s the carriage swept round the corner, I leaned out of the window to
take a last look at Sailor Ben's cottage, and there was the Admiral's
flag flying at half-mast.

So I left Rivermouth, little dreaming that I was not to see the old
place again for many and many a year.

Chapter Twenty-Two--Exeunt Omnes

With the close of my school-days at Rivermouth this modest chronicle
ends.

The new life upon which I entered, the new friends and foes I
encountered on the road, and what I did and what I did not, are matters
that do not come within the scope of these pages. But before I write
Finis to the record as it stands, before I leave it--feeling as if I
were once more going away from my boyhood--I have a word or two to say
concerning a few of the personages who have figured in the story, if you
will allow me to call Gypsy a personage.

I am sure that the reader who has followed me thus far will be willing
to hear what became of her, and Sailor Ben and Miss Abigail and the
Captain.

First about Gypsy. A month after my departure from Rivermouth the Captain
informed me by letter that he had parted with the little mare, according
to agreement. She had been sold to the ring-master of a travelling
circus (I had stipulated on this disposal of her), and was about to set
out on her travels. She did not disappoint my glowing anticipations, but
became quite a celebrity in her way--by dancing the polka to slow music
on a pine-board ball-room constructed for the purpose.

I chanced once, a long while afterwards, to be in a country town where
her troupe was giving exhibitions; I even read the gaudily illumined
show-bill, setting forth the accomplishments of Zuleika, the famed
Arabian Trick Pony--but I failed to recognize my dear little Mustang
girl behind those high-sounding titles, and so, alas, did not attend the
performance! I hope all the praises she received and all the spangled
trappings she wore did not spoil her; but I am afraid they did, for she
was always over much given to the vanities of this world!

Miss Abigail regulated the domestic destinies of my grandfather's
household until the day of her death, which Dr. Theophilus Tredick
solemnly averred was hastened by the inveterate habit she had contracted
of swallowing unknown quantities of hot-drops whenever she fancied
herself out of sorts. Eighty-seven empty phials were found in a
bonnet-box on a shelf in her bedroom closet.

The old house became very lonely w