offended with Harry for venturing
to look up to Miss Fanny; but the state of the case was now greatly
altered; and should Harry be able to prove that he was heir to Sir
Mostyn Stafford, instead of being without name or family, I knew of
course that the captain would no longer think of forbidding him to marry
his daughter.

I had one day walked down to the beach, when a wherry from Portsmouth
came to an anchor, and soon after a boat reached the shore with several
people in her. Among them was a one-legged man, with white hair, who
looked to my eyes like an old post-captain or admiral. I went up to
him, at first with some doubt in my mind, but soon saw that it was no
other than my old shipmate Jerry.

He put out his hand and shook mine cordially, saying as he did so, "You
are less changed than I am, Ben, but years make a difference in a man.
Stay, I must not lose sight of my valise. Once upon a time I should
have made nothing of carrying it myself, but I am not as strong on my
pins as I used to be. Can you get someone to take it up to your house?
We will keep him in sight, however; because, as you may guess, I should
not like to lose it."

I said that I would carry it myself, and, taking it out of the boat,
shouldered it and walked up alongside Jerry, who stumped along with much
less briskness than formerly; indeed I saw that he was greatly aged
since we last met. On reaching home, after Susan had welcomed him, he
caught her eye turned towards the valise.

"You are anxious to see the portraits I wrote about," he observed,
getting up and opening it. The first he took out was that of the little
boy.

"That's like him all over," exclaimed Susan. "I should have known it
even if I had not expected to see it; and it's just the same as the one
I have upstairs, though that is terribly faded."

"Please get it, Mrs Truscott, and we will compare the two," said Jerry.
She quickly brought the little picture we had so carefully preserved;
though the colours were almost gone, the lines were sufficiently clear
to remove any manner of doubt in our minds that the one was a copy of
the other.

"And now, what do you think of this?" producing a portrait of Miss
Stafford.

"The very young lady who came to our house," exclaimed Susan. "Owing to
the sad circumstances of her death, her features are more impressed on
my mind than those of anyone I ever met, and I am sure those who know
Harry would say that he is wonderfully like