rs as might have been
expected from his two years of absence, but the same open-faced boy with
the curly brown hair and blue eyes that all remembered so well.

What a meeting it was, to be sure, and how he hugged his sisters and Dr
Jolly and Jupp and Mary all round--Uncle Jack almost being unnoticed for
the moment, although he did not appear to mind it, looking on with a
sympathetic grin of delight at the general joy expressed in every
countenance present!

The doctor's "shanderadan" had a full cargo back to the vicarage,
everybody talking to everybody all at once and none being able to finish
a complete sentence--little Cissy keeping tight hold of Teddy's arm the
while as if fearful of losing him again and thinking it might be all a
dream.

When they got to the house Teddy was through the gate and across the
lawn in two bounds, tapping at the door of the study before his father
knew that he had come.

Like another father, the vicar was overcome with glad emotion, clasping
him in his arms and embracing him, weeping as he cried in a broken
voice:

"This, my son, was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!"

Only a word more.

The terrible experiences Teddy had had, and the sense of discipline
inculcated in him during his short training at sea, made such a change
in his character that henceforth he lost his former justly-earned
titles, being never more called either "pickle" or "scapegrace."

He has not, however, abandoned the profession he originally adopted, in
spite of its many perils and dangers, and the fact that a sailor's life
is not altogether of that rose-coloured nature which story-writers
usually make out.

No, he still sails under his old captain in the same line, and voyages
backwards and forwards between Melbourne and London with praiseworthy
punctuality, in the new ship Captain Lennard commands in place of the
old _Greenock_. The vessel, too, is a regular clipper in her way,
beating everything that tries to compete with her, whether outwards or
inwards bound.

Teddy looks forward some day to taking his skipper's place when he
retires from active life afloat, and following the example of Uncle
Jack, who is already a captain too in his own right; for he is as steady
and trustworthy now as he was formerly impetuous and headstrong.

But, mind you, he has lost none of his pluck or fearless spirit, and is
the same genial, good-tempered, and happy-dispositioned boy he was in
earliest chi