_so_ glad!" exclaimed Dolly Young, who had now become an
enthusiastic, warm-hearted, pretty young woman of twenty-three summers.

Dolly blushed as she spoke, but not with consciousness. It was but
innocent truthfulness. John Buffett paused, and looked at her steadily.
What John Buffett thought we are not prepared to say, but it may be
guessed, when we state that within two months of that date, he and Dolly
Young were united in marriage by old Adams, with all the usual
ceremonial, including the curtain-ring which did duty on all such
occasions, and the unfailing game of blind-man's-buff.

John Evans was encouraged, a few months later, to take heart and do
likewise. He was even bolder than Buffett, for he wooed and won a
princess; at least, if John Adams was in any sense a king, his second
daughter Rachel must have been a princess! Be this as it may, Evans
married her, and became a respected member of the little community.

And now another of these angel-like visits was looming in the distance.
About twelve years after the departure of the _Britain_ and _Tagus_, one
of H.M. cruisers, the _Blossom_, Captain Beechy, sailed out of the Great
Unknown into the circlet of Pitcairn, and threw the islanders into a
more intense flutter than ever, for there were now upwards of fifty
souls there, many of whom had not only never seen a man-of-war, but had
had their imaginations excited by the glowing descriptions of those who
had. This was in 1825.

The _Blossom_ had been fitted out for discovery. When Buffett first
recognised her pennant he was in great trepidation lest they had come to
carry off Adams, but such was not the case. It was merely a passing
visit. Three weeks the _Blossom_ stayed, during which the captain and
officers were entertained in turn at the different houses; and it seems
to have been to both parties like a brief foretaste of the land of
Beulah.

Naturally, Captain Beechy was anxious to test the truth of the glowing
testimony of former visitors. He had ample opportunity, and afterwards
sent home letters quite as enthusiastic as those of his predecessors in
regard to the simplicity, truthfulness, and genuine piety alike of old
and young.

If a few hours' visit had on former occasions given the community food
for talk and reflection, you may be sure that the three weeks' of the
_Blossom's_ sojourn gave them a large supply for future years. It
seemed to Otaheitan Sally, and Dinah Adams, and Dolly and