ouse room at
all."

"What business is it of yours, I should like to know?" had been Jack's
retort; and all the real sorrow he had felt, awakened by his mother's
gentle words, had vanished.

That Skinner! How he hated him; how instinctively he turned from him
with positive dislike and loathing.

Now, as he lay alone and unnoticed beneath the star-strewn sky of the
summer night, it was not of Skinner that he thought, not of his aunt,
not of anything he had suffered--but of his mother.

And he had left her without a word--without a kiss! Many and many a
time had he felt her kiss upon his forehead as he was sinking off into
the sound sleep of childhood. Many a time he had heard her whispered
prayer as she knelt by his side; and now he had left her desolate!

"Joy will be there," Jack thought--"little Miss Joy, and she will
comfort her--dear little Joy!"

And somehow, as all these memories of those he had left behind him came
before him, tears rose all unbidden, and chased each other down his
cheeks.

Presently a rough kick from a man's boot made him start.

"The mate is singing out for you, youngster," he said; "get along with
you and go where you are wanted, for you ain't wanted here."

"Where's the mate?"

"Where, stupid? In his berth, a groaning and sighing. There ain't
much the matter with him, that's my belief; only some folks can afford
to make a fuss."

Jack drew himself together and walked towards the companion ladder. As
he was putting his foot on it with the cautious air of the uninitiated,
a rude push from behind, followed by a derisive laugh, sent him down to
the bottom with a heavy thud.

"Shame!" cried a voice, "to treat the boy like that."

"Oh, he will be one of Colley's lambs, canting no end, you'll see! For
my own part, I'd soon chuck him overboard."

"I know you are spiteful enough for anything," was the reply; "and I
pity that boy if he's in your clutches."

Another laugh, and Jack, now on his feet, turned round with a defiant
air, and, half-stunned and bewildered, was climbing up the stairs
again, to give his adversary a blow with his fist, when a voice called--

"Stop, lad! don't go and give evil for evil."

Colley from his berth had seen Jack fall, and had heard the mocking
laugh.

"Come here, lad. I'm a bit easier now, and I want to talk to you.
There, sit down on my locker, and we'll spin a yarn. You've run away,
haven't you? I was so mad with pain, or I should have