hospitality to his account; for I
feel that I have been the unwilling cause of too much suffering to
your party to bring with me any very pleasant recollections,
notwithstanding your kindness in including me as a friend in the
adventures of which you speak."

"Dangers that are happily past, seldom bring very unpleasant
recollections, more especially when they were connected with scenes
of excitement, I understand, sir, that the unhappy young man, who was
the principal cause of all that passed, anticipated the sentence of
the law, by destroying himself."

"He was his own executioner, and the victim of a silly weakness that,
I should think, your state of society was yet too young and simple to
encourage. The idle vanity of making an appearance, a vanity, by the
way, that seldom besets gentlemen, or the class to which it may be
thought more properly to belong, ruins hundreds of young men in
England, and this poor creature was of the number. I never was more
rejoiced than when he quitted my ship, for the sight of so much
weakness sickened one of human nature. Miserable as his fate proved
to be, and pitiable as his condition really was while in my charge,
his case has the alleviating circumstance with me, of having made me
acquainted with those whom it might not otherwise have been my good
fortune to meet!"

This civil speech was properly acknowledged, and Mr. Effingham
addressed himself to Captain Truck, to whom, in the hurry of the
moment, he had not yet said half that his feelings dictated.

"I am rejoiced to see you under my roof, my worthy friend," taking
the rough hand of the old seaman between his own whiter and more
delicate fingers, and shaking it with cordiality, "for this _is_
being under my roof, while those town residences have less the air of
domestication and familiarity. You will spend many of your holidays
here, I trust; and when we get a few years older, we will begin to
prattle about the marvels we have seen in company."

The eye of Captain Truck glistened, and, as he return ed the shake by
another of twice the energy, and the gentle pressure of Mr. Effingham
by a squeeze like that of a vice, he said in his honest off-hand
manner--

"The happiest hour I ever knew was that in which I discharged the
pilot, the first time out, as a ship-master; the next great event of
my life, in the way of happiness, was the moment I found myself on
the deck of the Montauk, after we had given those greasy Arabs a hi