ains
to cross-question Harry, and ultimately arrived at the same conclusion
that I had done. He therefore at once told Harry that his surname was
Hudson, and that he would spare no pains to restore him to his father
and mother, who had long mourned him as lost. Harry seemed much
affected by this, and often expressed to me his wish to see his mother
again, declaring that he should know her at once; and he thought, also,
that he could recognise his father. I reminded him that his mother
would look much older than when he had been parted from her, as grief
and sickness had paled her cheek; but that I felt sure she would
recognise him, and that he must do his best to be like us, so that she
might find him a real English boy.

The commander, on thus ascertaining who he was, asked us if we would
receive him in the midshipmen's berth,--charging us at the same time to
set him a good example, by avoiding anything that was wrong, and by
teaching him only what was right. Without a dissentient voice we all
agreed to the commander's proposal, and Harry Hudson forthwith became a
member of our mess. Some of the men, and Dick Tillard especially, were
at first rather jealous of this. When I told him what the commander had
said, he replied,--"It's all right, Mr Rayner; and if you follow his
advice, it will do you as much good as it will Harry; and we'll all be
ready to serve him as much as before."

The commander also spoke on the subject to Harry; who, however, did not
require his lecture, as he took the greatest possible pains to imitate
us, as well as to speak correctly. We began also to teach him to read
and write; but I think he must have known his letters before, from the
rapid way in which he learned them--he knew them all in a couple of
days, and in a week could read short words; indeed, it was evident that
he was possessed of great natural intelligence, and an amiable
disposition. Yet, had he lived on with the savages, he would have
remained as wild and ignorant as they were.

The commander, who was a truly religious man, frequently had him in to
talk to him about God, and to tell him how man, being sinful, had
separated from God, and had become a rebel to him; how God,
notwithstanding, loved him, and yet how, being a God of justice, he must
punish sin, and could not therefore forgive him unless he had allowed
another--his own sinless Son--to be punished instead of sinful man.
Harry thought over what the commander tol