the little bay where lay the yacht; and on the
left-hand side of this path, as you went down, a spring of pure water
gurgled up into the bright air, underneath a rich canopy of ferns and
wild-flowers.

William was much surprised to find that this house, which everybody knew
as "Mother Podger's house," should now really belong to Captain Hardy;
and he said so.

"You'd hardly know it, would you, since I've fixed it up, and made it
ship-shape like?" said the Captain. "I've done it nearly all myself too.
And now what do you think I've called it?"

The children said they could never guess,--to save their lives, they
never could.

"I call it 'Mariner's Rest,'" said the Captain.

"O, how beautiful! and so appropriate!" exclaimed William; and Fred and
Alice chimed in and said the same.

"And now," went on the Captain, "You must steer your course for the
'Mariner's Rest' again,--right soon, too, and the old man will be glad
to see you."

"Thank you, Captain Hardy," answered William, with a bow. "If we get our
parents' leave, we'll come to-morrow, if that will not too much trouble
you."

"It will not trouble me at all," replied the Captain. "Let it be four
o'clock, then,--come at four o'clock. That will suit me perfectly; and
it may be that I'll have," continued he, "a bit of a story or two to
tell you. Besides, I think I promised something of the kind before to
William, when I came home this time twelvemonth ago. Do you remember it,
my lad?"

William said he remembered it well, and his eyes opened wide with
pleasure and surprise.

"Now what is it?" inquired the Captain, thoughtfully. "Was it a story
about the hot regions, or the cold regions? for you see things don't
stick in my memory now as they used to."

"It was about the cold regions, that I'm sure of," replied William; "for
you said you would tell me the story you told Bob Benton and Dick
Savery,--something, you know, about your being _'cast away in the
cold,'_ as Dick Savery said you called it."

"Ah, yes, that's it, that's it," exclaimed the old man, as if recalling
the occasion when he had made the promise with much pleasure. "I
remember it very well. I promised to tell you how I first came to go to
sea, and what happened to me when I got there. Eh? That was it, I
think."

"That was exactly it, only you said you were 'cast away in the cold,'"
said William.

"No matter for that, my lad," replied the Captain, with a knowing
look,--"no matter for that