, to judge by the vigorous use of his pocket
handkerchief; but all he said was conveyed in a single nautical
phrase,--"The youngster is on the right tack."

The day after, the principal of the Mount's Bay School received an
intimation that Sidney was to continue his studies there as long as
he proved diligent; but the name of his patron was not to be told him.
So, to the lad's great satisfaction, he was informed that a friend who
had known his father would, for the present, help him. Walter knew the
truth, but though he felt the intense joy that a good action always
yields to the doer even more than to the receiver, he was careful to
obey his father, and keep the secret.

If Sidney was studious before, he redoubled his diligence now, and in
the year made such great progress, that a Dutch gentleman, who visited
the school, offered him a situation in his office at Rotterdam; and as
Sidney knew that a residence abroad would be a great improvement to
him, and also was eager to enter upon some mode of earning his own
living, he wished earnestly to take the offer. At no time during their
now four years of mutual school-life and friendship would Walter have
heard with patience of Sidney leaving. But a parting now came.

Walter's father had become an invalid, and was ordered to a warmer
climate. The family removed to Florence, in Italy, and, of course,
Walter went with them; his greatest grief being that Sidney could not
accompany them.

With the keenest pangs of youthful sorrow, the two friends parted,
promising to write often, looking forward to meet at no distant
future, for the world did not seem too wide for them, accustomed as
they were, by association, to maritime people and travellers.

It was three months after Walter had left, when Sidney took leave of
his kind master, and the school which had been a home to him, and
went, in cold spring weather, to the Venice of the north--Rotterdam.
When he left he made one request, which his tutor thought it not wrong
to grant. He desired to know the name of the benefactor who had so
munificently helped him; and though he was not very much surprised
when he heard the source from whence the aid had come, and was indeed
glad that his gratitude was due where his friendship had so long been
given, yet it naturally moved him very deeply when he found how Walter
had been the means of effecting this. He also remembered vividly some
acts of self-denial that added to the delicacy of hi