class, I knew
that I was but a rough, untutored seaman, and so I did my utmost to be
tender and gentle to my wife, and to study how I best could please her
in everything. I did not forget my old friend Miss Rundle,--my wife and
I wrote her a long letter between us, fall of all sorts of fun; we also
took good care to pay the postage. Of course, also, we wrote to Aunt
Bretta. She sent back a letter in return, hoping that we would soon
come south to see her. We expected John Angus in the spring, but he did
not return. He wrote instead, to say that he had got some employment in
the south, which suited him for the present, and that he was very happy.

A whole year passed away. During the second winter, I thought that my
wife, who had been so long accustomed to the soft air of Devonshire, was
suffering from the long continuance of damp fogs. While I was balancing
in my mind whether I ought not to take her south, I received another
letter from Aunt Bretta. She told me that she was quite sickening to
see me and my wife, and that my uncle hoped to be able to find some
employment on shore which would suit my taste. When I laid the proposal
before my wife, she at once acceded to it. "I am afraid," said she,
"that as long as we remain here, we keep poor John away from his family.
If we go south, he will return home." David Angus, and the old lady,
and our kind-hearted cousin, were most unwilling to part with us, but we
had written to Aunt Bretta to say that we were coming, and we could not
again change our plans. About the middle of June we sailed in a smack
bound direct for Leith, and once more I found myself on salt water.

CHAPTER NINE.

VOYAGE IN THE SMACK--GALE SPRINGS UP--WASHED OVERBOARD--SAVED ON A
SPAR--DREADFUL FEARS FOR MY WIFE'S SAFETY--THE KIND-HEARTED FISHERMAN--
FIND THE SMACK--ACCOUNT OF HER ESCAPE--JOURNEY ON LAND--COACH UPSET--
AGAIN PRESERVED--REACH HOME--OLD JERRY AGAIN--HIS ADVENTURE WITH THE
BEARS.

I was walking the deck one night, while my wife was below, and thinking
of the events of my past life, when the recollection of my rash oath
came across me like a thunder-clap in summer, when just before the whole
sky overhead has appeared of the purest blue. "Is my dreadful fate
still to pursue me?" I thought. "Rather than she should be torn from
me, let me perish with her." The weather was fine, the wind was light
and fair, and there was not the slightest cause for any apprehension of
dan