e walls of the school all went
equally well with the youthful friends, in the great world outside,
heavy troubles came to Sidney's father. The vessel he commanded was
lost near the mouth of the River Mersey, and though the crew were
saved, yet it was judged that some mismanagement caused the disaster,
and Sidney's father lost his certificate, and no owners would again
trust him to command a vessel. The poor man took this so much to heart
that he fell into a bad state of health, and declined so rapidly, that
the week after Sidney received from Liverpool the first intimation of
his father's illness, tidings came that he was dead.

It was in the autumnal quarter, about eight weeks before Christmas,
that the sad letter was received which told Sidney he was now an
orphan. The only aunt the poor boy had, his father's sister, wrote the
account, and she was obliged to add the painful fact that, with the
loss of his father, Sidney would lose the means of further education,
and must look forward to some humble means of earning his daily bread,
with as little delay as possible.

[Illustration: "Why, Sid,--what's this? Dear old fellow, what's the
matter?"]

In his first great grief at hearing of his father's death, all else
seemed trivial. Change of circumstances, hard work, any trouble, would
have been as nothing if his father had been spared to him. But after
the first shock of his sorrow, Sidney admitted that he must leave
school; that it would not be honest, either to his aunt or his
schoolmaster, to remain. Strangely enough, the very week in which
this trouble came to Sidney, his friend Walter was at home for a few
days, joining in the celebration of his father's fiftieth birthday. He
had wanted Sidney to have a holiday also; but the latter, being
already aware of his father's reverses and illness, though having no
fear of any greater grief impending over him, had declined his
friend's kind invitation. So it happened that, while a happy jubilee
was being celebrated in Walter's home, Sidney was suddenly made a poor
orphan.

Never, during the three years that they had been school-fellows, had
the countenances of the two boys showed such a contrast of expression
as when they met in the playground a few minutes after Walter had
alighted at the gate, on his return from the pleasant sojourn at his
home. He was flushed with health and happiness, and ran up, with a
boyish shout of mirth, to greet his friend. Poor Sidney, pale