d Jane, getting up and kissing him
again in her delight. Then Mr. Rewble came forward, and the
brothers-in-law renewed their old acquaintance.

'It seems just like the other day,' said Dick, looking round upon the
rose-bushes.

'Oh my boy! my darling, darling boy!' said the mother, who had hurried
up-stairs for her shawl, conscious of her rheumatism even amidst the
excitement of her son's return. 'Oh, Dick! This is the happiest day of
all my life. Wouldn't you like something better than tea?' This she said
with many memories and many thoughts; but still, with a mother's love,
unable to refrain from offering what she thought her son would wish to
have.

'There ain't anything better,' said Dick very solemnly.

'Nothing half so good to my thinking,' said Mrs. Rewble, imagining that
by a word in season she might help the good work.

The mother's eyes were filled with tears, but she did not dare to speak
a word. Then there was a silence for a few moments. 'Tell us all about
it, Dick,' said the father. 'There's whisky inside if you like it.' Dick
shook his head solemnly,--but, as they all thought, with a certain air
of regret. Tell us what you have to say,' repeated the doctor.

'I'm sworn off these two years.'

'Touched nothing for two years?' said the mother exultingly, with her
arms and shawl again round her son's neck.

'A teetotaller?' said Maria.

'Anything you like to call it. Only, what a gentleman's habits are in
that respect needn't be made the subject of general remark.' It was
evident he was a little sore, and Jane, therefore, offered him a dish
full of gooseberries. He took the plate in his hand and ate them
assiduously for a while in silence, as though unconscious of what he was
doing. 'You know all about it now, don't you?'

'Oh my dearest boy!' ejaculated the mother.

'You didn't get better gooseberries than those on your travels,' said
the doctor, calling him back to the condition of the world around him.

Then he told them of his adventures. For two terrible years he had been
a shepherd on different sheep-runs up in Queensland. Then he had found
employment on a sugar plantation, and had superintended the work of a
gang of South Sea Islanders,--Canakers they are called,--men who are
brought into the colony from the islands of the Pacific,--and who return
thence to their homes generally every three years, much to the regret of
their employers. In the transit of these men agents are employed, and