travelling, your honour, in the same direction,
and we shall have the moon presently
to light us. You sail late out of port, my
hearty. Whither bound?"

"Across the seas," answered the boy. "My
aunt sends me to Jericho, and I intend to
journey thither. You seem to be a sailor.
Do you know anything about the place?"

"Know it, my hearty? Do I know a
marlinspike! Many's the yarn I've heard in
the bay of Jericho. Why, man, I bought this
monkey from the natives there, and a fine
bout of fisticuffs I had with a shark that was
chasing it, when by ill luck, one day, it fell
over the maintop gunwale cross-tree booms
into the sea."

"Indeed, sir," said Franklin. "Would you
mind telling me that story?"

"Better than tell it, I will. See here, my
man; this white road's the water, there's
poor Jocko in the water, you're the shark
after him, this bank's the deck of the Saucy
Sally, and them trees is Jericho Castle close
alongside of which we're moored. Now I'm
up the bank, you see; on deck, you know.
Sharks to starboard! Look out to larboard!
Down with the lee scuppers! One, two,
three! Down I come on you, Master Shark,
and down you are—"

"O, but you hurt me, sir!"

"It's over in a minute. Down goes the
shark, you see; and I not only turn him
over, but I take him by the neck, and before
I leave him, your honour—just permit me—
I strip off his very skin."

When the sailor had begun to pull off
Franklin's jacket, the boy saw his intention.

"Good," he cried. "And did you skin the
very toes of the shark ?"

"Ha! that did I," said the man; and,
kneeling down before the boy, he proceeded
to unlace his new Balmoral boots, but was
delayed, as Franklin knew that he would be, by
the hard knot into which one of the laces had
been tied. In the meantime young Bruce,
without discovering fear or suspicion, made
a grotesque resistance, and rolled on the
ground as if he were the shark still fighting
for his prey. The boots were off. "Now for
the waistcoat," said the sailor.

"No," answered Franklin Bruce; "with
your leave, now I shall put on my clothes
again;" and snatching up his boots and his
jacket, he retired some steps from the still
kneeling plunderer, who jumped up to
pursue, and at once fell flat upon his face;
for Franklin had during the mock struggle
contrived with his pocket-knife to cut two
inches from one of the man's wooden legs,
and seven inches from the other, as they lay
on the ground behind him, when he knelt to
work at the bootlaces.

"You have sixpence of mine," said the
boy, "I give it you in payment for your
hat:" so, putting the thief's nautical hat on
his own head, and tying it by a string to his
button-hole, Franklin resumed his journey.

The moon was just peeping over the trees
as the boy marched onward, having left the
villain and his monkey far behind, when
suddenly he heard a rushing noise, and a
wild cry; and in the next instant an open
postchaise, dashing in round a corner, crossed
the road, and was plunged by an infuriated
horse towards the brink of an adjacent
horrible abyss. The chaise contained a gentleman
and lady, with their governess, their
maid, and their six children. Franklin
Bruce saw only the face of a lovely girl, who
had blossomed through ten summers, as she
stood up, crying wildly, Wo, wo! to the
horses. Never before had he seen such wo
as was depicted in her face; never before
had a vision of such beauty crossed his path.
At a glance he saw that the horses were
those of the Bugle, in the neighbouring post-
town, and that one of them was the vicious
Bruiser, whom the ostler had so often suffered
him to ride. The love of that horse for the
merry boy had been the wonder of the inn-
yard; and now, even in his hurry, at the
sound of a cheery Woa-ho from Franklin,
the horse turned as to a dear friend whom it
would be rude to pass in the public road
without a recognition. The first pause was
enough; Franklin at once walked round the
animal, soothing and patting him. The peril
was averted; the animal's head was turned
by its driver from the abyss, over the brink
of which it almost hung. And when the
chaise had been turned quietly back to the
highroad, the gentleman said, "Receive, my
boy, the blessing of a grateful father, and
accept some token, however inadequate, of
my approval of your conduct. Oblige me by
resuming your seat, my dear child, Louisa
Jane." The blue-eyed fairy who had first
caught Franklin's attention, and who now
leaned forward to speak with him, sat down
in decorous silence at the wish of her papa;
but when Franklin had received the four-
penny piece, with which he was rewarded,
after a vain search for sixpence among the
elders in the chaise—for the father of the house
unfortunately had by him no coin smaller
than a shilling—Louisa Jane darted a kind and
meaning glance at her preserver, as she dropped
her little thimble over the chaise door.

The chaise rolled away, and with a new
sentiment at his heart Franklin resumed his
journey. He slept that night under a
haystack, and in the morning breakfasted upon a
portion of the fourpence. Soon afterwards he
went on board the Arrow, which was a fine
large ship, and set sail for the islands of the
Pacific Ocean.

He had been picked up by the first mate,
who, being in want of a shipboy, told him
that Jericho was an island in the midst of
the Pacific Ocean, and that he should be
quite sure to go there if he sailed with him.
An English family was on board, but he saw
none of the members of it for some days, as
they remained behind the partition that had