is the
perquisite of those who unite a healthy mind to a sound body.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

TELLS OF BOLD PLANS, FOLLOWED BY BOLDER DEEDS.

Months passed away, and Miss Pritty, sitting in her little boudoir
sipping a cup of that which cheers, received a letter.

"I know that hand, of course I do. How strange it is there should be
such a variety of hands--no two alike, just like faces; though for my
part I think that some faces are quite alike, so much so that there are
one or two people who are always mistaken for each other, so that people
don't know which is which. Dear me! What an awful thing it would be if
these people were so like that each should forget which was the other!
Nobody else being able to put them right, there would be irretrievable
confusion. What do you want, eh?"

The first part of Miss Pritty's mutterances was a soliloquy; the query
was addressed to her small and only domestic with the dishevelled head,
who lingered at the door from motives of curiosity.

"Nothink, ma'am. Do you wish me to wait, ma'am?"

"No;--go."

She went, and Miss Pritty, opening the letter, exclaimed, "From my
nephew, Edgar! I knew it. Dear fellow! I wonder why he writes to me."

The letter ran as follows:--

"Dear Aunt,--You will doubtless be surprised to receive a letter from
me. It must be brief; the post leaves in an hour. Since I saw you we
have had a charming voyage out, but at the last we ran on a rocky
island off the coast of China, and became a total wreck in a few
minutes."

At this point Miss Pritty gasped "oh!" and fainted--at least she went
into a perfect semblance of the state of coma, but as she recovered
suddenly, and appealed to the letter again with intense earnestness, it
may have been something else that was the matter. She resumed her
perusal:--

"We succeeded in getting a hawser on shore, by means of which, through
God's mercy, nearly all the passengers were saved, including, of
course, your friend Miss Hazlit and her father. It is mournful to
have to add, however, that before the work was finished the wreck
slipped into deep water and sank with all her crew on board. We
remained only one day on the rock, when a passing ship observed our
signals, took us off, and carried us safely into Hong-Kong.

"Mr Hazlit and his daughter immediately left for--I know not where!
I remained here to make some inquiries about the wreck, which I am
told contains a la