table, when suddenly she
uttered a loud shriek; the decanter and glasses fell with a crash to the
floor, and Kitty, as white as a sheet, was seen flying through the hall.

"It's his wraith! It's his wraith!"' we heard Kitty shrieking in the
kitchen.

My grandfather and I turned with amazement to Sailor Ben. His eyes were
standing out of his head like a lobster's.

"It's my own little Irish lass!" shouted the sailor, and he darted into
the hall after her.

Even then we scarcely caught the meaning of his words, but when we saw
Sailor Ben and Kitty sobbing on each other's shoulder in the kitchen, we
understood it all.

"I begs your honor's parden, sir," said Sailor Ben, lifting his
tear-stained face above Kitty's tumbled hair; "I begs your honor's
parden for kicking up a rumpus in the house, but it's my own little
Irish lass as I lost so long ago!"

"Heaven preserve us!" cried the Captain, blowing his nose violently--a
transparent ruse to hide his emotion.

Miss Abigail was in an upper chamber, sweeping; but on hearing
the unusual racket below, she scented an accident and came ambling
downstairs with a bottle of the infallible hot-drops in her hand.
Nothing but the firmness of my grandfather prevented her from giving
Sailor Ben a table-spoonful on the spot. But when she learned what had
come about--that this was Kitty's husband, that Kitty Collins wasn't
Kitty Collins now, but Mrs. Benjamin Watson of Nantucket--the good
soul sat down on the meal-chest and sobbed as if--to quote from Captain
Nutter--as if a husband of her own had turned up!

A happier set of people than we were never met together in a dingy
kitchen or anywhere else. The Captain ordered a fresh decanter of
Madeira, and made all hands, excepting myself, drink a cup to the return
of "the prodigal sea-son," as he persisted in calling Sailor Ben.

After the first flush of joy and surprise was over Kitty grew silent
and constrained. Now and then she fixed her eyes thoughtfully on her
husband. Why had he deserted her all these years? What right had he to
look for a welcome from one he had treated so cruelly? She had been true
to him, but had he been true to her? Sailor Ben must have guessed what
was passing in her mind, for presently he took her hand and said--"Well,
lass, it's a long yarn, but you shall have it all in good time. It was
my hard luck as made us part company, an' no will of mine, for I loved
you dear."

Kitty brightened up immediately,