re troubles, and we pity you for them, and
we have all learned to love you because you bear them so patiently,"
said Anna; "therefore if it gives you pain do not talk of your past
history."

"Ay, that is kind in you, Miss Anna, to say, but I have the wish now to
tell you all; what I have been, and how I came to be as I am," said
Moggy. "Master Willie, ask Master Charles to come in (Charles had
returned outside the cottage to botanise), then I'll tell ye all, yes,
all. Often and often I've thought of the past, so it does not seem
strange to me as it will to you, dear Miss Anna, but ye will not weep
for me, for it's long, long since I wept for myself."

A shout from William made Anna run to the door, and from thence she saw
Charley shaking hands with their brother Frank, and Willie running down
the hill towards them. Another person stood by, who must be, she was
certain, Tom Holman. Looking into the cottage again, and crying out,
"Frank has come! Frank has come!" she also ran down the hill towards
her brothers. There were warm greetings, and smiles, and laughter; and
then Frank sang out, "Hillo, Tom, come up here. My brothers and sister
want to thank you for enabling me to get back and see them; and tell
them how you picked me out of the water and saved my life, and have
taken such good care of me ever since."

Tom had, with true politeness, gone some way off out of ear-shot of the
brothers and sister when they met. The latter words were addressed to
him, and with the activity of a seaman he sprang up the hill towards
them. He did not quite come up to the idea Anna had formed of him.
Though dressed as a seaman, he was somewhat different to the
commonly-received notions of what a British tar is like; still less
could he be compared to a refined pirate or dashing rover of romance.
He was an ordinary sized, sunburnt, darkish man of middle age, with a
somewhat grave expression of countenance. When he spoke, however, a
pleasant smile lit up his firm mouth, and his eyes beamed with
intelligence. Anna, Charles, and Willie went forward, and putting out
their hands one after the other, shook his cordially, and thanked him,
in a few simple words, for the manly services he had rendered Frank;
each hoping to find means of proving their gratitude in a more
substantial way than by words alone. Tom answered them in a pleasant
voice, evidently gratified by the way they had treated him.

"Why you see, Miss Morgan and young