belonged to Portsmouth,
and had gone in the _Good Intent_ to Bergen; and how she had lost her
masts, and the crew had been washed overboard. How the captain had
died, and we had done our best to keep the brig afloat, and had been
driven in close to Shetland, and that I had found a relative there, and
was coming south in the _Nancy_ to fetch my sister. He then asked me
about my father, and I told him that he had been lost at Spithead, and
that mother had died, and old Tom had taken care of Mary and me, and
how, after he had been blown up in the ship at Spithead, Jim and I had
managed to gain our bread and support Mary and Nancy till a claimant
appeared for old Tom's property, and our boat had been taken from us,
and we had been turned out of the house, and should have been in a bad
way if the good Quaker, Mr Gray, had not come to our assistance.

The doctor listened attentively, and he then asked me what sort of man
my father was, and whether I had a brother in the navy.

I described my father, and then said that Jack had gone away on board
the _Lapwing_ brig of war, but that he was supposed to have been cut off
by savages in one of her boats when in the Indian seas. At all events,
that we had never since heard of him.

"That's very strange," he observed; "I think, Peter Trawl, that we have
met before, when you were a very little chap. Do you remember your
father taking off the doctor and the mate of a ship lying at Spithead,
when you and your brother Jack were in the boat, and he was to be put on
board the brig?"

"Yes, sir," I said, looking up at his face: "I recollect it perfectly,
as it was the last time I saw Jack, though I little thought then that I
should never see him again."

"I was the doctor, and the first mate of this ship was my companion.
When I first heard your name, as it is a peculiar one, I all of a sudden
recollected that it was that of the boatman who took Mr Griffiths and
me off on the occasion I speak of. We are now brothers-in-law, and have
ever since gone to sea together--that is to say, when we have gone to
sea, for both of us have taken long spells on shore. If it hadn't been
for that, Mr Griffiths would have been a captain years ago."

"I am very glad to meet you and him again, sir," I said; "and now I look
at you I fancy I recollect your countenance, as I did your voice. You
were not as well accustomed to the sea then as you are now."

"No," he answered, laughing. "That was my