kindly meant, had anything but the effect intended, for she
burst into tears.

"Now don't take on so," said the sailor, "I didn't think as how I'd have
made you cry, or I wouldn't have talked about Ralph. Maybe he wasn't
lost with the old _Falcon_. I've known men turn up after ever so many
years, whom I thought fathoms deep below the waves long afore. Not but
what he'd have been sure to come back to you if he could, that's
certain."

"You have not told me who you are. How did you escape from the
shipwreck?" said Jessie, at length becoming calm enough to speak.

"I've had a purser's name [see note 1] for some time past, but I don't
mind telling you I'm Dick Bracewell, who sailed along with Captain Mudge
in the _Amity_ once upon a time," answered her visitor. "And as to how
I escaped, why I'd left the ship after we took the Frenchman and put
into Rio, and I didn't know but what Ralph was still aboard her, and a
lieutenant by that time, till I heard when I came ashore last that she
was lost with all hands."

Jessie did not quite like Dick's way of speaking, still it was a
melancholy satisfaction to her to talk of Ralph; and as her visitor
appeared to mean kindly, she did not express any wish that he would take
his departure. He sat and sat on telling her many particulars about
Ralph while on board the _Falcon_; how well he had behaved in the
action, and how he had been made an officer, and been placed in command
of the _Eagle_, Dick did not, however, tell her everything that had
occurred regarding himself; but though he was not aware of it his tone
betrayed the feeling of jealousy which he had entertained, and which her
quick perception detecting, did not raise him in her estimation. At
last she had to tell him that it was getting late, and to beg that he
would go away.

"Well, I hope that I may call again and spin another yarn about old
times," he answered, as he took up his hat.

She did not like to say no, and yet his conversation had not left a
pleasant impression on her mind. When she had closed the door behind
him, she sat down and cried bitterly. It seemed to her more certain
than ever that Ralph was lost. Her evening reading of the Bible and her
prayers, that solace of the afflicted, restored calmness to her mind.

Day after day Dick Bracewell came to pay her a visit, and, believing him
to have been Ralph's particular friend, she did not like to decline
seeing him. He told her that after he had