.

Ned Thorn was a boy of Noll's own age, and much resembled him in
appearance, though, of the two, Ned was a trifle the taller. Indeed,
as Mr. Snape observed, leaning over the rail and smoking his pipe
while he watched the two lads walking briskly homeward,--

"They're as like as two peas, Ben,--did ye note?--only one's more so
than t'other."

It seemed to Noll, while on this homeward walk, that nothing was
lacking to make home pleasant, now that Ned had come. His friend's
presence did not seem a reality, as yet, and he had to listen a long
time to Ned's merry chatter before he could realize that it was
actually Ned Thorn who was walking beside him in this purple twilight,
along the shore of the glimmering, sounding sea.

"What a queer place!" said Ned, stopping, at the curve of the shore,
to look off at the horizon, which seemed to rise higher than their
heads, and turning to look at the dark wall of rock behind them; "and
what a lonesome sound the waves make! I should have died of the blues
in three weeks. And what a miserable set those fishermen are! They all
seem to like you, though. Did you see how they made way for us, and
touched their caps, some of them? What a capital place to fish, off
those rocks! I'm glad I brought hooks and lines, and--What's that
light ahead? A lighthouse?"

"No, only Hagar's kitchen window," said Noll; "Hagar's our black
cook, and there's only three of us in that great house, Ned!"

"I should think you'd lose each other! Is your uncle like your father
at all?"

"No, Uncle Richard's not much like papa," said Noll, with sudden
graveness; "but he loves me, and--and I hope you'll like him, Ned."

They walked the rest of the way in silence till they came to the
piazza steps under the shadow of the great stone house.

"It looks just as it did when I saw it first," said Noll,--"the sea
getting dark and shadowy and making that lonesome sound on the
pebbles, and oh, how I had to rap and search before I could find my
way in! But come on, Ned."

Noll led his friend along the echoing hall, straight to Uncle
Richard's library, where the lamp had been lighted.

"This is Ned Thorn, Uncle Richard," said he, as they entered, "and
he's come clear from Hastings to see me."

"Ned is very welcome," said Trafford, who chanced to be in a cheerful
mood, "and if you boys are ready, we will go out to tea."

Noll ran on before to Hagar's kitchen, where he burst in,
exclai