eff, what d'you think of doing?" asked that austere relative,
two days after the funeral. "Of course at your age you can't carry on
the school alone."

"Of course not," answered the boy, with a suppressed sob.

"What say you to entering my office and becoming a lawyer, Jeff?"

"Thanks, uncle, I'd rather not."

"What will you do, then?" demanded the uncle, somewhat offended at this
flat rejection of his proposal.

The lad thought for a moment, and then said quietly but decidedly, "I'll
go to sea."

"Go to the world's end if you like," returned the uncle, who was proud
and touchy, and hated the sea; "but don't ask me to help you."

"Thank you, uncle," replied the lad, who was as proud as himself, though
not touchy, and had a strong affection for the sea; "having no
particular business at the world's end just now, I'll put off my visit
to a more convenient season."

They parted, and we need scarcely add that the brief intercourse of
uncle and nephew which had thus suddenly begun as suddenly ceased.

It is not usually difficult for a strong, active lad, with merry black
eyes and cheery manners, to obtain employment. At least Jeffrey Benson
did not find it so. A few miles from his native town there was a
seaport. Thither he repaired, and looked about him. In the harbour lay
a small vessel which looked like a yacht, it was so trim and clean. On
the quay near to it stood a seafaring man with an amiable expression of
countenance.

"Is that your schooner?" asked Jeff of this man.

"Yes, it is."

"D'you want a hand?"

"No, I don't."

Jeff turned on his heel, and was walking away, when the seafaring man
recalled him.

"Have 'ee ever bin to sea, lad?" he asked.

"No, never."

"D'ye know anything about ships?"

"Next to nothing."

"D'ye think you could do anything, now, aboard of a ship?"

"Perhaps."

"Come along, then, wi' me to the office, an' I'll see to this."

Thus was Jeff introduced to the skipper of the coasting vessel in which
he spent the succeeding six years of his life. At the end of that time
his schooner was totally wrecked in a gale that sent more than two
hundred vessels on the rocks of the British Isles. The skipper was
washed overboard and drowned, but Jeff was saved along with the rest of
the crew, by means of the rocket apparatus.

By that time our hero had become a tall, powerful man, with a curly
black beard and moustache. Through the influence of a friend he was
offered