Betty. And
so the captain came, and what a help he was! How he seemed to know
just when to be silent, and when it would help them all most for him to
talk! And though he didn't often talk about his own doings, he told
them this evening a good deal about his last cruise, when he had been
to the West Indies, where Godfrey was born. And he tried to find out
how much Godfrey remembered of the country, and spoke of how English
people always draw together in a foreign land, and are kind and
friendly to every stranger who speaks their own tongue. There was one
man in particular, he said, an Englishman, a successful planter, who
had come forward to help him when he was ordered off in a hurry, and
was in trouble about one of his midshipmen who was down with the fever.

'He came and took him off my hands,' the captain said, 'and had him
into his own house; a man I never set eyes on before, and I don't even
so much as know his name. He asked it as a favour, saying he'd no
child of his own, nor any kith and kin who cared enough for him to want
his help.'

'Poor man! I daresay he was glad enough,' said Angel; while Betty
echoed:

'Poor man, fancy having no one belonging to him!'

For it would be better, she thought, to break one's heart over such a
parting as was to come next day, than to have no one in the world from
whom parting would be pain. And really the thought of that lonely
Englishman in the far-away island helped her a little over letting
Godfrey go.

It was strange that when he really was gone the most restless person in
Oakfield was Kiah, who all those years had been so busy and contented
at the Place. He took to hobbling up and down the garden path instead
of sitting on his bench or by the fire, leaning over the gate and
scanning the country, as if he were watching for the French to come,
and presenting himself daily at the cottage to know if they had any
news of the young master.

And at last, about a month after the _Mermaid_ had sailed, he came one
day in his best clothes and with a bundle in his hand, looking more
cheery than he had done since Godfrey left.

'Yes, young ladies,' he said, as Angel and Betty asked wonderingly
where he was going, 'I'm off down South for a bit of a visit. I bean't
tired of Oakfield, nor I don't look for no home but here among my
folks, but it's come over me as I must have a blow o' the sea and a
sight of a ship again, and Timothy Blake, that was an old messmate o'
mi