lesson for having broken his indentures and seeking refuge under the roof of an Irish Jesuit!  Apart from these incoherent mutterings nothing of serious moment transpired.  By way of preliminary chastisement, the boy was ordered to scrape the main-royal and top-gallant mast down during his watch below in the daytime, and neither the masts, nor the yards attached to them, received any real benefit by this blockheaded notion of punishment.  It is said, indeed, that they suffered materially.  The fact of deriving pleasure by inflicting a cruel act on a mere child is hideous to think of, but in those days these uncultured, half-savage creatures were allowed all the powers of a monarch, and disdained the commonest rights of humanity.  The captain was said to have expressed a sense of pride in what he termed the smart capture of his erring apprentice, and some talk was heard of the contemplated exploits of drilling after sailing again.  Poor man!  He was never to have the opportunity of gratifying an ignoble desire, for the night after the vessel’s arrival the youthful incorrigible disembarked with a vow that he would never return to her again; and he kept his word.  Could those fields and lanes in Scotland speak out the thoughts and the sufferings of the days that were spent there, what an ineffable record of woe they would lay bare!

Tramping by night, and concealed part of the way by day, this child of respectable parents was driven by cruel wrong to abandon himself to the privations of hunger, the rigour of a biting climate, and to the chance of his strength giving way before he had reached the destination that was to open out newer and brighter opportunities to him.  Four weeks after deserting his vessel he landed at a large seaport on the north-east coast of England, and then began a new era.  For many years he led a chequered and eventful life, which, however, did not prevent him from rising quickly to the head of his profession.  Before he was twenty-two years of age he was given the command of a handsome sailing vessel, and at twenty-six he commanded a steamer.  He had not seen his old captain for many years, though he often desired to do so.  One day he came across him in London, and addressed him with the same regard to quarter-deck etiquette as he was accustomed to observe when a boy under his command.  The old man liked it, and he observed with a quiver in his speech, “I am glad to notice that you have not forgotten what I took so much pains to learn you.”  His pupil assured him that he had not forgotten anything he had been taught, and especially the duty he owed to his old commander.  The veteran was touched with the display of loyalty and the mark of respect shown him.  There seemed to be an accumulation of recollections passing through his mind as he hesitatingly said, “I used to knock you about a good deal, but it was all for your good, and to teach you proper discipline.”  He was assured that everything of an unpleasant character had been shut out of the