t by him; and
Jerry told me that he heard him offering up his thanks to our merciful
God for having restored his son to him. He then came and talked to me,
and told me how sorry he should have been had I been lost, and how
grateful he felt to me for having been the means of saving his son's
life. I do not know exactly what I said. I remember I told him what I
was sure of,--that Jerry would have done exactly the same for me. There
was this difference, that I could swim very well, and that Jerry could
swim very little, so that I deserved less thanks than he should have
done had he jumped in for me, considering that he would have run far
greater risk for my sake than I had done for his. The captain smiled
when I said this, but made no remark. He had always been kind to me,--
he was now kinder than ever; but this did not prevent him from taking
every means to make me a sailor, and to keep me to my duty, while at the
same time he afforded me every opportunity of seeing as much as possible
of the world through which we were passing.

Silva, as I before have said, by his quiet manners, readiness to lend a
hand when any work was going forward, and anxiety to be on good terms
with all, had completely won the good-will of everybody on board. He
was evidently a man of some attainments, and was more likely to have
been an officer than a man before the mast. With Jerry and me he was
apparently very frank. He told us how when a young lad he had been
turned adrift into the world to seek his fortune, without parents or any
one to care for him; and how he had battled on, picking up information
where he could, reading what books he could lay hands on, and laying in
a store of knowledge for future use.

"I have served on board vessels of every description. I've been on
board slavers, and merchant vessels, and men-of-war of several nations.
I've served with Lord Cochrane both in the Pacific and Atlantic; and for
a long time I was in an opium clipper in the China Seas; but, as you
know, lads, a rolling stone gathers no moss, and here I am, as poor as I
was when I first began life. However, there are plenty of ways by which
a man may make his fortune if he chooses, and I must find one of them
some of these days."

He spoke in a desperate, careless tone, as if he in reality cared very
little what became of him, or what he did. We had begun to feel a
strong liking for the man, and were now inclined to pity him sincerely.

I wil