“Walsham,” he said, “an order has just come from the admiralty for your discharge, and you are to have a passage in the first ship returning, if you choose to take it.  I am sorry you are leaving the ship, for I have noticed that you show great willingness and activity, and will make a first-rate sailor.  Still, I suppose, your friends in England did not care about your remaining before the mast.”

James touched his hat and walked forward.  He was scarcely surprised, for he had thought that his mother would probably ask the squire to use his influence to obtain his discharge.  He scarcely knew whether he was glad or sorry.  He was in a false position, and could not hope for promotion except by some lucky chance, such as was not likely to occur, of distinguishing himself.

At the same time, he sighed as he thought that he must now return and take up the profession for which his mother had intended him.  A quarter of an hour later, however, the ship’s corporal came round and distributed the mails, and James, to his delight, found there were three letters for him.  He tore open that from his mother.  It began by gently upbraiding him for getting himself mixed up in the fight between the smugglers and the revenue men.

“In the next place, my dear boy,” she said, “I must scold you, even more, for not confiding in your mother as to your wishes about your future profession.  Mr. Wilks has opened my eyes to the fact that, while I have all along been taking it for granted, that your wishes agreed with mine as to your profession, you have really been sacrificing all your own inclinations in order to avoid giving me pain.  I am very thankful to him for having opened my eyes, for I should have been grieved indeed had I found, when too late, that I had chained you down to a profession you dislike.

“Of course, I should have liked to have had you with me, but in no case would have had you sacrifice yourself; still less now, when I have met with such kind friends, and am happy and comfortable in my life.  Therefore, my boy, let us set aside at once all idea of your becoming a doctor.  There is no occasion for you to choose, immediately, what you will do.  You are too old now to enter the royal navy, and it is well that, before you finally decide on a profession, you have the opportunity of seeing something of the world.

“I inclose bank notes for a hundred pounds so that, if you like, you can stay for a few weeks or months in the colonies, and then take your passage home from New York or Boston.  By that time, too, all talk about this affair with the smugglers will have ceased; but, as your name is likely to come out at the trial of the men who were taken, so the squire thinks it will be better for you to keep away, for a time.”

The rest of the letter was filled up with an account of the excitement and alarm which had been felt when he was first missed.