dock adjoined the western boundary of the church-yard, she
encountered Arthur Blackbourne and her brother Edward.

"Where have you been cruising out of your course, girls, for the last
age?" cried Arthur: "here have I been giving chase to you both in all
directions, till I have hardly a leg to stand on!"

"We have only been for a walk to Easton Broad," said Elizabeth.

"A walk to Easton Broad, the very evening of my return, and without me!"

"How should I know you were home?"

"There were other girls in the town who contrived to find it out;--ay,
and pretty girls too--but they took the trouble of keeping a look-out
for the Jolly Nicholas," rejoined Arthur, reproachfully.

"So did Bessy, I am sure!" exclaimed the boy Edward, with great
vivacity; "why, she wholly crazed us about the Jolly Nicholas, and sent
me a dozen times a day to ask our old pilots at the station, whether she
were in sight, till they were so sick of the Jolly Nicholas and me, that
they got as savage as so many sea-bears, and gave me the name of 'Old
Nick' for my pains."

"Joan Bates was on the beach to welcome me on shore when I landed,"
pursued Arthur.

"Just like her; she is always so forward," retorted Elizabeth.

"It would be well if some people thought as much of me as Joan Bates,"
continued Arthur.

"And if you have nothing more agreeable to say to me, Arthur
Blackbourne, I will wish you good night," said Elizabeth. "Come,
Edward."

"You are in a mighty hurry, I think; when you have not seen me for six
months, and I have thought of you, sleeping and waking, all that time,
and now you won't speak one kind word to a poor fellow!" said the young
sailor.

"I have spoken quite as many as you deserve," retorted Elizabeth; "if
you want flattery, you may go to Joan Bates."

"And so I will, if you are not more lovingly disposed the next time we
meet," said Arthur; "but you will be better tempered, I hope, at Dunwich
fair to-morrow."

"I am not going to Dunwich fair."

"Not going to Dunwich fair, Bessy! a pretty joke, i'faith, when the
Royal Anne is new painted and rigged with her best flags and canvas all
ready to take us; and we have the prospect of a glorious day to-morrow."

"No matter; I shall not go."

"How very perverse;--just to vex me, I suppose!"

"You know my father does not approve of fairs."

"Fiddle-de-dee! there will be plenty of people as good as Parson Younges
at Dunwich fair, and some a little wiser, mayhap."

"I