her. He was with her, and
she had fast hold of him, and she would never let him go again. What
mattered it what sort of clothes he wore, or where he had escaped
from--a family on a desert island or from a pirate crew? She had him,
and her happiness knew no bounds. Dickory was perfectly willing to stay
with her and to talk to her. He did not care to be with anybody else,
not even with Mistress Kate, who had taken so much interest in him all
the time he had been away; though, of course, not so much interest as
his own dear mother.

Then the good Dame Charter, being greatly recovered and so happy, began
to talk of herself. Slipping in a disjointed way over her various
experiences, she told her dear boy, in strictest confidence, that she
was very much disappointed in the way pirates took ships. She thought it
was going to be something very exciting that she would remember to the
end of her days, and wake up in the middle of the night and scream when
she thought of it, but it was nothing of the kind; not a shot was fired,
not a drop of blood shed; there was not even a shout or a yell or a
scream for mercy. It was all like going into the pantry to get the flour
and the sugar. She was all the time waiting for something to happen, and
nothing ever did. Dickory smiled, but it was like watered milk.

"I do not understand such piracy," he said, "but supposed, dear mother,
that these pirates had taken that ship in the usual way, I being on
board."

At this he was clasped so tightly to his mother's breast that he could
say no more.

The boats plied steadily between the two vessels, and on one of the
trips Mr. Delaplaine went over to the brig on business, and also glad to
escape for a little the dreaded interview which must soon come between
himself and his niece.

"Now, sir," said the merchant to the captain of the brig, "you will make
a bill against me for the provisions which are being taken to that
pirate, but I hope you have reserved a sufficient store of food for
your own maintenance until you reach a port, and that of myself and two
women who wish to sail with you, craving most earnestly that you will
land us in Jamaica or in some place convenient of access to that
island."

"Which I can do," said the captain, "for I am bound to Kingston; and as
to subsistence, shall have plenty."

On the brig Mr. Delaplaine found Captain Ichabod, who had come over to
superintend operations, and who was now talking to the pretty girl