at
kindness, I have that to tell which you ought to know. Poverty,
sickness, loss of dear ones, perfidy of professed friends, and ills
of all imaginable kinds, have fallen to my lot. I am an American. I
have a young wife, and a dear little girl in New York. I have been
to Europe upon what has turned out a most disastrous business trip.
I came on board this vessel a battered, broken man, not knowing,
and scarcely caring, whether I should live to reach the other side.
Faith in Christianity, in religion, in God Himself, I had utterly
renounced. But I want to tell you that all that is changed. I now
wish, and hope, to live; my health is vastly improved; and--will
you let me say it without offence?--I find myself able once more to
believe in God, and in such religion as yours. I will not again ask
you to see me; but if, after reading this letter, you should feel
inclined to pay me a visit, I need not tell you how delighted I
should be.

"I am,

"Dear Sir,

"Yours gratefully,

"THADDEUS P. WALDRON."

"Cobbler" Horn read this gratifying letter over and over again, with a
secret joy. But it was not till the next day that he could bring himself
to comply with the invitation of its closing sentence, and pay a visit to
the writer. He found the young man, who was far on his way to recovery,
full of thankfulness to him and of gratitude to God. It seemed that,
previous to the accumulation of troubles beneath which his faith had given
away, the young fellow had been a zealous Christian. "Cobbler" Horn found
him sincerely penitent; and, during this, and succeeding interviews, he
had the joy of leading him back to the Saviour.

CHAPTER XXV.

COUSIN JACK.

As "Cobbler" Horn was leaving the vessel at New York, he witnessed the
meeting of Thaddeus P. Waldron and his wife. Mrs. Waldron had come on
board the steamer. She was a wholesome, glowing little woman, encumbered
with no inconvenient quantity of reserve. She flung her arms impulsively
around her husband's neck, and kissed him with a smack like the report of
a pistol.

"Why, Thad," she cried, "do tell! You've completely taken me in! I
expected a scarecrow. What for did you frighten me with that letter I
got last week? It might have been my death!"

Then, with a little trill