" asked Captain Armstrong.

"Bigg, sir--Thomas Bigg," answered the seaman.

"He seems to be an active, intelligent man. As we are short of hands,
we may as well allow him to enter if he wishes it," observed the captain
to the first lieutenant.

The stranger was asked if he would enter, and expressed no objections to
do so, but said he would think about it.

When I heard the name of Thomas Bigg, I looked at the man very hard, to
see if I could discover any likeness between him and Tommy, for I could
not help thinking that he might possibly be Tommy's father, who was
supposed to have been lost at sea. I waited till the seaman was sent
forward, and then I followed him.

"I say, my man, your name is not strange to me," said I. "Will you tell
me, have you ever had a son called after yourself?"

"Why do you ask, sir?" said he, looking surprised, and yet very eager.

"Because I once had a shipmate of that name, a little fellow, who told
me that his father had been so long at sea without coming home, that he
was supposed to be lost," I replied.

"Did he remember me? Did he talk about me, the poor dear little chap?"
inquired the seaman, eagerly.

"Indeed he did," I answered. "He told me how fond you were of him. He
was sure that you would have come back if you could; and he, I am sure,
loved you dearly, as a son should a kind father."

"Bless him! bless him!" exclaimed the seaman, brushing away a tear from
his eye. "But where is he now? Can you tell me nothing more about
him?"

Just then Tommy came on deck. "What do you think of that little fellow
out there?" I asked.

The seaman looked at him eagerly. In another moment he had sprung from
one side of the ship to the other, and, to Tommy's great surprise, had
seized him in his arms, and gazing anxiously in his face, began to hug
him as if he was about to squeeze all the breath out of his body. Tommy
looked up at length in return.

"Father!" he exclaimed, hesitatingly, drawing deeply his breath; "is it
you, is it you indeed?"

"Tommy, Tommy, it is," cried the seaman. "I've found you, and you've
found me; and if they were to tell me that you were not my own boy, I
wouldn't believe them, that I wouldn't. I know you as well as if I'd
never lost sight of you, that I do!"

I cannot describe how happy I felt at this meeting of the father and his
boy. The tears came to my eyes as I watched them. I soon, however,
went away and left them to themselves. "