He wore a uniform, but not like the officers here. I think now he must
have been in the navy. I used to call him papa. I am sure he must have
been my father, and he was a sailor; for my mother was always looking
out to sea when he was absent, and he took me onboard a man of war ship
once, where, from the deference every one showed to him, I judge, now
that I am older, that he must have been the Captain of. These things
seem to me like shadows, for I was not more than five years old then.'

'True,' said his auditor, 'your memory is good.'

'There was a party. I think my father was not there, but I was
handsomely dressed, and ladies caressed me, and the negroes were
dancing. I think it must have been my birth-day. I remember a servant
bringing in a letter, and my mother fainting, and talk about a great
fight at sea, and my father's name mentioned--I have forgotten it--but
ladies told me not to cry, and I knew that he was dead; but I did not
know what it meant. After this another gentleman used to come there,
very handsome too, but not like my father, for he had a dark face and
dark hair, and my father's hair was light. I did not like him, for he
spoke very stern to my mother, and she used to weep, and was very much
frightened by him. It was some paper he wanted from her, and he offered
her gold once. I saw him, for I hid myself and watched him. Then my
mother got sick--they said she was getting better, and I remember being
much surprised one morning, when the old nurse came down and told me she
was dead. She had died suddenly in the night, they said, and yet she had
been better the evening before.'

A deep groan burst from the seaman's lips, and his face was ashy pale.
The young man trembled as he proceeded.