Revenue Station, and
fifteen years or so before the time of our history commences, the
command was held by an old Lieutenant Cumming, who had obtained it, he
used with a touch of satire to tell his friends, as a recompense for
forty years' services and numerous wounds in fighting his country's
battles.

He was one day standing on the beach, when a cutter brought up in the
bay, and her boat soon afterwards came on shore with a passenger. No
sooner did the old lieutenant see him than he hurried to the boat, and
grasping his hand as he stepped on shore, exclaimed, "Welcome, welcome,
old shipmate; I knew, Askew, that you would find me out some day; and so
you have; come along!"

Towards his cottage near the beach the old lieutenant and his friend
bent their steps, the former assisting the new comer, who having lost a
leg, walked with difficulty--a seaman following with a small
well-battered valise. Didn't the old shipmates talk as they sat
together during their supper! Many a battle they fought over again, and
Commander Askew had besides to talk of his own doings since last they
parted. He told his friend how in lashing the enemy's bowsprit to the
mizen-mast of his own ship, his leg had been shattered, and how he held
on to the task till he had done it, and then sank fainting on the deck.
He did not utter an expression like a boast, though he thoroughly
possessed the characteristics of the true-hearted naval officers of the
old school, who feared God, did their duty like lions, and said very
little about it. He spoke, too, of a promise he had made to a brother
officer, who lay dying in the cot next to him, and how he had fulfilled
it (the request was common in those days), "Jack, you'll keep an eye on
my wife and little girl, I know you will."

"Cheer up, Tom, don't be cast down about that matter, God knows that
I'll try and do the best I can for them."

That was all that passed. John Askew did do his best. He found his
late friend's widow dying, and the orphan girl, not a child, but a young
woman, without a friend in the world besides him. He looked about to
find a husband for her. To those eyes who could only see the pure
bright loving spirit beaming through her countenance, she appeared
plain. In vain Jack looked for what he sought. "Why don't you marry
her yourself?" said a friend.

Jack said that he was much too old for Margaret Treherne. However, he
put the matter before her. Her heart leaped with j