seem to be quite convinced that I'm not to be trusted to run
alone."

"And it's true, sir," replied Jacob, seriously; "you need looking after,
and I mustn't be letting you get into the hands of any of those chaps
as'll hook all as you have out o' you in no time--that is, if you're
going to stay by yourself in this big town."

"Why, yes, Jacob; I shall not go down to my father's at once. I don't
seem as if I _could_ go. I'd better wait a little bit. I seem out of
trim, and out of sorts altogether."

"You must please yourself," replied Jacob; "and you must know best,
Mayster Frank, what you're bound to do. But, if you'd take my advice,
you'd go home at once, afore anything worse happens."

"No, Jacob, I cannot yet, and so that's settled. Now we must look-out
for lodgings; they mustn't be expensive ones, else the brass, as you
call it, won't hold out, and you can wait on me, and keep me in order,
you know. But, by the way, I was forgetting that you have friends of
your own to look after. Don't let anything I've been saying prevent
your going to them, and doing what's right by them. I shall be quite
willing to come into any arrangement you may like to make. Don't
consider yourself bound to me, Jacob, but just do whatever you feel to
be your duty."

"You're very kind, Mayster Frank: it's just this way with me. I should
like to go and see arter them as I left behind when I sailed for
Australia, and see how they're coming on. But it don't matter for a
week or so, for they're not looking for me. I'll see you settled first
properly, Mayster Frank, if you mean to settle here for a bit, and then
I'll just take a run over yonder for a few days, and come back to you
again, and what I do afterwards'll depend on how I find things yonder."

And thus it was finally settled. Frank took quiet lodgings in a
respectable by-street, in the house of an aged widow, who was delighted
with his cheerful open manners, and did her best to make him and Jacob
comfortable. But the time hung heavily on the hands of both master and
man. Frank purposed daily writing home, and yet each to-morrow found
him more reluctant to do so than the day before. Jacob loitered about
the town and docks when his master did not want him, and got exceedingly
weary of his idleness.

"Eh, ma'am," he said one day to their landlady, "my arms fair ache with
hanging down and doing nothing."

Thus things went on for about a fortnight, when one evening at