put this into safe hands for her; but if you should never hear of her, keep it for yourself, and may God be with us all.”  At that moment we were carried down, and as I rose again, I caught at a spar which was floating near, and looking after my friends, I saw them rise far to leeward; they were still clasped in each other’s arms.  I would willingly have gone down if she might have been saved; but that could not be, and I was borne far out to sea.  The fog lifted, but I was not able to make my whereabouts, and in this condition I was left for two days, when I was picked up by a vessel bound to Liverpool direct.  I told the captain my story, and found that we had missed our bearings, that our vessel had been wrecked upon the Nantucket shoals.  Our voyage proved to be a long and stormy one, for the September gales took us on to the coast of Africa; and when a year after I shipped for New York, I heard nothing of the child, and have always supposed her little bark took her to a better land.”

“And so it did!” exclaimed the weeping Natalie, holding the great rough hand of the tar within her own; “the little bark bore her in safety to a peaceful shore, where she was received with open arms by those who have filled the place of her natural parents.  You see before you, my honest friend, no other than the child of that gentle mother, whose parting from her babe you witnessed.”

Sampson gazed upon her with astonishment, and clapping both hands to his head, as if to assure himself that his exterior was yet in a healthful condition, whatever transmogrification the interior might have undergone, he exclaimed,—­“I’m not so sure, after all, that my name’s Sampson!  I really begin to think that I must have gone down, with the rest; and yet, I could swear to it that I’m a portion of that dust-heap!  If my topsails aren’t shivered this time; clean gone by the board!” and as if to verify his words, he sank deeper into his chair, and broke into such a train of musing, as caused the little son of Africa in attendance, to jingle his glasses right merrily, that the wild bursts of his uncontrollable mirth might sound the less.

Mr. Alboni could scarce credit what he had heard.  “And the parchment,” inquired he, “what was the purport of that?”

The tar sat as one in a trance, but by certain gesticulations, it appeared that his skysails were not so shattered that he did not comprehend the drift of the question, and after much tugging and pulling at an old waistcoat, which was worn beneath the round-about, he produced a roll, which, from twenty years’ wear, it having been his constant companion during that time, by sea and by land, had become in appearance of an uncertain nature, and handing it to the gentleman, he said, after examining the miniature which Natalie put into his hand, of her mother, “The document belongs to her, and if I’d a happened to have met her on the sea, I might have known it, even If I hadn’t seen the picture of the noble lady, for she’s the exact imitation; but I never can get the land fog out of my eyes when I’m ashore.  That’s a sorry looking bit of paper, your honor, but it’s what’ll buy more than one twist of pig-tail.”