well adapted to his new calling, as young Mark Woolston. The three years
of his college life, if they had not made him a Newton, or a Bacon, had
done him no harm, filling his mind with the germs of ideas that were
destined afterwards to become extremely useful to him. The young man was
already, indeed, a sort of factotum, being clever and handy at so many
things and in so many different ways, as early to attract the attention
of the officers. Long before the vessel reached the capes, he was at
home in her, from her truck to her keelson, and Captain Crutchely
remarked to his chief mate, the day they got to sea, that "young Mark
Woolston was likely to turn up a trump."

As for Mark himself, he did not lose sight of the land, for the first
time in his life, altogether without regrets. He had a good deal of
feeling in connection with his parents, and his brothers and sisters;
but, as it is our aim to conceal nothing which ought to be revealed, we
must add there was still another who filled his thoughts more than all
the rest united. This person was Bridget Yardley, the only child of his
father's most formidable professional competitor.

The two physicians were obliged to keep up a sickly intercourse, not
intending a pun. They were too often called in to consult together, to
maintain an open war. While the heads of their respective families
occasionally met, therefore, at the bed-side of their patients, the
families themselves had no direct communications. It is true, that Mrs.
Woolston and Mrs. Yardley were occasionally to be seen seated at the
same tea-table, taking their hyson in company, for the recent trade with
China had expelled the bohea from most of the better parlours of the
country; nevertheless, these good ladies could not get to be cordial
with each other. They themselves had a difference on religious points,
that was almost as bitter as the differences of opinions between their