upon his shoulder,
and a voice whose tones though rough were yet full of sympathy,
inquired the cause of his grief, and looking hastily up, he beheld a
man apparently about fifty years of age, and habited in a seaman's
garb. Touched with his kindness, in the first impulse of the moment,
Arthur gave him a brief account of his misfortunes. When he had
concluded, much to his surprise, his listener informed him that he had
known his father, who had, years before, rendered him an important
service, in return for which, he said that he would now willingly do
all in his power to serve the child of one to whom he was so deeply
indebted. He told Arthur that he was at present commander of a large
vessel lying close at hand, and which was to sail the following day
for South America, and asked if he would be willing to accompany him,
and learn to be a sailor like himself. The idea was a novel one, and
the boy seized upon it with avidity, as beside being his only
available means of obtaining life's necessaries, he knew that by
embracing it he should lose the chance of meeting those relatives whom
he cared no more to behold. And when he at once expressed his
readiness to go, his new friend patted his head in token of approval,
prophesied that he would prove a brave mariner, and then taking his
young companion by the hand, led him toward the ship which was
henceforth to be his abiding-place. The next day Arthur bade adieu to
his native city, and commenced his career as a seamen. But upon the
events of that career I have not time to linger. For years Captain
Carter, for such was his patron's name, continued to treat his
_protege_ with unremitting favor, sharing with him all the nautical
knowledge he had acquired, and using every endeavor for his
advancement. At the age of eight-and-twenty, through this kind
friend's interest, Arthur was himself raised to the post of captain,
and took possession of a packet-ship sailing between the ports of New
York and Southampton. He had now attained the summit of his hopes, for
a way was opened before him of obtaining, what had long been his
desire, a competence, which would enable him to resume that station in
life which his father had occupied, and of supplying also to his
parent's creditors the sum of which they had been so strangely
defrauded. And at the close of five more years he had the satisfaction
of knowing that this latter purpose was accomplished.

It was about this period that an incide