ster--a stiff man, which
I regret, but, in all other respects, a treasure. Long John Silver
unearthed a very competent man for a mate, a man named Arrow. I have
a boatswain who pipes, Livesey; so things shall go man-o'-war fashion
on board the good ship _Hispaniola_.

"I forgot to tell you that Silver is a man of substance; I know of my
own knowledge that he has a banker's account, which has never been
overdrawn. He leaves his wife to manage the inn; and as she is a
woman of colour, a pair of old bachelors like you and I may be
excused for guessing that it is the wife, quite as much as the
health, that sends him back to roving. J. T.

"_P.P.S._--Hawkins may stay one night with his mother.

"J. T."

You can fancy the excitement into which that letter put me. I was half
beside myself with glee; and if ever I despised a man, it was old Tom
Redruth, who could do nothing but grumble and lament. Any of the
under-gamekeepers would gladly have changed places with him; but such was
not the squire's pleasure, and the squire's pleasure was like law among
them all. Nobody but old Redruth would have dared so much as even to
grumble.

The next morning he and I set out on foot for the "Admiral Benbow," and
there I found my mother in good health and spirits. The captain, who had
so long been a cause of so much discomfort, was gone where the wicked
cease from troubling. The squire had had everything repaired, and the
public rooms and the sign repainted, and had added some furniture--above
all, a beautiful arm-chair for mother in the bar. He had found her a boy
as an apprentice also, so that she should not want help while I was
gone.

It was on seeing that boy that I understood, for the first time, my
situation. I had thought, up to that moment, of the adventures before me,
not at all of the home that I was leaving; and now, at sight of this
clumsy stranger, who was to stay here in my place beside my mother, I had
my first attack of tears. I am afraid I led that boy a dog's life; for as
he was new to the work I had a hundred opportunities of setting him right
and putting him down, and I was not slow to profit by them.

The night passed, and the next day, after dinner, Redruth and I were
afoot again, and on the road. I said good-bye to mother and the cove
where I had lived since I was born, and the dear old "Admira