h glitters mysteriously the crown and scepter of the ancient
kings and queens of Scotland.

Into the glamour of this vision there came suddenly a dream of his
mother, and his home, and he awakened from it with an intense conviction
that his mother needed his presence, and that he must make all haste to
reach his home. In half an hour he had paid his bill and taken a
carriage for Leith harbor, and the yacht was speeding down the Firth ere
the wan, misty daylight brightened the colorless sea. The stillness of
sea and sky was magical and they were a little delayed by the calm, but
in due time the wind sprang up suddenly and the yacht danced into Whitby
harbor.

Then John parted from Captain Cook, saying as he did so, "Good-bye,
Captain. We have had a happy holiday together. Get the yacht in order
and revictualed, for in two weeks my brother Henry may join you. I
believe he is for the south."

"Good-bye, sir. It has been a good time for me. You have been my teacher
more than my master, and you are a rich man and I am a poor one."

"A man's a man for all that, Captain."

"Well, sir, not always. Many are not men in spite of _all that_. God be
with you, sir."

"And with you, Captain." Then they clasped hands and turned away, each
man where Duty called him.

CHAPTER II

THE PEOPLE OF THE STORY

Slowly, steadily, to and fro,
Swings our life in its weary way;
Now at its ebb, and now at its flow,
And the evening and morning make up the day.

Sorrow and happiness, peace and strife,
Fear and rejoicing its moments know;
Yet from the discords of such a life,
The clearest music of heaven may flow.

Duty led John Hatton to take the quickest road to Hatton-in-Elmete, a
small manufacturing town in a lovely district in Yorkshire. In Saxon
times it was covered with immense elm forests from which it was
originally called Elmete, but nearly a century ago the great family of
Hatton (being much reduced by the passage of the Reform Bill and their
private misfortunes) commenced cotton-spinning here, and their mills,
constantly increasing in size and importance, gave to the Saxon Elmete
the name of Hatton-in-Elmete.

The little village had become a town of some importance, but nearly
every household in it was connected in some way or other with the
cotton mills, either as cotton masters or cotton operatives. There were
necessarily a few professional men and shopkeepers, but there wa