d finished our
meal and discharged the bill, which only took eightpence put of our
store, we made our way to the railway station.

A train was luckily just about starting, and Tom getting a ticket for
half-price, he and I parted, not meeting again until many days had
passed, and then in a very different place!

When I realised the fact that Tom was gone, and that I was now left
alone in that strange place, where I had never been in my life before, I
felt so utterly cast down, that instinctively I made my way to the sea,
there seeking that comfort and calm which the mere sight of it, somehow
or other, always afforded me.

I got down, I recollect, on the Hoe, and, walking along the esplanade,
halted right in front of the Breakwater, whence I could command a view
of the harbour, with the men-of-war in the Hamoaze on my right hand, and
the Cattwater, where the _Saucy Sall_ was lying, on my left.

I was very melancholy, and after a bit I sat down on an adjacent seat;
when, burying my face in my hands, I gave way to tears.

Presently, I was roused by the sound of a man's voice close at hand, as
if of some one speaking to me.

I looked up hastily, ashamed of being caught crying. However, the good-
natured, jolly, weather-beaten face I saw looking into mine reassured
me.

"Hullo, young cockbird," said the owner of the face--a middle-aged,
respectable, nautical-looking sort of man--speaking in a cheery voice,
which went to my heart; "what's the row with you, my hearty? Tell old
Sam Pengelly all about it!"

CHAPTER NINE.

OLD CALABAR COTTAGE.

I don't know why, excepting that the words had a kindly ring about them,
in spite of the almost brusque quaintness of the address, that touched
me keenly in the depressed state of mind in which I was; but, instead of
answering the speaker's pertinent question as to the reason of my grief,
I now bent down my head again on my arm, sobbing away as if my heart
would break.

But this only made the good Samaritan prosecute his inquiry further.

"Come, come, stow that, youngster," said he, taking a seat beside me on
the bench, where I was curled up in one corner, placing one of his hands
gently on my shoulder in a caressing way. "Look up, and tell me what
ails you, my lad, and if Sam Pengelly can help you, why, there's his
fist on it!"

"You--you--are very k-kind," I stammered out between my long-drawn sobs;
"but--but--no--nobody can--help me, sir."

"Oh, nonsense, tell t