they carried the trembling Ned, who had to be scoured
and fed and clothed into his 'right mind' once again.

And this was running away secretly! thought each humiliated adventurer
as they gazed, stony-eyed, at one another.

Shortly after, when Alick had crept sufficiently far out of the fever,
looking a white shadow of his former self, the two boys were conveyed
back to Northbourne, where a genuinely hearty welcome awaited them from
the fisher-folk. Jerry Blunt, indeed, had suggested a triumphal arch
with WELCOME in letters tall and wide. But that notion was instantly
quashed by wiser heads.

'We be thankful to see 'em back,' judicially said Northbourne; 'but we
ain't a-goin' to make "conquerin' heroes" of such young limbs!'

So it came to pass that the boys who thought it such a fine, manly
thing to run away to sea, as boys will think, returned meekly, with
shamed eyes, and hearts bounding joyfully at sight of the homes they
had not dreamed were so dear until they had forfeited them, as they
thought, for ever.

CHAPTER XIX

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

'Oh, Alick!

'Oh, Theo!'

After the first cries of greeting there was a silence. Theo's arms
were tight round her restored brother's neck, and Alick rested his
tear-stained cheek against his sister's. They were alone in the room,
but, in truth, the boy would not have cared if all Northbourne had been
looking on.

'Theo,' he sobbed out presently, 'it was awful!'

'Yes, dear, it must have been,' whispered Theo sympathetically,
tightening her arms. 'It was not what you expected?'

'It was _awful_!' repeated Alick. As yet he could find no words to
picture his experience of life out in the hard world. 'And,' he went
on, lifting up his tear-stained face, 'I am more sorry than I can ever
tell that I did it, Theo--sorry and ashamed.'

'Have you told God that, Alick?' asked Theo softly, in his ear.

'Yes, I have,' was the grave, equally low reply. 'I've put it on to
the end of my prayers, night and morning. And--perhaps He will forgive
me some day, if I--if I can do something, work out something, you know,
to show that I _am_ really and truly sorry. Don't you think I could
manage something of the sort, Theo?' asked Alick earnestly, if
awkwardly.

'No, Alick, I don't!' said Theo abruptly; and the boy's face fell. Of
late the boy had been full of this new desire to efface his wrong-doing
by some means or other himself. 'Most certainly, dear old boy,' we