otectorate back to their own inhospitable country,
the _Mermaid's_ commission expired; when, instead of the cruiser going
home to be paid off, a new crew was sent out to us from England, she
still remaining on the station, in accordance with the routine at
present in vogue.

The old _Dromedary_, that brought out our relief, which has cruised more
thousands of miles, I believe, on such fetching and carrying work than
have ever been covered by the oldest ship in the Navy, took us back home
in her; and she called in at Simons Bay, en route, to fill up with
supernumeraries and other paid-off crews from ships belonging to the
Cape station.

Amongst those that came on board here were the officers and men of the
_Grampus_, including none others than Captain Sackville, who had quite
recovered from his wounds, Mick Donovan, and `Gyp.'

I need hardly say what a jolly passage home we all had; Larrikins and
Mick and I, with some other old shipmates of the _Saint Vincent_,
yarning all the way from morning till night, not much work being wanted
of us as we had fine weather throughout; while `Gyp,' who still retained
his affection for me, exhibited his old bias for lower deck company and
could not be kept away from the fo'c's'le where we were.

Captain Sackville, of course, noticed this, but he was not a bit angry
at it; and, on our leaving the old _Dromedary_ at Portsmouth, where we
finally arrived safe and sound after a pretty speedy passage for such an
old tub, he gladdened my heart when saying farewell by making me a
present of `Gyp.'

"Begorrah," as Mick related to Larrikins subsequently, when we returned
to the depot, after our customary payoff leave ashore, "ye nivver sayd
sich a coomin' home, sure, ez Tom hed, an' me too, bedad, whin we got up
to the owld cottage at Bonfoire Corner. Sure, there wor Tom's faither
a-sottin' in the garden in his owld armchair under the mulberry-tree,
faith, afther Miss Jenny resayved us at the door--"

"Ah," interposed Larrikins at this point, with a knowing wink. "But,
what o' Tom's sister? Yer ain't told us about her at all, chummy. Did
she give ye a kiss, now?"

"Git away wid ye," cried Mick, giving him a dig in his ribs, and
grinning the while all over his face at the recollection of something
about which I might have told a tale if I had liked, before proceeding
to go on with his story of the warm reception we had met with.

"Well, thin, Tom's fayther wor a-sottin' in the armcha