iety.

In these uncongenial circumstances the new apprentice worked for four
months as he had never believed it possible he could work. He was
annoyed both at the extent and the variety of his tasks, the work of an
A.B. being gratuitously included in his curriculum. The end of the
voyage found him desperate, and after a hasty consultation with the cook
they deserted together and went up-country.

Letters, dealing mainly with the ideas and adventures of the cook,
reached Sunwich at irregular intervals, and were eagerly perused by Mrs.
Kingdom and Kate, but the captain forbade all mention of him. Then they
ceased altogether, and after a year or two of unbroken silence Mrs.
Kingdom asserted herself, and a photograph in her possession, the only
one extant, exposing the missing Jack in petticoats and sash, suddenly
appeared on the drawing-room mantelpiece.

The captain stared, but made no comment. Disappointed in his son, he
turned for consolation to his daughter, noting with some concern the
unaccountable changes which that young lady underwent during his
absences. He noticed a difference after every voyage. He left behind
him on one occasion a nice trim little girl, and returned to find a
creature all legs and arms. He returned again and found the arms less
obnoxious and the legs hidden by a long skirt; and as he complained in
secret astonishment to his sister, she had developed a motherly manner
in her dealings with him which was almost unbearable.

"She'll grow out of it soon," said Mrs. Kingdom; "you wait and see."

The captain growled and waited, and found his sister's prognostications
partly fulfilled. The exuberance of Miss Nugent's manner was certainly
modified by time, but she developed instead a quiet, unassuming habit of
authority which he liked as little.

"She gets made such a fuss of, it's no wonder," said Mrs. Kingdom, with a
satisfied smile. "I never heard of a girl getting as much attention as
she does; it's a wonder her head isn't turned."

"Eh!" said the startled captain; "she'd better not let me see anything of
it."

"Just so," said Mrs. Kingdom.

The captain dwelt on these words and kept his eyes open, and, owing to
his daughter's benevolent efforts on his behalf, had them fully occupied.
He went to sea firmly convinced that she would do something foolish in
the matrimonial line, the glowing terms in which he had overheard her
describing the charms of the new postman to Mrs. Kingdom f