had promised himself so much pleasure in accompanying him. Before Captain Hartwell left the village, he had, however, ascertained the name and address of Harvey's employers; and as he happened to be acquainted with their house, he immediately wrote an account of his conduct in the village, and had him recalled to the office of his masters, to wait there, in active service on shore, till a vessel should arrive for him to go again to sea, instead of amusing himself at Elm Grove for some time longer, as he had expected to have done. Poor Frank's illness continued unabated for nearly a month; when, by care and medicine, he was enabled to leave his room, and his uncle having again returned with his carriage, Frank was at length made happy, by being permitted to accompany him on his long expected visit.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EXCURSION.-NEW SCENES. THE SEA. THE PLEASURE BOAT.

Oh, how he listened to the rushing deep,
That ne'er till now so broke upon his sleep;
And his wild spirit wilder wishes sent,

Roused by the roar of the fierce element.

LORD BYRON.

THE first step of this excursion was to Frank like entering into a new world; he had never before been more than a few miles distant from Elm Grove, and that too only into the country; he had never seen any building more important or more lofty than the village church, no ve

hicle so ponderous as the carrier's waggon, and no machine so singular as Harvey's canoe; his surprise may, therefore, be imagined on seeing the beautiful streets of Southampton, the splendour and bustle of its innumerable stage-coaches and mails, with their gaudy guards and drivers, the beauty of the shops, and, above all other wonders, the "moving worlds" of ships, which crowded its harbour. For the first few hours he was almost breathless with admiration and amazement, and his ears were stunned with the unusual noise and hurry of the crowds, and the cries of the venders of vegetables and fruit; but all this was trifling, compared to his wonder on beholding, for the first time, the wide and boundless ocean. He had read of the sea, and dreamed of it, and fancied in some degree its extent; but all his conceptions were as nothing, when, on the first morning after his arrival at his uncle's cottage, he stood upon the shore, saw the sun glancing on the merry waters, and

the huge waves rolling majestically towards the beach he was at first terrified, then amazed and bewildered, and finally he laughed aloud with joy and astonishment. The windows of Captain Hartwell's parlour overlooked the coast, and during breakfast Frank could scarcely eat a morsel, for rising almost every instant to look out upon the rolling sea, and watch the many boats which were scudding past, and the ships which were taking advantage of the favourable morning breeze, to glide up the British Channel on their way to the Thames and to London, their white sails shining in the sun, and their stately prows foaming over the dark green waters. As soon as breakfast was over, he accompanied his uncle in a ride along the shore, where every object was alike new and surprising; the beautiful villas of the neighbouring noblemen and gentry, the splendid avenues, the lofty trees, and the gaily planted grounds, were all matters of wonder and delight: but still the sea, the mighty sea, was the grand

attraction, and to this his eye was ever wandering, and his mind was constantly fixed upon its loveliness, and its immensity. As he grew gradually more strong, and recovered from the effects of his late illness, he spent almost the whole of his time in the open air. Captain Hartwell had lately fitted up a beautiful yacht, of which he was particularly fond, and almost every day he was occupied for many hours, either in altering or arranging her rigging and appointments, or in sailing round the shores of the island. Frank was in these excursions his constant companion, and in all these manly sports he found a delight and enjoyment he had never known before for the first few trips, sea-sickness was in some degree a drawback, but this soon passed away; he was never so happy as when bounding through the surf, and gliding rapidly along, from point to point, and shore to shore; he learned the names of every rope, and sail, and the technical mode of expressing every motion and manoeuvre of the yacht; he adopt