The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-22

Caplh'n JaCopson DOunu IOr Oaloutta, ne nlm-
self for Hong Kong. Before parting they
had got to like each other, and promised
that on getting into port they would write
and let each other know what sort of voyage
they had. Walter distinctly remembered
writing his own address in pencil in
side an envelope which had contained
his fathers letter received at Cape Town, and
giving this to Jacobson. The next he heard
of his poor friend was that his vessel and he
were lost in the Hooghly. This he learnt
from an Indian newspaper somewhere in
China and saw that the captain was supposed
to be himself though how they had got his
name he had never known ill now. He had
instantly written home to allay the fears Of his
family; but by strange fatality the mail steamer
which bore his letter proved to be that very
one which struck in the Red Sea, and whose
bags were lost. Contrary winds had made
his voyage home long one, and he had ar
rived in London only the day before. Then
when he called on their old friend, Mr. Frank
lin, he had, to his utter sorrow, learnt that he
was still counted amongst the Dead and that
these other troubles had fallen on them be-
sides. Mr.. Franklin had advised him not to
come home that first night, but to write
first enclosing under his own envelope the
hand writing on which would help to save
them from the shock of 60 sudden 10y. And
this was the letter which Miss Lucy had so
dexterously buried, and which, by the aid of
a lantern and that young lady to point out the
grave, they now exhumed.
Mime said Mr.. Franklin, you need not
read for, as ] said, it is only to tell you the
mortgage business is all settled in a way be-
yond all our hopes. The old sinner, as soon
as he knew that the money was ready for
him, of course turned round and was particu-
larly anxious not to have it,
But as he has given notice. exclaimed
jamie, 'he shall have it, whether he wants it
a haVa
like this, then we will offer to lend him little
money ourselves, on equally as good security
as he has had
For jamie had disposed of his cargo in the
China seas to unhoped- for advantage, and had
come back freighted, he hoped, with wares
which he could at once dispose of as proftably
in England.
Compared with this resurrection Of the dead,
and this recovery of lost wealth, other plea
sures and surprises of that night were trivial.
But nevertheless whan the huge load of
luggage arrived which had been brought in
cart from the Junction, the unpacking of the
boxes was q sight worth seeing.
jamie had forgotten nobody. Not TO men,
tion the quaint monsters in bronze and ivory,
and the pictures from japan and China which
were for no one in particular, there were the
beautiful inlaid and carved work-boxes for
each of the girls (both at home and at the
mill), there was the set of wonderfully carved
chess. men, and the extraordinary pipe for
father; there was cage of brilliant birds, and
! dog so small you might almost have called
| it microscopic, for the Mite; there endless
| shawls and silks to adorn the girls, and drive
| he tOwnsfolk wild with envy-in short, there
were so many things rich and rare that the
| house before half of them were unpacked
| wore the look of an oriental bazaar.
WAS it, he almost asked himself was it
| the solid ground he stood upon, or was it the
air p as he ran with Minnie to her home,
having wrapped her well in some of this new
| fnery and loaded her and himself with pre-
sents for the widow and the children at the
! mill.
He could not stay there, nor anywhere. He
| hardly gave them all time to kiss him before
| he was off again, declaring he had fifty things
| to do that night and could not spare minute
apiece for doing them in. But he did not
leave before he had made them all understand
they had to 60 to dinner at his fathers on the
morrow.
Then to the church, first finding Mr.. Stone
mason, who took down the lying monument,
as he declared, with much greater pleasure
than he had put 1t up. When down, the
vicar, who had heard the news Gas indeed all
the town had), begged the stone to keep as a
curiosity, and almost dislocated Jamie's arm
by way Of expressing his own gladness.
The singers were gathering at the church as
they came out, for in half an hour they would
| begin the peal OF Christmas Eve.
Said the vicar-'Now, my men, cannot you
give us one special peal first for the lost one
who is found, and the dead WHO'S alive againF
Said the sexton, who was also chief ringer
| We are two men short
Said Mr.. Botley, the grocer, and MIR. Skin
ner, the draper, who We're standing by
Wen take rope apiece for they were anna
teur bellTiDgers, and could pull with will,
and had forgotten all their fears of half Q
crown in the pound from Andrew Walter.
Whereupon he for whom the peal was
meant, like the coward he was not, took to his
heels and ran home seeing reason to fear that
if he did not do so he might be carried shoul-
| der-hgh.
The clear voices of the bells overlook him
| nevertheless before he was hallway home,
and made him turn to look back upon the
daikliDg town, blessing it and them. For
never since the bells were cast had they sent
forth a heartier peal than that they flung upon
the air that night; Botley and Skinner having
dofied their coats and warmed to their work
with mutual emulation.
Mr.. Franklin did not make it quite clear to
Lucy either that night or next day what had
made him be SO wicked as to write those vexa-
tiOus letters to papa. But after dinner next
day-that is, Christmas Day-when that
young lady had almost danced him off his
legs although, for an old gentleman, he did
dance quite wonderfully-she SO far repented
of her past severity towards him IS to promise
that il he would write often she would neither
whip him in person nor whip his proxy, and
that under no circumstances would she ever
again bury another of his letters, prematurely.
The organ in the Mormon Temple at Salt