e months after he was driven off the Reef. In all this he was
much favoured by circumstances; though an old salt, like Bob, will
usually make his way where a landsman would be brought up.

The owners of the Rancocus gave up their ship, as soon as Betts had told
his story, manifesting no disposition to send good money after bad. They
looked to the underwriters, and got Bob to make oath to the loss of the
vessel; which said oath, by the way, was the ground-work of a law-suit
that lasted Friend Abraham White as long as he lived. Bob next sought
Bridget with his tale. The young wife received the poor fellow with
floods of tears, and the most eager attention to his story, as indeed
did our hero's sister Anne. It would seem that Betts's arrival was most
opportune. In consequence of the non-arrival of the ship, which was then
past due two or three months, Doctor Yardley had endeavoured to persuade
his daughter that she was a widow, if indeed, as he had of late been
somewhat disposed to maintain, she had ever been legally married at all.
The truth was, that the medical war in Bristol had broken out afresh, in
consequence of certain cases that had been transferred to that village,
during one of the fever-seasons in Philadelphia. Greater cleanliness,
and the free use of fresh water, appear to have now arrested the course
of this formidable disease, in the northern cities of America; but, in
that day, it was of very frequent occurrence. Theories prevailed among
the doctors concerning it, which were bitterly antagonistical to each
other; and Doctor Woolston headed one party in Bucks, while Doctor
Yardley headed another. Which was right, or whether either was right, is
more than we shall pretend to say, though we think it probable that both
were wrong. Anne Woolston had been married to a young physician but a
short time, when this new outbreak concerning yellow fever occurred. Her
husband, whose name was Heaton, unfortunately took the side of this
grave question that was opposed to his father-in-law, for a reason no
better than that he believed in the truth of the opposing theory, and
this occasioned another breach. Doctor Yardley could not, and did not
wholly agree with Doctor Heaton, because the latter was Doctor
Woolston's son-in-law, and he altered his theory a little to create a
respectable point of disagreement; while Doctor. Woolston could not
pardon a disaffection that took place, as it might be, in the height of
a war. About