It must not be supposed that from this date everything in the affairs of our various friends flowed on in a tranquil, uninterrupted course.  This world is a battle-field, on which no warrior finds rest until he dies; and yet, to the Christian warrior on that field, the hour of death is the hour of victory.  “Change” is written in broad letters on everything connected with Time; and he who would do his duty well, and enjoy the greatest possible amount of happiness here, must seek to prepare himself for every change.  Men cannot escape the general law.  The current of their particular stream may long run smooth, but sooner or later the rugged channel and the precipice will come.  Some streams run quietly for many a league, and only at the last are troubled.  Others burst from their very birth on rocks of difficulty, and rush, throughout their course, in tortuous, broken channels.

So was it with the actors in our story.  Our hero’s course was smooth.  Having fallen in love with his friend Tom Singleton’s profession, he studied medicine and surgery, became an M.D., and returned to practise in Grayton, which was a flourishing sea-port, and, during the course of Fred’s career, extended considerably.  Fred also fell in love with a pretty young girl in a neighbouring town, and married her.  Tom Singleton also took up his abode in Grayton, there being, as he said, “room for two.”  Ever since Tom had seen Isobel on the end of the quay, on the day when the Dolphin set sail for the Polar Regions, his heart had been taken prisoner.  Isobel refused to give it back unless he, Tom, should return the heart which he had stolen from her.  This he could not do, so it was agreed that the two hearts should be tied together, and they two should be constituted joint guardians of both.  In short, they were married, and took Mrs. Bright to live with them, not far from the residence of old Mr. Singleton, who was the fattest and jolliest old gentleman in the place, and the very idol of dogs and boys, who loved him to distraction.

Captain Ellice, having had, as he said, “more than his share of the sea,” resolved to live on shore, and, being possessed of a moderately comfortable income, he purchased Mrs. Bright’s cottage on the green hill that overlooked the harbour and the sea.  Here he became celebrated for his benevolence, and for the energy with which he entered into all the schemes that were devised for the benefit of the town of Grayton.  Like Tom Singleton and Fred, he became deeply interested in the condition of the poor, and had a special weakness for poor old women, which he exhibited by searching up, and doing good to, every poor old woman in the parish.  Captain Ellice was also celebrated for his garden, which was a remarkably fine one; for his flagstaff, which was a remarkably tall and magnificent one; and for his telescope, which constantly protruded from his drawingroom window, and pointed in the direction of the sea.