at lasted almost from Waterloo up to the time of the Crimean
war, he determined, like Cincinnatus, to "beat his sword into a
ploughshare." In other words, he abandoned the fickle element on which
he had passed the early days of his manhood and emigrated to the West
Indies, to see whether he might not improve his fortunes by investing
what little capital he had in a coffee and cocoa plantation in the
island where my scene opens. A couple of months or so before, he had
taken a trip across the Atlantic to arrange some money matters with his
London agent, and we were now expecting his return by every mail.
Beyond this, my father had more than half-hinted that, as soon as he got
back to Grenada, he would send me over to England in my turn to go to
school, when, most likely, I would have to bid adieu to my West Indian
home for good and all; for, my fervent desire was to follow in dad's
footsteps and enter the navy as soon as I was able to pass the admiralty
examination--a desire to which dad, in spite of the scurvy way in which
he had been treated by an ungrateful country, did not say nay, his
ambition being that I should succeed where he failed if possible, for he
was a true sailor and hankered after the sea yet.

It was not surprising, therefore, that I was so eager to learn whether
the packet had come in, albeit her arrival would naturally bring to an
end the little brief authority which I had been so proud to assume
during dad's absence as the protector of my mother and sisters, besides
being regarded by all the negro hands as "um lilly massa of um
plantashun." Really, I esteemed myself at that period to be a most
important and highly dignified person, being only a boy of thirteen
years old then, and small-grown for my age at that!

Jake had scarcely been out of sight five minutes when I began to look
out for his return. My impatience, indeed, quite got the better of my
reason, for I ought to have known well enough, if I had only considered,
that he could not have yet half accomplished the journey to the signal
station on Richmond Hill, much less thought even of coming back, the
willing darkey being as unable as anyone else to annihilate distance or
space!

It was a terribly hot day, being close on to the noontide hour, the
thermometer under the shade of the verandah where I stood marking over a
hundred degrees; while, goodness only knew what it was out in the open,
where the sun's blistering rays produced such inte