ot turned out well, and I
am heartily glad for both Tom and Minnie's sake it has so; but you must
allow that it very nearly had a disastrous ending, and I think if I were
you I should leave matters to take their natural course in future. I
have accepted Tom's invitation for the same party to take a cruise in
the Seabird next summer, but I have bargained that next time a storm is
brewing up we shall stop quietly in port."

"That's all very well, James," Mrs. Grantham said saucily; "but you
must remember that Tom Virtue will only be first mate of the Seabird in
future."

"That I shall be able to tell you better, my dear, after our next
cruise. All husbands are not as docile and easily led as I am."

A PIPE OF MYSTERY

A jovial party were gathered round a blazing fire in an old grange near
Warwick. The hour was getting late; the very little ones had, after
dancing round the Christmas tree, enjoying the snapdragon, and playing
a variety of games, gone off to bed; and the elder boys and girls
now gathered round their uncle, Colonel Harley, and asked him for a
story--above all, a ghost story.

"But I have never seen any ghosts," the colonel said, laughing; "and,
moreover, I don't believe in them one bit. I have traveled pretty well
all over the world, I have slept in houses said to be haunted, but
nothing have I seen--no noises that could not be accounted for by
rats or the wind have I ever heard. I have never "--and here he
paused--"never but once met with any circumstances or occurrence that
could not be accounted for by the light of reason, and I know you prefer
hearing stories of my own adventures to mere invention."

"Yes, uncle. But what was the 'once' when circumstances happened that
you could not explain?"

"It's rather a long story," the colonel said, "and it's getting late."

"Oh! no, no, uncle; it does not matter a bit how late we sit up on
Christmas Eve, and the longer the story is, the better; and if you
don't believe in ghosts how can it be a story of something you could not
account for by the light of nature?"

"You will see when I have done," the colonel said. "It is rather a
story of what the Scotch call second sight, than one of ghosts. As to
accounting for it, you shall form your own opinion when you have heard
me to the end.

"I landed in India in '50, and after going through the regular drill
work marched with a detachment up country to join my regiment, which was
stationed at Jubba