who was running down
to meet them.

"It is Frank! It is Frank!" burst from the lips of the rest.

"Why, father! Charley! who would have thought it?" cried the young
stranger, warmly greeting them; "and Willie, and Mabel, and Arthur!
What big people they have become! I little expected to have found you
so soon; and you were in that poor old woman's hut, too! Well, that is
curious! The truth is, I am lost, or rather I couldn't find you. I
mislaid Charley's letter, and though I thought I knew the name of the
place, I found, when I got into the country, that I hadn't the slightest
notion of what it was; and after wandering about for a couple of days, I
determined to write to old Evans, at Bangor, and to await his answer at
the inn on the other side of the mountain."

"Then, Frank, you are the young gentleman who saved Old Moggy's life,"
said Anna. "How delightful!"

"Oh, did I? I merely threw my jacket over the poor creature's legs, and
put out the fire which had caught her clothes and would have burnt her,"
answered the midshipman. "I am very glad I was of use, though it's not
a thing to be proud of. It was very fortunate, however, for me, for I
don't know how otherwise I should have found you. There is one thing I
should like to do, and that is to thrash the heartless young monkeys who
threw stones at the poor woman. If I can find them I will."

William looked down, overwhelmed with shame, and almost wished that
Frank _would_ thrash him.

"Then what brought you back to the hut, my boy?" asked the Doctor.

"Oh, to look after the poor old woman," said Frank, "I understood from
the nurse--Jenny Davis she told me was her name--that she has no
friends, and so I thought it was but right and proper to come back and
see how she was getting on. I dropped a bundle with some old shirts and
other things in at the window; but seeing some people there, not
dreaming that they were all of you, I of course wouldn't go in. I
waited, expecting you soon to go away, and fortunately I made you out,
or I should have gone back to my inn, and not known that I had been
close to you."

"Bless you, my boy, bless you! may you ever act in the same way from
principle, and not merely from the impulse of the heart, good as that
may be," said the Doctor, warmly, pressing Frank's hand, and undoubtedly
feeling the contrast between his conduct and that of William. "And now
let us hear something about yourself," he continued, in a more