He said no more, but hurried away, and it was many years before he referred to the subject again; but the day came when he did mention it, and when he told me, with tears in his eyes, that he looked upon that Sunday at Runswick as the first link in the chain of God’s loving Providence, by means of which He had led him to Himself.  He told me then that he had never forgotten my firm refusal to go with him, and he had never forgotten the sermon to which he had listened hidden from sight by the bank.

Our day at Scarborough exceeded all our anticipations.  The weather was glorious, and Tom was in excellent spirits, and we thoroughly enjoyed everything.

I could not help feeling sorry when Thursday came, which was to be my last day at Runswick Bay.  It had been such a happy and so eventful a time.  I seemed to have passed through so much, and to have learnt so much unknown to me before, that I felt very reluctant to bring my holiday to a close.  As for Duncan and Polly, they were quite melancholy as the time for my departure drew near.

‘We shall feel lost without you, sir,’ said Duncan.  ’We shan’t know what to do’; and there were tears in Polly’s eyes as she said mournfully, when she set the herrings on the table for my supper, ’Them’s the last herrings I shall fry you, sir, and I feel as if there was going to be a death in the house.’

‘Cheer up, Polly,’ I said, ’who knows?  Perhaps you may have to put up with me next time I get a holiday, and you may be sure I shall want plenty of herrings then.’

She brightened a little at this, and little John, who was quite well now, and who had become very friendly with me since his illness, climbed up on my knee, and stroked my face with his little thin hand, as if he were trying to coax me to come back to them again.

There was one thing which I had a great desire to do before leaving Runswick.  I knew that Duncan was much troubled about the Mary Ann.  She had been terribly knocked about in the storm, which was no wonder, seeing that she had drifted about, bottom upwards, and had been driven hither and thither on the waves.  When Duncan had examined her the day after his arrival, he had found that she leaked in several places, and was altogether unseaworthy, and he had been obliged to hire a boat until such time as the Mary Ann could be properly repaired.  Then he went over to Whitby, and brought an experienced man back with him, and he overhauled her thoroughly, and gave it as his opinion that it would be a waste of money to try to patch her up.

When Duncan came in that night I saw that the poor fellow was terribly downcast.  ’The Mary Ann’s days are numbered, sir; she’ll never be able to rough it again,’ he said.  ’She’s been a good old boat to me and my father before me, and it will be like parting from an old friend to give her up.  Yon man, he says she might be cobbled together a bit; but you would never make a good job of her; she’d do maybe well enough for fine weather, but you couldn’t trust to her in a storm.’