s refused to come. She laid
her head on her husband's shoulder and wept for joy.

We have said that David Bright was not by nature given to the melting
mood, but his eyes grew dim and his voice faltered at this point and it
is not improbable that there would have been a regular break-down, if
Joe's blessed babby had not suddenly come to the rescue in the nick of
time with one of her unexpected howls. As temporary neglect was the
cause of her complaint it was of course easily cured. When quiet had
been restored Mrs Bright turned to her son--"Now, Billy, my boy, I must
send you off immediately."

"But what if I won't go off--like a bad sky-rocket?" said the boy with a
doubtful expression on his face.

"But you'll have to go--and you'll be willing enough, too, when I tell
you that it's to see Miss Ruth Dotropy you are going."

"What!--the angel?"

"Yes, she's here just now, and wants to see you very much, and made me
promise to send you to her the moment you came home. So, off you go!
She lives with her mother in the old place, you know."

"All right, _I_ know. Farewell, mother."

In a few minutes Billy was out of sight and hearing--which last implies
a considerable distance, for Billy's whistle was peculiarly loud and
shrill. He fortunately had not to undergo the operation of being
"cleaned" for this visit, having already subjected himself to that
process just before getting into port. The only portions of costume
which he might have changed with propriety on reaching shore were his
long boots, but he was so fond of these that he meant to stick to them,
he said, through thick and thin, and had cleaned them up for the
occasion.

At the moment he turned into the street where his friends and admirers
dwelt, Ruth chanced to be at the window, while the Miss Seawards, then
on a visit to her mother, were seated in the room.

"Oh! the _darling_!" exclaimed Ruth, with something almost like a little
shriek of delight.

"Which darling--you've got so many?" asked her mother.

"Oh! Billy Bright, the sweet innocent--look at him; quick!"

Thus adjured the sisters ran laughing to the window, but the stately
mother sat still.

"D'you mean the boy with the boots on?" asked Jessie, who was
short-sighted.

"Yes, yes, that's him!"

"If you had said the boots with the boy in them, Jessie," observed Kate,
"you would have been nearer the mark!"

In a few minutes, Billy, fully alive to his importance in the ladies'
e