the native
regiments of the East India Company. He had, six weeks before this,
been carried off suddenly by an outbreak of cholera; and she had
been waiting at Calcutta, in order to see her brother, before
sailing for England. She was the daughter of an English clergyman,
who had died some seventeen years before. Nellie, who was then
eighteen, being motherless as well as fatherless, had determined to
sail for India. A great friend of hers had married and gone out, a
year before. Nellie's father was at that time in bad health; and
her friend had said to her, at parting:

"Now mind, Nellie, I have your promise that, if you should find
yourself alone here, you will come out to me in India. I shall be
very glad to have you with me, and I don't suppose you will be on
my hands very long; pretty girls don't remain single many months,
in India."

So, seeing nothing better to do, Nellie had, shortly after her
father's death, sailed for Calcutta.

Lieutenant Brooke was also a passenger on board the Ava, and during
the long voyage he and Nellie Pearson became engaged; and were
married, from her friend's house, a fortnight after their arrival.
Nellie was told that she was a foolish girl, for that she ought to
have done better; but she was perfectly happy. The pay and
allowances of her husband were sufficient for them to live upon in
comfort; and though, when the children came, there was little to
spare, the addition of pay when he gained the rank of captain was
ample for their wants. They had been, in fact, a perfectly happy
couple--both had bright and sunny dispositions, and made the best
of everything; and she had never had a serious care, until he was
suddenly taken away from her.

Stanley had inherited his parents' disposition and, as his sisters,
coming so soon after him, occupied the greater portion of his
mother's care, he was left a good deal to his own devices; and
became a general pet in the regiment, and was equally at home in
the men's lines and in the officers' bungalows. The native language
came as readily to him as English and, by the time he was ten, he
could talk in their own tongue with the men from the three or four
different districts from which the regiment had been recruited. His
father devoted a couple of hours a day to his studies. He did not
attempt to teach him Latin--which would, he thought, be altogether
useless to him--but gave him a thorough grounding in English and
Indian history, and arithmet