laimed the lad as he gazed down
into his mother's loving eyes. "And you--surely you must have
discovered the whereabout of the fount of perpetual youth, for you do
not look a day older than when I went away."

"Nonsense, silly boy," returned the delighted little lady as she freed
herself from her stalwart son's embrace, "art going to celebrate thy
return home by beginning to pay compliments to thy old mother? But,
indeed," she continued more seriously, "'tis a wonder that I am not
grey-headed, for the anxiety that I have suffered on thy account,
George, and that of thy brother Hubert, has scarcely suffered me to know
a moment's peace."

"Dear soul alive, I'll warrant that's true," agreed George. "But,
mother, you need never be anxious about me, for there's not a better or
stauncher ship afloat than the _Bonaventure_, nor one that carries a
finer captain and crew. We've held our own in many a stiff bout with
weather and the enemy, and can do it again, please God. And as for Hu,
I think you need fear as little for him as for me, for with Hawkins as
admiral, and Frankie Drake as second in command, with six good ships to
back them up, they should be able to sweep the Spanish Main from end to
end. It cannot now be very long before one gets news of them, and
indeed, I confidently look forward to seeing them come sailing into
Plymouth Sound ere long, loaded down with treasure."

"God grant that it may be so," responded Mrs Saint Leger. "Yet how can
I help being fearful and anxious when I think of those daring men
thousands of miles away from home and kindred, surrounded as it were by
enemies, and with nought to keep them but their courage and the strength
of their own right arm? And where there is fighting--as fighting there
must be when English and Spaniards come face to face--some must be
slain, and why not our Hubert among them? For the boy is hot-headed,
and brave even to recklessness."

"Ay," assented George, "that's true. But 'tis the brave and reckless
ones that stand the best chance in a fight, for their very courage doth
but inspire the enemy with terror, so that he turns and flees from them.
Besides, our lads are fighting God's battle against bigotry, idolatry,
and fiendish cruelty as exemplified in the tortures inflicted upon poor
souls in the hellish Inquisition, and 'twould be sinful and a
questioning of God's goodness to doubt that He will watch over them who
are waging war upon His enemies."

"Ye