our earnings, and get ourselves a nice little home,
which we did; and remembering the Rock of Good Hope, we called it Good
Hope Cottage, of which the Dean's mother took possession, of course,
while off we went to sea again, this time to Rio de Janeiro, in the same
bark; then afterwards we went to the Mediterranean twice more, and on
the last voyage I got to be mate; and, afterward, when we stopped at
Barcelona, the Dean was made second mate. Then, in course of time, the
Dean got to be a Captain, and prospered greatly, while his mother lived
at Good Hope Cottage, and the Dean and I were always happy to come back
and have a home like that to go to. After a while we were separated, for
I was a Captain as well as the Dean, and we could no longer be together
in the same ship; but still we both had a home together, and a place
always to hail from, you see.

"But I go too fast and too far. I must stop now, for I have given you
the story that I promised, of how I was _cast away in the cold_,--and it
is high time too; for, as you have said, the holidays are at an end, and
see there! the sun is sinking down behind the trees, and once more, as
on the first day we met and parted in this pleasant little arbor, the
shadows trail their ghostly length across the fields. But to me the
shadows have another meaning now. They will lie there heavy on the
ground until you come to lift them, and I shall be very, very sad and
lonely now without my little friends. The night is closing in, my dears,
as if it were a curtain dropped purposely to hide what we would gladly
see again; and the dew is falling heavy on the grass, my dears, and so
'good by' is the word."

* * * * *

The Captain paused and bent his eyes upon the golden light that lay
far-off behind the trees, as if he would divine something of the future
that was before himself and the little children by his side, and which
he thought the golden sunlight held; but, while he looked, it seemed as
if some tender chord within his gentle heart had snapped asunder and had
been badly tied again, for he said quite hurriedly, "Well, well, my
hearties, we must pass the word, and get it over. Good by,--there it is!
God bless you, and good by!"

"Good by, dear Captain Hardy," said William, putting out his hand,--a
hand that promised to be a very manly one indeed some day,--"good by,
and thank you for all your goodness to us," and the little fellow could
no