o. They had been part owners with her father in the _Dolphin_, the
ship in which he had been wrecked. Having neglected to insure her they
had lost a good deal of money by the circumstance, and being especially
narrow-minded entertained an ill feeling even for poor Jessie herself,
which they exhibited whenever she went to their office. She had been to
a good school in Exeter, but the lady who kept it, and who would have
been of great assistance, was dead, and the school broken up.

The clergyman of the church Jessie attended, on hearing of her
unprotected condition, immediately called on her to offer such
consolation and assistance as he had the power to bestow. He was,
however, the vicar of an extensive parish, which, in addition to its
usual large number of poor, contained at the time very many widows and
orphans of the soldiers and sailors killed during the long protracted
war, who demanded all his sympathy and attention. Having also but a
limited income, insufficient for the extensive demands on his purse, he
was unable to afford her any pecuniary assistance. His visits, few and
far between, like those of angels, as they of necessity were, afforded
her much comfort and support, as he never failed to urge her to seek for
that strength from on high which will always be granted when asked for
with a believing heart; and to place her reliance on Him who orders all
for the best, though man, with his finite powers of mind, often fails to
perceive it.

The only other person she could consult was Mr Barry, the apothecary,
and he had but little time to give his thoughts to the subject.

The _Amity_ had in the meantime gone back to London, and had made
several other distant voyages without returning to Plymouth. The
captain had written to her, but on each occasion had again sailed
without receiving her replies, and was thus not aware of her
grandmother's death. At length a letter reached him while he lay in the
Thames, and in his answer he promised to come and see her without fail
at the end of the next voyage. A long time passed after this, and no
tidings came of him. She lived on in hopes, however, of his promised
visit, till at length she heard from Mrs Judson of a rumour that the
_Amity_ was lost with all hands.

"But don't ye take on so now, my dear," exclaimed the good woman when
she saw the effect her announcement had produced. "We often hear of
vessels going to the bottom which are all the time snug in so