As for the others—­Captain Guy continued his career at sea as commander of an East Indiaman.  He remained stout and true-hearted to the last, like one of the oak timbers of his own good ship.

Bolton, Saunders, Mivins, Peter Grim, Amos Parr, and the rest of them, were scattered in a few years, as sailors usually are, to the four quarters of the globe.  O’Riley alone was heard of again.  He wrote to Buzzby “by manes of the ritin’ he had larn’d aboord the Dolfin,” informing him that he had forsaken the “say” and become a small farmer near Cork.  He had plenty of murphies and also a pig—­the latter “bein’” he said, “so like the wan that belonged to his owld grandmother, that he thought it must be the same wan corned alive agin, or its darter.”

And Buzzby—­poor Buzzby—­he also gave up the sea, much against his will, by command of his wife, and took to miscellaneous work, of which there was plenty for an active man in a sea-port like Grayton.  His rudder, poor man, was again (and this time permanently) lashed amid-ships, and whatever breeze Mrs. Buzzby chanced to blow, his business was to sail right before it. The two little Buzzbys were the joy of their father’s heart.  They were genuine little true-blues, both of them, and went to sea the moment their legs were long enough, and came home, voyage after voyage, with gifts of curiosities and gifts of money to their worthy parents.

Dumps resided during the remainder of his days with Captain Ellice, and Poker dwelt with Buzzby.  These truly remarkable dogs kept up their attachment to each other to the end.  Indeed, as time passed by, they drew closer and closer together, for Poker became more sedate, and, consequently, a more suitable companion for his ancient friend.  The dogs formed a connecting link between the Buzzby and Ellice families—­constantly reminding each of the other’s existence by the daily interchange of visits.

Fred and Tom soon came to be known as the best doctors with which that part of the country had ever been blessed.  And the secret of their success lay in this, that while they ministered to the diseased bodies of men, they also ministered to their diseased souls.  With skilful hands they sought to arrest the progress of decay; but when all their remedies failed, they did not merely cease their efforts and retire—­they turned to the pages of divine truth, and directed the gaze of the dying sufferers to Jesus Christ, the Great Physician of souls.  When death had done its work, they did not quit the mourning household as if they were needed there no longer, but kneeling down with the bereaved, they prayed to Him who alone can bind up the broken heart, and besought the Holy Spirit to comfort the stricken ones in their deep affliction.

Thus Fred and his friend went hand in hand together, respected and blessed by all who knew them—­each year as it passed cementing closer and closer that undying friendship which had first started into being in the gay season of boyhood, and had bloomed and ripened amid the adventures, dangers, and vicissitudes of the World of Ice.