ings and dress set off the figure to perfection. She wore
a fashionable straw hat, with a gay ribbon, and indeed looked like a
child of wealthy parents, who had let her out for a little jaunt along
some shady avenue.

When Captain Strathmore looked down upon this sweet child, a great
pang went through his heart, for she was the picture of the little
girl that once called him father.

Her mother died while little Inez was an infant, and, as soon as the
cherished one could dispense with the care of a nurse, she joined her
father, the captain, and henceforth was not separated from him. She
was always on ship or steamer, sharing his room and becoming the pet
of every one who met her, no less from her loveliness than from her
childish, winning ways.

But there came one awful dark day, away out in the Pacific, when the
sweet voice was hushed forever, and the rugged old captain was bowed
by a grief such as that which smites the mountain-oak to the earth.

The little girl who now looked up in the face of Captain Strathmore
was the image of Inez, who years before had sunk to the bottom of the
sea, carrying with her all the sunshine, music and loveliness that
cheered her father's heart. With an impulse he could not resist, the
captain reached out his arms and the little stranger instantly ran
into them. Then she was lifted up, and the captain kissed her,
saying:

"You look so much like the little girl I buried at sea that I could
not help kissing you."

The child was not afraid of him, for her fairy-like fingers began
playing with the grizzled whiskers, while the honest blue eyes of the
old sailor grew dim and misty for the moment.

The gentleman who had brought the child to the steamer saw that this
was a favorable time for him to urge his plea.

"That is the little girl whom I wished to send to Tokio by you."

"Have you no friend or acquaintance on board in whose care you can
place her?"

"I do not know a soul."

"Is she any relative of yours?"

"She is my niece. Her father and mother are missionaries in Japan, and
have been notified of her coming on this steamer."

"If that were so, why then were not preparations made for sending her
in the care of some one, instead of waiting until the last minute, and
then rushing down here and making application in such an irregular
manner?"

"Her uncle, the brother of my wife, expected to make the voyage with
her, and came to San Francisco for that purpose. He was taken