the Hudson to Mr. John Low's house.

"The great indulgence with which Bernard was treated, and the bustle
that was made about him, together with the real kindness of Mr. Evans,
made him very hard and careless about his parents.

"He used often to say, 'I do very well here; if papa stays longer than
he at first intended I shall not fret after him, and I dare say he will
not fret after me, for if he had loved me so very much he would not
have left me behind.'

"Bernard could not forgive his father for leaving him; but whenever he
talked in this way not even Stephen could keep Griffith from speaking
his mind to him.

"'There you go again,' Griffith would say; 'always blaming your father,
when the fault is all your own. Don't you know, Bernard, that there is
nobody that can bear with you who thinks they have not something to get
by you?'

"The name Noddy, which Stephen had forbidden, was got up again after
the Midsummer holidays; and everything that Bernard did to make himself
disagreeable was set down to this Noddy.

"At last Bernard got to the truth of this matter by being told by
Meekin that if he wished to see Noddy, he must take a peep in the
looking-glass. On hearing this, Bernard struck Meekin, and if Stephen
had not come in, the spoiled boy for once would have got his deserts.

"Letters were again received from Mr. Low about December; he said in
them that his poor brother was very ill, not likely to live through the
winter; that it was impossible for him to leave him, and that at all
events he meant to stay till the season for crossing the sea should be
better. Lucilla at the same time wrote a long letter to her brother.

"The Christmas holidays passed, and nothing particular happened; the
same boys met again after Christmas, and another boy came also; but
Bernard despised him as much as he did Meekin and Griffith and Price,
because he had heard it said that his father kept a shop.

"January passed, and February, and March; another letter had come from
Mr. Low; poor Mr. John Low was dead, and Mr. Low was busy settling his
affairs. Mr. John Low had left his brother a good deal of money, but
Mr. Low did not say anything about that; Miss Grizzy therefore made it
out that there was none.

"Another letter arrived at the end of March to say that Captain Lewis
was to sail for England in the _Dory_ in a few days, and that Mr. Low
hoped to come with him. There was another sweet letter from Lucilla,
telling how ma