dead,
for she was in a dying state when last heard of. Well, I have found that
the boy is alive. He has been brought up by the woman who is the mother
of a boy who works here."

"Oh! I know," Alice exclaimed, "Frank told me the story. She had told
him about a woman who had fallen down at her door years ago, and how she
had brought up the child. But O uncle!" she said pitifully, "I have a
sad thing to tell you. Frank said that he was such a nice boy, so clever
and good. Frank used to go and help him with his books, and he can read
Latin and all sorts of things; but, uncle, he met with an accident when
he was little, and he is a cripple."

For a minute Captain Bayley was silent.

"It is part of my punishment, dear," he said at last, "God's will be
done. However, cripple or not, I am thankful to find that, from what
you say, he is a boy whom I can own without shame, for the thought has
troubled me always, that, should Ella's son be alive, he might have
grown up a companion of thieves, a wandering vagabond. Thank God,
indeed, it is not so! I am glad you told me, Alice. Now, let me see this
good woman who has been a mother to him."

Mrs. Holl was again called in, and was asked to sit down.

"The question you wished to ask me," Captain Bayley said, "was, I
suppose, whether I could give you any clue as to who was the woman you
took in, and whose child you adopted? She was my daughter."

"Lor', sir!" Mrs. Holl exclaimed, "who would have thought such a thing?"

"Who, indeed," Captain Bayley repeated; "but so it was. For years I
sought for her in vain, and had long since given up all hope of ever
hearing of her. Have you got the seal with you?"

After some search Mrs. Holl produced from the corner of her capacious
pocket the seal, carefully wrapped up in paper.

"That is it," Captain Bayley said, with a sigh. "Alice, go to my desk,
open the inner compartment, and there you will see the fellow to it."
Alice did as he requested.

"There, you see, Doctor, they are exactly alike. They were both made at
the same time, soon after I returned from India, and now, Mrs. Holl,
please tell us the whole story as I understand you told it to my
nephew."

Mrs. Holl repeated the story in nearly the same words that she had used
to Frank.

"God bless you!" Captain Bayley said, when she finished. "No words can
tell how grateful I am to you, or how deeply I am moved at the thought
of the kindness which you and your husband, strangers a