F
STEALING--SENTENCED TO BE FLOGGED--IFFLEY'S TRIUMPH.

Several days passed by, and I heard nothing of Iffley. The fears of my
dear wife in consequence at length subsided, and she began to see that,
after all, she had probably thought worse of my old shipmate than he
deserved. We agreed that he must have been somewhat astonished at
seeing me alive, and the husband of one whom he had hoped to marry
himself, and that chiefly through bashfulness he had not been able to
bring himself to come up and address us.

"Bashfulness!" said Aunt Bretta, when she heard this remark; "I cannot
say that I should ever have given Charles Iffley the credit for a
superabundance of that quality. However, strange things happen. He may
have picked it up at sea, or among his associates on shore; but I doubt
it."

So did I, on reflection. Still, I was glad by any means to calm my
wife's apprehensions, which were the more painful because they were so
very indefinite. In the evening there was a knock at the door, and old
Jerry Vincent walked in.

"Sarvant, ladies; sarvant all," said he, pulling off his hat to Aunt
Bretta and my wife, who handed him a chair.

"Have you heard anything of that young man we told you of?" asked my
wife. It was evidently the question she was most anxious to put.

"Yes, I have, marm, and not much good either," was the answer. "I've
found out that he is aboard the _Royal William_; she's the flagship just
now at Spithead. He doesn't often come ashore, and that made me so long
hearing of him."

"What is he on board? Is he an officer?" asked Aunt Bretta.

"An officer, indeed, whew!" exclaimed Jerry. "Well, he is a sort of
one, maybe. Not a very high rating, though. He's neither more nor less
than a boatswain's mate. What do you think of that, marm?"

"Charles Iffley a boatswain's mate!" said my wife in a tone of pity. "I
thought he was an officer long ago."

"Well, marm, I made inquiries on board, and among several people who
knew him on shore, and from what I could learn, he would have been an
officer long ago if he had conducted himself well. He was placed on the
quarter-deck, for you see he has plenty of education, and knows how to
act the gentleman as well as any man. But there are some men who never
get up the tree but what they slip down again, and never can keep a
straight course long together. Charles Iffley is of that sort. For
something or other he did, he got disrated and dismissed th