e house there.

"You must come and see me when we get there," said he one day. "I am
not certain, but I think we have met before."

"Where could that have been? I don't remember you, sir," I said.

"Hadn't you a very tall seaman aboard the brig when you first went to
sea in her?" he asked abruptly.

"Yes, of course, sir!" I exclaimed. "Peter Poplar, my best of friends;
I owe everything to him."

"So do I, then, I suspect," said he warmly. "Do you remember a little
lad sitting crying on the quays at Dublin, to whom he gave a bundle of
old clothes? Yours, I believe, they were."

"Yes," said I; "I remember, too, how grateful he seemed for them, and
how Peter walked away with me that he might not listen to his thanks."

"He had reason to be thankful," said the gentleman. "That suit of
clothes enabled him to obtain a situation, where, by honesty and
perseverance, and an earnest wish to promote his kind master's
interests, he rose by degrees to hold the most responsible situation in
his establishment. Do you remember the boy's name?"

"No, sir," I replied. "I am not quite certain."

"Was it Terence, do you think?" he asked.

"Yes, sir!" I exclaimed. "Terence it was--Terence McSwiney--that was
his name. I remember it now, for he repeated it several times."

"That is my name," said the gentleman; "and I, Jack, am the very little
lad to whom your kind friend gave your old clothes. I would much like
to meet him again, to thank him, as I do you, for your share of the
favour conferred on me. Of one thing you may be certain--I have not
been idle. When not engaged in my master's business, I was employed in
study and in improving my own mind. I never lost an opportunity of
gaining knowledge, and never willingly wasted a moment."

Mr McSwiney told me a good deal more about himself, and I felt how very
different a life I had led, and how little I had ever done to improve my
mind or to gain knowledge. I even then thought that it was too late to
begin, and so I went on in my idleness.

The day before we reached Carlisle Bay the captain sent for me, and told
me that the passengers had been interested in my history, and that, as I
had lost all my kit in the brig, they had made a collection to enable me
to purchase a new one. This he presented to me in the shape of thirty
dollars. I expressed myself, as I felt, very grateful for the kindness
I had received.

Although Mr McSwiney had once been in the same ra