Yes, cleared, come off with flying colours," said the vicar; "truth

+has ever the victory at last."</p>

+

+<p>"Why," exclaimed the wondering Dan, "here comes Sir Lacy himself, at

+this hour of the day!"</p>

+

+<p>In bustled the knight with his flushed face and his bushy white

+whiskers, but looking a different man from what he had done on the

+previous day. Notwithstanding a violent temper, which led often to

+passion, and not unfrequently to injustice, there was something kindly

+and generous still in the character of Sir Lacy.</p>

+

+<p>"I could not rest," he said, as to the utter amazement of the Peeles,

+he held out his hand to the sailor, "I could not rest till I had

+told you how much I regret yesterday's mistake. But you'll own that

+appearances were against you."</p>

+

+<p>"Ay, ay, sir, things looked ill," replied Ned.</p>

+

+<p>"I should wish—I should like," began the knight, half pulling a

+sovereign out of his waistcoat pocket, but Ned instinctively drew back,

+with a feeling utterly incomprehensible to Mrs. Peele and her son.</p>

+

+<p>"No, sir; if you do me a favour, please kindly to let off the little

+chap who bravely spoke out the truth and cleared me."</p>

+

+<p>"I've done that already, at the request of my good friend the vicar,"

+said the knight. "I want to do something else, my fine fellow, to show

+my feeling towards yourself."</p>

+

+<p>"Then, sir, if you'd have the kindness not to send my sister here

+adrift at Michaelmas: she has a love for her little cabin, and is sore

+loath to leave it."</p>

+

+<p>"As long as you remain here," said the knight, "I give you my word that

+the cottage shall stand."</p>

+

+<p>Bessy poured out a torrent of thanks and blessings to which no one gave

+heed, while Ned Franks simply replied, "I thank you, sir, kindly."</p>

+

+<p>Then, turning towards the vicar, he expressed in few but heartfelt

+words his gratitude towards him and his lady.</p>

+

+<p>"Depend upon it, Ned Franks," said Mr. Curtis, "a man who will not

+speak an untruth either for fear or for favour, is never likely to

+want a friend. He only can walk on the straight path freely, firmly,

+fearlessly, who keeps the Master's command in mind and wears the Girdle

+of Truth."</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+THE END.<br>

+</p>

+

+<p><br><br><br></p>

+

+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 73200 ***</div>

+</body>

+</html>

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