of the sisters, on recovering, was to double the amount on
Ruth's list of poor people, and to work out another sum in short
division on the back of an old letter.

"Why did you deceive me, dear?" said Mrs Dotropy, on reaching the
street after her visit. "You said you were going with me to see poor
people, in place of which you have taken me to hear a consultation
_about_ poor people with two ladies, and now you propose to return
home."

"The two ladies are themselves _very_ poor."

"No doubt they are, child, but you cannot for a moment class them with
those whom we usually style `the poor.'"

"No, mother, I cannot, for they are far worse off than these. Having
been reared in affluence, with tenderer feelings and weaker muscles, as
well as more delicate health, they are much less able to fight the
battle of adversity than the lower poor, and I happen to know that the
dear Misses Seaward are reduced just now to the very last extreme of
poverty. But you have relieved them, mother."

"I, child! How?"

"The nursery screen that you bought yesterday by my advice was decorated
by Jessie and Kate Seaward, so I thought it would be nice to let you see
for yourself how sweet and `deserving' are the poor people whom you have
befriended!"

CHAPTER THREE.

INTRODUCES CONSTERNATION TO A DELICATE HOUSEHOLD.

The day following that on which Mrs Dotropy and Ruth had gone out to
visit "the poor," Jessie and Kate Seaward received a visit from a man
who caused them no little anxiety--we might almost say alarm. He was a
sea-captain of the name of Bream.

As this gentleman was rather eccentric, it may interest the reader to
follow him, from the commencement of the day on which we introduce him.

But first let it be stated that Captain Bream was a fine-looking man,
though large and rugged. His upper lip and chin were bare, for he was
in the habit of mowing those regions every morning with a blunt razor.
To see Captain Bream go through this operation of mowing when at sea in
a gale of wind was a sight that might have charmed the humorous, and
horrified the nervous. The captain's shoulders were broad, and his
bones big; his waistcoat, also, was large, his height six feet two, his
voice a profound bass, and his manner boisterous but hearty. He was apt
to roar in conversation, but it was in a gale of wind that you should
have heard him! In such circumstances, the celebrated bull of Bashan
would have been constrained to r