pared. Whatever other
dangers the little fairy might have been exposed to, it was quite
evident that Miss Brand had been in no immediate danger of starving.

Like a sensible girl, she had obtained access to the ship's stores, and
was evidently well acquainted with the most approved methods of
preparing food for human consumption. The meal was a thoroughly
pleasant one, for we were all happy; she, that assistance had come to
her, and we, that it had been our good fortune to bestow it.

Whilst sitting at table the sweet little creature gave us her history,
and recounted the circumstances which had placed her in her present
position; but as there was nothing very remarkable in either, I shall
give both in a condensed form, as I have a most wholesome dread of
wearying my readers.

She told us that she was an only child, and that for the last ten years
she had been a resident in Canton, whither her father had proceeded to
take possession of a lucrative appointment. After a residence of five
years there, her mother died; and her father, who was passionately
attached to his wife, seemed never to have recovered from the blow.

Five years more passed away, and the husband followed his fondly-loved
companion, dying (so Ella asserted sobbingly) of no disease in
particular, but of a gradual wasting away, the result, as she believed,
of a slowly breaking heart. She thus found herself left alone and
almost friendless in a strange land, and, after taking counsel with such
friends as her father had made, _she_ had, with their assistance,
disposed of everything, and had taken passage in the _Copernicus_ to
London, in the faint hope of being able to find some friends of her
mother's of whom she had heard, but had never seen, her mother having
contracted what is termed a _mesalliance_--in other words, a love-match
with one whom her friends chose to consider infinitely beneath her in
social position.

The ship was bound home by way of Cape Horn, having to call at the
Sandwich Islands and Buenos Ayres on her way; and all had gone well
until eight days before, when, it appeared, the ship was struck by a
sudden squall some time during the night, thrown on her beam-ends, and
dismasted; and as Ella had remained, during the whole time, cowering and
terrified in her berth, she supposed the crew had gone away in the
boats, forgetting her in their hurry and panic.

As soon as the squall was over, the ship had gradually righted again;
and