d up there for months. Altogether a
good many troubles came on me at that time--though they were blessed
troubles to me, for they ended in the saving o' my soul through my eyes
bein' opened to see my sins and Jesus Christ as my Saviour. It was
three years before I set foot in England again, and when I got back I
found that my old aunt was dead, and that my dear sister had married a
seaman and gone away--no one knew where."

"And you've never heard of her since?" asked Ruth.

"Never."

"And don't know who she married?"

"Know nothin' more about her, my dear, than I've told 'ee. Good-bye
now, Miss Ruth. I must look sharp about this business of yours."

He showed such evident disinclination to continue the painful subject,
that Ruth forbore to press it, and they parted to prosecute their
respective schemes.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

CAPTAIN BREAM DEVELOPS A CAPACITY FOR SCHEMING.

At dinner that day Captain Bream paused in the act of conveying a whole
potato to his mouth on the end of his fork, and said--

"Miss Seaward, I'm going to leave you--"

"Leave us!" cried Kate, interrupting him with a look of consternation,
for she and Jessie had both become so fond of the amiable seaman, with
the frame of Goliath and the heart of Samuel, that they were now as much
afraid of losing, as they had formerly been of possessing him. "Leave
us, captain!"

"Only for a time, Miss Kate--only for a time," he replied, hastily, as
he checked the power of further utterance with the potato. "Only for a
time," he repeated, on recovering the power. "You see, I've got a
little bit of business to transact down at Yarmouth, and it will take me
a good while to do it. Some weeks at the least--perhaps some months--
but there's no help for it, for the thing _must_ be done."

The captain said this with so much decision, that Kate could scarcely
forbear laughing as she said--

"Dear me, it must be very important business since you seem so
determined about it. Is there anything or any one likely to oppose you
in transacting the business?"

"Well, not exactly at present," returned the captain blandly, "but there
are two obstinate friends of mine who, I have been told, would oppose me
pretty stoutly if I was to tell 'em all the truth about it."

"Is there any necessity," asked Jessie, "for telling these obstinate
friends anything about the business at all?"

"Well, yes," replied the captain with a chuckle that almost brought on a
ch