day. Aided by some of
the men who knew my father, and who returned to the tent after the fray
was over, the kind-hearted seamen bore the corpse to our cottage. The
promise of a supply of whisky easily induced some of the neighbours to
come and howl during the livelong night. This they did with right good
will, although my father was a Protestant and a foreigner; and I cried
and howled in sympathy. I would fain, however, have forgotten my grief
in sleep. The seamen had taken their departure, promising to return to
look after me.

As there was no chance of a man with a fractured skull coming to life
again, the funeral speedily took place. The small quantity of furniture
remaining in the cottage was sold; but the proceeds were barely
sufficient to pay the expenses.

Thus I was left, with the exception of a suit of somewhat ragged clothes
on my back, as naked and poor as when I came into the world about twelve
years before, with a much more expensive appetite than I then had to
supply. Some boys at that age are well able to take care of themselves,
but, as I have said, I was small for my years, and I had been kept by my
poor mother so much by myself, that I knew nothing of the world and its
ways.

Alter the funeral a compassionate neighbour, with a dozen or more
children of her own to feed, took me to her house till it was settled
what was to become of me. She and her husband laughed at the idea of
the tall sailor coming to take me away.

"I know what sailors are," said the husband; "they'll just chuck a
handful of silver to the first beggar who asks them for it, and then
they'll go away and forget all about it! Maybe your friend was only
after joking with you, and is off to sea long ago!"

"Oh no! he meant what he said," I replied; "I know that by the look of
his face. He's a kind man, I'm certain!"

"It may be better for us all if he comes, but it's not very likely," was
the answer. Still I trusted that my new friend would not deceive me.

I was standing in front of the cottage which was next to that my father
and I had inhabited, when my heart beat quick at seeing a tall figure
turn a corner at the other end of the street. I was certain it was my
sailor friend. "It's him! It's him! I knew he'd come!" I shouted,
and ran forward to meet him.

He smiled as he saw my eagerness. "You've not forgotten me, I see,
lad," said he; "well, come along. It's all arranged; and if you're in
the same mind, you