e first packet leaving Auckland.

"I never knew what the old Great Bear was to me till I saw him again!"
said Harry.

It was late when the elders had finished all that was to be heard at
present, and the clock reminded them that they must part.

"And you go to-morrow?" sighed Margaret.

"I must. Jennings has to go on to Portsmouth, and see after his son."

"Oh, let me see Jennings!" exclaimed Margaret. "May I not, papa?"

Richard, who had been making friends with Jennings, whenever he had not
been needed by his sisters that afternoon, went to fetch him from the
kitchen, where all the servants, and all their particular friends,
were listening to the yarn that made them hold their heads higher, as
belonging to Master Harry.

Harry stepped forward, met Jennings, and said, aside, "My sister,
Jennings; my sister that you have heard of."

Dr. May had already seen the sailor, but he could not help addressing
him again. "Come in; come in, and see my boy among us all. Without you,
we never should have had him."

"Make him come to me," said Margaret breathlessly, as the embarrassed
sailor stood, sleeking down his hair; and, when he had advanced to her
couch, she looked up in his face, and put her hand into his great brown
one.

"I could not help saying thank you," she said.

"Mr. May, sir!" cried Jennings, almost crying, and looking round for
Harry, as a sort of protector--"tell them, sir, please, it was only my
duty--I could not do no less, and you knows it, sir," as if Harry had
been making an accusation against him.

"We know you could not," said Margaret, "and that is what we would thank
you for, if we could. I know he--Mr. Ernescliffe--must have been much
more at rest for leaving my brother with so kind a friend, and--"

"Please, miss, don't say no more about it. Mr. Ernescliffe was as fine
an officer as ever stepped a quarter-deck, and Mr. May here won't fall
short of him; and was I to be after leaving the like of them to the
mercy of the black fellows--that was not so bad neither? If it had only
pleased God that we had brought them both back to you, miss; but, you
see, a man can't be everything at once, and Mr. Ernescliffe was not so
stout as his heart."

"You did everything, we know--" began Dr. May.

"'Twas a real pleasure," said Jennings hastily, "for two such real
gentlemen as they was. Mr. May, sir, I beg your pardon if I say it to
your face, never flinched, nor spoke a word of complaint, through it